damnation

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Monday, 1 July 2013 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, to follow Christ is to suffer and to endure rejection the way the world had rejected Him first, and we have to carry our own crosses in our faith journey with our Lord. That is what the Lord Himself told us we should do, to follow Him and love Him through the journey of the cross.

Our Lord is a loving God, and He loves all of His children, regardless of their backgrounds. We are all equal before the Lord. But as much as the Lord loves all of us, He is also a just God and a good God, who rejects the filth of sin and the corruption of evil. That was why He wanted to end the wickedness of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose sins had become so bad that they ended up angering the Lord greatly so that He would want to punish them.

Lot, the relative of Abraham settled in the valley of Sodom after his separation from Abraham, which occurred because of conflict between their shepherds over the matter of land. He then settled in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, and therefore would have been subjected to the destruction of the city by God’s wrath for its sins.

But God is a loving God and is not heartless, and that was why He would not let those who are just and good to suffer from the suffering and punishment intended for those who had rebelled against the Lord. Therefore, even without the interventions of Abraham, God certainly would still go and send His angels to help rescue Lot and his family, the only righteous ones that can be found in all of Sodom and Gomorrah, so that they would not suffer the same fate as the sinful ones.

The questions of Abraham to the Lord, his interventions to save the righteous merely serve to highlight even more clearly that our Lord and God is both a vengeful and angry God, but also a just and loving God. A God who detests sin and all of its evil fruits, and yet also forgiving and merciful to those who are repentant and those who love Him. He wants us all to return to Him, and He does not want us to be lost just because of our faults and those of our forefathers’.

Yet, it is indeed difficult to find good and repentance in our world, and that was why, despite Abraham’s repeated pleas to the Lord to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, if as little as ten righteous people could be found, the two cities were not spared simply because of the wickedness of those who stayed in them, not even ten righteous ones could be found. Only Lot and his family were considered righteous, and therefore, the Lord sent His angels to rescue them from the catastrophe of God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

God loves us, but He also wants all of us to understand the need to be pure and good, as our Lord is good, and nothing evil can stand before Him and survive. The Lord is merciful, and if only we approach His throne with a contrite heart full of regret and grief for our sins, He will embrace us and reunite us with Himself.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, God gives us a chance at repentance and redemption in this life, one made possible by none other than the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord on the cross at Calvary. This sacrifice bridged the unbridgeable chasm between us and God. God will welcome us back if we are truly sincere in our repentance and our love for Him who also loves us with all of His heart.

May God be with us, as He had been with Abraham and may we all also remain faithful to God’s covenant with us, keeping His commandments and teachings passed down to us from the Apostles through the Church. Amen.

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Friday, 28 June 2013 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast day of St. Irenaeus, who was a bishop and martyr hailing from the early Church. St. Irenaeus emphasized the teachings of the Apostles and the tradition of the faith in opposition to the numerous heresies of man born in the turbulent times of the second century Church. He especially defended the episcopacy and Church hierarchy, particularly the primacy of the successors of St. Peter, the Bishops of Rome.

He defended the teachings of the Church and the people of God from influences such as Gnosticism, which syncretic practices threatened to destroy the young Church from within. His role is therefore crucial in ensuring that the true, orthodox faith in the Lord can remain undisturbed and flourished in the next centuries after his death, while that of the heresies dwindling into oblivion.

He gave his full trust to the Lord, and steadfastly defended the faith. He believed in God who is loving and merciful, the Lord who healed the leper in the Gospel reading today, the Lord who gave Abraham the words of His promise, and kept fully to the promise, by granting Abraham his promised son, Isaac, through Sarah, even when she had been very old.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord and God wants to heal us, and grant us His blessings and grace, that is if we remain faithful to Him and show our love and dedication to our God and creator. Our Lord and God is kind, and He wants to bring all of us scattered throughout the world back to Him, like a shepherd tending to his sheep, and searching for the lost ones, to make sure that no sheep may fall to be prey of wolves.

That He had done through His teachings that He had passed down through the Apostles. The Apostles themselves and their successors are shepherds in God’s image of the Good Shepherd, ever ready to defend the faith, both from the pagans and the heresies that came from within the Church itself. They worked hard, like the way St. Irenaeus had done, to defend the sheep of the Lord from the wolves of heresy, and the wolves of this world.

We should indeed rejoice, because despite our sinfulness and our rebellious nature, God wants to save us through the covenants He had made, first that He made with Abraham, and one that was renewed into a new covenant by Christ, the Son of God, by His death on the cross in Calvary. That He gave Himself, His own life, His Body and His Blood for us, so that we can be saved, is testimony enough of His love for us, and proof enough why He is the only One worthy of praise and worship.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, emulating the example of St. Irenaeus, the valiant defender of the faith of the early Church, his contemporaries, the Apostles and the early Church Fathers, let ourselves be resolved to defend our faith in the Lord against all kinds of aberrant teachings that seek to diminish the divinity and the love of our God, teachings that are like wolves preying on weak and unsuspecting sheep, our very own brothers and sisters.

That is why there is an ever greater need to strengthen the faith within all of us, empowering ourselves so that all of us may remain steadfast in our faith, the true faith as beheld by St. Irenaeus and the Apostles, amidst the numerous currents in this world, the currents of heresy, the currents of worldliness, and the currents of evil. These currents corrupt mankind and will bring us away from God and salvation in Him.

Remain strong, brothers and sisters in Christ!  and pray for one another at all times, that God will defend us against the evils of this world. May God always be with all of us. Amen.

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Tuesday, 25 June 2013 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, being a good person, and a good child of God is never easy. It is much easier to follow the path of the world, and immerse ourselves in its corrupting influence and take in all the pleasures and temptations that it offers us, rather than to follow the Laws of God and the teachings of the prophets.

It is much more difficult to become the followers of Christ and to follow the teachings of Christ and His Apostles rather than becoming the disciples of this world, that is the disciples of evil. For the world, for all its goodness, belongs to the evil one, who will certainly utilise all within his power to corrupt the children of God, that is all of us.

That is why Christ had said that the path that leads to the Lord is a narrow one, a narrow path, and a narrow gate indeed. Because it is very difficult to go to the Lord, and it is easier for one to stumble along the path, that narrow path, and fall into damnation than to successfully reach the Lord at the end of that way, at the other side of the narrow gate.

Difficult as it is to reach the Lord in that journey, along that path, God has given us His help, in none other than the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, His own Son, whom He sent to all of us to be our Redeemer, and our Saviour, He rescued us from our own damnation, from the hells that is our fate, for our rebellion against God since the beginning of time.

The story of Abraham and Lot, his cousin, which all of us are well aware of, is another example of the difficulty facing us in our journey towards the Lord. Abraham and his cousin, Lot, are God-fearing peoples, and they obey the will of the Lord in all that they do. They do not fall astray of the narrow path that God has given them. But the same cannot be said of the people who were living with them, and around them.

As we all know, Lot was involved in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the names which still resonate in our minds even today, as the example of God’s wrath and punishment that awaits those who defy Him and those who do not obey His words and His will. The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were enormous, and that was why those who fell astray from the narrow path of salvation, if they do not repent, will face eternal damnation as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah once did.

The temptations of pleasure and the lure of wealth easily corrupts mankind, both their bodies and their hearts. Once corrupted by the sins of the world, they would be easily led astray from the path of salvation into damnation. That was exactly the sort of problems faced by those people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and even the people of Israel throughout their history, and ultimately, all of us.

God loves us, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and He wants to forgive us, if we repent from our faults and our sins. But He is also a just and avenging God, who hates sin and all forms of evil that is unworthy of His presence and His love. He detests sin and evil, and great is indeed the suffering of those who refuse to follow the way of the Lord and instead follow the teachings of this world.

But that is exactly why God sent so many prophets to us, to the people of Israel, so that hopefully through their ceaseless calls for repentance and their teachings, the people of God will once again open their hearts to God’s love, and discard all things that make them unworthy of the Lord. And that is why He even sent His own Son into this world, because He loves us, and He wants all of us saved from the fate of death that awaits us, if we do not repent from our sinful ways.

But yet, we remain in our own rebellious nature, and continuing to rebel against His compassion and love, many of us slaughter His prophets and saints, and preferring to listen to the devil than God, we shut our hearts from the words and encouragement of the prophets and the saints that does none other than to push for our own redemption. That was why we even rejected Christ, who offered Himself willingly for all of us, that we may live, and no longer fall under the thrall of sin.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us reflect today, on the nature of our Lord’s salvation, and even more importantly, on His love, remembering always His care for us, His concerns for us, and His love for us, shown by no greater example than the ultimate sacrifice at Calvary, when He gave up His own life and shed His own Body and Blood, so that all of us who believe in Him may not die, but gain everlasting life with Him for all eternity. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 21 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 6 : 19-23

Do not store up treasures for yourself here on earth, where moth and rust destroy it, and where thieves can steal it. Store up treasures for yourself with God, where no moth or rust can destroy it, nor thief come and steal it.

For where your treasures is, there also your heart will be. The lamp of the body is the eye; if your eyes are sound, your whole body will be in the light. If your eyes are diseased, your whole body will be in darkness. Then, if your light has become darkness, how dark will be the darkest part of you!

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Friday, 7 June 2013 : Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate a great feast in the Church, that is the Most Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we commemorate the very presence of the noble and loving Heart of our Lord Jesus, out of whom projecting light and love to all creation, to all mankind. This love He offered freely through His Most Precious Body and Blood which He offered through His ultimate sacrifice on Calvary.

Today, in the readings, we heard the readings on shepherds and the nature of shepherds’ works, and how it is compared with that of the Lord, who is often called the Good Shepherd. A good shepherd, according to Christ, gave up his life for his sheep, and protect and love his sheep with all of his being, unlike hired and rogue shepherds who do not love the sheep and the minute danger appears, they will run away and leave the sheep behind.

No, Christ did not do that, because He is indeed the Good Shepherd, the true chief shepherd of all, because He cares for all His sheep, to the point of giving Himself up on the cross, that through His surrender, crucifixion, and death, He made mankind whole again, and by the shedding of His Blood, He purified mankind and made them worthy, and redeemed them from the damnation due to the sins of our forefathers who rebelled against the love of God.

As the shepherd, He gave Himself so that His sheep may have life. He really loves us very much. He rejoices whenever there is even one amongst us who repented and return into His way. That is because, just as Christ Himself had mentioned in His parable on the shepherd and the lost sheep, even ninety-nine good and decent sheep cannot replace the joy of repentance of a single wayward sheep.

Even if just one wayward sheep is to return into the path of the Lord, that would bring great joy in heaven and on earth. Because all those who are already saved are indeed already secured in their heavenly inheritance. As long as they remain faithful to the Lord, they will eventually receive their heavenly reward and eternal life that Christ had promised to all who believes in Him.

But for the wayward one, no such guarantee exists, because as long as someone is cut away from the Lord, he will not have the promised salvation. Especially if this wayward sheep is basking in sin and darkness, in the depth of human weaknesses and the influence of evil which would then prevent salvation from reaching this one. But if this one is to repent and return to the faith in God, he will be saved, and will have equal inheritance with those who had already been saved.

Then some may ask, why then the hassle over just one sinful and wayward sheep. Why the trouble to spend so much just to convert one unworthy one that this one may be saved too? Can we not just be satisfied with the many people whom we have already saved? Yes, we may think that it makes perfect sense for us, especially if we consider the amount of energy and dedication needed in order to bring one in darkness back into light.

But not so with the Lord. He does not care, because Christ had died on the cross, not just for a select few, not just for His Apostles and disciples, not just for those who believe and follow Him, but also for all the people, for all mankind, without exception. He died for all, so that all may be redeemed. Through the outpouring of His Blood from the cross, He cleanses all mankind, just as the blood of the lamb of sacrifice purifies the people of Israel of old from their sins.

Yet, redemption does not yet equal salvation, because redemption just means that all of us had been redeemed and cleansed from the taints of sin from our ancestors, from the rebellion of Adam and Eve, whom first rebelled against the will of God, and instead followed Satan. Therefore, all mankind had been freed from the tyranny of Satan who enslaved us through sin. We have been released from the chains that held us and enslaved us, but it does not mean that we are guaranteed salvation.

Because at the same time, God also granted all of us free will, to choose freely the path that we want to take in our own lives, and many times we chose the path that steer away from God and became lost, just like a sheep lost from the flock, without a shepherd to guide him back into the flock. Such sheep can be in deep danger from wolves which will devour it without hesitation.

Therefore that is what can also happen to all those who became lost to the Lord in their lives in this world. This world has many evils, dear brethren, because it has many temptations, especially in our modern world today, that can deviate one’s heart away from the Lord, and instead inducing that someone to indulge in worldly pleasures and pleasures of the flesh, ignoring God’s love for him or her.

God wants everyone to be saved, because He loves us so much. Yes, our God, in His Most Sacred Heart is a very loving and kind God, who is slow to anger and merciful to sinners who repented their sins and profess their faith in Him, but at the same time, He is also perfect and good, and nothing evil can ever stand in His presence and survives.

That is why, even though it may seem to us why God did not just make everyone saved, that is simply not possible, because although we had been freed from the slavery of sin, but we still have sin dwelling within us, that still keeps us away from being truly close to God.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus, before He was lifted up to heaven, gave His disciples a great mission, that is to baptise and make disciples of all nations and seal them in baptism in the Name of the Holy Trinity, essentially, bringing all the scattered sheep of the Lord together, to become one people once again, one people who worship one and only God, our God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, since our own baptism we have also inherited this charge that has been entrusted to the apostles. We too are apostles of our own time, and our actions, while they may seem to be insignificant are always of use in glorifying God by bringing back God’s scattered flock so that they may be one again. Do not ever underestimate what a person can do, as a person can do much good and much harm even if he or she is only one person.

Therefore, through our own actions, in our daily lives, we can make a great difference in the lives of our brothers and sisters, especially those who have yet to believe in the Lord and have yet to hear and accept His redeeming Good News. It’s our charge now, brethren! With the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus within our hearts, let us bring God’s salvation to everyone so that God’s lost sheep can be found again, and there will then be great rejoicing across creation, for the sheep that were lost, had been found again, and will not be condemned to eternal damnation with Satan and his angels.

God, our Good Shepherd, bless us through Your Most Sacred Heart, and inflame in us the fire of love and zeal of faith in You, that we will never waver. Amen.

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Friday, 31 May 2013 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of the Visitation of our Blessed Virgin to her cousin, Elizabeth, who had become pregnant earlier than Mary herself, when the angel appeared to Zechariah her husband, that she would bear in her old age, the one who was to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. That child born of Elizabeth, as we all knew, is St. John the Baptist, who straightened the path for the Lord and brought many to repentance through his baptisms at the Jordan, and his call for repentance.

Mary herself had been pregnant by the time of that visitation to Elizabeth, after another angel, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her and revealed to her, the culmination of the promised salvation that God promised His people through the prophets throughout history, that she would bear a Son who would be the Son of God Most High, Jesus Christ, the Messiah who would save all mankind and bring them back to God their Father who loves them all.

The moment of salvation at the time when the visitation happened was truly at hand, because the Saviour Himself is about to be born into the world, and preceded by another, John, who was born before Him to prepare for His way. It is through both John’s call for people to repent, and ultimately, the works of Jesus the Messiah, that the plan for salvation that God has crafted since the day that men fell from grace, came into perfection.

Yes, that is because, ever since our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, had rebelled against the commandments of the Lord by choosing instead to follow the foul advice of the evil one hidden as the devilish snake, and therefore brought sin into mankind and into the world. Ever since, men has suffered as a result of sin, because of our sinfulness, we became unworthy of God, who is perfect and good.

But God did not abandon us, and neither did He leave us with nothing and condemn us directly into hell that is prepared for Satan and his rebellious angels, who followed him in his rebellion. He loves all mankind, whom He created last of all creations, and whom He loved over all other things. It was a great sadness surely that has been in God’s heart, seeing that men who have sinned against Him, having to suffer eternal separation from Him, suffering the same fate as Satan and his angels.

Therefore, God gave us a promise at the beginning of creation, to Adam and Eve herself, that from them would rise a salvation that will deliver mankind from the hands and tyranny of Satan, the snake, and whom the deliverer would destroy Satan and his hold over us forever. This deliverer is none other than Christ the Messiah, the very Son of the Most High God, who was born through Mary.

God even said that although Satan would harass the children of Adam throughout time, but eventually the woman born from them would crush the snake under her feet. This woman is Mary, whom through her crucial role of being the Mother of God, and the Mother of our Saviour, she crushed Satan forever under her feet.

Why did Elizabeth said that Mary is blessed amongst all women? That is because of Mary’s own actions that allow salvation to be executed perfectly, for through her humble acceptance on the will of God, she had made possible the salvation that God offered through the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ, incarnate into man, through Mary, His mother. She is blessed because she, amongst so many other women, many with much greater wealth, and many with much greater power, was selected to be the vessel for the coming of the Messiah in this world.

Her own humility, and her acceptance of her part in the divine plan of salvation made her blessed among every other women, and indeed, that is why she also became our greatest intercessor, the greatest of all saints, because of her own purity in life, through her Immaculate Conception, and through her great virtues throughout her life. And who would be best to help us to bring our prayers to the Lord if not Mary, our Lord’s own mother? Remember that at Cana, through the urging of Mary, Jesus was willing to perform His very first miracle, which saved the wedding couple from potentially disastrous humiliation.

But be careful, brothers and sisters, that we do not glorify Mary beyond God Himself, because, Mary is the Mother of God, but she is not a goddess. We revere and glorify her because of her great virtues, and we ask her for her intercession, and that is why all the prayers that we have for her, so that she would bring her Son to listen to our cause. But we do not worship her and neither do we accredit her with the goddess status, as many people outside the Church had misunderstood, and even used this misunderstanding to attack the faithful ones in the Church.

Today, we celebrate and commemorate the great joy that accompany this Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, because on this day, it was proclaimed that Mary is the Mother of God, the Mother of the Saviour, Jesus, who would come to save all mankind and complete the long planned salvation. Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit that had dwelled within her ever since the conception of Jesus, praised God in a song that we know knew as the Magnificat, as a song of pure and unadulterated joy.

A great joy indeed because the Lord is about to come and end all the works of evil in this world and on mankind. He who is the great judge would make all things good once again, and bring justice to this world, protecting the humble and the weak, and punishing those who are arrogant and overconfident in their own powers.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us glorify God, for His willingness to come down upon us as a lowly man through His mother, Mary, had enabled us to hope once again, for the eternal life and salvation, which Christ, through His death on the cross, had freely offered everyone, without exception. Through Mary, let us reach Christ her Son, and allow her to help us in our attempt to reach salvation.

For Mary, the greatest saint, is the perfect role model for all of us to follow. By following her virtues and examples, we can only become closer to God, as long as we do God’s commandments, by following the examples of our Lady. Have faith, brothers and sisters in Christ, for God will never abandon us, and today, we are joyful, and we are commemorating that completion of salvation, which allows mankind to be reunited once again with God, God who is love, and God who loves us, so much that He sent His only Son, for us, that we may live. Amen.

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Thursday, 30 May 2013 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters, God our Lord and Saviour created everything in this world, in this universe, and He made them perfect. Our world was perfect before it was tainted by sin and evil, which brought in imperfections to the world that was once perfect.

Evil and sin had blinded us from the goodness and the love of God, and they have brought us further and further from God our Father and creator. While today we heard about the miraculous healing of Bartimaeus by Jesus, who healed him of his physical blindness and made him able to see once again, in fact our world today is still blinded, not physically but spiritually.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, many of us if not most are still in darkness, in deep blindness, although we can physically very well and our physical eyes are perfect. It is our hearts, the eyes of our hearts that are blind, blind to the truth that God has brought through Jesus, and blind to His commandments of love, that we should love one another and love God with all our might and our beings.

And just like Bartimaeus, who was so desperate to be healed and by his faith in Jesus, called out loudly for Christ, the Son of David, the Son of God, to come to him and heal him of his afflictions, we too, are like him, in that we call out to the Lord to heal us from our own spiritual blindness, which is even worse than the blindness of the physical eyes.

Our hearts are darkened by sin, and darkened by our cardinal sins, that are most prominently, pride, lust, greed, and sloth. And sadly, because of these, many people do not even realise that they are blind, just like the Pharisees whom the Lord rebuked for being so deeply immersed in their own pride and vanity, that they became blind to the truth of the Lord, and did not keep faithfully what the Lord has commanded and entrusted them to do.

Therefore, it is very often, that many of us, did not realise that we are blind, and in our pride, we refuse to acknowledge our blindness, our afflictions and weaknesses, and ask the Lord, like Bartimaeus had done, to plead for His mercy and compassion, that He would heal us from our spiritual blindness, and allow us to be whole once again, no longer blind, physically and spiritually.

The Lord is willing to heal us, and save us from our afflictions. Because if we remain in our blindness and in this darkness, we will eventually be damned with the evil one, to the lake of fire that awaits us if we remain blind, blind to the love of God, and blind to the plight of the many people around us, who long for our help.

And the Lord did such a great thing that He sent His only Son, to die for all of us, so that in His death, He redeemed us from our sins, and offered freely that salvation which are given to all mankind, but if they do not accept this salvation, they will remain blind. All that we need is, to humbly ask our Lord Jesus, to save us, and to accept Him as our Saviour through baptism and therefore, through the Church.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, from today onwards, we have to ponder on this matter, and strive to open ourselves to the love of God, and allow Him to transform us with His love, and open the blinded eyes of our hearts, that we can then truly see, both the love that is God, and the love that is within us, which if we use this gift of love that has been given to us, our world would indeed had been a much better place today.

May the Lord, who cured Bartimaeus from his physical blindness for his faith in Him, also cure all of us from our spiritual blindness, that we can truly and perfectly see once again, all the creations of the Lord that is good, and to be able to embrace once again, the fullness of God’s love. Amen.

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Wednesday, 29 May 2013 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Psalm 78 : 8, 9, 11 and 13

Do not remember against us the sins of our fathers. Let Your compassion hurry to us, for we have been brought very low.

Help us, God, our Saviour, for the glory of Your Name; forgive us for the sake of Your Name.

Listen to the groans of the prisoners; by the strength of Your arm, deliver those doomed to die. Then we, Your people, the flock of Your pasture, will thank You forever. We will recount Your praise from generation to generation.

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Friday, 24 May 2013 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Church in China (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers, and sisters in Christ! Today, I announce to you a great news of great joy, especially for the Church in Singapore. For as of 18 May 2013, the Coadjutor Archbishop of Singapore had succeeded as the new Archbishop of Singapore, Archbishop William Goh Seng Chye. He was installed today at the cathedra of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, the mother church of Singapore, and today also marked his inauguration as the ordinary of the Archdiocese, beginning the full extent of his ministry as bishop to the flock entrusted to him by the Lord in Singapore.

How is this then relevant to what we heard in the readings today, brothers and sisters in Christ? In fact, today’s readings are perfect for the occasion, because, today’s reading, in the Gospel in particular, deal with the intimacy of relationships between peoples. In the first reading, we heard about friendship and the type of friends we have and we can encounter in our daily lives.

In the Gospel then, we heard about another type of relationship, one that is even closer than friendship, that is marriage, which is a union between two persons, male and female, as ordained by God, that men should leave their parents and join with women, that they become one body, and from this union, spring forth new life, through procreation and birth of new children.

But there is yet still another, even more noble kind of relationship, one that is not explicitly mentioned in the Gospel today, but in fact has very large degree of similarity to it. That is the relationship that those in the Holy Orders with both God and with the Church which they serve, and which they lead. Those in the Holy Orders include all those who had been ordained by the authority passed down through the Apostles from Christ Himself, from our pope, to our bishops, and to our priests and deacons.

All are relationships that are sanctified by God, particularly in the case of marriage and the Holy Orders, in which we should always remember the words of Christ that, whatever God has made into one, no man and no angel should separate. No one may undo the union that God has sanctified and sealed, in the holy sacrament of matrimony and priesthood.

First then, let us begin with friendship. We may not have a sacrament of friendship, unlike marriage and priesthood, but true friendship itself is also holy, because true friendship must be based on love and purity of hearts and intention between the friends. Today’s first reading explained to us the different kinds of friends, because friends may indeed look superficially from outside like a good friend to us, but in fact, this ‘friend’ of ours is only using us up, either because we have material wealth or something that keeps this friend to remain at our side.

As long as we have this something, money, possession, or some other thing, this ‘friend’ will remain, but once we run out of this something, they will leave us, and sometimes do not be surprised that the ‘friend’ may even become an enemy. This is one of the thing warned by the first reading we heard today. We have to also take note of the parable of the prodigal son, where when the son has all the properties that he inherited from his father, he made many friends in the foreign land, and lived a happy but wasteful life. But those friends are not his true friends, because once his money dries up, they leave him and do not lift even their fingers to help him, until he has to work as a pig handler and even be tempted to eat the pig’s food due to his hunger. He has no friend!

What is true friendship then? True friends are friends who stand by us in times of joy, but even more importantly, they also stand by our side at our times of greatest sorrow. Not many people indeed will become our true friends, but once we have true friends in our life, true friendship, as long as we have love in ourselves, will last forever. Because true friendship is based not on material goods and possessions, or even human greed, but it is based on love, care, and compassion.

Thus, value the friendships we have and look beyond the veil of possessions and greed, in order to find out who are our true friends in life. True friends are not always those who join us in fun and happy things, in parties and celebrations, but are those who also care for us and protect us in our time of troubles and whenever we are downtrodden. All being said, we ourselves then too should strive to become true friends to those around us, particularly to those whom we love, and of course to our God.

Yes, Christ, our Lord and Saviour is also our friend, and He is friend to all mankind, to all the children of God, for remember that He Himself had said to His disciples that there is no greater love than that of a friend who gives up his life for the sake of his friend. And Jesus, our Saviour did just exactly that, because He died for all of us, giving up His life, and even though He was blameless and pure, He accepted damnation to death that through His death, we may gain a new life in Him, through His glorious resurrection.

Maintain this friendship and relationship that we have with Christ, with God, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. And how do we do that? Exactly by ensuring that we remained in God’s love and that ourselves and our hearts are always filled with God’s love, and in our actions, we always reflect Christ, our Lord, and become witnesses to His death and resurrection. And we also can help those among us who are least, weakest, ostracised, and abandoned, and in doing so, we are the friends of Jesus, and He is dear to us, just as we are dear to Him.

Then, after we have talked about friendship, let us continue on with a greater degree of relationship, that is marriage, which must be sealed in the sanctity of the sacrament of marriage. Marriage is only once in life and is eternal, between a man and a woman, as God ordained since the beginning of time, when He created Adam and Eve, the progenitor of all mankind.

Marriage is not merely physical relationship between two persons, that is filled with lust and desire. This kind of union is not marriage, but merely the fulfillment of human desires that may be corrupted by the evil one for his own purposes, and result in what we have seen in our world today, in the form of deviant form of ‘marriages’ that so many people champion, without realising that marriage is not something they should trifle with.

This is because marriage is ultimately about love, and again the love that I refer to over here, does not mean physical lust and sexual relationship between two persons, as these may form some part of marriage, but without true love, instead of a holy union of marriage, what we have is a perversion and sin before the eyes of God, essentially fornication and defilement of our own bodies, the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

Marriage is about love, that is the spiritual relationship, both between the two persons, male and female, united in love, caring for one another, committed in times of joy and sorrow, united in body and spirit, sealed by God Himself. And marriage is also about the spiritual relationship between the couple with God, because with God as their anchor, love will always remain within the sacred marriage union of the married couple.

Marriage itself must also breath out love, and produce love. Because the fruit of marriage is in fact children, and children are the fruits of love between the man and woman united by God in the sacred and inviolable union. Children receive love from both of their respective parents, which then ultimately have its source in God. That is the key to having a functioning and loving family, that this love that is within the couple is shared and poured to others, particularly in the child, whom the couple have responsibility for, and as the fruit of their marriage.

Therefore, marriage must never be manipulated and falsified by modern innovations and inventions, which bar the ultimate purpose of marriage, that is to produce the fruits of love, that is the children, just as the Lord commands mankind, to be fruitful and multiply, and to be Lord over all the earth. Men and women He created them for this purpose, that they multiply and prosper, sharing love with one another.

Sadly, too many modern innovations, especially through scientific discoveries, had made marriage no longer life-producing, and instead, even cause death in certain cases. The use of contraceptives and birth-control mechanisms had transformed marriage such that marriage is no longer solely based on love, and on producing the fruits of love, but has moved it such that mankind now focus on the more immediate and worldly aspect of marriage, submitting themselves to their desire and lust, and seeking pleasure instead of love in marriage.

Abortion and other life-destroying actions, continue to destroy both the sanctity of marriage, and the sanctity of life, for in abortion, we destroy the very life and fruit of love which is the fruit of marriage. Many abortions also resulted from extramarital affairs and relations, which signify the importance of marriage as the necessary step in the union between man and woman, for anything that is conceived outside of marriage, is not sealed by God, and therefore, becoming much more prone to human weakness and evil, which leads to irresponsible acts such as abortion.

Divorce is yet another great evil, that destroys both marriage, and the family which are split and destroyed by this other, irresponsible act. Marriage should be based on love, and the children, the fruits of marriage and love, must get love from their parents. Divorce, which destroys this union between the husband and the wife, ruins not just the two persons involved, but also the children, who suffer even more from the separation between their parents. This is also in direct violation against what God has revealed through Christ, His Son, that whatever God had joined into one, through the sacred sacrament of matrimony, should never be divided by men.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, those among us who are couples in holy marriage, strive to empower your married life, that the Lord remains in it, and love remains the heart of your marriage, that the marriage will not become empty, and end in painful and sinful divorce, or extramarital affairs. Rather, as a family, all of you must be functional and do your part as members of the family, to love one another and love the Lord your God, that He will give you guidance through your married life.

Pray together often, and have your meals together often too. Bring your children together with you, and raise him or her together, as husband and wife, sharing with them the love that is between both of you, the love that originates from God Himself, that they too will have love within themselves. Prayer especially is important, because prayer will strengthen your faith, and it can strengthen the anchor of love you have in God, and in one another.

Time maybe scarce, brothers and sisters, in our busy modern world, with all its noises, and with all the careers and works we have taken upon ourselves. But, brethren, try your best to spend your time together as a family, especially with the children, so that your marriage will remain loving and happy, and will last for eternity.

Then, finally, let us go into the most special relationship that those in the Holy Orders have, particularly the bishop, and today, especially as those in Singapore commemorate the inauguration of the ministry of the new Archbishop, Archbishop William Goh, it is most appropriate to look into the intimate nature of the relationship that the bishop has, both with God, and with the Church.

Those in the Holy Orders, and those committing themselves to pious, religious life, do not marry, not because they disobey the Lord, but because they commit themselves to God and His people so much that, they are in fact married to God and His Church. They had become the bride of the Church upon their entry into the Holy Orders.

Does this relationship then bring about love and life? just as marriage does? Yes! definitely! For a priest, a bishop, and any ordained ministers, and those who commit themselves to God, share fully in the love of God, and through their ministry, they share this love with all the faithful in the Church, to whom they made themselves as conduits of God’s love, and also of God’s life.

They bring life through their ministry, through their words and actions, because they bring healing to those who are sick, maybe not physically, but most importantly spiritually. Many of us have become dead spiritually, because our hearts are empty. The priests recharge our dead spiritual selves and allow us to be alive again, through the life that God has granted us. Through evangelisation too, priests bring life, to those who listen to the Word of God and believe, that they receive new life through the waters of baptism.

For them, the Lord and the Church are their sole care, the people of God. They choose not for themselves any particular partner, so that they can make themselves available, to share the love of God, to all mankind, rather than to be limited in the family. But this does not mean that the family cannot share its love with others, only that those in the family will certainly need to put the priority of love, first and foremost, to the fruits of their marriage, that is their children, and the love they have for one another as husband and wife.

A bishop is even more intimately in a loving relationship with God and with His Church, because a bishop is like a chief shepherd, who loves all the sheep entrusted to him by the Chief of all shepherd, that is God. He must love the priests that have been placed under his care, just as he needs to love the people, the laity that had been entrusted to him. They are married to him, just as he too is married to the Lord, to be his most humble and dedicated servant, in the evangelisation of the Good News to all.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us inspire one another, and build good relationships among ourselves. Forgo our hatred and fear, and allow love and joy of companionship build up in all our hearts. Build healthy and strong relationships, be it friendship, or higher degree ones such as marriage or Holy Orders for those who chose either, and anchor them in love, and our faith in God. God will then surely bless all of us, with everlasting love and abundant blessings.

Finally, today, we also mark the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China, which falls annually on 24 May. We show our care for the oppressed and persecuted faithful in China, by building concrete bridges of love, to reach out to them, and care for them, and pray for them especially, that they may be strong, to resist the temptations of the world, and that those who suffer will receive their due reward for their unfailing faith.

We are one Church, one Body in Christ, my brothers and sisters in Christ, from all over the world we had come, and into one we have become, that is one in the Church of God, the Universal Church He established on Peter, His apostle. No human power, no government, no form of oppression or persecution, will be able to separate what God has made into one, not even in the case of China. Therefore, pray hard, brothers and sisters in Christ, that liberation will soon come, not only for those oppressed in China for their faith, but also in North Korea, and other places, where injustice, and prejudices against the faith in God is still rampant, even till today.

Our Lady of Sheshan, protector of the faithful ones in China, pray for them, and pray for all of us. God be with us all, through joy and sorrow, and through this darkened world, and may He bring us into the light of salvation. Amen.

by

Thursday, 23 May 2013 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers, sisters, in Christ, today’s Gospel reading in particular may sound a bit too much for us when we heard it, and a bit too weird for us to accept the advice that Christ had given us through His disciples, that to avoid eternal death and damnation in hell, we should cut off and cast off those parts that caused us to sin and prevented us from being truly with God.

But no, brothers and sisters, Christ did not actually mean that when your hands have caused you to sin, then you should literally cut it off, and becomes lame for the rest of your life. No, what He meant is in fact that we should not allow our human weakness to overcome us and therefore cause us to sin. It is not in fact our hands, our eyes, or our feet that causes us to sin, but ultimately, we sin because our hearts is not set up right for the Lord.

Yes, many of us if not most had been corrupted to a certain degree in our hearts, by the evils of this world, and by the evils of the devil, which corrupts our heart and making us susceptible to sinning through our weak flesh. Just as Christ had said, that the spirit is strong, but the flesh is weak. But very often that the spirit itself is also weak, and this makes the flesh even more susceptible to sin.

We suffer from many weakness that made us susceptible to sin, ever since, our ancestors, Adam and Eve, disobeyed the Lord and ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Since that time, we knew much knowledge, and we knew good, but evil too entered our hearts, and since then remained within each one of us.

We suffer from pride, arrogance, lust, greed, hatred, anger, and so many other evil vices that had entered our hearts since the day of our rebellion against the commands of the Lord. Pride and arrogance prevents us from welcoming God into our hearts, and in our pride, we think ourselves as better and become overconfident in our own abilities, thinking that we no longer need God.

In our pride, we become reluctant to seek God for mercy, and with the weakness we have towards lust and greed, we end up accumulating more and more sin, which extent becomes so large that we, deep in our pride and in our false sense of security, we do not want to seek God’s mercy and forgiveness. We are therefore susceptible to this vicious cycle of sin that spiral quickly down, and if we are not careful, it will surely drag us into hell and eternal damnation.

That is why, brothers and sisters, while certainly we do not need to go to the extent of cutting off our limbs and tearing off our eyes, or inflicting any physical punishment to ourselves, whenever sin is threatening to bring us over the brink down into hell, we must strive to strengthen ourselves spiritually, in order to protect ourselves from the power of evil and any kind of temptations.

Prayer is important, brothers and sisters, and a strong, healthy prayer life is necessary, in order to ensure that we are truly fully equipped in our battle against the forces of evil. This is also what Christ meant as the saltiness of the salt. If salt has lost its saltiness and flavour, it would be then useless, and would be thrown away. And therefore, if our spiritual being has lost its characteristic and flavour that is God’s love and faith, then we too would be rejected by Christ, because we are then just like salt that has lost its flavour.

Be faithful, and be loving, brethren, love our neighbour and especially those who are weak, oppressed, and prejudiced against. Stand with them, and show to them God’s love, that they will not lose hope, and in them too, they will enjoy a spiritual regeneration, and at the same time, the same will also happen to us, that the salt that is our spirit, will remain truly salty, a sign of our spirit’s strength and perseverance against sin and evil. God bless us all, Amen.