disbelief

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Wednesday, 28 August 2013 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we have the continuation of the litany of woes attributed by Christ to the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law, whom Jesus referred as the crooks leading the people of God, not into salvation, but into eternal damnation in hell. They practised not what they had preached, and neither did they keep themselves holy for the Lord, and their prayers were empty litanies of praise for themselves instead of humble supplications for the mercy and forgiveness by the Lord for their sins.

They liked to show off their piety in public prayers, praying openly to God with hands lifted up high even in public places like market places. People would then praise them, honour them, follow them, and even emulate them, for their ‘exemplary’ actions and their ‘piety’. In this sense, they gained worldly glory and worldly power, from the people, and as a result, they left the Lord without glory, and without due honour. They had made themselves even greater than the Lord.

This was what the Lord criticised from them, and rebuked them with the woes given to them. They have also made the Lord as nothing more than a lawgiver or the fearsome God who must be obeyed or else the people would receive punishment for their failure to follow the Law. The Pharisee and the teachers of the Law thought themselves as holy, and looked down on those whom they considered as hopeless ones, the sinners, the prostitutes and the lowest ends of the society.

Yet, it was precisely these people whom the Pharisees had condemned for their sins that in fact had the great humility to reach out with contrite hearts, seeking the forgiveness of the Lord, as many of the sick, the bleeding widow, the prostitutes, had done, while the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had not done so. They kept their heads upheld high, and hardened their hearts against the Lord and against His people, the very sheep entrusted to them as shepherds to lead towards the Lord, as the chief shepherd.

The Lord who will judge everyone on the last day, will judge them and cast them out of His presence, as they had not ony failed in their given mission to lead the people of God with responsibility and upright ways, but they even brought the people closer to damnation instead of salvation. They had even mocked and opposed those whom the Lord had sent to them to wake them up and remind them of their true task and their true purpose, the purpose of their positions in the society.

Just as their ancestors had opposed, mocked, and slaughtered the prophets and messengers of God, so they had opposed, mocked, questioned, tested, and eventually condemned Christ, the very One sent to this world to redeem it. This was because both them and their ancestors had hardened their hearts and kept the love of God out of their hearts. They turned a deaf ear against the advice of the prophets and their pleading that they change their ways.

Just as their ancestors during their sojourn in the desert, they not only turned away from the Lord their God, but also openly opposed Him and put Him constantly to the test, in the same way as how the Pharisees had tested Jesus many times, desiring and longing for Him to make a mistake that they can capitalise on. Smart? Oh certainly, by human standards, yes indeed, the work of Satan made manifest!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that does not mean however, that wicked men and women has no hope absolutely in salvation in God. They indeed have much opportunity and chance to return to the Lord their God and return towards the path leading to salvation, providing that they really have a total change in their hearts, from one that was hardened against God, into those that are open for the wonders and warmth of His love. And today, as we commemorate the occasion, there is no better example than St. Augustine of Hippo, the great saint and Doctor of the Church.

St. Augustine of Hippo was truly a great man of the faith, whose works and dedications for the Church were invaluable. He was indeed once a great sinner, ever since he was young. Although he was raised as a Christian by his mother, whom we know as St. Monica, whom feast day we just celebrated yesterday, St. Augustine lapsed and left the Church to follow the heretical Manichaean syncretic religion that was widespread during that time at the late Roman Empire.

St. Augustine early in his life lived a life of pleasure and debauchery, and walked away, far away from the path of righteousness in God. He sought meaning in life, and yet he was not able to find it in all the pleasures of the world that he had experienced. His mother, St. Monica prayed hard for him, that he would return to God, and repent all of his wayward life. She never gave up on him, even though he did all things evil imaginable, seeking the pleasures of the world, and tried to find comfort in reason and rhetorics.

Eventually St. Augustine returned to God and made a full conversion back to the cause of Christ, not least because of the role his mother had played, and even more so, the very conviction by St. Augustine himself as he journeyed through his life, through tumult and times of confusion. In the end, he became a great defender of the faith, the bishop of Hippo, and through his writings, many people, even today, still benefit from his enlightenment on us on our faith, and on the tradition of the faith of the Apostles.

He is truly worthy of his title of the four greatest Doctors of the Church, and indeed a pillar of the Church and the faith. However, do note that he was once too a great sinner. Precisely, brethren, even sinners are not out of range for salvation. Indeed, great saints were often once great sinners too. In fact, as what Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the renowned Archbishop once had said, that the greater the sin one has in them, the closer one is to the throne of God, that is the throne of mercy. With greater sin and greater understanding of one’s sin does bring one to closer realisation of one’s mortality and weakeness, and can spur us into seeking God’s mercy, as St. Augustine had once done.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, we who are sinners should follow the example of St. Augustine, who sought God after he had done great sins before God, and who was turned from the path of sin into the path of salvation in God. He felt empty when He lacked God in his heart, and went all the way to find the fulfillment, which eventually he found in God, who gave him true and complete satisfaction and providence. The same too should happen to us, and let us not be like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, whose mouth is full of pious words and prayers, and yet their hearts are empty, lacking God in them.

May St. Augustine of Hippo be our source of inspiration, as does his mother, St. Monica, that we who are in this world, great sinners before God, may acknowledge our unworthiness and our sins, and seek to ask forgiveness from our merciful and loving God, He who is the Divine Mercy, and He who cares and loves for all of His children. St. Augustine, pray for us, intercede for us before God, that just as once He had forgiven you and turned you into a great pillar of the faith, may the same also happen to us. God bless us all with His love. Amen.

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Wednesday, 3 July 2013 : Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us should be happy, indeed, because we have faith in the Lord, even though we do not see Him physically walking with us in this world. Yes, He is with us, all the days of our life, even without us knowing about it. But how faithful are we to the Lord? We live in a world today that is obsessed with things visual and physical, and it is increasingly difficult for many to find God as something tangible in their lives.

St. Thomas did not believe at first because he was not at the meeting when Jesus appeared to His disciples, and the doubt and fear in his heart, which has grown ever since the tragic death of Christ on the cross, prevented him from believing in the Risen Lord, our God and Saviour. Indeed, for a rational man, and a man thinking about the natural order, it is simply impossible and unbelievable that someone could have risen from the dead, much less to appear physically to the living.

And yet, that is the truth that is our faith. Our faith has its core and foundation in our belief in the Christ suffering, Christ crucified, and ultimately, the most important of all, the Risen Christ, the conquering Lord of life and death, and no one has authority over Him, not even death. It is His triumph over death that is the centrepiece of our faith.

If Christ is just a man, and that He died on the cross, then that death would have been a waste, because then He would have ended His ministry in this world short. But the Lord is fully divine just as He is fully human. He is both the Lord our God, Lord of all the universe, and a humble, lowly man at the same time. His death and then His resurrection had opened a new door of hope for mankind. For Christ is the only bridge that bridged the infinite chasm that lie before us and God.

The Lord risen from the dead shows us that death does not have the final say on us. Throughout history, people have been searching for ways to prevent them from dying, and also to extend their life in this world, but they have failed to do so, because ever since the first mankind, death has always claimed all men without exception. Death is the fate and punishment that awaits all of us for breaking our covenant with the Lord, by our disobedience and sinful ways.

God who loves us did not give up on us, but gave us a new hope through Christ, the only hope for salvation. It is only through Christ that we can reach back towards the Lord our God. That is why our faith in Him as our Lord and Saviour is essential for all of us. But this world has been corrupted by evil, and as you noticed, the increasing influence of science and secularisation.

Science itself is not evil, and is indeed good, but it is the underlying principle of science, that championed reason and rationality above all things, and coupled with the great reduction in the influence of God and His Church to many, that brought much harm both to the world and to the Church, and of course, to the people of God.

Secularisation came because mankind began to discover many wonderful discoveries they claim for their own, and they began to question whether God is really present in their lives, and whether He is truly real. Mankind began to look for things that are real and tangible, and something that they can visually see and touch, just as the principles of science, which stated that something had to be proven by tests and reason so that it is the real deal. Because God seemed to be distant and intangible, mankind began to question their faith and walk away from the Lord, just as what happened to St. Thomas, who doubted that the Lord had risen from the dead, because he did not witness His appearing to the disciples.

That is why, it is important for all of us to remain faithful to the Lord. Faith is not just by being able to visually see something and then we believe, but faith involve more than just our vision and our sense of feel and touch, but it involves our hearts and soul. Deep in our hearts, all of us know that the Lord is there. He is real and tangible, through our actions, through our words, when we base them on His teachings. For is it not that God is Love? Yes, exactly as He had commanded us to love, through love, God is made manifest to the world, through the apostles, and through us.

God wants us to love Him, just as He had loved us, to the point of sacrificing Himself on the cross, that through the shedding of His Body and His Blood, we may be cleansed from the filth of sin, and be reunited with Him, in the everlasting bliss of eternal life. This Year of the Faith is a very good opportunity for all of us to renew our commitment to the Lord, so that we will be once again close to Him. St. Thomas’ example is an example of how we should indeed love the Lord even without us seeing Him. What we need is to feel Him through our hearts, through our love, that reflects the nature of God, who is Love.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us renew our resolve to the Lord, that we will be ever more faithful to Him, and ever more loving to Him and to all His children, our brethren. Let us all fall on our knees and worship Him who had given up His life for us so that we may live, and let our faith be an example for all the world to see, that we belong to our God, a God who loves us, cares for us, and is faithful to us, even when we ourselves had been unfaithful and rebellious.

May God grant us the gift of faith, and strengthen the faith in our heart, that the Lord will be ever close to us, in our heart, that we will always be in His grace, forever and ever. Amen.

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(Special) Sunday, 23 June 2013 : Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (Gospel Reading)

Luke 1 : 5-17

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there lived a priest named Zechariah, belonging to the priestly clan of Abiah. Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, also belonged to a priestly family. Both of them were upright in the eyes of God, and lived blamelessly in accordance with all the laws and commands of the Lord, but they had no child. Elizabeth could not have any and now they were both very old.

Now, while Zechariah and those with him were fulfilling their office, it fell to him by lot, according to the custom of the priests, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. At the time of offering incense, all the people were praying outside; it was then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

On seeing the angel, Zechariah was deeply troubled and fear took hold of him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, be assured that your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall name him John. He will bring joy and gladness to you, and many will rejoice at his birth.

“This son of yours will be great in the eyes of the Lord. Listen : he shall never drink wine or strong drink, but he will be filled with Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. Through him, many of the people of Israel will turn to the Lord their God. He himself will open the way to the Lord with the spirit and power of the prophet Elijah; he will reconcile fathers and children, and lead the disobedient to wisdom and righteousness, in order to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

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Wednesday, 5 June 2013 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Christ is risen and He is our resurrected Lord, who triumphed over death and evil through His own glorious resurrection. Even the chains and the power of death cannot restrain Him, and neither can hell restrain Him. Jesus is our victorious Lord, who died on the cross, and yet risen in glory, conquering death forevermore.

God loves us so much, His greatest creation, the mankind, just as He loved all of creation, but to us, even in our rebellion and our disobedience against Him, He was willing to provide the only solution to salvation from the eternal death and condemnation which awaits us in hell. That was through the power of Christ, whose resurrection brought about the salvation of all mankind who believes in Him, and through whose death, He redeemed us all from the sins of our fathers.

God never abandons His people in need, and He is always with them, ever since the beginning of time. He never forget the promise that He had made with them, and always gave them His fullest attention, even when the people did not remember Him and in fact had forgotten Him and His kindness.

God always provided sustenance and deliverance to His people, ever since the beginning of time. He did not abandon Adam and Eve but gave them provisions that although their lives would be hard, He provided for them, that they could survive, even if death still has power over them. And neither did He abandon Abram and his relatives when they were in need. He rescued Lot from Sodom before its destruction, and gave Abram, whom He then called Abraham, a great promise to be made true through his descendants.

Throughout history, God has provided, and those whom suffer persecution and injustice always receive the justice of the Lord Most High, and they always receive the just treatment of the Lord, who is good and just. He sent many of His prophets to the nations, especially to Israel, who constantly was in rebellion against Him and His will, preferring the evil one and the pagan gods to Him. But He did not give up His people, and He did not abandon them to death and eternal damnation.

Even after that people slaughtered many of His prophets and messengers, He remained true to His love. Yes, our God is a just and avenging God, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. He hates sin and all things that is of the evil one, which had corrupted mankind ever since our ancestors were first seduced by him. Yet, our Lord is at the same time is also a loving and merciful God, and His love for us is so great, that He is willing to give His all, in order to reunite ourselves with Him.

That is why He gave us Jesus, His Son, to be incarnate into mankind, as one of us, a humble man, that through Him, eventually, the salvation of this world and all mankind would come true. Although our sins are great and vast in their extent, but Christ, who is God, and with God, is worthy of freeing us from the chains of sin and the slavery of death, which had enslaved us ever since men fall into darkness. Yes, death is our pay for having rebelled against the Lord’s will and the goodness of God.

Christ died on the cross, bearing all our sins, all the sins and faults of all the people who lived, is living today, and will ever live in this world. He carried all of them on Himself on that arduous path to Calvary. He suffered and yet He did not open His mouth in protest. All out of His great and undying love for all of us, even to the greatest of sinners.

But Christ did not remain dead forever, because unlike all of us, He is good and He is pure from sin, and He is the only One found worthy in all of creation and in all the universe. If Christ had remained dead, and if the Sadducees were true in that there is no resurrection, then our faith is gone, our faith is dead. Because we are Christians simply because we believe, and truly believe that Christ is resurrected, and through that resurrection, He was triumphant over death and evil.

Christ was resurrected in glory, and embraced His full divinity, as His work in this world was finished, after He redeemed all mankind through the fee of His blood that flowed down from the cross. He ‘purchased’ all of us from Satan and broke the command of death over us forever. Death no longer has power over us, as long as we remain firmly faithful in our Lord God. By His death, Christ also made all of us who believe in Him, to die to ourselves, and to our sinful past, to all the evils that we had once committed. But again, if Christ had remained dead, then we too would have remained dead, without the hope of salvation and eternal life.

That is why exactly because of Christ’s resurrection, that we too arose with Him, and free ourselves from the chains of Satan, and death truly no longer has any power over us, because Christ has claimed all of us to be His own. This belief is vital, my brothers and sisters in Christ, that we believe in God who is a living God, and a God of the living, and not of the dead, because our Lord and God Himself is life, and therefore, to those whom remained in His favour, He would grant eternal life to them, as reward of their faith.

Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Boniface, who was a bishop and a martyr. St. Boniface toiled greatly in the Name of the Lord, by his missions to the land of the pagans, which still occupied much of the northern and central Europe at the time, especially what would today be known as Germany. St. Boniface converted many to the cause of Christ, and in his firm faith in the Lord, he brought many to salvation through conversion and baptism into the Church of God. Yet, he was not unharmed in his numerous ministries, as he faced many rejections, and even there were many who would dispose of him.

St. Boniface ultimately faced death when he was ambushed and killed by brigands while in the middle of his proselytising works. He faced death openly and remained strong in his faith to the end, even unto death. He faced death bravely because, yes, Christ is a living God, and He lives! In each one of us. That is why those who believe in the Lord has no need to fear death because Christ Himself has mastered death, and death no longer has power over us, especially if we remain true to the Lord’s words.

May our faith in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ become even firmer from today onwards, and may God strengthen our resolve in order to spread the Good News of the Lord to all mankind, and to no longer fear death, but believe at all times, that God is with us, within us, and that He will always watch over us, all the days of our lives, because He loves us, and He is Love Himself. Amen.

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Wednesday, 5 June 2013 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Mark 12 : 18-27

The Sadducees also came to Jesus. Since they claim that there is no resurrection, they questioned Him in this way, “Master, in the Scriptures Moses gave us this law : ‘If anyone dies and leaves a wife but no children, his brother must take the woman, and with her have a baby, who will be considered the child of his deceased brother.”

“Now, there were seven brothers. The first married a wife, but he died without leaving any children. The second took the wife, and he also died leaving no children. The same thing happened to the third. In fact, all seven brothers died, leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. Now, in the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife? For all seven brothers had her as wife.”

Jesus replied, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry, but are like the angels in heaven. Now, about the resurrection of the dead, have you never had thoughts about the burning bush in the book of Moses?”

“God said to Moses : ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is the God not of the dead but of the living. You are totally wrong.”

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Tuesday, 7 May 2013 : 6th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Follow the Lord! For He is justice and truth embodied!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear the word of God, proclaiming that in Christ our Lord, lays true justice and the truth itself, however hard it is for this evil-laden world to comprehend and accept. Even among us, there are many who still do not believe truly in God, and put our trust in His justice and have faith in the truths He had taught us through His apostles.

For Christ is our great judge, who will judge every being and every mankind at the end of time, when it is time once again for Him to descend onto this world in His glorious Second Coming, when He will vindicate all who keep their faith in Him and do not give it up for the temptations and seductions of the evil one. He will reward all those who remain faithful in Him, and punish all those who stray from His way, the true way, the path of salvation.

This great judgment will separate the good ones from the bad ones, the worthy ones from the unworthy ones, like the harvester separate the good wheat from the chaff and the husks, and like the shepherd separating the goat from the sheep. So will all of us be separated based on our virtues, and whether we have faithfully kept God’s commandments in our deeds and in our daily lives.

Would we want to be separated as the bad goats as compared to be like the good sheep? Would we want to endure the eternal suffering of separation from God and His infinite love? Never forget that the true suffering in hell is not the physical fire and the torture of the flesh that is always depicted in the secular illustrations, but hell is in fact a state of eternal damnation and suffering when one is truly, completely, and forever separated from God.

It is difficult to believe in God, especially in our increasingly secular world today, as God becomes ever more distant in mankind’s hearts, when world’s increasingly seductive temptations exert greater and ever greater pull on many, steering them away from the true faith and from the righteous path in Christ. This is why the world is sinful, and it is most sinful in what is called disbelief. Not only because it has not believed in God, and had rejected the One whom God had sent, but also that it had made many to lose their faith and belief in God, because it has offered the falsehoods that Satan has offered.

Let us not be perturbed, my brethren. Let us not be shaken in our faith, and doubt our God not for even a single moment, for He is constant, and He is faithful. He is God who keeps His promises, who loves those who also love Him, and those who obey the commandments He had set, and those who follow in His way. Remember, the path of Satan, and what the deceiver offers us, may look good, but it offers only temporal satisfaction. Remember Adam and Eve, our ancestors.

True salvation, true joy, and true glory lie only in God, our one and only God and Lord. To no other being should we bend our knee to in worship, other than to He who had come down from heaven, who had lived amongst us, who died for us, that we may live, and who had risen in glory, in triumph, and conquered death. Amen.

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Saturday, 6 April 2013 : Saturday of the Easter Octave (Gospel Reading)

Mark 16 : 9-15

After Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary of Magdala, from whom He had driven out seven demons. She went and reported the news to His followers, who were now mourning and weeping. But when they heard that He lived, and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

After this He showed Himself in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. These men also went back and told the others, but they did not believe them.

Later Jesus showed Himself to the Eleven while they were at table. He reproached them for their unbelief, and stubbornness, in refusing to believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. Then He told them, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.”