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Tuesday, 28 October 2014 : Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together with the entire Universal Church, the feast of two of our Lord’s great and holy Apostles, two of the Twelve, appointed and chosen by Jesus Himself from among us, to be His chief lieutenants and servants to help in the ministry and works of salvation through Jesus. They became what St. Paul said in his letter to the faithful and the Church in Ephesus, as the foundations of the Faith and the Church which we have today, together with the prophets of God of old.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, two of the Apostles, who was also known as Simon the Zealot, belonging to the group of the Zealots, a very puritanical and extremist group opposed to the Roman rule in Judea at the time of Jesus, a sort of freedom fighter, who was turned from his former path with the Zealots, and instead joined Jesus and became His follower. The other Apostle is also known as St. Judas Thaddeus, or St. Jude, different from Judas Iscariot the traitor. This saint today was especially known in the devotion to St. Jude, as the patron saint of hopeless cases.

St. Simon was as mentioned, a Zealot, a fighter for the freedom for the Jews from the Roman rule, to achieve a physical liberation from the tyranny and oppression of the Romans against the Jews. However, he left all that, when he followed Jesus, to be one of His chief disciples, the Apostles, and instead of fighting for the liberation of the body only and the Jews only, he became the agent of salvation for all mankind, and also for the salvation of both body and soul from sin and death

Meanwhile, St. Jude or St. Jude Thaddeus was also another Apostle of Jesus, often confused with Judas Iscariot the traitor of Jesus. However, while that Judas was unfaithful and got what he deserved, St. Jude or Judas Thaddeus remained faithful to the Lord, and he continued to preach the Good News together with St. Simon the Zealot, whom he was often closely associated to, and that is why we celebrate their feast days together.

Both St. Simon the Zealot and St. Jude Thaddeus travelled together, preaching and spreading the faith in the region of Judea, Syria, and to Egypt and Libya, as well as to many other regions where they preached the Good News of Jesus Christ, the hope of salvation for all the people living in those places who have yet to witness the light of Christ. And through their hard work and ministry, they planted the seeds of the Faith and the Church, which would eventually grow and bring many souls to salvation in God.

Both of them went through many trials and difficulties, acceptance and rejection, by the people and the communities to whom they were sent to. Yet they persevered on, and like St. Paul the Apostle, they never gave up in the face of difficulties, and through their good and hard work, they gained many souls to the mercy of God, and brought them towards salvation. Indeed, these two, among the other ten Apostles, were the crucial and important pillars of the Faith and salvation.

It was told that they were martyred in the region of Syria during a persecution of the Faithful, and they were beheaded with an axe, a symbol often associated to them. But even in death, they continued to bring goodness and good works and wonders to the faithful, as in death they lay down the seeds of faith to the newly faithful, spreading the Good News ever further and greater to the ends of the earth.

And we know that St. Jude was particularly famous because he is the patron saint of the cases of hopelessness and where hope is dim. People ask for his intercession to help in those cases that seem to be impossible and outcome is likely to be unfavourable. However, brethren, we have to be careful lest we think that they are like gods or those who can fulfill our wishes and needs at our whim.

These Apostles, St. Jude Thaddeus and St. Simon the Zealot, as well as the other Apostles are the twelve central pillars of the faith, and besides the Lord’s own Blessed Mother Mary, they stand the closest to the throne of God, their Lord and Master. They were men once, but they have been tested through fire and trials, facing all the difficulties and the challenges of the world, suffering even martyrdom for the sake of the Lord.

They therefore are our role models, the reflection of what we can also achieve if we are to follow in their paths and walk in their footsteps. They represent the fulfillment of God’s promise. Remember what did Jesus say to them at one time, how they will sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel? This is the same promise which God has also given us. We will all sit among the righteous and the just, but only if we remain faithful to the Lord, resisting all temptations of life and the flesh.

The disciples and the Apostles were once also diverse in their occupations, and they were men of the world, and yet they chose to follow God and become His chief servants, to be the ones to help Him to accomplish much good work in this world. They did have the choice to follow the Lord or to follow their own hearts’ desire. Remember what happened to Judas Iscariot the traitor? He cheated the group’s money and possessions, corrupting them for his own benefits, and in the end, even sold his own Lord and Master for a mere thirty pieces of silver. And where did he end up? Not among the Apostles nor the saints, but among the condemned.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to reflect on our own lives and actions. We are all sinners and unworthy of the Lord’s love and mercy. And yet, He offered them to us freely and tenderly nonetheless, giving them through the ultimate act of love, His suffering and death on the cross. We have the choice to continue in our ways of sin, following the wicked paths of the world, or to embrace the mercy and love offered by God.

The Apostles, and especially the ones we celebrate today, St. Simon and St. Jude are our models in life. They themselves were not perfect, and they were sinners, and yet they were willing to allow the Lord to come into their lives and transform themselves, that they would no longer live in sin but became the tools of the Lord in bringing good into this world, and in that, they were justified themselves in their faith.

Let us therefore use this opportunity to begin to follow our Lord Jesus and emulate the examples of His holy Apostles, St. Jude and St. Simon whose feasts we celebrate today. Let us all also become faithful disciples of our Lord, building ever stronger support and foundation for the salvific mission of our Church, the Church of God, for our salvation and for the salvation of all souls. Leave our old lives of sin and darkness and exchange it for the lives in the light of God. God bless us all. Amen.

 

First Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/27/tuesday-28-october-2014-feast-of-st-simon-and-st-jude-apostles-first-reading/

Psalm : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/27/tuesday-28-october-2014-feast-of-st-simon-and-st-jude-apostles-psalm/

Gospel Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/27/tuesday-28-october-2014-feast-of-st-simon-and-st-jude-apostles-gospel-reading/

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Monday, 27 October 2014 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the one who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the Law of the Lord and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but cuts off the way of the wicked.

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Saturday, 25 October 2014 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture and Gospel readings are very clear in that they gave us great and precious advice on how to live our lives and how to be faithful to our Lord and God. The readings showed how God is not an unjust and cruel God who is only concerned about punishing us for our sins, nor would He unjustly punish us without good reason.

God is loving and merciful, and He is willing to welcome us back into His love. Indeed, it is not just that He is willing to do so, but He indeed wants to bring us back into His embrace, and thus He sent us Apostles, disciples, messengers, prophets and other helpers endlessly to be our guides and to help us to orientate ourselves, to avoid being recaptured by the hands of Satan and by the power of sin and to help us to live righteously and justly according to the will of God.

But, this is not the only thing we need to know about the Lord. Our Lord and God is indeed loving and merciful, but at the same time, He is also just and a hater of all forms of sins. I have often mentioned this before, and I would like to repeat it again, for the benefit of all the faithful who hear this message. This is because many of us seem to fall under the lie and delusion that God is loving and merciful only, overlooking the other aspects of Him that we need to understand if we are to achieve salvation in God.

We live in a time when our sensitivities towards sin had been diluted and weakened, and the culture of death and wickedness that is in the world, and which is continuing to change the world in accordance to what Satan wishes, is harming us all, brothers and sisters in Christ. Many of our fellow men were ensnared in the web of deception and temptation set up by the devil, who is and will always be active and about to bring about the downfall of as many souls as possible.

While in the past, sin is sin and being sinful brought about great regrets and repentance, now people often no longer regard their sinful acts as something wrong or something to be regretted. Their casual attitude towards sin is harmful, and that was also why they have committed even more and more sin in their lives. Many have the misconception that God understands them and will forgive them no matter what their sins are, but they were really completely wrong, and if they continue in this attitude, they are in great danger, both soul and body.

The lack of apprehension and disgust towards sin by men, especially in the world of our time is truly unbelievable and dangerous. Instead of seeking God’s mercy and repent for even the smallest sins that we have, we continue to commit sin and disregarding God’s laws and commandments, doing as we like in this life, thinking that God will forgive us in the end because of His love.

But we have to remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that the Lord hates sin in all of its forms and sin is the greatest barrier that separate us from the love of God. As long as the taints of sin remain on our selves, on our body and soul, and we do not repent from those sins, we cannot approach and be one with our Lord and God. That is because, despite of His love and mercy, grace for all of us can only be achieved if we take concrete steps and actions to truly commit ourselves to the Lord.

Thus, that is why the Church, as the guardian of the Faith as it was given to us by Christ through His Apostles, kept the stance on having mercy only when the sinner is truly repentant and desire true forgiveness of sins, not by an easy path, but through gracious devotion to the way of the Lord and by acts of reparation to repay the debts of sin which the sinner had incurred against the Lord.

There are indeed pressures from this world and all who are aligned with Satan and the forces of darkness, as we recently witnessed in the recent Extraordinary Synod on the Family, which had just been concluded at the end of last week. The social media and media in general, in all of their various forms aired their opinions pushing for the agenda to destroy the Faith and the Church, which was advocated by even some within the Church.

Yes, it is the advocation of false and deceiving mercy to sinners, and the notion that the Church tolerates sin, that is most dangerous, not just for those who have committed those grievous sins, but even for the righteous within the Church of God. If we allow this corruption and debauchery of the world to make its way into the Faith and the Church, we are bringing ruin and disaster upon ourselves.

God reminds us through Jesus that He always wants to give us chances and opportunities, as what Jesus told in His parable of the fig tree that did not bear any fruit and was barren. The fig tree was given another chance by the Lord, who gave it another chance to redeem itself, before it is given up for cutting and burning. Thus, in the same way God had given us chance, and even many chances for us to repent and become better, and abandon our sinful ways.

Therefore, it is imperative for all of us to put our complete trust in Jesus Christ our Lord, the root of Faith, the One who is our anchor in our faith and life. Just as St. Paul had written in his letter to the Church and the faithful in the city of Ephesus, he pointed out that the Lord Jesus came to this world to rescue us and to give us new hope, through sincere repentance and humility to seek God’s mercy.

If we do these, then Christ, whose death has washed away our sins and whose resurrection from the dead offer us new hope in life, will bring us from the shadow of death and into the liberated life in God. Mercy cannot be separated from repentance, or otherwise the mercy will be false mercy and bring harm instead of goodness.

Hence, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all detach ourselves from the impurities of this world and purify ourselves in faith. May Almighty God bless us with faith and His love, and may He help us to guard us from the depredations of sin. May all of us get closer to the Lord and put all of our trust to Him, and with Him as our anchor in life, let us all humbly seek His mercy and sincerely offer our repentance to Him, that He may justify us in our repentance and faith. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 19 October 2014 : 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Mission Sunday and Memorial of St. John de Brebeuf and St. Isaac Jogues, Priests and Martyrs; and St. Paul of the Cross, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together the love of God for us in the Eucharist through which He gave us all His own Body and Blood, so that we who share in them, we may receive salvation in our God, and be freed from the bondage of sin and death. And we are reminded of this fact in the readings from the Holy Scriptures which we read today.

In the first reading, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, the Lord revealed to Isaiah His servant, of the coming of salvation for the people of Israel, in the person of Cyrus, the King and Emperor of the Persian Empire, who would deliver the people of God the salvation which they would come to await for. For a background understanding, I will share with you the significance of this passage from the Book of Isaiah by telling you the historical background behind it.

At the time the revelation was made to the prophet Isaiah, it was at the time just as the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the conquering power of the Assyrian Empire. The people of the northern kingdom was unfaithful and were engrossed in wickedness and in the worship of the pagan gods. As such, they were handed over to the hands of their enemies and brought away as slaves and exiles from the lands promised and given to their ancestors.

Meanwhile, in the kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom, the people of God there were also not always faithful. They also from time to time rebelled against the will of God, preferring to follow their own ways and disobeyed the Lord’s instructions. At the time of the prophet Isaiah, during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judea, the consequences for these were not so apparent yet, but then soon they too would suffer the same fate as their northern brethren, the kingdom of Israel.

They too would be defeated, conquered and exiled, as well as into slavery by the rising power of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, under the famous king Nebuchadnezzar, who brought siege to Jerusalem, the Holy City of God, and brought it to ruin. The Temple of Solomon was destroyed and the Ark of the Covenant was lost in the chaos. This represented the end of the southern kingdom of Judah and the rule of the kings as a whole, and also marked the beginning of what would be called the Babylonian exile.

During this period of exile, the people of Judah were also uprooted and cast away from the land promised and given to their ancestors, and brought in chains to the foreign lands. There they suffered indignation and much humiliation, and they were made to work hard and experienced the bitter pills of difficulties of the world for a period of time, when, according to the word of God through the prophets, that they were humbled among the nations.

Yet, God did not leave them alone with that fate for long. He promised them deliverance, precisely through the prophet Isaiah, that the King of Persia, Cyrus the Great, who conquered many kingdoms in the known world at that time, would conquer Babylon and then liberated all the people of God from their bondage and slavery, allowing them to return home to their ancestral lands of Israel, freed at last from their bonds and exile.

God called Cyrus from among the nations, and gave him His blessings and grace, even though he did not know Him. Such was the Lord’s will and plan, and how He put all of His desires and will into effect. He never retracted His promises, nor is He ever being unfaithful. He fulfilled His promises through Cyrus, who just like Moses, brought the people of God out of suffering, bondage and slavery into freedom and God’s renewed promise and covenant.

But at the time of Jesus, the nation of the Jews have endured many cycles of persecutions, oppressions and enslavement by other, more powerful nations, and the latest to be added to the list at the time was the Roman Empire, which ruled over most of the known world, and was known for the first regular and organised ruling imperium in the world, with a meticulous system of taxation, both to maintain control and to obtain revenue for the Roman state.

However, the imposition of taxes also represented the symbol of Roman dominance and mastery over the world, and over the peoples of the Mediterranean at the time, including the Jews, who lived in the Roman province of Judea, which constituted roughly the old Promised Land which they had been given, together with the provinces of Galilee and Decapolis.

The imposition of the taxes were hated and disliked by the people, who viewed them as first the symbol of their submission to the Romans and their Emperor, the Caesar in Rome, as well as the symbol of their renewed enslavement and the end of their freedom which they had often fought hard for and gained for. It also burdened them economically, and thus they were resented by the people as a whole. This was also why the tax collectors were so hated by the people, and they were considered outcasts and traitors, as they were seen as serving the hated Romans in imposing their hated taxes.

The Roman taxes were paid with the Roman currency, that is the Roman coins, most commonly the silver variant, the denarius. On the denarius, just as all the other Roman coins, the face portrait of the Emperor were printed, such that to the extent of the Romans and the peoples of the Empire recognised their Emperor by the coins they released.

This represented a problem, and a rather serious one, in the view of the Jews, as the Roman Emperors at the time, beginning with the Emperor Augustus, and even his pre-Imperial predecessor, Julius Caesar, were deified and worshipped in the Empire as gods or descendants of the gods. Thus, for the Jews, particularly to the Pharisees, the act of paying the taxes with the Roman coins represent a potentially dangerous and serious sin.

Yes, that is the offering to the idols, as equated by the ‘offering’ of the Roman coins with the Emperor’s portrait to the Empire, and thus to the Emperor himself, the deified entity, the pagan god patron of the Empire. Thus, the Pharisees and the elders of Israel wanted to trap Jesus with the question, and had He answered that they should pay the taxes, then they could whip up the masses’ opinion against Jesus and accuse Him of collaboration with the Romans, essentially a traitor to the nation.

On the other hand, if He had answered that they should not pay the taxes, then the Pharisees and the elders, with their links to the Roman establishment could claim that Jesus wanted to lead the people in rebellion against the Roman rule, by refusing to pay the taxes due for them. But Jesus knew all that they had plotted against Him with, and He gave them the answer which none of them had predicted.

Give to God what belongs to God, and give to the Caesar, the Emperor of Rome, what belongs to him, namely the coins and the wealth of the world. Jesus wanted to remind us, just as He wanted to rebuke His opponents, that the wealth and the materials of this world belong to the world and ought to be returned back to them. Thus, money and possessions that we have and gained in this life, is no more than the means for us to live a good and sufficient life, enough for us to sustain ourselves, but they should not be the focus of our life.

Yes, for God is the Creator of all of us, the most beloved ones of all His creations. We were made by God with love, given life by His Spirit and intended for greatness and goodness, and despite our waywardness and disobedience, in the end, we still belong to God, and nothing and noone can deny this very fact. Hence, whatever we are and whoever we are, we ought to give it to the Lord, as we truly belong to God and not to this world.

And hence, we should avoid all the evils of this world and keep ourselves pure, and the Lord had already warned against these sinful ways, namely the sins of the Pharisees, who preached what they believed in, but they did not practice what they had preached. That is why they were called hypocrites, and rightly so, for their faith in the Lord was superficial, and all that they cared about was their own vanity and pride.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what God wants from us is our love, that is what we ought to give to Him, after He Himself had loved us all first. We should also keep ourselves away from the vices and evils of the Pharisees. Think not about bringing harm and plotting against others, but think rather of love, and how we can better love one another, as well as forgiving those who had sinned against us, as Jesus Himself had taught us.

And today in our world, as it had been in the past, there are still many people who live in the darkness of the world, following the ways of the Pharisees and have yet to see the love of the Lord and have yet to understand His ways. And thus, today, in which we also celebrate the occasion of the Mission Sunday, we have to remind ourselves of the responsibilities and the obligations which we have been given by the Lord when we became the member of His Church.

God desires not the destruction of mankind, just as He did not desire the condemnation of His people, Israel. This was why He sent them deliverers, beginning from Moses and then Cyrus, and finally Jesus Himself, His own Son, the One who would deliver not just the Jews but all mankind from the greatest of their bondage and slavery.

Yes, all of us who have sinned and under the whim of sin are enslaved and bonded to sin. And the chains of sin that bind us will eventually and inevitably lead to death, the punishment and ultimate consequence for sin. And not just any death, but eternal death, which will separate us from the love of God, the suffering of hell for eternity, where we are completely and entirely devoid of that love which God lavishes on us.

We can just begin to imagine the kind of suffering when we lack and are denied the wonderful love which God has for us. The pain and suffering far dwarfs the kind of physical and mental suffering which the people in exile and slavery had suffered. And this is exactly what God does not want to happen to us, and thus He also sent His people more deliverers, and who are they? They are none other than each one of us, who have been received into His Church, and have been endowed with the faith.

Let me share with you the inspiring lives of the saints who we also commemorate today, that is St. Jacques Chastan and St. Isaac Jogues, as well as St. Paul of the Cross. For the case of St. Jacques Chastan and St. Isaac Jogues, they were French martyrs, who were part of the French missionaries, the Mission Estrangeres de Paris, the M.E.P. priests who were specialised in the missions to the far ends of the world, spreading the word of God to those who have yet to hear the Good News of the Lord.

St. Jacques Chastan was sent to the missions in Asia, to Thailand, then called Siam, and to Macao, and finally to Korea, where he met his death with faith, in a holy martyrdom. Through his works there and with the collaboration of many other missionaries, many souls were called to the Lord, and heeding the call of conversion, they gave themselves to be baptised and to be part of the Church of God.

The Korean authorities were strongly opposed to the efforts of the missionaries, and they did everything they could to prevent the spread of the faith. Many people, including St. Jacques Chastan were martyred in the defense of their true faith, refusing to renounce the faith and salvation which they had received. After all, when one had been liberated and delivered from slavery, who would want to be enslaved again? To do so would condemn oneself to an eternity of suffering.

Meanwhile, St. Isaac Jogues was a French missionary who was sent to the wild and undiscovered regions of North America, then known as the New World. He worked for the Lord among the many tribes of the North American indigenous populations. Life was indeed difficult for him, and the wars and conflicts between the tribes made it even more difficult. Nevertheless, St. Isaac Jogues persevered and continued to minister to them, spreading the Good News and converting many of them, urging them to abandon their old ways and learn the ways of the Lord.

St. Isaac Jogues was also martyred for his faith, while he was on his mission. He never gave up until the end, and as a result, together with him, many people who were enslaved by sin and darkness, were made free and gain salvation together in God. Such was the role model which actions we can and that we indeed should follow in life.

Lastly, St. Paul of the Cross, the Italian priest of the early modern era who was particularly devoted to the memory of the Holy Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the remembrance of that singular act of ultimate love of God, through which mankind were delivered from the chains and the tyranny of sin into true freedom. Through his works and devotion to the Holy Passion of our Lord, St. Paul of the Cross bring many of the faithful into greater and deeper understanding of their faith, and how all of us too have our own roles to play in helping one another to reach out to God’s salvation.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, heeding the call of the Lord which He had made through the Scriptures and the Gospels which we had heard today, let us all be renewed in our faith and zeal for the Lord. Let us all realise the great love which God has for all of us, that He does not want to see us remain chained to sin and darkness, and for that He had sent us Jesus, to be the One true Saviour of all, in the mould of Moses and Cyrus, but He did even greater things than these two had done.

Why so, brethren? That is because sin is a greater slavery than anything else that may affect our body. Sin enslaves both our body and soul, our heart and mind, and all that comprise us. And thus, through Christ, by believing in Him and in His love, and in His death on the cross, through which He showed us the act of ultimate love, offering Himself in exchange for us as a ransom for death, the consequence of our sins, we have been made free.

Hence, on this occasion of Mission Sunday, inspired by the examples of the saints whom we remember today, let us all also imitate the love which Christ had shown us, and let us imitate this love and show the same love in our own actions and deeds in life, that we may come to realise the great potential within us, and also in the many others who still live in darkness and sin.

May Almighty God bless us and our efforts, the missionary works which we ought to take on, in order to spread the Word of God and the Good News of the Gospels to all the nations, especially those still under the thrall of sin, so that we may truly be what Jesus had asked of us, to give to the Lord what belongs to Him, that is all of us, our hearts and our minds, our entire being. May God bring more and more souls to Him and rescue them, and free them from the shackles of sin and into the everlasting life in true joy which He had promised us all. God be with us, forever and ever. Amen.

Gospel : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/17/sunday-19-october-2014-29th-sunday-of-ordinary-time-mission-sunday-and-memorial-of-st-john-de-brebeuf-and-st-isaac-jogues-priests-and-martyrs-and-st-paul-of-the-cross-priest-gospel-reading/

Second Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/17/sunday-19-october-2014-29th-sunday-of-ordinary-time-mission-sunday-and-memorial-of-st-john-de-brebeuf-and-st-isaac-jogues-priests-and-martyrs-and-st-paul-of-the-cross-priest-second-reading/

First Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/17/sunday-19-october-2014-29th-sunday-of-ordinary-time-mission-sunday-and-memorial-of-st-john-de-brebeuf-and-st-isaac-jogues-priests-and-martyrs-and-st-paul-of-the-cross-priest-first-reading/

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Saturday, 18 October 2014 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 144 : 10-11, 12-13ab, 17-18

All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o Lord, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your power.

That all may know of Your mighty deeds, Your reign and its glorious splendour. Your reign is from age to age; Your dominion endures from generation to generation.

Righteous is the Lord in all His ways, His mercy shows in all His deeds. He is near those who call on Him, who call trustfully upon His Name.

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Thursday, 16 October 2014 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hedwig, Religious and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious and Virgins)

Luke 11 : 47-54

At that time, Jesus said, “A curse is on you, for you build monuments to the prophets your ancestors killed. So you approve and agree with what your ancestors did. Is it not so? They got rid of the prophets, and you build monuments to them!”

“For that reason the Wisdom of God also said : I will send prophets and Apostles and this people will kill and persecute some of them. But the present generation will have to answer for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, the people of this time will have to answer for them all.”

“A curse is on you, teachers of the Law, for you have taken the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering.”

As Jesus left that place, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to harass Him, asking Him endless questions, setting traps to catch Him in something He might say.

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(Usus Antiquior) Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 12 October 2014 : Homily and Scripture Reflections

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we come together to celebrate the love of God and to listen to His words as written and recorded in the Holy Scriptures. And St. Paul in his letter to the Church and the faithful in Corinth praised the people of God for their faith in God, and how the Lord Jesus affirmed the faith of all those who believed in Him, so that all of them will be justified at the end of time and not perish.

And in the Gospel, we heard about the healing of the paralytic man, that is a man who cannot move or walk due to the paralysis of the body, and Jesus healed him to show His power and authority over all things, all sins and diseases, both those of the body and those of the soul. Yes, that is why Jesus came into the world, to show the power of God by the healing of the sick, but more than just the body, as more important is the healing of the soul.

Jesus is the Lord, the God of all creations. One and only God, not created but existing and with the Father before all ages and before the beginning of the reckoning of time, and before creation. He was with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as a trinity of Godhead, Three separate and equal brings, but one in nature. This is our faith and this is what we believe in, in the Most Holy Trinity, Three Godhead but One in perfect unity of love, the One True God, whom the people of Israel also believed in.

And thus, He who is the Word of God, who created heaven and earth and all the creatures and creations in them, was willing to come down upon us, to be with us and to walk among us, taking in humility our humble human form, not that of a king but the lowly Son of a carpenter of Nazareth, that through Him, what God had planned for the salvation of mankind might proceed and be fulfilled completely.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we know that men often fall sick, suffering from the disease of the body. We know now of many diseases, both those that are contagious and non-contagious. We know of the recent outbreak of Ebola virus in Africa, of which many thousands have died, and many thousands more suffered from the disease. And we know how many millions are affected by dengue fever, malaria, polio, smallpox and many other diseases, which many of these cause not just suffering and pain, but eventually even death.

And death comes especially when the disease is left untreated, either because the sufferers are unable to afford the fees needed to cure their respective illnesses, or that the disease itself has yet to be curable, namely no cure has yet to be found. Some disease like HIV, diabetes, cancer and others have not yet been curable, and hence what doctors can do, is mostly to reduce the suffering, or in the case of cancer, that is to excise and cut out the cancerous cells to remove them from the body, or to use chemicals to kill and destroy them.

But all these bodily diseases, illnesses and afflictions pale in comparison to the disease of our heart and soul, namely sin. Sin is indeed a disease, since it attacks us in the depth of our own beings, and not just our soul and heart can be affected, but even our body, for the body obeys the will of our heart and soul. And if sin corrupts our heart and soul, our body will likely also be corrupted by the same sin.

And sin is more dangerous and harmful than the effects of the bodily diseases that I mentioned earlier on. It does not mean that those bodily diseases are trivial, but considering their seriousness and the sufferings they can inflict on us, then we should be even more aware of the kind of harm which sin can cause to us. Remember that Jesus said, that we do not need to fear those that can bring about the destruction of the body, but we ought to worry indeed, those that can bring about the destruction of the soul.

One of the intentions of Jesus is indeed that, we should not fear the devil and his agents. We have seen how scary and destructive they may seem to look, but they have no power over us. They may strike at our body, but they cannot harm our soul. The One who can bring about the destruction of our soul is indeed God Himself, the Lord and Master of all, who has the authority over all things. We know of the Last Judgment, and how the righteous will be separated from the wicked, and while the righteous will enjoy the fruits of God’s promise and love, the wicked will suffer for eternity. What will they suffer for? For their sins indeed!

Yes, so we need to indeed be wary of sin, and how it can bring about our destruction, and how it can harm us both in this life, and the life that is to come. That is why our Lord Jesus is the One with the power and authority to forgive sins. He is the One with the power to heal us from all of our afflictions, body and soul. That is why He rebuked the Pharisees when they doubted His ability to forgive sins, and even accused Him of blasphemy.

Why so? This is because they failed to recognise Christ, when it was so clear that the prophets from all ages had spoken about the Messiah who was to come. And in Jesus all of their prophecies, and all the promises of God were fulfilled. He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, and all who believe in Him will gain life eternal, and total liberation from the sins that have chained us mankind to death.

That marked the difference between the paralytic man and the Pharisees. Both of them were afflicted, with sin and darkness in their hearts. But the paralytic man listened to the Lord and allowed Him to work His wonders in him, healing him from all of His afflictions. Thus, if we follow the Lord and remain completely faithful to Him, we will gain healing through Him and be made justified through our faith, and thus eligible of eternal life.

On the other hand, if we act like the Pharisees, thinking that we are perfectly alright and have no need for healing, then the pride, greed, arrogance and wickedness in our hearts, just as they were in the hearts of the Pharisees and the scribes will be our undoing. Is this what we want for ourselves? Certainly not. Therefore, it is imperative that we take heed of what our Lord Jesus had done and what He had taught and shown us through our Faith and through the Scriptures.

May Almighty God therefore guide us, heal us from our afflictions, empower us, and grant us strength, as well as humility, so that we may have the courage and will to ask Him humbly to heal us and to make us whole again, that we sinners, filled with the sins of our ancestors and the sins of our own daily lives, may be made pure like snow, white and pure as a diamond, and be cleansed from all the diseases of our body and soul. That in the end, after excising all that is evil from our beings, and after decisively rebuking Satan, we are precious and worthy, and are welcome into the eternal life God had prepared for us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 11 October 2014 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady and Popes)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are presented with the message of the Lord, through the Holy Scriptures and the Gospels, on the nature of our faith and salvation, and how we can attain that salvation through what we are doing in this life, not just based on any race or other passive benefits or factors, but through the commitment of actions that make our faith truly alive in God.

In the first reading today, St. Paul in his letter to the faithful and the Church in Galatia showed how while in the past, God revealed His Law to His people to guide them and prevent them from going astray from the path towards salvation, but the coming of Christ, the Messiah and Saviour of all, gave mankind a new focus of their faith and devotion. For God Himself had come down upon us, in our humble form, to save us from our fate that was death and oblivion.

There was also to be no more division and prejudice, or any difference in treatment between those in the society, based on either race or birth, based no longer on either status or wealth or possessions. What matters is truly whether one believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, and if one believes, and lives according to that faith which they have, then they are guaranteed salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord.

That was because, the Jews, who were descendants of Abraham, the faithful servant of God, with whom He had made His covenant with, were proud and prejudiced against their neighbours, thinking that as the heirs and sons of Abraham, they alone deserved salvation, and the others, the Gentiles, namely the Greeks, the Samaritans, Romans, Arabs, Canaanites, and others whom they considered as pagans and barbarians deserved eternal damnation.

Yet, Jesus made it clear in the Gospel, that blessing is upon those who follow the will of God, who walk in His ways, and who practice their faith in the real life, showing that their faith is truly real, concrete and dynamic. Yes, not the dead and stagnant faith shown by lack of action, by mere lip service of faith, and not by prejudicing against others or condemning others or glorifying oneself thinking that one is worthy of salvation, while others do not.

Therefore, today we are all called to reflect on our own lives, whether in all things we do, we have been truly faithful to the Lord, not just by mere faith or words, but also through actions founded in faith, filled with hope, and blessed and graced by love. This is what is necessary for us to attain our salvation, and blessed we are indeed if we listen to Jesus and what He had said, instead of following our own desires and wants.

Today, we celebrate together with the whole Universal Church, the feast of Pope St. John XXIII, the successor of St. Peter the Apostle, and one of the great and holy Popes of the twentieth century after the birth of Christ. Pope St. John XXIII, who was also called the ‘Good Pope’, was chiefly remembered for his role in convoking and gathering the latest Ecumenical Council of the Holy Roman Church, that is the Second Vatican Council, which lasted from 1962 to 1965, but in fact, his holiness stemmed not just from that act, but also from the actions which he had taken for the entire course of his life.

The life and examples of Pope St. John XXIII, the Good Pope, il Papa Buono, can be an inspiration for us all, as ever since he was born of a poor peasant family in the village and commune of Sotto il Monte, in the province of Bergamo in northern Italy as Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, he had led a very faithful and devoted life to God. He was poor, just as his family was poor, but together they as a family lovingly devoted themselves to God.

At a certain moment in his youth, the young Angelo encountered experience in faith, by those whom he met, including his uncle, which encouraged him to consider giving himself to the service of God. As his family was poor, and peasant youths were considered important assets to help out in work, his parents were reluctant to let him to go and join the seminary.

Nevertheless, in the end, God had His way, and Angelo managed to join the seminary, studying intently and eventually was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Bergamo. He eventually became the secretary of the local ordinary, Bishop Radini-Tedeschi, who was a relatively obscure individual compared to his later famous protege, but the one who had great influence on Angelo and his later great works.

Bishop Radini-Tedeschi encountered a great workers and union strike in accordance to the poor living conditions and treatment of workers by the government of that era, in the early twentieth century, and Bishop Radini-Tedeschi faithfully and tenderly exercised his works as the shepherd of his flock, calling for restraint and restoration of order while calling for reforms and great improvement in the treatment of workers. He even donated his own personal wealth to help the poor workers made their ends meet.

All these inspired the young Angelo Roncalli, the later Pope St. John XXIII, as he later was made Archbishop and appointed as the Apostolic Delegate to Bulgaria, and later to Greece and Turkey. During his diplomatic missions in the service of the Church, Archbishop Roncalli did many great works, establishing links and friendship with the separated brethren of faith in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and during his mission in Greece and Turkey, even saved many Jews from the actions of the German NAZI who was bent on annihilating them as a race in the holocaust.

In his later mission as the Apostolic Nuncio to France, Archbishop Roncalli continued to do many good works, establishing links and relationship with the French government, including dealing with the difficult leader of France, Charles de Gaulle, who wanted to reduce the influence of the Church of Rome in the affairs of the Church in France.

And eventually, as the Patriarch of Venice and a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Cardinal Angelo Roncalli continued to exercise the good works which he had done earlier in his earlier posts and ministries, and which eventually he continued when he was elected Pope in 1958 to succeed the great Pope Pius XII, the Pastor Angelicus, or the Angelic Pope.

Pope St. John XXIII continued to lead the Church faithfully, and he was particularly concerned with the restoration of relations with the Eastern Church, as he had experienced earlier during his time in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, in the relationships he had made with the prelates and faithful of the Eastern Church at the time. And then he was also concerned about the state of the Church, and the need for a continuation of the unfinished works of the First Vatican Council, which was prematurely ended due to the events at that time.

Thus, Pope St. John XXIII convoked the gathering of the Second Vatican Council, which commenced in 1962, and which sessions was started and opened by the Pope himself, which meeting was to continue until 1965, and concluded by Pope Paul VI, his successor as Pope St. John XXIII passed away in 1963, before the conclusion of the Ecumenical Council which he had initiated.

Pope St. John XXIII also was renowned for his role in helping to reduce tension between the superpowers, namely the United States of America and the Soviet Union, which almost ended up in a major war, during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. One of the last major acts of Pope St. John XXIII was the peace which he helped broker between the two sides, and which was the major reason behind the Papal encyclical he released in 1963, the famous Pacem in Terris, or ‘Peace on earth’.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as I have mentioned, that the actions of Pope St. John XXIII are examples to all of us, and through them, we should also be inspired to follow in his footsteps, that our faith may grow stronger and that in our devotion, we may be found justified in our faith by the Lord our God. Remember, brethren, that we have to have a living faith in us, so that our faith will not be just empty, but be real and concrete.

May Almighty God, who sees the faith and commitment which Pope St. John XXIII, also see the faith that is in us, and therefore may grant us the inheritance and reward which He promised us through Jesus Christ His Son. May we all come ever closer to His loving embrace, seeking His mercy and be made righteous once again. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 10 October 2014 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are given a plain, clear and stern warning, that we have a clear choice in life, whether we choose to obey the Lord and His will and walk in His ways, or we can choose to walk in the ways of this world, following the whim of our desires and wants in life, and thus we gain the enjoyment of this worldly life, but we lose out in the life of the world to come.

Those who are not righteous and who allow themselves to be taken over by the lies of Satan will perish, and the curse of sin will be with them. They will not have any part in the inheritance of the Lord, the promise of eternal life and happiness which He had revealed through Jesus and sealed through the loving sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. And all who believe in Him will be saved.

That is because, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we have fallen into sin and evil ever since the very first time when we disobeyed the Lord, and through that we have lost our right to receive the inheritance which God had promised mankind. Men were not made to suffer the consequences of sin and suffer death and pain. Men were destined for happiness as the greatest and most beloved of God’s creations, but instead, in the free will which He had given us, we chose to pick the temporary pleasures of the flesh rather than the eternal pleasure of the soul.

But God did not give up on us, for He is indeed our loving Father and Creator, who would not suffer to see us fall into eternal damnation with the devil who had brought us to our downfall. Instead, He gave us a new opportunity through the covenant which He had made with Abraham, our father in faith and the father of many nations. The faith and devotion which he showed in life had gained justification and righteousness for him and those who are his descendants.

However, being descendants of Abraham by virtue of birth does not guarantee us salvation, as Jesus once rightly said to the people of Israel who were defiant against Him, that even God could raise the children of Abraham from mere rocks, when they boasted of their status and their supposed privilege as the children of Abraham. That was because while they claimed to be children of Abraham by birth, their actions suggested otherwise. Abraham himself would be ashamed to have them as his descendants!

As the Holy Scriptures had mentioned, that all of us mankind who have done God’s will and obeyed Him in the things which He had asked from us, even though we may not be counted among the tribes of Israel, but if we have done as God had commanded us, just as Abraham had done, then we deserve and are indeed counted together among the children of Abraham, and hence we will also deserve the inheritance promised by God to us.

God also renewed the covenant which He had first established with Abraham, after his descendants reneged on their part of the covenant due to their unfaithfulness, and in order to fulfill the promise made to men at the beginning of time, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and God, as our Saviour. Christ became the hope to all who remain faithful in the Lord and reject the ways of Satan.

For Jesus Christ followed the will of God His Father perfectly, and obeyed even until suffering death, for the sake of all of us mankind. That while the old Adam and the descendants of Abraham disobeyed God and spurned His love, the new Adam, that is Christ, is perfect in obedience and love for God, so that through Him mankind is made well again, and worthy of the inheritance promised to them, because Christ had taken flesh, and the Word was made Man.

Nevertheless, as we can see in the Gospel, there are always dissenters who refused to believe in the truth of Christ and they preferred to follow the whims of their flawed humanity, and preferred to be lead by the lies and comforts promised by Satan, just as their ancestors had done before. This was what happened, when the Israelites refused to believe in the miracles of Jesus, accusing Him of casting out demons by the power of demons because in their hardened heart, they failed to see Christ as He was.

Thus, brothers and sisters, the readings of this day serve as a stern reminder to all of us, that we should keep all of our ways within what the Lord had instructed us, and we should not allow ourselves to be bought off by the tricks and the lies of Satan, who will tirelessly indeed continue his assaults on us, to wrench us away from the safety and salvation in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

If we stay faithful, and do all that is good and righteous, then we will be counted among the children of Abraham, and the Lord who had established His new covenant with us, by the shedding of His Blood on the cross, will make us inheritors of our promised rewards. However, if we do not remain faithful and turn our back on Him, then He will also turn His back against us, and we will be cast away from His presence into eternal damnation.

Lastly, Jesus our Lord also reminded us of a very important fact, when the people accused Him of using devil to fight against other devils. He pointed out how a house will not be able to remain standing if it is divided against each other. Thus, if all of us the children of God are not able to remain united, either because of hatred, jealousy, prejudice, arrogance or many other lies and evils Satan planted in our hearts, then we are in great danger to succumb to the assaults of Satan against the people of God.

Thus, let us today renew our commitments to the Lord, that we will be truly faithful to Him, and that we will work together as one whole community of the Church, to resist together and rebuke Satan together as one. May Almighty God guard us always, protect us from the evil one, and awaken in us the faith of our father in faith, Abraham, His faithful servant, that we may all partake fully in the inheritance promised to us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 8 October 2014 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard in the Scriptures, in the first reading, in the letter which St. Paul addressed to the Church in Galatia, on the conflict which existed even among the Apostles, and of the good works which they had performed among the people of God, teaching and spreading the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ.

However, indeed, the Apostles themselves were still human, although they had indeed been blessed and inspired by the Holy Spirit which they had received together at the day of the Pentecost, and which they spread to those chosen to be Apostles and leaders by the laying on of the hand. The Holy Spirit strengthened and guided them in their actions, but they were still humans after all, even that of St. Paul.

It was human nature for them to feel fear and insecurity, which sometimes may lay in the way of the good works of the Lord, as St. Paul put it, in how Peter, the chief of the Apostles acted in such a way to the people of God, to those among the faithful who did not belong to the Jewish race, in a prejudiced and biased manner, to please those who came from Jerusalem.

It is in our human nature to think first about our own self-preservation and for our own safety and benefits first before thinking about others. We are by nature selfish and proud of ourselves, which if we can see, even St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians espoused this, in his manner to establish how his own actions compared to that of Peter was righteous and just.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to be in constant touch with our Lord and God, so that we may always be reminded our own frailties and insecurities, and also reminded of what God has in stock for us, and as well as the nature of our God, that is mercy and love. He is loving just as He is forgiving, and to all those who walk in His ways, He would grant them much grace and blessings. He provides for us all in all things, so that we really have no need to worry or fear.

And today Jesus showed us in the Gospel, how to pray to the Lord, with proper disposition and attitude, which will definitely bring spiritual goodness to our hearts, minds and souls. We may think that we know how to pray, and we may think that we do not need to be coached and taught on how to do so, but that is where we are again very, very wrong.

If we notice, many of us when we pray, we end up in creating a litany of requests and demands, asking God to fulfill and heed to our wishes and wants. As a result, our prayers became insincere, and what ought to be a communication and loving contact between us and our Father in heaven, who loves us and cares for us, end up being like a spoilt child crying for demands to be fulfilled by his parents.

That is why, the Lord’s Prayer, Pater Noster, the prayer which Jesus taught His disciples is the perfect prayer, which establishes between us the crucial link with God our Father, beginning by extolling His greatness and holiness, as well as showing our perfect and complete obedience to His will and graces, which He as the Lord of all heaven and earth, has right to justify all that He has planned for us.

And instead of boasting of our achievements and demanding from Him what we want to have in life, we should rather give thanks to Him for His provision in our lives, that in our daily lives, we have enough to live for ourselves, and if we do not have enough, that He moved the hearts of those around us to help us make ends meet in this life, just as He moved those with excess to generously give part of what they have more.

And ultimately, that we seek God’s mercy for the sins and wrongs we have committed in the course of our lives. Our days do not pass without us committing sins and unworthy things, and no matter how small they are, they bar us from proceeding forward to be closer to God. And we have committed sins and cause injury, both physical and mental, to our brethren around us, just as they have done the same unto us.

If we persist in our hatred and unwillingness to forgive one another, this will merely lead to more and more pain and suffering among us, which will lead to even more sin and darkness in our lives, that will end up separating us further and further from the love of God and bring us ever closer to the brink of damnation. Thus, it is beautiful and wonderful indeed if we can truly forgive one another, that is to forgive each other the sins and mistakes.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, we who are all children of God, the members of His Church, we must all stand together as one. Do not let our ego and Satan break our unity and strength. Let us all forgive one another when we committed any wrongs or mistakes, and let us all renew our faith and commitment to the Lord, by spending precious time with Him, in deep and genuine prayer, not for our own needs and desires, but for our spiritual growth and salvation in God.

May Almighty God, our Father who is in heaven, forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven others who have sinned against us, and may He never cease to love us and grant us His daily blessings. God be with us all. Amen.