Divine Love

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Thursday, 6 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings and the saints we commemorate today match very nicely, in that today, we talk about mission, and about spreading the Good News of the Lord, in evangelisation and mission. Jesus sent His disciples to many places, to bring forth the fruits of the Holy Spirit in many through their works.

And today we commemorate the feast of St. Paul Miki and his companions, the martyrs of Japan, who lived during the late Sengoku era Japan, when the earlier tolerant and welcoming attitude of the Japanese turned into one of open hostility and persecution, not unlike the persecutions of Christians during the Roman Empire.

And much like those saints and martyrs who died during the Roman persecutions, they were tortured, punished, and forced to reject their faith and embrace the pagan faith of their oppressors. Some of them relented and turned their back on the Lord, but many kept strong their faith in God, and did not give up the faith.

The example of St. Paul Miki and his companions showed us the reality of serving the Lord, particularly those who had chosen to dedicate themselves to a life of mission work, by becoming His priests and missionaries, all over the world, spreading the Good News via various means to different groups of people. And this reality is still true, even to this day.

They have no need to fear, because God Himself will provide for them and protect them. This is what David, the king of Israel, before he died, told his son Solomon, who would succeed him as king. Those who keep God’s commandments and keep their faith in God, shall have great rewards, and as Jesus and His disciples had taught us, that these rewards not necessarily mean a worldly reward, because an even greater reward awaits us in heaven.

Being a follower of Christ almost always means to be in constant odds with the ways of the world, simply because the world does not recognise the Lord, but instead it recognises Satan as its master. That is why being a follower of Christ often means to be rejected by the world, to be an outcast, and at the times of persecutions in the past, and even in the present, many had to brave death to defend their faith in God.

The world which does not know Christ, does not know us. But our Lord knows us and He loves us all equally. He knows us all by name, and He knows all about us. And He cares about all mankind, even those who had done evil things and even those who had persecuted His chosen ones and His faithful. He wants all to be reunited to Him, particularly those who are deepest in darkness and those who are far from His salvation.

Our Lord had offered us salvation in Jesus, His Son, through His own death and resurrection, that all who heard of Him and believe in Him, are promised the promise of eternal life and redemption in Jesus, gaining for eternity the glory God had intended for mankind since the beginning of time. That was what the martyrs gained for their constant and undying faith for the Lord. In death, they received the glory of heaven as saints of the Lord.

St. Paul Miki was born in Japan in Nagasaki, and he was converted to the faith by the missionaries of the faith, who introduced the faith to Japan, by their hard work and preaching. St. Paul Miki himself followed suit and joined the Jesuit order, preaching about the faith to many of his fellow countrymen.

At first, the faith was welcomed in Japan by the local rulers, but with ulterior motive of gaining the European technologies such as guns and other weaponries in exchange for tolerance of the faith. Some of those local lords even converted to the faith, some did it genuinely. However all this changed after a warlord named Hideyoshi Toyotomi managed to reunite Japan under his rule.

The warlord was always suspicious of the faith, and the reunion of the country under his rule gave him the excuse to persecute the faithful. Many Christians including St. Paul Miki and his many fellow faithful were arrested and tortured under threat of death to recant their faith. But they remained faithful and preferred death to apostasy.

He and his fellow companions were forced to march on foot from Kyoto the capital of Japan at that time to Nagasaki, a journey of almost a thousand kilometres, and they did so while praising the Lord and singing the hymn Te Deum. They were then crucified and martyred in Nagasaki, the centre of the faith in Japan at the time. Intended by the enemies of the faith as an example, they instead served as an inspiration to the faithful both in Japan and abroad.

Yes, brethren, we too should be inspired by their tale, and what they had to go through, and their perseverance and persistence for the sake of the faith in God. We must not let their sacrifice and perseverance to go to waste, brethren. Tell of this among many, and tell of their faith to all peoples, that they too may be inspired as we are inspired by them.

And let us seek to be part of God’s mission, which He indeed entrusted to us, that is to bring His Good News to all nations, and to bring all peoples to Him. Let us continue the good works of St. Paul Miki and his companions, and let us all keep our faith in our Lord alive and strong! St. Paul Miki and companions pray for us all! Amen.

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Wednesday, 5 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Prophets are despised in their own country and were not well accepted at the place of their birth. That was the reality that Jesus brought up in front of His very own neighbours and fellow countrymen in the Gospel reading today. Jesus Himself was doubted and rejected by the people of His hometown, the small village of Nazareth.

Why so? That is because we mankind, in our own distorted way of perceiving the world around us, including that of our friends and relatives, our fellow men, we tend to focus on things of the world, in the glory and power of the world, and adhere to the many prejudices and preconceptions that existed in the world.

The reality of life in the time of Jesus, just as it was before that and after that, even until this day, was indeed harsh. The poor has nothing and suffered a lot under the rich and the powerful, who had everything they need and want. The rich oppressed the poor and they showcased their power with brilliant displays of wealth and affluence.

This created the mentality and prejudices among the people, especially one who was accustomed to a very hierarchical societal nature. The society of Israel, even though distinctions between peoples were not as severe as some other cultures, such as the caste system in India among others, was still quite bad. The priests and the kings and the lords were at the top of the society, respected and feared for their power, while the poor peasants lay at the bottom of that same hierarchy.

The prophets and the Messiah were imagined by the people of Israel as people of great power and wisdom, as well as learning, which was well out of the league of the poor, who could barely even afford to have a comfortable and decent living. Therefore, that is why, because in reality, many of the prophets were people called by God to live a completely devoted life to God, and abandoning all privileges, they were often poor.

In the mind of the people, those who lived with the prophets, coming from the same village, town, or neighbourhood as the prophets, those people cannot be a genuine prophet of the Lord. Simply because they assume that they know who these prophets were! Yes, such was human arrogance and assumption! The same therefore also happened to Jesus as He preached to His own neighbours in Nazareth.

They would not believe in Jesus because they always had thought of Him as a mere carpenter and a carpenter’s Son, that is the Son of Joseph the carpenter, His foster-father. A carpenter, even though a respected job for its hard work, but a carpenter is often considered low in the society’s eyes, and certainly not determined for greatness.

This lens of unbelief prevented the people from knowing and understanding the truth that was in Jesus, that He is the Messiah, the very Divine incarnate, who had come to bring salvation and new hope to all of them. If only they would believe in Jesus, they would have received salvation directly from the Lord. Instead, they cast Him out of His own village and rejected Him.

In our first reading, the scenario is a bit different, but it is in the same spirit. King David of Israel, having his reign made secure by the Lord after numerous insurrections, civil wars, and conflicts, had been lax in his faith, and through the veil of lens of power and human glory, king David did things despicable in the eyes of God.

It might seem a trivial issue that David asked his officer Joab to conduct a census of the people of Israel and Judah, seeing how many people capable of being drafted to his ever growing kingdom and army. Yet, in this precisely, David, the faithful servant of God, was taken in by the allures of Satan, who deceived mankind with false promises of glory and power.

In doing what he had done, David seemed to be unsatisfied with all the glories that God had given him. In counting the number of his subjects, it seemed that David desired even more power and glory, forgetting that all of that had been possible because of the Lord and His grace, which He had poured generously upon David.

That was why, God taught David a lesson through His punishment, to remind him of that all of his glory came from the Lord and he could never do or gain anything without God his Lord. We too should learn the same lesson, that we should not depend solely on our human power or wisdom, but instead seek to follow and trust the Lord, from whom all goodness came.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of St. Agatha, also known as St. Agatha of Sicily. St. Agatha was very dedicated to the Lord and was very faithful, despite temptations of the world and attempts to turn her to the debauched ways of the pagan world of her time.

St. Agatha devoted herself to God and vowed to maintain her virginity. A Roman centurion was allured by St. Agatha’s beauty and tried many times in vain to persuade her to be his bride. Angered by her rejection, the centurion used the fact that St. Agatha was a Christian against her, and in the midst of a brutal persecution against the faith, she was arrested and tortured.

St. Agatha endured the persecutions and the sufferings that she had to go through in prison, and she even went through a brutal removal of her breasts as one of her executioners’ punishments. She remained true to her faith to the end and did not walk away from the way of the Lord. St. Agatha and her zealous faith showed us all, that we have to put our trust in God, and place our faith in Him, for in Him, we secure our heavenly inheritance.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today therefore seek to love God ever more, and dedicate ourselves in faith to Him and to His ways. Let us always walk faithfully in His ways, and following what He had taught us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. May our Lord continue to be with us and guide us, as we walk through this darkened world, that we may not succumb to temptations of the evil one, but remain ever faithful to Him to the end. Amen.

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Wednesday, 5 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

2 Samuel 24 : 2, 9-17

The king said to Joab and the commanders of the army who were with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and count the people that I may know how many they are.”

Joab gave the total count of the people to the king : eight hundred thousand sword-wielding warriors in Israel and five hundred thousand men in Judah. But after he had the people counted, David felt remorse and said to YHVH, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done, but now, o YHVH, I ask You to forgive my sin for I have acted foolishly.”

The following day, before David awoke, YHVH’s word had come to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, “Go, and give David this message : I offer you three things and I will let one of them befall you according to your own choice.”

So Gad went to David and asked him, “Do you want three years of famine in your land? Or do you want to be pursued for three months by your foes while you flee from them? Or do you want three days’ pestilence in your land? Now, think and decide what answer I shall give Him who sent me.”

David answered Gad, “I am greatly troubled. Let me fall into the hands of YHVH whose mercy is abundant; but let me not fall into human hands.” So YHVH sent a pestilence on Israel from morning until the appointed time, causing the death of seventy thousand men from Dan to Beersheba.

When the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, YHVH would punish no more and said to the angel who was causing destruction among the people, “It is enough, hold back your hand.” The angel of YHVH was already at the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite.

When David saw the angel striking the people, he spoke to YHVH and said, “I have sinned and acted wickedly, but these are only the sheep; what have they done? Let Your hand strike me and my father’s family.”

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Tuesday, 4 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today in the readings that we heard, we see the nature of love that is in the family. In the first reading we heard how Absalom, the rebel son of king David met his end at the end of his rebellion, and his father David grieved greatly for his death, indeed the sorrow of a father losing his son to death.

And in the Gospel, we heard how the temple official, Jairus, asked Jesus to heal his daughter for she was about to die, due to her grievous illness. And Jesus was moved with compassion and love for the faith the father had in Him, and He resurrected the dead daughter of Jairus when she had died before Jesus reached her home. And the family was once again reunited in happiness and love.

And not to forget the woman with the hemorrhage issue, whom the Lord healed by the touch of the woman’s hand on fringe of the cloak of Jesus. Her faith in God made her whole again, and her trust in the love of God who is Father made her healed from her afflictions. The woman trusted in Jesus and her faith was made an example to everyone.

Family is a unit in our society, which is often under attack these days. The sanctity of the family had often been under attack these days, by the forces of evil in this world, who like to see the family unit disbanded and destroyed. And yet family remained as one of the greatest bastion of the faith and love, in which many people were taught for the first time of the faith in God and how to love just as God has loved us.

And I am very sure that all of us can remember our own families and each members in the family, how each members has his or her own roles in the family. One is the father or the husband, who protects the family and provides for the family by working hard. The other is the mother, or the wife, who sometimes may also work, but whose primary role is in the upbringing of the family, and the children born out of the holy union of marriage.

And of course, there are the children, the gift of God’s love to us. Indeed, children are gifts of love, and therefore should not be taken lightly. Caring and loving the children are the primary duties of the family members, the father and the mother in particular. They are supposed to love one another and show the example of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in all events.

Losing a family member is not an easy thing to endure. Many of us would have endured this one way or another in our respective lives. How our loved ones no longer physically remain with us, as death claimed them and they passed on to the afterlife. And it is often only when we have lost someone that we realise how precious that someone is for us, and only when it is already too late.

David had had many wives, and he had many children. It was common for kings of his time, and even many up to recent days, especially in the Eastern cultures to have many wives and even concubines, and scores of children. The more wives and children they have, be it the sons and daughters of their wives or concubines, the more prestigious and powerful the kings would be regarded.

In such families, including that of David, there were often no love. Much of the interactions in fact were based on rivalry and hatred for each other, as well as based on greed and human desire for power and glory. Each sons would fight with each other for power and influence, and often even would try to claim the kingdom for himself. And that was exactly what had happened to Absalom.

Family not based on love will likely not survive long, and sadly, that is what afflicts many families today. Families often have become mere formality and even at times, considered as obstacles and hindrances by many. That was also why there are so many divorces and abortions of innocent babies, and the numbers are increasing without slowing down.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why Jesus came to this world, in order to teach us of the importance of love, including that of family love. His works and miracles bring happiness and joy to the people, and new hope to those who were afflicted with illness or sorrow. And God is our Father, and He sees us as His children. And Jesus wanted to show us, how much God our Father has loved us.

Indeed, so great is His love that He sent us Jesus, His Son, that through Him, and His death no less, we may have new life in Him. To those who had been sealed with the waters of baptism, we have been made the children of God. God is our Father and we are His children. And if we, as His children, remain faithful and continue to follow His ways, as children ought to obey their parents, then we will have no need to worry at all.

If we make mistakes, do not be scared or afraid. We should be brave to step forward as the woman had done, after she was cured from her bleeding issue. Even though she certainly trembled from head to the feet when she made that confession, but the Lord saw her faith and reward her.

If we make mistakes, then God our Father will chastise us. But He will not destroy us or cast us aside, because just as all fathers, He still loves us very much no matter what, unless if we continue to defy and disobey Him. Listen to our God, our Father, and pay attention to His calling and His guide. Follow Him and walk always in His ways.

May our Lord Jesus Christ continue to bless us, that we may love God our Father ever more, imitating the love that Jesus Himself had shown us, His people and His children. Keep us in Your favour, o Lord, and remind us when we err and walk away from Your path, o God our Father. Amen.

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Monday, 3 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, and St. Ansgar, Bishop (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Bishops)

Psalm 3 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7

O Lord, how great in number are my foes! How numerous are they who rise against me! How many are they who say of my soul : “There is no help for him in God!”

But You are my Shield, o Lord, my Glory, You lift up my head. Aloud I cry to the Lord, and from His holy hill He answers me.

If I lie down to sleep, again I awake, for the Lord supports me; no fear of the thousands standing against me.

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Sunday, 2 February 2014 : Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today is a great feast day which marks the official end of the Christmas season, forty days after Christmas, when we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, when Jesus Christ our Lord was presented according to the custom of the laws of Moses, at the Temple, as the firstborn of His family, the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

This feast of the Presentation of the Lord has deep symbolic and real meaning in our faith, because Jesus Christ was indeed special in all things, as the Lord divine incarnate into the flesh as Man. As the One who became one of us and dwell among us, He was destined to become the High Priest of all creation, over all of us mankind.

Yes, as the High Priest He was to be the One in between us and our Lord, Our Father and Creator. The high priests of Israel offered the offering of mankind, the people of God to the Lord, as the mediator and intermediate, that the sins of mankind may be absolved and forgiven. The same too therefore happened with Jesus Christ, who was the High Priest, the One and only High Priest, who offered nothing else but Himself as a perfect offering for the absolution of mankind.

And if the high priests and priests of Israel continued to offer animal sacrifices, in the blood of lambs and goats for the temporal absolution of the people’s sins, Christ as the High Priest offered Himself as the only worthy Lamb of sacrifice, to once and for all liberate mankind from the sins of their ancestors, that through Him mankind may have hope once again in salvation and eternal life.

As the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind for all times and ages, therefore Jesus and His death on the cross marked our liberation from the power and tyranny of sin. Never again would death have unchecked power over us, as we have been given a new hope of life through Jesus. His death and sacrifice justified us and we who accept His sacrifice and recognise Him through baptism receive eternal life and redemption.

Then you may ask, if He was to be the Saviour of the world and the High Priest of all, why then He was presented to the Lord at the Temple? Why was Jesus presented to the Lord as the firstborn Son of Mary? That is because Jesus indeed came to this world not to destroy the Law revealed through Moses, but to make it perfect through God’s love.

As all the people of God offered their firstborn son and consecrated them to YHVH, their Lord and God, so was Jesus offered, both as the firstborn Son of Mary, the Son of Man, and as the Son of God, the Word of God incarnate into flesh. The Presentation event that we are celebrating today showed to the world, in a revelation, who Jesus was, and what He was going to bring into this world, that is salvation.

Simeon the seer had been waiting for long, expecting for the coming of the Messiah in Jesus, and he was indeed fortunate among many prophets and servants of God, that he was given the opportunity to see the salvation of the world even a small, little Baby. Many longed to see the Messiah and His coming, and did not see Him, and Simeon as well as Anna was fortunate among them, not only because they were able to witness the coming of the Messiah, but both of them also became the heralds of the Lord’s coming by revealing Him to the people of God.

They told the people that the Baby being offered to God at the Temple, as frail and fragile and weak He was, Jesus was destined to be the One who was to bring liberation to a world immersed in darkness. He was offered as the unblemished and perfect sacrifice, that would free mankind from their slavery to sin and evil.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is imperative for all of us to take note of this occasion and rejoice for the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God our Father had given us all as the gift for our salvation. He offered Himself to redeem us from our sins, and despite our constant rebellion and disobedience, He wants equally constantly for us to be reunited with Him in faith and love.

Today we also commemorate, fittingly, the Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, that is we pray for the sake of all those who had dedicated and consecrated themselves to the Lord, be it as priests, religious, or consecrated people, who forsook the world and all its goodness, to be with God, and to serve Him and His people.

Just as Jesus had been dedicated to the Lord, to be the Saviour of the world, and the liberator of mankind, therefore, the priests and the religious also dedicated themselves to God their Lord and Master, professing solemnly their faith and dedication to Him, till the end of their lives. They become our intermediary with the Lord, much in the same way as how Jesus, as our High Priest, is the mediator between God and all of us.

The works of our consecrated priests and the other servants of the Lord are heavy and burdensome. They have many challenges and trials to go through daily, especially opposition to their works and rejections to their teachings. Many also do not appreciate their works, and even put themselves in the way of their ministries.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore today, as we recall the Presentation of our Lord Jesus, let us also pray for our priests and religious brothers and sisters, that they may stay faithful and dedicated to the flock and the works they have been entrusted with. May they persevere despite the increasing opposition against their works and persecutions against the faithful in general.

And we too, brothers and sisters in Christ, also have our own roles to play. We are also called by the Lord in baptism, to be the messengers of His Good News. Even though we do not dedicate ourselves as closely as that of our priests and religious, we can also take part in the Lord’s work aimed at the salvation of all mankind. In order to do that, we need to love and love tenderly.

Yes, through our actions and deeds, we can show God’s love to everyone, and make them to understand God’s love for them and so that they may believe in Jesus, in the love He had shown to all of us that He did not even mind to doe a humiliating and painful death on the cross for our lives and salvation. He turned that cross of shame into a triumphant cross of victory.

May the Lord Jesus deepen the faith within our hearts, that we too may commit ourselves, our lives and all our actions, for the sake of our Lord, and out of love for our brothers and sisters who are still separated from God’s love. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 2 February 2014 : Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Hebrews 2 : 14-18

And because all those children share one same nature of flesh and blood, Jesus likewise had to share this nature. This is why His death destroyed the one holding the power of death, that is the devil, and freed those who remained in bondage all their lifetime because of the fear of death.

Jesus came to take by the hand not the angels but the human race. So He had to be like His brothers and sisters in every respect, in order to be the High Priest faithful to God and merciful to them, a priest able to ask pardon and atone for their sins.

Having been tested through suffering, He is able to help those who are tested.

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Saturday, 1 February 2014 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

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

There is nothing to fear, brothers and sisters in Christ, if we have our anchor in the Lord. There is nothing to fear, if we put our trust in God and have Him as our support. That was what Jesus told His disciples, that if they had had faith in Him, a complete faith that is, then they would have no need to fear at all, for God is with them, and protecting them.

We fear because we do not put ourselves completely at the side of the Lord, and the worries and the concerns of this world still occupy part of our hearts and minds. And indeed, as what happened to King David of Israel in the first reading, in continuation to what we heard yesterday, is because of this lack of faith. Not lack of faith in the sense that there is no faith, but because that faith is not complete.

We have faith in God and profess it to Him, but we too are still peoples of this world, and therefore are prone to the corrupting influences of the devil through various means he utilises in this world. Lust, greed, anger, jealousy, hatred, pride, and many others as you can name it, these are the evil influences that remain in our hearts, and these may possess threat to us and our state of grace if we do not have strong and solid faith in God.

They are like those storm and gale winds that blow across the lake, when the disciples of Christ with the Lord were in the boat, shaking them and threatening to sink them. Those storm and gales brought fear in the hearts of men, and if they have no concrete and strong faith in God, they will be swept away. This is much like those who indulge themselves in the pleasures of the world, and failed to resist their corrupting influences.

That was what happened to David, the king of Israel. He was one of the most faithful servants of the Lord and dutifully followed the laws and commandments of God, but this did not mean that he was invulnerable to the same corruptions that threaten us. If anything, the example of David and what he did to Uriah and Bathsheba can be a good lesson for us, that power, influence, lust, greed, and many other worldly things can corrupt, even those who are faithful if we let our guard down, as David did.

From what David had done, we can learn that we all have been made God’s stewards in this world, and to each one of us had been entrusted a certain responsibility, with the power and authority we have been entrusted with. To David, who had been made king, great responsibilities had been placed upon him, and God know the faith that was in David, that he would be able to shoulder them.

But that did not make David to be immune from the same ailment that affects everyone who had been entrusted with power. With power often comes desire and greed, because power does corrupt our hearts and minds. We are also vulnerable to the same afflictions. Power and authority if not based on solid faith in God will open us to the influences of evil spirit, and we will fall into sin.

Nevertheless, as you know, after we fall, we should not continue to lie down in defeat on the ground. Instead, we should rise up again, and walk again in the way of the Lord. If we continue to linger in our fallen state and do not try to rise up again, and if we even prefer to linger in that darkness, then we are truly doomed. David made his mistakes and he erred before the Lord, but he made a conscious effort to repent from his sins and asked the Lord for His forgiveness.

We too should follow David’s example in seeking the Lord with all of his heart, be it in times of happiness, or sorrow, or in regret, as he had done after realising the depth of his sins of adultery and murder before God. And we should do so with genuine faith, and one that is strongly anchored in the Lord our God.

Trust in God and put our faith in Him, and we will certainly be safe. We will meet challenges and tribulations, like the disciples meeting the great storm and gale winds, but as long as the Lord was with them, they would not sink. The same therefore also apply to us, as if we put our complete faith in God, and anchor our lives in Him, then we should not worry, because we will be ever solid and strong against the forces of evil assailing us from all sides.

May the Lord continue to be with us and guide us, bless us with His presence, and affirm within us our faith. May He stand by us as we are being battered by the storm of our lives, that we may remain faithful in Him, and therefore receive in the end the reward for our faith. God bless us all. Amen.

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(Special) Friday, 31 January 2014 : Chinese New Year Day Mass (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 6 : 31-34

Do not worry and say : “What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? or; What shall we wear?” The pagans busy themselves with such things, but Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Set your heart first on the kingdom and justice of God, and all these things will also be given to you.

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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Friday, 31 January 2014 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White (Priests)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we hear today of the sin of David, the faithful and loyal servant of God. Not just any sin, but a great sin, because not only that David committed adultery with the wife of another man, but he also plotted to have the husband of the woman to be killed in battle, tantamount to direct murder of human life.

Today we are shown the vulnerabilities of our human selves, the temptations of the flesh and the attractions of the world, which assail us day after day without end. Even someone as faithful and obedient as David, was after all still a mortal man, with all of the vulnerabilities and inherent problems that expose one to sin and evil that are in this world.

This world offer us many amenities, joy, and goodness, especially in material goods and pleasures. Humanity can be easily swayed to take up the offer of the world and Satan behind it, and from there, grow towards materialism, desire, greed, lust, and many others. That was what David experienced, as the king of Israel.

Being a king or a ruler brought with it many privileges and goodness, and when he saw Bathsheba in that bath, he was tempted, and he failed. The law of God expressly mentioned the forbidden nature of adultery, and if you remember, that the last of God’s commandments would say that we must not covet the things and properties of others around us. This shows us that David, as the Lord’s most upright servant, should have acted in the way that conformed to the faith, and also obedient to the law.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I repeat this proverb once again, because in this case of king David, it is absolutely true. King David is king over Israel, and his words are law. He has the authority and power over all of his servants. But when he found out of the bitter fruits of his adulterous action with Bathsheba, he was gripped with great fear that his deeds would be discovered, and therefore tried to pull Uriah the husband into a fabricated lie likely made by David himself.

When that failed, because of the valiant and unchanging obedience of Uriah to David, the king resolved to plot to kill him, which he succeeded in doing. That made him to sin not just once by that adulterous act, but also to commit another sin of murder. Thus had David sinned before the Lord his God. Nevertheless, unlike Saul before him, and unlike most of us, what David did was truly remarkable. He was genuinely repentant of his sinfulness, and he showed that he was regretful of having committed such sinful acts before God.

God had chosen David to be king over His people Israel, not because David was powerful or mighty, but instead He chose him because of his humility, his good character, and his righteousness. And that was the moment when these characteristics showed up in David, that although he did sin heavily before God, but he showed genuine remorse, and from then on, he resolved not to commit such sins again.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we learn indeed that we all may sin and commit evil things before God, but the most important thing is for us to realise and recognise our sins, and then repent and change our ways, as king David had done. Great sinners are not guaranteed hell as their end, as in fact many great saints had been great sinners.

What differentiates great sinners from great saints is one thing, that is the ability to recognise own sins and then act from it. The saints recognised their weakness and vulnerabilities to sin, and acted upon them, utilising what God has given them, that is the seeds of faith, hope and love in them. They did not fear in showing forth their faith, no matter how small it was, and how great their sins were.

That is in conjunction with what Jesus told His disciples and the people, that even if your faith is as small as a mustard seed, but that is sufficient if you truly utilise that faith, for even a small mustard seed, when grown, will become a large tree and bear fruits. What matters is that if we take concrete steps and actions, so that rather than lingering in our sinfulness, we may come into the light, and through our growing faith, we may bring others too into the light.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. John Bosco, the patron saint of youth. St. John Bosco was a priest who saw the situation in his surroundings about the youths of the time, many of whom were homeless or even without families, orphans and neglected by the society. He felt sad seeing these children running around the cities at risk from harm and misconduct. Hence, St. John Bosco worked with those children and resolved to guide them that they may not fall to evil.

His many works and dedications, and his contributions to the Church was truly great. He also help founded the religious order now known as the Salesians, and his many other contributions made him a well known saint, and one whom many devoted themselves, asking for his intercession. The example of St. John Bosco should inspire us all, that we should also take action, helping one another, especially those with great risk of falling into the darkness.

Let us therefore, inspired by the examples of St. John Bosco and many other saints, let the faith in us to grow strong and shine brightly, as we act to give our help to bring many towards salvation in the Lord. Let us not ignore the plight of our less fortunate brethren, and show the love of God to them, and just at the same time, our faith too will shine forth, and God who sees all, will reward us. Amen.