Doctors of the Church

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Wednesday, 27 May 2020 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we heard the continuation of this week’s discourse on the prayers of St. Paul and the Lord Jesus, as we heard more of what the Apostle prayed and said in the presence the elders and the community of the faithful in Ephesus just before he was about to embark on his last journey to Jerusalem, which eventually would lead to his journey to Rome and martyrdom there. Similarly, in our Gospel we heard the prayer made by the Lord Jesus just before His suffering and Passion.

In our first reading today we heard St. Paul exhorting the elders and the leaders of the Church in Ephesus to be faithful in their calling and ministry, especially as leaders and shepherds of the flock of the faithful people of God. He reminded all of them to be vigilant and to be strong in their faith that they will not end up in the wrong path, or swayed by false teachings, as he predicted very accurately how false teachers and shepherd would come from among them to mislead the faithful.

What St. Paul said at that time was indeed prophetic, as very soon before long, divisions and disagreements would come to divide the Church and caused many to fall into the falsehoods of heresies and wrong teachings. Ephesus, along with many other centres of the early Christian Church in the Eastern Mediterranean would become places from which various heresies and erroneous teachers and teachings propagate, and many people fell into the temptations of these falsehoods.

Take for example, Arianism, one of the most dangerous of the early Christian heresies, as well as Gnosticism in the early centuries, the threat of Monophysitism, among with other much less well-known heresies and aberrant teachings, many of which came from priests and even bishops and elders of the Church who had a different idea and way of thinking from the truth of the Church, and propagated it among their followers, many of whom followed into heresy and caused bitter divisions in the Church.

Many of these heretics and false leaders misled the people because of their pride, their arrogance and personal ambition, their inner desires to gain more of worldly glory and acceptance, which unfortunately led to them having craved even more glory and fame, and hardened their hearts and refusing to listen to reason or truth, and therefore, persisted in their heresy and rebellion against the true faith and against God.

And this is linked to what we then heard in our Gospel passage today, as the Lord Jesus in His prayer to the Father asked Him to keep those whom He had given to Him, and called to salvation. The Lord asked the Father to make them one and keep them one just as they are one and indivisible. This is the famous prayer for unity of the Christian Church, in the words, ‘That they may be One, just as We are One.’ Through this, we can see how the Lord had actually foreseen and knew of the divisions that would come to His Church and flock, and He wanted us all to be reconciled to one another and be united.

Then, how should we then act so as to avoid these divisions, disagreements and conflicts among us? Throughout the ages, we have had many courageous missionaries and people who went out of their way to reach out to the separated brothers and sisters, explaining the truth of the faith and trying to convince them to return to the Holy Mother Church. There were of course also many unsuccessful attempts, and there were even martyrs caused by these unfortunate divisions and conflicts within the Church.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, realising that even in our time and age, there are still many out there who have followed false teachings and heretical Christian thinking, false and wicked ideas, we should embrace our calling to be good bearers of the Lord’s truth to all of them. By our baptism, that is what each and every one of us had been called to. Yet, at the same time, we must also realise that the best way to do this is not through force or coercion, but rather through genuine communication and dialogue, through love, care and compassion.

Essentially, we should do our best that our lives may truly be exemplary and good, filled with obedience to God and the desire to serve Him, to live our lives to the fullest with the guidance from God. And that is how we become examples for one another, to help and guide our path as we walk together in this journey of faith towards the Lord. And perhaps, we should gain inspiration from St. Augustine of Canterbury, a holy saint of God and a devoted missionary whose piety and humility can help us in our path to seek greater relationship with God.

St. Augustine of Canterbury was the renowned saint credited with the restoration of the Christian faith and hierarchy in the lands now known as England, such that the See of Canterbury until today remain as the pre-eminent See of all England. Although Christianity had arrived and been established in the British isles prior to the coming of St. Augustine of Canterbury, but the chaos of the fall of the Roman Empire, invasion by the pagan Anglo-Saxons disrupted much of the Christian communities there.

Therefore, Pope St. Gregory the Great at that time sent St. Augustine, then a prior and monk of a monastery in Rome, to evangelise to the Anglo-Saxons and reestablish Christian hierarchy and communities in England. St. Augustine gradually was able to Christianise the land of England, and more and more people came to be baptised. Of course St. Augustine of Canterbury did not have it easy, as there were many of those who refused to accept the Christian faith and even persecuted missionaries. Yet, he did not let all these dampen his enthusiasm and commitment to serve the Lord and His Church.

St. Augustine of Canterbury was remembered for the great piety he had shown, his courage and fearlessness in the face of opposition and challenges. He dedicated himself to the mission in re-Christianising England, and at the end of his life and ministry, this aim had largely been fulfilled although it did take many more years before the Church was firmly established in the whole community. His courage and dedication should be source of inspiration for us all on how we ought to live up to our Christian faith and calling.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all discern how we are to continue living our lives after we have heard all of these today. God has called us all to follow Him and to put our trust in Him. Let us all follow the good examples set by St. Paul the Apostle, the other Apostles and disciples of the Lord, St. Augustine of Canterbury, all the saints and everyone who have shown us the way to follow God. Let us all get rid from ourselves all the taints of pride and arrogance, all hubris and greed, desire and all the obstacles that had prevented us from being able to commit ourselves fully to the Lord. May the Lord help us and be our guide, in our renewed journey of faith from now on. Amen.

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Wednesday, 27 May 2020 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 17 : 11b-19

At that time, Jesus prayed to God His Father, “Holy Father, keep those You have given Me in Your Name, so that they may be one, as we also are. When I was with them, I kept them safe in Your Name; and not one was lost, except the one who was already lost, and in this, the Scripture was fulfilled. And now I come to You; in the world I speak these things, so that those whom You gave Me, might have joy – all My joy within themselves.”

“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, I do not ask You to remove them from the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.”

“I have sent them into the world as You sent Me into the world; and for their sake, I go to the sacrifice by which I am consecrated, so that they too may be consecrated in truth.”

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Wednesday, 27 May 2020 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 67 : 29-30, 33-35a, 35b-36c

Summon Your power, o God, with the strength You have wielded for us. To Your Temple in Jerusalem, kings will come with gifts.

Sing to God, o kingdoms of the world; sing praises to the Lord, to Him Who rides the ancient heavens, and speaks in the voice of thunder. Proclaim the might of God.

He is great in Israel, powerful in heavens. Blessed be God!

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Wednesday, 27 May 2020 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 20 : 28-38

Keep watch over yourselves, and over the whole flock the Holy Spirit has placed into your care. Shepherd the Church of the Lord that He has won, at the price of His own Blood. I know that, after I leave, ruthless wolves will come among you and not spare the flock. And, from among you, some will arise, corrupting the truth, and inducing the disciples to follow them.

Be on the watch, therefore, remembering that, for three years, night and day, I did not cease to warn everyone, even with tears. Now, I commend you to God, and to His grace-filled word, which is able to make you grow and gain the inheritance that you shall share with all the saints.

I have not looked for anyone’s silver, gold or clothing. You, yourselves, know, that these hands of mine have provided for both my needs and the needs of those who were with me. In every way, I have shown you that by working hard one must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus Himself said, “Happiness lies more in giving than in receiving.”

After this discourse, Paul knelt down with them and prayed. Then, they all began to weep and threw their arms around him and kissed him. They were deeply distressed because he had said that they would never see him again. And they went with him even to the ship.

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Wednesday, 29 April 2020 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are reminded that there will be difficulties, persecutions and challenges in our way as we seek to be faithful Christians and to obey the Lord in all things. We are not going to have it easy if we choose to follow the Lord’s commandments and walk faithfully in His path. Just as mentioned in our first reading today, even from the earliest days of the Church there had been persecutions against the faithful, and martyrdom as shown by St. Stephen and his martyrdom.

We heard of how Saul, the zealous and misguided young Pharisee, attempted to destroy the then still very young and fledging Church, using force and even violence to strike at the followers of Christ and all who were suspected to be Christians, not sparing even the women and children. There had been many sufferings and trials those early Christians had to suffer, and many had to endure prison and even martyrdom because of their steadfast faith in God.

But despite all of these, we must not lose heart just as those Christians remained strong in their faith, as they still committed themselves to the cause of the Lord and His Church even amidst the persecutions, like what St. Philip the Apostle had done, in preaching the Good News of God and performing his ministry even at the height of the persecution from the Jewish authorities and the vengeful but misguided crusade of people like Saul, the future St. Paul in those days when he was still a great enemy of the Church.

Saul has been a great persecutor of the faithful, but later on, God would call him and in turn he repented and became instead a great champion of the Church and the faith. And this is just how we must truly have faith and put our trust in God, for God will surely be with us, and we do not need to worry, for God has His plans for us. If someone who had been so vicious and so dangerous to the Church as Saul could be converted and had such a total change in his life to be a follower of God, then everything is indeed possible for God, although we may have thought that such a thing is impossible.

All the Apostles, the disciples and all those Christians, our very own predecessors have been able to persevere through those difficult moments, through those persecutions and trials because they truly put their trust in the Lord, their Risen and glorious Saviour. In our Gospel passage today, we continue to hear from what yesterday’s Gospel had told us on the discourse of the Bread of Life. Christ referred to Himself as the Bread of Life, to the disgust of some of His own followers who failed to understand what He had meant properly.

Through His gift of the Eucharist to us, the Lord has strengthened us and make us all to share in His Body and Blood, that all of us who partake in His own Most Precious Body and Blood, are united in this Communion with Him, the whole entire Church together, both all of us who are living in the present in this world, and also all those who have gone before us triumphantly, the same Apostles and disciples and all those who had endured martyrdom for their faith, namely the saints and martyrs, as well as all the holy souls in purgatory waiting for their time to enter the glory of Heaven.

All of us share in this same Bread of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ through Whom we have received the assurance of eternal life if we trust Him and have complete faith in Him. He has called us all from the nations and brought us to Him, that through Him we may find our way to the eternal glory with Him in heaven. That is why we must look forward to this and focus our attention on the Lord, our Hope and our Light, even when we may encounter difficulties and challenges in our lives as Christians.

Today, let us also look upon the good examples of our predecessor, St. Catherine of Siena, a great and renowned saint and Doctor of the Church whose life and contributions to the Church are still felt and experienced even to this very day. She was renowned for her many visions and experiences of the faith with the Lord that she had received from when she was as young as five or six years old, and which she would continue to receive through life.

She devoted herself and her whole life to the Lord, and she wrote extensively about her experiences and her visions, as well as treatises about the faith and the Church. She was deeply respected and honoured for her faith and piety, for her great visions and writings, and she was involved even in the resolutions of conflicts that were common at her time, in what is now Italy, over six hundred years ago. Even Popes and Cardinals at that time sought her advice and help for the issues of the Church.

St. Catherine of Siena truly placed her complete faith in the Lord, the Bread of Life, as she committed herself to an almost daily reception of the Holy Eucharist, living with great simplicity and practiced fasting so often that she had to be reminded to take care of herself. Nonetheless, her faith sustained her throughout her life and missions, her contributions and efforts in rejuvenation of the faith and the Church.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to imitate the good examples of St. Catherine of Siena in her faith and dedication to the Lord? Let us all put more of our trust in the Lord, and be more committed in our faith from now on, and appreciate this most wonderful gift He has given us in the Eucharist? By sharing in the Bread of Life, all of us will be strengthened in faith and in our lives, especially important in these days when things seem so bleak and hopeless all around us.

Let us all share our hope in the Lord, and share this joy of having the Bread of Life, the Christ with us, with one another. May the Lord be with us always and may He guide us through our journey, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 29 April 2020 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 6 : 35-40

At that time, Jesus said to the people, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in Me shall never be thirsty. Nevertheless, as I said, you refuse to believe, even when you have seen. Yet all those whom the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me, I shall not turn away. For I have come from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of the One Who sent Me.”

“And the will of Him Who sent Me is that I lose nothing of what He has given Me, but instead that I raise it up on the last day. This is the will of the Father, that whoever sees the Son and believes in Him shall live eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

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Wednesday, 29 April 2020 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 65 : 1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a

Shout with joy to God, all you on earth; sing to the glory of His Name; proclaim His glorious praise. Say to God, “How great are Your deeds!”

All the earth bows down to You, making music, in praise of You, singing in honour of Your Name. Come, and see God’s wonders; His deeds, awesome for humans.

He has turned the sea into dry land, and the river was crossed on foot. Let us, therefore, rejoice in Him. He rules by His might forever.

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Wednesday, 29 April 2020 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 8 : 1b-8

This was the beginning of a great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem. All, except the Apostles, were scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria. Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church. He entered house after house and dragged off men and women, and had them put in jail.

At the same time, those who were scattered went about, preaching the word. Philip went down to a town of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. All the people paid close attention to what Philip said as they listened to him, and saw the miraculous signs that he did. For, in cases of possession, the unclean spirits came out shrieking loudly. Many people who were paralysed or crippled, were healed. So there was great joy in the town.

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Tuesday, 21 April 2020 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Anselm, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard of the salvation which God has bestowed upon us all through Christ, His beloved Son, by which all of us have been delivered from the precipice of destruction and death. That is what we have heard in our readings today, as we learn how we ought to love as Christians, living in grace and filled with the love of Christ in all things, as how the first Christians lived.

In our first reading today we heard from the Acts of the Apostles on the lives of the first Christians, on how they cared for one another, being very generous with their care and love, their sharing of God’s blessings with one another that no one were left out. They lived in the state of a wonderful bliss and grace, filled with the Holy Spirit, as people who have been reborn anew in God through the Spirit, exactly what the Lord had said to Nicodemus during their meeting.

The Lord had told Nicodemus that everyone who believe in Him ought to be reborn again in the Spirit, and this referred to the Baptism that we have all received at the time when we received that Sacrament, whether as infants or as adult converts. And through Baptism, all of us have been made sharers in the Lord’s Passion, suffering, death and resurrection. We have become sharers in His death, as we die to our sins and wickedness united to the Cross of Christ, by which He bore all of our sins and died for us, and then we are united in His resurrection into new life.

Yes, and this is how we enter into this new life and existence in God, a new life filled with love and the grace of God, an existence in the Holy Spirit of God. And we are also reminded how the Lord has also called us to reflect on the salvation which He has given to us, this new hope we have received through His Sacrifice on the Cross. The Lord Jesus revealed to Nicodemus how He Himself would do as how Moses lifted up the bronze serpent to save many of the Israelites who rebelled against God, and He Himself was lifted up on the Cross for all to us.

All of us, who have rebelled against God and therefore fallen into sin, are just like those Israelites who suffered and were about to perish from the folly of their actions, their rebellious attitudes, and the Lord had mercy and took pity on all of them. When Moses interceded on behalf of the people and crafted the bronze serpent that all who saw the bronze serpent would not die but live, it was a prefigurement of what the Lord Himself would be doing for the fulfilment of His promised salvation.

This time, it was the Lord Himself Who interceded on our behalf, as our High Priest, lifting Himself up on the Cross, offering His own Precious Body and Blood as a worthy sacrifice, the slaughtering of the Paschal Lamb for the atonement of our sins. He has done all these because of His everlasting, ever-enduring and most magnificent love for us all, that even when we have sinned against Him and wronged Him on so many occasions, He is still patient for us, waiting for us to return to Him and to be reconciled with Him.

He has given us all a new lease of life, giving us a new hope of life and a new existence through Him. He has called us all to embrace His mercy and forgiveness, to be cleansed from the many corruptions of our sins and to walk once again in His grace and in His path. As Christians, are we then willing and able to commit ourselves to walk with God down this new path in life? Are we able to endure the challenges and trials that we may encounter along this journey of faith?

Now, all of us are living in a particularly difficult time in our lives with so many troubles besetting many of us and our communities in this year alone. This is why perhaps it is time for us to be those beacons of hope and the light for others to brighten their lives and light their way out of the darkness. Are we willing and able to bring hope to our fellow brothers and sisters around us, especially to those who are in need of hope, in need of love, care, attention and some compassion? Let us look at the example set by our predecessors in faith for inspiration.

Today, we also celebrate the feast of St. Anselm, one of our holy predecessors, who was a renowned bishop and a Doctor of the Church. St. Anselm was remembered especially for his role as the Archbishop of Canterbury and therefore the Primate of England, originally a monk and abbot who laboured hard throughout Christendom in reforming the Church and the faith, and was then entrusted with the role of the leader of the Church in England by its king.

St. Anselm devoted himself to his office and calling, leading a virtuous and upright life, and showed exemplary faith throughout his years in ministry, and had to go up against even the opposition from the king and his enemies, that in fact he had to endure exile twice from his See. St. Anselm devoted himself and his life to reforming the corrupt practices of the government and the Church at his time regardless, giving his trust fully in God and bringing His love and compassion to all of his flock.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all embrace God’s love and compassion fully as St. Anselm had once done, and pass that same love and share them to one another. May the Lord be our guide and help us in our journey of faith, that we may always be faithful in walking down the path that God has set before us. May the Lord give us the strength and the courage to persevere through the various trials and difficulties we may have to face along this journey. Amen.

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Tuesday, 21 April 2020 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Anselm, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 3 : 7b-15

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again from above. The wind blows where it pleases and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus asked again, “How can this be?” And Jesus answered, “You are a teacher in Israel, and you do not know these things! Truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we witness to the things we have seen, but you do not accept Our testimony. If you do not believe when I speak of earthly things, what then, when I speak to you of heavenly things? No one has ever gone up to heaven except the One Who came from heaven, the Son of Man.”

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”