Doctors of the Church

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Saturday, 2 January 2016 : Weekday of Christmas Time, Memorial of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 2 : 22-28

Who is the liar? The one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is an antichrist, who denies both the Father and the Son. The one who denies the Son is without the Father, and those who acknowledge the Son also have the Father.

Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you, too, will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise He Himself gave us : eternal life.

I write this to you thinking of those who try to lead you astray. You received from Him an anointing, and it remains in you, so you do not need someone to teach you. His anointing teaches you all things, it speaks the truth and does not lie to you; so remain in Him, and keep what He has taught you.

And now, my children, live in Him, so that when He appears in His glory, we may be confident and not ashamed before Him when He comes.

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Monday, 14 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, as we draw ever closer to the commemoration of Christmas, and as we continue to prepare ourselves during this Advent season, let us all heed the messages of the Sacred Scriptures that are being conveyed to us even as we listen to them. The readings today spoke of putting our trust in the works of God, and what we ought to do in order to keep ourselves faithful to Him.

In the first reading, the seer Balaam blessed the people of Israel after he had been tasked and brought by an enemy king to curse them. But Balaam was a seer who saw the will of God and listened to Him, and there is no way for him to contradict the Lord by cursing the people whom He loved, and thus, he blessed them just in accordance with the will of God, and instead of a curse to destroy them, God made them to be even stronger.

This is to remind us that God is always with His people, and despite the challenges and the opposition that faces all of us, as long as we cling strongly in our faith to our God, nothing is impossible and we shall not fail or perish. We see the example of how there are such oppositions, with the example of Jesus, Whom the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law opposed, and these people tried at every possible opportunities to question Him, to doubt Him and to strike against Him and His disciples.

They have had the privilege of witnessing and experiencing directly the works of God’s mercy, and they have seen directly the miracles and the healings attributed to our God, and yet they stubbornly refused to believe and continued to walk in the path of sin and wickedness. They placed themselves as arbiters and judges of the actions and works of others, and yet they themselves failed to look into and judge at their own actions and works.

Yes, they judged others for their shortcomings and for apparently not following the Law as how they followed it, but yet in their hearts, although they outwardly showed their piety and devotion, God was not in their hearts and minds. They were not serving the interests of God and His people first, but instead their own interests and needs. They strove hard to be seen as holy and pious among men, but what they have done had no meaning and empty.

And because of this, they did not understand the Lord and all that He had done for His people. And because the Lord was not in their hearts, they failed to understand the actions that Jesus had done, and they refused to listen to His teachings, for to them, it was them and their own ways that were the only right ones. And this is the very same reason why, this world which has its own ways and which was unable to understand the Lord, also persecutes us all who believe in our God and all who walk in His ways.

But we should not be disheartened or be afraid, for God is always with us. He will guard us and protect us so long as we are faithful to Him, and no harm will ever come our way. In this, let us follow the footsteps and examples of St. John ofthe Cross, the faithful servant of God and saint whose feast we celebrate on this day. He was a Carmelite who was renowned for his role in serving the poor and in helping to reform the Church and religious orders, and who himself encountered many oppositions and even persecuted for persevering in doing what he had done in faith.

St. John of the Cross lived during a time of the so-called Protestant ‘reformation’ heresy, when many of the faithful were lured away from the Church and salvation by the lies and the lures of the devil, and inside the Church itself, many of its members became engrossed in material excesses and followed a path of vice, sin and moral corruption unbecoming of the children of God and as His servants.

St. John of the Cross worked hard to serve the poor and to care for those who are destitute and have less or none on themselves. He also strove hard to enact reforms on the way how the faithful, in particular the religious order of the Carmelites that he was a part of, in how they ought to live out their lives in devotion to God and to their brethren, suppressing and condemning the excesses that had characterised the Church at the time.

But in doing so, St. John of the Cross encountered many significant oppositions and made many enemies. He nevertheless continued to push on in doing good for the sake of the Church and for the people despite all the sufferings he had to endure, the rejection, the ridicule, the oppression, and even persecution in prison and slander by those who refused to repent their ways of sin and continued to live in wickedness.

In the end, it was not all those people who lived by the ways and standards of the world who were to receive the eternal blessings and graces of God. It was St. John of the Cross, the many other saints and martyrs who had been persecuted for their faith and their steadfast dedication to God’s truth that had merited them to be glorified and to be recognised as those who deserve directly the glories of eternal life and heaven.

Therefore, let us all reflect on this, and let us all think of our own actions. Have we been truly faithful to God despite all the challenges from the world and despite all the obstacles that had been placed on our paths? Can we dedicate ourselves and commit ourselves anew to God, and place our complete trust in Him. God will not fail us in the way that men’s strength will fail us. Even though the world will fail and be destroyed, the anchor of faith we have in the Lord will last forever.

Let us all pray and ask for the intercession of St. John of the Cross, that we may be given the grace by God to be strengthened in our faith, and so that our minds and hearts be ever more attuned to Him and to His words, practicing what we believe actively in our own daily lives. May God be with us all. Amen.

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Monday, 14 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 21 : 23-27

At that time, Jesus had entered the Temple and was teaching, when the chief priests, the teachers of the Law and the Jewish authorities came to Him, and asked, “What authority have You to act like this? Who gave You authority to do all this?”

Jesus answered them, “I will also ask you a question, only one. And if you give me an answer, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. When John began to baptise, was it a work of God, or was it merely something human?”

They reasoned out among themselves, “If we reply that it was a work of God, He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ And if we say, ‘The baptism of John was merely something human’, we have got to beware of the people, for all hold John as a prophet.”

So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what right I do these things.”

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Monday, 14 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 24 : 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9

Teach me Your ways, o Lord; make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.

Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.

Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.

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Monday, 14 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Numbers 24 : 2-7, 15-17a

Balaam looked up and saw Israel camping, tribe by tribe; and the Spirit of God came upon him and he uttered his song : “Word of Balaam, son of Beor, the seer, the one who hears the words of God, and beholds the vision of the Almighty, in ecstasy, with eyes unveiled.”

“How goodly are your tents, Jacob, your encampments, Israel! Like valleys stretching far, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes planted by YHVH, like cedars beside the waters. His buckets are overflowing and His seeds are always watered. His King becomes stronger than Agag, and His kingdom grows.”

“Word of Balaam, son of Beor, the seer, the one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High, and sees the vision of the Almighty, in ecstasy, with eyes unveiled.”

“I see a Figure, but not really. I behold Him but not near. A Star shall come forth from Jacob.”

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Monday, 7 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day from our first reading taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard about how God will bless His people who were downtrodden, afflicted, and who had been brought low. God will not abandon His beloved people to the darkness, and He will heal those who have been afflicted and make them whole once again.

We know that the prophet Isaiah lived during turbulent times in the history of the people of God, at the time when the northern kingdom of Israel had just been subjugated and conquered by the Assyrians, and many of its people brought into exile in distant and foreign lands. The same fate would eventually also come to the southern kingdom of Judah, where the people there too would be carted off into exile by their Babylonian conquerors.

Lest these people forgot about their Lord or thought that they had been abandoned and forgotten by their God, the prophet Isaiah reminded them that God Who is ever loving and Who always loves us will always care for them and His beloved ones throughout the ages, and He will succour and bless them accordingly. He shall not allow us who are faithful to be overlooked and forgotten.

And in the Gospel today, we witnessed the perfect manifestation of God’s love which He had spoken and which He had revealed through the prophets. In Jesus Christ, the Son of God, He showed Himself in the fullness of His love, that by healing of the paralytic man, He showed His might and authority, in absolving His beloved ones from their afflictions, both of the body and of the spirit.

For as we witnessed in that Gospel passage, we saw how God made it clear to the dissident Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who refused to listen to the Lord and to His truth, that in Him alone lies the healing and the salvation, and in Him alone lies the authority to forgive sins, that is none other than the disease and affliction of our souls.

And through Jesus, the paralytic could walk again, the blind could see again, the deaf could hear again, the mute could speak again, and most importantly, the sinners were forgiven of their sins and made pure and clean once again. We have to realise that out of all those afflictions, none of those that afflict the body is lasting and can bring us eternal harm, except that of sin.

Did we know that sin is a disease and an affliction upon us? It is a disease that slowly corrupts and destroys our souls, our minds, our hearts and eventually our bodies and our whole beings as well. And ever since mankind first disobeyed the Lord, the sin of disobedience entered into our hearts, and we have sinned ever since, whether be it small or significant sins.

What we have to understand is that in God we can find the healing and the redemption from all of our sins, the healing that will make us whole again and remove from us the taint of darkness that had kept us separated from God. But in order to do this, we have to really commit ourselves to Him, and we have to strive and persevere to lead a worthy life from now on, sinning no more, but devoting ourselves fully to the way of the Lord.

Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Ambrose, one of the great fathers of the Church, one of the original Doctors of the Church, an important pillar of the Church especially in those areas which were then under the Western Roman Empire. He was the longtime Bishop of Milan, a very devout and courageous servant of God, who did not even fear the secular authorities and the forces of the world as he went about carrying out his mission.

St. Ambrose was once a secular official, a governor of the region which now encompasses the city of Milan and the surrounding areas, until at that time, the Arian and heretical bishop of Milan died, and a successor was required. As both the heretics and the faithful factions of the Church were unable to find a consensus on the candidate suitable, the choice fell to St. Ambrose who was acclaimed by the faithful as the new Bishop of Milan.

St. Ambrose immediately cast himself into the role he had been appointed to, and he championed the cause of the orthodox teachings of the Church, banishing and casting out all of the heretics from the governance and guidance in the Church, and imploring them to repent and to change their ways, and eventually many did repent and be forgiven of their trespasses in espousing heresy against God and His Church.

He even went up against the Empress Justina, who was known to be a follower of the Arian heresy, and implored her to change her ways, and when she refused and tried to depose St. Ambrose, St. Ambrose publicly chastised her in front of the faithful, and he persevered in maintaining the truth in God’s Church. And on another occasion, when the Roman Emperor Theodosius erred by instigating a great massacre of peoples in the city of Thessalonica, St. Ambrose excommunicated the Emperor and would not allow him to receive the Sacraments until he publicly repented for his sins and made a public confession.

In this, as we see the examples of St. Ambrose, we see how God showed His mercy to us through His many good servants, the prophets, the Apostles, the disciples of Christ, our bishops and priests. To the latter, God had, through His Apostles, gave the power and the authority to forgive sins, that through them and their works, they might absolve a people still living in sin and darkness.

But forgiveness does not come without repentance, and this is a fact that we must always remember. We cannot expect the forgiveness for our sins if we do not commit ourselves to change our ways and to devote ourselves to the Lord. The paralytic man was healed, and many other people Jesus had healed, was healed because they desired to be healed and they wanted to make that commitment to not sin anymore and to lead a good life from then on.

Therefore, during this season of Advent, let it be a time for us all to change ourselves, to be a better person, sinning no more but from now on be a faithful and committed disciple and follower of our God. Let us use this time of preparation, to prepare ourselves to celebrate Christmas with true joy and devotion, that we will always put Christ at the centre of everything, at the centre of our focus and celebrations. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Monday, 7 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 5 : 17-26

At that time, one day, Jesus was teaching, and many Pharisees and teachers of the Law had come from every part of Galilee and Judea, and even from Jerusalem. They were sitting there, while the power of the Lord was at work to heal the sick.

Then some men brought a paralysed man who lay on his mat. They tried to enter the house to place him before Jesus, but they could not find a way through the crowd. So they went up on the roof, and removing the tiles, they lowered him on his mat into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven.” At once the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to wonder, “This Man insults God! Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”

But Jesus knew their thoughts and asked them, “Why are you reacting like this? Which is easier to say : ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up and walk?’ Now you shall know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”

And Jesus said to the paralysed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” At once the man stood before them. He took up the mat he had been lying on, and went home praising God. Amazement seized the people and they praised God. They were filled with a holy fear, and said, “What wonderful things we have seen today!”

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Monday, 7 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 84 : 9ab-10, 11-12, 13-14

Would that I hear God’s proclamation, that He promise peace to His people, His saints – lest they come back to their folly. Yet His salvation is near to those who fear Him, and His Glory will dwell in our land.

Love and faithfulness have met, righteousness and peace have embraced. Faithfulness will reach up from the earth, while justice bends down from heaven.

The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its fruit. Justice will go before Him, and peace will follow along His path.

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Monday, 7 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Isaiah 35 : 1-10

Let the wilderness and the arid land rejoice, the desert be glad and blossom. Concerned with flowers, it sings and shouts with joy, adorned with the splendour of Lebanon, the magnificence of Carmel and Sharon. They, my people, see the glory of YHVH, the majesty of our God.

Give vigour to weary hands and strength to enfeebled knees. Say to those who are afraid : “Have courage, do not fear. See, your God comes, demanding justice. He is the God who rewards, the God Who comes to save you.”

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unsealed. Then will the lame leap as a hart and the tongue of the dumb sing and shout. For water will break out in the wilderness and streams gush forth from the desert. The thirsty ground will become a pool, the arid land springs of water.

In the haunts where once reptiles lay, grass will grow with reeds and rushes. There will be a highway which will be called the Way of Holiness; no one unclean will pass over it nor any wicked fool stray there. No lion will be found there mor any beast of prey. Only the redeemed will walk there.

For the ransomed of YHVH will return : with everlasting joy upon their heads, they will come to Zion singing, gladness and joy marching with them, while sorrow and sighing flee away.

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Friday, 4 December 2015 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture readings told us about the merits of keeping up faith in the Lord, and the importance of keeping hope in Him Who cares for us and Who blesses us all daily with life and all its goodness. It is a reminder that we do not live alone or suffer in this life alone in this world, but rather we have our Lord Who is constantly with us, guiding us and protecting us.

God never failed His people and He had never, and will never ever break the promises He had made. He had promised to bring us all mankind into His salvation, and that is precisely what He will do. He always fulfil whatever He had promised, and He will always love us all, no matter how sinful and wicked we were. Yet, it was always us mankind who have disappointed Him, rejecting the love which He had shown us, and spurning His care and compassion for us.

Let us just ask ourselves, to look into our own lives and how we have acted in this life. How often is it that we put God aside and forget about Him in the pursuit of our own selfish goals and desires? It is in our nature to be focused only on ourselves and ignore all other things. And we do not remember God until the time when we actually ‘need’ Him.

Yes, do we remember God in our good times? Maybe sometimes we do, but do we give Him thanks for every blessings He had granted us? Or did we just take all of His kindness for granted? This is the tendency that all of us have, that we tend to gloat and be proud of our own achievements, and glorify ourselves in front of others, praising our deeds and greatness, but not giving due thanks to God for all the things which He had blessed us with.

First of all, are we thankful of this life which God had granted us? Have we shown gratitude for every breath we take, the allowance we have been given by the Lord to live in this world and to enjoy all the good things we have and possess? All the graces and blessings of this world have been made available to us, and yet, many of us were not thankful, and instead we demand more, and we even become angry at God for not listening to our wants and wishes.

This is why it is important for us to understand in this season of Advent, the importance of rediscovering our true focus in the Lord. It is important for us to prepare ourselves thoroughly to be able to welcome our Lord’s coming properly and with piety, as we go on to celebrate Christmas in the coming few weeks’ time. Otherwise, our Christmas celebration will become empty and meaningless, and our joy will become illusory and merely satisfying the desires of our flesh rather than truly bringing us true joy in Christ our Lord.

Let us in all this, heed the examples and the life of St. John Damascene, or St. John of Damascus, whose feast we are celebrating today. St. John Damascene was a devoted monk and priest of the Lord in what is now Syria, hailing from Damascus, which would become his appellation in the years to come. He was committed to the Lord and showed his great faith by commissioning numerous writings and works that helped to prevent the faithful from following erroneous teachings and heresies.

St. John of Damascus also stood up for his faith against heretics and all those seeking to destroy the Church, including the infidels which by that time had conquered the lands where St. John lived. More and more persecutions and harsh treatment against the faithful ensued, but St. John Damascene remained as a bright light amidst all the darkness, and his works became an inspiration to many of the faithful, both those who were around him and those further beyond, including us all living today.

Through St. John of Damascus, God showed us that to become one of His disciples and faithful ones, we cannot just live in accordance to our wishes and satisfying our own desires. There will be times when we will be challenged to stand up for our faith and to defend it before others who seek to destroy the Faith and persecute the faithful.

In that case, will we be able to put forth our strength and our commitment to the Lord as St. John Damascene had done? St. John had put his trust in the Lord, and even though he often encountered difficult times, but the strength which he drew from the Lord allowed him to persevere on and to keep on trying to help the cause of the Lord, and show God’s love and truth to more and more people.

Therefore, now the challenge comes to us, as the present day disciples of our Lord. Are we able to commit ourselves to the Lord and to recognise all the good things that God had done for us, His people? God had protected St. John of Damascus, and all of His other faithful ones, and blessed them in various ways. Even though they were in trouble and in difficulties, but God did not leave them alone.

God will bless us and strengthen us at all times, and when challenges come our way, He will help us and protect us. Now we must understand His love and seek to be able to show our gratitude to Him Who had given so much for us. Let us all draw closer to our God, and as we go on through this season of Advent, let us all prepare ourselves mentally, spiritually and physically so that all of our beings may be able to celebrate with true joy the celebration of Christmas. God bless us all. Amen.