downfall

by

Tuesday, 19 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Eudes, Priest (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s readings are the continuation of the messages of the Scripture from yesterday, and we continue to talk about how worldly possessions may hinder us from truly reaching out to the Lord. The difficulty for the rich which Jesus mentioned, for them to enter the kingdom of heaven, is itself not because of the rich status or the fault of the wealth or material possessions, but in fact because of our innate weakness and proneness to the tempting power of those possessions.

Essentially, those possessions keep us away from the Lord because they rob the focus of our hearts, hijacking our hearts and minds which should really be thinking and focusing on the Lord and all of His goodness, and instead we think more and more of our wealth and possession, to the point that we eventually worry more and more about them, on how we can gain more of them and how we can safeguard them.

We mankind are easy to be tempted if we do not take the steps to actively prevent this temptation. Ever since the days of Adam and Eve, when they were tempted with knowledge and greatness by the lies of Satan, we mankind had been exposed to the works of evil in this world, which threaten to pull us deep into the pit of damnation just as our ancestors had been trapped in those lies of Satan that brought us away from our divine inheritance.

The first reading today talked about how God proclaimed His judgment and prediction on the fate of Tyre, which was a great city of the land of Sidon, of the Phoenicians, a great seafaring nation, which built colonies far and wide, and the progenitor of the later Carthaginian Empire. Tyre is the mother city of the Phoenicians who were great navigators, traders and merchants who built their cities strong with wealth, and Tyre the foremost among them. The rich purple dye of the rulers and Emperors of Rome were named Tyrian purple after the wealth of the city in which this dye originally came from.

Tyre had all reasons to be overconfident, as it had a great influence, mighty and powerful over the seas. In addition to that, the city was built on a nature island off the coast of what is today Lebanon, and therefore is naturally protected against any enemies and forces arrayed against it. Nevertheless, it is in this arrogance and power that ended up in their downfall.

What the Lord spoke of, became true when the Greek King, Alexander the Great conquered the city of Tyre after a long siege, and the city never regained its power, prominence and glory. Therefore, it had been cast down and its power was broken, never to recover. And therefore the same will also eventually happen to us, if we depend on our human power, as well as on our desire for wealth, glory and fame.

It is important for us to realise that wealth, possession, fame, achievement in life and greatness are often not the answers for our lives, and they are neither the solutions for which we can live our lives in a better and more meaningful way. It is too often that mankind had been destroyed by all these, as they are unable to resist their greed and desire and end up destroying themselves.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. John Eudes, a priest of the Lord who founded a religious congregation, the Congregation of Jesus and Mary. He took a vow of chastity at a young age, and then proceeded to join the religious life fully dedicated to the Lord. Under his actions, numerous good works had been done for the sake of the Lord by St. John Eudes himself, who worked hard to serve the people of God and spread the Word of God to many people around him.

St. John Eudes was especially intrigued by those around him who lived in sin and in the darkness of the world, particularly prostitutes who were common in that age. Therefore, St. John Eudes worked hard to help those who were destitute and weak in faith, and through his religious congregation, he endeavoured to advance the preparation and education of priests and all those who devoted themselves to the Lord, that they may do better works for the sake of God and His people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, people like St. John Eudes and many others who had given up everything, all glory, wealth and fame that they may be true servants of the Lord are our role models. They have resisted the temptations of the flesh and that of the world, so that they are no longer governed by the whim of their desire, but instead by the will of God speaking inside them, guiding them in life to bear much fruits of their good works in the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, is it not right indeed, that we should truly follow in their footsteps? We should all use these opportunities given to us, so that we may free ourselves from the unending pull of desires and human greed, and instead begin to live wholly and completely in the grace and love of God. Let us all ask St. John Eudes for his prayers and intercession, that we too may serve God and His people just as he had once done.

May Almighty God be with us all, in our lives, that we may do good works for the sake of all those around us, particularly those who are weak, destitute and downtrodden. Amen.

by

Saturday, 17 May 2014 : 4th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, do not harden our hearts against the Lord and do not close the doors of our hearts against the Lord who constantly tries to seek to enter our hearts and speak to us, and do not close our ears and senses against the Lord who seeks to communicate with us, that we may not just listen to Him, but also allow ourselves to be transformed by Him into beings capable of love and goodness.

Do not be persistent in our ignorance and lack of understanding, that we do not end up like the elites among the Jews who feared that their authority and power would be undermined by Christ and hence persisted in their rejection of Jesus. Let us also not be hard at heart and mind, thinking that we know it all or have the knowledge to be able to know everything, as these are common mistakes that men tends to make and therefore bring them into the pits of damnation.

Many of the problems today lie in the arrogance and pride of mankind, who thinks that we can understand everything by ourselves and explain everything around us with the limitation of our minds and our intellect. Rather than using the gifts God had granted them with humility and passion to do things that are good and favourable in the eyes of God, we use them for various wrong and wicked reasons.

Many people today left the faith of their fathers, who had kept the faith truthfully for ages, just because they doubted the Lord and His truth, and rather than trusting in the Lord and His clear and unmistakeable revelations, mankind prefer to depend on their flawed senses and imperfect wisdom. They prefer to trust in their observations and understandings of the world, which result in their lack of faith.

Those who refuse to see the truth did so because they think that God does not exist. After all, according to them, they cannot prove using human means that He exists. It seems so because using physical means known to man, we cannot see God, we cannot listen to God’s sound, nor can we physically and directly touch Him. But why does the Faith persists so strongly then? Those people mentioned said that we are ignorant and superstitious, where in fact, they are referring to themselves when they said so.

There is one way through which mankind had been able to experience God directly and without any impediment. And that is none other than Jesus Christ, who is God, and who is Son, but who has assumed flesh and become Man, to be one of us. Those who saw Jesus, who met Jesus, who listened to Jesus and His words, and those who touched Him and had been touched by Him therefore had been in contact with the Lord Himself.

The Apostles and the many disciples of Jesus Christ who saw and witnessed all these therefore became the ones who proclaimed the truth about God and His love, and what further proof from God is necessary other than for Him to voluntarily suffer and die in place of us, on the cross, to bear the countless sins and punishments due for us? And what greater proof is necessary, other than His resurrection that brought about life and the promise of salvation to all who believe in Him?

It is sad indeed how mankind had fallen into gross indecency and ingratitude by refusing the great love, care and mercy that God had showered us with, and instead chose to persist in our rebelliousness. We cannot allow this to continue, brothers and sisters in Christ. Remember, Christ died for us, and He died for us so that we may live. That is the truth, and that is our faith.

So, on this occasion, I hope and pray that our faith may be strengthened and may our souls be affirmed in the Lord, that we will not easily stumble or be persuaded to turn against the One who loves us very much that He gave Himself for our sake. And let us also pray and act such that those who refuse to believe in God and His truth, and those who adamantly closed their hearts and minds to God may see the light of truth and believe.

God be with all of His people, and may all be blessed! Amen.

by

Friday, 16 May 2014 : 4th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Do not worry, brothers and sisters, and that is the key message of today’s readings. And why? This is because our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God is firmly on our side, and He will not abandon us, especially not to the forces of evil. He will safeguard us, protect us, shield us, and empower us, that we all will be safe at the end of our lives, and death will not be able to claim us, and nor will Satan have any power over us.

Brethren, God had prepared the places for us, which He made known to us through Jesus, He revealed to us that so long as we believe in Him and remain on the path which He had shown us, we will be safe. And what is this way? Jesus, and none other. Remember when Christ said that He is the way the truth and the life? That is because only through Jesus we can reach out to the Father, as He is the bridge between us and the Lord.

Mankind had long been sundered from the Lord due to their rebelliousness and sin, which prevented them from ever being able to reach out to the Lord. If you recall the story of Lazarus the poor and the rich man, told by Jesus, then you will realise that when the rich man died, he begged Abraham and Lazarus to come over to hell to ease his sufferings there, but as mentioned, there exists an immense and uncrossable chasm that exists between the two, that prevented either side from going to the other side.

The same chasm therefore, also exists between us and God, and this chasm is the consequence of our sins. God did not intend for mankind to suffer all these and to bear all the punishments intended for us, for He created us in all perfection, on that day when the first of our ancestors were still pure and unblemished, when they still walked without guilt in the garden of Eden with God.

It was because of the sins of Adam the first man, and his partner and wife, Eve, the first woman, that mankind were sundered away from the Lord and His love. We were cast out of the life in bliss and eternal happiness that God had prepared for us, away from the eternal companionship with God that He had intended for us and for our ancestors.

But, as I have often mentioned, God did not give up on us. That was why He was willing even to send a part of Himself, the Word who is Son, to assume flesh and be one of us, and finally to bring all mankind back to God through His death and glorious resurrection. That is God’s love for us, and He dedicated Himself completely for our sake.

The suffering of Jesus is due to our sins, and He volunteered to take upon our sins and all of their weight, and bear them dutifully as He walked on that path to Calvary, obeying the Father in all that He did. He was lifted up between the heavens and the earth, and on the cross, He offered His life and perfect obedience in exchange for our salvation and the remission of our sins, for those who believe in Him.

In doing so, Christ became the bridge that closes the gap between the Lord and us, but the chasm continue to remain there. For as long as we sin and continue to commit things that are displeasing to God, we will not be able to cross that chasm and reach the Lord. Jesus is the only way through whom we may reach out to the Father.

Yet, it is not just as simple as that, because for us to go to the Lord through Jesus, we must follow Him in all of His ways. We cannot be half-hearted in following Jesus, or as we cross that chasm, we will falter and fall into chasm, and thus into sin and damnation. If we allow even a single laxity in our faith in Jesus our Saviour, we allow sin to make its way back into is and corrupt us once again, separating ourselves once more from the Lord.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray fervently and sincerely, that in all the things we do, we will always follow the Lord with all of our heart, without  turning left or right, and without being influenced by the various temptations and pleasures which Satan had placed on our path. Be courageous to say no to him and ignore all the offers that he made, no matter how attractive they are. Do not let him distract us and make us fall on our way to the Lord.

May the Lord strengthen our faith, that He may make our faith in Jesus stronger, that we will cling closely unto Him and put in Him all of our trust. Let us never again be separated from God, and let us continue to walk faithfully with Him towards the Lord our loving God. Amen.

by

Sunday, 1 September 2013 : 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Sirach 3 : 19-21, 30-31

The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself and thus you will find favour with God. For great is the power of the Lord and it is the humble who give Him glory. Do not seek what is beyond your powers nor search into what is beyond your ability.

As water extinguishes the burning flames, almsgiving obtains pardon for sins. The man who responds by doing good prepares for the future, at the moment of his downfall he will find support.

by

Thursday, 23 May 2013 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers, sisters, in Christ, today’s Gospel reading in particular may sound a bit too much for us when we heard it, and a bit too weird for us to accept the advice that Christ had given us through His disciples, that to avoid eternal death and damnation in hell, we should cut off and cast off those parts that caused us to sin and prevented us from being truly with God.

But no, brothers and sisters, Christ did not actually mean that when your hands have caused you to sin, then you should literally cut it off, and becomes lame for the rest of your life. No, what He meant is in fact that we should not allow our human weakness to overcome us and therefore cause us to sin. It is not in fact our hands, our eyes, or our feet that causes us to sin, but ultimately, we sin because our hearts is not set up right for the Lord.

Yes, many of us if not most had been corrupted to a certain degree in our hearts, by the evils of this world, and by the evils of the devil, which corrupts our heart and making us susceptible to sinning through our weak flesh. Just as Christ had said, that the spirit is strong, but the flesh is weak. But very often that the spirit itself is also weak, and this makes the flesh even more susceptible to sin.

We suffer from many weakness that made us susceptible to sin, ever since, our ancestors, Adam and Eve, disobeyed the Lord and ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Since that time, we knew much knowledge, and we knew good, but evil too entered our hearts, and since then remained within each one of us.

We suffer from pride, arrogance, lust, greed, hatred, anger, and so many other evil vices that had entered our hearts since the day of our rebellion against the commands of the Lord. Pride and arrogance prevents us from welcoming God into our hearts, and in our pride, we think ourselves as better and become overconfident in our own abilities, thinking that we no longer need God.

In our pride, we become reluctant to seek God for mercy, and with the weakness we have towards lust and greed, we end up accumulating more and more sin, which extent becomes so large that we, deep in our pride and in our false sense of security, we do not want to seek God’s mercy and forgiveness. We are therefore susceptible to this vicious cycle of sin that spiral quickly down, and if we are not careful, it will surely drag us into hell and eternal damnation.

That is why, brothers and sisters, while certainly we do not need to go to the extent of cutting off our limbs and tearing off our eyes, or inflicting any physical punishment to ourselves, whenever sin is threatening to bring us over the brink down into hell, we must strive to strengthen ourselves spiritually, in order to protect ourselves from the power of evil and any kind of temptations.

Prayer is important, brothers and sisters, and a strong, healthy prayer life is necessary, in order to ensure that we are truly fully equipped in our battle against the forces of evil. This is also what Christ meant as the saltiness of the salt. If salt has lost its saltiness and flavour, it would be then useless, and would be thrown away. And therefore, if our spiritual being has lost its characteristic and flavour that is God’s love and faith, then we too would be rejected by Christ, because we are then just like salt that has lost its flavour.

Be faithful, and be loving, brethren, love our neighbour and especially those who are weak, oppressed, and prejudiced against. Stand with them, and show to them God’s love, that they will not lose hope, and in them too, they will enjoy a spiritual regeneration, and at the same time, the same will also happen to us, that the salt that is our spirit, will remain truly salty, a sign of our spirit’s strength and perseverance against sin and evil. God bless us all, Amen.