Easter 2016

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Thursday, 5 May 2016 : Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 1 : 1-11

In the first part of my work, Theophilus, I wrote of all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when He ascended to heaven. But first He had instructed through the Holy Spirit the Apostles He had chosen. After His passion, He presented Himself to them, giving many signs that He was alive; over a period of forty days He appeared to them and taught them concerning the kingdom of God.

Once when He had been eating with them, He told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the fulfilment of the Father’s promise about which I have spoken to you : John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit within a few days.”

When they had come together, they asked Him, “Is it now that You will restore the Kingdom of Israel?” And He answered, “It is not for you to know the time and the steps that the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth.”

After Jesus said this, He was taken up before their eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight. While they were still looking up to heaven where He went, suddenly, two men dressed in white stood beside them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up at the sky? This Jesus Who has been taken from you into heaven, will return in the same way as you have seen Him go there.”

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Wednesday, 4 May 2016 : Sixth Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are presented with the very interesting account of how St. Paul spoke to the Athenians about their religious beliefs at the common forum known as the Areopagus, where all peoples were free to utter their thoughts and share them with everyone. St. Paul preached about the Saviour of the world in that occasion, revealing to them the truth about what they ought to believe in.

The Athenians, as were the Greeks at the time, including many others such as the Romans and other peoples embracing pagan beliefs, they all believed in the multitude and variety of divine beings whom they referred to as gods. They associated natural phenomena and other strange and unexplainable observations as divine interventions and as signs of the presence of the divines themselves.

Therefore, that was why if we looked at the pagan gods, the pantheons of the Greek pagans and other forms of paganisms in the other cultures, we can see how those gods were associated with those natural phenomena, which those people were incapable of fully explaining or understanding. They personified the power of lightning and the skies in Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, and with similar thunder gods in the other pantheons. There were myriads, countless other examples as well.

But ultimately, all of these were mankind’s futile attempts in trying to comprehend the wonders of creation, the greatness of the cosmos and the amazing things that surround them and are present from time to time, which intrigued their attention and interest. They feared and revered those things they did not understand, and in the process they became entangled in the worship of the false gods and idols.

It was all of these things which St. Paul wanted to make clear by his preaching to them of the word of God and of the truth which God had revealed to the world through him. He asked the Athenians about the monument which they had established for the unknown God, as a penchant and clear indication of the folly that they had followed thus far.

They did not know the true God, the Creator of all, and yet what they were following and worshipping, was merely the creations of the Creator. They worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars, the wind, thunder, lightning and the seas, and all these because they were awed by their greatness and majesty, but they failed to see that all these simply bring even greater glory and majesty to the one who created all of them.

The words of St. Paul revealed to all of them the truth about God, the Lord and Creator of all. The Lord Himself in the Gospel today reminded His disciples of the promise which He frequently made, especially at the end of His earthly ministry, of the coming of the Spirit of truth which would reveal to them all of the truth which He had spoken but they were then yet incapable of fully understanding the meaning.

And that Spirit of truth is none other than the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that God has sent to all those whom He had chosen and deemed to be worthy of His presence. And through that same Spirit, the Spirit inflamed the hearts of the Apostles and the disciples of Christ, giving them the strength and the courage to carry out the mission which our Lord had entrusted them, bringing the truth of God to many peoples of various nations.

If they had not been so courageous in proclaiming the faith, they would not have brought many people who would not have been saved otherwise. Because of what St. Paul had spoken at the Areopagus, some of the people there believed in them, even though many people there refused to believe and even ridiculed St. Paul and his teachings. The people who believed there would become the foundations of the Church in that area and brought the salvation to more people.

In this time and era, there are still many people who are in need of the truth, for many people have lived in darkness and in ignorance for long enough. If we do not play our part to bring the word of God to them, by our words and actions, then we may be dooming many souls to eternal damnation, and if God sees our lack of action that had made these fallen into the darkness, what do you think will He do to us? We will be held liable for not helping these brethren of ours when we could have helped them.

Let us all thus commit ourselves anew to the Lord and His cause. Let us all do all things that we can in order to show God’s truth to our fellow brethren. Let us commit ourselves to bring the salvation of God to ever more and more people. May His Holy Spirit strengthen us and be our inspiration always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 4 May 2016 : Sixth Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 16 : 12-15

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper, “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. When He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into the whole truth.”

“He has nothing to say of Himself, but He will speak of what He hears, and He will tell you of the things to come. He will take what is Mine and make it known to you; in doing this, He will glorify Me. All that the Father has is Mine; because of this, I have just told you that the Spirit will take what is Mine, and make it known to you.”

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Wednesday, 4 May 2016 : Sixth Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 148 : 1-2, 11-12, 13, 14

Alleluia! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heavenly heights. Praise Him, all His Angels; praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.

Kings of the earth and nations, princes and all rulers of the world, young men and maidens, old and young together.

Let them praise the Name of the Lord. For His Name alone is exalted; His majesty is above earth and heaven.

He has given His people glory; He has given a praise to His faithful, to Israel, the people close to Him. Alleluia.

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Wednesday, 4 May 2016 : Sixth Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 17 : 15, 22 – Acts 18 : 1

Paul was taken as far as Athens by his escort, who then returned to Beroea with instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible.

Then Paul stood up in the Areopagus hall and said, “Athenian citizens, I note that in every way you are very religious. As I walked around looking at your shrines, I even discovered an altar with this inscription : To an unknown God. Now, what you worship as unknown, I intend to make known to you.”

“God, Who made the world and all that is in it, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, being as He is Lord of heaven and earth. Nor does His worship depend on anything made by human hands, as if He were in need. Rather it is He Who gives life and breath and everything else to everyone.”

“From one stock He created the whole human race to live throughout all the earth, and He fixed the time and the boundaries of each nation. He wanted them to seek Him by themselves, even if it were only by groping for Him, succeed in finding Him.”

“Yet He is not far from any one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being, as some of your poets have said : ‘for we too are His offspring.’ If we are indeed God’s offspring, we ought not to think of divinity as something like a statue of gold or silver or stone, a product of human art and imagination.”

“But now God prefers to overlook this time of ignorance and He calls on all people to change their ways. He has already set a day on which He will judge the world with justice through a Man He has appointed. And, so that all may believe it, He has just given a sign by raising this Man from the dead.”

When they heard Paul speak of a resurrection from death, some made fun of him, while others said, “We must hear you on this topic some other time.” At that point Paul left. But a few did join him and believed. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus court, a woman named Damaris, and some others.

After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is indeed a great day, the day when we celebrate the feast of not just one, but two of Christ’s Twelve Apostles, His principal and the greatest of His disciples. We celebrate on this day the feast of the Apostles St. Philip and St. James. Both of them worked hard for the sake of the people of God, and as the other Apostles had done, they spread the Good News to many during their missions.

St. Philip was also known as Nathanael, a learnt and wise man of Israel, who was told to be fluent in Greek, and thus eventually he went on to preach the Lord and His truth in the regions of Greece and Roman Asia at the time, going from cities to cities, preaching to the masses and gaining for the Church many new converts and members. He went about the Greek communities and gaining many new faithful from among them.

In the end, in one account, St. Philip even managed to convert the wife of the proconsul of a region where he ministered in through his miracles and preaching. The proconsul was enraged and ordered St. Philip to be arrested, and he together with the other Apostle, St. Bartholomew, and other disciples were crucified upside down by the order of the proconsul. And it was told how St. Philip preached to the crowd gathering there from the cross, such that they wanted to release him, but this was not allowed by St. Philip himself.

Meanwhile, St. James the Greater was the brother of St. John the Apostle, once a fisherman along the Lake of Galilee, whom Jesus called together with His other Apostles, St. Peter, St. Andrew and St. John his brother. St. James the Greater played an important role during the early Church, spreading the Good News of God’s salvation after Christ’s resurrection and ascension into heaven.

It was told that St. James went to preach the Good News to the faraway regions such as the province of Iberia in what is today Spain, spreading the Gospel to the people there and helped to establish the Church in faraway regions from its origins in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. And he was therefore today renowned especially in the region known as Santiago de Compostela, where his body lay buried, because it was there where he apparently did his works of evangelisation.

And it was told that, as written in the Acts of the Apostles, how king Herod arrested St. James when he returned to the Holy Land, and in order to please the Jewish authorities, the Pharisees and the chief priests, he executed him. Thus, St. James was among the first of the Apostles to meet his end in martyrdom, but certainly, his works and legacies could still be felt even many years after his death.

Through his tireless works and commitment to the cause of the salvation of mankind, St. James and St. Philip the two Apostles of our Lord, they might have gone ahead of us to the glory of heaven. However, the impact of their actions can still be felt clearly even today. In this regard, we indeed need more and more people who are willing to commit themselves to the Lord and walk in His path as these two Apostles had one.

Truly, it will not be an easy one for us, as there would opposition against all those who are faithful and kept their faith. But Jesus reminded us yet again in the Gospel today, that we who have believed in Him, has seen the Lord Himself through Jesus, and by our faith in Him, we have been justified. And because we know the Lord, we will also do what He has asked us to do, and through these therefore, we would be blessed and saved.

During this season of Easter, which is coming to an end soon, let us therefore reflect on our own lives, and on how we have acted in our life so far. Have we been committed to our Lord, and have we been faithful to Him, through all of our words and actions? Can we call ourselves true Christians, as those who do not just believe in the Lord through mere words, but also through real action?

The examples of the Apostles St. Philip and St. James show us that there are still many things that we can do as the followers of Christ in order to fulfil the commands which our Lord had placed in the shoulders of the Apostles. Both the Apostles took the charge with zeal and vigour, and despite the challenges and the difficulties that faced them, all these did not prevent them from carrying out the missions which the Lord entrusted to them.

Let us all therefore look forward, and as we are about to celebrate the Solemnity of the Pentecost Sunday soon, let us all recommit ourselves, and rediscover the gifts of the Holy Spirit which had been given to us, and make use of them all in order to help those who are still in darkness, by showing them the love of God manifested through each and every one of us the faithful ones of our Lord, that more and more souls may see the light of God and be saved. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 14 : 6-14

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you know Me, you will know the Father also; indeed you know Him, and you have seen Him.”

Philip asked Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough.” Jesus said to him, “What! I have been with you so long and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever sees Me sees the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?”

“All that I say to you, I do not say of Myself. The Father Who dwells in Me is doing His own work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do.”

“Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in Me will do the same works that I do; and he will even do greater than these, for I am going to the Father. Everything you ask in My Name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Indeed, anything you ask, calling upon My Name, I will do.”

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 18 : 2-3, 4-5

The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Day talks it over with day; night hands on the knowledge to night.

No speech, no words, no voice is heard – but the call goes on throughout the universe, the message is felt to the ends of the earth.

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Corinthians 15 : 1-8

Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, of the Good News that I preached to you and which you received and on which you stand firm. By that Gospel you are saved, provided that you hold to it as I preached it. Otherwise, you will have believed in vain.

In the first place, I have passed on to you what I myself received : that Christ died for our sins, as Scripture says; that He was buried; that He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures; that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. Afterwards He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters together; most of them are still alive, although some have already gone to rest.

Then He appeared to James and after that to all the Apostles. And last of all, He appeared to the most despicable of them, this is to me.

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Monday, 2 May 2016 : Sixth Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the words of the Sacred Scriptures telling us about the works and journeys of St. Paul the Apostle during his time when he journeyed through the Eastern Mediterranean regions, visiting cities after cities, towns after towns, and encouraging the faith of the Christian communities which he was visiting.

There were people who welcomed him and helped him just as the faithful had in some of the cities that St. Paul visited, but in even more occasions, there were also many of those who refused to listen to his words, rejected him, cast stone at him and ejected him out of their cities and towns. This is just as what Jesus our Lord Himself had foretold to His disciples, that they would be accepted, but also would be rejected as well.

And in the Gospel today, Jesus encouraged His disciples that He would not abandon them to face the challenges of the world alone on their own. He would send them the Helper, His own Holy Spirit, Whom He would send to those whom He had deemed to be worthy, His servants and people who went about preaching His truth and His Good News to mankind.

As we approach the coming of the feast and solemnity of Pentecost Sunday, which will be in about two weeks’ time, we are going to hear more and more about the promise of God’s Holy Spirit, which He shall pour down and bestow on all those whom He has deemed to be worthy. And the Spirit shall empower them, encouraging their hearts to be steadfast and steady in their faith in God.

The Holy Spirit shall inflame lukewarm hearts and strengthen the faith of those whose faith are shaken. But, in order to fully realise and utilise the graces and blessings of the Holy Spirit, we have to cultivate the seeds of faith, hope and love which it has placed in each and every one of us, that the gifts of the Spirit to us may grow and multiply, and bring all of us ever closer to God and being ever righteous and just, we may be found worthy of Him.

God always helps those who want to help themselves. And to those who have faithfully kept His commandments and walk in His ways, He shall give even greater gifts. And this grace we can find in the person of the saint whose feast we are commemorating today, namely that of St. Athanasius, a great and holy bishop, and an exemplary role model for many of those who followed him in his way of life.

St. Athanasius lived at a time when the persecution against Christians have ended, and the faithful were free to live out their faith as they wished. However, divisions appeared in the society by the vicious works of the devil, who through his persuasion and through the false prophets which he had planted among the faithful, he had lured many people away from salvation, and even threatened to corrupt the pure teachings of the Church and tore it apart.

But this is where St. Athanasius came into the fray and intervened for the love of God’s Church and the faithful, and for the zeal he has for the Lord and the Faith which he has in Him. St. Athanasius, a holy and devoted bishop, was a simple and loving man, but when he was asked to stand up for his faith in the matter of the heretical teachings and aberrations that threatened to bring countless peoples into damnation, he was inflamed and full of zeal, and spoke out harshly against those heretics who twisted and corrupted the Lord’s teachings for their own purposes and desires.

Many times, St. Athanasius encountered trouble for his vigorous opposition against the heretical teachings, particularly the false teachings of Arius, the false prophet and heresiarch, who advocated that the Lord Jesus was not God, but instead was a mere man without any link to power or divinity, as just one among God’s creations. This teaching was false, and misled many, even among the priests and bishops who in dissent followed Arius’ errors and spread his heresy among many more people.

This was where St. Athanasius did not pull back his opposition, and he was renowned for his Athanasian Creed, the creed of faith that expanded upon the original Nicene Creed, and emphasised at every step, the fundamentals of the Christian faith, particularly the divinity and equality which Jesus our Lord has with the Father, three Divine Persons but one God, the Most Holy Trinity.

St. Athanasius clearly did not have it easy. Just as there were many who accepted and welcomed his views, and proceeded on to defend the true faith, there were also many of those who refused to believe in the truth and preferred to walk the path of heresy, including even the powerful and the mighty. As a result, St. Athanasius was even persecuted and exiled from his see for a few years, and had to endure great difficulty and suffering. But he did not give up.

Through his efforts and hard work, he managed to bring many souls back from the darkness of the heresy they espoused, and these repented and returned to the true faith. Had St. Athanasius not be courageous and be devoted in resisting the pull of heresy and the false teachings, more and more people could have encountered damnation and fall into the eternal darkness of hell.

Therefore today, as we reflect on the passages from the Holy Scriptures, let us all also think of what St. Athanasius had done, and realise that each and every one of us can also follow in his footsteps. We do not have to do great things as he had done, but we should begin from even simple steps such as putting into our lives the practice of true faith, and put into real action, all that we have believed in the Lord, and become truly faithful as St. Athanasius had been.

Let us pray to the Lord, that all of us will be blessed in all of our endeavours. Let us draw closer to God and ask Him to bless us in everything we do, so that we may have our works successful and help to bring each and every one of us closer to our Lord, our loving God and Father. God bless us all. Amen.