end of times

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Friday, 27 December 2013 : Feast of St. John the Evangelist, Apostle (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if yesterday we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen the protomartyr, the first of the martyrs of the faith, then today we celebrate the feast of one of the four writers of the Holy Gospels, that is St. John the Evangelist, the youngest of the disciples of the Lord and the only one who did not die of martyrdom.

St. John the Evangelist was the brother of St. James the Lesser, another of the Twelve Apostles. They were the sons of Zebedee, and they were once fishermen at the Lake of Galilee. They were called from their former lives and profession by Christ, to be His followers, and were selected to be among the Twelve He had made to be His Apostles.

St. John the Evangelist was one of the closest disciples to Jesus besides that of St. Peter and his own brother, St. James. They were the three who went up the mountain with Jesus and witnessed His glorious Transfiguration. St. John the Evangelist was also the one whom the Lord entrusted His own mother, Mary, to his care. He was the first to believe in the resurrection after Mary Magdalene had reported to the disciples that the tomb of the Lord was open and the Body was missing. That was the Gospel we had heard today just now.

St. John the Evangelist was the one whom Jesus mentioned that he would not ‘die’ before he saw all the things that the Lord had told His disciples, about the things that are about to happen. The disciples were annoyed at this because they failed to understand what the Lord had truly meant with what He said. Jesus said that to foretell what St. John would do to bring glory to God, that is through the Revelation he was to receive.

It was in that revelation, about what is going to happen at the end of everything, when the Lord will come again in His Second Coming, to judge the living and the dead, that John saw all that Jesus had foretold, and he died after he had seen all these visions, and shared them to all of us through his writings, both in the Book of the Revelation and in the Gospel that he wrote.

The Gospel of John is different from the other three Gospels in that it is unique in terms of its mystic and spiritual nature, with more difficult concepts and mystery as compared to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, which spoke in more historical terms and in a more chronological way, unlike the Gospel of John. But if we are able to read and understand what was written by John in his Gospel, our faith and our lives will be made considerably richer.

That is because John had been endowed with the gift of great faith, and when he wrote the Gospel, he did so with great zeal for the Lord and showed the faith to us, in all of its complexity, and yet at the same time bared the entire truth of the Lord to us. He started his Gospel with none other than the centre of the very Creed of our faith, that Jesus is God, and He is the Word of God incarnate into flesh, and He came in order to dwell among us, and bring us to complete perfection in Him.

Indeed, for those who lack the faith and who had not practiced the faith, these may seem very difficult to understand, to the point of impossibility. But that was what John made clear in his own Gospel, that the Lord is Lord, and He has one, singular mission in this world, that as we celebrate Christmas at the moment, we must never, ever forget.

That Christ who was Divine incarnate into Man, was born into this world that He might die for the sake of us all, that He might bear all the burdens of the sins of the world, the sins and taints of our rebelliousness against the will of God. Christ is the Lord, and He alone has the power and authority, to be able to liberate us from the enthrallment under sin and the power of Satan. This is what John made clear throughout his Gospel, by showing what Jesus had done, and His ultimate purpose on the cross.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we too have been given with the gifts of faith, and we have made the profession of the faith, that we believe in our Lord and Saviour, whose birth into this world, we are celebrating this Christmas. But to reiterate again the points I have often raised during this period of festivities, I want to remind all of us gathered, that we must never forget about Christ in our lives.

We cannot take out Christ out of the equation of our lives, for He is the One who provided us with basically, everything we have. Without Him, we are nothing. Therefore, brethren, let us use this time, this chance, and this opportunity, to profess our faith, as clearly as St. John the Evangelist had, showing it not only through words but also through our actions. Most importantly, as Christians, we cannot say that we are Christians if we do not base our actions on love, for God is Love.

St. John the Evangelist had shown us the virtues of faith, and how important faith is for all of us. We all have been granted faith, and we have faith in the Lord, but we cannot remain idle. As Christians, that is as the followers of God, we are expected to go out and show our love to others, particularly those who lack them, and even unto those who hate and persecute us.

Let us all, from today onwards, follow in the footsteps of St. John the Evangelist, and proclaim the truth about our faith to all. Profess and proclaim it through our tongues, our hands, and our legs, yes, through our words, actions, and deeds, rooted deeply in the faith in God and in the love for the Lord, as St. John had once did.

May the Lord born unto the world on Christmas, bless us, strengthen us, and make us into the instruments of His will, just in the same way as St. John the Evangelist had been. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 18 December 2013 : 3rd Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 23 : 5-8

YHVH further says, “The day is coming when I will raise up a King who is David’s righteous successor. He will rule wisely and govern with justice and righteousness. That will be a grandiose era when Judah will enjoy peace and Israel will live in safety. He will be called YHVH-our-Justice!”

“The days are coming,” says YHVH, “when people shall no longer swear by YHVH as the living God who freed the people of Israel from the land of Egypt. Rather, they will swear by YHVH as the living God who restored the descendants of Israel from the northern empire and from all the lands where He had driven them, to live again in their own land!”

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Tuesday, 17 December 2013 : 3rd Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 71 : 2, 3-4ab, 7-8, 17

May the King rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.

Let the mountains bring peace to the people, and the hills justice. He will defend the cause of the poor, deliver the children of the needy.

Justice will flower in his days, and peace abound till the moon be no more. For He reigns from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.

May His Name endure forever; may His Name be as lasting as the sun. All the races will boast about Him, and He will be blessed by all nations.

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Friday, 29 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Daniel 7 : 2-14

Daniel said, “I saw the following in my vision : the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea, and four great beasts, each one different from the other, came out of the sea.”

“The first was like a lion with eagle’s wings. As I looked at it, its wings were torn off. It was lifted up from the ground, stood up on its feet like a man, and was given a human heart. The second was a beast like a bear; it was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told : Go and devour much flesh.”

“I went on looking and saw another beast like a leopard with four wings on its back; it had four heads and dominion was given to it. I continued seeing my visions of the night and saw a terrible fourth beast. It was fearful and extraordinarily strong; it had great iron teeth; it ate, tore into pieces, and crushed underfoot whatever remained.”

“It was different from the previous beasts and had ten horns. I was looking at the horns, when another small horn sprang among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots to make way for the new. It had eyes like human eyes and a mouth that uttered insolent words.”

“I looked and saw the following : Some thrones were set in place and One of Great Age took His seat. His robe was white as snow, His hair white as washed wool. His throne was flames of fire with wheels of blazing fire. A river of fire sprang forth and flowed before Him. Thousands upon thousands served Him and a countless multitude stood before Him.”

“Those in the tribunal took their seats and opened the book. But as I remembered the haughty words of the horn with human eyes and mouth which I had seen before, this animal was killed before my eyes, and its body destroyed and cast into the fire.”

“Dominion was taken from the other animals, though they were allowed to stay alive for a time, until the fixed time. I continued watching the nocturnal vision : One like a Son of Man came on the clouds of heaven. He faced the One of Great Age and was brought into His presence.”

“Dominion, honour, and kingship were given Him, and all the peoples and nations of every language served Him. His dominion is eternal and shall never pass away; His kingdom will never be destroyed.”

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Thursday, 28 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we approach the beginning of the Advent season and the end of the current liturgical year, we are reminded yet again, on the imminence of the coming of Christ, that is His glorious and final, second coming, in which He will judge all things and all creations living and dead, in one final judgment for the souls of all mankind.

The time will come indeed, for the enemies of the faithful ones in God to gather and plot against the people of God, with their chief and lord, that is Satan the deceiver, for a final attempt to wrest victory from the hands of God. Just like in our first reading, where Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den by the machinations of his enemies, who pushed hard for his imprisonment and punishment, the same too will happen at the end of times, as Jesus Himself had mentioned.

Indeed, if we listen to the readings today, our fate as the faithful ones of God seems to be very bleak indeed, as we know that there will be lots of opposition, lots of suffering, and lots of tough times for us to go through. There will be oppression, and when we will be facing insults and anger of the people shown against us, for keeping the faith in God alive and strong in us. Well, to be honest, even these days, we all know that all of these are already happening, even daily these days!

Difficult times will certainly be upon us, but we should not be overly worried or give in to fear. Remember that the Lord protects all who are faithful to Him, and He cares for all of them, that is us. He will not leave us in jeopardy, nor will He abandon us to the evil one. It is we who often abandon Him, to choose the better and easier way out, taking the shortcut of the world, thinking that it will lead us to an easier and more enjoyable life later on.

Such is the delusion the enemy is trying to put to us, in order to bring us away from the Lord, and therefore from salvation. Through this world, the enemy has made his move, intended to bring many souls into damnation, a state where eternal suffering without hope and love will be upon us who stumble on our path towards the Lord. We must stand strong, and we cannot give in to the temptations of the devil.

It is not, however, that we should shun the world, hate the world, or anything like that. Rather, hate the developments that had grown accustomed in our society, where consumerism and excessive greed has eaten ever deeper into the hearts of mankind. Our modern day society is one where we can say that money is god, money is everything. Yes, money is indeed important, and we cannot deny that. We need money and other things which money can buy, so that we can sustain ourselves and continue living.

However, needing money does not equate the glorification of money, and the corruption of our hearts by greed. Yes, the greed for possessions and material wealth. It is pervasive in many in our world today. How many people have you known that enslaved themselves to their work and their career? How many people are obsessed with getting more wealth and possessions? How many people spent hours or even days of their time gambling and playing in casinoes in order to gain fast money? How many people did illegal jobs and corrupt funds just so that they can fill their coffers with more money?

Yes, these are the realities of our world. So many people have been ensnared by the temptations of the world, the allures of money, wealth, and worldly pleasures, which few indeed could resist. After all, given a choice, who in the right mind would choose suffering and difficulties over easy life and pleasure? And yet, brothers and sisters, the fact that you all are here today, is that, the very fact that we all still have faith and truly believe in the Lord our God and Saviour. We believe in Him and His promise, that at the end of all things, He will come again, and give us who remain faithful in Him, an eternal rest and glory with Him.

While we are living in this world today, we ought not to hide ourselves from the world and remain passive. We must not shield ourselves from criticism and persecution. Rather, go out and preach the Good News and the words of the Lord’s salvation, especially to those who did not believe, and those who persecutes you. We do not have to say a single word to do that. Our actions will do just the same. Remember what Jesus had said, and when we follow them, we will do fine.

Yes, for example, when someone insults us and our faith, do not insult them back. Instead, embrace them, love them, and pray for them. That is the way of the followers of Christ, the Christian way of life. Whenever people persecute us for our dedication and devotion towards the Lord, do not be angry at them. Rather, let love fill ourselves, and pray for them. Embrace them with your love. In doing so, not only that we do not corrupt ourselves with the anger and the negative emotions that the devil wanted to trap us with, but we may even help to bring more souls to salvation, to join us to be saved by God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, keep our faith up! Never fear, and keep the Lord always foremost in our heart. Let us all be loving children and disciples of our loving God, always loving and always forgiving, especially to those who hate us most, and to those who insult us and persecute us for our faith. Remember, they too need to be saved, just like us. God bless us all, and all peoples. Amen.

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Sunday, 17 November 2013 : 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord shall come as He had promised, and the hour of His coming is drawing very near indeed. And we do not know when this will exactly happen. It is only the Lord who knows the time of His second coming, when He will come to judge all creations, and indeed, to judge all of us, whether we will be found worthy or unworthy to be with Him in the glory of heaven.

That was what the prophet Malachi, the last of all the prophets of the Old Testament had proclaimed, that the Lord will come again, and His coming will be likened to a sun of justice, the light and brightness of which shall unveil all errors and evils, cast out all things dark into its proper place, that is in the darkness of hell, which will be condemned together with those rebels and wicked ones, at the end of time.

Yes, the Lord had indeed once come into this world of ours, God incarnate into our frail body of man, and the divine who assumed the mortality of our human flesh, in Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, and yet at the same time, also the Son of God, fully man and fully divine. This is the first coming of our Lord, who came to destroy the veil of darkness that had separated us for so long from our God. This veil is sin.

The Lord had come to pierce the veil of darkness, and place in all of us, each of us, the light that belongs to Him. This is so that we truly can belong to Him who is Light, as the children of the light, and not of the false light, that is Lucifer, the fallen lightbearer, the deceiver of mankind, and the evil one. In Jesus Christ who came into our world to be our Messiah, our Saviour, exists the fullness of God’s redemption and love.

Yes, the Lord has offered us full pardon and the complete extent of His love for us. All we need is to believe in Him, believe in His death and His resurrection, through whom He had made all these possible for us. Just as He had risen from the dead and elevated into the heavenly glory, assuming His place at the right hand of the Father, we too will be raised up, just as Jesus had promised us through His disciples.

But all of these do not come free and easy, my brothers and sisters, for we have to work and toil hard for it to come about. This is just as St. Paul had said in his letter to the Church in Thessaly, how they laboured and worked hard. They laboured not only for their own sustenance, that they will not bother and be a burden to the people whom they worked with, but they also laboured for the sake of the Gospel.

That is why we too must labour and work, not in any menial way, but what we need to do is that we need to live up the faith that we have in God and show that faith through actions and through love that we show in our actions. We have to show our love for God through our actions, by serving Him wholeheartedly, and by loving our fellow men, especially those who need most of our love and help.

In us, Jesus has dwelled and remained within us, if we have accepted Him as our Lord through the waters of baptism. The Holy Spirit from the Lord dwells within each of us the faithful ones, and we become the Temples of the Holy Spirit. We have been planted with the seeds of goodness, that is with faith, hope, and love, the three most important cardinal virtues. That is why we are expected to bear fruits of faith, the fruits of hope, and ultimately the fruits of love, through our actions that reflect our nature, which itself is a reflection of God.

Jesus Himself referred to His own Body as the Temple of God, as from the time of His coming onwards, and from the time when He had fulfilled the grand plan of salvation, that is dying on the cross at Calvary, the physical Temple of Jerusalem was no longer necessary. The Temple was first built by King Solomon and prepared by his father, King David, built of great beauty and adorned with great wealth and adornments worthy of the Almighty God, Lord and King of all kings.

That Temple was razed at the fall of the city of Jerusalem and the end of the kingdom of Judea to the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. The exiled people of Israel returned to their homeland after seventy years in Babylonian exile, and built the second Temple, which lasted until the time of King Herod the Great, the same King Herod who was mentioned in the birth of Christ, the one trying to kill Jesus.

King Herod rebuilt that Temple into a magnificent Temple that we refer to as the Temple of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. It took many years to build, and it was not to be completed until decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection. And only a few years after its completion, it would be destroyed by the Romans after a failed Jewish rebellion, which saw the expulsion of the Jews from their homeland. This was the fulfillment of what Jesus had said, that the Temple as it was would not stand and remain, and would be destroyed.

But Jesus also referred to His Body, that is the Temple, which is referred to in other similar Gospel passages, where the people taunted Him when Jesus said that He will tear down the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days. The physical Temple, as we can see, has given way to the real Temple, that is Jesus Christ Himself, God incarnate. This we can see when the veil of the Temple was torn apart when Jesus gave up His life, signalling the end of separation of God from mankind.

Yes, the tearing of that veil symbolises the beginning of a new era for all mankind, that is for all of us. The veil was once used to separate the Holy of holies where God resided in the Temple, and all the people. That veil represented the separation that was present between us and God, that is the barrier preventing us from approaching God. That barrier and veil was indeed sin, our sinfulness.

Jesus tore down that veil by His death, where He brought upon Himself, the punishments for the sins of the entire world. With that singular act, He had made us all worthy once again of God, and we would no longer be impeded on our way to the Lord our Creator and our God. And Jesus has given Himself to us, that from then on, we would live in Him and He in us. Through the Most Holy Eucharist, He had resolved to come and dwell within us, making us the new Temple of His Presence.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, we ought to prepare, that we ensure daily cleanliness and purity of this holy Temple, that is our body and soul, as God has resided in all of us who believe in Him. We cannot contemplate to sin or commit any evil acts that will corrupt this holy Temples of ours, incompatible with God. Remember that without God we are nothing, and antagonising God is the last thing we all should think of doing.

That said, as mentioned earlier, Jesus promised us the coming end of times, and the fulfillment of salvation. He promised that we will not suffer death but receive new and eternal life, if we all remain faithful to Him. He will be a beautiful light as the sun of justice to all who believe and to all who are righteous in their ways. But to those who are wicked and keep wickedness and evil in their ways, their acts, and their thoughts, they will suffer greatly.

We should not be worried for the coming of the kingdom of God, brethren, for worrying bring about no good. Indeed, worry only distracts us from the real work that we have to do. And worry in this case, that is about our fate and our salvation, only highlight the nature of our self-centredness and our selfishness. We tend to become idle in worry and therefore fail to do what is expected from us.

We ought to love, and to show that love in our daily actions and deeds. We cannot be lax, brethren, for the coming of our Lord is known to Him alone, and that is why we must be ever ready, and ever prepared for His coming. No better way to do this, than to profess our faith daily to Him through real action and real dedication of love, of our hope, to our brethren, especially those who desperately are in need of them.

May the Lord therefore, the great sun of justice, the great and true Light of the world, shine His light upon us, on the path that we are to take, that we may keep faithfully to the path that He had shown us. Hence, we will not fall or go astray from the truth, and seek instead the lies of the devil, in the pleasures of the world. May God continue to love us, watch over us, and guide us as we approach towards His great kingdom. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 17 November 2013 : 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 21 : 5-19

While some people were talking about the Temple, remarking that it was adorned with fine stonework and rich gifts, Jesus said to them, “The days will come when there shall not be left one stone upon another of all that you now admire; all will be torn down.”

And they asked Him, “Master, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” Jesus then said, “Take care not to be deceived, for many will come claiming My title and saying, ‘I am He, the Messiah; the time is at hand!’ Do not follow them.”

“When you hear of wars and troubled times, do not be frightened; for all these things must happen first, even though the end is not so soon.”

And Jesus said, “Nations will fight each other and kingdom will oppose kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues; in many places strange and terrifying signs from heaven will be seen. Before all these things happen, people will lay their hands on you and persecute you; you will be delivered to the synagogues and put in prison, and for My sake you will be brought before kings and governors. This will be your opportunity to bear witness.

So keep this in mind : do not worry in advance about what to say, for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends, and some of you will be out to death. But even though, because of My Name, you will be hated by everyone, not a hair of your head will perish. By your patient endurance you will save your souls.

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Saturday, 2 November 2013 : Solemnity of All Souls (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Violet or Black

Isaiah 25 : 6, 7-9

On this mountain YHVH Sabaoth will prepare for all peoples a feast of rich foods and choice wines, meat full of marrow, fine wine strained. On this mountain He will destroy the pall cast over all peoples, this very shroud spread over all nations, and death will be no more.

The Lord YHVH will wipe away the tears from all cheeks and eyes; He will take away the humiliation of His people all over the world; for YHVH has spoken. On that day you will say : This is our God. We have waited for Him to save us, let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.

 

Alternative Reading

 

Wisdom 3 : 1-9

The souls of the just are in the hands of God and no torment shall touch them. In the eyes of the unwise they appear to be dead. Their going is held as a disaster; it seems that they lose everything by departing from us, but they are in peace.

Though seemingly they have been punished, immortality was the soul of their hope. After slight affliction will come great blessings, for God has tried them and found them worthy to be with Him; after testing them as gold in the furnace, He has accepted them as a holocaust.

At the time of His coming they will shine like sparks that run in the stubble. They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will be their king forever. Those who trust in Him will penetrate the truth, those who are faithful will live with Him in love, for His grace and mercy are for His chosen ones.

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Tuesday, 3 September 2013 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

1 Thessalonians 5 : 1-6, 9-11

You do not need anyone to write to you about the delay and the appointed time for these events. You know that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people feel secure and at peace, the disaster will suddenly come upon them as the birth pangs of a woman in labour, and they will not escape.

But you, beloved, are not in darkness; so that day will not surprise you like a thief. All of you are citizens of the light and the day; we do not belong to night and darkness. Let us not, therefore, sleep as others do, but remain alert and sober.

For God has not willed us to be condemned but to win salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord. He died for us so that we might enter into life with Him, whether we are still awake or already asleep. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, as you are doing now.

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Monday, 2 September 2013 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Thessalonians 4 : 13-18

Brothers and sisters, we want you not to be mistaken about those who are already asleep, lest you grieve as do those who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose; it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus. God will bring them together with Jesus and for His sake.

By the same word of the Lord we assert this : those of us who are to be alive at the Lord’s coming will not go ahead of those who are already asleep. When the command by the archangel’s voice is given, the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, while the divine trumpet call is sounding.

Then those who have died in the Lord will rise first; as for us who are still alive, we will be brought along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the celestial world. And we will be with the Lord forever.

So, then comfort one another with these words.