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Sunday, 1 December 2013 : First Sunday of Advent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord is coming soon, and He made it clear again to us today, as we hear the words of the Gospel. Christ will come again in His glorious Second Coming, and He will judge all creations, all mankind. There will be a scourging and separation of the righteous from the wicked, and the faithful from the apostates.

We must be ready for that time, because the Lord will come like a vengeful conqueror, to harvest the good wheat that He had planted and get rid of the weeds of darkness. He will not show mercy to those which have repeatedly showed rebelliousness and challenged His will at all times and did not change. He will gather those He regards as His own and discard those who are against Him or those who are not worthy.

We are like the people at the time of Noah, if you realised it. What happened during the time of Noah? You all know who Noah was. He was the one saved by the Lord by building an ark as the Lord instructed him to, in order to avoid the great Flood which covered the entire earth and destroyed all lives except all those which had been saved through the ark.

Why did the Lord do all this? Did He not love all of His children with all of His loving heart? Is He not love personified Himself? Yes, these are all true, and God is indeed Love that He is. However, mankind at the time of Noah had grown proud of themselves, and not just proud and filled with ego, but they also had grown to be very wicked. They disregarded all the laws of the Lord and lead a life entirely in abandon of the Lord.

The Lord grew angry at them and tried to bring them back to righteousness, and yet they did not listen, they turned deaf ears to His calling. And in that wicked world before the Flood, only Noah and his family remained righteous and obedient to the Lord. That was why the Lord called him to save him, by commissioning him to build a massive ark, to safeguard the righteous from the coming catastrophe and punishment that would befall the wicked ones.

The people of Noah’s time mocked him as he built the ark, and did not repent until it was too late. After the door of the ark had been closed, there was no hope left for them. They were left behind to perish, and perish they did. Noah was saved, as a righteous one, while the wicked were destroyed. And indeed, the same can be drawn as a parallel on the present day situation.

For our world today is also growing increasingly wicked. Wickedness does not necessarily mean doing things clearly defined as evil, such as murder, stealing, or adultery. Wickedness can also come about in even things such as greed and desire. Yes, for our world today increasingly distance itself away from the Lord and from the ways of the Lord. We are increasingly more and more engulfed in the corruption of evil and sin.

And the coming of the Lord is like the Flood, which came unexpected to those who ignore the warnings and heedings of the Lord. That is because many of us, like the people of Noah’s time, are hard-hearted and hardened our hearts towards the Lord and His love. We grew proud and arrogant, trusting in our power and achievements, and blasphemed more and more against the Lord our God. We had forgotten His love and the promise He has made for us.

The Lord comes at a time when we are most unprepared, when we are most deceived by the lies of the evil one through the world. He will come and judge us, for our actions and deeds, whether we are worthy of Him or not. And He will judge us not only based on our actions and deeds, be it good or bad, but also our failures, the failures to do things in accordance with His will and His ways.

Will we then choose to be like Noah? Or to be like those others who mocked and ridiculed Noah as he built that ark? We have a choice, brethren, and we have indeed been given the instruction on how to built our own ark of salvation, and the materials to do so. We have been well equipped by the Lord, with all these materials, that is none other than love, hope, and faith, and alas, many of us remain ignorant of our gifts and did not use them.

Hence, brethren, if we have not begun to work on towards our salvation in God, do not wait, and begin now. For the Lord does not wait on us to execute His will. He may come again any time, even in the next year, next month, tomorrow, or even in the next hour and even now! If He comes and we are caught wanting and unworthy, that is the end for all of us.

Do not fear, brethren, if we have done lots of bad and evil things in our lives. Our Lord hates sin and evil, but He is also rich in mercy and love. If we are truly sincere in our dedication to Him, to change our sinful ways and turn over a new page in our respective lives, the Lord will forgive us, and we will be well on our way towards salvation. Remember that many of the greatest and holiest saints were themselves once great sinners. What differentiated them from the condemned ones is that they change and were committed to changing their lives, to be in accordance with the will of God.

May the Lord our God, show us His everlasting mercy and love, giving us a new lease of life, one where we will once again walk in His ways, and be righteous and faithful. Amen.

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Tuesday, 26 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we approach the end of our liturgical year cycle, we listen to a lot of readings regarding the forecast for the future. In the first reading, we heard the prophecy in the book of the prophet Daniel, when the Lord revealed His plan for mankind, to the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar in a dream. This dream was also told to Daniel, who gave all who heard these words of revelation, in the court of the Babylonian king, showing to them the signs of the things to come, which many of them yet refused to believe.

The kingdom of God, that is the eternal and glorious kingdom that will last forever, is coming, and Jesus Himself has foretold it to the people as we heard in the Gospel reading today. And it is important that we take heed of what has been revealed to us in truth. Let us not be ignorant as the Babylonians and the people of Israel at the time of Jesus, who listened but did not believe.

First, it was revealed to us, that the coming of the kingdom is imminent. Indeed, in the timing of God, the kingdom of God may come anytime soon. And we have entirely no idea when this will happen. Only God Himself knows when He will come again, that is at the end of time, to bring all those faithful to Him, into the eternal glories prepared for them. If we are not prepared for the coming of God’s kingdom, when it truly comes, we will have no share in it.

Then, linked to the first one, it was revealed to us too, that there will be false prophets and false messiah, proclaiming that the kingdom has come, and that they are the Christ, the One who is to come. It is indeed hard to discern which one is truth and which one is lies, and many seeds of lies have been planted by the evil one, in order to deceive us from the reality and the truth.

Yes, especially in the recent years, there had been people exclaiming that the kingdom of God has come or will come through them, if the people would follow them and obey their teaching, which are not the teachings of the Lord. They brought about portents of doom and destruction, and foretold of doom to come, which in the end did not come true. Worse still, some of them established cults, and managed to convince people to commit mass suicides, as some of them had reached worldwide fame in the 1990s.

This is our weakness, brothers and sisters. Not because we are not faithful or anything, but most importantly because we are too concerned about ourselves, our well-being, and being too self-centred, that we tend to forget what is more important in our lives, and what we are called to do in this life. We worry so much about the future and about what will happen, because we simply cannot tear ourselves, even for a moment, away from our concerns and possessions in this world.

Too often a times that we are fixated at the ties that keep us connected to this world. Well, it is not that it is wrong to do so, but we have often fixed our eyes too much towards the world, that we end up forgetting everything else. And Jesus said things in the Gospel today, precisely so that we will not repeat this same mistakes, again and again.

He reminded us on the greatness of love that the Lord has for us, and the promise He had granted us through none other than Jesus Himself, who came to fulfill God’s great plan for salvation. We also should not be deceived by the lies of the devil, and then became overly worried for ourselves. Worry not, brothers and sisters! That is why we are reminded of the love God has for us. The Lord will take care of us, and give us all that we need. Note, what we need, and not what we want.

We often want things that we do not need, and this results in hunger, great hunger not easily satiable. And it is often that the more we want, the even more we grow to want in time. This created that irresistible tie with the world, which caused us to worry so much in the first place. But what does worry bring us? It brings us nothing! That is because worry paralyzes us, and make us idle, doing nothing, even if these things that we ought to do will have saved us instead.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us renew our resolve and our dedication to the Lord in our faith, that we will put in Him all our trust and love, without seeking alternatives or easy way outs. Do not trust in false prophets or false prophecies, and instead put our trust completely in God. The Lord did tell us that calamities and suffering would happen before His coming, but they do not determine the time of His coming.

Hence, let us put aside our fear, our worries, and our uncertainties, and open ourselves to the love and care that God pours out for us. May the Lord who cares for us, and loves us unto giving Himself to us, continue to watch over us, guide us, and provide for us, as we walk this path, and may that when He comes again, we will be found worthy, having fulfilled His will and commandments, obeying the instructions that Jesus had given us. May the Lord bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 25 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins) or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are taught, from the readings we had heard, on the importance of keeping a holy life in God. We had listened to how Daniel was chosen with his comrades, out of many, endowed with wonderful intellect and abilities, because he was truly blessed by God. Daniel did not abandon the laws and keep perfect obedience to the will of God, despite opposition and challenges that came his way.

We are reminded that in our service and dedication to the Lord, we cannot be half hearted, and neither can we be compromising in our dedication, by trying to accommodate to the demands and the desires of this world. Such was what the Lord had praised from the charity of the old woman, who gave to the Lord everything that she had possessed.

Our Lord did not mean for us all to sell everything we have literally and give it to Him. But what He truly wanted is the complete and full dedication of ourselves, without straying away to the left or right, or making any compensations to the demands and temptations of this world. That was the faith of Daniel, of his companions Hananiel, Mishael, and Azariah. And that was also the faith of the old widow.

For the Lord Himself has not spared anything in giving of Himself to us. In Jesus His own Son, the Word incarnate into flesh, the flesh of mankind, He had given His own Body and essence, for us all, that through these gifts given freely from His sacrifice on the cross. He has no wealth and no money, but He gave what is most precious to Him, that is His own life, so that we may have a new life in Him.

Yes, it is just like the offering of the poor widow, who gave the Lord all that she had in offering, no matter how small it was. And the Lord who sees all and knows all, rewarded her for her dedication and took kindly to her dedicated offering. The same too happened with Jesus, who offered Himself as a sacrificial victim for the purification of our sins.

He offered His life for our sake, and He endured the most painful of sufferings, bearing all the sins of mankind, of those who had passed, of those who were alive at the time of Jesus, and of those who were yet to be born then, including all of us, every single one of us without exception.

That is how much our Lord has given Himself for our sake, without even hesitation or second thoughts. He did face great tribulation that night in the gardens of Gethsemane before He was captured, but He submitted in perfect obedience to the will of His Father, and in perfect harmony with His love for us all.

Can we dedicate ourselves in the same way as the poor widow had done? Giving all that she had for the Lord? Or as Daniel had done? In how he risked his life and position in the court of the king of Babylon, by refusing to follow the king’s provision for food, so that he would not disobey the commandments of the Lord. Can we then dedicate ourselves to the Lord in the same way that Jesus Himself had done? Remember how much our Lord has given us in Jesus His Son? That is what we too should be expected to do.

Jesus gave His own life so that we may live. Indeed, we may not be able to give our lives to the Lord, but what we can do is truly simple, yet hard. It is to change our ways and our actions, that we will be more attuned to the ways of the Lord rather than our own ways or the ways of the world. It may seem easy, but there will be many challenges so it will be a challenge indeed.

So, are you all ready to commit yourselves, me included, to the Lord? If we are, then let us from now on, always remember the readings today, and follow the way that the people mentioned, have dedicated themselves to the Lord. And today, we also see yet another person who had dedicated herself in the similar way, that is of St. Catherine of Alexandria, a martyr of the faith who lived in the present day Egypt during the later years of the Roman Empire.

St. Catherine of Alexandria was born a pagan, but she learnt about the faith in Christ as she grew up, and was converted in her youth. St. Catherine kept her faith zealously and she gave herself in total devotion to God, even to the point of keeping herself pure and immaculate, without any human relations, so that she can give herself entirely and totally to the Lord.

St. Catherine even tried to convert the Roman Emperor at the time, Maxentius, one of the last of those who persecuted the faithful. The Emperor was adamant and remained indignant in his persecution of the faith and in his wicked ways. But in his attempts to debate with St. Catherine on the faith, those he brought to challenge St. Catherine were themselves converted instead. Even some of the Emperor’s own family, including his own wife were converted.

The Emperor ordered all of these people to be killed, and therefore they became martyrs of the faith. Yet, they remained faithful to the end. In the end, even the Emperor himself tried to court St. Catherine in order to detract her from her stubborn adherence to her faith in God, without avail. Not even the enormous wealth and power the Emperor might offer could detach St. Catherine from her complete devotion to God. In the end, she too met her end in martyrdom.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, after seeing all these great examples, are we all now more capable of devoting ourselves to God? Let us work, and work hard, to dedicate ourselves to He who had Himself given His own life in perfect dedication to us, no matter how rebellious and disobedient we are.

May our Lord Jesus Christ, with the intercession of the saints and the holy people of God, continue to strengthen our resolve and dedication to Him. Amen.

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Sunday, 24 November 2013 : Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Christ the King (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the last great feast in our Liturgical Year, that is the great solemnity of Christ the King, or in full, of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. This is the last Sunday of our Liturgical Year, and from next Sunday onwards we will be entering into the season of Advent, in preparation for Christmas.

This is the feast, the great solemnity which marked the end of the year of our liturgy, but this year, it is even more glorious. Why so? Because on this year’s solemnity of Christ the King, we also celebrate the closing of the Year of the Faith, which Pope Benedict XVI had initiated on 12 October of last year and ran for a whole year until today. Indeed, today is a great occasion, to celebrate our faith, the faith we have in Jesus, our King and our Saviour.

Today, we glorify Jesus Christ our Lord, the divine Word of God incarnated into flesh in Jesus. He is King, and He is the Lord of all the universe, of all creation, whom He had created at the beginning of time. And yet, He chose to lower Himself, as the proof of His dedication, to those whom He had been king for. As He is the king of all creations, including all of us, we are all His people. And to show His love and dedication for us, bound to death that is our fate for sin, He came down to us, and for us, giving Himself for us that we can be saved.

Yes, Jesus although He was not obliged to help us, He still gave Himself to us, opening to us the floodgates of His mercy and love. In order to do so, He came to us, to fulfill God’s plan of salvation. And He did not do so in a manner so as to dazzle or amaze people. Instead, He came in silence, in the quiet night, that night in Bethlehem. No inn or lodging was made available for the king, and the king of kings made His entry into this world in a humble and dirty stable, fit for animals but not for men.

That is because, brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord’s kingship is not a kingship of this world. He is the true king of all things, and His kingdom is not a kingdom of this world. That is why, if kings of this world are usually rich, privileged, and powerful, the Lord as the king of all kings is instead humble, gentle, and benevolent. He did not flaunt His power and authority, and instead He worked with complete obedience and devotion to the Lord His Father.

When Satan tempted Jesus in the desert as He fasted, he was unable to convince Him with the allures of glory, which are human glory, worldly glories, which would have tempted most if not all of us. All of these were the worldly glories that Jesus as King would have done, if He is a king of this world. He would have taken it easy, as after all, what is mankind, so sinful and rebellious that they are worth saving? Such would be the thoughts of the devil to Jesus. Yet, Jesus would have none of that and rebuked the devil.

In Jesus lies the salvation of this world, that is the redemption of all mankind. He did so by offering Himself, the perfect and unblemished lamb of sacrifice, exchanging for us our fated deaths, into the new life He had prepared for us. He paid the price in full to ransom us, a price He paid with none other than His own flesh and blood, shed from the cross as He hung above it between the heavens and the earth.

The kingship of Jesus is not for Him to enjoy being a king, and neither it is for Him to enjoy good life, as many of the kings and leaders of our world had done. The kingship of Jesus is one of service, dedication, and love, in which, He as king, is our shepherd, the leader of all in our way towards complete and perfect reunion with God. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, leads us in our way towards the Lord.

But many of us openly mocked Jesus and His kingship, often not recognising what He has done for our sake, and rejecting His offers of goodness through salvation of souls. We are indeed often like the prodigal thief crucified with Jesus, as well as the Roman soldiers and those who had crucified Him, mocking Him openly of His kingship, questioning His power and authority.

Let us all reflect, how often do we all, even in our daily actions, that we have rejected Jesus, that we have rebuked Him, and even made a mockery of Him in front of His enemies. And yet, if you all noticed, He did not care. After all, He is the Lord and King of all creations, of all things that were, that are, and that will ever be. He is omnipotent beyond any imagination, and He could just destroy us with a single thought, and yet He did not do that.

He cared for us and loved us, to the point of coming down for us. Remember what Jesus told us about the parable of the shepherd. How a good shepherd will leave his good flock and go out all the way in search of the one that is lost. That was precisely what Jesus had done, our Good Shepherd. He went all the way to save us, the lost ones, that we can be reunited again with the flock of Christ, destined for eternal salvation.

Such a good king we have, don’t you all think? Yes, that is Christ our Lord and King, a king who does not just demand obedience and service from his subjects, but instead as a king who serves and loves his people. But many of us refuse to acknowledge His kingship and reject Him, just as His own people rejected Him as He hung on the cross to save them.

Whenever we sin and commit things against the laws of God, and in violation of the Lord’s love for us, we refuse to admit the kingship of Jesus our Lord. Whenever we sin and commit things evil in the eyes of God and refuse to admit them and change from our sinful ways, we act in the same way as the unrepentant thief, who mocked Jesus for His kingship.

Instead, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be like the repentant thief. Let us be like him in that he openly acknowledged not only that Jesus is truly king and Lord, but also that he reveals and admits the depth of his own sin and his unworthiness before the same king, asking in deep humility and shame for forgiveness by the Lord.

And he was forgiven, and given a place in heaven, literally being the first one that Jesus saved through His death and resurrection. We too can follow in the repentant thief’s footsteps, provided that we realise and reflect on the depth of our own sinfulness, and resolve that from now on, we will change our attitude and truly accept the Lord our God as our Lord and Saviour.

So today, as we also celebrate together, the end of the holy Year of the Faith, as well as the great solemnity of Christ the King, let us together with the entire Church, all the same children of God, renew our profession of faith before our Lord and King, taking our vows that we will, from now on, live an upright and righteous life, in accordance with the will of God, and open ourselves to His infinite love.

Let us proclaim that Jesus is the king of all kings, our king and our Saviour. And let us also usher in this era of mercy and love. Surrender ourselves to the Lord’s mercy and love as the repentant sinner had done, and keep our faith strong and burning in God! God bless us all with His Son, Jesus, our King. Amen.

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Saturday, 23 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr, and St. Columban, Abbot (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Abbot and Mass of our Lady)

Psalm 9 : 2-3, 4 and 6, 16b and 19

The wicked are in power; the weak suffer harassment; the poor become victims of evil schemes. Exploiters boast in their power and greed; the covetous blasphemes and defies God.

In their pride the wicked say, “There is no God.” They see no further. All of them saying in their heart, “Nothing will trouble me. I am secure, powerful, and happy.”

The pagans have vanished from the lands of the Lord, let no human raise from earth and strike terror.

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Friday, 22 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Cast out evil! Purify ourselves! Throw out the devil that is in us! Draw closer to the Lord and make ourselves worthy of Him!

Brethren in Christ, that is the essence of what we had heard in the readings of the Holy Scripture today. At the centre of it all, drawing parallels between the purification of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Maccabeans, after it had been defiled by the pagan idols of the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes, and the purification of the Temple, by Jesus our Lord, from the crooked merchants and cheaters of the people, is the importance for us to keep the purity of our souls and our bodies, which are the Temples of the Divine Presence, from all sorts of corruptions and evils.

The Lord showed His righteous anger, which He poured without mercy against those who had defiled the holiness of God’s Temple on earth, the Temple of Jerusalem. He whipped them and refused them from His presence, shunning them to the place prepared to them, outside of His salvation. That was what He had shown in the Gospel today, and what the disciples rightly pointed out, that the love Jesus has for His Father, has brought Him into a great wrath against those who defiled the House of the Lord.

The profanation was removed, and holiness returned to the House of God, in the same way that the Temple was purified by the Maccabees. The merchants profaned the House of God by the vile practices and other vices, by their dishonest practices and blatant cheating against the genuinely faithful worshippers of the Lord.

The Greeks under the Seleucid King Antiochus Epiphanes profaned the temple with idols and pagan practices. These were cast out of the House of God and the House was in both instances, made worthy again to be the dwelling of the Lord Most High. Then, one may ask, how does this relate to all of us? Is not the Temple as a building cleansed of vices and made worthy once again for the Lord?

That is because, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have often not realised that in each one of us, who believes in Christ our Lord as our Saviour, we all are the House of God, the divine Temple where He resides and dwells. How so? Remember that we are all receiving the Lord regularly whenever we attend and participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We receive Him in the Most Holy Eucharist, the bread and the wine turned into our Lord’s own Precious Body and Blood.

The Lord who comes to us in His Most Holy and Real Presence in the Eucharist dwells within us, just as He takes us to dwell unto Him. And since the Lord has come upon us and dwell within each one of us who had received His Body and His Blood, we have been made to be just like the Temple of Jerusalem, because God dwells within us! Remember that Jesus is also known as Emmanuel, which means God is with us!

That is why, brothers and sisters, as we lived this life given to us by the Lord, we have to be always aware, that our actions have great implications. Remember always that the Lord dwells in us, and His Spirit is living inside of us. We are the Temples of the Holy Spirit, the Temples of the Holy Presence of God. Therefore, we cannot be complacent, and allow the influences of evil to corrupt our bodies, our minds, and our souls, since we are the places where the Lord Himself had dwelled in.

If we corrupt our bodies, our minds, and our souls with evil, that is by keeping our sinfulness without check, be assured that the Lord will cast us all out of His sight, just as what He had done with the corrupt merchants who had set their stalls on the holy grounds of the Temple of Jerusalem. He will not welcome us if we do not keep our body, mind, and soul to be always worthy of Him. He will cast us out in the same way He had cast out the merchants from the Temple of God.

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Cecilia, one of the greatest saints of the Church. And we all know her well, as the patron saint of music, of our choir and of all who dedicate themselves to the commitment of beautiful hymns aimed at praising the Lord our God. Yet, St. Cecilia is also a pious and a holy martyr, one who did not allow the corruption of this world to touch her, resolving to keep herself pure and immaculate, despite the temptations and good offers from the lord of this world, that is evil.

Instead, St. Cecilia, defending her true faith unto death, received in the Lord, the assurance of eternal life and eternal glory. This is our faith, brothers and sisters, and do not let it to be corrupted by the lies of the devil. St. Cecilia lived an upright and just life, dedicated to her faith in God. She staunchly resolved to maintain the purity of her soul in an era filled with wickedness, by holding up her chastity.

St. Cecilia devoted herself and her entire life to God and therefore maintained the purity of her Temple, and she did not give up her purity for the comfortable life, and instead give it up for the sake of the Lord. Her purity is truly exemplary to all of us. And this is the kind of attitude that we need to have towards our faith in the Lord. Maintain always the purity of our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our bodies, just as St. Cecilia had done.

St. Cecilia is a role model for all of us, and I hope that today, we all will be more empowered and strengthened, to follow the Lord our God without moving away to the left or right. Let us now then resolve, and say to the Lord, that we all will honour Him and keep holy our selves, our bodies and souls, that we will ever be worthy to be His dwelling, and that on the last day, through the intercession of St. Cecilia, we will join her in singing the hymn of praise to the Lord, for eternity.

May the Lord our God give us strength, perseverance, and willpower, in order to keep the Temple of the Lord, the House and residence of our Lord in us, pure and worthy, as the beloved children of God, to whom He has sent Jesus His Son. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 14 November 2013 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Wisdom 7 : 22 – Wisdom 8 : 1

Because Wisdom, who designed them all, taught me. In her is a Spirit that is intelligent, saintly, unique, manifold, subtle, active, concise, pure, and lucid. It cannot corrupt, loves what is good and nothing can restrain it; it is beneficent, loving humankind, steadfast, dependable, calm though almighty. It sees everything and penetrates all spirits, however intelligent, subtle, and pure they may be.

Wisdom, in fact, surpasses in mobility all that moves, and being so pure pervades and permeates all things. She is a breath of the power of God, a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; nothing impure can enter her. She is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of God’s action and an image of His goodness.

She is but One, yet Wisdom can do all things and, herself unchanging, she renews all things. She enters holy souls, making them prophets and friends of God, for God loves only those who live with Wisdom. She is indeed more beautiful than the sun and surpasses all the constellations; she outrivals light, for light gives way to night, but evil cannot prevail against Wisdom.

Wisdom displays her strength from one end of the earth to the other, ordering all things rightly.

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Sunday, 10 November 2013 : 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

2 Thessalonians 2 : 16 – 2 Thessalonians 3 : 5

May Christ Jesus our Lord who has loved us, may God our Father, who in His mercy gives us everlasting comfort and true hope, strengthen you. May He encourage your hearts and make you steadfast in every good work and word.

Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the Word of God may spread rapidly and be glorified everywhere as it was with you. May God guard us from wicked and evil people, since not everyone has faith.

The Lord is faithful; He will strengthen you and keep you safe from the Evil One. Besides, we have in the Lord this confidence that you are doing and will continue to do what we order you. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

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Thursday, 7 November 2013 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today Christ showed us how God is so loving and kind to all of His creation, especially all of us, the greatest and most beloved of them all, that He wants us to be reunited with Him once again. He is willing to extend His hands over to us, to welcome us back into His embrace, leaving behind our sinfulness and unworthiness.

That is why, Jesus told us how happy it is in heaven, when any sinner returns to the embrace of God, forsaking his sinfulness and evil past, to embrace God’s divine love and mercy. Yes, such is the joy in heaven that angels will sing and saints will chant songs of joy, over the repentance of the lost ones. It does not mean that they do not rejoice over those who are already saved, as they do rejoice, but the joy is ever greater when a sinner repents.

For we belong to God and God alone. This is because He created us from nothingness, and gave us the breath of life, that we can exist in this physical world. Hence, we will always belong to Him, since our very life and soul came from He who is God and who is Love. God did not want us to be lost and to be condemned for the sins we have committed, and that is why He did His best to prevent that.

He sent His only Son Jesus, to be that way, the way to salvation, liberation, and total freedom, from the yoke of sins and evils that had burdened us for all these times. Our Lord and God is the Good Shepherd, just as one who gives his all for the sake of the sheep entrusted to him. Therefore, the Lord too, through Jesus has loved mankind greatly and tenderly. The Good Shepherd cares for His sheep, and such great is His care that He searched for us with all of His might, and that was what Jesus had done.

Yes, Jesus came, as He Himself said, for everyone, but particularly for those who have been lost in sin and evil, that is the lost sheep of the Lord. These people deserve more of God’s attention in Jesus, because they faced great risk of falling into eternal damnation, out of which there can be no escape, and where there is absolutely no hope.

He reached out to sinners, and still is reaching out to sinners like us even today, and will be the same too in the future. The Lord opens His great mercy and shines His love upon us all, all of us who are His beloved children. We are the lost sheep whom the Lord had searched all over the world, and once He found us, He gathered us all into the one flock, one flock of the Lord, united in His Body, that is the Church of God.

But nevertheless, brethren, we cannot be complacent, and think that because we have been found and saved by God, then we can relax and take it easy, doing whatever we want to do. That is because, just as sheep often venture away from the flock at times and become lost, therefore we too can be lost if we are not careful in what we are doing in our lives.

The devil is like wolves lurking in the darkness, hoping to lure as away from the flock of God by his lies and persuasions, which may indeed appear very appealing to us. If we take his lies and fall into them, we will likely be lost, like lost sheep and the wolves, that is the devil, will come and devour us, essentially what happens when we do not repent and realise our sinfulness.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us from now on take the initiative and seek out the Lord, our shepherd. Let us reach out to Him and approach Him with a heart filled to the brim with love and dedication for Him. Let us not be taken over by our pride and instead sharpen the edge of our humility.  May the Lord continue to love us and protect us, that we will be lost from Him, but remain in His love forever. Amen.

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Saturday, 2 November 2013 : Solemnity of All Souls (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Violet or Black

Brothers and sisters in Christ, after we celebrated the feast of all saints yesterday, today we also remember all of our faithful departed, the souls of the dead, those who departed before us, some of which are known to us, as our own relatives, brothers and sisters in Christ. They have departed from us, but certainly they are not forgotten, as they remain with us, united in God.

Just like all saints, those who had departed this world are also our intercessors. They pray for us who are still in this world, this sinful world, immersed in our sinfulness. At the same time we also pray for them, that the Lord will welcome them into the kingdom of God, opening the gates of heaven for them, forgiving their sins, and purifying them that they will be able to join the company of saints and angels.

The Lord had given all of us and the souls departed a new and great hope, that they may receive salvation in Him, and be freed from the bondage of sin and evil. Previously, mankind had no hope for salvation, as the gates of heaven was closed shut tight before them, as the consequence and punishment for their rebellion and sinfulness.

It is through Jesus then, that we are made righteous again. It is because Christ took unto Himself all of our sins and defects, suffering for all the consequences of our sins in place of us, and die a humiliating death, all that so we can have a new hope in Him, the hope of a life eternal in glory with God in the afterlife. Through His resurrection, we then too share the hope of the same resurrection, that we will be brought body and soul, purified and made worthy by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

But this salvation is only offered to all those who receive and accept Christ as their Lord, their God, and their Saviour. In accepting the Lord Jesus as their Saviour and Lord, they receive the fullness of the salvation promised to all of us. But those who rejected Him and spurned His love will have no part in the glory promised to them. Instead, they shall perish and suffer everlasting death in the eternal darkness of hell.

If we are saved, then why do we need to pray for our departed ones, the souls of the dead? That is because, we believe that, in our faith, as a central dogma, is the presence of the purgatory, as a temporary place where souls transit on their way towards heaven. These souls have been found worthy by the Lord, worthy of heaven and therefore, they did not deserve hell and the devil’s fate for their destination. Yet, for them, they still have venial and small sins that prevented them from truly being with the Lord. This is why we have the souls in purgatory.

In purgatory, the souls are being purified of their sins, through suffering that they are not yet able to be with God. Nevertheless, this is unlike hell, which is a state of total and complete separation from God, in which there is no hope, an eternal suffering without end. In the purgatory are good souls who deserve to be with God, but they need to be rid of these little imperfections first before they can enter heaven. God is so great and perfect, and so perfectly good that no evil can hope to stand in His presence and survive. That is why, we have souls in purgatory.

Through our prayers, we help the souls departed in purgatory, that the Lord will pardon them completely, and allow them to be completely reunited with His love. Our prayers do help, brothers and sisters, if we are sincere. These souls, suffering the temporal separation from God, also pray for us, that we can grow more faithful and evade damnation, together with the saints, who intercede for us daily and at all times without cease.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, today, as we pray for the souls departed and the souls in purgatory, let us also take some time to reflect on our own actions, that we may seek to rectify any errors and unworthiness that we still maintain before the Lord, which distanced us from the embrace and love of God. Let us from now on, seek to be righteous and to be worthy, loving God’s children and He who is our Father Himself, with all of our hearts, our minds, and our souls. Amen.