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Wednesday, 19 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Romuald, Abbot (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how we should love God and do things for the sake of the Lord, but we must do it because we truly love Him, with the full sincerity of the heart, and not with any hidden intentions or desires. It is natural for us to have those kind of desires, to be glorified and praised ourselves, as it is part of our human nature. We are naturally attracted to glory and power, and that is why, even in the things that we do, we would certainly want to be praised and glorified for the successes we achieved.

When we pray, when we fast, and when we do things that the Lord told us to do, do it in secret and in our own private space, although it is not wrong indeed to do it in the open. That is because when we do things in secret, we are safe from the presence of others who can look at what we are doing. In doing that, it will remove that obstacle of pride from our hearts, because when someone is with us, we no longer focus on ourselves when we pray, and because we subconsciously know that someone is looking at us, and we are certainly tempted to exaggerate things so that people would praise us.

When we closed off ourselves from the world, in our prayer, our fasting, and our almsgiving, we can then focus solely on the Lord, and to whom we give the alms to. So that we will not be led astray and instead believe in our own personal human glory instead of bringing glory to God. Remember that prayer is a conversation between ourselves and the Lord, not a means through which we should glorify ourselves by showing our piety to others.

It does not mean then we should never pray in public or do something pious in view of others. Indeed, doing it at the right moment, and especially with the right intentions and understandings would enable us to be tools of evangelisation, as these also may bring light and understanding to others who had no understanding about the faith in the Lord. Through our prayers, our actions, which we share to them, we will be able to bring a new light to them, and may even bring them to salvation through their acceptance of Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

Yes, whenever we pray, fast, or do something according to our faith, be it in public, or in private, do it for the right intentions, and for the right state of our heart and mind. That we do these all for the glory of God, and God alone, and for the sanctification and purification of our sinful self and the salvation of our soul, and not to accumulate and gather human glories and human praises.

If we know then how to pray sincerely with our heart, and use that chance to truly communicate with the Lord who loves us, and wants to speak with us, we will then find the true meaning of our faith in God, and we will be enriched in our own lives, by the love that God gives us and through His grace, that He grants to those who truly loves Him, and not merely loving themselves in the guise of loving God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be sincere in all our actions, and do not place ourselves before the Lord in all things. Do not place our desires and our greed to take over us and make us fall into sin, yes, into the sin of pride, because we glorify ourselves rather than God. Be truthful in all our actions, and do them because we truly love the Lord in all the things that we do. Do not seek personal glory, but glorify the Lord at all times.

For human glory is fleeting, and human achievements are temporary in nature. But great is the glory and the reward that await us in heaven, if we remain faithful, truthful, and steadfast in our faith in God, and remain in His love. Remain always in God’s grace, and He will grant us the eternal reward of glory in heaven. Seek not what will not last, but seek what will last forever.

Today, we also commemorate the feast of St. Romuald, a well known religious and abbot, whose life was truly exemplary to us. St. Romuald was once a sinful man, who indulged in all things evil in his youth, and led a debauched life. But after a life-changing experience and revelation of the faith, he changed his ways, and became a truly holy and dedicated person for the Lord. He founded many monasteries and established a strong monastic practice in the society at the time.

St. Romuald in particular placed a great importance on the understanding on the faith, and the serenity of oneself in prayer, that one can be truly be united with God, and truly focus themselves to the Lord their God, avoiding any kind of distractions that may lead them astray from the path of salvation. St. Romuald’s life also shows the kind of prayer that the Lord wants from us, a prayer made out of pure love and dedication for the Lord, in the silence of our hearts. It does not mean that all of us should become monks or join the religious orders in order to do so, but even a simple act of taking a time in silence, in the midst of the business of our lives, we can achieve this, that through a well-conceived prayer, our faith in God will grow ever stronger, and we will be ever closer to Him.

May God strengthen us, strengthen the edge of our humility, and remind us at all times to bring glory to Him, and not to strive for our own personal glory. May He bless us at all times in all the things that we do, that in all that we do, we bring life and love to all around us, that in whatever things that we do, God will be praised and glorified, forever and ever. Amen.

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Tuesday, 18 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 5 : 43-48

You have heard that it was said : ‘Love your neighbour and do not do good to your enemy.’ But this I tell you : ‘Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on both the wicked and the good, and He gives rain to both the just and the unjust.

If you love those who love you, what is special about that? Do not even tax collectors do as much? And if you are friendly only to your friends, what is so exceptional about that? Do not even the pagans do as much?

As for you, be righteous and perfect in the way your heavenly Father is righteous and perfect.

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Monday, 17 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we learn how to be true followers and disciples of the Lord through our own deeds and actions. That we reflect in our actions love and compassion that is of the Lord, and do not promote violence and hatred. People then can recognise the presence of God within us, and will know that we belong to the Lord, and may then follow Him themselves, inspired by what they have seen within us.

The reference to the ‘eye for an eye’ and ‘tooth for a tooth’, was the ancient Law of Israel, contained in the Law of Moses, given to the people of Israel during the Exodus. The Law entitled those to whom had been afflicted, an equal retribution to what had been afflicted on someone. While this seems to be a just decision, but it can cause a perpetuation of hatred and violence if misused, as what had most certainly happened over the centuries of the usage of that Law.

If we misuse the Law, and perpetuate hatred with that Law, by the means of unending cycles of revenge brought by the demand for equal punishment for those who made faults upon us, then we are no longer children of God, because God is good and He is love. Instead, we become the children of the devil, because the devil represents destruction, hatred, and violence, represented in the misused law of justice, turned into a mockery of revenge.

Instead, we must be courageous to break away from that cycle of evil, of hatred, of vengeance, and of violence, by committing ourselves steadfastly in the ways of the Lord, in that of love, compassion, and kindness. We should be ready to forgive others when they made mistakes to us, and even when they hurt us, because when we hurt someone back because they hurt us, that will cause a lasting enmity which may simply continue without end, and will end up causing even more problems in the future.

We need to show that we belong to God, and that we reflect the works of the Holy Spirit through our words, actions, and deeds, and not belonging instead to the devil, who works ceaselessly to deceive God’s children and bring them into the pit of falsehood through the means of the world’s temptations that would ensnare the weak-hearted and those without a strong faith in God.

That is why we need to fortify ourselves through our faith, and by living that faith, through good deeds and actions, anchored and based in the Lord, that we reflect Him in all the things that we do. By having a firm anchor in God, we will not be easily led astray and therefore, will not fall into temptation of evil, and will not follow him into the path of evil, that is revenge, seeking vengeance, hatred, and perpetuation of violence, such as presented by the ‘eye for an eye’ law.

Instead, we will seek the truth of God, the love of God, and will aim for a perpetuation of love, or peace, harmony, and friendship among the children of God, that instead of a deadly and vicious cycle of evil and hatred, in its place, we follow a wonderful cycle of love, that perpetuates love and brings hope instead of death.

One may ask, why did then the Lord who is good, gave to His people this kind of law which would certainly have ended with vengeance, evil, and hatred? Surely He would keep away things of evil from His children? That is in fact because of the very stubbornness of the people of Israel, most evident during their Exodus from Egypt, when they repeatedly disobeyed the Lord, to the point of rebellion, so that the Lord had no choice but to impose a strict Law on them, so that they will not stray even further. God’s intention was good, and that was why He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to explain the true meaning of the Law, that it was intended for love, and not for vengeance, and that such laws are in fact unnecessary.

In particular, brothers and sisters, we also need to learn the value of forgiveness, because it is never easy to forgive someone of their faults to us, especially if it causes us pain and suffering. But if we do not forgive and instead choose to claim equal justice and vengeance, that would perpetuate the ill feeling between us, and will not promote the cause of love. God wants us to live in peace and loving harmony with one another, and the first step we must take in order to achieve that is, to forgive.

Once we know how to forgive, we would be able to halt the progression into the endless cycles of revenge and hatred, because we break that cycle, by our act of love through forgiveness and mercy. Remember that although we are sinners and deserve death, and that the Lord hates sin, and yet, the Lord is willing to forgive us from our sins, and gave us even His only Son as a sacrifice to redeem us from our sins, that we can be made worthy for Him.

If our Lord can do so much for our sake, then is it not right that we should also do what He has done for us? After all, we are His beloved children, and children ought to emulate what their father is doing, and there is no better father than God Himself, who is the Father of all mankind and of all creation.

Let us, brothers and sisters in Christ, become children of God through our love and dedication to God’s truth, peace, and love, by our actions and concrete deeds, so that through us, we will propagate a new light in this world darkened by evil and hatred. Sow love with our actions, and we will reap peace as a reward. Let us always strive for peace and harmony. If only all people would know to love one another and forgive, this world would have been a much better place. Amen.

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Thursday, 6 June 2013 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Norbert, Bishop (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, Christ summarises for us, the Laws of the Lord, which man at the time mostly saw as the Law of Moses, and the list of many numbers of regulations that regulate daily lives of the Jewish people at the time. Christ summarises the Law in fact, into a single commandment of Love. Yes, love. No, this love is not the lovey-dovey kind of love between enamoured teenagers who just met each other and fell in ‘love’ at the first sight.

Love is so much greater than that, and love is not just for pleasure, just as what Tobias, the son of Tobit, had stated in his prayer in the first reading we heard today, that his marriage was not based on pleasure, but love that endures, that is true love. What is love then? Love has many faces and it encompasses many things, but true love is wonderful, and is life, and it is the Lord Himself, as God Himself is Love, Deus Caritas est.

Sadly though, love is increasingly more and more difficult to be found in our world today. Love and mankind itself had been corrupted by the agents of evil that love has become perversed into something less than the true love that God embodies, and the love that is exemplified by the relationship and love between Tobias and Sara.

Even worse, in many parts of our world today, love has completely been replaced by hatred, jealousy, and all the negative opposites of love, which brought destruction and death instead of life. Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, only through love that we can beget life and only through love that we manifest God’s will and show that we are truly belonging to God. If we reflect hatred and jealousy, along with all the other negative sentiments, we belong not to God, but to Satan, His adversary.

God has given His people, the people of Israel, His commandments written in stone and conveyed to them through Moses, His prophet. This is known today as the Ten Commandments, the contents of which I am sure many of us certainly know and even memorised by heart. But what is the Ten Commandments truly about, and what about all the rituals and the ceremonies surrounding the worship of the Lord as written in the Book of the Leviticus and the other books of the Torah?

All of that are good indeed, but ultimately, all of them have the same purpose, and have the same meaning, that is love. All of the commandments and the rules all breath the same thing, that is love. By truly obeying the commandments of the Lord, we breath love to the world and to those around us, because by doing God’s commandments, we become love itself, just as God Himself is Love.

Love is the key to ending many conflicts and violence that is now rampant throughout the world. Mankind had not had love because they have not obeyed the commandments of the Lord and even those who obeyed did not fully understand the meaning of God’s commandments and why they were given to us.

If only everyone in the world can have love in them and expressed out to the world. Indeed, if only more people would reflect love in their lives! Our world would surely have been a much better, a much more loveable place to live in.

There is so much hatred in this world, and hatred leads to violence, and violence lead to even more hatred, and eventually leads to death. This vicious cycle continues unabated in our world today, and many people were caught in this cycle of hatred. Only love can save them from such a fate, that is death and damnation, and love can truly breach through all the falsehood of Satan and the layers of hatred that masks the purity of our hearts.

Our hearts are certainly pure and noble from the very beginning, because our God who is good and perfect created us. It is only trapped beneath layers upon layers of sin and hatred, that prevents the love that is in us, the kindness that is in our hearts to shine through.

That is why Christ gave us His commandments of love, that is essentially the same as the Ten Commandments, because all that commandments is about love, whether God or our fellow mankind, and not doing what brings about hatred and destruction. And both the commandments that Christ had taught us are equally important and intimately linked to one another.

That is because, we cannot possibly love God without loving our neighbours, and neither can we love our neighbour without loving God at the same time too. Because if we love God, we will surely love our neighbour as well, and vice versa. Because God Himself is Love and has Himself shown love so great to us, that if we love Him, we too embodies that love and as a result, would be just like Him, that is we will love our neighbours, our brethren, even those who hates us and those who persecutes us.

That is why love is important, first by loving God, because if we do not love God, we will shy away from His love and His light, and therefore will prefer to live in darkness. This darkness is the absence of the love of God, the root of all hatred and all the bad things that happen in our world today. If we do not love God, and do not love Him with all our strength and all our being, we cannot be called the children of God, but the children of darkness.

First we have to love God, because He has loved us first, by giving all of us His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to be our Saviour and Redeemer, through His death, and His glorious resurrection. He shows us how to love Him by His own example, that is through His own words, that the greatest love is for someone to give up his life for his friends, and that was exactly what Christ had done, that He died for all of us, on the cross in Calvary.

Then, after we love God, that love is not complete yet, because in order to love God completely and perfectly, we must also love and show our care for our brethren, especially those ostracised, those who are rejected and persecuted, because they are considered weak. Remember that Christ Himself said that whatever we had done for the sake of these people, the last, the lost, and the least, we had done it for the Lord. That is why, in order to gain true love, we must love both God, and our neighbour, with all our strength and our beings.

Today, we commemorate the feast day of St. Norbert, also known as Norbert of Xanten, a bishop in medieval era Germany, who did much work in advancing the cause of the Lord among the people and the society at the time. He embodied what we had listened in the readings today, that is love. Through his devotion and love for the Lord, he had toiled and laboured much, establishing many foundation of future evangelisation in the society, building up bases by establishing religious institutions, and making that love alive and perfect by service and care for those in the society.

Although it had been almost a millennia since the time of St. Norbert of Xanten, even in our modern world today, love is still needed, if not more than ever. Violence and hatred has always been increasing and becoming more prevalent, especially among our young people today. We have to do much work to inculcate love and compassion in the hearts of many, especially youths.

Remain in our devotion and love for God, and also in our love for our neighbours, just as Christ had commanded us to do. If we remain faithful and strong, we will be rewarded with eternal glory in heaven, and Christ will welcome us there with praise, that we had indeed fulfilled His will and the commandments He had given us. St. Norbert of Xanten, pray for us, that we will always have love in our hearts, both for God and our neighbours. Amen.

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The Role of Priests and the Laity

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Priests and the laity have their own roles within the Church, and each have been given their missions for the glorification of God.

Priests must not be just men of service, as indeed service should be done by everyone, especially the laity! There are only so many priests, and so many more laypeople in the Church. There are in fact about 3,000 laypeople for each priest in the Church (There are only slightly more than 400,000 priests, diocesan and religious, as compared to almost 1.25 billion people i the total Catholic population)

As much as priests can do plenty of service, caring for the sick, etc, the laity cannot just depend on the priests to do all the work while they go on about their own business.

No, the primary function and duty of a priest, henceforth, is to lead the people in the worship of God, like the priests of Israel of old. This is a duty and a vocation that only them can do, and the laity cannot do. Reaching out to the poor must remain part of the mission of a priest, but it cannot be his main one, for it is the laity who must play their part to help the poor and the unloved ones.

Priests are not employed and many, if not most, are not rich, while many Catholic laypeople are in fact quite well-to-do, even having excessive wealth, that only if all of them would give a small portion of their wealth, the world can be so much better.

The key is not to strip the Church and all that has been in place, solely for the glorification of God, in the disguise of helping the poor and the unfortunate. The key is to encourage greater participation by the laity in the works of service and charity. Priests give example through their own service, but they cannot be expected to do all the work.

In fact, the laity should do at least 90% of the work, as priests are primarily, priests, and should be more focused on the worship aspect, which only they can do, and not the laity.

 
That is why, we need more holy and intellectual priests, not just priests who know how to serve others, but those who have good understanding of the faith and the liturgy of praise and worship to God in the Mass. Everyone can serve others, if they are called, including all the laypeople. But, if the priests themselves cannot be depended on in the matter of worship and the faith, who then should the laypeople turn to?
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Friday, 31 May 2013 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of the Visitation of our Blessed Virgin to her cousin, Elizabeth, who had become pregnant earlier than Mary herself, when the angel appeared to Zechariah her husband, that she would bear in her old age, the one who was to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. That child born of Elizabeth, as we all knew, is St. John the Baptist, who straightened the path for the Lord and brought many to repentance through his baptisms at the Jordan, and his call for repentance.

Mary herself had been pregnant by the time of that visitation to Elizabeth, after another angel, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her and revealed to her, the culmination of the promised salvation that God promised His people through the prophets throughout history, that she would bear a Son who would be the Son of God Most High, Jesus Christ, the Messiah who would save all mankind and bring them back to God their Father who loves them all.

The moment of salvation at the time when the visitation happened was truly at hand, because the Saviour Himself is about to be born into the world, and preceded by another, John, who was born before Him to prepare for His way. It is through both John’s call for people to repent, and ultimately, the works of Jesus the Messiah, that the plan for salvation that God has crafted since the day that men fell from grace, came into perfection.

Yes, that is because, ever since our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, had rebelled against the commandments of the Lord by choosing instead to follow the foul advice of the evil one hidden as the devilish snake, and therefore brought sin into mankind and into the world. Ever since, men has suffered as a result of sin, because of our sinfulness, we became unworthy of God, who is perfect and good.

But God did not abandon us, and neither did He leave us with nothing and condemn us directly into hell that is prepared for Satan and his rebellious angels, who followed him in his rebellion. He loves all mankind, whom He created last of all creations, and whom He loved over all other things. It was a great sadness surely that has been in God’s heart, seeing that men who have sinned against Him, having to suffer eternal separation from Him, suffering the same fate as Satan and his angels.

Therefore, God gave us a promise at the beginning of creation, to Adam and Eve herself, that from them would rise a salvation that will deliver mankind from the hands and tyranny of Satan, the snake, and whom the deliverer would destroy Satan and his hold over us forever. This deliverer is none other than Christ the Messiah, the very Son of the Most High God, who was born through Mary.

God even said that although Satan would harass the children of Adam throughout time, but eventually the woman born from them would crush the snake under her feet. This woman is Mary, whom through her crucial role of being the Mother of God, and the Mother of our Saviour, she crushed Satan forever under her feet.

Why did Elizabeth said that Mary is blessed amongst all women? That is because of Mary’s own actions that allow salvation to be executed perfectly, for through her humble acceptance on the will of God, she had made possible the salvation that God offered through the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ, incarnate into man, through Mary, His mother. She is blessed because she, amongst so many other women, many with much greater wealth, and many with much greater power, was selected to be the vessel for the coming of the Messiah in this world.

Her own humility, and her acceptance of her part in the divine plan of salvation made her blessed among every other women, and indeed, that is why she also became our greatest intercessor, the greatest of all saints, because of her own purity in life, through her Immaculate Conception, and through her great virtues throughout her life. And who would be best to help us to bring our prayers to the Lord if not Mary, our Lord’s own mother? Remember that at Cana, through the urging of Mary, Jesus was willing to perform His very first miracle, which saved the wedding couple from potentially disastrous humiliation.

But be careful, brothers and sisters, that we do not glorify Mary beyond God Himself, because, Mary is the Mother of God, but she is not a goddess. We revere and glorify her because of her great virtues, and we ask her for her intercession, and that is why all the prayers that we have for her, so that she would bring her Son to listen to our cause. But we do not worship her and neither do we accredit her with the goddess status, as many people outside the Church had misunderstood, and even used this misunderstanding to attack the faithful ones in the Church.

Today, we celebrate and commemorate the great joy that accompany this Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, because on this day, it was proclaimed that Mary is the Mother of God, the Mother of the Saviour, Jesus, who would come to save all mankind and complete the long planned salvation. Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit that had dwelled within her ever since the conception of Jesus, praised God in a song that we know knew as the Magnificat, as a song of pure and unadulterated joy.

A great joy indeed because the Lord is about to come and end all the works of evil in this world and on mankind. He who is the great judge would make all things good once again, and bring justice to this world, protecting the humble and the weak, and punishing those who are arrogant and overconfident in their own powers.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us glorify God, for His willingness to come down upon us as a lowly man through His mother, Mary, had enabled us to hope once again, for the eternal life and salvation, which Christ, through His death on the cross, had freely offered everyone, without exception. Through Mary, let us reach Christ her Son, and allow her to help us in our attempt to reach salvation.

For Mary, the greatest saint, is the perfect role model for all of us to follow. By following her virtues and examples, we can only become closer to God, as long as we do God’s commandments, by following the examples of our Lady. Have faith, brothers and sisters in Christ, for God will never abandon us, and today, we are joyful, and we are commemorating that completion of salvation, which allows mankind to be reunited once again with God, God who is love, and God who loves us, so much that He sent His only Son, for us, that we may live. Amen.

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Saturday, 25 May 2013 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor; Pope St. Gregory VII, Pope; and St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Virgin (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we learn about God, that God is our Father, our creator. God shaped us from dust, in His own image, that we look like Him, and receiving His Holy Spirit through His breath, we gain life that is anchored in the Spirit that is in all of us.

He is our Father, and like our earthly father, He loves us, protects us, and grant us His grace, through His guidance and numerous blessings to us. He taught us many things through subtle means, and He opened our eyes to the knowledge of the world. He brought us up since the day of our conception and cares for us till the day of our death.

God who is our Father loves us, brothers and sisters in Christ, that He even sent His only Son, one of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, to be one of us, to be a lowly man like us, and in doing so, He brought us even closer to Himself, because we now, through Christ, truly become children of God, because Christ Himself, the Son of God, is our brother, just as He is our Lord and Saviour.

But we have rebelled against His love and His faithfulness to us, and we have rejected Him since the first days of creation, beginning with the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, when they ate the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, trusting Satan in the snake more than they trust the Lord their God and their creator.

Yes, one weakness that mankind particularly has today is greed, my brethren, especially greed for knowledge, curiosity, and an excess of it, which resulted exactly in the rebellion of the first mankind, because of their curiosity of the knowledge of good and evil as tempted by Satan. The Lord has given each one of us wisdom and intellect, but we have never felt enough, and are always curious and wanting to know more.

This is how our modern world rapidly becoming less and less faithful to God, and many turn their hearts away from total obedience and love for God. Many question their faith, because they are curious about the truth behind it, and they trust more alternatives to God such as scientific discoveries, because in those discoveries, they gain more and more knowledge, and this displaces God in their hearts, because to them, science seems to offer them something tangible, as science itself represents something that must be verifiable and visible.

Yes, our God and Lord may not be visible to us, and His presence may not be easily felt, if you apply the standards of science, and the standards of our human stature to it, but God does exist in our hearts, brothers and sisters in Christ, and He is present in all of us, through the Spirit of life that He has given us. What mankind is lacking truly is the ability to transcend that greed for more knowledge and more understanding, but in the process, those greed transform them into a corrupted being.

That is why Christ asks us to be like the children, to have faith like the children, because children are pure and innocent, and in the children lie the fullness of the love of God, and they are beings that can truly love God with all their heart, their mind, and their soul, without being disrupted and clouded by the evils of this world, simply because, in the innocence of their heart, they know only the love of God.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, we too should follow the children’s example, in their pure and unadulterated love for God. If you see a child pray, you can see that their prayer is pure, and not like many of us who utter litany of wishes in our prayer, because we have been tainted by greed and desire, desiring that God grant us our wishes, although prayer is in fact the bridge of faith, our pure connection, a two-way connection between us and God, instead of being a help line or a wishing line.

That is why those of you who are parents with young children, it is important to educate your children well, and ensure that they are protected from the evil influences that are ever present in our world, and in our surroundings. In a world where knowledge had become much more readily accessible and in the reach of even children through the media and the internet, there is a need for greater vigilance, brethren, that we, and especially young children, do not fall prey to Satan’s advances. Knowledge is good, and knowing more is good, but are we able to truly distinguish between truth or lies? and are we able to distinguish between what is good and what is bad?

Today, we also celebrate feast of saints, my brothers and sisters in Christ. Saints because we do not just celebrate one saint, but three saints! They are St. Bede the Venerable, a holy monk living in the seventh and early eighth century England, who contributed greatly to the development of the Church in Britannia, and we also have Pope St. Gregory VII, a great Pope, and a great reformer Pope, who championed the freedom and the authority of the Papacy against secular powers that try to usurp the Church’s authority from it, and finally St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, a virtuous religious sister who often received visions from the Lord, and was known for her great piety and love for God.

St. Bede the Venerable was a great author who wrote extensively on the early histories of the British Isles, but also made important chronicles of the development of the Church in the West and in Britain, especially in the well known history of the Church and people of England, that is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. His works brought great advancement in the field of learning and knowledge. This shows the greatness of wisdom and intellect that God has given us, and if we utilise it right, we can bring about great good to mankind, just as St. Bede the Venerable had done.

Pope St. Gregory VII, is a great Pope of the medieval era, who championed Papal supremacy and authority over the rulers of Christendom. He persevered over the power of the secular ruler, in the person of the Holy Roman Emperor, the Christendom’s ruler at the time, over the appointment of bishops, which rightfully should belong to the successor of the apostles, the successor of Peter, that is the Pope, alone. He triumphed against those who in their pride think that they know it all and did not pay proper respect to the Lord out of their pride and arrogance.

St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi gained many visions which she received regularly from the Lord, and through her writings on her visions and experiences, many believed in the Lord. This is the proof that knowledge and wisdom indeed comes from God, and from God alone. We humans receive our knowledge and wisdom from the Spirit that is also our life, but we are prone to think that this knowledge and wisdom is our own, and disregard the Lord’s role in it.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us from now on, follow in the footsteps of these great saints, and pursue the true knowledge, the truth that is in the Lord. Do not be tempted by the falsehood that this world offers, that is Satan’s temptation. God who loves us will grant us truth, wisdom, and knowledge that is anchored in Him, that we will not fall like Adam and Eve once did. May God be our light of guidance, and steer us on the path to return to Him one day. Amen.

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Saturday, 18 May 2013 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters, God our Lord loves us, and He sent us His Son, Jesus Christ, to show that perfect love that He has for us. Jesus came that He may bring salvation to all mankind. He gave Himself for us on the cross, that through His sacrifice as our Paschal Lamb, we are purified from our sins and our unworthiness before the Lord.

He gave us His new commandments of love, that through His disciples, we receive the commandments to love one another, and to love God with all our beings, with all our attentions. He gave us these that we may have love in all of us, and therefore worthy of Him who created us, because God is love, and without love, we cannot be with Him.

He did not leave the Apostles empty handed either, when He departed from them and ascended into heaven. He gave the Apostles, and from them to us, the very Advocate, the Holy Spirit that is from God, that the Spirit would come and transform this world, with the power of God. The Holy Spirit came over the Apostles and energised them, and gave them the courage to preach the Good News of the Lord.

Through the Apostles, we too receive the Holy Spirit, which is descended to us through a continuous succession of shepherds in the Church, to our priests and bishops today. In the sacrament of baptism that we received, either directly after our birth or in our adulthood, we were welcomed into the Church of God, and be reunited with God through the waters and baptism, and we also receive the Holy Spirit, which is then strengthened by the conferring of the sacrament of confirmation.

The Holy Spirit empowers us and gives all of us the strength to be disciples and missionaries of the Lord, and that allows us to follow through Jesus’ mission to us, that is to evangelise to the entire world. We are today called to be messengers of God’s word. But brethren, we have to make sure that we ourselves are properly placed to proclaim God’s words to the nations, like St. Paul once did, to the people of Rome and beyond.

We have to follow the Church’s teachings and commandments of the Lord as taught by the Church. Listen to the homilies of our priests in the Mass, read the Scripture with commentaries on the passages, and learn more about our faith through reading of sources such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which contains basically everything that we need to know about our faith. Also understand and learn more on the history of the Church, which had existed since it was established by Jesus Christ Himself and which He had built on Peter, which the Pope, who is his successor, represents Christ in this world and act as the leader and shepherd of all God’s sheep and flocks.

Be careful not to spread false teachings and follow the false prophets that run rampant in our world today, as the Scripture is easily misinterpreted, and the witness to the faith as represented by St. John the Evangelist in his Gospel of John, which we read today, can easily be used by Satan to turn the word of God and twist it to serve his own purposes. Remember that Satan himself used the words of the Scripture in his attempts to tempt Jesus in the desert.

Pray and pray, and make sure that we have a healthy spiritual life, and feeding constantly on the word of God that provides us with spiritual sustenance, and receive often the Lord in the Most Precious Eucharist, and allow Him to dwell into ourselves, that the Holy Spirit that dwells within us can truly exercise its power and bear fruits of the Holy Spirit, such as love and compassion.

Jesus too did not leave us without hope, as through John too, He gave to us the vision of His second coming, of His long-awaited return to this world. This time not as a humble king, but as a terrible judge and triumphant King who would judge all creations and separate the good from the bad. He gave that vision to John, so that we will be ready and not be complacent, that when He comes, we will not be caught unprepared like the five unwise women, who did not bring extra oil with them. Be rather like the five wise women who stood ready with extra oil, that when the time comes, we are ready for the Lord.

Today, we celebrate the memorial and feast of a great Pope and saint of the early Church, that is Pope St. John I. Pope St. John I was an upright and faithful man, dedicated to the Lord, and was chosen to lead the Universal Church due to his holiness and love for the Lord, and prolonged service for the sake of the Lord and the Church. He was forced by the secular authorities, who have fallen to heresies, to gain moderation for the punishment for heresy, and despite the Pope’s opposition, he was forced to do so, and yet, when he had successfully done so, he was imprisoned for treachery and plotting charges against that secular ruler.

Despite the betrayal, and the imprisonment, Pope St. John I did not falter but remain steadfast to his death, as a  martyr of the faith. He is a role model, an upright person, whose faith in God and steadfastness is an example to all of us, to be more courageous like him in spreading the Good News of the Lord. We have to be courageous, to spread the message of God’s love, and may God be with all of us in this mission, which Christ had entrusted to us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 3 May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles (Scripture Reflection)

Christ did not die, but He lives. He did not die a death that lasts, since He was risen by God the Father from the land of the dead, as the firstborn from the dead, the first One to rise from death and conquer death itself, to prove that death does not have the final say, and neither Satan, the evil one, has final say over us, and all creation.

For Christ, through His death and then His resurrection, made all creations new, and He rejuvenated all of creation, by the shedding of His Most Precious Body and Blood, which He offered as a perfect and unblemished sacrifice that day on the cross on Calvary. The Lamb of God, the Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed for us, and has been found worthy, that we too, can be found worthy by God, our Father.

We are the sons and daughters of God, our Father, and therefore we should also be like our Father, who is good and perfect. Yet, sadly, we had been tainted by the evils of sin, by the disobedience of Adam our forefather, and Eve, his wife, being seduced by Satan, the deceiver. But God did not want  us to suffer death and eternal separation from Himself, and He wants us to be once again worthy of Him who is good and perfect.

Christ became the new Adam who renewed mankind’s contract with God, by providing them with a new life through the Spirit, but this time, He completed and made perfect that union between God and mankind, sealed through His own blood, as He is fully man and fully divine, indivisible and one. Christ came so that we can have hope once again, of life in the Spirit. God breathed life into mankind by His Spirit, that is His breath, but mankind squandered that life and made it imperfect by their disobedience.

The Blood of the Lamb that is sacrificed on the cross justifies all those who believe in the One sent by God, that is Christ, once again, and made them whole, just like the days before the fall of mankind. He then was resurrected from the dead and became the living proof and truth of all that He Himself had brought and taught to all those who had listened to Him and His preaching,

Today, we commemorate the feast day of the two apostles of Christ, in both St. Philip and St. James, both of whom became His witnesses to the entire world. They preached the Good News of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, which are indeed Good News, for they brought the long-awaited redemption to all mankind who believes in God and in Christ, His Son.

St. Philip and St. James worked hard to spread the Good News of the Lord to the many peoples of their time, and they converted many to the cause of Christ. Philip once told and explained the Word of God to the emissary of the ruler of Ethiopia, and converted him through the word of God and baptism. They did many other good things, just as Christ Himself had said, that those who belong to God, will do just like what the Lord Himself had done, that is what Christ had done in His short life and ministry in this world.

St. James, who was also called James the Just, became the first leader of the Christians in Jerusalem, becoming its first bishop and was one of the most important leaders of early Christendom with Peter, the leader of all the apostles and disciples.

Both of them endured rejection, persecution, and intense suffering for their service of the Lord, and they ultimately faced death with courage, in their ministry and in their defense of their faith in God. They had done well in this earth, and were rewarded with eternal life with Christ that is their due. Brothers and sisters in Christ, can we follow in their footsteps? The footsteps of the apostles and many other holy men and women who had walked the same path in following the example of Christ in doing God’s commandments and what is good in His eyes?

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us strive to be more like these holy apostles, and follow in their footsteps, to be always courageous in proclaiming the Word of God and the Good News, to our fellow men, and to explain them to our brethren in faith, who are wavering in their faith in God. For in our world today, there is still a great need, if not greater than ever, for evangelisation, to bring light to many in our world, darkened by sin.

May God bless us and strengthen our faith and love, and may His holy apostles and saints pray for us and watch over us. Pray for us, St. Philip and St. James, apostles, that we may be more like you and can dedicate ourselves to Christ our Lord, ever more. Amen.

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Wednesday, 1May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we commemorate the great feast and memorial of St. Joseph, the foster father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. St. Joseph was well-known as a great and diligent worker, and as a good carpenter. He laboured hard to provide for the Holy Family, which consists of himself as the head of the family, Mary, the Mother of God, and of course, our Lord Jesus Christ, his foster-son.

St. Joseph is indeed a role model to all workers, to all who labour and toil for the sake of themselves, their families, and for those who are dear to them. Labour and pain had always been part and parcel of human life and nature, ever since our ancestors, Adam and Eve, rebelled against the will of God, by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge. They were punished with having to toil hard to survive in tough life on earth, having forsaken the easy and blissful life of heaven in Eden through their disobedience.

Yet, just like Mary, the Mother of God, whom through her perfect and unconditional obedience and surrender to the will of God, which allowed salvation to work through her and her Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, St. Joseph too, had a great role in the plan of salvation, in that, just as Christ is the new Adam who would reverse the sins of the first Adam, and bring mankind to salvation, St. Joseph, the foster-father of Christ, showed that he is an upright man, who endured with joy the labours and toils that he and his ancestors and all of us have to suffer for our rebellion.

St. Joseph the worker, worked hard and never complained. He remained an upright and just man, a man of strong principles and faith in God. He obeys and listens, just as how workers should be, and yet he is just and upright, and workers too should ensure that they are rightfully and justly treated, so as not to be manipulated by those who seek profit at the expense of these workers.

St. Joseph raised Jesus Christ, who was not his biological Son, but with love as great as any Father would and could show to their own child. His dedication to protect and bring up Jesus was truly evident, in how he helped to protect the child Jesus by the flight to Egypt, in order to avoid the persecution of Herod, and having to endure many tribulations in exile in Egypt, protecting our Lord from harm. He protected the Lord from the devil, whom through King Herod attempted to disturb the plan of salvation.

St. Joseph also taught the child Jesus on the importance of loving God in His life, by his guidance, and his bringing of Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for the festival, showing to Jesus His true Father in heaven, and bringing Him close to the Father who loves His Son. St. Joseph is therefore the great role model and patron for all of us, because in one way or another, we are all workers and labourers in the eyes of the Lord.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we often heard, that the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. For we are the labourers of Christ, harvesting the fruits of the divine works of evangelisation, and indeed, there are many opportunities in our world today for even more evangelisation, to bring the Good News and the Word of God, to many who have yet to receive them, all over the world.

We need more labourers who are like St. Joseph in appearance and in spirit. We need many more men who are dedicated to their cause like St. Joseph the great worker did. For there are many works for us to do, and there are still so much opportunities, for us to follow in the footsteps of St. Joseph, and in the footsteps of the apostles. Let us follow their holy and wonderful examples, of labour that is both fruitful and filled with God’s love, that will surely bear much fruit. Our world needs love and peace that only the Lord can offer. Can we then, help to fulfill this and made such a world a reality? Where love and peace of God reigns?

May God bless us and protect all of us, and may He guide us through life, that from the fruits of our labour, we may taste the sweet fruits of love and glory, just as St. Joseph did, and in doing so, honouring God our Lord. St. Joseph, patron of workers and all who labour, pray for us. Amen.