faithful

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

Psalm 145 : 2, 5-6, 7, 8-9a

I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to God while I live.

Blessed are they whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God, Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and all they contain. The Lord is forever faithful.

He gives justice to the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free.

The Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord straightens the bent. The Lord protects the stranger.

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Saturday, 15 June 2013 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today Christ taught us through the Gospel, how to be truthful to ourselves, and to keep truth enshrined within our hearts, and to be sincere, in our dealings with our fellow man and with God. That we should speak out sincerely what is within our hearts rather than resorting to oaths and promises, that we cannot be certain to uphold, and end up becoming false oaths and empty promises.

That was why Christ told us to be sincere and truthful to ourselves, rather than being liars because we lie about our true intentions through false promises and oaths, and even as betrayer because we are seen as unfaithful to those promises and oaths we had made, worse still if these oaths and vows were made in the Name of the Lord, or His Holy City, heaven and earth, as the falsehood will certainly sully the Holy Name and the divinity of our Lord. Certainly God will not take kindly to that.

God has all the authority over all heaven and earth, and all things are His own, and He is the only One who is ever truthful to all of His promises and His vows, ever since He promised to Abraham that his descendants will be as plentiful as the stars, and the promise of salvation through the Messiah, in which He gave Himself through His own Son, Jesus Christ, as the Messiah and our Redeemer. He is always true to His words.

He promised salvation to all of mankind, whom had been under slavery of sin, and the punishment of death for our rebellion and the rebellion of our ancestors. Yes, as we heard in the first reading today, and as we know it, our Lord Jesus Christ is the pure and spotless lamb of sacrifice, and none other than the very Lamb of God, who was blameless and sinless, but was made into the Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, to bear all our sins, that through His Blood, the Blood of the Lamb, we are made whole and clean of our faults, and therefore once again worthy of the Lord, a fulfillment of His promise.

That is why, my brothers and sisters in Christ, that we should not make vows, oaths, or promises, unless we are absolutely certain and sincere about the choices that we make, so that we will not be lying both to God, to ourselves, and to those around us who are witnesses to the oaths, vows, and promises that we had made. Only if we are dedicated to the choices we made, just like Christ obeying the promises of God’s salvation to mankind and pushed forward all the way to the very end at Calvary, enduring sufferings upon sufferings, that we can endeavour to make such promises, oaths, or vows.

Otherwise, just be sincere about our feelings and our opinions. If we disagree upon a certain matter, do not be afraid to say no to that matter, and to say yes to a matter if we agree with it. In doing that, we are being sincere and truthful to ourselves, and to others, and we will remain righteous and just in the eyes of our brethren and most importantly, in the eyes of the Lord our God.

Sincerity and truth can go a long way, my brothers and sisters in Christ, and if used appropriately, they will certainly be a boon in relationships, and will help to bring about peace, harmony, and love among the peoples. Is that not a good thing to do? Let us reflect on our own lives, on our own words and actions, whether we have remained true to ourselves, or whether we have always lied to ourselves, to God, and to our neighbour, by hiding behind layers of false promises and oaths.

Let us be ever faithful to God, be ever truthful to Him and to our neighbours, and hide nothing from God, and in our sincerity, our God who is truth and who loves truth, will reward us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 14 June 2013 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Psalm 115 : 10-11, 15-16, 17-18

I have kept faith even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” I have said in my dismay, “To hope in humans is vain.”

It is painful to the Lord to see the death of His faithful. O Lord, I am Your servant, truly Your servant, Your handmaid’s son. You have freed me from my bonds.

I will offer You a thanksgiving sacrifice; I will call on the Name of the Lord. I will carry out my vows to the Lord in the presence of His people.

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Tuesday, 11 June 2013 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we celebrate a feast of a great Apostle and Church Father of the early Church of Christ, that is our One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. St. Barnabas the Apostle was a constant travel companion of St. Paul during his apostolic trips and missions across the Eastern Mediterranean region.

St. Barnabas was a devout follower of Christ, and was chosen among many, with Paul, whom the Lord Himself converted to His cause, to be the spearhead in the spread of God’s Gospel and as the champions of the faith, allowing the spread of the Good News and the propagation of God’s message of salvation to many people who long for God’s love and care.

At the time of the Apostles, the Church was still in its early days, in its youth. Jesus Christ our Lord had just died, resurrected, and then risen up to heaven. It was an enormous task that Jesus had entrusted to all of them, to make disciples of all the nations, and baptise them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

There was bound to be opposition to their efforts, but certainly there were also warm receptions and acceptance of the teachings of Christ, and that of the faith, which eventually would become the roots for the growth of the Church in the centuries following the passing of St. Barnabas the Apostle and St. Paul his contemporary.

First, naturally, they went to their own people, to the people of Israel, to whom they preached the Good News and that the Lord Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. But, they faced an unusually strong rejection, particularly from the chief priests and the Pharisees, whom themselves had opposed Christ and harassed Him continuously throughout His ministry.

But there were also those among the Jews who accepted God’s word and teachings, and they became the basis of the Church, which was more readily accepted by the pagan people of the Greek origins, the Gentiles. Why the difference in the acceptance of God’s message by these peoples? That is because, to the pagans, they were in darkness, and they were blind. God’s word in the Good News brought to them by the Apostles, was like a warm light of revelation of the truth to them.

The rejection of God’s message by His own people was because of jealousy and human arrogance, particularly in the chief priests and the educated Pharisees, because the people of Israel themselves had known God earlier, ever since the days of Moses and Abraham, unlike the pagan nations. This made them arrogant in their own knowledge and understanding, and they thought that any prophets or teachings not in line with their own version of the faith, would be wrong, as what they certainly thought of Christ and His followers.

Indeed there were those who accepted the message and become God’s disciples, but the time had not been easy for them, for they were persecuted, and even St. Paul was once Saul the great persecutor of the faithful. Nevertheless, with the guidance of the Lord, the Church grew and became more and more anchored in this world, until it becomes what we know today, as the Church.

Missionary work is never easy brothers and sisters, for there will always be those who close their ears from the Good News and turn their hearts away from the Lord. Yes, brethren, even among our own family members, our relatives, and our friends. Even those in the Church are not entirely free from this problem. Missionary work today is not only needed outside the Church, but in fact also inside the Church, to rejuvenate the faith in the many faithful who had been led astray by the world and the evil one.

God chose those whom He was willing to call to be His apostles and disciples, to be His hands in working the good works of God. Through the Twelve Apostles and the disciples of the Lord we receive this faith we have in God through the Church, which is today led by their successors. He sent them during His lifetime to evangelise to the people and to do good works, and themselves having no possession left on them, so that they would not be distracted by material and earthly goods, but devote their time and energy for God alone.

But be careful, brothers and sisters, for it is easy for us to misunderstand the true intent of the Lord in the Gospel today. People easily attack the Church and its ministers for their seemingly ‘material’ and worldly wealth in all the gold and glitter that we see in the churches and in the Mass. The golden chalices, the golden ciboria, and the other gold vessels and vestments used in the Mass.

These are not for our own possession, nor for the Church, for the gold vessels and vestments used in the Mass and in our churches is not for human glory, for indeed, they are for God’s own glory alone. God is so great that in our own way to glorify Him, we have given the best from ourselves, to craft vessels that would be worthy of Him, made of the most precious metals and materials. Not for our own glory, but for the glory of God. That is why we need to have a better understanding of our faith.

Let us then reflect on the words of the Scripture today, and strive to be better disciples of the Lord, and to take up the mantle of the apostles and the disciples, to be messengers of God’s word through the Church, and make disciples of all the nations. May God be with our works and bless us all the time. Amen.

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Tuesday, 11 June 2013 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle (First Reading)

Acts 11 : 21b-26 and Acts 13 : 1-3

A great number believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the manifest signs of God’s favour, he rejoiced and urged them all to remain firmly faithful to the Lord; for he himself was a good man filled with Holy Spirit and faith. Thus large crowds came to know the Lord.

Then Barnabas went off to Tarsus to look for Saul and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they had meetings with the Church and instructed many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

There were at Antioch – in the Church which was there – prophets and teachers : Barnabas, Symeon known as Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod, and Saul. On one occasion while they were celebrating the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said to them, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul to do the work for which I have called them.”

So, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

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Friday, 7 June 2013 : Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (First Reading)

Ezekiel 34 : 11-16

Indeed, YHVH says this : “I myself will care for My sheep and watch over them. As the shepherd looks after his flock when he finds them scattered, so will I watch over My sheep and gather them from all the places where they were scattered in a time of cloud and fog.”

“I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from other countries. I will lead them to their own land and pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in all the valleys and inhabited regions of the land. I will take them to good pastures on the high mountains of Israel. They will rest where the grazing is good and feed in lush pastures on the heights of Israel.”

“I Myself will tend My sheep and let them rest, word of YHVH. I will search for the lost and lead back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the fat and strong will be eliminated. I will shepherd My flock with justice.”

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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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Wednesday, 5 June 2013 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Psalm 24 : 2-4a, 4b-5ab, 6-7bc, 8-9

In You my God I trust; let me not be put to shame, let not my enemies exult over me. Those who hope in You will never be humbled; those who turn away from You will suffer disgrace! Teach me Your ways, o Lord.

Make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.

Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.

Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.

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Monday, 3 June 2013 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Sts. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we heard today about the parable of the tenants in a vineyard, which Jesus told to the people, in order to foreshadow His own sacrifice on the cross as the Son of God, and as the Saviour. Indeed, Jesus Christ, who died for all of us, is the person whom Jesus told as the son of the owner of the vineyard, who was murdered in cold blood by the evil tenants who wanted to grab the vineyard as their own.

How does then, this story relates to the salvific mission of Christ in this world? It may be a bit difficult to see at first, but as you can see, that vineyard is none other than our world! It is a representative of our world, told by Jesus in a parable. To us, to whom the Lord had revealed His truth and knowledge, the truth cannot be further than that. Who are we then in that world? We are the vineyard tenants, who had been entrusted with the care of the vineyard by the owner of that vineyard, the owner of the world, that is our one and only God.

We had been entrusted with this world ever since creation, when God created mankind from dust, and to the first men, God had given the earth with all things inside it under our authority and our care, just like how the owner entrusted the vineyard to the tenants, whom he wished that they work hard and toil in the vineyard, producing much fruits, and bring profits to both the owner and of course, the tenants themselves.

But, just as what happened to the tenants afterwards, the same too had often happened in our world. Instead of being responsible and playing their parts as stated in the tenants’ agreement with their owner, that they should give him part of the profits, they abused their power and authority given to them, and therefore, violating the agreement that were in place between them and the owner.

The same too had happened repeatedly throughout the history of mankind. Man, since their first disobedience, in Adam and Eve our ancestors, by disobeying God’s commands, had become sinful and through sin, we had become increasingly abusive of the authorities granted to us. Through our greed and our desire, we become protective of our entitlements and did not give glory to God of what is His due, and instead, glorifying ourselves, and focus on our own human glory.

But in the parable, the owner did not remain quiet, and he sent many servants whom he entrusted with the dialogue between them and the tenants, that they pass to the tenants the message of the owner, desiring to renew that commitment. Who then are these servants in our world? The prophets! Remember the many prophets that God had sent over the history of mankind, and many of them brought the word of God to the people, but the people remained adamant and proud in their rebellious ways.

They even slaughtered God’s prophets and messengers, much as how the tenants of the vineyard slay the servants of the owner, even as more and more servants were sent their way. They remained solid in their rebelliousness and their pride, unwilling to submit to God’s authority.

Then ultimately the owner sent his own son, arguing that because it was his own son, certainly the rebellious tenants would fear and obey him, just as they should have obeyed the owner. That son, as I had mentioned, is indeed Jesus, that is Jesus Christ our Lord, the Son of God. God so loved the world, and such is His love that He did not want that we who rebelled against Him be condemned to eternal death in hell with Satan the deceiver.

That is why He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, through whom the world would finally see its salvation. But the people rejected Him, and not only rejection, but they even condemned Him to death, death on the cross. That was exactly how the son of the owner was killed in cold blood by the tenants, because the tenants thought that they would be gaining the inheritance of the vineyard if they killed the son.

The same too happened to us, because in our pride and our stone-hearted nature, many of us rejected Christ and the truth He brought to us. The world itself is against the Lord, because the world is of the evil one, while Christ does not belong to the world, because He is holy as He is perfect. That is why the world also hates those who follow Christ, because those who follow Christ are not like those rebellious tenants. Because by following Christ, we are transformed, from those rebellious tenants in the Gospel we heard today, to the true tenants of the land, by following the way of the Lord.

Life will not be easy for the disciples of the Lord, just as the first reading today told us about Tobit, the Israelite exile, who grew wealthy in foreign lands, but yet, opposition was rampant all around him, and he faced the fact of that opposition directly when his son told him about an Israelite who was strangled on the roadside. That was yet another example on how the world, who represent the rebelliousness of those wayward tenants, hate Christ and those who hear His word and follow Him.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Charles Lwanga, a great missionary, who was also martyred for his faith. He did a lot of great work in evangelisation and conversion in his native Uganda, and was martyred for his conversion of Ugandans, whose king persecuted Christians whom he perceived as a threat to the society of the people at the time. St. Charles Lwanga remained faithful even unto death, and through his death, received the heavenly glory of sainthood through martyrdom.

Be courageous and strong, brothers and sisters in Christ, remember that Jesus told us that the owner will not stay silent, and will rise to destroy the evil tenants. Our God is a merciful and loving God, but He is also a just and good God, who dislikes all things evil. Therefore, the Lord will also rise on the last days, to destroy those whom persecuted God’s people. Remain faithful and remain in God’s grace, and He will reward us. Have the strong faith in God like St. Charles Lwanga had, and remain in His favour.

St. Charles Lwanga, pray for us. May God be with us and give us courage to fight against the evils of this world, and may all of us be good tenants of the vineyard of the Lord, responsible and just in our power and authority over what God has given to us. Amen.