falsehood

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Saturday, 4 May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we who believe in Christ, and put our trust in His words, and place ourselves in His great love, do not belong to this world, which is owned by the evil one, with the sole intention of steering all of us away from the true path, that is the way of Christ. This they have done together by tempting the faithful ones in Christ, God’s sheep with the false promise of earthly pleasures and false joy and happiness.

Do not fear though, my brethren in faith, for Christ, our Lord Himself had also suffered such temptations and yet He won, because of His obedience to God His Father, and His unshakeable faith. We too ought to have that kind of faith and love for God, that we can deny the evil one, a passage into our hearts. Do not let the devil dwell inside us, but rather, let us put God at the centre of our very being, making our own body into a Holy Temple of His Presence.

God has made all of us His own, and gave Himself freely for our sake, giving His own flesh and blood that we can live eternally with Him in eternal joy and bliss. Not the temporary and false joy and happiness that this world can offer, but the lasting happiness of heaven. True happiness, and true joy, that the world cannot give, for there is only true joy when we are together and united with Christ our Lord and God, never again to be separated from Him.

The world hates the Lord, because it belongs to the devil, and therefore it will hate all of us too, who keep the faith in God strong. But if we remain faithful to the Lord, the devil and this world will have no power over us. We must keep our faith in God strong, and how to do this? By constant and healthy prayer life, to anchor ourselves in God, by being in constant direct line to God, we can keep ourselves from the power of evil. We also should receive the Lord regularly in deep devotion during the Mass, by attending Mass frequently, and devoutly receiving the Lord in the Eucharist.

The Eucharist, that is our Lord’s Precious Body and Blood will transform us into a Holy Temple of His divine Presence, as He enters our own unworthy bodies, and from the inside, He would transform us and made us worthy of Him, but only if our minds, our hearts, and our soul are open to Him and willing to accept Him.

Let us put our trust in God, who is our divine Master and Lord, who had triumphed over death, and who had won for us the fight against evil, and banish evil forever into the ultimate fate that awaits him, that is the lake of fire. Let us not fear evil and the world anymore, but continue to put our trust in God and love both Him and our fellow men. Keep our guard up, that the evil one will not ‘steal’ us from under God’s watch, but we need not fear if we stay in our faith in Him. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 9 April 2013 : 2nd Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christ had mentioned to Nicodemus, that all of us have to first believe in the teachings and testimonies of Christ, which we can read and see in the Bible and the Gospels, before we can indeed believe in the mysteries surrounding Christ and the tale of salvation. How can we believe that Christ is divine, and is our Lord, the Son of God, if we do not first believe in the teachings He had given to us through the Apostles, and through them, the Scriptures we are reading today?

Yes, indeed, we have to be born again in Christ, as He also mentioned to Nicodemus even earlier. But be careful, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that we do not fall into the falsehoods of some who assumed that they are better than the Apostles and the holy fathers of our faith, that is the early fathers of the Church, who established the sacred Doctrine and Traditions of the Church, through which the teachings of our Lord and His words are made easier for us to understand through explanations made by these fathers of our faith, and of course with the help of the Apostles and the evangelists who wrote the Gospels and those who witnessed the Lord and His actions firsthand.

For there are those who call themselves ‘Born-again’ ‘Christians’ who allege that all Christians must be ‘born again’ in order to be saved. They allege that there is a need for a kind of baptism, to be ‘immersed’ that people can then be ‘born again’ and therefore be saved. This kind of teaching ran contrary to the teachings of the Church and the holy Apostles, being aberration born out of ignorance and literal self-interpretation of the Holy Gospels and the Bible. For indeed, while it is important to read the Scripture and discern its meaning, we must never do so without any guidance from competent authorities, otherwise we are risking making the wrong interpretations and having the wrong ideas and approach to our faith.

In the first reading, we read how every early Christians share their possessions and their belongings for the good of one another, and in this way, indeed we can see that our faith is not merely personal faith, another facet of faith that the aberrant ‘Christians’ like to stress, that is to be ‘reborn again in Christ and have PERSONAL relationship with Christ that they can be saved’. Yes, indeed, it is important to have such a personal relationship with Christ, that is the closeness we have between ourselves and Christ our Lord, but we have to always remember that our faith that is personal is not enough, for our faith is as much communal as it is personal, and it is the communal faith that we have as a community of believers in the Church that makes our faith in the Lord perfect and complete.

In this sharing too, the early Christians also showed to us the true value of love and communality, that they share with one another their goods and their possessions, and that rid of the endless desires of man to haul in more possessions for themselves, and rid of greed, they truly practice the teachings of Christ to love one another. This is in fact the meaning of true communism, removed from the taints of Karl Marx and his twisted form of communism, and the ideologies espoused by those who followed after him. We must not be confused between this twisted communism and the true communism as practised by the early Christians.

Love one another, take care of your fellow neighbours, and follow our Lord, through His commandments and His teachings. May our lives truly reflect the love that is of God, and let us all share this love that is given to us by the Lord, that all people, especially the unloved ones, can truly experience the love of God, and share with one another the faith we have in Christ, as a community, caring and loving for one another, just as all of us love God even more.

May God grant us a heart of gold, to share what we have to those who do not have, and to those who hunger, both for food, and also more importantly for love, for those starved of love, that all of us, as we work in the love of God, can make this world a better place for everyone. Amen.