forgiveness of sins

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Tuesday, 27 January 2015 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Angela Merici, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the readings today spoke very clearly of what the Lord wants from us, not outward obligations and observations of rituals and celebrations of our faith without understanding the meaning behind them, that is the love which we should have for our loving God. We should not just observe our faith externally, or because we feel forced to do so, but rather, we should all have the awareness and the desire to truly seek and love the Lord our God with all of our hearts.

In the Gospel our Lord Jesus made it clear to His disciples and followers, that all those who does the will of God and obey His commandments, by their understanding of the Law, will be considered as His brethren and His family. And therefore, by this, Jesus showed us all, that those who will be rewarded, will be those who hear of the word of God, but did not just let it remain as that, and instead they take concrete action, showing their faith by doing things according to what they believe in.

And this is true faith, not the faith of hypocrites, who spoke loudly of worshipping God and worshipping Him through outward actions and gestures, but in their hearts, they kept no God inside, but instead, their own ego and selfishness. They cared only about themselves and about their own good. That was why, God was angry with them and cast them away from His presence.

We have to realise that what God desires from us, is love. And not just love as we often know it, brothers and sisters in Christ, but love that is genuine, unconditional and true, just as the love which our Lord had first shown us through Jesus. He loves us all sincerely and when we are still wicked sinners, filled to the brim with sin, He had loved us all regardless of that fact.

That is how great God’s love is for us, dear brethren, for we all heard how the greatest love is for one to die and give up his or her life for the sake of his or her friend, but that is done when the one has good relationship with those for whom he or she had sacrificed himself for. And our Lord Jesus, who calls us friends, brothers and also sisters, died for us all, when all of us are still locked in a state of bitter enmity and rebelliousness against Him.

Thus, as we live our faith, we all have to truly commit ourselves to the way of the Lord. Our faith cannot be mere lip service nor should it be merely external in appearances. Rather, our faith should be the centre of our very being, with God at our heart, and with all of His precepts and ways as our own way, which we realise through our actions in loving one another with passion and true faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of St. Angela Merici, a holy virgin and servant of God, who had dedicated herself to a life of service to the Lord. She had committed herself with many of her fellow religious, to a life of prayer and contemplation. Yet this does not mean that she ceased doing good for the world and for all others who were around her.

St. Angela Merici was particularly renowned for her efforts in improving Catholic education and its institutes, helping many people to have better lives through education, and saving many people from the sufferings of the world. St. Angela Merici championed the life that is consecrated and made holy, offered to God, but through that sanctity and holiness, she and many others who followed in her footsteps influenced all those whose lives she and her followers had touched.

Therefore, as all of us reflect on the life of St. Angela Merici, let us all realise what we should do in this life, in order to fulfill what God had wanted from us. We have to be truly devoted in our faith, and show that through our actions. Whenever we see others around us who are in need, we should be ever ready to provide help and love them regardless of what they have done to us before.

Be ready to forgive and be gentle to those who have caused us hurt. Do not seek revenge or build up hatred, but let our actions be filled with God’s love. May Almighty God witness our actions and that He may say to us on the last day, “Well done, My faithful servants, for You have done what I have asked you to do,” and then bring us into His eternal salvation. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 27 January 2015 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Angela Merici, Virgin (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

Psalm 39 : 2 and 4ab, 7-8a, 10, 11

With resolve I waited for the Lord; He listened and heard me beg. He put a new song into my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

Sacrifice and oblation You did not desire; this You had me understand. Burnt offering and sin offering You do not require. Then I said, “Here I come!”

In the great assembly I have proclaimed Your saving help. My lips, o Lord, I did not seal – You know that very well.

I have not locked up in my heart Your saving help, but have spoken about it – Your deliverance and Your faithfulness; I have made no secret of Your truth and of Your kindness in the great assembly.

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Tuesday, 27 January 2015 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Angela Merici, Virgin (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

Hebrews 10 : 1-10

The religion of the Law is only a shadow of the good things to come; it has the patterns but not the realities. So, year after year, the same sacrifices are offered without bringing the worshippers to what is the end. If they had been cleansed once and for all, they would no longer have felt guilt and would have stopped offering the same sacrifices. But no, year after year their sacrifices witness to their sins and never will the blood of bulls and goats take away these sins.

This is why on entering the world, Christ says : ‘You did not desire sacrifice and offering; you were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings.’ Then I said, ‘Here I am. It was written of me in the scroll. I will do Your will, o God.’

First He says : ‘Sacrifice, offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire nor were You pleased with them’ – although they were required by the Law. Then He says : ‘Here I am to do Your will.’ This is enough to nullify the first will and establish the new.

Now, by this will of God, we are sanctified once and for all by the sacrifice of the Body of Christ Jesus.

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Sunday, 25 January 2015 : Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the great feast of the conversion of the great Apostle St. Paul, who was once known as Saul, the great enemy and persecutor of the Church and the faithful ones of God. God made him to be an Apostle and the great champion of the Faith, spreading the Good News of the Gospel to the farthest ends of the known world at the time. By his works, many followed in his footsteps and were converted as well.

This is in line with the readings we heard today in the Holy Scriptures, the first reading taken from the Book of the prophet Jonah spoke of the repentance and penitence shown by the people of Nineveh, the great capital of the Assyrian Empire, which God had marked to be annihilated for their sins and wickedness. The people, from the king to the lowest servants and slaves immediately repented from their sins after they listened to the warnings of the prophet Jonah.

This is to highlight God’s nature, that is His love and mercy, which He freely gives to all those who put their trust in Him and those who want to be forgiven for their wickedness. Thus, He forgave those who have come to His throne and mercy, and most importantly, those who dedicated themselves to change their way of life and committed to a life free from sin and to walk in the way of the Lord from then on.

Thus was Paul forgiven and called by God, to change his ways of sin and wickedness, the sin of the rejection of Christ and of the persecution of the faithful ones of God, into one that is devoted to the salvation of souls and total faith and trust in God. Indeed, even today, we can only be truly amazed at how God called one of His greatest servants and defenders from among the sinners and among those who have once hated Him so much so as to swore to destroy His entire Church.

And in the Gospel today, the theme is repeated yet again, for God through Christ called the servants whom He would make to be His greatest servants and witnesses in the world, the Holy Apostles, who have been given the authority to teach and preach the Good News, the power to heal and to forgive sins, just as the Lord gave them all these.

This is to show us that God does not want to punish us sinners and rebels against His will, even though rightfully and justly we should have been punished very severely for the disobedience we have committed against the Lord. Yes, just as St. Paul who once as Saul became a scourge for the faithful, getting hundreds or maybe even thousands or more of the faithful of the early Church to become martyrs, and yet God was willing to forgive him and embrace him back into His love.

That is why we have to always remember that God truly loves us sinners, but He hates entirely our sins, our wickedness and all the filthy things we have committed in this life. Condemn not the sinners but the sin. That said, we must not have the false attitude of showing mercy to those who have committed sin but without seeking for their repentance and changing of their ways.

And why is this so important, brothers and sisters in Christ? If we look at what St. Paul himself wrote in the second reading, which was taken from his letter to the faithful in Corinth, he wrote about the imminence of the coming of the end, of the coming of the kingdom of God, and therefore, as we all should be aware of, that is the imminence of the coming of the last and final judgment of all creation, of all mankind.

Are we not too concerned of the fate of our fellow brethren? Are we all too selfish and concerned only about ourselves that we forget about others who still linger in the darkness and in sin? Are we proud of ourselves having been saved by the Lord and do we look down on those who are still filled with the filth of sin, without us offering a hand to help them out of their sinfulness into grace?

If our answers to all of this self-reflecting questions are yes, then we really have to look into ourselves, and ask us what is our faith truly about? Our faith in God is about believing in the Lord who have so much love for us sinners, that despite of all the filth of sin surrounding us, He still resolved to help and rescue us, and that was why He gave us Jesus His Son, to be our Redeemer.

Those of us who heard of the Good News of God and believed, and chose to accept Him as our Lord and Saviour, had been bathed and cleansed from the taints of our sins, of original sins and of our own sins, by the Blood of the Lamb of God, Christ who sacrificed Himself on the cross for us. By His death we were cast free from the suffering of death, and by His resurrection we are brought to a new life, life filled with the grace of God.

We have to realise that even great saints were themselves sinners once. No one was born a saint, except perhaps the Blessed Mother of our Lord, Mary, who was born clean and immaculate, free from sin, in order to prepare her in her role as the bearer of the Almighty God and Saviour, and of course our Lord Himself, born a Man and yet free from sin. All saints and holy people of God were once sinners too.

Yes, some saints were once murderers, adulterers, and we knew how St. Augustine lived in his youth, in debauchery and in the midst of worldliness, that his mother St. Monica prayed day and night with tears for the conversion of her son. And that is the attitude we should all have, to pray fervently for those around us who still sin, that they may receive the call and grace of God, and hope that they will turn their ways and embrace God’s mercy and forgiveness.

Like St. Paul, who had done so much great evils and sins in his youth, had he not been called, or if he had been rejected by God, and had he been rejected by the community of the faithful, then surely many countless souls would have been lost, those whom he had directly and indirectly touched throughout his long mission and service to God, whom without him would likely not have heard the word of God, spoken through St. Paul, the faithful servant, and the repentant sinner.

Therefore, shall we all realise that our action and proactive act are necessary for us to help our brethren to also find their way to the Lord? That is true Christian faith and true love, as Christ had taught us, that we embrace those who have hated and persecuted us because of our faith, those who have sinned and refused to believe in God, and by our actions, in which we show and infuse God’s love and mercy, we may bring them to realise the gravity of their sins, and the threat of eternal death they are facing, and therefore, immediately to turn their ways to find the Lord our God and their God, before it is too late for them.

May all of us be strengthened with the new Spirit of God, in the evangelisation and conversion of the world, so that many more people and many more souls can be saved and will be saved from the clutches of Satan, through our actions, be it through direct acts, or through our words and our loving acts to them, or even if it is through a simple prayer, prayed for their sake.

Let us all no longer be indifferent or ignorant of the plight of others around us who still dwell in sin, but let us free them, just as the Lord freed Saul from his sins and called him to be His servant, and thus let us help one another, to become holy people of God, saintly and devoted, that in the end, as many as possible are saved and brought into the Holy Presence of God. God be with us all, and forgive us sinners from our sins. Amen.

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Sunday, 25 January 2015 : Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 24 : 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9

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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Sunday, 25 January 2015 : Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Jonah 3 : 1-5, 10

The word of YHVH came to Jonah a second time : “Go to Nineveh, the great city, and announce to them the message I give you.”

In obedience to the word of YHVH, Jonah went to Nineveh. It was a very large city, and it took three days just to cross it. So Jonah walked a single day’s journey and began proclaiming, “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

The people of the city believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not carry out the destruction He had threatened upon them.

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(Usus Antiquior) Third Sunday after Epiphany, Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul and Feast of St. Peter the Apostle (II Classis) – Sunday, 25 January 2015 : Epistle

Liturgical Colour : Green

Lectio Epistolae Beati Pauli Apostoli ad Romanos – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Romans

Romans 12 : 16-21

Fratres : Nolite esse prudentes apud vosmetipsos : nulli malum pro malo reddentes : providentes bona non tantum coram Deo, sed etiam coram omnibus hominibus. Si fieri potest, quod ex vobis est, cum omnibus hominibus pacem habentes : Non vosmetipsos defendentes, carissimi, sed date locum irae.

Scriptum est enim : Mihi vindicta : ego retribuam, dicit Dominus. Sed si esurierit inimicus tuus, ciba illum : si sitit, potum da illi : hoc enim faciens, carbones ignis congeres super caput ejus. Noli vinci a malo, sed vince in bono malum.

English translation

Brethren, do not be wise in your own conceits. To no man you should render evil for evil, providing good things not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of men. If it is possible, as much as it is in you, have peace with all men. Do not make revenge yourselves, my dearly beloved, but give place unto wrath.

For it is written, ‘Revenge is Mine, I will repay,’ the Lord had said. But if your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for in doing this, you shall heap coals of fire upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by doing good.

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Saturday, 24 January 2015 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the works of Jesus which had brought about redemption and salvation to mankind. Many people did not understand at first what He had done. Even those among His own family thought that He was not right in His mind, as the Gospel today would show. But all this just show us how little mankind could comprehend the minds of the Lord.

While mankind were still by their earthly and worldly desires, while the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were still obsessed by the worldly laws and human laws they have made, our Lord Jesus Christ had brought the truth of God into the world, dispelling all of the lies of the devil, who tried to mislead us away from the truth of the Lord in Jesus.

What we have to realise, brothers and sisters in Christ, is that we have to know what our Lord had done for our sake, to liberate us from the clutches of Satan, from the chains of sin that binds us to suffering and death. The devil, Satan, by nature will definitely not want to let us to be released from our bonds to him, that is the bonds of everlasting suffering and eternal death, that is the fate of Satan.

For Satan had rebelled against God in his vanity and pride, and as he was cast down and condemned, together with many of his fellow rebel angels, thus, he wanted to bring us down as well, God’s most beloved and most perfect creations, the race of mankind. And that was why he brought down our first ancestors, by tempting them and luring them into sin, and to disobey the Lord, our God.

It is the love of our God, our loving Father which had made Him to send His Son, Jesus Christ, a part of Himself in the Holy Trinity, the Word made Flesh, for our salvation and liberation. Yes, it is to liberate us from the chains of sin, from the bonds that bound us to the rebellion of Satan, that is the sins of pride, greed, jealousy, wrath, sloth and many other vices we committed in this life.

And by the shedding of His Blood and the scourging of His own Body, Christ our Lord brought new life to us all, by His perfect and selfless sacrifice, bearing the sins which we should have borne, up the hills of Calvary, bearing that cross of sin and shame, and transformed it into the cross of victory and triumph against evil. This is our faith, and this is what we believe in. The world may not believe in us and it may ridicule us just as they had done to Jesus, but the truth remains, that the love of our Lord had saved us.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Francis de Sales, a holy bishop and the renowned founder of the Salesian religious order, and also a Doctor of the Church for his many and various works that helped to anchor the truth of God among the faithful ones of God in His Church. St. Francis de Sales was a brave and courageous defender of the faith, as the Bishop of Geneva, during the greatly turbulent times of the false Protestant ‘reformation’, the heresy brought by the confusion of Satan, designed to tempt and misled mankind to follow the path of sin.

St. Francis de Sales was a humble and hardworking servant of God and of His Church, humbly taking on the responsibilities which had been given to him, and carried them out with great patience and zeal. He preached the truth of God to the countless multitudes of people who had been misled by Satan, and managed to bring many back to the one true Faith and reconciled them to the Church.

Despite of the difficulties and the ridicules he faced, as well as the numerous threats against his life, St. Francis de Sales persevered, and through his many works, devotions, and writings, he became a great inspiration for many, as the light in the darkness for countless souls lost in the lies of Satan, bearing the Light of Christ to them, in order to guide them to return to the truth of Christ.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, inspired by the examples of St. Francis de Sales, we should be walking in his footsteps, to live our faith faithfully and devotedly, through real actions and commitment to God. We should no longer be afraid to proclaim the truth of the Lord, for He had given Himself, selflessly sacrificing Himself on the cross for our sake, that we may receive salvation through Him. Let us all be glad, for the love of God is with us, and let us ensure that many more souls can be brought back to the Lord, through our works. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 23 January 2015 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 84 : 8 and 10, 11-12, 13-14

Show us, o Lord, Your unfailing love and grant us Your saving help. Yet His salvation is near to those who fear Him, and His Glory will dwell in our land.

Love and faithfulness have met; righteousness and peace have embraced. Faithfulness will reach up from the earth while justice bends down from heaven.

The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its fruit. Justice will go before Him, and peace will follow along His path.

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Friday, 16 January 2015 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how Jesus healed the paralytic man, by saying that He forgave the sins of that paralytic man. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law cried foul at this, and they accused Jesus of blaspheming against God. They were indeed so blinded by their jealousy of Jesus and His popularity, as well as the truth in His teachings, that they failed to see that in Jesus and all that He did, He showed the fullness of the works and the love of God.

If we read the first reading today from the letter and Epistle to the Hebrews, we may be scared and some of us may think that our Lord is an angry and wrathful God. But we should not be deceived by appearances and by what we perceive from what we hear and witness. On the contrary, we know through what Jesus had done, that God does not wish for our destruction but instead for our salvation and safety in Him.

God indeed hates sin and all of its forms. Sin is a filth and a stain on the otherwise immaculate and beautiful creation, all the universe and including all creatures and us mankind. Sin prevents us from rejoining our Lord who is all good and perfect, and it is a chasm that separates us from His love and from the inheritance which He intended for us.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, suffering and death are not what we have to face in this world if not for sin that cause these to happen to us. It is we ourselves by our disobedience and refusal to listen to the Lord calling and imploring us to change our ways. And that was the attitude shown by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who thought that they were doing the right thing, but what they did was in fact an act of disobedience and defiance, blindness against the love that God had shown through Jesus.

Instead, our attitudes should be like that of the paralytic man and those men who had helped him to get to Jesus. They wanted to see the Lord and be with Him so much, and for the paralytic man, he wanted to be healed so much, that they all did the amazing things to bring themselves, particularly that of the paralytic man, to the Lord Jesus. For their faith, especially that of the paralytic man, they received great graces and the favour of God, and he was healed from his afflictions.

Truly, all of us are sick, brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all sick from that sin which prevents us from finding our way to be reunited with God our loving Father. We are all sick inside, in our heart, soul and mind, and through that sickness, often even our physical self is also affected. Jesus knew what is important for us, that beyond the facade of our physical suffering, like that of the paralytic man, lies the even much more serious affliction of our souls, that is sin.

For his faith, Jesus forgave his sins, and through that, He also made his body whole once again too. On the contrary, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, while outwardly seems to be good and healthy in their body and physique, but inside they were truly rotten and corrupted by sin and the force of their human desires, pride, jealousy, greed and many others.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, the ball is in our court to decide on what to do from now on. Shall we be like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, being prideful and haughty, being unbending and lacking humility to seek the mercy and forgiveness of God? Shall we be fearful and refuse to seek the forgiveness of God just because we are afraid of His punishments and wrath set against us all due to our sins?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God is like a father to us, and He is indeed our Father. He cares for us and loves us all with all of His heart. Which father will not be angry or will not admonish his son or daughter when they do something wrong? Which father will stay silent or pretend not to know when his children are doing something wicked or something that can harm their lives?

Obviously, our Lord and Father had shown His ultimate love for us through the giving of Jesus His Son, who became the perfect and complete manifestation of that love He has for us. He admonishes us and chides us because He cares for us, and He does not want even a single one of us to be lost to eternal death and suffering because of sin. And that is why He gave us Jesus, to be our Saviour and to bring us back to Himself.

Hence, brethren, shall we all appreciate the love which God has for us, and the healing which He had offered through Jesus His Son? Let us all throw far, far away all forms of sins and fornications from our lives. We have to embrace the fullness of God’s love, and we can only do that when we commit ourselves completely and fully to the love which Jesus had taught us. Let us ask God humbly for His mercy and forgiveness, that we may all be gathered together again one day and praise Him forevermore in heaven. God bless us all. Amen.

 

First Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/15/friday-16-january-2015-1st-week-of-ordinary-time-first-reading/

 

Psalm :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/15/friday-16-january-2015-1st-week-of-ordinary-time-psalm/

 

Gospel Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/15/friday-16-january-2015-1st-week-of-ordinary-time-gospel-reading/