German saints

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Saturday, 23 April 2016 : Fourth Week of Easter, Memorial of St. George, Martyr and St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 14 : 7-14

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper, “If you know Me, you will know the Father also; indeed you know Him, and you have seen Him.”

Philip asked Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough.” Jesus said to him, “What! I have been with you so long and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever sees Me sees the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?”

“All that I say to you, I do not say of Myself. The Father Who dwells in Me is doing His own work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do.”

“Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in Me will do the same works that I do; and he will even do greater than these, for I am going to the Father. Everything you ask in My Name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Indeed, anything you ask, calling upon My Name, I will do.”

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Saturday, 23 April 2016 : Fourth Week of Easter, Memorial of St. George, Martyr and St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 97 : 1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.

The Lord has shown His salvation, revealing His justice to the nations. He has not forgotten His love nor His faithfulness to Israel.

The farthest ends of the earth all have seen God’s saving power. All you lands, make a joyful noise to the Lord, break into song and sing praise.

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Saturday, 23 April 2016 : Fourth Week of Easter, Memorial of St. George, Martyr and St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 13 : 44-52

The following Sabbath almost the entire city gathered to listen to Paul, who spoke a fairly long time about the Lord. But the presence of such a crowd made the Jews jealous. So they began to oppose with insults whatever Paul said.

Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out firmly, saying, “It was necessary that God’s word be first proclaimed to you, but since you now reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we turn to non-Jewish people. For thus we were commanded by the Lord : I have set you as a light to the pagan nations, so that you may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Those who were not Jews rejoiced when they heard this and praised the message of the Lord, and all those destined for everlasting life believed in it. Thus the Word spread throughout the whole region.

Some of the Jews, however, incited God-fearing women of the upper class and the leading men of the city, as well, and stirred up an intense persecution against Paul and Barnabas. Finally they had them expelled from their region. The Apostles shook the dust from their feet in protest against this people and went to Iconium, leaving the disciples filled with joy and Holy Spirit.

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Wednesday, 3 February 2016 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr and St. Ansgar, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if we heard today’s first reading from the Book of the prophet Samuel, we may become confused by the meaning of the story. After all, it happened during the reign of king David that after God had made his reign secure and defeated all of his rivals and enemies. And then suddenly, God punished David and his kingdom for his supposed disobedience. What did happen actually?

The key here to understand the meaning of the passage, and the actions of those who are involved in the Gospel passage. Why did king David act in the way that he had done? It was likely because of comfort and human tendency to hubris and pride, that when one is given power, authority and affluence, one tends to be complacent and allow pride to enter one’s heart.

King David asked for a census and a count of the entire people of the kingdom of Israel. It seems like something that is normal and not beyond anything strange, but if we see how God had blessed David with so many good graces and blessings, then we should realise how this act showed clearly how David was affected by the poison of pride.

It is the same with many of us mankind. For after we have already gained many things, it is very difficult for us to be satisfied, desiring ever more things and goods, so that we are never satisfied and wanting more things for ourselves. That is why in our greed we often bring about our own destruction, as we end up doing things contrary to what our Lord had taught and shown us, and instead embarking on a path of self-fulfilment.

David wished to count how many people he had, because in his heart, even though he knew how God had blessed him with prosperity, triumphant victories and glory throughout his life and reign as king, but in his heart, he was careless and allowed power and greed to corrupt him, and he desires to know how many subjects he had, to highlight and revel in his own glory, human power and affluence.

Is this not the same with people who always worry about their possessions, and count how many coins and how much money they have? It is because of the concerns of the world, the temptation of possessions, pleasures of the earth and other things that had made so many people to fall down into the pit of sin and darkness. It was what made king David stumble in this case too, just as he once also sinned with Bathsheba, the wife of his own loyal servant.

All these then come to what we heard in the Gospel today, where we heard how our Lord Jesus was rejected by His own townspeople. He was cast out and even the townspeople wanted to kill Him, all because He had shown them many things that they could not comprehend in their minds, and they could not take it upon themselves to believe that He Whom they had known as a simple carpenter, and the Son of a mere carpenter could have been God’s Messiah.

They thought that they knew Jesus and Who He was, where He came from, and what He was capable of, but in their judgmental attitude and bias, they had forgotten that the ways of the Lord are not always the same as the ways of men. And therefore, through Jesus, God made it clear to the world that in order to follow Him, we have to cast aside our human biases, our human ambitions, desires and wants, so that we may not be corrupted by them but instead be purified by the Lord and by His grace.

Today we commemorate the feast of two great and renowned saints, whose deeds and actions had shown how faithful they were to the Lord and how loving they were in their service of His people, in bringing them closer to Him and rescuing the souls of those who have been lost in the darkness. They are St. Blaise, a bishop and martyr of the faith, and St. Ansgar, who was also a holy servant and bishop of God.

St. Blaise was renowned by the blessing of St. Blaise, in which two crossed candles are placed in front of the throats of the faithful as a sign of God’s protection and blessing upon them to guard against the diseases and sickness of the throat through the intercession of St. Blaise. But the history behind this popular and ancient rite went much deeper into how St. Blaise lived his life in faith to God and how he met his martyrdom for His sake.

St. Blaise was a Roman bishop who lived in the area now known as Turkey, where he ministered faithfully to the people of God entrusted to him as their bishop, as shepherd and guide, and he was also a renowned physician who was able to heal many bodily ailments. After having devoted himself to the service of God, he became a great healer of souls, bringing many people back from the darkness and into the light.

It was told that during a particularly vicious persecution by the Eastern Emperor, Licinius, St. Blaise was arrested with many others of the faithful, and when in prison, he helped to heal a sick child who had a fish bone stuck in his throat. Through his prayers and by the grace of God, the child was healed from his illness and recovered. This he had done just prior to his martyrdom, and it was from where the popular devotion and blessing of St. Blaise came from.

Meanwhile, St. Ansgar was a German saint, a renowned preacher and a faithful servant of God, who ministered to the pagans and all the unbelievers who still lived in the area now encompassing the northern regions of Germany. He went from place to place, preaching the word of God and calling for the repentance of sinners, and for their genuine conversion to the faith.

St. Ansgar encountered many challenges, difficulties, oppositions and threats against his safety and life throughout his missions, but he never gave up or feared the challenges presented to him. Instead, he continued to push forward and preached the word of God with even greater fervour and devotion. Many listened to his call, received baptism from his hands and from his followers, and became faithful Christians.

Through his hard work and devotion, not withstanding and submitting to his own desires, St. Ansgar, and similarly with St. Blaise, both of these faithful and courageous servants of God show us that if we are faithful and if we are able to commit ourselves and remove from ourselves the temptations of power, pride and all the things of the world that distract us, we can really go very far in life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to take note of what king David had done immediately after he had realised his error. He did not proudly boast of his achievements or refused to change, but immediately, he lowered himself and humbled himself before God, asking Him to have mercy on him and on his people. This is what we must do as well, whenever we have erred and sinned.

Let us all cast away our shackles of pride, desire, and all the darkness that is in us. Let us then allow the Lord to come into our lives, and let us ask Him to give us His Holy Spirit, so that our bodies, our minds, hearts and souls may be made pure and be worthy of Him. And let us all also do and say things in accordance with His will from now on, following the examples of the great saints, St. Blaise and St. Ansgar.

May God be with His people always, and may He continue to bless us, and keep us in His love always. May He forgive us our sins and bring us all into the eternal life He had promised all of His faithful ones. Amen.

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Wednesday, 3 February 2016 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr and St. Ansgar, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

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

Mark 6 : 1-6

At that time, leaving the place where He raised up the dead girl, Jesus returned to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach on the synagogue, and most of those who heard Him were astonished.

But they said, “How did this come to Him? What kind of wisdom has been given to Him, that He also performs such miracles? Who is He but the Carpenter, the Son of Mary, and the Brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here among us?” So they took offense at Him.

And Jesus said to them, “Prophets are despised only in their own country, among their relatives, and in their own family.” And He could work no miracles there, but only healed a few sick people, by laying His hands on them. Jesus Himself was astounded at their unbelief. Jesus then went around the villages, teaching.

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Wednesday, 3 February 2016 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr and St. Ansgar, Bishop (Psalm)

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

Psalm 31 : 1-2, 5, 6, 7

Blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven, whose iniquity is wiped away. Blessed are those in whom the Lord sees no guilt and in whose spirit is found no deceit.

Then I made known to You my sin and uncovered before You my fault, saying to myself, “To the Lord I will now confess my wrong.” And You, You forgave my sin, You removed my guilt.

So let the faithful ones pray to You in time of distress; the overflowing waters will not reach them.

You are my Refuge; You protect me from distress and surround me with songs of deliverance.

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Wednesday, 3 February 2016 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr and St. Ansgar, Bishop (First Reading)

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

2 Samuel 24 : 2, 9-17

The king said to Joab and the commanders of the army who were with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and count the people that I may know how many they are.”

Joab gave the total count of the people to the king : eight hundred thousand sword-wielding warriors in Israel and five hundred thousand men in Judah. But after he had the people counted, David felt remorse and said to YHVH, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done, but now, o YHVH, I ask You to forgive my sin for I have acted foolishly.”

The following day, before David awoke, YHVH’s word had come to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, “Go, and give David this message : I offer you three things and I will let one of them befall you according to your own choice.” So Gad went to David and asked him, “Do you want three years of famine in your land? Or do you want to be pursued for three months by your foes while you flee from them? Or do you want three days’ pestilence in your land? Now, think and decide what answer I shall give Him Who sent me.”

David answered Gad, “I am greatly troubled. Let me fall into the hands of YHVH Whose mercy is abundant, but let me not fall into human hands.” So YHVH sent a pestilence on Israel from morning until the appointed time, causing the death of seventy thousand men from Dan to Beersheba.

When the Angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, YHVH would punish no more and said to the Angel who was causing destruction among the people, “It is enough, hold back your hand.” The Angel of YHVH was already at the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite.

When David saw the Angel striking the people, he spoke to YHVH and said, “I have sinned and acted wickedly, but these are only the sheep; what have they done? Let Your hand strike me and my father’s family.”

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Friday, 14 August 2015 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how Joshua, the leader of Israel and successor to Moses, the faithful servant of God, gathered the whole people of Israel and reminded them of the wonders and good things that God had done for them, from the time of their ancestors right down to their time, reminding them of how much God had done for them.

God had given so much to His people, even though from time to time, again and again they have disobeyed and refused to listen to Him and obey to Him. He has blessed them from time to time, and renewed His covenant and promise to His people yet again and again, but many rejected His offer of love and mercy, and many people continued to live in their ways of sin.

God is forever faithful and He is always ready to give His mercy and love to all those who seek them. But at the same time, it does not mean that He will let us to go our own path, that is He will not tolerate our sinfulness and our wayward behaviour, as if closing one eye against those sins. He is loving towards all of His people, but at the same time, He despises all forms of wickedness and sins.

In the Gospel today, Jesus spoke to the people about the importance, the sanctity and the nature of marriage, which is between one man and one woman, as decreed by the Lord since the beginning of creation, when He first created us mankind. Man and woman had been created to complement each other and to accompany each other, so that, as God had said, that man will join with woman and become one body, and that union is blessed and sanctified by God.

What God had made one, no man should ever separate or try to divorce. And that was what Jesus had said. He rebuked the people for their sinfulness and their refusal to open their hearts to admit the Lord into their hearts. He related this to how Moses had to allow the people to veer off from the true way to which God had led them, just so that the people might have their desires fulfilled.

The people of God always tried to bend the rules and challenge the order as established by the Lord, because they were easily tempted by worldly desires and by the sins they have committed. God has been very patient to endure from the people all the troubles and rejection which His people had given Him. They did not honour the holiness and sanctity of the sacrament of holy matrimony.

This is just as they did not regard the holiness and sanctity of life, which many of us should realise that in these days, more and more people treat life as if something that can be used and manipulated, no longer as something that is important and crucial. They trampled on life and the sanctity of marriage, dishonoured the Lord and the Law which He had given us for our sake.

God had given so much for us, and yet in our many actions, we showed how we despised and hated Him, and how we have not listened to Him calling us to be good and holy, just as He is holy. We have been immersed in this ‘culture of death’, where life to us, and the institution of the family is to us no longer important, and we rather place ahead, our desires and our selfishness.

Today, we celebrate the life of a great saint and martyr of the Faith, whose examples and life should inspire us to do differently from how we have done and how we have lived our lives so far. He is St. Maximilian Kolbe, the saint of the Holocaust, a Polish priest and missionary, whose many works and evangelising missions were known far and wide.

Bur best known to us was the action which he took during the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust, where the Germans under control of the NAZI party, led by Adolf Hitler, where many countless millions suffered in terrible conditions in various concentration camps and prisons, where their dignity as a human being is often completely ignored.

St. Maximilian Kolbe was among many of those who have been arrested by the NAZIs in their desire to destroy the dignity of many human lives. But he continued to minister to the people of God suffering and without dignity, raising hope and courage in their hearts. He celebrated the Holy Mass with them and encouraged them with his examples and words.

And his greatest act was, in imitation of the love of God for us, he volunteered to substitute himself with a man condemned to death because he failed in his attempt to escape from the concentration camp. He was willing to die in the man’s place, and especially after he knew that the condemned man had family waiting on the other side of the fence.

He willingly accepted death and became a martyr for the Faith, following the examples of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who had willingly given up His own life, laying it down on the cross, that through His ultimate sacrifice, all of us may be saved. Thus the examples of St. Maximilian Kolbe and ultimately the examples of Christ Himself should have inspired us all to love the Lord our God ever more, and shun all forms of wickedness and evil.

May the Lord our Almighty God help us to keep holy our lives, and awaken in all of us the desire to love all life, and the desire to keep the holiness found in all life and in marriage, the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. May He bless us and keep us faithful to Him always, so that we may be like His faithful servant, St. Maximilian Kolbe, whose memory and life we honour today. Amen.

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Friday, 14 August 2015 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 19 : 3-12

At that time, some Pharisees approached Jesus. They wanted to test Him and asked, “Is a man allowed to divorce his wife for any reason he wants?”

Jesus replied, “Have you not read that in the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and He said : Man has now to leave father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one body? So they are no longer two, but one body. Let no one separate what God has joined.”

They asked Him, “Then why did Moses command us to write a bill of dismissal in order to divorce?” Jesus replied, “Moses knew the hardness of your hearts, so he allowed you to divorce your wives; but it was not so in the beginning. Therefore I say to you : whoever divorces his wife, unless it be for prostitution, and marries another, commits adultery.”

The disciples said, “If that is the condition of a married man, it is better not to marry.” Jesus said to them, “Not everybody can accept what you have just said, but only those who have received this gift. There are eunuchs born so from their mother’s womb. Some have been made that way by others. But there are some who have given up the possibility of marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who can accept it, accept it.”

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Friday, 14 August 2015 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 135 : 1, 2, 3, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 24

Alleluia! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His kindness endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods, His kindness endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords, His kindness endures forever.

And He led His people through the desert, His kindness endures forever.

He struck down great kings, His kindness endures forever.

He gave their land as an inheritance, His kindness endures forever.

A heritage to Israel His servant, His kindness endures forever.

And He freed us from our oppressors, His kindness endures forever.