God the Creator

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Thursday, 8 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Dominic, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 94 : 1-2, 6-7, 8-9

Come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful sound to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him giving thanks, with music and songs of praise.

Come and worship; let us bow down, kneel before the Lord, our Maker. He is our God, and we His people; the flock He leads and pastures. Would that today you heard His voice!

Do not be stubborn, as at Meribah, in the desert, on that day at Massah, when your ancestors challenged Me, and they put Me to the test.

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Tuesday, 6 August 2013 : Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 96 : 1-2, 5-6, 9

The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the distant islands be glad. Clouds and darkness surround Him; justice and right are His throne.

The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His justice, all peoples see His glory.

For You are the Master of the universe, exalted far above all gods.

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Monday, 5 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Mass of the Dedication of a Basilica)

Psalm 80 : 12-13, 14-15, 16-17

But My people did not listen; Israel did not obey. So I gave them over to their stubbornness and they followed their own counsels.

If only My people would listen, if only Israel would walk in My ways, I would quickly subdue their adversaries and turn My hand against their enemies.

Those who hate the Lord would cringe before Him, and their panic would last forever. I would feed you with the finest wheat and satisfy you with honey from the rock.

 

 

Alternative Reading (From the Mass for the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)

 

Judith 13 : 18bcde, 19

My daughter, may the Most High God bless you more than all women on earth. And blessed be the Lord God, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has led you to behead the leader of our enemies.

Never will people forget the confidence you have shown; they will always remember the power of God.

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Sunday, 4 August 2013 : 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 89 : 3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17

You turn humans back to dust, saying, “Return, o mortals!” A thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has passed, or like a watch in the night.

You sow them in their time, at dawn they peep out. In the morning they blossom, but the flower fades and withers in the evening.

So make us know the shortness of our life, that we may gain wisdom of heart. How long will You be angry, o Lord? Have mercy on Your servant.

Fill us at daybreak with Your goodness, that we may be glad all our days. May the sweetness of the Lord be upon us; may He prosper the work of our hands.

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Saturday, 3 August 2013 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture readings urge us to always be righteous and honest in all the things that we do, in all our dealings with others and in our relationship with the Lord our God and our neighbours, our fellow men. We are urged to always take the path of the righteous ones and avoid the path as taken by King Herod and those who try to cheat and be dishonest in all their actions.

For actions like that of King Herod shows not only dishonesty, but also giving up of oneself to the temptations of the world and the power of evil. King Herod followed his lust and desire to take the former wife of his own brother as his own. It is unlawful because it seems that the King had taken her as wife while his brother was yet still alive, and therefore committed adultery with her in the eyes of man and God.

He gave in to the temptations of the devil, the lust for human beauty and pleasures of the world, especially through his privileged position as a king at the time, surrounded by good things and other things enjoyed by the privileged class. The same was warned against the people of Israel by the Lord through Moses, that they do not let themselves be swayed by their positions and privileges so as to cheat on others on their money, their possessions or other related things.

Money, wealth, and possessions are not necessarily bad, and neither does other things that can give us happiness and pleasurable feelings. However, it is important that we do not misuse them for our own selfish purposes and intents, that we end up being controlled by these things. We have to learn to control ourselves, our desires, and our emotions. Learn to control our possessions, and do not let them control us instead.

We must always focus our attention on the Lord, and put our full trust in Him. He is the One who can give us everything that we need in our respective lives. The Lord our God is the source of our true happiness and our true joy. It is not in the world that we can find our true happiness and pleasure, not in sexual relations, human beauty, wealth, or abundance of possessions, but in the love of God, supported by our love of one another. If we do this, we obey the Lord’s commands, that is to love Him and love one another with all our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength.

If we do not love God with all our hearts and our strength, we will be more prone to the deceptions of the evil one, and eventually lead to scenarios such as the one in the Gospel, where King Herod was literally forced to behead St. John the Baptist and therefore made a great sin in the eyes of God, just because of his complete fascination in his own wife’s daughter’s beauty. Then, the same also can happen as in the scenario highlighted in the First Reading, where temptations can indeed be great for anyone to deal dishonestly with one another, and cheat on one another, particularly in monetary matters.

If we love money and possessions more than our brethren and our Lord, then we will grow to desire to possess them more and more in amount. This will lead to even greater desire, an unending cycle of desire, that will end up with us committing greater and greater sins in the eyes of the Lord. One good example would be gambling, in which many stories tell the same case, that an insatiable desire for more wealth and possessions resulting in major loss of money, and therefore, immense financial problems, which later on, tend to push people to do sinful things such as stealing, crime, or even corruption.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must stand up for the Lord, and stand up for His love, and we must dare to stand up against the temptations of wealth, material, and worldly pleasures. We have to realise and come to a full understanding, that worldly possessions are not everything for us. What we truly need is the Lord and His love, and the love of our fellow brothers and sisters, and not the love of money or the love of the world. This is what truly can fulfill our needs, especially our need for love. Money and possessions can satisfy us, but it can never satisfy us forever. We have to use it as a tool to bring love to others instead of being controlled by it.

Let us commit ourselves to our Lord and God who loves us so much that He gave us Jesus as the perfect gift, the divine love of God, given to us freely, that we may have a new hope and a new life in us, in perfect reunion with our God and Creator. He is the true love and true happiness that we should all seek in life, and put our focus on. Let us never forget His Passion and His suffering, and ultimately His death on the cross at Calvary. Let us always look at our crucified Lord with pride in our hearts. May God bless all of us, and remain with us at all times. Amen.

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Saturday, 27 July 2013 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Exodus 24 : 3-8

Moses came and told the people all the words of YHVH and all His laws. The people replied with one voice : “Everything that YHVH has said, we shall do.” Moses wrote down all the words of YHVH, then rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve raised stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.

He then sent young men from among the sons of Israel to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice bullocks as peace offerings to YHVH. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins; and with the other half of the blood he sprinkled the altar.

He then took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. They said, “All that YHVH said we shall do and obey.” Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it on the people saying, “Here is the blood of the covenant that YHVH has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

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Monday, 15 July 2013 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Psalm 123 : 1-3, 4-6, 7-8

Had not the Lord been on our side – let Israel say – had not the Lord been on our side, when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive; such was their anger against us.

A bit more and the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away. Blessed be the Lord, who did not let us be devoured.

Like a bird our soul escaped from the snare of the fowler; the snare was broken and we were freed. Our help is in the Name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

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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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Sunday, 26 May 2013 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Trinity Sunday (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate a most important part of our faith, that is our belief in the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Today we commemorate the triune unity of our God, three aspects of the One God, Three but One, One but Three. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that is the wonder and the mystery of our faith, my brethren.

We hear about the Holy Trinity all the time, and in fact, whenever we make the sign of the cross, we are uttering the Holy Name of the Trinity, that is the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and during our baptism too, we are sealed in baptism by the Name of the Trinity. What is then this Trinity, and how does it form the basic tenet of our faith?

It is false to think that we worship three different Gods or three different divine persons in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three of them are one in unity, in a mysterious and indivisible bond of unity, and yet different from one another. Father is not Son, and is not the Holy Spirit, and neither is Son the Father, and neither is He the Holy Spirit, and the same applies to the Holy Spirit as well.

Just imagine a fire, a physical fire with flames that we can see with our eyes. Yes, we can see a fire, and that is the physical fire, because fire produces light that our eyes perceive as the flames of fire, and yet, we can also feel fire through other means, how? Precisely by its heat, which we feel as the warm sensation on our skin when we are near a fire. Then, there is yet, the kinetic energy of the fire, which is what is causing the heat, but certainly, just like heat, is invisible from our eyes.

These different characteristics of the fire is exactly like what the Holy Trinity is truly about, as three different dimensions and characteristics of the same, one thing, in this case, fire. Another example would be ice, in which the same can be observed. We can see the physical form of the ice, as a crystal-like solid, and we can touch and feel the ice, the slippery surface of the ice, and feel the coldness of the ice, even when we do not touch the ice. All of these are just like the Holy Trinity, three dimensions of the one, same being.

Or just like St. Patrick, how he tried to explain about the Holy Trinity to the pagan peoples of ancient Ireland, when he managed to convert them to the cause of Christ, by using the three-leaf clover, which has three lobes within one clover, as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, with each side representing one member of the Holy Trinity, and the entirety of the three sides forming a union of the Holy Trinity represented by the clover leaf.

That is the Holy Trinity of the One God that we believe in. None of them can exist without the other, because they are one in unity, and indivisible, you cannot take one out of the Trinity and expect to have the whole being the same as before, and that is if we can even take anyone of the three out, because it is as I had mentioned, indivisible and no power can divide the perfect unity between the Three members of the Holy Trinity.

We cannot take the heat out of the fire and expect the fire to be the same, and neither can we take out the flames, its physical shape, and expect to have a fire that is still what we call as fire, and neither can we take out the cold from the ice, and still expect to have ice as we know it. The heat, the shape, and the visible form of the flame, and the cold, the touch, and the form of the ice are inseparable from one another. They are clearly different, one aspect from another, but they are one, and they form one thing, that is the fire, or the ice.

That is our Holy Trinity, the God that we believe in, the God who is our Saviour, the one and true God. Who was very evident in the Gospel, at the baptism of Jesus at the Jordan River, when God the Father spoke in a loud voice that ‘This is My Son, the Beloved. My favour rests on Him.’, and the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus, the Son of God. All three persons of the Holy Trinity at the same scene indeed. That is why, in our own baptism, we too are sealed in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, just as Jesus Himself commanded His apostles, to make disciples of all nations.

The Holy Trinity is the centre of our faith, and in our Creed, we always reiterate our faith in the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God but with three different persona, united as one and indivisible, each with roles that complement each other, and each are united with one another in a perfect union of love.

We must always profess our faith in the Holy Trinity, my brothers and sisters, in God the Father who loves us and who created us from dust, and who gave us the breath of life through the Holy Spirit that gives life as the Lord of life, who proceeds from both the Father Himself and through Jesus His Son, whom He sent out of His great and infinite love for us, willing to redeem us and save us from our eternal damnation caused by our rebellion against His will at the beginning of time.

Though mankind through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, our ancestors, have sinned before God and therefore deserves death, but He does not give us up to death, but give us a new hope and a new chance through His Son, who came upon this world as a lowly and humble man like us. The Son of God Most High incarnate as a poor man, the Son of Mary, born in a stable, though He is a King.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Saviour and Lord, is the Word of God, and if we read the Gospel of John, at its beginning, we note that the Word of God is with God, since the beginning of time, and this Word of God became flesh, and came upon us, in the form of Jesus, so that God’s will that mankind be saved can become a reality, just as Christ had once made God’s creation a reality.

For it is through the Word of God that creation was made, in the Book of Genesis, which gave us the account of creation, God spoke, and creation beckons, and earth with all its goodness was made, together with the entire universe, including us, mankind, which He created last. This Word of God is God’s speech, and indivisible from Him, just as the Spirit is also indivisible, and existed since the beginning of time, when the Spirit of God also floated in the nothingness that is before creation. This again prove that our God is one God, but one God with three distinct persona, but yet united as one and indivisible in perfect unity.

God created us in His own image, and we are in the likeness of God, just as Jesus incarnate as one of us, made God even closer and more personal to all of us. Then to us, to those who believe in Him, in His work of salvation through the cross, He gave us the final gift of the Most Holy Trinity, that is the Holy Spirit, the last member of the Three, who empowers us and gives us strength in our hearts, and in the case of the Apostles, gave them the courage and faith to persevere and preach the Good News to many, that many too were saved, just as all of us today are saved, brothers and sisters in Christ.

The concept of the Holy Trinity in one God is truly not easy to be understood, brethren, and it is to be so, because indeed, in our faith, there are mysteries that our human mind are unable to solve, but we should not worry about that, and neither should we try to claim that we know more than God by trying to understand the Holy Trinity more than what we know through the teachings of the Church, which are the teachings of the Apostles passed down to us, through unbroken chain of apostles and faithful disciples of the Lord throughout history.

What matters is, let the Lord remain in our hearts, and keep His presence strong in us always, remembering at all times, the love of God our creator and our Father, the saving sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Son, whom we receive frequently in the Most Holy Eucharist, through which He gave us His own flesh and blood to eat, for us to have part in Him, and in the Holy Spirit that He has given all of us who believe in Him, and who remains in our hearts, bearing much fruits of the Holy Spirit, most important of which, that is love.

Let us profess the Holy Trinity in all that we do, in all our lives, and commit ourselves to the Trinity, most easily through our use of the sign of the cross, whenever we pray, and whenever we ask the Lord for guidance. Do not be afraid to make the sign of the cross, my brothers and sisters in Christ, for the sign of the cross, that is in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, marks the saving passion of our Lord on the cross, which brought salvation to all of us, and even more so, it also highlight to all who see us, as ones who believe in the One God with Three divine natures, that is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three persons, in one God, indivisible in perfect union of love.

May the Holy Trinity remain within our hearts always, and may all of us be strengthened with courage to profess our faith in our words, our actions, and all our dealings with all those whom we meet in our lives, that through our actions, the Holy Trinity is reflected and is shown to all those who have yet to believe in God. May God be with all of us, today, and forever more.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

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Monday, 6 May 2013 : 6th Week of Easter (Psalm)

Psalm 149 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b

Alleluia! Sing to the Lord a new song, sing His praise in the assembly of His saints. Let Israel rejoice in his Maker, let the people of Zion glory in their King!

Let them dance in praise of His Name and make music for Him with harp and timbrel. For the Lord delights in His people; He crowns the lowly with victory.

The saints will exult in triumph; even at night on their couches. Let the praise of God be on their lips. This is the glory of all His saints. Alleluia!