God the Father

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Friday, 26 April 2013 : 4th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

John 14 : 1-6

“Do not be troubled! Trust in God and trust in Me! In My Father’s house there are many rooms; otherwise, I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. After I have gone and prepared a place for you, I shall come again and take you to Me, so that where I am, you also may be. Yet, you know the way where I am going.”

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where You are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

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Friday, 26 April 2013 : 4th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Acts 13 : 26-33

Brothers, children and descendants of Abraham, and you also who fear God, it is to you that this message of salvation has been sent. It is a fact that the inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognise Jesus. Yet in condemning Him, they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath, but not understood.

Even though they found no charge against Him that deserved death, they asked Pilate to have Him executed. And after they had carried out all that had been written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.

But God raised Him from the dead, and for many days thereafter He showed Himself to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They have now become His witnesses before the people. We ourselves announce to you this Good News : All that God promised our ancestors, He has fulfilled for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus, according to what is written in the second psalm : ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’

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Wednesday, 24 April 2013 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

John 12 : 44-50

Yet Jesus had said, and even cried out, “Whoever believes in Me, believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me. And whoever sees Me, sees Him who sent Me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness.”

“If anyone hears My words and does not keep them, I am not the One to condemn him; for I have come, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects Me, and does not receive My word, already has a judge : the very word I have spoken will condemn him on the last day.”

“For I have not spoken on My own authority; the Father, who sent Me, has instructed Me in what to say and how to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life, and that is why the message I give, I give as the Father instructed Me.”

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Tuesday, 23 April 2013 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr (Scripture Reflection)

The Church is growing, in just barely years after the death and resurrection of Christ our Lord, the number of Christians grew exponentially. They were called Christians because they were of Christ, because they declared the life and death of Christ, and His resurrection, that brought hope of salvation to all mankind, that all who believe in Him may be saved.

Christians are unique because we believe in God, in a sacred and Holy Trinity, of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in an indivisible union of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. One God undivided with three natures, that complements one another, each being perfect on their own. We believe in Christ and in His teachings, because He came from the Father, and being the Son, He is one with the Father.

Now that Christ had risen from the dead, and liberated all mankind from the slavery of sin by Satan, and that He has returned to the Father, we can no longer see Him physically in this world, and yet, Christ’s presence is unmistakably clear in our world today, that despite the world’s hatred for Christ and His truth, He remained in our world ever since the day of the apostles, through the teachings that the apostles passed down to us through our priests and the ministers of the Lord’s Gospel.

We believed in Christ because of His good works and His ultimate work for the sake of us, that is His death on the cross. Had He not been of God, and one with God, His sacrifice would have been in vain, since the blood of mortal man has no power to save mankind from their fate of death, for having rebelled against the Lord, but because Christ is of God, and is God, His death made us all worthy of God by the shedding of the Precious Blood of the Lamb of God.

God our Father had given us all to Christ His Son, and as He Himself has said that no one that the Father has given Him was lost, and therefore, we, who had been saved, if we remain faithful to God and Christ His Son, we will gain eternal life in heaven with God. It is this promise of redemption and salvation that gave so many people a new reason for their life, and a new impetus for life, a new sense of purpose that drove them to embrace the Lord.

For without the Lord, we are nothing, and without the Lord we are empty. That is why our bodies, without a good soul anchored in the Lord, is just an empty husk of flesh, and a soul without God in it, is an empty and meaningless soul. God who gave us life through the Spirit He breathed into us when He created us made us perfect only if we keep Him always in our hearts.

Too often we forget about the Lord, and went on about our daily lives and schedules, and in the noisy world of our lives, we simply shut the Lord out, shut His soft whispers and words, and instead, involved ourselves with worldly distractions and desires, instead of listening to the Lord. No, this should not be the way. We should always keep the Lord at the centre of our lives, and put our ears, our minds, and our hearts ever ready to listen to Him and what His will is.

Today, we also commemorate the feast day of St. Adalbert, a bishop, and a martyr, who lived in the late first millennium, and who was martyred in his attempts to convert the pagans in Prussia. He converted many in Poland, Hungary, and the Baltic nations, bringing to many pagan peoples, the true faith and light of Christ, that many received salvation through the tireless preaching of St. Adalbert. He tirelessly worked for the sake of Christ, and spread the Gospel in many mission areas in Central and Eastern Europe, and did not show fear against the pagans and their beliefs. He was martyred for standing fast to his faith in Christ, in his attempts to bring Christ to them.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us return to the Lord, and place Him into the most important part of our lives once again, and that when the hectic schedules of our daily lives begin to take over us, let us remember to take a step back and remember the Lord, and keep Him always in our mind.

Do not let this world and its temptations deviate us from our true path, that is towards God. May God almighty strengthen us and our faith in Him, and allow us to listen at all times to His will, He who is our Good Shepherd, He who has chosen us and made us worthy, and He who had died for the sake of all of us. Let us follow the example of St. Adalbert, who worked hard and ceaselessly for the sake of God and the spreading of his Good News. Through his efforts, many who were chosen by God were saved. St. Adalbert, pray for all of us, and may God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 23 April 2013 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

John 10 : 22-30

The time came for the feast of the Dedication. It was winter, and Jesus walked back and forth in the portico of Solomon. The Jews then gathered around Him and said to Him, “How long will You keep us in doubt? If You are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

Jesus answered, “I have already told you, but you do not believe. The works I do in My Father’s Name proclaim who I am, but you don’t believe because, as I said, you are not My sheep. My sheep  hear My voice and I know them; they follow Me and I give them eternal life. They shall never perish, and no one will ever steal them from Me.”

“What the Father has given Me is above everything else, and no one can snatch it from out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.”

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Sunday, 21 April 2013 : 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, World Day of Prayer for Vocations (50th Anniversary) (Gospel Reading)

John 10 : 27-30

My sheep hear My voice and I know them; they follow Me and I give them eternal life. They shall never perish , and no one will ever steal them from Me. What the Father has given Me is above everything else, and no one can snatch it from out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.

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Friday, 19 April 2013 : 3rd Week of Easter, Eighth Anniversary of the Election of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 (Gospel Reading)

John 6 : 52-59

The Jews were arguing among themselves, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

“My flesh is really food, and My blood is truly drink. Those who eat My flesh and drink My blood, live in Me, and I in them. Just as the Father, who is life, sent Me, and I have life from the Father, so whoever eats Me will have life from Me. This is the bread which came from heaven; not like that of your ancestors, who ate and later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever.

Jesus spoke in this way in Capernaum, when He taught them in the synagogue.

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Wednesday, 17 April 2013 : 3rd Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

John 6 : 35-40

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in Me shall never be thirsty. Nevertheless as I said, you refuse to believe, even when you have seen. Yet all those whom the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me, I shall not turn away.

For I have come from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of the One who sent Me. And the will of the One who sent Me is that I lose nothing of what He has given Me, but instead that I raise it up on the last day. This is the will of the Father, that whoever sees the Son and believes in Him shall live eternal life; and I will raise Him up on the last day.

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Thursday, 11 April 2013 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Stanislas, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

John 3 : 31-36

He who comes from above is above all; He who comes from the earth belongs to the earth, and His word belongs to the earth. He who comes from heaven speaks of the things He has seen and heard; He bears witness to these things, but no one accepts His testimony. Whoever does receive His testimony acknowledges the truthfulness of God.

The one sent by God speaks God’s words, and gives the Spirit unstintingly. The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything into His hands. Whoever believes in the Son lives with eternal life; but He who will not believe in the Son will never know life, and always faces the justice of God.

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Sunday, 7 April 2013 : Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday (Scripture Reflection)

Doubt no more, but believe! Christ had returned to the land of the living after He harrowed hell and freed the just from the hands of the evil one. He returned as our Risen Lord, who represents the triumph of life over death, and the triumph of God against the rebellion of the evil one. The evil one tried his best to destroy God’s creations when he failed to take what to him what his right, that is the Throne of God. He enslaved us under sin and death, and kept us from returning to our most loving Father. Yet God did not give up, and to redeem us from Satan, He sent His only Son to us, that through His death and resurrection, we have hope of eternal life, and no longer be separated from God.

Yet, Satan would definitely not stay quiet and he will definitely tries his best to seize us back from God. This he had done many times so far through his cunning use of our contemporary world and its developments to corrupt us and to cause us to doubt on Christ and His goodness. Already he had sown the doubt in the hearts of the disciples, and most importantly, in the hearts of Thomas the Twin. Yet they believed because they eventually saw Christ when He appeared to them. It is indeed much easier for people to believe in something when they had witnessed it themselves. But what about us? Christ may no longer be physically walking among us, and therefore we may have greater difficulty in believing in Him. But should we then give up to Satan instead? No!

Indeed, Satan is more visible to us in our world today than Christ. He is everywhere, in our contemporary music, thoughts, and even our secular teachings. Many of our contemporary music, even in the Christian worship no longer represents Christ and praising God, and instead praise the greatness of men and therefore embodies the values that Satan had pushed for, that is pride and self-vanity. We are taught that God is no longer relevant to our daily lives, and there is such a disconnect from the greatness of God in all the things that we do, that whenever we discover something, we do it for our own glory rather than to glorify God, to whom glory should have been given.

We should instead put our trust in God, and return the glory that we should give due to Him, as indeed He is the One who made eternal life a possibility for us. We should have suffered eternal damnation and separation from God for our rebellion, and for us siding with Satan, beginning with our ancestors, since the times of Adam the first man. The evil one is just too glad that men were under his thrall, just as the Pharaoh enthralling the people of Israel, until their deliverance from Egypt through Moses. Christ too, had delivered us from Satan and his thrall, through His own death and resurrection, which we celebrate in this glorious Easter season.

But remember, that the people of Israel did not always remain faithful throughout their journey. They complained and rebelled and turned their heart against God. Despite of the numerous aids and gifts God had given them through Moses along the way, in the form of manna and many others, they continued to rebel against the Lord, and even wanting to return back to Egypt, where they said that life, even under slavery would have been much more enjoyable and better than freedom.

The same can also happen to us if we are not careful, because we too are prone to rebellion and temptations by the evil one. If we are careless, we would end up falling into the traps of Satan, and be engulfed by his false and empty promises. Yes, we do complain and rebel against the Lord, especially whenever we commit a sin before the eyes of God. Despite all His kindness and love, we do still reject Him at times, and inflict great pains upon our Lord who sacrificed His life that we may be saved.

Yet, the Lord is great in His mercy, if only we are open to accept His infinite mercy and love. Yes, today we commemorate the Feast of the Divine Mercy, on which day we rejoice and praise our God whose Divine Mercy had made possible the salvation of many, whom through Saint Faustina Kowalska, He wanted to make His mercy known to all the world, and so that mankind would do acts of contrition, presenting to our Lord our sincere and contrite hearts, which longed for His mercy and kindness.

Never be afraid, and never fear the Lord, for He is kind as He is merciful. If we remain stubborn in our sinful ways and behaviours, yes, He would punish us, for He hates sin just as much as He loves us. He is just, and cannot allow sin and rebellion against Him be left unpunished. But yet, great also is His mercy that He showed to us, and offered to us freely. It is always men who rejected this offer of mercy, even though He had offered it for our own benefit, because we love Satan, the evil one, more than our Lord, just because Satan seems to offer the better incentives through worldly goods and pleasures.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be reminded that on this Divine Mercy Sunday, our Lord is willing to forgive us from our faults if we ourselves are receptive to His offer of mercy, and if we offer our contrite hearts and sincere will for atonement from our sins. Let us not waste this chance at getting our Lord’s mercy and be returned into His favour once again. Let us humble ourselves that we would be able to cast away the filthy veil of doubt and evil from our eyes, our minds, and our hearts, so that we can humble ourselves before our God and petition Him to show mercy to us, His sinful children.

May this season of Easter be a season of renewal to all of us, and become the time of joy, when we know that our Lord had shown great mercy upon us, and forgiven our sins. May God bless us all in this journey, that all of us would travel towards His infinite mercy and love. Amen.