God the Son

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Saturday, 6 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Norbert, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops and Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Tobit 12 : 1, 5-15, 20

When the wedding feast was over, Tobit called Tobias, his son, and said to him, “Be sure you give the wages to the man who accompanied you, and we should add something extra.”

Then Tobias called the angel and said to him, “Please take half of all that you have brought.” The angel took Tobit and Tobias to one side and said to them, “Bless God, return thanks to Him, proclaim His glory and render Him thanks before all the living for all He has done for you. It is good to praise God and to exalt His Name, by making known in a worthy manner the story of God’s deeds.”

“Do not be slow in giving Him thanks. It is good to hide the secrets of kings but to make known publicly the works of God. Do the works of God. Do good, and evil will not harm you. It is a good thing to accompany prayer with fasting, almsgiving and justice. It is better to do a little with honour than much with injustice. It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold.”

“Almsgiving preserves from death; it purifies from all sin. Those people who give alms and act justly will have a long life, but sinners only harm themselves. I will hide nothing from you. Yes, I have said that it is good to keep the secrets of kings but to make known publicly the glorious works of God.”

“Tobit, when you and your daughter-in-law Sara prayed, I kept the remembrance of your prayer before the Holy One; when you, Tobit, buried the dead, I was with you in the same way; and when you did not hesitate to rise up and leave your meal in order to hide the dead man, your good deed did not go unnoticed because I was with you.”

“Well, God sent me to cure you and also to cure Sara, your daughter-in-law. I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of holy people and who stand before the glory of God. Now bless and give thanks to God, because I am returning to the One who sent me. Write down in a book all that has happened.”

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Friday, 5 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the healing of Tobit, who had long suffered from blindness. The Lord had mercy on him and blessed him through His agent, the Archangel Raphael. He sent Raphael to bring about healing to both Sara who was afflicted by the demon Asmodeus who killed her seven husbands, and to Tobit, to open his eyes so that he might see again.

Just as in the story of Job, the suffering but faithful servant of God, this shows that God is ever faithful and ever loving, and He always cares for us and loves us all tenderly. He will never leave behind all those who are faithful to Him. His gift and grace will be ours if we are able to faithfully cling to Him and devote ourselves to His ways. And He showed this by the promise which He had made to His people and which He fulfilled through Jesus, His Son, whom He sent into the world.

The Gospel reading which we heard today does not mean that Jesus repudiated or rejected the fact that He is the Heir of David and the One whom God had revealed to the world as the promised Messiah. It rather shows that because the people associate the Messiah with merely human terms of power and kingship, that He would rule in the kingdom of His ancestor David, and nothing more.

They thought that He would renew the kingdom of Israel, again in earthly and worldly terms, but the Lord Jesus our Messiah is much more than that, for just as He is Man, the Son of David, Heir to the kingdom which His ancestor had established and made firm, thus He is also the Son of God, the One who was to come into the world in order to save it.

Thus, Jesus would make it clear to the people, that His nature is both Man and Divine. This is what we believe in our faith as well. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Word of God made Flesh, had incarnated Himself as one of us while at the same time retaining His full divinity. This is important to be taken note of, especially considering what our Lord Jesus has done for our sake.

For what Christ had done is by suffering in our place, the suffering which all of us should have suffered from, that is the just punishment for our sins. We should have suffered death for our rebellion and disobedience against God, but through Christ who died for us, we will indeed die as a mortal being, but while once death had been the gateway to eternal darkness and suffering, now death is the new beginning of a new life in God, and it is not something that we should fear any longer.

This is because Jesus our Lord, Son of Man and Son of God, had shown us that He has the key to break free from the hold of death, that by His resurrection after His death, He showed us all how there is life to come after death for the faithful. Thus, all of us who keep our faith in God have nothing to fear, since if we continue to be faithful, God will remember our faith in Him and bless us richly.

If Christ is only Man, then His sacrifice would be in vain since no amount of mortal blood and sacrifice is going to be enough to redeem the fullness of mankind’s sins and faults. It is because of the great Divinity who chose to lay down His life that the whole human race may be healed and forgiven from their sins, since He assumed the very flesh of our beings, that by His death and resurrection, we too may follow in His ways.

Today we also celebrate the feast of St. Boniface, who was a bishop in what is now Germany, renowned for his many works in advancing the faith, preaching it and teaching it to many people. He was also renowned for his enforcement for the true practices of the faith against the evils of the world that had encroached even against the Church and the faithful at the time.

He was involved in many preaching and evangelisation missions, which brought him to many lands still inhabitant by pagan peoples and nations. He preached to all these people and hearkened them to listen to the word of God, repent and change their ways. And even when the people refused to turn their hearts to God, he kept trying and continued to persuade the people by his teachings, until one day when he was ambushed by armed robbers who struck at him and his followers.

Until the end of his life, he remained truly faithful to God, forgiving his assailants and telling his followers not to engage in violence to fight against violence. His example, together with the example of many other saints and holy people of God, highlighted the glory and rewards which God will give all those who have devoted themselves to Him. They are now in the glory of heaven because of their fatihful devotion to the Lord who have loved them first.

Let us all therefore devote ourselves completely to the Lord our God, throwing aside all distractions and distortions of the evil one, inspired by the examples of the holy saints, particularly that of St. Boniface whose examples and memory we celebrate on this day. May God be with us always, and may He bless us and heal us from all of our afflictions. Amen.

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Friday, 5 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 12 : 35-37

At that time, as Jesus was teaching in the Temple, He said, “The teachers of the Law say that the Messiah is the Son of David. How can that be? For David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared : The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies under Your feet!'”

“If David himself calls Him Lord, in what way can He be His Son?” Many people came to Jesus, and listened to Him gladly.

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Friday, 5 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 145 : 1-2, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10

Alleluia! Praise the Lord, my soul! I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to God while I live.

The Lord is forever faithful. He gives justice to the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free.

The Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord straightens the bent. The Lord protects the stranger.

He sustains the widow and the orphan. The Lord loves the virtuous, but He brings to ruin the way of the wicked. The Lord will reign forever, your God, o Zion, from generation to generation. Alleluia!

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Friday, 5 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Tobit 11 : 5-17

Now Anna was sitting there, scanning the road along which her son should return. She saw Tobias and Raphael coming in the distance and said to the father of Tobias, “Your son is coming with the man who accompanied him.”

While Tobias and Raphael were still going along the road, Raphael said to Tobias, “I am sure that your father will regain his sight. Rub his eyes with the fish gall and when he feels his eyes itching, he will rub them and the film will come away like scales from his eyes. He will regain his sight and see the light.”

Anna ran to meet Tobias and threw her arms around his neck saying, “At last I have seen you again, my child. Now I can die!” And both of them began to cry. Tobit also got up and, stumbling, arrived at the door of the courtyard. Tobias ran to him with the fish gall in his hand.

He breathed on his father’s eyes, embraced him and said, “Father, have confidence!” Then he spread the fish gall on Tobit’s eyes. Tobias waited. When his eyes began to itch, Tobit rubbed them and with both hands scaled off the film from the corners of his eyes. When Tobit saw his son he threw his arms around Tobias’s neck and began to weep.

He said, “Blessed be You, o God. Blessed be Your Name forever. Blessed be Your holy angels. You have punished me, but You have taken pity on me, and now I can see my son, Tobias.”

Tobias was very happy. After entering the house he told his father about the important things that had happened in Media. He told his father about the successful outcome of his journey, how he got the money, and how he married Sara, daughter of Ragouel, who just then was approaching the gates of Nineveh.

Tobit, happy and praising God, went out to meet his daughter-in-law at the gates of Nineveh. All those who saw him, walking alone and unaided, were amazed that he could see. Tobit proclaimed to them that God had taken pity on him and cured him. Then he went to Sara and blessed her saying, “Welcome, daughter! May God be blessed for having brought you to us and may your father and mother also be blessed.”

It was a day of great rejoicing for all Tobit’s relatives who lived in Nineveh.

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Thursday, 4 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard in the first reading from the Book of Tobit, how Tobias, the son of Tobit went and found Sara, the woman troubled by the demon Asmodeus who had killed seven of her previous husbands. And we heard how Tobias wanted Sara to be his wife, even while knowing the fate which have befell her previous husbands. He took her as wife and they prayed together on their first night together as husband and wife.

And in the Gospel today we heard how Jesus emphasised again the true meaning of the Law of God, the Ten Commandments which truly can be categorised into two main laws, that is firstly to love God with all of our might, and then show the same love to our fellow men, the others around us. The teacher of the Law was able to understand this, and Jesus praised him for that before the people of God.

Through these readings, there are several things that we ought to learn, but principal and greatest of all, it is about love. Yes, the love which mankind ought to have for God, their Father, Lord and Creator, and the love which they ought to have for one another, one of the greatest forms of which is marriage, or holy matrimony, the indivisible union between man and woman as decreed by God and blessed by God.

This is important to us all, brothers and sisters in Christ, for we all have to realise that just as the Church is the embodiment of Christ’s presence on earth, the tangible form of His Body on earth, then the family, and the institution of the family itself is the core and base for the structure of the Church. Without a strong family structure and foundation, the Church may find itself in trouble from various challenges.

And the family as an institution and a crucial unit of the Church had come under constant and ever increasing attack from the world and all the allies and forces of the devil, trying to destroy the family, and the families of the faithful. They hoped that by doing so, they would also undermine and destroy the faith itself as well. This is how so dangerous the time is now for us and for the Church of God.

We know of the phrase that a family that prays together stays together. The same extends also to the Church, for the family is indeed the building block of the Church. Therefore a Church that is composed of strong families praying together will stay together. We see a good example in our first reading today. Tobias and his new wife, Sara, prayed together before the Lord, asking for His blessing and healing, that the shame of Sara and the works of Asmodeus be removed from her.

It is an example for all of us, that we have to know love, and love must begin from ourselves, and practiced in our own families. A family that does not practice love will not last, and it will soon crumble apart under the pressure of human desires and selfishness. If we have loved one another, then we shall learn how to control our own natural selfishness, and growing to care more for others around us, eventually we shall know what is love.

For God Himself is Love, and if we do not understand love, then we also would not understand the love which He had shown us first. What is His love? Even though we are all sinners and wicked, having done what is wicked in the eyes of the Lord, and therefore deserve utter destruction and annihilation, but instead of casting us aside, He gave us a new chance, to change and repent our sinful ways, that we may be made anew, in a new life once again blessed by God.

And if He had loved us first, then it is only right that we should love Him too. He has given us His all, by sending us the ultimate form of love through Christ, who had given up His own life in sacrifice, so that by His death and by His resurrection, He might bring to us a new life. Such was the love that He had shown us. If we have loved one another, should we not love the Lord our God in the same way?

And if we have loved our God greatly, then we also ourselves cannot forget that, we have to love one another too. We cannot exclude one form of love from the other. If we know how to love God, then we also have to love each other, or else whatever love we have learnt from the Lord, we do not use it for the benefit of others around, and we will be found wanting. On the other hand, if we love one another only, and do not love God then our love is not complete.

Therefore, as I have mentioned earlier, in our families, we must have love, that is we have to first love one another, father, mother and children all must have love in them and love for each other. Then, there must also be that love for the Lord. It is in the family that the responsibility is laid to bring up all the children properly in the faith. This is the duty and responsibility which had been entrusted to parents as well as to godparents at the moment of baptism.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore pray for all of our families. Let us all hope that God will continue to bless and grace all our families with the strength and courage to serve Him and love Him despite the oppositions and rejections of the world. May Almighty God be with us all, with all of our families, and strengthen the faith in us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 4 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 12 : 28b-34

A teacher of the Law came up to Jesus and asked Him, “Which commandment is the first of all?”

Jesus answered, “The first is : Hear, Israel! The Lord, our God, is One Lord; and you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. And after this comes a second commandment : You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these two.”

The teacher of the Law said to Him, “Well spoken, Master; You are right when You say that He is One, and there is no other besides Him. To love Him with all our heart, with all our understanding and with all our strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves is more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.”

Jesus approved this answer and said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask Him any more questions.

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Thursday, 4 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 127 : 1-2, 3, 4-5

Blessed are you who fear the Lord and walk in His ways. You will eat the fruit of your toil; you will be blessed and favoured.

Your wife, like a vine, will bear fruits in your home; your children, like olive shoots will stand around your table.

Such are the blessings bestowed upon the man who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion. May you see Jerusalem prosperous all the days of your life.

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Thursday, 4 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Tobit 6 : 10-11 and Tobit 7 : 1, 9-17 and Tobit 8 : 4-9a

When Tobias and Raphael had entered Media and were already approaching Ecbatana, Raphael said to Tobias, “Friend, we shall spend the night at the house of Ragouel. He is a relative of yours. He has no son, just an only daughter called Sara.”

When they arrived in Ecbatana, Tobias said to Raphael, “Friend Azarias, take me straight away to our friend Ragouel.” So Raphael led Tobias to Ragouel’s house and they found Ragouel sitting by the door of the courtyard.

They killed a sheep and served them numerous dishes. After they had bathed and washed, as they were relaxing before the meal, Tobias said to Raphael, “Friend Azarias, tell Ragouel to give me Sara my kinswoman. Talk about what you were saying during our journey, that the matter may come about and be accomplished.”

Ragouel overheard the conversation and he said to Tobias, “Eat, drink and be merry tonight. You are the man who has most right to take Sara my daughter because you are my kinsman. Indeed it is impossible for me to give her to any other man but you, because you are my closest relative.”

“But, my son, I must tell you the whole story. I gave her to seven husbands from among our kinsmen. They each died on the wedding night. But, for the moment, my son, eat and drink, and the Lord will arrange things for you.”

Tobias said, “I shall eat nothing if you do not stop now and bring this matter to a conclusion.” Ragouel said to Tobias, “Take her from now on; I give her to you according to the Law of Moses and you have to understand that God Himself gives her to you. Receive your kinswoman, from now on you are her brother and she is your sister.”

“She is yours from today and forever. Now God will bless you this night and may He give you both His mercy and peace.” Ragouel called his daughter Sara and taking her by the hand, he gave her to Tobias as his wife. He said, “According to Moses’ Law, take her now and bring her to your father’s house.” And he blessed them.

Ragouel then called Edna his wife; taking a sheet of parchment, he wrote down a matrimonial contract and they both affixed their seals. Then they all began to eat. Ragouel called his wife and said to her, “My sister, prepare the other room and take Sara there.”

Edna did as Ragouel told her and she took Sara to this room and Sara began to cry. Edna dried her daughter’s tears and said, “Have courage, my child, the God of heaven and earth will change your sorrow into joy. Have confidence, my daughter!”

When Sara’s parents had left the room and closed the door, Tobias got up from the bed and said to Sara, “Get up, my sister, and let us ask the Lord to have mercy on us and save us.” She got up and they began to pray, asking that they be given life. Tobias began like this, “May You be blessed, o Lord God of our fathers, and may Your holy and glorious Name be blessed forever.”

“May the heavens and all creatures bless You. You created Adam and You gave him Eve, his wife, as a helper and companion, so that from these two the human race might be born. You said : ‘It is not good that man should be alone, let us give him a companion who is like himself.'”

“Now, Lord, I take my sister to myself in sincerity and love, not merely seeking pleasure. Have mercy on us and grant us a long life together.” Together they said, “Amen,” and returned to bed for the night.”

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Wednesday, 3 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how two people in different places, both suffering from the depredations of evil and troubles of the world, namely Tobit and Sara, both were so distressed after having been harassed by others around them, on top of their suffering which they have endured all the while. Tobit and his blindness and the criticisms others placed on his charitable works, and Sara with the problem of her deceased seven husbands because of the vile works of the demon Asmodeus.

The Gospel today spoke about the resistance which Jesus encountered from the Sadducees, one of the two major groups in the society of the people of Israel at the time, one of the two influential parties that were involved in the governance of the people of God. The Sadducees were the ones who were close to the positions of secular power if not the holders of the secular power themselves.

They were a pragmatic group of people, who thought with reason and thinking in terms of facts and proofs, that just like what we know with science today, these people refused to believe in something if they were unable to explain it, or feel it, or witness it directly with their own senses. Thus they did not believe in the angels, or any spirits, or in the resurrection of the dead.

This was the opposite of the other group, the Pharisees, who believed in all of them, and as a matter of fact, was equally extreme in their views as the Sadducees had theirs. The Pharisees were ultra-orthodox in their views on the faith, and they were very strict in their observations of the Law, while if we look at the Sadducees, they were almost atheist in nature. And it was against the Sadducees that Jesus stood up against in the Gospel today.

The Sadducees were too engrossed and attached to worldliness and think in terms of the world to be able to appreciate and understand the true nature of men. They were those people who live only for themselves, filled with selfishness. They could not comprehend life beyond this world, and therefore they also likely feared death, because death means the separation from the goodness of this world, and it is the ultimate uncertainty for them.

But the truth and the fact is that death is merely just the transition in our lives, between the imperfect life we have now in this world, and the life in the world that is to come, the perfect life no longer marred by sin and darkness of the world. Instead of fearing it, we should rather embrace it instead. God always sends reminders after reminders to us, to keep us straight in the path of this life, that we may ever be faithful and true to the end.

And in the first reading, we are shown this by the example of the healing of Tobit from his blindness and the exorcism of Asmodeus who had troubled the household of Sara. The Lord heard their respective prayers and sent the Archangel Raphael to heal them from their afflictions and troubles. This is one proof of the work of God which He had done through His angels, which the Sadducees did not believe in.

God works in mysterious ways, including what He had done with Tobit and Sara, and if we read more thoroughly the Book of Tobit, then we would now how wonderful God’s plans are, which God made real and tangible through the Archangel Raphael. We are reminded that there are many things that we may not understand, but all we need to do is to keep that faith we have in the Lord and God will reveal to us and teach us everything we need to know.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, martyrs of the Faith, who were martyred for their faith in the country now known as Uganda. He was once a servant and confidant of the king of his country, who heard about the teaching of the true Faith by the missionaries, and then when he and others who have converted refused to recant their faith, their deaths were ordered by the king.

The courage and devotion of St. Charles Lwanga and his fellow companions in faith and martyrdom is a clear reminder for us that while the true teachings of the faith is with us now, and while we receive the same faith which the saints have received, but just as Jesus was opposed at every corners by various factions, including the Sadducees as we heard today, then we too will inevitably meet challenges along the way too.

Then in that case, are we going to just give in and conform to the views of others around us? Tobit and Sara were also mocked and humiliated many times for what they have done, and for having kept the faith, and at times they were so distraught and pressured so as to be so desperate, that Sara once even thought of taking her own life, but they persevered on, and they remained faithful.

God cares for all those who remain true to Him and He preserves all those who cling to Him faithfully, as He had shown through what He had done to Tobit and Sara. He blessed them, healed them and gave them far more than what they had lost. The same He had also done to Job, the suffering but faithful servant of God.

Let us all therefore, inspired also by the examples of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, tortured and killed for their faith but raised to the glory of heaven, that we too may do our best to be righteous in the eyes of the Lord and remain true to our faith in Him in all the things we do. Amen.