grace of God

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Saturday, 23 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how the Lord spoke to the people on the need for us all to be humble and true in our faith, and that a question is actually posed to us, namely, whether we are able to realise if what we do in this life truly serve the Lord or to serve our own purposes, and whether these bring benefits to our salvation through the good intentions we had, or if we merely feed the sense of our own ego and pride.

And in the first reading we read about the vision of Ezekiel who saw the glory of God in heaven, to whom God had granted His favour, allowing him to see the marvels of the Lord, and the true nature and glory of God, who is Almighty and All-Powerful. After all, He is the Lord of all, and the Creator of all things, living and non-living. Therefore, it is only right that He and His majesty ought to be praised, honoured and worshipped.

That comes therefore to the point when Jesus pointed out the contrast between this and the behaviours and attitudes of the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the elders of the people. They wore elaborate garments and ornaments, praying loudly and visibly in public places, not because they had God in their hearts and minds, but instead, they were truly serving their own glory, their own ego and their own desires.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is easy for us mankind to be tempted by the goodness around us, and it is easy for us to be tempted to bring goodness and glory to ourselves. However, we should neither be quick to judge others, in particular when this concerns what we have in the Church. Many these days do not truly understand what the Church had done, and what we especially used to commonly do in the past, before the flaw-filled implementation of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

We are often quick to judge when we look at the past and saw the greatness and opulence of the celebration of the Mass of the Ages, that is the Usus Antiquior or the Ancient Use of the Mass according to the rites approved by the Council of Trent. We who live in this modern world and time are often not aware of the tradition of our faith, and we end up accusing those who remain faithful to the rites of our fathers in the same way they accused the Pharisees and the elders of Israel.

However, if we understand the true beauty of the celebration of the Mass as it was according to the rite of the Council of Trent, we will realise how much honour, praise and adoration this way of worship offers to the Lord. All the beauty and the honours present in the celebration of the Mass, all of them are not for men, but for the sake of God. On the other hand, the Pharisees and the elders of Israel, when they pray and work, they do them to gain the praise and adoration from men, and therefore their hearts are not filled with God, but instead with the desire and greed of men.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Rose of Lima, or St. Rosa of Lima, the first saint of the Latin American region and in fact the very first saint which was born in the Americas or the New World. She was a very beautiful woman, who out of great piety and love for the Lord, refused to listen to the will of their parents who wanted her to marry, and despite many suitors who chased after her, she purposefully splashed dust and pepper on her face to make herself look ugly to deter her numerous suitors.

St. Rose of Lima had such a great devotion to the Lord, that she wanted to join the religious life to dedicate herself completely and fully to God. This was opposed by her father, but she did not give up. Instead, she continued to grow stronger in her faith and love for God, and took up a perpetual vow of virginity to show her total dedication towards the Lord.

St. Rose of Lima even resorted to wear a heavy silver crown with thorns in the memory of the suffering of Christ as He wore the crown of thorns on the way to Calvary. She remained pious and holy, and she received visions throughout her short life, and many were inspired by her great zeal and faith for God. In her, we see an exemplary model, who showed us that human beauty, greatness and ego should have no place or value at all. Rather, we should all be humble, and do not flaunt or be proud of our achievements and greatness.

If we have a good trait or something that God had given us, then all the more we should humbly use them for the benefit of others around us, and dedicating them to the greatness of the Lord, just as St. Rose of Lima and many other saints of God had done. Let us all work hard for the Lord and for all of us ourselves, helping one another to reach our Lord and God. May Almighty God bless us all in everything we do and guide us to Himself. Amen.

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Wednesday, 20 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 20 : 1-16a

This story throws a light on the Kingdom of Heaven : A landowner went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay each worker the usual daily wage, and sent them to his vineyard.

He went out again at about nine in the morning, and seeing others idle in the town square, he said to them, “You also, go to my vineyard, and I will pay you what is just.” So they went.

The owner went out at midday, and again at three in the afternoon, and he did the same. Finally he went out at the last working hour – the eleventh hour – and he saw others standing there. So he said to them, “Why do you stay idle the whole day?”

They answered, “Because no one has hired us.” The master said, “Go and work in my vineyard.”

When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, “Call the workers and pay them their wage, beginning with the last and ending with the first.” Those who had come to work at the eleventh hour turned up, and were each given a silver coin.

When it was the turn of the first, they thought they would receive more. But they, too, each received a silver coin. So, on receiving it, they began to grumble against the landowner. They said, “These last hardly worked an hour, yet you have treated them the same as us, who have endured the heavy work of the day and the heat.”

The owner said to one of them, “Friend, I have not been unjust to you. Did we not agree on one silver coin per day? So take what is yours and go. I want to give to the last the same as I give to you. Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Why are you envious when I am kind?”

So will it be : the last will be first, the first will be last.

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Wednesday, 20 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 22 : 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.

He guides me through the right paths for His Name’s sake. Although I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are beside me. Your rod and Your staff comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of my foes. You anoint my head with oil, my cup is overflowing.

Goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

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Tuesday, 19 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Eudes, Priest (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s readings are the continuation of the messages of the Scripture from yesterday, and we continue to talk about how worldly possessions may hinder us from truly reaching out to the Lord. The difficulty for the rich which Jesus mentioned, for them to enter the kingdom of heaven, is itself not because of the rich status or the fault of the wealth or material possessions, but in fact because of our innate weakness and proneness to the tempting power of those possessions.

Essentially, those possessions keep us away from the Lord because they rob the focus of our hearts, hijacking our hearts and minds which should really be thinking and focusing on the Lord and all of His goodness, and instead we think more and more of our wealth and possession, to the point that we eventually worry more and more about them, on how we can gain more of them and how we can safeguard them.

We mankind are easy to be tempted if we do not take the steps to actively prevent this temptation. Ever since the days of Adam and Eve, when they were tempted with knowledge and greatness by the lies of Satan, we mankind had been exposed to the works of evil in this world, which threaten to pull us deep into the pit of damnation just as our ancestors had been trapped in those lies of Satan that brought us away from our divine inheritance.

The first reading today talked about how God proclaimed His judgment and prediction on the fate of Tyre, which was a great city of the land of Sidon, of the Phoenicians, a great seafaring nation, which built colonies far and wide, and the progenitor of the later Carthaginian Empire. Tyre is the mother city of the Phoenicians who were great navigators, traders and merchants who built their cities strong with wealth, and Tyre the foremost among them. The rich purple dye of the rulers and Emperors of Rome were named Tyrian purple after the wealth of the city in which this dye originally came from.

Tyre had all reasons to be overconfident, as it had a great influence, mighty and powerful over the seas. In addition to that, the city was built on a nature island off the coast of what is today Lebanon, and therefore is naturally protected against any enemies and forces arrayed against it. Nevertheless, it is in this arrogance and power that ended up in their downfall.

What the Lord spoke of, became true when the Greek King, Alexander the Great conquered the city of Tyre after a long siege, and the city never regained its power, prominence and glory. Therefore, it had been cast down and its power was broken, never to recover. And therefore the same will also eventually happen to us, if we depend on our human power, as well as on our desire for wealth, glory and fame.

It is important for us to realise that wealth, possession, fame, achievement in life and greatness are often not the answers for our lives, and they are neither the solutions for which we can live our lives in a better and more meaningful way. It is too often that mankind had been destroyed by all these, as they are unable to resist their greed and desire and end up destroying themselves.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. John Eudes, a priest of the Lord who founded a religious congregation, the Congregation of Jesus and Mary. He took a vow of chastity at a young age, and then proceeded to join the religious life fully dedicated to the Lord. Under his actions, numerous good works had been done for the sake of the Lord by St. John Eudes himself, who worked hard to serve the people of God and spread the Word of God to many people around him.

St. John Eudes was especially intrigued by those around him who lived in sin and in the darkness of the world, particularly prostitutes who were common in that age. Therefore, St. John Eudes worked hard to help those who were destitute and weak in faith, and through his religious congregation, he endeavoured to advance the preparation and education of priests and all those who devoted themselves to the Lord, that they may do better works for the sake of God and His people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, people like St. John Eudes and many others who had given up everything, all glory, wealth and fame that they may be true servants of the Lord are our role models. They have resisted the temptations of the flesh and that of the world, so that they are no longer governed by the whim of their desire, but instead by the will of God speaking inside them, guiding them in life to bear much fruits of their good works in the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, is it not right indeed, that we should truly follow in their footsteps? We should all use these opportunities given to us, so that we may free ourselves from the unending pull of desires and human greed, and instead begin to live wholly and completely in the grace and love of God. Let us all ask St. John Eudes for his prayers and intercession, that we too may serve God and His people just as he had once done.

May Almighty God be with us all, in our lives, that we may do good works for the sake of all those around us, particularly those who are weak, destitute and downtrodden. Amen.

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Sunday, 17 August 2014 : 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 66 : 2-3, 5, 6 and 8

May God be gracious and bless us; may He let His face shine upon us, that Your way be known on earth and Your salvation among the nations.

May the countries be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with justice and guide the nations of the world.

May the peoples praise You, o God, may all the peoples praise You! May God bless us and be revered to the very ends of the earth.

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Saturday, 16 August 2014 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Stephen of Hungary (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the essence of today’s Scripture readings that we heard is that we have to cast away our old lives and habits filled with sin. We have to seek the Lord with a faith much like that of the faith of a children. And why children? This is because, as we all know, a children’s heart, mind and soul are pure and immaculate as on the day when they were born, and they had not yet been corrupted by the many evils in the world, which had turned many people away from God and into destruction.

Jesus told His disciples to have faith like that of a children, and rebuked them for being angry with children coming towards Christ. Indeed, the faith of a child is a pure faith and one that is genuine and devoted in fullness of the heart, and also of the mind and soul. And thus, we too should also be like those children, who come and seek the Lord with true and genuine intentions, for them to come and approach the Lord with love and desire to be with Him.

It is much too often for us, for all mankind to be so engrossed with many things in our lives that we have often forgotten about God, our loving Lord and Father. And not only that, we also often forget about the laws and precepts of the Lord, and instead we grow fond of our own way of life, and how we see others live in this world, and therefore we end up defiling ourselves with sin and impurities that made us incompatible with the goodness of the Lord.

However, this does not mean that we have no hope or that we should despair over our conditions. What is necessary is that we are awakened and become aware of our shortcomings and sinfulness, so that we may know of the urgency with which we should act in seeking the Lord and asking for His forgiveness for our sins. Repentance and honesty in seeking forgiveness is the key, and this is very important for us to realise before it is too late.

God desires not our destruction, for each and every one of us are truly dear and precious to Him. We have been created as the greatest of His creations, with His own image printed on our faces and with the breath of His spirit within us, giving us life and strength. He has blessed us with much goodness and blessings, and we have been given so many opportunities to make use of whatever guidance He had provided us along the way that we may find our way towards Him.

Therefore, it is important for us to learn to use these opportunities given to us to help ourselves to escape from the trap and the temptation of sins, and look towards the light that is in the Lord. And today we celebrate the feast of a saint, who helped to bring many people, namely his people to the Lord, repenting from their great sins and come into the light of the Lord in faith.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen of Hungary, who was also the very first king of Hungary, the one who brought the faith to the people of Hungary, who was once the barbarian tribe of the Magyars who came to settle in the land of what is today’s Hungary over a thousand years ago. He was the first of the leaders of Hungary who was devoted to the Lord, and throughout his long reign, he established much of the structures of the Church in Hungary, bringing more and more people towards the faith.

St. Stephen of Hungary was truly a devout servant of the Lord, who worked hard to bring better lives to all of his subjects, and to bring them closer to the Lord through numerous initiatives designed to strengthen the faith via numerous missionary works and charitable acts, of which many were done by the king himself. The king generously donated much properties to the Church that they were able to build up a healthy and sizeable services to the faithful. More and more souls in the end were saved because of the works of St. Stephen.

Therefore, today, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all invited to reflect on our current lives and the state of our souls, hearts and minds. Have we all been like those children who freely and sincerely sought the Lord Jesus without any reservations or doubts, and whether we have practiced what the Lord taught us through His disciples in our actions and in our words.

Hence, brethren, let us all once again seek the Lord and help one another to reach out to the Lord. Let us also never bar anyone from reaching out to the Lord, especially not those who truly and sincerely want to find God and follow Him. Let us ask for the intercession of St. Stephen of Hungary, that we may also follow his examples in piety and charity.

May Almighty God be with us this day, open our hearts and minds, that we may grow to love Him more and more, seeking Him with every moments of our lives. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 16 August 2014 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Stephen of Hungary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Matthew 19 : 13-15

Then little children were brought to Jesus that He might lay His hands on them and pray. But the disciples scolded those who brought them.

Jesus then said, “Let them be! Do not stop the children from coming to Me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to people such as these children.”

So Jesus laid His hands on them and went His way.

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Saturday, 16 August 2014 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Stephen of Hungary (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Psalm 50 : 12-13, 14-15, 18-19

Create in me, o God, a pure heart; give me a new and steadfast spirit. Do not cast me out of Your presence nor take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Give me again the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will show wrongdoers Your ways and sinners will return to You.

You take no pleasure in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, You would not delight in it. O God, my sacrifice is a broken spirit; a contrite heart You will not despise.

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Saturday, 9 August 2014 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), Virgin and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today Jesus reminded us in the Gospel that we all ought to have faith in us, and not just any faith but genuine faith that is truly real, solid and concrete, and not just a lip service or superficial faith. And Jesus also told us that what matters is whether we have that faith, no matter how small or insignificant it is compared to others, but what matters is how we use that faith and grow that faith that we may become stronger and more devoted to God.

It is important that our faith must be cultivated and strengthened, through the active implementation of the Lord’s teachings that we had received through the Church of God. This is linked to the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the sower, where even a small seed if grown strong and healthy will eventually become a large and towering tree with plenty of branches with solid roots that will stand against any storms and strong and healthy lives that will impress all who see it.

Thus, our faith too must be like that, strong as a solid rock, immoveable despite all the attempts of the evil one to undermine our faith, and it must also be visible for all to see, not in order to satisfy our human ego and desires, but rather to bring even more people closer to God through faith and through love. In this manner, we can become a role model for many through our words, deeds and actions.

And today we celebrate a saint whose life and actions represented just all that, a true example for others who see her. This saint is St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a name which the saint took when she entered religious profession, and she was also well known as St. Edith Stein, a German Jew convert to the faith who endured great sufferings as part of the genocide against the Jews by Adolf Hitler during the holocaust, and who was eventually martyred for her faith.

St. Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family, keeping the old Jewish faith in a strongly religious environment. However, although St. Edith Stein admired her mother’s great piety, she herself became an unbeliever in her adolescent and early adult years, pursuing higher studies and intellectual pursuits to eventually become a philosopher and educator.

However, after learning the truth about the Lord in the faith, and after reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, St. Edith Stein went through a complete transformation and change in her self, and she chose to follow the Lord and be baptised into the Church. Thereafter, St. Edith Stein continued teaching, but focusing more on teaching the faith and producing many great writings and works on the faith.

St. Edith Stein openly and vocally condemned and opposed the increasingly violent and intolerant treatment of the Jews by the rising NAZI party under Adolf Hitler in Germany, and she spoke openly against the vile treatments they had received, having been born as the descendant of Jacob herself. She entered the convent and took up the religious habit, taking up the name of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, enduring one difficulty after another having to escape persecution by the NAZIs before eventually arrested and put to death with many other faithful ones in a gas chamber.

Thus died a great martyr of the faith who stood up courageously for her faith, and whose faith was indeed both strong and evident for all to see. Her faith was strong and despite difficulties and challenges, she continued to persevere for the sake of God and for the sake of His people. Her courage to stand up for her faith, and her devotion until the end exemplified the kind of faith that we also need to have, a robust and living faith, not hidden but shared for the benefit of all.

May St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross pray for us, that our faith too may be strong and alive, that we will be able to follow her example in being faithful to the Lord. May Almighty God also bless us and keep us always in His love and grace. Amen.

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Sunday, 3 August 2014 : 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the story of the feeding of the multitudes by Jesus is the often repeated and heard story in our faith life. We always heard how Jesus out of His great pity and love for His people, fed them with bread and fish that He multiplied with His power. He did not want them to be hungry and physically affected after having followed Him for so long to listen to His words.

This story is something that we often know and remember, but we fail to realise the true significance and importance behind this story. This historical memorial of Jesus and His wonderful miracles often lull us on His greatness and wonders, but we fail to know that we are in truly the same position as those people that day who were seated on the open fields with Jesus, hungry and weak.

And Jesus took pity on us, because He loves us very dearly. It is not just to those whom Jesus had ministered to and performed miracles on, that He gave them His love, but even all of us this day also receive the fullness of His bountiful love and grace. And His disciples whom He asked to minister to the people, have their successors in our world today, and they are our priests and bishops who continue to minister to us in the Name of the Lord.

Today, in the second reading, in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, St. Paul spoke of how nothing can ever separate mankind from God and His love, and no power be it on earth, in heaven or hell is capable of such a feat. Yes, that is except God Himself. He loves us very much and very dearly, and yet we are the ones who continue to elude Him, and continue to reject and spurn His love, preferring the love of Satan and the things of this world to His love.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God is merciful and loving, but He also hates sin and disobedience of sin to the very core. Sin has no place in His presence and sinners has no place either in His place. That is why, while He gives us many, many opportunities, again and again to repent and change our ways, there is a limit to what He can allow us. Eventually, if we continue to reject Him, and our time is due, we will be sundered forever from His mercy and love, and as a result, we will be condemned for eternity.

In the first reading today, from the prophet Isaiah, we heard how generous God is, and how we have no need to fear at all when we are dealing with God. He knows everything we need, and He will provide for us all of them. Yet, mankind had no faith in Him and did not trust in Him, and rather trusting in their own strength and intellect which failed them.

God knows our needs, and as those people lay hungry in the field, their biological needs dictates that they have the physical need to be satisfied, or otherwise, the spiritual needs will not be optimally addressed. Yes, I refer to how men and women, that is all of us, will find it hard to listen and adhere to the word of God if our stomachs are growling within us, and the pain of hunger gets the better part of our minds.

That is why Jesus fed the people with the bread, and through His own might He turned those bread into a feast for all the faithful. He fed them until satisfied with the physical bread, that they may witness and see for themselves, what He had fed them in the spiritual food of the Word of God. Jesus who is the Son of God is the Word of God made flesh, incarnate into a human being. Thus, every word that Jesus said is truly indeed the Word of God, which is our spiritual food. Remember what Jesus said when He rebuked Satan of asking Him to turn stones into bread.

In the same way, therefore, the Lord will provide for us, and in no better form than the perfect and the best of all foods. He gave nothing else other than His own Body and His own Blood. Yes, this is the Most Holy Eucharist, the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord, which we receive every time we celebrate the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass.

Through this bread and through the wine we drink, we receive into ourselves not just physical food, but also spiritual food, for we take in the Lord Himself into us, the Word who had become flesh, and then offered that flesh to us, that we who partake them may become one with Him and be saved. The Lord shows us His love by the giving of Himself, which He made concrete through His sacrifice on the cross, out of love for all of us sinners and desiring nothing else than our redemption.

Let us all today use this opportunity to ponder and realise how great is the love that God has for us, and how many opportunities we have been given, that we may appreciate how fortunate we are of having such a loving God to care for us. We should not think of the feeding of the five thousand multitudes as something separate from us, but instead, find in it the love which God shows to men, and therefore come to a greater realisation of our part in God’s plan for salvation.

We all should revere our Lord more in the Eucharist, and come to the point where we come to the Holy Mass, fully prepared and expecting to receive the Lord with fully prepared body, mind, heart and soul. Let us follow the example of those five thousand men and many other women and children with them, who came all the way just to follow Jesus and listen to Him intently. We too should also make the same effort to be closer to our God and follow Him.

May we all come ever closer to God through His most Precious Body and Blood, which we receive in the Holy Eucharist, that He may dwell in us, and we dwell in Him. May Almighty God guide us on this journey of life, providing us as always with His grace and love along the way. And may we persevere in our own journey as well, helping each other to reach our ultimate goal in life, that is God. Amen.