grace of God

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Saturday, 22 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 15 : 1-3, 11-32

Meanwhile tax collectors and sinners were seeking the company of Jesus, all of them eager to hear what He had to say. But the Pharisees and the scribes frowned at this, muttering, “This Man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So Jesus told them this parable :

“There was a man with two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Give me my share of the estate.’ So the father divided his property between them. Some days later, the younger son gathered all his belongings and started off for a distant land, where he squandered his wealth in loose living.”

“Having spent everything, he was hard pressed when a severe famine broke out in that land. So he hired himself out to a well-to-do citizen of that place, and was sent to work on a pig farm. So famished was he, that he longed to fill his stomach even with food given to the pigs, but no one offered him anything.”

“Finally coming to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will get up and go back to my father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against God, and before you. I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me then as one of your hired servants.’ With that thought in mind, he set off for his father’s house.”

“He was still a long way off, when his father caught sight of him. His father was so deeply moved with compassion that he ran out to meet him, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. The son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.'”

“But the father turned to his servants : ‘Quick!’ he said, ‘Bring out the finest robe and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet! Take the fattened calf and kill it! We shall celebrate and have a feast, for this son of mine was dead, and has come back to life; he was lost, and is found!’ And the celebration began.”

“Meanwhile, the elder son had been working in the fields. As he returned and approached the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what it was all about. The servant answered, ‘Your brother has come home safe and sound, and your father is so happy about it that he has ordered this celebration, and killed the fattened calf.'”

“The elder son became angry, and refused to go in. His father came out and pleaded with him. The son, very indignant, said, ‘Look, I have slaved for you all these years. Never have I disobeyed your orders. Yet you have never given me even a young goat to celebrate with my friends.'”

“‘Then when this son of yours returns, after squandering your property with loose women, you kill the fattened calf for him.'”

“The father said, ‘My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But this brother of yours was dead, and has come back to life; he was lost, and is found. And for that we had to rejoice and be glad.'”

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Saturday, 22 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12

Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless His holy Name! Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.

He forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; He redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion.

He will not always scold nor will He be angry forever. He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does He punish us as we deserve.

As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove from us our sins.

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Saturday, 22 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Micah 7 : 14-15, 18-20

Shepherd you people with your staff, shepherd the flock of your inheritance that dwells alone in the scrub, in the midst of a fertile land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old, in the days when You went out of Egypt. Show us Your wonders.

Who is a God like You, who takes away guilt and pardons crime for the remnant of His inheritance? Who is like You whose anger does not last? For You delight in merciful forgiveness. Once again You will show us Your loving kindness and trample on our wrongs, casting all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Show faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as You have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.

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Friday, 21 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jesus spoke about Himself when He talked about the parable of the evil tenants in today’s Gospel reading. And indeed everything came true as He spoke of. Jesus was the son of the owner of the vineyard, and the owner is God the Father, while the vineyard is this world where we live in. The grapes and the grapevine are all of us, the people of God.

The evil tenants are, in specific terms, the Pharisees and the elders of Israel, those who rejected Jesus the Son, and who later crucified Him to death on the cross. But in more general terms, they can also refer to anyone with power or holding any positions of power. They can also refer to any of us, brethren. For we mankind are prone to temptations of power and they may come at any time.

Why are we like the evil tenants? That is because we relish in the glories and joys of this world, that we grow attached to them, and we became obsessive over them, not wanting to give them up. That is what had happened to the Pharisees and the chief priests by the time of Jesus. They who had been entrusted with power and authority over the people, grew attached to that power, and it consumed them with desire for power, and jealousy for anyone they saw as threat to that power.

That explained why they were so stubborn and tried their best to undermine the works of Jesus and His disciples wherever they went to. They followed Jesus and heard Him as He taught the people of the revelation of God’s truth and salvation, but they did not listen to Him. Yes, they keep their ears and hearts closed against the Lord who tried to reach out to them and reconcile them with Him.

They tried to come out with plots after plots, and plotted they did, against the Lord and Messiah whom they are supposed to serve and preach for. They hardened their hearts against Him and branded Him a heretic and a blasphemer while in fact it was they themselves who had blasphemed against God through their wicked actions.

It is a lesson that all of us can learn from, that we should not let our human pride and ambition to get in our way as we go to seek the Lord and ask Him for His saving power. We cannot let ourselves be manipulated by the evil one, who sowed the seeds of lie in us, making us think that it is good for us to disobey and break the law of God as long as it suits our own desires and purposes.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we be like the Pharisees and those whose greed for power and control had obstructed their acknowledgment of the Lord’s authority? Or shall we be meek and humble, asking our Lord for guidance and for Him to lead us into a blessed life with Him? The choice here is clearly ours and we have to act upon it.

Let us not be brought down by the trap of power, and the pull of desire and wants, that we end up being great obstacles in the Lord’s work of salvation. Instead, let us learn to be humble, to set aside our own greed and human pride, and allow the Lord to be our guide and our leader, entrusting with Him and truly trusting Him to make the decisions that will be good to our own lives.

May the Lord our God help us to be reconciled with Himself, and to cast out all semblances of evil and wickedness from ourselves, that we may once again be made worthy, that we will not be judged to be among those who are unworthy of His salvation and those destined for damnation in hell. Let us pray for one another, and support one another, that our faith in God may be always strong. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 20 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are introduced today to an important catechesis of the faith, that is on the fate of our soul, when we go to the afterlife after our life in this world ends. And it was made clear to us by the story of Lazarus and the rich man, to show the contrast between the two fates that are possible for all of us.

Nevertheless, I would like to warn all of you first to be very careful in reading and understanding this part of the Gospels, as it is easy to be misunderstood and misrepresented, as if Jesus is advocating a sort of class war or conflict between the poor and the rich. And neither should we equate poverty with salvation and riches with damnation. Not all poor will end up in eternal joy, and many rich ones will also be saved.

In order to truly understand the meaning behind the passage, we have to understand the context behind Jesus’ teaching of the parables to His students. At the time of Jesus, and as it is similar in our world today, the divide and gap in the society in terms of wealth and affluence was very pronounced, and the rich ones were very rich with great excess, while the poor was very poor, having almost nothing on themselves.

Thus, it is easier for Jesus to teach the people, if He said them in a manner which can be easily understandable to the people, and hence His choice of characters and the story, to highlight the disparity between the two. Lazarus the poor man had nothing, and sat down in front of the rich man’s mansion hoping that the rich man would spare him some food from his table.

The rich man spared him nothing, and continued to live in splendour and great excess, partying day after day without any concern for those who were less fortunate than him. So that is why, after he died, the Lord gave him his due that is hopelessness, and eternal suffering in hell, to suffer with the devil and his fellow fallen angels.

Meanwhile Lazarus was welcomed into heaven, to enjoy forever the fruits of God’s love, to enjoy the food of everlasting life and he will no longer experience hunger, unlike what he had to go through in life. This is certainly what we all want as well. After all, who will choose hell over heaven? Nobody wants suffering, because we all want happiness.

This certainly should have taught us a good lesson, that if we forget to do what is expected from us by God, then we will be judged and deemed unworthy of heaven. Remember, brethren, that the wealth and possessions that we have is a gift for us, and it is not evil. There is nothing wrong in fact with people having more wealth than others.

However, wealth itself is neutral, but it can be used for either good or bad purposes. Like the rich man, who ignored the plight of Lazarus, he failed to utilise his abundance for a good purpose, and thus he was judged against. He failed to love another mankind, and therefore this ignorance spoke out against him when he is judged by the Judge of all life.

What is of concern to us is regarding the culture of waste and excess that often permeates in our society, and we often do not think about those who do not even have enough. We often consume more than what we need, even to the point of gluttony. We forget that the excesses can be given to those who have little and none that they may have enough.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on the story of Lazarus and the rich man, that we may from now on consider our own lifestyle, whether we have been charitable to those who have little or none, giving up our excesses to them, so they too can enjoy together with us. Being rich is fine, brothers and sisters, but just make sure that we keep our less fortunate brethren in mind! God bless. Amen.

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Thursday, 20 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the one who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the law of the Lord and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.

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Thursday, 20 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 17 : 5-10

This is what YHVH says, “Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings and depends on a mortal for his life, while his heart is drawn away from YHVH! He is like a bunch of thistles in dry land, in parched desert places, in a salt land where no one lives and who never finds happiness.”

“Blessed is the man who puts his trust in YHVH and whose confidence is in Him! He is like a tree planted by the water, sending out its roots towards the stream. He has no fear when the heat comes, his leaves are always green; the year of drought is no problem and he can always bear fruit.”

“Most deceitful is the heart. What is there within man, who can understand him? I, YHVH, search the heart and penetrate the mind. I reward each one according to his ways and the fruit of his deeds.”

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Wednesday, 19 March 2014 : Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Today we celebrate the feast day of one of the greatest saints in the Church, none other than St. Joseph himself, the protector and head of the Holy Family, husband and spouse of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, and the foster-father of Jesus Christ our Lord. Today is a great feast day because we are celebrating the feast of an important persona, whose role in our salvation in Jesus is perhaps second only to the Blessed Virgin Mary herself.

St. Joseph wedded the Blessed Virgin and became her protector and guardian. He was a carpenter at the small village of Nazareth in Galilee, and as history told us, he was already quite old at that time of her marriage to Mary, who was still very young, and it may be likely that it was not his first marriage. And Joseph was initially hesitant to marry her when he found out that she was with Child Jesus in her womb.

Even here the quality of St. Joseph was clearly visible, as he was an upright and virtuous person, who did not wish evil upon others but only good. He wanted good on others, even on Mary after she somehow ‘cheated’ him by being pregnant even before their marriage. But after Joseph discovered the truth through the angel of God, he married her and protected both her and her Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

St. Joseph certainly taught our Lord Jesus many things, just as other fathers do. St. Joseph, even though as a sort of stepfather to Jesus, loved Him as if He is his own son. With the guidance of St. Joseph, Jesus grew to a strong and loving man, as a well-mannered and God-loving Son of God.

Most likely, by the time Jesus began His ministry upon His baptism, St. Joseph had passed away due to his old age. Yet, what he had taught Jesus certainly helped Him during His ministry, and He knew about the world and its situation at the time, also likely through the tutelage of St. Joseph, who taught Him about it.

The example set by St. Joseph still inspires us today, first is to be obedient and have a strong faith to the Lord, as what he showed, obeying the Lord and playing his part in the scheme of God’s salvation. He obeyed the angel’s warning to bring Jesus out of harm when King Herod tried to kill Him. He was a loving father and an upright man, who followed God’s will and did his best to show it in his actions.

He certainly worked hard to provide for his family, for Mary his wife and for Jesus his adopted Son. That is why St. Joseph is also the patron saint of workers, showing them how to work hard and yet remain devoted to the Lord in his actions and deeds. He is truly a role model to all of us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, the challenge to us now is that are we able to follow and walk in the footsteps of St. Joseph? Are we able to follow what he had done, in his virtue and righteousness? That is the challenge for all of us now. We do not have to emulate entirely what he had done, as it will not be easy to us. But we have to at least make the effort, is it not?

So, brethren, let us use this opportunity to reflect on our own life and our own actions, whether we have done what is righteous in the eyes of God, or whether we have failed to do so, either by ignoring His commandments and staying idle, or by committing sins and what is evil to God.

Let us change our ways for the better, that from now on we may live in God’s grace and be blessed by His presence among us. Let us resolve to remain always in the light of God and reject the darkness of Satan and the world. May God help us all and guide us to Himself. Amen.

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Monday, 17 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brothers and sisters in Christ, once again we are exhorted to practice our faith and be genuine and active in living up our faith, through action and devotion, particularly through the act of mercy, by forgiving others who had done wrong to us, and by giving of our love to them, and to those who had hated us and resented us.

Today, brethren, we celebrate the feast of St. Patrick, the Bishop and Patron saint of Ireland. Patrick was born in the Roman Britain, and was initially a pagan shepherd, who was captured by Irish raiders and was made a slave. During his slavery, St. Patrick learnt about the faith through missionaries, and he had a change of heart.

St. Patrick learnt much about the faith and spent his time knowing more and more about God. He was released from his captivity after a few years and returned to his homeland, but not before knowing from God that he will one day return to the land of his enslavement to bring it to the hand of God through conversion.

Eventually St. Patrick returned to Ireland and set about doing many good things there, preaching about the faith and teaching the people about God. St. Patrick performed many miracles and great feats, which helped to bring the people to greater understanding of the greatness and the nature of God and faith in Him.

St. Patrick and his works laid the foundation for the faith in the once untamed and pagan land, where all the people worshipped the spirits of the land. He used many methods to teach them how to devote themselves to God, using shamrock leaves with their three lobes to describe the concept of the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And despite all the oppositions and works arrayed against him during his missionary works, St. Patrick prevailed and continued to baptise thousand upon thousands, converting many to the cause of Christ, even among the nobles, lords, and kings and princes. He made the spread of the faith in that godless land possible.

What is most important from St. Patrick and his actions was that he practiced his faith and do the things that he had said. That was why so many people listened to him, and finding the good things that he had taught them, they believed and were saved through baptism. St. Patrick had a solid and living faith in God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called to also be witnesses for the Lord, to be the ones showing God and His teachings to those who had yet to know Him, much as what St. Patrick had done. Shall we follow the example of St. Patrick and did what he had done for the glory of God?

Let us be righteous, loving and merciful as the Lord had taught us through Jesus, that we may truly be seen as the children of God, and through our actions, may other people see the love of God and know Him through us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 17 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 6 : 36-38

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not be a judge of others and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you, and you will receive in your sack good measure, pressed down, full and running over.

For the measure you give will be the measure you receive back.