great sinners

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Friday, 9 May 2014 : 3rd Week of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the conversion of St. Paul that we heard in the first reading today. As we continue with the celebration of Easter, we learn more and more what the disciples of Christ did after Jesus had ascended back to the Father in heaven, including that of Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, who was once Saul, the archenemy of the faithful and the Church and the great persecutor and scourge of the same faithful.

The conversion of Saul was the great turnaround moment, when the great enemy and persecutor of the faithful, turned into the great champion of the faith, and the one to bring the light of God to many nations, and the one whose letters and writings made up the bulk of our New Testament today. And this also highlight an important facet of our faith, that no one is beyond redemption and forgiveness. There is always a chance for repentance while we are still in this world.

Yes, brethren, God does not hold back against us, and He gives us many chances after chances, and opportunities after opportunities to seek Him and return to Him after we have wandered away in the wilderness of this world. He gave us many opportunities and second chances to allow us to discard our old life of sin and embrace the new life of goodness and grace He offers us through Jesus His Son.

The same, He did for Paul, when He appeared to Saul, his former persona, on the way to Damascus. That moment, Saul was still filled with anger, anguish and much negative emotions, and filled with the lies of the world, misguided in his passion for the faith, and misunderstood the true intentions of the Lord because of his strict adherence to the Pharisees’ view of the world and the faithful.

In his mistaken zeal and passion, he hunted down many of the faithful and the saints, who went into hiding in fear of Saul and his ‘crusades’ against the faithful. At that time, being a follower of the Lord and meeting Saul means almost certain suffering and even possibly death. Saul himself took part in the stoning and death of Stephen, the first martyr of the faith. As such, you all can see how great were the sins that Saul had.

But remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, for God, there is no such thing as eternal grudge or total and complete hatred for the faults that we have made. As I had mentioned, He wants for us to try again, and attempt again where we have failed in this life. He wants us, just as what He had done to Saul, to be able to make a conscious and real change from our sinfulness into grace and love.

And remember, brethren, that we are all sick, all sick of this illness and affliction called sin! And it is this sin that makes us sick and unable to join our Lord in the glory and happiness He had prepared for us. It is also causing us to be blinded against the love and light of God. The blindness of Saul after he met the Lord on the way to Damascus is the symbolic representation of this blindness. His healing and the return of his sight by Ananias is then a representation of the revelation of truth.

Yes, for when we receive the truth and resolve to accept it fully and completely, in fact, we are healed of the blindness of our souls, that we are changed from the state of inability to recognise the good works of the Lord into one that is completely in tune with God and His grace. Such is the thing that had happened to Saul, the sinner turned repentant, and from there brought much goodness and graces to the people of God and the world.

We must never condemn or exclude sinners, brothers and sisters in Christ, as the examples shown today, truly show the true intention of the Lord for us. He desires us to be saved and to receive life, and not to suffer death. How do we gain life then, from the Lord? None other through the gift of His own Precious Body and Blood as He had mentioned in today’s Gospel.

Hence, brethren, let us from now on give all respect, honour and proper worship to the Lord, particularly in the Eucharist, which He had given us Himself, His own essence to us so that we may be saved. He has given us His life, His entire devotion to us, and so many opportunities for us to reform ourselves and return to His embrace. We must not waste this, and indeed, we should help one another to embrace the Lord’s mercy.

Remember, if we can overcome our fears and sins, we will be great in God, just as Saul did. Saul became Paul, an important tool for salvation of mankind in the hands of God, even though he was a great sinner. Never give up brethren, but let the Lord to work His graces through us, that we may be the channel through whom God may work even greater works in our world, and save more souls from damnation. God be with us all, just as He had been with Paul and his works. Amen.

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Wednesday, 28 August 2013 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we have the continuation of the litany of woes attributed by Christ to the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law, whom Jesus referred as the crooks leading the people of God, not into salvation, but into eternal damnation in hell. They practised not what they had preached, and neither did they keep themselves holy for the Lord, and their prayers were empty litanies of praise for themselves instead of humble supplications for the mercy and forgiveness by the Lord for their sins.

They liked to show off their piety in public prayers, praying openly to God with hands lifted up high even in public places like market places. People would then praise them, honour them, follow them, and even emulate them, for their ‘exemplary’ actions and their ‘piety’. In this sense, they gained worldly glory and worldly power, from the people, and as a result, they left the Lord without glory, and without due honour. They had made themselves even greater than the Lord.

This was what the Lord criticised from them, and rebuked them with the woes given to them. They have also made the Lord as nothing more than a lawgiver or the fearsome God who must be obeyed or else the people would receive punishment for their failure to follow the Law. The Pharisee and the teachers of the Law thought themselves as holy, and looked down on those whom they considered as hopeless ones, the sinners, the prostitutes and the lowest ends of the society.

Yet, it was precisely these people whom the Pharisees had condemned for their sins that in fact had the great humility to reach out with contrite hearts, seeking the forgiveness of the Lord, as many of the sick, the bleeding widow, the prostitutes, had done, while the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had not done so. They kept their heads upheld high, and hardened their hearts against the Lord and against His people, the very sheep entrusted to them as shepherds to lead towards the Lord, as the chief shepherd.

The Lord who will judge everyone on the last day, will judge them and cast them out of His presence, as they had not ony failed in their given mission to lead the people of God with responsibility and upright ways, but they even brought the people closer to damnation instead of salvation. They had even mocked and opposed those whom the Lord had sent to them to wake them up and remind them of their true task and their true purpose, the purpose of their positions in the society.

Just as their ancestors had opposed, mocked, and slaughtered the prophets and messengers of God, so they had opposed, mocked, questioned, tested, and eventually condemned Christ, the very One sent to this world to redeem it. This was because both them and their ancestors had hardened their hearts and kept the love of God out of their hearts. They turned a deaf ear against the advice of the prophets and their pleading that they change their ways.

Just as their ancestors during their sojourn in the desert, they not only turned away from the Lord their God, but also openly opposed Him and put Him constantly to the test, in the same way as how the Pharisees had tested Jesus many times, desiring and longing for Him to make a mistake that they can capitalise on. Smart? Oh certainly, by human standards, yes indeed, the work of Satan made manifest!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that does not mean however, that wicked men and women has no hope absolutely in salvation in God. They indeed have much opportunity and chance to return to the Lord their God and return towards the path leading to salvation, providing that they really have a total change in their hearts, from one that was hardened against God, into those that are open for the wonders and warmth of His love. And today, as we commemorate the occasion, there is no better example than St. Augustine of Hippo, the great saint and Doctor of the Church.

St. Augustine of Hippo was truly a great man of the faith, whose works and dedications for the Church were invaluable. He was indeed once a great sinner, ever since he was young. Although he was raised as a Christian by his mother, whom we know as St. Monica, whom feast day we just celebrated yesterday, St. Augustine lapsed and left the Church to follow the heretical Manichaean syncretic religion that was widespread during that time at the late Roman Empire.

St. Augustine early in his life lived a life of pleasure and debauchery, and walked away, far away from the path of righteousness in God. He sought meaning in life, and yet he was not able to find it in all the pleasures of the world that he had experienced. His mother, St. Monica prayed hard for him, that he would return to God, and repent all of his wayward life. She never gave up on him, even though he did all things evil imaginable, seeking the pleasures of the world, and tried to find comfort in reason and rhetorics.

Eventually St. Augustine returned to God and made a full conversion back to the cause of Christ, not least because of the role his mother had played, and even more so, the very conviction by St. Augustine himself as he journeyed through his life, through tumult and times of confusion. In the end, he became a great defender of the faith, the bishop of Hippo, and through his writings, many people, even today, still benefit from his enlightenment on us on our faith, and on the tradition of the faith of the Apostles.

He is truly worthy of his title of the four greatest Doctors of the Church, and indeed a pillar of the Church and the faith. However, do note that he was once too a great sinner. Precisely, brethren, even sinners are not out of range for salvation. Indeed, great saints were often once great sinners too. In fact, as what Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the renowned Archbishop once had said, that the greater the sin one has in them, the closer one is to the throne of God, that is the throne of mercy. With greater sin and greater understanding of one’s sin does bring one to closer realisation of one’s mortality and weakeness, and can spur us into seeking God’s mercy, as St. Augustine had once done.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, we who are sinners should follow the example of St. Augustine, who sought God after he had done great sins before God, and who was turned from the path of sin into the path of salvation in God. He felt empty when He lacked God in his heart, and went all the way to find the fulfillment, which eventually he found in God, who gave him true and complete satisfaction and providence. The same too should happen to us, and let us not be like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, whose mouth is full of pious words and prayers, and yet their hearts are empty, lacking God in them.

May St. Augustine of Hippo be our source of inspiration, as does his mother, St. Monica, that we who are in this world, great sinners before God, may acknowledge our unworthiness and our sins, and seek to ask forgiveness from our merciful and loving God, He who is the Divine Mercy, and He who cares and loves for all of His children. St. Augustine, pray for us, intercede for us before God, that just as once He had forgiven you and turned you into a great pillar of the faith, may the same also happen to us. God bless us all with His love. Amen.