holy martyrs

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Sunday, 1 November 2015 : Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of All Saints (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is a major solemnity and feast day of the Church, where together with all of the entire Church, with all the faithful living here now on earth, we rejoice together for all the holy ones whom God had chosen and called from among us, to be those considered worthy to receive the glory of heaven. They are the saints, the holy men and women whom by the virtues of their lives and their actions have been found and deemed worthy by the Church.

Sainthood truly does not determine whether one goes to heaven or hell, or whether one is worthy of it. Despite the large number of saints we have today, thousands of them if not more, but if only the saints are worthy of heaven, then we have to remember that there have been countless billions and tens of billions of people who lived throughout history. Have the rest all went to hell and be condemned? The answer is no.

There are many countless other men and women whom by their lives’ virtues, their works and deeds are truly worthy of heaven, and their names have been written securely in the Book of Life for the day of judgment. It is just that the Church did not proclaim them officially as saints, as sainthood is in fact just an official recognition of one’s deeds, because of their outstanding and extraordinary quality, would become a great source of inspiration to others who look up to them as role models and examples.

Yes, the saints are our role models, and we ought to follow in their footsteps. After all, they have lived their lives to the fullest, and by close and exhausting scrutiny of these, the Church had found them to be exemplary and by the wisdom of God and the authority God has given His Church, It declares that so and so man or woman truly deserve and is without doubt, already a denizen and a dweller of heaven, enjoying the eternal grace of God.

Yet there are those who thought that we Christians are no different from the pagans because we apparently worshipped the saints and prayed to them. I have to admit that this is one area where even many members of the Church are still not properly instructed or educated in, and many are not aware of who saints truly are, and how they can help us.

Jesus did say that if we believe in the Lord and keep our faith in Him, we will be called the children of God, and St. Paul and the Church also taught us that if we die and leave behind our earthly life in justice and righteousness, we shall share in the glory and in the fullness of God’s grace, and having all of our sins shed away from us, we shall be glorious and mighty as we share together the divinity of Christ. However, this does not make us gods in our own right.

Rightfully therefore, the saints themselves are glorious and honoured not because they have ascended in might by their own power, and neither do they have any power on their own separate from the power and authority of God. They share forever God’s glory in heaven, and they shall not know any more fear, death or darkness, for God is with them, and they are with God.

Rather, what we have to know is that the saints are our intercessors, those who help us deliver our prayer to the Lord. Then, indeed, one may ask, why not we ourselves then ask for our own behalf, and why must we ask someone else to pray for us? Then, in order to answer this, we just have to look throughout the Holy Scriptures, how many people at different times and periods, asked for each other for prayers and intercessions.

Do you remember what did Jesus tell the people about gathering in prayer? He told them and His disciples that when two or more are gathered in His Name, He shall be present there and He shall listen to their prayers. Thus, shall it indeed not be more beneficial for us to have even more people praying for our sake? The saints, having ascended to the presence of God, now sees with the sight of God, and surely, having been sinners themselves, they also understood how grievous our sins are, all of us still living in this world.

And having shared the glory and joy of the Lord, they also now share the love of God, and having been righteous as they were, surely in their love both for God and for their fellow men, they are also greatly concerned about us who are still living and struggling in this world against wickedness, evil and all forms of sins. If we are not careful about this, and continue to dwell in the darkness, then we risk falling into the trap of eternal damnation and hell from which there can be no escape.

As mentioned, the saints are not ‘gods’ in that they do not use or project their own might and power unlike those so-called pagan gods of old, where the people worshipped them as beings that could deliver them from trouble, provide them with something, dealing with things magical and supernatural, changing the world and the elements. No, the saints are not like these, and if we have had this misconception, then it is important that we now know the difference.

Those who pray to the saints and ask them for deliverance, or hoping that they can deliver them from trouble, or asking for favours from them in worldly things are misguided and mistaken in their understanding about the saints, who they are and how they work to help us in our way towards salvation. That is exactly who they are, our friends and our peers who had gone ahead of us, and now that they are close to God, they are our best allies and those whose prayers are most dear to God.

Remember what happened at the wedding held at Cana? That was where Jesus performed His very first miracle, turning the water into wine, and in the process, helped save the bride and the bridegroom and their families from great shame. Jesus was initially reluctant to help them, as He felt that it was not yet His time to reveal Himself by such work of miracles and power. Yet, it was through Mary, His mother and her persuasion of Jesus, that He allowed Himself to reveal to the people a portion of the truth of who He is.

Mary, the mother of our Lord, is the greatest, most honoured and most esteemed of all the saints, and in heaven, she is the closest one to the throne of God, her own beloved Son. Just as she had pleaded with her Son to help the couple at the wedding held at Cana, and He heard her, surely if we ask her to intercede for our sake and pray for us, He will be more willing to hear us and show His mercy to us.

The same applies for all the other saints as well, whom we ask daily to intercede for us on our behalf, that God will help us on our way, so that in times of challenge and difficulty, during times of persecution and extreme suffering, and in times when our bodies and even our minds are assailed by temptations of the devil and by his wicked tempters, God may send to us His angels and other forms of guidance to help prevent us from falling into sin and darkness.

In all these, we have to realise that we as the Church of God are not alone in this world and in the constant battle, the spiritual battle of our souls. Those who have departed from us are not gone from us, and they are still with us, unless they themselves have given themselves to be lost, namely those who have been thrown into hell and eternal damnation.

In fact, we know three Churches, the three aspects and parts of the Church Universal, that is the Church Militant, all of us living and still fighting against the devil and his works, and who are still constantly having a daily struggle in this world to uphold our faith and defend it against the wickedness of evil. And then, there are the saints and martyrs, who are the Church Triumphant, those who have gone before us and have been deemed as righteous and worthy of heaven. They are still there, with us and praying for us.

But we must not forget, just as tomorrow we shall celebrate All Souls’ Day, that there is the third part of the Church Universal, namely the Church Suffering, the good souls in purgatory awaiting for their entry into the glory of heaven. They are suffering the residual consequences of their sins, and as they suffer, they also want us all still living in this world to overcome our own sins and to get rid of them so that we will not suffer like they now do.

I will elaborate in greater detail on this in tomorrow’s homily, but in the end of the day, as we gather together to rejoice with all of the people of God, with all the saints and martyrs, with the angels and with all of creation, let us realise how good God is, and how much love He is showing and pouring down upon us. Let us ask the good saints, principally the mother of our Lord, Mary, to pray for us, all sinners and unworthy to be in the presence of God, so that God may awaken in us the courage and power to live our lives filled with faith and total devotion.

May Almighty God be with us, and may He guide us on our path, and help us so that we will have the courage to overcome our pride, our desires and all the things that have blocked our path towards the Lord. Let us not be overcome by evil and by our own shortcomings, but let us be ever more faithful and be more committed to the Lord our God. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 17 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the words of the Holy Scriptures, speaking to us about the grace and blessings that shall await all those who keep and maintain their faith in God, and the curses and the condemnations that await all those who have veered away from the path towards the Lord and towards salvation.

The example of Abraham, our forefather in faith was used, in his obedience and exemplary actions and life, which were filled with the obedience and the trust which he showed to God, the complete faith and trust that he had shown, which made his descendants to become truly blessed by God’s grace. This is done so to inspire all of us to strive for righteousness and justice, and therefore become eligible to enjoy forever God’s love and grace.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have been called to a new life of repentance, of redemption and of forgiveness. All of us have been called out of the pit of darkness, misery and wickedness, and we are all called into the life filled with God’s justice and grace, which can become a reality only if all of us gather together and work together to achieve that goal of salvation in God.

Those who have not been faithful to God, who refused to listen to the word of God, and those who have gone astray in their lives, walking in their own paths in disobedience to the Law of God, will receive the wrath and anger of God, and God shall reject them, just as they themselves had rejected Him first. God is merely reciprocating the hatred and the unwillingness of those who have not given their love to Him. Yet, if these people were to repent and change their ways, God will readily show His infinite mercy and love to them.

God is ever loving and merciful, but this does not mean that He readily tolerates our sins and wickedness. He loves each and every one of us personally and as His beloved children and creation, but He does not love our sins and our wrongdoings. He hates all forms of sins and injustice, all forms of malice and wickedness, all forms of evil and all the darkness that lie in our actions.

If we persist in retaining all those sins and darkness, then certainly all of us will be condemned and prevented from reaching salvation in the Lord. This is because those sins and wicked things in our words and actions are barriers and obstacles that stop us from finding our way to the Lord. Those sins are what preventing us from receiving the fullness of God’s grace and blessings, and they kept us away from the light, remaining in the darkness and the abyss.

This is why, we ought to reflect on our own actions and deeds, and we should think about what we have done in this life, so that we may realise the current state of our being, whether we stand in righteousness and grace of God, or whether we are in danger of falling into the condemnation of eternal hell. Thus, we ought to heed the example of a holy man and saint whose feast day we celebrate on this day.

Today is the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the second bishop and leader of the faithful in Antioch, a great city of Christendom in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was counted among the birthplaces of Christianity, as the place where the faithful were first called as Christianoi, or Christians. It was the place where the Church was established by St. Peter the Apostle, the Vicar of Christ, who later went on to establish the Church in Rome.

St. Ignatius of Antioch was his successor as the second Bishop of Antioch, and he helped to continue the establishment of the Church in Antioch and beyond, caring for the spiritual and overall well-being of his flock, giving them examples to follow and exhorting them to be always faithful to God and His ways, and resist the temptations of worldly goods and human greed.

Eventually, St. Ignatius of Antioch shared in the suffering of Christ our Lord, when he and the other Christians were persecuted under the orders of the civil authorities of the Roman Empire. The Emperor and the officials of the Roman state opposed the Christians and their teachings of truth, and they attempted to snuff out the light of the Church at its young stage of growth.

Nevertheless, St. Ignatius of Antioch remained resolute and committed to the evangelisation and spreading of God’s Good News of the Gospel, and he suffered death and martyrdom knowing that the works he had begun would be carried on by those who came after him, and his martyrdom served as an inspiration for countless others to also pick up their crosses and follow the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, let us on this day reflect once again on our own lives. We have a clear choice on whether to obey the Lord and His ways, walking in His righteousness and justice, and practicing His will and commandments in all of our words and actions, or whether we want to follow he devil and all of his errors and lies.

Let us all take concrete actions in our lives, so that in all the things we do and say, we will show a renewed effort of loving and serving the Lord our God, with all of our hearts’ strength. May the Lord have mercy on us all, forgive us all our sins, and bring us into everlasting life. Amen.

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Saturday, 17 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Luke 12 : 8-12

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples and to the people, “I tell you, whoever acknowledges Me before people, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. But the one who denies Me before others will be denied before the angels of God.”

“There will be pardon for the one who criticises the Son of Man, but there will be no pardon for the one who slanders the Holy Spirit. When you are brought before the synagogues, and before governors and rulers, do not worry about how you will defend yourself, or what to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you have to say.”

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Saturday, 17 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 104 : 6-7, 8-9, 42-43

You descendants of His servant Abraham, you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgments reach the whole world.

He remembers His covenant forever, His promise to a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the promise He swore to Isaac.

For He remembered His promise to Abraham, His servant. So He led forth His people with joy, His chosen ones with singing.

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Saturday, 17 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Romans 4 : 13, 16-18

If God promised Abraham, or rather his descendants, that the world would belong to him, this was not because of his obeying the Law, but because he was just and a friend of God through faith.

For that reason, faith is the way and all is given by grace; and the promises of Abraham are fulfilled for all his descendants, not only for his children according to the Law, but also for all the others who have believed. Abraham is the father of all of us, as it is written : I will make you father of many nations. He is our father in the eyes of Him who gives life to the dead, and calls into existence what does not yet exist, for this is the God in whom he believed.

Abraham believed and hoped against all expectation, thus becoming father of many nations, as he had been told : See how many will be your descendants.

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Friday, 9 October 2015 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the Lord speaking to us in the Holy Scriptures. God spoke to us about what will happen at the time when He comes again in glory to judge His people and to bring them together once again as one people. On that day, He shall glorify the just and bless those who are righteous, and condemning those who are wicked and who have failed to do as the Lord had taught us to do.

In this, our Lord would like to remind us of the consequences of sin and what will happen to us if we walk on the path of sin and darkness. Those who have done evil shall fear the coming of the day of judgment because it is then that they will be judged for their deeds, and they will be held accountable for everything that they have done, be it good or evil in nature. Indeed, everyone shall be held accountable for all of their actions, and it is in these that we shall find salvation or condemnation.

But we have no need to fear or be excessively worried, for our Lord indeed gave us a chance, by the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to be our Saviour. Through Him, God gave us a chance and a method of deliverance from the evils that had troubled us all these while. Yes, the evil spirits and the wickedness that dwell in us has caused us so much trouble and made us to do so many bad things in the sight of God.

And yet, the Gospel today is a reminder for us not to be complacent and ignorant of the problems that we may encounter on our way. There is a lesson in the readings today about someone who had been released from the bonds of the evil spirits and then later on became worse due to those evil spirits returning back with an even greater force. This is a lesson on the nature of our faith in the Lord, which should be enduring and be filled with commitment to the Lord.

This means that our faith should be maintained and kept alive and strong. We have to remember that the devil and his fellow fallen angels are always out and about trying to bring about our downfall. And if we do not keep our spiritual defence strong, then the warnings of our Lord will come true for us. This means that we must keep our spiritual and prayer life strong to defend ourselves from the assaults of the evil one.

We must be wary and be vigilant, not to reopen the doors to allow Satan to come again into our hearts. Because at baptism all of us have renounced Satan and cast him out with the help of the power of our Lord, who sanctified the waters of baptism that washed us and made us clean, clean from the taints of sin, and from the tyranny and the hold of the evil spirits.

But this does not mean that we can be idle or be ignorant of all things after that. Our faith does not require us just to believe as some would have it, but instead, it requires an active participation and contributions through good works and deeds, which means that we are actively practicing our faith. We cannot be merely providing lip service of our faith to God, as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had often done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be inspired by the examples of two saints, whose feast we celebrate on this day, so that we may make ourselves righteous, just and worthy in the sight and in the presence of our Lord. St. Denis, Bishop of Paris, martyr and holy servant of God, was the bishop of what is now Paris, the largest city in France, at that time was the capital of Roman Gaul.

St. Denis was renowned for his great faith and for his great service to the Church, protecting many of the faithful under his care and ministering to them, even during the difficult times of the persecutions under the Roman Emperors who were dead set in destroying the Church and persecuting the faithful. The Roman Emperor Decius was in particular very adamant and passionate in his persecution of Christians.

It was told that eventually he and many other Christians at the time were arrested, tortured and forced to choose between recanting their faith, rejecting their Lord and Master, or die a most painful death. Yet, St. Denis and his faithful flock stayed strong in their faith, and they resisted the efforts of their tortures most admirably. Eventually he was put to death by beheading, separating his head from his body.

Yet, miraculously, even though he had been beheaded, St. Denis continued to live and walk by the grace of God, and holding his own separated head, he continued to preach the truth of Christ, terrifying all those who had persecuted him and the other Christians, and not few of them eventually believed and were converted as well to the truth of Christ.

Then, today we also celebrate the memory of St. John Leonardi, known also as San Giovanni Leonardi, an Italian priest who ministered to the faithful during a time about four centuries ago. He was a founder of a religious order, and was renowned especially for his personal holiness and devotion, both to the Lord and to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord and Saviour.

St. John Leonardi through his works and devoted service to the people of God brought about a reversal of the heresy known as the Protestant ‘reformation’. This massive heretical movement had brought about many millions of souls to be lost from the Church and many faced eternal damnation, if not for the works of St. John Leonardi and many other faithful servants of God in what would be known as the Counter-Reformation.

The brave examples of the two saints we celebrate today should be an inspiration to all of us, that if we are truly faithful and devoted to the Lord, we shall show it not just by mere words and profession of faith, but with concrete and real actions, in defending that faith, standing up for the Lord and for our brethren oppressed for their faith, and for loving one another just as our Lord had instructed us.

Let us all therefore renew our faith to the Lord, and commit ourselves to greater devotion to the Lord and His ways. Let us open wide the doors of our hearts to His love and grace, and close the door tight against the devil and his fellow fallen angels. Do not let the evil spirits to come into us again and claim us for damnation. May the Lord protect all of us His people and bless us and our works forever. Amen.

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Friday, 9 October 2015 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priests)

Luke 11 : 15-26

At that time, some of the people said, “He drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of the demons.” Others wanted to put Him to the test, by asking Him for a heavenly sign.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, “Every nation divided by civil war is on the road to ruin, and will fall. If Satan also is divided, his empire is coming to an end. How can you say that I drive out demons by calling upon Beelzebul? If I drive them out by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive out demons? They will be your judges, then.”

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God; would not this mean that the kingdom of God, has come upon you? As long as a man, strong and well armed, guards his house, his goods are safe. But when a stronger man attacks and overcomes him, the challenger takes away all the weapons he relied on, and disposes of his spoils.”

“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me, scatters. When the evil spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through dry lands, looking for a resting place; and finding none, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.'”

“When it comes, it finds the house swept and everything in order. Then it goes to fetch seven other spirits, even worse than itself. They move in and settle there, so that the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

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Friday, 9 October 2015 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priests)

Psalm 9 : 2-3, 6 and 16, 8-9

Let my heart give thanks to the Lord, I yearn to proclaim Your marvellous deeds, and rejoice and exult in You, and sing praise to Your Name, o Most High.

You have turned back the nations; You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their names forever. The pagans have sunk into the pit they have dug, their own feet ensnared by the trap they laid.

But the Lord reigns forever, having set up His throne for judgment. He will judge the nations with justice and govern the peoples in righteousness.

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Friday, 9 October 2015 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priests)

Joel 1 : 13-15 and Joel 2 : 1-2

Gird yourselves, o priests, and weep; mourn, o ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, o ministers of my God! For the house of your God is deprived of grain and drink offering.

Proclaim a fast, call an assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land into the house of your God, and cry out to YHVH, “What a dreadful day – the day of YHVH that draws near and comes as ruin from the Almighty!”

YHVH said, “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on My holy mountain! Let all dwellers in the land tremble, for the day of YHVH is coming. Yes, the day is fast approaching – a day of gloom and darkness, a day of clouds and blackness. A vast and mighty army comes, like dawn spreading over the mountain, such as has never occurred before nor will happen again in the future.”

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Monday, 28 September 2015 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, Martyr and St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the Lord our God who proclaimed His salvation to the nations, to all of His people who had long been oppressed and under slavery, that by His own mighty power, He would deliver us all from our slavery, that is the slavery to sin and death. He had promised this to all of us, and fulfilled it perfectly through His Son, Jesus Christ.

As what He had said to the prophet Zechariah, which we witnessed in our first reading today, God was indeed angry against all of us His people, and He despised all of our sins and wickedness. That was why He cast all of us out of His grace and blessings through our ancestors, Adam and Eve, who was cast out of the bliss of the Gardens of Eden, and had no choice but to endure and to suffer the bitter sufferings in the world.

But it did not mean that the Lord did not care about us or that He was plotting our destruction. Certainly, it is within His power to completely obliterate us out of creation and the world had He followed only His justice. It was truly just indeed for us all to suffer destruction and death as a consequence for our sins, and we truly deserved to fall into hell for eternity, which had been prepared for Satan and his angels.

It was the love He has for us, the endless and boundless love that had prevented Him from casting us out completely, and He was willing to give us another chance. This is a privilege that He did not give even Satan, once Lucifer, who was condemned once and for all for his rebellion against God, and cast down out of heaven to the earth. It is a privilege that we have received to be able to atone for our sins and be forgiven.

And the Lord Himself proclaimed His salvation that would come where the faithful and devoted ones would receive succour and rescue from the darkness and the suffering of this world, and this was perfectly fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah, none other than the Word of God Himself, made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord. By His crucifixion, the death He suffered on the cross, He had made us all whole once again, and by His resurrection from death, He brought us all a new hope.

But, He also reminded all of us through His disciples that those who believe in Him and follow Him will also suffer as He had suffered, and the world would reject them just as it had first rejected Jesus. This is because the world is the dominion of the fallen angel, our great enemy, Satan, who had seduced the entire race of mankind into sin and disobedience against God. Certainly he would not want us to be lost to him and be saved.

That is why, today we celebrate the memory, life and death of great followers of our Lord, who had endeavoured and worked hard to spread the Good News of the Gospel, and gave their lives in the service of God in holy martyrdom. St. Wenceslaus, martyr of the faith in Bohemia, now known as the Czech Republic, and St. Lawrence Ruiz, also known as St. Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint and his companions, the holy martyrs of Japan.

All of them suffered the rejection of the world and the persecution and torture by those who opposed the Lord and His ways. St. Wenceslaus was the ruler of Bohemia, whose rule was particularly remembered as one that was filled with justice and righteousness, and St. Wenceslaus was very committed to his role as the leader of his people, serving them as best as he could.

St. Wenceslaus however encountered great opposition by the nobles and the rich landed members of the Bohemian society, some of whom were still pagans and unbelievers, and most importantly, they all were united in their opposition to the ways and rulership. They wanted to satisfy their own wants and wishes, and they wanted to maintain the privileges and good things they had.

Therefore, they plotted against St. Wenceslaus, and eventually managed to murder him with the help of the brother of St. Wenceslaus, who benefitted by becoming his successor as the ruler of Bohemia. However, the sin of murdering such a holy servant of God was truly great, and it was not until that brother repented and atoned for his sins that he was truly welcomed back once again into the Church of God.

Meanwhile, St. Lawrence Ruiz was a Filipino who escaped to Japan during the time about more than four hundred years ago, when he was wrongly accused of the murder of a local magistrate. He boarded a ship destined for Japan, and then over there, he joined the thriving local Christian community, which at that time was tolerated and in some places, the local lords even converted to the true faith in God.

But, good times did not last long, as the mood of the government of Japan at the time changed, and under the new Tokugawa shogunate, the Christians were no longer tolerated and instead, they were persecuted and forced to choose between denying the Lord and recanting their faith, or to die a most gruesome and painful death should they choose to remain faithful in the Lord.

St. Lawrence Ruiz and many other Christians refused to deny their Lord and Master, and they refused to abandon their faith, even under the torture and the certainty of painful death. They held their faith with great pride, and they went to their martyrdom with great faith, that the Lord who is ever loving and ever faithful to those who believe in Him, will grant them everlasting glory and life with Him.

Indeed, the example of these saints we have just heard should become an inspiration to all of us as well. The way that they have lived their lives and the way that they have stood up for their faith and for God should be examples for us all to follow as well. We have to live righteously and follow the way of the Lord as He had taught us and revealed to us through His Church, obey all of His commandments and be true disciples and true shining beacons of the Faith.

Let us all reflect on this, and try our best to implement all these in our own lives. God loves us, and He wants to save us and forgive us all of our sins and trespasses, but our sins continue to come in the way between us and Him, and the only way forward is for us to repent and change our ways, sin no more and trust in Him and follow Him with all of our might. May God bless us all. Amen.