holy men

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Monday, 18 May 2020 : 6th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 16 : 11-15

So we put out to sea from Troas and sailed straight across to Samothrace Island, and the next day to Neapolis. From there we went inland to Philippi, the leading city of the district of Macedonia, and a Roman colony. We spent some days in that city.

On the sabbath we went outside the city gate to the bank of the river where we thought the Jews would gather to pray. We sat down and began speaking to the women who were gathering there. One of them was a God-fearing woman named Lydia from Thyatira City, a dealer in purple cloth.

As she listened, the Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. After she had been baptised together with her household, she invited us to her house, “If you think I am faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us to accept her invitation.

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Thursday, 14 May 2020 : Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of one of the Great Apostles of the Lord, one of the Twelve Apostles, although he was not originally counted as one among the Twelve. This was because St. Matthias the Apostle was chosen by God to replace the traitor, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Lord and then unrepentantly killed himself in regret and grief. As a result, in order to complete the number of the Twelve Apostles, St. Matthias, one of the earliest followers of the Lord, was chosen.

St. Matthias then went on to serve the Lord and His Church faithfully, as he went on many missions and travelled to far-off lands, most notably to the land of Ethiopia. He laboured hard to establish the Church and the faith in those places and preached the Good News of the Lord, calling many to conversion and the true faith. And according to the Church tradition and history, the Apostle either died in the city of Sebastopolis in the distant land, or in the city of Jerusalem in his old age, both by martyrdom.

And St. Matthias together with the other Apostles gave their efforts, their works, their dedication and their lives, their whole heart and might to serve God and to follow Him as His disciples, practicing and doing what the Lord Himself had commanded them to do, as described in our Gospel passage today. In that Gospel passage, we heard of the Lord speaking of the true commandments of God, the true meaning of His Law and the true desire of His will. All are centred on the most wonderful love that God has for each and every one of us.

That is why, first and foremost, they all kept their faith in God despite the challenges that they faced, and they were all willing to go the great lengths to serve Him and to carry out His will, all because they knew that God’s love for each and every one of them had been so great, that it was only right that they also loved Him in the same manner, and they loved Him by being faithful and obedient to Him. And out of their love and care for their fellow brothers and sisters, their fellow men, they therefore also reached out to more and more people to bring to them the salvation of God.

And this is also showed through the way they lived their lives, filled with love, compassion and genuine faith for the Lord. The early Christian communities were filled with much love and compassion, where everyone cared for one another, and took care for the other person. Those who had more and were blessed with more than enough shared what they had with those who had less or none, and everyone were well taken care of. This Christian love present within the early Christian communities represent what the Lord has called us all to do with our lives.

Unfortunately, for many of us, we have been swayed and misled by the temptations of life, the many good things and distractions present in our world that we have forgotten or set aside this way of life, and instead we adopt the ways of the world, such that so many among us actually have not been living our lives as faithful Christians. We have allowed greed and desire to cloud our judgments and actions, our pride and hubris to lead us down the path of selfishness and sin.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all called today to discern carefully our lives and what we are to do with them going forward from now. The Lord has called us all to follow Him much as the Apostles had been called. In fact, we are the ones to continue the works of the Apostles, which are still plenty and ongoing. Are we able to walk in the footsteps of St. Matthias and the other Apostles, to dedicate ourselves in the way that they and the other servants of God had devoted themselves?

The Lord has called us and He has blessed us with many gifts, abilities and talents. Are we willing to make good use of them and strive to spend our time and effort, in order to serve the Lord with all of our hearts? It is not easy for us to do so, with all the temptations around us, the pressure and allure to do otherwise, and to conform to the much more common norms and ways of the world. But, if we have faith in God and devote ourselves to Him, then we will find it easier for us to commit to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all do our best and remind ourselves of God’s commandments, to love Him above all else and then to have the same love for our fellow brothers and sisters, our fellow men. Let us all live our lives as true Christians from now on, and let us all be genuine with our faith and actions, to proclaim God’s love and truth to all the people, not just by words, but also through our action and sincerity. May God bless us all in our every works and endeavours. Amen.

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Thursday, 14 May 2020 : Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 15 : 9-17

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Remain in My love! You will remain in My love if you keep My commandments, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.”

“I have told you all this, that My own joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. This is My commandment : Love one another as I have loved you! There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for one’s friends; and you are My friends, if you do what I command you.”

“I shall not call you servants any more, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead, I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learnt from My Father. You did not choose Me; it was I Who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And everything you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you.”

“This is My command, that you love one another.”

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Thursday, 14 May 2020 : Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 112 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

Alleluia! Praise, o servants of YHVH, praise the Name of YHVH! Blessed be the Name of YHVH now and forever!

From eastern lands to the western islands, may the Name of YHVH be praised! YHVH is exalted over the nations; His glory above the heavens.

Who is like YHVH our God, Who sits enthroned on high, but also bends down to see on earth as in heaven?

He lifts up the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap. He makes them sit with princes, with rulers of His people.

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Thursday, 14 May 2020 : Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Acts 1 : 15-17, 20-26

It was during this time that Peter stood up in the midst of the community – about one hundred and twenty in all – and he said, “Brothers, it was necessary that the Scriptures referring to Judas be fulfilled. The Holy Spirit had spoken through David about the one who would lead the crowd coming to arrest Jesus. He was one of our number and had been called to share our common ministry.”

“In the Book of Psalms it is written : ‘Let his house become deserted and may no one live in it.’ But it is also written : ‘May another take his office.’ Therefore, we must choose someone from among those who were with us during all the time that the Lord Jesus moved about with us, beginning with John’s baptism until the day when Jesus was taken away from us. One of these has to become, with us, a witness to His resurrection.”

Then they proposed two : Joseph, called Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and Matthias. They prayed : “You know, Lord, what is in the hearts of all. Show us, therefore, which of the two You have chosen to replace Judas in this Apostolic ministry which he deserted to go to the place he deserved.”

Then they drew lots between the two and the choice fell on Matthias who was added to the eleven Apostles.

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Tuesday, 12 May 2020 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we heard of the promises of the Lord reassuring all of His disciples and therefore all of us His faithful ones that He will always be with us and will be faithful to the Covenant He has established with us and our ancestors. And this is indeed a very important and powerful reminder for each and every one of us as at the same time we are also reminded that being Christians will likely lead us down the path of many challenges to come, if we have not already experienced them.

In our first reading today, we heard how the Apostles St. Paul and St. Barnabas encountered trouble during their missionary journey, as they were harassed and attacked by the Jewish people from Antioch and Iconium who incited the pagans and Gentiles to attack the two Apostles as well which resulted in both of them almost being killed by the masses. Thankfully by God’s providence and protection, the two of them managed to survive and they went on to another place.

Yet, that did not dampen their spirit and they remained firm in their commitment to serve God. If we noticed carefully, as both St. Paul and St. Barnabas went back towards Antioch, one of the important early centres of Christianity, they passed through the same city of Lystra and Iconium, where they had encountered troubles with the Jews and others who had almost persecuted them to death just earlier on. And in Antioch itself there had been many other forms of difficulties the Christians had encountered, just as how it was in Judea and Jerusalem.

Many among the faithful had suffered greatly because of their faith in Christ, either because they encountered stiff opposition and anger from some among the Jewish communities as well as from the Jewish authorities, some of whom were very strongly and ardently opposed to the Lord Jesus, His Way, ministry and teachings. In addition, they also encountered challenges from the pagans especially the pagan priests and ardent worshippers who saw the Christian faith as dangerous threat to their own popularity, authority, way of life and their pagan deities.

And to the Romans, who were the rulers and overlords of much of the known world and the Mediterranean region then, the rapid growth of Christianity were also often viewed with much suspicion and distrust, as the Romans also tended to group the Christians, especially during its earliest days with the Jews, whose rebellious ways and growing tensions almost resulted in uprisings and open rebellions during the earliest days of the Church. It was amidst all of these challenges and trials that the early Christians lived and professed their faith in God.

The Apostles strengthened and encouraged the resolve and faith of the people of God as mentioned in our first reading today, by reminding all of them of God’s providence and love, His faithfulness and commitment to the Covenant and the promises He had made with all of them. The Apostles encouraged the people of God and reassured them with the same reassurance from the Lord than even though they might be suffering the effects of the rejection and persecutions of the world, but the Lord was always with them and He would guide them through all the way.

And this was how so many courageous saints and martyrs came to be throughout the long history of the Church especially during times and moments of great persecutions. And today alone we are celebrating the feast of three of these great servants of God, who have all suffered martyrdom for their faith. They are St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, as well as St. Pancras, all the martyrs of the Lord from the earlier years and time in the Church.

St. Nereus and St. Achilleus were servants of a niece of the Roman Emperor Domitian, one of the early Roman Emperors, during whose reign the Apostle St. John wrote the Book of Revelations during his exile at the island of Patmos. St. Nereus and St. Achilleus were secret Christians who were probably persecuted by the early Christian persecution especially during the reign of that Emperor Domitian, who after Nero was the second Emperor to carry out harsh persecution against Christians. Those two faithful followers of God suffered and were martyred.

Meanwhile, St. Pancras, also known as St. Pancras of Rome was a young Christian man who was martyred under the reign of another Roman Emperor who was notorious for his particularly harsh and terrible persecution of Christians, namely Emperor Diocletian. He was forced to offer sacrifices to the Roman pagan gods and to the Emperor, then treated as if equal to the pagan deities, but St. Pancras, who was still just a teenager then, refused to do so.

The Emperor was really impressed with the courage and dedication showed by St. Pancras that he promised the teenager a lot of wealth and power if he would only abandon his faith in God. But St. Pancras still remained firm in his faith and would not be swayed or tempted by the Emperor’s offers, and in the end, he was also martyred by beheading, a true Christian and a devout son of God to the very end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what all these three saints and martyrs had shown us is that suffering and persecution in some form will be inevitable in our journey and life. However, we must not lose faith or focus, and we must always remember that God is always by our side, protecting us, providing us with our needs among other things. That was how those faithful servants of God remained firm in their faith despite the challenges and sufferings that they had to face.

Let us all be inspired by their examples, their great courage and faith, and let us all be more committed and faithful in following the Lord from now on. May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen each and every one of us to be ever stronger in our piety and desire to love Him with all of our hearts, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 12 May 2020 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 14 : 27-31a

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Peace be with you! I give you My peace; not as the world gives peace do I give it to you. Do not be troubled; do not be afraid. You heard Me say, ‘I am going away, but I am coming to you.’ If you loved Me, you would be glad that I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”

“I have told you this now before it takes place, so that when it does happen you may believe. It is very little what I may still tell you, for the prince of this world is at hand, although there is nothing in Me that he can claim. But see, the world must know that I love the Father, and that I do what the Father has taught Me to do.”

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Tuesday, 12 May 2020 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 144 : 10-11, 12-13ab, 21

All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o Lord, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your power.

That all may know of Your mighty deeds, Your reign and its glorious splendour. Your reign is from age to age; Your dominion endures from generation to generation.

Let my mouth speak in praise of the Lord, let every creature bless His holy Name, forever and ever.

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Tuesday, 12 May 2020 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 14 : 19-28

Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and turned the people against Paul and Barnabas. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, leaving him for dead. But when his disciples gathered around him, he stood up and returned to the town. And the next day he left for Derbe with Barnabas.

After proclaiming the Gospel in that town and making many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and on to Antioch. They were strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain firm in the faith, for they said, “We must go through many trials to enter the Kingdom of God.”

In each Church they appointed elders and, after praying and fasting, they commended them to the Lord in Whom they had placed their faith. Then they travelled through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. They preached the Word in Perga and went down to Attalia. From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God’s grace for the task they had now completed.

On their arrival they gathered the Church together and told them all that God had done through them and how He had opened the door of faith to the non-Jews. They spent a fairly long time there with the disciples.

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Friday, 1 May 2020 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, the first day of the month of May, which is celebrated all across the world as the Labour Day and May Day, the Church celebrates the great feast of the Patron of all workers, namely that of St. Joseph the Worker, a great saint and one of the most important figures in the Church as the Foster-Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. St. Joseph the Worker was also upright, virtuous and good in all the things he had done, a hardworking servant of God in all things.

St. Joseph is the Protector of the Universal Church for the important roles he had taken up in his life, in his tireless efforts to protect his family, the young Baby Jesus and His mother Mary. St. Joseph was the one who brought the Holy Family safely first to Bethlehem, when Mary gave birth to the Lord Jesus in a stable, and then later on, St. Joseph brought them to Egypt on the run from king Herod the Great and his agents trying to have the Lord Jesus murdered. It was also him who then brought them all back to Nazareth, where St. Joseph and Mary raised up Jesus well.

St. Joseph was just a mere carpenter, an occupation that did not earn a lot of money, then as well as even today. Even today, carpenters are often forgotten and easily overlooked, and they are even looked down upon and disrespected by many segments of the community. St. Joseph was a poor carpenter of a small village of Nazareth, a backwater area in the whole Jewish world and even more so in the greater world. Galilee, where Nazareth was, was at the periphery of the Jewish lands, and many of the people in Judea and Jerusalem looked down on the Galileans because of that, and all the more for a poor, unknown carpenter like St. Joseph.

Yet, St. Joseph was full of virtues and faith, and he dedicated his life to the service of God, raising the Lord Himself as his own foster Son, with great dedication and hardwork, not minding his reputation and anything else. He did his work for the greater glory of God and not for his own personal ambitions, glory or desires. Normally these are what most people would have sought for and desired over, such things like glory, wealth, reputation, fame among others, but not so for St. Joseph.

That is why we all look up at St. Joseph, the Worker, as the Patron saint of all workers and everyone in the workforce and in various employments. He is our great role model in how he lived his life, in how he devoted himself and his work to God, and in his tireless pursuit of the glorification of God rather than his own glory, vanity and power. That is why today, we celebrate the great virtues by which St. Joseph had lived his life and carried out his missions and efforts dutifully throughout his life.

Today, therefore, as we commemorate this Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, let us first of all remember all workers all around the world, in various occupations, particularly all those who are struggling with their work and all those who are about to lose their employment or rice bowl of income. We know of just how devastating the current terrible coronavirus pandemic had been to many workers in various sectors of employment and the society, how many businesses and companies had folded and closed down because of this pandemic as well as other issues.

Let us remember them in our prayers and ask St. Joseph the Worker to intercede for their sake, that the Lord will be with them all and guide them through these difficult times, that hopefully they will be able to find their good way out of their current predicament. And therefore, we also must not forget all those who are now working tirelessly to sustain themselves and their families, all those who are employed in the essential services and also all those who are trying their best to sustain their families in this great and needy moments.

We should also ask St. Joseph the Worker to intercede for all of our frontline workers, all those healthcare workers and all the personnel involved in the frontline of the battle against the pandemic, as well as others involved in the planning and the efforts to maintain the whole communities of people under these most difficult and challenging of times. Let us ask for the intercession of St. Joseph the Worker that through him, the Lord may be moved to show His mercy, compassion and love to all of us suffering now.

And lastly, let us all ourselves be inspired by the great examples set by St. Joseph the Worker in his life, his virtues and his dedication to the Lord. Let us all be shining examples of virtue and good work ourselves, by living our lives following the good examples of St. Joseph, by being faithful in all things, upright and virtuous in our actions and dealings, in how we interact with one another, and more. Let us all strive to be ever more faithful with each and every passing moments of our lives.

May the Lord continue to guide us and bless us in our works and efforts, and may He show us His mercy and love, particularly during these most difficult and challenging moments we are encountering at the moment. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.