holy men

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Wednesday, 6 February 2019 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the word of God reminding us about the wonderful works that God has done in our midst, and yet at the same time, we are also presented with the sad reality of the opposition and ignorance with which many among us have in our own lives, in how we do not recognise God’s wonders and love in work within us and in the midst of our community, our society and even within our own families and circle of friends.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard how the Lord’s work among the people, all the miraculous deeds and wonders He had done, healing the sick, casting out evil spirits and demons, and even raising the dead back into life, all these were doubted and even ridiculed by the people who saw all that He had performed before them. Some of them refused to believe and doubted because they thought of Him as the Son of a mere village carpenter, and they could not reconcile that fact with what they have witnessed in the Lord’s many miracles and wisdom.

All of these ultimately came about because of the prejudices and biases that were rampant among the community of the people of God, when people judged one another and treated one another according to one’s social status and standing within the society. Those who were uneducated and held difficult and yet humble jobs like carpenters, farmers, shepherds, all those who took up menial labours and went through much physical hardships, without proper compensation and were poor, all of these were often marginalised and ignored by the greater society.

The Lord called many of His disciples and followers from among these, as many of them were uneducated, with ordinary and even poor background, having no status or greatness, having no special privileges, just like Himself, born into a poor family from a poor and small, insignificant village of Nazareth in Galilee, which was equally a backwater periphery of the Jewish community and world at that time, where no one of particular honour and power was expected to come from.

The Lord gathered His disciples and followers, showing them all what they often had to endure for His sake, because of their background, and even more importantly, because of their faith and belief in God. To be His followers, the disciples of the Lord Jesus were called to be ready to be humiliated, ostracised, abandoned, rejected and left without honour, and even imprisoned and to suffer from various pains and sufferings, just as the Lord Himself has suffered the same.

That was what the first reading today, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews spoke about, of the readiness to suffer for God’s sake, and yet, at the same time, the faithful were reminded of God’s faithfulness and unshakeable dedication to His faithful ones. God will not abandon His faithful ones to the darkness, and He will not allow them to fall into damnation, and that is why, He gave us this gift of faith, as well as love for Him.

However, the reality of life is such that we often falter when we are faced with challenges and difficulties, because we have not been able to feel and know His presence in our midst. We are often too preoccupied and too prejudiced to notice the Lord’s works and presence in our midst, just as the people who witnessed all of the Lord’s miracles and wonders still doubted in Him and refused to believe despite all that they have seen and experienced.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of saints and martyrs, whose life and devotion to God are truly exemplary, and should become our inspiration in life. St. Paul Miki and his fellow martyrs, both priests and the laity were known together as the Holy Japanese Martyrs, those who suffered and died during those years when the Japanese authorities severely oppressed the faithful in Japan, both laity and priests, both foreign missionaries and local Christians alike.

St. Paul Miki and his fellow martyrs in faith were harassed, arrested and tortured because of their faith in God, as they refused to reject the Lord and abandon Christ. When they were forced to desecrate the holy images of the Lord, His blessed Mother and His saints, they refused to do so, and remained resolute in their faith and commitment. The authorities sentenced them to death, and they were forced to march thousands of kilometres from the capital in Kyoto to their site of martyrdom in Nagasaki.

But despite all of these sufferings, challenges and difficulties, the pains and sorrows that the Japanese Christians, St. Paul Miki and his fellow martyrs had to endure, they remained firm in their faith in God, and kept that joy within them. The Lord Himself was with them, and they kept that joy of knowing just how God’s love has given them strength. St. Paul Miki and his companions endured the long and arduous journey, singing the thanksgiving hymn, ‘Te Deum’ throughout the way.

When they were martyred, the holy Japanese martyrs faced death with faith, and committed themselves wholeheartedly to the Lord. They remained true to their faith to the very end, knowing that God would always be with them, despite all the difficulties and challenges that they encountered. Now, we are called to imitate and follow the examples of those holy saints and martyrs, St. Paul Miki and his companions, who have given themselves so totally to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to commit ourselves and dedicate ourselves in the same manner? Are we able to face the challenges of this world with the same joy as the Apostles, and as St. Paul Miki and his companions had done? We are called to follow in their footsteps, and let us all pray, that from now on, we will grow ever more in our faith and love for God, and be able to dedicate ourselves, each and every days of our life. May God be with us always, and may the intercession of St. Paul Miki and his companions be our help always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 6 February 2019 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 6 : 1-6

At that time, leaving the place where He resurrected the daughter of Jairus, Jesus returned to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and most of those who heard Him were astonished.

But they said, “How did this come to Him? What kind of wisdom has been given to Him, that He also performs such miracles? Who is He but the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here among us?” So they took offence at Him.

And Jesus said to them, “Prophets are despised only in their own country, among their relatives, and in their own family.” And He could work no miracles there, but only healed a few sick people, by laying His hands on them. Jesus Himself was astounded at their unbelief.

Jesus then went around the villages, teaching.

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Wednesday, 6 February 2019 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 102 : 1-2, 13-14, 17-18a

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

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.

But the Lord’s kindness is forever with those who fear Him; so is His justice, for their children’s children, for those who keep His covenant and remember His commands.

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Wednesday, 6 February 2019 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Hebrews 12 : 4-7, 11-15

Have you already shed your blood in the struggle against sin? Do not forget the comforting words that Wisdom addresses to you as children : My son, pay attention when the Lord corrects you and do not be discouraged when He punishes you. For the Lord corrects those He loves and chastises everyone He accepts as a son.

What you endure is in order to correct you. God treats you like sons and what son is not corrected by his father? All correction is painful at the moment, rather than pleasant; later it brings the fruit of peace, that is, holiness to those who have been trained by it.

Lift up, then, your drooping hands, and strengthen your trembling knees; make level the ways for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but healed. Strive for peace with all and strive to be holy, for without holiness no one will see the Lord. See that no one falls from the grace of God, lest a bitter plant spring up and its poison corrupt many among you.

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Thursday, 31 January 2019 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words from the Scripture telling us about the need for each and every one of us to be faithful to God, and to live out our lives with faith, and not with just empty gestures and superficial dedication. The Lord has given us many talents, abilities and blessings as gifts, and rightfully we are expected to make good use of them, for the benefit and for the good of all of God’s beloved children.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard about the short parable with which the Lord Jesus taught His disciples, with regards to the use of a light that ought to be placed on a lampstand and not to be hidden. This must be understood in the context of the importance of light for the people at that time, and even in our present day world. Light is very important because in a world where the absence of light is often feared and undesired because of the darkness and our inability to see or to experience things around us, light is truly a very important thing to have.

If light is covered up, then it becomes useless, as its light then cannot be seen by anyone. It is also senseless and meaningless for light to be hidden and not be seen by anyone. Therefore, when we heard the parable that the Lord mentioned about light, it was in fact a comparison to the talents, abilities and blessings that God has given to each and every one of us. Hiding up the light is essentially keeping our talents and abilities without using them for the benefit of men.

That is what the Lord told to the people, with the intention to remind them that each and every one of them have been given plenty of blessings, talents and abilities in order to be used for the benefit and good of one another, and yet, many of them have misused those gifts and blessings. Throughout history, we have seen many circumstances and occasions when there had been suffering because of the misuse of these talents and abilities.

In addition, there had been many occasions when the people were ignorant of the sufferings and difficulties faced by their peers around them. For example, in our world today, many people who are in need, poor and suffering, and at the same time, there are all those who are very rich and having abundant blessings and yet, did nothing to help those who were less fortunate. That is why there are so much injustice in this world today.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today each and every one of us are called to make use of the various gifts and blessings that we have been given, and share them with one another. That is what the Lord truly meant as He told His disciples the parable of the light, put on a lampstand to provide light to dispel the darkness that is present around us. We are called to do this, as part of what God had commanded us all to do.

Today, we celebrate the feast day of St. John Bosco, the saint well known for his dedication and hard work for the benefit of the poor and the less fortunate, in particular his work among the young boys and delinquents, who were gathered by the saint into a house where they could gain education and proper guidance with love and compassion. St. John Bosco showed love, care and compassion for those who need them the most and touched their lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to follow the examples of St. John Bosco in his dedication in serving the people of God, his love for the poor, the needy and all those who need care and attention. Let us all share the love and the blessings that God has given us so generously, so that none of us will be left unloved and uncared for anymore. Let us turn our hearts and minds wholeheartedly to the Lord from now on.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to lead and guide us down the right path, that in everything we say, do and act, we will always bring glory to God, and will love Him ever more, with each and every passing days. May God bless us all in everything, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 31 January 2019 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 4 : 21-25

At that time, Jesus also said to His disciples, “When the light comes, is it put under a basket or a bed? Surely it is put on a lamp stand. Whatever is hidden will be disclosed, and whatever is kept secret will be brought to light. Listen then, if you have ears!”

And He also said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear. In the measure you give, so shall you receive, and still more will be given to you. For to the one who produces something, more will be given; and from him who does not produce anything, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

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Thursday, 31 January 2019 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 23 : 1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6

The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord, the world and all that dwell in it. He has founded it upon the ocean and set it firmly upon the waters.

Who will ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who will stand in His holy place? Those with clean hands and pure heart, who desire not what is vain.

They will receive blessings from the Lord, a reward from God, their Saviour. Such are the people who seek Him, who seek the face of Jacob’s God.

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Thursday, 31 January 2019 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Hebrews 10 : 19-25

So, my friends, we are assured of entering the Sanctuary, by the Blood of Jesus Who opened, for us, this new and living way, passing through the curtain, that is, His Body. Because we have a High Priest in charge of the House of God, let us approach, with a sincere heart, with full faith, interiorly cleansed from a bad conscience, and our bodies washed, with pure water.

Let us hold fast to our hope, without wavering, because He, Who promised, is faithful. Let us consider, how we may spur one another to love and good works. Do not abandon the assemblies, as some of you do, but encourage one another, and all the more, since the Day is drawing near.

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Monday, 28 January 2019 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the Scripture passages reminding us about the wonderful things that the Lord has done for our sake, in how He has brought us out from the predicament and our fated destruction because of our sins. He has come into this world to be the Mediator of the New Covenant between God and mankind as mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews. He is the High Priest Who is also the Mediator of the New Covenant.

In order to understand this better, we must understand the context and historical importance of the role of the priest, and especially the High Priest in the community of Israel, the people of God. The priest is the one who has been chosen by God from among the tribe of Levi, to be the servant at His Temple, and earlier on also at the Tent of Meeting built by Moses, whose role is to offer sacrifices presented by the people to God.

Therefore, the priest had a very important role as the mediator of the Covenant between God and man, for the relationship between God and man had been damaged and man has been sundered away from God’s grace because of their sins. Sin is born out of disobedience, our refusal to follow and obey the way of the Lord, all of the wicked words we have uttered and the wicked deeds and actions we have taken in life. All these have separated us from God.

But God still loves each and every one of us despite of our rebelliousness and waywardness. He created us because of His love for us, and He will not abandon that love just because of our sins and our disobedience. That is why God established His Covenant with us, and renewed it again and again, as we mankind continuously failed to uphold our end of the Covenant, breaking them through our sinful disobedience. God still tried to save us, and through His priests, He brought a temporary solution, by their sacrificial offerings.

God promised that the time would come for His Saviour to come into the world and resolve this matter once and for all, a promise that is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, Who came into this world, performed His works obeying the will of His Father, and by becoming Man and assuming our human existence like us, became for us our Eternal and True High Priest, offering for us, just for one time, once and for all, the perfect offering through which all of us have been saved.

Christ has become the source of our salvation because He obediently and willingly followed the will of God His Father, in laying down His life on the cross, which became His Altar, the Altar on which He laid down the offering of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, the Lamb of God, the Divine Lamb of sacrifice that far and infinitely surpassed the offering of lambs and other animals as prescribed by the Law.

Unfortunately as shown in the Gospel passage today, there were still those who refused to believe in the Lord and in fact, even made nasty and wicked accusations against Him. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law accused the Lord of using the power of the prince of demons, Beelzebul to cast out other demons when they saw Him exorcising evil spirits from people, and they thought that as He often did it on the Sabbath day in violation of the strict Sabbath law, then He could not have done it with God’s grace.

But this is where the pride and the stubbornness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law worked against them, as these prevented them to see reason, which the Lord wisely and justly presented before them, showing them the foolishness of their argument. Had the evil spirits and demons were divided against each other as they stipulated, there would have been endless conflicts between the fallen angels, and Satan would have been too busy to be able to strike at us mankind.

Instead, they did not realise that Satan himself was planting these seeds of discord and stubbornness in their hearts and minds to prevent them from being able to understand and appreciate the works of God unfolding and happening before their own eyes. Satan did not want the success of the works of God, and that was why, all the more his entire forces were united in the effort to divide the people of God, and to block them from attaining salvation through the Lord Jesus’ efforts.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, now let us all reflect on our own lives. Have we allowed ourselves to be seduced by the temptations of Satan, that we hardened our hearts and minds against the love of God? We have to realise just how great God’s love for us is, to the point that He was willing to endure all the sufferings and pains in order for us to be saved. He willingly took up the cross and bore it up to Calvary for us.

If God has not loved us, we would have perished long ago, and our existence would have been meaningless. But God did not let all these happen, and He brought us out of the depth of our sins and from the darkness into the light, through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our God and Our Saviour. And for the love that He has shown us all, it is only then right that we also love Him in the same manner, as what is only right and just after all that He has done for us.

If we are not sure how we ought to do so, then perhaps it is good for us to take note of the examples shown by St. Thomas Aquinas, the saint whose feast we celebrate on this day. St. Thomas Aquinas is a truly famous saint and also Doctor of the Church, renowned for his extensive theological and philosophical writings, his brilliant mind and wisdom, and his love and commitment for God. St. Thomas Aquinas inspired many generations of people who also dedicated their lives to God.

But St. Thomas Aquinas did not have it easy, as oppositions and challenges were aplenty, even from his youth. His family opposed his desire to join religious life and priesthood, using whatever means to try to dissuade him from his conviction, but St. Thomas Aquinas persevered through prayer and steadfast dedication, and he managed to overcome those challenges eventually. He became a devout and committed Dominican, and went about many places teaching and completing his now famous writings and works including the Summa Theologiae, Summa Contra Gentiles among many others.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Thomas Aquinas has shown us that it is possible for us to love God and to dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to Him, directing ourselves to Him so completely that we become attuned to Him much as St. Thomas Aquinas had been, growing deeper in faith and in our dedication to Him each and every single days of our life. Let us all dedicate ourselves anew and renew the faith we have in our God from now on, turning ourselves to Him and loving Him with all of our hearts and strength. Amen.

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Monday, 28 January 2019 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 3 : 22-30

At that time, the teachers of the Law, who had come from Jerusalem, said, “He is in the power of Beelzebul : the chief of the demons helps Him to drive out demons.”

Jesus called them to Him, and began teaching them by means of histories, or parables. “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a nation is divided by civil war, that nation cannot stand. If a family divides itself into groups, that family will not survive.”

“In the same way, if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he will not stand, he is finished. No one can break into the house of a strong man in order to plunder his goods, unless he first ties up the strong man. Then indeed, he can plunder his house.”

“Truly, I say to you, every sin will be forgiven humankind, even insults to God, however numerous. But whoever slanders the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven : he carries the guilt of his sin forever.” This was their sin when they said, “He has an unclean spirit in Him.”