holy men

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Friday, 20 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernardine of Siena, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the judgment of God for all of us mankind, and how those who are good, and those who have done good in patience, waiting patiently for the coming of the Lord, shall be rewarded with the blessings and the grace of God, and be welcomed into the eternal life which God has promised all of His faithful ones.

St. James rebuked those who were fighting amongst themselves and said that the kingdom and the glory of God belong to those who are patient, kind, good and obedient, just as the servant of God Job had done before many millennia before today, where he patiently endured persecutions and troubles, all the challenges and the obstacles that he encountered, all the trials and tribulations placed before him by the devil to test him.

And in the Gospel today, we heard about one of the teachers of the Law speaking and arguing with Jesus about divorce, and what the people ought to do in accordance with the Law of God. And the teacher of the Law argued that because the laws according to Moses had allowed for the cases of divorce, thus it was rightful for a person to divorce his wife, or to divorce her husband vice versa, as long as the necessary documents were completed.

But Jesus rebuked him, saying that such laws and rules were in place only because the people of God were obstinate and unruly, and were unable to follow precisely what God had told them to do. And such allowances were meant only to accommodate the demands and wishes of the rebellious people of God, but those were not meant to cover up their sins.

Jesus made it very clear on many occasions, that sin is sin, and the sin of adultery is truly grave indeed. It is because marriage is a holy Sacrament of God, one of the Seven holy Sacraments of the Church, which God had instituted Himself and passed down to His Apostles and thus to the Church. And through marriage, as what God had mentioned to mankind in the Book of Genesis, He had made man and woman into one body, uniting them in a holy bond of matrimony which He Himself had blessed.

Therefore, it is not right for anyone to break this holy bond which God had blessed as long as it had been lawfully made. No man should dissolve the holy bonds and desecrate the holy union which God had blessed unless if they want to commit a grave sin for themselves, and made worse if that desecration was caused by unfaithfulness and by betrayal of the love and trust made at the holy union between man and woman.

Why does that sin happen, brothers and sisters in Christ? The sin of adultery is caused by our own lack of patience, our tendency to be tempted and swayed by the offer of worldly pleasures, the pleasures of the flesh, the sins of corruption and perversion, and many other forms of distractions that keep us away from finding our way to righteousness, and from upholding the integrity and the holiness of God’s holy union.

Mankind were often not satisfied with chastity and with temperance, and instead looking forward to the opportunities to overcome the limitations and the rules imposed on the holy married life, and thus committed adultery, often with another more desirable and more pleasurable to the eyes and to the flesh, all these while they were still in the holy union legally and rightly blessed by God.

As such, we must not heed those in our world today, even those who are within the Church who espoused and pushed forth for the effort to ignore the sins of those who have committed adultery and divorce. We have to understand that the reality is such that, there were those who argued, just as the teacher of the Law had argued with Jesus at that time, that those who committed adultery by desecrating the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony should be welcomed and pardoned unconditionally through God’s mercy.

Yet, these people had conveniently or even purposely forgotten the fact that, while God is merciful and loving towards all of us, but at the same time, He also abhors all forms of sin and wickedness which all of us had performed in our lives. Thus, without clear and genuine repentance from sin, and without turning away from sinfulness, there can be no way forward for us mankind.

And in living our lives worthily before God, we can heed the examples shown by St. Bernardine of Siena whose feast we celebrate today. St. Bernardine of Siena was a priest of the Lord, a Franciscan missionary from Italy, who was a great and devoted preacher who taught the people of God against the sins and wickedness that had corrupted many of the people at the time.

He actively went from places to places, from towns to towns, villages to villages, and from communities to communities, calling the people of God to purify themselves and their faith, and remove from themselves all the sins and the unworthy things which had made themselves unworthy of God’s grace and blessings. He called for many of the people to cast away their sinful actions and remove from themselves all the vanities and the things that have led themselves to sin, such as unnecessary excesses and luxuries.

The words and the works of St. Bernardine of Siena are calling us to reexamine our own lives. Have we been truly faithful to the Lord? And have we been patient in enduring challenges after challenges, obstacles upon obstacles that would come our way when we remain faithful to the Lord and obey His laws? Or have we instead been impatient, and tried to circumvent God’s laws to serve our own unsatisfiable desires?

Let us all reflect on all these, and let us have a new resolve to devote ourselves to a holy life in God, upholding the sanctity of life and holy matrimony at all times. Let us not be deceived into allowing sin to enter into our hearts, especially by trying to show false mercy to those who have committed adultery and yet refused to repent from their sins and continue to live in sin. May God help us on our way to Him and bless us all our days. Amen.

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Friday, 20 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernardine of Siena, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Mark 10 : 1-12

At that time, Jesus then left Capernaum and went to the province of Judea, beyond the Jordan River. Once more crowds gathered around Him and once more He taught them, as He always did. Some (Pharisees came and) put Him to the test with this question, “Is it right for a husband to divorce his wife?”

He replied, “What law did Moses give you?” They answered, “Moses allowed us to write a certificate of dismissal in order to divorce.” Then Jesus said to them, “Moses wrote this law for you, because you are stubborn. But in the beginning of creation God made them male and female, and because of this, man has to leave father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one body. So they are no longer two but one body. Therefore let no one separate what God has joined.”

When they were indoors at home, the disciples again asked Him about this, and He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against his wife, and the woman who divorces her husband and marries another also commits adultery.”

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Friday, 20 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernardine of Siena, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 8-9, 11-12

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

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

The Lord is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger; He will not always scold nor will He be angry forever.

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

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Friday, 20 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernardine of Siena, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

James 5 : 9-12

Beloved, do not fight among yourselves, and you will not be judged. See, the judge is already at the door. Take for yourselves, as an example of patience, the suffering of the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s Name. See how those who were patient are called blessed. You have heard of the patience of Job and know how the Lord dealt with him in the end. For the Lord is merciful and shows compassion.

Above all, my beloved, do not swear either by heaven or by earth, or make a habit of swearing. Let your yes be yes and your no be no, lest you become liable for judgment.

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Thursday, 12 May 2016 : Seventh Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard about the moment when St. Paul was brought in front of the assembly of Pharisees and Sadducees in Caesarea, where they wanted to accuse him of wrongdoings and even through false charges. But St. Paul did not fear this and he fought back, showing just how weak and false the arguments laid against him was, as his many enemies and opponents could not even work together or find a common ground to accuse him of wrongdoing.

And in the end, he was saved from their persecution, which would likely have seen him brought up in chains to Jerusalem, and perhaps likely to suffer martyrdom there without the chance for further evangelisation. Instead, as the events went on, he managed to convince the governor to allow him to appeal to the Roman Emperor, and thus he went to Rome, and on the way, he stopped by several places where he helped to establish the Church in those places by his works.

In all these, we see that God will not abandon those who are faithful to Him. He will always be there for all those who obey His will and commandments, and also those who keep His ways faithfully. He will bless and guard these with jealous love, not allowing the forces of darkness and evil to harm them. These forces may challenge the servants of the Lord, bring tribulations and difficulties to them, but they will not bring harm to their eternal souls.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we see how much God has loved us and cared for us, so much so that He sent to us His only beloved Son, Jesus Christ, that the Divine Word assumed the flesh, our flesh, and became Man like us. And by His works, the trials and tribulations which He faced for our sake, by His entreaties and prayers, made as what we heard in the Gospel today, He beseeched the Father to forgive us our sins, and made His petitions for our sake.

How great indeed is the love which God has shown for us. He is always loving and ever merciful to us. He is slow to anger and rich in kindness. He shows us His compassion from time to time, and He is willing to forgive us, but as long as we ourselves are also willing and wanting to be forgiven. If we do not act in the way that is pleasing to God and continue to act wickedly and in disobedience to God, how would we expect to be forgiven?

God will keep us and guard us as He has always done. He is forever faithful, but how about us? Are we faithful to God and committed to His ways? Let us ask ourselves how often it was that we have acted in ways that are not in accordance with God’s ways. How often is it that we have been angry with our brethren, our neighbours around us, or even resenting them or being jealous with what they had and what we did not have?

How often is it that we have been ignorant of the need of others who are around us, who need our help, and yet we did not even lift a finger to help, and pretend not to notice their sufferings? These are the questions we should ask ourselves, and indeed, we should also reflect on the lives of the three great saints and holy martyrs whose feast we celebrate today.

St. Nereus, St. Pancras and St. Achilleus were told be the martyrs of the great persecution of the Emperor Diocletian, who was known for his especially vicious and harsh persecution against the Church and the faithful during the turn of the fourth century after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. The faithful were greatly oppressed, and the Roman government and officials openly showed hostility against Christians of all backgrounds.

The three martyrs were told to be among those who were arrested and tortured at the time of the great persecution of Christians. And yet they refused to recant their faith in God, and they adamantly rejected the call to abandon their Lord and God and worship the Emperor as god instead. They courageously stood by their faith, even though they knew that by doing so, it means almost certain death at that time.

They did not compromise their faith and their life with submission to the world and its demands just in order to safeguard themselves. Rather, they totally surrendered it all to God, and went on knowing that doing so would mean facing death and painful sufferings. From their examples, each and every one of us should be aware that as Christians, we cannot be just passive and ignorant of things that we need to do, and indeed which we can do, for the sake of those who are around us, and for the sake of the Lord our God.

Let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and let us be filled with strength and with the courage to carry out our lives in good faith and commitment to God, so that in all the things that we say and do, we will always bring forth the glory of God. May God bless us and keep us, and may He remain with us all forever. Amen.

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Thursday, 12 May 2016 : Seventh Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 17 : 20-26

At that time, Jesus prayed to God His Father, “I pray not only for these, but also for those who through their word will believe in Me. May they all be one, as You Father are in Me and I am in You. May they be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”

“I have given them the glory You have given Me, that they may be one as We are one : I in them and You in Me. Thus they shall reach perfection in unity; and the world shall know that You have sent Me, and that I have loved them, just as You loved Me.”

“Father, since You have given them to Me, I want them to be with Me where I am, and see the glory You gave Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You have sent Me. As I revealed Your Name to them, so will I continue to reveal it, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I also may be in them.”

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Thursday, 12 May 2016 : Seventh Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 15 : 1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

Keep me safe, o God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “O Lord, my inheritance and my cup, my chosen portion – hold secure my lot.”

I bless the Lord Who counsels me; even at night my inmost self instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me; for with Him at my right hand, I will never be shaken.

My heart, therefore, exults, my soul rejoices; my body too will rest assured. For You will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will You suffer Your Holy One to see decay in the land of the dead.

You will show me the path of life, in Your presence the fullness of joy, at Your right hand happiness forever.

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Thursday, 12 May 2016 : Seventh Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 22 : 30 and Acts 23 : 6-11

The next day the commander wanted to know for certain the charge the Jews were making against Paul. So he released him from prison and called together the High Priest and the whole Council; and they brought Paul down and made him stand before them.

Paul knew that part of the Council were Sadducees and others Pharisees; so he spoke out in the Council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, son of a Pharisee. It is for the hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial here.”

At these words, an argument broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the whole assembly was divided. For the Sadducees claim that there is neither resurrection, nor Angels nor spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all these things.

Then the shouting grew louder, and some teachers of the Law of the Pharisee party protested, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Maybe a spirit or an Angel has spoken to him.” With this the argument became so violent that the commander feared that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He therefore ordered the soldiers to go down and rescue him from their midst and take him back to the fortress.

That night the Lord stood by Paul and said, “Courage! As you have borne witness to Me here in Jerusalem, so must you do in Rome.”

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is indeed a great day, the day when we celebrate the feast of not just one, but two of Christ’s Twelve Apostles, His principal and the greatest of His disciples. We celebrate on this day the feast of the Apostles St. Philip and St. James. Both of them worked hard for the sake of the people of God, and as the other Apostles had done, they spread the Good News to many during their missions.

St. Philip was also known as Nathanael, a learnt and wise man of Israel, who was told to be fluent in Greek, and thus eventually he went on to preach the Lord and His truth in the regions of Greece and Roman Asia at the time, going from cities to cities, preaching to the masses and gaining for the Church many new converts and members. He went about the Greek communities and gaining many new faithful from among them.

In the end, in one account, St. Philip even managed to convert the wife of the proconsul of a region where he ministered in through his miracles and preaching. The proconsul was enraged and ordered St. Philip to be arrested, and he together with the other Apostle, St. Bartholomew, and other disciples were crucified upside down by the order of the proconsul. And it was told how St. Philip preached to the crowd gathering there from the cross, such that they wanted to release him, but this was not allowed by St. Philip himself.

Meanwhile, St. James the Greater was the brother of St. John the Apostle, once a fisherman along the Lake of Galilee, whom Jesus called together with His other Apostles, St. Peter, St. Andrew and St. John his brother. St. James the Greater played an important role during the early Church, spreading the Good News of God’s salvation after Christ’s resurrection and ascension into heaven.

It was told that St. James went to preach the Good News to the faraway regions such as the province of Iberia in what is today Spain, spreading the Gospel to the people there and helped to establish the Church in faraway regions from its origins in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. And he was therefore today renowned especially in the region known as Santiago de Compostela, where his body lay buried, because it was there where he apparently did his works of evangelisation.

And it was told that, as written in the Acts of the Apostles, how king Herod arrested St. James when he returned to the Holy Land, and in order to please the Jewish authorities, the Pharisees and the chief priests, he executed him. Thus, St. James was among the first of the Apostles to meet his end in martyrdom, but certainly, his works and legacies could still be felt even many years after his death.

Through his tireless works and commitment to the cause of the salvation of mankind, St. James and St. Philip the two Apostles of our Lord, they might have gone ahead of us to the glory of heaven. However, the impact of their actions can still be felt clearly even today. In this regard, we indeed need more and more people who are willing to commit themselves to the Lord and walk in His path as these two Apostles had one.

Truly, it will not be an easy one for us, as there would opposition against all those who are faithful and kept their faith. But Jesus reminded us yet again in the Gospel today, that we who have believed in Him, has seen the Lord Himself through Jesus, and by our faith in Him, we have been justified. And because we know the Lord, we will also do what He has asked us to do, and through these therefore, we would be blessed and saved.

During this season of Easter, which is coming to an end soon, let us therefore reflect on our own lives, and on how we have acted in our life so far. Have we been committed to our Lord, and have we been faithful to Him, through all of our words and actions? Can we call ourselves true Christians, as those who do not just believe in the Lord through mere words, but also through real action?

The examples of the Apostles St. Philip and St. James show us that there are still many things that we can do as the followers of Christ in order to fulfil the commands which our Lord had placed in the shoulders of the Apostles. Both the Apostles took the charge with zeal and vigour, and despite the challenges and the difficulties that faced them, all these did not prevent them from carrying out the missions which the Lord entrusted to them.

Let us all therefore look forward, and as we are about to celebrate the Solemnity of the Pentecost Sunday soon, let us all recommit ourselves, and rediscover the gifts of the Holy Spirit which had been given to us, and make use of them all in order to help those who are still in darkness, by showing them the love of God manifested through each and every one of us the faithful ones of our Lord, that more and more souls may see the light of God and be saved. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 14 : 6-14

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you know Me, you will know the Father also; indeed you know Him, and you have seen Him.”

Philip asked Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough.” Jesus said to him, “What! I have been with you so long and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever sees Me sees the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?”

“All that I say to you, I do not say of Myself. The Father Who dwells in Me is doing His own work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do.”

“Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in Me will do the same works that I do; and he will even do greater than these, for I am going to the Father. Everything you ask in My Name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Indeed, anything you ask, calling upon My Name, I will do.”