holy men

by

Tuesday, 4 August 2015 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Vianney, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture readings have a clear theme, that all of them spoke of the faults and mistakes which all of us have committed in this life, and how we ought to humble ourselves before God and seek His ever great mercy, so that we may be forgiven of our sins and therefore we will not be cast away from His presence and from the life which He had promised to all of us.

In the first reading we heard how in the time during the Exodus from Egypt, Moses had some sort of power struggle with his siblings, namely Miriam and Aaron, his sister and brother respectively. They were unhappy at what they perceived as something unjust when God favoured Moses such that he was the only one through whom God communicated His will to His people.

As his brother and his sister, Miriam and Aaron had that kind of jealousy, thinking that if Moses had received such favours, then they too would deserve it as well. They therefore grumbled and rose up against Moses, all for the sake of the glory and praise which in our opinion, we think that they were expecting by sharing the same power and privilege which Moses had enjoyed.

But God was angry at them, because they had unjustly and wickedly tried to usurp and contest what God had decided, and they tried to wrest the rightful blessings and grace which God had shown His servant Moses, just because they were jealous in their hearts. And as a result, God showed His displeasure at them, and Miriam contracted leprosy, which was a disease that was one of the most taboo and humiliating at the time.

Yet, we should note how Moses did not rejoice over what had happened to his brother and his sister, and instead, he begged God to show mercy on them. Truly, this is something that we have to take note of. This means that, we cannot be like Aaron and Miriam in their behaviour towards Moses, in all the injustice they had shown him. Yet, their behaviour and actions are precisely what many of us mankind are suffering from.

How many of us have this tendency in us to be jealous at the achievement of others? How many of us also covet what others have? If we look at our own lives, then surely we would realise how many times we have caused this great discomfort upon others and bicker with them for what they have, because we are unable to restrain ourselves. We succumb ourselves to the pressure of our desires and wants, and therefore, we fell into sin.

Today, we celebrate the feast of a holy man, a holy saint, whose in life was known as a hardworking and dedicated man of God, whose concerns were for those whose souls were lost in the darkness, for those who were in a state of mortal danger and sin. He was known as the Cure of Ars, also known by his name of St. John Vianney or St. John Mary Vianney.

We know him as the patron saint for priests, who was the one whose examples inspired so many of the priests past and today. Through his hard and tireless works, he had brought about a great transformation in the lives of those people who were around him, transforming his community and many others who flocked to his place to see him and to hear from his teachings, and to be healed by his hands.

Through St. John Vianney and his works, countless souls had been saved, and many others were initiated on their path towards salvation. This is what Jesus in the Gospel today had mentioned, that salvation and someone’s righteousness does not begin with exterior cleanliness and purity, but instead, begins from the inside. St. John Vianney worked to heal not the body but the soul.

And in the Gospel today, we also heard about how Jesus chided Peter for his lack of faith, because he tried to walk on the water as Jesus had done, but the wind and the waves made him to fear, and in his fear, he trembled and started to sink. He lacked faith in the Lord, and the concerns and fears of this world began to affect him, the same things that had brought Aaron and Miriam to commit sin against God by being jealous to their own brother.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us no longer remain an unbeliever, and believe! Let us put our trust and faith fully in God and no longer be affected or corrupted by the many desires and worries of this world. Let us purify ourselves, our body, heart and soul from all sorts of jealousy, greed, desire, hatred and all other forms of negativities in us. May Almighty God bless us and guide us on our way. Amen.

by

Tuesday, 4 August 2015 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Vianney, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 14 : 22-36

At that time, immediately Jesus obliged His disciples to get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowd away. And having sent the people away, He went up the mountain by Himself to pray. At nightfall, He was there alone.

Meanwhile, the boat was very far from land, dangerously rocked by the waves, for the wind was against it. At daybreak, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. When they saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, thinking that it was a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But at once Jesus said to them, “Courage! Do not be afraid. It is Me!”

Peter answered, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You walking on the water.” Jesus said to him, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water to go to Jesus. But seeing the strong wind, he was afraid and began to sink; and he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately stretched out His hand and took hold of him, saying, “Man of little faith, why did you doubt?”

As they got into the boat, the wind dropped. Then those in the boat bowed down before Jesus, saying, “Truly, You are the Son of God!”

They came ashore at Gennesareth. The local people recognised Jesus and spread the news throughout the region. So they brought all the sick to Him, begging Him to let them touch just the hem of His cloak. All who touched it became perfectly well.

Alternative reading

Matthew 15 : 1-2, 10-14

At that time, some Pharisees and teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. And they said to Him, “Why do Your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders? In fact, they do not wash their hands before eating.”

Jesus then called the people near Him, and said to them, “Listen and understand : What enters into the mouth does not make a person unclean. What defiles a person is what comes out of his mouth.” After a while the disciples gathered around Jesus and said, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended by what You said?”

Jesus answered, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted shall be uprooted. Pay no attention to them! They are blind leading the blind. When a blind person leads another, the two will fall into a pit.”

by

Tuesday, 4 August 2015 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Vianney, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 50 : 3-4, 5-6a, 6bc-7, 12-13

Have mercy on me, o God, in Your love. In Your great compassion blot out my sin. Wash me thoroughly of my guilt; cleanse me of evil.

For I acknowledge my wrongdoings and have my sins ever in mind. Against You alone have I sinned.

What is evil in Your sight I have done. You are right when You pass sentence and blameless in Your judgment. For I have been guilt-ridden from birth, a sinner from my mother’s womb.

Create in me, o God, a pure heart; give me a new and steadfast spirit. Do not cast me out of Your presence nor take Your Holy Spirit from me.

by

Tuesday, 4 August 2015 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Vianney, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Numbers 12 : 1-13

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married and they said, “Has YHVH only spoken through Moses? Has He not also spoken through us?” And YHVH heard. Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than any man on the face of the earth. Yet suddenly YHVH said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, all three of you, to the Tent of Meeting.” The three of them came out.

YHVH came down in the pillar of cloud and, standing at the door of the Tent, called Aaron and Miriam. They both went out and He said, “Listen carefully to what I say : If there is a prophet among you, I reveal Myself to him in a vision and I speak to him in a dream. It is not so for My servant, Moses, My trusted steward in all My household. To him I speak face to face, openly, and not in riddles, and he sees the presence of YHVH. Why then did you not fear to speak against My servant, against Moses?”

YHVH became angry with them and He departed. The cloud moved away from above the Tent and Miriam was there white as snow with leprosy. Aaron turned towards Miriam and he saw that she was leprous. And he said to Moses, “My lord, I beg you, do not charge us with this sin that we have foolishly committed. Let her not be like the stillborn whose flesh is half-eaten when it comes from its mother’s womb.”

Then Moses cried to YHVH, “Heal her, o God, I beg of you.”

by

Sunday, 2 August 2015 : Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about the readings from the Scriptures, both from the Old and New Testament, on how God fed His people and made them satisfied. We heard first how the people of Israel during their Exodus from Egypt was fed with manna, or the bread from heaven, so that even in the middle of the desert they would not go hungry.

Every morning, the Lord would bring manna to them in the morning mist together with the dew, and all had enough manna for themselves to eat. And every evening, the Lord sent huge flocks of birds for the people to catch and eat. And through Moses, God gave His people crystal clear and sweet water to drink, and all these He had done, so that His people may know of His love, and may be filled with good things to satisfaction.

Yet in the Gospel today, Jesus rebuked the people who followed Him, because He knew that He had fed them and they saw that He could feed them and therefore they followed Him. Why is this so, brethren? That is because what Jesus wanted the people to know, and by extension for all of us to know is that, true faith is not about believing just because we saw what had happened and be amazed at it, and neither can we have faith that is just as much as our stomach is, that is our desires.

A good lesson for us can be gained by observing exactly what happened to the people of Israel in the desert. They were fed with manna, with large birds and other food otherwise not to be found in a desert, and were supplied with rich water and ample provisions, but see what had happened to them. They did not remain faithful to the Lord who loved them and cared for them so much.

Firstly they were mesmerised by gold, by the wealth of this world, which the Egyptians had provided them amply with as they left Egypt, when the Egyptians wanted to have nothing nothing else to do with them and gave them whatever they wanted. All these gold got into their hearts, blinding them against God’s love and made them very, very proud of themselves and greed grew in their hearts.

And we know what happened next, when at the mountain of God at Horeb, as Moses went up the mountain to establish covenant between the people of God and their Lord, they whored themselves and sold themselves to the pagan gods, making a golden calf as their idol and their god, claiming that it was that golden calf that led them out of Egypt, even though they had seen the glory and might of God.

Then, throughout their journey across the desert itself, did the people of God remain faithful and did they thank the Lord for the food which God had given them? The very bread that the angels eat and share in the bliss of heaven, of which among men, they were the only ones to have a taste of? No, they were not thankful, and instead, they bickered among themselves and made complaints after complaints, and even complaining that their lives in bondage in Egypt was better than whatever God had given them.

These people had followed the call of their stomach rather than the call of their heart. They followed and submitted to their earthly and worldly desires rather than trying to find the true joy and happiness which only God can give. They placed their trust in earthly things and seek worldly approval and trying to sustain and satisfy their wants and wishes.

And this, coupled with whatever they have done in wickedness have made them to be judged as unworthy and as people rejected by God. They ate the bread from heaven and they died, because they had no life in them, and they did not try to find what true life is about, for life lies with God alone, and they did not find what they need in God, for their worldly concerns and occupations prevented them to find the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Gospel we heard the truth, that Jesus Christ our Lord, who came down from heaven, God Himself, His Word who had taken up the flesh of man, had made Himself an offering worthy of our redemption and brought about our salvation, by giving us freely, the true bread of heaven, the true Bread of Life, that is He Himself. He is the Bread of Life, for whoever partake in His Body and drink His Blood, shall have life in them, and death shall no longer reign over them.

This does not mean that those who share in the Body and Blood of our Lord shall not die, but this instead mean that death has no longer any dominion over them. While previously we ought to fear death for it is a consequence and punishment for our sins, we now know that because of Christ, our Lord, we have a new opportunity, a new chance given to us, and a new path to our complete victory and triumph against sin and death is before us.

And all these is again because of God’s love and care which He had shown us freely. Just as He had fed His beloved people with manna, the bread from heaven, with large birds and with sweet and crystal-clear water from rocks itself, therefore now, He feeds us with the true Bread and Wine of Life, that is His own Flesh and Blood. Which God cares for us so much that He would give us this to eat? And especially who would love us so much so as to suffer and bear the burden of all our sins?

It is God who loves us so much, that He would provide for us, feed us and satisfy us with care, and most important of all, to have all of us to have a share in Him, by giving His own Body and Blood through the bread and wine, which our priests transformed completely into the very substance and matter of our Lord Himself. We who partake in the Eucharist worthily therefore, share with one another the true life and salvation which comes from God alone.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we all look deep into ourselves and reflect, and use this opportunity to think about whether we have found the Lord who is really present in the Eucharist, and whether we have understood and realised the love which He had for all of us, whom He had cared for since the beginning of time, and whether we have sincerely sought for Him and desired to find Him in our lives.

May we all grow to love the Lord all the more, and may we strive to make ourselves worthy of Him as we live our lives in this world. Let us shun all forms of worldliness and wickedness in our behaviours, so that by our virtues and good works, we may detach ourselves from the desires and wants we have in our hearts, be no longer oppressed and controlled by them, and in all things may we grow ever more grateful for all the things and blessings God had given us. Lord Jesus Christ, Bread of Life, be with us all always. Amen.

by

Sunday, 2 August 2015 : Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

John 6 : 24-35

At that time, when the people saw that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, “Master, when did You come here?”

Jesus answered, “Truly, I say to you, you look for Me, not because of the signs which you have seen, but because you ate bread and were satisfied. Work then, not for perishable food, but for the lasting food which gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give it to you, for He is the One on whom the Father has put His mark.”

Then the Jews asked Him, “What shall we do? What are the works that God wants us to do?” And Jesus answered them, “The work God wants is this : that you believe in the One whom God has sent.” Then they said, “Show us miraculous signs, that we may see and believe You. What sign do You perform? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert; as Scripture says : They were given bread from heaven to eat.”

Jesus then said to them, “Truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you true bread from heaven. The bread God gives is the One who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.” And they said to Him, “Give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in Me shall never be thirsty.”

by

Sunday, 2 August 2015 : Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ephesians 4 : 17, 20-24

I say to you, then, and with insistence I advise you in the Lord : do not imitate the pagans who live an aimless kind of life. But it is not for this that you have followed Christ. For I suppose that you heard of Him and received His teaching which is seen in Jesus Himself.

You must give up your former way of living, the old self, whose deceitful desires bring self-destruction. Renew yourselves spiritually, from inside, and put on the new self, or self according to God, that is created in true righteousness and holiness.

by

Sunday, 2 August 2015 : Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 77 : 3 and 4bc, 23-24, 25 and 54

Old mysteries which we have heard and known, which our ancestors have told us. We will announce them to the coming generation : the glorious deeds of the Lord, His might and the wonders He has done.

Yet the Lord commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven; He rained down manna upon His people and fed them with the heavenly grain.

They ate and had more than their fill of the bread of angels. He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had won.

by

Sunday, 2 August 2015 : Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Exodus 16 : 2-4, 12-15

In the desert the whole community of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron and said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of YHVH in Egypt when we sat down to caldrons of meat and ate all the bread we wanted, whereas you have brought us to this desert to let the whole assembly die of starvation!”

YHVH then said to Moses, “Now I am going to rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to gather what is needed for that day. In this way I will test them to see if they will follow My Teaching or not. I have heard the complaints of Israel. Speak to them and say : Between the two evenings you will eat meat, and in the morning you will have bread to your heart’s content; then you shall know that I am YHVH, your God!”

In the evening quails came up and covered the camp. And in the morning, dew had fallen around the camp. When the dew lifted, there was on the surface of the desert a thin crust like hoarfrost. The people of Israel upon seeing it said to one another, “What is it?” for they did not know what it was. Moses told them, “It is the bread that YHVH has given you to eat.”

by

Friday, 31 July 2015 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard from the Book of Leviticus, how the Lord charged Moses and therefore His people, with the keeping of the observance of festivals, feasts and important holy days, such as the sabbath days. We heard how the Lord charged the people to keep the observance of the Festival of the Unleavened Bread, to remember the days when they were brought out of Egypt by the mighty power of God.

All of these feasts and festivals, rites and celebrations truly are for a single purpose, that is to remind the people of God of God’s great glory and power, and even more importantly, that is to remind them of the love which He has for them, and therefore, to remind them yet again of the love and dedication which they have to have for Him. Yet over time, people seemed to forget this, and focused more on the exterior aspect of the celebrations rather than on the substance.

In the Gospel today, we heard how Jesus was not well received in His own hometown of Nazareth, where the people doubted Him and questioned His teachings and authority, because they thought that they knew Him as a mere carpenter’s Son. This is exactly the same problem that had been faced by many other prophets and messengers that God had sent to His people as well.

They were not well received because these people had become a superficial people, who cared just for their appearances and external outlook. Inside them, within their hearts, there is truly a void not filled by the love of God, but by their love for themselves. This is why they rejected the prophets and ultimately Jesus Himself as well, for they challenged the people and their way of thinking as well as their way of life.

We should not think that this is an issue that is confined only to the past. In fact, throughout history, mankind had been affected by the very same issue that caused us to be captivated and mesmerised by the multitudes of goodness and temptations that lie in this world, the pleasures of the flesh and the many concerns of this world. We then end up forgetting about God and our obligation and need to serve Him and to give all of our attention to Him.

Then, we truly should learn from the example of a great saint whose feast we are celebrating on this day, namely that of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, also known as the Society of Jesus, one of the most renowned and important religious order in the history of our Church. St. Ignatius of Loyola, through his life, would show us the way to the Lord and how to find it amidst the challenges and temptations of this world.

St. Ignatius of Loyola was born in a noble family in what is now Spain a few hundred years ago, where conflicts and wars were regular parts of people’s life. He was born into the caste of society which believed that glory and power, or gold and wealth, or fame and affluence, or all of them are the way to go in life. And so did St. Ignatius of Loyola, who believed all these as integral parts of his life.

But one day, after he was injured during a battle and siege of a castle, he got a revelation in life, that the way which he had pursued all the while might not be the right way to go. He found that all the things which he had pursued for himself and his own glory were truly meaningless, and he began to seek a true and real purpose in his life, and it was there that he found the Lord and turned himself and his life to serve Him.

He abandoned all the worldliness that had been part of his early life, abandoning everything and devoted all of the rest of his life and his works to the greater glory of God, ‘Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam’ which was his motto and which became the motto of the Jesuits as a whole. He dedicated his time and his life to the glory of God and laboured hard to help the people of God finding their way to Him.

St. Ignatius of Loyola was a champion and great defender of the Faith, who spearheaded and led the Church’s great effort to counter the great heresy of Protestantism in what was so-called ‘reformation’. He was one of the great heroes of the Church’s effort to reconvert back countless thousands of people to the true faith, together with his fellow Jesuits, which would soon prove to be very essential to the salvation of many lost souls.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all follow in the footsteps of St. Ignatius of Loyola, walk in his ways, and follow him as he leads us towards the Lord our God. May we be able to shun all sorts of temptations and pleasures of the flesh and instead of focusing on appearances and our external outlook, may all of us be able to find our inner beauty, by devoting ourselves ever more to the Lord and practicing our faith, so that we may be found worthy by He who will reward us. God be with us all. Amen.