holy men

by

Friday, 8 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today from the passages of the Sacred Scriptures that we have heard and received, we are all reminded of God’s ever present and ever generous love and kindness, compassion and mercy which He has always had for us, and which He has always desired to give to us, because ultimately, God loves each and every one of us, those whom He had created out of love, His ever pure and overflowing love. Each one of us are precious to God, dear and beloved to Him, and we must not take for granted that God has truly loved us in such a manner. He has always wanted to be reconciled with us and to gather us all back into His loving Presence and embrace.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Hosea, we heard very clearly of the Lord’s message and intentions which He presented to His people through His prophet Hosea, who was ministering to the people of God in Israel and Judah, during the time of the ending of the age of the kingdoms, when the nation of Israel, the northern half of the kingdoms of Israel collapsed and was destroyed, while the southern kingdom of Judah was also in dire straits. The prophet Hosea brought the Lord’s words of warning and revealing to the people the anger that God had over the wickedness and the sins that they had committed.

God Who is all good and perfect despises the sins and wickedness of the people, those whom He has loved and chosen. That was why the prophet Hosea, like the other prophets before, during his time and after him had also said, the sins that the people of God committed would lead to serious consequences, and they really have to repent from those sins, or else, they would end up suffering more and more the terrible effects of those sins that can lead them further and further down the path of evil and then leading to damnation and destruction. But God at the same time still loved His people, and as a loving Father, He disciplined them and chastised them, reminding them to turn away from their sins.

He told them through the prophet Hosea that while the sins and wickedness that they had committed were truly terrible and grievous, and they would have to suffer because of that, but in the end, the love of God would triumph over all, and through His love, all of those who have willingly embraced His mercy, love and compassion, would be forgiven, returned to the state of grace, as well as receiving from Him once again the reassurance of eternal life and true joy with Him. These had been lost from them because of sin, evil and wickedness they had committed, but God would restore these to them, if they would just turn away from their sins with sincere and contrite hearts.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Mark in which the Lord Jesus was presented with a question from a teacher of the Law who was following Him, regarding the matter of which commandment of God was the most important of all of them. The context of this must be understood in the light of how the teachers of the Law as well as the Pharisees of the time were very particular and concerned about the details of the many rules, laws, commandments, rituals and the many aspects and tenets of the Law of God that had been passed down to the people through Moses and then preserved through many centuries.

Throughout all that time, the Law of God had gradually become more and more bloated with many details and cumbersome rituals, designed to help the people to live their lives, but also with many modifications and changes that helped some to get away with certain requirements, which ended up also contradicting the original Law, its meaning and purpose. Essentially, by the time of the Lord Jesus, many of them had forgotten, or in their preoccupation with the details and the extent of the many laws, numbering about six hundred and thirteen in some traditions, they had overlooked why the Lord gave His people that Law and commandments in the first place.

This was when the Lord then highlighted very clearly once again that God is truly Love, and fully filled with His ever generous and ever present love for His people, despite their often rebellious, stubborn and wicked attitudes and actions. That was where the Lord also presented the fact that the whole of the Law could indeed be summarised into two main Law, that is first and foremost, the obligation for one to love the Lord their God and Master with all of their might and strength, and then, secondly, to show that same love towards their fellow brothers and sisters. For if God has loved us all, how can we not love Him in the same way too? And how can we not love one another as well, if God loves everyone around us, as how can we hate those whom God Himself has loved?

Today the Church also celebrates the Feast of a great and holy man of God, whose great examples and piety should inspire us all to follow his path in doing God’s will and in obeying His Law and commandments, so that our own lives may truly be worthy of God in all the things that we say and do in our own respective lives. St. John of God was a truly exemplary man of God, who was not initially meant to live in a life of holiness, as he was born into a rather impoverished situation, and became an orphan in his youth. He embraced military life and was involved in many conflicts and wars, that eventually made him become disillusioned with what he was doing as a soldier.

Hence, St. John of God began to feel the calling to follow the Lord, and he experienced quite a few encounters that would change his mindset, having seen the sufferings of the people whom he met along his experiences and journeys. It was told that it was during this time that St. John of God also encountered a vision of the Infant Jesus Who continued to lead him therefore to a new path of conversion and change, and eventually, as recorded in history, he experienced great conversion moment when listening to a sermon by St. John of Avila. Henceforth, he began leading a pious life of self-mortification and great charitable works and efforts to the poor and the less fortunate.

St. John of God eventually founded the religious order known today as the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, whose members were inspired by the same desire that St. John of God had in reaching out to those who were sick and poor, and especially had no one to take care of them and provide help for their conditions. St. John of God himself spent a lot of time in working for the good of all those whom he had given himself in service to, all the way to the last moments of his life. The examples and inspirations shown to us by this holy man of God should indeed inspire us to do the same with our lives as well, that is to love the Lord our God and to love one another with the same love, as best as we can.

May the Lord, our ever loving and generous God continue to love and care for us, and may He empower us all in our journey of faith and life, so that in each and every moments we will continue to show love in all things, towards God and to our fellow brothers and sisters. May He continue to guide us all so that we may continue to be faithful in following Him, and in doing what is right, in accordance with His will. Amen.

by

Friday, 8 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Mark 12 : 28b-34

At that time, a teacher of the Law came up and asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the first of all?”

Jesus answered, “The first is : Hear, Israel! The Lord, our God is One Lord; and you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. And after this comes a second commandment : You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these two.”

The teacher of the Law said to Him, “Well spoken, Master; You are right when You say that He is one, and there is no other besides Him. To love Him with all our heart, with all our understanding and with all our strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves is more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.”

Jesus approved of this answer and said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask Him any more questions.

by

Friday, 8 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 80 : 6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11ab, 14 and 17

Open wide your mouth and I will fill it, I relieved your shoulder from burden; I freed your hands. You called in distress, and I saved you.

Unseen, I answered you in thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear, My people, as I admonish you. If only you would listen, o Israel!

There shall be no strange god among you, you shall not worship any alien god, for I the Lord am your God, who led you forth from the land of Egypt.

If only My people would listen, if only Israel would walk in My ways. I would feed you with the finest wheat and satisfy you with honey from the rock.

by

Friday, 8 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Hosea 14 : 2-10

Return to your God YHVH, o Israel! Your sins have caused your downfall. Return to YHVH with humble words. Say to Him, “Oh You Who show compassion to the fatherless forgive our debt, be appeased. Instead of bulls and sacrifices, accept the praise from our lips. Assyria will not save us : no longer shall we look for horses nor ever again shall we say ‘Our gods’ to the work of our hands.”

I will heal their wavering and love them with all My heart for My anger has turned from them. I shall be like dew to Israel like the lily will he blossom. Like a cedar he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow and spread. His splendour will be like an olive tree. His fragrance, like a Lebanon cedar.

They will dwell in My shade again, they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like a vine, and their fame will be like Lebanon wine. What would Ephraim do with idols, when it is I Who hear and make him prosper? I am like an ever-green cypress tree; all your fruitfulness comes from Me.

Who is wise enough to grasp all this? Who is discerning and will understand? Straight are the ways of YHVH : the just walk in them, but the sinners stumble.

by

Monday, 4 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded of several very important things through the readings of the Sacred Scriptures that we must heed as we continue to progress through this time and season of Lent, called to repentance from our many sins and wickedness, and reminded to return to the Lord, our most loving God, Who alone can heal us from our fallen state, our troubled and corrupted beings, because of the corruption and the wickedness caused by our many sins. Through the story of the healing of Naaman the Syrian from the Old Testament to the story of how the Lord Jesus was rejected in His own hometown of Nazareth in the Gospels, we are all reminded that we should put our trust in the Lord and not in the ways of the world, many of which may lead us astray and down the wrong path in life.

As mentioned, in our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Kings of Israel and Judah the story of how Naaman, a great and respected general of the Kingdom of Aram-Damascus, was afflicted with the terrible leprosy disease that was not yet easily curable at that time. That disease made one to be shunned and rejected from the community, and that must have been a really terrible blow for such a high-ranking and well-respected man. Then, we heard how Naaman came to the land of Israel hearing that there was a prophet there, the prophet Elisha, who was renowned for his many miracles and good works in ministering to the Israelites, showing God’s power and miracles to them. Naaman went to Elisha with the hope that the man of God could heal him from his conditions.

Therefore, Elisha told Naaman to go and bathe in the River Jordan seven times and then he would be healed from his leprosy. But we heard how Naaman became angry, expecting that the man of God should have come to him and perform his miracles to him in person, and not to ask him to do such trivial tasks, even arguing that there were better rivers in his own land. This was where Naaman’s servant reminded him that such a task was not really difficult to do, and if Naaman really wanted to be healed, then he should have just listened to Elisha and do ask he was asked to do. We heard how Naaman obeyed eventually and was therefore healed from his afflictions, and was restored to good health through his obedience and faith in God.

In what we have heard from our first reading today, we can see clearly how the Lord loved all of His people, including even the people who did not belong to the nation of Israel. The Aramaeans were enemies of the Israelites for much of their existence, and yet, God showed His mercy, love and healing for one of their most renowned generals. Naaman was also a representation of all of us, who are sinners and unworthy of God, and yet, through His most wonderful and generous mercy, love and compassion, Naaman was healed and therefore in the same way, all of us can and will be healed as well, as long as we allow ourselves to be healed by the Lord, healed from the taint and corruption of our many sins and wickedness, which have caused us to be separated from God and His love.

And that leprosy is a representation of our sins, which are also akin to the disease in how they afflict us. Unlike leprosy, which can ultimately still be cured by earthly means, only the Lord alone can heal us from our sins, by His forgiveness and mercy. Through God’s forgiveness and grace, we will once again be in His favour, reconciled to Him, while having those sins cleared and forgiven from us. We will therefore no longer suffer the consequences of those sins which we have committed, and we will once again be filled with God’s grace, and reassured of His salvation and eternal life. All these can only happen if we allow ourselves and are open to the mercy and kindness of God that He has shown to all of us, just as He has shown it to Naaman who listened to Him and obeyed His commands through the prophet Elisha.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Luke in which as mentioned, the story of the moment when Jesus was rejected in His own hometown of Nazareth, as the people there refused to believe in what the Lord had said and proclaimed, simply because they judged Him and thought that they knew Who He truly was, the Son of a lowly village carpenter, that is His foster-father St. Joseph. The people of Nazareth hardened their hearts and minds against the Lord and rejected Him, in contrast to how the attitude of Naaman, the Syrian general had been. This was highlighted by the Lord Himself, Who said that prophets were never respected and honoured in their own lands, and gave the example of Naaman himself, who believed in God and was healed by the prophet Elisha, while so many others in the land of Israel refused to believe in Elisha and even persecuted the man of God.

This is a reminder for all of us that once again, God’s healing, mercy and forgiveness are shared and offered freely to everyone. He did not discriminate by the origins or backgrounds of the people, because ultimately, all of mankind, all of us are His beloved children and people. He called some earlier than others, like Abraham and his descendants, the Israelites, but ultimately God desired to call everyone to His Presence and to save all of them without exception. This is why the Lord was making that point about how even foreigners and pagans were receiving God’s grace and salvation because they believed, while the people who were supposed to be called first and were faithful, were actually the ones who rejected the love and mercy of God. This is a reminder that we should not be prideful and haughty, and we must not think that we are in any way better or more worthy than others around us, and less still to discriminate against others.

The Church celebrates the Feast of St. Casimir today, and on his feast day all of us are reminded of the exemplary faith and life of this dedicated man of God, so that hopefully we may also follow his good examples in our own lives. St. Casimir was a prince of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and at one time was the heir apparent to the thrones of both realms although he eventually did not succeed to both as he passed away quite early in his life. St. Casimir was renowned for his great piety and care for the less fortunate, for the needy and the sick throughout the kingdom despite his relatively young age. He lived his life humbly and with great devotion to God, and showed his piety and concern for the poor through charity and almsgiving.

The life of St. Casimir, while it might be a relatively short one compared to many others, is a great example and inspiration to many of us, as he showed all of us and many others during his time, his contemporaries how to live as true and genuine Christians, in doing God’s will, obeying His Law and commandments, in showing love for Him first and foremost while also showing great love and compassion for his fellow brethren at the same time, particularly those who were less fortunate and unloved. This is why today, I hope that his examples and inspirations can also serve as a good model for all of us to follow so that in whatever we say and do, in all of our actions and deeds, in our every interactions, we may truly be good examples for everyone.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to empower us all to live ever more faithfully as His disciples and followers, doing the best we can to proclaim His glory and to serve Him most faithfully at all times. May He bless us and strengthen us that we may continue to persevere in faith and remain firm in our commitments to Him, now and always. Amen.

by

Monday, 4 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 4 : 24-30

At that time, Jesus said to the people of Nazareth, “No prophet is honoured in his own country. Truly, I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens withheld rain for three years and six months and a great famine came over the whole land. Yet, Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in the country of Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet; and no one was healed except Naaman, the Syrian.”

On hearing these words, the whole assembly became indignant. They rose up and brought Him out of the town, to the edge of the hill on which Nazareth is built, intending to throw Him down the cliff. But He passed through their midst and went His way.

by

Monday, 4 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 41 : 2, 3 and Psalm 42 : 3, 4

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for You, o God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I go and see the face of God?

Send forth Your light and Your truth; let them be my guide, let them take me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You reside.

Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my gladness and delight. I will praise You with the lyre and harp, o God, my God.

by

Monday, 4 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

2 Kings 5 : 1-15a

Naaman was the army commander of the king of Aram. This man was highly regarded and enjoyed the king’s favour, for YHVH had helped him lead the army of the Arameans to victory. But this valiant man was sick with leprosy.

One day some Aramean soldiers raided the land of Israel and took a young girl captive who became a servant to the wife of Naaman. She said to her mistress, “If my master would only present himself to the prophet in Samaria, he would surely cure him of his leprosy.”

Naaman went to tell the king what the young Israelite maidservant had said. The king of Aram said to him, “Go to the prophet, and I shall also send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman went and took with him ten silver talents, six thousand gold pieces and ten festal garments.

On his arrival, he delivered the letter to the king of Israel. It said, “I present my servant Naaman to you that you may heal him of his leprosy. When the king read the letter, he tore his clothes to show his indignation, “I am not God to give life or death. And the king of Aram sends me this man to be healed! You see, he is just looking for an excuse for war.”

Elisha, the man of God, came to know that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, so he sent this message to him : “Why have you torn your clothes? Let the man come to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stopped before the house of Elisha. Elisha then sent a messenger to tell him, “Go to the river Jordan and wash seven times, and your flesh shall be as it was before, and you shall be cleansed.”

Naaman was angry, so he went away. He thought, “On my arrival, he should have personally come out, and then paused and called on the Name of YHVH, his God. And he should have touched with his hand the infected part, and I would have been healed. Are the rivers of Damascus, Abana and Pharpar not better than all the rivers of the land of Israel? Could I not wash there to be healed?”

His servants approached him and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had ordered you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? But how much easier when he said : ‘Take a bath and you will be cleansed.’” So Naaman went down to the Jordan where he washed himself seven times as Elisha had ordered. His skin became soft like that of a child and he was cleansed.

Then Naaman returned to the man of God with all his men.

by

Wednesday, 21 February 2024 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for us all as Christians, as God’s beloved and holy people to heed God’s call and embrace His mercy, compassion and love. Each and every one of us have been given the opportunities and chances to come back to Him, as He offers us always His ever generous and plentiful mercy and redemption. Yet, many of us still resist God’s generosity and love, preferring to follow our own path filled with sin and wickedness. That is why many of us are still distant from the grace and righteousness that God has called us into, and many of us are still trapped by the many attachments we had for worldly matters, goods and things around us. Those temptations have often become serious obstacles preventing us from returning to the Lord.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jonah in which the ministry of Jonah to the city and the people of Nineveh has been highlighted to us all. At that time, the prophet Jonah had been sent by God to the people of Nineveh, the then great capital of the mighty Assyrian Empire, which had ruled over many other nations and states, and committed many atrocities and vile deeds during their campaigns of destruction and conquest. They were a warlike and proud race of people, who had glorified themselves over their conquest of many of those whom they had defeated, and therefore, God sent Jonah to them to remind them of the consequences and the retribution for their many sins and wickedness, and that in the end, whatever earthly glory they had gained and amassed, all are nothing before the Lord.

That was why Jonah spoke of the great destruction that would soon befall Nineveh, the great and mighty city, because of the multitudes of their sins, a fate that was echoed and preceded by the well-known case of the destruction and doom of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed by the Lord for their many sins and wickedness. Those people had disobeyed the Lord, followed the path of worldliness and sins, and as such, they were crushed by a storm of fire and brimstones, and the whole two cities were overturned, crushed and destroyed completely, erased from the face of the earth. The same fate could have befallen Nineveh as well, if they had not repented in the manner that they did, like those people who once lived in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Yet, as we heard and as I mentioned, the people of Nineveh immediately believed in the Lord and in the warnings which He presented to them through the prophet Jonah. They humbled themselves and repented from their sins, showing genuine regret for all the wicked things which they had done, and hence, the Lord did not carry out the destruction and the damnation which He had planned for them. This also shows us all that God’s love for us is truly great and wonderful, and that even sin and darkness, evil and wickedness of the world cannot come in between us and God’s love and grace. God’s mercy and love transcends the chasm of sin which had separated us from the grace and love of God all these while.

Then in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Luke in which the same story of Jonah and the people of Nineveh were also presented to us, in the manner how the Lord Jesus used that together with the story of the coming of the Queen of the South or the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem, in order to highlight how many of the people to whom the Lord had been sent to, were lacking in their faith and trust in God, that they failed to believe in the One Whom God had sent into their midst, despite the obvious signs and all that the Lord Jesus Himself had done, in fulfilling everything that God had promised to His people from the very beginning of time. This was also presented as an irony and comparison, between the attitudes of the people of that time with those in Nineveh and that of the Queen of the South.

That is the people who should have believed in the Lord and followed Him, chose to shut their ears, close their hearts and minds against Him, rejecting and doubting Him, questioning His authenticity and authority, refusing to trust in Him or put their faith in Him. They turned their backs against the Lord Who has always been so loving and merciful, kind and compassionate towards them, seeking in the false leads and pleasures of the world instead. Meanwhile, the tax collectors, prostitutes, foreigners and pagans whom the Jewish people, especially the Pharisees among them, had looked down upon, were indeed closer to God and His salvation, because they, like the people of Nineveh in the past, sought to repent and turn away from their sins, embracing God’s love and mercy. This is what we all should be doing as well, brothers and sisters in Christ.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Peter Damian, a great servant of God and a holy man of God, whose dedication and actions, contributions to the Church and the community of the faithful inspired many throughout Christendom and through time right to this very day. St. Peter Damian was a great religious and servant of God, who had dedicated his life to the works of the Lord and to the good of His Church, and he was also involved in the great reforms of the Church which he spearheaded, as he was involved in many programs to help restore the sanctity and purity in the Church, especially amongst the members of the clergy and the Church hierarchy. He himself resisted the temptations of worldly glory, and giving up any such ambitions, chose to become a religious and dedicated himself to God as a religious.

St. Peter Damian however was deeply involved in the works of the reforms of the Church, due to his good friend, who would eventually be elected as Pope St. Gregory VII. As a religious Benedictine monk, although he lived in his monastery, but St. Peter Damian continued to watch closely the affairs and workings of the Church of his time, and later on, when Pope St. Gregory VII chose his advisors, he placed St. Peter Damian as one of his close collaborators, being therefore closely involved in the process of reforms. The next Pope who succeeded Pope St. Gregory VII also treasured the contributions of St. Peter Damian and insisted to make him as a Cardinal, which St. Peter Damian resisted for a while, before eventually relenting and he was thus consecrated as the Cardinal Bishop of Ostia as a chief and very important advisor to the Pope, continuing with his works and missions in reforming the Church.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore make good use of the examples shown to us by this holy man of God, St. Peter Damian, in all that he had done for the sake of God’s Church, and also remind ourselves of the need for us to repent and turn away from all of our many sins and wickedness. Let us all be the beacons of hope and strength for one another, doing whatever we can so that by our loving examples and inspirational actions, filled with love and grace of God, we may help many others to come ever closer towards God, and to be redeemed from their sins, like how the people of Nineveh had done in the past, in embracing God with great desire to be forgiven and to be redeemed from their sins. Let us all come towards the Lord with contrite hearts and minds, and seek Him with ever greater commitment from now on, especially as we journey through this blessed time of Lent. May God be with us always throughout this journey of faith and life, and throughout this Lenten season. Amen.

by

Wednesday, 21 February 2024 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 11 : 29-32

At that time, as the crowd increased, Jesus spoke the following words : “People of the present time are troubled people. They ask for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah. As Jonah became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a sign for this generation.”

“The Queen of the South will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and here, there is greater than Solomon. The people of Nineveh will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for Jonah’s preaching made them turn from their sins, and here, there is greater than Jonah.”