holy Popes

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Saturday, 10 November 2018 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are called to examine our lives and actions, and see how we can be better disciples and followers of Christ in our daily living. From the readings of the Scripture we can see just how to be a true Christian will often require us to persevere through trials and difficulties, and often to suffer rejection and pain in life.

Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? The Lord Jesus succinctly summarised the reason into what He said in the Gospel passage today, ‘that you cannot give yourself to two masters, God and money.’ He mentioned this, saying that we cannot have two masters, for if we obey one, we are bound to disobey the other, and vice versa.

In the Gospel passage itself, we already can see this tension between the Lord and the Pharisees, who loved money, power, fame and the attention of the world. The Pharisees and many of those in the priestly class resented the Lord Jesus and sneered at Him at His words, although in fact their very action actually vindicated them in proofing that the Lord’s words were true.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, throughout the Gospels, we can see from historical facts and the actions of those who opposed the Lord’s good works, how those people adored attention and had worldly ambitions, fuelled by their greed, human desires and ego. And that is why they were not able to devote their hearts and minds entirely to God, exactly as what the Lord had said Himself.

That was why, He labelled them as hypocrites and as those who did not have true faith or love for God. In their hearts and minds, they were filled with ego and desire, and hence, had the wrong focus and attention that showed in the way they lived their faith. Instead of being centred on God and directing the people towards Him, they projected an image of self-centredness and egoism.

And this is what the Lord calls us to avoid and turn away from, that we do not fall into the same trap that the Pharisees had fallen into, or otherwise, we too will be in danger of falling into sin and away from God’s salvation. We must turn ourselves completely towards the Lord and resist the temptations of worldly things and concerns that will often influence us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of Pope St. Leo the Great, one of the great Popes of the Church and a devout defender of the faith and reformer of the Church, in the midst of the turbulent years of his reign as Pope. He became the successor of St. Peter at the time when the authority of the Roman Empire was crumbling everywhere in Western Europe, and that includes the city of Rome itself, where Pope St. Leo the Great was the bishop of.

Yet, Pope St. Leo the Great was remembered as a great Pope who helped to steer the Church through those difficult times, devoting himself wholeheartedly to the Lord, standing up against heretics and all those who followed the false ways of the unorthodox faith. He helped the Church and the faithful to go through those difficult years, and he even stood up against the brutal and mighty Attila, king of the Huns, who had no fear of man and who caused countless deaths in his rampages across Europe, and managed to persuade him to stay away from Rome, the City of God and heart of Christendom.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we ought to follow the good example, the faith and the courage shown by Pope St. Leo the Great in his life and work. Let us all be faithful in the same way that he has been faithful, and commit ourselves to serve the Lord to the best of our abilities from now on. May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to guide us, every single moments of our lives, that we may turn to Him with all of our hearts and love Him with all of our strength. Amen.

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Saturday, 10 November 2018 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 16 : 9-15

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “And so I tell you : use filthy money to make friends for yourselves, so that, when it fails, these people may welcome you into the eternal homes. Whoever can be trusted in little things can also be trusted in great ones; whoever is dishonest in slight matters will also be dishonest in greater ones.”

“So if you have been dishonest in handling filthy money, who would entrust you with true wealth? And if you have been dishonest with things that are not really yours, who will give you that wealth which is truly your own? No servant can serve two masters. Either he does not like the one and is fond of the other, or he regards one highly and the other with contempt. You cannot give yourself both to God and to Money.”

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and sneered at Jesus. He said to them, “You do your best to be considered righteous by people. But God knows the heart, and what is highly esteemed by human beings is loathed by God.”

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Saturday, 10 November 2018 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 111 : 1-2, 5-6, 8a and 9

Alleluia! Blessed is the one who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commands. His children will be powerful on earth; the upright’s offspring will be blessed.

It will be well with him who lends freely, who leads a life of justice and honesty. For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered and loved forever.

His heart is confident, he needs not fear, he gives generously to the poor, his merits will last forever and his head will be raised in honour.

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Saturday, 10 November 2018 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Philippians 4 : 10-19

I rejoice in the Lord because of your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me before, but you had no opportunity to show it. I do not say this because of being in want; I have learnt to manage with what I have. I know what it is to be in want and what it is to have plenty. I am trained for both : to be hungry or satisfied, to have much or little. I can do all things in Him Who strengthens me.

However you did right in sharing my trials. You Philippians, remember that in the beginning, when we first preached the Gospel, after I left Macedonia you alone opened for me a debit and credit account, and when I was in Thessalonica, twice you sent me what I needed.

It is not your gift that I value but rather the interest increasing in your own account. Now I have enough and more than enough with everything Epaphroditus brought me on your behalf and which I received as “fragrant offerings pleasing to God.” God Himself will provide you with everything you need, according to His riches, and show you His generosity in Christ Jesus.

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Monday, 22 October 2018 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the Word of God in the Scriptures reminding each and every one of us to be centred on God and to be faithful to Him, and not be distracted by the many temptations and allures of worldly pleasures, wealth, money, happiness, all sorts of conveniences, possessions, fame, influence, and all sorts of other things that are indeed, obstacles in the way of our faith.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard of the parable told by the Lord Jesus, referring to a rich man who had plenty of possessions and goods, who was not satisfied with what he had received and wanted to gain even more. He had big plans for himself and his riches, wanting to tear down the barns that he had, so that he could build even bigger barns to store even more of the possessions he had.

This means that the man had the desire in his heart for even more, and not being satisfied by what he already possessed. And this is natural to us man, to have this greed inside our hearts and minds, and if we indulge in allowing our greed to overtake us, then eventually we will end up like that rich man, who thought of nothing else either than to gain more for his own desires and wants, for earthly riches and pleasures.

And in doing so, like the rich man, we will end up forgetting that all of these worldly things, items, objects and possessions are merely temporary, illusory and fleeing in nature. None of these, our money, our wealth, our material possessions, branded goods, cars, vehicles, and all things will be retained with us when we are called to give the account of our life before Our Lord and Master.

In what St. Paul mentioned in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Ephesus, God has given us a far greater and more tremendous gift, that is the gift of His eternal and infinite love. His mercy and love has been given to us freely, and made it evident and tangible to us through Christ, His Son, Our Saviour. There is no greater gift than this, and there is no greater love than what Our Lord and Saviour has shown us, not by mere action, but through what He had borne upon Himself, the suffering of the Cross.

We must realise that our greed and our inability to resist the temptations of the devil have become the source of our failures and our downfall, from the very moment that he caused our ancestors to sin by disobeying God. The devil knows exactly where to strike, and how to strike at us, especially by taking advantage of our predisposition and vulnerability to pride and greed. And by these, he had lured many souls who did not know that they had fallen into the trap of the evil one.

But the Lord did not remain silent and neither did He show any apathy to our fallen state. And that was exactly how He gave us the source of our new life and deliverance through the giving of His Son, by Whose death on the Cross, the Precious Blood that flows down from that Cross, then our faults and sins are washed away and we are cleansed and made anew. This is in truth, the selfless and perfect love that God desired to shoe us.

The Lord Himself was also tempted by the devil as shown in the three temptations Satan made to the Lord in the desert right after He was baptised by St. John the Baptist. We can see here just how persistent the devil is, in trying to prevent us mankind from being saved, and the method by which he did all these, was mentioned clearly in the Gospels, that he played along with our human desires, for power, for glory, for wealth, for satisfaction of the body and the flesh, which includes that of gluttony and many more.

But the Lord Jesus showed us how we should live our lives as Christians, that is the total surrender and giving of oneself to the will of God, Our Lord and loving Father. The Lord Jesus did not allow Himself to be tempted or swayed from His mission, and remained true to the calling which the Lord, His heavenly Father has given Him. He resisted the devil’s efforts to undermine His works and mission.

Indeed, He was tempted, to the very end, and in His humanity, He agonised over the upcoming suffering and pain, at the time when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, but He persisted on, and by His love and generous will to forgive us our sins, He willingly took up our sins and faults, and bore it upon Himself, as He went on to His crucifixion, suffering and death.

As Christians therefore, we are called to follow the Lord’s example, in how He gave everything for the sake of His love for us, even to the point of laying down His own life for us. His surrender to the will of the Father was so complete and total, that indeed, all of us ought to learn from Him, in how we should also surrender ourselves to the will of God, Our Lord and loving Father.

Today, we all celebrate the feast of a great saint and servant of God, Pope St. John Paul II, whom many of us must have been quite familiar with. He was a very renowned figure in the Church, having reigned as the Supreme Pontiff and Successor of St. Peter the Apostle for twenty-seven years, achieving many significant milestones and important breakthroughs in the history of the Church and the salvation of God’s people.

And Pope St. John Paul II devoted himself totally to the work and the mission which the Lord had called him to, as shown in his motto, “Totus Tuus”, which means, “All is Yours”. This motto embodies exactly what Pope St. John Paul II believed in his life, in how he carried on performing his mission as a devout servant of God. He who has experienced bitter losses of family, friends and others he knew early on in his life due to sickness and war, gave everything he had to God, and entrusted himself completely to the Lord and to the guidance of His Blessed Mother Mary.

Many of us are aware of the many achievements and good works that Pope St. John Paul II had done throughout his life and throughout his reign as the Pope, as leader of the Universal Church. But this is an important lesson and reminder for all of us that each and every one of us can also do the same, if only that we learn to remove from ourselves all the attachments to worldly desires and pleasures, which have become obstacles and chains that kept us away from being able to give our very best effort.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, let us all renew our effort to love the Lord and to commit ourselves wholeheartedly again towards the Lord. Let us all give ourselves and love the Lord with a renewed spirit and zeal, from now on, that we may truly be able to receive the fullness of God’s mercy and love, and be worthy of the eternal life and glory He has promised to all those who are faithful to Him. May the Lord bless us all and our works, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 22 October 2018 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Luke 12 : 13-21

At that time, someone in the crowd spoke to Jesus, “Master, tell my brother to share with me the family inheritance.” He replied, “My friend, who has appointed Me as your Judge or your Attorney?” Then Jesus said to the people, “Be on your guard and avoid every kind of greed, for even though you have many possessions, it is not that which gives you life.”

And Jesus continued, “There was a rich man, and his land had produced a good harvest. He thought, ‘What shall I do, for I am short of room to store my harvest? Alright, I know what I shall do : I will pull down my barns and I will build bigger ones, to store all this grain, which is my wealth. Then I will say to myself : My friend, you have a lot of good things put by for many years. Rest, eat, drink and enjoy yourself.'”

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be taken from you. Tell Me, who shall get all you have put aside?’ This is the lot of the one who stores up riches for himself and is not wealthy in the eyes of God.”

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Monday, 22 October 2018 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Psalm 99 : 2, 3, 4, 5

Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God; He created us and we are His people, the sheep of His fold.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His Name.

For the Lord is good; His love lasts forever and His faithfulness through all generations.

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Monday, 22 October 2018 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Ephesians 2 : 1-10

You were dead, through the faults and sins. Once, you lived through them, according to this world, and followed the Sovereign Ruler Who reigns between heaven and earth, and Who goes on working, in those who resist the faith.

All of us belonged to them, at one time, and we followed human greed; we obeyed the urges of our human nature and consented to its desires. By ourselves, we went straight to the judgment, like the rest of humankind.

But God, Who is rich in mercy, revealed His immense love. As we were dead through our sins, He gave us life, with Christ. By grace, you have been saved! And He raised us to life, with Christ, giving us a place with Him in heaven.

In showing us such kindness, in Christ Jesus, God willed to reveal, and unfold in the coming ages, the extraordinary riches of His grace. By the grace of God, you have been saved, through faith.

This has not come from you : it is God’s gift. This was not the result of your works, so you are not to feel proud. What we are, is God’s work. He has created us, in Christ Jesus, for the good works He has prepared, that we should devote ourselves to them.

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Thursday, 11 October 2018 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about the loving nature of God, and how we mankind, as God’s beloved children should put our trust in our God, and place ourselves in the caring hands of our loving Father. We heard how the Lord Jesus in today’s Gospel describing the loving nature of God as like of that of fathers, who loved their children.

And because God loves each and every one of us, then He will surely listen to us, should we ask Him to look upon us and to take care of us. He will not purposefully harm us or do something that ends up making us to suffer. When we suffer, in truth, we are actually acting in the manner that we misuse the freedom that God has given to us, which therefore end up causing us to make others suffer in order to satisfy our own personal desires and greed.

That was why, St. Paul in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Galatia chided and rebuked the faithful living in that city because of their lack of faith and ability to live faithfully in accordance to that faith. They have succumbed to the temptations of their flesh, and instead of putting their trust in God, they fell into sin through their wicked and unfaithful attitudes and behaviours.

God reminded us that He is always there for us, ready to welcome us back, even when we have erred, disobeyed and failed to listen to Him. He will not turn a deaf ear to us, should we call upon Him, and crying out for His mercy. But first of all, we must also be willing to commit ourselves to the path of reconciliation, to be ready to be forgiven, and ultimately, ready to make the commitment to change our way of life.

However, the issue for many of us is that, we are often too preoccupied, too busy and too distracted in our lives, that we failed to notice this, and we failed to realise just how much God loves each and every one of us. We have been blinded and made deaf by the distractions, temptations and all the noise present in this world. We have been pulled away by the allure of human desire, of worldly glory and many other things that have been keeping us away from God.

Are we then able to overcome these temptations in life, and rediscover this love which we should have for God, our loving Father? For many of us, we have been wayward in our faith, and we have not been truly faithful, as we spent more time trying to gain for ourselves worldly acceptance and glories of this world. But this is exactly where we end up forgetting about God, His love and His caring nature for us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we should reflect on what we have just discussed and look deeply into our lives and how we have acted in our lives thus far. Have we been living in this world filled with the desires of worldliness and human greed, in trying to satisfy our own selfish desires and wants? Or have we been truly devoted to the Lord, in all of our actions and deeds?

Today, we celebrate the feast of Pope St. John XXIII, also known by his nickname of the ‘Good Pope’. He was the Pope who initiated the Second Vatican Council, in bringing about reform and renewal to the Church, almost six decades ago. He was remembered as a holy and devout servant of God, who spent his whole life, trying to bring the people of God closer to their loving Father.

Pope St. John XXIII was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, in a poor farmer family in northern Italy. He was born into poverty and hard life, and yet, he was raised well and heard the call to priesthood and holiness early in his life. He became a priest and was involved in the social works in the Church among his local community early on, inspired by the examples set by his local bishop, who devoted himself to the care and the well-being of the poor, especially the workers who were oppressed by the then horrible conditions at work.

Later on, he became the Apostolic Delegate to Bulgaria, and then later still, the Apostolic Delegate to Greece and Turkey. In his role as the representative of the Pope to those countries, he fostered many good relationships both with the state as well as with the Christians belonging to the Eastern Orthodox traditions, who have always treated Catholics with much suspicion and animosity. But Pope St. John XXIII’s persistence in love and kindness have softened many hearts and won much adoration and praise.

In his many other roles and capacities, he was also remembered for his role in saving many Jewish refugees from Europe during the time of the Second World War when millions of Jews were massacred by the NAZI regime in Germany. He also helped to reconcile the relations between the Church and the state in France after the war, and many other good deeds, as the Pope of the Church, when he led the entire Church in the journey of discovering their faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we too, should follow in the footsteps of this holy Pope in our own life, in how we live our lives, in our actions and deeds. Let us all turn towards God with all of our hearts, and turn ourselves towards God. And if we want to be one with God, then our actions must also show this faith and love which we ought to have for God. May the Lord be our guide and be our help, and bless us always in our every deeds and works. Amen.

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Thursday, 11 October 2018 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Luke 11 : 5-13

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to his house in the middle of the night and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine who is travelling has just arrived, and I have nothing to offer him.’ Maybe your friend will answer from inside, ‘Do not bother me now; the door is locked, and my children and I are in bed, so I cannot get up and give you anything.'”

“But I tell you, even though he will not get up and attend to you because you are a friend, yet he will get up because you are a bother to him, and he will give you all you need. And so I say to you, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.”

“If your child asks for a fish, will you give him a snake instead? And if your child asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.”