holy priests

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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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Tuesday, 5 April 2016 : Second Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Vincent Ferrer, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we continue the celebration of the joyful season of Easter by listening to the words of the Scripture which tells us first about the community of the first Christians in the early Church, as told by the Acts of the Apostles, how they lived in great harmony and love, filled with care and compassion for one another, and having left behind worldly concerns, they were living righteously and justly.

And in the Gospel we heard the conversation between Jesus our Lord and the faithful Pharisee, Nicodemus, one of the few righteous to be counted among them, as he was willing to open his ears, his mind and his heart to the word of God spoken through Jesus. That was why he met Him, albeit secretly during the time of night, and discussed with our Lord about the things which He had spoken to the people of God in His teachings.

And Jesus spoke of the need of the faithful to receive a new birth in Him, to be born again in the Spirit. And He also mentioned how the teachers spoke of the things they have witnessed and which they have learnt and known, and thus He, as the great Teacher of all, spoke of the things which He knew about, that is things on earth and in heaven.

But many among the people, especially the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the elders refused to listen to Him, save for Nicodemus, when He spoke to them. They closed their ears, minds and hearts to the words of truth that our Lord is delivering to them. And as a result, that was why they had no part in the salvation which God is bringing upon His people through Jesus and His loving sacrifice. For all those who refused to believe in God and in the One Whom He sent, has no share in the eternal life.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, the elders of Israel and the members of the priestly class were all concerned mostly about their own needs, wants and desires. They were concerned and worried about their own social standings and status in the society, as they were very highly respected and regarded among the people of Israel at that time. And they viewed Jesus as a rival to their teaching authority and their position.

Each was concerned about his or her own needs and wants, and that is the hallmark and the common thing about our own society today. Our selfishness is the obstacle which prevented us from truly being able to reach out to the Lord and to attain salvation in our God. It is just the same as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, and if we ask ourselves, and reflect on our own actions, we should see how we too are acting in a similar manner to those who have refused our Lord and rejected Him.

We should look at the examples of the first Christians and how they have lived together in great harmony. We should model our own actions and life after their exemplary actions, and seek not to just think about ourselves and satisfy our own selfish needs and wants alone, but to also be able to empathise and to think of the needs of others around us, especially if they need those even just in order to be able to survive on and continue living.

Today we also celebrate the feast of a holy priest of God, a saint, St. Vincent Ferrer, who was a Dominican friar living during the time of the ending of the Medieval Era in Europe about more than six centuries ago. From his youth he has spent his life in the service of God, joining the religious order at a young age, and resisting the temptations to do otherwise, he continued to become a great priest and a great missionary.

He preached in many places, and taught countless peoples about the faith. Through what he has done, and many people found the true faith through him and through his work, because he abandoned behind ways of this world, selfishness and all the desires of the flesh, and instead gave himself, in the same manner of life as the early Christians, to the service of God and to His people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we can do the same as well in our own lives. We are all called to be good brothers and sisters to one another, and to live in the same manner as those first Christians had lived. It does not mean that we have to literally sell everything we have and share all our goods with one another, but certainly we can begin by rejecting our own selfishness, our selfish attitudes and open ourselves to love one another and to bring God’s love to His people.

Let us all help one another and live in love, and may God’s blessing shine ever more on His beloved ones. Let us commit ourselves anew to the life blessed and graced by God’s love. Amen.

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Tuesday, 5 April 2016 : Second Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Vincent Ferrer, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 3 : 7b-15

At that time, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again from above. The wind blows where it pleases and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus asked again, “How can this be?” And Jesus answered, “You are a teacher in Israel, and you do not know these things! Truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we witness to the things we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. If you do not believe them when I speak of earthly things, what then, when I speak to you of heavenly things?”

“No one has ever gone up to heaven except the One Who came from heaven, the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”

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Tuesday, 5 April 2016 : Second Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Vincent Ferrer, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 92 : 1ab, 1c-2, 5

The Lord reigns, robed in majesty; the Lord is girded with strength.

The world now is firm, it cannot be moved. Your throne stands from long ago, o Lord, from all eternity You are.

Your decrees can be trusted, holiness dwells in Your house day after day without end, o Lord.

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Tuesday, 5 April 2016 : Second Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Vincent Ferrer, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 4 : 32-37

The whole community of believers was one in heart and mind. No one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but rather they shared all things in common. With great power the Apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, for all of them were living in an exceptional time of grace.

There was no needy person among them, for those who owned land or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of the sale. And they laid it at the feet of the Apostles who distributed it according to each one’s need.

This is what a certain Joseph did. He was a Levite from Cyprus, whom the Apostles called Barnabas, meaning : “The encouraging one.” He sold a field which he owned and handed the money to the Apostles.

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Monday, 8 February 2016 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani, and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard firstly the story of how Solomon, the king of Israel, the son and heir of David, God’s faithful servant, finally established and built the house which his father had wanted to build for the Lord. And today we heard in our first reading, how that great Temple in Jerusalem, also known as Solomon’s Temple, was inaugurated, dedicated and consecrated to God.

We heard how Solomon dedicated the Temple to God, bringing the Ark of the Covenant which was filled with the two stones on which were written the Lord’s Ten Commandments, and also the manna, the bread from heaven, and the staff of Aaron, the proofs of God’s loving works on His people, and as the sign of the Covenant which He had established with them. And therefore, with the entry of the Ark, the glory of God filled His Temple and He was therefore present there.

How is this relevant to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? Surely it was some historical event that had happened a long time ago in the past, but which has little to no significance for us. Well, if we look deeper into what had happened, we should realise that what we heard about the dedication of the Temple of God in Jerusalem is indeed linked to what we heard in the Gospel today, and therefore to ourselves.

How is this so? In the Gospel today, we heard about our Lord Jesus Christ, Who went about from places to places, ministering to the sick and dying, to all those who are afflicted in their bodies and in their souls, healing them from their afflictions and restoring to them the health either in their bodies, their souls, or both at the same time.

In it, we saw how God made Himself manifest even more so than what He had done at the time of king Solomon. If God had descended to dwell in an earthly Temple built by Solomon and dwelled there for a time, but in Jesus Himself, God Who was once invisible had made Himself tangible and visible to all of us. He had made Himself to assume the flesh of a Man, so that by that action, and by His offering of the perfect sacrifice of Himself, He might dwell among us forever, and reunite all of us with Him in love.

What does this mean? It means that as Christ had given Himself in His Body and in His Blood to all of His disciples, and from them to all of us, thus, all of us who share in the Body and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, have received the Lord Himself Who comes to dwell among us, and inside each and every one of us, the faithful ones of God.

And therefore, as St. Paul also iterated in one of his letters to the faithful, we are all, our bodies, our minds, our hearts and our souls are the Temple of the Lord’s Holy Presence, and in each and every one of us, God is dwelling within us, and this body we have, is His Temple and His House. And if king Solomon had gone such a great length and put so much effort to make sure that the Temple he had built for his God was properly inaugurated and started, thus we too have to make the same effort.

This means that if we commit things that are not in accordance with what He had taught us, committing things vile and wicked in the sight of God and men alike, then it is a scandal for us, for the Lord Himself dwell within us, and yet we did not make the conscious effort to make sure that this Temple that is our body, our minds, hearts and souls are worthy to receive Him in us.

Today, we commemorate the feast of two saints, whose examples hopefully can become a source of inspiration for all of us, on how to live our faith and our lives meaningfully, so as to be faithful and be true to the Lord and His will in all the things we do and act. They are St. Jerome Emiliani, a famous preacher and servant of God, and St. Josephine Bakhita, a freed former slave who became a convert to the faith and a devout religious.

St. Jerome Emiliani was an Italian man who was also known as Gerolamo Emiliani, who often showed mercy and compassion on many people who were destitute, suffering and dying, especially at times when there were famines and diseases raging amongst the people. He served the poor and cared for them, and together with other faithful laymen and religious, he founded hospitals and places where these people could be cared for.

Meanwhile, St. Josephine Bakhita was a former slave originating from a region now known as Sudan. After having learnt of the faith, and after experiencing the call of the Lord, she was converted to the faith, and vowed to follow the Lord for the rest of her life. She even managed to convert and helped her former employer to return to the Lord after leading a wayward life for a long time.

She eventually joined the religious order, and from then on, devoted herself to a life of work and prayer, committing herself also to the people of God, through prayer and charity. Eventually her examples inspired many others to also follow in her footsteps, growing ever closer to God and dedicating themselves to serve others just as she and many other saints had done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all also follow in the footsteps of the saints and do what we can to help others who are in need, dedicating ourselves in faith to the Lord our God, and also to our brethren. So that, by our actions made through our faith, we may be found worthy, and that the Temple of our bodies, minds and souls will always be pure and worthy of the Lord our God, as the place of His dwelling.

May God sanctify us and may He purify our bodies, minds, hearts and souls, so that we may be ever worthy of Him and be reunited with Him in love. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Monday, 8 February 2016 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani, and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

Mark 6 : 53-56

At that time, having crossed the lake, Jesus and His disciples came ashore at Gennesaret, where they tied up the boat. As soon as they landed, people recognised Jesus, and ran to spread the news throughout the countryside.

Wherever He was, they brought to Him the sick lying on their mats; and wherever He went, to villages, towns or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplace, and begged Him to let them touch just the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were cured.