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Tuesday, 15 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we all listened from the passages of the Sacred Scriptures in which we are reminded again that we should be truly faithful to the Lord in all things, and we should not be easily be swayed by the temptations and pressures of the world around us, all the temptations that may end up leading us astray and further away from God and His salvation. God has revealed the truth about His love, His teachings and Good News to us all through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and through His Son, God has taught us what we all truly need to do in order to follow and obey Him faithfully, and not to fall into the thinking that our knowledge, wisdom and intellect are better than the Wisdom of God, as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had once done.

In our first reading today, we heard from the continuation of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in Galatia, where the Apostle spoke of the matter of the Law and how the people of God there should truly follow and obey the Lord wholeheartedly and truthfully. For the context, we must understand that there were quite a few Jewish people living in Galatia and other regions and cities that St. Paul had been visiting, and as he addressed the faithful through his Epistles, there was the clear intention of him addressing the turmoil and disagreements that existed between the believers and converts that came from both the Jewish and non-Jewish background. Even among the Jewish people themselves, there were different ideas and disagreements on their beliefs, and they were bitterly divided on those matters at times.

As such, St. Paul wanted to highlight particularly the matter of the obligation of having to follow, obey and fulfil the Law of God, and how the faithful should not follow the ways of the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and all those who have strictly and rigidly interpreted the Law of God, emphasizing excessively on the details and the intricacies of the rules and rites that needed to be done, and in the process, they ended up falling into the trap of scrupulousness, focusing a lot more on the manner how the Law was to be obeyed and followed rather than on why they need to be obeyed and followed. Their preoccupation on the very extensive, strict and demanding set of the rules, Law and regulations prevented so many people from coming closer to God, and worse still, the prejudices they had against those they deemed to be less worthy than them became a major stumbling block as well. This is what St. Paul was speaking up against, in reminding the faithful that they ought to follow Christ and not man-made rules and regulations.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Luke the Evangelist in which the account of the Lord confronting a Pharisee who invited Him to have a meal at his place, for his preoccupation and obsession with the obedience and fulfilment of the rituals and details of the customs and practices of the Law of God, which had prevented him and many others among the Pharisees from being able to embrace the truth and the way which the Lord Jesus had brought into the world. This is in accordance to what St. Paul had also told the faithful in the Epistle earlier on, as we are reminded of the need to adhere faithfully to what the Lord Himself has shown and taught us, and not to fall into the trap of pride, ego and desire, ambition and scrupulousness which had befallen those Pharisees and teachers of the Law.

What the Lord criticised those Pharisees for were their scrupulousness and the excessive attention to details as mentioned, as they focused so much on the details and the extensive rules involved that they tend to overlook why those laws and rules were instated in the first place. Such as the matter mentioned in our Gospel passage today, where the Law of Moses dictated the washing of hands and bowls, which were in fact rules meant to help the people maintain a hygienic life and practices especially in the context of the time of the Exodus and the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan, when the people lived with each other in very close proximity, due to the relatively large number of people travelling in the camps of the Israelites. Such a law and rule was necessary at that time to prevent the spread of plagues and diseases among the people which could be fatal for many of them.

However, the Pharisees and the others who interpreted these rules and laws very strictly and on a very literal level, putting very big emphasis on the details of what ought to be followed. They spent so much focus on how far the washing and cleaning ought to be, right up to the elbows and then how many times the hands and the bowls ought to be washed and cleaned. This was just one among many other rules and regulations that those Pharisees and teachers of the Law fussed excessively about, and hence, this was what the Lord Jesus was criticising and rebuking the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law against so that they would realise the folly and error of their ways, and not to mislead the people of God any further with their unhealthy and incorrection attention and focus on the letter of the Law and the details rather than the true meaning and purpose of the Law.

Ultimately, the Law of God was meant to help and direct God’s people towards Him, and this Law is the Law of love meant to teach and show them all how to truly love the Lord their God wholeheartedly and fully. The Law was never meant to restrain or put heavy burdens on the people of God. Rather, it was given and taught to us to ensure that we may know that we ought to exist for the Lord and we should put Him at the very centre of our lives and existence, and we should do our best so that our lives may truly proclaim His glory and that we will always be ever more faithful to His cause, learning how to love Him and to love our fellow brothers and sisters, as that Law has always been intended to be. The Law of God is the Law of Love, meant to show us how we all ought to love God and one another.djer

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of a great saint and holy woman of the Church, one of the esteemed and honoured Doctors of the Church, namely St. Teresa of Jesus, also known as St. Teresa of Avila. St. Teresa of Avila was one of the founders of the Discalced Carmelites Order, which was born out of the extensive reform of the original Carmelite Order during the time of the Counter-Reformation. St. Teresa of Avila was born during the time when there were great changes and turmoils in Christendom, and she was brought up as a devout Christian by her mother and family, and after losing her mother at a rather early age of eleven, this experience further brought St. Teresa of Avila closer to the Lord, eventually desiring to join religious life and to commit herself to the Lord.

St. Teresa of Avila eventually joined the Carmelites and lived with great piety and dedication to God, committing herself to a life of prayer and self-mortification, resisting the temptations of the world and while experiencing many spiritual ecstasy and mystical visions that eventually led her even closer to God. She was known for her many other spiritual experiences and sufferings, which she endured patiently with faith, and her piety and examples became great inspiration for everyone both during her time and afterwards. Then, as mentioned, she became a great reformer of the Carmelite Order that she belonged to, seeing the laxity and worldly corruption that had crept up into her religious order and community, that many of the religious no longer committed themselves faithfully to the Lord in the manner that the founder of the Order intended to.

To this extent, together with several others, including St. John of the Cross and all those who shared her vision, St. Teresa of Avila resolved to establish the reformed Carmelite order, which would henceforth be known as the Discalced Carmelites, for their willingness and commitment to adhere more faithfully to the tenets and the practices of the original founders and intentions of the Carmelites, which is kind of similar to what we have been hearing in our Scripture passages earlier and discussed today. The Lord also intended to return everyone to the true intention and practice of the Law that God had granted and given to them, purifying the Law that had been misinterpreted and wrongly practiced in the past centuries by the people of God and their leaders, which had led them to the wrong path. In the similar way therefore, St. Teresa of Avila and the other reformers did the same, as they courageously went through the challenges and trials that they had to face amidst their attempts and efforts to establish the reformed Carmelite order.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard from the Scripture readings today and from the life and examples of St. Teresa of Jesus or St. Teresa of Avila, let us all therefore strive as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people to follow Him ever more wholeheartedly and worthily in all things. Let us all continue to do our best so that our whole lives, our every actions and deeds, our words and interactions with one another will continue to proclaim the glory of God. May God bless each and every one of us, and may He continue to guide us in our journey through life and strengthen us in our every efforts and endeavours to glorify Him like His holy saints had done before us, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 15 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 11 : 37-41

At that time, as Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked Him to have a meal with him. So He went and sat at table. The Pharisee then wondered why Jesus did not wash His hands before the dinner.

But the Lord said to him, “So then, you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside yourselves you are full of greed and evil. Fools! He Who made the outside, also made the inside. But according to you, by the mere giving of alms everything is made clean.”

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Tuesday, 15 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 118 : 41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48

Give me Your unfailing love, o YHVH; Your salvation, as You have promised.

Take not the word of truth from my mouth, for I would also lose my hope in Your word.

May I always keep Your word, for ever and ever.

I shall walk in freedom, having sought out Your laws.

For I delight in Your word, which I fear.

I will lift up my hands to You, and meditate on Your commandments.

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Tuesday, 15 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Galatians 5 : 1-6

Christ freed us, to make us really free. So remain firm, and do not submit, again, to the yoke of slavery. I, Paul, say this to you : if you receive circumcision, Christ can no longer help you. Once more, I say, to whoever receives circumcision : you are now bound to keep the whole Law. All you, who pretend to become righteous through the observance of the Law, have separated yourselves from Christ, and have fallen away from grace.

As for us, through the Spirit and faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. In Christ Jesus, it is irrelevant, whether we be circumcised or not; what matters is, faith, working through love.

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Monday, 23 September 2024 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures we are all reminded of the need for all of us to be truly righteous and worthy in everything that we say and do in our lives, in our every interactions with one another, so that each and every one of our works will truly be worthy of the Lord, and that we may always be the great beacons of God’s light and grace to the nations, to everyone who have encountered and been interacting with us, in each and every moments of our lives, even to the smallest actions, the seemingly least significant words, efforts and deeds. All of us should always do our part to proclaim the Lord by our exemplary actions and deeds so that everyone may experience God’s works and love through us.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Proverbs we heard of the reminders from the Lord to His beloved people that they must not do what is evil and wicked in the sight of God and man alike, and they should not treat their fellow brethren with wicked intentions and contempt. Instead, each and every one of them must always be righteous and full of virtue in all things, and they should always be exemplary in their actions, words and deeds so that they may not be counted among those who were wicked and unjust, and therefore would have to face the reckoning from the Lord for all of their wicked deeds and sins, which they had to account and answer for. The Lord wants each one of them to know that if they do good to others, then good things shall be given to them as well, while if they do bad and evil to others, then they too shall face the just consequences for those things.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the Lord speaking to His disciples using a parable to explain to them what He wanted to teach them regarding the matter of them living their lives in the manner that He has taught and shown them to do, so that in all that they have done, they may continue to proclaim the Lord faithfully in all of their whole lives, in their every actions, words and deeds, much as the author of the Book of Proverbs had said to the people of God many centuries earlier. The Lord essentially used this parable of the lamps to tell them that whatever good things He had taught and shown them to do, they should all do them faithfully and courageously in each and every moments of their lives, and not to hide them and not to ignore whatever responsibilities and missions which God had entrusted to them.

The Lord wanted them and hence all of us to know that as His disciples and followers, it is important that all of us must always be active and missionary in all the things that we do in our lives. Otherwise, our faith is truly empty and meaningless, and will not avail us on the moment of reckoning, when the Lord would ask us to account for our lives before Him, for everything that we have done and for all that we have failed to do. If we have been given many blessings, opportunities and capacities by the Lord to do what we are supposed to do as Christians, in doing His will wholeheartedly and in serving Him to the best of our abilities, then we should not be ignorant any longer of this calling that we have, and instead, we should embrace our calling and mission with great courage and with the desire to glorify the Lord ever more by our worthy living.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, also much more commonly and famously known as St. Padre Pio, a Capuchin Franciscan saint, a holy and truly pious priest and servant of God who had been known well for his many miracles and wonders. St. Padre Pio was remembered for his great piety and commitment to God, for his humble dedication to the Lord despite the many challenges that he had to face throughout his life and ministry. St. Padre Pio did not have it easy early on in life as he had been born to a family of poor farmers, and they had faced a lot of challenges, and yet, they were all very devout and committed to God, spending a lot of time in devotion and prayer to God despite all the hardships that they had to endure in their lives.

Amidst all that background, the young St. Padre Pio has begun to discern the calling to serve God and become a priest, and at the same time, he has also begun experiencing various heavenly visions and mystical experiences that he would go on to experience through the rest of his life. Eventually, St. Padre Pio joined the Capuchin religious order and dedicated himself to the order’s way of life, but even in that he also faced struggles and hurdles, as he was not properly educated, and needed to further his studies first before he was allowed to join the order. He faced several bouts of ill health and problems during his formation years, and this problem still plagued him even after he was ordained a priest, an experience which was worsened by his mystical experience of being a stigmatist later on in life, bearing the wounds of the Lord Himself on his body.

The appearance of the stigmatq gradually made St. Padre Pio to be very famous later on in his life, but for many years and decades, he encountered a lot of doubts, opposition and also persecution from the Church hierarchy and others who cast doubts on the authenticity of the miracles and the stigmata which were associated with this holy man of God. He had to bear through periods in which he was banned from celebrating the Mass publicly and preaching to the people of God, all the while experiencing spiritual attacks from the devil. Yet, all these did not dampen his spirit, and he continued to live his life humbly, faithfully and devoutly in all things, spending a lot of time in prayer, and many more people were coming to him seeking for his help and guidance, and other occasions happened when miracles happened to those who have interacted with this man of God.

To the end of his life, St. Padre Pio continued to dedicate himself to God without cease, continuing to showcase what it truly means to be a faithful Christian disciple and follower. All of us therefore are also reminded that we should also commit ourselves and our every actions, words and deeds, our every efforts to proclaim the Lord, in each and every moments of our lives. Let us all therefore do our part to proclaim the Lord our God faithfully as how St. Padre Pio, St. Pius of Pietrelcina had lived his life, in being good and worthy beacons of God’s light and hope, His love and salvation to all others around us. Let us all continue to walk ever more worthily in God’s Holy Presence from now on, helping and inspiring our fellow brethren in faith, committing more of our efforts and time to glorify the Lord by our lives.

May the Lord be with us all and may He empower each and every one of us to live our lives henceforth with the strong zeal and fervour, to continue to love Him and to love one another ever more generously, in the manner that the Lord Himself has shown and taught us, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 23 September 2024 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 8 : 16-18

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “No one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a bowl or puts it under the bed; rather, he puts it on a lamp stand, so that people coming in may see the light.”

“In the same way, there is nothing hidden that shall not be uncovered; nothing kept secret, that shall not be known clearly. Now, pay attention and listen well, for whoever produces, will be given more; but from those who do not produce, even what they seem to have will be taken away from them.”

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Monday, 23 September 2024 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 14 : 2-3ab, 3cd-4ab, 5

Those who walk blamelessly and do what is right, who speak truth from their heart and control their words.

Those who do no harm to their neighbours and cast no discredit on their companions, who look down on evildoers but highly esteem God’s servants.

Those who do not lend money at interest and refuse a bribe against the innocent. Do this, and you will soon be shaken.

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Monday, 23 September 2024 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Proverbs 3 : 27-35

Do not hold back from those who ask your help, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbour, “Go away! Come another time; tomorrow I will give it to you!” when you can help him now.

Do not plot evil against your neighbour who lives trustingly beside you, nor fight a man without cause when he has done you no wrong. Do not envy the man of violence or follow his example. For YHVH hates the wicked but guides the honest. He curses the house of the evildoer but blesses the home of the upright.

If there are mockers, He mocks them in turn but He shows His favour to the humble. The wise will possess His glory while the foolish will inherit disgrace.

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Thursday, 5 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Kolkata, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that we should not put our trust only in human power and abilities, only in our own wisdom and intellect, as there would be a time and opportunity when those things may eventually fail us, while if we put our faith and trust in the Lord, we will be strengthened and while our paths and journeys may still be difficult and challenging, but in the end, it is with the Lord alone that we shall be able to gain true satisfaction, joy and happiness, glory and liberation from all of our troubles and difficulties. If we follow the Lord, then He will guide us all to His Presence, and we have to commit ourselves to walk in this path He has shown and led us through.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in the city and region of Corinth, we heard how the Apostle was speaking about the matter of human and worldly wisdom, and how those who are members of the faithful and holy people, the Church of God ought to be always seek to be filled with God’s Wisdom and grace, to be filled with His love and kindness, and not be swayed by the foolish paths taken by those who depended and walked in the path shown by their worldly wisdom and understanding alone. Those who sought worldliness and its satisfaction will be brought low while those who sought the Lord to be with them, all of them would be protected and reassured in their lives and existence before God and man alike.

As Christians, it is important that all of us must embody our faith and beliefs in each and every one of our actions, words and deeds, or else we are no better than hypocrites and unbelievers. Worse still, we may even scandalise our faith and the Lord’s good and holy Name if we allow ourselves and our actions to be swayed by the falsehoods and evils of this world around us. We should not allow our pride, ego and ambition, our greatness, abilities and other things from leading us astray from the Lord and His righteousness. Many people, our predecessors and our fellow brothers and sisters have fallen into this same trap as they allowed the temptations of pride and desire to mislead them and to tempt them away from the path and wisdom of God.

In our Gospel passage today, we are all reminded through the Gospel according to St. Luke in which we heard the account of the moment when the Lord was with His disciples at the Lake of Galilee or Gennesaret, where some of His disciples who were fishermen, were in the water, seeking for fish while their Master was on the land, teaching all the people who had come to Him to listen to Him. And we heard how the Lord then asked Simon Peter, one of His disciples to put out his boat and net into the deep waters, so that they could get fishes for themselves. Simon Peter, who was a fisherman and was an experienced one in his area of expertise immediately told the Lord that he and the other fishermen had worked hard all night long and they did not manage to get any fish.

But at the same time, we then heard of how Simon Peter obeyed the Lord’s commands, and he did just exactly as the Lord had told him to do, putting out his boat into the deep waters and lowering his net, which almost immediately and miraculously led to a huge and vast number of fishes being caught in the net, causing the boats that the disciples were in to be almost capsized by the huge haul. This miracle and event showed that the power and wisdom of God, His power and might are truly far greater than anything that the world can provide or give us. And this is why by entrusting himself to the Lord and by obeying Him, St. Peter and the other disciples could gain such a great catch, at which moment the Lord then told them to follow Him and that He would make them ‘fishers of men’.

This is a reminder how each and every one of us as the members of the Church and as part of the efforts and missions to reach out to our fellow brothers and sisters all around us in this world. All of us are like those fishermen, St. Peter and the other disciples of the Lord, who were labouring for the Lord, gathering and reaching out to more and more of those who have not yet seen the Lord’s truth and wonders. We are all parts of God’s Church and we all share the same mission, calling and responsibility to reach out to everyone of all the nations, to all those to whom we have been sent to, proclaiming the Good News of God and His salvation to them, and it is by our obedience to God and by the path that God has shown us that we will have great success in this endeavour, and not by our own power and might.

Today, the Church also celebrates the feast of the famous St. Teresa of Kolkata, also known as St. Teresa of Calcutta, or as Mother Teresa, renowned for her great charitable works and efforts through the congregation of Missionaries of Charity that she founded, in caring for the needy and the poor, the sick and the dying, and especially in giving dignified treatment for those who were suffering and dying, showing them the love of God manifested and shown through the actions of St. Teresa of Kolkata and her fellow sisters and other collaborators in the Missionaries of Charity. She was born in Albania as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu to a Catholic Albanian family in the year 1910, and since young she has been fascinated and inspired to be a missionary in distant lands. This eventually led to her joining the Sisters of Loreto congregation and went to India to continue her formation.

St. Teresa of Kolkata became involved in the education of young children in Kolkata, India during her many years in the congreagtion of the Sisters of Loreto, and eventually becoming the headmistress of the mission school there. However, she was continually disturbed by the great and abject poverty which many of the people in Kolkata and other parts of India suffered from. Through this calling that she embraced wholeheartedly, she eventually decided to leave her profession as a Sister of Loreto and role in the school, founding a new congregation, the Missionaries of Charity dedicated to the care and attention towards the poor, the needy and those who were sick and dying. She gathered many other like-minded women who sought to serve the needs of the people, giving care and compassionate love for those who needed them.

She gave dignity to those who have been abandoned, neglected and ostracised, caring for them in the poorest and most despicable conditions, in the slums and in the streets. She was well-known for her outreach to everyone who were poor and suffering regardless of their religious beliefs and background. She opened and operated hospices and houses like the famous Nirmala Hriday of Kolkata, where the poor and the dying can be cared with love and given the dignity due to them as human beings. Throughout the rest of her life, St. Teresa of Kolkata continued to do her best to serve the Lord and His people, following Him to whichever path that He wanted her to go, and famously mentioning at the time when she was given the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts, that she was just ‘an instrument in the hands of the Lord.’

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be inspired by the great examples of St. Teresa of Kolkata and the many other saints, holy men and women of God, so that our lives and efforts will truly be centred on God and that we will not be swayed by the temptations of worldly ambitions, power and glory. Instead, let us all humbly seek the Lord and strive to be always guided by Him and His Wisdom in all things. Let us all be the instruments of the Lord’s works, and be the ones through whom God would bring His many good works to fruition. May the Lord bless each and every one of us, in our every good effort, works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 5 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Kolkata, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Luke 5 : 1-11

At that time, one day, as Jesus stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, with a crowd gathered around Him listening to the word of God, He caught sight of two boats, left at the water’s edge by fishermen, now washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to pull out a little from the shore. There He sat, and continued to teach the crowd.

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon replied, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if You say so, I will lower the nets.” This they did, and caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. They signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came, and they filled both almost to the point of sinking.

Upon seeing this, Simon Peter fell at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and his companions were amazed at the catch they had made, and so were Simon’s partners, James and John, Zebedee’s sons. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. You will catch people from now on.” So they brought their boats to land and followed Him, leaving everything.