holy saints of God

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Wednesday, 14 December 2016 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the proclamations of the goodness of God, through which He declared to all of His people, just how loving and good He had been to them, bringing them from the darkness into the light and saving them from destruction by their enemies. He has blessed them with many things, and it was by His will and by His unending love for us all, that He had sent us the ultimate gift of all, that is His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

Through the Scriptures we indeed have heard just how great God is, and how mighty He has been in ordering around everything He had created in the universe. He is supreme and a Being without any equal save in His own Trinity of Godhood. Yet, different from any other false gods and deities of this world, while many of these demanded worship and sacrifices from the people who worshipped them, God really has no need for sacrifices, but instead what He needs is our love.

Before we loved Him, He has loved us all first, and He showed it by His blessings to our ancestors, right from the very first mankind down to all of us today, and He will continue to do so right to the very last man. And He has loved us all through Jesus, through Whom, He has willed to find all of us His lost sheep, so that He as our Shepherd may gather us all and keep us safe. And to that extent He was willing to do all of that for us, even to come down into this world to gather us in and to deliver us from our troubles.

And He healed from many people their bodily afflictions and diseases, as the concrete sign of God’s love for us all, as He Himself had promised earlier on, that when His deliverance came into the world, He would heal all of His beloved ones from their afflictions, their sorrows and their sufferings, and bring them into the true joy and happiness found only in Him. And the greatest of all of these healings are the healing of our souls, the destruction of sin, and the liberation of all of us from the chains of sin that had enslaved us.

This is what we commemorate and celebrate in Christmas, brothers and sisters in Christ, that a great and Almighty God beyond equal and beyond any comparison, would be willing to humble Himself and come down upon us, as merely one among us, as Man, so that by that action He might be able to gather us in, and by gathering all of our sins and disobedience upon Himself, He becomes our Easter or Paschal Lamb, Who becomes for us all the perfect sacrifice before God in order to absolve us from all the taints of our sins.

This is what Christmas is about, brethren, not about ourselves, or about our festivities and celebrations, but truly about God Who loves us so much that He was willing to do all of those things He had done so that we may all be saved. But have we ever shown Him gratitude and thanks for all that He has done for us? The reality is that many of us even ignored and rejected His love, and do not care for what He has blessed us with and we cast His love aside for the love of the world.

It is often that we are too busy with ourselves to even notice His love and His grace for us every single days of our lives. We are too preoccupied with our desires, greed and all of our daily concern to even notice of others around us, let alone God Whom we cannot see directly. And yet, it is clear and undeniable that He is the One behind all of our life’s successes and goodness. Without Him, we can do nothing, and without Him, our lives will be meaningless and empty.

In this time of Advent, as we approach ever closer to Christmas, therefore it is appropriate for us to spend time and indeed find the time to reflect on our own lives, our actions and our deeds. Have we loved our God in the same manner that He has loved us first? He wants from us only our love and devotion, that we should commit and give of ourselves in love to Him. But we are often too busy with ourselves and too distracted to be able to commit ourselves. This is where perhaps we should reflect on the life of the holy saint, St. John of the Cross.

St. John of the Cross was a holy and devout man who was one of the very important figure of the Counter-Reformation efforts during approximately five centuries ago, when the Church was assailed by the many forces of the world that threatened to destroy it from the outside and from within. Many of the faithful were spiritually lacking and corrupt in their deeds. They put ahead the concerns of the world instead of spiritual pursuits, and put ahead their selfishness ahead of the concerns of the poor and the needy, as what Christians should do.

Even among the priests and the religious corruption of the soul and corruption of worldliness had caused great perversity and danger to the whole Church. This brought about division and conflict within the Church, and many souls were lost because they were disillusioned with the Church and its leaders. When the leaders did not show good example, so neither would the members imitate what they should have done. St. John of the Cross set out to stop this decline of the Church, and by his works and many other brave and courageous servants of God, they have reversed the declining trend of the Church and its institutions.

St. John of the Cross helped to reform the Carmelite order together with St. Teresa of Avila, and also conducted many other reforms designed to purify the Church and its religious orders, casting out its corruptions and worldly taints, and promoting true devotion to God and rigorous discipline in how the people and especially the religious and the priests ought to live their lives, filled with faith. But of course, these efforts were faced with tough opposition from those whose lives had been affected by the reform.

St. John of the Cross had to suffer rejection, indignation and even imprisonment for his good works and efforts. He had to suffer many things, even torture and pain, but he never gave up his efforts. Instead, he persevered and did all the more than he could in order to bring renewal to the Church despite the threat of suffering and even death from his opponents. It is all these virtues and qualities which all of us should emulate in our own lives.

May the Lord help us to be ever more faithful as St. John of the Cross had been, and let us all do our best to resist worldly temptations, the temptations of our greed and our bodily desires, so that we may be pure and good in all of our dealings, so that we will be found worthy by the Lord when He comes again to judge all of us. St. John of the Cross, pray for us all, that God will strengthen our faith and help guide us on our path towards Him. Amen.

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Wednesday, 14 December 2016 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 7 : 19-23

At that time, John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to the Lord with this message, “Are You the One we are expecting, or should we wait for another?” These men came to Jesus and said, “John the Baptist sent us to ask You : Are You the One we are to expect, or should we wait for another?”

At that time Jesus healed many people of their sickness and diseases; He freed them from evil spirits and He gave sight to the blind. Then He answered the messengers, “Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard : the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the poor are given Good News.”

“Now, listen : Fortunate are those who meet Me, and are not offended by Me.”

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Wednesday, 14 December 2016 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 84 : 9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14

Would that I hear God’s proclamation, that He promise peace to His people, His saints. Yet His salvation is near to those who fear Him, and His Glory will dwell in our land.

Love and faithfulness have met; righteousness and peace have embraced. Faithfulness will reach up from the earth while justice bends down from heaven.

The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its fruit. Justice will go before Him, and peace will follow along His path.

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Wednesday, 14 December 2016 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Isaiah 45 : 6b-8, 18, 21b-25

From the rising to the setting of the sun, all may know that there is no one besides Me; I am YHVH, and there is no other. I form the light and create the dark; I usher in prosperity and bring calamity. I, YHVH, do all this.

Let the heavens send righteousness like dew and the clouds rain it down. Let the earth open and salvation blossom, so that justice also may sprout; I, YHVH, have created it.

Yes, this is what YHVH says, He Who created the heavens, – for He is God, Who formed and shaped the earth, – for He Himself set it : “I did not let confusion in it, I wanted people to live there instead!” – for I am YHVH and there is no other.

Who announced this from the beginning, who foretold it in the distant past? Is it not Me YHVH? There is no other God besides Me, a Saviour, a God of justice, there is no other one but Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all you from the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By My own self I swear it, and what comes from My mouth is truth, a word I say will not be revoked.

Before Me every knee will bend, by Me every tongue will swear, saying, “In YHVH alone are righteousness and strength.” All who have raged against Him will come to Him in shame. But through YHVH there will be victory and glory to the people of Israel.

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Tuesday, 6 December 2016 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Nicholas, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened again to the words of the Scripture from the prophet Isaiah and from the Gospel according to St. Matthew about the coming of hope for mankind, and how God Who loves us all His children and His people, will not abandon us in the darkness, but indeed He will seek us all who have been lost to Him, like a shepherd looking for his lost sheep, even if there is only one who was lost.

That is the reason why Jesus our Lord came into the world, which we celebrate in Christmas. Many of us celebrate Christmas with joy and revelry, with dancing and partying, but without truly understanding what is it that we are really rejoicing about. And many of us are celebrating like how the rest of the world celebrate Christmas, with joy and happiness in the family, in the exchanging of gifts and presents, in our feasts and in our sumptuous dinner parties, but let us ask ourselves, have we put Christ at the centre of our celebrations?

If our answer to this question is no, that means those who have not put Christ at the centre of our joy and celebration this Christmas have not celebrated Christmas in the right way. It is easy indeed for us to fall into the temptation of this world, which constantly bombards us with many persuasions and temptations, and misleading us into seeking for a materialistic and Christ-less Christmas rather than a Christmas joy centred in Christ.

Perhaps in this, we can be inspired by the example of a holy servant of God, whose feast we celebrate on this day, namely St. Nicholas of Myra, a Bishop of a small diocese in what is now Turkey, in the region of Asia Minor in the early years of tolerance of Christianity in the Roman Empire. This same St. Nicholas of Myra is what the secular world had adapted and became the legend of Santa Claus, which image is certainly ubiquitous especially as Christmas approaches.

Many of us would know of Santa Claus as a bearded old man who is kind and who like to give many gifts to young children at Christmas. And many of our youths recognise Santa Claus, and are indeed waiting for him to give them presents. We hang red and white coloured socks at the fireplace or at the window hoping that Santa Claus would come and put some gifts inside of them. And indeed, everyone always look forward to our Christmas gifts and presents, but let us all ask ourselves, are we really not missing something from all of that?

St. Nicholas of Myra was indeed a kind and loving bishop, who always showed tender love, mercy and care for his flock, and he liked to give gifts to children who came to him for his blessings. And it was from this that it was likely the twisted legend of Santa Claus was born, one that was sadly not focusing on another aspect of St. Nicholas of Myra that we all really need to know.

For all of his loving and kindly ways, St. Nicholas of Myra is an ardent defender of the true faith, which happened at that time came under great threat from the heretical ways of Arianism, as taught by the false prophet and heretic Arius, which unfortunately divided the Church in many places and swayed countless souls away from the true way leading to the Lord and His salvation. Arius preached that Jesus our Lord is merely Man and not God, while the truth is that He is both Man and God at the same time.

Many people were swayed by the false teachings of Arius, even among the priests and bishops. But St. Nicholas of Myra were among those bishops who refused to listen to the falsehoods of Arianism and fought hard to restore the true faith to the many people who had been lost to the false and heretical ways. At the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in the year 325 AD, convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine to resolve the issue of Arianism and the true teaching of the Church about the divinity of Christ, it was told that St. Nicholas of Myra even punched the heretic Arius at the face.

Eventually Arianism was condemned by the decision of the Ecumenical Council, and defeated after many years of long struggle. Yet all of us must not overlook and forget the role of St. Nicholas of Myra in trying to defend the true faith from all these aberration and heresies. He acted as a true shepherd, a good shepherd modelled after the Lord Himself, the Good Shepherd, who are concerned about the well-being of his flock, especially those who have been lost.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, there are two things which all of us must understand and appreciate, so that our preparation in this Advent will be fruitful, and our Christmas celebration will be meaningful. Firstly, we need to return Christ to Christmas, putting Him back at the centre of our effort and our joy in Christmas. Whenever we plan for Christmas, let us all remember that we rejoice because of Him, because of the love He has shown us.

And thus it brings us to the second point we need to take note of, that we have to appreciate how God wants us to be redeemed and be forgiven our sins, for as what St. Nicholas of Myra had shown, the fate of our souls is indeed very important. Since if we fell into damnation and are lost from God, what await us is nothing but despair and eternal regret. The Lord has sent His servants to help and guide us through the turbulent world, so that we will be able to persevere through and avoid falling into temptation.

Therefore, let us all as Christians renew our faith and renew our effort to help one another to prepare ourselves, by deepening our relationships with God, and by seeking repentance and forgiveness for our sins. Let us all make use of this time of Advent to prepare ourselves, not just preparing how we will celebrate Christmas, but also prepare ourselves in our hearts and minds, that we will be ready to welcome the Lord with joy at Christmas, and share this joy with one another. May the Lord bless us and keep us in His grace. Amen.

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Tuesday, 6 December 2016 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Nicholas, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)
Matthew 18 : 12-14

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “What do you think of this? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside, and go to look for the stray one? And I tell you : when he finally finds it, he is more pleased about it than about the ninety-nine, that did not get lost.”

“It is the same with your Father in heaven : your Father in heaven does not want even one of these little ones to be lost.”

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Tuesday, 6 December 2016 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Nicholas, Bishop (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)
Psalm 95 : 1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12a, 12b-13

Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His Name; proclaim His salvation day after day.

Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds. Say among the nations, “He will judge the peoples with justice.”

Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them.

Let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy. Let them sing before the Lord Who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.

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Tuesday, 6 December 2016 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Nicholas, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)
Isaiah 40 : 1-11

Be comforted, My people, be strengthened, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, proclaim to her that her time of bondage is at an end, that her guilt has been paid for, that from the hand of YHVH she has received double punishment for all her iniquity.

A voice cries, “In the wilderness prepare the way for YHVH. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley will be raised up; every mountain and hill will be laid low. The stumbling blocks shall become level and the rugged places smooth. The glory of YHVH will be revealed, and all mortals together will see it; for the mouth of YHVH has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry.” And I say, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will forever stand.” Go up onto the high mountain, messenger of Good News to Zion, lift up your voice with strength, fear not to cry aloud when you tell Jerusalem and announce to the cities of Judah : Here is your God!

Here comes your God with might; His strong arm rules for Him; His reward is with Him, and here before Him is His booty. Like a shepherd He tends His flock : He gathers the lambs in His arms, He carries them in His bosom, gently leading those that are with young.

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Sunday, 4 December 2016 : Second Sunday of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the second Sunday in the season of Advent, a time for preparation and anticipation for the celebration of the Nativity, of our Lord’s birth at Christmas. On this day we heard about the life and works of St. John the Baptist, the Herald of the Messiah and servant of God, and also of the promise of the time of His Second Coming, a time of true peace and harmony.

The readings hearken us to the meaning of Advent, which is anticipation and preparation, not just to celebrate the first coming of our Lord Jesus which happened two millennia ago, but also that of His expected and promised Second Coming, which many of us are currently not aware of and are ignorant of. This is a time for us to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Lord, so that when the Lord comes again, we will be ready for Him.

It is therefore related to what we heard in the Gospel today, when we heard about St. John the Baptist, who came before the Lord to proclaim His imminent coming and arrival into the world to prepare the people, so that when the Lord comes again, they will be ready to welcome Him. It is therefore important that we should heed what he said in the Gospel today, so that we will be able to make full use of this Advent season for our benefit.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are looking for the time of the Lord’s coming, when He will herald peace, justice and harmony among all the peoples, as we heard in the First Reading, a vision that the prophet Isaiah had seen at that time of the coming of the Messiah or Saviour of the world. But before He comes, we have to prepare ourselves, heart, mind, body and soul, so that we will not be caught unprepared when the Lord comes again.

Otherwise, what St. John the Baptist said to the Pharisees and the elders would also be said to us by the Lord. At another occasion in the Gospel, Jesus told His disciples and the people about the Last Judgment, where the good and wicked will be separated from each other. Those who are wicked are rejected by God because they have not done what the Lord had asked them to do.

They have ignored the plight of the needy, the needs of those who are hungry, thirsty, imprisoned and without love, and thus God rebuked them and rejected them. Those who have done what they could to help these needy brothers and sisters of theirs have been rewarded by the Lord with the gift of eternal life and joy in the kingdom of God.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, the elders and the scribes, all of these liked to show off their faith to the people, showcasing their piety to the people to see, but at the same time, they strictly enforced the tenets and practices from the laws of Moses, and made it difficult for the people of God, and they condemned people like tax collectors and prostitutes, whom they deemed to be unclean and damned, without hope of salvation.

And in their hearts, they did not place God as first in their priorities, but instead, they put themselves and their ego first. Why is this so? That is because in all the things they do, not only that they had made it difficult for the people to remain faithful, they also closed the door of salvation to those whom they deemed to be sinners and unworthy, and they did all that they have done in order to be seen by the people and receive praise and fame.

Let us all ask ourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we like the Pharisees in our faith? Have we considered ourselves as Christians and yet, in our actions, we tend to exclude and condemn others because of their supposed sins and wickedness? Have we all acted to enhance our own self-prestige and glory amongst men? Have we gone to the Mass intending to boast of our own piety and look down on others.

First of all, we have to realise that all of us are sinners, from the ones with the least sins to those who have committed great sins. But all of us are equal in the manner that all of us have disobeyed the Lord at one point of our life or more. Some have committed more and some committed less sins, but nevertheless, all of us have been separated from the love and grace of God by our sins.

And that is why this Advent should be a time for us to contemplate our actions and deeds, and remember the moment of our own baptism, even as we listened to St. John the Baptist and how he baptised the people at the Jordan with water to bring them to a turning and conversion of the heart that they abandon their sins and wickedness, be washed through and through and made clean, and begin a new path towards God.

At our own baptism, we have made the promise to reject the advances and the false promises and lies of Satan, and we have made that profession of the faith committing ourselves to God and His ways. But along the way, we have encountered many persuasions and temptations, and some of us fell into the temptation and sinned.

Nevertheless, God always gives us the opportunity and chance to repent and to turn our back away from our sins. As long as it is not too late for us, and as long as we still draw breath in this world, there is always a chance for us to change our ways. Let us all not be like those who always procrastinate, thinking that they can always delay their repentance and do whatever they want first, and delay their conversion and repentance to the last minute.

After all, who among us are able to tell when is the exact time we will meet the end of our earthly life. It is only God Who will know the time. Many people who were condemned and met their end in hell were those who kept delaying their repentance even unto their last breath. They waited and waited, and when the time comes they realise that it is too late for them.

Let us all think about how we have lived our lives so far, and let us reflect about our actions in life. Have we been procrastinating about turning towards the Lord? Have we waited and delayed in our repentance? There is always time before it is too late, and therefore, let us wait no longer. Let us use this opportunity given to us this Advent season to reexamine our lives, devoting ourselves to new actions for each other, founded in love and mercy.

Let us all show mercy, compassion and love in all of our dealings. Let us forgive each other our mistakes and whatever had caused hurt in our hearts and bodies. Let us show love and care for our brethren who are in need of these, those who are unloved, ostracised and abandoned by the society, and all those who are poor, oppressed and weak.

May each and every one of us be able to show true Christian values in our lives, being selfless and caring for one another, and do as what the Lord had taught us to do. Let us not be hesitant and delay no longer, for the Lord is coming, and surely we will not want us to be caught unprepared when that happens. Do not tarry and wait until the moment when the Lord is before us and He cast us out of His presence and we are condemned to suffer eternally because we have ignored all the reminders and opportunities given to us thus far.

May God help us all in our endeavours, and may He strengthen our faith and our resolve to live our everyday life filled with commitment and love for each other and for our Lord, so that when the time comes, we will be welcomed into the life everlasting filled with harmony, peace and true joy as what we have heard in the first reading today, the vision of the prophet Isaiah. May the Lord be with us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 4 December 2016 : Second Sunday of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Matthew 3 : 1-12

In the course of time John the Baptist appeared in the desert of Judea and began to proclaim his message, “Change your ways, the kingdom of God is now at hand!” It was about him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said : A voice is shouting in the desert, ‘Prepare a way for the Lord, make His paths straight!'”

John had a leather garment around his waist and wore a cloak of camel’s hair; his food was locusts and wild honey. People came to him from Jerusalem, from all Judea and from the whole Jordan valley, and they were baptised by him in the Jordan as they confessed their sins.

When he saw several Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he baptised, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who told you that you could escape the punishment that is to come? Let it be seen that you are serious in your conversion, and do not think : We have Abraham for our father. I tell you that God can raise children for Abraham from these stones! The axe is already laid to the roots of the trees; any tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire.”

“I baptise you in water for a change of heart, but the One Who is coming after me is more powerful than me; indeed I am not worthy to carry His sandals. He will baptise you in Holy Spirit and fire. He has the winnowing fan in His hand and He will clear out His threshing floor. He will gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn in everlasting fire.”