holy saints of God

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Tuesday, 26 July 2016 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s first reading taken from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, we heard about the lamentation about the kingdom of Judah, how that kingdom has been overrun and has been abandoned by the favour of God, awaiting its final days and downfall. It was far from what it was like during the glorious days of kings David and Solomon.

And all of that was caused by the disobedience of the people of God, who have grown to trust their wealth and power more than they trust in God. And as a result, they have also wandered off away from the path that God had set for them. They have disobeyed His precepts, tortured and rejected His prophets and messengers, and they have lived in debauchery and wicked life, led by many of their kings who were unfaithful.

And thus God has abandoned His people to their enemies, allowing them to tear at them and made them suffer, as the just punishment and consequences for their lack of faith in Him. But it does not mean that He entirely despised them or did not care for them, as we have to understand that what God despises is the sins that we have committed, the wicked things that tainted us all in the body, heart and soul.

God loves all of us His children. We are the most beloved and precious of His creations. Yet, it pained Him to see that His beloved children abandoned Him and chose rather to be with the false gods and idols which they deemed to be their gods instead of their only one and only true God. He loves us all in person, and He cares for each and every one of us, but it is the sins that we have committed which separated us from Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why in the Gospel passage today, we heard about the Lord Jesus Who spoke to His disciples about the parable of the wheat and the weed. The Lord is the sower, Who sowed good seeds in our hearts, as we are all the fertile lands and grounds upon which God had given His grace and blessings. But the devil sowed the seeds of division and confusion, hoping that these would strangle the faith inside of us and trap us with the snares of sin.

If we allow these seeds to grow and develop, then I am afraid that over time it will grow to ensnare us and make it difficult for us to be faithful and loyal disciple of our Lord and God. Temptations and falsehoods of the devil are plentiful, and these are the things that will help those wicked seeds to grow, while preventing the growth or suffocating the growth of the seeds of faith inside each and every one of us.

And thus, perhaps it is good for us to take note of the examples of the two great and venerable saints whose feast we are celebrating today. They are none other than the parents of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, making them to be the grandparents of our Lord and Saviour. St. Joachim and St. Anne were the parents of Mary, the Mother of our Lord, and through their devout and good life as well as their good care of Mary, they have played a great part in the Lord’s plan of salvation.

Indeed, Mary had been conceived without sin, as the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, a centre tenet of our faith has told us, but it is equally important that she was brought up in a good family with a devout and faithful upbringing, which certainly St. Joachim and St. Anne had done for their daughter. This then highlights to us the importance of our own Christian families in the strengthening of the faith in each and every one of us.

Many of us do not realise it, but the family is a very important part of the Church, one of the strong pillars that helped to hold it all together. Without a stable and good family structure, and without a family that devote itself to the Lord and actively promote devotions and commitment towards God, then I am afraid that was the very reason why so many Christians had erred and been led into the falsehoods and the temptations of the devil.

Instead, as Christians, especially those of us in the families of Christ, each and every one of us, be it as a father, or as a mother, as a brother or a sister, as sons and daughters, all of us have a role to play in our Christian families. We are the foundations of the Church, as the saying goes that a family who prays together, stays together. If our families are run and kept as how Mary’s family was, and later on, as how the Holy Family was like, then surely there will be no problem.

The confusion and the wickedness spread by the devil can only grow when the situation and condition is ripe for such a growth, namely in situations where parental care is lacking, and where the Christian values that are supposed to be inculcated since young through the family are absent. Certainly, we do not want this to happen.

Therefore, let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord by strengthening our families, filled with faith, and devote ourselves anew. May God bless us all and keep us all in His grace, and may His blessings and graces be upon us always, now and forever. Amen.

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Tuesday, 26 July 2016 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 13 : 36-43

At that time, Jesus sent the crowds away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” Jesus answered them, “The One Who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world. The good seed are the people of the kingdom, the weeds are those who follow the evil one. The enemy who sows the weeds is the devil; the harvest is the end of time, and the workers are the Angels.”

“Just as the weeds are pulled up and burnt in the fire, so will it be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send His Angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom all that is scandalous and all who do evil. And these will be thrown in the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. If you have ears, then hear.”

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Tuesday, 26 July 2016 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 78 : 8, 9, 11, 13

Do not remember against us the sins of our fathers. Let Your compassion hurry to us, for we have been brought very low.

Help us, God, our Saviour, for the glory of Your Name; forgive us for the sake of Your Name.

Listen to the groans of the prisoners; by the strength of Your arm, deliver those doomed to die.

Then we, Your people, the flock of Your pasture, will thank You forever. We will recount Your praise from generation to generation.

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Tuesday, 26 July 2016 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Jeremiah 14 : 17-22

This you will say to them : Let my eyes shed tears night and day without ceasing! For with a great wound has the virgin daughter of my people been wounded, a most grievous wound. If I go into the country, I see those slain by the sword. If I enter the city I see the ravages of famine. For the prophet and the priest did not understand what was happening in the land.

Have You then rejected Judah forever? Do You abhor Zion? Why have You wounded us and left us with no hope of recovery? We hoped for salvation but received nothing good; we waited for healing, but terror came! YHVH, we know our wickedness and that of our ancestors, and the times we have sinned against You.

For Your Name’s sake do not despise us; do not dishonour the throne of Your glory. Remember us. Do not break Your covenant with us! Among the worthless idols of the nations, are there any who can bring rain, or make the skies send showers? Only in You, YHVH our God, do we hope, for it is You Who do all this.

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Monday, 25 July 2016 : Feast of St. James, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast day of one of the great Twelve Apostles, the chief disciples and servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today is the feast of St. James the Apostle, also known as St. James the Greater, the brother of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. They were featured in today’s Gospel as their mother came up to Jesus with them and asked Him to grant a great favour to her sons, that is to sit at the sides of the Lord in His triumph.

The attitude of the mother of the two Apostles, as well as the two Apostles themselves would serve to highlight the misunderstanding that the world often have with regards to power, influence, fame and all the things which we mankind often link together with greatness and success. But St. Paul in his letter to the faithful in Corinth reminded them all that the true treasure we have in us is in reality, the treasure of Christ, by sharing in His death and resurrection.

The people of this world by its nature are looking for good and happy things, putting their trust in accumulating and gathering more and more of what would satisfy their desires, all the temptation of power, of pleasure and debauchery, of fame and human praise, the glorification of the ego and the person above that of the suffering that others may endure due to our endless pursuits for those things.

But to be a disciple of Christ, we have to heed what the Lord Himself had said to St. James and St. John, that they would drink from the same cup of suffering and persecution that the Lord would drink, and they would share in the same persecution and opposition which He had endured from the world. To be a follower of Christ, it also means that we may be ridiculed and be rejected by the world, as our ways may then come into conflict with what the world considers as a norm.

Indeed, our Lord Himself showed by the examples He Himself had done. That by rejecting human pride and desire, He came into the world not to boast of His own power and majesty, but instead to serve and care with love a people whom He had claimed for Himself. He told His disciples, that while the way and the norm of this world is for the strong to oppress the weak with their power, it should not be so for those who follow Him.

And St. James took this advice to the heart and committed himself to the service of God with zeal and devotion. He ministered to the people of God and worked hard to establish the foundations of the early Church. He proclaimed the Gospel and the Good News to the world, telling the people about their Lord and Saviour, going even as far as the land of Hispania, now in Spain, to evangelise to the people there, where now a great Cathedral is standing for his honour, the renowned Cathedral of St. James of Compostela, Santiago de Compostela.

Lastly, as the fulfilment of what Christ our Lord Himself had told both St. James and St. John, indeed, St. James would share in the suffering of the Lord, by being imprisoned on the order of king Herod of Galilee. He was suffering in prison, and for the pride and greed of the wicked and unfaithful king, he was martyred, one of the first among the Twelve Apostles to suffer martyrdom for their faith in God.

And while his brother, St. John the Apostle and Evangelist was known to be the only one among the Twelve Apostles not to face martyrdom, but St. John also suffered greatly in his many years of life and service to the Church. St. John was imprisoned many times, and had to run for fear of his life many times, but remained faithful to the Lord to the end.

All of these showed us, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we rejoice in the glory of God’s holy saints and Apostles, that being a follower of Christ require commitment, hard work and perseverance. It will not be an easy path for us to follow if we choose to be faithful to God. If we think it has been easy so far, then we have to remember what Christ had said, that we ought to follow Him by taking up our own crosses in life and walk in His path.

Perhaps in many occasions we have allowed ourselves to let go of the many obligations of being Christians. Perhaps we have allowed ourselves to be swayed by the arguments and judgments of this world that led us into confusion and inability to discern and decide what it is like to be a Christian, that is to be truly faithful and to be committed to our calling to be one of God’s chosen ones.

Let us discern this and reflect on this matter as we celebrate the feast of the great Apostle St. James. Let us all follow in his footsteps and reinvigorate our effort to live ever more faithfully as those whom God had called and chosen. Let us all be fearful no more, but instead renew our faith in Him and be ever closer to Him and be faithful to all of His ways. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 25 July 2016 : Feast of St. James, Apostle (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 20 : 20-28

At that time, the mother of James and John came to Jesus with her sons, and she knelt down, to ask a favour. Jesus said to her, “What do you want?” And she answered, “Here You have my two sons. Grant that they may sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, when You are in Your kingdom.”

Jesus said to the brothers, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They answered, “We can.” Jesus replied, “You will indeed drink My cup, but to sit at My right or at My left is not for Me to grant. That will be for those, for whom My Father has prepared it.”

The other ten heard all this, and were angry with the two brothers. Then Jesus called them to Him and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations act as tyrants over them, and the powerful oppress them. It shall not be so among you : whoever wants to be more important in your community shall make himself your servant.”

“And if you want to be the first of all, make yourself the servant of all. Be like the Son of Man Who has come, not to be served but to serve, and to give His life to redeem many.”

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Monday, 25 July 2016 : Feast of St. James, Apostle (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 125 : 1-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6

When the Lord brought the exiles back to Zion, we were like those moving in a dream. Then our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongues with songs of joy.

Among the nations it was said, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord had done great things for us, and we were glad indeed.

Bring back our exiles, o Lord, like fresh streams in the desert. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs and shouts of joy.

They went forth weeping, bearing the seeds for sowing, they will come home with joyful shouts, bringing their harvested sheaves.

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Monday, 25 July 2016 : Feast of St. James, Apostle (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

2 Corinthians 4 : 7-15

However, we carry this treasure in vessels of clay, so that this all-surpassing power may not be seen as ours but as God’s. Trials of every sort come to us, but we are not discouraged. We are left without answer, but do not despair; persecuted but not abandoned, knocked down but not crushed.

At any moment we carry in our person the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in us. For we, the living, are given up continually to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may appear in our mortal existence. And as death is at work in us, life comes to you.

We have received the same spirit of faith referred to in Scripture that says : I believed and so I spoke. We also believe and so we speak. We know that He Who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and bring us, with you, into His presence. Finally, everything is for your good, so that grace will come more abundantly upon you and great will be the thanksgiving for the glory of God.

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Sunday, 24 July 2016 : 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Sharbel Makhluf, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the Lord Who is calling us to His mercy and love. He calls us all into the tender care of His mercy, and showed clearly His desire to embrace all of us, welcoming us and wanting to forgive us from our sinfulness and from all of our wicked ways. But all of these will require from us, a strong commitment and hard work.

How is this so? Let us all look at the Scripture readings of today one by one, and then we will understand why I mentioned that God is merciful, and yet He is calling us to make the effort to embrace His mercy and love, or else we shall perish. In the first reading today, we heard the story from the Book of Genesis where Abraham had a conversation regarding the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the fate of the people who lived in them, both the righteous and the wicked alike.

In order to understand this, we have to understand what had transpired at that time, the events and occasions that led up to that conversation between God and Abraham. The people living in the land where Abraham was still believed in the pagan gods and worshipped the idols, and they did not know of the Lord Who is their God and Creator. But the people living in the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were committing even more wicked things which were abhorrent in God’s sight.

And they did not repent from their sins, but committed even more horrendous and abominable sins such as prostitution, irregular and unnatural sexual and extramarital relationships, and many other deeds of debauchery and wickedness which were unwelcome and disgusting in the sight and presence of God. And hence God wanted to wipe Sodom and Gomorrah, together with all who live in them, out of the face of the earth.

But Abraham, knowing that his cousin Lot, whom he knew and counted as belonging among the righteous, stayed in the city of Sodom with his family and all of his possessions, he asked God for mercy and for Him to stay from His anger, for the sake of the righteous and just ones who were living amidst all the wickedness and the darkness of the people.

And although God promised Abraham that He would not destroy the cities for the sake of fifty, or forty-four, or forty, or thirty, or twenty or ten righteous ones who lived in them, but in reality, if we asked, why then God still destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, then the answer lies in the fact that not even ten people could be found to be righteous and just in those cities.

And we know how difficult it is to walk in the path of God, when the aftermath of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah told us about what happened to the wife of Lot. While Lot and his family was being rescued by the Angel sent by God, she stopped and turned his eyes to look back towards the city. We may not be sure why she did so, but it was likely that she herself had been lured info the temptation of the life as it was in those cities, and she was reluctant to leave them behind.

And we should ask ourselves whether we are guilty of the same as well. In many occasions, I am sure, it is difficult for us to turn our back to the pleasures and the good things which this world is offering us. It is not easy for us to resist the temptation and the pull, all the offerings and the sweet lies through which the devil and all of his forces are marshalling against us in trying to lure us away from God’s salvation.

And here, it is where all of us have been revealed what we should do in the case that we face such temptations and troubles. We are indeed weak, and our flesh are weak. Our flesh and the connection these have with the world weaken our resolve and our ability to live faithfully in the presence of God. But what seems to be difficult and impossible for us will truly become possible if only that we know how to put our trust in the Lord our God.

In the second reading, St. Paul in his letter and epistle to the faithful in the Roman city of Colossae, he spoke to them regarding baptism in the Lord, and how through that baptism, all of the faithful had been made to be sharers in the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And by sharing His death, all of us have also died to our past lives, to our past sinfulness and disobedience, and a new life has been granted to us.

Yes, a new life graced and blessed by God. It is a new life where we share in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord has conquered sin and death, and through His glorious resurrection from the dead, He had broken the chains that held us down and kept us imprisoned and enslaved to the darkness of this world. But the sad reality is that, even though all these had been done for our sake by the Lord, but many people still refused to believe in Him.

In the Gospel, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, and Jesus told them how they should pray, in the way that is now well known as the Lord’s Prayer, the Pater Noster or our Father, for indeed, that prayer is the perfect prayer taught to us by Jesus, a prayer of perfect harmony and surrender to God, a prayer of thanksgiving and glorification of God, a prayer of petition and desire for forgiveness and conversion of the heart.

The core of the problem with us all is that many of us do not know how to pray, and instead of genuine prayer, that is communication between us and God, we become demanding and wanting, thinking that God is a solution to all of our problems. Indeed, if we misread the intention of today’s Gospel, we may think that we just need to ask and God will provide us with all that we want. But that is not what God wants us to know.

Rather, God wants us to put our trust in Him, and leave behind our old ways, where we put our trust in our human desires and wants, in our attachments to the world and the material goods of the world that do not fully satisfy our true needs. He wants us to look for Him, to search for Him, to grab at Him and reach out to Him, by opening up our hearts and reaching out to Him, that He may find us and we may find Him.

For many of us, our spiritual and real relationship with the Lord our God has been distant or even nonexistent. We do call ourselves Christians, but do we mean what we said? Do we mean it when we say that we believe in God? If we do believe in Him, then why do our actions and words prove to be otherwise? Are we trying to bring scandal upon our Lord’s holy Name?

It is often that we are afraid to seek the Lord, even when we need His help. It is because we often have that misconception that our Lord is an angry and fearsome God, Who is to be feared and He will not tolerate any misdeeds. As a result, we are scared to approach Him when we have done something wrong, and indeed, through our sins, we have done Him wrong.

But we cannot be like that. We cannot be so fixated on our fears that we draw away from the Lord and be scared to approach Him. We cannot be hesitant either, or we will not be able to place our focus and our trust on the Lord, and then we shall lose our way and be distracted into false ways and risk damnation and downfall into the depths of hell.

We have understand that God loves us all, and by no means that He will reject us without reason. We have no reason to fear Him or to go away from Him just because we are afraid of His anger. God will forgive us but do we ourselves want to be forgiven? Or are we the ones who are actually the greatest barriers of our own salvation? Often times we do not realise that we are the ones who are most responsible in making it difficult for us to embrace God and His salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord, our loving God and Father. Let us all not be fearful but instead be willing to change our ways for the better, changing from our disobedience to our renewed obedience to the Law of God. Let us all be faithful disciples and followers of our Lord from now on, and no longer live in sin, but from now on living with zeal and faith for our Lord.

May God forgive us our sins, and may we ourselves open our hearts and ask Him to be forgiven for our faults and trespasses. May all of us come to the realisation that without real and genuine effort at conversion and changing our ways, we cannot come closer to God and reach the throne of His infinite mercy and love. Let us not be like Lot’s wife who wavered and turned back at the moment of her salvation, but let us be courageous and step forth into the path that God had prepared for us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 24 July 2016 : 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Sharbel Makhluf, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 1-13

At that time, Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

And Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this : Father, may Your Name be held holy, may Your kingdom come; give us each day the kind of bread we need, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive all who do us wrong; and do not bring us to the test.”

Jesus said to them, “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 you 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.”