holy saints of God

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Thursday, 14 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Isaiah 26 : 7-9, 12, 16-19

Let the righteous walk in righteousness. You make smooth the path of the just, and we only seek the way of Your laws, o YHVH. Your Name and Your memory are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for You in the night; for You my spirit keeps vigil. When Your judgments come to earth, the world’s inhabitants learn to be upright.

YHVH, please give us peace; for all that we accomplish is Your work. For they sought You in distress, they cried out to You in the time of their punishment. As a woman in travail moans and writhes in pain, so are we now in Your presence. We conceived, we had labour pains, but we gave birth to the wind. We have not brought salvation to the land; the inhabitants of a new world have not been born.

Your dead will live! Their corpses will rise! Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust! Let Your dew fall, o Lord, like a dew of light, and the earth will throw out her dead.

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Wednesday, 13 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard from the Scriptures speaking to us about trusting in the power of God and trusting in our own power, intellect and capabilities. In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah spoke against the pride of the king of Assyria, likely to be the king Sennacherib who came to besiege Jerusalem and boasted his might before the people of Judah.

As a context to what he was speaking about, the king of Assyria conquered many nations and peoples, and these people were sold into slavery and brought under the heels of the Assyrian Empire. However, there is one people whom he was unable to subjugate, that is the people of Judah, as God was standing with them and supported them against their enemies.

The king of Assyria boasted about his might and power before the people of Judah and before their king. He boasted about how many other nations had tried to go up against the Assyrians and those had been crushed, and their gods were unable to stop those things from happening. And thus, he blasphemed against God, thinking that nothing could have prevented him from achieving what he wanted, even against the power of God.

But he was completely humbled when God struck him and his forces down, sending His Angel to destroy a hundred and eighty-five thousand among the Assyrians’ mighty host. And thus, the Assyrian king was forced to retreat in great humiliation, and he would no longer trouble the people of God in Judah. And in the aftermath, the bickering and manoeuvring for power led to the very own sons of Sennacherib to kill their own father.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that short story about what happened during the time when the proud and the mighty went against the people of God is a reminder for all of us, that the power of men is feeble and untrustworthy. All the wealth, fame, influences and glory which we have in this world are not permanent, and without warning, we may lose them at any time, and having all of them does not necessarily free us from troubles to come.

And of course we do not bring them with us when we die. Whatever we have accumulated in this life will not follow us to the afterlife. In the Gospel today, we heard about our Lord Jesus Who revealed that those who place their trust in the wisdom and intellect of men do not know the truth which God brought into the world. It is likely because they were so self-absorbed by their great deeds that they ended up ignoring God and what He was trying to tell them.

We often place our trust in perishable treasures, things that can easily perish by fire, by thievery or by any worldly deeds and causes. But if we learn to look beyond all these, then perhaps we may be able to find that true treasure which all of us should strive for, that is for the kingdom of God, and for the reward of the just and the faithful ones. These are the treasures that will last forever and will not rot or be lost.

Let us all look at the example of St. Henry, the saint whose feast we are celebrating today. St. Henry was also known as the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II, the secular leader of Christendom at the time. St. Henry although he was one of the most powerful and influential person living at that time, having enormous wealth and influence, but he remained a simple and humble person.

St. Henry reigned wisely and built a great relationship with the Church, supporting its numerous good and charitable and evangelising work with zeal, while stabilising his Empire and devoting his time for the good of his people. St. Henry devoted himself to the state and to the betterment of his people, and he was a great role model to all of them.

He helped the establishment of the Church in many places and sincerely supported the Church in many matters. He was a very devout and committed person, and helped to enforce many of the rules of Christian celibacy to both the religious and the populace in general, avoiding all forms of impropriety and wickedness. In this manner, he showed the people how to be truly faithful to God in all of their actions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all heed the examples of St. Henry, the faithful and devoted ruler. Let us all learn to be humble and to be receptive to God’s transforming love in our midst, that we will no longer be subjected to our greed and human desires, and from now on, may all of us be able to commit ourselves, all our lives to the Lord our God without hesitation. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 13 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Matthew 11 : 25-27

At that time, Jesus said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I praise You, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learnt, and revealed them to simple people. Yes, Father, this is what pleased You.”

“Everything has been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”

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Wednesday, 13 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Psalm 93 : 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 14-15

They crush Your people, o Lord, they oppress Your inheritance. They murder the widow and the lonely, they massacre the helpless.

“The Lord does not see,” they say, “The God of Jacob does not care.” Remember this, you stupid people, when will you understand, you fools!

He Who made the ear, will He not hear? He Who formed the eye, will He not see? He Who rebukes nations, will He not punish them?

The Lord will not reject His people nor will He forsake His heritage. Justice will return to the just, and the upright will follow in its wake.

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Wednesday, 13 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Isaiah 10 : 5-7, 13-16

Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger, the staff of My fury! Against a godless nation I send him, against a people who provoke My wrath I dispatch him, to plunder and pillage, to tread them down like mud in the streets. But the mind of his king is far from this, his heart harbours other thoughts; what he wants is to destroy, to make an end of all nations.

For the king says : “By my own strength I have done this and by my own wisdom, for I am clever. I have moved the frontiers of peoples, I have plundered treasures, I have brought inhabitants down to the dust, I have toppled kings from their thrones. As one reaches into a nest, so my hands have reached into nations’ wealth. As one gathers deserted eggs, so have I gathered the riches of the earth. No one flapped a wing or opened its mouth to chirp a protest.”

Does the axe claim more credit than the man who wields it? Does the saw magnify itself more than the one who uses it? This would be like a rod wielding the man who lifts it up; will those not made of wood, be controlled by the cudgel? Therefore the Lord, YHVH Sabaoth, is ready to send a wasting sickness upon the king’s sturdy warriors. Beneath his plenty, a flame will burn like a consuming fire.

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Monday, 11 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the great feast day of one of the most renowned holy saints of Christendom, one known for his great piety and discipline in faith, the one who made religious life to be such a devout and popular profession in his days. St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder and first Abbot of the Benedictine religious order had a great role in the history of the Church, in helping many to find their calling and vocations in God, and advance the cause of the Lord.

St. Benedict of Nursia was born five centuries after the birth of Christ at a time when Christianity has become the majority faith for the people in the then known world. The Christian faith has become the faith followed by the people from the lowest to the greatest in the society, and the Church was still growing rapidly and developing its structure and practices. However, it was very often that heresies and all other false teachings arose in the Church, and people were also often lukewarm about their faith.

They have become complacent about their faith, just as what we heard in the Scriptures today, in the Book of the prophet Isaiah, where God rebuked His people for their empty offerings and sacrifices which were not made in real and genuine faith and devotion for Him. The people had come to see those sacrifices as obligations and as merely a process, and they had no real love for the Lord.

And in the Gospel Jesus also rebuked the people who followed Him, all those thinking that His coming into the world would usher an era of eternal peace where there would be no more suffering or difficulties, where being a follower of the Lord would entail one to a life of complacency and enjoyment, and where no more work is needed. Being a Christian in fact means a life of challenges and difficulties, as the world of darkness from which we have been rescued from would not remain silent even as we approach the salvation in our God.

Jesus Himself warned that His coming would bring about conflict and struggle, even among the closest of friends, among the inner circles of the families themselves, where one member of the family, being a Christian might be pitted against the other members of the family and even be persecuted. There had been many examples in the history of our Faith and the Church, where the faithful had been torn between their families and the faith, their friends and the Lord. And those who chose the Lord often faced suffering and even martyrdom.

And thus, St. Benedict who founded several communities of the faithful who chose to devote themselves and their whole lives to God in a life of seclusion and prayer. St. Benedict was renowned for his famous Rule of St. Benedict, which became the foundation of the order which he helped to establish, as those communities which he had established eventually grew to become what we know as the Benedictine order.

The Rule of St. Benedict encompassed the rules put in place to ensure that the lives of those who chose to join the religious order of St. Benedict are filled with devotions and prayers, and filled with hard work to cultivate their faith in the Lord. They lived together and worked together in harmony, and in the challenges and the difficulties that they faced, they have nothing better and greater than God Himself Who stood by them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it does not mean that all of us should abandon our current lives and devote ourselves to become monks and religious like St. Benedict and his followers had done. Of course if there are some among us who had been called and chosen, and if they had chosen to follow the fullness of the examples of St. Benedict, then it is in fact a great thing, and we should give our support and encouragement to them.

But for the rest of us, each and every one of us have also been called to give our best effort to live as true and devout Christians, as those who do not just profess the faith on paper or with mere words alone, but also through hard work and dedication. Indeed, the path forward for us will be challenging, but at least then if we remain faithful to the end, then our way forward is clear, and God rewards all those who keep their faith in Him despite all the difficulties and the challenges faced.

Let us all therefore imitate the examples of St. Benedict of Nursia and his Benedictine followers, devoting ourselves in each of our own way, but most importantly be sincere in our faith and devotion, and commit ourselves wholly to God, not just with our mouth or gestures, but from the deepest depths inside our hearts and our minds. May God help us and strengthen us. Amen.

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Monday, 11 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 10 : 34 – Matthew 11 : 1

At that time, Jesus spoke to the people and to His disciples, “Do not think that I have come to establish peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Each one will have as enemies those of one’s own family.”

“Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever does not take up His cross and come after Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes Him Who sent Me. The one who welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive the reward of a prophet; the one who welcomes a just man, because he is a just man, will receive the reward of a just man. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, because he is My disciple, I assure you, he will not go unrewarded.”

When Jesus had finished giving His twelve disciples these instructions, He went on from there to teach and to proclaim His message in their towns.

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Monday, 11 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 49 : 8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23

Not for your sacrifices do I reprove you, for your burnt offerings are ever before Me. I need no bull from your stalls, nor he-goat from your pens.

What right have you to mouth My laws, or to talk about My covenant? You hate My commands and cast My words behind you.

Because I was silent while you did these things, you thought I was like you. But now I rebuke you and make this charge against you. Those who give with thanks offerings honour Me, but the one who walks blamelessly, I will show him the salvation of God.

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Monday, 11 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Isaiah 1 : 10-17

Hear the warning of YHVH, rulers of Sodom. Listen to the word of God, people of Gomorrah.

“What do I care,” says YHVH “for your endless sacrifices? I am fed up with your burnt offerings, and the fat of your bulls. The blood of fatlings, and lambs and he-goats I abhor.”

“When you come before Me and trample on My courts, who asked you to visit Me? I am fed up with your oblations. I grow sick with your incense. Your New Moons, Sabbaths and meetings, evil with holy assemblies, I can no longer bear.”

“I hate your New Moons and appointed feasts, they burden Me. When you stretch out your hands I will close My eyes; the more you pray, the more I refuse to listen, for your hands are bloody. Wash and make yourselves clean. Remove from My sight the evil of your deeds.”

“Put an end to your wickedness and learn to do good. Seek justice and keep in line the abusers; give the fatherless their rights and defend the widow.”

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Tuesday, 5 July 2016 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the message of the Sacred Scriptures is very clear, as the messages in unison are reminders for all of us, not to put our trust or to worship the pagan gods and idols, which the people in the past had worshipped, the pagan gods and idols of wood, gold, silver, bronze and carven artefacts.

The first reading taken from the book of the prophet Hosea spoke about the lamentation and the anger which God had for His people, especially those in the northern kingdom of Israel who abandoned Him and instead followed the path of their neighbouring countries, those who worshipped the gods and idols of carved stones, gold and silver statues, the gods of the Canaanites, Baal, Asherah and many others.

Just as their ancestors had done at the time of their Exodus from Egypt, they were and can indeed be considered as fools for abandoning the sure certainty and the guarantee of their God for the comfort of the worldly falsehoods and for the beings crafted by mere human hands, of idols made from gold, silver, wood or other precious stones.

Since times and moments immemorial, mankind had worshipped objects of nature, both visible and invisible. They have worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars, and even elements such as fire, water and all the other creations of God. They were awed by their glorious appearances and how wonderful they were. But they did not realise or understand that all these things were mere creations, and not the Lord and Creator.

And all of us have the privilege to know the truth, that by what had been revealed to us, we know that we worship the Creator God, Who had created all those wonderful things, and yet we also know that those things were mere creations, and thus do not deserve our obeisance and worship. Those people put their trust in those things, and worse of all, they worshipped those creations of their own, the works of their own hands.

All that is because they were incapable of understanding the will and the intention of God. They were unable to comprehend the mysteries of God, and instead, they put emphasis on themselves, thinking that whatever greatness and glory they have received were due to them alone. And thus, many men who thought in accordance to the ways of the world would not be able to comprehend the will of God, just as what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law showed us.

The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees were those supposedly chosen from among the people, educated and filled with wisdom and the teachings of the Law and the prophets, and as such, they were highly respected in the society. And yet, when they saw what Jesus had done, which was clearly the works of God made evident in the world of man, they refused to acknowledge it, and even made a grave lie and false accusation that Jesus had done His works with the power of demons.

Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? We do not have to look further than the tension that arose between them and Jesus our Lord. They were the powerful and the privileged ones in the society. Through their authority, they gained honour, respect and many other things through their influence, but Jesus, Who came to dispel all falsehoods and revealed the entirety of God’s truth to us, thus became a great threat to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.

Their ego and pride prevented them from opening their eyes, minds and hearts, to look beyond the veil of jealousy and human greed, in order to realise that indeed they were the ones who had been mistaken in their approach. They were too self-centred to be able to realise the love of God which has been poured for their sake. They thought that they were doing the right thing, while the fact is that they are just serving their own purposes.

Today’s Scripture readings serve as a reminder for us all, so that as we live our own lives today, we may keep ourselves free from those temptations, the temptations of power, the temptations of the flesh, and all the things that kept us away from truly being faithful to God. And we may think that in this current times, we no longer do what the ancients were doing, worshipping the idols of gold, silver, bronze or wood, but we are mistaken.

For there are always idols that keep us away from the Lord, no matter in what form it is. Do we not realise that many of us are so preoccupied by our work, by our income, wealth and possessions, which distracted us from following the Lord our God? Do we not realise that there are many modern day idols of materialism, of selfishness and of human pride that still stand on the path which we ought to take, as obstacles on our way to salvation?

Let us all reflect on this, and let us also see the example of St. Anthony Zaccaria, the faithful servant of God, whose feast day we are celebrating today. St. Anthony Zaccaria was an Italian priest, who lived a few hundred years ago, and he was well known for his piety and charitable acts, and became a great role model for many people, championing strong piety and devotion to God.

In particular, he made popular what is called the forty-hour devotion, the long period of solemn adoration and worship of the Blessed Sacrament, which is indeed the Lord Himself in the presence within the Eucharist. Through this devotion, which he championed and by his many other works and establishments of societies and religious groups dedicated to further the cause of the Lord, he had brought many souls from the precipice of darkness and back into the light.

Let us all therefore also follow in his footsteps, brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us throw away all the idols of our life, those things that do not bring us closer to God and instead became barriers and obstacles on our path to Him. Let us not be distracted by ceaseless and endless pursuits of money, fame, wealth and human glory, but instead, put our trust in the Lord. Let us live our lives faithfully to God, and increase our devotion to the Lord, perhaps following the examples of St. Anthony Zaccaria through regular adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. May God help us all in all things. Amen.