Holy sermon

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(Holy Week) Wednesday, 12 April 2017 : Wednesday of Holy Week (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard again the story of the betrayal of Judas, because especially in the tradition of our faith handed down from the Apostles, today, as Holy Wednesday, the day before the Last Supper was to happen, was the day when Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus and plotted to hand Him over to them for a monetary sum.

And Judas sold Jesus out to the chief priests for a sum of thirty silver pieces. This may seem a lot to us, but in fact at that time, that price was roughly how much a slave would be worth in the slave market, at a time when slavery was still widely practiced. Thus, Judas sold his Lord and Master out for the price of a mere slave, as foretold in the Scriptures, that the One Whom God sent into the world would be betrayed and priced at the worth of a mere slave.

We may think that this is insignificant to us, but in fact, all of us should really pay very close attention to what Judas had done, and what the Lord wants to remind us with, as we all listen to the way that Judas had betrayed Him. Judas was a greedy man, and he was always helping himself to the common funds of the disciples of the Lord, as we read in the Gospels. He was a thief, and concerned more about money and benefits of following the Lord rather than truly believing in Him.

He was with the Lord Jesus so long as it benefitted him to do so. The moment that he saw an opportunity to betray Him for something more lucrative, he would do so at the first opportunity. He saw that opportunity when he saw Mary, the sister of Lazarus, the man whom Jesus raised from the dead, poured expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus and anointed it. He could not understand why it was done, because in his mind, money and his desire for money took the first place before the Lord.

Thus, he betrayed the Lord, because ultimately, as Jesus said in another occasion, that man cannot serve two masters, be it God or money. Man will love one and hate the other. So, eventually Judas made his choice, and it was not God’s side that he took up. We may think that this is what he had done, and it had no significance on us. But we are truly very wrong if we think that it is the case.

In fact, let us ponder on our own lives and actions. Let us all remember all the times when the Lord called upon us and wanted us to follow Him, and yet, we always say ‘no’ to Him, or ‘later’ or ‘do not disturb me, for I am busy now’ or ‘I will do it later’. Surely each and every one of us, at some point of time in our lives have done all these, have said all these to the Lord as our response to His call.

And let us remember whenever we are saying, ‘I have given donations and money to the Church, I have attended the Mass every Sunday, so I have done my obligations, therefore, let me be and allow me to continue with my daily business, for I have done what was asked of me.’ This is often the attitude which quite a few of had done, or indeed are doing all the time, whenever we are called by the Lord.

Are we not making excuses before the Lord? And are we not doing just exactly what Judas had done? We treated the Lord as if He is insignificant compared to whatever things that we are pursuing in life, be it wealth, be it possession, fame or renown, or power or authority, or other things that we mankind often seek for in life. We are so busy with all these things and all of these pursuits that we have neglected our main duty in life, to serve the Lord with all of our strength.

Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? For in reality, we are all nothing without God! God is the source of all our lives, and all the breath we take, every single one of them are blessings from the Lord. But we often do not appreciate this fact. We treated Him just like how Judas sold Him out for just a mere thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave.

Remember, brothers and sisters, that as we progress through this Holy Week, we should realise just how much it is that God has loved each and every one of us, even though we are all sinners and rebels before Him. He wants us all to be redeemed and to be reconciled with Him, and to that extent, He has endeavoured to give it all for our sake, by sending none other than His own begotten Son, the Divine Word made flesh, to be the Saviour of us all.

Let us remember this as we are about to commemorate the death of Jesus on the cross this Good Friday. He has paid the ultimate price for His love for us. He has held nothing back, even to the extent of giving up His own life for our sake, so that by His death, we may also die to our past sins, and also to be able to share in His glorious resurrection, that each and every one of us will be cleansed thoroughly from all the unworthy things that had kept us away from God’s grace and love.

Let us remember therefore, that all of us who are Christians, as those who believe in Him as our Lord and Saviour, have our respective obligations in life, to be fully committed to follow the Lord and His ways in all things, by the generous and selfless giving of ourselves to one another. Let us all imitate the great love which God had poured down on us, and share the same love to our fellow brethren, to one another.

If we do all of these, then surely our faith will become stronger, and we will draw closer to God, and we will not suffer the same fate as Judas, who had rejected the Lord and chose the tempting hold of wealth and worldly possessions instead of the Lord. Let us all enter the most holy of all times and seasons with heart filled with love and also with understanding, of the ultimate loving sacrifice that Jesus our Lord had given us from the cross, and thus strive to show the same love to all, to God and to our brethren alike. May God bless us all, and be with us, now and forevermore. Amen.

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(Holy Week) Tuesday, 11 April 2017 : Tuesday of Holy Week, Memorial of St. Stanislas, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how Jesus said that one of His own disciples would betray Him and surrendered Him to the hands of the chief priests and the elders. He was speaking of the time of His own suffering and death, which at that time was indeed about to occur. We heard of the betrayal of Judas who left to inform the chief priests and the elders on how and when to arrest Jesus in exchange for monetary compensation of thirty silver pieces.

Then we also heard how Jesus predicted that Peter would deny Him three times before others, even as he said that he would give his life for the sake of the Lord. This is what we are certainly quite well aware of, how during the time when Jesus had been arrested, out of fear and doubt, Peter denied three times knowing Jesus and had wanted nothing to do with Him when the bystanders at the trial of Jesus asked him.

In what we have heard thus far, what the Lord wants us to know is that all of us mankind have sinned, committed acts out of disobedience to Him, and we are easily tempted by various things, from money, to pleasures of the body, to desire, to lust and greed for power, human ambition, to fame and renown, and all other things that have caused us to doubt, to falter and to fall into sin, as the disciples had done when the Lord was arrested. They all abandoned Him and hid themselves out of fear.

Yet, we must be wondering why then did God call such weak and easily tempted men to be His disciples? Then, we should also think then that the Lord called people who were sinners like the tax collectors, prostitutes and all others whom the general public considered to be the dregs and the lowest of them all, outcasts and unworthy people, who should have been condemned because of all the wickedness that they had done.

But God called them and made them turn away from their past sinfulness and He made them to abandon their old ways of wickedness. He had transformed all of them from the beings of darkness and sin, into the children of the light, and therefore, we have to realise that even all saints were once themselves sinners too, just like each and every one of us.

What is it that differentiate between saints and all those who have fallen into damnation? Since all of them were once the same in what they had done, in whatever sins they have committed, we may not realise the answer for this question. But truly, it is because while saints turned away from their sins and made the commitment to sin no more, those who have been condemned ended up with such a fate because they continued to live in the state of sin.

As we progress through the Holy Week, and approach the time when we will commemorate again the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord, let us all ponder upon these matters and reflect on our actions in life thus far. How have we made use of this life and opportunity given to us by our Lord? Have we used it in accordance with what He wanted us and willed for us? Or have we instead ignored His will and decided to follow our own path, by turning into sin and debauchery?

We should look upon the examples set by St. Stanislas or St. Stanislaus the Bishop and Martyr, who was a renowned saint and martyr from Poland, who lived almost a millennia ago, as the Bishop of Krakow in Poland. St. Stanislas was a just and upright man, who committed himself wholeheartedly to the mission to which he had been called to. He spent much of his time to help guide the people of God through difficulties, challenges and temptations in life to seek God and His ways.

And he was very courageous in standing up to his faith and to the truth that could be found in the Lord alone, as he even stood up against the king of Poland, king Boleslav who was told to be immoral in his life and in his activities. He was chastised by the courageous saint, who ended up excommunicating the king when he refused to change his ways and continued to commit scandalous acts before God and men alike.

The king took matter to his own hands and personally killed the Bishop as he was celebrating the Holy Mass outside the city. The uproar over the killing of such a holy and pious man forced the king off from his throne, and it was told that he had to go into exile, and some accounts placed him as a penitent who went about trying to be forgiven from his grievous sin of murdering a holy man of God. Nevertheless, the faith of St. Stanislas were widely noted and many venerated him after his death.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us should also walk in the footsteps of St. Stanislas. We should emulate his commitment to live a pious and worthy life, rejecting all forms of sins and wickedness. We should turn our way back from our sins, and reject all those things that had led us to sin. Let us all devote ourselves and our time from now on to serve the Lord with all of our hearts, with all of our strength, so that we may join the company of the saints, all the sinners whom God had forgiven and welcomed back into His embrace, and now enjoy the eternal glory of heaven. May the Lord bless us all. Amen.

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(Holy Week) Monday, 10 April 2017 : Monday of Holy Week (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we continue our journey through the Holy Week, the holiest moment in our whole liturgical year. We progress on from what we celebrate yesterday in Palm Sunday of our Lord’s Passion, when we celebrate the coming of the King of glory into His city, praised and welcomed by the people crying out, “Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David!”

And as we progress towards the celebrations of the Easter Triduum, when we commemorate the same King, Who was abandoned by His people, condemned to death and put to death on the cross, and later to rise from the dead, through these few days in between these two important events, all of us are called to reflect on what our Lord had done for our sake through His Passion, death and resurrection.

God has allowed Himself to assume the human flesh, taking up our form to share with us the suffering we have received because of our sins and wickedness. And while we sinned and disobeyed Him, He was willing to forgive us, as He wanted us all to be reconciled to Him, because He loved each one of us. And therefore, because of this great love which our God had shown us, definitely we want to thank Him and to glorify Him for all He had done for us.

In the Gospel today, that was what Mary, the sister of Lazarus had done onto Jesus. Imagine, brothers and sisters in Christ, the joy that she must have had, when she saw her brother Lazarus, who was very sick and whom once thought to be dead, rose from the dead because of what Jesus had done for him. We can just imagine just how great the joy is in the heart of Mary, of having received such a great grace from God, the gift of a new life.

Therefore, she anointed His feet with expensive perfume, told to be from pure spikenard, among the most expensive and highest quality of perfumes, honouring Him and glorifying Him. In another account from the Gospels, Mary also wet His feet with her tears and dried them all with her hair. Such was the adoration and worship that she had given to Him, entrusting Him with all of her attention and her heart, and yet, Judas judged her and complained on what she had done.

Judas, under the pretext that Mary was wasting the perfume that was so expensive that it could have been sold to provide money to be given to the poor had judged Mary in front of others, pretending to care for the poor. But as mentioned in the Gospel passage itself, he was not concerned at the least for the poor, but because when Mary did that to Jesus, Judas was filled with jealousy and desire, greed and anger, because he was not able to help himself to the money which thus far he had taken from the common funds of the disciples.

In all this, we encounter the situation that often happens in our world today, when there are many who accuse us in the Church as being removed from the reality of our world, and many who slandered and attacked the Church because they thought that the Church had been an elitist institution who could have done all the things that Jesus had asked us to do, if they were to strip down all of their churches and properties and sell off everything, giving them all to the poor.

But they did not realise just how much the Church had done for the sake of the poor and the needy. The Church is the greatest and the most active contributor to charity and good works anywhere in the world. It has done so much for the sake of those who need assistance, but of course there are always more to be done to help. And the help from each and every one of us is needed.

Many perceived the Church as being ignorant of the plight of the poor, because they saw the actions of many Christians who are indifferent and selfish, greedy and filled with corruption just like Judas Iscariot. Many of us are putting our own wants and desires ahead of our obligations to serve the Lord with faith, and that is why many people found the Church scandalised, because of our own actions, all of us who called ourselves Christians and yet we did not act as how Christians should have acted and lived.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all learn from the example of Mary, and not from the examples shown by Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus. Let us all leave behind our greed, our attachments to worldly pleasures and all the things that had corrupted our hearts, our minds and our entire being, as how they had turned Judas into betraying Jesus. All of us had indeed once erred, but there is always the opportunity to turn ourselves into a new life.

Let us all therefore seek to be humble and to act as Mary, the sister of Lazarus had done. Let us all devote our time and effort from now on to give our best to the Lord, putting our complete trust in Him and not in worldly matters and goods. Let us not fall into the same temptation as Judas had fallen into, so that we may not fall into damnation but may instead receive eternal life. May God be with all of us, always. Amen.

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(Holy Week) Sunday, 9 April 2017 : Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the beginning of the Holy Week, the very significant and indeed holiest moment in the whole of the liturgical year, when we are commemorating and celebrating the final events in the earthly life, work and ministry of Jesus, the last week of His time when He endured all that He had to endure in order to fulfil God’s plan for our salvation to its perfection.

And it all began with the triumphal entry of Jesus into the Holy City of Jerusalem, when He was glorified and praised as a triumphant King, coming to enter His city, the city where God had made His dwelling, and He came riding on a donkey, much as the prophet Zechariah prophesied about the Messiah and King Who would come on the donkey into the city, thus fulfilling completely what God had promised His people.

And that is why we have the blessing of the palms and the procession of the palms, to commemorate that moment when the people of Jerusalem welcomed the Lord Jesus coming into the city, singing loudly and courageously, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David!” They were welcoming the Messiah Who came to take up possession of His kingdom and His city, as the Heir of David, to whom God had promised that his kingdom would last forever.

Yet, we may wonder, why is it that we begin with the Gospel reading at the start of the celebration of the Holy Mass at the triumphal procession, and then suddenly, as we progress on to the readings, we then read about the Lord and Messiah Who would suffer for the sake of all people, as mentioned in the book of the prophet Isaiah, speaking about the suffering Servant of God, Who would offer Himself to be tortured and punished for our faults.

And in the second reading, in the famous passage from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians, the Apostle wrote about how Jesus had been exalted and given Name above every other names, because He has obeyed the will and the commands of His Father perfectly and completely, by taking up His cross and emptying Himself, allowing Himself to be the perfect sacrifice of love, to be the ultimate source of salvation for all of us mankind.

And we end up with the long Passion reading, when we heard one of the three accounts of the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, which for this year is taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew. We heard how the Lord Jesus spent the last day from the time of the Last Supper, to His agony in the garden of Gethsemane, to His betrayal by Judas Iscariot, to His trial before the chief priests and before Herod, and how then He was tortured and put to death by false accusations before Pontius Pilate the governor of Judea.

We heard how the Lord Jesus took up His cross, having to walk the path of suffering from Jerusalem to the hill of Calvary among two other criminals. He was condemned to death like a criminal even though He was completely innocent. People mourned for Him, while many others mocked Him, jeered Him and rejected Him, throwing insults after insults, spittle after spittle on the way, and He ascended the cross, nailed onto it at Calvary, and died for all of us.

Why is it that a people who have greeted and welcomed the Lord Jesus as King and cried out, “Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David!”, then within just a time span of less than one week, were also the ones who cried out, “Crucify Him!” and “We have no king but Caesar?” That is because we mankind, by our nature, are weak, brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all weak and vulnerable, easily falling into temptation.

Through falsehoods and false promises of pleasure and goodness, the devil, our great enemy, are planting in us the seeds of doubt, the seeds of evil and wickedness, and all these resulted in our lack of faith. Thus, the same people who believed in the Lord Jesus as Saviour and Master, easily turned away from Him and rejected Him, when they saw Him fallen from grace and arrested by His enemies. Those who would once call Him friends, left Him behind and abandoned Him.

Indeed, His own disciples abandoned Him when He was arrested, as they cowered in fear and were at loss on what to do. And one of His own twelve most trusted disciples betrayed Him for a mere thirty pieces of silver, tempted by the allure of money and worldly possessions. This is what had caused many of us to sin as well, to fall into darkness and wickedness.

Through this, all of us must realise that each and every one of us have sinned, be it small or great sin, but all of us have disobeyed God. At one point or more in our lives, we have walked away from our God, abandoned Him, betrayed Him and left Him behind for the pursuit of money, worldly temptations and all the false allures of the devil, which he had placed in our path to make us stumble, as what had indeed happened to all of us.

All of us have acted as the people of Jerusalem, as the disciples of Jesus, as Judas Iscariot, as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. We have been like them, in how we welcome the Lord and shout His Name for joy, praising Him and glorifying Him, but then, very quickly, when temptations come, when doubt entered into our hearts, when fear and other things arose, we abandoned the Lord and left Him behind.

Let us reflect, brothers and sisters in Christ, on what had happened throughout this Holy Week, this time when Jesus our Lord did all that He had done for the sake of our salvation. We have been the ones to condemn the Lord to His death, by our sins and by our faults. Yet many of us do not realise this fact and continue to carry on with our lives as if nothing had happened. We have often taken the love of God for granted.

If all of us can just come to the realisation that each and every sin that we ever committed in life are the wounds and the sufferings of Christ, Who has suffered and died for us, then all of us would have been very ashamed and would not commit any more sins. But the reality is that many of us have been oblivious and ignorant to the sins that we have committed, and some of us have even been desensitised to sin, because we have committed so many sins, that it feels just normal for us to sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all spend some time today, at the beginning of the Holy Week, to reflect on how fortunate we are, to have One Who loved each and every one of us so much that He was willing to give up His own life for us, He Who was willing to forgive us our transgressions and sins. He has called us to accept His mercy and to share in the burden of His cross, if we believe in Him and what He had done for us.

The question is, are we willing to be forgiven? Are we willing to accept God’s mercy and forgiveness? Are we willing to change ourselves and sin no more? The disciples may indeed have abandoned the Lord, but they all, except Judas Iscariot, turned back to God and sought His forgiveness. Peter, who denied Jesus three times, confessed his devotion and love before the Lord three times, as a sign of his atonement and commitment to be with God. Judas did not repent and change his ways, and that was why Satan used him as a tool to try and undo the good works of Jesus by betraying Him. God gave him chance but he refused to take it up.

Shall we choose to be like Judas or to be like the other disciples of Christ? That is a question that we need to ask ourselves. Let us ponder on this as we go on throughout this Holy Week celebrations, that whatever we do, we may do it with understanding and that we may benefit from them. May all of us find our way to the salvation in our God, and share in the love and mercy with which He had rescued us from death because of our sins.

May the Lord, our loving God, Who suffered and died for us, taking our place in suffering and bearing upon Himself our crosses, bless us all and keep us all in His grace and love at all times. May we all draw closer to Him and to His love, and may we find succour and redemption by the loving sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and accept wholeheartedly the love which He had given us all. May God be with us all, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 8 April 2017 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s Scripture readings we see seemingly very contrasting pictures painted by what we heard from the first reading, taken from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, which spoke of the coming of the Lord’s glorious kingdom of glory, where He would succour and rescue all of His people suffering and scattered around the world, and the Gospel passage, in which we heard the Pharisees and the chief priests who worked together to arrest Jesus and persecute Him to death.

As we approach the beginning of the week of the Holy Passion of our Lord Jesus, the Holy Week, holiest among the weeks of our Liturgical Year, it is important that we see these two readings as related to each other, in terms that, the Lord will fulfil the promise which He had made to His people, to gather them together once again and bless them again with the fullness of His love, and to bring all of His beloved ones into a life of bliss, happiness and glory, but all these would not come about without the suffering and Passion which our Lord Jesus was to suffer during what we are celebrating in this upcoming Holy Week.

Jesus had to endure rejection, opposition and stubbornness from the people to whom He had been sent to. God had showed His love to His people by sending them none other than His own Son, the Son of David and Son of God, to be the Heir to all the kingdom of David and as Lord and rightful King over all of God’s people, and yet, the very leaders, the chief priests, elders and the Pharisees who were leaders of the people, rejected Him.

The Pharisees and the elders, the chief priests and the high priest himself, Caiaphas, all of them surely were very aware of what Jesus and His disciples had been doing all that time, healing and preaching in many villages and towns throughout Galilee and Judea, and performing even miracles in Jerusalem and its surroundings, even raising Lazarus from the dead near the Holy City. His deeds were well known and could be attested by many who witnessed all of them.

And yet, they refused to believe in Him and rejected Him because, they were much more concerned about themselves, about their status and privileges, about their position in the society, as revered and highly respected members of the elite, upon whom the whole community revolved around. They were concerned that the teachings and works of Jesus would jeopardise their own position and prestige among the people, and a threat because that would probably have caused the Romans to remove the privileges they have granted them.

As such, human pride, ambition and desire for power, prestige and influence have resulted in the obstruction towards the good works of God. The same thing had caused the fall of many among the people of Israel, as well as many other among us mankind. It is all of these wickedness, all of these sins which our Lord Jesus Himself shouldered as He brought His cross on the way from Jerusalem to Calvary, bearing insults and rejection from His beloved people.

And yet, if we remember what Jesus did during His time of Passion and suffering, He forgave His enemies and all those who have persecuted Him. From the cross, He forgave those who have surrendered Him to the Romans and called out for His death, and indeed, He also suffered and died for these people. It is a reminder to all of us that, whenever we sin, God is willing to forgive us, and He has died for those sins that we have committed.

If we have a sense of shame inside us, then surely we would have realised that all the sins we have committed are wrong and are things that we must rectify. It is a time for us to reflect on our lives, even as we enter into the Holy Week. All the more we have to link our actions and deeds in life with the works and the actions of Jesus, Who have taken upon Himself all of our life’s sins and faults on Himself. He has loved each and every one of us who are sinners unto death, death on the cross.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all turn away from our rebellious ways, from all the things we have committed, all the sins and wrongs we have done in our lives thus far. Let us turn away from the way of the Pharisees and the elders, who have placed themselves and their selfish desires ahead of their responsibility to lead the people of God to their Lord.

Let us all devote ourselves to do what is right and just, by loving and caring for each other, for our neighbours, even for strangers and for our enemies. Let us all forgive one another of the hurt that we have caused each other much as Jesus Himself had forgiven His enemies, all those who have caused Him harm and condemned Him to death.

Let us all die to our pride, to our ego, to our selfishness and all the wickedness in us, and come to live again in glory with God, as we remember together His Passion, death and resurrection in the upcoming Holy Week. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 7 April 2017 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard all the insults and accusations which the Jewish people and the opponents of Jesus were hurling against Him because He has revealed Himself to be the Son of God and the Messiah for all the world. They refused to believe in Him and wanted to stone Him for what they considered to be blasphemy against God.

Even though they had seen all that Jesus had done before them, by His healing of the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, making people who were deaf to be able to hear again, and those who were mute to be able to speak again, and even raising people from the dead as what He had done with the son of the widow from Naim and also with the daughter of Jairus, the synagogue official, they still refused to believe.

Why is this so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because they have hardened their hearts and minds against the Lord, not allowing Him to enter into their hearts and minds. They have put their trust in their own human judgment and intellect, thinking that they alone have the knowledge of truth, and when One came into the picture, challenging all that they used to believe, they refused to listen to the truth.

And therefore, it comes to the danger of our human pride and ego, which is the most harmful of all kinds of sins and temptations, as it is pride that brought many people to fall into sin, and it is our ego and pride which made us stubborn and adamant in our refusal to admit and repent from our sins, as the Israelites had themselves once done. And it is what all of us Christians must avoid and remove from ourselves, especially during this time of Lent.

It is pride that had prevented us from humbling ourselves and from realising that all of us are poor sinners. It is pride that had closed the doors of mercy before us, not so much that God had abandoned us or that He had not forgiven us, but instead, we ourselves in our pride and ego had refused God’s offer of mercy and forgiveness, and by our sins due to that pride, we have distanced ourselves away further from God and His merciful love.

Let us today reflect on the life of the saint, whose holy life we are commemorating today, the life of St. John Baptist de la Salle, the founder of the order of the Brothers of the Christian Schools or the Lasallians. St. John Baptist de la Salle was a French priest who was remembered for his dedication to the poorest, the least, the last and the lost among the community, those who have no one else to turn to, those who have been abandoned and unloved.

To that extent, St. John Baptist de la Salle left behind his prestigious post as the canon to the Cathedral of Rheims, a post with great prestige and privilege at that time, and chose to serve the people of God, calling together like minded people and assemble together what would become the Brotherhood of the Christian Schools, providing genuine Catholic education to the people who have once been uneducated and had no access at all to what had once been the privilege of the rich and the elite.

St. John Baptist de la Salle showed all of us the way to reach out to the Lord and to His mercy, by following what he had once done to the least and the poorest among his brethren. He eschewed pride and human ambitions, human glory and fame, renown and prestige, for true faith in God by doing what he could in order to help his fellow brethren, by showing them love, care and compassion.

It is what we all as Christians ought to be doing as well, that each one of us are not Christians just by name, or only on paper, but also through real deeds and works. Let us all make use of this opportunity that God has given us in order to strengthen our faith by devoting ourselves ever more to the works of mercy and love, committing ourselves to help our brethren, in the same manner as what St. John Baptist de la Salle and the other saints had done.

May the Lord be with us all, and may He bless us all in our works. May He remain with us and help us on our way, that we may find our way to Him and be saved in Him. Amen.

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Thursday, 6 April 2017 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the faith of Abraham, the father of many nations and peoples, who had heard the Lord’s call and followed His call to go to the land He had promised to him and to his descendants. And that was why God blessed Abraham and made His covenant with him, and with all of his descendants.

But the Israelites at the time of Jesus refused to believe in Him when He came into this world to establish a new covenant with them. They were very proud of themselves as the descendants of Abraham, and yet in their actions, they showed what were contrary to how Abraham had lived his life. They were vain, filled with human ambitions and desires, acted unjustly upon others and did what was sinful in the sight of God.

They thought that by being born children and direct descendants of Abraham, then they alone deserved God’s love, grace and salvation. Unfortunately, because of their actions and wicked deeds, even Abraham himself would be ashamed to have these people calling themselves his descendants. Their actions have brought scandal to the name of Abraham, for they have not acted and did things in the same manner as Abraham had done.

They have not been faithful to God, and they have not done what the Lord had asked them to do. They gave in to worldly temptations of power, desire and all other sorts of things that kept them away from being truly faithful to God. And they forgot that, as God mentioned to Abraham at that time, and written in the book of Genesis, they need to obey the commandments of God and be actively involved in living up their part of the covenant.

Yes, a covenant is not a one-directional transaction between God and Abraham. A covenant instead is a transaction and agreement, between two parties, and in this case, involving both God and Abraham. Both sides would have to fulfil their respective part of the covenant, or else, the covenant would not be fulfilled. And that was what happened to the Israelites, as they disregarded their obligations to fulfil the commandments of God, they had lost their right for the covenant with God.

That was why they also suffered the consequences, having been conquered and put down by their enemies, having to leave behind which God had promised to them and to their forefathers, because of their lack of faith. They were brought to faraway lands and had to endure humiliation among the foreigners, who as written in the Scriptures, mocked them for their disobedience and fate.

Yet, the Lord is ever forgiving and loving, and that is what all of us need to remember as we progress through this time of Lent, and as we deepen our relationships with God. God sent us a new Hope in the person of Jesus Christ, His Son, the Saviour and Deliverer He had promised to all of us, as the sign of His love and faith, as well as commitment to His covenant with all of us, remembering the covenant He Himself made with Abraham.

To this extent, through Jesus God had established a new covenant with us all, one that will never end and be broken, for it is by none other than through His own Precious Blood and Body shed on the cross at Calvary, that He had sealed and made fulfilled the covenant that He made anew with us. This new Covenant is the covenant between us and God, and through this Covenant all of us are called to come closer to God, to be forgiven from all of our sins and to receive God’s everlasting grace.

Are we then able to commit ourselves to God in the same way that God had committed Himself. God is ever so faithful and committed to His words and covenants that He was willing to lay down His life for the sake of us all, the partakers of His covenant. If God Himself is willing to go so far for our sake, then should we all mankind then do the same? Shall we all show Him as great a commitment and faith that we can muster?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all renew our commitment to God from now on. Let us all be renewed in faith, and show it through our actions and deeds. Everything we say and do, we should do it with genuine Christian love and charity. Let us all give ourselves to the service and help for our brethren in need, all those around us who are in need of help, and have no one to help them. May the Lord bless us all and our endeavours, and may He bring us all to His everlasting glory, all of us who partake in His wonderful covenant. Amen.

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Wednesday, 5 April 2017 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Vincent Ferrer, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s Scripture readings, we heard about God Who is ever faithful to His beloved people, Who kept to the words of His covenant with them, and He will not abandon them. And when they call out to Him, He shall answer them and deliver them from all of their troubles, if they remain faithful and true in their commitment to Him.

In the first reading today, the three friends and fellow countrymen of Daniel, namely Azariah, or Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, got into a great trouble with King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, their master, who have conquered the country of the Israelites and brought the people of God into exile at Babylon. And as they lived in the foreign land and under the rule of foreigners, they were forced to even worship pagan gods and idols, under the threat of death.

Yet, even when they were faced with persecution and the king himself forced them to choose between worshipping his golden statue or death, they stayed true to their faith and defied the orders of the king, knowing that God is always on their side, and will provide for them in all that they need. They knew that everything they had, including their very lives, were all gifts and blessings from God. If it was God’s will that they should perish while keeping their faith, then they would let God’s will be done.

It is this kind of faith which Abraham, our father in faith also once had. He trusted completely in the Lord, following where He wanted him to go to, and giving his all to walk in the path of the Lord. And because of the great faith he had, even to the point of offering his own beloved son, as the Lord asked for, when He tested his faith, God blessed Abraham greatly, to his descendants and to his descendants’ descendants.

But God does not reward the descendants of Abraham by their birth from the line of Abraham alone. That was what we heard in the Gospel today. That is why we all also call Abraham our father in faith. We followed the Lord and believed in Him much in the same manner that Abraham had been faithful, and by that virtue, we have given the same share of the blessings which God had promised to Abraham and to his faithful descendants.

Why is this important, brethren? That is because the people of Israel, even at Jesus’ time, as we saw in the Gospel today, often used their ancestry, their descent from Abraham as something to be proud of, and to belittle and discriminate others. For the same reason, the Jews at the time of Jesus looked down on the Samaritans and the Gentiles, or the non-Jewish people, because they looked at themselves as those whom God had chosen to be His people by the virtue of their ancestry, while others do not deserve God’s grace because they do not belong to them.

Yet, Jesus was angry at the Jews, precisely because while they touted themselves as being descendants of Abraham, their actions and deeds were far from being right for those who claim descent from the faithful Abraham. They did not love God as Abraham had loved God, and they did what is wicked and evil in the sight of God and men alike, caring for themselves and their desires only, and not having God living in their hearts. God had often been sidelined in their lives.

Therefore, today all of us are reminded that faith in God will bring us to salvation and righteousness, while if we disobey and sin, our sins will bring us to our downfall. It was mentioned in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, that if a righteous person turns away from his or her righteousness, and commit sin, then the person will perish because of the sins he or she has committed. In the same manner, a sinner who turns to righteousness will be saved because of the righteous deeds the sinner had done.

Let us all during this time of Lent remember that it is our actions and deeds, filled with righteousness and obedience to God, that will bring us closer to God and to His salvation. Let us all not be distracted by pride, by human greed and desire, and let us not be complacent in our faith. There is always something to be done in our lives, and we should always make use of our time well in order to obey the Lord and walk in His ways. 

Let us all follow the examples of St. Vincent Ferrer, a holy priest and Dominican friar who lived during the years of late Medieval era France. He was renowned for his great dedication to the poor and the needy, and he called many people to repentance and forgiveness through his teaching and preaching. St. Vincent Ferrer went to many places, doing good works and helping many people who struggled with their faith and with their lives.

St. Vincent Ferrer showed all of us that we have many things that we all need to do in our lives, which are all the things we are capable of doing, and yet, we are unable to do because of our reluctance and lack of dedication. There are many things that all of us Christians are capable of doing in order to help those who are around us, but we did not do, as we are too busy caring for ourselves and for our own desires.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all renew our commitment to the Lord, as we progress through this season of Lent. Let us all do as St. Vincent Ferrer and the saints had done before us, and as Abraham, our father in faith had lived his life. Let us all be holy as our Lord is holy, so that we may truly be worthy of His grace and blessings. May God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Tuesday, 4 April 2017 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Isidore, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, as we approach ever closer to the time of the Holy Week, we are reminded of why we do all the fasting and abstinence during this season of Lent. In the first reading today, from the Book of Numbers, we heard what happened to the people of Israel as they journeyed through the desert. They rebelled against God and God sent punishment to them in the form of fiery serpents that killed many of them.

The people of Israel begged for mercy from God through Moses, and Moses implored the Lord to have pity on them. Seeing that they have suffered and that they wanted to end their rebellion against Him, and the sincerity of their repentance, God showed His mercy and instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent placed on a stand so that all those who had been bitten by the fiery serpents, and saw the bronze serpent would not die but survive and live.

And in the Gospel today, Jesus spoke to all those who followed Him about the upcoming persecution and suffering that He would then soon endure during His Passion and death on the cross. He spoke to them that He would be lifted up for all to see, the Son of Man and Saviour of the world, Who was crucified like a criminal even though He was innocent and did nothing wrong.

Through this, we can see how the event in the time of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt is linked to the time of the salvation of mankind through Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. At the time of the Exodus, God brought His people Israel out of Egypt and towards the Promised Land. However, they were unfaithful and they were constantly rebelling and disobeying Him, to the point of making for themselves a golden calf to be their deity and god.

As God was angry at them, for their wickedness and sins, the fiery serpents represent the punishment for all those sins and disobedience, much as how the sins that all of us mankind have done, bring about with it punishment and consequences. And many of the people of Israel died bitten by those fiery serpents, reminding all of us that the consequence for sin is death.

When we were created by the Lord, when Adam and Eve were still walking in the gardens of Eden, God did not intend for mankind to suffer and die, for it was not His intention. But, because they have sinned and disobeyed Him, therefore, they were cast out of Eden, and had to wander in this world in suffering, and death reigned over them. Ever since, all mankind, without exception, met the end of their lives in death.

But God loves each and every one of us, brothers and sisters in Christ. And it is that love which allows Him to show us His mercy when we His people sincerely desire to be forgiven, through our petition and grievances, through our regretting of our sins and wickedness, by our humble submission to His grace and love. And God Who loves us will indeed forgive us our sins if we are sincere in seeking to be forgiven.

That is just as how He gave a new chance to the Israelites by asking Moses to make the bronze serpent to rescue them from their predicament. And while that applied only to the people of Israel who died in the desert, God made the same thing to happen to all of mankind, by the sending of none other than His own Beloved Son, to be the One through Whom He would exercise His mercy and forgiveness.

And Jesus willingly took up upon Himself the multitudes of our sins, our defilements and all the things that had separated us from God and His love. He bore all those sins on Himself, carrying His cross through the way of suffering from Jerusalem towards the hill of Calvary. It was at Calvary where He was raised up for all to see, as the Sign of God’s salvation, forgiveness and grace, a reminder of the bronze serpent that saved the Israelites.

By the cross of Christ we have been saved, a new hope and light had dawned on us. God has given us a second chance, because He loves each and every one of us. But are we willing to be forgiven our sins? Are we allowing God to enter into our hearts and help us to transform ourselves from the creatures of sin and darkness that we were once, into beings of light worthy to be called the children of God?

That is the question we must ask ourselves, and which we must ponder on as we go through this time of preparation in Lent. We need to spend time to reflect on our lives, our actions and deeds in life thus far. Have we been faithful to the Lord, walking righteously in His ways? Or have we been wayward and disobedient like the people of Israel in the past? Have we ignored God’s laws and commandments, by our hatred, our jealousy, our selfishness and human greed?

Let us look upon the cross of Christ, the body that lies hanging on the crucifixes we have, at our homes, at our churches and wherever we are, and at our personal crosses and crucifixes. Whenever we look at Him Who is crucified, let us first of all remember that we are all sinners and should have perished because of them. Then remember how Christ died for all of us, bearing all the burdens of our sins as His own. Remember how He suffered for our sake, taking the punishment on our behalf, that we will not perish but live.

Let us devote ourselves with new commitment, looking at the example of today’s saint whose feast we are celebrating. St. Isidore of Seville was the Bishop of Seville during the years of the early Medieval era, who was credited with the conversion of the kingdom of the Visigoths in present day Spain from the heresy of Arianism into the orthodox and true Christian faith.

St. Isidore lamented the corruption that permeated the society and the people at that time, as morality became ignored and the faith among the people faltered. St. Isidore therefore laboured hard to bring the people of God back to the faith, by preaching to them the truth of the Gospels, and calling them to repentance. He stood firmly against the false teachings of Arianism and by his works, he managed to bring multitudes of souls to salvation.

Inspired by his examples, all of us Christians should endeavour to do the same as well. We should come closer to the Lord and change our sinful ways, repent from all of our past wrongdoings, realising just how much God loves us and wants us to be reconciled with Him. And we need to help our fellow brethren, especially those who are still struggling with sin and with their wickedness.

Let us endeavour to help one another, that each one of us may learn to draw closer to God, so that we may find our way to reconciliation with our God. May all of us learn to be humble, and beg the Lord for His forgiveness, by committing ourselves to change our sinful ways, and walk in righteousness and grace from now on. May God help us all, and may He bless all of us always. Amen.

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Monday, 3 April 2017 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the Scripture readings, from the Book of Daniel the prophet, where we heard the false accusation done by two elders of Israel against the faithful woman, Susanna. The two elders went wayward and disobeyed the Lord, allowing their lust and desire to take over their minds and bodies, and caused them to sin before the Lord and before their fellow men.

They were the elders entrusted with the guardianship and judgment over the people. They were supposed to be those who were most well versed in the matter of the Law and the commandments of God, and yet, they misused their authority to satisfy their own selfish desires. They presented false testimonies and accusations against the innocent, just because they wanted to cover the tracks of their own sins and wickedness.

But God would not allow His faithful ones to suffer such injustice. And therefore through the work of Daniel, God rescued Susanna from the hands of the two elders who wanted to see her destroyed while concealing their sins. They wanted to accuse others of their sins, but they themselves were judged and condemned because of their own sins. This is what is reinforced by what we heard in today’s Gospel, where we heard how Jesus dealt with those who wanted to persecute and punish the woman who had been caught in the midst of committing adultery.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law wanted to test Jesus by using the woman who had been accused of committing adultery, to see if He would judge her and therefore, they themselves could use whatever He was to say against Him. That was just how wicked those who were opposed to Jesus were, as they were prepared to manipulate and to take advantage of the situation to serve their own purposes.

But Jesus knew what was in their hearts, and He did not fall for the trickery. If He had condemned the woman, then He would be in trouble, because He had walked often among prostitutes and the tax collectors, then the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law would condemn Jesus for His frequent sorties and work among those considered as sinners. It was believed then that if one was to come into contact with sinners, they would be defiled as well.

If Jesus had not condemned the woman, then it would have been used to condemn Him either way, as an arbitrary person who did not recognise or turned a blind eye on sin committed by the woman. But that is when Jesus, Who in His wisdom knew what to do, chose instead to reveal that very fact which many people, especially the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, loathed to admit, that everyone is a sinner.

Thus He simply asked all of them, that the one who was without sin ought to cast the first stone against her. And indeed, no one raised even a stone against her, and beginning from the oldest ones among them, who have lived the longest, and therefore arguably having committed the most sins in their lives, left the woman behind and went away. Eventually every one of those who wanted to punish the woman and those who wanted to test Jesus went away. No one was without sin, and they were all aware of it, as much as many of them loathed to admit the fact.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, by knowing this fact, all of us should understand just how fortunate we are to have God with us, on our side, guiding us and caring for us. Jesus was the only One Who was without sin at that time, and yet, He did not judge the woman and punish her. Instead, He gave the woman a new chance and an opportunity. He said to her, “Go and sin no more.”

This is what we need to remember, brothers and sisters in Christ. It is often that we misunderstood the Lord and His desire for us to be forgiven. Many of us thought that God is ever merciful and loving, and we often used this instance of how Jesus forgave the woman who committed adultery as the reason to back up our claim that God will forgive whatever sins we commit in life.

Yet, if we understand what the Lord wants from us, then we are really mistaken, brethren. For while God is merciful and He wants us to be reconciled with Him, this depends also on the acceptance on our side, of the forgiveness which He had given freely to all of us. And what does acceptance mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is precisely the words, “Go and sin no more.” And that means, total and complete repentance, the sincere regret and penance for our sins.

It is what we need to do from now on, brothers and sisters in Christ. And it is what we need to proclaim and tell to our fellow brethren, all those who are still lost in the darkness, so that each and every one of us may find our way to the Lord and His salvation. God will forgive us, only if we sincerely turn our ways back away from our sinful past, and embrace wholeheartedly the forgiveness, by practicing what is righteous and just in our actions, sinning no more and doing what is right from now on.

Let us all pray, brothers and sisters, for the conversion of the whole world to Christ. Let us all pray, that mankind will be able to turn away from sin, and become faithful disciples and followers of our God, so that no more people, no more souls will fall into the eternal damnation in hell fire. May God be with us all, and may He forgive us all our sins, all of us who desire to be forgiven. Amen.