Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we listened to the words of the Scripture that are reminding us of what it means to be truly faithful to God. To be faithful to God means to be wholehearted in our commitment and dedication to Him, to centre our attention and focus to God and to have a good and healthy relationship with Him at each and every moments of our lives.

This is presented most clearly in our Gospel passage today where the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples and to the people on the story of two people who were praying to God in the Temple. He mentioned the prayers of a Pharisee and a tax collector and described the way they prayed at the Temple. While it was not necessary that all the Pharisees and the tax collectors behaved or prayed in that way, the Lord wanted to highlight the widespread bias and prejudice existing at that time.

The Pharisees were seen as a great, intellectual and honourable group of people who were dedicated to the preservation as well as the implementation of the Jewish laws and customs as handed down from generations to generations from the time of Moses. They were influential and powerful, supported by the Temple and by the chief priests and elders, respected for their knowledge of the Scriptures and for their piety.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum were the tax collectors, who together with the lepers, prostitutes and criminals were treated as the lowest and most despicable members of the community. And some, especially among the Pharisees did not even treat them as proper members of the community, but as outcasts and even as supposed pagans and wicked people unworthy of God.

And the tax collectors were despised and treated badly because of their profession in collecting taxes for the king and especially for the Romans, who were the overlords and rulers of the land at that time. First of all, no one ever liked to be taxed of their income, as the history of man has proven again and again. Whenever taxes were levied or increased, often the people rose up in rebellions or became angry.

Unfortunately, the anger and the unhappiness of the people were then often directed at those who collected the taxes as part of their livelihood rather than those who received the collected taxes. It was most convenient to despise the tax collectors as they were the ones at the frontline doing the work of getting the taxes from the people while the Romans were essentially untouchable.

That was the likely reason why the tax collectors received the brunt of the anger and displeasure of the people who treated them as traitors to the nation, as those whom they alleged to have sold the people to the Romans. These were certainly the prejudices and biases that were rampant in the community of the Israelites at that time, and to many if not most of the Pharisees in particular, the tax collectors were seen as unclean, unworthy and sinful people.

That prejudice was clearly seen in the story that Jesus told His disciples, as the Pharisee in the story looked down upon the tax collector and mentioned it openly in his prayer to God, as he looked highly on his own pious faith practices and despised the tax collector as a sinful man. Certainly that was the same attitude shared by many of the Pharisees in real life as listed throughout many parts of the Gospels.

The Pharisee however did not realise that God actually looked with favour on the tax collector, and the prayer of the tax collector was heard because he humbled himself so completely, recognising that he was a sinner not just because the other people said so, but he was aware of his own sins and unworthiness before God. And while the Pharisee held his head up high and praised himself in the prayers he made, the tax collector humbled himself so much and was so ashamed at his sins, that he dared not even to look up and bowed down right far back away from the presence of God.

Comparing the two prayers, both in the words and in the methods, we certainly should know between the Pharisee and the tax collector, who was the one whose prayer was more genuine and true, and whose attention and focus were on the Lord and whose one was on himself. The Pharisee prayed with pride and praised himself before God while actually demeaning someone else, but he was oblivious and failed to notice the sins in his own self. And that was not what a true prayer and what a Christian should behave like.

For prayer in its essence is based on the close and intimate relationship between us and God, and is a form of communication between us and Him. And as how all communications are, prayer is supposed to be two-directional, meaning that a prayer is a means for us to be able to speak to God, but also at the same time, for God to speak to us in our hearts and in our minds.

The Pharisee closed his heart and his mind before he even began to communicate with God. He was so full of pride and arrogance in himself and in his intelligence, piety and status that he did not even allow God to enter into His heart or speak in Him. As he was praising himself and looked down on the tax collector, it showed that he loved himself more than anything or anyone else, even God.

Compare this to the tax collector who bowed himself down, consciously humiliating himself probably in the plain sight of the public. He did not even dare to look up to God, knowing the sins he had committed, reinforced by being ostracised by the community, considered and treated as traitors and as despicable people. He humbled himself such that he emptied himself from all pride and desire, and focused himself entirely to God.

And that was how someone can open himself or herself to God for true communication to be made. Too often in our lives we are too busy and too distracted to realise God wanting to speak to us in our hearts and minds. We must realise that God has always wanted to speak with us and to hear us, just as the prophet Sirach in our first reading today mentioned, that the prayer of a humble person pierces even the clouds of heaven.’

A lot of times in life, we are making too many expectations and having too many desires while succumbing to those tempting desires at the same time. That is how we end up distancing ourselves from God and failing to realise His love for us. Whenever we got caught up by being too busy in life, thinking too highly of ourselves like the Pharisee, we end up sidelining God and shutting ourselves from Him.

Today, as we heard and remembered the passages from the Scriptures, let us all discern and reflect on our own lives, on how we have lived them and how we have been faithful or even unfaithful to God, on whether we have had a good and loving relationship with Him, or whether we are too busy, too distracted or too proud and full of ourselves that we have sidelined him and being too focused on ourselves.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to open ourselves to God, to His sincere love, His generous mercy and forgiveness, His kindness and compassion to us, His willingness to be reconciled with us despite our sinfulness, our many wicked actions and our stubbornness all these while? Are we willing to embrace Him wholeheartedly and sincerely from now on, humbled knowing just how much He loves us regardless of our imperfections and flaws?

Let us be like the tax collector, who came to God baring himself and humbling himself, and coming to God wanting to be forgiven and to embrace Him fully with love. Let us all waste no more time and seek Him in prayers, prayers that truly came from our hearts and not just from our mouths. Let us all seek Him with all of our heart, sparing no effort to become ever closer to Him. Come to Him and receive the fullness of His wonderful love. May God be with us always. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday all of us listened to the words of the Scripture in which we are reminded of God’s love and providence for each and every one of us as He has shown throughout all the time and history. And we are called to reflect on that love which God has lavished on us each and every moments of our lives. That is why He wants us to know that we are beloved and blessed because of this.

God brought His people to victory even against difficult odds as we heard in our first reading passage today how He led them to victory in the battle against the Amalekites, the sworn and bitter enemy of the Israelites, who were a powerful nation and a warlike people that could have subjugated the Israelites if not for God’s help and providence. This is symbolised by the acts of Moses who followed God’s instructions and raised his staff on a hill above the battle.

Since a long time ago, the staff is a symbolic tool used by the shepherds who took care of his many sheep and goats and other animals. As those animals often fed and grazed on hillsides and mountainous terrains as was common throughout the land, the shepherds used the staff both as a tool to guide them in their movement around as well as a visible sign for the flock of where the shepherd was and for the flock to follow. The staff guided the flock and made sure that the animals complied.

And in this case, by lifting up the staff high, visible for all the people to see, God wants all of His people to know that He was there with them, as their Shepherd and Guide, as their Master and King. Those Amalekites wanted to destroy the Israelites, subjugate and enslave them, much like the ravenous wolves seeking to hunt and consume the sheep and animals. But the shepherd is there to protect, and in this case, God Himself stood by His people.

When sheep or any other animals are in danger or are in need of something, they will make noises to alert the shepherd of the incoming danger. Then any good and committed shepherds will come and rescue their flock, and if necessary, they will even risk themselves to be hurt to protect their flock because they love their sheep and all those animals. Shepherds often spend so much time with their flock that they developed strong loving relationship with them.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all God’s beloved people, the sheep of His vast and innumerable flock. He through Christ His Son revealed that He Himself is our Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, Who lays down His life for His sheep. This phrase is a very significant one, especially in the context of what we have heard in our Scripture passages today. And how is this so? That is because the battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites is a mere microcosm of what the battle raging daily about us is.

For just as we are the sheep of the Lord’s flock, there are many of those seeking our destruction and suffering just as the Amalekites preyed on the Israelites. And these enemies of ours are the wicked and evil forces led by the devil, consisting of his fellow fallen angels and the demons ruling in this world. They are constantly active, waiting for the opportunity to strike at us and drag us with them into damnation in hell.

But we must not be afraid brothers and sisters in Christ, for God our Shepherd Himself is by our side, standing by us and being with us. If those shepherds can protect their sheep and their flock against those wolves and all seeking the destruction of their flock, all the more that God, the one and true Good Shepherd will be with us and protecting us, providing for us the help from our enemies because of His infinitely great love for each and every single one of us.

Now, let us all look at our Gospel passage today, in which the Lord Jesus used a parable to explain about God’s love for us, that is so great beyond anyone’s love and any other love we may have known. He compared the love of God to that of the evil judge who was pestered by a woman who wanted the judge to adjudicate for her case and to give her what her rightful claim has dictated.

The Lord used that parable as a comparison to prove the point that if that evil judge could give in to the demands of the old woman when she incessantly sought for his help, then all the more that God Who is filled with love for us will provide for us when we ask Him for help. And linking to what we have just discussed earlier on, we cannot fight alone in this constant battle raging about us, the spiritual conflict between us and the devil.

God is ever loving and generous with us, and we just have to ask and He will listen to us. But are we having enough faith and love for Him that we want to call on Him? In our Gospel passage today, we heard in the last part of that passage how God said that if we ask Him, He will listen to us and heed us. Of course whether He will act in accordance with what we have asked of Him is a different matter, as He will act according to His will and not ours, but nonetheless, God as our loving Father and Creator always listens to us, just like the shepherds are always keeping a close watch on their sheep and flock.

But this then comes to the last sentence of the Lord’s words today, that when the Son of Man comes into this world, will He find faith on earth? And this is important because unless we have faith, we will not be able to ask God or seek God, either because we are too proud to admit that we have shortcomings, that we are weak and are in need of help and therefore we try to solve everything on our own and with our own strength and judgments, or that we are too preoccupied and distracted that we cannot even recognise God’s presence in our midst.

Many times we have misunderstood God, thinking that we are perfectly alright by ourselves, or that we can do everything with our own power and ability, or that we only seek Him when we are in need of help and then forget about Him when we no longer need Him, treating Him like a means to achieve what we wanted rather than to put our complete trust in Him and to love Him just as He has first loved us.

And when we try to do everything on our own, that is when things go badly for us because we tend to make flawed judgments and choices in life, and are easily tempted by the devil and all those seeking our destruction as we are cutting ourselves off our Lord and Shepherd just as if a sheep decides to run away on its own and isolating itself from the flock and the shepherd. And that is the perfect opportunity for the wolves and all the predators to strike at the lone sheep.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all pray that God will give us the grace to have a stronger faith in Him, that our hardened hearts and stubborn minds can be softened and opened to allow Him to enter into our lives and transform us. Let us all pray for the grace of better faith and to be able to love God more in our daily lives, that we may draw ever closer to Him with each and every passing moments of our lives.

And as St. Paul wrote to St. Timothy in our second reading passage today, one of the best ways for us to move forward in faith is by focusing on the Word of God in the Scriptures, in which are contained the truth of God as He has revealed it to us. It is by deepening our knowledge and understanding of the Sacred Scriptures that we can know more about God. If we do not know a person well how can we then build a strong and meaningful relationship with that person?

In the same way therefore, unless we know God well and from then, building up a good and healthy and living relationship with Him, how can we then be close to God? How can we know what His will is for us if we do not know him well? As I mentioned earlier, we have to open ourselves up to the Lord, love Him and putting our trust in Him as our Lord and Shepherd then we can truly depend on Him and be close to Him.

The Lord knows us all very well, and He knows each and every one of us because He Himself created us all out of His great love. But do we love Him just as He has loved us? Have we spent the time and effort for Him just as He has done so for us? And how do we show that we love Him? It is by living our lives with faith and genuine commitment, by proclaiming the Word of God as His witnesses, not just by words but through real action in our lives.

That is what St. Paul had written to St. Timothy, urging us all the faithful people of God to preach the Word of God through our lives, at each and every moments of our daily living, through our every actions and deeds, our interactions and good works. This is how we stand by our ground in this ever challenging conflict with the devil and all those seeking our destruction. We have to put our focus on God, our Shepherd and Guide, and through Him, we must be beacons of light in this darkened world, as God’s warriors of faith.

This is how we will triumph in the end, like the Israelites crushing the Amalekites. We will triumph against the evil one and his forces, and God will guide us through to the eternal life and glory in Him that lies in the end of our journey. Our journey may be challenging and difficult, but as long as we stay by the Lord and remain faithful to Him, we will triumph in the end. But if we choose to cut ourselves off from God, then we will likely fall and end up in eternal damnation, something that we surely do not want.

And we must not forget that our triumph came through Christ and His act of ultimate love for us on the Cross. Just as Moses lifted high up his staff high up and bring victory against the Amalekites, Christ Himself was lifted up high on the Cross before us all, that all of us who saw Him will gain the same reassurance of ultimate victory against the devil and all of his forces. And we must remember how He went through all the pain and sufferings for our sake, and because He loves us all so much. The Cross is our hope and strength amidst even the greatest darkness, and we must always focus our attention on Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect and discern well what we can do with our lives to serve God ever better, devoting our time and attention to Him, deepening our relationship with Him by spending our time reading the Scriptures and in prayer, and living our lives as according to what He has taught us. Let us all be true disciples of Christ from now on, and be His willing and exemplary witnesses and evangelisers in our respective communities. May God bless us all and be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.