Holy Week sermon

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Thursday, 6 June 2019 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Norbert, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded through the Scriptures on the importance of unity among us Christians, in our Church and in our faithful communities, all those who profess the faith in God, and all of us who believe that Christ is truly our Lord and Saviour. If there is no unity in us, then division and conflict will quickly come into our midst, and as we have seen throughout the history of man, we ended up raising up against one another.

In the first reading today we heard of the moment when St. Paul was tried by the Sanhedrin as he was being brought to answer for the charges levied against him by the Jewish authorities. This was to be St. Paul’s last journey, just before he embarked on his last trip to Rome where he would be martyred. The Sanhedrin were divided among themselves, between the faction of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Both of these factions were very influential and powerful among the Jewish people, as the Pharisees represented the priestly and spiritual caste who preserved the traditions, laws and customs of the people while the Sadducees represented the intellectuals and all those with secular power, and both of them were diametrically opposite to each other in the way they think and argue.

As a result, the moment St. Paul made use of the opportunity to expose the bitter division among the two groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees immediately ended up in a very vicious and brutal conflict with each other. They were so divided amongst each other that they were unable to overcome their differences even against a common enemy, St. Paul himself. We see how the two groups bickered and fought, ultimately because of their own ego and pride.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, division is something that did not come from God, for in God lies nothing less than the perfect Unity, the Unity and Harmony between Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, God in the Three Divine Persons but One Godhood. This is what all of us firmly believe in, the believe in the Most Holy Trinity of God, the Unity that He reflects on His own Church and therefore, all of His beloved ones, all of us.

Therefore, that is why the Lord Jesus prayed that there would be unity in the Church and among His disciples and followers, just as He and His heavenly Father are One. Unity comes from God but divisions come from the devil. And ever since mankind first sinned and disobeyed God, and preferred to follow the temptations of evil, they have lost that perfect unity with God and became divided among themselves and divided away from the harmony and unity of God.

All these divisions came about because of our pride and ego, our selfishness and greed within us, which prevented us from being able to appreciate God’s harmony and unity in our midst. Instead of God being at the centre of our lives, we put ourselves and our own selfish desires as the focus of our lives, as the aim and the ambition of our lives. That is how we become divided among ourselves, as our ambitions, ego and pride clash with one another and we refuse to give in.

That is why, today all of us are called to break away from the lure of these temptations to ambition, ego and pride that cause divisions among us, and re-centre ourselves to God, focusing ourselves on Him and His love from now on. That is how we regain the unity among ourselves, bitterly divided and conflicted among ourselves as Christians, in what we have seen in the many splinters and breakaways in the Body of Christ, the Church all these while.

Today we also celebrate the feast of St. Norbert, a great bishop and a renowned preacher and servant of God who devoted his whole life to God, in the love he showed to the poor and the needy. St. Norbert worked tirelessly among the people of God, devoting all his effort, time and attention to serve the good of the Lord’s people. St. Norbert gathered like-minded men who wanted to serve the Lord in what was to become the Canons Regular of Prémontré. He was also instrumental in the ending of some bitter divisions and troubles in the Church at his time.

In what St. Norbert has shown, by focusing ourselves on God and by putting Him ahead of everything else, and by our dedication and commitment, we can bring true unity, harmony and peace to ourselves, and to get rid from ourselves the divisions and troubles that come with our selfishness, ego and pride. Let us all turn to God from now on, and commit ourselves to serve Him from now on, each and every day. Amen.

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Wednesday, 5 June 2019 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about two people who are saying goodbyes to their respective loved ones, praying and asking God for His protection and providence on those whom they loved. In our first reading today we heard St. Paul reminding the elders of the faithful in Ephesus and praying over them before he left them for the last time, and in our Gospel passage we heard of the Lord Jesus praying over His disciples just before He was about to embark on His Passion.

St. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles passage today reminded the elders to be watchful and to be careful in the management of their flock, especially against those who espoused heretical and wrong teachings of the faith, that they would not let all those people to mislead the faithful and causing divisions in the Church, and he also reminded them of God’s providence and love for His faithful ones, commending them to God’s love and care.

And St. Paul showed his dedication and commitment to the cause to which God has called him to, as he said how he sought neither reward nor monetary compensation for all that he has done. He did everything for God and dedicated himself wholly to His cause, and this came from the background of his great and many sufferings, in all the things he had been made to endure throughout his many years of ministering and working among the people of God.

What St. Paul had said to the elders of Ephesus, the joy he expressed to them even as he was about to leave them for his final journey, was exactly what the Lord prayed for in today’s Gospel passage, as He Himself was about to embark on His Passion, enduring bitter and most painful suffering and rejection, the massive burden of the Cross and all. The Lord prayed to His heavenly Father, that even as He was about to leave them, they would not be left without a new joy that God would give them.

What is this joy, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is the joy of love, of knowing that while once there had been bitter divisions and conflict, God has triumphed in gathering all those whom He loved, to be part of His Church, to gather as the body of Apostles and believers together, saved by the power of God, by the very action of sacrificial love and the perfect giving which Christ in our Gospel passage today, was about to do for His beloved ones.

Remember how St. Paul mentioned in today’s first reading that ‘happiness lies more in giving than in receiving’? This was exactly Christ has done for us. He was so filled with joy in the ultimate gift He was about to give them, the gift of His boundless love, and by Whose actions, all of us were about to be saved from death and eternal destruction. It was God’s everlasting and infinitely great love for each and every one of us that made everything possible.

Indeed, Christ had His agonising moments just after that time, when He prayed in the Gardens of Gethsemane. His humanity agonised the great and unimaginable sufferings that He had to endure, but His perfect obedience to His Father’s will, and ultimately, His wonderful love for each and every single one of us surpassed everything, all sorrow, all hesitations and all fears. He embarked on His sacrificial love journey, took up His Cross with joy, the joy of knowing how because of that, many of us were about to be saved.

That was the same joy and courage that St. Paul had when he said his farewell to the elders of Ephesus. He reflected the joy and strength that Christ had shown, because St. Paul knew that in whatever he himself was about to do, he was about to give a wonderful testimony of his faith and dedication even to the very end, even to his martyrdom and death. And he was joyful because everything he was about to do would become the source of joy and strength for countless generations of Christians to come.

That was the joyful feeling of knowing how many people would be saved because of our own faith and commitment to God. And today, we celebrate the feast of yet another famous and faithful saint, a holy woman and martyr who dedicated her life to God. St. Lucy, also known as St. Lucia of Syracuse was a faithful woman who consecrated and dedicated her life to God, promising her complete fidelity and virginity to God.

But her mother, not knowing of her commitment wanted to arrange her to marry a wealthy young pagan man. St. Lucy instead convinced her mother instead to donate generous sums of her own family’s property and wealth to the poor, revealing to her the revelations and power of God through another saint and martyr, St. Agatha. But the pagan family was furious and denounced the actions of St. Lucy before the authorities, at a time when Christians were persecuted terribly for their faith.

St. Lucy was made to suffer and was tortured, forced to make sacrifices to the Emperor but she refused to do so. The governor tried to defile her sacred virginity in a brothel, but miraculously no one could make her to move when they were about to do so. Eventually, they tried to burn her on the stake and yet it also did not work, and finally, they killed her by putting a sword through her throat. To the very end, St. Lucy endured in her faith and was joyful in accepting her death, because by her very examples and actions, many would also come to believe in God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us are called to follow in the good examples of St. Lucy, St. Paul the Apostle and Christ Our Lord Himself, in their joyful service of the Lord. Let us all live our lives from now on filled with faith and dedication to God in everything. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 4 June 2019 : 7th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about the glorification of God by the works of the Lord Jesus and His Apostles, who fulfilled the many wonderful works that God had planned for the salvation of His beloved people. The Lord Jesus prayed to His heavenly Father in our Gospel passage today, in continuation of the Scriptural discourses of the past few weekdays on prayer.

And in today’s portion as mentioned, the Lord Jesus spoke of the glorification of God as the Son of God would soon glorify the Father by what He was about to do, in perfect obedience and following what the Lord has willed, that for the salvation of the world, the Son of God and Saviour of the world had to suffer, to bear the pains of the Cross which are the suffering and the burden of the sins of mankind.

Yet, it was precisely by humbling Himself so completely and by obeying His Father’s will so completely that the Lord Jesus accomplished exactly what the Lord has planned for the salvation of His people. The Lord Jesus took up willingly the heavy burden of the Cross so that by His humble obedience, He might reverse the damage and harm that sin had done to each and every one of us, and glorify God in all things.

Perhaps we will be better able to appreciate all these if we understand them in the context of how we mankind fell into sin in the first place. All creation, including Adam and Eve, the first of mankind were created without blame or blemish, and sin once did not have any hold over them. But temptation got the better of them and caused them to disobey God’s commands and will, and sin therefore entered into the hearts and minds of man, corrupting them and making them unworthy.

That is why the Lord crafted a remedy for us through none other than another Man, Who showed perfect obedience to God instead of obedience to the will and desire of man as Adam and Eve had done in succumbing to the temptations of the devil. Yes, in His humanity, the Lord Jesus was also tempted to give up the enormous task that He had to undertake as what the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane showed us, but He remained completely obedient to His Father’s will, and thus becoming the New Adam, through Whom salvation came to our fallen race.

Ultimately, we should see and realise that sin came about because the desire in our hearts and minds to glorify ourselves and to bring satisfaction and joy to ourselves. It is selfishness, pride and greed that often lead us down the path of disobedience and sin. Instead, Christ and His Apostles offered us another path, the path of selflessness and obedience to God, which they showed by their own examples.

In our first reading today, we heard of the words that St. Paul spoke to the assembled elders of the people of God in Ephesus, which he made as a farewell just before he was about to embark on his last journey to Jerusalem to be tried for his crimes against the authorities. From Jerusalem, St. Paul would go on to Rome where he would finally be martyred, and he spoke based on his many experiences of being ridiculed and rejected, oppressed and made to suffer because of his faith and obedience to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us should learn from the examples shown by the Apostles and by the Lord, in their obedience to God’s will in all the things they do and in all that they had to endure because of their obedience and faith. Are we able to follow in their footsteps, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we able to persevere as they had persevered despite the pains and troubles they had to endure?

Let us all put our trust in God, knowing that if we glorify Him by our commitment and obedience, we will be in God’s good hands. Let us all turn wholeheartedly to Him from now on, and dedicate ourselves to Him, all the days of our lives. May God bless us all and our every endeavours. Amen.

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Monday, 3 June 2019 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we recall God’s wonderful love and providence for all of us, His beloved ones, as we heard of His wonderful promise of peace and deliverance by His very own words. God will not abandon His beloved and faithful ones to the darkness, and He will protect them from harm that causes eternal suffering and destruction. Yet, at the same time, we are also reminded that suffering is a real part of our lives, and we cannot expect to have a life that is free from troubles and difficulties.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, suffering and challenges are part and parcel of our Christian life, for just as the Lord Himself has suffered grievously at the hands of His enemies and all those who refused to believe in Him, so will all of us suffer at the hands of those who reject the message of God’s truth. That was how the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord, the saints and martyrs of the Church have suffered throughout the history of the Church.

And yet, they remained strong and courageous in their faith, committed and sincere in their dedication, knowing that God was definitely by their side. Otherwise, it would have not been possible for them to remain so resolute, committed and dedicated in their love for God. For their trust and faith in God was strong such that even temptations and pressures of the world could not shake them and remove them from their faith.

And today we recall the memories of some of those faithful saints, the holy martyrs of the Church in Uganda, during the time when the missionaries and the laity in what is now Uganda suffered persecution and martyrdom at the hands of the enemies of the Church and the faithful, remembering the courage and the zeal which they showed even amidst assurance of suffering, trials and certain death.

St. Charles Lwanga and his many companions, the martyrs of the Church in Uganda have shown great courage and dedication to the Lord, in the work they have performed among the people, the faith which they have shown and the exemplary lives they have led. St. Charles Lwanga was the chief page of the king of Buganda, a major constituent of present day Uganda and the largest local kingdom, who received the truth of God and became a convert to the faith.

The king and his nobles were against the efforts of the Christian missionaries and persecuted those missionaries and the converts of the faith in the kingdom, and this also led to the suffering and martyrdom of St. Charles Lwanga and many others whom he converted on his own. Led by the courage of St. Charles Lwanga, the faithful martyrs declared their faith and commitment to God before the king, who ordered them to be killed.

Many of the martyrs, including St. Charles Lwanga was martyred by burning alive in the place of their execution, on which now stands a great Basilica of the Uganda Martyrs commemorating the courage of their faith as examples for us all and for all Christians throughout generations to come. St. Charles Lwanga and all his companions are truly great examples and inspirations for us, in how we ought to live our Christian lives truly and meaningfully in today’s world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to follow their courage and willingness to commit to God and His ways? There will be plenty of occasions when we may have to stand up for our faith and for our dedication to the Lord amidst rejection and opposition from the world. Are we able to follow the examples of the saints and the martyrs in this? Are we able to live our lives with God at the very centre of our lives?

May God be with us always, and may He strengthen our faith each and every days of our life. May God be with us and may He grant us the strength and the courage to live our lives faithfully from now on, following the examples of the holy Ugandan martyrs. Holy Martyrs of Uganda, St. Charles Lwanga and companions, pray for us sinners. Amen.

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Sunday, 2 June 2019 : Seventh Sunday of Easter, World Communications Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, the seventh one in the season of Easter, we also celebrate the occasion of the World Communications Sunday, and this is important because as Christians, all of us are called to communicate first of all, to God our heavenly Father, and then to one another, engaging each other in meaningful and Christ-centric conversations and dialogues.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord Jesus praying before His disciples to His Father in heaven, highlighting the very reason we celebrate this World Communications Sunday. Prayer is a form of communication, and when it is done right, prayer can be a very intimate and a form of a very close contact between us and God. In prayer, we do not just talk or speak what we want or ask God to grant us our desires, but instead, we open ourselves, our heart, our mind and our whole being to God.

And this is what the essence of prayer is all about. The Lord Jesus prayed frequently and regularly to His Father, speaking with Him and being fully attuned to His will. He showed us all what it means to be having true and genuine communication with God, which all of us should also be having, a genuine and active communication with our Lord, Father and Creator. Without prayer and communication with God, how can we know what it is that God wants us to do with our lives?

That lack of genuine connection and communication with God was the very reason why many of us mankind living in this world have not been attuned to God and His ways. If we have been attuned to God’s will and thoughts, then what happened in our first reading today would not have happened in the first place. In that occasion, we heard of how the faithful servant of God, St. Stephen suffered at the hands of his persecutors, who struck at him and refused to listen to the truth he has preached to them.

At that time, the Church was still at its very beginning stage, and there were many of the people who had misconceptions and misinterpretations on what the Church and its teachings were all about. The Jewish authorities, the Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Council, many of the priestly class and the Pharisees opposed the works of the Lord and His Apostles, refusing to listen to what they have passionately spoken about, and insisting on their own ideas and thoughts.

And why all these happened? It is because of mankind’s own pride and ego, their refusal to let go of their selfishness and their own sense of superiority, the pride and ego which affected their way of thinking and their thoughts. They maintained that they were right and did things according to the way that they thought was right, even though the Lord had tried to open up their minds and reach out to them, through His many messengers and servants.

That was why when St. Stephen preached to them filled with the Holy Spirit, revealing before them the truth of God and how God had prepared everything and provided everything for His people from the very beginning, they took offence at his words and became very angry, because they were stirred in their pride and ego. They refused to admit that they could have been wrong and mistaken, or that there could be another truth besides what they have always held to be right.

Many of them were outwardly pious, praying and showing their devotions in public. But the Lord Himself criticised these people earlier on, saying how many of them were hypocrites in faith, as they did not have true and genuine faith in God. They did what they have done because they wanted to be seen and therefore praised by the people for their piety and actions. The Lord did not have a central place in their hearts and minds.

That was why they were not attuned to God’s truth, and their thoughts and ways were discordant and wayward. They did not have a good communication and connection with God, and as a result, they were not attuned and aligned with the truth of God and His will. And that is why even among us Christians, there are many of us who do not have a good and healthy communication and relationship with God.

Many of us take our faith for granted, and taking for granted the love and compassion that God has for each and every one of us. We do not pray in the right way, as we pray like the Pharisees, with ulterior motives and desires, in wanting to gain something, focusing on ourselves and our selfish desires and our pride instead of on God. The true essence of prayer is one of genuine communication with God, where instead of us being someone who demand of God taking action in doing something for us, we become active communicators with God.

And this means for us to open our hearts, minds and our entire being to the Lord so that not only that we can speak our hearts and minds to God, Who knows everything that are in them, but also that God may speak in the depth and in the silence of our own hearts and minds, that He may stir in us the knowledge of His truth, and grant us wisdom and understanding of His ways. This is in essence what each and every one of us as Christians must do.

But that is not all, as first of all, of course we must be attuned to God, through a good and living relationship with God, but then we must also live our faith through good communication with our fellow brethren, by being authentic witnesses of our faith. Our Christian faith is one of evangelisation and exemplary actions, as all of us have been commanded and sent forth by God, in the last commandment He gave to us all, the Great Commission He has entrusted to us, His Church.

And that Great Commission is that all of us are sent into the world, to call all the people, of all races and origins, of all backgrounds and ways, to be true believers in God, the loving Father and Creator of all things. And the best way to communicate is often not through words, as we may think that in order to be witnesses to our faith we must be very good speakers and be inspirational and charismatic in all the things we do. No, brothers and sisters in Christ, what we need to do is in fact simple things, our everyday actions and all the things we do in our dealings with one another.

That means, in how we interact with each other, with our fellow brethren, we must always keep in mind what it means for us to be Christians. God must be at the centre and be the focus of all the things we say and do. And if God is at the centre of our lives and our relationship with Him is good, through genuine prayers as we mentioned and discussed earlier, then we will grow more attuned to Him in our lives and actions. And naturally, we will gradually become more and more reflective of God’s love and wonders in our own lives and actions.

Let us all therefore be great communicators in our own ways, as how God wants us to be, in what He has blessed us with, our abilities and respective talents. Let us all be exemplary in our lives, so that by our every words and actions we may become true and genuine witnesses of the Lord. May God bless us all in our efforts and in everything we say and do. Amen.

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Sunday, 26 May 2019 : Sixth Sunday of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday which is the sixth in the holy season of Easter, all of us are reminded through the Scripture passages of the need for us all to love God and to be His true disciples, obeying His commandments and all that He has taught us to do, to be filled with love and to be open to His presence in our hearts, minds and in our whole beings, so that we truly can be called, God’s people and God’s children.

In today’s first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard of the dispute and infighting that arose among the faithful, between those who wanted to impose the Jewish laws and ordinances regarding circumcision and other practices in accordance to the laws of the Old Testament, that is of Moses and the practices as described in the Torah to all of the Christian faithful including the non-Jewish peoples, and those who wanted to relax and prevent the strict imposition of the Law on the Gentiles.

Through the Holy Spirit, the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord received the guidance of wisdom and truth, and not to be misled by pride, greed and all the things that often cause us mankind to be divided and to be filled with jealousy, anger and hatred towards one another. Instead of siding with one faction or the other that could have led to an even greater division and conflict, the Apostles ruled firmly through the wisdom of God that the Gentiles should not be made to obey and to follow the entirety of the Jewish practices and customs, while not ruling out the Jewish followers of Christ from doing so.

Ultimately, we have to understand carefully the context and background behind such a conflict, on why some of the people were so passionately filled with the desire to impose such a law and regulation on all the faithful. First of all, the Law of God was first revealed to His people, the people of Israel through Moses, who received the Ten Commandments as the core of the Law, while also receiving the set of laws and rules, as laid out in the book of Leviticus and the other books of the Torah.

These laws and rules were numerous, governing everything in the society, all sorts of daily living and regulations. And over time, all of these were compounded and added with the unwritten traditions and customs preserved by the elders of the people, which were meant to govern the behaviours of the people, especially because they often went wayward and refused to follow the Lord’s path, even early on in their journey just after they left Egypt.

The Lord Himself said that He had given His people those laws and rules not because He wanted to impose Himself on them, but rather because they had been so unruly, rebellious and filled with disobedience that He had to impose those laws and rules to make sure that they conformed to His ways. For ultimately, God loves each and every single one of His beloved children, and all the more those whom He had chosen from among the nations to be His own first chosen ones.

If God had not loved His people, He could have just destroyed and crushed them by the power of His will alone, and yet He did not do that. Instead, He went through all the trouble to discipline His people, to guide them back to the right path, giving them the right guidance and provide them with the best opportunities for them to seek Him back, to be reconciled and to be forgiven from their sinfulness.

That is because unless they turned back from all those rebellious and wayward actions they have done, they would fall deeper into sin, and therefore became separated ever further from God, their loving Father and Creator. How can any father just let his children to go and fall into such a state? And this is not just any father like any one of us, but God, our ever loving and ever dedicated Father, Who created us out of the perfect love He has for us.

Unfortunately, the people often forgot what it is that they need to do in order to love their heavenly Father and Creator. Instead, as what we have seen in our first reading today, those who have ended up making use of the Law in the wrong way, being overly obsessed in its implementation and workings but failing to realise the intention and the purpose of those laws in the first place. They forgot that the Law of God is the Law of love.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, how about us? Are we going to follow in the footsteps of those who prefer division and conflict, disagreements and infighting among ourselves, just so that we can advance our own selfish agenda, desires and push forward our pride and ego? Or are we instead going to follow the path that the Lord has shown us, the path of love, by first loving Him above everything else, and then loving our fellow brethren in the same way we love God and how we love ourselves?

This is our calling as Christians, to bear witness to the love of God, by practicing this love in our own lives, and we love God first and foremost because He has loved us so much first, that as our second reading passage from the Book of Revelations show us, God Himself has prepared a place for us in the heavens, the heavenly Jerusalem and the place of our true existence, by the side of God, no longer separated from Him and free from the bondage to sin and death.

Let us all therefore from now on seek to love more in our own lives, loving God and loving our fellow men to the best of our abilities. Let us all seek God and His generous love, and strive to love Him to the best of our abilities, from now on, that we may be reconciled with Him and be reunited with Him in His presence, and enjoy forever the glory of His kingdom as He promised to all of us, His beloved and faithful ones. Amen.

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Sunday, 19 May 2019 : Fifth Sunday of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this fifth Sunday in the season of Easter all of us are called to be filled with love, for we are God’s people and disciples, and God is love. If God is love Himself, then how can we not be filled with love? All those who genuinely believed and called themselves followers of God must be like Him in all things, and in particular, in the matter of love.

And what is love, brothers and sisters in Christ? Love is something that has often eluded our understanding, as there are really so many different interpretations, meanings, and ways how we exhibit and show love in our daily living. And surely many of us equate love with what we have seen in the popular media, when two starry-eyed lovers fall for each other, doing silly things and happy things together.

Yes, love does cause people to be happy and to be joyful, and it is genuine love that will bring about true joy and happiness. But love endures and remains even when things are gloomy and dark, when we struggle and encounter difficulties in life. It is true love that will persist on amidst these challenges and that is also how we know if love is truly present in our relationships and interactions with one another.

First of all, what is love? Love is, in its essence and core, consist of sacrifice and giving of oneself, of commitment and dedication, of care and concern, not for oneself but for another person. If love is based first and foremost on our own desires and wants, then I am afraid that this kind of love is not truly a genuine love, for there are ulterior motives driving behind the facade of love, that will easily fall away in the moment of difficulties and challenges.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, in our community today and in our whole world today, there are so many different tragedies and difficulties that people of various backgrounds experience because there is a lack of love or true, genuine love in our interaction and relationship with each other. We show love that is not real love, but one that is basically a transactional relationship where we want things to go our way, and for us to benefit from this love we show.

But that is not love, for real love is something that is giving and not taking away, a sharing and not an exclusion. And there has been no better example of love than indeed, God Himself, He Who is Love, Incarnate in the flesh, in the form of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who came down into this world bearing the love of God not just in words but in action, as He showed us all what God’s love truly is like.

He Himself has shown us what real, genuine and unconditional love is like. He laid down His own life on the cross, bearing all the sufferings and difficulties, the pains and sorrows of our humanity’s innumerable sins. He took up all those without complaints or the desire to gain anything for Himself. He gave Himself so completely to us that He even shed His Body and Blood for our sake, that we may all be saved.

Thus, when the Lord Jesus spoke of His new commandment, the commandment of love that He has brought into this world, He Himself became the first to fulfil that commandment, as He loved His heavenly Father so completely that He obeyed His will that He had to bear the burden of the Cross, and at the same time also loving all of us so much that to bear such a painful burden and going through a most humiliating death of a criminal on the Cross was something that Christ did for us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us as Christians are called to follow the example of Our Lord Himself, in how we should live our lives, in how we interact with one another and in how we should love our friends and families, all those who are dear and precious to us. We are called to bear true love in all of our actions, that instead of being people who are selfish and seeking for only our own benefits, we can be people who are self-giving and compassionate, as Christ had done for us.

That is why, each and every one of us must commit ourselves to the path of love, to die to our pride and desire within us, the two things that often become the ruin of many friendships and relationships, as conflicting desires and human pride cause pain, hurt, jealousy, anger and many other forms of sufferings for us. Instead, we should be role models of our loving faith, so that in everything we do, love and indeed, genuine, compassionate love will be in everything we do and become the foundation of our very existence.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to progress through this blessed season of Easter, let us make it our commitment to be more loving and be more compassionate in all things, and learn to share God’s many blessings and graces He has given us with our brethren who have not been so fortunate. Let us all reach out to them with love, and let the love of God be in everything we do and fill the whole world with the wonders of this love.

May God bless us all and may He empower us all to live courageously with faith, with hope and with love from now on, each and every days of our lives, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 12 May 2019 : Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, Vocation Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, the fourth in the season of Easter we celebrate the special occasion of the Good Shepherd Sunday, alluding to the Gospel passage today in which the Lord Jesus revealed Himself as the one and true Good Shepherd of all, as the One Who leads all the people, the flock of God’s faithful ones, to Himself and into salvation and eternal glory.

And this Sunday is also known as the Vocation Sunday, as we are all reminded of the role of those who have been called by God to be His priests, that is to be called to be shepherds, shepherds for the flock of the people of God. They have all been called to be shepherds in the image of the one and true Good Shepherd, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in their service and ministry to the faithful.

The Lord used the imagery of a shepherd in delivering the truth about His own ministry and work to the people because at that time, many of the people were shepherds and those who dealt with the flock of sheep and goats, cattle and all animals reared for their meat, or fleece or for milk. And by making the use of allegory and approximation to the role of shepherd in managing the flocks of animals, He wanted to show us how truly He is leading us down the right path, while at the same time loving each and every one of us so tenderly and dearly.

In the Scripture readings today the meaning and significance of this Good Shepherd and Vocation Sunday are brought forth to us, beginning with the Good Shepherd Himself, our Lord Jesus, Who is the model of all the shepherds of God’s people, as He came into this world, calling upon all of His sheep to come to Himself. In another occasion in the Gospel, the Lord used the example of a shepherd and his sheep again to bring across this point, in the parable of the lost sheep.

In that parable, He mentioned how the Good Shepherd, one who is truly loving and caring towards the sheep will leave behind for a while all the ninety-nine sheep that he has shepherded, and go to search for the one sheep that was lost from him. He will not rest until the lost sheep has been found, and when he manages to find the lost sheep, the joy he has is far greater than the joy of having the other ninety-nine. This does not mean that the ninety-nine sheep worth less than the one lost sheep. But rather, without the one sheep, the joy of the shepherd is not complete.

And that is what He has called His Apostles and disciples to do, to be the shepherds in His image and following His example, to gather all the people of God, those who have been lost and scattered away from Him. In the first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard how the Apostles, St. Paul and St. Barnabas travelled from place to place proclaiming the Good News of God and preaching the Lord’s truth to the people.

The people listened to them and many became believers, leaving behind their pagan ways. This is what it means by the shepherds going out of their way to find the lost sheep. The lost sheep themselves are the people of God who have become lost in the darkness of this world, tempted by sin and by the darkness of this world. By calling upon them, the Apostles gathered the Lord’s flock and prevented them from being lost forever to the Lord.

And the works of the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord are far from being complete, as there are still always a lot of the Lord’s lost sheep in this world, all the time, even to this present day and world. In fact, in our present day and world, there are even more and more difficulties and challenges that the world is presenting us, as the threat of secularism and indifference towards God and faith are ever growing, and those who advocate the end of the faith and belief in God are growing ever more vocal and influential.

This is also compounded by the fact that fewer and fewer people are willing and interested to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles, as those whom God had called and chosen to be His priests, all those who are the forefront of the Church’s mission and work among the people, the shepherds whom the Lord send out to gather the lost sheep of His flock. And in our present day world today, we are aware of the many challenges faced not just by our priests and all the ordained, but also by the lack of vocation in many places all around the world.

That is why on this Sunday, all of us remember both Christ, our loving Good Shepherd, Who knows each and every one of us, His beloved sheep, that He wants to gather us all and keep us away from the dangers of this world. He has done exactly what He Himself said the good shepherd would do, that is to lay down His life for the sake of His sheep. He laid down His life on the cross, enduring all the bitter suffering, pain and punishment for our sins, that all of us may live and not perish.

And then we also remember all of our priests, all those whom God had called to follow His examples, to the ministry of being shepherds of the Church. They have enormous task awaiting them, as well as many difficult challenges that often become great obstacles in their path, and which surely often make them sorrowful, sad, and even stressed. Our priests and all those whom God had appointed to be shepherds, including our bishops and the Pope need our support and our prayers.

Let us also last of all remember to pray for all those whom God had called, those who have embraced the call and entered the seminary formation, studying and preparing themselves to become one of the Lord’s shepherds, as well as those other young and courageous men of all kinds who have been stirred by God in their hearts and minds to follow Him. Let us all pray that they will be able to discern their path in life, and that they will have the courage to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles.

May the Lord be with our shepherds, that all of them will be like Him, our one and true, and loving Good Shepherd, that in all things, they will give their all to love the flock of God’s faithful, and bring us all closer to Him and His salvation. Amen.

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Sunday, 5 May 2019 : Third Sunday of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, the third in the season of Easter, we are all reminded of the calling that the Lord has called us all Christians to do, as part of the whole Universal Church that He has established in this world. All of us as Christians are called to be the witnesses of the Lord’s truth and resurrection, to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles and all those who have courageously stood by their faith as shown in our Scripture passages today.

In our first reading today, we heard of the courage of the Apostles, led by St. Peter, when they were faced with opposition and heavy persecution by the Sanhedrin, the powerful and influential High Council of the Jewish people. The Sanhedrin were filled with many of those who opposed the truth of Christ and who have also been among those who ordered the arrest and condemned the Lord Jesus to death, handing Him over to the Roman authorities to be crucified.

When the Apostles were told harshly and specifically under threat of torture and imprisonment by the authority of the Sanhedrin to stop preaching the truth of Christ, His resurrection and the salvation He has brought into this world, the Apostles, filled with the power and the courage of the Holy Spirit refused to back down and continued to be adamant in their commitment to bear witness for the Risen Lord. None of the Sanhedrin were able to stop the Apostles, and from then on, the Apostles continued their work among the people despite the heavy opposition from many groups.

What they were doing, was basically fulfilling what the Lord had called them to be, to be the fishers of men, when He first called some among them, especially St. Peter the Apostle, leader of the Apostles, who was called with his brother, St. Andrew the Apostle, and the two brothers, St. James the Apostle and St. John the Apostle, from being mere unknown and poor fishermen of Galilee, to be God’s own servants in calling His people to Himself.

In our Gospel passage today, God again called the Apostles, harking back to the first time He called them, as He appeared before them by the lake of Galilee right after His resurrection. The disciples were told to go to Galilee and to wait for the Lord there, and there, they spent their time fishing for fish without managing to make any catch at all despite having spent all the time on the boat all night long.

And in this symbolism laden Gospel passage, we can see the summary of what the Lord has called all of us to do, just as He called His Apostles to do what He had entrusted to them and commanded them to do. He told the Apostles to cast their nets to the side of their boat, and immediately, as they did what the Lord told them to do, an immense number of fishes were caught into their fishing nets, so many that the boat almost could not contain all of them.

In this, we see how the Lord truly guides His Church, and the Church is represented by the boat in which the Apostles worked in. The Church is indeed often represented with the imagery of a boat, sailing through the turbulent and dark waters. And the Apostles who helmed the boat are those who steered the Church through the times of opposition, persecution and challenge, just as what we have just heard in our first reading today, the persecution and opposition of the Sanhedrin among many others the Church had to endure.

The multitudes of fishes represent the multitudes of nations and peoples to whom the Apostles had been sent to proclaim the truth of the Lord and His Good News. Without the Lord to guide them, the Church and the Apostles could do nothing, just as they did not manage to get any fishes despite having laboured all night long and not catching any fish at all. But through the Lord’s works, which He performed through His Apostles, the Church and all those who succeeded the Apostles, the works of the Church came to present rich results and bounties.

And brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all the successors of the Apostles and those disciples to whom the Lord has entrusted the mission which He has bestowed upon His Church, with the clear words of instruction, “Go to all the nations and baptise all in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” And that is the Great Commission which Our Lord has given to His Church, to all of us who believe in Him, as our mission and responsibility.

We may think that what the Lord has called us to do is impossible to be done, or that it is too difficult, too daunting or too challenging. We may think that the Apostles and those disciples mentioned in the Scriptures were kind of superhuman who were given power beyond our normal human means and abilities. No, brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not true at all. For indeed, they were truly superheroes and are great role models for us, but they are equally just man just like us all.

It is a dangerous fallacy to think of the Apostles as people who are fundamentally different from us. They have been given the same ability as we have been blessed by God, and they are not more human or less human than we are. They are no less mortal than we are, lest we think of them as supernatural or even, as some misunderstood them in the early days of the Church, as divine beings. When the Apostles St. Paul and St. Barnabas went to the Greek areas of the Eastern Mediterranean, some of the people there worshipped the Apostles as if they were gods, to their great consternation.

No, brothers and sisters in Christ, the Apostles are just like us all, for they were too once sinners who were weak and easily tempted, who were ignorant and resistant to the faith and to the love of God. We must not forget that the Lord called them from various origins, some from among the educated, while others were poor peasants, uncouth, uneducated and even uncivilised. People looked down and despised some of them, like St. Matthew, a former tax collector.

The Apostles were also once cowards and doubters, who lost their faith the moment the Lord was arrested, and all of them abandoned the Lord and ran away. St. Peter in fact, as we all know, denied knowing the Lord not just once, but three times so that he could save himself and prevent himself from being arrested together with the Lord, and all these happened after the Apostle swore that he would even lay down his life for the Lord’s sake.

But the Lord empowered them and gave them a new strength and courage, by the granting of His Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the Lord Jesus Who gave them the power and the authority of His own power, to be the bearers of His truth and His champions in this darkened world, to be those who would bear the burden of being the ones to be at the forefront of the Church’s effort to seek the salvation of souls.

And the same St. Peter, who had denied knowing the Lord three times out of cowardice, in our Gospel passage today publicly and resolutely declared his obedience, love and commitment towards God, as the Lord Jesus asked him, not just once but thrice, “Peter, do you love Me?” This action is very symbolic and significant as it is the clear sign that not only that God had perfectly forgiven St. Peter for his threefold rejection of Him, three being a number often used throughout the Scripture to represent completeness and perfection, but also that He has indeed entrusted and bestowed on St. Peter and through him, the other Apostles, the very important responsibility and the authority that comes with that responsibility, to carry out the mission which He has entrusted to His Church.

The Apostles were imperfect, mortal and unworthy men, who embraced God’s love and grace, and by the Holy Spirit of God, received the strength and courage that allowed them to perform all that God had done through them. They allowed God to work His miracles and wonders, His merciful and compassionate works through them, by changing their lives and turning them from sinners and people belonging to the darkness, into the people of the light.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the very reason why many of us have not been able to experience this same experience as what the Apostles had witnessed and felt, and why we have not been able to walk in their footsteps is nothing less than our own refusal in refusing to allow God to make His works evident in our lives and through us. This requires us to overcome the challenges of the ego and pride within us, which are obstacles that often prevented us from being able to reach out to God.

Are we willing and are we able to allow God entering into our lives and making a difference not just in our own lives but also in the lives of all those who are around us, through our renewed and transformed lives, by the power and grace of God as He has done through His Apostles? Let us all spend some time to reflect on how we can make this happen, and that is by making ourselves willing and collaborative vessels of the Lord’s grace.

The Apostles and all our holy predecessors, all those who have dedicated themselves to the Lord could not have done so without the Lord being present in their midst and directing their efforts and actions. God made everything possible and He guided them all through the darkest and most difficult moments as was evident throughout the history of the Church. It was God Who made everything possible, and the Apostles and the holy disciples and martyrs allowed Him to guide them in their path and in their actions.

Let us all, as Christians, meaning that we are the successors and the inheritors of the ministry and the works of the Apostles, gather together and commit ourselves anew to the Lord, to the mission which He has entrusted to His Church. Let us all be the bearers of God’s truth and be the workers of God, in everything we say and do that many more people may come to believe in God and be saved, by following our examples and by being faithful in the way that we have been faithful. May God be with us all, and may He bless all of our good works and endeavours. Amen.

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Sunday, 28 April 2019 : Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, the second one in the entire season of Easter, we celebrate also the occasion of the Divine Mercy Sunday, which was instituted by Pope St. John Paul II in the year of 2001, after many years since the vision of St. Faustina Kowalska, to whom the Lord appeared in His aspect of Mercy, instructing her to celebrate the Feast of the Divine Mercy on the Second Sunday of Easter.

And she was also instructed to spread the practice of the Divine Mercy Novena, a nine days devotion which lasts in the period between Good Friday, the day when Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for us on the Cross, and that of the Feast of the Divine Mercy itself on this day, the second Sunday of the Easter season. Therefore, we can clearly see the link between what we celebrate on this day with the moment of the Lord’s Crucifixion and death, the hour of which, at about 3 pm, is called as the ‘Hour of Mercy’.

In this season of Easter, it is most fitting indeed for us to focus our attention of the Lord, the Divine Mercy, as in truth it was the boundless, enduring and ever-present love that God has for each and every one of us sinners and unworthy people, that has allowed Him to extend such a wonderful and gracious mercy towards us. He does not want us to be destroyed and annihilated because of our sinfulness, and therefore, wanted to give us another chance.

That is why there is an emphasis on the work of mercy that Our Lord has done on Good Friday, on the very day when He willingly laid down His life, by bearing the heavy burden of the Cross, so that each and every one of us may be saved from damnation for those sins that we have committed. He loved us all so much that He was willing to lay down His life, as the sacrificial Victim, by Whose death we have been reconciled with God, our loving Father.

The Lord has shown us such great love and mercy, in reaching out to all of us, who are sinners and wicked, and He wants to heal us from all of our brokenness and unworthiness. He Himself showed us all throughout His life and ministry, in how He reached out to the worst of sinners, to those whom the rest of the community had dismissed as being hopeless and unworthy to be saved, like the tax collectors and prostitutes.

And that was what the disciples in our first reading today, taken from the Acts of the Apostles had done, continuing the good works of the Lord’s merciful love, by ministering to the poor, the sick and the dying, providing them with both physical and spiritual care, and healing those who were sick by the virtue of the power granted to them by the Lord. And they ministered to the people in various places.

It is what all of us have also been called to do, to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Himself and His disciples, in doing the works of mercy in our daily living. Why is this important, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because, after all, we must not forget that God has forgiven us all and shown mercy to all of us, despite of our countless and enormous, unimaginably wicked and despicable sins born out of our disobedience against Him.

And if God is willing to forgive us all these wickedness and all the countless wicked things we have done, then we too should show this same mercy towards one another, to all those whom we encounter in our own lives, following what God has first done for us. Otherwise, our faith and our love for God is not complete, as if we do not do what He Himself has done, then how can we truly call ourselves as those who believe in Him?

But many of us have not been able to show mercy in our own actions and deeds in life, especially because we acted in the manner as how St. Thomas the Apostle had done, as mentioned in our Gospel passage today. St. Thomas has shown us all in our Gospel today, his lack of faith and doubt in the Lord’s resurrection, and he has always been the skeptical one, to the point of sarcastically commenting before the other disciples that the Lord was leading them all to their death when He was about to go to Jerusalem for His Passion.

And when the disciples saw the Lord and witnessed His resurrection, St. Thomas doubted and refused to believe the words of the other disciples, to the point that he publicly mentioned that he would not believe unless he was able to prove it by his own hands, that the Lord Jesus truly rose from the dead and not just an apparition or a ghost. He wanted to see if the One Who appeared was truly the crucified Christ.

This is exactly what many of us are suffering from as well, this inability to have that genuine faith in God, in His love and in His mercy. And the main reason for this is exactly because of the pride and the hubris, the ego and ambition that are within each and every one of us. It was ego and pride that prevented St. Thomas from acknowledging the truth and the reality of the Lord’s resurrection from the dead as he could not accept what might seem to be improbable and illogical to him.

That was how many among the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Council also refused to believe in the Lord and in His teachings even though they should have been the ones who would have recognised Him first as the Saviour and Holy One of God. Pride and ego, their refusal to admit their mistakes and shortcomings, caused them to harden their hearts and to close their minds to the Lord.

That was how many of us also refused to accept God’s mercy and love in our lives, thinking that we have no need for healing or that we are all good and perfect. But this is where we are exactly very, very wrong brothers and sisters in Christ. All of us are wounded by sin, and by sin we have been corrupted and made unworthy, and unless God’s mercy and healing grace come upon us and heal us, we will have no part in God.

And if we close ourselves to God’s mercy and love, we will also likely have no mercy and love in ourselves, and our lives will end up very miserable, for to us, everything around us will become filled with fear, with hatred, with jealousy, ego and pride. And we will be drawn even deeper into sin, into defilement and corruption, and eventually, unless God’s mercy come towards us and we accept His mercy, we will face nothing else but annihilation.

That is why, all of us on this day, on the great Feast of Our Lord, the Divine Mercy, first of all we must lay ourselves humbly before God, humbling ourselves and dying to our pride and ego, and casting out from ourselves all these stumbling blocks and obstacles that can prevent us from seeking and from receiving God’s mercy and forgiveness. And when we have opened ourselves and given ourselves to God’s loving mercy, it is when God will complete His merciful works in us.

And then, having received God’s mercy and understood the truth and the meaning of His mercy, I am sure that we will be able to appreciate how we should also be loving and be merciful in our lives. Let us not forget that all of us mankind are equally sinful before God, equally wicked and unworthy, and we should show God’s mercy and love through our own actions, that more and more people will come to see God, the Divine Mercy through us all.

All of us as Christians are called to follow in the footsteps of Our Lord and His Apostles, who have shown mercy in all things. Let us all be humble, be merciful in everything we say and do, and let us all be role models and guides for each other that we may grow in mercy and love, and draw ever closer to Him, Our Lord, the Divine Mercy, by Whose love we have all been saved. May the grace of God, the Most Divine Mercy remain with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.