Holy Week sermon

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(Holy Week) Thursday, 13 April 2017 : Holy Thursday, Chrism Mass (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this occasion we celebrate together the Chrism Mass, the moment when all of the priests and all those who had committed themselves to a life of sanctity to God renew their commitment and vow to the Lord, and it is also the occasion when the holy oils are blessed and sanctified for use in the anointing of the catechumens, the sick and also for the ordination to the holy orders.

Since ages past, oils have been used to signify an inauguration and sanctification, and they were used since those times to bless and inaugurate the rule of kings and princes, and also for the worship of the divine, being used in temples and in rituals of worship for the pagan gods and idols. And in the Scriptures, in the tradition of our faith, the holy oil has been used to anoint God’s chosen ones, on those whom God had placed His favour on, as a sign of sanctification and grace.

Therefore, when all the people who have accepted the faith come forward to receive the Sacrament of Baptism, they are also anointed with the holy oil as a sign of their anointment as the people who have been made priest, prophet and king as mentioned in the Scripture. These are the three callings which are brought upon all the people of God, the calling to be priestly, prophetic and kingly as our Lord is a Priest, a Prophet and a King.

The Lord is a Priest, the High Priest of all the people of God, for He offered sacrifice to the Lord for the sake of all of us sinners, for the oblation of our sins. He however offered not the imperfect sacrifice of animals, bulls, rams or birds. He offered Himself, His own Precious Body and Blood as a perfect offering for the absolution of all of our sins and faults.

And He is also a Prophet, for He declared the truth about Himself, about the salvation which He had brought into this world. He came declaring the Good News, to all mankind, fulfilling completely and perfectly all that the earlier prophets were speaking about Him. He brought the truth which many people refused to believe in, including all those who have persecuted Him and rejected Him.

He is also a King, for He comes into this world as the Son and Heir of David, the king whom God had placed over His people Israel. He came as a king, as the King over all other kings, for He is the Lord and Master of all, and reign as the Almighty and All-Powerful King, Whose reign was told to be never-ending, and He will bless us all His people, and love us all to the end of time.

Yet, He is also humble even though He was mighty and great. He did not boast of His greatness and glory, and instead choosing to come in humility, being born of His mother in a simple stable, and lived a lowly and humble life. He is the epitome of all priests, the One Who is the model for all of us faithful ones. We have to walk in His ways, obey Him and do as what He had done in His earthly life.

And thus, in particular, on this day and occasion we remember our holy priests, all those who have given themselves completely to the service of God, giving themselves to be the ones who are the representatives of Christ in this world. Our priests are all acting in persona Christi as they reenact the same sacrifice at Calvary, when the bread and wine are offered and blessed, transformed by the power of the Lord acting through our priests, into the very essence and substance of the Most Precious Body and Blood of our Lord.

They have consecrated themselves to the Lord, and have been offered and chosen from among us all to be those who will become the go-between between us and God. They have a difficult task ahead of them, and many of them had met various challenges, even slander and opposition. Yet, many of them courageously continued on regardless, doing the best they could to fulfil the calling and vocation to which they have been called by God.

Let us all support our priests and all those who have consecrated themselves to God, that they may be able to continue to be faithful to the vows which they had made before the Lord. Let us pray also for more vocations as we all know just how increasingly difficult the situation is for our Church, with the declining vocations to priesthood and also with the ever more and ever greater challenges to our faith due to our contemporary culture and societal norms.

Let us begin by living good and honest Christian lives, role modelling for one another, and helping each other to live in accordance to how the Lord wants us to live. Let us all strive to be a priestly people, a prophetic people and a kingly people, loving one another and giving ourselves to care for those who are in need of our help. If we all can do this and cultivate true Christian values in our lives, before long, certainly the vocations to the priesthood will bloom and flourish again.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all gather together in prayer on the occasion of this Chrism Mass, that the holy oils blessed by the Bishop will bring strength and power to all those to whom it will be given, be it to the catechumens, that they may be continuously firmed and strengthened in their faith as they journey towards baptism, and to those who are to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, that the Holy Spirit will enter into their hearts and inflame their faith.

And last of all, let us all pray that all those who have given themselves in total commitment to the Lord as His priests will be blessed with faith and strength in their commitment to lead a life devoted to Him. Let us all pray that the holy oils blessed today will bring them the power and strength to devote themselves to their calling as it is applied on their foreheads and palms, that they will be ever ready to take up the cross of Christ at all times and follow Him.

And now that our priests had done so, let us all the laity also follow in their footsteps and walk in the way that God had shown to us. May the Lord bless us all and keep us all in His grace. May He awaken in each and every one of us the love which we ought to have for Him. God bless us all. Amen.

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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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Friday, 25 March 2016 : Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is Good Friday, and we all know that today marks the very special moment in the history of our faith and of our salvation, because on this day we celebrate together the love of our God, the great and infinite love which He had for every single one of us, by bearing our own sins and iniquities upon Himself, and ascending to the hill of Golgotha, He bared Himself before all to see, and though rejected and ridiculed, He persevered to the end for our sake. Yes, so that by His suffering and death on the cross, He may bring us all out from the darkness and into the eternal light.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, one might be asking, that given the gravity of the situation of the day, of what we commemorate, then why we do call this day Good Friday? Should it not be one of sorrow and sadness, remembering how our Lord and Saviour was hated, rejected, cast out and sentenced to death on the cross? But this is where exactly we have to understand the meaning of our Lord’s works and His greatest work of all, that by sacrificing Himself and offering Himself on the cross, He has brought us all a new hope, and as well as a new life. Today is Good for us, because if not for this day, all of us would have no hope, and our existence in this world would have been meaningless.

Yes, we have ever suffered in this world, suffered pain and bitterness, sorrow and sadness, and all the other forms of sufferings because of the consequences of our sins and disobedience against God. We have betrayed our Lord, broken our promises to Him, failing to keep His laws and covenants, and by listening more to the words of Satan the deceiver and also to our own human desires, pride, greed and submitting ourselves to sin, rather than to obey the Lord and to live in accordance with His will. It was our destiny and fate for us to face persecution and punishment at the end of our earthly lives, an eternity of suffering and separation from the Lord our God in hell.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God does despise our sins and He was angry at us with our disobedience. But we must not forget that just as much as He was angry with our sins and wickedness, He also still loved us with equal and even greater intensity, for all of us are beloved in His eyes, and He had created all of us out of love, to enjoy forever the blessings and graces that He had promised to all of us. Yet, because of our disobedience, we have been sundered from Him, separated from those blessings and graces intended for us, and that is why we suffered, because of our sinfulness.

And therefore to that extent of helping us and to keep us away from our fate of being destroyed for our disobedience, God Himself intervened for our sake, by sending to us His Deliverer, the Saviour Who would bring all mankind out of their sins and their misery, and bring them from the darkness of sin and into the light of righteousness in Him. And for this purpose He would send no mere man or any mere servant, but He sent to us His own Son, the very Lord God and Creator of all life and all the universe. He sent to us as a Redeemer, the Word of God, He Who is part of the Trinity, One God and Lord of all things, and yet, in all these, He was willing to empty Himself and came down to us in the form of a humble Man.

All these were done, so that by His humble and perfect offering before God His Father, the Lord God may accept His offering, and use it as the redemption and grace for all of us mankind who have ever lived, from the days of Adam to the days of the last man at the end of time. God offered Himself on the cross for us, that all of us who have a share in His suffering and death, may receive the gifts of eternal life and redemption from our sins. This was a sacrifice beyond all other sacrifices and offerings, for if in the past, the people of Israel offered the blood of goats and doves in order to absolve them temporarily from their sins, but God Himself offered His own Flesh and Blood, the perfect and spotless offering beyond all others, which was the only one worthy to redeem the whole multitude of our sins, every single taint of original sin that had held us back from our salvation and reunion with our loving God.

And if He had loved us so much, then what are we all supposed to do, brothers and sisters in Christ? Christ had chosen to die for all of us, for all mankind, from the least of sinners to the greatest among them, and from the humblest and smallest person, to the great and the mighty. He did not choose from us, and neither was He biased against a certain group or towards a certain person, but He offered His love, mercy and salvation to all. It is our choice now then, whether we are to accept that rich offering of love and mercy, or whether we want to reject them and instead continue to proceed on with our own lives.

Today we are all reminded that the cross that our Lord bore on His way to Calvary, and the cross on which He was nailed to, and hung between the heavens and the earth is a cross of love, the cross of mercy, the cross of forgiveness. For it was through that cross, that God made His love evident to all, and it was through that love, that He endeavoured to gather all of His beloved children to Himself, and took for us, for our sake, the punishments intended for us. And that cross is also the cross of victory, of the triumph against evil and sin, and of the triumph against death. For we know that His death was not forever, and neither did death had any power over Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, but we also have to realise that the cross of Christ is also a cross of suffering, as well as a cross of responsibility. Jesus Himself had said to His disciples, that all those who want to follow Him ought to take up their own crosses and follow Him. So, all of us mankind also have the same obligation to carry up our crosses with us, if we are to follow Him. This is what Jesus told us about how by becoming His followers and disciples, life will be difficult for us, because of all the opposition by the world, and by all the forces of darkness that did not desire to see us saved from our fated destruction.

And just how do we carry our crosses, brethren? It is by remembering that the cross itself is a symbol of love, a bridge between God and mankind, which our Lord Jesus had built for us. For once because of our sins, a great and wide chasm had existed between us and God, and none of us could go to the Lord without crossing that chasm, which was impossible. But our Lord Jesus made it all possible by His death on the cross. For we all who share in His cross, dying to ourselves and our sins, share with Him the glorious joy of His resurrection and brought into a new life of righteousness worthy of our Lord. It was through this that God Himself made the bridge between Him and ourselves, that is the cross of Christ.

Therefore, in order to carry our crosses, we ought to remember that the cross itself is a joining between two components, the vertical bar and the horizontal bar. The vertical bar represents the love and the relationship we have with God, while the horizontal bar represents the love and the relationships we have with one another, with our fellow men. And hence, if we are to be faithful to the Lord, and to be worthy of the salvation which He had offered us through His cross, we ought to remember to obey His covenant and His laws, that is by loving Him with all the might of our bodies, minds, hearts and soul, and do the same to our fellow brethren around us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all use this opportunity to reflect on our own lives. Have all of us been faithful to the Lord, and obeyed all of His laws and commandments? Or have we instead been more faithful to our whim and desires? Have we been loving and merciful in our interactions with our brethren around us, showing them acts of love and mercy, of care and compassion, of tenderness and justice? Let us all do so, if we have not done so yet. Let us all go forth in celebrating this Easter Triduum and the whole joyful season of Easter, by bringing forth the joy that God brought us, and share it with others who have little or none. May God bless us and keep us, and may through His holy Cross, He brings us to eternal life in Him. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Friday, 13 November 2015 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we hear about the Lord who will choose the righteous and reject the wicked and the damned, on the day which He decides to be the day of judgment, when He will separate all those whom He deemed to be good and righteous, from those that He deems to not have been capable of achieving what He had looked for in us, that is love, devotion, and commitment to His ways.

We may think that we have led a good life, and we may think that everything we have in this life is all pleasant and happy. Yet, many of us usually overlook the fact that there are shortcomings in our life that we may not be aware of. And in many things, many of us have this tendency to be distracted in our lives by the many goodness and the many temptations that Satan and this world had offered to us.

And very importantly, as shown in our first reading today, from the Book of Wisdom, many of us are often distracted by the many great things in this world, which we enjoy and even praise, but yet in the end, we did not give glory to the One Who had made all of these possible, the One Who had created all of us and all of the things present in the universe.

Instead, as history had shown us, we have endeavoured to make into deities and gods the many wonders of the nature and this world. Thus, it was why many of our ancestors worshipped beings like the sun, moon, stars, mountains, and even idols and statues made from stone, marble, gold, silver, wood and other precious elements and materials. We settle on all these as idols and gods, instead of the one and only true God.

If we think that this was what happened in the past and that now we are already free from this, then we are mistaken in our beliefs. As it is evident that even though we may no longer worship these pagan idols and gods, the gods of nature and of precious elements, but we remain attached to wealth and possessions of this world, especially in our world today that is ever increasingly growing more and more attached to worldliness and worldly goods.

We just have to look at the way in which our world works and functions today. There are so many emphasis at materialism and commercialism in everything today, and all these help to fuel our greed and desires ever further, and as a result, we become ever more distracted from our true goal in God. There are too many things that draw us away from following what is good that we should have done in the Lord and in accordance with His ways.

This is what differentiates those who are following the Lord and stay true to His ways, and those who succumbed to the distractions of the world, and on the last day, when the time comes for us all to be judged, then we will find out our fate, where even those who are close to each other can have an entirely different fate, one who is saved and blessed, while the other is condemned to hell.

Do we all want to end up like those who have been rejected by God? Do we want to end up in the eternal suffering of hell? Certainly, none of us want this fate for ourselves, but sadly many of us had the problem that we did not know what to do or how to find the correct path to reach out to our Lord. And then the way is also not going to be an easy one, as challenges, temptations and all the various difficulties and obstacles lie on that path.

But if we have the will and desire to follow the Lord, nothing is impossible, as long as we stay committed to our path and destination, that is salvation and eternal joy and happiness in God alone. Courage and dedication are needed, and we have to be brave to live up to our faith, and if necessary, turn our back against all the temptations that the devil has lined up against us.

Let us all lead a more wholesome and meaningful life by dedicating ourselves more to God, by loving Him ever more through all the things we do, especially by loving one another, our fellow brethren in the Lord. Let us all be loving and dedicated children of our Lord, our Father, Who will bless us forevermore for our faith and endless commitment. God be with us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 12 November 2015 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Holy Scriptures which spoke to us about the Wisdom of God, and how that Wisdom is far superior to the wisdom and the intellect of men. The combined might of our intelligence and power, the greatness of our minds and achievements are nothing compared to what God can do.

Many of us think that we are capable of great things and achievements, and indeed we are able to, but lest that we think we accomplished all of them on our own accord and abilities, let us all take a step back to remember that our life is not ours to command, but it has been granted and been given to us by the One who had created us, and it was by His will and desire that we are able to live such a life in this world.

And yet, many of us conveniently forgot about this fact, and many of us thought that our glory and greatness is ours alone. We like to think in this way because for us men, it is often not in our priority to think about the Lord, and even less so to give Him thanks for all the goodness that we have received. We only remember Him when we are in trouble and in need of help, when we beg Him to help us, but otherwise, on other occasions, we forget entirely about Him.

In God lies everything that we will ever need in life, and in Him we will have everlasting and true joy. Yet, many of us are unable to find this joy or see the truth about the Lord beyond the veil of lies and untruths that Satan has placed between us and the Lord. Satan placed many temptations and good things of this world, and he played into our sense of glory and desire, so that he may seize our hearts’ focus and attention, and thus rather than glorifying God, we glorify ourselves.

Satan himself was once a great angel who fell from grace because of his vanity and pride. He was unable to restrain his pride and arrogance, and because he thought of himself as having power and majesty far greater than all the other creatures of the Lord, then he was worthy of the throne of the Creator. Thus, in his pride, Lucifer fell from grace, and instead of greatness, it was damnation and eternal suffering and shame that awaited him.

And in our pride too, and succumbing to our own desires, our ancestors have been fooled and allowed themselves to be tempted by the devil, who played along their sense of greatness and hubris, and by claiming that if they disobeyed the Lord and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would not die but instead would gain glory and greatness by becoming like God.

And they fell indeed, because in their shortsightedness, they had allowed themselves to be corrupted by their own desires, uncontrolled and untamed, and having been taken over by pride and by desire, they realised it too late that they have committed sinful things before the Lord. This is what can happen to all of us as well, and all of us must be ever vigilant in this.

We just have to look at how many people among us mankind who have thought of themselves as better than God through their actions, showing disrespect to the Lord through acts such as murder of life, alteration of Church teachings and morality, and even doubting the existence of God Himself just because they could not see Him and thus prove that He exists.

Thus was mankind fooled by their own feeble and limited intellect and capacity, all these while thinking that they were capable of truly great things on their own. Yet, in our pursuit of glory and greatness, many of us had often forgotten that it was because of God, because of His grace and blessings that we were capable of such great feats.

Let us all therefore look into the examples of today’s saint, St. Josaphat the Martyr, also known as St. Josaphat Kuntsevych, the holy martyr of Russia, and the defender of the true Faith. St. Josaphat was born into the Russian Orthodox Church, which is a branch of the Eastern Orthodoxy that split away from the Holy Mother Church about a thousand years ago out of disagreement and the eastern prelates’ desire for worldly authority, and thus they split away from the authority of the Vicar of Christ in Rome.

St. Josaphat became a religious and eventually rose to become a bishop in the Eastern Orthodoxy, and led a very pious and dedicated life to God, until the opportunity came for some of the Eastern Christians to rejoin in a renewed communion with Rome, with the Pope. He led the faithful in joining the new union with the Holy Mother Church.

But there were many oppositions and resistance from all those who refused to see the truth and follow the example of those who have reunited with the Universal Church in Rome. And over time, the opposition grew more and more vocal and even violent, harassing the faithful and even eventually the bishop, St. Josaphat himself, who in the end suffered martyrdom at the hands of these people.

St. Josaphat was murdered in cold blood by those who refused his authority and who rejected the communion with Rome, preferring to remain in heresy and damnation of their rebelliousness instead. But St. Josaphat never faltered till the end, and he continued to faithfully minister to the people of God, completely entrusting himself to the care of the Lord till the end.

In accordance with the examples that St. Josaphat had shown us, let us all also therefore dedicate ourselves more and more to the Lord, and less to ourselves, and rather than trusting solely in our own human thoughts and intellect, let us learn to put our trust in the Lord. May He bless us all always and guide us on our path. May He continue to watch over us and protect us always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 11 November 2015 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Martin of Tours, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard the words of our Lord Jesus Christ about the ten lepers who asked for God’s mercy and healing, and after they have been healed from their afflictions, only one of the ten healed lepers went back on his way and sought Jesus, in Whom he knew that he had been healed, and by Whose power he had been made whole once again.

Meanwhile, the other nine lepers went on their way filled with joy, just as the Samaritan leper who sought Jesus. Yet the difference was that, while the Samaritan sought to give thanks to God for having healed him and made him whole again, the other ten were too engrossed in their own happiness and joy, that they forgot entirely to give thanks to God. Either that, or they were too proud to admit that they have begged the Lord to heal them.

That was why the Lord praised the Samaritan for his gratitude and the due honour that he had shown to the Lord. He had genuine and true faith in Jesus, for he knew that it was not by his own power or ability that he had been healed, and it was the Lord Who heard his prayers and petitions, and listening to his pleas and wishes, granted him the wish for healing he had asked for.

Of course we can see here obviously, that God did not rescind the healing which had been given to the other nine lepers. Neither did He curse them or be angry at them for not having thanked Him as they should have done. Rather, He was likely indeed sad for them, as these nine people went back to their old lives and acted as if nothing had happened. And since they did not give God thanks for what He has done for them, then it is likely that they might just return to their old sinfulness.

Why is this important for us all to take note of? It is because of all the diseases and afflictions that affected us or can affect us, the worst and the most dangerous one is sin, which is the affliction and disease of the soul. And unlike the diseases of the flesh that afflicted the body and the flesh, the disease of sin afflicts the very centre of our beings, that is our souls.

Sin separates us mankind from God, and the corruption it caused to our hearts, minds, flesh and whole being is a great harm for us as we may be brought down into eternal damnation because of those sins which made us wicked and unworthy of God’s blessings and grace. And the worst of it all, is that sin also inherently makes us all unwilling to change for the better and to abandon those sins, for just like cancer, sin grows and solidifies its hold on us as we proceed on in our lives, unless we receive the healing and mending by the Lord.

It is often for us to lose track of our path in the Lord, and many of us became too engaged and occupied with our own worldliness, tempted by all the various temptations of this world, be it money, pleasure, or other forms of wickedness and engagements that distract us from our true focus on the Lord and His precepts and laws. This is also why many of us often forget to thank God for all that He had done for us, and for all of His blessings, as we never think about the Lord unless we are in trouble or difficult times.

This was just what happened when the lepers sought the Lord to be healed, and once they were healed, save for one, they all forgot about Him and went on joyously to their own lives as if the sickness never happened at all. And this amnesia is dangerous as forgetting our sins and evil, we have the tendency to return to them and fall back into sin. Thus, so many people in the past had fallen because of their lack of commitment to the Lord.

In this matter therefore, we should heed the examples of St. Martin of Tours, whose feast day we are celebrating on this day. St. Martin of Tours as his namesake suggested us, was the Bishop of Tours during the waning days of the Roman Empire, the greatest city in what is now southern France. But he was not always a religious from the start, for indeed he came from a military background. He became a Christian at a young age after he attended the Church sessions in his youth.

During his service in the Roman Army, it was noted that St. Martin of Tours despite of his harsh and rigorous training and life as a soldier, he was a good man at heart and is always caring to others around him, and as an army commander, he always took good care of his soldiers wherever they were, practicing his faith in God through action. And on one occasion, which is now famous, the Lord Himself tested him for his devotion.

It was told that one day, during a cold day, St. Martin of Tours was travelling on the horseback wearing his army commander’s mantle when he passed by a poor man on the street who had little clothing and suffering from the cold and the elements. Without second thoughts, St. Martin of Tours, who was then on the process of being accepted into the Church as a catechumen, cut his own cloak into two pieces, and gave one piece to cover the poor man’s body.

That very night, St. Martin of Tours received a vision of Christ Who came to him and showed how He was that poor man, and wearing the half of the cloak given to Him by St. Martin, He praised him in the presence of the angels, praising him that he was still just a catechumen, but yet his faith and devotion was so strong. After all, do we all remember what Jesus said when He spoke about the final judgment? That whatever we do for the sake of our least and weakest brethren, we are doing it for God? That was what St. Martin of Tours had done.

And throughout the rest of his life, and after he was chosen as bishop by his flock, St. Martin of Tours continued to live his life with zeal and dedication to the Lord, and his many works and devotions continue to be our inspiration even to this day. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we also walk in his footsteps? Let us all remember to thank God for all of His blessings and grace, and let us all remember always all of His goodness.

May we all be able to then share all of our joys and blessings with those who have less or none, emulating what St. Martin of Tours had done in giving generously to the poor and the needy. Let us all devote ourselves on the path to become better children and followers of our Lord, that we may be found truly worthy of God’s everlasting inheritance and joy in His kingdom. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 10 November 2015 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about our nature as the servants of the Lord, as those whom He had created and blessed with life, and in this world that is our working place, we truly have the responsibility of living a life good and just in the sight of our Lord, following all the teachings and ways that He has shown us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the prophets and the Holy Scriptures.

We are all creatures and servants of our Lord who have been living well in this world and enjoying all of its goodness and bounties simply because our Lord, God and Master has deemed it such that He allowed us to dwell in this world and have another chance to seek His mercy and salvation. Rightfully and in consideration of justice, He should have wiped us out from the face of the earth and from among all creations, because of our sins and wickedness.

God calls all of us to hearken to Him and to listen to His words and understand His will for us, that is for our repentance and genuine penitence and regret from all the faults that we have committed in this life. God wants us all to be reunited with Him and to receive once again the blessings and graces that should have been ours if not for the sins and disobedience that we have committed against Him.

We spurned His laws, rejected Him, chose the father of lies and wickedness, Satan as our lord and guide instead of the Lord, just because to us, he seems to be offering more and better offerings as compared to what the Lord is offering us. And this is because of that great sin and evil that had begun with him, and which, once we mankind took up his offer, became ours to bear as well.

The sin of pride is truly great, if not the greatest and most dangerous of all forms of sin, evil and wickedness. It was what brought down Satan, once called Lucifer, from his height and glory in heaven, into damnation and eternal revilement by all of creations. He was once the greatest, most brilliant and mightiest angel created by the Lord, with brilliant and large wings, and with beauty unsurpassed by any in creation. And yet, in all these glories, he fell to his own pride, desiring more things for himself.

It was from his pride that greed and desire sprung forth, jealousy and hatred of the Lord, as he aspired to have more things for himself and to get something that is not his due. He wanted to make himself to rise above all angels and seize the throne of God, and sitting upon it, he planned to usurp the Lord and His authority, but in the end, he was beaten up and thrown down into humiliation and darkness.

And the same will also happen to us all if we are not careful with how we live our lives. If we allow our pride, our arrogance and our desires to take over all of us, then it is likely that we will also rise up against the Lord in disobedience and rebellion against His will, and by our actions we will be found wanting on the day of judgment. And I am sure we would not want to hear the verdict and result of that judgment.

Therefore, today, all of us are called to live righteously and in accordance with the will of God, even amidst all the temptations and the challenges of this world that persuaded us not to follow the Lord and His ways. And in this, we ought to look up to the examples of Pope St. Leo the Great, whose feast day we are celebrating today, the feast of this great saint, whose many works and dedications helped the Church and many of the faithful to weather through all the challenges.

Pope St. Leo the Great lived and reigned as the Vicar of Christ during a time when the Christians were no longer persecuted, but indeed, they have even been privileged to receive the official state religion status in the whole of the Roman Empire. Yet, this did not mean that the Church and the faithful had it easy for them, or that everything was smooth and without any issues or troubles.

At that time, there existed many heresies and errors of the faith, which were espoused by those who thought of themselves as better than the Apostles and the Church fathers who had preserved the wholeness of the Christian faith and teachings as passed down to them from the Lord Himself. Instead, these people, who led many souls to downfall and destruction, acted based on their desires and greed, pride and haughtiness, and in how they want to preserve and perpetuate all these.

At such a time, Pope St. Leo the Great played a very crucial role, by acting as the unshakeable anchor to the Lord, who then through him, he opened the path for many to find the Lord and to repent from their errors and mistakes. He wrote many works and books related to the essentials and necessities of Church teachings and doctrine, and in these, he firmly rejected Satan and all of his lies, while urging the faithful to stay true to the teachings of the Lord.

And when great danger and evil would come upon the people of God, Pope St. Leo the Great would not hesitate to go forth and ride in front of them to protect them from harm. This was evident at the time when Rome itself, the seat of the Apostles and Heart of Christendom was threatened by the Huns led by their infamous king, Attila the Hun. In what was to be the most famous and well-known event of his life, Pope St. Leo the Great went by himself to meet the fearsome and cruel king of the Huns, asking him to turn back to his land and leave the people of God alone, of else God would smite him and crush him for his wickedness.

Awed by the courage and the strength he found in Pope St. Leo the Great, the Hun king Attila had no choice but to retreat and abandon his campaign. If not for the resolute and the courageous attitude and action of Pope St. Leo the Great, so many thousands of people would have suffered terribly and even might lose their lives. Thus, we see how in the actions of this faithful and devoted servant of God, we can also follow in his footsteps to be faithful servants of our Lord.

Let us all throw away all forms of pride and attachments to desires and the pleasures of this world. All the things in this world are merely playing at our vanity and the devil knows it well, so he will certainly manipulate us and tempt us with whatever is in his means to derail us from our path towards salvation. Let us all reject his path and stick faithfully to our Lord, and bless Him forever and glorify Him with all of our actions. Amen.