Holy Week sermon

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Thursday, 23 July 2015 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how Jesus spoke to the people in parables, using stories and examples that link to the meaning which He wanted to convey to the people. And in the Gospel He explained how He told these parables because of the stubbornness of the people and their refusal to believe, even though they have seen the many great works of the Lord.

And this is linked to what we heard in the first reading today from the Book of Exodus, which told us about the moment after Israel had been brought out of Egypt into the presence of God at His holy mountain, Mount Horeb, where they would encounter the Lord, and renewed the covenant which God had established with their ancestors.

And we know how the people of Israel rebelled against God during that occasion. Moses went up the mountain to speak with God and to receive His commandments and laws, and the people below having seen Moses gone for many days to the mountain, obscured by the clouds of the glory of God, lost faith in the Lord and in Moses, and they forced Aaron his brother to make for them a god of gold, the golden calf.

In direct defiance and disobedience against God, even after they have seen the glorious works and power of God who freed them from slavery in Egypt, the people sinned by abandoning their God and sought for themselves a pagan idol that had done nothing for them. This was a great insult to the Lord, who punished all those who have rebelled against Him and did not repent from their mistakes.

Throughout the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, we see repeatedly how the people of God continued in their sinful ways many, many times, and despite having been shown the works and the blessings of God numerous times, their hearts and minds were often unfazed. God did not cease to call on His people to follow Him, but there were indeed too many times when they did not obey Him and refused to listen to His call.

Thus, for their indignant behaviour and stubbornness, God also refused to reveal the fullness of His truth, and held it back for those who are truly willing to listen to Him and walk in His ways. He only showed the fullness of His truth to those who were willing to commit themselves fully to Him, such as the Apostles, the saints and martyrs of the faith, many of whom had their faith tested in tribulation by sword and fire, by persecution and oppression, and by the pain of death.

We should consider ourselves fortunate, for we have received the revelation of God’s truth through the Church and we received therefore the teachings of our Lord passed down through the Apostles and the disciples. Yet, by our own nature, we can still be wayward, and we can still close ourselves from the love of God and acting in the same way as that of our predecessors.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day let us all reflect on our own actions. Have all of us been truly faithful to our Lord, and have we listened to Him and obeyed His will? Or have we rather followed the pagan idols and gods of wealth, money, possessions and worldly goods? Today let us look at the examples shown by St. Bridget of Sweden, whose feast we celebrate on this day.

St. Bridget of Sweden was born during the Middle Ages, and she was married into a noble Swedish family, and gained a high prestige life during her time as a member of the noble family, whose descendants were counted among the queens and prominent saints of that country. But all these did not get her to be proud and haughty, and instead these made her even more committed to help others around her using what she had to assist those who were poor and suffering.

She joined religious life after her husband was deceased, and she ventured to help many of the poor and less fortunate in the society around her. And she travelled in well-known pilgrimages to sites such as Jerusalem and Rome to garner support for her efforts to help the plight of the poor. She was renowned for her great piety and dedication to the Lord and to her fellow men, even though she was born into privilege and had once lived a life in power.

The examples and the charitable works of St. Bridget of Sweden should inspire us all to live like she had done, resisting the temptations of the flesh and this world, and instead seek to devote ourselves in faith to the Lord our God. The choice is ours alone, whether we would be like the people of God of old, who have seen what great things the Lord had done, and refused to believe, or for us to accept Him as our Lord and God.

God will bless all those who have kept their faith in Him, and He will graciously grant the needs of those who placed their trust in Him. Thus, let us all pray so that He may strengthen in us the faith which we ought to have for Him. Let us all devote ourselves ever more to our Lord and God who had given so much for our sake.

May Almighty God, through the intercession of St. Bridget of Sweden, help us on this path of life, that we may find Him and be blessed by His grace forevermore. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 22 July 2015 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Mary Magdalene (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of one of the important figures in the Gospel, that is of St. Mary Magdalene, one of the women who followed Jesus constantly in His journeys and travels, and who was known as a sinner from whom Jesus cast out seven demons or evil spirits, and who thereafter followed Him and was one of the women who waited on Jesus as He hung from the cross.

She was also honoured to be one of the first to witness the Lord after His resurrection from the dead, to see Him in His glorious majesty which is revealed as the truth, that He has conquered death and sin. And this truly has a great significance for us all, just as it had a great significance on St. Mary Magdalene as well. This is how the Gospel today is very significant, as the culmination of our own journey in life.

If we look at the Psalm and the first reading today, all of them spoke about a certain longing for the Lord, for His wisdom and light, which all of us seek, for we all live in darkness and away from the bliss and true joy which is in God alone, and we long for it. But on our path to reach it, many of us were often distracted by false leads and false pleasures of this world, which Satan is offering us to keep us away from the true path towards salvation in God.

The story of the life and conversion of St. Mary Magdalene should be an inspiration to us all. In it we saw a woman whose life once was filled with vice, and demons dwelled in her, and no one would want to go near to her, for the debauchery and wickedness she committed and the demons within her kept most people away. But the Lord showed mercy on her, cast out those demons from her and liberated her from the tyranny of evil.

What He told her and her other contemporaries, sinful women condemned but then rescued by the Lord was that they ought to go and sin no more, for their faith had saved them. They have been reclaimed from the darkness and sin no longer has power over them. And the same applies to us all as well. This is why the scene of St. Mary Magdalene who witnessed the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is important, because Christ risen from the dead represents the triumph over the forces of sin and death.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on this day on our own lives, on whether we have been like St. Mary Magdalene and all the other repentant sinners who became martyrs and saints like St. Augustine of Hippo, a great sinner once but turned to be a glorious saint because he turned his back to his past life of sin and embraced the love of God anew.

Indeed, what matters to all of us is that God does not call great men to do great things. On the other hand, He called sinners and people who had gone wayward to be His disciples and followers. Many great saints were once great sinners too, but most importantly, they changed their ways, repented and followed the Lord with a renewed faith and zeal.

The same too should happen to us all. We should also be renewed in our faith, so that by our conversion to the truth, we may be like St. Mary Magdalene in all her glory, for she is known no longer as a sinner, but as a devoted and holy woman, whose faith and righteousness has pleased the Lord. The Lord is willing to overlook our past sins and wickedness, if only that we abandon them thoroughly and commit ourselves to a new life in God.

May Almighty God be with all of us, and may He strengthen our resolve to look for Him, to embrace Him and to find Him, and be freed of the darkness and evils that had tainted our hearts and souls. May all of us be reunited to Him, our Lord and Master, and may we all love Him forevermore. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 21 July 2015 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the readings on the event which many of us surely are quite well aware of, that is the opening or splitting of the Red Sea when the people of Israel was chased by the Egyptians and its Pharaoh, to the edge of the sea. God through Moses, His servant showed forth His might and deliverance for His people by opening the sea right in front of their eyes.

This is a well known story from the Bible which all of us should be familiar with, that God showed forth His salvation and help to all those who devoted themselves to Him and remained in His love. He delivered His own beloved people from the hands of those who sought to enslave them, oppress them and destroy them. He cast down all those who have opposed His loved ones, and turned upside down their plans.

And in the Gospel today, our Lord Jesus Christ spoke of those who have done the will of God, and putting the words of the Lord and His teachings into real practice, as those who will be found worthy and just by the Lord, and therefore worthy of His grace and blessings. This is a reminder for all of us that God really values our faith, trust and devotion to Him, and He is always looking at us, taking note of our actions, words and deeds.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day let us look into ourselves and see if within us we have that faith and trust which we really ought to have for the Lord our God. Do we trust Him, and do we have that unshakeable faith in Him? When troubles come our way, and when challenges and obstacles bar our path, do we give in to the pressure of the world and its threats? Or do we stand up tall and place ourselves fully in the hands of God?

Like the Israelites, having been hemmed between the sea and the armies of the Pharaoh, the situation seemed to be hopeless for them, and indeed, they certainly panicked and thought that the end had come upon them, and they would all either be enslaved back by the Egyptians, or meet their end right there on the seashore. But God showed them that only if they put their complete trust in Him, they had nothing to fear.

Those who are righteous and walk faithfully in the way of the Lord have nothing to fear. Those who fear was because they have no faith in God, or that their faith was weak and easily shaken. They put their trust in human power and strength, and when those fail, they give in to their fears and anxieties. As a result, they subject themselves to drastic measures, and even at times such abominations like suicide or giving in to the pressures of those who seek to corrupt us?

We truly have to look at the examples of our holy martyrs and saints, who have remained strong and resolute even in the face of persecution and oppression from the world. They did not give in to the demands of the world and they continued to live righteously despite the difficulties they faced. And the Lord watched over them and protected them. In many occasions they were delivered from those who persecuted them.

But most importantly, at the end of their earthly lives, whether it was by martyrdom or natural death, all of them were righteous and just, and they were delivered from the clutches of death and sin, and they were freed from the dominion and power of Satan into real freedom with God. For just as the Lord delivered the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians, thus He had also delivered all those who are faithful to Him from Satan and all of his forces of darkness.

Today, we celebrate together as well the feast of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, who was a renowned priest who was later made a Doctor of the Church in recognition of his many works and commitments for the betterment of the Church of God and the people. St. Lawrence of Brindisi was a Capuchin friar and preacher who dedicated his life to help those who have fallen to heresy and became wayward in their faith.

St. Lawrence of Brindisi helped establish many Capuchin monasteries and works across areas which had been badly affected by the so-called Protestant ‘reformation’, and he helped to call back many people back to the Lord by his preaching, dispelling the falsehoods of Satan and his agents, and revealing to the people of God, the truth which has always been preserved in the Church.

Through his works, countless thousands upon thousands have been brought back to the true faith and to salvation. He should be an inspiration to all of us, as we all who still live in this world must also therefore awaken the courage and faith in our brethren who still live in darkness and ignorance of the Lord. Through us God will make His works evident in this world, and through us He will bless all mankind, bringing all His scattered people together once again.

May Almighty God who is always with us, protecting us and guarding us from harm, extend His loving embrace and hands upon us, to defend us from the forces of darkness and Satan trying to bring us harm. May He bless us and be with us, so that with all the might He had shown us, we may grow to trust Him and place our faith in Him forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 20 July 2015 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Apollinaris, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the Scripture readings which all talked about one main thing, that is how we all often doubt and do not trust in the power of the Lord which He had shown clearly by signs and even miracles. In the first reading from the Book of Exodus, we see how the people of Israel trembled at the sight of the Egyptians and their chariots chasing after them at the edge of the Red Sea, but Moses reassured them of God’s strength and protection.

In the Gospel, we see also how the people keep asking Jesus for miracles and signs as a proof that He is indeed the Messiah, the Holy One of God promised to come and rescue all of them and bring them into glory. But Jesus rebuked them for their unbelief and lack of faith. These people was truly ignorant and adamant in the heart, stubborn in mind and refused to believe in what they have witnessed in Christ.

The same too often happen to us, as we often fail to see that in many things that God had done for us, we do not recognise His great works being done for our benefit. When we encounter difficulties, challenges and times of trouble, we are often quick to give up and despair, and we often like to complain that no one cares about us, and we complain that the Lord did not do anything to help us. But do we truly know what God has done for us?

What Jesus told the rebellious people was in itself the essence of what God had done for us all mankind. He has led us all His people to safety in the midst of danger, fed us and provided everything we need when we were hungry, thirsty or in need. He rescued us from the darkness and brought us back to the light. And all these He had done even though we often doubted Him, complained about Him and refused to listen to Him.

We are people who are easily awed by miracles and wonders. This is because we have no faith in the Lord and neither in ourselves. We are so doubtful and we allowed fear and uncertainty to fill our hearts and this is why we often act like the Israelites of old. They worried and lacked faith in God, fearing the chariots of Egypt over the power of their Lord who had shown His might through the ten plagues He had sent against the Egyptians.

Jesus told the people how the only sign they will see is the sign of Jonah, of the prophet who went into the belly of a giant fish for a whole three days and three nights, in which He was in fact referring to the very sign that He would show, as a concrete and undeniable proof of God’s infinite and undying love for all of us. That sign is His suffering, death and resurrection from the dead.

Jesus suffered for our sake, our own Lord being scourged and rejected for our own sins, and He died on the cross bearing the punishments and consequences for our faults, and for three days He laid in the earth, descending into hell to free all the captive souls of mankind who were righteous and just, and bring them into the light. Those souls have waited a very long time for the day of salvation, and at that moment, the feeling of joy is indeed the same as the moment when God split open the Red Sea to let His people pass through it to freedom from the Pharaoh’s Army.

Therefore, all of us ought to realise how much God had done for our sake, even though sometimes we may not realise it. He has given us so much opportunity, hope, and goodness that if we still do not have faith in Him, then we are truly blind in our hearts, and we will be counted among those faithless ones of Israel, who during their sojourn in the desert constantly complained and disobeyed the Lord, complaining that God had not done enough for them even though He had given them so much and provided for them.

Can we show gratitude and thanks to our Lord who had done so much for us? We should be thankful that He has blessed us with so much graces that we have enjoyed them so much and benefitted so much. Yet we often act like spoilt children who enjoyed the goods but then do not give proper thanks and gratitude to the one who made it all possible for us.

Perhaps the example of St. Apollinaris, the saint whose feast we are celebrating today can be an inspiration to all of us on how to live our lives faithfully to God. St. Apollinaris, also known as St. Apollinaris of Ravenna was a bishop of that city of Ravenna during the years of the Roman Empire at a time when being a Christian equals a death penalty if discovered by the state.

It was there that St. Apollinaris devoted himself to the flock which had been entrusted to him as shepherd. He and his flock were constantly threatened and persecuted by the Roman Emperors and authorities who hounded them from place to place and even sent them into exile at times. And yet, despite the challenges and difficulties, St. Apollinaris and his followers did not give up and remain faithful to the Lord.

Even in the face of martyrdom and suffering, St. Apollinaris and many others of his fellow contemporaries continued to place their faith in the Lord, for they knew that God was with them, and that no matter what the world threw at them or threatened them with, these ultimately had no power over them. We have to be mindful of what the Lord Himself said that we should not fear those who have no power to destroy our soul, for it is God Himself and only He alone has that power and authority to destroy us if we prove to be an unrepentant and stubborn person.

Based on the examples of St. Apollinaris and the other holy men and women throughout the ages, shall we all reflect on our own actions and deeds? Shall we all look once again at how we have lived our lives? Have we been faithful and obedient to God, putting our trust in Him and be thankful of what He had done for us? Or have we been unrepentant and rebellious, and not realising all the good things He had done for us? If we are truly faithful, no matter times of joy or times of difficulty, we will still be devoted to Him.

May Almighty God our Father awaken in all of us the ability to realise how much He has blessed us and helped us in this life. And may He also strengthen in all of us the love which we all ought to have for Him. May the Lord bless us and keep us in His love forever, now and until eternity. God be with us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 19 July 2015 : Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, we have heard, we have seen and witnessed the great and boundless love of our Lord and God, who is our Shepherd and Guide, the One who provides us all with all the things that we need. He is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep, and cared for nothing else than the well-being of His sheep, of His flock.

From the first reading today, taken from the book of the prophet Jeremiah, God made it clear through His servant Jeremiah that He would bring back His people to His presence, just like a shepherd gathering back his lost sheep. He would punish all those irresponsible and bad shepherds who had failed in their duty to govern the people of God and lead them in righteousness.

The shepherds that God had appointed over the people at that time, the kings and their associates, failed to live up to the tasks entrusted to them. Rather than leading their people by example, they have abused their power and positions of privilege, which led to great sorrow and suffering for the people, who were therefore leaderless and without guidance, lost and trapped in the darkness of this world.

But God did not let His people to suffer alone without hope, or without succour. On the other hand, through His generous love and care which He had shown us, He endeavoured to help us, for He is a true and good shepherd, whose eyes, mind, heart and attention is always on us, His sheep. He therefore promised the coming of a Saviour, a King who would reign forever over the people who were once scattered over the nations, and the Shepherd shall make them whole again.

And all these were fulfilled through Jesus, our Lord, the Messiah, Saviour of all mankind, Son of God, the Heir of David, the King and Good Shepherd who came to announce to all the fulfilment of God’s faithful promise to us. And He did it not just by words, but also through example. He taught the people, that God is the Good Shepherd, and He is that Good Shepherd, who led His people out of darkness and into the light.

In the Gospel today, we see how Jesus showed pity on the people who followed Him, because they were truly like ‘lambs scattered without a shepherd’, and this was the reality at that time, for as long as years and ages had passed, the people of God had no guide or destination to guide them, for all the shepherds who had come and go from them, all have not been good shepherds.

An example was the Pharisees, the elders and the teachers of the Law during the time of Jesus. These people were respected greatly by the people and they were also feared, for they policed the actions of the people and enforced with great severity the laws of Moses. However, as they enforced these laws, they failed to understand the true purpose and meaning of those rules, and end up following them blindly.

These shepherds appointed over the people of God have also not done what they were expected to do. They did not care about them and their well-being, and instead, they cared about themselves first. They worried more about their own stomachs and their own concerns first before that of the others entrusted to their care. This is the attitude of bad and irresponsible shepherds whom the Lord had rebuked through the prophet Jeremiah as we heard in the first reading today.

Those bad shepherds did not care for the sheep entrusted to them, and at the very first indication of danger, they would run away and let the sheep be destroyed, for they had no love for the sheep. But the Good Shepherd loves all of His sheep equally and with perfect love, so that through the love which He had shown them, the sheep may be reunited to their Shepherd in love.

This is what Jesus, our Good Shepherd had done. He had led by example, loving all of us from the depths of His heart, even to the point of laying down His own life for the sake of His people. He shed His Blood for the people, dying on the cross for the sake of all of us, for we have been swallowed by the darkness of this world, and have been defiled with the wickedness of our sins, and yet our Lord and Shepherd went forth to reclaim us from that darkness and back into the light.

Remember what Jesus told His disciples about the parable of the lost sheep? In that parable Jesus told how if a shepherd has a hundred sheep and one of them is lost, the shepherd would go and make use of all within his ability and disposal to regain the one who has been lost, and leave the other safe ninety-nine sheep behind. That is what a good shepherd would do, and what our Lord who is our Good Shepherd had done for our sake.

We have been lost, and naturally we would have gone on to annihilation, had it not for the Lord who had shown His mercy to us all. He stretched forth His hands and reached out to us, and He called on us to repent and to change our sinful ways. If we continue to walk on this path of sin, what lies there in the end for us will only be despair and eternal suffering of hell.

If our Lord had done so much for us, to gather us back as His sheep, to be part of His flock once again, then we too should make a conscious effort to reach out to His extended hands, which He had given to us for our salvation. And there is yet also another dimension to today’s Scripture readings as well. All of us have been saved by the Lord and we have become part of His blessed flock, gathered from among the nations, and yet there are still so many others that lie beyond the salvation He has given.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we too are shepherds to one another, and especially to all those lost sheep still lying around deep in the darkness of this world. We have the share of responsibility to gather all the lost sheep of the Lord, calling them to reunion with our Good Shepherd, who will then bring us all together in love and give us His grace. We have to inspire many others to come to our Lord by our own actions, words and deeds.

If we do not do things and say things in the way that would identify us as those belonging to the Lord, then who would believe us and who would come to the presence of the Lord? They would remain lost and then the responsibility for their loss would hung heavily on our heads. We have this responsibility to help each other, and to guide one another to reach out to the Lord, our loving and devoted Shepherd, whose gaze is always directed on us.

May the Lord, our Good Shepherd, guide us in our lives, so that in all that we do, He may help us to keep our paths straight that we will remain always in His favour and in His grace, and may all of us embrace the love which our Shepherd had shown us, His lost sheep now lost no more but had been found. Let us forever live in the grace of our Lord who will bless us and keep us in His grace. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Saturday, 18 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard how God brought out His people out of Egypt, after four hundred and thirty years of slavery. This showed the eminent love and goodness of God who did not forget the suffering of His people, and who did not turn a deaf ear against the pleas of His faithful ones. He is always listening to us, and His heart is forever always turned to us, waiting for us to receive His love and then return to Him the same love.

In the Gospel we heard how Jesus went from place to place, from towns to towns and from villages to villages, bearing healing, goodness and mercy. Through the works of His hands, He rejuvenated a people who had once been overwhelmed by darkness, evil, malice, greed, and all things that had brought about injury and disease to them, the disease and affliction of the soul.

He laid their hands of them, curing them all from the sickness of the flesh, awakening the sick and even raising some of them from death. These great occasions and evidences all led to the very fact that our Lord is a loving and caring God, who is always concerned about our well-being, whose ears and hearts are always directed at us, at all times.

But now then, we have to ask ourselves. What have done then, in order to repay the love which our Lord had shown us? What kind of love have we shown Him, for all of the goodness He had showered us with? Unfortunately, most of the time, what we have shown Him is indeed indifference, lack of love, ignorance, stubbornness, and refusal to acknowledge the love He has shown us. We went and sought other gods and idols, seeking pleasures and goodness through venues other than through the Lord.

God has given us so much good things, and yet we respond to Him with bitter scourges and vitriolic replies, and we rejected His grace right in front of Him many, many times. He has blessed us with so many things, and yet we took them for granted and did not thank Him when we should. This is the fact of what is happening to us today, and truly in many aspects we have not learnt from the example of our predecessors, those who went before us.

The Israelites were indeed brought out of Egypt as we all knew, but certainly we should also be aware of how they constantly rebelled against the Lord during their journey in the desert. Although God has given them much food and water to drink, they still complained of how good their lives were in Egypt, even though they were enslaved and oppressed. Truly, they had no gratitude for what the Lord had done for them.

And the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the elders of Israel rejected Jesus and His teachings, constantly hounded Him and His disciples at every possible opportunities to find fault in them and therefore to accuse them of any wrongdoing. They failed to see how the Lord had done so much for them, for the people of God, by all the miracles He had done publicly for all of them to see, and yet they still refused to believe.

Is this what we want to be, brothers and sisters in Christ? To be a people whose stubbornness and indignant behaviour made them to commit great sins before God? Or should we instead recognise first how feeble and vulnerable we are to the mercy of the forces of this world arrayed against us, and yet God is raising His hand at all times to protect us from all of them? Do we realise how much God had done for us in His own way, even when we do not realise it?

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, let us all reflect and pray, and pray so that we all may find the grace to love the Lord ever more as the time goes by, and the grace that we may see how much He has blessed us, and the humility to be able to thank Him for all the things He had done for us. Let us all also from now on commit ourselves to love Him all the more and devote ourselves through our own actions and deeds rooted in His love. May God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Friday, 17 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about Jesus who contended with the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, on the matter of the observance of the Sabbath day and its laws. The teachers of the Law contended that the disciples of Jesus violated the Sabbath law by crushing grains of crop and eating them.

We have to understand first what the situation was all about. The Law of the Sabbath was one of the many laws and ordinances which God had given unto men, since the time of Moses His servant, beginning with the law that prescribed the celebration of the Passover, the first Passover when Israel was about to be liberated from slavery under the Egyptians. This is what we heard in our first reading today.

Ultimately, in order to understand what Jesus had reasoned with the Pharisees in today’s readings, we have to understand the purpose of such laws in the first place. Jesus showed that the Law is created not to subjugate men under blind obedience and new oppression, but rather to help men to liberate themselves instead from the oppression of sin and disobedience.

The first reading today taken from the Book of Exodus is about the details of the celebration of the first Passover which took place at the land of Egypt, when at that night which was different from any other previous nights, God Himself descended and with His might saved His own people by the blood of unblemished lambs, which marked the houses of the faithful.

The focus here should not be on how the occasion was celebrated, as with the law of the Sabbath, it is very easy for someone to follow the rituals and the celebrations while forgetting the true intent for such commemorations. The Law of the Sabbath is for God to remind His people, that just as He had loved them so much by liberating them from their oppressors and slavers, then they too should devote their time for Him, at least for one day.

But the application of this law had become screwed in the end, as something intended for the benefit of men, that they can find time to spend with the Lord their God, became in itself an oppression, for the elders and the leaders of the people failed to understand the significance of the Law, which is not for God to punish or oppress men but truly to love them even more.

God knows how lawless we can be, and how disobedient we can be. He knows the extent of our rebelliousness ever since the day when we mankind first committed sin before Him, and yet, in His tender mercy and great love for us all, He still endeavoured to give chance after chances, and opportunity after opportunities. It was because of His great love that He had rescued us time and again from ourselves, from our sins and wickedness, from our selfishness and evils.

And continuing from the first reading today, where we talked about the Passover, the very first Passover when God passed over His people marked with the blood of the unblemished lambs so that all those marked were not to suffer death unlike the Egyptians, then do we all realise that God had given us an even greater Passover, a new Covenant which He had established with us?

This new Passover, the new Covenant is the covenant with the Blood of the one True Lamb, the Lamb of God, who became the Paschal sacrifice. Instead of the blood of the mortal lambs, God had given Himself to be the Lamb for the slaughter, so that by the outpouring of His Blood on us, we who share in this Sacred Blood may share the salvation and life which He had given all who are faithful to Him.

The Blood of the Lamb of God is the mark of the new Covenant, which all of us believers and faithful ones have received through the Church. We all share in the Body and Blood, the Most Holy and Real Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was indeed the love of God that made all these possible. Without God’s love, then there would have been no hope for us all.

Therefore, on this day, as we reflect on the Scripture passages, let us all keep in mind, the fact that God loves us, and He does not give us something too heavy a burden for us to endure. What He wants from us is just simply our love and our obedience, and nothing more. For He who have loved us so much and given us so much, is truly worthy of being loved.

May Almighty God be with us and guide us on our path, so that in all the things we do, we may avoid becoming blinded to the will of God, and following our faith to God emptily without meaning and reason. We must go forth and understand our faith more so that we may truly serve our Lord with all of our hearts and with all of our strength.

Let our minds and hearts be filled with genuine love for our Lord and whenever we do something let us do it because we love the Lord, and not because we think that we are just following a law and commandment, for the sake of doing it, which is meaningless and empty. May God bless us in this endeavour, and remain with us always, our loving God who gave us life and freed us from the darkness of our sins. Amen.

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Thursday, 16 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Mass of our Lady of Mount Carmel)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate a great feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ in her aspect as the Lady of Mount Carmel, which is a mountain found in the Holy Land, in what is now Israel. She is the patroness of the great Carmelite religious order which was founded at the very site of Mount Carmel during the time of the Crusades almost a millennia ago.

From there the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary represented as our Lady of Mount Carmel spread around the world as the Carmelites established their monasteries and chapels all over the earth. And the most popular part of this devotion is the wearing of the brown scapular around one’s neck, which consists of an image of the Blessed Virgin carved on a simple brown-coloured material with strings linking both sides of the scapular.

To all those who regularly wear the brown scapular, through the promises which our Blessed Mother had mentioned herself when she appeared to her servants in the Carmelite order, the protection and blessings against evil and its forces will be in power against all those who seek to corrupt and destroy us. Those who wear the scapular devoutly and live their lives in good faith will be shielded from the malice of the devil.

All these point out to one thing, why do we devote ourselves in prayer and thanksgiving for our Blessed Mother Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ? That is because she is the mother of our Lord, and she lies the closest to the presence of her Son in heaven. She is always constantly thinking about us, praying for us, and beseeching her Son to show His mercy to all of us, especially those of us who graciously seek it from her.

God had honoured His own mother, not just because of her virtue of being His mother. But if we notice in the Gospel today, how Jesus mentioned to the people, who are His brothers and sisters, and who are His mothers. He was not insulting or rebuking His mother in that case, as we would have thought if we just look at it at the surface.

In fact what Jesus did was truly pointing out the great virtues which His mother had done. Mary is great and truly blessed because she is indeed firstly the mother of our Lord, but also because of her exemplary faith, piety and devotion to her Son, and the love which she showed to all of us, whom He had entrusted to her as her own. Remember when Jesus entrusted Mary His mother to John and then entrusted John to her? In the same way, God had entrusted His own mother to be our mother, and entrusted all of us to be under her care.

This devotion to our Lady of Mount Carmel, the popular devotion of the brown scapular of Mount Carmel should be strong reminders for us, that all of us ought to lead a life that is exemplary and filled with faith, just as the life which our mother Mary had once led during her time in this world. We should look up to her and see her virtuous examples, and strive to make it as part of our own life.

Let us on this day, renew our faith and commitment to the Lord our God, through the intercession and guidance of His blessed mother Mary, our Lady of Mount Carmel. May the brown scapular we wear today with devotion be a reminder for us always, to lead a life filled with faith and real dedication to our Lord. May this be an inspiration for us to resist evil and wickedness, and take these out of our own lives, replacing them with righteousness and light of Christ.

May our Blessed Mother Mary, our Lady of Mount Carmel always intercede for us in the hour of need, and may we draw ourselves closer to her, so that through her we may get ever closer to the throne of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 15 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard in the first reading from the Book of Exodus, how God called Moses His chosen servant while he was in exile in Midian, so that He might reveal to him the truth about the mission which He had entrusted to him. It was His will that He would deliver His people from their suffering and oppression by the Egyptians who made them their slaves.

He called Moses in the wilderness, on top of His own holy mountain, Mount Horeb, in a bush burning as if burnt by fire, and yet it is not burnt. It is the Lord Himself who revealed Himself to the world through Moses. This is echoed in the Gospel today, where our Lord Jesus Christ praised His Father in heaven, for revealing the truth and the wisdom of God to simple and humble men, and not to the prideful and the haughty.

If we note, God called Moses not as a mighty prince of Egypt, but as a humble shepherd who lived in simplicity in exile. He called this seemingly hopeless and futureless person who had once fallen from grace and glory, outcast and downtrodden, poor in speech and trembling in the sight of a great challenge which God had placed before him.

But this is exactly what God had done, for His plans and His ways are not like what we always like our think. God’s wisdom and ways are beyond the ways of men, and the mightier and more powerful we are, the less likely we are to understand the ways of our God. Our Lord does not go about as we often do. He does not boast His might over the weak and the downtrodden, and He does not despise those who are poor, unloved and dejected.

Thus He called Moses, His servant, from amongst his sheep and goats, and sending him to liberate a people living in great poverty and oppression as slaves. He sent his servant not at the head of a great and conquering army to liberate His people, but with a stick and nothing more. It may seem ridiculous to most human observers at the time, but God does things in marvellous ways indeed.

Through Moses God did His many wonders, a simple and humble man, a prince no longer but one counted among the slaves, who with his walking stick challenged the mighty Pharaoh of Egypt, one of the mightiest secular rulers at the time. And God raised His hands against Pharaoh and Egypt such that, after witnessing the true power and strength of God, let the people of Israel go.

And in the same way therefore, God had called and chosen us all from among the nations to be His people. We have been called from our various origins, all to be His people and to follow Him hopefully for the rest of our days in faith. And through us God will work His great wonders to the people, as by our actions, words and deeds we will bear witness to our Lord’s might and call many peoples to come to His presence.

On this day, we celebrate the feast of St. Bonaventure, a great bishop, preacher and a notable Doctor of the Church, who was a Franciscan Cardinal of the Church, a simple man, who gave himself to a simple life in a life dedicated to the service of the Lord and His people, and yet he was called for something even greater, and through his many works and teachings, which inspired so many people, he was also renowned by his title of the Seraphic Doctor.

St. Bonaventure joined the Franciscans, a religious order renowned for its simplicity, holiness and filled with devotion to God. He would have been content with such a simple, prayerful life, and yet God called him to a greater purpose. He preached against heresies and published many of his writings which became a great source of inspiration in the faith. Eventually, the Church recognised his great efforts and he was made a bishop and then a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, giving him even greater reach and responsibility.

The example of St. Bonaventure shows us that while we are perhaps simple and small in comparison with others we see around us, and even though our achievements seem to be minuscule compared to that of mankind combined together, but it is exactly what God needs. He calls not the mighty and the prideful, but the simple, to be moulded into His tools, for the good of all mankind.

May Almighty God inspire in us and awaken in us the fullness of love and faith in Him, so that we may devote ourselves ever more to His cause just as His servants Moses and St. Bonaventure had been. We may be small and insignificant, but God reveals His wisdom precisely to those like us, so that by our actions and deeds, filled with the goodness and truth of our Lord, we may be deemed righteous and just, and be worthy of the glory of heaven that awaits us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 14 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard in our first reading from the Book of Exodus, how after more than four hundred years of suffering in Egypt in slavery, God sent His saviour and liberator to His people Israel, through Moses His servant, whom He designed to be special from all the others of His people. He has been marked since His birth to bring about God’s deliverance to Israel.

And then in the Gospel, we heard about Jesus denouncing the cities of the people of God, namely the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum in Galilee, all the cities where the Jews, the people of God lived. It was in these cities, in these places that Jesus had taught the people and showed His many works and miracles to them. But then why did Jesus rebuke them and criticise them in today’s readings?

That is precisely because even though Jesus had done so many works and miracles among them, the people there indignantly refused to believe in Him and they also refused to listen to His teachings, and instead they continued to live as how they have lived all that while. That inertia and unwillingness to change, even though they have witnessed all the things God had done through Jesus, was what aroused the great anger of God.

The same had also happened in the event of the Exodus at that time, when the people of Israel had seen the might of God, who brought the Ten Plagues to crush the Egyptians and forced the Pharaoh to let them go to the Promised Land. And when he and the Egyptians tried to capture back the Israelites, God opened the Red Sea before His people and made the sea to destroy the Egyptians.

Such was the great power and majesty which God had shown them, that truly, they should have all believed in Him and walked faithfully in His ways. However, as we have witnessed if we read the rest of the account of the Exodus, that the people of Israel, beginning from the worship of the golden calf as their god, and in many other occasions, have refused to believe in God, and constantly rebelled against Him. And to those who continued to be unrepentant, He showed His great wrath and punishment.

This is therefore a lesson for all of us to take note of. Should we linger longer in our ways of sin, the ways of this world and all of its wickedness? Or shall we instead bring ourselves to greater devotion to our Lord and walk faithfully in His ways? The choice is indeed ours, brothers and sisters in Christ, and all of us have eyes to see, ears to listen, hands and limbs to touch and feel, and minds and hearts to discern and understand.

We may not have seen what the Lord had done in His miraculous works and we may not have heard from Him directly His words and teachings, but we believe in Him all the same. Remember what Jesus told Thomas the doubtful disciple after His resurrection when He appeared to him? He said that he believed because he saw Him, but even more blessed are those who did not see and witness anything and yet still come to believe.

Therefore, let us all not walk in the same path as the people of the cities which Jesus had rebuked in today’s Gospel, as even though they witnessed what the Lord had done, but their hearts were hard as stone and their minds closed against the love and truth of God.

In their pride, in their haughtiness, they have walked the same path as that of their ancestors, and they would meet destruction in the end, just like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and even worse, as those people did not see God and His works. The greater is the punishment and anger of God for all those who witness His works and yet refused to believe in Him.

Today we commemorate the feast day of St. Camillus de Lellis, an Italian priest who is a preacher and a faithful servant of God, who ministered especially to the sick and wounded, to the poor and those who have nowhere to go to be treated. He founded the Camillian religious order, named after him, which was also known as the Ministers of the Sick.

He and his many other companions worked together to help many people who were suffering from various maladies. They worked together to bring the people who were sick back to good health, and the joy in them, knowing that they were not abandoned but there would still be some out there who cared for them. This was indeed God at His work, which He exercised through St. Camillus de Lellis and those who followed in his footsteps.

Therefore, having heard the story of the works and dedications of St. Camillus de Lellis, are we all moved in our hearts to also do the same for others who are around us? God works through us, and through us He wants to heal us all and make us all whole once again body and soul. If others see what we have done in the Name of the Lord, they may also be stirred in their hearts to come and believe in the Lord as well.

Hence, today, let us all, in the words that Jesus had once spoken, be no longer an unbeliever but believe with the fullness of our hearts, so that through our faith, we may be justified and be brought into the goodness and glory that He has promised to His beloved and faithful ones. May Almighty God guide us in our path, strengthen our faith and bring us all into His everlasting kingdom. Amen.