Homily of Advent

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Saturday, 3 December 2016 : Feast of St. Francis Xavier, Priest and Patron of Missions (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we commemorate together the feast of St. Francis Xavier, a renowned Jesuit priest and missionary, whose hard work in evangelisation throughout especially South, Southeast and East Asia had led to the foundation of the roots of the Church in the many countries existing there today, where many millions upon millions of the faithful now live, a growing and thriving Church.

And for what he had done, he was named as the Patron of Missions, as the patron saints for all missionaries and their mission areas, for his pioneering work and dedication in establishing many of the buds of the faith in those far flung areas. And he did not have it easy, because such a task at that time was indeed very monumental and challenging to be done.

First of all, St. Francis Xavier lived during a time of great difficulties in the Church, a time of turmoil, both within and outside the Church, where conflicts and wars were rampant. At that time, from outside, the Turks who reigned in the Ottoman Empire were resurgent and powerful, seizing lands after lands from Christendom, putting many of the faithful under the rule of these pagans. As a result, great suffering occurred and also a great fear arose to threaten the Church, as then, there was a real threat that the Ottoman Turks would be able to overcome all of Christendom.

And at the same time, from within, there were divisions among the faithful, where false prophets and heretical teachings arose in the population, heresies such as Hussites and later on, during the time of St. Francis Xavier, the heresy known as the Protestant ‘reformation’, where many people rebelled against the authority of the Church and established splinter groups on their own, with their own teachings that are deviant and in contradiction with the teachings of Christ through His Church.

And within the Church itself, there was plenty of corruption and immorality, where many of the members of the clergy, even to the higher ranks were corrupt and wicked. They engaged in corrupt practices, demanding money and worldly goods for the absolution of sins, a practice known as indulgence, but which was twisted and corrupted by these irresponsible Church leaders and officials.

Amidst all of these challenges and difficulties facing the Church at that time, St. Francis lived through a time of great change and renewal within the Church, known as the Counter-Reformation, spearheaded by his contemporaries, and which he was also part of, through the Society of Jesus or the Jesuit religious order which was established by St. Ignatius of Loyola. Through their hard work, the Church began to purify itself from all its excesses and corrupt practices, and brought back many to the true faith.

It was told that at first, St. Francis Xavier was reluctant to join the effort, and he had aspirations of worldly glories and achievements. Initially St. Ignatius of Loyola and some other of these saints also had similar condition, where they sought for personal glory and achievement and ignored God’s calling at the beginning. But through persistence and constant guidance, who was said to quote to St. Francis Xavier at one time the saying of Jesus, “What would it benefit a man if he gains the whole world, but lose his own soul.” Eventually, he became convinced and decided to dedicate himself to the Lord.

Henceforth, St. Francis Xavier together with the saints of the Counter-Reformation, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Peter Canisius, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Philip Neri and many others, St. Francis Xavier helped to rejuvenate the faith in many people, and he led the efforts to spread the Good News of God to those areas of the world which have yet to hear it. For at that time was a time of great discovery, the Age of Exploration, where new lands were discovered, and the Christian nations have the opportunity to evangelise to the peoples who have for the past one and a half millennia no chance to listen to the teachings of the faith.

But at that time, travel was not as convenient and easy as it is now. If it is now possible to go from one end of the earth to the other end in a mere day or less, and with relative comfort and little risk, at that time, the only available method of travel was either by land or by sea. The sea route was the faster route, but it was rife with danger, as storms and strong gales could cause the ships to be broken up and sink, and at the fastest, the journey took many months to complete.

Amidst all of these challenges, St. Francis Xavier was one of the first pioneers of the works of evangelisation in that time, bringing the Good News of the Gospel to many countries along the route of his travel, from India to the Malayan Archipelago, to the region of China and the Philippines, and as far as Japan to the furthest part of East Asia.

St. Francis Xavier visited all of these places, sometimes by himself, and sometimes with his fellow brother priests and missionaries, planting the seeds of the faith among the indigenous population, sowing the seeds for the growth of the future Church that would be established in those areas. Some welcomed him openly and willingly, while some others viewed his teachings and the Christian faith with suspect, and still some others outrightly banned the faith and persecuted its followers.

But amidst all these difficult challenges, nevertheless St. Francis Xavier persevered on, visiting many places and countries on his way, preaching to the people wherever he landed on and stopped by on, guiding the priests and missionaries and helping to delegate these faithful servants of God in their mission to bring the salvation of God to these people.

It was told that one time, St. Francis Xavier travelled in a boat with some others, and a great storm occurred, with huge waves that threatened to sink the boat. All of the people in the boat feared for their lives, save for St. Francis Xavier who prayed to the Lord fervently asking for His help. He put a crucifix into the water and the waves and the wind calmed down. But the crucifix was lost as it slipped through his fingers.

When he landed in one of the islands of the Moluccas Islands, it was told that a crab appeared from the water, with a crucifix marked on its back, and holding onto the crucifix which St. Francis Xavier had used earlier on and lost. And St. Francis Xavier thanked God and blessed the crab. This crab does exist and is indeed prevalent in the Malayan Archipelago where St. Francis Xavier once did extensive works.

There are many other miraculous works attributed to St. Francis Xavier, and this is related to what we heard in the Gospel today, that the Lord Jesus said that all those who do His work and bring the Good News to others will perform wondrous works, not necessarily be miracles, but most importantly, as St. Francis Xavier had proved and done, many millions upon millions up to this day have been saved from hell, and many among them were saints and martyrs themselves.

Today, as we all commemorate the feast of this holy and courageous, hardworking and diligent Patron saints of all missionaries and the Mission itself, let us all look again at all the examples which St. Francis Xavier had done, some of which we have discussed earlier on, and then let us ask ourselves, are we able to do what he has done, and contribute to the good works of the Church in preaching the faith to many others?

We may be thinking that in this world today, where all the peoples are easily connected to each other and where travel is so commonplace and easy that everyone would have heard of the Good News, but the reality is that, there are still many people outside the bounds of the Church, either because they rejected the Good News, or were ignorant of the Good News, or received the wrong messages because of false prophets and messengers in our midst.

And within the Church itself, there are many who have slipped away from their faith, because they were lukewarm and also for some, lazy, as they did not live out their faith with zeal, but instead, were what we often call as nominal Christians, those who call themselves as Christians, and they are indeed Christians, but in their actions in life, they do otherwise.

If we look at it, the situation today is pretty much just as how it was five and six centuries ago, at the time of St. Francis Xavier and his fellow saintly contemporaries and martyrs, all the holy missionaries who went through a great deal of suffering and persecution, difficulties and inconveniences to bring the Good News and the truth of God to many people. But because of their dedication, many were saved.

Shall we not then do the same, brethren? Shall we not follow in the footsteps of the Apostles and these saints? Jesus our Lord has given all of His disciples and followers that final command before He left them to ascend into His heavenly glory, that all of us should go to the nations, and preach the Good News to all the peoples, that all may believe in God and give themselves to be baptised in the Lord’s Name. And it is also important that we have people who have that quality in their faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what shall we do then? How do we do what the Lord had asked us? We do not have to start from very big things. We can and indeed should begin from ourselves. Live our lives faithfully with real care and mercy for our brethren, showing concern for our neighbours and those who are suffering. Let us all through our actions show one another and all the people of God, that the Lord Jesus calls all to repentance and to turn our hearts towards Him, that in the end, all may be saved through Him.

May God bless us and help us in all of our endeavours. May He strengthen our faith and show our commitment to Him, that like St. Francis Xavier and all the good workers of the faith, missionaries of the Good News, we may continue the works that they have started, and by our works, we may awaken the faith in many people who are in need of God’s salvation. May the Lord be with us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 4 December 2016 : Second Sunday of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the second Sunday in the season of Advent, a time for preparation and anticipation for the celebration of the Nativity, of our Lord’s birth at Christmas. On this day we heard about the life and works of St. John the Baptist, the Herald of the Messiah and servant of God, and also of the promise of the time of His Second Coming, a time of true peace and harmony.

The readings hearken us to the meaning of Advent, which is anticipation and preparation, not just to celebrate the first coming of our Lord Jesus which happened two millennia ago, but also that of His expected and promised Second Coming, which many of us are currently not aware of and are ignorant of. This is a time for us to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Lord, so that when the Lord comes again, we will be ready for Him.

It is therefore related to what we heard in the Gospel today, when we heard about St. John the Baptist, who came before the Lord to proclaim His imminent coming and arrival into the world to prepare the people, so that when the Lord comes again, they will be ready to welcome Him. It is therefore important that we should heed what he said in the Gospel today, so that we will be able to make full use of this Advent season for our benefit.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are looking for the time of the Lord’s coming, when He will herald peace, justice and harmony among all the peoples, as we heard in the First Reading, a vision that the prophet Isaiah had seen at that time of the coming of the Messiah or Saviour of the world. But before He comes, we have to prepare ourselves, heart, mind, body and soul, so that we will not be caught unprepared when the Lord comes again.

Otherwise, what St. John the Baptist said to the Pharisees and the elders would also be said to us by the Lord. At another occasion in the Gospel, Jesus told His disciples and the people about the Last Judgment, where the good and wicked will be separated from each other. Those who are wicked are rejected by God because they have not done what the Lord had asked them to do.

They have ignored the plight of the needy, the needs of those who are hungry, thirsty, imprisoned and without love, and thus God rebuked them and rejected them. Those who have done what they could to help these needy brothers and sisters of theirs have been rewarded by the Lord with the gift of eternal life and joy in the kingdom of God.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, the elders and the scribes, all of these liked to show off their faith to the people, showcasing their piety to the people to see, but at the same time, they strictly enforced the tenets and practices from the laws of Moses, and made it difficult for the people of God, and they condemned people like tax collectors and prostitutes, whom they deemed to be unclean and damned, without hope of salvation.

And in their hearts, they did not place God as first in their priorities, but instead, they put themselves and their ego first. Why is this so? That is because in all the things they do, not only that they had made it difficult for the people to remain faithful, they also closed the door of salvation to those whom they deemed to be sinners and unworthy, and they did all that they have done in order to be seen by the people and receive praise and fame.

Let us all ask ourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we like the Pharisees in our faith? Have we considered ourselves as Christians and yet, in our actions, we tend to exclude and condemn others because of their supposed sins and wickedness? Have we all acted to enhance our own self-prestige and glory amongst men? Have we gone to the Mass intending to boast of our own piety and look down on others.

First of all, we have to realise that all of us are sinners, from the ones with the least sins to those who have committed great sins. But all of us are equal in the manner that all of us have disobeyed the Lord at one point of our life or more. Some have committed more and some committed less sins, but nevertheless, all of us have been separated from the love and grace of God by our sins.

And that is why this Advent should be a time for us to contemplate our actions and deeds, and remember the moment of our own baptism, even as we listened to St. John the Baptist and how he baptised the people at the Jordan with water to bring them to a turning and conversion of the heart that they abandon their sins and wickedness, be washed through and through and made clean, and begin a new path towards God.

At our own baptism, we have made the promise to reject the advances and the false promises and lies of Satan, and we have made that profession of the faith committing ourselves to God and His ways. But along the way, we have encountered many persuasions and temptations, and some of us fell into the temptation and sinned.

Nevertheless, God always gives us the opportunity and chance to repent and to turn our back away from our sins. As long as it is not too late for us, and as long as we still draw breath in this world, there is always a chance for us to change our ways. Let us all not be like those who always procrastinate, thinking that they can always delay their repentance and do whatever they want first, and delay their conversion and repentance to the last minute.

After all, who among us are able to tell when is the exact time we will meet the end of our earthly life. It is only God Who will know the time. Many people who were condemned and met their end in hell were those who kept delaying their repentance even unto their last breath. They waited and waited, and when the time comes they realise that it is too late for them.

Let us all think about how we have lived our lives so far, and let us reflect about our actions in life. Have we been procrastinating about turning towards the Lord? Have we waited and delayed in our repentance? There is always time before it is too late, and therefore, let us wait no longer. Let us use this opportunity given to us this Advent season to reexamine our lives, devoting ourselves to new actions for each other, founded in love and mercy.

Let us all show mercy, compassion and love in all of our dealings. Let us forgive each other our mistakes and whatever had caused hurt in our hearts and bodies. Let us show love and care for our brethren who are in need of these, those who are unloved, ostracised and abandoned by the society, and all those who are poor, oppressed and weak.

May each and every one of us be able to show true Christian values in our lives, being selfless and caring for one another, and do as what the Lord had taught us to do. Let us not be hesitant and delay no longer, for the Lord is coming, and surely we will not want us to be caught unprepared when that happens. Do not tarry and wait until the moment when the Lord is before us and He cast us out of His presence and we are condemned to suffer eternally because we have ignored all the reminders and opportunities given to us thus far.

May God help us all in our endeavours, and may He strengthen our faith and our resolve to live our everyday life filled with commitment and love for each other and for our Lord, so that when the time comes, we will be welcomed into the life everlasting filled with harmony, peace and true joy as what we have heard in the first reading today, the vision of the prophet Isaiah. May the Lord be with us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 2 December 2016 : 1st Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all reminded that everything we need will be provided to us by the Lord our God. He will provide for us and bless us, and relieve from us the oppression and pressure by those who have harassed and persecuted us. But we must stand firm by the Lord and put our complete faith in Him.

In this world today, there are many occasions where people no longer put their trust in God. They were drawn away by all the distractions and temptations that the devil laid on their paths, so that they lacked faith and trust in the Lord. These are those who have slipped away from the faith and from the Church. Many of them no longer regularly attended the Mass, and some of them even stopped going to church altogether.

This is a problem which all of us in the Church must realise and understand, so that we will not fall into that dangerous and slippery path, to lose our faith and commitment to God because of oppression that brought fear to us, of persuasions and temptations that pull us away through distraction, and for some others, because of laziness and inertia, the refusal to move away and wake up from our slumber to be true disciples of our Lord.

That is why this season of Advent, is a very important time for us, as a time to prepare and to get ready for what we know as going to be a challenging time and finally the moment of joy and relief when our Lord comes again to save and liberate His people from destruction. We must learn to have hope and trust in our Lord, despite all the challenges and other matters that tend to distract us.

We live in a time where people tend to seek convenience, the easy way out of their troubles. We live in a time when what matters to us is our own convenience, always looking to take care of our own needs first and to advance our cause first, fulfilling what we need and want before anything else. That is why many of us slip and fall into the temptation of the devil who seeks our downfall and destruction.

He is offering us many tempting and more convenient ways, those that are easier, less troublesome and more appealing for us. He offers us what seems to be a better path, because it seems to be less difficult, more appealing, and it seems to satisfy our wants and needs more. He is trying to play and make advantage of our weaknesses, as we crave for worldly things, and he therefore lures many to our downfall.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is important therefore, during this season of Advent, we should prepare ourselves carefully for the preparation of our interior outlook, that in our hearts and minds, and deep within our souls, we are drawing closer to the salvation of God by preparing ourselves spiritually through prayer and devotion.

Many of us slipped away from the faith and fell into temptation because we were unable to resist the devil and his many advances through the world. Many of us do not have a strong relationship with God because we do not pray and spend our time in contemplation with our Lord. Through prayer we are connected to our God in our hearts, and it is through prayer made with sincerity that we will be able to listen to the will of God, as He speaks in our hearts, and we also may speak to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all spend this time of Advent meaningfully, and help one another to persevere the challenges of this world to our faith, so that not only we can be prepared and ready to celebrate Christmas meaningfully, but we may also get ready for the eventual coming of our Lord, and so that at the end of time, we will be judged to be worthy of God and His inheritance. May the Lord bless us and keep us in faith to Him. Amen.

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Thursday, 1 December 2016 : 1st Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard a reminder from God through His parable of the wise man who built his house on solid rock foundation and the foolish man who built his house on the shaky foundation of sand. It is a reminder for us on how we should live out our faith, not just by words or empty promises alone but also through real dedication, action and commitment.

Brethren, we are in the midst of the season of Advent, a time of preparation for us to prepare for the coming of the season of Christmas, when we will commemorate the anniversary of the Nativity, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ into this world. The season of Advent is a time of discernment, of spiritual preparation and also of anticipation, because we are preparing for Christ, not just in the memory of His first coming, but also of His future and promised Second Coming at the end of time.

When someone builds a house, there are a lot of considerations to be made. If we want that house to be long lasting and strong, then many things must be carefully considered, calculated and prepared beforehand. We cannot just put brick upon brick, or wood upon wood and hope that all those will make up into a strong house that will stand and last again rain and wind.

Architects and designers need to be brought into the picture, especially if the building is larger in scale. Even so, no building can last and remain strong, no matter what material it was made from, if the foundation is weak and unstable. Even if the building is made from the strongest marble, or the hardest wood, or even from solid metal, but the foundation is weak, the whole building will eventually collapse.

What our Lord Jesus spoke about in the parable is actually about our faith. Our faith is the foundation of our life, for if we have no faith, then we have no foundation at all in this life. God is the foundation of our lives, for He created us and gave us life out of His love for us. Without God, we are nothing, and without God, we cannot survive.

And yet, if we look at our world today, we may realise that it is indeed sad to notice how many people are distracted away from their focus on the Lord, and instead, they put their trust in various worldly distractions instead. They put their trust in money, in fame, in human and worldly glory, and in all sorts of other things they made to be the foundations of their life.

And that is why, even many of the faithful were not able to survive and persevere when times of difficulty and when tribulations came to them. When they were challenged to be true to their faith, they gave up and made excuses, because their faith in God was not firm. They put rather their trust in other things and not in God, in Whom they should have depended.

Thus, on this day, let us ask ourselves, how have we lived our lives so far? Have we practiced what we believed in our own daily lives, in how we interacted with each other thus far, and in how we look upon our less fortunate brethren around us? Have we shown love, mercy and compassion to those who need them? Have we done anything to bring happiness and joy to each other? Or have we instead acted in our own self-interest and bring about sadness and division?

In this time of Advent, we have to prepare ourselves for the eventual coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Thus, we should spend more time in prayer and in quiet conversation with our God. Be with Him, and devote ourselves to Him. We should spend more time to talk with Him and do more good in order to help those who are in need of our help and attention.

May God bless us all in our works and may He empower us to be better disciples and better Christians, that in all the things we do, we always do it for the sake of the Lord and for His people. Amen.

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Wednesday, 30 November 2016 : Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate together the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle of Jesus Christ and the brother of St. Peter the Apostle, who were among the first ones that Jesus our Lord called, and in fact St. Andrew was also known as St. Andrew the First-Called as he was first to be called by Jesus, and then he called St. Peter to the service of God.

St. Andrew and his brother St. Peter were fishermen at the lake of Galilee, together with St. James and St. John. When you think of what fisherman does and what is their standing in the society, certainly you would not have thought immediately that these people would later on become great and called the Apostles of our Lord. But that is precisely how God works, for He calls simple and ordinary people, and transforms them by the power of His grace and love.

St. Andrew was among those whom the Lord had chosen to be the principal servants of His, to be the bearers of His Good News and His teachings, His words of salvation and liberation from sin for all mankind to hear, to see and to witness, that through what the Apostles had witnessed from the Lord, and which they shared to others, they might bring all these people away from the darkness and from the brink of death into a new life blessed by God in His grace.

And certainly, their work would not be an easy one, for many challenges were facing them at that time. First of all, the Jewish authorities were against them, in how the Pharisees, the elders, the chief priests, the teachers of the Law and even secular authorities like the Sadducees and Herod’s supporters were against them. Many of these people had viewed Jesus and His ways and teachings as threats to their own authority, and just as they had persecuted Jesus and condemned Him to death, the same they had done for His followers as well.

Indeed, given such an opposition, especially from a stubborn and hard-hearted people, it would be easy to just throw in the towel and give up everything. We may be thinking that it is not worth the effort to suffer, to toil and even to die for the sake of our Faith, and for the sake of the Lord, but let me tell you, the Apostles would have thought completely otherwise.

The Apostles brought the Good News of God to all mankind, going to faraway places and converting the people into the light of God. What is at stake there was none other than the fate of many, countless souls, all those who had not heard of the words of the Lord and His ways, and thus lived in sin and darkness. Had the Apostles not be brave, courageous and had they not gone out of their way to preach the Good News, many, millions and more souls would have been lost, including that of ours.

Why is that so? That is because if they had not preached the Good News to others, then the Good News would only remain with them, and others would not have heard of it. And if these others would not have heard of it, then the knowledge of God and His salvation would have ended there and then, and no one would be there to instruct people throughout the many years following Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension in the Faith, and therefore, neither would we have heard God’s salvation.

It was thanks to the hard work of the Apostles and their fellow disciples of the Lord, who have labourer hard, toiled hard, and persevered earnestly for their faith in God, for the evangelisation of the peoples, as what we have heard in the first reading today from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Rome. Through the works of the Apostles, many have heard of the Lord, and many have been turned from their sinful ways.

Divisions have been healed, and no longer were there distinction between Jews or Greeks, free or enslaved, for all have been freed and made equal in God. At that time, the Jews viewed themselves as superior to all the pagan peoples, the Gentiles, or non-Jews. They thought that because they were the direct descendants and heirs of Abraham, they deserved to receive God’s promise and not the other people.

But God made it clear through His teachings and through what the Apostles then disseminate among the people, Jews and Gentiles alike, that everyone are beloved by God and all who believe sincerely in Him will be saved. What matters is their love for God, their sincere devotion and their faith. And this was what the Apostles had laboured for, working tirelessly, suffering for persecution for our sake.

St. Andrew himself travelled to many places, including what is now Turkey and Greece. It was told that he helped to establish the See of Constantinople, the second in preeminence among all the dioceses in the world. It was there that he became the first bishop of the community of the faithful there, and spread the word of God to many people, and in the end, was martyred through crucifixion on an X-shaped cross, bringing glory to God.

Today, as we rejoice in the memory of the glorious Apostle St. Andrew, let us remember that as Christians, we still have that very same mission which our Lord has entrusted to His Apostles and disciples all those years ago. There are still yet many who have not heard of the word of God, His ways and His promised salvation. There are indeed many souls to be saved and many opportunities for evangelisation.

We are called to be the disciples of Christ, to be like His Apostle in our world today. We are called to serve Him through sincere faith and through zeal, that by our good works and by our courageous witness of the Lord and His teachings to others, we may be the source of eternal life and salvation for many others, that the salvation God has promised will not be ours alone, but also will belong to many, countless other souls.

Let us all ponder on this, and discern on what we can do, as Christians, as those who believe in Jesus our Lord, and of course, as those whom He had called to be the bearers of His Good News to the nations. As it had happened to the Apostles before, persecutions, challenges and difficulties will be part of our lives, but we should never fear, brethren, for God will always be with us, as He had been with His Apostles and all the martyrs and saints who have laboured and even gave up their lives for His sake.

May the Lord awaken in us the spirit and the strength to carry out His will and good works in our respective communities, that by the examples of St. Andrew and the other Holy Apostles, we may be inspired to serve Him with ever greater zeal and commit ourselves to works of redemption, calling all sinners to repentance in God, and thus make ourselves worthy of Him. May God bless all of our endeavours. Amen.

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Tuesday, 29 November 2016 : 1st Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture passages and readings we have heard revealed to us that we truly live in a time of grace, not quite as what we heard in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah yet, but it is a time of grace because we have all heard and received the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we have received through the Church, that is from our priests and bishops, who in turn received it from the Apostles who received it from the Lord Himself.

In the Gospel today, Jesus prayed and thanked the Father for revealing His truth to those whom He deemed worthy of it, not based on the standards of the world, but based on their own faith. Those who were intelligent and had the worldly knowledge then, for example the Pharisees, the elders, chief priests, the scribes and the teachers of the Law all rejected Jesus because they refused to abandon their mistaken way of thinking and embrace the Lord’s teachings.

It was all the normal people, the commoners and all those who were deemed to be uneducated, and even many of those regarded as sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes who actually accepted Jesus as their Lord and listened to Him. Those who have sinned regretted their sinful ways and turned back towards the Lord in sincere repentance. They welcomed the Lord into their midst and they were saved.

What we heard in the Gospel today also pointed out to what great privilege we have for having heard the message of God’s salvation and Good News. Many people before the Lord came had hoped for a long time to be able to receive God’s assurance of salvation and Good News but were not able to. We have received the Good News through the Church, and yet sadly there are those among us who do not appreciate what a great grace we have received.

In this time and season of Advent therefore, it is appropriate and important for us to get ourselves properly prepared and ready for the Lord, that when we come to our celebration of Christmas, we can celebrate it meaningfully, purposefully and then it will benefit us in our way towards the Lord and in our effort to seek salvation in Him.

Have we put our focus and attention on Christ for this coming Christmas? Are our plans for the celebrations putting Christ at the centre of all? We have to understand that if our focus is wrong, then our joy and celebrations will feel empty, as there is something missing from all of them, something that all those kings and prophets were looking for and waiting for, and yet they were not able to get what we now have received through Christ.

This season of Advent is a time for us to take stock of our actions and how we have lived our lives. It is a time for us to reflect and take some time to prepare ourselves spiritually and mentally so that we may appreciate just how great is the grace we have received through Christ and His coming into the world, which is what this Christmas celebration is precisely about.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all commit ourselves to the Lord anew and devote ourselves ever more to Him, listening to His words in the Scripture and understanding His ways through the teachings of the Church. Let us all deepen our spiritual life through prayer and devotions to Him, and be ready for a wonderful celebration of Christmas, commemorating the birth and entry of our Lord Jesus into this world. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 28 November 2016 : 1st Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard from the Scriptures firstly about the anticipation of the coming of our Lord Jesus, as promised by the Lord, in the visions and promises shown by God to His servant Isaiah. And this is the essence of the season of Advent, which is about the waiting, the expectation and the anticipation for the coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

As mentioned in yesterday’s homily, the celebration of Christmas must be centred in Christ, and not on other things. Our joy and our rejoicing must be focused on the Lord, for it is indeed not about us but about Christ. Yet, many of us and many in this world has the wrong priority in how they celebrate Christmas. They put themselves first when they rejoice and when they celebrate, worrying about what gift they will give or receive, what will they wear at the celebration, what will they eat and drink, and how they will celebrate.

God is easily forgotten out in that manner, and instead of being the focus of our joy, we make ourselves, our ego and greed as the focus instead. That is why, in this season of Advent, it is important for to us to spend some time, all the more why the Church gave us this excellent opportunity of having the four weeks to discern, prepare and anticipate for the coming of our Lord Jesus.

We should read carefully and discern what we have heard in the Gospel today. The words of the army captain or centurion is what we have always recited during the Mass, which I am sure we have come to many times and we may even have memorised the words by heart. But when we say it, do we say it with proper understanding or instead just merely saying it out of familiarity and routine?

‘Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof’ is the sentence uttered by that army captain, as a sign of great faith and respect which he had for the Lord Jesus. He believed wholeheartedly that God would be able to heal his servant to perfect health, and at the same time, he also understood completely how unworthy he was to accept the Lord at his home, the home of a sinner and an unworthy man.

We have to understand it based on history, and how the perceptions of the Jewish society was at that time. The army captain was likely to be a Gentile, or a non-Jew, whom in the eyes of the Jews at that time, they were seen as pagans and unbelievers, in the same rank as those like the tax collectors and prostitutes. We can already see how the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law criticised Jesus in several occasions for coming into their houses, sitting and dining with them at the table.

Therefore, the army captain might have felt uncomfortable that this good and wonderful Master and Lord would want to come into his house, the house of a sinner in the eyes of the Jewish people, and therefore, he instead made an even more powerful profession of faith before the Lord. He believed that God would be able to heal His servant just by an order. Most people would want the Lord to touch them and to do something for them so that they would be healed, but this army captain believed so much that he knew that the Lord would heal his servant just by a word from His mouth.

And thus for his faith, the Lord rewarded the army captain greatly and acknowledged his faith before all. Now, let us all ask ourselves, in this season of Advent, we are preparing and anticipating for the celebration of Christmas, but at the same time we are also aware that the Lord will come again as He had promised us. So, when He comes again, are we ready in our hearts, minds, souls and bodies to welcome Him?

Let us take heed the examples of the army captain and his faith. That is the kind of faith that we must have every days of our respective lives. We must understand that we are all sinners who are unworthy of the Lord, and yet God still wants to help us and to save us from our destruction by our sins. Then, if the Lord is willing, are we willing to accept Him and welcome Him too?

Let us use this time of Advent meaningfully, so that we will be able to prepare ourselves spiritually and mentally that when Christmas comes, we will be able to celebrate it with true joy and with proper focus on our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Come Lord Jesus, come and save Your beloved people. Amen.

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Sunday, 27 November 2016 : First Sunday of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the beginning of the new liturgical year cycle as well as the beginning of the season of Advent, a season of preparation and spiritual journey for all of us Christians as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the feast of Christmas. On this day we begin the time of spiritual renewal and discernment, as we are getting ready for the commemoration of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

And as we begin today’s celebrations and the season of Advent in general, let us all take into consideration what we have just heard from the Scripture readings, where we see how the prophet Isaiah prophesied about the coming of the Lord, Who would come to reveal His ways and truth to the whole world, that everyone and every nations may no longer bicker and fight over one another and with one another, but live in peace and harmony in the Lord.

And this prophecy has been fulfilled in Christ, the Saviour Who has come into the world and fulfilled all the promises God had made for His people, and in this season of Advent we are preparing ourselves to celebrate His coming into the world, both that of the past and the future, as the meaning of the term Advent, taken from the Latin word ‘Adventus’ which is translated into English as the arrival or the coming of someone or something. In that word, there is the connotation associated with expectation and waiting, as the precursor to something that is to come.

We may indeed wonder, brothers and sisters in Christ, on what we are truly preparing ourselves for in this season of Advent, but we do not need to look far beyond what we can already seen around us, in how the world and many people celebrate and rejoice during Christmas, and how many of us perceive Christmas and its festivities. Advent cannot be understood separately from Christmas as its existence is intimately and closely tied with that of the celebration of the birth of our Lord.

While in the beginning, Christmas was indeed a joyous season and time when all the faithful rejoice over the Nativity or the birth of our Lord Jesus, God made Man, over time, as we can clearly observe in our world today, Christ has become forgotten and ignored during the anniversary of the moment He was born into the world. The birthday Boy from Whom we got the name ‘Christ’mas has been ignored and overlooked on His own big day.

Instead, many of us and the world celebrate it with many forms of secular joy amd celebrations, festivities and feasts that are not centred in the figure of Christ, and what many children are familiar with in this world are figures like Santa Claus, his supposedly elvish helpers, magical reindeers, all of which elements are distractions for many of us, especially for our children, in how we ought to be truly celebrating Christmas.

We often associate Christmas with great feasts and gatherings, where our children enjoy the parties and the gifts they received, and we worry about what we are to wear to such an occasion, worrying about what we will say when we meet with our relatives and friends, and even what kind of decorations we ought to be putting up this Christmas, whether it should be cones, or stars, or statues of Angels, or bells, or whatever other things out there we tend to be worried about when Christmas time is approaching.

All these things are what have distracted us from our true focus and the true purpose of Christmas. If we do not understand what Christmas is about, then our joy and celebrations will be meaningless and empty, and we will not benefit a single bit from it. And that is why this season of Advent is very important for us, as a time for us to take a step back, stop whatever we are doing and reassess ourselves and ask ourselves this question, what is Christmas? What does it mean to us?

Let us all understand, brothers and sisters in Christ, that in Christmas, we are celebrating Christ Who was yesterday, today and future. He came that time two millennia ago, as the fulfilment of the long promised salvation, and that was the moment when our Lord Himself took up our form and our flesh, becoming Man like one of us and entered into this world. But then, through what He had done, He has saved us all by His death on the cross, and offered His own Body and Blood to us all, so that all of us who share in the Eucharist will be saved.

And that is what we celebrate, the Christmas of the past, when the Lord first came into the world, and the Christmas of the present, as the Lord Himself is present and living in each and every one of us who have worthily received His Body and Blood in the Eucharist. And finally, we celebrate the future coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Christmas of the future, the day we are looking forward to, as He has promised, that He will come again at the end of time to bring all of His faithful ones into eternal glory and life.

Therefore, we can see that Christmas is indeed about Christ, and all the other celebrations and joys we celebrate are secondary. Our primary and main joy comes about because Christ our Lord has been willing to do what needed to be done for the sake of our salvation, and because of that He willingly emptied Himself and came down, the Divine Word made flesh, to be one of us, so that by that action, He may unite us with Himself, and by dying on the cross, sealed away and destroyed all of the fetters and chains binding us that is our sins.

We rejoice in Christmas because now we know that death is not the end of everything. There is indeed hope and light in our journey, and that light and hope is Jesus our Lord, the One Who ought to be commemorated and celebrated in Christmas. He is the Lord and Master of Christmas, the One Who ought to be the focus of all our attention as we prepare to celebrate this annual solemnity of Christmas.

This Advent season is one of preparation and also of longing. We prepare ourselves body, heart, mind and soul to welcome the Lord, both He Who came into the world two millennia ago, and He Who comes into us as we receive the Eucharist, and He Who will come again as He had promised, to succour and bless His faithful ones, all the same Lord Jesus our Lord and King.

And we long for Him just as the people of Israel once long for the promised land, after a long journey in the desert for forty years. By their disobedience they had been made to wander in the desert and perish, but those who were faithful persevered on and eventually were granted entry into the land of milk and honey, the lands promised to their forefathers. In the same manner, we also long for the Lord and for His coming, which timing we are not aware of.

Yes, that is also the essence of today’s Gospel, which reminds us that the coming of the Lord will catch many people by surprise precisely because they were not expecting it to happen. And when He comes again, what will He find in the world? How will He find us at that moment? Will we be worthy in His eyes because we have obeyed Him and fulfilled His will? Or will we instead be caught in wickedness and in sin?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is what we really need to think about and consider during this season of Advent, right from the very beginning. Are we prepared for the Lord? Are our bodies, minds, hearts and souls ready for the Lord in case He comes again? Are we ready to celebrate Christmas with the right mindset and right attitude?

Let us all take some time to reflect on these, and do our best to prepare ourselves thoroughly, so that this season and time of Advent will be useful and meaningful for us, and being fully utilised, we will be ready to celebrate Christmas in the correct manner, having great joy and celebrations, but not for our own sake or for our own glory, but instead, placing the Lord Jesus Christ at the centre of all of our celebrations and our joy.

May the Lord Jesus bless us and keep us in His grace and love, and may He strengthen our wavering spirit and faith inside us. May He help us to persevere through the challenges and difficulties, resisting the many temptations of the world, so that we may be always ready no matter what time or moment it is, for the sake of His glorious Second Coming, that when He comes, He will find us ready and true to Him in faith, and thus be worthy of eternal life with Him in joy. May God bless us all. Amen.