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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 26 March 2016 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Fifth Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Isaiah 55 : 1-11

Come here, all you who are thirsty, come to the water! All who have no money, come! Yes, without money and at no cost, buy and drink wine and milk. Why spend money on what is not food and labour for what does not satisfy? Listen to Me, and you will eat well; you will enjoy the richest of fare.

Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, that your soul may life. I will make with you an everlasting covenant. I will fulfill in you My promises to David.

See, I have given him for a witness to the nations, a leader and commander of the people. Likewise you will summon a nation unknown to you, and nations that do not know you will come hurrying to you for the sake of YHVH your God, the Holy One of Israel, for He has promoted you.

Seek YHVH while He may be found; call to Him while He is near. Let the wicked abandon his way, let him forsake his thoughts, let him turn to YHVH for He will have mercy, for our God is generous in forgiving.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, My ways are not your ways, says YHVH. For as the heavens are above the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return till they have watered the earth, making it yield seed for the sower and food for others to eat, so is My word that goes forth out of My mouth : it will not return to Me idle, but it shall accomplish My will, the purpose for which it has been sent.

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Tuesday, 10 September 2013 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we realise that the Lord our God loves us and He is willing to call us from the depth of our sins and the depth of our iniquities, to be with Him and to rejoice with Him in salvation. He did this through Christ His Son, who had descended into the world to be among us and to be the source of our salvation.

He cares for us and wants us to leave behind our world of sin that leads to death and damnation. That was why He offered all of us His enduring love, love that He carried through all the way to the cross on Calvary. He willed us to live, and that was why He did not hesitate even to give His own life for us that we may live.

He called the Apostles, the chosen twelve among His disciples, to be the primary helpers of His good works during His ministry in this world and even after He had departed it. They helped Him to administer the people and become the listening ear to His many teachings, through which He revealed much about Himself and God’s plan of salvation for mankind.

He offered them and all, a new hope in Himself, that all those who believe in Him and place their trust in Him will not suffer death and punishment for their sins and iniquities. Instead, it was indeed Christ who had undergone much suffering, pain, and eventually death in our place. The Body and Blood He offered us, through His pierced Body and the Blood outpouring from His wounds on the cross, become the gate into this new life.

Yes, brethren, and those who walk through this gate, will receive eternal life in God. The Body of Christ we receive in the Communion bread and the Blood in the wine bring Christ into ourselves, and thereafter, He dwells within us, becoming a light within our hearts. However, not everyone can just receive the Lord without due consideration.

We must first be welcomed into the Church of God, that is the entire community of the faithful ones in God, and become one body with all the faithful, as part of the one living Church, that is through the waters of baptism. Baptism marks that clear break between us and our past, the sinful lives and idol worshipping lives we had once led, and be purified in the Lord, to be made worthy to receive the salvation offered freely by the Lord.

That was why those who had not yet been received into the Church, may not receive the Lord because they are unworthy and had not yet placed their hearts and their beliefs fully in God. For those of us who had been received into the Church and receive the Lord into ourselves, we have accepted the Lord as our Lord and Saviour, just as the Apostles had done before.

However, it is not that we must be stagnant and be idle after we have been received into the Church. Otherwise we would be condemned by the Lord, just as He had done to the Pharisees, who had not done what was asked of them, and instead slandering the prophets and the Lord Himself. Constant vigilance and cultivation of that opportunity God has given us is therefore necessary and indeed, expected of us.

The Apostles themselves did not remain idle, even though after their baptism of fire, they can be certain of salvation. Yes, the Apostles received their baptism of fire by the Holy Spirit, on the day of the Pentecost, that truly marked the beginning of their ministry after the departure of Jesus from this world. The Apostles. They faced much opposition and rejection, just as they were received by many. Yet they did not fear, for God is with them, and they even gave their lives in the end, for the sake of the Gospel of Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters, today we are also called, to be the apostles of our modern day world. Let us therefore strive to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles, we who had been called and received into the Church. We must never be idle but we must be proactive and take the initiative to be the active disciples of Christ, spreading the Good News to all the people.

May the Lord guide us and protect us as we embark on this journey of evangelisation, that we may be fruitful and great, in our works for the sake of the Lord. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 5 September 2013 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the story of the calling of Simon Peter and his companions, the sons of Zebedee, fishermen of Galilee, to become the fishers of mankind. They have been called from their boats, from the Sea of Galilee, to be a part of the grand plan of salvation.

As fishermen at sea, Simon and the other fishermen merely did their daily routine of catching fishes, but then as the fishers of mankind, they broke out of their previous life, and went through trials and tribulations, going to different parts of the world, fishing ‘mankind’ and bring them to God. The world is now their fishing ground, and not just the Lake of Galilee anymore, where they used to work as fishermen.

They had been given greater and nobler purpose in their lives, that is to bring souls they had caught to God. How did they catch them then? No, not by fishing net as they had done to the fishes of Lake Galilee. They did that by being witnesses of Christ, of His death and His glorious resurrection. They preached the Good News to people who had not yet witnessed or heard about Christ before.

In that way they had spread the nets, yes, the nets of the kingdom of God, that all those who are not yet worthy of the kingdom of God, can be brought together in love, and put on the right track towards salvation in God. The Apostles went through much hardships and difficulties as they tried to bring the Lord to mankind, suffering rejection, persecution, and mockery in the process.

Yet the Apostles are not superhuman, brethren, as they are also humans like us. They suffered from doubt, fear, anxiety, and uncertainty especially when Jesus was still among them, and they were indeed scattered when jesus was taken from them by betrayal of Judas, scattered like sheep without a shepherd to guide them.

What is important is that the Apostles did not abandon their calling, the same calling God had called them for when He called Simon Peter and the sons of Zebedee from the Lake, and also for the other disciples. They kept their faith and believed in the Lord when He returned to them after the resurrection. They were empowered with the Holy Spirit, the Advocate on the day of the Pentecost.

They faced oppositions from the Pharisees and the chief priests, as well as the Roman authorities, when they went on to spread the Good News of the Lord. It is indeed as if the Apostles, the fishers of mankind, faced terrible waves and storms in their journey to ‘catch’ mankind to salvation in God. They persevered despite the heavy stormy conditions and saved many in the process.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, how is this then relevant to us who live in this world today, two thousand years after Jesus called His disciples? It is precisely because the work of the Apostles as the fishers of men dis not just stop with them or with their death. The Apostles had appointed their successors to lead the Church of God, and they are truly our priests and bishops of today.

Yes, brethren, they are the successors of the original fishers of men, and their duty is no less heavy as compared to that of the Apostle’s. They also have to work hard to ‘catch’ mankind and bring them into the kingdom of God, just as the Apostles had once done. However, brethren, in fact, we should, in our own small ways, be fishers of men too. Yes, fishers of men, that is to bring the people to God.

How do we do that? It is by showing God to mankind, the living God through our words, deeds, and actions, that the Lord and His everlasting love will be made manifest in this world, through us. The same is also done by our priests and bishops, as the Apostles too had done themselves once. In doing that, we cast out wide the nets of the kingdom, and fish out many men.

Do not be disheartened brothers and sisters, if we think that we cannot do much. Indeed, even one man can make much a difference in our world, and save many. If we start with small things, even eventually this can have large impact, just as we can see in wave ripples, where even small wave can have huge impact on the water, as the waves built upon each other in strength.

The Lord had asked Simon Peter to go and put his net into the deep, and there he found many fish, so many that the ship almost sank. This is also known in Latin as Duc in Altum, ‘to put into the deep’. Again, through this, the Lord challenges all of us, to not just remain in our comfort zone, that is ‘near the shore’, and instead set out to the deep. As fishermen all know, the further out they go into the sea, the more fish they will be able to catch. Thus, we too ought to follow the lead and cast our ‘net’ into the deep, that means giving out of ourselves in ever greater ways, in full and complete dedication and love for our fellow brethren.

Therefore, let us also take the opportunity given to all of us, to be like the Apostles of Christ, to reach out to our fellow brethren who have yet to know Christ, that we can play each of our own parts in the Church of God, with our Pope, the successor of St. Peter the Apostle, chief of the apostles, and the bishops as leaders, together working as the fishers of mankind, for the sake of the salvation of all in Christ. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 20 August 2013 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the story of the calling of Gideon, whom God called to be His judge over Israel, and to be their liberator from their oppression by the Midian people, who lived south of the land of Israel. God showed His mercy and love for His people despite of their constant and regular transgressions, betrayal, and rebellion against His will.

The path to salvation is difficult, brothers and sisters in Christ, and many are tempted or swayed away from the path that they fell into damnation, because they were bought over by the power of Satan, the temptations and the pleasures of the world, which come in many forms, including sexual pleasures, material wealth, possessions, and many others, things that we easily desire within our hearts, the things that divert our attention from the Lord, or worse still, worship as the pagan idols within our own hearts.

These are what made it difficult for people with much possessions, wealth, and privileges, such as the rich class, to get to the kingdom of God, where salvation lies. But be very careful here, brethren, because Jesus did not condemn the rich nor wealth nor possession when He made His example of the rich man and the camel to His disciples. He did say that it is indeed more difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than a camel to enter the eye of a needle, but He did not in fact condemn the rich people as a class.

We have to first look into the context of what Jesus was speaking about, the time when He was walking in our world, more than two thousand years ago. Just as today, the society can roughly be divided along many lines, not least of which along monetary lines, between those who were more fortunate and those who were less fortunate. Wide gap existed between them, just as the gap is still present in our modern day world.

Yet again, Jesus did not condemn the rich, exactly because not all rich people were bad or evil, and not all of them hoarded their wealth and turned a blind eye to the plight of the poor. In fact, quite a few people with rich material wealth were well known for their philanthropy, and not few of them did so out of their genuine concern for the poor, for the love of their less fortunate brethren, exactly as what God commanded all of us to do.

To condemn the rich because they are rich is in fact self-defeating, because it condemns even the good among the rich. Even among the poor, they ought to share among them the bountiful gifts God had given them, that is love and mercy, even though they are poor in wealth, but they are rich in spirit. Yet, even among the poor, there are those who selfishly kept their love and the gift God had given them, and in some instances, even oppress those who are even less fortunate than them.

What God condemns is the fixation on wealth and possession, that we seek the futile treasure of this world that is temporary, and abandon the true wealth and treasure that we have in heaven, that is none other than the Lord our God Himself, and the eternal life He had promised all of us who believe in Him and accepted Him. When we are too fixated and bound to those things, we tend to exclude God and others from our heart. Remember that the Lord Himself had said, that where our treasure lies, there lies our heart too.

Today, we mark the commemoration of the feast of St. Bernard, also better known as St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a religious and holy man living in the Medieval Europe during the era of the Crusaders. St. Bernard lived at the time when Europe was in the High Middle Ages, where he joined the religious group, the Cistercians, and worked hard to spread the faith among many and strengthen its hold on the faithful across Europe.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux lived in a time of divisions in the Church, when heresies spread rampant across Europe, and many fell to such heresies and became detached from the salvation of the Lord in the Church. Even the Pope himself, as the leader of the Church faced rivals in his mission on earth, with even antipopes claiming authority over the Universal Church. St. Bernard had a tough task ahead of him, and yet he did not give up and preached in many places as well as brokering peaceful solutions in reuniting the factions of the faithful, that everyone returns to the one true faith in the One True God.

St. Bernard lived at a time when the rich oppressed the poor, and the rich lived lavishly while the poor languished in suffering and hunger. He approached the poor and showed them his dedication and love, just as much as he was dedicated and loving towards his God. He showed many others that all of us, the children of God, must truly follow God’s commandment and obey His will, by loving Him more than anything else, even the things and wealth of this world, and also love one another, especially those who are in need.

St. Bernard showed us how to dedicate ourselves to God and love Him with all our hearts, our beings, and all of our strength. He showed that no matter everything else in this world, it is our love and our actions based on love that truly matters, especially what we are doing for the sake of our less fortunate brethren. In this too, it is made clear to us that our purpose in life is to love, and to be caring for one another.

Yes, indeed, being rich is nothing wrong, and it is indeed wrong to condemn someone just because he is rich or that he does not want to relinquish all that wealth. It is only justified to condemned someone with riches if that person had not yet lifted up his fingers to help the poor, by using what he had been given, and what he had been blessed with. Like the people of Israel, who had been given much and a rich land to begin with, and yet misuse what they had been given, and worshipped the pagan gods instead of the Lord who had given them all the blessings they had. The Lord took all that away from them, and threw them to their enemies.

With the possessions and wealth we have, we have a great opportunity to show our love to one another. They can indeed be great tools for either good or evil. Let us not misuse what we have and what we have been blessed with, and let us also not remain in idleness or inactivity, when we can use our gifts and talents to make a difference in others, to give love and life to others through our words and actions.

May St. Bernard of Clairvaux pray for us before the Lord, that He will show us His mercy and love upon us, and that He may open our hearts and minds, that we will realise and understand the need for all of us to love, both our fellow men, and ultimately the Lord our God who loves us. Amen.

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 30 March 2013 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Fifth Reading)

Isaiah 55 : 1-11

Come here, all you who are thirsty, come to the water! All who have no money, come! Yes, without money and at no cost, buy and drink wine and milk. Why spend money on what is not food and labour for what does not satisfy? Listen to Me, and you will eat well; you will enjoy the richest of fare.

Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, that your soul may life. I will make with you an everlasting covenant. I will fulfill in you My promises to David.

See, I have given him for a witness to the nations, a leader and commander of the people. Likewise you will summon a nation unknown to you, and nations that do not know you will come hurrying to you for the sake of YHVH your God, the Holy One of Israel, for He has promoted you.

Seek YHVH while He may be found; call to Him while He is near. Let the wicked abandon his way, let him forsake his thoughts, let him turn to YHVH for He will have mercy, for our God is generous in forgiving.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, My ways are not your ways, says YHVH. For as the heavens are above the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return till they have watered the earth, making it yield seed for the sower and food for others to eat, so is My word that goes forth out of My mouth : it will not return to Me idle, but it shall accomplish My will, the purpose for which it has been sent.