Italian saints

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Tuesday, 11 October 2016 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in how they propagated and practiced their faith, and He also rebuked them for their behaviour and in how they oppressed and misguided the people of God with their way of observing the commandments of the Lord.

He criticised them using the example of a cup and a dish, which He compared to the Pharisees as those who have cleansed the outside of the cup and the dish so that they looked good and clean to those who saw them, but leave the insides dirty and unwashed. It does not make sense at all, since if we have a cup or a plate, we are using the inside and not the outside. They may appear good from the outside, but if the inside is dirty, then what use will they have?

What Jesus used as a comparison today is a comparison of our own beings, like what He had told the people about the Pharisees, the elders and the teachers of the Law. These people were the elites in their society, and they often walked around proudly, proud of their status and their influence in the governance over the people. They wore their vestments as the symbol of their superiority, and they often looked down on others.

They prayed loudly and with gestures in order to be seen by the people, and they had no qualms to criticise those who did not follow their ways and teachings, as mistaken and misguided as they were. And they were adamantly unrepentant of their behaviours, forcing the people to accept their way of observing the Law of God, focusing solely on the outward appearances, on the menial matters even such as washing of the hands and feet, the way to do them properly to the smallest details, the imposition of no work during the Sabbath days and others.

But in their hearts, in truth, they did not have God in them. They were so full of themselves that God did not take any priority for them. They always tried to bring themselves to the fore of the society, despising all those whom they considered as threats to their power and influence. And that is why, if you are wondering why these Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who were supposed to be intelligent and the most educated especially about the laws and ways of the Lord, were to refuse Jesus when He came to this world.

Human ambitions and greed can indeed be very dangerous, and very powerful at the same time. Just as what we heard today in the Epistle that St. Paul wrote to the faithful in Galatia, where he rebuked those who pretended to be righteous and just in their ways, and yet in reality, they have fallen further and further away from the Lord and His salvation. They have only obeyed the Lord in their exterior application, but inside they remain rotten and unchanged.

That is why we should follow the example of the holy saint, Pope St. John XXIII, one of the Popes of the last century, whose life has been exemplary in his faith and dedication to the Lord. Through him we can see the example of how the faithful ought to live their faith, and be thoroughly devoted of their ways to the Lord both in their exterior and interior, and not just their exterior as what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done.

Pope St. John XXIII was born as Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the son of a poor farmer in a poor family in the northern region of Italy. At that time, life was simple and hard for him and for his relatives. His father wanted him and his siblings to continue his work as farmers, but with the help of a relative, Angelo Roncalli was able to attain education in a seminary in the nearby town, where gradually he felt the calling of the Lord.

Even though his father initially refused to allow him to become a priest, but eventually with some help, he was able to make it and thus he became a priest of the Lord, serving the poor and caring for the people, both spiritually and in material terms. In one occasion, when there was a riot in the diocese where he was serving as a priest, due to the unfair labour laws, Angelo Roncalli helped his local ordinary, the bishop who was supportive of his flock and calling for greater equality and fairer treatment of the workers.

He was then appointed as the Papal representative to Bulgaria, where he became one of its first Apostolic Delegate, caring for the people of the faith who lived there, and became the representative of the Vicar of Christ to them. Many did not welcome him as he was representing the authority of the Roman Church, while many Bulgarians belonged to the separatist Eastern Orthodox churches. However, through his persistence and many charitable works, including helping out when a major earthquake struck the country won him many people’s support.

Even in his later works as the Apostolic Delegate to Greece and Turkey, the future Pope St. John XXIII helped many people, including the Jews who suffered under the NAZI Germany rule, where on one occasion it was told that he helped many Jews to escape by persuading the German soldiers and commanders that the train did not carry Jews but instead pilgrims to Turkey.

Eventually he was elected to be the leader of the Universal Church, and there were even more good things he had done in leading the faithful people of God, helping to reduce the Cold War tension between the superpowers which at that time was at the breaking point due to what happened in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. He wrote and published the Papal Encyclical ‘Pacem in Terris’ dedicated t world peace. He also convened the Second Vatican Council to address some unfinished issues in the Church.

In the end, looking at the examples that Pope St. John XXIII and the many other holy saints and people of God had done, we ourselves should be inspired to follow in their footsteps and do the same. We should not be like the Pharisees whose faith are for appearances only, but instead, we should practice what we believe through our own actions. May the Lord help us to be more devoted to Him, and may He bless us in all that we do, that we may receive glory with Him at the end of our days with the glorious saints. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 11 October 2016 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)
Luke 11 : 37-41

At that time, as Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked Him to have a meal with him. So He went and sat at table. The Pharisee then wondered why Jesus did not first wash His hands before dinner. But the Lord said to him, “So then, you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside yourselves you are full of greed and evil.”

“Fools! He Who made the outside, also made the inside. But according to you, by the mere giving of alms everything is made clean.

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Tuesday, 11 October 2016 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)
Psalm 118 : 41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48

Give me Your unfailing love, o Lord, Your salvation as You have promised.

Take not the word of truth from my mouth, for I would also lose my hope in Your word.

May I always keep Your word forever and ever.

I shall walk in freedom, having sought out Your laws.

For I delight in Your word, which I fear.

I will lift up my hands to You, and meditate on Your commandments.

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Tuesday, 11 October 2016 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)
Galatians 5 : 1-6

Christ freed us to make us really free. So remain firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. I, Paul, say this to you : if you receive circumcision, Christ can no longer help you. Once more I say to whoever receives circumcision : you are now bound to keep the whole Law.

All you who pretend to become righteous through the observance of the Law have separated yourselves from Christ and have fallen away from grace. As for us, through the Spirit and faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. In Christ Jesus it is irrelevant whether we be circumcised or not; what matters is faith working through love.

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Tuesday, 4 October 2016 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together the feast day of a great and famous saint, St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Order of Friars Minor or known better as the Franciscans, the Apostle of Italy and the reformer of the faith and religious life in more than one way, a holy man and a devoted person, known for his great and tender love for all creations and for even animals and living beings, and for his asceticism and great piety.

Yet, for all the glorious deeds and renown he had in his life, he was ultimately a humble person who did not gather credit for himself, as he showed through his way of life and also how he enforced a rigorous discipline known now as the discipline of the Franciscans, who in addition of their vows of chastity and obedience to the Lord, they also took an additional vow of poverty, where all of those who joined the Franciscan order agreed to shun worldliness and material wealth forever.

It is linked to what we heard in today’s Scripture passages, where we heard two stories, both of which showed us all the importance for us to rethink our priorities in life, and ask ourselves what is it that we are looking for in this life? What is our objective and our aim in this life? The first reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians showed him telling the people how he was converted to the faith from his old ways, and from his past of causing great harm and danger to the people of God.

St. Paul was once a great enemy of the Church and the faithful, as he was a very fanatical Jew who took his faith to the extremes, advancing the false cause of the Pharisees and the elders who opposed and rejected Jesus. He hunted down and made life very difficult for the many people who believed in Jesus and followed Him. He arrested them and gave them up to the chief priests and the Pharisees to be punished and to be made to endure suffering.

This is the past life which St. Paul came to leave behind after God called him to abandon all of them behind him and henceforth, while he was once a greatly feared enemy of all the faithful people of God, God had made him to be one of His greatest defenders. He has been awaked from the falsehoods that had clouded his mind and judgment, and therefore, he became a great saint. In the same manner, St. Francis of Assisi also had that moment of change and conversion, when God called him to serve Him.

St. Francis of Assisi was born as Pietro Bernardone, the son and heir of a rich Italian textile and garment merchant, who was influential and powerful being the member of the elite of the society, and as a power broker and as one of the owners of great wealth. The father of St. Francis of Assisi insisted that St. Francis took up the best education and preparation in order to prepare him to succeed him in his business.

But St. Francis, despite all of the good things that he enjoyed in life, the privileges that he had received since his early age, he was not satisfied with all of these. He was longing for the fulfilment which he sought, which he gradually found in the Lord through the visions which he received throughout his life. He enjoyed a life typical of the rich and the young at that time, taking part in wars as member of the military, but while his peers revel in the satisfaction and joy of such actions, St. Francis of Assisi gradually found that all of them were not what he wanted.

God spoke to him one day in a moment when he passed through a dilapidated church building, which had fallen into neglect and disrepair. God asked St. Francis to follow Him and to repair His Church. He misunderstood this as God wanting the dilapidated church building to be repaired physically. As such, he secretly took some of the expensive clothing and garments from his father’s store and sold them, and the money given to the church that it might be repaired.

His father eventually found out about this and was angry, and St. Francis escaped and took refuge in the church. His father came up to him and demanded him to account for what he had done and return him the garments and the money which had been taken from him. St. Francis repudiated his father and took off all of his clothes and garment, returning these to his father. The bishop, touched by this act, covered St. Francis with the fringes of his cope while the father left.

From then on, St. Francis of Assisi left worldly life and concerns, and became a devoted servant of the Lord. He and his fellow compatriots lived in poverty and commitment, and yet they were joyful because of that life filled with the joy of serving the Lord and His people, and the joy of knowing that in them they have found the true treasures of their life.

Jesus Himself once said also that we should not gather for ourselves treasures of this world, all those things that can run out, can perish and be destroyed by fire, by moth and by all sorts of worldly forces. Rather, we all should find for ourselves the true treasure that we can find in the Lord alone. It is by siding with God and by believing in Him that we shall find our way.

Let us all devote ourselves in the same way as St. Francis of Assisi had done. And just as Jesus had said to Martha in the Gospel today, let us all realise that there are many distractions in this world that can distract and prevent us from being able to find our way to our Lord and His salvation. Therefore, let us all be stronger and be ever more committed in our spiritual growth and development, so that through strong discipline in faith, we may be able to achieve salvation in God, and in the process help one another to reach out to te Lord as well.

There are many people in this world, our own brethren, who needs our help. We can be their guides, and indeed, God had blessed us all with the opportunities and the abilities in order to do so. Let us all follow the examples of the saints and the holy men and women who had gone to their glory before us, especially that of St. Francis of Assisi, our role model.

May God bless us all and help us in this endeavour. May He keep us always in His love and grace, and may His blessings ever be on us and our families. God be with us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 4 October 2016 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 10 : 38-42

At that time, as Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He entered a village, and a woman called Martha welcomed Him to her house. She had a sister named Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet to listen to His words.

Martha, meanwhile, was busy with all the serving, and finally she said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the work? Tell her to help me!”

But the Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you worry and are troubled about many things, whereas only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her.”

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Tuesday, 4 October 2016 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 138 : 1-3, 13-14, 15

O Lord, You know me : You have scrutinised me. You know when I sit and when I rise; beforehand You discern my thoughts. You observe my activities and times of rest; You are familiar with all my ways.

It was You Who formed my inmost part and knit me together in my mother’s womb. I thank You for these wonders You have done, and my heart praises You for Your marvellous deeds.

Even my bones were known to You when I was being formed in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth.

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Tuesday, 4 October 2016 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Galatians 1 : 13-24

You have heard of my previous activity in the Jewish community; I furiously persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. For I was more devoted to the Jewish religion than many fellow Jews of my age, and I defended the traditions of my ancestors more fanatically.

But one day God called me out of His great love, He Who had chosen me from my mother’s womb; and He was pleased to reveal in me His Son, that I might make Him known among the pagan nations. Then I did not seek human advice nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me.

I immediately went to Arabia, and from there I returned again to Damascus. Later, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. But I did not see any other Apostle except James, the Lord’s brother. On writing this to you, I affirm before God that I am not lying.

After that I went to Syria and Cilicia. The churches of Christ in Judea did not know me personally; they had only heard of me : “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he tried to uproot.” And they praised God because of me.

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Friday, 23 September 2016 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, Padre Pio, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the readings from the Holy Scriptures, speaking to us about how God has made this world and all of us, and through His will, He has made everything to be as it is. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, our first reading today, we heard about how everything in this world has been set in motion by the Lord, and that no matter whatever we mankind have planned, but the time for everything has been set by the Lord to run its course.

No matter what mankind has planned, God’s will shall be done. Indeed, He has given us all free will, the freedom to choose what we want to do with our lives, and how we want to act in them, but there is indeed a limit to how much we can do on our own, separated from the Lord. It is by our ancestors and our own disobedience that we have been separated from the Lord our God, caused us to commit acts of wickedness and sins unworthy of He Who has created and loved us.

But that was why He sent us His own Son, Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary His mother, that through Him, taking the very flesh of our own, that He may bring together all of us through His examples, and show us the way forward, in how we ought to live as all those who have walked in His ways and followed Him. And He showed it through great and perfect obedience to the will of God His Father, following the plan He had intended for mankind’s salvation.

And we know how to that extent, He was willing to take up the cross, bearing all of our sufferings to become His own, shouldering the burden of the cross. And that was the gist of what we heard in the Gospel today, that even He, the Son of God, Messiah and Saviour of the whole world had to suffer, be rejected by the very people to whom He had been sent to, and to be crucified and died for the sake of the salvation of everyone He loved.

And today, we celebrate the memory of a great saint who is still in our recent memory, a saint whose piety and faith, obedience and strength in his convictions to the Lord and to His Church has been inspiration for many people up to this day, an example to all of us. St. Pius of Pietrelcina was a great saint, a holy and devoted man, who was better known by his alias of Padre Pio, an Italian Capuchin friar and priest.

St. Pius of Pietrelcina or St. Padre Pio was a humble man who dedicated his life to the Lord from his youth, leading a life of great piety and eventually joining religious life as a member of the Capuchin Franciscans, and devoted the rest of his life serving the people of God and the Church. Since his youth, he has received visions and spiritual experiences from the Lord, one that he would receive throughout his life.

And what made his most renowned was a moment in his life when he experienced a vision of the Lord, and which afterwards, the holy wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ themselves appear on the body of St. Padre Pio, on his hands and feet. The stigmata, which the wounds are called, are signs of great holiness and grace from God, which happened to only a few holy saints, and yet they were also signs of great suffering and challenges.

Many doubted the veracity and the truth about his stigmata wounds and the miracles attributed to him, and some even ridiculed and opposed his works, but St. Padre Pio never gave up, for he continued obediently to serve the Lord and His will, serving the Church, caring for the spiritual needs of the people of God who have been entrusted to his care. And indeed many people flocked to him and listened to his many wonderful teachings and sermons.

In St. Padre Pio all of us can find a great example of a humble and obedient servant of God, much like our Lord Jesus Himself, serving the will and the purpose of God through hard work and ceaseless efforts made to make the will of God a reality. God loves us all and He wants us all to find salvation and liberation in Him, and yet many of us still linger in the darkness of this world and have yet to embrace Him. And that is exactly why He sent us all these holy and faithful ones to help us on our way.

Let us all at the same time also reflect and think about what we ourselves as Christians are capable of doing to contribute to the work of the Lord and to help His Church, as well as our fellow brothers and sisters, our fellow men in finding our way together to reach out to the Lord. Let us all walk in the footsteps of the holy saints and servants of God, particularly St. Padre Pio, St. Pius of Pietrelcina, whose faith is an example to us all. May God help us in this endeavour. Amen.

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Friday, 23 September 2016 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, Padre Pio, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 9 : 18-22

At that time, one day, when Jesus was praying alone, not far from His disciples, He asked them, “What do people say about Me?” And they answered, “Some say that You are John the Baptist; others said that You are Elijah, and still others that You are one of the prophets of old, risen from the dead.”

Again Jesus asked them, “But Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.” Then Jesus spoke to them, giving them strict orders not to tell this to anyone. And He added, “The Son of Man must suffer many things. He will be rejected by the elders and chief priests and teachers of the Law, and be put to death. Then after three days He will be raised to life.”