Jesus

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Friday, 17 May 2013 : 7th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

John 21 : 15-19

After they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” And Jesus said, “Feed My lambs.”

A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” And Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Look after My sheep.” And a third time He said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”

Peter was saddened because Jesus asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” and he said, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You.” Jesus then said, “Feed My sheep! Truly I say to you, when you were young, you put on your belt and walked where you liked. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will put a belt around you, and lead you where you do not wish to go.”

Jesus said this to make known the kind of death by which Peter was to glorify God. And He added, “Follow Me.”

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Friday, 17 May 2013 : 7th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Acts 25 : 13b-21

As King Agrippa and his sister Berenice were to stay in Caesarea several days, Festus told the king about Paul’s case and said to him, “We have here a man whom Felix left as a prisoner. When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews accused him and asked me to sentence him.”

“I told them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over a man without giving him an opportunity to defend himself in front of his accusers. So they came and I took my seat without delay on the tribunal and sent for the man.”

“When the accusers had the floor, they did not accuse him of any of the crimes that I was led to think he had committed; instead they quarrelled with him about religion and about a certain Jesus who has died but whom Paul asserted to be alive.”

“I did not know what to do about this case, so I asked Paul if he wanted to go to Jerusalem to be tried there. But Paul appealed to be judged by the emperor. So I ordered that he be kept in custody until I send him to Caesar.”

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Monday, 13 May 2013 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we celebrate a great feast and memorial of our Lady, that is our Lady of Fatima, who made an appearance to the three young children at Fatima in Portugal almost a century ago, and through them, she revealed to them prophecy and secret, which contains the will of God, and the desire of the Lord, conveyed through Mary, His mother, that the world be converted to Christ and be brought into God’s love and salvation.

Throughout the subsequent decades, especially after the devotion to our Lady of Fatima had been officially recognised by the Vatican, by the Pope himself, it quickly became a place of great devotion to Mary, the mother of God, the mother of Jesus Christ. Mary, is a role model to all of us, because her entire life had been dedicated to God, and had been given up for the sake of the Lord, that through her indeed, salvation of this world might spring forth, through Jesus, her Son, the Messiah.

It is her obedience and submission to the will of God that made salvation possible, and made her exalted above all women and all the peoples of God, for through her, all mankind who believe in her Son, are made perfect and whole again through the ministry and sacrifice of her Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross.

Many people had great misconceptions about this strong devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus our Lord, especially among those who hates these devotions because of their misinformation, lack of faith, and lack of understanding because they do not have in them the truth and the full extent of truth that the Lord passed down to us, through the Church and only in the Church.

They hated these devotions because to them apparently that these devotions border on worship and therefore they equate it with us, who believes, with the worship of Mary as some sort of mother-goddess. But they got it entirely wrong, and yet even so, the world perpetuates the falsehood and the hatred because it belongs to the evil one, and it will stop at nothing to prevent the truth from reaching the ears and hearts of many in this world.

Our devotion to Mary, the mother of God, which is represented and celebrated today in the form of Our Lady of Fatima, because Mary had made her appearance to the children at Fatima, is because through Mary, we can be more guaranteed of salvation in Christ. Mary, as the mother of the Lord, and having been righteous and obedient to God throughout her entire life, is the perfect role model for all of us, that indeed she is the greatest and queen of all saints in heaven.

By following the examples of Mary, in her words, in her actions, and in her various messages that she had delivered through her various approved appearances, had been crucial in guiding many either to the Lord or return from their wayward paths. Through our devotion to her, in which we show our love and dedication to the mother of God, and not our worship, we bring ourselves closer to God at the same time. For the mother of God is surely always close to her Son, the Lord God Most High, and therefore, she can indeed help us to be ever closer to our God.

As much as we are dedicated to Mary, the mother of God, we are devoted even more to her Son, that is our Lord Jesus. Why is this so? Because through Mary, we can understand our Lord better, we can glimpse better the purpose of the coming of our God into this world, to be man like us, and to die on the cross that we can be saved from the certainty of death due to sin.

That is how we should indeed pray, that is through Mary, to Jesus. Because Mary is our greatest intercessor, our great link between ourselves and God in Christ. Remember that in Cana, during that wedding when Christ performed His very first miracle? It was because of the intercession of Mary that the wedding could proceed well, because Mary was insistent in helping the couple that their wedding would not go awry. Our Lord being a good son listens to His mother’s wishes.

We have to be careful here to note that our Lord listens to His mother but this does not make Him subordinate to her. She is not a goddess or anything of that kind, but rather, she is the perfect example of the role of saints and why we ask for their intercession, because they intercede for us before Christ, and put forth our case and our petitions before Him. And no greater saint exists other than Mary, the Lord’s own mother.

That is why today we celebrate this feast of Our Lady of Fatima, because Mary, our Lady, had made her appearance in Fatima, and showing the miracles of God that many would end up believing in God, and through her message at Fatima, she wanted to bring the world ever closer to her Son, indeed showing that even though it had been long since Mary had been assumed to heaven in the Assumption, she still cares for us and intercedes for us at all times, and is willing to come forth and give her aid to mankind, especially to bring more souls to salvation and away from damnation of hell.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, from today on, let us strive to follow the examples of the saints, particularly that of Mary, our Lady of Fatima. Let us follow her example and her faith in God, that we too can be obedient like her to the will of God and lead a righteous life like she had once led in this world and received her rewards in heaven.

Whenever someone said that we in the Church worship Mary and the saints, do not be quiet and give in to passivity, but rather, bravely defend our Lady and our God, her Son. For such accusation actually amounts to an insult for our Lady, and an insult to Mary, the mother of our Lord means also an insult to our Lord Jesus, her Son. Courageously defend our faith, not by being confrontational or hostile, but rather with patience, explaining the real truth of our true faith to those who have been blinded by the falsehood spread by the evil one.

Let us be more like Mary, and make ourselves closer to Jesus, her Son, just as our Lady of Fatima had wanted us, so that we can truly be God’s children, through our words, our actions, and our bearings, that we reflect Christ in all our dealings, and the world that sees us, will believe and will be converted to the cause of Christ. God bless us all. Mary, our Lady of Fatima, pray for us. Amen.

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Monday, 13 May 2013 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima (Gospel Reading)

John 16 : 29-33

The disciples said to Him, “Now You are speaking plainly and not in veiled language! Now we see that You know all things, even before we question You. Because of this we believe that You came from God.”

Jesus answered them, “You say that you believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave Me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me.”

“I have told you all this, so that in Me you may have peace. You will have trouble in the world; but courage! I have overcome the world.”

 

Reading from the Mass of Our Lady of Fatima

 

Luke 11 : 27-28

As Jesus was speaking, a woman spoke from the crowd and said to Him, “Blessed is the one who gave You birth and nursed You!”

Jesus replied, “Truly blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it as well.”

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Sunday, 12 May 2013 : 7th Sunday of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear of the glory of God, who is to come, the glory of God who had been risen in glory from the dead and therefore triumphed over death and evil, and broke their hold over all of us for eternity. This God who had been taken up in glory to heaven, in the glorious Ascension, and seated at the right hand of God the Father. This was seen by the first martyr, Stephen the deacon, who saw and proclaim the glory of Christ, that despite knowing that such proclamation would certainly bring about his death at the hands of the chief priests.

God’s promise will become a reality, that He will soon once again come down onto this world, this time not as the humble king born in a manger, which we celebrate now as Christmas, but this time He will descend as a great and almighty king in glory, as the ruler of all creation and the Master of all the Universe. He will come as the great judge who will judge all for their own worth, whether they are worthy or unworthy of heaven that is the reward for those who are faithful, and for those who keep God in their hearts.

Those who knows Christ will know the Father, because Christ was sent by the Father into this world in His first coming to be our Messiah, our Saviour from death and the slavery of sin. If we hold fast onto this faith, Christ too will know us, and make all of us His own, and when the time comes for all of us to be judged, we will be welcomed into His Kingdom, and we will receive our rewards of eternal life.

Christ desires also, first and foremost, that all of those who believe in Him be one and united, as one Body, and therefore one Spirit, in the Church that He established through the Apostles. This is because Christ knows human weaknesses and the extent of human susceptibility to the devil’s influences. The evil one will stop at nothing to prevent his ultimate fate that is total defeat and damnation, but his fate has already been decided. Nevertheless, through his numerous agents and tools in this world, he can indeed make life difficult for those of us who believe and keep the faith.

Christ knows that the Church He had established will be fractured by the agents of Satan, through human pride and arrogance, and self-serving attitudes, that resulted in the breaking of the Body of the faithful. That is why He prayed, and prayed hard to His Father in heaven, that all the faithful ones in Him, His sheep, will remain as one, as indivisible from each other, just as He and the Father, and also the Holy Spirit are together and united in an immeasurably strong bond and unity.

His wish, that they all may be one, that all of us may be one, as one Church, one people, with one Creed, and one belief, had been dashed by the evils of human ambitions and weaknesses throughout the past centuries. Many had succumbed to the temptations of the world and false teachings, through numerous false prophets, aimed by Satan to confuse the Church and the faithful, and broke the unity within the Body of Christ, that is the Church.

False prophets like Arius, Jan Hus, Martin Luther, and many others who even claimed themselves Messiah or the second coming of Christ, had spread seeds of disunity among the faithful, and also spread false teachings that ended up confusing the faithful and snared many into damnation because of them believing in teachings in contrary to the teachings of Christ, as delivered to us through the Apostles and the early Church Fathers.

Many today in our world had claimed that faith must be a personal one, that is to be a personal ‘encounter’ with Christ. But they had forgotten that faith in Christ is impossible to be described in personal terms, or separated from the whole community of the faithful, that is the Church. Humans are inherently weak because of our imperfections, and because of our own sinful nature, since our first rebellion through our ancestors who disobeyed the Lord’s command not to eat the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Since then, many think too high of themselves, thinking that they are capable of great wisdom and possessing great knowledge, and therefore are capable of interpreting the Scripture on their own, and as they like it. This is why, although reading the Scripture is important for the development of the faith, we have to anchor ourselves in the authority and the teaching magisterium of the Church, as only in good guidance of the Church, that we can fully make use and understand the Scripture.

For the Scripture was written by the apostles and disciples of Christ, who were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and also the numerous prophets of the past times, who also received the message of the Lord, many of which are veiled messages that are part of the mystery of our faith. Even someone who is very knowledgeable and experienced in the Scripture, will certainly not be able to claim to fully understand the full and true meaning of God’s words contained in the Scripture.

Many today and in the past interpreted the words of God in the Scripture as they wished, and they ended up establishing new ‘faiths’ that they call churches, which in fact exist in thousands, millions, and maybe more today. There are as many ‘churches’ as there are heads, obviously because no one can agree perfectly with one another and mankind will certainly be influenced by pride and arrogance to shut out other’s own interpretations and keep one’s own interpretations to oneself. Such is the danger of self-faith and faith that does not conform to the will of God in the Church.

Indeed, many of them sinned grievously because they had caused division in the body of the faithful, the Church, the Body of Christ, and also spreading false teachings, and many of these, especially are intertwined with relativism, that is to include secular developments into the faith, which are in fact incompatible, and therefore, the faith, the true faith that we know of, no longer exists in those who had gone astray.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, strengthen your faith and resolve! Do not give up to the temptations of Satan and this world. Read the Scripture and learn the faith through the teachings of the Church, and deafen yourselves to the false allures of the false prophets and agents of the evil one. Be steadfast and be faithful, and the Lord will reward all of you.

Help one another in the faith, and pass the teachings of the Lord in the Church to those, especially those who had gone astray in their path, and those who has had wrong impression and ideas about the true faith in God. Who says that Christians can only evangelise to non-Christians and non-believers? Look into ourselves, and you can see so much division within the Body of Christ that is the Church, that we need to do some internal housecleaning first.

Just as Christ said, that if we are united then the world will believe in the Lord, if we are divided against ourselves, by attacking one another’s faith, how is the Church going to stand and bring then the fight to the devil? Let us strive to fulfill Christ’s wish and indeed, God’s will, that the entire community of the believers in Christ, would be reunited, into one body, one faith, and one belief in Christ our Lord, within His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, our Roman Catholic Church, the one and only true Church that Christ had established in this world, on Peter His Apostle, on whom He entrusted the keys of the Kingdom of heaven.

May God strengthen the unity between Christians and allow all those who believe in Him to be reunited once again within one Church, and one faith, under the authority and jurisdiction of the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter the Apostle, keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and Vicar of Christ in this world. God bless all of us, Amen.

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Sunday, 12 May 2013 : 7th Sunday of Easter (Second Reading)

Revelation 22 : 12-14, 16-17, 20

I am coming soon, bringing with Me the salary I will pay to each one according to his deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Happy are those who wash their robes for they will have free access to the Tree of Life and enter the city through the gates.

I, Jesus, sent My angel to make known to you these revelations concerning the Churches, I am the Shoot and Offspring of David, the radiant Morning Star.

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Sunday, 12 May 2013 : 7th Sunday of Easter (First Reading)

Acts 7 : 55-60

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, fixed his eyes on heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus at God’s right hand, so he declared, “I see the heavens open and the Son of Man at the right hand of God.”

But they shouted and covered their ears with their hands and rushed together upon him. They brought him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed saying : “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Then he knelt down and said in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he died.

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Saturday, 11 May 2013 : 6th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

John 16 : 23b-28

The time is coming, when I shall no longer speak in veiled language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. When that day comes, you will ask in My Name; and it will not be for Me to ask the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and you believe that I came from the Father.

As I came from the Father, and have come into the world, so I am leaving the world, and going to the Father.

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Friday, 10 May 2013 : 6th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, praise the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, at all times, always! For He is our great King of glory, who was glorified by the Father in His resurrection, and then elevation to heaven in the Ascension. He is the only one worthy of praise, and worthy of worship, for through Him the world had seen its salvation and the hour is truly coming very close that Christ will come once again to justify those whom He had chosen, and those who had remained faithful to Him.

The world rejoices while the faithful in Christ are in sorrow, that is because the world does not belong to God, but instead belong to the evil one, from where all evils sprang from. The world therefore has hated those who are upright and righteous before God, since the beginning of creation, when men first fall into sin, and Satan first had his hold over mankind.

The faithful ones in Christ now is represented by the Church, the one and only Church of all the faithful ones in God, that is our One, Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. If you had heard many of the negative publications and bad news on the Church and portraying the Church in a bad light, that is exactly what Jesus meant with the world rejoicing while we are in mourning. Because the world will definitely try its best to denounce the Church and portray it as evil and irrelevant, exactly as what happened in our world today, in the direct and indirect persecution of the Church and the faithful ones in Christ, many of which are persecuted and ridiculed daily for their faith in God.

For, there are increasingly many who heed the call of Satan through the world and all its attractive seductions and temptations, either through false sense of happiness, joy, and through material goods and possessions, that often ensnared mankind into senseless greed for more and more material possessions, that they end up losing sight on the true goal of their life, that is to follow Christ, to remain faithful to Him, and become His disciples in spreading His Good News to all the peoples in all the nations.

The world today offers us much opportunities and goods that for many of us are simply too much to resist. Many also had fallen into the temptations and submitted to the devil, for temporary pleasures and false sense of joy, while straying from the path which Christ had shown to all of us. They had chosen evil over what is good, and abandoned the One who loves them so much that He gave up His life even for them.

Evil sees truth in the Church, truth that is of the Lord, and truth that can save mankind from eternal damnation with evil itself. Unwilling to see mankind saved from their seemingly unavoidable destiny, that is to perish with Satan in the eternal hell, he uses all his might through the world to prevent mankind from being saved, one of which is through seducing susceptible mankind, which in fact includes everybody, to stray from God’s path, and the other is by attacking the Church, that font of truth, out of which comes the only possibility of salvation. Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, there is no salvation outside the Church.

We will be persecuted, ridiculed against, and attacked, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, for holding fast to our faith in Christ crucified, in Christ resurrected, and in Christ the Son of God, the One triumphant against evil, sin, and all of evil’s insidious plans. But if we remain strong in our resolution and standing, and steadfast in our faith, we will not falter in our path, and despite all the hardships, the sorrows, and the sadness, we will eventually triumph with Christ.

Remember that with every cloud there is always a silver lining. Hope never dies, and hope will always be there, as long as we believe in it. In Christ lies our only hope, and in Him, salvation of the world can come. He had been triumphant, and we will be victorious with Him when He comes again to judge the world, and find us worthy, while those who rejected Him will end up in the eternal condemnation that is due for them and the devil and his fallen angels.

God be with us all, and remain within our hearts, forever. Amen.

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Thursday, 9 May 2013 : Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (Gospel Reading)

Luke 24 : 46-53

So it was written : the Messiah had to suffer, and on the third day rise from the dead. Then repentance and forgiveness in His Name would be proclaimed to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. And that is why I will send you what My Father promised. So remain in the city until you are clothed with power from above.”

Jesus led them almost as far as Bethany; then He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And as He blessed them, He withdrew, and was taken to heaven. They worshipped Him, and then returned to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple; praising God.