kingdom of heaven

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Sunday, 28 September 2014 : 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, Martyr, and St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 21 : 28-32

At that time, Jesus went on to say, “What do you think of this? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said to him, ‘Son, go and work today in my vineyard.’ And the son answered, ‘I do not want to.’ But later he thought better of it and went.”

“Then the father went to his other son and gave him the same command. This son replied, ‘I will go, sir,’ but he did not go.”

“Which of the two did what the father wanted?” They answered, “The first.” And Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you : the publicans and the prostitutes are ahead of you on the way to the kingdom of heaven. For John came to show you the way of goodness, and you did not believe him; but the publicans and the prostitutes did. You were witnesses of this, but you neither repented nor believed him.”

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Wednesday, 24 September 2014 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 118 : 29, 72, 89, 101, 104, 163

Keep me away from deceitful paths; be gracious and teach me Your law.

Your law is more precious to me than heaps of silver and gold.

O Lord, Your word stands forever, firmly fixed in the heavens.

I turn my feet from evil paths, that I may keep step with Your word.

Your precepts have given me knowledge, and I hate all that is false.

I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love Your law.

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Sunday, 31 August 2014 : 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the readings from the Holy Scriptures today all had a single and most important meaning as well as purpose, that is to remind us that, in all things and in all that happen in our lives, they are not within our control, and in everything, we should defer to the will of God, that is what God wanted for us to do in this life.

Brethren, God always means well for us, even when often it does not seem as such. That was exactly why the prophet Jeremiah in the first reading we heard today, while he grumbled for the difficulties, challenges and persecutions he faced, he eventually acknowledged that the Lord and His will had him in the best interest, and that God continued to help and support him amidst all the challenges, and thus Jeremiah continued on to preach the word of God to the people of Judah.

And St. Paul in the second reading, in his letter addressed to the Church in Rome, the great Apostle urged the people there to listen to and heed the will of God, understanding what the Lord wanted from them rather than following the ways and the norms of the world, which were filled with wickedness and injustice unworthy of God’s chosen peoples in the Church. And he also urged the people to live and bound themselves to God’s great mercy, making themselves a favourable sacrifice in heart and prayer to Him.

And lastly we heard how Jesus rebuked Satan, who entered Peter’s heart, to remind both St. Peter and all of us, by our listening and understanding of the message of that encounter, of the need and importance for us to follow and obey the will of God in all things. St. Peter commented on how Jesus should not have said that He would suffer persecution and rejection in Jerusalem by the Pharisees and the chief priests, because he was afraid and fear filled his heart.

And the same applied to us all, brethren, because we all also often feel fear and are afraid of many things. We are easily concern about many aspects of our own well-being, as we mankind are by our nature selfish. And the many things in this world served to fuel our insecurities further, often leading us to carry out deeds and works that often benefit ourselves but disadvantage and even hurt others. Often, this means that we are also frequently disadvantaged by others when others acted in self-preservation out of the same fear.

Some fears that we have, be it we are rich or poor, weak or strong, young or old are the fear of death, the fear of suffering and pain, the fear of loss of properties and material goods, and many others. We are insecure over these, and it is easy for us to think that when times are difficult, when things do not go our way, and when someone who loved are lost through various means, be it old age or even unexpected events such as accidents, we often feel such despair and anger in us over the loss that we often think and even say, where is God in all these?

Yes, brethren, it is very easy for us to blame God and put the fault at Him for such apparent ‘neglect’ of His beloved creations. However, this is because many of us did not understand the nature of God and the nature of our relationship with the Lord. If we look into our lives, we can often see that we frequently overlook the presence of God in our lives, and we often only turn to Him whenever we are in dire strait and in trouble. And many of us misunderstood our relationship with our Lord, thinking and expecting that the Lord will ‘listen’ to our petitions, prayers or even whining and demands.

That is because for many of us, prayer to God is nothing more than a litany of requests and even demands, which we bombard the Lord with, with the familiar, constant and ubiquitous phrases of ‘Lord I want that…’, ‘Lord I wish for…’, ‘Lord, please do something…’, ‘Lord, give me…’ and other similar phrases, without giving a chance for the Lord to speak to us in our hearts.

Yes, as we all should know, the essence of prayer is not for us to bombard the Lord with all these. We did these exactly because we feel insecure and fearful, and we think that God is someone who can just fulfill and admit all of our wishes. But He is not our slave nor our servant, in the sense that we can just order Him around for anything. On the other hand, we are the ones who actually should live according to what God wants from us, and yet many of us failed to do so.

We have to realise that we live in this world not just for ourselves, and we have to live with one another in faith, peace and love. We have to learn that the true meaning of prayer is for us to open our hearts and all sorts of our senses to the Lord, who will then converse with us in the silence of our hearts, in the deepest part of our selves, which we have often overlooked and forgot, in the midst of all the things we are so concerned about in life.

God is always there for us, and He always watches over us. He wants to speak to us all the time, and yet we always find our excuse or pretend to be ignorant, refusing to listen to His words. We always think that God does not listen to us, or that He does not care for or love us, and we even think that He had abandoned us to the forces arrayed against us, but we often never stop to think that the Lord is always with us and around us, and it is we who have often shut ourselves from. His care and love.

We are surely familiar with the story of someone who walked in the beach, on the seashore, where he walked with God. There were two sets of footsteps, one that belonged to the man and one that belonged to the Lord. Then the man encountered great difficulties in life and he suffered from it. He looked at the footsteps and realised that there was only one footstep there. The man complained and protested against God, alleging that God had abandoned him and did not care for him.

When the Lord asked him what he thought, he presented the evidence of the one set of footsteps to accuse the Lord of leaving him back there alone during his time of troubles. But the Lord patiently and lovingly told the man, that when the man was in his most difficult moments, the Lord carried the man on His own shoulders, and thus the footsteps that the man saw, actually belonged to the Lord who carried and guided the man in his difficulty, even without him knowing it.

Thus, brothers and sisters, learning from the Scriptures which we have heard today, and what we have reflected and pondered on this day, we have to keep always in our hearts. First, we mankind cannot presume what is in God’s mind, and we have to learn to trust in the Lord, as whatever He has for us in His will and mind, it is the best of the best for us. Second, we have to always trust in His providence and love for us, as God is always with us and He will never leave us even for a moment, and in fact it is men who left Him first.

And lastly, we all have to know that to follow the Lord means that challenges, difficulties and persecutions from the world and all in it will be part and parcel of our lives. What we need to do is to carry our cross and follow the Lord, as Jesus Himself said. If Christ had suffered and was rejected by the world, we who are part of Christ as His disciples and servants are bound to suffer in the same way as well.

Jesus told us to get rid of from our hearts all desires of self-preservation, selfishness itself and seek to be upright and righteous in all things. If we do so, we will save our souls, as the Lord who sees all and who knows all will reward us for our hard works. And we ought to do this by showing love, care and concern for our fellow men.

Those who are so concerned for themselves, fearing the loss of their properties, their other concerns in life will be paralysed by that fear, or act in ways that hurt or disadvantage others, and the Lord who sees this, will cast them out of His presence into eternal damnation, and hence, saving the world and their glory in the world but losing their soul for eternity.

We can do our part, brethren, by changing our lives if we have not done so, or do even better if we have indeed done as the Lord had taught us. Be courageous to defend the weak and the oppressed, and be courageous to defend our faith as well. Live our faith consciously and actively by loving acts and dedications to our brethren around us, especially those who are in need. And lastly, keep a good, vibrant and healthy prayer life, spending time with God whenever we are able to. And in our prayers, keeping silent and focused on the Lord, so that He may speak in our heart and that we may then know His will for us.

May Almighty God bless us, protect us and be with us always as He had always been all this time. May His light shine upon us that we may find our way to Him and may all souls in this world be saved, by following the only God and Saviour Lord, Jesus Christ, Saviour of all mankind. Let us all also bear our crosses of suffering in this life together, that in the end, the Lord may transformed those crosses into the crosses of His glory and power. Amen.

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Saturday, 30 August 2014 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

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

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the word of God, in which we are reminded of the need to be proactive in our faith and in how we live our lives, depending also on the graces and wisdom which He had granted us mankind, so that we may grow further and develop what He had given to us and entrusted to us. Yes, so that we may be like the hardworking and good servants rather than becoming like the useless and lazy servant.

In each and every one of us, God had given many gifts in various ways, some more than others in certain things and some less than others in certain things, and while some have more, some have less than others. But regardless of the amounts, the Lord had given us something, blessings and graces He gave us, no matter how small or how big they are.

This is perfectly represented by Jesus through His telling of the parable of the servants with the silver talents. There were three servants who were given five talents of silver, two talents of silver and one talent of silver respectively, and they exactly represented all of us who had been given the gifts and blessings of God in the form of our abilities, talents and other gifts that we had been endowed with, no matter how great or small they are.

But what is important here is to reflect on the words and the true meaning of the parable which Jesus had told us through His disciples, on why it is so important for us not to be passive and be ridden with inaction, as these are great sins, the sins of omission. For it is not just the sin of action that is truly debilitating against the soul when we committed something evil and foul in the presence of God, but when we fail to do something when we clearly have the means and ability to do it, then we also commit a sin.

The key here is to understand that it is not when we have less then we deserve to be punished or anything of the sort. The servant who had been given the one talent could have been praised and be rewarded as well, had he not hidden his one silver talent in fear of losing it or in fear of retribution from his master and instead if he had invested it and worked on it, he would have received his due reward.

How does this relate to us then? We often fear to use our talents to be of use to others, and to work and do good works as well as good deeds using whatever abilities and gifts that God had given us. And when we were baptised and accepted as the member of the Body of Christ, the Church, God had given us even more gifts, the gift of faith, the gift of hope and the gift of love. However, these gifts are mere seeds that will only grow and become powerful tools for the Lord to works His wonders in this world if we take action and do something to use them for the good of all around us.

Remember the parable of the sower and the seeds that fell on different locations and conditions? The seeds will only grow well and produce bountiful returns of thirty, sixty, hundredfold and more if they fall on the rich soil. And this cannot be automatic for all of us. We have to work and toil hard just like all farmers do, so that the seeds may grow healthy and strong. A good heart and a favourable environment, represented by the rich soil is necessary, but even this require work on our part, and after that, we still need to toil and work hard till the harvest season.

That means, we have to be actively engaged in living our faith. We must be open to others, in terms of opening our hearts filled with this faith, hope and love so that others too may benefit from them and therefore stand to gain from what we are doing. Thus, in our words, our actions and deeds must reflect the nature of ourselves, that is as the children of God, who is Love, and thus we must have love, and hope, and faith in all of the things we do and say.

It is only then that we will be able to grow our faith, hope and love, and all of the various gifts God had given us, so that just like the faithful and good servants, their silver talents grow and multiply as they invested them, so do our gifts and our strength in God. And therefore, the Lord who sees all that we do will reward us and keep us in His love and grace.

May Almighty God bless us on this day, and strengthen us that we may continue to persevere amidst the difficulties of this world and commit ourselves to greater acts of faith, hope and love, so that all those around us may benefit from them and we too may be found worthy of the everlasting heaven. God be with us all. Amen.

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Dedication and Prayer for those who had passed away in various circumstances

St. Augustine of Hippo once said, “He who sings prays twice.” Thus, with the limitations and the resources I have, I would like to dedicate these in prayer for the sake of those who had gone before us in various circumstances.

I would like in particular to commend someone who was known to me and who just passed away due to accident a few days ago, and I also would like to commend in prayer those who have perished and suffered from various persecutions and torture throughout the Middle East conflict, as well as any victims of injustice and violence throughout the world. And lastly, all others who had also passed away before us, and who now keep us in their prayers before God.

May God hear our prayers and guide their souls into His presence and kingdom in heaven, that they may receive eternal rest and glory at His side. And pray for us, brethren! Pray for us sinners who are still walking about in this world.

 

In paradisum (translation: “Into paradise”)

Lyric:

In paradisum deducant te Angeli;

May the angels lead you to paradise;

 

in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres,

upon your arrival, may the martyrs receive you,

 

et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem.

and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem.

 

Chorus angelorum te suscipiat,

May the ranks of angels receive you,

 

et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem.

and with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have eternal rest.

 

 

Amazing Grace

Lyric:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T’was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall profess, within the vail,
A life of joy and peace.

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Friday, 22 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 112 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

Alleluia! Praise, o servants of the Lord, praise the Name of the Lord! Blessed be the Name of the Lord now and forever!

From eastern lands to the western islands, may the Name of the Lord be praised! The Lord is exalted over the nations, His glory above the heavens.

Who is like the Lord our God, who sits enthroned on high, but also bends down to see on earth as in heaven?

He lifts up the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap. He makes them sit with princes, with rulers of His people.

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Tuesday, 19 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Eudes, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Matthew 19 : 23-30

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you : it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, believe Me : it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

On hearing this the disciples were astonished and said, “Who, then, can be saved?” Jesus looked steadily at them and answered, “For human beings it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

Then Peter spoke up and said, “You see we have given up everything to follow You. What will be our lot?” Jesus answered, “You who have followed Me, listen to My words : on the Day of Renewal, when the Son of Man sits on His throne in glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.”

“As for those who have left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or property for My Name’s sake, they will receive a hundredfold, and be given eternal life. Many who are now first will be last, and many who are now last will be first.”

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Monday, 18 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 19 : 16-22

It was then that a young man approached Jesus and asked, “Master, what good work must I do to receive eternal life?”

Jesus answered, “Why do you ask Me about what is good? One only is good. If you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments.”

The young man said, “Which commandments?” Jesus replied, “Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honour your father and mother, and love your neighbour as yourself.”

The young man said to Him, “I have kept all these commandments. What is still lacking?” Jesus answered, “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you possess and give the money to the poor, and you will become the owner of a treasure in heaven. Then come back and follow Me.”

On hearing this answer, the young man went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.

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Saturday, 16 August 2014 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Stephen of Hungary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Matthew 19 : 13-15

Then little children were brought to Jesus that He might lay His hands on them and pray. But the disciples scolded those who brought them.

Jesus then said, “Let them be! Do not stop the children from coming to Me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to people such as these children.”

So Jesus laid His hands on them and went His way.

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Friday, 15 August 2014 : Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Revelations 11 : 19a and Revelations 12 : 1-6a, 10ab

Then the sanctuary of God in the heavens was opened, and the Ark of the Covenant of God could be seen inside the sanctuary.

A great sign appeared in heaven : a woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain, looking to her time of delivery.

Then another sign appeared : a huge, red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and wearing seven crowns on its heads. It had just swept along a third of the stars of heaven with its tail, throwing them down to the earth.

The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour the Child as soon as He was born. She gave birth to a male Child, the One who is to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre; then her Child was seized and taken up to God and to His throne while the woman fled to the desert where God had prepared a place for her.

Then I heard a loud voice from heaven : “Now has salvation come, with the power and the kingdom of our God.”