Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyr)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we once again hear from the readings on the greatness of the Lord our God, and His might that He had brought into the world, to bring His beloved people from slavery and suffering, into a blissful new life, blessed by God. He had also sent us His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Saviour, the Messiah who would free us from the slavery of sin and death, and deliver us into a new life, an eternal life with God.

He showed His might and power through things manifest in this world, through miracles and glorious things, and also through secret and unseen methods. He brought His people Israel out of the slavery in Egypt with the power of His hand, punishing the Egyptians and their Pharaoh for their stubbornness, and He guided His people through the long journey towards the very land that He had promised them and their forefathers.

He gave His people His laws and commandments, that they will follow those laws and abandon any wickedness and evil they had committed in their past lives, and therefore begin a new life filled with love and good works, in tune with the way of the Lord. This is so that they will leave behind whatever evil that made them unworthy of being with God, and therefore allow them to truly taste the fruits of salvation and the fruits of eternal life, which God had promised us, and brought to all of us, through Christ His Son.

Yes, our Lord sent His Son to us, so that He will reveal to us, the true meaning of His laws and His commandments, that is love, and that love is none other than the infinite love He has for all of us, without exception, even the greatest sinners. Yes, especially the greatest of sinners! To the great sinners He had come, to heal us and to bring us all back into His presence and His embrace.

He is willing to look away from our faults and our sins, and instead forgive us from our sins, He made us whole again. He wants us to be with Him and follow His ways. However, the path of the Lord is not easy, and it is full of challenges and difficulties, that all of us must face, if we are to be the disciples and the people of the Lord our God. The same had happened with the people of Israel, who were led through the desert towards the Promised Land. Our lives are full of trials and tribulations just as those that Israel had faced when they were in that desert.

If we follow through and persevered through the tribulations and trials, our reward will be great, because we will be regarded highly by the Lord our God who loves us, and our faith and love in Him will be made evident for all to see. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ, as told to us in the Gospel reading today, who will come again in His glory at the end of time, will reward us greatly for our faith, for our dedication and love for Him and His beloved people.

Today, brethren, we also celebrate the feast of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as Edith Stein, a great martyr of the faith and a religious nun of the Discalced Carmelites who lived in the era of uncertainty, during the two World Wars, and eventually met her martyrdom in glory during the persecution of the Jews by the Nazi Germany, and because of her Jewish roots, she was martyred in 1942 along with many of the faithful people of God.

St. Teresa Benedicta was a convert from the Jewish faith into the Catholic faith, and she became a well educated and devout person who through her exposure and experience with the Catholic faith, eventually influenced her to join the Discalced Carmelites as a nun. During that time, the Nazis under the leadership of Adolf Hitler had increased their influence in Germany and took over the government, and began to persecute the Jews and many other people the Nazis had deemed as subhuman and unworthy of their ‘Germany’.

St. Teresa Benedicta strongly opposed the Nazi regime and sent letters to the Church and even the Pope, asking them to publicly condemn Hitler and his inhumane regime. She opposed the tyranny of the Nazis and their persecutions, and even though she was initially protected because of her Catholic faith, her constant opposition and standing up for the cause of the righteous eventually led to her and many of her companions, especially the Jewish converts, to be imprisoned, and eventually gassed to death by the Nazi regime.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Teresa Benedicta had stood up for the cause of the right, for justice, and for love. She had born the cross that she carried daily with her, even to her imprisonment and finally her martyrdom. Her commitment to justice and right of the oppressed is truly an example to all of us the people of God. She receives her glorious reward in heaven, and now, she as a saint, is in heaven in the glory of God, and yet she continues to pray for us, for our sake, that we too may be found worthy and join her and all the saints in heaven for eternity.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have received Christ and His teachings which are passed down to us through the Apostles and their successors. Through them we have learnt of the things and the commandments that God had given to us, that we can follow and practice, in order to ensure that all of us truly have faith in God, made alive and vibrant through frequent and constant acts of charity and good works done for the sake of our fellow brethren who are in need, for material goods, and even more importantly, for our love and God’s love, channelled to them through our deeds, our words, and our actions.

May all of us follow the example of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, and stand up for our faith and all the things that we believe in, opposing all forms of evil and impropriety, be it by the weak or the powerful, be it by the people outside the Church or inside the Church, and indeed, let us bring those who had gone astray and commit much evil in this life, back to the path of goodness, back to the path towards salvation, that not only that we will receive our eternal and heavenly reward, but even the greatest of these sinners, who through our work and actions, have new hope of eternal life in Christ. God bless us all. Amen.