lip service

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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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Monday, 16 June 2014 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what Jesus mentioned in today’s Scripture readings is the concept of do ut des, which is a Latin expression for the concept of vengeance for evil done by one to another. The examples are as what Jesus had shown, and which can also be found in the first books of the Old Testament.

This law is a very harsh law, which was established through Moses, to punish misbehaviours and evils in the society of the people of God, by punishment equivalent to the evil that had been done earlier. The afflicted party or the relatives of the afflicted may pursue the perpetrator and claim damage in equivalent term as what the perpetrator had damaged in the victim.

If someone caused another to be injured in a way, then the victim is entitled and indeed encouraged to do the exact revenge and commit the same injury to the former. And if that someone caused someone to lose his or her life, then the relatives of the victim is entitled to, and indeed was encouraged to pursue the perpetrator to death, to cry out for his blood, as a vengeance for the victim’s blood.

However, this law in its interpretation, and indeed, in its true purpose, had been misunderstood and misused, so often that it had misguided the people in their approach to the Lord, and instead of helping the people to seek God, often it made them corrupted and losing the focus of their faith instead. This was clear example how divine law is made flawed through feeble human interpretations.

God does not find pleasure in the destruction of the people, even the wicked ones, and He desires that all of us are brought back to Himself. It is mankind themselves who desire the destruction of their own kind, through their sinfulness, our sinfulness and wickedness, indeed, which brought about such sad and unfortunate incidents as what had happened in the first reading today.

The murder of Naboth the vineyard owner by King Ahab who desired his good vineyard was the clear example of human wickedness in their greed and desire for material goods and for possessions. It is this greed which pushes us to commit things that are not according to the Lord’s laws and commandments, causing us to do things that hurt others or even cause loss of life, as what had happened to Naboth’s case.

King Ahab misused his authority and power, and pushed along by his infamous wife, Queen Jezebel, who encouraged him to set false witnesses to accuse Naboth and acquire his lands for himself. Mankind often try many different methods and ways, and often ways that are not morally upright, in order to get what they want. This is one of the great vices of mankind, which King Ahab demonstrated perfectly.

We may then ask, why did the Lord then, come out with such a vile law in the first place? Was He not the One behind everything by placing such strict and manipulable law in place? The reason is because of the people of Israel was so rebellious in their ways and they continuously refused to listen to the Lord’s words and His will, so much that He truly had no other choice but to impose such law and set of rules in order to ensure that His people obeyed and behaved themselves.

Why, brethren? Why is this so? There is only one answer, and that answer is love, the love that God has for all of us. His love was so great that, He imposed such a law to make sure that as few people as possible went against the way of righteousness and thus fell into sin and damnation. And that was also why, the Lord did not intend for such a law to remain forever. When Jesus, the Messiah came into the world, He revealed through Him, that the true purpose and intention of the Lord, was truly, Love.

Mankind should not have sought the destruction of one another through revenge and hatred. Instead, they must love one another as Christ had taught them through His disciples. Revenge and hatred in do ut des will merely beget more and more hatred and vengeance in an endless cycle of destruction. We have to break this cycle, and stop the chain of vengeance and hatred. And how to do so? Again, through love, and also through forgiveness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us reflect on our own lives and our actions. Have we been truly faithful children of God and listen to the will of our Father who loves us? Or have we instead been more like the Israelites and the Jews of the past, who disobeyed the Lord despite having seen His power, and preferred the corrupting nature of our world?

Let us all therefore from now on, commit ourselves to love the Lord our Father, that we may grow stronger in our faith, and in our dedication to His ways. Let us cast away far, far away, any sinful acts or corruptions that tend to keep us away from the loving grace of our God. May the Lord be with us this day, and every single day of our lives. May He bless us and empower us to live more faithfully to Him with each passing day. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 18 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Brothers and sisters, humility and love are the two most important aspects of our faith, which we should always keep in mind, especially as we live in this world. We must always be humble, before God and men, and be loving to our brethren, to our neighbours, and ultimately towards God.

We are all sinners, equal before the eyes of God, that is why we should not exalt ourselves or trumpet our achievements before us. We should come to a full realisation of the full extent and gravity of our sins and faults, that we may move towards doing something to change that and make ourselves once again worthy of the Lord our God.

It is not easy to be humble, brethren, because especially the greater we are, the more things that we possess in our lives, and the more affluent and influential we are in our society, there are more and more things that can prevent us from showing humility, not only before men, but also before God.

It is natural for us to boast about what is great about us, and to flaunt whatever we possess, be it wealth, influence, or power. And if we do so, it becomes a vicious cycle. By showing off our power and greatness, we are likely to be praised for it, and therefore, we will be even more eager to show more of our power, and to gain more of it.

And it is this pursuit of more power, wealth, greatness and other things that often likely to keep us away from the path of the Lord, that we no longer walk in His path, but following our own path, that will end in destruction for us. That was why Jesus emphasised to us using the examples of the Pharisees and the chief priests, for us not to be tainted and taken over by the corrupting power of desire and human greed.

For the Pharisees liked to boast their piety, in their observation of the law and the strict guidelines they themselves had established. They liked to show off their piety and teaching authority to others, whom they deemed to be inferior to themselves. They have made themselves to be a caste and a group on its own, whom they themselves deemed to be righteous and holy.

The Pharisees acted as if they were the righteous and the just, even to the point of condemning others whom they deemed as sinners and unworthy people. But they themselves had sin inside them, and even a greater sin because they not only failed to recognise their own sins, but they also condemn others for their sins, thinking in their pride, that they are better than them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Pharisees showed us the example of how we should not be in our faith. We cannot be judgmental and critical of others, not least if we cannot be critical of ourselves. We should instead follow the example of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, whose feast we are celebrating today. St. Cyril was the bishop of Jerusalem, who was renowned for his great charitable works for the poor, who sold even imperial gifts to the Church to help them.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem was truly devoted to the Lord, and he showed that not just in his charity acts and love for the people of God, but also in his numerous writings in which He described the Lord and His love, and in the nature of Jesus and His salvation, which helped many to understand better about the faith.

You all now see the contrast between them, so let us all seek to renew and strengthen our faith. Let us be beacons of light for one another, guiding our ways as we reach out to the Lord. May God also help us on our way, that we may be with Him at the end of all, and not fall along the way to the temptation of power and worldly corruptions. Amen.

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Friday, 14 March 2014 : 1st Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

In our faith, brothers and sisters, we must always be genuine. We cannot take our faith for granted, and neither can we only keep an outward profession for faith, but inside we truly lack the faith and do not believe in God. True faith in God requires us to devote ourselves to Him and be committed in our actions and deeds to show our true faith to God.

We must heed what the Lord wants from us, in our actions and deeds, in every single aspects of our lives. We often end up doing lip-service to the Lord and following superficially the laws and rules He had given us, instead of truly devoting ourselves to His cause. This we cannot do, brothers and sisters in Christ.

And we certainly will have to do and act in the way that we preach. We cannot say one thing and yet do another, different thing from what we had said. If we do so then our faith is shallow and not genuine, and can be easily swayed by the wickedness that is in this world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord loves us, and I have to repeat it again and again, that God loves us, very much, that He gave us Jesus His Son to be our helper, and to show us the way, how to devote ourselves entirely to Him, by teaching us and showing us the examples of being a good and faithful servant of God.

The key thing of all these is that we have to love, and we have to base all our actions on love, and in all of our actions and dealings, we have to always align ourselves with the ways of the Lord, that is righteousness. We have to adhere to the principles that God had established, in His laws and tenets that we ought to know, understand, and obey.

God wants all of us to love, and to love tenderly, and to forgive when someone slighted us or made mistakes to us. He wants us to do the same too, when we have slighted someone else. He wants us to be reconciled with one another, and forgoing all the hatred and differences that kept us apart, that we all may once again serve Him together as one, united people, united in love.

And He wants to show us that faith in Him cannot be just limited to observations of rituals and obligations according to the law. We cannot be just bystanders and followers, following the instructions of our faith to the letter, without understanding it. What I mean is that, we have to truly understand what we are doing, and in doing so we will make our faith much more meaningful.

And that is why God wants us to forgive one another first and be reconciled before we make our offerings to Him. What He wants from us is a heart of love, untainted by hatred, jealousy and all the other negative feelings that mar the perfection of our hearts. Let this be a lesson to all of us, that we may take note of it, whenever we do something, and whenever we say something, that we truly reflect that we belong to God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us make a resolution before the Lord, that we will be ever better servants of His will, that we will forsake the way of hatred, jealousy and other negative ill-feelings, and change them for the way of love, practicing what we have believed in, that is our faith in the One and only True God, Jesus Christ, who came to us in love to save us. Amen.

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Wednesday, 19 February 2014 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

James 1 : 19-27

My beloved, be quick to hear but slow to speak and slow to anger, for human anger does not fulfill the justice of God. So get rid of any filth and reject the prevailing evil, and welcome the Word that has been planted in you and has the power to save you.

Be doers of the Word and not just hearers, lest you deceive yourselves. The hearer who does not become a doer is like that one who looked himself at the mirror. He looked and then promptly forgot what he was like. But those who fix their gaze on the perfect law of freedom and hold onto it, not listening and then forgetting, but acting on it, will find blessing on their deeds.

Those who think they are religious but do not restrain their tongue, deceive themselves and their religion is in vain. In the sight of God, our Father, pure and blameless religion lies in helping the orphans and widows in their need and keeping oneself from the world’s corruption.

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Tuesday, 11 February 2014 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Marian feast)

Mark 7 : 1-13

One day the Pharisees gathered around Jesus, and with them were some teachers of the Law who had just come from Jerusalem. They noticed that some of His disciples were eating their meal with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.

Now the Pharisees, and in fact all the Jews, never eat without washing their hands, for they follow the tradition received from their ancestors. Nor do they eat anything, when they come from the market, without first washing themselves. And there are many other traditions they observe; for example, the ritual washing of cups, pots and plates.

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean hands?” Jesus answered, “You shallow people! How well Isaiah prophesied of you when he wrote : ‘This people honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. The worship they offer Me is worthless, for what they teach are only human rules.'”

“You even put aside the commandment of God to hold fast to human tradition.” And Jesus commented, “You have a fine way of disregarding the commandments of God in order to enforce your own traditions! For example, Moses said : ‘Do your duty to your father and your mother,’ and : ‘Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death.'”

“But according to you, someone could say to his father or mother, ‘I already declared Corban, which means ‘offered to God’ what you could have expected from me.’ In this case, you no longer require him to do anything for his father or mother, and so you nullify the word of God through the tradition you have handed on. And you do many other things like that.”

Alternative Reading (Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes)

John 2 : 1-11

Three days later there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus was also invited to the wedding with His disciples. When all the wine provided for the celebration had been served, and they had run out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

Jesus replied, “Woman, what concern is that to you and Me? My hour has not yet come.” However his mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” Nearby were six stone water jars, set there for ritual washing as practiced by the Jews; each jar could hold twenty or thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them to the brim. Then Jesus said, “Now draw some out and take it to the steward.” So they did. The steward tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing from where it had come; for only the servants who had drawn the water knew.

So, he called the bridegroom to tell him, “Everyone serves the best wine first, and when people have drunk enough, he serves that which is ordinary. Instead you have kept the best wine until the end.”

This miraculous sign was the first, and Jesus performed it at Cana in Galilee. In this way He let His glory appear, and His disciples believed in Him.

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Monday, 20 January 2014 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Memorial of Pope St. Fabian, Pope and Martyr, and St. Sebastian, Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green and Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord needs something from all of us, from each and every one of us. And what He needs is precisely our love, devotion, and wholehearted dedication, more than anything else. Yes, that is the offering of our hearts to Him, that we open our hearts to Him, our Lord, and show Him the sincere love we have for Him and for His precepts.

God gave His people Israel a long list of laws and regulations, as written in the Torah, in the Book of Leviticus, the Books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These were not meant to put a heavy burden on the people, or to unnecessarily strangle them with the obligations to these laws. Instead, they were meant to provide a comprehensive guideline to them, that they can follow them and remain in God’s favour and love.

In these laws and regulations were written in detail, and the rituals and proceedings related to the offerings of burnt animals, their meat, fats, and blood were very elaborate indeed. There were details of each type of offerings, as well as details governing the daily life of the people of Israel, which were meticulously followed, and in the time of Jesus, was zealously followed by the Pharisees, who disdained anything other than perfect adherence to that extensive set of laws.

On top of the laws and rules stipulated and written in the Scriptures, over time, the religious authorities and leaders added more strict rules and regulations, adapting from the laws applicable to the society of the time. This covered everything from bathing, washing of hands before meals, the rituals related to what one should do in response to various things.

These laws, rules, and regulations were no different from the laws that exists in other various cultures and societies, particularly those of the eastern cultures, for example in China, Japan, and many others. They govern how the society should behave, and how people should do things in the correct and acceptable way. This was meant to prevent the people from doing things their own way, which may contradict the way things should be done in the society.

That is what the Lord meant for His people, when He presented them with these laws through Moses His servant. Even with these laws in place, the people of Israel, renowned for their constant whining, complaints and rebellions against the Lord during and after their journey to the Promised Land, continued to disobey the Lord and often refused to follow His laws. How would it have been therefore, had the Lord not given the laws to them to follow?

But there is one danger in strict adherence to the laws, such as those practiced and enforced by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law at the time of Jesus. That is because the way they practiced the law of Moses was that it became a kind of blind obedience to the law instead of practicing the law for its true purpose. That is why Jesus was often so much against the Pharisees and their way of observing the law.

What is therefore, the true purpose of the law of God? The law is truly about obeying the Lord and all that is about the Lord. And the Lord is actually quite simple in a way, because He is Love. Yes, love, and He is love personified, the perfect form of love. He loves us very, very much, and there can be no love greater than the love He has for all of us, for each one of us. So much so, that He was willing to come down unto this world and gave Himself for us so that we may live with Him once again.

The laws of the Lord was meant to bring His people to the greater understanding of God’s love for them, and then, bring them to love Him just as He has loved them. Yes! That is the purpose of God’s law! That is to make God’s people love Him, and that was why Jesus came to the world, to make clear that point to the people. And yet, many of the people refused to believe the truth.

God does not want to burden us unnecessarily, and neither does He want to punish us or make our lives difficult. What He wants from us is also not the sacrifices as written in the law of Moses, as what He truly asked is that the people offer Him their love, obedience, and devotion. In the quest to follow strictly the law, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law had missed entirely the meaning of the law. That was why Jesus rebuked them by saying that despite their pious external appearance, inside they were truly empty. Yes, there was no love of God in them, but only love for themselves.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the same the Lord expects from each one of us His faithful ones. The Church of which we are part of had also a set of rules and regulations to how we should live our faith. However, these rules are not used in the same way as the Pharisees had used the laws of the Lord. They were genuinely meant for helping all of us to find our way towards the Lord.

The question that is asked of us now is that, have we truly loved God? Or do we just offer lip service and empty gestures of faith to God? A simple example will make this point clear. The point on the obligation for all the faithful to go to Mass on every Sunday had been either ignored or followed. However, among those who did attend weekly Mass on Sundays, can we truly say that they, and indeed all of us here, can we say that we have done this out of true faith and devotion, or whether we did it out of obligation and coercion?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore use this opportunity to reaffirm the love and devotion that we have for our Lord. Do not be hesitant to offer the Lord our love, brethren! For indeed the Lord desires our love, and the genuine offering of our hearts! He wants us to be with Him and reunited with Him, and even though we have sinned and did things wicked in His eyes, what He wants is for us to come back to Him in total repentance.

Do not fear the Lord and open our hearts to Him. Yes, open wide the doors of our hearts to Him, that we may come to Him and He may also come to us. Offer the gifts of our hearts to Him, the ultimate gifts, and the gifts that the Lord really wants from us. And we can do this by following the teachings, the guidelines and the rules established by the Church, to be our guide on the way to God.

Yet, we have to do them with understanding. Blind or coerced obedience is not the way, brethren. In that way our faith will not be true. It will be artificial and dead. Let what had happened to the Pharisees and their way of interpreting the faith be kept to them only, and let us not follow in their footsteps. Love the Lord, and love Him genuinely, as well as our fellow men. That is the true desire of the Lord.

Today, brethren, we celebrate the feast of two great saints, the first of which is Pope St. Fabian, one of the early Bishops of Rome, and St. Sebastian, both of whom were martyrs of the faith, at the time of the Roman Empire. Pope St. Fabian was elected the leader of the Universal Church in a strange event, when a dove came down upon his head, and thus marking him as the chosen one of God, and he was then elected the Bishop of Rome.

Pope St. Fabian worked hard to strengthen the Church amidst various persecutions against the faithful by the pagan Roman Emperors, who were hostile against the Christians. Pope St. Fabian helped organise the Church and did many good and charitable works. And when a new Roman Emperor, who was particularly hostile against the faithful came to power, Pope St. Fabian adamantly refused to bow to the Imperial pressure to worship pagan gods and to give offering to the Emperor.

He was therefore one of the first martyrs of the faith under that Emperor, Decius, who was well known for his Decian persecutions of the Christians in the Empire. Despite that, all of the hard works of Pope St. Fabian in strengthening the Church at Rome and throughout the Empire helped it to persevere through the harsh persecutions and even thrived.

St. Sebastian, meanwhile, was a soldier of high rank, possibly a captain or centurion in the Roman Army, who lived just after the life of Pope St. Fabian. He lived through the period of the last and the greatest persecution against Christians by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. The Emperor asked the centurion St. Sebastian to force some Christians who refused to offer worship to the pagan idols to renounce their faith.

Instead, St. Sebastian, being a secret Christian at that time, managed to convert the parents of the Christians as well as many others, including the prison master who guarded the Christian prisoners at the time. For this act of defiance and disobedience against the Emperor and his authority, St. Sebastian was punished to death, and was shot with arrows just as he was tied to a tree, but miraculously he did not die.

Only after the Emperor himself acted to put him to death, did St. Sebastian die. Just like Pope St. Fabian before him, St. Sebastian did what is right to obey the Lord, even if it was to mean their death because they had disobeyed laws and authorities of the land. Although the context was different, but they did provide us with the example to follow, that is to follow the Lord and obey only His will, not by blind obedience, but through concrete action, based on faith and love.

May the Lord our God, who loves us very much, continue to grace us with His infinite love and blessing, that we may live in happiness with Him, and that our faith in Him will continue to grow ever stronger, and become ever more genuine, that it comes not just from our mouths, but also from our hearts! God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 6 September 2013 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are truly reminded as ever always, that Christ our Lord lies at the very centre of our lives, and that He is what truly matters for us, while other things are often unnecessary and illusory in nature. Nonetheless, we often forget this fact and relegate Christ into a corner rather than embracing and appreciating the central role Christ plays in each of our own lives.

Everything that we have, our lives, our faith, and our very existence owed greatly to the Lord, through whom indeed we were created, given life, and then a new life through salvation of the cross. For Christ is the Word of God, through whom the Lord our Creator had created all of creation including all of us, whom He had given life through the breath of His Mouth.

And even when we had gone astray from Him and be estranged from Him like that of a child estranged from the father, He willed for us to be reconciled to Himself, by the outpouring of His love, through the numerous help He sent us along our journey in this world, through countless messengers and prophets who carried His desire and love for us, the desire to be reunited with us, His lost children.

That even when we had rejected Him by turning a deaf ear to the heedings of His prophets, and even tortured and slaughtered them in cold blood, He did not give up, but in His great and infinite love, He allowed Himself to give the ultimate manifestation of His love, that is to be incarnate through a woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary His mother, to be our Saviour, through which He gathered all people to Himself.

Such great is His love for us, that He even readied Himself to suffer for us, to die for us, all that we who deserved death, will not die an agonising and eternal death, separated from God who loves us. That we may live through His death on the cross which saves, and through His glorious resurrection, through which He brought unto Himself those who had died in Him.

He dedicated Himself so much for us, that He became flesh like us, and through that mystical incarnation of the divine into man, God is united to us in an everlasting bond of love. Yes, brethren, just as Jesus in the Gospel today imagined Himself as the bridegroom in the midst of His beloved, so indeed He is our bridegroom, the divine bridegroom by God made man.

He rebuked the Pharisees not because it is wrong to fast or observe the laws, but precisely because they did not truly love God, and did not have God in their hearts, that God is not at the centre of their lives as He wanted from them. Instead, they allowed their pride, arrogance, selfishness, and human nature to take over them and corrupt them.

They fast for the sake of fasting, and to show the people their great piety, which is indeed evident, but truly empty. Many of them had missed entirely the point of doing things in accordance to the rules of the Lord, and did them not out of love for God, but out of love for themselves and their ‘greatness’ and ‘superior piety and faith’.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today, the lessons we had heard and taken into ourselves are truly beneficial for us. Let us make the best use out of them, in order to be able to dedicate ourselves and devote ourselves more to the Lord our God, that no matter whatever we are doing, we always do it for the Lord, and keep Him always at the very centre of our lives, each and every one of us. God bless us all. Amen.