living in God

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Tuesday, 22 September 2015 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the restoration of Israel and Jerusalem from the Scripture readings, how the Lord blessed His people once again, whom He gathered from their lands of exile, that they might repossess the land of promise, Canaan, which became their inheritance once again, after the disobedience of Israel had caused them to lose the rights to inhabit that land.

And the Lord also had shown His wrath and displeasure at the wickedness of His people, through the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem constructed by King Solomon, which was intended as the glorious dwelling of God on earth, as the place where the Lord dwelled among His people. Yet, their wickedness, their stubbornness and refusal to change their ways after repeated reminders through the prophets, had disgusted the Lord who then departed for a while from His people.

And there happened the years of exile in Assyria and Babylon, as the Israelites were bowed down just as they were many generations before when their ancestors walked through the desert for forty years because of their disobedience and stubbornness as well. God wanted to make it clear that while He loves all of us greatly and while He wants to show us mercy, but our sins, our disobedience and stubborn hearts and minds often came in the way between us and Him.

Yet, God did not stop loving us because of that. What He had done was that He gave us new opportunities, one after another, hoping that we might turn away from sin and embrace His love once again. And that was why through Cyrus, Emperor of the Persian Empire, who crushed the Babylonians, the oppressors of the people of Israel, God liberated His people and ended their long exile, and sent them back to a land that they own once again.

In this also we see how God showed His mercy to all men, who have deserved death and destruction because of our sins and disobedience. God could have easily struck us away from existence because our sins and wickedness is a vile thing that corrupted creation. Yet, God could not deny the love which He has for all of us. The love He has for us enabled Him to give us that one more chance, through Jesus Christ, whom He sent to us to deliver us from our sins.

And through Jesus God made it very clear to us what He is expecting from all of us. What is it that He wants from us, brethren? It is for us all to do His will, just as Jesus had said it in the Gospel today. And what is the will of God? It is love, love that is not discriminating or selfish, but a perfect love that is from the deepest depth of the heart, and given in perfect and selfless giving of oneself in complete dedication to another.

It is this same love that God had shown us, and which He proved to us again and again, and of which there is no better proof for us, other than the ultimate love our Lord showed us when He willingly and selflessly gave Himself up, His very life, flesh and blood, to be shed for our salvation. God has given us everything we need, and now we know that He even provided us with every means to regain our grace in Him and to be able to receive His salvation worthily.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, today is a reminder for us all, to look deep into our own lives. Have we been faithful and have we loved our Lord as we should? God gave us the best and loved us all so much, and yet many of us were unable to commit at the same level of commitment as what our Lord had given us. The time has come for all of us indeed to reexamine our actions and ensure that in everything, we try our best to fulfil the will of God.

And how do we do this? It is by loving our Lord beyond anything else, beyond all of our selfish needs and desires, and indeed beyond considerations for ourselves. We have to love God at least as much as we love ourselves, and indeed we should love Him even more than that. And then, if we love God, then we would do well to love our brothers and sisters, that is one another, for we know that if God loves us, then He will want us to love each other as well.

Let us now therefore renew our effort to be true and good disciples of our Lord, and let us all commit ourselves in all our actions, words and deeds so that we may help one another to be closer to the Lord our God. May Almighty God bless us all, now and forever, and welcome us into His love and grace. Amen.

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Monday, 21 September 2015 : Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of the Apostle and Evangelist St. Matthew, one of the four great Evangelists who wrote one of the Four Gospels in the Scripture. He was called from a humble and most unlikely of origins, as Levi the tax collector who was reviled by many of his own people and treated as a traitor and a sinner by many.

Yet, Jesus called him out of the obscurity and from a life filled with sin and darkness, and into the light, and from where he became a great source of inspiration and salvation for countless souls for his works and writing, in the holy words of the Gospel that he had written with inspiration given to him by the Holy Spirit, the words placed in his heart and then revealed to the world through his hands.

Through this, we can see that the Lord does not despise or abandon those who have sinned before Him. Indeed, had He done that, then none of us mankind would have deserved to be saved, for all of us are sinners in our ways and in our lives, be it in small or great sin that we have in us. God instead wants to help us and He wants us to be redeemed, and that was why He sent Jesus to us, to reveal to us the healing that we can find in Him.

Today as we heard the calling of Levi, the tax collector, and his glorious transformation into such a great tool in the hand of the Lord, we should all realise that no one was born a saint, and no saint had been predetermined to be one, except those whom the Lord had specifically put aside for His plan of salvation like Mary, the mother of our Lord. Thus, saints themselves were once sinners too, and some of them were even great sinners, notorious and unrepentant, but eventually what made a difference was that they repented and changed their ways.

At the time of Jesus, the common perception was that those who have sinned or lived a life of sin were condemned and beyond hope, while those who considered themselves righteous thought that they were beyond reproach, thus explaining the attitude of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who acted condescendingly against the tax collectors and sinners, and who criticised Jesus for mingling with them and eating with them.

But they themselves were hypocrites, and they were blind to the reality of their own sins. They were unable to realise that they too were sinners and were also subject to punishment and judgment for their iniquities. Yet, through their attitude towards sinners around them and all who needed their help, they have condemned themselves, as instead of extending a helping hand where they could have helped, they misled the people and misused their authority and position to condemn those who need the most help.

Thus, the Lord Jesus was very angry and critical against these people, whose faith in Him is nothing but a charade, a charade of selfishness and self-serving attitudes. Yet, even so, if we remember the time of the crucifixion, we should all remember how Jesus forgave those who have betrayed Him and made Him to suffer such grievous pain on the way of suffering and on the cross. He prayed to His Father, that their sins be not placed on them.

Such wonderful and great is the Lord’s mercy for us, and now the question lies in the fact that, God does not impose on us to accept His mercy and forgiveness. The choice lies in us on whether we choose to accept or reject His mercy. We can either be proud and haughty, be filled with arrogance and thinking that we do not need mercy because we are not in the wrong, or we can be humble and accept the truth and reality about ourselves, that we are sick with sin, wicked and corrupted, and the Lord is willing to help us to get out of our sickness and restore us to full health.

Let us help remind ourselves all the time, that saints were not born but raised, and saints were once also sinners, who importantly at one point of time in their lives, they changed and turned from their wicked ways, and as a result, they were made righteous and are worthy of God’s great grace. May all of us follow in the footsteps of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, turn from our sinful ways, and through our renewed actions in faith, may we all help bring each other closer to the Lord. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 20 September 2015 : Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Laurent Imbert, Bishop, St. Jacques Chastan, Priest and St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon, Priest, and St. Paul Chong Ha-sang, and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard from the Scripture the difficulties and challenges that we all will encounter on our way as we live out our lives in faith in the Lord. It is important for us to take note that to have faith in the Lord, it is likely for us to encounter challenges, opposition, ridicule, rejection and bad treatment, even from those whom we considered to be good friends and relatives.

It will not be an easy life for us if we decide to walk the Lord’s path and follow Him to His salvation. Those who think that becoming the disciples of the Lord Jesus is easy will find that they are mistaken. This is because to become a member of God’s Church, as His disciples and children, it is necessary for us to make sacrifices and to let go of certain things that prevent us from achieving what God seeks from us to be saved

And this is the attitude of rejecting oneself, one’s own ego, needs, desires and all the temptations of the flesh, the temptation of worldly glory and fame, and the temptation to be ignorant and exclusive towards the sufferings of the world around us, our brethren who need our help. If we are able to accomplish all these, then we are indeed one step closer to be good and devoted disciples of our Lord.

God Himself mentioned through the parable of the dishonest and wicked steward, who cheated his master of his possessions, and when he was discovered and fired from his position, he used his power to safeguard himself, by using his trickery to cheat out of his master’s debts owned by several people, where he gained favour by reducing those debts and so, while he lost his job, he hoped that those whom he had helped would help him in return.

That is the way of the world, the way of the wicked, the way of those who serve themselves and are servants of money and possessions, and not servants and followers of the Lord. This is what the Lord mentioned, when He said that those who follow one master will not be able to obey another master, for either he will despise one and love the other, or vice versa.

In that way therefore, to reinforce what I have mentioned earlier on, that all those who want to follow the Lord faithfully shall suffer and face numerous and various challenges and obstacles on their way, that is their lives. There are many differences between the way and customs of this world as compared to the ways taught to us by our Lord, that is faith, righteousness, justice and love. The world on the other hand, prioritises selfish desires, money and pleasures of the flesh.

It is not necessary that the two ways should clash with each other, but what is to be expected is that it is inevitable that conflicts between the two will arise in time, as we will be made to choose between our Lord and His ways, and with the world and its ways. There will be moment when the difficult choice will be presented to us, or it might even have happened to us in the past, when we have no choice but to choose between appeasing the world and displeasing the Lord, or appeasing the Lord but displeasing the world.

Do not be surprised that one day people will scold us, rebuke us, reject us and ostracise us because we decide to do what is right for the Lord but considered wrong in the eyes and perception of the world. For example, if we have been aware of the state of the world so far, we would already know how far the culture of death is spreading throughout the world and into all echelons of society. And it is worrying indeed how our faith and the Church are under increasing pressure to give up our struggle and fight in the defence of the faith.

For instance, many people around the world, and even regretfully even counting among those who are in the Church, who believe that committing something as heinous and unthinkable as abortion and euthanasia, and many other actions that trample on the sanctity and dignity of life is not wrong or considered morally acceptable to do so. And there are many of those who pushed and lobbied for the acceptance of such sinful things, and claim that they are representing and defending our human rights to be able to do as we please with our bodies and with ourselves.

But they did not realise that such abominations are wicked and evil in the sight of not only men, but in the sight of God as well. Life is sacred and holy, no matter under what circumstances it is. Instead of honouring and protecting life in all the means they are able to contribute, we mankind instead strive to destroy them, whenever we think of them as obstacles to our own selfish desires and wants.

Indeed, the pressure is great for many of us to accept and acknowledge the legality of such vileness, but as those who truly believe in the Lord, if we really are faithful to the Lord, then all of us should persist in our resistance against such injustice and wickedness committed against innocent lives. Let us all not ignore or shy away or be afraid from standing up for our faith, as it is better for us to suffer and be rejected, and yet receive God’s approval and salvation, rather than to be accepted by the world but we lose the grace and favour of our Lord.

Let us all then reflect on the lives of the holy saints and martyrs whose feast we are celebrating today, the martyr saints of Korea. There were many of them, and all of them had had different lives and came from different periods of time spanning about two centuries, but they all share one thing in common, that is they gave their lives up in the defence of their faith, or that they were martyred and killed on the frontline of their works as the servants of the Lord and His Church.

Today there are many Christians, our brethren in faith in Korea, and the numbers are continuing to increase rapidly over the years. But if we look at the current situation, in comparison with how it was in the past and what it meant to evangelise to the people of Korea about the Lord Jesus, then we certainly will find it difficult to understand the kind of challenges and sufferings these faithful servants of the Lord and the faithful encountered there.

St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon was the first indigenous Korean who was ordained a priest of the Church, and he and many of his other Korean brethren who have believed in the Lord encountered great persecutions by the government of Korea at the time, which was intensely against the Faith and persecuted these people whom they considered as traitors to their nation.

And counted among these martyrs were also the missionaries from different countries, but many came from France as part of the missionaries to Asia. Among them were St. Laurent Imbert, the Vicar Apostolic of Korea, one of the first bishops of Korea, and St. Jacques Chastan with many other priests and missionaries who braved rejection, cultural and linguistic barriers, and even the threat and real risk of death to bring the Lord Jesus and His truth to the people who have yet to hear of Him.

And they did their works faithfully, carrying out all the missions which had been entrusted to them without worry or fear. And when many of the faithful were under the threat of death and suffering, and the government was offering an exchange, allowing the faithful to live and to go unpunished if the missionaries and the leaders gave themselves up, St. Laurent Imbert as the bishop of the faithful gave himself up willingly, saying in his now famous words, which he took from the words of Jesus, that ‘the good shepherd lay down his life for his sheep.’

He and the other missionaries could have continued to hide themselves or to run away and abandon their mission, and in the process saving their lives, but they did not do so, because they know that if they try to preserve themselves and to put themselves first before the needs of others, as the world advocated them to do, then they would not preserve their lives in the world that is to come.

Remember that Jesus Himself said that those who tried to preserve their lives on earth would lose them, and those who lost their lives for God’s sake, in the defence of their faith would gain eternal life? This is precisely what it meant, and all of us ought to heed it as well and learn our lesson from what we have talked about on this day, or else we risk falling into sin and darkness yet again.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have to realise that suffering is a part of our faith, and rather than fearing it or running away from it, why not we embrace it with full faith and full trust in the Lord, that He will be with us through it all? Running away from the problem does not resolve it, and indeed made the matter even worse. Instead, we really should face it with faith and trust in the Lord, and make a solid stand for our faith and for what we truly believe in.

May Almighty God bless us all and keep us always in His grace, and may we all learn to put our trust in Him and know that He will be with us as long as we are faithful to Him, and He will not let harm that lasts to come to us. Let us all realise that at the end of the difficulties and the sufferings we are to endure as the followers of our God are our crosses that we carry together with us, that in the end, just as our Lord is risen in glory, we too may rise with Him together into the glory of eternal life. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 19 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Januarius, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we celebrate together the feast of a famous saint and martyr, St. Januarius, also commonly known today as San Gennaro in his native region of Naples in southern Italy, where he was Bishop during the time of the Roman Empire in the early days of the Church. St. Januarius was renowned especially for the miraculous appearance of his blood, which is his most precious relic housed in today’s Cathedral of Naples, which liquefy every year during his feast day, that is today and on other special occasions.

St. Januarius was a bishop of the Church supervising the area around Naples today in Italy, who died during the intense persecution of the faithful and the Church by the Roman Emperor Diocletian, in one of the most severe and terrible oppression against the Christians at that time. Many countless thousands, tens of thousands and even more of the faithful suffered grievously for refusing to betray their faith to the Lord.

But St. Januarius did not fear the persecution and opposition of the world. To him remaining faithful to the Lord was far more precious and worthy than to succumb to the demands and wishes of the world and to save one’s life. For him, he rather remained faithful and true to God and suffer, and he did his best to help the flock of the faithful which had been entrusted to him as their shepherd and guide.

He hid many Christians and helped them to get away from their pursuers and prosecutors. He did so even though doing that would mean risking his own life to help many others to escape from suffering and death. His actions represented true and genuine Christian love which many of us would do well to follow and emulate in our own lives. He eventually was arrested and tortured, put to great suffering and eventually dying for the sake of the Lord and His faithful.

The examples, the courage and the good works of St. Januarius continue to inspire many people throughout the ages, even until this very day. Many aspired to be like him in their faith and in their dedication and commitment to the Lord. St. Januarius showed us how to be a good follower and disciple of the Lord, that is not just through words and proclamation of faith, but also through deeds and actions anchored upon God’s love.

In today’s Scripture readings, we heard about the faith that Christ our Lord had shown and which He had testified before all the peoples, even before all those who had betrayed Him and considered Him their enemies. And in this, Jesus showed us how His great love and faith has brought upon so many good fruits that benefit all of us. This is related to the parable of the sower, which our Lord Himself revealed to His disciples to teach them about the faith and what we ought to do about it.

The seeds represent the word of God, the faith that had been given to us, planted in each one of us as a soil for the growth of that faith. But, as we heard in the parable, there were many different outcomes for the seeds that were sown. Some of the seeds fell on the roadside, and immediately many birds of the air picked them up. These represent the faithful who received the faith, and yet they did not internalise them, and therefore, when Satan came to tempt them, they easily fell into temptation and sinned.

Then, there were those seeds that fell on the rocky ground, where the seeds failed to grow roots and die, and also those seeds that fell on the ground and grew, but they grew with the weeds and thistles that choked the life out of them, and those seeds eventually died too. These represent those whose faith have not found great roots in their hearts, and the concerns and worries of this world, the temptations of wealth, possessions, fame and worldly glory overcome the faith they had, and they fell into sin and darkness once again.

Only those seeds that fell onto the rich and fertile soil that ended up growing healthily and generously, until they bore so many fruits, and produced many, many more times than what had been planted before. This is because, when the words of the Lord landed on the rich soil of someone’s faithful heart, it blossomed and went out with a great force, and we know how even a small ripple of water can trigger many other ripples of water, as a small action of love, by one who is faithful can result in so many people that can be touched and saved.

Such was indeed what St. Januarius had done. By his courage and bravery to stand up for his faith, and by his dedication to his flock of the faithful, through his martyrdom, even though he died for his faith, but through his examples and life, he inspired countless others to be righteous and just in their own way, abandoning sin and living righteously according to the will of God.

The saying is indeed true, that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians. With the inspiration from the undying and strong faith of the martyrs of the faith, many were inspired to take up their own crosses and followed the Lord to their salvation. We too should walk in their footsteps and follow them on the path towards God and His salvation for us. May Almighty God be with us always, and may by the intercession of St. Januarius and his fellow saints and martyrs, all of us may be brought closer to God and to His grace. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 18 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about the exploits and the works of Jesus our Lord, who with His disciples and followers went about from place to place, seeking people who were downtrodden, broken, sinful and filled with darkness, so that He might succour them and bring light unto them. This was what He had done, to awaken the people of God from their slumber of sin and darkness, and from all the allures of the world that kept them from becoming righteous in the sight of God.

Many of us are often distracted from our true goal in life because of the various things and obstacles which Satan had put on the way for us, so that we stumble and fall along the way, and fall back into sin and darkness, losing our way and he hoped that we might be condemned because of our failure to stick to the path towards salvation. That is what Satan wishes for us, and certainly, none of us should want him to succeed in what he had worked for us.

Thus we come to the moment when we heard about how St. Paul mentioned to Timothy how we all ought to live our lives in God, abandoning all sorts of worldliness and all temptations of evil. In that letter which St. Paul wrote to Timothy, he mentioned how there were people who took advantage of religiousity and religions to serve their own purposes and satisfy their wants and wishes.

And this is a clear reference to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who used and manipulated the Law of God, the laws of Moses to serve their own needs. They opened the Temple to the money changers and merchants who filled their coffers with unlawful and sinful silver and money, and they even sold their Lord and Saviour for a mere thirty pieces of silver coin to Judas Iscariot.

These people were concerned primarily about their own status and standing in the society, doing everything they could to preserve their own power and dignity, and in the process, their actions became ever more self-serving and deviating from the path that they were supposed to take. They were unable to resist the temptation of their hearts, falling into the trap of pride and ego, as well as into their greed, for more power, human praise and for more wealth.

We must learn to resist these temptations or else they will grow greater and greater, and eventually they will overcome us and swallow us, bringing us into eternal suffering and annihilation that await the wicked and all those who were not able to resist those allures of the devil. Thus, what we need to do is to heed what the Church is teaching us, that is the truth revealed to us by our Lord Jesus Christ and passed down to us through the Apostles.

The truth is that we have to learn to be content with what we have, as after all, all of us have been blessed greatly by our Lord in many things, even if we do not realise it. It is important for us to resist the temptations that will lead us into ruin if we walk in the same path that was taken by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. We have to learn through our faith, how to be rather humble and dedicated to the Lord through love, by loving Him with all of our hearts and then loving our brethren, all those who are around us with the same fervour and love.

This will not be easy, as all of us by our human nature enjoy to be tempted and our flesh is by nature weak against all these corruptions. We have to therefore make the effort to resist and to win over all these things that are obstacles on our way to righteousness and salvation in God. Let us all deepen our faith in the Lord and strengthen our spiritual lives, so that all of us may grow stronger in faith and be more capable to strive for righteousness just as St. Paul had mentioned in his letter that we heard today in our first reading.

May our loving God and Father be with us always in all things, and bless us that we may always remain in His grace, so that in all things, we may always live graciously and righteously in His presence and be worthy to receive His everlasting inheritance. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 17 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Robert Bellarmine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings spoke of how we all have a great debt to the Lord, who have forgiven us our debts and mistakes. All of us had been forgiven from our debts and our trespasses, which would have earned us an eternity in suffering and destruction in hell. God does not want us to suffer this, for His love for us is great and enduring always.

God had given us mankind so much, down through the ages. If we are to count the many blessings which we have received, then surely we should realise how fortunate we are to have someone who really cares about us, even when no one els would care about us. He is always there for us, especially for the sinners like us, and the greater our sins are, the greater too is His pity and mercy for us.

And today we heard the comparison between two sinner, the righteous Pharisee and the wicked female sinner, who judging by the standards and customs of the time, was likely a prostitute, a profession considered as filthy, wicked, sinful and truly undeserving of any respect and mercy. On the other hand, the Pharisee was known as one among the elites of the society, who garnered plenty of respect and great reputation for their piety and devotion to the Lord.

Naturally, the Pharisee, as were many of the other Pharisees and the teachers of the Law during Jesus’ time, would show great prejudice against such woman. They thought of themselves as paragons of faith and virtue, and would not suffer to see others they deemed as less righteous than they considered themselves righteous to be treated well and good. Instead, they treated and judged those deemed wicked very harshly, thinking that they were the ones rightful to judge these.

But, as Jesus has often pointed out, these people were no less sinners than the woman was. All of us are sinners, and we have committed sin before God, be it small or big, less or more sins. And the problem with the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law is that because they thought of themselves as righteous, just and faithful, their ego and selfishness prevented them from finding the truth about themselves, that they were sinners too, and in need of God’s mercy, a fact they refused to acknowledge.

The woman had many sins, and therefore she realised how unworthy she was to come before the Lord and to beg for His mercy and forgiveness. And yet, the most important of all, is that she came and took the initiative to seek the Lord and beg for His mercy, lowering herself and not minding herself to look like a slave and a penitent. Yet, it was her humility, her readiness and willingness to repent and change herself that brought her to salvation.

This is a reminder to all of us, that in our faith we should not be proud of our achievements, as our faith is not about ourselves, but about the Lord and our relationship with Him. This is why, we have to be careful not to fall into the same trap as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, because they thought of themselves as righteous and thus closed themselves from being able to recognise their own shortcomings.

Do not be prideful and boastful, and if we want to boast, boast not of ourselves but boast of the Lord, as St. Paul mentioned in one of his epistles. Pride is the same fault that brought about Satan’s fall from grace, and we too shall fall if we are not careful about it. And thus, now let us be inspired by the life examples of today’s saint, St. Robert Bellarmine, whose feast is today.

St. Robert Bellarmine was a renowned servant and leader of the Church during the turbulent time of its history about five hundred years ago, during a time of uncertainty, external threats and internal threats by the division of the faithful particularly by what was known as the so-called Protestant ‘reformation’. Many left the Church and sinned by following the desires of men and by their pride, they refused to acknowledge their wrongdoings.

The Church itself at the time was also tainted with sin, and this was part of the reason why the ‘reformation’ started, as mistaken as it was in reality. And St. Robert Bellarmine was among one of the greatest reformers of the Church, who ensured that the excesses and the sins of the Church at that time were addressed and corrected, and measures were put in place to safeguard the faithful against further intrusion by the forces of the devil.

He helped to clarify many aspects of the faith and Church life, ensuring that there would be no further confusion of what the Church is about, and what it taught in accordance to the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and His laws. And by his works and dedications to the Church, many thousands and more of the faithful found their way back to God and into His salvation.

It was not through prideful and boastful proclamations that St. Robert Bellarmine did his works and brought goodness to the world. It was rather by painstaking work and effort, as well as through many hardships that he managed to accomplished what he had done. It is therefore what all of us should do as well, in helping one another to bring all of us together to the Lord and His presence, and share together His salvation and the graces which He promised to all those who remain faithful to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all commit ourselves to work more and work more diligently for the sake of each other, and help all those who are on their way to God’s salvation, finding the Lord’s mercy through repentance and humility, and learn to humble ourselves, and remind ourselves whenever we are filled with pride and hubris.

May Almighty God bless us all, keep us free from sin, and help guide us on our way towards His loving grace, the eternal life which is His inheritance and gift to all those who keep their faith in Him strong. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 16 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today what we heard in the Scripture Readings from the Old and the New Testament is that all of us ought to wake up from our lack of wisdom, from our lack of understanding of the will of God, and thus we are unable to discern what is best for us to do in this life, in our actions and deeds, where our confusion resulting in the devil being able to enter into our hearts and minds and tempt us to commit sinful things.

This is what will happen if we do not put our trust in the Lord and instead rely and depend on our own whim and desires. Each of us have our different desires and wants, and when these differ from each other and no one would want to give way to the other, then conflict would arise, and this is the root of many of the sorrows and bitterness in this world, past, present and in the coming future.

Those who trust in the wisdom of men will be disappointed, as they should all realise that the intellect and capacity of mankind to understand the world around them is limited and filled with prejudice and preconceptions. We look at the world through tinted glasses of our human judgment, and as a result, we have the tendency to judge others based on what we see and what we have experienced in life.

Thus, this was why they judged St. John the Baptist and Jesus as they went about seeing what the two had done in their ministry and work in this world. They used their prejudices to think badly of St. John the Baptist as a madman and a lunatic, while of Jesus they thought of Him as a heretic and someone who refused to follow and obey the Law, and preferring to follow His own way.

Yes, these were the prejudices of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, which in what I have often mentioned, they were often so fixated in fulfilling the requirements and rigours of the Law that they forgot about God’s intentions of giving those laws to mankind in the first place. They thought that just because they were educated and filled with human and worldly wisdom, then they were to be esteemed and respected, and they thought that they had the right to judge others based on their judgment.

They were too focused on themselves, and rather than realising what God wanted from them, they became self-righteous, self-serving and filled with all sorts of selfishness and ego that characterised their actions and their deeds, and in how they always worked to undermine the good works of Christ Jesus our Lord. They thought of Jesus as a rival and as someone who would steal their glory and privileges from them, and giving in to their ego and pride, they committed great sins before the Lord.

This is clearly what we do not want to replicate in ourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ. Our path forward should be filled with humility and trust in the wisdom and in the will of God, recognising that our opinions and intellect would not provide everything that we need, and that we may commit errors and mistakes, whereas the Lord can never be wrong.

It is just as what was said that those who want to follow Jesus must first die to themselves before they are able to follow Him and walk in His ways. This does not mean a literal death, but rather, the ending of one’s own pride and ego, the ending of the desires and the greed that had been for so long a great obstacle on our path to redemption. We have to first get rid of our selfishness and our self-loving and self-serving attitudes before we can truly serve and follow the Lord our God.

Today we celebrate the feast of two saints, whose lives and examples can hopefully be an inspiration to all of us, so that we too may be able to walk in the same path that they have walked in. It is important for us to remember what Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian had done in their life, in their work to bring greater glory to God, and in their commitment to the people of God.

Pope St. Cornelius was the Bishop of Rome, Pope and Leader of the Universal Church whose leadership was essential to help and guide the faithful during a time when they lived in fear of the authorities and the world, where they were persecuted daily for their sins. He led the people of the faith against the great persecution against the faithful led by the Roman Emperor Decius, who was infamous for his especially bloody and harsh persecution of Christians.

Together with many of the faithful and their leaders, which include St. Cyprian, an influential Bishop of Carthage, they led the faithful through a difficult time, including dealing not just with the external threat of official persecution but also the internal divisions and disagreements within the Church itself. The persecution had caused a great division in the Church, with the faction favouring harsh stance on those Christians who had been known to give way to some demands of the worldly authorities in place of their safety, and those, on the side of Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian, who favoured mercy and forgiveness on these people.

In this, we can see clearly how the readings today stack up and is repeated once again there, with those favouring harsh persecution and treatment of their fellow brethren in faith as those who were like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, in trusting their own human judgment and intellect in coming out with solutions and in how they deal with issues such as the one presented to them.

It does not mean of course, that God tolerated the sins of those who have committed sin and not being faithful to Him. God still despises all of those sins, even to the smallest and least of sins. However, what differentiates everything is the fact that God does not hate us or despise us as a human being, as His creation in any way. He loves us all greatly, and desires nothing else other than for us to repent our ways, to change and to be welcomed back into His grace.

Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian brought the mercy of God to these people, reminding them to keep themselves worthy and pure from sins, and these two courageous and holy men did not fear even the pressures and threats from the world, and bravely embraced martyrdom, dying in defending their faith. They remained true to the end, and rather than placing their own interests, wishes and wants first, they placed God before everything else.

Let us all learn from their examples, and let us all learn to be more committed, devoted and faithful in our ways. May Almighty God help us and guide us on our way, so that we may grow less and less attached to ourselves and grow smaller in our ego, dying to our selfishness, and rise anew as people dedicated to the Lord, filled with His love, caring and loving one another as He had taught us. God bless us all and may He bring us to eternal life. Amen.

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Tuesday, 15 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of our Lady of Sorrows (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we continue the narrative of yesterday’s celebration of the Triumph of the Holy Cross with the memorial of our Lady of Sorrows, the sorrowful mother of our Lord, who waited on her Son at the foot of the cross, where Jesus hung upon between the heavens and the earth. She waited patiently there, looking up as her Son expired and breathed His last, and His earthly work was done at last.

Mary knew that the day would come when she as a mother would have to see and feel the pain of seeing her Son suffering and dying before her own eyes. This had been prophesied by the prophet Simeon at the time when Jesus was only eight days old, when He was offered to the Lord as the first Son in the Temple of Jerusalem. At that time, Simeon and Anna the prophetess foretold Mary what would happen to her Son, and what it would mean to her in the time to come.

As a mother who loves her Son very greatly, as all mothers should, Mary certainly felt the great and inconsolable pain of seeing the suffering that her Son endured for the sake of all mankind. He was made to suffer for the faults and mistakes that He did not do, and He was sentenced to death even though He was innocent and without blame. And as He was led like a Lamb brought to the slaughterhouse in silent obedience, His mother also looked upon all these in silence.

This is why we also know Mary as the Mother of sorrows, our Lady of Sorrows, as the sorrowful heart of hers had to endure the death of her own Son, and an unjust and unreasonable one at that, for He was blameless and judged wrongly by His enemies who cried out for His death. And no mother should indeed witness the death of her own child, for she was supposed to live in happiness and see her children happy and prosperous around her.

But Mary is a great example to all mothers, and to all of us as well. She took all these with patience and with a great heart, and more importantly, she kept a great and unfailing faith in the Lord. She knew her part in the plan of salvation which God had revealed to her, even though not in full, but she knew that all that Jesus, her Son, had to go through, is for the better future of all mankind.

Thus, she persevered and pushed on, and painful as it was, she walked along her Son, following Him step by step as He walked down that path. And she faithfully stood by at the foot of the cross, committed and dedicated to the end. And Jesus knew how committed and dedicated His mother was, just as she had dedicated her entire life for Him. That was why He entrusted her to all of us mankind through His disciple John.

And in that way, He entrusted His mother to us, that she shall be our mother, and we become her children, as God also entrusted us all through John His disciple to Mary His own mother. And through this, Mary became our greatest help and intercessor who is constantly praying for us, interceding for our sake, and this is because of her own loving instinct as a mother, and our mother in that.

Shall we therefore, today, on this celebration in honour and memory of the sorrowful mother of our Lord, our Lady of Sorrows, Mary most faithful and devoted, pledge ourselves to dedicate ourselves more and more to her, and thus, through her we will be able to reach out to her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and attain the salvation which He had promised to all those who keep their faith in Him.

Mary, our mother is always concerned about us, for we have been entrusted to her, and just as she had witnessed the great pain and suffering which Jesus her Son had endured for our sake, she would certainly not want to witness us falling into sin and then suffering the same sufferings which her Son had worked so hard to liberate us from, and therefore, she constantly prays for us, and we too should work together with her, and do our best in our own lives to make ourselves worthy of the Lord.

May Almighty God, and His sorrowful mother, who is faithful and devoted to Him at all times, help us to find our way to Him, and guide us so that we may not lose our path but be able to reach Him and the salvation and eternal life which He had promised us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 14 September 2015 : Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate a special solemnity in the honour of the triumph of the glorious Cross of our Saviour. Today we exalt the Holy Cross as the real symbol of triumph of good versus the forces of evil, and as a clear reminder to all of us, that our Lord had won the battle for us in a triumphant victory against the forces of Satan.

The cross was once an instrument of suffering and torture, and it was once an instrument of humiliation and ultimate defeat and surrender of all those who have been convicted and deemed guilty by the state, particularly the Romans who used them to be an instrument of fear, to show example of what would happen to those who dared to oppose their rule.

But among all the countless thousands and more who suffered on the wood of the cross, hanged and nailed for all the people to see, there was One of them who did not deserve to be punished, and yet He took up for Himself, the punishment of a slave, the scourges designed for convicts and villains, and took upon Himself the responsibility of the entire human race, so that instead of us, He took our sufferings upon Himself.

He did not have to do that, and He could just abandon us, but it was not in His nature to do that, because He is Love, and because He is love, He cannot possibly abandon us when we are in need of help. Thus, He was willing to lower Himself and empty Himself of His greatness, and assume the humble form of a Man. And in Jesus Christ, fully God and fully Man, God made Himself an example to all so that by His actions and by His example, He made us all righteous and showed us the way to go.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the first reading today from the Book of Numbers, we heard about how God punished His people, the Israelites for their refusal to listen to His will and walk in His ways. He punished them by sending them the fiery and poisonous serpents to bite them and bring death to them. This is the punishment for all those who disobeyed and refused to listen to God, just as the price for death is sin.

The serpents are like the angels of death, representing the judgment of God for all those who have sinned and have committed wicked things before the Lord and before men. And their destruction was seemingly assured, until Moses begged the Lord and beseeched Him to have mercy on His people, and to give them deliverance out of their great predicament.

And God instructed Moses to build up a bronze serpent and place it on a high pole, so that raising it up, it could be seen by many people who have been bitten and harassed by the fiery serpents. Those who saw the bronze serpent became well again and lived, and they did not die. This is a very clear and strong premonition to God’s own plan of salvation, where He Himself would raise Himself up for all to see, so that through Him, all who believe in Him will be saved.

As you all should see, that the fiery serpents are the punishment for the sins that caused us to all suffer death and destruction, but Christ is the new bronze serpent, raised up high even as He bore all of our sins upon Himself, all the punishment due to us, and on the cross, lifted high up between the heavens and the earth, He made Himself an example visible to all, and the testimonies of His truth were passed on to His Apostles, and from them to us.

St. Paul pointed out that just as the first Adam, our ancestor, had sinned and disobeyed the Lord, and by his actions, he had made us all condemned and fallen into sin, and if one man’s action brought all of mankind into sin and into condemnation, then it needs One Man’s action to bring all mankind back towards the Lord and towards salvation, with eternal life promised by the Lord as the goal.

And thus, Jesus Christ our Lord is the new Adam, through whom the salvation of the world was to come from. It is because of His perfect obedience to the will of His Father that had brought mankind to righteousness, because just as He is God, He is at the same time also fully Man, and by assuming the flesh of Man, by His obedience, He restored to all of us, the life and the grace of God which had been withdrawn from us when we disobeyed through sin.

And the cross He made to become a symbol of triumph and victory, and a symbol of the glory that we all are to have, if we keep our faith in the cross of Christ. But it is not just any cross, for cross by itself has no meaning, and a cross would still always be remembered for being the brutal method which the Romans used to treat those who rebelled against them. Instead, it is the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ which we commemorate, the crucifix, where our Saviour hung upon on that day in Calvary.

It was from that cross that Jesus was shown to the whole world, just as the bronze serpent was lifted up in the desert, that all who look up to Christ, believe in Him and follow Him shall not suffer the penalty of death, but live and live forever with the Lord, enjoying forever the bliss of heavenly glory, as worthy disciples, followers and children of our God.

And the empty Cross of Christ is a reminder always, that Christ had won that victory over sin and death, and nothing could hold Him, even death itself. The empty tomb is the proof of triumph together with the Holy Cross, that our Lord had won a complete, total and resounding victory forever against Satan and all of his allies and forces. And whenever Satan looks upon the Cross, he knows that his defeat is assured and his doom is at hand, and the Lord who stood by us had dealt that crushing victory against him.

Therefore, today, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us put our trust ever more in the Cross, and as Christ had at one time showed Himself to the Roman Emperor Constantine, the first to be baptised as a Christian, ‘In Hoc Signo Vinces’ or ‘In this Sign you shall conquer’, and indeed he won a resounding victory against his enemies by placing his trust and faith in the Lord, then we too should do the same.

Let us ever put our trust in the Holy Cross, the symbol of our triumph and victory against all forms of evil, the bane of Satan and the sign of our deliverance. May our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ continue to be with us and guiding us on this way, so that the Cross will be our guide, and we continue to have hope as we look on the triumphant Cross, and fear no more. May Almighty God, the Crucified Lord, be with us and bless us always. Amen.

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Sunday, 13 September 2015 : Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, the core message of the Scripture readings from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, as well as from the Gospel is about the Lord who came down to this world to dwell among us, and then brought us free from the chains and the bonds of sin that have kept us enchained and enslaved to suffering and death.

It was through the willing sacrifice, the willingness to bear all the huge burdens and the mountains of our sins that had been accumulated and is accumulating through time, as every man committed sin before God, on the weight of the cross that Christ our Lord had brought with Him as He walked down that road from Jerusalem towards Calvary, where He would give Himself up for the sake of all mankind.

The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is not just the physical burden of the wood that made it up. It is filled with the entirety of mankind’s sins and the punishments that were to be due for it. Ever since mankind had first sinned against the Lord, by disobeying Him and following their own path, they have been cast out from the grace and the love God had prepared for them, and they have gotten for themselves the sufferings of the world, for they have chosen the path of suffering by disobedience, and death claimed them as its own, as their sins brought about their mortality.

Yes, because of our sins, we would have endured eternal suffering and hell, not the hell filled with fire and all the imaginable forms of suffering as how hell was often illustrated like, but the hell of suffering due to the lack of the love of God, the lack and the total absence of hope, because God’s favour is not with us, and when we look on our Lord, our Father and Creator, He would say to us, “I do not know you, begone from My presence, you wicked people!”

But this is not to be the case, as our Lord is ever merciful and ever loving. Indeed, He despises all forms of sins and wickedness, all the disobedience and rebelliousness, all the evils that had kept us away from Him. Yet, God despises not each one of us individually and without good reason, but instead it is our sins He despises, and not us as a person.

Why is this so? That is because He knew that all of us have good in each one of us, and each of us has the potential for both good and for evil. He had crafted each one of us from the earth, from the dust and the ground, fashioned us in His own image and then breathed life upon all of us, giving us His own Spirit of life. The Lord created us pure and immaculate, although the taint of original sin once overshadowed us, but we have been freed though the works of Christ.

And as all of us were created pure and clean, white as wool and immaculate as an empty slate, then all of us have to write and define what our lives would become. And we have to realise that this faith which we have through baptism, by the Sacrament of Baptism we have been made clean, freed from the taints of any sins, our original sins, our other sins big and small.

But our faith should not be just that, and our faith cannot be just a mere profession of faith or a mere proclamation or testimony. That is not enough, as faith is more than just words or profession, but it involves true and real commitment, as St. James made it clear in his epistle or letter to the faithful in the Church, that faith without good works is just the same as a dead and nonexistent faith.

For faith that benefits us and the state of the salvation of our souls is the kind of faith which Jesus had taught us all through His many parables. Faith cannot just be left by itself or else it will perish and be gone without any good. Let is look into the parable of the sower that Christ had taught His disciples, which represents all of us, the faith which we have received, and the outcome of our faith depending on our actions.

The Word of God are the seeds of faith which God, the Sower had placed in our hearts, by the life He had given us, and by the truth which God had revealed to us through the Scriptures and through the Church. And yet, if we notice in that parable, depending on where the seeds fell, be it on the roadside, on rocky ground, amongst thorny bushes or amongst rich soil, the result of the crop is very, very different.

If our faith is not strong or founded upon solid foundation built by hard work, devotion and total commitment to the Lord, then it will be like the seeds that fell on the roadside, or on the rocky ground, or on the thorny bushes, because the devil comes and then plant his seeds of evil and dissension, and the temptations which he brings us all is too much for us to bear, and without deep roots in the faith, it is very easy for us all to fall back once again into sin and darkness.

That is why, in the Gospel today, we have to pay very close attention to what the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples, and how He rebuked Peter for refusing to believe what would happen to Him. To the feeble and easily tempted minds of men, it might indeed seem to be incoherent and impossible to hear Jesus speaking on one side, of His truth as the Messiah and Lord of all, but then on the other hand, to hear of His prophecy of His own suffering at the very hands of the people to whom He had been sent to.

Satan’s temptation is exactly that we may think that to follow the Lord is all good and easy, and when we find that it is not so, then we feel confused and vulnerable, and then Satan comes in to tempt us and to lure us back into sin, by offering us the alternative pathway that seems to be easier and without obstacle, unlike the path which we will face if we are to follow the Lord our God.

Jesus Himself had endured this when He was tempted by Satan in the desert during His forty days of fasting and preparation in the desert after His baptism by St. John the Baptist. At that moment, Satan tried to persuade Jesus to sin and to disobey the Lord without success, and He remained committed to the mission given to Him, that is the salvation of all mankind.

And when Satan saw that his temptations and attempts were thwarted, he tried yet again to persuade Jesus to abandon His ministry and works, by trying to dissuade Him from taking such a perilous task and enduring such sufferings for the sake of men, and indeed, a common argument for Satan in doing so is that mankind is not worth the great suffering which our Lord Jesus was to endure for the sake of all of us.

But to our Lord who loves us all beyond anything else, no pain or suffering is great enough to warrant Him to abandon us or to cast us out without trying to release us from the burden that had weighed us down all these while. He rebuked Satan and rejected him, and warned him that his dominion over men has come to an end, for God has come to take back His people, and He did so through the cross.

Tomorrow we shall be celebrating the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross, and indeed it is very timely and apt that the celebration of the triumph of the Holy Cross ties in very closely to today’s readings and theme. It is indeed through the cross that our Lord had redeemed us all from our sins and bore the punishments meant for us, and He has also turned that symbol of ultimate shame and defeat, into the ultimate symbol of triumph and victory.

Now, all that remains for us is that, if we become the followers and disciples of Christ, we take a share in the suffering which He bore, the rejection and the ridicule He endured, not because of our sins, which have been taken from us and from which we have been redeemed, but it is because of the opposition and jealousy of Satan and all of his allies that had brought about this suffering.

Let us all ask ourselves, if we are able to renew our commitment which we made at our baptism, either by ourselves or by our godparents, and which we renew yearly at Easter. If we want to be true disciples of our Lord, then we must be ready to reject Satan and all of his lies and false promises, and embrace fully the way of the Lord. And indeed, as our Lord had told us, that we all have to bear our own crosses, following the path of our Lord towards eternal life.

This means that the path ahead will be filled with challenges and difficulties for us, and there will likely be opposition ahead, even from amongst those close to us. But if we are truly committed, then I am sure that even all these should not hinder us from moving onward. Carrying our cross may be heavy for us, but that is where we should help one another, and doing the will of God by loving our brethren and helping those in need are also in fact part of what carrying our own crosses is about.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us grow ever more confident in our faith, and let us devote ourselves more and more to our loving God, and commit ourselves not just in mere words and proclamations of faith, but even more, through our own actions and deeds, so that in all the things that we do, we proclaim the glory of God, carrying the crosses of our lives, and following Jesus, may all of us attain the eternal life God has assured all of us who keep our faith in Him. God bless us all. Amen.