loving one another

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Saturday, 15 March 2014 : 1st Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we all belong to God, just as He had mentioned it in the first reading we heard today. Just as He had claimed Israel to be His chosen ones, to be His chosen people, we too, in the new covenant that Jesus had established with all mankind, have been made to be the people of God, and consecrated to Him in His love.

And as He Himself mentioned, that those who belong to Him ought to be like Him in our actions, words and deeds, that we may reflect Him in all the things that we do. And therefore, we should follow all of His commandments and laws He had revealed to us through the prophets as written in the Scriptures, and through Jesus His Son.

We are God’s children, and like all children do, we ought to follow what our parents are doing, imitating them in their actions, deeds and thoughts. And as God our Father and Lord is Love Himself, we too have to love then, and love just as God loved us. And the commandments of God itself is love, designed to help us to be able to better love one another and to love and dedicate ourselves to God.

And in love, this love is not the kind of love that we often know in this world. There are many kinds and forms of love, but true and genuine love does not equate with lust and desire for pleasure, and neither can it be associated entirely with the love that someone express for another, between a man and a woman, or love that exists between those who had already loved one another in the first place.

Instead, true and genuine love means to love without discrimination and conditions. It is an unconditional love which we offer to all. Genuine love means to do what Christ had told us to do, that is to love even our enemies and pray for them, that they too may know love through the power of our prayer and the example of our unconditional and genuine love.

Yes, brethren, too often we have tried to fight fire with fire, and adding even more fuel to the fire, which ends up in everything being destroyed. And that is what usually happens, when we try to confront hatred and violence with even more violence. Everything will be destroyed and crushed in the end. That is what will happen if we response to someone’s hatred and enmity with even more enmity and hatred from our side.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why it is important for us to instead fight the fire with water, to cool down the fire and let it die down, that in the end everything may be calm again, and through the water, the barren and burnt ground may once again hold life in it. The same therefore, we should practice in our own faith. We have to confront hatred and enmity with love, even if the other side does not yet love us.

Counter their curses with blessings, and show them that we can bring to them a valuable piece of truth, that hatred and violence does not solve everything, and instead will bring things to complete disarray and destruction. Love is the way out of things, as well as peace. We have to always remember this whenever we act.

Make peace with one another and love, and let us all come together in devotion to God in love. Let us show those who still linger in darkness and in the shadow of hatred, that love is the way, and may our actions based in love and forgiveness, help them to get out of the darkness and into the light that together, we may be saved. God be with us all, to the end of time. 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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Sunday, 9 February 2014 : 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 111 : 4-5, 6-7, 8a and 9

He is for the righteous a light in darkness, He is kind, merciful and upright. It will be well with Him who lends freely, who leads a life of justice and honesty.

For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered and loved forever. He has no fear of evil news, for his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.

His heart is confident, he gives generously to the poor, his merits will last forever and his head will be raised in honour.

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Sunday, 9 February 2014 : 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Isaiah 58 : 7-10

Fast by sharing your food with the hungry, bring to your house the homeless, clothe the one you see naked and do not turn away from your own kin. Then will your light break forth as the dawn and your healing come in a flash. Your righteousness will be your vanguard, the Glory of YHVH your rearguard.

Then you will call and YHVH will answer, you will cry and He will say, I am here. If you remove from your midst the yoke, the clenched fist and the wicked word, if you share your food with the hungry and give relief to the oppressed, then your light will rise in the dark, your night will be like noon.

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Saturday, 11 January 2014 : Saturday after the Epiphany (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 5 : 14-21

Through Him we are fully confident that whatever we ask, according to His will, He will grant us. If we know that He hears us whenever we ask, we know that we already have what we asked of Him.

If you see your brother committing sin, a sin which does not lead to death, pray for him, and God will give life to your brother. I speak, of course, of the sin which does not lead to death. There is also a sin that leads to death; I do not speak of praying about this. Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, but not all sin leads to death.

We know that those born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them and the evil one does not touch them. We know that we belong to God, while the whole world lies in evil.

We know that the Son of God has come and has given us power to know the truth. We are in Him who is true, His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

My dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

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Friday, 10 January 2014 : Friday after the Epiphany (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 5 : 5-13

Who has overcome the world? The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus Christ was acknowledged through water, but also through blood. And the Spirit, too, witnesses to Him for the Spirit is truth. There are then three testimonies : the Spirit, the water and the blood, and these three witnesses agree.

If we accept human testimony, with greater reason must we accept that of God, given in favour of His Son. If you believe in the Son of God, you have God’s testimony in you. But those who do not believe make God a liar, since they do not believe His words when He witnesses to His Son.

What has God said? That He has granted us eternal life and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life, the one who do not have the Son of God do not have life.

I write to you, then, all these things that you may know that you have eternal life, all you who believe in the Name of the Son of God.

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Thursday, 9 January 2014 : Thursday after the Epiphany (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 4 : 19 – 1 John 5 : 4

So let us love one another, since He loved us first. If you say, “I love God” while you hate your brother or sister, you are a liar. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your brother whom you see? We received from Him this commandment : let those who love God also love their brothers.

All those who believe that Jesus is the Anointed, are born of God; whoever loves the Father, loves the Son. How may we know that we love the children of God? If we love God and fulfill His commands, for God’s love requires us to keep His commands. In fact, His commandments are not a burden because all those born of God overcome the world.

And the victory which overcomes the world is our faith.