martyrdom

by

Saturday, 17 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the words of the Holy Scriptures, speaking to us about the grace and blessings that shall await all those who keep and maintain their faith in God, and the curses and the condemnations that await all those who have veered away from the path towards the Lord and towards salvation.

The example of Abraham, our forefather in faith was used, in his obedience and exemplary actions and life, which were filled with the obedience and the trust which he showed to God, the complete faith and trust that he had shown, which made his descendants to become truly blessed by God’s grace. This is done so to inspire all of us to strive for righteousness and justice, and therefore become eligible to enjoy forever God’s love and grace.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have been called to a new life of repentance, of redemption and of forgiveness. All of us have been called out of the pit of darkness, misery and wickedness, and we are all called into the life filled with God’s justice and grace, which can become a reality only if all of us gather together and work together to achieve that goal of salvation in God.

Those who have not been faithful to God, who refused to listen to the word of God, and those who have gone astray in their lives, walking in their own paths in disobedience to the Law of God, will receive the wrath and anger of God, and God shall reject them, just as they themselves had rejected Him first. God is merely reciprocating the hatred and the unwillingness of those who have not given their love to Him. Yet, if these people were to repent and change their ways, God will readily show His infinite mercy and love to them.

God is ever loving and merciful, but this does not mean that He readily tolerates our sins and wickedness. He loves each and every one of us personally and as His beloved children and creation, but He does not love our sins and our wrongdoings. He hates all forms of sins and injustice, all forms of malice and wickedness, all forms of evil and all the darkness that lie in our actions.

If we persist in retaining all those sins and darkness, then certainly all of us will be condemned and prevented from reaching salvation in the Lord. This is because those sins and wicked things in our words and actions are barriers and obstacles that stop us from finding our way to the Lord. Those sins are what preventing us from receiving the fullness of God’s grace and blessings, and they kept us away from the light, remaining in the darkness and the abyss.

This is why, we ought to reflect on our own actions and deeds, and we should think about what we have done in this life, so that we may realise the current state of our being, whether we stand in righteousness and grace of God, or whether we are in danger of falling into the condemnation of eternal hell. Thus, we ought to heed the example of a holy man and saint whose feast day we celebrate on this day.

Today is the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the second bishop and leader of the faithful in Antioch, a great city of Christendom in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was counted among the birthplaces of Christianity, as the place where the faithful were first called as Christianoi, or Christians. It was the place where the Church was established by St. Peter the Apostle, the Vicar of Christ, who later went on to establish the Church in Rome.

St. Ignatius of Antioch was his successor as the second Bishop of Antioch, and he helped to continue the establishment of the Church in Antioch and beyond, caring for the spiritual and overall well-being of his flock, giving them examples to follow and exhorting them to be always faithful to God and His ways, and resist the temptations of worldly goods and human greed.

Eventually, St. Ignatius of Antioch shared in the suffering of Christ our Lord, when he and the other Christians were persecuted under the orders of the civil authorities of the Roman Empire. The Emperor and the officials of the Roman state opposed the Christians and their teachings of truth, and they attempted to snuff out the light of the Church at its young stage of growth.

Nevertheless, St. Ignatius of Antioch remained resolute and committed to the evangelisation and spreading of God’s Good News of the Gospel, and he suffered death and martyrdom knowing that the works he had begun would be carried on by those who came after him, and his martyrdom served as an inspiration for countless others to also pick up their crosses and follow the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, let us on this day reflect once again on our own lives. We have a clear choice on whether to obey the Lord and His ways, walking in His righteousness and justice, and practicing His will and commandments in all of our words and actions, or whether we want to follow he devil and all of his errors and lies.

Let us all take concrete actions in our lives, so that in all the things we do and say, we will show a renewed effort of loving and serving the Lord our God, with all of our hearts’ strength. May the Lord have mercy on us all, forgive us all our sins, and bring us into everlasting life. Amen.

by

Saturday, 17 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Luke 12 : 8-12

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples and to the people, “I tell you, whoever acknowledges Me before people, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. But the one who denies Me before others will be denied before the angels of God.”

“There will be pardon for the one who criticises the Son of Man, but there will be no pardon for the one who slanders the Holy Spirit. When you are brought before the synagogues, and before governors and rulers, do not worry about how you will defend yourself, or what to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you have to say.”

by

Saturday, 17 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 104 : 6-7, 8-9, 42-43

You descendants of His servant Abraham, you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgments reach the whole world.

He remembers His covenant forever, His promise to a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the promise He swore to Isaac.

For He remembered His promise to Abraham, His servant. So He led forth His people with joy, His chosen ones with singing.

by

Saturday, 17 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Romans 4 : 13, 16-18

If God promised Abraham, or rather his descendants, that the world would belong to him, this was not because of his obeying the Law, but because he was just and a friend of God through faith.

For that reason, faith is the way and all is given by grace; and the promises of Abraham are fulfilled for all his descendants, not only for his children according to the Law, but also for all the others who have believed. Abraham is the father of all of us, as it is written : I will make you father of many nations. He is our father in the eyes of Him who gives life to the dead, and calls into existence what does not yet exist, for this is the God in whom he believed.

Abraham believed and hoped against all expectation, thus becoming father of many nations, as he had been told : See how many will be your descendants.

by

Monday, 28 September 2015 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, Martyr and St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the Lord our God who proclaimed His salvation to the nations, to all of His people who had long been oppressed and under slavery, that by His own mighty power, He would deliver us all from our slavery, that is the slavery to sin and death. He had promised this to all of us, and fulfilled it perfectly through His Son, Jesus Christ.

As what He had said to the prophet Zechariah, which we witnessed in our first reading today, God was indeed angry against all of us His people, and He despised all of our sins and wickedness. That was why He cast all of us out of His grace and blessings through our ancestors, Adam and Eve, who was cast out of the bliss of the Gardens of Eden, and had no choice but to endure and to suffer the bitter sufferings in the world.

But it did not mean that the Lord did not care about us or that He was plotting our destruction. Certainly, it is within His power to completely obliterate us out of creation and the world had He followed only His justice. It was truly just indeed for us all to suffer destruction and death as a consequence for our sins, and we truly deserved to fall into hell for eternity, which had been prepared for Satan and his angels.

It was the love He has for us, the endless and boundless love that had prevented Him from casting us out completely, and He was willing to give us another chance. This is a privilege that He did not give even Satan, once Lucifer, who was condemned once and for all for his rebellion against God, and cast down out of heaven to the earth. It is a privilege that we have received to be able to atone for our sins and be forgiven.

And the Lord Himself proclaimed His salvation that would come where the faithful and devoted ones would receive succour and rescue from the darkness and the suffering of this world, and this was perfectly fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah, none other than the Word of God Himself, made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord. By His crucifixion, the death He suffered on the cross, He had made us all whole once again, and by His resurrection from death, He brought us all a new hope.

But, He also reminded all of us through His disciples that those who believe in Him and follow Him will also suffer as He had suffered, and the world would reject them just as it had first rejected Jesus. This is because the world is the dominion of the fallen angel, our great enemy, Satan, who had seduced the entire race of mankind into sin and disobedience against God. Certainly he would not want us to be lost to him and be saved.

That is why, today we celebrate the memory, life and death of great followers of our Lord, who had endeavoured and worked hard to spread the Good News of the Gospel, and gave their lives in the service of God in holy martyrdom. St. Wenceslaus, martyr of the faith in Bohemia, now known as the Czech Republic, and St. Lawrence Ruiz, also known as St. Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint and his companions, the holy martyrs of Japan.

All of them suffered the rejection of the world and the persecution and torture by those who opposed the Lord and His ways. St. Wenceslaus was the ruler of Bohemia, whose rule was particularly remembered as one that was filled with justice and righteousness, and St. Wenceslaus was very committed to his role as the leader of his people, serving them as best as he could.

St. Wenceslaus however encountered great opposition by the nobles and the rich landed members of the Bohemian society, some of whom were still pagans and unbelievers, and most importantly, they all were united in their opposition to the ways and rulership. They wanted to satisfy their own wants and wishes, and they wanted to maintain the privileges and good things they had.

Therefore, they plotted against St. Wenceslaus, and eventually managed to murder him with the help of the brother of St. Wenceslaus, who benefitted by becoming his successor as the ruler of Bohemia. However, the sin of murdering such a holy servant of God was truly great, and it was not until that brother repented and atoned for his sins that he was truly welcomed back once again into the Church of God.

Meanwhile, St. Lawrence Ruiz was a Filipino who escaped to Japan during the time about more than four hundred years ago, when he was wrongly accused of the murder of a local magistrate. He boarded a ship destined for Japan, and then over there, he joined the thriving local Christian community, which at that time was tolerated and in some places, the local lords even converted to the true faith in God.

But, good times did not last long, as the mood of the government of Japan at the time changed, and under the new Tokugawa shogunate, the Christians were no longer tolerated and instead, they were persecuted and forced to choose between denying the Lord and recanting their faith, or to die a most gruesome and painful death should they choose to remain faithful in the Lord.

St. Lawrence Ruiz and many other Christians refused to deny their Lord and Master, and they refused to abandon their faith, even under the torture and the certainty of painful death. They held their faith with great pride, and they went to their martyrdom with great faith, that the Lord who is ever loving and ever faithful to those who believe in Him, will grant them everlasting glory and life with Him.

Indeed, the example of these saints we have just heard should become an inspiration to all of us as well. The way that they have lived their lives and the way that they have stood up for their faith and for God should be examples for us all to follow as well. We have to live righteously and follow the way of the Lord as He had taught us and revealed to us through His Church, obey all of His commandments and be true disciples and true shining beacons of the Faith.

Let us all reflect on this, and try our best to implement all these in our own lives. God loves us, and He wants to save us and forgive us all of our sins and trespasses, but our sins continue to come in the way between us and Him, and the only way forward is for us to repent and change our ways, sin no more and trust in Him and follow Him with all of our might. May God bless us all. Amen.

by

Monday, 28 September 2015 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, Martyr and St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Luke 9 : 46-50

At that time, one day the disciples were arguing about which of them was the most important. But Jesus knew their thoughts, so He took a little child and stood him by His side.

Then He said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in My Name, welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me, welcomes the One who sent Me. And listen : the one who is found to be the least among you all, is the one who is the greatest.”

Then John spoke up, “Master, we saw someone who drives out demons by calling upon Your Name, and we tried to forbid him, because he does not follow You with us.” But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him. He who is not against you is for you.”

by

Monday, 28 September 2015 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, Martyr and St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 101 : 16-18, 19-21, 29 and 22-23

O Lord, the nations will revere Your Name, and the kings of the earth Your glory. For He will answer the prayer of the needy and will not despise their plea.

Let this be written for future ages, “the Lord will be praised by a people He will form.” From His holy height in heaven, the Lord has looked on the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoners, and free those condemned to death.

Your servants’ children will dwell secure; their posterity will endure without fail. Then the Name of the Lord will be declared in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem, when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship Him.

by

Monday, 28 September 2015 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, Martyr and St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Zechariah 8 : 1-8

The word of YHVH, the God of hosts was directed to me in this way, “I am intensely jealous for Zion, stirred by a burning anger for her sake. YHVH says : I will return to Zion and live in her midst. Jerusalem shall be called City of faithfulness and the Mountain of YHVH of hosts, the Mountain of holiness.”

YHVH, the God of hosts speaks, “Old men and women will again sit in the squares, each with a stick in hand on account of their great age. The squares of the city will be filled with girls and boys playing.”

YHVH, God of hosts declares, “If that seems impossible in the eyes of those who have returned from exile, will it be impossible for Me as well?” – word of YHVH. YHVH, God of hosts says, “See, I am going to save My people, bringing them from the east and from the west and they will live in Jerusalem. They will be My people and I shall be their God in truth and in justice.”

by

Thursday, 9 October 2014 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are both reminded of the fact that temptations are always around us and they will always threaten to sever us from the connection of love which is between us and our God. St. Paul in his letter to the faithful and the Church in Galatia rebuked the people severely, after their unfaithfulness and submission to their human desire and the pleasures of the flesh, abandoning what is good for what is wicked and evil.

And the rest of the readings, including the Gospel as written by St. Luke mentioned how God is like our Father, who cared for us and loved us so much, that He would indeed give us all many things that we need, and we have nothing to worry about or fear, for our God will be with us and guide us. What we need is to have faith in Him, and put our trust completely in Him, rather than in the worldly things which the evil one is trying very hard to impose upon us.

But many of us do not know how to ask God our Father for what we need. Instead, as we grow, we become more and more affected by the world and all its corruptions, resulting in us becoming like a spoilt child, crying and causing wreckage all around us whenever what we want is not fulfilled. Thus is the same with our attitude in life, and how we live our faith life.

Just like the faithful in Galatia at the time of St. Paul, we often let go of our restraint and faith, taking pleasure in indulging ourselves with the goods of the world, with the pleasures of the flesh, so that we who were once good and faithful, had been defiled by the darkness of the evils we had committed. This resulted in us being separated from the grace and love of God, and if nothing is done, we will indeed come under great threat of damnation before us.

Therefore, what Jesus wanted to tell His disciples, and as well as what He wants to tell us through them, is that we ought to follow the Lord, not just with empty lip-service or superficial faith, but also through real and concrete devotion, filled with the acts of faith. And in that faith, we ought to listen to God, and know what our Lord and loving Father wants from us. He cares for us, and He will love us and bless us if we devote ourselves completely and entirely to Him, turning away from our ways of sin and evil.

Today we celebrate the lives of two great saints, whose life may indeed inspire us on how we ought to live out our faith. They are St. Denis, whose name is the patronymic for the Basilica of St. Denis in Paris, France today. St. Denis and his companions in faith were martyred approximately at the time of the reign of the Emperor Decian of the Roman Empire in the middle of the third century after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Meanwhile, St. John Leonardi, also known as St. Giovanni Leonardi is an Italian priest who lived during the Counter Reformation era in Italy, where he was a crucial member of the efforts of the Church to reclaim countless souls from the heretical and misguided lead of the so-called ‘reformation’ by the Protestant heretics and schismatics. He also founded a community of the faithful, in which he led the effort to strengthen the foundations of their faith, by living in good devotion to the Lord and to His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

St. John Leonardi devoted himself to the education and guidance of youths and many others, so that they might find their way towards the Lord, through sincere and devout commitment to prayerful life and loving acts to others, so that by such cultivation of good deeds and efforts, those whom St. John Leonardi had touched may find the salvation of their souls in God.

Meanwhile, St. Denis was the evangeliser sent by the Pope in Rome to the faithful and the community of the people in Gaul, the Roman province now known as France, where he was sent with several other priests and preachers to bring many souls to the Faith and salvation in Jesus Christ. During his ministry there, the Roman Emperor at the time, Emperor Decius, carried out an Empire-wide persecution of the faithful, in what was later known as the Decian persecution, where many martyrs of the Faith were born.

St. Denis and his companions were arrested, rounded up and imprisoned, before they were brought for execution for their faith and for their evangelising works. St. Denis was beheaded, but even so, even after he was beheaded, he was able to walk holding up his own separated head on his hands, and continued to walk, speak and preach the word of God until a few kilometres away from his execution place. This miracle of the speaking head after beheading, or cephalophore was widely witnessed and reported by contemporaries.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we see in their examples, the love and devotion which God has for all those who put their trust and faith in Him, that these people who depended on Him will not be disappointed. They will be blessed and bountiful will be their reward, just as St. Denis received through his perseverance and martyrdom, a just reward of heavenly glory and eternal life, as well as St. John Leonardi, through his works and devotion towards the salvation of souls.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all keep always in mind that we need to preserve this faith which we received from God, and follow the Lord in all things, casting away all of the pride within our hearts, all of the wicked and unworthy desires for the pleasures of the flesh, so that we, as the children of God, may find our way to the Lord, our Father, and gain salvation in Him, He who loves us all and wants us reunited with Him.

May Almighty God, our Father, continue to watch closely over us, protect us from the assaults of Satan and his angels, and guide us through towards eternal life in Him. God bless us all. Amen.

by

Thursday, 9 October 2014 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 5-13

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to his house in the middle of the night and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine who is travelling has just arrived, and I have nothing to offer him.’ Maybe your friend will answer from inside, ‘Do not bother me now; the door is locked, and my children and I are in bed, so I cannot get up and give you anything.'”

“But I tell you, even though he will not get up and attend to you because you are a friend, yet he will get up because you are a bother to him, and he will give you all you need. And so I say to you, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.'”

“If your child asks for a fish, will you give him a snake instead? And if your child asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.”