Mass of Paul VI

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Friday, 4 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard from the Holy Scriptures about the Law of God which we all mankind should listen to and obey to, as it has been given by God to us as the means through which our salvation would come from. God had given us these laws as the guides by which we may find our way to return to the Lord our God, especially after we have been wayward on our path to Him.

For while we may think that it is easy and convenient to speak about love, but it is in reality not as easy as it seems. Love is not as what we all often think about, as in our minds and in our understanding, we often look at love as the love and even the lust existing between two peoples, between a man and a woman, who desire each other, and then developing into a relationship.

No, it is not just this kind of love, as the problem is that, in our limited human understanding, we see love as the twisted love that it is in our world today. Let us just see how it was a few weeks ago when the secular world is celebrating in its own way the Valentine’s Day, as a day of romancing and as a day of materialistic craze as one tries to outdo the other in trying to impress their respective lovers.

And we see the amount of advertising, commercialisation and the monetisation of love, where it becomes a commodity for trading and selling, instead of what love is in accordance to what God had told us and shown us. This is the kind of love that we know, not true love but a selfish love, love that cares only about ourselves and those to whom we share that love, but often at the expense of the others whom we do not care about.

You all may be asking, why did I spend so much time going through love and its concept, and how it is realised in our world today, while the Gospel today speaks of God’s Law? That is because, just as in the first reading from the Book of the prophet Hosea spoke about the love that God is pouring down on us all mankind, and how He wants to release us from the suffering of this world due to our sins, and how He wants to make us pure and clean once again, then it was His Law that was an instrument through which He was trying to help us to accomplish this.

And that Law of God is about love, and is indeed Love itself, for God is Love. If God is true and real Love, then surely all that He brings into this world will be filled with love. And in the Gospel, Jesus summarised aptly that God’s Law is truly about two fundamental things that we have to do, that is to first of all, love God before all other things, and do so with all of our hearts’ strength, with all of our focus and effort, and then do the same for the others around us, our fellow men.

In order to understand this fully, we have to realise the context in which the Gospel passage happened in the past. During the time of Jesus, and particularly throughout His ministry, the Pharisees, the elders and the teachers of the Law were often against Jesus and His works, and they always tried to find fault in Him and to condemn Him, because in their eyes and in their minds, He had violated and disobeyed the Law of God as they knew it.

That is because to them, the Law has become empty and devoid of its true meaning, and instead become an instrument of oppression and punishment, and through their way of observing the Law, they did these without true understanding of the purpose of the Law that is the love of God, made through the Law for His desire to bring mankind filled with sin to repentance and thus to receive from Him the eternal redemption.

Therefore, on this day, all of us are called to find out more about God’s commandments of love, and then after understanding them, their purpose and attention, let us all not stop there but continue to commit ourselves to do what the Lord had asked us to do in our own lives. And this season of Lent is the perfect time and opportunity for us to do what is good, filled with charity, care and concern for our brethren around us, and thus devoting ourselves to love God all the more.

Today we mark the feast of St. Casimir of Poland, a faithful and devoted servant of God who devoted his whole life to the Lord. St. Casimir was a royal prince and indeed the crown prince of both the kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania, a mighty Christian kingdom at that time. He was destined to succeed as king, but he never let that fact to hold him back and to distract him, as he continued to devote himself fully to God and to the people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Casimir showed by his actions, by his ministry and service to the weak and the poor, the rejected ones and the ostracised, he helped them and showed the love of God to them. He was a humble and pious man, who obeyed the Lord and His commandments at every opportunity. He showed true understanding of the Law, by his loving actions and by his dedication. And through this, he showed us how to be a real disciple of the Lord.

May God help us all to draw ever nearer to Him, and may all of us be strengthened in our hearts to love God and our fellow men ever more, without condition and without selfishness and desire attached, but instead with great sincerity. Let us all follow the examples of St. Casimir of Poland and also the examples of the other saints and holy people of God, and be made worthy and holy ourselves, and be worthy of the kingdom of God. Amen.

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Friday, 4 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Mark 12 : 28b-34

At that time, a teacher of the Law came up to Jesus and asked Him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is : Hear, Israel! The Lord, our God, is One Lord; and you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”

“After this comes a second commandment : You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these two.” The teacher of the Law said to Him, “Well spoken, Master; You are right when You say that He is One, and there is no other besides Him. To love Him with all our heart, with all our understanding and with all our strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves is more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.”

Jesus approved this answer and said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask Him any more questions.

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Friday, 4 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 80 : 6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11ab, 14 and 17

They heard a voice they did not know : “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. I relieved your shoulder from burden; I freed your hands. You called in distress, and I saved you.”

“Unseen, I answered you in thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear, My people, as I admonish you. If only you would listen, o Israel!

There shall be no strange god among you, you shall not worship any alien god, for I the Lord am your God, Who led you forth from the land of Egypt.

If only My people would listen, if only Israel would walk in My ways. I would feed you with the finest wheat and satisfy you with honey from the rock.

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Friday, 4 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Hosea 14 : 2-10

Return to your God YHVH, o Israel! Your sins have caused your downfall. Return to YHVH with humble words. Say to Him, “Oh You Who show compassion to the fatherless, forgive our debt, be appeased. Instead of bulls and sacrifices, accept the praise from our lips. Assyria will not save us : no longer shall we look for horses, nor ever again shall we say ‘our gods’ to the work of our hands.”

YHVH said, “I will heal their wavering and love them with all My heart for My anger has turned from them. I shall be like dew to Israel, like lily will he blossom. Like a cedar he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow and spread. His splendour will be like an olive tree, his fragrance, like a Lebanon cedar.”

“They will dwell in My shade again, they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like a vine, and their fame will be like Lebanon wine. What would Ephraim do with idols, when it is I Who hear and make him prosper? I am like an ever-green cypress tree; all your fruitfulness comes from Me.”

“Who is wise enough to grasp all this? Who is discerning and will understand? Straight are the ways of YHVH : the just walk in them, but the sinners stumble.”

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Thursday, 3 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the word of God spoken through the Holy Scriptures, where we heard about how the people doubted what the Lord Jesus had done, and even accused Him of colluding with the devil and his forces in order to perform the miraculous things that He had done. It was indeed sad to witness such a turn of events, and surely many of us are asking, why is it so?

It is because their hearts had been hardened by prejudice, by selfishness, by stubbornness, and by worldly desires of men, who sought to satisfy themselves first at the expense of others. They hardened their hearts because Jesus spoke the truth to them, and the truth to these people was not something that is good or appealing. For it was revealed the extent of their sinfulness, and how wicked they had been.

And they had not changed in their ways of life. They resorted to wicked and unholy things, and they refused when someone came telling them to turn away from their paths. That is the nature of our human pride, our ego, that we are reluctant to admit that we are wrong and that the other person or people were right. Our ego and ambition prevented us from looking humbly at things and instead of rectifying the issues at hand, we ended up perpetuating the bad things we have done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are all called to reject all sorts of ego and human pride, and all the negative emotions and wickedness inside each one of us. And why is this very important, brethren? What Jesus our Lord had told us this day also ring true in its other meaning and reminder to us. When He spoke of a kingdom being divided against itself will fall, it also spoke about the same division that is currently inflicted in us.

What does this mean? Let us look at the state of the Church itself, brothers and sisters, that we have so many people who professed faith in the Lord, and yet equally as many professed the faith in their own ways, and many followed their own versions of the faith, refusing to obey the Lord and His Church, of which there is only one, the One and only Holy Mother Church, the Catholic Church.

God established His Church on earth through His Apostles and the other disciples, who continued His mission through many places and from cities to cities, as more and more people come to believe in the Lord. But it was human ego and pride that made them to start to be distracted and be swayed in their path towards God. And instead of listening to the Lord and obeying His commandment through His Church, they chose to forge their own path and broke apart the unity of the Church.

And thus the scandal of disunity was born, and many Christians everywhere were divided against each other, and many refused to listen to the call of God calling them to return to the Holy Mother Church. They accused one another and calling each other liars and sinners, while they themselves did not look at their own sins and wrongdoings. And these are what we should avoid doing in this season of Lent.

Rather, God is calling us to work hard and to labour for unity, for the complete reunification of His Church, the Body of our Lord consisting of all those who professed true faith in God and in full obedience to Him in the unity of His Church under the authority of St. Peter and his successors, the Popes as well as the bishops united to the authority of the Vicar of Christ.

And so, let us all, brethren in Christ, work together as one to overcome our human emotions and challenges that had become our obstacles in the path to true unity, and let us help to restore the unity of the faithful in God’s Church, by learning to be humble, and to preach humility, so that all those who have left the true faith by following their own paths may return in humility and together we may find our way to God and to His salvation. May God bless us all, His Church. Amen.

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Thursday, 3 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 11 : 14-23

At that time, one day Jesus was driving out a demon, which was mute. When the demon had been driven out, the mute person could speak, and the people were amazed. Yet some of them said, “He drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of the demons.” Others wanted to put Him to the test, by asking Him for a heavenly sign.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, “Every nation divided by civil war is on the road to ruin, and will fall. If Satan also is divided, his empire is coming to an end. How can you say that I drive out demons by calling upon Beelzebul? If I drive them out by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive out demons? They will be your judges, then.”

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God; would not this mean that the kingdom of God, has come upon you? As long as a man, strong and well armed, guards his house, his goods are safe. But when a stronger man attacks and overcomes him, the challenger takes away all the weapons he relied on, and disposes of his spoils.”

“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me, scatters.”

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Thursday, 3 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 94 : 1-2, 6-7, 8-9

Come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful sound to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him giving thanks, with music and songs of praise.

Come and worship; let us bow down, kneel before the Lord, our Maker. He is our God, and we His people; the flock He leads and pastures. Would that today you heard His voice!

Do not be stubborn, as at Meribah, in the desert, on that day in Massah, when your ancestors challenged Me, and they put Me to the test.

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Thursday, 3 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 7 : 23-28

One thing I did command them : Listen to My voice and I will be your God and you will be My people. Walk in the way I command you and all will be well with you. But they did not listen and paid no attention; they followed the bad habits of their stubborn heart and turned away from Me.

From the time I brought their forebearers out of Egypt until this day I have continually sent them My servants, the prophets, but this stiff-necked people did not listen. They paid no attention and were worse than their forebearers.

You may say all these things to them but they will not listen; you will call them but they will not answer. This is a nation that did not obey YHVH and refused to be disciplined; truth has perished and is no longer heard from their lips.

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Wednesday, 2 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about God Who had given us all His laws and covenant, the commandments and guide on how we ought to live out our lives, in full alignment to His ways and in full and perfect obedience to His laws and ordinances. If we say that we are Christians, then indeed all of us have to be those who do the will of God with all of us heart’s zeal and strength.

In the Gospel today, Jesus challenged the teachers of the Law, the Pharisees and the elders of Israel for their aberration and their twisted following and observance of the Law of God. These people called themselves as pious and holy people, and they maintained that they have been obedient and observant of God’s laws and ordinances, by maintaining close observation and preservation of the laws according to Moses.

But they have not been obedient in the way that God wanted them to. They thought that Jesus tried to destroy and alter the laws that they had tried to protect for many years and generations, without knowing that whatever they attempted to protect had been twisted and turned away from the truth due to years of corruption by human interests and ego.

Yes, this means that instead of truly using the Law to seek out the Lord and to love Him more in all things, they have used the Law to oppress the people, to force upon them customs, observances and rituals that were done for the sake of doing them, and which did not help to bring God’s people closer to God. In all their attempts, they were only trying to satisfy their human needs, the need for praise and adulation for their ‘faith’ rather than true love for the Lord.

Our Lord Jesus showed them the errors of their ways, and thus, He was showing it to us all as well. It was not by showing off our faith, or by public display of prayers and piety that we can be saved, but it is through real and concrete dedication of ourselves, our efforts and our whole beings for the love and the commitment we can show to the Lord.

This means that we should do all things that God had asked us to do, His commandments and laws, because in the first place, we know that we are sinners, and we have been delinquents and rebels, stubborn people who had refused to listen to God in many occasions, and now, knowing that God is full of mercy to all those who are willing to turn from their evil ways and return to Him, then we want to make a difference in our own lives.

How to do so, brothers and sisters in Christ? In this season of Lent in particular, it is the perfect opportunity for us all to renew our faith and to restart our own lives on the path towards righteousness and salvation in God. We cannot call ourselves true Christians if we do not act and behave like one. Being Christians mean that we imitate our Lord Himself in all the things that He had done, and He had indeed shown all these through Jesus His Son, Who came into the world in order to save us.

And this means that we should show care and concern for the poor, for those who are less fortunate than us, either because they had less things than us, or having even little or none to eat and drink, and also those who were unloved and ostracised from the society, making sure that we ourselves do not participate in actions that bring about misery upon others for our own benefits.

Therefore, let us all pray, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we may become ever better and more faithful disciples of our Lord through real action, and may all of us in this season of Lent be completely and thoroughly converted to the Lord. Let us all turn our every effort, our every focus and attention to God and His ways, and let us sin no more, but do His will from now on with proper understanding, and with genuine love for Him and for our fellow brethren, God’s same children. Amen.

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Wednesday, 2 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 5 : 17-19

At that time, Jesus said to the people and to His disciples, “Do not think that I have come to annul the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to annul them but to fulfil them. I tell you this : as long as heaven and earth last, not the smallest letter or dot in the Law will change until all is fulfilled.”

“So then, whoever breaks the least important of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be the least in the kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys them, and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the kingdom of heaven.”