mercy

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Saturday, 4 May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we who believe in Christ, and put our trust in His words, and place ourselves in His great love, do not belong to this world, which is owned by the evil one, with the sole intention of steering all of us away from the true path, that is the way of Christ. This they have done together by tempting the faithful ones in Christ, God’s sheep with the false promise of earthly pleasures and false joy and happiness.

Do not fear though, my brethren in faith, for Christ, our Lord Himself had also suffered such temptations and yet He won, because of His obedience to God His Father, and His unshakeable faith. We too ought to have that kind of faith and love for God, that we can deny the evil one, a passage into our hearts. Do not let the devil dwell inside us, but rather, let us put God at the centre of our very being, making our own body into a Holy Temple of His Presence.

God has made all of us His own, and gave Himself freely for our sake, giving His own flesh and blood that we can live eternally with Him in eternal joy and bliss. Not the temporary and false joy and happiness that this world can offer, but the lasting happiness of heaven. True happiness, and true joy, that the world cannot give, for there is only true joy when we are together and united with Christ our Lord and God, never again to be separated from Him.

The world hates the Lord, because it belongs to the devil, and therefore it will hate all of us too, who keep the faith in God strong. But if we remain faithful to the Lord, the devil and this world will have no power over us. We must keep our faith in God strong, and how to do this? By constant and healthy prayer life, to anchor ourselves in God, by being in constant direct line to God, we can keep ourselves from the power of evil. We also should receive the Lord regularly in deep devotion during the Mass, by attending Mass frequently, and devoutly receiving the Lord in the Eucharist.

The Eucharist, that is our Lord’s Precious Body and Blood will transform us into a Holy Temple of His divine Presence, as He enters our own unworthy bodies, and from the inside, He would transform us and made us worthy of Him, but only if our minds, our hearts, and our soul are open to Him and willing to accept Him.

Let us put our trust in God, who is our divine Master and Lord, who had triumphed over death, and who had won for us the fight against evil, and banish evil forever into the ultimate fate that awaits him, that is the lake of fire. Let us not fear evil and the world anymore, but continue to put our trust in God and love both Him and our fellow men. Keep our guard up, that the evil one will not ‘steal’ us from under God’s watch, but we need not fear if we stay in our faith in Him. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 30 April 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Pius V, Pope (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the path to the service to God is not easy, and there will be many obstacles, but the Lord Himself will aid us in our great service to Him, through various ways, and He will never abandon us. He had shown His faith to us many times, especially to all those who love Him back too.

He gives all of us His peace, that is an everlasting peace, not the peace as we know it in this world, which is superficial peace, but true peace that transcends all our understandings, and all that we know about peace. For when we are together with Christ, we experience such a great joy and satisfaction that only God can give. This is the true peace that Christ gives us, if we would just believe in Him and put our trust entirely in Him.

Christ is always with us, even though we may think that He is no longer there. He is always with us, in our hearts, with us, and He walks with us, especially at the hardest times of our lives, when He is there, supporting us, and protecting all of us whom He loves, from harm and evil. Then let me tell you the well known story of the lone man and the Lord who walked together on the beach, and the footsteps on the sand.

A man walked on the beach with the Lord, walking side-by-side on the sandy beach, leaving their footprints behind. There are therefore two set of footprints on the sand, one of which belongs to the man, and the other which belongs to the Lord. All is fine until difficult times face the man, who then looked back at the sand, and saw only a single set of footsteps.

He then began saying bad things about the Lord and complained at how God has abandoned him in the times of his greatest need, and at bad times. But the Lord was not angry with him, and instead tell the man gently, that whenever the man is in bad times, there are only a single set of footsteps, not because God has abandoned him, but it is because God carries the man on His back, and that footsteps is the Lord’s.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our God, our Lord loves us, very much, so much that He wanted to come down to us, to be human like us, and to be simple and humble servant of God’s children, and to suffer the ultimate suffering and death on the cross. The suffering of Christ is real, and the cross is real, for through the cross, we have been removed from death that is our due, because of our ancestors’ and our rebellion against the love of God.

We had been ransomed from death by the blood of the Lamb, who is Christ, and through His resurrection by God His Father, and our Father, He restored us to life, and promised, and indeed granted all of us who believe in Him, eternal life, that is true life that is of Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in complete and perfect union with Him who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Just as the cross is real, the resurrected and Risen Lord is real too, and it is in His resurrection that we placed our complete faith, that through Him we are redeemed and chosen by God to live forever in eternal bliss in His love.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our mission today is to continue the works of the holy Apostles and disciples of the Lord, that through us, the Good News of our Lord will continue to spread and reach many, especially those who did not yet have the chance to receive the message, and those to whom the Word of God had been an annoyance.

Never give up to spread the Good News, to all people, to all nations. We have to persevere for the sake of the salvation of our brethren, our fellow brothers, children of the same, One True, and real God. God walks among us today, and He is within us. His real Presence in the Eucharist that we receive in the Mass allow Him to make our own beings into His Holy Temples, where He resides, and through Him, we receive the Holy Spirit that empowers us.

Be renewed by the Holy Spirit, and by the great zeal for the love for God and all His people. Today we also commemorate the feast day of Pope St. Pius V, a great reformer of the Church, who lived at the difficult times of the early modern era Church, when the Church was assailed by multiple opponents and difficulties, from the Protestant ‘reformers’ and from the Muslim threat of the growing Ottoman Empire. Many true Christians and children of God were martyred during these difficult and turbulent times.

Yet Pope St. Pius V did not give up, and he continued to persevere, with complete trust in the divine providence, to whom He entrusted the Church of God, and eventually God showed that He indeed supported the Church, just like how the Lord supported the man in his difficult times, that he only saw a single set of footsteps. And therefore, the Lord walks with the Church, and He protected the Church of God through that difficult time, and eventually the Christians scored a major victory against the Muslim Ottomans at Lepanto, and crushed their oppression on many Christians forevermore, which Pope St. Pius V commemorated by establishing the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Many souls too returned to salvation through the Church, and many returned to the true faith in God. Through his completion of the Counter-Reformation reforms and the Council of Trent, he helped to rejuvenate the Church and return the faith into a strong and glorious position once again.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us remember today, that our God is with us, and that He loves us, and He will always want to protect us, if we remain faithful to Him. Be faithful, and be courageous, and let God do wonders with our life. Let us follow in the courageous examples of Pope St. Pius V, that we can also be light to the nations, to be like the disciples of Christ, to bring the Good News and salvation to all mankind. Pope St. Pius V, pray for us. Amen.

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Monday, 29 April 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor (Gospel Reading)

John 14 : 21-26

“Whoever keeps My commandments is the one who loves Me. If he loves Me, He will also be loved by My Father; I too shall love Him and show Myself clearly to Him.”

Judas – not Judas Iscariot – asked Jesus, “Lord, how can it be that You will show Yourself clearly to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him; and we will come to him and make a room in his home.”

“But if anyone does not love Me; he will not keep My words; and these words that you hear are not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. I told you all this while I was still with you. From now on the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I have told you.”

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Sunday, 28 April 2013 : 5th Sunday of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

God is love, this is the fundamental and the most basic nature of our Lord and God, my dear brothers and sisters. For love is the centre of being of our God, for His love is infinite, and in His infinite and boundless love, He willingly sacrificed Himself that all of us, unworthy and sinful mankind, may be saved from the eternal separation from Himself.

It may not be easy to see God in our daily lives today, since God is no longer walking among us, just as He did at the time of the disciples, to whom He appeared often after His resurrection. But do we then abandon God in the search of something more tangible, for something more real? That is why many of the faithful in Christ had lapsed in their faith in God, simply because they had been allured by the evil one and his myriad tools that he used to lure mankind away from God.

There are many means that the devil had used in his attempts to corrupt mankind, by offering many seemingly better alternatives to God, whom he tried to portray to many as being boring and inexistent. Instead, men loves his creations, that of worldly goods, wealth, affluence, and other false idols, solely aimed at the separation of men from God, and the ruination of Christ’ salvific mission in this world.

But Satan will never succeed, for God will ultimately triumph, and despite all the plots and the devices that Satan had used in his attempts to deceive mankind, God’s love and faith in us will be a key weapon in the fight against the devil and his fallen angels, who ceaselessly tried to divert us from the true path towards the Lord.

There are indeed many false gods and idols that our world offer us all today, my brothers and sisters, most obvious of which is money and material possessions, which many of us desire to the point of worshipping them instead of God, to whom only all honour and glory should go. Many of us are so embroiled and involved in our pursuit for success and wealth, that we forgot that the Lord is always with us. We enjoy the company of money and material goods more than we do for the Lord.

How many of us find it a great chore to just go and attend the Sunday Mass to worship our Lord? and how many of us then spend so much time in our career and our work, and in the attempt to secure more pay and more money? And even worse are those who employ underhanded and illegal means to secure these wealth and possessions, that is through corruption and nepotism, which had marred many of our high ranking politicians, businessmen, and many other people, and do not be mistaken that this happens only on the top, since corruption and all these vices also exist in the bottom rung of the society, with many of us seduced by the allure of money, and became obsessed in attaining more of it, that we forget the Lord and His love.

The Lord Himself had said, that we should not worry about our lives and what we are to have in our daily lives, since God Himself will provide all that we need, just like how He provided for the animals and other beings that He had created. For mankind, especially, there had been a blurring of distinctions between what we want, and what we truly need for our lives. Too often we seek something that we do not actually need, but out of our insatiable desire for things that we want to have.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us take a step back from our mindless pursuits of wealth, affluence, fame, and material possessions. Seek not what can bring us glory in this world, but seek for the true glory in heaven instead. How to do so? By loving one another as the Lord has loved us, just as He had commanded the apostles to do so. Love is the core tenet of our faith, since our very salvation is anchored on the great and infinite love that God has for us, that He wanted to endure death for our sake, that we may live.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us strive to love one another ever greater, and put love manifested in all our words, our thoughts, and our actions, that whenever we do something, or say something, or think of something, love will always form the core of our speech, our decisions, and our actions. Remember that God is love, and by doing so, we have already obeyed God’s will and commandments, allowing even others to see our actions and believe in the Lord, saving more people for Christ who died for them.

Let us pray, that we can be ever more loving and more compassionate in our society, helping those who are weakest and the least there, and reaching out to all in need, both physically and spiritually, that God’s love will be made manifest in this world, through us, and through our actions. May God bless all of us. Amen.

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Sunday, 28 April 2013 : 5th Sunday of Easter (Psalm)

Psalm 144 : 8-9, 10-11, 12-13ab

Compassionate and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and abounding in love. The Lord is good to everyone; His mercy embraces all His creation.

All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o Lord, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your power.

That all may know of Your mighty deeds, Your reign and its glorious splendour. Your reign is from age to age.

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Saturday, 27 April 2013 : 4th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all the children of one God, the Lord our Father who came down to us through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. We are all His children, and because of that, all of us should indeed be like Him, both in appearance, because He created us in His own image, and most importantly in our behaviour and in all the things that we do.

But sadly, indeed, that many of us no longer do things which reflect that we are all the children of our loving God, and instead, many of the things that we had done, are representative of the fact that we are children of the evil one, Satan, the tricker and deceiver. He deceived us and our ancestors to do things in his own preferences, and in doing so, we are following Satan’s bidding.

Do we then serve the Lord or Satan, His enemy? It is indeed easy to say that we want to serve the Lord, but yet, serving the Lord our God is never easy, because this world itself is filled with the powers and agents of Satan, which will do his best to keep us away from true salvation and faith in God. He did not want us to be saved, because of his hatred against the Lord, he wants only that His children, the mankind, suffer for that.

God chose us, and He justifies us, and if we remain faithful in Him, we will indeed receive abundant blessings in Him, and we will gain the promised eternal life and eternal bliss in union with our God. He chose us, and not we choose Him, for not all the people will be saved, and many remained in rebellion against God’s love and compassion, which He offered to all mankind for free, by dying on the cross.

That was what happened to the Jews in the Gentile lands, that despite the disciples attempting to spread the Good News to them first, being the first chosen people of our Lord, they have failed to see through the shadow placed by the evil one on their eyes and the ‘eyes’ of their hearts, and because they did not have true faith in God, they were easily taken over by the evil one, and reject the salvation offered freely by our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

And today, we listened to the story of the evangelisations done by the apostles, by St. Paul and Barnabas, who were at the forefront of the attempts to bring the Word of God to all the nations, to the pagans and Gentiles, whom we often see that they embrace the faith in God openly, because God becomes a living spring in them, and He fills the emptiness that was once within their souls and their hearts.

Again, God justifies anybody who believes in Him, remain in His love, and obey His commandments, and actually do His will rather than just mere lip-service in their faith in God. He did not let Himself be biased, even against Israel, His people, whom He had chosen through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their forefathers. For there were many whom did not belong to the Jews, but actually having greater faith and love for God than the Jews ever were.

Therefore, the same also applies to us today, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that if all of us remain strongly in God’s love and favour, and that if we ensure that we do His will and commandments, and strive to be men of justice, love, and truth, we will be granted His graces and blessings, and truly becoming His beloved children, who are worthy of His kingdom and the eternal life. Let us go forth and make our actions and our words to reflect the love of God, and proclaim to all mankind that God is love, and God is life, and through Him we had been ransomed from death that is our fate. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 26 April 2013 : 4th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Behold Jesus, our Risen Lord and God! He is the Son of God, the Messiah, who was rejected and tortured and suffered a humiliating death, abandoned by those near to Him and those who were dear to Him, just as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah has spoken much about the Messiah who is about to come, and in Jesus that prophecy is perfectly fulfilled.

In Christ lies our salvation, and in Him is all hope, because the Lord has given to Him authority over all. He has been given the authority to rule all the nations, with an iron rule of justice and love. Through Christ we have a new way towards the Lord, and if we keep God’s commandment and do His will, Jesus will prepare rooms for us in His Father’s kingdom, just as Jesus had promised to the disciples.

Christ had to endure death to achieve His mission, that through His suffering on the way to Calvary, Christ justified us by the outpouring of His blood from His holy wounds. His wounds are our sins, past, present and future, all our faults and rebellions against God, and all our unworthiness that Christ bear unto Himself, that all who believe in Him may not die, but enjoy everlasting life, through Him.

For Christ in His death had destroyed our own deaths, our fate for having abandoned God and His commandments, that we inherited from our forefathers in their stubbornness against God’s will and God’s words through the prophets. He restored us then to life, when He rose again in a new life of glory, on Easter day, when He is risen from the dead.

Christ our Lord is truly the Lord of life, the living God, just as the Father is God of the living, that death has no more power over us, and therefore, Satan, who first instigated mankind in rebellion against God’s will, has no more power over us. For Satan and his evil advocates and allies controlled us and enthralled us through the agents of sin, which they propagated through worldly temptations.

This Easter season is a holy season, a good season indeed for the renewal of our faith and our dedication to God our Lord. We should make best use of this opportunity and let it not go to waste, by embracing our faith in the Lord ever more intimately and strongly, and embrace God’s love ever more within our hearts.

Do not harden our hearts and do not turn a deaf ear against the Lord’s will and words that He spoke to us, not by loud proclamations, but by simple and soft whispers in the depths of our hearts. If we remain faithful to Him, and keep our hearts, minds, and soul attuned to Him, we will be able to listen to Him speaking to us in our hearts, in silence, the words of truth, of life, and salvation.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, despite all our busy schedules and occupancies, we should always try to set aside some time for the Lord, spent in quiet contemplation, that we will be able to follow Him ever more, and take His message of eternal life into our own being. Let us never forget the greatness of His love and the sacrifice He had endured on Calvary, so that all of us may live, and not die, in eternal life. Amen.

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Saturday, 20 April 2013 : 3rd Week of Easter (Psalm)

Psalm 115 : 12-13, 14-15, 16-17

How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the Name of the Lord.

I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people. It is painful to the Lord to see the death of His faithful.

O Lord, I am Your servant, truly Your servant, Your handmaid’s son. You have freed me from my bonds. I will offer You a thanksgiving sacrifice; I will call on the Name of the Lord.

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Friday, 19 April 2013 : 3rd Week of Easter, Eighth Anniversary of the Election of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 (Scripture Reflection)

We heard today, the story of the conversion of Saul, the hater and the destroyer of the Church, who would later become Paul, the great saint and apostle, the Apostle to the Gentiles, who brought the Good News of our Lord to the pagan nations. Such a change indeed, from the ultimate enemy of the Church and those who believed in Christ, into the greatest of the champions of the Lord.

This indeed shows the power of God’s providence, and the mysterious ways through which He made His will known to us and manifest in this world. We do not choose ourselves to be worthy of Him and therefore salvation, but He chose us out of many in this world, to be among those who had been called and chosen to be the servants of our God.

Those whom He had chosen, He gave the grace of faith and also the gift of love, in order to spread this faith and love among those who have yet heard the Good News of our Lord, and those who have yet embraced Christ as their Messiah, their Saviour. Paul was one of this, whom the Lord had chosen, from those who had persecuted the Church and the people faithful in Him, no less.

This in fact only showed the greatness of our God, the depth of His mercy and love, and the nature of His redemptive works in our world, even today. He shows us that no one is beyond His mercy, and no one who had sinned and done bad things is unworthy of His love, if only they would repent and change their hearts and minds, turning back towards He who loves us.

Paul did sinful things in the eyes of the Lord by persecuting His faithful ones, but yet, he repented, and was turned into the greatest tool of early evangelisation of the faith, in which we will often hear in this Easter season, of Saint Paul’s numerous contributions to the early Church, in his four travels across the Mediterranean world.

Jesus today, in the Gospel reading, also offered us His love and redemption, through none other than His own Precious Body and Blood, which He offered freely out of His great and infinite love for all of us, that all of us who would share in His Precious being would not die an eternal death and be lost to Him forever, but be reunited with Him and the Father, and be raised in glory on the last day, just as He Himself had been risen from the dead on the Easter day.

That is why, dear brothers and sisters, today, we are called to be the light to the nations, the light to the world, just as Paul himself had been called on that day on the way to Damascus. In our own lives, we may not experience the kind of conversion that Paul has had, but in our own ways, and in God’s own mysterious works, we would be transformed into just like Paul, if we would turn our heart truly and entirely towards the Lord.

We are called to be the bringer of the Good News to the nations, just as Paul once had been the apostle to the Gentiles and the pagan nations. First, let us anchor ourselves in Christ that our faith would be strong, and we would have that capacity to spread God’s good message of truth. Let God and the Holy Spirit transform us, by frequently and devoutly receiving the Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist in the Mass. Attend the Mass frequently, and devoutly offer our prayers and worship to the Lord in the Mass.

Do not be distracted by worldly desires and temptations, for the devil would want to derail us from our path towards God, and he desires nothing than the fall of mankind, and therefore he would do all he can to prevent us from being the apostle Paul was. Once our faith is firm, keep a good and strong prayer life, and in prayer, spread the Good News to others, both through our words, and also our actions.

For in our words, others will be able to listen to the Good News of the Lord, and therefore would believe. If they would not believe in what we say, then at least through our actions, we could show them what God’s love and Good News is truly about. Remember that the Lord said, that whoever loves Him will do His will and will do the works that He had done.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today renew our commitment to evangelisation, and to conversion, both of ourselves and that of those who had yet to receive the grace of faith in God. Let us strive to spread God’s message to all, beginning in our own daily lives, and within our own families and friends.

Let us also pray for our Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who was elected as our Pope and leader 8 years ago on this day, on 19 April 2005. Let us pray for him that he will be able to continue serving the Church through his prayers and his dedication to our Lord. A praying Pope is indeed a powerful enemy of Satan and his angels. May God then bless us all, and bless our Holy Church, and all those who had given themselves in the service of the Lord. Amen.

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Tuesday, 16 April 2013 : 3rd Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the story of the courage of Stephen, the first martyr, who welcomed death in Christ when he defended his faith and his belief in Christ against the Pharisees and the Jewish high priests when he was questioned and ridiculed for his faith. Instead of fighting back in anger, he explained in detail the story of mankind from its creation and how God brought about salvation through Christ.

Yet, they rejected still the explanation by Stephen, and despite the fact that Stephen himself was full of the Holy Spirit, which is manifested in his shining face, that looks like an angel, the Pharisees and the chief priests still failed to see the truth that was told to them by Stephen, and which they surely had heard as well, from Jesus Himself in their numerous encounters, especially those designed to trap Him and allow them to arrest Him for blasphemy.

They were blinded in their jealousy and hatred against the Lord, against Christ our Risen Lord and Saviour, that they refused to believe all that had happened and had been told about Him and His works, His resurrection, and His nature as the Messiah. They rejected Him not because His message was wrong, but because of human weakness and them allowing Satan to enter their hearts.

They persecuted Stephen and the disciples just as they had persecuted Christ. Yet, this is where Christian qualities came out best, in that of forgiveness and love. Instead of hating them back and cursing, Stephen, just like Jesus on the cross, forgave them and indeed, asked God not to blame the priests and the Pharisees for their faults, especially for having killed the holy man of God in Stephen himself.

Forgiveness is a very difficult thing to do, particularly if we are deeply immersed in hatred and prejudice against others. It is not easy to forgive, but if we do not forgive, we are merely continuing the vicious cycle of evil, that is perpetuated by hatred, anger, jealousy, and violence, which will continue to make the people blind from the truth of God, and that was exactly what happened to the Jewish priesthood who stoned and killed Stephen, and also brought Jesus to be condemned and death on the cross.

Despite all that, both of them forgave their oppressors and their condemners. They did not want to let Satan to revel in the continuation of that endless cycle of evil. Rather, as Christ had wanted, He wanted love to flourish, and begin a new rejuvenation of the human soul, purified from hatred and sin. In order to do so, even though it may be very difficult, we need to first learn to forgive, and to douse our anger and hatred with the cool spring of love.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today pray, pray that God will grant us a new heart, filled with love and compassion, and mercy for others, and also filled to the brim with forgiveness, that we will forgive those who had caused us pain and suffering, and instead sharing God’s love with them, that neither us nor them will be lost, and we will eventually praise the Lord in our heavenly glory together. May God bless us all, and bless our world with His love and mercy. Amen.