Monday

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Monday, 7 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Perpetua and St. Felicity, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Isaiah 65 : 17-21

I now create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind again. Be glad forever and rejoice in what I create; for I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in My people.

The sound of distress and the voice of weeping will not be heard in it anymore. You will no longer know of dead children or of adults who do not live out a lifetime. One who reaches a hundred years will have died a mere youth, but one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant crops and eat their fruit.

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Monday, 29 February 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 the famous and well-known story of how God healed Naaman, the Syrian general through the prophet Elisha, from his disease of leprosy when he sought for help and healing in God. Naaman was made whole and had his leprosy healed, when he obeyed the commands of Elisha to wash himself seven times in the River Jordan.

However, that did not come about easily, as initially Naaman refused to do as the prophet Elisha commanded him to do, thinking that he was above doing the seemingly simple chore that Elisha had asked him to do. In his anger, he almost left and went away without being healed, if not for his servants who tamed down his anger and then persuaded him to be humble and to listen to the will of God spoken through His prophet Elisha.

And in the Gospel today Jesus our Lord made it clear to the people of His time, how God at that time, chose not the people of Israel but someone from Syria, from the neighbouring kingdom of Aram, a stranger, a foreigner and even an enemy of Israel, to heal him from his afflictions of leprosy. And it was also reiterated how God chose the suffering widow of Zarephath in Sidon, also an outsider and foreigner to Israel, to bring His help and mercy.

The people of Israel at the time thought that because they were the chosen race, the chosen people of God, then they were favoured and could do things as they liked, and they would still receive the favour from God, and shunned the other peoples of the other nations as pagans and barbaric, unworthy of God’s favour and forgiveness. And yet, they were proven wrong, as God showed that His love is given freely to all.

It was not about one’s background, birth, upbringing, descent or any other parameters that decided our faith, but rather, it is our actions, our words and deeds that lead us to either do things that are in accordance with the will of God, or things that are abhorrent and wicked in the sight of God. And all of us have been given freedom to choose by God, our free will, to decide what we are to do with our lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the story of Naaman, and also the widow of Zarephath is a reminder to all of us that God is trying to reach out to us, and He wants us to be reconciled with Him. It is contrary to what many of us must be thinking, if we thought that God is an angry God Who punished all those who have sinned against Him without any chance of redemption. It was we ourselves and our refusal to accept His mercy that had condemned us to destruction.

In this season of Lent, we are called like Naaman to be freed of our own affliction, the leprosy of our souls, that is sin. Sin is the disease that had been corrupting us and causing us all to be sick, and the cure can only be found in God, in our obedience to God and to His will. We must not be proudful or be filled with hubris and with selfishness, or else we might be like Naaman before he submitted to God’s will, or be like the Israelites who have sinned against God.

Therefore, let us all in this season of Lent commit ourselves to do things and works that bring good to others around us, helping one another and sharing the love which we ought to have inside each one of us, and therefore through what we have done in obedience to God, we may be found righteous and worthy, and He will bestow upon us all that He had promised on us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 29 February 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 4 : 24-30

At that time, Jesus said to the people of Nazareth in the synagogue, “No prophet is honoured in his own country. Truly, I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens withheld rain for three years and six months and a great famine came over the whole land.”

“Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in the country of Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet, and no one was healed except Naaman, the Syrian.”

On hearing these words, the whole assembly became indignant. They rose up and brought Him out of the town, to the edge of the hill on which Nazareth is built, intending to throw Him down the cliff. But He passed through their midst and went His way.

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Monday, 29 February 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 41 : 2, 3 and Psalm 42 : 3, 4

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for You, o God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I go and see the face of God?

Send forth Your light and Your truth; let them be my guide, let them take me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You reside.

Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my gladness and delight. I will praise You with the lyre and harp. O God, my God.

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Monday, 29 February 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

2 Kings 5 : 1-15a

Naaman was the army commander of the king of Aram. This man was highly regarded and enjoyed the king’s favour, for YHVH had helped him lead the army of the Arameans to victory. But this valiant man was sick with leprosy.

One day some Aramean soldiers raided the land of Israel and took a young girl captive who became a servant to the wife of Naaman. She said to her mistress, “If my master would only present himself to the prophet in Samaria, he would surely cure him of his leprosy.”

Naaman went to tell the king what the young Israelite maidservant had said. The king of Aram said to him, “Go to the prophet, and I shall also send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman went and took with him ten gold bars, six thousand pieces of silver and ten festal garments.

On his arrival, he delivered the letter to the king of Israel. It said, “I present my servant Naaman to you that you may heal him of his leprosy.” When the king had read the letter, he tore his clothes to show his indignation, “I am not God to give life or death. And the king of Aram sends me this man to be healed! You see he is just looking for an excuse for war.”

Elisha, the man of God, came to know that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, so he sent this message to him : “Why have you torn your clothes? Let the man come to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.”

So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stopped before the house of Elisha. Elisha then sent a messenger to tell him, “Go to the river Jordan and wash seven times, and your flesh shall be as it was before, and you shall be cleansed.”

Naaman was angry, so he went away. He thought : “On my arrival, he should have personally come out, and then paused and called on the Name of YHVH, his God. And he should have touched with his hand the infected part, and I would have been healed. Are the rivers of Damascus, Abana and Pharpar not better than all the rivers of the land of Israel? Could I not wash there to be healed?”

His servants approached him and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had ordered you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? But how much easier when he said : Take a bath and you will be cleansed.” So Naaman went down to the Jordan where he washed himself seven times as Elisha had ordered. His skin became soft like that of a child and he was cleansed.

Then Naaman returned to the man of God with all his men.

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Monday, 22 February 2016 : Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate a great feast day of the Church of Rome, that is the feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle, the Patron Saint of Rome, the Heart of Christendom and the seat of the Pope as St. Peter’s successor as the Vicar of Christ on earth. The chair of St. Peter represents his teaching and magisterial authority as the one to whom God had given authority and power as we witnessed in the Scripture readings of today.

The authority of a bishop, leaders of God’s faithful and His flock is represented by his seat, called the Cathedra, which usually is placed in a church which is then called the Cathedral because of the presence of the bishop’s seat there, and that place is the heart of the individual dioceses and archdioceses. And in the same way therefore, the Cathedra Sancti Petri, the seat representing the authority of St. Peter the Apostle is in Rome, in the Cathedral of the Popes.

But the seat itself, as in the physical seat is only a representation of the true authority given by Christ to St. Peter and to his successors on earth. As we heard in the Gospel today, of the moment when Jesus Christ our Lord granted to Peter the authority and power over all of the sheep and flocks of the Lord, as the one in whom the whole Church would be established upon, upon the faith of St. Peter, the rock of faith.

Jesus told him, that he is to be the foundation upon which God would build His Church on earth, with the phrase, Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam Meam, meaning, ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church.’ And He mentioned how not even the gates of hell could prevail against it, and He shall grant him the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the authority over us all mankind, that whoever is bound, will be bound in heaven, and those loosened will be lost forever.

Such was the authority given to St. Peter the Apostle, and he and many of his successors carried their duties and responsibilities with commitment and true devotion. Not all of his successors had been faithful, but most had devoted themselves to lead the flocks of the Lord and all of the faithful towards God and towards salvation away from their sins and damnation.

But was St. Peter’s faith exemplary and perfect? Was he perfectly holy and beyond reproach all of his life? No, he was not. He was just a simple and poor fisherman doing his trade at the shores of the Lake of Galilee when the Lord came to him and some others on one day and called him to follow Him. He stumbled quite a few times during the time when he followed Jesus in His mission and works around Judea and Galilee.

Yes, St. Peter was not a perfect man, and neither was he a great, mighty or rich man. He had nothing save for his fishing boat, and even that he left behind when he decided to follow the Lord, abandoning everything for His sake. He betrayed the Lord on one important occasion, when he denied Him for fear of persecution by the Jewish authorities, when these people went to arrest Him. He denied his Lord not just once, but even three times.

And yet, God forgave St. Peter and chose him to be the tool of His work, and not just any tool, but the primary and greatest tool of His work on earth, to be His sole chief representative and leader of all the faithful in His Church. Why is this so, brethren? That is because, God Who knows all the things in one’s hearts and minds, in one’s souls and flesh, knows all things, and knows the faith in each people, and in St. Peter, He found a great faith, unshaken and tested by many trials of doubts and sufferings.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what we have to know is that, God does not despise sinners like us. What He despises are all the sins that we have committed, all the wicked and dark things that we have done in His presence and in the presence of men alike. God hates the sins and not the sinners. He wants us to be reconciled with Him, and to be cleansed from our sins.

Those sins are what separated us from Him and from His grace, and it is these sins that we need to cast away, far far away from us in order for us to find our way to an eventual and complete reunion with our loving God. God chose the ordinary ones who wanted to love Him and devote themselves to Him, and He shall transform these into His greatest servants.

In this season of Lent, today’s feast of the Chair of St. Peter reminded us that, if we are faithful, and if we persevere, even against the rejection of the world and resisting its persecution, enduring pain and suffering for God’s sake, then there is a great hope waiting for all of us. God is looking forward to the conversion of sinners, and there is no greater joy for the Angels and saints in heaven then the conversion of even a once lost soul, who returns to God’s grace.

Let us therefore put our trust in the Lord through His Church, and let us all help support the works of the Church, which God Himself had established on the firm foundation of faith of St. Peter the Apostle, a faith which in itself was once weak and unstable, but which had undergone trials and tribulations, and in God, he was strengthened, and ended up bringing great glory to the Lord. We too can follow in his footsteps and do our best to be faithful to Him.

May the Lord bless us all, forgive us all our sins, and strengthen ever our love and commitment for Him, that through our many works and devotions in this world, we may show forth the truth about God to the nations, and walk in the footsteps of the Apostles to bring forth His Good News into the world. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Monday, 22 February 2016 : Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 16 : 13-19

At that time, after Jesus rebuked the Pharisees who asked for a sign from Him, He came to Caesarea Philippi. He asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They said, “For some of them You are John the Baptist, for others Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”

Jesus asked them, “But you, who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “It is well for you, Simon Bar-Jona, for it is not flesh or blood that has revealed this to you, but My Father in heaven.”

“And now I say to you : You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church; and never will the powers of death overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven : whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you unbind on earth shall be unbound in heaven.”

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Monday, 22 February 2016 : Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 22 : 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul.

He guides me through the right paths for His Name’s sake. Although I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are beside me : Your rod and Your staff comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of my foes. You anoint my head with oil; my cup is overflowing.

Goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

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Monday, 22 February 2016 : Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Peter 5 : 1-4

I now address myself to those elders among you; I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ, hoping to share the Glory that is to be revealed. Shepherd the flock which God has entrusted to you, guarding it not out of obligation but willingly for God’s sake; not as one looking for a reward but with a generous heart; do not lord it over those in your care, rather be an example to your flock.

Then, when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will be given a crown of unfading glory.

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Monday, 15 February 2016 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the Scripture readings which told us about the Last Judgment, where Jesus told the people about what would happen at the end of time, when the Lord will come again to judge all creation and all mankind, both the living and the dead. And the fate of those who are to be judged, including all of us, will depend on what had been done and what had not been done.

In the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, we heard about how God through Moses His servant, reminded His people of the importance of obeying the Law in their actions and deeds, and not to do things that lead to sin and to disobedience against Him. They were reminded not to commit sinful things before the Lord, such as being oppressive and show injustice to one another.

What we heard about is the reminder God gave His people not to commit the sins of action, namely, the actions that show disobedience to God, such as stealing, murder, jealousy, hatred, adultery and many other forms of wicked things that mankind often do, in disregard of God’s commandments. And indeed, all of us should make sure that we keep ourselves free from such actions, and resist the temptation to do those abominable things and acts.

However, we also have to take note what our Lord Jesus Christ said to the people in the Gospel today. The Lord Himself, the Great Judge revealed to the separated people, the good and the wicked, what He looks for in finding righteousness and worthiness to receive the eternal inheritance and grace He promised to all those whom He deemed to be worthy.

We often forget of the fact and reality that sin is not just about what we have done and committed. And it was not just the bad things we committed that brought us to sin, such as murder, stealing, lust and all the other forms of sins, but also things that we have failed to do, especially if we are fully capable of doing them, and yet we consciously ignore them and choose not to do what we ought to do.

This is the sin of inaction, the sin of apathy and sloth, the sin caused by our refusal to take action and to do something, when it is clearly possible and available for us to do good deeds for the sake of others who are around us. And this is just as bad and wicked as doing something that is vile and detestable before God.

Just imagine how many people have been deprived of good things, or have suffered because of our refusal to act, because of our ignorance and apathy. Imagine that in this world itself, if there are just more people who would share their blessings with each other, and care for those who have little or none, then there would be so much fewer cases of hunger, sickness, death and all the things that inflict the poor and the destitute among us.

We mankind have been given the capacity by God, through the blessings He had granted us, through the gifts and talents He had given to us, and through the opportunities that He had laid on our path, to be light, shepherds, and guide to our brethren, helping one another in their earthly lives, and guiding one another on our path together to reach out to the Lord our God.

If we do not do what the Lord had commanded us to do, and which He reminded us all yet again in today’s readings, then we can have no part in His inheritance, and that is why those who have failed to do as the Lord had taught us to do, failing to love, to care, to give our love to the poor and to the less fortunate, shall suffer the fate of those whom God had rejected and cast out from His presence into the eternal damnation.

Let us all therefore, during this season of Lent, make use of the opportunities which have been given to us, so that we may become ever more committed to become faithful servants of God, not just in mere words alone, but also through real and concrete actions. May the Lord our God strengthen the faith in each one of us, and awaken in us the strong desire to be courageous in standing up to our faith through action and good works, especially in this time of Lent. God bless us all. Amen.