Monday

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Monday, 28 December 2015 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 2 : 13-18

After the wise men had left, an Angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon be looking for the Child in order to kill Him.”

Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. In this way, what the Lord had said through the prophet was fulfilled : I called My Son out of Egypt.

When Herod found out that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighbourhood who were two years old and under. This was done in line with what he had learnt from the wise men about the time when the star appeared.

In this way, what the prophet Jeremiah had said was fulfilled : A cry is heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation : Rachel weeps for her children. She refuses to be comforted, for they are no more.

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Monday, 28 December 2015 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 123 : 2-3, 4-5, 7cd-8

Had not the Lord been on our side, when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive; such was their anger against us.

A bit more and the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away.

From the snare of the fowler; the snare was broken and we were freed. Our help is in the Name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

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Monday, 28 December 2015 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 John 1 : 5 – 1 John 2 : 2

We heard Christ’s message from Him and announce it to you : God is light and there is no darkness in Him. If we say we are in fellowship with Him, while we walk in darkness, we lie instead of being in truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we are in fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus, the Son of God, purifies us from all sin.

If we say, “We have no sin,” we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He Who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness. If we say that we do not sin, we make God a liar, His word is not in us.

My little children, I write to you that you may not sin. But if anyone sins, we have an Intercessor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Just One. He is the sacrificial Victim for our sins and the sins of the whole world.

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Monday, 21 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Peter Canisius, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast day of one of my patron saint, St. Peter Canisius, the Doctor of the Church, defender of the Faith and one of the very important figure in the history of the Church’s work on saving the souls of mankind. He was a very important figure in the Church at that time, and his works still influenced the Church even until this very day.

In order to understand the importance of St. Peter Canisius and his works, and how he can also inspire us to be like him and to follow his footsteps, then we ought to look at the Scripture readings we have just heard today and reflect on their meaning and understand them. For they spoke of the joy that is coming in Christmas, the True Joy of the world, for a world that was once enslaved by sin and darkness, had found its way to the Light.

In today’s readings, we have to understand the suspense, the expectation and the desire that the people of God had had for the many years of their constant and frequent exiles and sufferings, for God to come and rescue them from their distress, and there is indeed no greater desire than for all of us mankind to be freed from the bonds and the chains that enslaved us to sin, because of our disobedience against the Lord our God.

And the celebration of Christmas is the celebration of this great joy that we have because we have been liberated from all those chains and bonds, and we know that a new hope had arisen through the Saviour we have, Jesus Christ our Lord, born on the Christmas Day. This is the true essence of Christmas, and the very reason why we should look up to it and expect it so much, but yet, many of us have been misguided and lost the intention of Christmas amidst the world’s attempts to reconfigure it to serve their own purposes.

If we look at the way how the world in many places celebrated Christmas, and if we ask anybody about what Christmas truly mean to them, the answer that we are likely to receive is that Christmas is a season of fun, of happiness, of celebration and partying, where one would meet up with friends, families and relatives, exchanging gifts and trying to impress one another as best as possible, with the newest clothes, with the nicest foods and drinks.

Well, in all these, indeed we can find joy and happiness, and to many of us, it is an opportunity to let go the hectic schedules and busy lifestyles that had occupied us throughout the whole year. But, if we do not understand how important Christmas is to us, and if we do not appreciate what it truly means, then we are in danger of just repeating again and again our celebrations of Christmas year by year without meaning and without true joy.

Christmas has become so commercialised and filled with materialism to the point that all the things associated with Christmas become things such as shopping, lights and glitzy glamour, gifts, Santa Claus and his elves, and many other secular forms of Christmas celebrations. We tried to spend as much as we can from our pockets to make our Christmas celebrations the best ever, but have we forgotten what Christmas truly is?

Without Christ, there can be no Christmas, and indeed, as Christmas is truly our Lord’s birthday, the day when He entered into our world as a humble Human Being through the womb of His mother Mary, Christmas is indeed about Christ. Without Jesus Christ in our celebrations of Christmas, whatever joy we have is incomplete, and whatever happiness we have is really empty.

And thus how do we then celebrate Christmas? We should first understand the importance of Christmas to us, and why it happened in the first place. If not for the infinite and ever-encompassing love that our God has for us all, the love that transcended every boundaries and every considerations, and if not the dedication and commitment that He had for us, willing to send His own Son to die for our own sake, for our salvation, there can be no Christmas, and conversely, there would be no hope for us.

St. Paul in one of his letters and epistles spoke about how God had loved us so much, and so much so that even though we were still sinners, delinquents and rebels, He still endeavoured to love us and to give us the salvation and the hope that we truly and urgently needed. Great is the love of the one who loves tenderly and sincerely those who love them, but even greater and boundless is the love of those who love even those who hated them and those who refuse to love them.

And that was exactly what He has done for us. And imitating that same love, St. Peter Canisius, the saint whose feast we celebrate today, worked hard in order to bring God’s love and salvation to his brethren in the world filled with falsehoods and darkness and evil. He lived at a difficult time, during the time of the heresy of Protestantism which lured away many of the faithful from the path to salvation.

At that time, it was very difficult to be counted among those who stayed faithful to the true faith in the Lord. The temptations and the pull to join the heresy of men were just very great, and many fell into sin and damnation, rejecting the teachings of the Church that God Himself had passed down through the Apostles, and which the Church had faithfully kept down the ages. Instead, they preferred to follow their own ways.

Amidst all this, St. Peter Canisius, a Jesuit priest, also known as the Society of Jesus, was among one of the most prominent figures who led the counterattack against the forces of heresy, delving even into great troubles and risks, going forth to bring the truth and to explain it with great clarity to the masses of people who had been misled by the devil and by their succumbing to their own human frailties and desires.

As a result, many countless thousands returned to the true faith and repented their rebellion against God and His Church. And St. Peter Canisius was renowned from then on as a great evangeliser and disciple who brought many people back away from the threat of eternal damnation and into salvation once again. Many believed in the truth once again, repented and changed their ways after they had heard the preachings of St. Peter Canisius.

And his works did not just stop at that, as he also wrote extensively in his work, the Catechism according to St. Peter Canisius, a set of three books filled with the truth and the core tenets of our faith. Even until today, many people were still saved through that amazing work, and countless souls were brought to God’s salvation.

Having heard and witnessed the examples of St. Peter Canisius, let us all reflect on the fact that our celebration of Christmas must not just be limited to ourselves. Our joy and the joy of our celebration cannot be a selfish one that is centred only on ourselves, but rather, let us put and keep our Lord Jesus Christ at the centre and the heart of our celebrations, and let us always remember Him and His love, on how He has loved us all and desired for us all to be saved from our sins.

And we as those whom Christ had called, and who had received the fullness of God’s grace, love and truth, should go forth and share the joy we have, that is Christ, our True Joy, to the rest of the world. And how do we do this? Following the examples of St. Peter Canisius who faithfully and devotedly practiced his faith in his actions and words, we too must do the same.

Yes, we have that obligation to bring God’s Good News to those who still linger in the darkness of this world. We cannot profess to celebrate Christmas with joy while our brethren still failed to understand the fullness of God’s love in Christmas. Let us through our actions be an inspiration to all those who see us, hear us and interact with us, just as we have ourselves been inspired by St. Peter Canisius and the other holy saints of God.

Let this be our Christmas gift to our brethren, and let that gift be that of love, in imitation and following the example of the love which our Lord had first given us all, which He made perfect through Jesus Christ. May Almighty God bless us in all of our loving endeavours, and may He continue to guide us all the days of our life. St. Peter Canisius, faithful servant of God, pray for us sinners to the Lord. Amen.

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Monday, 21 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Peter Canisius, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 1 : 39-45

At that time, Mary then set out for a town in the hill country of Judah. She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leapt in her womb.

Elizabeth was filled with Holy Spirit, and giving a loud cry, said, “You are most blessed among women, and Blessed is the Fruit of your womb! How is it that the mother of my Lord comes to me? The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby within me suddenly leapt for joy. Blessed are you who believed that the Lord’s word would come true!”

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Monday, 21 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Peter Canisius, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 32 : 2-3, 11-12, 20-21

Give thanks to the Lord on the harp and lyre, making melody and chanting praises. Amid loud shouts of joy, sing to Him a new song and play the ten-stringed harp.

But His plan stands forever, and His heart’s design through all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance.

In hope we wait for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield. Our hearts rejoice in Him, for we trust in His holy Name.

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Monday, 21 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Peter Canisius, Priest and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Song of Songs 2 : 8-14

The voice of my lover! Behold He comes, springing across the mountains, jumping over the hills, like a gazelle or a young stag. Now He stands behind our wall, looking through the windows, peering through the lattice.

My lover speaks to me, “Arise, My love, My beautiful one! Come, the winter is gone, the rains are over. Flowers have appeared on earth; the season of singing has come; the cooing of doves is heard. The fig tree forms its early fruit, the vines in blossom are fragrant.”

“Arise, My beautiful one, come with Me, My love, come. O My dove in the rocky cleft, in the secret places of the cliff, let Me see your face, let Me hear your voice. Your face – how lovely! Your voice – how sweet!”

Alternative reading

Zephaniah 3 : 14-18a

Cry out with joy, o daughter of Zion; rejoice, o people of Israel! Sing joyfully with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem! YHVH has lifted your sentence and has driven your enemies away. YHVH, the King of Israel is with you; do not fear any misfortune.

On that day they will say to Jerusalem : Do not be afraid nor let your hands tremble, for YHVH your God is within you, YHVH, saving Warrior. He will jump for joy on seeing you, for He has revived His love. For you He will cry out with joy, as you do in the days of the Feast. I will drive away the evil I warned you about.

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Monday, 14 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, as we draw ever closer to the commemoration of Christmas, and as we continue to prepare ourselves during this Advent season, let us all heed the messages of the Sacred Scriptures that are being conveyed to us even as we listen to them. The readings today spoke of putting our trust in the works of God, and what we ought to do in order to keep ourselves faithful to Him.

In the first reading, the seer Balaam blessed the people of Israel after he had been tasked and brought by an enemy king to curse them. But Balaam was a seer who saw the will of God and listened to Him, and there is no way for him to contradict the Lord by cursing the people whom He loved, and thus, he blessed them just in accordance with the will of God, and instead of a curse to destroy them, God made them to be even stronger.

This is to remind us that God is always with His people, and despite the challenges and the opposition that faces all of us, as long as we cling strongly in our faith to our God, nothing is impossible and we shall not fail or perish. We see the example of how there are such oppositions, with the example of Jesus, Whom the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law opposed, and these people tried at every possible opportunities to question Him, to doubt Him and to strike against Him and His disciples.

They have had the privilege of witnessing and experiencing directly the works of God’s mercy, and they have seen directly the miracles and the healings attributed to our God, and yet they stubbornly refused to believe and continued to walk in the path of sin and wickedness. They placed themselves as arbiters and judges of the actions and works of others, and yet they themselves failed to look into and judge at their own actions and works.

Yes, they judged others for their shortcomings and for apparently not following the Law as how they followed it, but yet in their hearts, although they outwardly showed their piety and devotion, God was not in their hearts and minds. They were not serving the interests of God and His people first, but instead their own interests and needs. They strove hard to be seen as holy and pious among men, but what they have done had no meaning and empty.

And because of this, they did not understand the Lord and all that He had done for His people. And because the Lord was not in their hearts, they failed to understand the actions that Jesus had done, and they refused to listen to His teachings, for to them, it was them and their own ways that were the only right ones. And this is the very same reason why, this world which has its own ways and which was unable to understand the Lord, also persecutes us all who believe in our God and all who walk in His ways.

But we should not be disheartened or be afraid, for God is always with us. He will guard us and protect us so long as we are faithful to Him, and no harm will ever come our way. In this, let us follow the footsteps and examples of St. John ofthe Cross, the faithful servant of God and saint whose feast we celebrate on this day. He was a Carmelite who was renowned for his role in serving the poor and in helping to reform the Church and religious orders, and who himself encountered many oppositions and even persecuted for persevering in doing what he had done in faith.

St. John of the Cross lived during a time of the so-called Protestant ‘reformation’ heresy, when many of the faithful were lured away from the Church and salvation by the lies and the lures of the devil, and inside the Church itself, many of its members became engrossed in material excesses and followed a path of vice, sin and moral corruption unbecoming of the children of God and as His servants.

St. John of the Cross worked hard to serve the poor and to care for those who are destitute and have less or none on themselves. He also strove hard to enact reforms on the way how the faithful, in particular the religious order of the Carmelites that he was a part of, in how they ought to live out their lives in devotion to God and to their brethren, suppressing and condemning the excesses that had characterised the Church at the time.

But in doing so, St. John of the Cross encountered many significant oppositions and made many enemies. He nevertheless continued to push on in doing good for the sake of the Church and for the people despite all the sufferings he had to endure, the rejection, the ridicule, the oppression, and even persecution in prison and slander by those who refused to repent their ways of sin and continued to live in wickedness.

In the end, it was not all those people who lived by the ways and standards of the world who were to receive the eternal blessings and graces of God. It was St. John of the Cross, the many other saints and martyrs who had been persecuted for their faith and their steadfast dedication to God’s truth that had merited them to be glorified and to be recognised as those who deserve directly the glories of eternal life and heaven.

Therefore, let us all reflect on this, and let us all think of our own actions. Have we been truly faithful to God despite all the challenges from the world and despite all the obstacles that had been placed on our paths? Can we dedicate ourselves and commit ourselves anew to God, and place our complete trust in Him. God will not fail us in the way that men’s strength will fail us. Even though the world will fail and be destroyed, the anchor of faith we have in the Lord will last forever.

Let us all pray and ask for the intercession of St. John of the Cross, that we may be given the grace by God to be strengthened in our faith, and so that our minds and hearts be ever more attuned to Him and to His words, practicing what we believe actively in our own daily lives. May God be with us all. Amen.

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Monday, 14 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 21 : 23-27

At that time, Jesus had entered the Temple and was teaching, when the chief priests, the teachers of the Law and the Jewish authorities came to Him, and asked, “What authority have You to act like this? Who gave You authority to do all this?”

Jesus answered them, “I will also ask you a question, only one. And if you give me an answer, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. When John began to baptise, was it a work of God, or was it merely something human?”

They reasoned out among themselves, “If we reply that it was a work of God, He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ And if we say, ‘The baptism of John was merely something human’, we have got to beware of the people, for all hold John as a prophet.”

So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what right I do these things.”

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Monday, 14 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 24 : 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9

Teach me Your ways, o Lord; make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.

Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.

Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.