Most Holy Trinity

by

Wednesday, 14 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Romans 2 : 1-11

Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, if you are able to judge others. For in judging your neighbour, you condemn yourself, for you practice what you are judging. We know that the condemnation of God will justly reach those who commit these things, and do you think that by condemning others you will escape from the judgment of God, you who are doing the same?

This would be taking advantage of God and His infinite goodness, patience and understanding, and not to realise that His goodness is in order to lead you to conversion. If your heart becomes hard and you refuse to change, then you are storing for yourself a great punishment on the day of judgment, when God will appear as Just Judge.

He will give each one his due, according to his actions. He will give everlasting life to those who seek glory, honour and immortality and persevere in doing good. But anger and vengeance will be the lot of those who do not serve truth but injustice.

There will be suffering and anguish for everyone committing evil, first the Jew, then the Greek. But God will give glory, honour and peace to whoever does good, first the Jew then the Greek, because one is not different from the other before God.

by

Tuesday, 13 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the readings taken from the Holy Scriptures today all spoke about how we should not be trapped in our obsession of the exterior and appearances, which is part of our human nature, as it is in our nature for us to value appearances and our external vanity above all else. We often place value on others and judge them based on what we see in them, but we do not bother to look deeper inward into the hearts and minds of one another.

And that is why St. Paul in his letter to the faithful and the Church in Rome spoke about the foolishness of those who gave up the truth and the wonders of the Lord God our Creator, and instead settled for something less, such as the created things and objects that mankind elevated to become their gods and which they worshipped by giving them sacrifices, praise and honour.

This is referring to the practices of those who made idols made of wood, gold, silver and other precious metals and items as their gods, thinking that in the wonders of the beautiful appearances lie the power of the One who had created them. And thus similarly, mankind worshipped objects like the sun, the moon and the stars, and gave glory to natural phenomena such as lightning, fire, water and other inanimate objects.

And the Pharisees in the Gospel reading today were no different. They may be faithful to the Lord and showing it through their devout prayers and complete strict observance of the whole of the laws of Moses and the Jewish customs and traditions, but as Jesus often rebuked them and criticised them, they had no love and care for the Lord and for those who had been placed under their care as shepherds of the people of God.

Their blind obedience to the Law and their obsession in fulfilling them, while judging and condemning others who did not follow the Law as they did, had made them to be the same as those who worshipped the pagan gods and idols. Why is this so? That is because of the attitudes of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who pretended as if the Law, or rather, their interpretation of the Law is above everything else.

And it was in this matter that they have erred. They have made their human made laws and customs as their idols, empty, foolish and meaningless if they did not understand the true meaning of the Law. They would merely be applying these for appearances and to their exterior being, but on the other hand, their interior being, namely their hearts, their minds and their souls remained darkened and corrupted.

This is the hypocrisy that Jesus had warned the people against, namely the hypocrisy and faithlessness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, that even though outwardly they seemed to be good, pious and righteous, they did not do all those for the glory of God or for the good of their fellow men, but rather for themselves and their own glory.

Thus, the Lord is also warning us all not to do the same and not to walk in the footsteps of these people, or else we risk damnation because of our wicked interior, even though outwardly we may seem to be good and fine. Thus, this is a reminder for us to not be overly preoccupied making ourselves look good in front of others or be too worried about our image in the eyes of others, at the expense of true righteousness, justice and faith.

Let us all look deep into ourselves and reflect on our own lives. Have we been too focused on making ourselves look good and acceptable to others around us and the world? Have we compromised our faith just so that others will compliment and praise us? If we are truly faithful to the Lord, then certainly we will look far beyond those trivial things and focus on what the Lord had taught us about how to become His true disciples and followers.

May all of us devote ourselves more to love one another, to care for those who are sick and dying, oppressed and unloved, and give ourselves to care for them from our heart, so that in all that we do and say, we may bring justification for ourselves not just outwardly, but inwardly as well, so that our whole being will be found worthy and just before the Lord on the day of judgment, God bless us all. Amen.

by

Tuesday, 13 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 37-41

At that time, as Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked Him to have a meal with him. So He went and sat at table. The Pharisee then wondered why Jesus did not first wash His hands before dinner.

But the Lord said to him, “So then, you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside yourselves you are full of greed and evil. Fools! He who made the outside, also made the inside. But according to you, by the mere giving of alms everything is made clean.”

by

Tuesday, 13 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 18 : 2-3, 4-5

The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Day talks it over with day; night hands on the knowledge to night.

No speech, no words, no voice is heard – but the call goes on throughout the universe, the message is felt to the ends of the earth.

by

Tuesday, 13 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Romans 1 : 16-25

For I am not ashamed at all of this Good News; it is God’s power saving those who believe, first the Jews, and then the Greeks. This Good News shows us the saving justice of God; a justice that saves exclusively by faith, as the Scripture says : ‘The upright one shall live by faith.’

For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those who have silenced the truth by their wicked ways. For everything that could have been known about God was clear to them : God Himself made it plain. Because His invisible attributes – His everlasting power and divinity – are made visible to reason by means of His works since the creation of the world.

So they have no excuse, for they knew God and did not glorify Him as was fitting, nor did they give thanks to Him. On the contrary, they lost themselves in their reasoning and darkness filled their minds. Believing themselves wise, they became foolish : they exchanged the Glory of the Immortal God for the likes of mortal human beings, birds, animals and reptiles.

Because of this God gave them up to their inner cravings; they did shameful things and dishonoured their bodies. They exchanged God’s truth for a lie; they honoured and worshipped created things instead of the Creator, to Whom be praise forever, Amen!

by

Monday, 12 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the Scriptures that told us about the Saviour which we have gained and received through Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, Heir of David and the Promised One, whose coming God had predicted and promised to our ancestors, as heralding the beginning of a new time, a time for mercy and forgiveness of our sins.

Yet if we look at the Gospel today, we should realise how sad and unfortunate it is that the very ones to whom God had shown such mercy and love, had refused to believe in the One whom He sent, just as they and their ancestors had not believed in the words that His prophets and messengers had brought. And despite all the signs and wonders, and all the revelations of truth these faithful servants of God had brought to the people, yet they still refused to believe.

And they did not believe in Jesus either, even though they had seen with their own eyes, heard with their own ears and touched with their own limbs and hands, the truth of the Lord as made by the signs and miracles of Jesus, but they still remained hard and stubborn in their hearts and minds. They continued in their refusal to believe in the Lord, and consequently, they also continued to live in sin and committed wicked things before the presence of God.

This is a reminder that God also wants to tell us all, that all of us mankind have this very bad tendency of wanting ourselves to be satisfied, satisfied with the goods and desires of this world, and we are by our nature slothful and lazy, unwilling to walk in a difficult path and preferring an easier path instead. That was why the people of Israel consistently rejected the Lord and rebelled against Him.

Take for example the time when they were in the midst of the journey from Egypt, the land of their slavery to the Promised Land of Canaan, when Moses led them by the guidance of God to the happiness promised to them. During that time, God showed His power and majesty, leading His people out of Egypt with His mighty hand, casting down the Egyptians and their Pharaoh with ten great plagues when he refused to let the people of Israel to be free from their slavery.

And then, God split open the Red Sea before His people that they might walk on the dry seabed, and crushed their pursuers, the Pharaoh and his mighty chariots. And when they walked hungry and thirsty through the desert, He brought them manna from heaven, the bread of angels for them to eat, and large birds to be hunted and eaten, and brought forth sweet and crystal-clear water that sprung out of the rocks itself.

Yet, despite all these signs and wonders, that all of them had witnessed, they constantly grumbled and complained against Moses and ultimately, against the Lord who had been so loving and so generous with them. They did not give thanks to God who had cared for them for so long and gave them so much, and instead they complained with words such as that they would have had much more and better food in Egypt in slavery rather than dying in the desert.

This is to show us and to remind us that we mankind are very difficult to satisfy, as our desires and wants are essentially boundless in potential. It is in our human nature and instincts to want even more once we already have something with us. Thus, this is why we are not going to be satisfied even by wonders and signs, as superficial a people as we are. We like to look at things from the outside appearances without examining carefully the inside and the truth inside it.

To the people of Jesus’ time, they just wanted the pleasure of someone taking care of them, feeding them like when Jesus fed the five thousand men and four thousand men on another occasion with countless thousands more of women and children. But when the Lord revealed what they must do in order to become His true followers and disciples, they refused to listen and believe in Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we all endeavour to resist the temptations of this life, the lies of Satan and all of his false promises? And instead, shall we devote ourselves and commit ourselves ever more to the Lord our God, and walk forever faithful in His ways? Let us open wide the doors of our hearts to God, and welcome Him into us, that He may reveal to us the truth of His grace and love, and thus by our greater understanding of His works and love, we may be drawn ever closer to Him.

May Almighty God bless us all and keep us all in His love, and may we receive the fullness of His mercy and grace. God be with us all. Amen.

by

Monday, 12 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 29-32

At that time, as the crowds increased, Jesus began to speak in this way, “People of the present time are troubled people. They ask for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah. As Jonah became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a Sign for this generation.”

“The Queen of the South will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and here there is greater than Solomon. The people of Nineveh will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for Jonah’s preaching made them turn from their sins, and here there is greater than Jonah.”

by

Monday, 12 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 97 : 1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.

The Lord has shown His salvation, revealing His justice to the nations. He has not forgotten His love nor His faithfulness to Israel.

The farthest ends of the earth all have seen God’s saving power. All you lands, make a joyful noise to the Lord, break into song and sing praise.

by

Monday, 12 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Romans 1 : 1-7

From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, an Apostle called and set apart for God’s Good News, the very promises He foretold through His prophets in the sacred Scriptures, regarding His Son, who was born in the flesh a descendant of David, and has been recognised as the Son of God endowed with Power, upon rising from the dead through the Holy Spirit.

Through Him, Jesus Christ, our Lord, and for the sake of His Name, we received grace and mission in all the nations, for them to accept the faith. All of you, the elected of Christ, are part of them, you, the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy : May God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, give you grace and peace.

by

Sunday, 11 October 2015 : Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Anniversary of the Opening of the Second Vatican Council (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the message of today’s Scripture readings is very, very clear to us, and in case any of us have not realised and understood what this message is, then let us all discuss them here together, that all of us may understand the importance of what we heard today from the Holy Scriptures, for the sake of the salvation of our souls.

From the first reading taken from the Book of Wisdom, we are exhorted to look for the true treasure that we can find in this life, that is not wealth or possessions, neither pleasures of life or joys of this world, neither in food or revelry, neither human praise nor in fame, but in the knowledge of the wisdom of God, and the understanding of the truth that can only be found in God.

In the psalm today, we heard the very last line, which said to us that we ought to know the shortness of our lives, and asking us to let ourselves be filled and be completely taken by the wisdom of God, which will fill us up with true grace and wonders, that cannot be offered or be given by the world, for the wonders of God’s wisdom and might is infinitely far better.

This is to let us all know that for all the greatness and the wonders that the world can offer us or boast to us, all these are mere fleeting and temporary, and nothing of these can offer us true and lasting joy. And that is what Jesus in the Gospel today is trying to let us all know as well. For the wealth of this world is perishable, just as much as our flesh and bodies are perishable.

What does this mean? This means that all the money, the properties, houses, cars, buildings and all forms of wealth both tangible and intangible are all perishable by the forces of nature and by the hands of men. Take for example, a natural disaster like fire or earthquake or many other manifestations of these disasters, can easily destroy all that we have gathered so hard for our own satisfaction and pleasure.

And if we think that if we store our possessions in banks and similar institutions, or convert them into something like bonds and stocks, thinking that they are safe, then we really ought to realise how wrong we are. Banks and other institutions, even the mightiest ones, have fallen low and be destroyed by their own greed, or by other reasons, and when they fall, they bring together with them all of those who have entrusted what they had invested in them.

Surely we have seen how throughout history there are those who placed their trust and hopes in the upsurge of stock prices only to be sorely disappointed and even crushed by collapse or meltdown in the financial markets. Countless millions had experienced sufferings because they lost their hard earned money thinking that they could earn even more money quickly through such methods.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Gospel today spoke about Jesus our Lord, who spoke to a man who said to Him that he had done everything that the Law of God, or more specifically, the law of Moses had asked him to do, the commandments, the rules and obediences that he had to perform in accordance to the Jewish customs and faith, but who did not feel satisfied in his heart, because he did not feel the true satisfaction, and thus he asked that question to Jesus.

And Jesus told him the fact, the hard truth, that in order to be truly faithful, obedient, and ultimately to find the true satisfaction, one must be ready to part with all that he has, and abandon everything and follow Him in His ways, walking together the path of Jesus towards eternal life and salvation. This is the fact that Jesus had spoken to the man, which unfortunately was too much for him to bear.

And Jesus did say that the more that one has, the more difficult it is for one to part with all the multitudes and myriads of things that they have. And this is indeed very true, because it is our human nature to be greedy and to be filled with desire, and this desire is for things that satisfy the lust and greed of our human flesh, of our mortal bodies, the desire for money, for praise and fame, for adulation and glory, for pleasures of the body and sexual gratification and many others.

The more we have all these, and the more we make it a norm and a habit for us to have these, to pursue these and to want to have these, then we have to realise that we will be drawn ever further away from God’s grace and salvation, for in exchange of all these worldly pleasures and goodness, that are illusory and temporary, we have sold our rights and inheritance of God’s everlasting kingdom, by committing sins that make us unworthy to receive His grace and blessings.

Yet, we have to understand also that God did not mean that we should take His words completely at the literal level and sell everything we have, destroying all of our possessions or disowning them, or breaking apart our families and relationships just because Jesus said so to the man and to His Apostles. Indeed, He said that no one who had left behind worldliness and attachments to this world that will not be rewarded richly in the presence of God, but what He truly meant is different than what we understand if we read it merely at the literal level.

What our Lord meant is that we must be willing to forgo and break our attachments to the things of this world, that are the temptations that Satan and his tempters are presenting to us daily in order to tempt us and pull as away fron ever reaching God’s salvation, but it does not mean that those worldly goods are inherently evil in themselves.

Money and possessions can be beneficial when they are used appropriately, and they can be used for good purposes, such as helping the needy and supporting one another, that everyone can have a good life without suffering. And relationships and family ties are indeed necessary, for the family is truly the heart of our Christian faith. It is one of the strong pillars that supported the Church, for without strong and good Christian families, I fear that countless souls will be lost to damnation.

What our Lord Jesus is condemning is our unhealthy attachment to those things of this world, that caused us to behave in a wicked manner, in acts of selfishness and disgrace that brought about suffering to others around us. This is evident in how many people refused to share or give even a little of what they have, in order to help alleviate the suffering of others around them, and instead, endeavoured to gain even more of what they already had, or even engaging in the exploitation of the weak and the poor for this purpose.

It is this attachment to the world, to all the worldliness and the refusal to let go of all these things that our Lord condemned from us. He chides us for our stubbornness and our constant and continued acts of selfishness that showed how far we have fallen into the trap of our own greed and desire, and the extent of which we have allowed ourselves to fall is indeed worrying.

Now, therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, the choice lie before us, on whether we choose the path of the world, enjoying the goods and riches, the wonders and the pleasures of life, seeking the easy path and succumbing to our own desires and wanting ever more good things in our lives, without realising that all we have are merely illusory and temporary, and there will be a time when all of these will be taken away from us and we are left with nothing, or we can choose to follow the path that is more difficult and uncertain in the beginning, or it may seem so to us, but in the end, will bear us the everlasting fruits of heaven.

Jesus told His disciples the parable about a rich man who had so much wealth and riches, that he boasted that he should bring down his barns and storage places to build even bigger ones to store more of his wealth. But the Lord rebuked him and said to him that he was truly a fool for believing that he had all such glory and good things, when the Lord Himself would claim him on that very night.

Thus, through this, we see again the futility of the path of greed and the path of wickedness. Instead, let us all from now on, devote ourselves anew to the Lord and commit ourselves to His ways. Let us all seek to renew our zeal and courage to stand up for our faith and resist the temptations of the devil and the allures of the world. And instead of selfishly keeping all things to ourselves, let us make use of what we have been blessed with, and share that blessing with one another.

May Almighty God awaken in each one of us a heart of renewed charity, that we may become ever more sensitive to the cries of the poor and to the needs of the poor and those who are less fortunate around us, not just in wealth, but also those whose hearts are still shrouded in the darkness of greed and wickedness. Let us help one another to reach out to the Lord, and through repentance find His mercy. May our Lord bring us all His beloved children, into His everlasting kingdom. Amen.