One True God

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Saturday, 17 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Romans 4 : 13, 16-18

If God promised Abraham, or rather his descendants, that the world would belong to him, this was not because of his obeying the Law, but because he was just and a friend of God through faith.

For that reason, faith is the way and all is given by grace; and the promises of Abraham are fulfilled for all his descendants, not only for his children according to the Law, but also for all the others who have believed. Abraham is the father of all of us, as it is written : I will make you father of many nations. He is our father in the eyes of Him who gives life to the dead, and calls into existence what does not yet exist, for this is the God in whom he believed.

Abraham believed and hoped against all expectation, thus becoming father of many nations, as he had been told : See how many will be your descendants.

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Friday, 16 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hedwig, Religious and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious and Virgins)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the readings from the Holy Scriptures speaking on the theme of forgiveness, and how those who have been forgiven by God shall receive great grace and blessings, as they will be counted among those whom God is pleased with, and they shall inherit the fullness of God’s grace and love.

And why is it so important for us to follow the path of righteousness and repentance from our sins? That is because history itself had shown that the righteous were blessed and brought into greatness, like Abraham, our father in faith and the forefather of many nations, and David, the king of Israel raised from humble origin of a shepherd to become the ruler of a great nation, and whose descendants rule forever, and through Christ, the heir of David, his kingdom is made secure eternally.

Meanwhile, the wicked had no share in the glory promised by the Lord, and for all their worldly glory and greatness, for all their boasts and haughtiness, they were not remembered and they left no legacy of their greatness on earth, save for ruins and emptiness, as well as burnt husks of possessions, material and wealth they left behind in this world.

It is in our human nature for us to act in ways that are selfish, self-glorifying, hypocritical and self-praising, that is to fill up our own human ego and pride, our own desires and greed, to bring pleasures to our own body and flesh, and to mortify and corrupt our existence, our minds, hearts and souls, with the corruption of sin and darkness. And it is these things that had caused us to fall and fail in our path to attain God’s mercy and salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are called to reevaluate our actions, words and deeds, and ask ourselves whether the things we have done in our lives are truly just and rightful, or wrong and wicked in the sight of God and men alike. If we have not been faithful or dedicated in our lives and actions, then truly, we always have that opportunity to rediscover ourselves and commit ourselves into actions that bring about God’s grace upon us.

The righteous and the saints, the holy ones of God did not always lead a holy and just life, and their lives were far from perfect. Even saints and blessed ones were once sinners as well, and they have committed sinful deeds before, just as no man was free from sin, save for Jesus Christ our Lord. Even Abraham once also did not have enough faith in the Lord at one moment, when he took Hagar, his maid to be his wife, as suggested by Sara, his wife.

And king David of Israel, as faithful and devoted as he was, he was once tempted by his lust and desire to take the wife of another as his own, as how he obtained Bathsheba, his wife, the mother of Solomon, by plotting the murder of her first husband, the captain Uriah. Such was the extent of his sin, plotting the murder of another to fulfil his own selfish wishes.

But he repented and atoned for his sins, just as Abraham, who disowned his maid and sent her off with the son she bore for him, and for king David, he sincerely repented for his sins, and having made a turnaround in his life, he was forgiven and given a new chance, where he continued to be a great king and honoured and glorified. This is the promise God has given to all those who have followed Him and rejected the path of Satan.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Hedwig, also known as Jadwiga of Poland, the Queen of Poland and the last of her dynasty. She was one of the greatest rulers in the Polish history, who was very devoted to her people, caring for the poor and the less fortunate in her kingdom, and giving all she could do to help those who have been left unloved and oppressed.

St. Jadwiga devoted her time for her people, the sheep that have been placed under her care by the Lord, entrusted to her care and love. St. Jadwiga showed many of us how to become a good follower and disciple of the Lord our God, living righteously, with faith and dedication, and by caring and loving for one another, especially the last, the lost and the least.

Meanwhile, today we also celebrate the feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who popularised and promoted the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which today is a major devotion and a central tenet and part of the Church and our faith. The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is centred upon the loving heart of our God, whose most wonderful heart is filled with great and rich mercy and care for all of us, His beloved ones.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is a very devoted servant of God, who devoted her life to a complete spiritual life committed with prayer and steadfastness in her life lived with the full grace and obedience to the will of God. She received many visions from the Lord, and most profoundly, this vision spoke of the most loving heart and the love which pours out of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Knowing the love and the care, the compassion and the grace that are flowing out from the Most Sacred Heart of our Lord, then we truly should appreciate what a good Master and Lord that we have, and let us all appreciate the opportunities and chances which He has provided us with, and let us all not be filled with pride or haughtiness, opening our hearts and minds to God’s grace and love.

Let us all commit ourselves therefore to a new life that is filled not with greed, desire, jealousy or anger, but with love, compassion, care for others and sympathy, that we may always be justified and rightful in our actions and deeds. May Almighty God bless us all, forgive us all our sins, for us poor sinners, and bring us to the everlasting life He has promised all those who hold fast to Him. Amen.

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Friday, 16 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hedwig, Religious and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious and Virgins)

Luke 12 : 1-7

At that time, such a numerous crowd had gathered that they crushed one another. Then Jesus spoke to His disciples in this way, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered that will not be uncovered, or hidden that will not be made known. Whatever you have said in darkness will be heard in daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places, will be proclaimed from housetops.”

“I tell you, My friends, do not fear those who put to death the body and, after that, can do no more. But I will tell you whom to fear : Fear the One whom after killing you is able to throw you into hell. This One you must fear. Do you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? Yet not one of them has been forgotten by God. Even the hairs of your head have been numbered. Do not be afraid! Are you less worthy in the eyes of God than many sparrows?”

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Friday, 16 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hedwig, Religious and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious and Virgins)

Psalm 31 : 1-2, 5, 11

Blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven, whose iniquity is wiped away. Blessed are those in whom the Lord sees no guilt and in whose spirit is found no deceit.

Then I made known to You my sin and uncovered before You my fault, saying to myself, “To the Lord I will now confess my wrong.” And You, You forgave my sin, You removed my guilt.

Rejoice in the Lord, and be glad, you who are upright; sing and shout for joy, you who are clean of heart.

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Friday, 16 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hedwig, Religious and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious and Virgins)

Romans 4 : 1-8

Let us consider Abraham, our father in the flesh. What has he found? If Abraham attained righteousness because of his deeds, he could be proud. But he cannot be this before God. Because Scripture says : Abraham believed God who took it into account and held him to be a just man.

Now, when someone does a work, salary is not given as a favour, but as a debt that is paid. Here, on the contrary, someone who has no deeds to show but believes in Him who makes sinners righteous before Him : such faith is taken into account and that person is held as righteous.

David congratulates in this way those who become righteous by the favour of God, and not by their actions : Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven and whose offences are forgotten; blessed the one whose sin God does not take into account!

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Thursday, 15 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate a great feast of one of the most renowned and greatest saints of the Church, namely St. Teresa of Jesus, also known as St. Teresa of Avila after her birthplace, where she was born in the city of Avila in the Kingdom of Spain about five centuries ago, and she lived during one of the most turbulent times in the Church, in the midst of the raging, so-called Protestant ‘reformation’.

During that time, across the heart of Christendom, the European continent was rocked by the scandal of heresy and disobedience against the true teachings of the Lord as espoused and taught by the Church that He had established. Many people fell into the trap of their own vanity, personal desire, selfishness and the inability and blindness to the truth and reality which God wanted to reveal to all mankind through His Church.

The Church was split apart by those who have preferred to walk in the path of sin and worldliness. And on the pretext of reforming and helping the Universal Church which at that time was indeed beset with troubles and issues, they waded their own paths and radically tried to pull as many of the faithful and as many souls as possible from the path towards salvation into the myriad paths that lead to somewhere else.

St. Teresa of Jesus was one of the several holy, devoted and committed servants of God who dedicated themselves to help save all those lost souls that had gone astray from the Lord and His Church. She was one of the spearheads of the Church in what was to be known as the Counter-Reformation movement and action, where the Church went on the counteroffensive against the forces of Satan and his agents, and by ceaseless prayers, ministries and works, they managed to stem the tide of heresy and destruction, and called many souls back to God’s salvation.

St. Teresa of Jesus was renowned for her exemplary and incredible piety, the prayer life she led and the spirituality she espoused in her life was truly commendable. She grew to understand the nature of mankind’s sins and wickedness, and how these become barriers and obstacles in one’s journey to attain the salvation in God, and how there is indeed a need for us to subject ourselves to God’s mercy, repenting and changing our sinful ways.

In this, we see the wisdom of God as revealed through Jesus His Son in the Gospel today. In that Gospel passage, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in a series of woes and curses arrayed against them because of their actions and their failures in acting and behaving as those whom God had appointed to be shepherds and guides to His people.

They have not been righteous and true to their faith, and they have fallen on the path of God’s righteousness, and they became people engrossed and obsessed with their own vanity, with their own glory and greatness, and as a result, they became judgmental and oppressive upon all those who have differing views and ideas from them, including the prophets and messengers whom God had sent to remind them to stick true to the way of truth.

They thought of themselves as above the Law and as the only ones righteous and just, and because they thought that by living their lives and observing the Laws as they had done, they were pious, favoured and glorified before the Lord, but in reality, they have veered far away from the path of God and into sin, for they were too deep in their own pride and distracted by the sins.

This was just how it was during the time of the Protestant ‘reformation’, when those who have become haughty and proud in their way, forced it upon themselves and others to follow their way and their methods, disobeying the way of the Lord, and leading others into sin and wickedness. This is what St. Teresa of Jesus had worked all her life so hard in order to reverse, for the sake of the countless souls in the danger of damnation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to renew our commitment to the Lord in our actions and deeds, and we are all called to become less and less attached to our pride, ego and greed, and instead, grow ever stronger in our humility before God and in our love for one another. Let us be ever more committed to God and His ways, be true to the way He had shown us and commit ourselves to walk in the footsteps of St. Teresa of Jesus and the other holy saints and servants of God.

May Almighty God bless us all in all of our endeavours, and may He keep us ever in His grace, and may all of us come to realise ever more the love and compassion He wants to show us and give to us. Amen.

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Thursday, 15 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 11 : 47-54

At that time, Jesus said to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, “A curse is on you, for you build monuments to the prophets your ancestors killed. So you approve and agree with what your ancestors did. Is it not so? They got rid of the prophets, and you build monuments to them!”

“For that reason the Wisdom of God also said : I will send prophets and Apostles and this people will kill and persecute some of them. But the present generation will have to answer for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, the people of this time will have to answer for them all.”

“A curse is on you, teachers of the Law, for you have taken the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering.” As Jesus left that place, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to harass Him, asking Him endless questions, setting traps to catch Him in something He might say.

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Thursday, 15 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 129 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-7a

Out of the depths I cry to You, o Lord, o Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears pay attention to the voice of my supplication.

If You should mark our evil, o Lord, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness, and for that You are revered.

I waited for the Lord, my soul waits, and I put my hope in His word. My soul expects the Lord more than watchmen the dawn. O Israel, hope in the Lord.

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Thursday, 15 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Romans 3 : 21-30a

But, now it has been revealed altogether apart from the Law, as it was already foretold in the Law and the Prophets : God makes us righteous by means of faith in Jesus Christ, and this is applied to all who believe, without distinction of persons.

Because all have sinned and all fall short of the Glory of God; and all are graciously forgiven and made righteous through the redemption effected in Christ Jesus. For God has given Him to be the victim whose blood obtains us forgiveness through faith.

So God shows us how He makes us righteous. Past sins are forgiven which God overlooked till now. For now He wants to reveal His way of righteousness : how He is just and how He makes us righteous through faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our pride? It is excluded. How? Not through the Law and its observances, but through another Law which is faith.

For we hold that people are in God’s grace by faith and not because of all the things ordered by the Law. Otherwise, God would be the God of the Jews; but is He not God of pagan nations as well? Of course He is, for there is only one God and He will save by faith the circumcised Jews as well as the uncircumcised nations.

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

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate together the feast of a holy servant of God, His Vicar on earth, that is Pope St. Callistus I, martyr of the faith and Leader of the Universal Church. Pope St. Callistus I or Pope St. Callixtus I led the Church through difficult times and through challenging moments, when the Church and the faithful went through series of persecutions by the Roman Emperors.

Pope St. Callistus helped lead the flock of God’s people through those turbulent times, and he and many other leaders and elders of the Church helped to build up the foundation of the Church and stabilised it through the time of challenges and troubles. He helped to reunite those who have been wayward in their faith and abandoned their faith to return to the Church through atonement and repentance.

There were some of those in the Church at that time who favoured unconditional punishment and condemnation without mercy for all those who have erred and betrayed the Lord and their faith. And indeed they disagreed bitterly with Pope St. Callistus I, and the happenings at that time almost splintered the Church apart. However, by the grace of God and by his hard work, Pope St. Callistus I managed to keep the Church of God together amidst those turbulent times.

What he proposed was not an open toleration or total ignorance of the sins of those who have fallen on the road to the temptations of the devil, or a total rejection, humiliation and condemnation of those who have fallen aside. Instead, it is a path of mercy and forgiveness that was offered with the need for genuine and clear repentance on the part of those who have erred and sinned.

Thus, in the same way, Jesus also rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law for their refusal to change their ways, as they liked to judge others and condemn them for the faults, mistakes and sins they have committed, slandering and oppressing them, and using their position and influence to bring about suffering to all those whom they have put the burden on.

These people acted high and mighty, and they acted as if they themselves were pure and blameless from any wrongdoings or sins, but in fact, as the Lord Himself pointed out to them, that they were themselves subject to the wicked and wrong things that they had done, and they were blind to their own errors, which resulted in them leading others to error as well. This is what they had done, and the great disservice that they had brought upon God’s people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this reminder as well as the examples of Pope St. Callistus I and other faithful servants of our Lord are reminders for all of us not to engage in similar behaviour and activity, namely being overly judgmental and condemning upon others based on what they have done, and instead let us all focus on the potential that all men has for change and redemption.

But this does not mean that we and the Church should go soft in dealing with all of those who have erred and sinned. There are many, even in our Church today, who thought that we should give unconditional allowance for sinners to return fully to the Church, giving them allowance, chance and incentives to return to the Church, but ignoring the fact that they have committed often grave sins before the Lord and His people.

Doing this means a great disservice to those sinners, who may then think that they have no need for repentance or the need to change their ways if they want to attain salvation. This will lead to the sinners continuing to live in sin and not strive to change themselves for the better. And truly, if they fall into damnation, the responsibility will be ours for the fate of those poor souls.

We do not peddle or give false mercy that requires no action from those who receive it. Rather, we offer the Lord’s most generous mercy while requiring all those who intend to receive it to embark on a path of total conversion and repentance as the prerequisite for the reception of God’s greatest and ever rich mercy. Without the action from the sinners to change their ways and repent, God’s mercy will not work on them.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all devote ourselves ever more to bring one another closer to the salvation in God, and let us all commit ourselves to call especially those trapped in the darkness of sin to repent, change their sinful ways and follow the Lord once more. May our loving and merciful God be with us all always, now and forever. Amen.