opposition

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Wednesday, 5 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Prophets are despised in their own country and were not well accepted at the place of their birth. That was the reality that Jesus brought up in front of His very own neighbours and fellow countrymen in the Gospel reading today. Jesus Himself was doubted and rejected by the people of His hometown, the small village of Nazareth.

Why so? That is because we mankind, in our own distorted way of perceiving the world around us, including that of our friends and relatives, our fellow men, we tend to focus on things of the world, in the glory and power of the world, and adhere to the many prejudices and preconceptions that existed in the world.

The reality of life in the time of Jesus, just as it was before that and after that, even until this day, was indeed harsh. The poor has nothing and suffered a lot under the rich and the powerful, who had everything they need and want. The rich oppressed the poor and they showcased their power with brilliant displays of wealth and affluence.

This created the mentality and prejudices among the people, especially one who was accustomed to a very hierarchical societal nature. The society of Israel, even though distinctions between peoples were not as severe as some other cultures, such as the caste system in India among others, was still quite bad. The priests and the kings and the lords were at the top of the society, respected and feared for their power, while the poor peasants lay at the bottom of that same hierarchy.

The prophets and the Messiah were imagined by the people of Israel as people of great power and wisdom, as well as learning, which was well out of the league of the poor, who could barely even afford to have a comfortable and decent living. Therefore, that is why, because in reality, many of the prophets were people called by God to live a completely devoted life to God, and abandoning all privileges, they were often poor.

In the mind of the people, those who lived with the prophets, coming from the same village, town, or neighbourhood as the prophets, those people cannot be a genuine prophet of the Lord. Simply because they assume that they know who these prophets were! Yes, such was human arrogance and assumption! The same therefore also happened to Jesus as He preached to His own neighbours in Nazareth.

They would not believe in Jesus because they always had thought of Him as a mere carpenter and a carpenter’s Son, that is the Son of Joseph the carpenter, His foster-father. A carpenter, even though a respected job for its hard work, but a carpenter is often considered low in the society’s eyes, and certainly not determined for greatness.

This lens of unbelief prevented the people from knowing and understanding the truth that was in Jesus, that He is the Messiah, the very Divine incarnate, who had come to bring salvation and new hope to all of them. If only they would believe in Jesus, they would have received salvation directly from the Lord. Instead, they cast Him out of His own village and rejected Him.

In our first reading, the scenario is a bit different, but it is in the same spirit. King David of Israel, having his reign made secure by the Lord after numerous insurrections, civil wars, and conflicts, had been lax in his faith, and through the veil of lens of power and human glory, king David did things despicable in the eyes of God.

It might seem a trivial issue that David asked his officer Joab to conduct a census of the people of Israel and Judah, seeing how many people capable of being drafted to his ever growing kingdom and army. Yet, in this precisely, David, the faithful servant of God, was taken in by the allures of Satan, who deceived mankind with false promises of glory and power.

In doing what he had done, David seemed to be unsatisfied with all the glories that God had given him. In counting the number of his subjects, it seemed that David desired even more power and glory, forgetting that all of that had been possible because of the Lord and His grace, which He had poured generously upon David.

That was why, God taught David a lesson through His punishment, to remind him of that all of his glory came from the Lord and he could never do or gain anything without God his Lord. We too should learn the same lesson, that we should not depend solely on our human power or wisdom, but instead seek to follow and trust the Lord, from whom all goodness came.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of St. Agatha, also known as St. Agatha of Sicily. St. Agatha was very dedicated to the Lord and was very faithful, despite temptations of the world and attempts to turn her to the debauched ways of the pagan world of her time.

St. Agatha devoted herself to God and vowed to maintain her virginity. A Roman centurion was allured by St. Agatha’s beauty and tried many times in vain to persuade her to be his bride. Angered by her rejection, the centurion used the fact that St. Agatha was a Christian against her, and in the midst of a brutal persecution against the faith, she was arrested and tortured.

St. Agatha endured the persecutions and the sufferings that she had to go through in prison, and she even went through a brutal removal of her breasts as one of her executioners’ punishments. She remained true to her faith to the end and did not walk away from the way of the Lord. St. Agatha and her zealous faith showed us all, that we have to put our trust in God, and place our faith in Him, for in Him, we secure our heavenly inheritance.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today therefore seek to love God ever more, and dedicate ourselves in faith to Him and to His ways. Let us always walk faithfully in His ways, and following what He had taught us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. May our Lord continue to be with us and guide us, as we walk through this darkened world, that we may not succumb to temptations of the evil one, but remain ever faithful to Him to the end. Amen.

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Wednesday, 29 January 2014 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the parable of the sower, where the sower spread the seeds which fell on different kind of medium and ground, and thereafter bear different kinds of results. In this well known parable, the Lord compared the different effects of the medium has on the seeds, with the reality of humanity and their faith to the Lord.

The seeds spread by the sower is the seed of faith, that has been given to us by the Lord. Each and every one of us were created by God, and His Spirit is within us, and in each of us we have been given faith. We have also been given the seeds of love inside each of us, and we have the capacity of love, as the children of God. But this faith is dormant, and the love in us is also dormant.

Yes, faith must not be kept dormant in us, or it is indeed dead. Our faith must be backed up by love, that is actions of love. And therefore, love itself cannot be dormant, but we have to share it with others via our actions, and therefore, make that love bloom through our action as well. However, we often have to deal with our environment, that is our surroundings and the world in which we live in.

This world is filled with many good things, particularly that of temptations and the allures of material goods. It is easy for us to be influenced by them, and losing our compass towards the Lord. Using the same analogy, these challenges can be likened to the weed growths that threatened the growing crops in the field. And they are also likened to thorns that choked the life out of the growing seed, as explained by Jesus.

The way of the world is indeed easier to be followed than the way of the Lord. But while the way of the world apparently is easier and filled with goodness, but it ends in darkness and suffering, whereas the way of the Lord may appear to be difficult and ridden with challenges, but in the end is happiness and joy of living in the glory of the Lord. Yet, many of us prefer the shortcut and did not want to experience suffering and hence opted to follow the path of the devil.

This is what we should not do, brethren. It does not mean that our lives should be entirely filled with difficulties and challenges, neither does that mean that we cannot enjoy this life at all. What is more important is that, whatever the things we experience in life, and all the choices that we have to make in life, make it with the full conscience that we ought to obey the Lord and follow His ways in all the things we do.

When it is time that we receive much blessing and joy, then be happy and rejoice, and most importantly, do not forget to give thanks to the Lord who had given us that blessing. Do not be too engulfed by the joy either, that we forget about others who are not as fortunate as us. Instead, whatever joy we have within us, share it with one another, especially those who have none of that joy.

And when it is time of difficulty and challenges, let us endure them with grace and patience, and asking God to be with us and to guide us through those difficult times, much as what our holy saints and martyrs had done in the past, when the world rose up against them, even crying out for their lives. Do not fear, for God is always with us. Nobody can destroy us forever, for we have been marked to belong to God.

And that is why it is important for us to also have a deep faith in God, that is faith with strong foundations. Again I would like to stress that faith cannot be just mere lip service or on documents. Our faith must genuinely come from the heart, and not just that, but overflowing with love that pours out from our heart. Without good roots, then our faith will wither just like the seeds that wither on the rocky soil.

Faith substantiated with much love is what we need, and that is the recipe for the fertile growth of the seed that God had planted in each one of us. This faith must be real and concrete, with genuine love and care that we have for each and every one of our brothers and sisters in faith. And in that way, our faith will indeed bear much fruits, together with our love in us, and we will become blessed and bountiful with God’s blessing.

Let us remember always brethren, that we all have our obligations as those who had committed ourselves to the Lord and His ways. Each of us can contribute in our own ways, and fulfill the will of God, through faith that is vibrant, dynamic, and strong, and founded on love, genuine and pure, that we may be productive and fruitful in the eyes of God, and He who sees all, will reward us. God bless us all, always and forever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 29 January 2014 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 4 : 1-20

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake; but such a large crowd gathered about Him, that He got into a boat and sat in it on the lake, while the crowd stood on the shore. He taught them many things through parables. In His teaching He said, “Listen! The sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some of the seed fell along a path, and the birds came and ate it up.”

“Some of the seed fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil; it sprang up immediately because it had no depth; but when the sun rose and burnt it, it withered because it had no roots. Other seed fell among thornbushes, and the thorns grew and choked it, so it did not produce any grain.”

“But some seed fell on good soil, grew and increased and yielded grain; some seed produced thirty times as much, some sixty, and some one hundred times as much.” And Jesus added, “Listen then, if you have ears.”

When the crowd went away, some who were around Him with the Twelve asked about the parables. He answered them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But for those outside, everything comes in parables, so that the more they see, they do not perceive; the more they hear, they do not understand; otherwise they would be converted and pardoned.”

Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those along the path, where the seed fell, are people who hear the word, but as soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.”

“Other people receive the word like rocky ground. As soon as they hear the word, they accept it with joy, but they have no roots, so it lasts only a little while. No sooner does trouble or persecution come because of the word, than they fall.”

“Others receive the seed, as seed among thorns. After they hear the word, they are caught up in the worries of this life, false hopes of riches and other desires. All these come in and choke the word, so that finally it produces nothing.”

“And there are others who receive the word as good soil. They hear the word, take it to heart and produce : some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred times as much.”

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Monday, 27 January 2014 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Angela Merici, Virgin (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

2 Samuel 5 : 1-7, 10

All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “We are your bone and flesh. In the past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led Israel. And YHVH said to you, ‘You shall be the shepherd of My people Israel and you shall be commander over Israel.'”

Before YHVH, King David made an agreement with the elders of Israel who came to him at Hebron, and they anointed him king of Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for forty years : he reigned over Judah, from Hebron, seven and a half years; and over Israel and Judah, from Jerusalem, for thirty-three years.

The king and his men set out for Jerusalem to fight the Jebusites who lived there. They said to David, “If you try to break in here, the blind and the lame will drive you away,” which meant that David could not get in. Yet David captured the fortress of Zion that became the “city of David.”

And David grew more powerful, for YHVH, the God of hosts, was with him.

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Friday, 24 January 2014 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Samuel 24 : 3-21

So Saul took three thousand picked men from all Israel and went in search of David and his men to the east of the Wild Goat crags. When he came to the sheepfolds along the way, he entered a cave to relieve himself.

Now David and his men were far back in the cave. David’s men said to him, “This is the day which YHVH spoke of : look I will deliver your enemy into your hands and you will do with him as you see fit.” So David moved up and stealthily cut off an end of Saul’s robe.

But afterward, David regretted having cut off an end of Saul’s robe, and he said to his men, “Let me not lay my hands on my master, for he is YHVH’s anointed.” With these words, David restrained his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. Saul then left the cave and went on his way.

Then David himself stepped out of the cave and called after Saul, “My master, the king!” When Saul looked back, David knelt and then bowed to the ground in homage and asked him, “Why do you listen to those who say that I want to harm you? Look, today you have seen that YHVH delivered you into my hands in the cave, and I was told to kill you but I held myself back and I said : ‘I will not lift my hands against my master who is YHVH’s anointed.'”

“My father, look at this end of your robe which I am holding! I cut off the end of your robe but did not kill you. Now you may know that I mean you no harm or treason. I have done you no wrong and yet you are hunting me down to kill me. May YHVH be judge between you and me and may He exact justice from you in my case, but I shall do you no harm.”

“As the saying goes, ‘From the wicked comes wickedness.’; as for me, my hand shall not harm you. But who is it you are after, o king of Israel? Are you pursuing a dead dog? A flea? May YHVH be judge between you and me. May He see and uphold my cause and deliver me from your hands.”

After David had spoken these words, Saul asked, “Is that your voice, my son David?” He wept aloud and said to David, “You are right and I am wrong, for you have repaid with kindness the harm I have inflicted on you. This day you have shown your righteousness to me by not taking my life when YHVH put me into your hands.”

“For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go unharmed? May YHVH reward you for what you have done for me today. Now I know for certain that you shall reign and the kingdom of Israel will be firm in your hand.”

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Wednesday, 22 January 2014 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Memorial of St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Mark 3 : 1-6

Again Jesus entered the synagogue. A man, who had a paralysed hand, was there and some people watched Jesus : would He heal the man on the sabbath? If He did, they could accuse Him.

Jesus said to the man with the paralysed hand, “Stand there in the centre.” Then He asked them, “What does the Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To do good or to do harm? To save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

Then Jesus looked around at them with anger and deep sadness, because they had closed their minds. And He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was healed.

As soon as the Pharisees left, they met with Herod’s supporters, looking for a way to destroy Jesus.

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Thursday, 2 January 2014 : Weekday of Christmas Time, Memorial of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, many of us like to deny the Lord and those who had worked hard to bring God closer to us through their teachings. Instead we often let ourselves be swayed by the forces of this world, that we end up following the ways of the world instead of the ways of God. We doubt the presence of God in us, and put our trust instead in the weakness of men and the pleasures of the world.

Indeed, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we deal with the theme of the authority of teaching of the faith, and the truth about what had happened as the Lord had done, when He once came into this world as man, Jesus Christ our Lord. This truth had been told across generations through the prophets, before the Lord came, and after His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, by the Apostles and the countless saints who stood up for their faith in God.

These saints and holy people stood up for the Lord, defending the faith they have in God, protecting the deposit of the faith that is in the one and only Church of God, the Catholic or Universal Church. These teachings were passed down to us today through the bishops and the priests who succeeded the Apostles and the other leaders of the early Church, through whom they passed down whatever had been revealed to them by Christ Himself and by the Holy Spirit.

These saints testified for the Lord who had come to save the world, and through their testimony and their teachings, again passed down to us through the Church. Through these teachings we are brought close to the Lord, and it is revealed to us what the Lord wants from us, that is to follow Him and be saved. But the devil certainly did not stay quiet and let everything go smoothly according to the Lord’s plan.

Just as he had tried so much to undermine the good works of the Lord by tempting Him directly, and when that failed, by opposing Him in every turns and corners, questioning His authority and teaching through the Pharisees and the scribes, and many other ways that he had employed to keep mankind away from salvation in God.

Satan opposed the Lord and all of His faithful ones, by sowing the seeds of dissension, jealousy, pride and arrogance in the hearts of the enemies of Christ. As in the Gospel today, the Pharisees and the scribes questioned the authority of John the Baptist, that is under whose authority he did all the baptisms and the teachings about the coming of the Messiah. They should have known about the coming of John the Baptist as the herald of the Messiah, because after all they are the learnt ones, the ones who knew the Scriptures inside out in their heart.

They instead gave in to their human vulnerabilities, that is they let Satan into their hearts, and they in essence, become the tools of Satan through which he tried to undermine the works of our Lord to save us. Such an irony indeed, and sad indeed, that the very leaders of the people, the supposedly pious and educated ones at that, were the very ones that betrayed the Lord.

This is because they gave in to vanity and human greed, the greed for authority, power, as well as the jealousy of human heart and desire, which is for power and influence within the society, within the society of the people of God. They resented those who they perceived to be undermining their own teaching authority, for the Pharisees and the scribes advocated a very strict observation of the laws of Moses and did not entertain any kind of dissent against what they taught.

And as you know, the Pharisees and the scribes continuously harassed Jesus and His followers, and right up to when they delivered the coup de grace, condemning Jesus to death with false witnesses, testimonies and accusations that led to the crucifixion of Jesus. And Satan surely rejoiced at that moment, for he thought that he had undermined the Lord’s plan to save us. And yet, what he had done was merely part of the Lord’s salvation plan, made fulfilled through the death of Jesus on the cross.

After that defeat, Satan did not give up. He continued to try to deceive the people  of God through his lies spread through many false prophets he sent to the world. Today we celebrate the feast of two great saints of the Eastern Church, who were brave and courageous defenders of the faith, fighting constantly against the heresies of the faith in the Church spread exactly by these false prophets.

They are St. Basil the Great, also known as St. Basil of Caesarea, and St. Gregory Nazianzen, also known as St. Gregory of Nazianzus. Both of them were renowned theologians and leaders of the faithful, living at the time of the fourth century after the birth of Christ, after Christianity had become the majority faith of the people of the Roman Empire.

A preacher named Arius spread unorthodox and heretical teachings about Christ. That Jesus Christ is not equal to the father as the Son of God. Instead of the true faith and teaching that God the Son is equal in all aspects to the Father and the Holy Spirit, one in unity and essence, existing before all ages, Arius preached that the Father is superior to the Son, and Jesus was created rather than existing with the Father, being begotten not created.

Arius’ teachings spread wildly across many parts of the Roman Empire, converting many people to this heretical teaching of the faith. He was wildly popular and swayed many to sin by believing in the falsehood of the devil. It was St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen who led the people of the true and orthodox faith in the campaign against the heresy of Arius, also known as Arianism.

We were warned by St. John the Evangelist on the presence of false prophets who would lead the people astray in their path towards the salvation in God, and the example of Arius had proven just to be the case, as much as many other heretics and false prophets who appeared both before and after him. St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen tirelessly championed the cause of the true faith, often in opposition even to the people whom they were shepherding and leading, who had been corrupted by the false teachings of Arius.

Yet they did not fear and continued to work hard, at times even they have to suffer persecution and suffering, as well as rejection and mockery by those who supported the false faith and the lies of the devil. Nevertheless, they continued to move on, and on, and on, until their death, they never ceased to work hard to purify the faith from these lies of the devil and all the seeds of falsehood that he has planted in the hearts of the Lord’s faithful through his false prophets.

Even today, brethren, false prophets can be abound, numerous, and we often may not know who they are. That is why, it is important for us to deepen the knowledge and understanding that we have of our faith in God. We cannot be idle or lest we risk to fall into the corruption of the lies of the evil one. Hold firmly on the deposit of faith, and the richness of the teachings that had been handed down to us from the Lord and His Apostles, through the Church.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us ask St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen to pray for us, that we will be protected by the Lord and His angels, so that we will not easily fall prey to heresy or succumb to the lies and temptations of the evil one. Let us also help one another, that we can keep all the faithful ones in God to remain faithful, now and till the end of time. God be with us all. Amen.

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Monday, 30 December 2013 : Sixth Day of the Christmas Octave (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 2 : 12-17

My dear children, I write this to you : you have already received the forgiveness of your sins through the Name of Jesus.

Fathers, I write this to you : you know Him who is from the beginning.

Young men, I write this to you : you have overcome the Evil One.

My dear children, I write this to you because you already know the Father.

Fathers, I write this to you because you know Him who us from the beginning.

Young men, I write this to you because you are strong and the Word of God lives in you who have indeed overcome the Evil One.

Do not love the world or what is in it. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the craving of the flesh, the greed of eyes and people boasting of their superiority – all this belongs to the world, not to the Father.

The world passes away with all its craving but those who do the will of God remain forever.

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Sunday, 29 December 2013 : Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 2 : 13-15, 19-23

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.’

After Herod’s death, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the Child and His mother and go back to the land of Israel, because those who tried to kill the Child are dead.”

So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother and went to the land of Israel. But when Joseph heard that Archilaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Judea, he was afraid to go there. Joseph was given further instructions in a dream, and went to the region of Galilee.

There he settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way, what was said by the prophets was fulfilled : ‘He shall be called a Nazorean.’

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Friday, 27 December 2013 : Feast of St. John the Evangelist, Apostle (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if yesterday we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen the protomartyr, the first of the martyrs of the faith, then today we celebrate the feast of one of the four writers of the Holy Gospels, that is St. John the Evangelist, the youngest of the disciples of the Lord and the only one who did not die of martyrdom.

St. John the Evangelist was the brother of St. James the Lesser, another of the Twelve Apostles. They were the sons of Zebedee, and they were once fishermen at the Lake of Galilee. They were called from their former lives and profession by Christ, to be His followers, and were selected to be among the Twelve He had made to be His Apostles.

St. John the Evangelist was one of the closest disciples to Jesus besides that of St. Peter and his own brother, St. James. They were the three who went up the mountain with Jesus and witnessed His glorious Transfiguration. St. John the Evangelist was also the one whom the Lord entrusted His own mother, Mary, to his care. He was the first to believe in the resurrection after Mary Magdalene had reported to the disciples that the tomb of the Lord was open and the Body was missing. That was the Gospel we had heard today just now.

St. John the Evangelist was the one whom Jesus mentioned that he would not ‘die’ before he saw all the things that the Lord had told His disciples, about the things that are about to happen. The disciples were annoyed at this because they failed to understand what the Lord had truly meant with what He said. Jesus said that to foretell what St. John would do to bring glory to God, that is through the Revelation he was to receive.

It was in that revelation, about what is going to happen at the end of everything, when the Lord will come again in His Second Coming, to judge the living and the dead, that John saw all that Jesus had foretold, and he died after he had seen all these visions, and shared them to all of us through his writings, both in the Book of the Revelation and in the Gospel that he wrote.

The Gospel of John is different from the other three Gospels in that it is unique in terms of its mystic and spiritual nature, with more difficult concepts and mystery as compared to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, which spoke in more historical terms and in a more chronological way, unlike the Gospel of John. But if we are able to read and understand what was written by John in his Gospel, our faith and our lives will be made considerably richer.

That is because John had been endowed with the gift of great faith, and when he wrote the Gospel, he did so with great zeal for the Lord and showed the faith to us, in all of its complexity, and yet at the same time bared the entire truth of the Lord to us. He started his Gospel with none other than the centre of the very Creed of our faith, that Jesus is God, and He is the Word of God incarnate into flesh, and He came in order to dwell among us, and bring us to complete perfection in Him.

Indeed, for those who lack the faith and who had not practiced the faith, these may seem very difficult to understand, to the point of impossibility. But that was what John made clear in his own Gospel, that the Lord is Lord, and He has one, singular mission in this world, that as we celebrate Christmas at the moment, we must never, ever forget.

That Christ who was Divine incarnate into Man, was born into this world that He might die for the sake of us all, that He might bear all the burdens of the sins of the world, the sins and taints of our rebelliousness against the will of God. Christ is the Lord, and He alone has the power and authority, to be able to liberate us from the enthrallment under sin and the power of Satan. This is what John made clear throughout his Gospel, by showing what Jesus had done, and His ultimate purpose on the cross.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we too have been given with the gifts of faith, and we have made the profession of the faith, that we believe in our Lord and Saviour, whose birth into this world, we are celebrating this Christmas. But to reiterate again the points I have often raised during this period of festivities, I want to remind all of us gathered, that we must never forget about Christ in our lives.

We cannot take out Christ out of the equation of our lives, for He is the One who provided us with basically, everything we have. Without Him, we are nothing. Therefore, brethren, let us use this time, this chance, and this opportunity, to profess our faith, as clearly as St. John the Evangelist had, showing it not only through words but also through our actions. Most importantly, as Christians, we cannot say that we are Christians if we do not base our actions on love, for God is Love.

St. John the Evangelist had shown us the virtues of faith, and how important faith is for all of us. We all have been granted faith, and we have faith in the Lord, but we cannot remain idle. As Christians, that is as the followers of God, we are expected to go out and show our love to others, particularly those who lack them, and even unto those who hate and persecute us.

Let us all, from today onwards, follow in the footsteps of St. John the Evangelist, and proclaim the truth about our faith to all. Profess and proclaim it through our tongues, our hands, and our legs, yes, through our words, actions, and deeds, rooted deeply in the faith in God and in the love for the Lord, as St. John had once did.

May the Lord born unto the world on Christmas, bless us, strengthen us, and make us into the instruments of His will, just in the same way as St. John the Evangelist had been. God bless us all. Amen.