Patron saint of England

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Thursday, 23 April 2020 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. George, Martyr and St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Lord in the Scriptures which spoke to us about the Lord and His truth, which He has revealed to us all through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. And this truth has been passed down to us through His Apostles and disciples and through His Church, and defended by many who had devoted themselves to the Lord and remained faithful despite all the oppositions and even persecutions they encountered.

In our first reading today we heard of the story of the persecution of the Apostles, who were opposed by most of the members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Council who were also opposed to their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. The Sanhedrin and many of the Pharisees had tried hard to clamp down on the activity and the works of the Apostles who were then rapidly gaining converts to the Christian faith among the populace. They even put the Apostles under arrest and wanted to try them and condemn them, but God sent His Angel to free the Apostles.

The Apostles remained firm in their faith and despite the efforts of their opponents and oppressors to stop them from doing their works and from proclaiming the truth, the Apostles did not fear all the threats and persecutions, and as they bravely said before all the Sanhedrin that they would rather obey Divine authority and the Lord’s commandments rather than to listen or obey to human authority especially when that authority ordered them to do what is obviously and completely contrary to the Divine mandate and instructions.

And their words there before the Sanhedrin matched what the Lord Jesus Himself told the Pharisee Nicodemus, in their secret meeting, when the Lord spoke of Himself as the One Whom God had promised us mankind as the Saviour, and because He was sent from above, He spoke of things that are heavenly in nature and from God, and His truth was known to only those who were willing to listen to Him and believe in Him. And that was what the Apostles had also spoken and preached before the people of God, which the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin had also heard and yet refused to believe.

And the Lord also put it very plainly that those who believe in Him will have eternal life through Him while those who do not believe in Him will not. And thus, this is why the Apostles having been called and sent out to the world to carry out the will of God refused to stop their works just because of the unreasonable opposition from the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin on the account of their jealousy and personal hatred and agenda against the Lord. They had been sent on the mission to save countless souls, and they would want to see it through to the very end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what the Lord had asked us to do as part of our Christian calling. We have been sent out into the world like that of the Apostles, continuing their works and doing what we can to bring God’s truth to all of the peoples for the salvation of souls. Are we all willing to commit ourselves to the Lord in that way? And are we willing to commit our time, effort and attention to serve the Lord with all of our hearts and with our strength?

Today we also celebrate the feast of St. George and St. Adalbert, two devoted servants of God and holy martyrs who have given their lives in service to God, toiling and doing what they could through their lives to be inspirations to all the faithful. St. George was a Christian soldier, a member of the Praetorian Guard or the personal guards of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, while St. Adalbert was a Bohemian bishop and saint, who was involved in the works of evangelisation and in establishing the Church in various places.

St. George was a member of the elite Praetorian guards who guarded the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who was infamous for his great persecution of Christians living throughout the Empire. And especially among the members of the army and the Praetorians, Christians who had to practice their faith in secret had a truly difficult time. But St. George stood firm and refused to offer sacrifices to the Roman Emperor as required by the law and by the order of the Emperor himself, and as such, publicly declared himself as a Christian.

Suffering greatly from the torture, pain and the persecution, St. George endured it all and remained true to his faith, refusing to recant his faith even under the pain and certainty of death. It was told by tradition that St. George was beheaded on the city wall of Emperor Diocletian’s capital in Nicomedia, and afterwards, many people began to venerate St. George, inspired deeply by the saint’s great and deep devotion to the Lord and for his righteousness and courage.

Meanwhile, St. Adalbert was the Bishop of Prague in what is now Czech Republic, ministering to the people of God at what was then the frontier of Christendom. Many pagans still lived in the area of St. Adalbert’s diocese, and the Church there was still being established. St. Adalbert had to face much difficulty and opposition from those who still held on their pagan ways, and his opposition to the pagans’ practice of slavery and polygamy among others earned him enemies within the nobles and courtiers.

But St. Adalbert remained firm in his faith and in his conviction to serve God and His people. He continued to fight for the Church in those difficult and challenging moments, and endured all sorts of tribulations in the process. In the end, he left behind his diocese and stepped down as bishop, and set out as a missionary to the still pagan Prussians in what is now eastern part of Germany and Poland. It was there that St. Adalbert was martyred for his faith after attaining some successes among the pagans.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we can indeed see how these faithful and holy predecessors of ours have inspired so many of us to follow in their footsteps in how we ought to be faithful to God and serve Him through our lives. We are all called as Christians to continue on the works of the Apostles and the saints, and we are called today to reflect on this calling. Are we willing and able to commit ourselves to God in this way, brothers and sisters?

Let us all draw ever closer to God and find our strength in Him, seeking to be ever more faithful and devoted to Him as the Apostles, and also St. George and St. Adalbert had shown us through their lives and works. May God give us the strength to persevere and to give our very best in our service to Him, in each and every single moments. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 23 April 2020 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. George, Martyr and St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 3 : 31-36

At that time, John the Baptist said, “He Who comes from above is above all; he who comes from the earth belongs to the earth, and his words belong to the earth. He Who comes from heaven speaks of the things He has seen and heard; He bears witness to these things, but no one accepts His testimony. Whoever does receive His testimony acknowledges the truthfulness of God.”

“The One sent by God speaks God’s words, and gives the Spirit unstintingly. The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything into His hands. Whoever believes in the Son lives with eternal life; but he who will not believe in the Son will never know life, and always faces the justice of God.”

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Thursday, 23 April 2020 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. George, Martyr and St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 33 : 2 and 9, 17-18, 19-20

I will bless the Lord all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. Oh, see and taste the goodness of the Lord! Blessed is the one who finds shelter in Him!

But His face is set against the wicked to destroy their memory from the earth. The Lord hears the cry of the righteous and rescues them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves the distraught. Many are the troubles of the just, but the Lord delivers them from all.

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Thursday, 23 April 2020 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. George, Martyr and St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 5 : 27-33

So the High Priest and his supporters brought the Apostles in and made them stand before the Council and the High Priest questioned them, “We gave you strict orders not to preach such a Saviour; but you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend charging us with the killing of this Man.”

To this Peter and the Apostles replied, “Better for us to obey God rather than any human authority! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus Whom you killed by hanging Him on a wooden post. God set Him at His right hand as Leader and Saviour, to grant repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses to all these things, as well as the Holy Spirit Whom God has given to those who obey Him.

When the Council heard this, they became very angry and wanted to kill them.

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Wednesday, 27 May 2015 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard from our first reading, taken from the Book of Ecclesiastes, about the pleas and our begging for mercy from the Lord, that we hope that God would not hold our sins against us, and that He may be merciful to us and show us His mercy and forgive us our sins. By right, because of our sins, we have deserved death and to be destroyed and yet, by His infinite mercy He had opened for us the way to salvation.

But this does not mean that we should take God’s love for granted, for there is indeed a limit to God’s patience. Forgiveness will also come our way only if we have the commitment and dedication to changing our ways and abandoning all of our pride and ways of sin. God is merciful and kind, and He is willing to forgive our sins, but only if we are able to change and commit ourselves to His ways.

And God has given us so much help, so that we may be saved, firstly by sending reminders one after another, to keep us on His ways and not be lost, with prophets and messengers after another to preach to us the will of God and His message. And last of all, He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to be the Saviour of us all, and by His suffering and death, by which He bore the combined weight and burden of our sins, He had brought us this hope of forgiveness and liberation from our fate that was death.

We have to always remember this fact, that the Lord died for us, so that we may live. In His death we have shared the death to our old selves, and we have abandoned our old ways of sin, and by His resurrection to life, we have also therefore shared in the new life, which is the path to our eternal joy and true happiness with Him in heaven forevermore.

But the path to a life faithful to God, and indeed the journey of our faith will not be easy. In the Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ had told this fact to His disciples, of the cup of suffering that He was to drink. This cup of suffering was the burden of sin, the whole weight of our disobedience and our punishment, which our Lord Jesus had taken up upon Himself. And we are also going to share in the same cup of suffering, which is the rejection of the world, and the persecution, which our Lord had also encountered, being rejected and cast out by His own people.

It will be difficult to face all the challenges that will come our way, but if we persevere on and never gave up, then we should be rewarded richly by our Lord. Remember that our Lord also said that those who are faithful to Him ought to take up their own crosses in life and follow Him? These crosses in life are part and parcel of our journey as the disciples and followers of our Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, perhaps we can look up to the example of the saint whose feast we are celebrating today, namely St. Augustine of Canterbury. St. Augustine of Canterbury was the first to bring the Faith to England, and he was the first Archbishop of the See of Canterbury. Indeed, it is very unfortunate that because of the heresies committed a few hundred years ago, his successors have gone astray into the darkness, but indeed, in the first place, the works of St. Augustine of Canterbury remained evident even until this day, and it helps a lot in the reestablishment of the Faith in England until today.

St. Augustine was once a Roman priest and monk, who served the Pope in various capacities, and who was then summoned and tasked to spread the faith in the land of England beyond the sea. The Faith had once been established in that land by the Roman Empire, but after the fall of the Roman Empire in that region, the pagans have taken over the land, and the Church was in disarray. Therefore, the task and responsibility fell to the hands of St. Augustine, who then established the See of Canterbury, and became its first bishop.

Through his hard and tireless works, St. Augustine of Canterbury had managed to rebuild the Church and brought many people to conversion to the true Faith, and he never looked back on the past. He kept pushing forward and toiled hard to convert the masses of pagans and turn them from their faults and sins, and therefore to approach the throne of God’s mercy.

Therefore, let us all follow his examples and walk righteously in the path of the Lord. Let us no longer be distracted by the many distractions and temptations of this world, but let us all focus all of our attention to the Lord, devote ourselves to change our ways and do things righteously from now on. May Almighty God be with us all and protect us from the forces of evil, and bring us to the everlasting life He had promised to all of us who remain faithful to Him. Amen.

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Wednesday, 27 May 2015 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Mark 10 : 32-45

At that time, Jesus and His disciples were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and He was walking ahead. The Twelve were anxious, and those who followed were afraid. Once more Jesus took the Twelve aside to tell them what was to happen to Him.

“You see we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be given over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. They will condemn Him to death, and hand Him over to the foreigners, who will make fun of Him, spit on Him, scourge Him, and finally kill Him; but three days later He will rise.”

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to Him, “Master, we want You to grant us what we are going to ask of You.” And He said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They answered, “Grant us to sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, when You come in Your glory.”

But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what You are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink, or be baptised in the way I am baptised?” They answered, “We can.” And Jesus told them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and you will be baptised in the way that I am baptised; but to sit at My right hand or at My left is not Mine to grant. It has been prepared for others.”

On hearing this, the other ten were angry with James and John. Jesus then called them to Him and said, “As you know, the so-called rulers of the nations act as tyrants, and their great ones oppress them. But it shall not be so among you; whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you shall make himself slave of all.”

“Think of the Son of Man, who has not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life to redeem many.”

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Wednesday, 27 May 2015 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Psalm 78 : 8, 9, 11, 13

Do not remember against us the sins of our fathers. Let Your compassion hurry to us, for we have been brought very low.

Help us, God, our Saviour, for the glory of Your Name; forgive us for the sake of Your Name.

Listen to the groans of the prisoners; by the strength of Your arm, deliver those doomed to die.

Then we, Your people, the flock of Your pasture, will thank You forever. We will recount Your praise from generation to generation.

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Wednesday, 27 May 2015 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Sirach (Ecclesiastes) 36 : 1-2a, 5-6, 11-17

Have mercy on us, Master, God of all, and look on us; make every nation stand in fear of You. Take action against the pagan nations and let them see Your power. Give new signs, do fresh wonders, stretch out Your hand and be glorified in Your strength. Kindle Your fury and rouse Your anger, destroy Your opponents, crush Your enemy.

Have pity, Lord, on the people known by Your Name, on Israel whom You called Your firstborn. Show compassion to the Holy City, to Jerusalem where You rest. Fill Zion with the fame of Your wonders, and Your people with Your glory. Confirm the promises made to Your people long ago and fulfill the promises made in Your Name.

Reward those who wait for You and fulfill the words of Your prophets. Hear the prayer of Your servants, Lord; hear Your priests giving Aaron’s blessing to Your people. So that all on earth may acknowledge that You are Lord and everlasting God.

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Thursday, 23 April 2015 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. George, Martyr and St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today in the readings we heard about the revelation of the truth in the Lord, first, in the Acts of the Apostles where the steward to the Queen of Ethiopia met up with the Apostle St. Philip while he was reading about the prophecy on the Messiah, and was baptised after the truth was explained and revealed to him.

And in the Gospel, we heard how Jesus further elaborated on Him being the Salvation and Saviour of all, as the Living Bread from heaven, and all who share in Him will not suffer eternal death but live eternally. This is showing how God had given us so much goodness and graces, but we mankind often spurn that love, by looking at idols and other things that distract us from the Lord. We often rejected His love and even pretend that we do not know Him.

Remember brethren, just as the Ethiopian steward read about the suffering servant of God in the Book of the prophet Isaiah, God Himself had foretold about His coming into the world, not as a condescending and proud Lord who boasted of His strength to all and oppress the weak under Him, but instead He had done the exact opposite, that as the Leader, Lord and Master of all, He came as a humble Man, assuming the appearance of a mere creature, and yet, He is still God. This is the wonderful and amazing mystery of our faith, of God made Man, for the sake of our salvation.

This is our faith and this is what we believe in, and as St. Philip had done, we have to be able to go forth and announce the truth about Christ our Lord to others who had not yet received that truth. And this is what evangelisation is all about, that is bringing the Good News of God’s salvation to all of the world. For if we do not do this, then who will? And who will be responsible when the souls of those who did not hear the Word are lost forever? It will be on our hands, brothers and sisters in Christ.

For all of us who have been baptised in the Lord Jesus and welcomed into His one and only Church, have been made to be the children of God. We have therefore a mission which Christ Himself had entrusted to His Apostles, that is to preach the Good News to all the peoples of all the nations to the ends of the earth. There is much that we can do, and we truly should not ignore what God had entrusted to us.

Today, we celebrate the feast of two great and brave saints of the Church, that is of St. George and St. Adalbert. Both of them were great martyrs of the Faith. St. George, also known as St. George of Lydda was a soldier in the Roman Army. He was an officer in the army of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who was infamous for his great persecutions of the faithful.

St. George refused to renounce his faith and he remained devoted to his Lord and Master, even to the point of denouncing his own worldly and earthly lord, the Roman Emperor, who had forced many to renounce their faith and persecuted many of those who remained faithful to God. He proclaimed bravely in the public assembly and in the presence of the Emperor that he is a Christian and he will not turn away from his faith in Jesus.

Meanwhile, St. Adalbert was a Czech bishop who lived and died about a millennia ago, at the time of the great works of evangelisation to convert many people of those areas and other places throughout Central and Eastern Europe from the pagan faith to the one true faith in God. St. Adalbert worked hard to preach the faith among the masses who still practiced the false pagan practices, and even though he was often harassed and threatened, he continued his hard work.

Eventually, both St. George and St. Adalbert were martyred for their faith. They refused to change their lives and submit to the will and authority of the world made unjustly by the ignorance and by the lack of understanding of who our Lord and God is. They stood up for their faith, and for what they had done, they had earned great glory for the Lord. And rich are their inheritances on the last day.

Let us all be inspired to do more in our faithful service to God, imitating what St. George and St. Adalbert had done. Let us not be passive, complacent and ignorant in our faith life, but instead let us all have faith that is real, concrete, vibrant and true. May Almighty God bless us and guide us in life, that we may ever draw closer to Him. Amen.

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Thursday, 23 April 2015 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. George, Martyr and St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 6 : 44-51

At that time, Jesus said to the Jews, “No one can come to Me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent Me; and I will raise him up on the last day. It has been written in the Prophets : ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ So whoever listens and learns from the Father comes to Me.”

“For no one has seen the Father except the One who comes from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Though your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, they died. But here you have the Bread which comes from heaven, so that you may eat of it, and not die.”

“I am the Living Bread which has come from heaven; whoever eats of this Bread will live forever. The Bread I shall give is My flesh, and I will give it for the life of the world.”