persecution of the faithful

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Tuesday, 5 May 2015 : 5th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 14 : 19-28

Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and turned the people against them. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, leaving him for dead. But when his disciples gathered around him, he stood up and returned to the town. And the next day he left for Derbe with Barnabas.

After proclaiming the Gospel in that town and making many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and on to Antioch. They were strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain firm in the faith, for they said, “We must go through many trials to enter the Kingdom of God.”

In each Church they appointed elders and, after praying and fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had placed their faith. Then they travelled through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. They preached the Word in Perga and went down to Attalia. From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God’s grace for the task they had now completed.

On their arrival they gathered the Church together and told them all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the non-Jews. They spent a fairly long time there with the disciples.

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Sunday, 3 May 2015 : Fifth Sunday of Easter, Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 9 : 26-31

When Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples there, but they were afraid of him because they could not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the Apostles. He recounted to them how Saul had seen the Lord on his way and the words the Lord had spoken to him. He told them also how Saul had preached boldly in the Name of Jesus.

Then Saul began to live with them. He moved about freely in Jerusalem and preached openly in the Name of the Lord. He also spoke to the Hellenists and argued with them, but they wanted to kill him. When the believers learnt of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

Meanwhile, the Church had peace. It was building up throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria with eyes turned to the Lord and filled with comfort from the Holy Spirit.

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Tuesday, 28 April 2015 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 11 : 19-26

Those who had been scattered because of the persecution over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message, but only to the Jews. But there were some natives of Cyprus and Cyrene among them who, on coming into Antioch, spoke also to the Greeks, giving them the Good News of the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them so that a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

News of this reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the manifest signs of God’s favour, he rejoiced and urged them all to remain firmly faithful to the Lord; for he himself was a good man filled with Holy Spirit and faith. Thus large crowds came to know the Lord.

Then Barnabas went off to Tarsus to look for Saul and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they had meetings with the Church and instructed many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

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Monday, 20 April 2015 : 3rd Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 118 : 23-24, 26-27, 29-30

Although princes conspire against me, Your servant will observe Your decrees. Your laws are my delight, my counselors who uphold me.

When I explained my ways, You responded; instruct me then in Your precepts. Explain to me all Your ordinances, and I will meditate on Your wondrous deeds.

Keep me away from deceitful paths; be gracious and teach me Your law. I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart upon Your laws.

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Friday, 17 April 2015 : 2nd Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 5 : 34-42

But one of the Council members, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law highly respected by the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin. He ordered the men to be taken outside for a few minutes and then he spoke to the assembly.

He said, “Fellow Israelites, consider well what you intend to do to these men. For some time ago Theudas came forward, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed and all his followers were dispersed or disappeared. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared at the time of the census and persuaded many people to follow him. But he too perished and his whole following was scattered.”

“So, in this present case, I advise you to have nothing to do with these men. Leave them alone. If their project or activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. If, on the other hand, it is from God, you will not be able to destroy it and you may indeed find yourselves fighting against God.”

The Council let themselves be persuaded. They called in the Apostles and had them whipped, and ordered them not to speak again of Jesus the Saviour. Then they set them free. The Apostles went out from the Council rejoicing that they were considered worthy to suffer disgrace for the sake of the Name. Day after day, both in the Temple and in people’s homes, they continued to teach and to proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah.

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Friday, 10 April 2015 : Friday within Easter Octave (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 4 : 1-12

While Peter and John were still speaking to the people, the priests, the captains of the Temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them. They were greatly disturbed because the Apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming that resurrection from the dead had been proved in the case of Jesus.

Since it was already evening, they arrested them and put them in custody until the following day. But despite this, many of those who heard the Message believed and their number increased to about five thousand. The next day, the Jewish leaders, elders and teachers of the Law assembled in Jerusalem. Annas, the High Priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander and all who were of the high priestly class were there.

They brought Peter and John before them and began to question them, “How did you do this? Whose Name did you use?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke up, “Leaders of the people! Elders! It is a fact that we are being examined today for a good deed done to a cripple. How was he healed? You and all the people of Israel must know that this man stands before you cured through the Name of Jesus Christ the Nazarean. You had Him crucified, but God raised Him from the dead.”

“Jesus is the stone rejected by you the builders which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other Name given to humankind all over the world by which we may be saved.”

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Saturday, 21 March 2015 : 4th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 11 : 18-20

YHVH made it known to me and so I know! And You let me see their scheming : “Take care, even your kinsfolk and your own family are false with you and behind your back they freely criticise you. Do not trust them when they approach you in a friendly way.”

But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me that they were plotting, “Let us feed him with trials and remove him from the land of the living and let his name never be mentioned again.”

YHVH, God of hosts, You who judge with justice and know everyone’s heart and intentions, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You I have entrusted my cause.

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(Special – Singapore) Saturday, 14 February 2015 : Solemnity of the Anniversary of the Dedication of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, my brethren in faith throughout the Archdiocese of Singapore, today we celebrate this special occasion on Mass on the fourteenth day of February of this year, as the celebration of the Anniversary of that day when the mother church of this See, that is the direct heir of the See of Malacca and the progenitor of the Church in much of Asia and beyond, was consecrated and blessed more than a hundred years ago.

In the year of our Lord, 1897, then Bishop of Malacca, Bishop Edouard Gasnier, M.E.P., consecrated the Cathedral building, which had been built and completed just over half a century earlier in 1846. This great building and house of the Lord has been built as the heart and the beginning of the great missionary work in the small island of Singapore, which had just been founded by the British after hundreds of years of isolation and being a backwater and relatively forgotten island.

In this Cathedral, we have the proof of God’s continuing guidance to the works of His faithful servants in the Church, spreading His Good News to all the corners of the earth. The salvation of God is offered to all who wants to listen to His word, and all those who receive the word and believe, they are all saved. And the work of God continues even to this day, with many of His servants, all of us included, continuing to give praise to God and carry out His works daily amongst our brethren in this world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, do you know why the Cathedral of this Archdiocese of Singapore was named the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd? That was because when it was first built, one of those who had great role in the establishment of that church was St. Laurent Imbert, a missionary priest who went on to become the Apostolic Vicar to Korea, supervising the missionary work in that fertile land where many people still lived in ignorance of the Lord.

St. Laurent Imbert faithfully carried out his mission, and despite the fierce and harsh opposition from the pagan Korean government, he did not fear and continued to do his best to minister to the people of God. And when the persecution by the government reached a new high, and the government offered the liberation of those they have counted for death, if the bishop was to surrender himself, St. Laurent Imbert voluntarily surrendered himself and was martyred for his faith.

In one of his last letters before his martyrdom, he explained the reason behind his decision, that is of the Good Shepherd, imitating what our Lord had done Himself. The Good Shepherd lay down His life for His sheep. And indeed our Lord and God had laid down His life for our sake, that all of us, His sheep may be freed from the certainty of death caused by our sinfulness.

In the memory of St. Laurent Imbert and our Lord’s own sacrifice as our Good Shepherd therefore we dedicate today’s celebration, just as this Cathedral was dedicated to the Lord over a hundred years ago. And what is the relevance of this celebration to all of us? That is because the readings today on the feast of dedication of a Cathedral also reminds us all that we are the Temple of God, the place where God Himself resides.

Many of us seem to forget that all of us who believe in the Lord and who keep faith in Him, having received His Most Precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist, have essentially the Lord Himself dwelling in us, in body and flesh, and in spirit and love. Thus, we have to remember always that we belong to God and He is in us. We must shun all forms of sin and wickedness and walk only in His path, as St. Laurent Imbert and all the other faithful saints and martyrs of God had.

May this joyous occasion and celebration be a time for us to reawaken the love and dedication we have for the Lord, and may all of us be able to shun evil and sin, and gain into ourselves the justification and grace which God had promised all those who are faithful to Him, our loving God and our Good Shepherd. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 26 January 2015 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Timothy and St. Titus, Bishops (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 10 : 1-9

At that time, the Lord appointed seventy-two other disciples, and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place, where He Himself was to go. And He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So you must ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers to His harvest.”

“Courage! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Set off without purse or bag or sandals; and do not stop at the homes of those you know. Whatever house you enter, first bless them, saying, ‘Peace to this house!’ If a friend of peace lives there, the peace shall rest upon that person. But if not, the blessing will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking at their table, for the worker deserves to be paid. Do not move from house to house.”

“When they welcome you to any town, eat what they offer you. Heal the sick who are there, and say to them : ‘The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.'”

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Thursday, 22 January 2015 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we hear about Jesus, who healed the people from their sickness, cast out demons from them and teach them about the laws of God, and about what God desires from them. In the first reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, as is the theme of the most of that letter which we have repeated yet again and again, is the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ as our High Priest, the One who offered the perfect sacrifice which liberated us from the hands and clutches of sin and Satan.

The Lord had done this out of His love for us, which He showed perfectly through Jesus, by whose action He had made the whole mankind, the entire people of God being justified and made righteous, as long as they profess Him as their Lord and their Saviour. Through His works in the world, by the healing of the sick, the casting out of demons and other works, He had shown us all, what the love of God for us is truly about.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord is worried about us all, as to Him, we are all about to be lost forever, due to our inability to appreciate the love and commitment which He had shown us all. Since the days of the first man, Adam, we have been rebellious and wayward in our ways. And we know that from that moment on, we have sinned and sin separates us from our Lord.

He wants us back, and that was why He gave us and sent us Jesus, His Son, that through Him, we may receive salvation and new life. For Christ is indeed our High Priest, who offers for our sake, the perfect offering of Himself, and through that sacrifice which He Himself made, He made us whole, cleanse us from our afflictions and corruptions, and brought us closer once again to our Lord, our loving God.

And by that action, He also nullified the need for the priests of old, who offered the daily and regular sacrifices of the lambs, goats, turtledoves, wheat and other offerings which they offered as sin and burnt offerings to temporarily resolve and forgive one’s sins through God’s grace. For through Christ, He had once and for all, absolved all the sins of all mankind, and carried with Him the burden of our sins as He went on His passion to the cross at Calvary.

Then, we may be asking, how come then, our priests today celebrate the Holy Mass and the offering of the gifts of bread and wine? Did Jesus not nullify the works of the priests of Israel of old? It was mentioned in the first reading today, that their sacrifices and offerings were just shadows and imitations of the true heavenly sanctuary and its celebrations?

That is because, brothers and sisters in Christ, the Holy Mass is the real, one and only celebration that is indeed the heavenly celebration, and the sanctuary of our churches where we celebrate the Holy Mass are truly transformed to the real heavenly sanctuary, and our celebration is real and concrete celebration.

For the Holy Mass is the one and same sacrifice which our Lord Jesus had made on the cross at Calvary, and the bread and wine which we offer are transformed completely in the matter and spirit to become the same Body and Blood which our Lord shed and poured down upon us to be our redemption. This is our faith, and this is what we fully believe in. Doubt no more and believe with all of our heart!

Today we also celebrate the feast of St. Vincent, a deacon of the Holy Church of God and also a holy martyr of the faith. St. Vincent was also known as St. Vincent of Saragossa, who was martyred during the height of the great persecution of the faithful by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. St. Vincent was a great and dedicated servant of the Lord, who was a faithful deacon that ministered courageously to the people of God despite the difficulties he faced.

And it is in the defense of that Faith he had in the salvation that Christ had given us all, that he stood up and defended his faith, and he spoke up so courageously for his faith, that while the bishop he defended before the governor was only exiled, and St. Vincent was martyred for his faith. Even though we do not have to go to the extent of martyrdom, but it is this kind of faith for the Lord which we need to have, and we should give the Lord the best love we can give.

For I have mentioned that He had done so much for us, offering and sacrificing Himself in our stead, that we all may have eternal life through Him. The world clearly does not like Him, for He brought us the truth that dispels the falsehoods of the world, the myriads of lies of Satan, with which he tried to deceive the people of God. Therefore, let us all be inspired by the example of St. Vincent of Saragossa, holy martyr of the faith, and be exemplary in all of our actions, founded in faith. God bless us all. Amen.