pride

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Monday, 11 November 2013 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Martin of Tours, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Wisdom 1 : 1-7

Love justice, you who rule over the world. Think rightly of God, seek Him with simplicity of heart, for He reveals Himself to those who do not challenge Him and is found by those who do not distrust Him.

Crooked thinking distances you from God, and His Omnipotence, put to the test, confounds the foolish. Wisdom does not enter the wicked nor remain in a body that is enslaved to sin. The Holy Spirit who instructs us shuns deceit; It keeps aloof from foolishness and is ill at ease when injustice is done.

Wisdom is a spirit, a friend to man, and will not leave the blasphemous unpunished, because God knows His innermost feelings, truly sees His thoughts and hears what He says. For God’s Spirit has filled the whole world and He who holds together all things, knows each word that is spoken.

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Tuesday, 5 November 2013 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 130 : 1, 2, 3

O Lord, my heart is not proud nor do I have arrogant eyes. I am not engrossed in ambitious matters, nor in things too great for me.

I have quieted and stilled my soul like a weaned child on its mother’s lap; like a contented child is my soul.

Hope in the Lord, o Israel, now and forever.

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Monday, 4 November 2013 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we come together to celebrate the feast of a great and yet humble saint, that is St. Charles Borromeo, or San Carlo Borromeo as he is known in his native Italy. He was the Archbishop of Milan, the most influential and largest of the dioceses in the world today, and even then during the lifetime of St. Charles Borromeo. He was also a Cardinal of the Roman Church based on his position as Archbishop of Milan. Truly he was a very influential prelate during his time.

Yet, despite all that, St. Charles Borromeo remained, above all else, a humble, devout, and loving person, and a dedicated servant of God Most High, putting God always before himself in all things. He committed himself to the service of those who had been entrusted to him, like that of a shepherd caring for his sheep with all of his might and attention, as well as love.

St. Charles Borromeo was born from a rich family, and yet he rejected the culture of waste and excessive glamour that characterised the nobles and the wealthy during that period. He was completely dedicated and devoted to the poor, and he took his duties as Archbishop of Milan seriously, working hard for his people, and in humility, he often walked in the streets barefooted and with a cord around his neck, to symbolise the burdens he carried as the shepherd of God’s people.

St. Charles Borromeo, made a cardinal in his youth, showed great zeal as well in the affairs of the Universal Church, giving great contributions towards the effort to stem the tide of the heretical Protestantism, and spearheading, together with many other contemporary saints, the Counter-Reformation, particularly through the Council of Trent. St. Charles Borromeo ensured that the Church was thoroughly reformed and cleansed of any corruptions that had permeated the Church of God in the past centuries.

St. Charles Borromeo, despite his zeal, great dedication, and commitment to the good of the Church and God’s people, faced much opposition and resistance. Despite all those oppositions, though, he persevered, and his hard works gave a solid foundation for the Church, from which the Church and Christendom may heal from the terrible heresy of Protestantism and other heresies running rampant at that time.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Charles Borromeo truly embodied what the Lord said in our Gospel reading today. That we have to love and care for the poor, and dare to step out from our comfort zone. We should not just enclose ourselves in our comfort zone, but we must take action, just as St. Charles Borromeo had done, that we love our brethren, especially the poorest, the last, the lost, the least, and the unloved, namely those rejected by society.

Being wealthy and having many possessions is God’s grace, brothers and sisters. It is a sign of God’s blessing and favour upon us. But He did not intend for us to keep all of these blessings and graces for ourselves. We ought to share those blessings with one another, and enjoy these blessings together. We should not rejoice over the suffering of others, especially not those who have nothing or little.

The Lord urged us to show love, care, and compassion to these brothers and sisters of ours. Everyone ought to have enough and sufficient for themselves, and nobody should be lacking and suffer from that. Following the examples set by St. Charles Borromeo and other saints, we should open up ourselves and not withdraw into ourselves. We cannot become mere closet Christians, but rather we must go out and be courageous to proclaim God and His love to all, especially through our own words, deeds, and actions.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to us who have been given much, let us share with one another the joy He had given us, that our less fortunate brethren may also have the taste of this joy, and rejoice together with us as one people in God, all of whom are His children. And to those of us who have less, we too can share our joy with one another. It does not mean that because we have less then we cannot be joyful or rejoice. Be happy and glad, and celebrate life with one another, sharing the joy.

Yes, brethren, share the joy and blessings we have, that all of us, rich or poor, powerful or weak, can together praise and glorify the Lord as one people, without discriminating against each other or rejoicing over another’s suffering. May the Lord who loves us all, continues to watch over us, bless us, and embrace us with His love. God be with us, always and forever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 30 October 2013 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 13 : 22-30

Jesus went through towns and villages teaching, and making His way to Jerusalem. Someone asked Him, “Lord, is it true that few people will be saved?”

And Jesus answered, “Do your best to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has gone inside and locked the door, you will stand outside. Then you will knock at the door, calling, ‘Lord, open to us!’ But He will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.'”

“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with You, and You taught in out streets!’ But He will reply, ‘I do not know where you come from. Away from Me, all you workers of evil.'”

“You will weep and grind your teeth, when you see Abraham and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves left outside. Others will sit at table in the kingdom of God, people coming from east and west, from north and south. Some who are among the last, will be first; and some who are among the first, will be last!'”

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Sunday, 27 October 2013 : 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brethren, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ. What right do we have to be proud and judgmental before God and before others? What right do we have to condemn others because we think that we are better than them? And what right do we have to boast of ourselves and the good things that we do, before the Lord our God? None, we have none of these rights, because we truly are all sinners without exception, all equal before the Lord.

The Lord loves all those who are humble, and those who are in deep realisation of their own sins. They are truly beloved by God, because they are those who are more likely to have God in their hearts, and also those who are more likely to put the Lord at the centre of their hearts and at the centre of their very being. It does not mean that the proud and the mighty do not have the Lord in their hearts, but they are predisposed to put less importance to the Lord compared to those who are meek and humble.

This is because, due to our nature, our pride very often stands in the way of salvation in God, as well as blocking the love of God from reaching us. When pride masters our hearts, it grows to arrogance, and a feeling of superiority that tends to shut out anything that points out our inadequacies and mistakes, because we tend to put ever more and more trust in our own strengths and abilities.

We must not therefore, be like the Pharisee, who basked in his own glory, and praising his own goodness. He even went on to look down upon those whom he considered to be not as good as him, particularly the tax collector. He thought of himself as being pious and saved, but in fact he is truly empty within him, and without God as the centre of his life.

In doing what he had done, the Pharisee had highlighted the pride he has in him, and how he gave in to that pride, and finally, in his prayers, he gave glory to himself and did not give glory to God. The Lord who sees all and knows all will give what the Pharisee and other people like him, what they deserved. They deserved neither praise nor honour, because in their pride, they gave no glory to God, and in a prayer full of hubris, they revealed the darkness of their souls.

Brethren, although Jesus used the example of the Pharisees to depict the bad seed in the society, in many different occasions and conditions, that is mainly because at that time, the Pharisees were well known for their very strict adherence to the laws of Moses, as well as the other, numerous Jewish laws and customs.

This is in fact good, as indeed, we all need to obey and follow God’s rules and laws. However, in the way that this was done by the Pharisees, they had not done what the Lord truly wanted them to do, and in fact, the Pharisees obeyed mostly the laws of men, that is the numerous rules, regulations, and rituals created by the people over many generations.

They have lost the understanding of the true meaning of the law of God, as well as how it should be implemented. They had become obsessed at the observation of the laws derived from the true law, that they did those rules without true understanding of why they did so. Even worse, as the leaders of the people and role model of the people, they have misguided the people of God, and also exploited them, by imposing on them the crushing weight of such rules and regulations.

What the Lord truly wants from us, His children, is the love and dedication that we can give Him, genuinely and sincerely, from the depth of our hearts. This kind of love is not easy for us to achieve, as it means the total giving of ourselves, the opening of our hearts to the Lord and His love. In the same way, the Lord also wants us to love one another just as we have loved ourselves, and just as we have loved Him. These are the essence of the true desire of the Lord for us, through which He guided us via His laws and commandments.

This is why, the Lord loves the prayer of the tax collector mentioned in Jesus’ teaching, where He mentioned that the prayer of the tax collector was heard and he had his sins forgiven for him. The tax collector did not only distance himself from the Holy Presence of God, feeling so unworthy because he realised the depth of his faults and iniquities, but he even lowered himself humbly before God’s presence, kneeling in great shame before God.

And yet, it is this tax collector who are more capable of understanding his own sins, being in greater realisation of the faults he had committed. As I would like to highlight again what the late, saintly Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen had said, that the greater the sin one has, the closer is one to the throne of mercy. The darker one’s sins are, the more shame they should experience before the Lord their God.

Yet, the problem lies in that, many of us today are desensitised to sin. We are no longer feeling that shame whenever we commit sinful deeds. We instead even find sin to be good things and things that we enjoy. Hence we begin our path to downfall, by not realising the gravity of our sinfulness, and putting our pride ahead of us. In essence, we are becoming more and more like the Pharisee instead of the remorseful tax collector.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, lastly, the Lord also taught us the importance of prayer through the same parable, that we ought to pray, but not just any prayer. A prayer that is truly genuine and from the heart, made in complete submission to the will of God, and also complete willingness to listen to the word of God being spoken in our hearts.

Prayer is not just about us talking all the time, and neither it is a litany of demands and wishes for us to send to the Lord. Instead, a prayer is ought to be how it is intended, that is as a two-way communication channel between us and the Lord. That is what prayer truly is, brothers and sisters! Talk less and listen more! The Lord who knows all certainly knows what we truly need. It is often that what we desire is not what we need. In our greed it is likely for us to desire even things that we do not truly need.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, today all of us are called to a life of greater holiness, deeper spirituality, and greater commitment to the Lord. We need a deeper faith, a healthier prayer life, and ultimately, greater dedication and love for our fellow mankind, and especially, for the Lord Himself. May we grow ever stronger in our faith, our hope and love in God. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 27 October 2013 : 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 18 : 9-14

Jesus told another parable to some people, fully convinced of their own righteousness, who looked down on others : “Two men went up to the Temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector.”

“The Pharisee stood by himself, and said, ‘I thank You, God, that I am not like other people, grasping, crooked, adulterous, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and give the tenth of all my income to the Temple.'”

“In the meantime the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'”

“I tell you, when this man went back to his house, he had been reconciled with God, but not the other. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised up.”

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Sunday, 20 October 2013 : 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Mission Sunday (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord is our guardian, and He is our fortress. He will cover us with the power of His wings. He will not let harm to come upon us, and we will not know suffering or pain. All these, if we remain righteous and stay true on His ways, and do not stray into the path of evil. The Lord will listen to our call and our needs, because He loves us so much, that He certainly cannot ignore the suffering of His children.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, we have in fact no need at all to fear about ourselves, or about our wellbeing and safety. That is because the Lord our God, as the readings today assert, is a great and loving God, and He will stand by us at all times, especially when we are in our most difficult times. God does not wish to see His children suffering, be it temporal or eternal, as how it is in hell for those who did not repent their sinful ways.

The Lord had protected all of His beloved all this time, and today we heard now the Lord gave the people of Israel a complete victory against those who opposed them, namely the vicious and pagan Amalekites. The Lord fought with His people and triumphed against the forces of evil arrayed against them, no matter how powerful they were. Thus God loved and provided for His children throughout generations, one after another.

Yet, the people of God were not faithful, and as fast as the Lord had made them a great nation, blessed in terms of all things imaginable, they too forgot about the Lord and all of His might and love for them. They began to sin again and hurt the Lord with the depth of their sinfulness and transgressions. This is what the Lord wanted us to emulate.

Today, brethren, the Lord reminds us and highlights the nature of our salvation, in Jesus. He promised to all of us, life eternal in God. We are preoccupied with our own lives and our joy in this world, that we fail to see the great role that God had played in the lives of each and every one of us. We often demand many things from God and want Him to immediately answer our prayers and our demands, as unreasonable as they are.

To us has been revealed the full nature of God’s saving power, the love that God had for us, and yet many of us still have little faith in God. It is very often that we trust more of our own strengths and material possessions rather than trusting in God and in His divine providence. That was why when He indeed came into this world in Jesus Christ, He was disappointed at how little faith mankind had for Him, especially that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who, out of all people, should have had the greatest faith.

That is because those people had a high sense of pride and self-righteousness. They may be seen as pious and holy externally, through their actions and devotions, but inside, they had no real and true love for the Lord, and that was what the Lord rebuked them for, for their false uprightness and righteousness. They were truly wicked and yet tried hard to justify themselves.

It is not that we cannot devote ourselves the way they had done, brothers and sisters, that is through prayers and dedications, and sacrifices. They are important, and indeed we are expected to keep a good and healthy prayer life at all times. What is important, however, is that we must keep the Lord at the centre of our lives, and we must uphold the love He has and He preached to all of us, at all times.

We cannot become empty Christians, by merely saying prayers and devotions without meaning, by attending the Mass without participation and understanding.  Then, we cannot be charitable and loving without first anchoring ourselves in the Lord first. This then shows that, in all the things we say, in all the things we do, and in all the things we believe in, we must always have the Lord and His love at the centre of them all.

Brethren, let us therefore, seek the Lord, with all our heart, with all of our strength and understanding, that we will be able to find Him despite the devil’s temptations and all the distractions provided by the world. Let us open wide our hearts, to allow God to enter us, and transform us with His love. What we need is indeed simply to ask for the Lord and His assistance, and He will definitely provide for us in His own way.

All we need is indeed to ask, and if what we need are what we truly need, the Lord will grant it to us. He is after all just, just as He is loving. The problem is indeed often with us, because too often we are so engaged in our own pride and sense of ‘greatness’, that we ourselves turn away the Lord’s offers to us, trusting more in ourselves and our ‘power’. We judge ourselves better than others, and in there lies our fall. In the same way indeed, as how Satan fell from grace, that is because of his irreconcilable pride in himself.

Therefore, beloved brethren, from today on, let us first doubt no longer the love and dedication that God has for all of us. His care for us is genuine, and He wants us to be with Him again, and that is why, He often knocked at our door, the door of our hearts. Yet often, He knocked, only to be turned away.  We are too immersed and engaged in our pride and worldly desires, that we ignore the calling of the Lord, who whispered softly within our hearts.

Let us hence, commit to deepen our understanding of the faith we have, and resolve to bring ourselves ever closer to God through prayer. May we be able to pray, speak to God, and allow His gentle words to enter into our hearts. That we will become more and more loving children of our God, and be blessed forevermore. God bless and protect us always. Amen!

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Wednesday, 16 October 2013 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hedwig, Religious and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious and Virgins)

Be righteous and be good, be loving, forgiving, and be compassionate, and finally be slow to anger and slow to judge on others. That is the Lord’s message to us in the readings today. These are the attributes of those who are truly belonging to God and reflect the nature of His love.

This is because, brothers and sisters in Christ, He does not want as His people those who are empty in them, empty of love and compassion, and empty of His presence. What He wants is that we would be filled with His Holy Spirit and His love, that we may be what He wants us to be, that is to be loving, merciful, caring, and compassionate.

We must not be enslaved to our pride and arrogance, the natural result of our love for ourselves and our sense of accomplishment. We love to be praised, and have good things whispered in our ears. We love words like, ‘Well done!’ or ‘Amazing!’ or ‘You have done a good job!’. There is in fact nothing wrong with these statements, as they are justified in their use if we truly deserve such praises, but it must not be overdone.

Pride and arrogance is the main reason and culprit behind why the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law cannot accept Jesus, less still whatever He had taught the people of God. That is because in their state of wisdom and learning, they like to consider themselves to be well above the other people, whom they often regard as being less pious than them, as well as lacking in the knowledge of the Law, where in fact, they were the ones misguided by their pride, and in turn misguided even more people themselves.

The Lord cursed them because of this, and denounced their selfish and self-serving behaviour. They were cast down because in their pride, they had not given glory to God, but instead attributed glory to themselves. In their pride, they have rejected the Lord who came to save the world, in Jesus Christ, just as their ancestors had rejected, tortured, and murdered the prophets and messengers of God’s love.

To be a true disciple of the Lord, one requires a great humility and faith, and not just any faith, but also the living faith empowered by love. That requires us to not be idle and thus take up actions proactively, to ensure that the faith within us remains burning brightly and alive. We must always also make sure that our words and actions truly reflect our faith in God, that all who sees us, will see God reflected in us.

Today, brethren, we celebrate the feast of St. Hedwig, a religious from Bohemia, and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a virgin and devout servant of God from France. St. Hedwig was the consort of the ruler of the area now known as Czechoslovakia and also Poland, and she was well known, together with her husband, for her immense piety and charity, especially to the poor and the neglected. And after her husband died early, she entered a monastery to dedicate herself to a life of prayer and contemplation.

St. Hedwig continued to live devoutly, and invited many religious priests and nuns into her country, greatly helping the cause of evangelisation, especially because her country was often notorious for its heresies and rebellions against the true faith by certain individuals. She also donated her possessions and wealth to the poor, giving everything she had for charity and dedicating herself fully to the Lord.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was also a very devout religious nun, who devoted herself to a life of prayer. What made her most well-known was the vision and appearance of Jesus Christ our Lord to her, revealing to her and the world, of the love He has for all mankind, through His most Sacred Heart. Jesus advocated the need for the world to devote themselves to Him, and devote themselves especially to His Sacred Heart.

That such devotion indeed can help mankind to overcome their sinfulness, and help them on the path towards salvation. That was the beginning of what we would now know as the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. This important devotion helps many to reorientate themselves towards the Lord and salvation in God.

Therefore, brethren, let us humble ourselves and seek the help of the Lord, by asking Him for His mercy, and devote ourselves, and following in the ways of St. Hedwig and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, and in the latter’s devotion to the Sacred Heart of our loving God, Jesus Christ, who came down to us, to bring salvation to us, out of His undying love for all of us. God bless us all and protect us forever and ever. Amen.

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Thursday, 10 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Malachi 3 : 13-20a

You say very harsh things about Me, says YHVH, and yet you say : “What harsh things did we say against You. You say : ‘It is useless to serve God. There is no benefit in observing His commandments or in leading an austere life for His sake. Happy are the shameless! Those who do evil succeed in everything; though they provoke God, they remain unharmed.”

Those were the very words of those who fear YHVH. YHVH listened and heard what they said. He ordered at once that the names of those who respect Him and reverence His Name be written in a record.

And He declared, “They will be Mine on the day I have already set. Then I shall care for them as a father cares for his obedient son. And you will see the different fates of the good and the bad, those who obey God and those who disobey Him.”

“The day already comes, flaming as a furnace. On that day all the proud and evildoers will be burned like straw in the fire. They will be left without branches or roots. On the other hand the sun of justice will shine upon you who respect My Name and bring health in its rays.”

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Tuesday, 8 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord is loving and merciful, and He desires nothing from us other than our love and total dedication to Him, and that is what He told Martha, on the love and dedication Mary her sister had for Him. And that is also what He truly desired from the people of Nineveh, that they abandoned their sinful ways and instead took the bold steps towards redemption and salvation.

For many of us, brethren in Christ, are like Martha, who are too busy for the Lord, busy with all the activities that we have, busy with all the things of the world, that we forget about the most important of all, that is loving Christ and giving of ourselves to Him, through our dedication and love. We revel much in the pleasures of the world and gave ourselves in, to the temptations of the devil.

We are so busy and so preoccupied in what we are doing, that we lost sight of the true goal that we have in life, and sadly, many of us are like Martha, whose intention is actually good, in wanting to serve and provide for the Lord, through her service, but became too preoccupied in the rigour of the work, that the work and business take precedence over loving our Lord and God.

We also tend to be like the people of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, who lived in sin and basked in their sinfulness. They enjoyed all the pleasures of the world and did things abominable in the eyes of the Lord our God. This is what brought the Lord’s wrath upon them, the divine vengeance which He announced to them through Jonah the prophet.

It is easy for us to lose track of the truth and lose sight of the truth, because we have failed to filter out the noise of the world, which threatens to block the Lord from our hearts. We live in this increasingly noisier world, where mankind listen less and less to the heeding of the Lord, and pay more attention to their ego, their desires, and their wants.

The Lord speaks to us, brothers and sisters, inside our hearts, conveying to us His message of love inside our hearts, for each and every one of us. He wants us to understand the importance of love, especially the love for Him, and the love for our fellow mankind. We are truly creatures of love, created by God Himself who is Love. And yet, because we are often entangled within the evils in this world, we tend to love less and hate more, and even if we love, we tend to only love and care for ourselves.

This is why, brethren, we ought to be like the people of Nineveh, because even though they are sinful and had committed things abominable in the sight of the Lord, they repented once they knew the anger of the Lord is upon them, and humbly placed themselves, kneeling and prostrating with shame in front of the throne of God, even their king, showing the genuine nature of their repentance.

This is what made the Lord to spare all of them instead of punishing them for their sins. This is because the Lord truly loves us and does not want to punish us, all because of His eternal love. He will certainly welcome us back with love, if we repent from our sins in full sincerity.

Then, we also ought to be like Mary, the sister of Martha, at an even higher level of dedication to the Lord. This is because even without the threat of punishment or annihilation, she gave her full attention, dedication, and love to Jesus our Lord and gave her full heart to Him. That is what the Lord truly wants from us, our love.

We must not lose sight of our true goal in life, brothers and sisters, that is to reach out for the Lord, and the salvation that He offers to all of us. And we can achieve this through love, through the manifestation of our love in our words, deeds, and actions, daily in our world. In that, we show the extent of love we have for the Lord, that we listen to Him and His will, and like Mary, give our full heart’s attention for Him.

May the Lord who is loving and forgiving continue to watch over us and give us His tender love, readily welcoming us, when we turn our back on sin, and reach out for His infinite mercy. God be with us all always. Amen.