priest homily

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Tuesday, 19 January 2016 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how God instructed Samuel to look for the one who would replace Saul as the king over Israel, which was none other than David, the faithful king of Israel, who would be placed by the Lord, he and his family forever, to rule over the multitudes of the people of God. God placed His favour on David, because of his faith and devotion to the Lord, and his heart’s intention of love for the Lord was pure.

The Lord had turned His grace and attention away from Saul, because the man whom God had chosen proved himself to be unfaithful and unwilling to devote himself to the Lord. He followed his own personal judgments and desires in acting in leading the people of God. As a result, he brought disobedience and rebellion as consequences to the people, and sin entered the heart of Saul and the people.

Saul was a great man in stature and appearance, as according to the Book of the prophet Samuel itself, Saul was described as being taller than most of his fellow countrymen, and he had that charisma about him, which would in the terms of the world, be seen as qualities and traits befitting a potential leader. And for the people who had been clamouring and arguing for God to give them a king, he seemed indeed to be the perfect man for the job.

But God made it clear in His conversation with Samuel, as He made a choice for His servant the new king of Israel from amongst the many sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that He sees not the appearances nor the outwardly exposition of one’s being, but rather, He sees deep inside the heart, the mind and the soul, searching for the love and devotion that one ought to have for Him.

And from among the sons of Jesse, David who was the youngest was chosen because of His piety and everlasting devotion to God, unwavering and strong even amidst dangers and challenges. Among the people indeed such a choice might not have made any sense, since David was a small person, still in his youth and seemingly inexperienced, but deep in his heart, he was truly a great man beyond many others.

God sees beyond appearances and sees the heart. And similarly, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their shortsightedness and inability to look beyond their rigid following and obedience of the Law of God. They were so focused on following the Law of God to the letter, that they became lost and disoriented, not knowing that obedience of the Law should be done with proper understanding.

They rebuked the Lord and His followers for doing things that were not supposed to be done during the Sabbath day, but if we look at the occurrences throughout the ages, in the Scriptures themselves, there were many occasions where the Law were adjusted in order to accommodate certain needs that could not be done otherwise, including what Jesus our Lord told the Pharisees themselves about king David and his followers who ate the bread of offerings at the house of God when they were really hungry and starving.

All these lead us to the reality that if we truly love God and want to follow Him, then it is not just enough to mouth His commandments or to obey His laws and commandments. We must also have that genuine and strong love for our God, and we must have that devotion in our hearts, that we genuinely believe in His precepts and follow Him in all of our ways with great zeal and sincerity.

Let us all therefore from now on commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and let us all seek to better ourselves in faith, and in all of our words, actions and dealings, let us all be ever more committed to Him, and through us, may the Lord’s good works for our salvation be made ever more evident and concrete for the good of all of us. Let us not be like king Saul who gave in to his desires and pride, but be more like David, who humbly submitted to the will of God. Amen.

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Monday, 18 January 2016 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the Lord Jesus Who spoke to His disciples about the new and old wineskins, and how only new skins should be used to contain new wines, or else, if old wine is put into new wineskins and vice versa, they would not be compatible and will ruin everything. Similarly, our Lord Jesus also spoke of how a piece of new cloth put to patch a hole in an old cloth will just cause the tear to become even bigger.

In the first reading today, we heard about the disobedience of king Saul, the first king chosen by God to lead His people Israel, who refused to obey fully the commands of the Lord, Who had commanded that he and the Israelites destroy the Amalekites completely, from their king, towards all the women and children, all their cattle and their goods, for they have been a great enemy and a great hindrance to the people of God for a long time.

Instead, king Saul chose only to destroy the men and all the armaments of war and the people of the Amalekites, sparing not just the cattle, the lambs and the possessions of the Amalekites, but even sparing the life of their king, Agag. Saul tried to argue his way out of trouble by saying that he had spared the cattle and the possessions of the Amalekites in order to give sacrifices to the Lord as a symbol of thanksgiving, but he failed to realise that, as Samuel and the Lord had made it clear, that sacrifices are no more important than obedience. In fact, sacrifice made without obedience and understanding is meaningless.

Jesus our Lord Himself had often repeated this point as well, saying that like the faith of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who often followed the code of the law so strictly and emphasised so much on the rituals and the properness of the actions that one should undertake in the Law, that they had often forgotten the true meaning and purpose of the Law itself.

Yes, that is just as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were so engrossed with the preserving of the Law of God, such as the law of the Sabbath prohibiting people from doing anything as prescribed by the law of Moses, but yet failed to take notice that indeed, the purpose of such law is to help mankind to love God more and devote their time to the Lord rather than being constantly engrossed in their own daily business.

They fasted and prayed loudly in public places not because they loved the Lord or had a real piety and devotion to Him. Some of them might have been truly faithful, but for most of them, they did all those things in order to be noticed by the people, and to be praised and honoured for their supposed great piety and devotion to the Lord. And this is what the Lord Jesus mentioned as the old way, that is incompatible to the new way He was revealing to the world.

It is a clear reminder to all of us, that if we are to become the disciples and followers of the Lord, then we all have to forsake and leave behind our earthly and worldly ways, or else, the incompatibility between the two will cause a rift and a trouble for us in the days to come, just as the Lord Jesus showed it with the incompatibility of old wineskins and new wine.

The way of the world is the way of pride and desire, the desire to be praised, to receive fame and to be showered with good things in life. The way of the world is to turn our back to the Lord and to His love, and the way that we have usually followed is the path of selfishness and self-indulgence, which we must avoid if we are to be true disciples of our Lord.

Let us all renew all of our faith to God with great passion and good understanding what the Lord expects from us. He does not expect from us sacrifices or offerings, but rather the true offering of our love, our devotion, our commitment to Him. This is what He desires from us, rather than the long prayers and all the rituals. But do take note, that it does not mean that we should not pray, but rather, when we pray, from now on, let us do it with zeal and fervour.

May Almighty God bless us all and strengthen us, so that we all may cast away our old shell of life, and discard all the wicked things of the past which we had, and take up the new mantle of life that is blessed and in the grace of God. May God be with us all, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 17 January 2016 : Second (2nd) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot and World Day of Migrants and Refugees (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the Lord and how His providence had given His people a new hope in Him, by His promise of glory and redemption that He would give them if they would repent and change their ways, following Him and obeying Him, and they would receive the fullness of His grace and blessings, which He had made real and concrete through Jesus.

Through Jesus, our glory in the Lord has been made clear and transparent, and all of us have a knowledge of what is to come for us if we keep our faith in Him and walk in His ways faithfully. The Lord Himself made it clear on many occasions, that His disciples and all those who believe in Him will receive the gift of the Lord and the Holy Spirit, receiving the power and the authority from the Lord Himself.

Jesus Himself said that His disciples would possess the gifts of wisdom and knowledge, the ability to preach the Word of God, and the ability to perform miracles and many good deeds. Then, some of us may wonder why all of us today who live in faith in Him, are seemingly unable to perform those miracles, the great feats as what the Apostles and the disciples have done in the Name of Jesus, such as healing the sick and casting out of evil spirits.

The reason for this, is what St. Paul elaborated in the second reading today, where he wrote to the faithful and the Church in the city of Corinth, of the nature of the gifts of the Lord through the Holy Spirit, and how different people receive different gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. It was mentioned by St. Paul how some people were given the gift of healing and miracles, while others were given the gift of speaking in tongues and wisdom, and yet more are given various other gifts such as caring, loving for the people of God, and the teaching of the faith.

In all these, we should really look into our own lives, and see how we fit in the whole grand scheme and structure that is our Church, the Church of the Lord our God. It is natural that many of us would want to be those who are gifted with the healing touch of the Apostles, healing people who are sick, casting out demons and evil spirits, as after all, those were what the Apostles did, were they not?

But the Church cannot exist solely and entirely of healers and miracle workers. Neither can the Church exist entirely of preachers and teachers of the faith. No, and this is should be in our realisation that the Church is composed of many different peoples, of different backgrounds and origins, of abilities and gifts, that came together as one people, and working together to bring greater glory to God.

We have to just ask ourselves, and compare it to the running of a country, or an institution. If an organisation consists entirely of managers and CEOs, then it will not be able to function at all, as everyone will want to manage and want others to do the work for them, and yet no one is available to do the work, and the managers themselves by their nature would be unwilling to dirty their hands doing the menial work necessary.

Similarly, a nation cannot be run if everyone wants to be the leader. There must be those who are gifted with leadership and charisma, and yet there must also be those who are gifted with good works and service, and there must be many departments of state in a country, handling different areas such as education, social services, economy, defence, and many others.

This is why in the Church we see people who have received the gifts of priesthood, heeding God’s call to service, dedicating their whole lives to the Lord, those whose duties are to preach the word of God, and in acting in the person of Christ, in persona Christi, representing Christ Himself, offer the same sacrifice of Calvary and transform the bread and wine into the Most Holy and Precious Body and Blood of our Lord Himself in the Eucharist.

And there are of course those among them who have been entrusted with leadership, the bishops who lead the people of God as shepherds, leading the priests in giving guidance to the people of God. They have their own responsibilities in making sure that the whole Church runs smoothly and they were tasked with keeping the faith in the Church, that the faithful will not lose sight of the path which they are to walk on.

And of course, many in the Church are the laity, those who continue to live their own lives in this world, doing about their daily business, and yet giving themselves also to the service of the Lord, believing in Him and walking in His ways. And many of us belong to the laity, who have their own specific roles to play in the works of the Church, in the works of the salvation of God’s people.

If the priests are the leaders and the brains of God’s Church, then the laity are the muscles, through which the Church can move and be run efficiently, if they are working together in harmony. It is therefore necessary for us all to know what roles we are able to play in the Church and how we can contribute to the good works of the Church in this world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all go forth and make use of the gifts which our Lord had given us, that in the gifts which we have received, we may make use of them to the fullest, and thus fulfilling what is required from us as a member of God’s Church. If we do not work together in harmony, then surely the Church itself in its activities will not be able to perform them properly.

And in all these, we have our Lord Who is backing all of us with all of His might and power. In the Gospel today, as we heard about the story of the well-known wedding at Cana in Galilee, we see how God allowed Himself to perform an act of mercy and love, helping the poor couple in distress when they ran out of wine, and similarly therefore, if we are in need and in trouble, we only need to look for the Lord and seek for His help, and surely He will, in His own way, deliver us from our troubles.

And it is important to note how Mary has an important role in all of these, as we see how Jesus was initially reluctant to help the couple, as it was then not yet the time which Jesus wanted to reveal Himself, but after His mother Mary persistently in a way, asking for His help, to the extent of telling the servants to follow whatever Jesus said, our Lord allowed Himself to perform the miracle through which He helped the couple to escape their great predicament.

Therefore, all of us in the Church should also be devoted to Mary, the mother of our Lord, for she is indeed the closest one to her Son Jesus in heaven, at His side in a place of honour, and indeed thus having the special privilege of directly interceding for our sake through prayers. Each of us indeed have our own unique roles to play in the Church, but we have to remember that in all things we have to base all of our works in Christ and through His mother Mary.

Thus, on this day, let us pray for our Church, that each and every one of us will be able to perform our own respective obligations and works as members of God’s Church, and like the wedding at Cana, may our works be beneficial and good for the sake of our brethren in need, particularly the destitute and those without love, the homeless and those who have been ostracised because of various reasons.

Let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and let us all through all of our actions, priests and laity alike, work together as one body, that through our works in harmony, we may bring greater glory to God, and bring the saving works of grace further and more to all the whole world, that the light of Christ may be seen and be followed by all the peoples. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 16 January 2016 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the Lord Who appointed a king to rule over His people Israel, as they have requested and begged for, in which Saul from the tribe of Benjamin was chosen as the first king to rule over God’s people, Israel. But becoming a king and ruler is indeed far from what many of us often like to think, as with power comes also great duty, obligation and responsibility.

As the king of Israel, not only that Saul was expected to be a person of great charisma and a person who was able to lead the people of God in their constant struggles against their enemies and neighbours, but he was also expected to ensure that all of the people of God will remain faithful to the covenant which their ancestors had made with the Lord.

And therefore, he himself should be exemplary in faith and be obedient to the Lord’s will and His laws, as the people would look up to their king and leader, and if the leader himself is erroneous in his beliefs and wayward in his ways, then it is inevitable that the others would also follow that person into the wrong paths. Indeed, king Saul himself would fall into this as he succumbed to his own desires and pride, causing him to disobey the Lord and brought the people of God into sinning against Him.

Even king David himself, the faithful and model king amongst all the kings of Israel and Judah, sinned against the Lord when he in his desire and lust made his own subordinate to be killed, as he plotted to have the wife of that subordinate as his own. In that regard, he had disobeyed the Lord, but he was forgiven because of his steadfast faith in other occasions as well as his sincere and genuine repentance, unlike Saul who refused to acknowledge that he had been in the wrong for his actions.

What is the significance of today’s readings to us all, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is that all of us who have been accepted into the Lord’s Church, and became one people in God, has also been given the responsibility, obligation and duty as a priestly people, a kingly people and a people who have been blessed with the authority and the ability to lead one another towards the Lord.

Yes, this means that each and every one of us are entrusted with the care of our own brethren, to ensure that all of us can be exemplary in our actions, words and deeds, so that by our faith and by our dedication to that faith, we may inspire others around us to also follow our faith and our path towards the Lord. It is instead a great scandal in the faith for us all to be wayward from our path, as if we ourselves are unfaithful, then we will likely also bring others on the same path with us towards damnation.

Let us remember that if we say and profess that we believe in the Lord our God, but in the reality of our actions, our doings and in all of our involvement, they speak otherwise, then what we are doing is really a travesty and a sacrilege to our faith in God. We do not bring others, our brethren, closer to the Lord if we ourselves do not practice what we believe in. If we want to bring them closer to God, then we ourselves should be clinging closer to God ourselves first.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us from now on redouble our efforts to strengthen our faith and be ever more devoted to the Lord in all things. Let us all show our faith through our concrete actions, and bring the Lord closer to all those around us through our own actions based on that faith we have in Him. May through us many more souls will be saved as they follow our footsteps and obey the Lord as well.

May God bless us all in all of our endeavours, and may He lead us through our life, so that we may be ever faithful and be ever obedient to His will, and may all of us together be united as one people blessed by God, and may all of us be brought into God’s salvation and eternal life in Him. Amen.

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Friday, 15 January 2016 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we see how the people of Israel were jealous of the fact that the other nations and peoples had their own kings and rulers to rule over them, while they themselves had no king to reign over them, but instead just a judge appointed to shepherd the people of God and the faithful.

The people were not satisfied with that arrangement, and they preferred to follow the ways of the world, not understanding that even though they had no king to rule over them, but they actually truly had a King, Who constantly cared for them and watched over them, that is the Lord their God, their King and Master. It was through the judges that He had made His will known to His people.

And in this manner, the kings of Israel were also like the judges, in that they represented the Lord in the completion and in fulfilling His will, as the regents and vicars for the Lord, not in advancing their own glory and power, but instead giving glory to God for all that He had done, and doing their best to fulfil whatever had been entrusted to them, in the guidance of the people of God towards the way of the Lord.

But, the kings of Israel often fell victim to their own human desires, greed and needs. They ended up serving their own needs first instead of serving the need of the people of God, and they, as what the prophet Samuel had warned in the first reading today, would oppress the people, demanding from them many things to satisfy their own desires and needs.

Yet, in the Gospel today, we see another King, One Who acts with justice and righteousness. Yes, He is Jesus our Lord and King, Whom we heard today, giving the paralytic man a new lease of life, by healing him from his afflictions. Despite the opposition from the chief priests, the Pharisees and the scribes, who endlessly criticised Him and tried at every opportunities to disturb His works, He continued to do the will of God.

This is to show that Jesus did not misuse His authority as many of the kings who ruled over Israel had done, as should be evident if we are to read the Book of Kings from the Old Testament. Those kings led the people to the wrong paths, serving idols and other gods, and they also acted with tyranny and injustice, just as the king Ahab showed, in how he unjustly gained the vineyard of Naboth, whom he falsely accused of blasphemy in order to get him out of the way.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, then, what is it there for us to learn from this then? It is that with power comes great responsibility, and with power comes also the risk of corruption and tyranny, that if we do not use power and authority given to us rightly, then we are all in danger of being taken in and being engrossed with whatever we have, the wealth, the power, the fame, the opportunities and many other things.

Let us all understand that all of us have been given the responsibility to live our lives and use whatever God has given us, our abilities and our strengths, to help one another and to lead one another ever closer to God. Let us help one another to find our way to the Lord, and put the needs of others ahead of our own selfishness, desires and all the things that prevent us from realising this potential inside each one of us.

May the Lord our God awaken in each one of us the spirit of love, to love one another, especially those who are less fortunate than us, and those who have wandered off into the darkness of the world. Let us all reach out to one another, and guide all of us together, as one people, that we may all in the end find our way to the salvation in our God. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 14 January 2016 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the words of the Sacred Scripture about the great sorrow of the people of Israel, when during their struggle against the Philistines, they were badly beaten, and most importantly, the Ark of the Covanent itself was taken away by the Philistines, and many of the Israelites lay defeated and killed on that day.

What they did not know is how far the have fallen deep into sin and disobedience against God. They have not been entirely faithful to the commandments and laws that they were all expected to obey and follow. And even their leaders, the sons of Eli, namely Hophni and Phinehas, who was corrupt and wicked in their ways, cheating the people of God of their money and offerings, taking the best for their own.

In the Gospel we witnessed how Jesus cleansed the leper from his predicament, removing from him the taint and the shame of leprosy that had once tainted and made him rejected and outcast among his own people. Jesus appreciated his faith and He was willing to extend His mercy and forgiveness to those who sincerely seek Him and wants to be healed and purified.

The parallel between the two readings can be seen in the low state of shame, despair and the destitute state when those who have disobeyed and refused to listen to the Lord suffered because of their actions and their inability to receive the grace and blessings from God. But God did not leave them all in darkness and uncertainty, as He provided them with the means with which they would be able to find a way out of that darkness.

Through all these, all of us should come to the realisation of the fact that, even though we may have been unworthy, sinful, wicked and filled with so much pride, hubris, darkness and with all of our negative emotions, but as long as we are willing to change ourselves and commit ourselves anew in our effort to love Him and devote ourselves to Him, then there is hope for all of us.

God loves us all, and He wants us all to be reunited with Him, and thus, even though we may have been separated from Him once, but He offered us a new opportunity, and in that opportunity, if we accept the offer which He had granted us with firm heart and resolution within, then surely we will find our way towards the promise of God’s eternal salvation and the life that He promised all of us.

What matters is that, we have to be able to overcome the barriers and the obstacles of fear that often blocked our path towards the Lord. This is because of the fact that we are all sinners that sometimes prevented us from actively and directly reaching out to the Lord, because of the uncertainties in our hearts, and our inability to understand and comprehend God’s great love and mercy.

But if we fear God’s anger and punishment and therefore we do not take the path towards the Lord’s mercy, then in many cases, most of us will just remain as where we are now, living constantly in sin and darkness. This is what we cannot do, and we have to stir ourselves awake so as to push ourselves into doing what is right and just in the sight and presence of the Lord.

Let us all now therefore, go forth and seek the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness for all of our trespasses, and so that we may reorientate ourselves and our lives to be in accordance to the will of God. Let us all from now on be more active and be more devoted to God our Lord and Father, that in all the things that we do and say, we will always bring glory to the Lord and remain in His love forever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 13 January 2016 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hilary, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the calling of the boy Samuel, who would become a great prophet and servant of God one day in his lifetime, who would be the one to anoint the first kings over Israel and also led the people of God during a time of turmoil and uncertainty, and also go against even the king Saul when he had erred in his judgment and no longer following the will of God.

Samuel was still very young when he was dedicated to the Lord at His House, when his mother Hannah whose prayer for a child had been answered by God, gave him to be the possession of the Lord forevermore. And then, as he grew up under the tutelage of Eli, the then judge over Israel, he grew in spirit and in faith to the Lord. And when the time was ripe, even though he was still also very young then, God began to speak to him, revealing the intention He had for him, and also for His people Israel.

In the Gospel today, we heard about Jesus our Lord Who healed the mother-in-law of His disciple Simon Peter, Who cast out from her the sickness and made her whole once again, and then we also heard how He healed many others who were sick and cared for those with afflictions, casting out evil spirits from them and brought them back from the depth of the darkness and into the light.

And Jesus also said to His disciples, how many of the people in other places also had need of Him, and He could not just stay in one place only serving the sick and the destitute of that area alone. He was sent into the world to bring about the salvation and the liberation of all of the peoples of God, and to that extent He would make Himself available to heal all those who seek for His help.

And in the same way Samuel had been called by the Lord even in his youth in order to serve a greater purpose. One might have thought that someone like Samuel would have become a servant in the household of Eli and as a servant in the House of the Lord, but God called him to be His mouthpiece and to be the one who would reveal His truth to the multitudes of the Israelites and to their neighbours alike.

Today we commemorate also the feast of St. Hilary, also known as St. Hilary of Poitiers, a holy saint renowned for his devout life and for his purity of life, and as a faithful servant of God, as the Bishop of Poitiers, he opposed the move and the attempt by the heretical Arians from their trying to subvert and lure away the people of God from the salvation in the Church.

St. Hilary of Poitiers tried his best to defend his flock from the depredations of the Arians, and despite their opposition, even which caused him to be exiled from Poitiers to the the other far ends of the Empire, he continued to labour hard for the sake of the Lord, and for his true faith in Him. He never gave up even despite all the oppositions and the challenges he had faced.

And when he managed to return to his own diocese after a few years, he continued the good works which he had started and continued on to sow the seeds of good faith amongst the people of God, and this resulted in many who were prevented from falling into heresy, and many others repented and returned to the true faith in the Lord.

In all these, we see the courage and the faith exhibited by St. Hilary of Poitiers, the kind of faith that all of us should have as well. We must have the same kind of zeal and faith, in following God and heeding to His call as the prophet Samuel had also once done. Only when we actively live out our faith and dedicate ourselves fully to the Lord, then we shall be blessed and made the sharers in our God’s inheritance.

Let us all from now on be more committed in our faith and dedicate our lives to serve the Lord in all things, so that through all that we have done, we may glorify God and bring much grace and blessings to all of us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 12 January 2016 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the continuation of the story of the birth of Samuel the prophet, who was born of Elkanah, his father, and of Hannah, his mother who was once barren and unable to bear a child at all. And the other wife of Elkanah liked to jeer at Hannah and gloat over her because she was able to provide Elkanah with children, unlike Hannah.

And when Hannah prayed fervently before the Lord, beseeching Him for His mercy and help, the Lord heard her prayers and fulfilled her wish to have a son, whom she then dedicated to the Lord to be His servant, namely Samuel. And God blessed her richly from then on, as she had dedicated the very son who had come to her, and thus she was given many more children.

It was this that is in our psalm of today, which was taken from the song which Hannah in great joy and thanksgiving praised the Lord for all that He had done for her. She thanked God for having lifted from her the shame and embarrassment that came with the fact of her being unable to have a child, which was truly something shameful in the society at that time.

In the Gospel, we heard how the Lord Jesus cast out demons and evil spirits from a possessed man. At that time, people who were possessed with evil spirits, or had leprosy and other aberrations were seen as unclean and wicked, and they were excluded from the society, forced to live outside the bounds of the villages and the cities. People were afraid to look at them, turned their faces away from them, and they were thought as cursed by God.

Jesus showed that He had the authority over all things, be it human beings or spiritual beings, and even the devil and his angels also have to bend their knees before Him. And by casting out the evil spirits from the possessed man, He had healed him from his afflictions, removing from him the stigma and the obstacle which prevented him from being truly united to the rest of his society.

In all these, we see our God Who is loving and merciful, filled with love for us, He Who wants us all to be healed of our afflictions and suffering because of our sins. Yes, sin is the disease and affliction of the soul, which prevents us from being united with the Lord our God, the snare of the devil which pulls us down into the damnation and suffering in hell.

And God wants to show us all that He has the power and the authority to liberate us from all those pains and sufferings, and He brought with Him the hope and the light for us all, so that all those who gaze upon Him will see a new hope and way out of their suffering in sin. But all these do not just need the mercy and the love of God, but also our commitment and desire to be saved.

Yes, just imagine that if God had given us so much attention and love, and yet we refuse to follow Him and reject the forgiveness and mercy which He has given us, then surely we will have no part in the salvation that He had promised us. We have been given the free will to choose, and thus it is within our choice too for us to choose between obeying the Lord and following His ways, and disobeying Him while following our own whim and desires.

Let us all today therefore reflect on our own lives, on our own actions and choices we have made in life. God has given us His rich mercy and love, and the countless opportunities for us to be redeemed and be forgiven, and now it is up to us, if we are to welcome all these with open hands and hearts, or whether we are to turn our backs against the Lord and remain with all the pleasures and the good things that this world offer us. May God strengthen our faith and resolve, and may He guide us to the right paths. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 11 January 2016 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we begin our season in the Ordinary Time, after we left the season of Christmas that officially ended yesterday with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Today’s Scripture readings made it very clear to us that God called us mankind to be His followers and to walk along His path.

In the first reading, we heard about the prophet Samuel, who was born to a couple who were once unable to have a child, as the mother of Samuel, Hannah, was barren. She prayed to the Lord and promised that if her prayers for a child were fulfilled, then she would offer her firstborn to be a servant of the Lord in all things. And thus, Samuel was born and given to the Lord to be His servant.

God listened to her prayers and fulfilled her wish, as truly nothing is impossible for God. As long as whatever we wish is within His will to grant us, then He shall grant us what we need in accordance with His will. God loves us all and He wants us all to be reunited with Him in perfect love, and that was why, just as the parents of Samuel who loved God and offered their first son to Him, God also gave us His own Son as the proof of His eternal and infinite love.

Yes, He gave us Jesus His Son, to redeem us, and through Him, all of us have been called just as Samuel was called by the Lord, to be His followers, abandoning our old ways and our sinful past, and from then on, to be faithful and devoted in all the things that we say and do. He is calling us to be light to the nations, and to be His disciples and the extension of His hands, to spread to more people His love and help.

Therefore, just as we heard how Jesus called His disciples from among the simple fishermen at the shores of the lake of Galilee, and even tax collectors and zealots, who were counted among the numbers of His Twelve Apostles, thus, this is an example for us all too, that all of us should also follow their footsteps in following the Lord, and be transformed in our own lives, so that we no longer exist as creatures of this world, but as the people of God’s everlasting Kingdom.

Today we are all called to be like the disciples of our Lord, who left behind all of their tools of trade and even families behind in order to follow the Lord our God. Well, this does not mean that we have to literally do the same thing as well, abandoning our families and our lives. Rather, it means that all of us, who have often been in our comfort zone for very long time, should be aroused to move out and get on the path towards the Lord and His salvation.

And how do we do this then, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is by removing all of our doubts and fears, or laziness and unwillingness to do what is expected from us as the followers and disciples of our Lord. Let us rather be courageous and be forthcoming in all of our words, actions and deeds, showing to all those who see us that we all belong to the Lord and we are always faithful in Him no matter what happens.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all renew our commitment and our faith to God, by refusing to be pulled down by ourselves and our attachment to our comfort zone. But rather, at the beginning of this new year, let us all strengthen our resolve ever more to be ever more faithful disciples and followers of our God, to love one another, our brethren ever more, and bring more lost souls to the salvation in God. God bless our endeavours and be with us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 10 January 2016 : Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ, the time which is usually associated with the ending of the Christmas season, or Christmastide, although in some traditional celebrations, the season of Christmas does not end until the second day of February, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord or the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, following a forty day period for Christmas.

On this day, we commemorate that moment, when Christ began His earthly ministry, to begin the works which He had been born into this world for, that is to herald and bring about salvation to all mankind, and to liberate them from their sins and from the chains of wickedness, evil, sin and death. It was at that moment of His baptism that He officially began His earthly ministry, and this is truly important to all of us as well in its meaning.

This is also the model of our Church’s sacrament of holy baptism, the first of the seven sacraments and the first one that a believer, either as a baby or as a catechumen deciding to follow the Lord, must receive, before he or she would be able to receive the other sacraments, such as the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Most Holy Eucharist, Penance or that of the Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders.

It was through baptism that a faithful is welcomed into the Church of God, and through baptism, the faithful was sealed with the seal of the Living God, and became one with all the other members of the Church, adopted as God’s children and become partakers of God’s plan of salvation and in His everlasting kingdom of joy and happiness. Without baptism, the state of our souls will continue to be in limbo and darkness.

Just as Christ was immersed in the waters of the Jordan, we too have been immersed in the water during our baptism. Water itself has many symbolic meanings, the most common of which is its purifying capacity, where water cleanses things that are dirty and corrupted, and washes away all dirt and unpleasant things. It is also a symbol of life, since water is crucial for life, and absolutely no life could have existed in the absence of water.

And thus, as we were immersed in the water during our reception of the Sacrament of Baptism, we were also purified from the taints of our past sins, the wickedness and corruptions of sin that had been with us, and by the holy water blessed and made pure by the hands of the priests, the Lord Jesus had made us all whole again in body and in spirit, just as He had once healed the lepers, the sick and the dying.

And water can also bring death, as we have seen how water can be so destructive in occurrences such as tsunamis, floods and various other forces of water that brought death and misery, just as it can also bring life, and indeed is essential for life. Thus, the waters of baptism symbolised that death which all of us ought to share in the Lord, that through this sharing with His death, we may also have a share in His glorious resurrection.

Yes, the waters of baptism is a symbol of the death and the end of our old life on earth, in our commitment to abandon and reject sin and Satan in all of its forms, and by dying to this old life, as St. Paul had mentioned, we left behind all of the attachments, the bonds and the chains that kept us in our old ways and which had prevented us from attaining God’s salvation and grace.

The baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ at the Jordan is a symbol for us all to remember, for even though He Himself was different, as He was without any taint of sin, and yet He chose to lower Himself and be immersed in the Jordan, and baptised by His servant John the Baptist, but through that action, we should now be able to understand clearly what our Lord had intended for us to do with our own lives.

Before the Lord Jesus was baptised, since the day when He was born in Bethlehem in Judea, in a stable, His parents had cared for Him very well, both His mother Mary, as well as His foster father St. Joseph. And He was brought up in Nazareth, the village where His family lived in, and where He Himself grew up as all men did, and He grew both in knowledge, wisdom and strength, and in the favour in the sight of God.

And as His father St. Joseph was a hardworking carpenter, and considering the fact that sons normally followed in the footsteps of their fathers, it was likely that Jesus was perhaps once a carpenter too, or at least that He knew how to handle things as His foster father had done. And so, He likely dealt with things and matters of the world such as crafting furnitures and other wooden objects.

Yet, when He was baptised by John at the Jordan, that was the moment when all was revealed regarding Jesus, His true nature and His mission on earth. And afterward, He began His ministry, tending to the sick, both in body and in spirit, and He blessed many people, fed them, and gave them the Good News of God through His own words.

And in the end, He carried up the cross that was burdened with all of our sins and iniquities, and He bore all these up with Him as He ascended the hill of Calvary, stretched up between the heavens and the earth, and He gave up His own life, as a perfect and fitting sacrifice to serve as the absolution and the forgiveness for all the multitudes of our sins and their effects.

In all these, we have to realise that the story of our Lord Jesus from His baptism to His death on the cross is actually the example of our own Christian life, of how we are all expected to live out our lives in faith. We who have received the gift of baptism should therefore go forth and do as the Lord Himself had done, loving one another, forgiving those who have done bad things to us, praying even for our enemies and for those who persecute us, as well as other things that He had commanded us all to do.

This is what we need to do, and this is what we should indeed do as those who call themselves as Christians, as those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and wholeheartedly follow His laws and commandments, so that in everything that we say and do, we will always be faithful, and bring glory to our Lord and God. May God bless us all and keep us in His grace, now and forever. Amen.