priest homily

by

Saturday, 3 September 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the key message and the gist of today’s Scripture readings is really very simple, and yet it is at the same time, something very important for us all to take note of, as disciples and followers of our Lord. And that is the value and virtue of humility, and of rejecting pride and hubris, understanding that we mankind are not greater than God and His authority.

In order to understand fully the meaning and nuances behind what transpired between the Lord Jesus and the Pharisees in today’s Gospel, we have to appreciate and be able to understand the history of how it came to be as what it was like at the time of Jesus. By that time, the Jewish people, the descendants of Israel had had the Law revealed to them for over a thousand years, with many generations of peoples passing down the Law of God from mouth to mouth.

God made it clear in the beginning that He created mankind because of His love for all that He had created, and the greatest of which He reserved for us, the most perfect and beloved of all His creations, created in His very own Image. And because of that love, He has endeavoured to forgive them and rescue them from their own downfall, that is sin. Sin has entered into the hearts of men because of disobedience, and the reward for sin is death.

But God did not want such a fate for those whom He had intended to give His love to, and for the ones whom He had cared for, certainly He did not desire for them to perish, but to live and to rejoice together with Him. That was why He sent His messengers and servants among His people, to call them to repentance and to turn themselves to the loving and caring hands of the Lord, that He might take them up and bless them once more.

To that extent also, therefore, God sent Moses to rescue His people from their suffering and tribulation in the land of Egypt. They went out with the guidance from God’s own mighty Hand, and He showed His might before them. And in order to seal the promise He had made with them, He sealed it with the Covenant which He established through the Law that He passed down to Moses His servant, that His people would observe them forever.

These laws and commandments are love, brothers and sisters in Christ. If we read through the Ten Commandments, love the Lord your God and have no idols or false gods before Him, honouring His holy Name and the day of the Lord, all these speak of how we ought to have that love and dedication for God, just in the same manner as God has loved us first.

And the other commandments, exhorting us not to kill, not to steal, honouring one’s mother and father, all are speaking about how we ought then to show the same love we have shown to the Lord, in how we also love our brethren, our neighbours around us. This is what the Lord wanted from us all mankind, His beloved people, that we have love in us, His love, that we may love Him just as much as we have been loved by Him.

Yet, unfortunately, due to the obstinance and the rebelliousness of the people, they disagreed and doubted many times about the Lord, so much so that in order to keep them in check and to help ensure that they are able to restrain their negative desires and traits, God helped them by giving them rules and regulations to help them to manage themselves, that after having disciplined themselves, then they would be better able to find themselves on the right track towards the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, over time, the people of God forgot the intention of God why He established those rules and regulations in the first place. And as the Law was often transmitted from mouth to ear, and then from one to another again, over time, there were many misunderstandings and things that they had added into the laws, which then the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law zealously defended and imposed on the people.

These people saw themselves as superior to others, and they revelled in their pride knowing about their esteemed position and supposed greater piety and honour in the society, something which St. Paul clearly warned against in today’s First Reading, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Corinth. He warned them about human pride and hubris, greed and desire for power which could easily takeover us mankind, and make us not faithful servants of the Lord, but instead as wayward people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians we should learn to be more like king David, whom Jesus mentioned in His words in the Gospel today. When his men were hungry, the king David cared for them and found food for them in the Temple of God, that they might be sustained and not suffer from hunger. That is the kind of love which our Lord also expects from each and every one of us, that we do not overlook the sufferings of others, or worse, by imposing our views and opinions on others.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were fixated on the wrong things. They were so blinded by their blind obedience to the laws of Moses, which was serious misunderstanding of the true intention of the Law of God, that is love. Instead of bringing mankind to love God more, they were making those people to fear Him, as the excessive obligations and rules ended up burdening the people, especially all those seeking to repent and to turn over a new leaf.

Rather, we should learn to be true disciples of our Lord, by not just having empty faith, but also through active participation and commitment of our loving works and deeds, that we show love in all that we do, in all that we say, and after all these, in not claiming the credit for ourselves, or be proud of our achievements and deeds, for all these we have done, all for the sake of the greater glory of our God.

Today we also commemorate the feast of the great and renowned Pope, Pope St. Gregory the Great, who was well known for his great devotion to God, in his efforts to live a truly Christian life. Even though he had been elected to such an important role and position in the Christian world, but he remained humble and was very dedicated to the mission which he had been entrusted with by the Lord.

Pope St. Gregory the Great helped to reform the Church and the lives of the faithful, bringing greater discipline to the Church and to help the people of God to learn how to live as a faithful disciple and follower of the Lord. He helped the poor and the weak in his areas of jurisdiction, improving the livelihood of those who once lived in squalor and filth, showing genuine Christian love to everyone who saw him.

And he also sent many missions to convert many Pagans and all those who still lived in the ignorance of the salvation of God, that through these courageous missionaries, the word of God, that is the love I have mentioned earlier, the desire of the Lord to have all of His beloved children to return to Him, may reach all the ends of the earth, and as many souls as possible could be saved.

In his short earthly life, we can already see how he embodied what we Christians have to do, and how we ought to do it. Can we all devote ourselves to God and to our fellow brethren in the same way that Pope St. Gregory the Great and many of the other holy saints had done, brethren? Are we able to commit ourselves to the Lord fully and wholly without being distracted by the temptations of worldliness, power and all others?

Let us all pray now, brethren, that we may be given the gift to discern carefully how we are to do our actions in life, that wherever we are, we will always be ready to show love where it is needed, to care for the life and wellbeing of others when they were under threat, and to stand up for our needy and poor fellow men who were unjustly oppressed. May God help us in these endeavours, and may He keep us all always in His everlasting grace. Amen.

by

Friday, 2 September 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green


Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings are reminder for us to live in accordance with the ways of our Lord Jesus Christ, as how He had taught us, and not in accordance with the ways of the world. And that was presented clearly through the parable which many of us are probably familiar with, that is the parable of the wineskins and the coat.

The context of the event that happened on that day was such that the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist existed alongside the disciples of Jesus. The Pharisees together with the teachers of the Law deemed as the elites of the society, who were supposed to be guardians and masters of the Law of God, while the disciples of John were those who listened to St. John the Baptist and followed him much like how the people followed Jesus.

But they followed the old path, that is the Old Testament and Covenant between God and mankind. They walked through the Covenant which had been made null not by the action of its Maker, the Lord our God, but rather through the disobedience which their ancestors, the ones with whom God had made His covenant with. Those people have sinned and disobeyed the commands of the Lord and profaned His holy covenant.

Yet, God still wished to remake that Covenant which had been broken, and reestablish it so that through the new Covenant He was bringing to them, His rebellious people may have a chance at redemption if they repent from their sins. And to that extent, He brought about a new Covenant which He made not through the sacrifice of the imperfect and worldly animals and blood, but instead through the perfect offering and sacrifice of the Blood of the Lamb, God made that new Covenant with us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that new Covenant was more complete and perfect than the first covenant. This new Covenant revealed to the people what He expected from each and every one of them, that is to show genuine faith and love for Him, and not just to show it through sacrifices and offerings as what the people in the past had done.

Especially for the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, they were so fixated on their rites and traditions, in how they have preserved the observances and the Jewish customs, that they have neglected what they ought to do, that is loving and showing devotion to God. They were too focused on things that are superficial, and in the end, they end up misleading the people of God into the wrong paths.

The New Covenant of God showed forth new norms and ways that ought to be obeyed. And we are all people of the new Covenant. We no longer live under the bonds of the old one, and we are promised the glorious and joyful outcome of the new Covenant so long as we are able to fulfil our commitment to God, showing forth our devotion and love for our God.

And if we are all people of the new Covenant, then can our actions be representative of those who truly belong to it? If we do things that are not in accordance to the Lord and His ways, then we may bring about scandal upon ourselves, and not just to ourselves but also to the Church and to the people of God. Let us all reflect on this, so that in all the things we do, we may always proclaim the greater glory of God.

May the Lord bless us and keep us, and may He protect us all, and guide us, so that we may learn how we ought to seek Him, and approach Him, that through our many works, through our actions, we may find our salvation through being steadfast to the new Covenant God has established with us His people. May God bless us and keep our paths to Him straight and secure. God be with all of us. Amen.

by

Thursday, 1 September 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green


Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the theme of today’s Scripture readings tie in very nicely with the special event we are currently celebrating on this same day, that is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, during which we offer our solemn prayers together as the whole Church, that we as the stewards whom God had entrusted with the care of this world, may exercise our responsibilities and duties with genuine commitment and effort for the maintenance and the care for this world.

And we have to remember, lest we be distracted by what this world thinks about the environment, we as Christians have duties to take care of the living and the non-living world, caring for all the wonderful animals and plants, all the creatures that God had created to be in this world with us. We are the stewards of all the things God had created, and as such, we have that very great responsibility to care for what God had made with His hands.

But that does not mean that we focus our attention so much on those things living around us, the animals, plants and the environment, that we forget our most important mission and responsibility, that is to care for one another, for our fellow men alike. After all, God had appointed us to lead and guide one another on our way to reach out to Him, that we may receive the salvation and life promised to us by our loving God.

The Gospel today spoke of the moment when Jesus was calling His first disciples, the ones whom He had chosen to be His Apostles. And He called them from various places, and not the least of which was from the shores of lake Galilee, from simple fishermen paddling their daily lives and livelihoods catching fishes from the lake to be sold at the market.

These fishermen were simple men, uneducated and without great intelligence, power or influence. They were mere ordinary people of their time, without special talents and skills, without experience in governance and privilege, without much wealth and possessions, and yet, God chose them to be His principal agents and workers to spread His salvation and light to the nations.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what Jesus spoke today is what He expected from us to do, as His disciples and all those who follow Him. We are made to be the fishers of men, as what Jesus called those simple fishermen for, that they would no longer catch the fishes of the lake and the sea, but instead, spread their nets and catch for the Lord, the whole race of mankind, people of various kinds and from various origins, that they may be found by the Lord their God.

And that is the task entrusted to the Church by our God, and therefore becomes our mission and duty as well. And therefore, we are not just the stewards of creation, but also caretaker for one another as well, especially with regards to guarding our brethren against falling into corruption and sin, and liberating them from the darkness and bringing them into the light.

We have to be responsible with our words, actions and deeds, that they will not be misunderstood or even worse, mislead our brethren into the darkness instead of the light. We have to be responsible in our actions towards one another, towards other living creatures of God, that we show care, concern and the effort to preserve and make beautiful what God had created in His wonders.

Let us all therefore today renew our commitment to God, and seek to do our best in order to commit ourselves to the Lord and His ways. Let us learn to be more like Him in all of our ways and in all that we do, so that in everything that we do, we will proclaim Him to the whole world, for all others to see, that they too may believe and thus by believing, we all together will be brought to the eternal inheritance and life God promised us. God bless us all. Amen.

by

Wednesday, 31 August 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard in the first reading, the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Corinth, how they were divided against each other there, with factions arising among the members of the Church, some professing to believe in what St. Paul taught them, and some others professing to believe in what another famous preacher, St. Apollos, preached to them.

These factionalism hurt the Church and the faithful as a whole, because the bitterness and ill-feeling that arose between them caused difficulties not just in the works of evangelisation, but also in the efforts to keep the faithful united against matters which they should be standing up against instead of falling against each other’s throats just because they disagreed on certain matters.

That was likely because they were really not feuding about the Lord, but instead, they feud because of their own human needs, of their own human rivalries and emotions, desires and greed. Ultimately, as St. Paul mentioned in his Epistle, all of them were serving the same Lord their God, and regardless of the methods each of them employed, each and every one of them were serving the greater glory of God.

In the Gospel today, Jesus worked hard among the people, healing them from sickness and casting out demons from them, and even the evil spirits themselves recognised Jesus as Who He is, that is the Messiah and the Son of God. They feared Him for rightly, even though they have rebelled against Him together with Satan, their master, but they, together with Satan, are still bound to Him nonetheless.

Yet, it was often that the people themselves, even those among whom Jesus had performed His miracles, that refused to believe in Jesus, in His teachings and His words. They rejected Him, cast Him aside and even handed Him to His tortures and enemies, calling for Him to be crucified. And all these, which we have also heard in yesterday’s Scripture passages, reflect the nature of mankind.

Yes, we are often too busy with ourselves, settling our businesses and activities that we tend to forget entirely about God, about our faith and about why we live this life in this world. And that is where we begin to lose our focus and our way, and we end up like those who bicker among themselves even for simple matters, rather than serving the Lord and His Church.

Let us all ask ourselves, and let us all reflect on ourselves, our actions, as well as look through the Church and all of its long history. Then we should realise how often indeed it was that many bitterness and divisions were caused by similar selfish desires of men, which contradicted what the Lord had commanded them to do. They were unable to hold their ego and desire in check, and as a result, division that harm the Church and the salvation of souls were created.

Shall we then prevent the same thing from happening again? Let us not be so taken in by our differences and by our worldly concerns and desires so as to divide us and the Church into many factions that hamper and hinder the works of God among His people. Rather, let us all help one another, working together as one people, realising that the mission which He had granted us is greater than each and every one of us, as we are all called together as His Church that through us the grace and work of salvation may be made a reality.

May God help us in our works and endeavours. May He bless us and our efforts to guide lost souls to Him, that all may find their way to the eternal life and salvation God has promised to all those who keep their faith in Him. May God be with us all and be with His Church, now and forevermore. Amen.

by

Tuesday, 30 August 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green


Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard from the Scriptures about the Lord Who cast out demons from a man while He was teaching them, and what was remarkable is how those evil spirits inside the man who was possessed knew Who Jesus really was, and proclaimed Him before many who heard him, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

Indeed it may seem funny that evil spirits would proclaim such a thing before many, but truly, that was because they knew Who He was, and they could see Him in the fullness of His glory as God, the Divine Word Incarnate. And by understanding who these evil spirits are, we can understand better the meaning of today’s Scripture readings.

Those evil spirits were also once the devoted servants of God, the Angels and the spirits of the world, which were around all over creation since God created the world and created them. But they fell into the darkness when they followed that proud and rebellious Archangel, Lucifer the Accursed who refused to bow down out of his pride, and therefore were cast down together out of Heaven.

But even though they were in rebellion against God, and plotted many bad and evil things for God’s creations, especially on us mankind, but they are still after all God’s creation too. And therefore, as those whom God had created and given the knowledge of His Spirit, they were bound to God just as much as we are bound to Him. They were still subjects of the Lord, and they are still the same as well even to this day and beyond.

And all the more they were afraid of the Lord, because they already knew beforehand what their fate was! And when Jesus came into this world to heal the sick and the corrupted ones among His people, He also brought these wicked spirits a reminder of what their fate would be when they were to face judgment and condemnation at the end of time. Their fates have already been sealed.

But the irony is how the people themselves did not recognise Jesus as He was, and they doubted Him, refused to believe in Him, and they even rejected Him and handed Him over to the Romans to be crucified. Such is the ignorance which we the people of God have often showed the Lord, even though He had shown us so much care and love. That is because they were blind to His truth, and they had not God’s Spirit in them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is when then that the Lord reveals to us the truth about Himself and His salvation, by offering to us His Spirit, which descended upon all of us, that we may understand Him better and appreciate His love for us more. And it is also through His Spirit and His Word that we have now known the fate that awaits all those who refused His love and rejected His mercy, that is the same fate awaiting Satan and his fellow rebel angels.

Now that we know Who He is, and what He has offered us, if we keep our faith in Him, let us all reveal Him to the world through our works and actions, by bringing the Word of God closer to our brethren especially those who still live in the ignorance and the darkness of this world. It is our work at evangelisation that will bring each of us, brethren in the Lord, closer to Him.

May God bless us and keep us in His love, and may His grace be ever enough for us. Let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and let us draw ourselves closer to God and His salvation, knowing that if we remain faithful to Him and walk in His ways, we will reach our true goal in life, that is to be blessed forevermore and to receive from our loving Father, the inheritance He has promised us. And while Lucifer and his angels suffer for eternity, let us all not share his fate, but instead the fate intended for us all, the beloved children of our loving God. Amen.

by

Monday, 29 August 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of the Passion of St. John the Baptist, remembering that time when the faithful servant and messenger of God, met his end at the persecution of king Herod and his unlawful wife, Herodias. It was because of his persistent opposition and defiance against the king doing such a wicked act, that he was put to death defending his faith.

But in death, he has shown us the example of what a servant of God should be like. That is a servant of God should not be easily ready to compromise their faith and the mission which God had entrusted them with, in order to accommodate the desires of peoples and even those who are in power. We should be ready to stand up to defend the teachings of our Faith and the ways of our God when it comes to the time when it is necessary for us to do so.

At the same time, we should know that God is always there watching over us, and He will not abandon us to the darkness, and He shall not let us down, just as He has always be there for His faithful servants. God called those whom He had chosen to be His messengers and bearers of the word of truth which He has brought into the world.

The problem that exists with many Christians today, even many among us is that we tend to be silent whenever there are trespasses and sins that our peers committed among us. Many of us are afraid to step in and make comments or trying to remind them of their sins because we are too afraid to damage or ruin our relationships with them. But do we actually realise that if we do nothing, it is actually just the same as us pushing them deep into sin and damnation?

The examples of St. John the Baptist and the last episode of his earthly life, being imprisoned by Herod and Herodias, and how he met his death is a reminder to all of us, that we mankind are feeble creatures easily affected and lured into sin, as shown by Herod and his actions in the Gospel today. As a king, he has access to every worldly needs he wanted, and the beautiful daughter of Herodias mesmerised him so much so as for him to pledge with many vows everything she wanted.

That is the danger which all of us should be wary of, that as Christians we have to learn to resist the impulses of our desires, or else they may cause us to lose control over ourselves, and even lead us into sin and damnation. Herod’s great sin was that he was not only unable to resist the temptation to get Herodias as his wife, even though she was lawfully married to his deceased brother and with a daughter. And he gave in to the temptations of the pleasures of the eyes and the flesh, and resulting in him indirectly causing the death of a great saint of God.

We as Christians should learn to resist these temptations, and thus, at the same time, also help one another to do the same. And at times this will require us to be courageous and be daring, to take the initiative to point out the errors in the way of those whom we see having sinned and committed errors in front of God and His people alike. We do not need to fear about anything, since God Himself is with us in this matter.

And in the end, are we not concerned that any of our brethren are slipping away from God and His grace, and into the slippery slope of sin and temptations, that they are in danger of falling into eternal damnation and suffering? Let us all as Christians be true Christians, true friends and brethren to each other, helping all to find their way to God, and not be afraid to stand up for the truth.

May God help us in all of our endeavours, that we all, inspired by the holy Passion of the Herald of the Messiah, St. John the Baptist, will do all that we can in order to help our brethren in need of salvation and grace of God. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

by

Sunday, 28 August 2016 : 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are called to remember what God had said to us through His words in the Sacred Scriptures, beginning from our first reading which was taken from the Book of the prophet Sirach. What the prophet Sirach mentioned was the very important concept of our life which all of us should take on deep into ourselves and embrace with vigour and zeal.

The greater the power you have, the humbler you should become. And through humility and our faith, we shall be blessed and be glorified by God. For the Lord treasures not the power and might of the world, and neither did He value the wealth and the riches of this earth which we have obtained for ourselves. For all these things cannot last, and even fire, water and moth will be able to destroy them in a mere short moment.

And that is where this day’s wonderful Scripture passages are directing us to, that is to understand that while it is easy for us to succumb to our pride and our desire to have power, influence and authority, fame, glory and renown in this world, it is much more difficult to let all these go and resist the temptations of the flesh and of the pleasures and wonders of this world.

As Jesus mentioned in His parable today about the wedding guests in wedding parties and the position of honour, we have to reflect on our own lives and experiences. It is natural for us all to desire fame, position, honour, glory and all the other things which we mankind have craved and wanted, as ever since desire and greed entered into our hearts, we have been enslaved to those desires and greed.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, ever since Adam and Eve our ancestors desired knowledge of good and evil, eating the fruits from the forbidden tree of knowledge, we have fallen into this trap set upon us by Satan, who was loathe to see us brought into joy and happiness with God while he himself, out of his pride, was cast out of heaven and cursed to remain forever in the darkness and despair of hell.

We always tend to seek for better places for ourselves, for better positions, for better incentives and to gather more of the things that bring pleasure to us. And it does not help that this world is doing exactly what encourages us to live through this hedonistic and materialistic lifestyle. From ages to ages, we have seen rich people, kings, nobles, lords and other people with privilege who desired for more of what they had, and this had led them into oppressing the poor and the weak, or to confront each other, desiring one another’s possessions.

Wars and conflicts had arisen because of people’s greed and insatiable desires. That is the reality of how things often work in this world. And mankind often would not have enough even if they had achieved or attained what they wanted. Sooner or later, they would crave for more and desire for more, unless they make the conscious effort in order to rein those desires and practice to resist the lures of worldly pleasures.

Perhaps, the great saint whose feast we celebrate today can help us to shed some light on what we can do, and indeed what we need to do, based on his own life experiences, in order for us to be able to find our way to reach out to the salvation in our God. He is St. Augustine of Hippo, also known as St. Augustine the Great, one of the Four Original Doctors of the Church, and an important pillar of Christendom.

St. Augustine however was not always as great or holy as he is now known to be. Many of his great works and writings reflect the greatness of his mind and intellect, as well as his great faith and devotion to the Lord. Yet, in his youth, which many were not aware of, he was a great sinner who lived in wickedness and debauchery, far from the reach of the Lord’s salvation and grace.

He was born into a rich and influential family, and his father was an important official and administrator in the government of the Roman Empire at that time, and he was also a pagan like his father was, though his mother, St. Monica, whose feast we have just celebrated yesterday, was a devout Christian. St. Augustine received the best of educations and privileges, enriched with learnings from the philosophers and intellectuals of the Greek and the Roman world.

And it was then that St. Augustine fell into a life of hedonism, materialism and desire. He fell into the lure of the Manichaean heretical teachings after having been influenced by his friends and peers, a wicked and confused teaching that was a mix and match of elements from different ways of thought and cultures that intermingled at the time.

For a while, the hedonistic and materialistic practices of Manichaeanism and his peers influences on him satisfied his needs, desires and wants. Being a philosopher that he was, he also craved for more knowledge and for more satisfaction in this world, and yet even after many years, he still felt that something in him was lacking and incomplete, and he went on to search for that longing to complete himself, and that was where and when he found the Lord.

His mother, St. Monica, had always hoped and tried fervently in order to bring him back to the Lord, to receive Him as his Lord and Saviour, and to turn away from all of his sinful ways. Despite him having disappointed her many times, as St. Augustine in his youth led a very debauched way of life, moving from one relationship to another, and even having a child out of marriage, she did not give up.

Eventually, St. Monica’s persistence and prayers, as well as St. Augustine’s own growing dissatisfaction with the Manichaean beliefs, his then lifestyle and work as a teacher of philosophy and rhetorics, and finally his meeting and interaction with another great saint and Doctor of the Church, St. Ambrose of Milan brought him to convert to the Faith.

It was in God that St. Augustine found his true fulfilment and satisfaction, all of which the world could not give. For God gives His people and His faithful ones the richness of His love, one that cannot be destroyed by fire, or by water or by any other earthly forces. And unlike banks and institutions we often place our money and possessions in, entrusting to these our living and our goods, which when they collapse and perish, our goods also perish with them, God is the only One Who is truly trustworthy.

From this lesson we learn of St. Augustine of Hippo, his life and experience, there are a few things that we can benefit and learn from even as we live our lives now in this world. First of all, while God is loving and forgiving, it is really up to us to make the difference in our lives. God calls all sinners and wicked people to return to Him, and yet, if we are the ones who refuse His offer of mercy, then there will be no way open for us to reach the salvation of God.

Secondly, it was told that in one occasion, God appeared to St. Augustine in a vision as he walked along a coastline as a young boy, who used a seashell to pour the seawater into a small hole he made on the beach. St. Augustine was then very fascinated at the Bible, as he was very much into reading the Scriptures after he converted to the Faith. He wanted to understand and comprehend the nature of God and His mysteries, and God appeared to him in that vision to clarify things with him.

St. Augustine asked the boy about why he was doing such a meaningless task, as such a feat of emptying the sea into that small hole was indeed an impossible thing to do. Then the small boy, God, told St. Augustine that what he was doing in trying to understand and comprehend the mysteries of God was equally meaningless and useless, as God was too great and far beyond our understanding to be understood by our simple minds.

This is a reminder for us that, no matter how great we are in this world, we are still nothing compared to God, and truly, we are nothing without God. We may boast all we like about what we have, about our power, wealth, fame, glory, family and many other things we are used to boasting for, but in the end, none of these will matter in the end.

This is precisely what the Lord told us about in His parable, that the first would be last, and the last would be first. That means, those who pride themselves in their worldly greatness, boasting their wealth, fame and glory would be last and considered last when the Lord comes to judge all the people. Why is this so? That is because, when we boast of ourselves, we close our hearts to others, including God. Rather, as St. Paul made it clear in his Epistle to the Corinthians, let all those who boast, boast of the Lord.

When we are so focused on ourselves, that is when we tend to ignore others who need our presence and our help. We become ignorant of those in need and therefore not only that we do not do as what our Lord wanted from us, but we also end up even causing pain and suffering, either intentionally or unintentionally and thus leading us into sin.

But third and last of all, the example of St. Augustine of Hippo also showed us that sin does not have the last say over us. Even he was a great sinner in his youth, and later on changed his life so profoundly and completely that probably no one would have recognised him in his later life, a great sinner turned to be a great saint. God did not hate us the sinners, but He does hate our sins.

Therefore, brethren, what are we waiting for? Are we waiting until it is too late for us to change our ways and be redeemed? Are we still too engrossed with ourselves, our deeds and our achievements in this world? Let us all take this opportunity to reflect and to think deeply about our actions and their impacts on ourselves and others around us. Have we been truly faithful to God? Have our actions been done in accordance with what God wanted from us?

May we be able to find our way to the Lord by deepening our relationship with Him, and may God also be our guide in this journey, that walking in the footsteps of St. Augustine of Hippo, we too may be turned from being creatures of sin and darkness, into the worthy and loving children of God. God bless us all. Amen.

by

Saturday, 27 August 2016 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Monica (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of a great and remarkable saint, a loving and devoted mother, one of the cherished daughter of our Lord, who had given herself to serve the Lord, especially by her tireless and never-ending perseverance in trying to make her son, another very famous and important saint, to return to the faith in God and be saved from eternal damnation.

And as I will elaborate more on the matter later on, let us see how this great woman had fulfilled and done what the Scriptures today have heeded us to do, that we do the same things and commit ourselves in the same way that she has done it. It is important then that we take note of what the Lord spoke of through His Apostle St. Paul in our first reading today about whom God had chosen to be His word-bearers and tools among the nations, and what He Himself spoke about in the Gospel regarding the parable of the silver talents and the good and the lazy servants.

In the first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and to the faithful ones in Corinth, St. Paul spoke passionately about being chosen by God, and whom God had chosen to be His people, and more importantly to be those who would become His bearers of the truth that He brought into the world, that through them and their works, they might bring eternal life and salvation to all those who believe in them.

In this matter, we should see how God had not chosen by using worldly standards of power, influence, fame and wealth. God did not choose us because we are great in the eyes of this world, unlike how people in this world usually gets chosen for something important. While the world praised and glorified wealth, praising those who have been successful in getting more money and accomplishments for themselves, but God chose differently.

God chose not the powerful of the world but instead what is powerful according to His standards, that is the strength of our devotion and commitment, the strength of our faith and the love that is within each and every one of us. For God, there is no greater value in us than the love which we show back to Him, He Who has loved us all and cared for us. God values not all the riches and the wealth that this world can assemble, for these are temporary and transient in nature.

And yet, it does not mean that we should just accept God’s calling and then be passive in all things. It also does not mean that we should then lay back and do nothing since after all God does not value the wealth, riches, fame and all the other worldly things, is He not? As we then need to look deeper just beyond what St. Paul had said and link it to what we also heard in the Gospel today, where our Lord Jesus spoke about the parable of the silver talents and the servants.

In that parable, God spoke about a master who entrusted his silver talents to several servants, each of which did differently with the silver talents entrusted to them. But the gist of the matter is that while the good and devoted servants invested those silver talents which they have received, and received back not just the silver talents they invested but also even more silver talents as profit, the lazy and wicked servant just hid the silver talent, never investing them, and in the end gained nothing.

This is a comparison which we can make with our own lives in this world. We are all the servants to our Master and Lord, and we have been entrusted with different kinds of gifts that God had blessed us with, our talents and abilities, as well as the seeds of faith, hope and love that He has planted in each and every one of us. And yet, how they would come to be depends indeed entirely on us and our ability to grow them and prepare them through our work and effort.

To be a Christian means that we must be active, and indeed be actively involved in the actions that God has called us into, that is to serve and to love one another with sincerity and generosity from deep within our hearts, probably just as how much as St. Monica, the holy woman and a devoted mother had done in her own life. She devoted her life for the sake of her son, St. Augustine of Hippo, who would go on to become a great saint in his own right.

We mostly would know St. Augustine of Hippo as a very great saint who is now known as one of the four original Doctors of the Church, and who with St. Jerome is among the two pillars that helped to establish the Church in the West, that is Rome and thus what our Church today is about, and what we believe in. His writings are still widely read today and continued to inspire many, but these all would not have been possible if not for the tireless efforts of St. Monica, his mother.

St. Monica was a Christian who married a pagan husband, who was an important administrator in the public service. Their son, St. Augustine was given the best of education possible and available to him, and yet, he drifted slowly into the wickedness and the debauchery of the world, seeking pleasures and hedonistic pursuits in life, following the examples of his peers and friends.

Certainly, no mother would ever want her child to fall into the abyss, and no mother would ever want to lose her child to the darkness of sin. And as a Christian herself, we can simply imagine what kind of pain and sorrow existed in the heart and mind of St. Monica, who was faced with that great agony of seeing how both her husband, a pagan, and her son in particular, were slipping into the embrace of the devil and eternal damnation.

Then we have to note what St. Monica did ceaselessly without fear and without stop, that she prayed and hoped without end, knowing that God would answer her prayers, and rescue the soul of her beloved ones from the chasm of death. And God did answer her prayers and her charitable efforts, and touched by her loving care, first it was her husband who turned to the Lord, and then St. Augustine himself, as he felt that longing for something that he could not find in the debauchery of the world, that is God alone.

The perseverance and the love that St. Monica had shown us is truly exemplary, and she had shown us the love of a good and devoted Christian mother, as how a Christian is supposed to be like. Let us all learn from what she had done, and how she had devoted her life to God, to her husband, and more famously from these, is how she had loved her son and had not given him up to the darkness.

Therefore, shall we also do the same to our brethren around us? Shall we not show love, care and compassion for our brothers and sisters who are now struggling in the darkness? Let us endeavour to break free from our comfort zones and seek out to be the light and the bearers of God’s salvation to these brethren of ours.

May God help us in our work and efforts to bring each other closer to His presence, that all of us may be saved and may receive the glory of eternal life, just as what St. Monica had done, never ceasing to believe that her son, St. Augustine, could be saved from eternal death in sin. God bless us all. Amen.

by

Friday, 26 August 2016 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded again firstly by St. Paul who wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, that the message of Christ, the Good News, is not a message of comfort and joy as what many would immediately associate it with. Rather, the message and truth of Christ, while these offer comfort and happiness to all those who have believed, but to those who refuse to listen to Him, these made no sense at all.

This is to highlight the differences between putting our trust on the wisdom of God or to put our trust instead in our own human power and wisdom. St. Paul made the distinctions clear, by comparing the attitudes of those who believe in God, with the attitudes of the Jews and the Greeks, among those who refused to believe, namely the Pharisees, the elders and the teachers of the Law, and the philosophers among the Greeks.

These people were highly educated and intelligent people. And they also occupied very important positions in the society, highly respected and regarded by others around them. However, because of these, they became proud of themselves and became haughty, refusing to listen to the Lord and to the truth that He brought with Him into the world.

God showed this in the Gospel in the parable of the five wise and five foolish women, which story must be very familiar to us. The five women who were wise did not represent the wisdom of the world, as possessed by the Pharisees, the elders, the teachers of the Law and the Greek philosophers, who instead were represented by the five foolish women.

Why is this so, brethren? That is because just as the five foolish women just brought barely enough oil for their lamps to last a while, thus in the similar way those supposedly wise people in the world depended on their own intellect and human wisdom which were imperfect and limited in order to perceive and understand this world. But when they tried to use the same to explain the Lord, they were not able to understand His actions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, do we also put too much of trust in our own powers and abilities? Have we become proud just because we are capable of great feats and deeds in this world? Well, we ought to be happy for the good things that we have accomplished, and yet, we should not be swallowed and be taken over by the pride and greed that are found within us.

Sin is born when we close our hearts and minds to God, because we think that we do not need Him, or that because we think that we can do everything without Him. That is the foolishness of our human wisdom and pride. And because of that Lucifer had fallen from his grace and became the wicked being he is now, the devil, rejected and cursed for all eternity.

Do we also want to share his fate? Certainly we should avoid such a fate. Rather than putting our trust in our own feeble and untrustworthy human abilities, we should trust in them knowing that God alone is the One Who gives us the grace to be successful in this life, for He is indeed the very One Who gave us those wonderful deeds and abilities.

Let us all therefore renew our devotion to the Lord, and learn to give of ourselves entirely to Him. Let us fear no longer, or be doubtful, for God our Lord and Father will protect us and give us the wonders of His love, that we may not be orphans anymore, but instead be filled with eternal grace and happiness. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

by

Thursday, 25 August 2016 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Louis and St. Joseph Calasanz, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the message from the Sacred Scriptures, speaking to us about the Lord Who reminded His disciples with the parable on a wise and hardworking servant as opposed to a lazy and wicked servant, and related to them what happened to them at the end, when the master discovered what each of them had done.

The good and wise servant did all that the master had asked him to do, obeyed fully the commands given to him, and when the master came back to see his works, he was pleased and rewarded the good servant richly and entrusted him with even more, with all that he had, because that good servant had proven himself to be worthy of trust.

Meanwhile, the lazy and wicked servant has not done what the master had asked him to do, but instead neglecting his duties, he did things for his own personal gain, or simply left everything undone out of laziness. As a result, the master took from him everything he had entrusted him with and more, since he had shown that he did not deserve what he had received.

This parable is a representation of our own lives in this world, brothers and sisters in Christ, showing to us the parallel between the work we have done in this life and the actions of those servants. The master represents the Lord our God Himself, while the servants are the representations of all of us, with all our imperfections, some faithful while some others are wayward.

Now let us all ask ourselves, that whether we want to be counted and considered among the good servants or among the wicked servants instead. Have we done what the Lord had asked of us all, His beloved people, His servants? Have we obeyed His laws and commandments, asking us to show love, care and concern for one another, for the least of our brethren?

Let us ask ourselves that question and look deep within ourselves, and see if we can discover within us that spirit and that desire to do what God had asked us to do. It may seem to be simple to show care and love for others, but in reality, it is not an easy one, considering how much pain, sorrow, anguish and darkness that existed in this world. Yet, if it does not begin from us, then it will never begin at all.

Today, let us all look at the examples of the two saints whose feast we celebrate today. St. Louis, the King of France was a holy and devout man born to be a king, and yet, in his high position and power, he remained a humble and loving person, who sincerely loved his people, all those whom God had entrusted under his care. He ruled with care and with wisdom, trying his best to help all those who are weak and downtrodden, and took his responsibilities and duties seriously.

St. Louis always led by example in his various actions, becoming source of great inspiration of many who came to love their ruler, their king, and from there, came to appreciate the love of God made evident through His faithful servant. This is exactly what the good servant in the parable mentioned by Jesus had done, by being obedient to the wishes of the king, he had brought much good things on himself and others.

Similarly, St. Joseph Calasanz was also a committed worker and servant of the Lord, who dedicated his life to God and His people by helping the poor and the uneducated in the society, providing them with education, teaching, help and support that they need in order to live a better life. He was known well for his works in Rome during a time when there was a great flood that affected many thousands.

He did not hesitate to give his time and efforts to help those who were less fortunate around him, and was particularly committed to help the uneducated and the poor to gain access to education, that they might be able to escape the marginalisation and the perpetual cycle of poverty that had characterised the poor at the time.

The works of St. Joseph Calasanz in establishing schools for the poor and for the less fortunate still have great impact today, when many others followed in his footsteps to help the same poor people, giving them the love they need, and the education that will help them to overcome the challenge of the societal marginalisation and poverty. Truly, these were the works of a faithful and good servant of God.

In the examples that these two holy saints, we can see indeed that they have been good servants, and God will reward them with what they deserve, that is the glory of everlasting life and the heavenly inheritance that He had promised all those who kept their faith in Him. Shall we also follow their examples? This is what we need to do in order to attain the fullness of the promise of God.

The path forward will not be easy if we decide to follow the Lord. Indeed, there will be many obstacles and challenges, temptations and difficulties, but if we persevere on, the reward for us in the end will be great, and we shall reign forever in glory with God and all of His saints. Let us all ask St. Louis and St. Joseph Calasanz to pray and intercede for our sake, that God will help to bring us ever closer to Him. May God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.