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Sunday, 5 July 2015 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, we heard about how Jesus went back to His hometown of Nazareth, and the people doubted Him and rejected Him, because they thought they knew who He was and where He came from, His background and family, that they refused to listen to Him. This defiance was indeed what the Lord had told His prophet Ezekiel in the first reading we has today.

The Lord sent many prophets and messengers to let the people know His will through many ages, when the people of God had walked astray from His path, and followed the ways of the world into their doom. God wanted to save them all and turn them all back to the faith, to salvation and liberation from all of the punishment that are due for their sins, but yet, in many cases, the people refused to believe.

Why is this so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because we mankind have been afflicted with what is called pride, and with what is called greed, desire, stubbornness, and many others. Because of all these, which we are all vulnerable from, we ended up acting like the people of Nazareth, who in their pride and refusal to acknowledge their sins, they have refused God’s salvation which He had freely offered through Jesus.

Many of us are by our nature selfish, and we like to think about ourselves first before that of others, and we like to judge others based on the standards that we set ourselves, including the standards of this world. It is in our nature to be judgmental and to criticise, and yet, while we are so concerned about others’ faults and shortcomings, we fail to see our own shortcomings and weaknesses.

Jesus rebuked all those who have acted as though they were so righteous and just, but in truth, they had no love in them. He rebuked all those who have been judging others for their little faults and yet failed to see the big flaws present in each one of them. This is the faith of the hypocrites, and the action of hypocrites do not gain much favour in the sight of God.

We ought to reflect on this, brothers and sisters, on the fact that we have also often walked in the same path as them. Look at the people of Nazareth, and why did Jesus say about them such things, such that the prophets are welcome except in their own home countries and towns? This is because of the same reason. We like to make assumptions and judgments to please our own purposes, and we are quick to get jealous when someone else have something that we do not have.

The people of Nazareth thought that it was preposterous to think of someone who apparently lived with them and walked among them for many years, the son of a mere humble carpenter could have been a great prophet and someone with such powers to heal and restore many peoples with illnesses and diseases. What do you think was it that happened inside of their hearts and minds?

Precisely, it was the devil who was at work, planting the seeds of distrust, jealousy and desire inside of them. He fanned the flames of jealousy in them, making them think that it was unfair for this mere carpenter’s Son to assume such power, and deep in their hearts, it was likely that they secretly desired the same power and authority as the one had by Jesus.

If we succumb to these wicked thoughts and behaviours, then this is where the root cause of all the sufferings and pains of this world came from. We live in a world where violence and struggle between members of families, friends, relations and peoples can happen because one covets what others possessed but not him or her. We should learn from the history of our race, to know from many occasions how mankind were willing to cause hurt to others just to satisfy their carnal desires, to possess more of this world’s goodness.

And it is our bad tendency and nature that we like to judge based on appearances. We always focus on how we appear before others, and we deem people worthy and suitable, even unto placing values on them based on how their appearances are. Unfortunately, this is reality and indeed, we often fail to realise what someone’s true worth is, as we focus on appearances but not what is inside the heart.

Does God look at appearances? No, such thing is superficial. What God sees is what lies inside each of our hearts and minds. And under His gaze, nothing even hidden deep inside men’s hearts and minds can escape His sight. What God values most is what is the contents of our hearts, whether they are filled with love, tenderness, care and concern for one another, and with love for Him, or whether they are filled with greed, desire, pride, arrogance and selfishness.

God created each one of us with our own strengths and weaknesses. No one is made perfect. Therefore, it is important for us to realise how we need to open up our eyes, and not just the physical eyes that we have to perceive the world and others as they appear around us, but even more importantly, we need to open up the eyes of our hearts, which allow us to see one another in a new light.

I assure you that if we do so, then we will be able to perceive the world around us in a different, and in a much better way. And we will then be able to see our true goal in life, that is to seek the Lord with all of our might and strength, and therefore carry out all of His will, which is for us to love each other, especially those who are least among us, the poor, the lonely, the downtrodden, the oppressed and many others who are not as fortunate as us.

Do we ignore the plight of these people when we look at them? Do we just focus on the appearances and externals, and fail to open our eyes, the eyes of our heart to see and understand the truth of what we can do to help them? Let us all reflect on what Jesus had told His disciples about what will happen at the last judgment of the living and the dead.

Jesus told them that those who have loved those who are least among them, helped them and gave them love, will be worthy of the kingdom of God, while those who have ignored those who need our love, will be rejected and cast out of God’s presence forever. Thus all of us ought to be aware that if we do not realise what we ought to do to vindicate our faith and devotion to God, then what awaits us will certainly be something that we do not desire.

Therefore, let us from now on learn how to live faithfully this life which we have received from God, and learn to open the eyes of our heart, to see the plight and suffering of others around us, that we may realise how earthly goods and possessions are not everything for us, and there is indeed a greater goal in our lives, namely to seek God our Lord, with all of our strength and might.

And let us all grow stronger in our humility before the Lord knowing that we are sinners who ought to be forgiven despite the sins and faults which we have committed, and for that forgiveness to take place, we ourselves too must die to ourselves, to our pride and desire, to all of our earthly desires and wants. Let us all remind one another to live righteously and justly in the presence of God, and making ourselves available to help others who are in need of help. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 5 July 2015 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 6 : 1-6

At that time, leaving that place, Jesus returned to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and most of those who heard Him were astonished.

But they said, “How did this come to Him? What kind of wisdom has been given to Him, that He also performs such miracles? Who is He but the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and the Brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here among us?” So they took offense at Him.

And Jesus said to them, “Prophets are despised only in their own country, among their relatives, and in their own family.” And He could work no miracles there, but only healed a few sick people, by laying His hands on them. Jesus Himself was astounded at their unbelief. Jesus then went around the villages, teaching.

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Sunday, 5 July 2015 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

2 Corinthians 12 : 7-10

However, I better give up lest somebody think more of me than what is seen in me or heard from me. Lest I become proud after so many and extraordinary revelations, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a true messenger of Satan, to slap me in the face. Three times I prayed to the Lord that it leave me, but He answered, “My grace is enough for you; My great strength is revealed in weakness.”

Gladly, then, will I boast of my weakness that the strength of Christ may be mine. So I rejoice when I suffer infirmities, humiliations, want, persecutions : all for Christ! For when I am weak, then I am strong.

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Sunday, 5 July 2015 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 122 : 1-2a, 2bcd, 3-4

To You I lift up my eyes, to You whose throne is in heaven. As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master.

As the eyes of maids look to the hand of their mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till He shows us His mercy.

Have mercy on us, o Lord, have mercy on us, for we have our fill of contempt. Too long have our souls been filled with the scorn of the arrogant, with the ridicule of the insolent.

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Sunday, 5 July 2015 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ezekiel 2 : 2-5

A Spirit came upon me as He spoke and kept me standing and then I heard Him speak, “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have sinned against Me to this day.”

“Now I am sending you to these defiant and stubborn people to tell them, ‘this is the Lord YHVH’s word.’ So, whether they listen or not this set of rebels will know there is a prophet among them.”

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Saturday, 13 June 2015 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate both the occasion of the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of our Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, the well known preacher and saint whose devotion is widespread even until now amongst the faithful.

On this day, we commemorate the loving and sacred heart of Mary, the mother of our Lord, which is celebrated very closely to that of her Son’s Heart, for the two indeed were very, very close. Not only that she was His mother, but she had also gone through a lot of things with Him together, and she also lived with Him and followed Him during much of His earthly ministry.

It began since just a few days after Jesus was born, and Mary brought Him to present Him at the Temple. The prophet Simeon and the prophetess Anna met them, and there the prophecy regarding Mary was mentioned, that a sword would pierce her heart. This is a foreshadowing of the fact that when Jesu went through His Passion on the way to Calvary, Mary was there, and she was there too on the feet of His cross, watching how her Son is dying for the sake of the world.

No mother should ever see her own child dying before her. But Mary endured all that patiently and quietly. She was truly sorrowful and anguished, but she kept everything in her heart. The same she had done when she was told of the prophecy earlier, she kept everything in her heart. She also kept everything in her heart when we heard in the Gospel today, that Jesus was left behind in the Temple of Jerusalem, He mentioned that He must be in the house of His Father.

Have we taken note, brothers and sisters in Christ? Mary and her heart is so immaculate and pure, that she does not complain or make any issue, when she encountered all these things, from the time when she received the Good News from the Archangel Gabriel, to the prophecy of her sorrow, to the time when Jesus was left at the Temple, to the time when she followed her Son in His ministry, and eventually until when she met Him on that day when He took up the cross, and followed Him to the feet of His cross.

We can imagine how strong and wonderful her heart is, for her to take everything up and endured them in her heart. She suffered in silence, in her sorrow, and she looked up to see the face of her beloved Son. And in the same way therefore she is now looking at us, for many of us are in the danger of falling into eternal damnation in hell for our sins and lack of repentance.

Jesus gave Mary to be our mother too, just as she is His mother. From the cross, Jesus entrusted Mary to John, and He also entrusted John to His mother Mary. In this manner, by the representation of John, God entrusted all of us mankind to the loving care of His mother Mary. Thus, the same pain and sorrow which she had experienced for her Son, she also experienced for us.

If we are wondering why so many of the Marian apparitions and visions occur in the world, if we understand what I had just mentioned, all of it will make perfect sense. Mary through various means continues to watch over us and she is always thinking about us. As she is the closest one to the throne of her Son in heaven, indeed we have no better person, be it men or angels, to ask for help, so that we may be freed from the depredations of evil and sin.

Today we also celebrate the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, a renowned preacher who lived during the High Middle Ages in what is now Italy. St. Anthony of Padua worked hard in his devotion to the Lord, to bring the truth of God to the people, casting out heresies and redeeming people who had lived in the darkness. He was also renowned for his great homilies that he was famously known for having a ‘golden tongue’.

Through his works many people found their way back to God, and many of them found the truth through him. St. Anthony never ceased working for the good of many in the Church, just as what our Blessed mother Mary had done for us, by reminding us again and again, to repent from our sinful ways and hearken ourselves to the words of truth found only in God. Let us be inspired by the examples of the works of St. Anthony of Padua.

Threfore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all today pray and ask for the intercession of Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and the mother of all of us. Let us plead to her most immaculate and loving heart, which is filled with the love of a mother for her children. May our mother pray for us always before her Son, our most loving and merciful God, so that our sins may be forgiven, and may all of us be awakened to our sins, realising how great is the love that both He and His mother have for us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 13 June 2015 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 2 : 41-51

Every year, the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, as was customary. And when Jesus was twelve years old, He went up with them, according to the custom of this feast. After the festival was over, they returned, but the Boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and His parents did not know it.

They thought He was in the company, and after walking the whole day they looked for Him among their relatives and friends. As they did not find Him, they went back to Jerusalem searching for Him, and on the third day they found Him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. And all the people were amazed at His understanding and His answers.

His parents were very surprised when they saw Him, and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Your father and I were very worried while searching for You.” Then He said to them, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” But they did not understand this answer.

Jesus went down with them, returning to Nazareth, and He continued to be subject to them. As for His mother, she kept all these things in her heart.

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Saturday, 13 June 2015 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Samuel 2 : 1, 4-5, 6-7, 8abcd

My heart exults in YHVH, I feel strong in my God. I rejoice and laugh at my enemies for You came with power to save me.

The bow of the mighty is broken but the weak are girded with strength. The well-fed must labour for bread but the hungry need work no more. The childless wife has borne seven children, but the proud mother is left alone.

YHVH is Lord of life and death, He brings down to the grave and raises up. YHVH makes poor and makes rich, He brings low and He exalts.

He lifts up the lowly from the dust, and raises the poor from the ash heap; they will be called to the company of princes, and inherit a seat of honour.

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Saturday, 13 June 2015 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Isaiah 61 : 9-11

Their descendants shall be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a race YHVH has blessed.

I rejoice greatly in YHVH, my soul exults for joy in my God, for He has clothed me in the garments of His salvation, He has covered me with the robe of His righteousness, like a bridegroom wearing a garland, like a bride adorned with jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its growth, and as a garden makes seeds spring up, so will the Lord YHVH make justice and praise spring up in the sight of all nations.

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Tuesday, 26 May 2015 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Philip Neri, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today a very clear message is given to us through the Scriptures, that following the Lord and doing His commandments are the best ways to give ourselves and dedicate ourselves to Him, more so than the animal sacrifices of the people of Israel in the past, or compared to series of litanies and prayers that were not done with the full sincerity of the heart.

What God desires from us is the offering of ourselves, of our whole being, that we can be thoroughly devoted in our daily actions to the Lord our God. He does not lead loud prayers, but yet without real action and dedication to the Lord. What He wants is that we should seek to start from even small things in trying to obey the Lord and His commandments. Let us remember always the promise of our Lord Jesus, that all those who have entrusted themselves to Him will not be disappointed.

God is always with all those who have given Him their love and dedication, just as He is forever faithful. This means that if we have left behind all the worldly things and follow the Lord then the Lord will also bless them richly and His grace will be forever with us. To God, those of us who have given up certain things in order to follow Him, have given Him their love and what He asked of them. Therefore, these He will bless with His everlasting graces.

This is a reminder to us all that we should seek the everlasting treasure of heaven rather than the temporary treasures of this world, no matter how enticing and wonderful they are. These include wealth, fame, human praise and affection, and many others that often distract us and wanting us to get more and more of them. This is greed, and it has the tendency of wanting us to get more and even more, and as a result, we become too preoccupied with seeking the treasures of this world, and we forget about the true treasure in heaven.

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Philip Neri, a great priest and preacher who lived in what is now part of Italy. St. Philip Neri was a very important figure in the revival of the faith in many parts of Italy, especially in Rome, where he earned his appellation as the Apostle of Rome. He helped many people to overcome their bonds to the corruptions of the world, and he helped reformed the Church and the faith by purging it out of all the heresies and the sins of worldliness which had entered their souls.

St. Philip Neri devoted all of his life to God, and he committed much of his time, helping his brethren who are in need of help, both physically and spiritually. He did not let the temptations of the world to overcome him and get the better of him, but instead, he committed himself ever more strongly to the Lord and gave his all to worship and serve the Lord in all things. That was why by his many works, so many wondrous things had happened, and countless souls had been saved, and many others were also inspired by his examples.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all walk in the footsteps of St. Philip Neri, and also all the saints, by abandoning our attraction towards the tempting things in this world, and by offering all of our beings as worthy offerings to God, that is by loving Him and dedicating ourselves to Him through the acts of love, in accordance with what He had taught us.

May our Almighty God be with us always, guide us and protect us in our ways, so that in all the things we do. May He bless us with all of His goodness, for we have remained faithful and true to Him, despite the challenges and the temptations of the world, so may we all never be lost or separated again from Him. Amen.