priesthood

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Wednesday, 7 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Saints Xystus II, Pope and Companions, Martyrs; and St. Cajetan, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Saints Xystus II and Companions); White (St. Cajetan)

Matthew 15 : 21-28

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Now a Canaanite woman came from those borders and began to cry out, “Lord, Son of David, have pity on me! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” But Jesus did not answer her, not even a word. So His disciples approached Him and said, “Send her away! See how she is shouting after us.”

Then Jesus said to her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the nation of Israel.” But the woman was already kneeling before Jesus and said, “Sir, help me!” Jesus answered, “It is not right to take the bread from the children and throw it to the puppy dogs.”

The woman replied, “That is true, Sir, but even the puppy dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said, “Woman, how great is your faith! Let it be as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

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Wednesday, 7 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Saints Xystus II, Pope and Companions, Martyrs; and St. Cajetan, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Saints Xystus II and Companions); White (St. Cajetan)

Psalm 105 : 6-7a, 13-14, 21-22, 23

We have sinned like our ancestors; we have done wrong and acted wickedly. When they were in Egypt, our ancestors had no regard for Your wondrous deeds.

But soon they forgot His works and did not wait for His counsel. They gave way to wanton craving and tempted God in the desert.

They forgot their Saviour God, who had done great things in Egypt, wonderful works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Sea of Reeds.

So He spoke of destroying them, but Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach before Him to shield them from destruction.

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Wednesday, 7 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Saints Xystus II, Pope and Companions, Martyrs; and St. Cajetan, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Saints Xystus II and Companions); White (St. Cajetan)

Numbers 13 : 1-2, 25 – Numbers 14 : 1, 26-29

YHVH then spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to explore the land of Canaan that I am giving to the Israelites; send one man from each of the ancestral tribes, all of them leaders.”

After forty days of exploration, they returned. Then all the community broke out in loud cries and wept during the night. Then YHVH spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, “How long will this wicked community grumble against Me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel against Me.

Say to them : As truly as I live, it is YHVH who speaks, I will do to you what you have said in My hearing. All of you of twenty years or more, numbered in the census, who grumbled against Me, your corpses will fall in the desert.”

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Friday, 2 August 2013 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop; and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord our God is great, and He is mighty. He is the ruler over all creation and has authority and power over all. From generations to generations He had shown His greatness to the people of Israel and all the other children of God. He had saved Noah from the flood by His enduring love, and brought Abraham, our father in faith into the Promised Land that He promised to his descendants.

He made his descendants into great nations, and to Jacob and his sons, he made them into His chosen people of Israel. He blessed them and protected them, and He made Joseph prosperous in Egypt when his brothers thought evil things for him. He blessed His people, made them prosper and multiply in foreign lands. When they were enslaved and persecuted, He rescued them and punished their enemies, bringing them out of the land of Egypt to the Promised Land.

It is His wonders, His infinite love, and His faithfulness that the people of Israel celebrate in the feast days appointed by the Lord and told to them through Moses, in the first reading today. The people celebrated His blessing in the Promised Land and all its wealth, by thanking Him and offering the first fruits of their labour in that blessed land, as a sign of their love and dedication to Him, their Lord and God. They also commemorate the Passover, their greatest feast, because on that day in Egypt long ago, the Lord had shown His might and saved for eternity, the people of Israel from the slavery under the Egyptians and the Pharaohs.

The Day of Atonement is also a special occasion for the Jewish people, because indeed, as much as the blessings that the Lord had given to the people, their ancestors had also rebelled and sinned against the Lord, by their disbelief and lack of faith, and by their doubt in the power and authority of the Lord, much like the people of Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus, which we heard today in our Gospel Reading. The Day of Atonement reminds them that they are sinful and they are nothing in the eyes of God because of their sins, and yet, in His infinite mercy and love, He embraced them and made them whole again, forgiving them from their sins.

It is not only the people of Israel who has feast days and days of celebrations in their annual calendar, my brothers and sisters, because we, the people of God, the chosen people of God, who believe in Christ, also have our feast days, not unlike that of the people of Israel of old. We commemorate Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Messiah, who had come into the world, the Word of God made flesh, for the salvation of all mankind.

We celebrate His birth on Christmas, the day when the Lord stooped down from His divine throne in heaven, and came down to be one of us, one like us, save for sin, so that we may have a new hope for salvation and deliverance from evil and death. We celebrate His ministries in this world in our daily and weekly Sunday Masses, when we listened to the readings of the Gospels, highlighting His good works and mission in this world, the teachings He had given to His apostles and from them, to us.

We celebrate daily and weekly, His most Glorious death on the cross, the ultimate sacrifice of the divine, the death of our own Lord and God, on the cross, for our sake, that we who believe in Him will not taste death but life. We celebrate this every time we have the Mass, when the ultimate sacrifice of Christ is brought closer to us, through the Eucharist, the Most Holy and Precious Body and Blood of Christ, that Jesus Himself had given us and His disciples, that He will live in us, and we in Him.

During the time of the Holy Week and Easter, we celebrate the greatest works He had done in His mission, that is the Passover of the Lord, the Great Passover, not unlike the Jewish Passover of old. This time, however, the Lord did not just pass over the people of Israel and brought death to their Egyptian oppressors, but this time, the Lord passed over the judgment of death from those who have their faith in Him, and brought them, not just into any Promised Land, but into the eternal happiness and blessing of the Promised heaven, which Christ promised to all those who put their complete trust in Him.

That is why, brothers and sisters, we ought to take greater attention and commit ourselves more strongly and more vigorously to our Lord, by putting greater effort on our own part, to fully participate in the celebrations and feast days of our Lord, celebrating the memory of His wondrous work for our sake, celebrating the mysteries of His birth, His ministry, His suffering, death, and resurrection from the dead, for in Him lies our only hope and our salvation.

Today, we celebrate the feast of both St. Eusebius of Vercelli and St. Peter Julian Eymard. St. Eusebius of Vercelli was the bishop of Vercelli who lived in Italy in the late Roman Empire at the fourth century after the birth of Christ. St. Eusebius faced much difficulties during his ministry as the servant of God’s Gospel, facing many divisions in the early Church, between the various heretical factions trying to subvert the truth of the Lord’s Good News.

St. Eusebius persevered and despite the difficulties, he professed his faith and adherence to the true teachings of Christ reflected in the orthodoxy of the Church magisterium. He defended the faith against heresies and promoted reconciliation between the different factions of the faithful, and also urged people who had veered away from the true faith to return once again to their Lord and their God.

St. Peter Julian Eymard also did not have an easy time in his ministry, as he faced challenges in the increasingly secular France, at the start of the nineteenth century, just decades after the horrors of the French Revolution. Yet, he persevered and continued to do great works for the sake of the people of God, ministering to them with love. He championed the cause of the children receiving the Holy Communion at a young age, which would be approved by the Church through Pope St. Pius X in the early decade of the twentieth century.

St. Peter Julian Eymard established the order of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, members of whom are devoted to the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord Himself, and in the service of His people, leading a prayerful and contemplative life filled with joy of the Lord. St. Peter Julian Eymard continued to serve the Lord in the best way he could, and he gave glory to God, the Lord who had come down from heaven to save us from death, and give us a new hope of eternal life.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, inspired by the examples of St. Eusebius of Vercelli and St. Peter Julian Eymard, we should also glorify the Lord our God and give Him our thanks, by devoutly following His teachings and proclaiming His life, death, and resurrection, particularly to those who had yet to hear the Word of God and thus the words of salvation.

May the Lord guide us in this journey through life, that we will always persevere regardless of the difficulties, and let us always remember of the love our God has for all of us, that He even was willing to suffer and die for us all, that we may live, and not just any life, but an eternal life of bliss and happiness with Him in heavenly glory. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 2 August 2013 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop; and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 13 : 54-58

Jesus went to His hometown and taught the people in their synagogue. They were amazed and said, “Where did He get this wisdom and these special powers? Is He not the carpenter’s Son? Is Mary not His mother and are James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas not His brothers? Are not all His sisters living here? How did He get all this?” And so they took offense at Him.

Jesus said to them, “The only place where prophets are not welcome is their hometown and in their own family.” And He did not perform many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

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Friday, 2 August 2013 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop; and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest (Psalm)

Psalm 80 : 3-4, 5-6ab, 10-11ab

Start the music, strike the timbrel, play melodies on the harp and lyre. Sound the trumpet at the new moon, on our feastday when the moon is full.

This is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob, a statute He wrote for Joseph when he went out of Egypt.

There shall be no strange god among you, you shall not worship any alien god, for I the Lord am your God.

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Friday, 2 August 2013 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop; and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest (First Reading)

Leviticus 23 : 1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37

YHVH spoke to Moses, “Then there are the appointed feasts of YHVH at the times fixed for them, when you are to proclaim holy assemblies. At twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month is YHVH’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of this month it is YHVH’s feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat bread without leaven.

On the first day there will be a sacred assembly and no work of a worker shall be done. For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to YHVH and on the seventh day you shall hold a sacred assembly and do no work of a worker.”

YHVH spoke to Moses and said, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them : When you enter the land that I will give you and you reap its harvest, you will bring to the priest a sheaf, the firstfruits of your harvest and he shall wave the sheaf before YHVH for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.”

“From the day after the sabbath, on which you bring the sheaf of offering, you are to count seven full weeks. The day after the seventh sabbath will be the fiftieth day and then you are to offer YHVH a new offering.”

“The tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. You are to hold a sacred assembly. You must fast, and you must offer a burnt offering to YHVH.”

“The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of Tents for YHVH, lasting seven days. The first day you shall hold an assembly; you must do no work of a worker. For seven days you must offer a burnt offering to YHVH. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and you must offer a burnt offering to YHVH. It is a day of solemn assembly in which you shall do no work of a worker.”

“These are the appointed feasts of YHVH in which you are to proclaim holy assemblies for the purpose of offering offerings by fire, burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings to YHVH, according to the ritual of each day.”

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My Prayer Intention for Wednesday, 31 July 2013

1. For Jesuits around the world and all those affiliated to the Society of Jesus as a whole, including our Pope Francis. May the Lord bless them and protect them as they embark on their daily journeys of work amongst God’s people and ministering to those who are least, weakest, and abandoned in our society. May the Lord work His power through them and strengthen the faith and love we have for Him through their work. May the Jesuits continue to serve the Lord and His people for the Lord’s own greater glory, in line with the motto of their founder, St. Ignatius Loyola, that is ‘Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam’ – ‘For the greater glory of God’

2. For all priests around the world, religious and diocesan. May they always recall their calling in life, and their total commitment to the Lord, as His bride, and the bride of the Church, the leaders and shepherds of the people of God. May they remain faithful to their calling and their vocation, and may they always exercise the power and authority that God had granted them with care, and full of love and compassion, especially to those who are without love, and to those who still live in the darkness of evil. May the Lord ever strengthen the faith, love, and hope in their hearts.

3. For all those aspiring to the priesthood and religious life. May the Lord who calls them to His service strengthen their devotion and resolution to His cause, and the cause of His beloved people, that they will be able to make a carefully thought decision, and that they will be able to commit to the choices they are to make, so that in all the things they do, they will always remain in the grace of God and bring the blessings of the Lord to all around them. Keep their faith and dedication in the Lord strong and ever living, despite the challenges and the temptations that await them along the way.

4. For victims of prejudice and persecution of all kinds. May the Lord be with all of them, and protect them, strengthen them with His love, that they will persevere. And most importantly that they will not keep grudge or hatred against their enemies, but be resolved to forgive them with all sincerity of heart. May the Lord end all forms of injustice, prejudice, hatred, and persecution in our world.

May the Lord accept all these humble prayers that we lift up to Him in heaven. May the angels bring these petitions and may the saints intercede always for us sinners still walking on this earth. Amen.

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On Homosexuality, Pope Francis’ comments, our Church teachings and our Priests

Regarding homosexuality and priesthood, I just have a simple answer to that.

If heterosexual people choose priesthood as their vocation in life, they have to abandon all sexual desires with the opposite sex and any kind of relationships henceforth all their life. So, the same too must apply to homosexual people who choose priesthood as their vocation in life.

It is really simple, but the problem is, many people, regardless whether they are heterosexual or homosexual, they cannot let go, and they give in to the temptations of the devil.

Yes, I agree that “I am not the one to judge”, and indeed, we must love the sinner, but not love the sin. The Church stance remains the same, and the teachings remain the same.

It is that we must not discriminate against those who may seem to be different, but what is important is that, we must make sure that all priests, no matter what orientation they have, must be pure and 100% focused on the Lord in celibate life, without any attachment, be it to the same or opposite gender, since the day they enter the seminary, the day of their ordination, till the day the Lord calls them back into His embrace in heaven.

It is a great sin, to turn one’s back to the Lord and embrace the devil, once he had committed himself fully to the Lord, and became His bride, in the sacred ordination, the moment when the priest is wed to God and His people, to be their servant, to be the leader and shepherd of God’s people.

So yes, sexual abuse by priests is no no, and no to married priests either, regardless of the needs of the diocese, and no to any sexual acts or perversion by priests whatsoever, with anyone, after they had committed themselves and made that choice.

If they cannot commit themselves 100% to the Lord, till the end of their life, then they cannot be priests. Priests are always tempted daily by the devil, but they must persevere. That is why it is so important for us to pray for our priests and support them!

And make sure to inculcate from early on the love for God and His people in our children and our youths, that if there are those who choose to follow the path of a priest, they will have a solid faith and rock-solid foundation, that will help them better to fight the assaults of the devil.

Remember that the Lord Himself had said that in the parable of the two houses, that a wise man builds his house on a solid ground, while a fool builds his house on sand, and when the wind and waves come and blow on them, only the one with solid foundation will remain standing. Therefore, our priests and our potential future priests too must always ensure that they have strong foundations, that is strong and unassailable faith in God, that no evil can shake and topple.

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Wednesday, 31 July 2013 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius Loyola, Priest (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, Christ reminded us in the readings, how precious is the Lord to us, how wonderful is His kingdom, that is for us to inherit as eternal reward, if we remain faithful to Him who always loves us. The Kingdom of God is truly a precious and priceless gift to all, that everyone should indeed focus their attention on, as in the allusion made by Christ, that the kingdom of God is likened to a precious and top-quality pearl, so much so that one should sell all they have, just that they can own that wonderful and beautiful pearl.

So beautiful and perfect is the entire glory of God, that as stated in the first reading today, when Moses talked to the Lord face-to-face in the fullness of His glory and majesty, he would be bathed in His perfect and wonderful light, such that his face became the countenance of the Lord Himself, brilliant and radiant like the sun. Such was the glory of God reflected on the face of Moses, that he was compelled to hide his face by the means of the veil, so great is such glory that no one but Moses was allowed to see.

Our Lord Jesus Christ too was glorified on the mountaintop when He was transfigured from His human persona, and revealed the fullness of His glory and majesty. He revealed Himself to Peter, James, and John who were present at His Transfiguration. In that event too, we saw the same thing that had happened to Moses, in how Jesus Himself was transfigured into a figure of perfection and brilliance, except that the light itself came from Christ Himself, not because it was a reflection of God’s glory and majesty as in the case of Moses.

Why is this very important, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we listened to the word of God on how Moses faced God face-to-face? And why I mentioned Christ and His Transfiguration? That is because, brothers and sisters in Christ, we have been made in the image of God, that is our very face and countenance is a reflection of the very image of our God, the Creator Himself. We have the face of the Lord, but yet, we are not perfect as the Lord is perfect.

We were once perfect, in the early days of creation, when Adam and Eve still walked the Gardens of Eden, when they were still pure and without blame. After they had followed the devil instead of the Lord, they had lost sight of the treasure that the Lord would have given them for eternity. Mankind would have had no need to suffer, the suffering that is because of our sin and our rebellion against the Lord. Yet, we are the most beloved ones of the Lord, created in His own image, and He loved us still even after we had been corrupted by the sins our fathers had committed. That was why He sent Jesus Christ to the world, that man may be reunited once again with Him.

In our world, the devil has many tools to steer us away from the true path towards the Lord. There are many things that he can use, in order to continue his subversion of mankind, just as what he had once done to Eve and to Adam. He offered Eve the knowledge of things good and evil, and the tempting suggestion that eating the fruit of the forbidden tree would make her God’s equal. These are the same things he can utilise in our world today, to make us falter in our journey of faith.

We must set our focus right, on the true treasure that is the Lord and His love, and not be distracted by the false and temporary treasures of the world, such as wealth, properties, pleasure, and many other thing this world offers us, and our world offers us as things that we should all pursue. It is not that it is wrong to have money, wealth, and pleasure, because it is perfectly fine for us to have these, if these would help us to live in our increasingly challenging world. We do need money and worldly goods to be able to live on and survive.

What is important is that we do not become distracted by them, that we lost track of our real treasure, that is God. So precious is this wealth to us that we all should be motivated to seek it, and the wealth and treasures we have in this world should be directed to help us to obtain the real treasure. We do not have to go to the extent of selling everything in order to get that true treasure, but certainly, we need to put in effort in order to gain our true treasure and reward in God.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius Loyola, the priest and founder of the Jesuit order, the largest religious order and movement in our Church today, of which our current Pope, Pope Francis, is a member of. St. Ignatius Loyola was born in Spain to a family of noble, who inherited much wealth and affluence in the society. St. Ignatius Loyola was destined to be a great knight and noble, and participated in much activities that the nobles used to do at that time.

St. Ignatius Loyola was born to a life of privilege, to a life of wealth and sufficiency, with all the things that all of us surely would have craved for. He was brought up to be a knight, seeking valour and fame through all his activities, seeking ever greater fame as he grew up, participating frequently in battles and duels in order to gain more fame and power. Yet, as he progressed on through life, he grew unsatisfied by these ‘treasures’ that he had.

St. Ignatius Loyola eventually left all that he had and abandoned the inheritance, the fame, and the glory he had once had, and instead, became the knight of Christ. Therefore, he no longer served himself, his own ego, his own pride and glory, but instead he gave it all to serve the Lord our God. Christendom then was in great turmoil, with people leaving the Church to the Reformation heresy every day. More and more left the Church tempted by the devil and his tools in this world, those who rebelled against the Lord and His Church.

That marked the beginning of the Jesuit order, which was first established by St. Ignatius Loyola and several of his companions. The Jesuit order rapidly grew and spread throughout Europe and Christendom at the time, combatting heresies and evils of the world, converting many back to the true faith, and stemmed the tide of destruction caused by the Reformation. The Reformation itself might have had good intentions, but in its implementation, it was a disaster for the faith, for God’s people, for the Church of God.

That was what the Jesuits, under the leadership of St. Ignatius Loyola was trying to combat and fight, in the Name of the Lord, which was the reason behind their name, that is the Society of Jesus. They, who had found the true treasure in God, and truly treasure this treasure, the priceless treasure, sought to ensure that others too can find their true treasure that is the Lord our God, and not to be misled by the devil into the chasm of damnation in hell, because of their heresy and transgressions against the true faith, as was rampant during the time of St. Ignatius Loyola.

The Jesuits are still active today, and together with many other religious orders, they work to continue the good works started by St. Ignatius Loyola and many other saints, so that more and more souls may be saved and prevented from falling into the traps of Satan. The hard work by St. Ignatius Loyola and his successors ensured that many are saved and received their true treasure in God, their eternal reward of everlasting life in the bliss of heaven.

We too, brothers and sisters in Christ, can do our part to bring more souls and indeed, ourselves to the Lord and His salvation, by ensuring that we keep our focus right, that is to focus ourselves on the real treasure that is the Lord our God, and do not become distracted by the world and all its temptations. Instead, let us use whatever graces and blessings that had been given to us, in wealth and other things, that we may use them as best as possible, to help us to achieve the real treasure of our lives. May St. Ignatius Loyola intercede for us that the Lord will always keep us strong in our struggle against evil and keep us in His embrace and favour, always, forever and ever. Amen.