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Monday, 29 July 2019 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Martha (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture explaining to us about the love which God has for each and every one of us, His beloved ones, and therefore how, by right all of us should thus also show the same love, care and attention to God, in the way that He Himself has loved us so wonderfully from the very beginning of time. God had never stopped loving us and so should we.

On this day we listened to St. John who wrote in his Epistle about the love of God which He has given to us, not just in intangible terms, but in truth, has presented itself in the most tangible way possible, as the love of God has been made Man, in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man. He is the Divine Word of God, the Son Who has been sent into this world and assumed the fullness of our humanity.

And how did God’s love manifest itself? We ourselves see a glimpse of His love in our Gospel passage today, when the Lord Jesus came to His good friend Lazarus who just died after suffering from a serious sickness for days. Martha, his sister, came to the Lord and she had faith in Him that He would be able to do what was considered impossible, that Lazarus would be raised from the dead back into life.

In the context of today’s Gospel, although it was not mentioned, but the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead in the sight of the many people who had come to the place to grief with Mary and Martha, his sisters. The people who saw that miraculous deed of God rejoiced and gave thanks to God for the love He has shown to His people. And that was just a foretaste of what the Lord would be doing for them.

For God indeed so loved the world that He extends the same love and saving grace to all of His people, by embracing the suffering and pain of the Cross. The Lord Jesus willingly took up His Cross and bore it on His own shoulders, agreeing to suffer for our sake and in our stead, bearing those same burdens that we have received because of our sins. He bore His wounds and the torture, all the agony and pain so that by His suffering, we may be freed from our fated destruction due to our sins.

Today, all of us celebrate the feast of St. Martha, the same Martha who was the sister of Lazarus, the man whom the Lord Jesus raised from the dead. According to the Gospels, the same St. Martha was also the one whom the Lord Jesus reminded when she and her sister welcomed Him into their house, and St. Martha was busy preparing for all the things and chores to welcome the Lord. The Lord reminded her that she was focusing on the wrong things by preoccupying herself with so many things.

Now, having heard of what we have just talked about God’s love and how much He has loved us all, and on St. Martha, who was once reminded by the Lord not to focus on the wrong things in life, but to focus herself wholly on Him, let us all reflect then on our own lives and how we have lived them thus far. Have we loved God as we should, or have we instead been so busy and been so preoccupied by so many things in life as St. Martha had once done, that we have sidelined God and even forgotten about Him?

All of us must embrace God’s love and understand just how great His love for each and every one of us is, without any exception. He has gone through so much Himself for our sake, and suffered so much for us all, to free us from the power and bondage to sin and death. So it is just right and true for us to love Him as much as we can, to the best of our abilities.

Let us all therefore follow the examples of St. Martha and all of our holy saints, those who have lived their lives faithfully, and like St. Martha, who grew in faith and showed her faith and dedication to God in believing wholeheartedly in His love, by which He has rescued and liberated all of us, His beloved people. Let us all love the Lord all the more, each and every single days of our lives from now on. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 28 July 2019 : Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we heard from the Scripture passages on the matter of trusting in God and how each and every one of us can ask Him and approach Him, seeking for Him to help us and to provide us with what we need. This is in fact something that many of us as Christians may have taken for granted throughout our lives, not realising that God has always been by our side all these while without fail.

In our first reading today, we heard of the encounter and exchange between Abraham and God Himself, as He revealed to him what He had planned for the great wickedness of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He would destroy the two cities for all the sins the people in them had committed and their stubborn refusal to repent from those sins and continuous living in wickedness and corruption.

Abraham naturally asked the Lord to show mercy, because first of all, we have to remember that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were also the places where Lot, Abraham’s relative has been living at that time after he and Abraham went on their separate ways. Surely Abraham wanted his relative and his whole family to be saved from such a destruction, and that was why Abraham pleaded for the sake of him and for the people of the city.

But at the same time, we have to also take note that Abraham could have just asked God directly to spare the lives of Lot and his family, instead of asking God to spare the lives of everyone in the two cities. After all, weren’t the people living in those cities very wicked and sinful? They surely had deserved death while Lot and his family deserved to be saved. Why is that, brothers and sisters in Christ?

That is because Abraham must have firmly believed that God is so loving and merciful that He would not have done what He had revealed to Abraham He would do to Sodom and Gomorrah. Just as Abraham himself had been so beloved by God, he must not have been able to believe that God wanted to bring such a fate of destruction on so many people living those two cities. That was why, he continued to plead for the sake of the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, asking God to spare the city should there be fifty, forty-five, forty, and so on until if there were even only ten righteous people living there.

And God did listen to Abraham, brothers and sisters in Christ, just as He was patient listening to his many pleas in His presence. Linking with what we have also heard in our Gospel passage today, in which the Lord Jesus taught His disciples who asked Him how they ought to pray, and making comparison of God as One Who will listen to those who ask of Him, Abraham in our first reading today is truly like a child asking for favours from his father.

The Lord Jesus was making a comparison between God and His actions with those of a friend and to a father of a child. He was mentioning to His disciples how even a friend, no matter what happens, will move to help should we ask for help, even when that causes that friend discomfort and unhappiness, just because by helping that friend of ours can get rid of our constant nagging and requests. And God, in truth, is much more than just a friend to us.

And a father, no matter what, will not give something that will harm his child, or give whatever that is totally contrary to what the child has been asking for. And God indeed is our Father, our heavenly Father and Creator, Who created us all out of His perfect love for each and every one of us. He is far more than all of our earthly fathers, and because of that, His love for us is truly genuine, true and powerful beyond comparison.

Now, as highlighted just earlier, prayer is the way how we communicate and ask God, our loving Father and Creator. But then now, we need to spend some time reflecting on prayer, on how we pray and if we have even made our prayers faithfully in our own respective lives so far. Have we made our prayers with the right intentions and purposes in mind? Or have we fallen into the same mistake that so many of us have done in making our prayers?

Many of us have this misconception and misunderstanding that prayer is like a magic and works like magic, fulfilling whatever we wanted. And many of us may have thought that God will listen to us no matter what and that He will fulfil every single one of our prayers. Consequently, we reduced our prayers into the ones consisting of litanies of requests or even demands. And when God did not fulfil what we wanted, we ended up being angry at God or left Him behind for other ‘gods’.

We have to understand that, first of all, we cannot reduce God into One that is subservient to us, since He is after all, the Creator, Lord and Master of all the universe, and He is the Master of us all. How can we act in our prayers as if He is our slave that will heed all of our every biddings and demands? This is a wrong attitude and way of praying, and if we are guilty of this, then we should reflect again on the Scripture passages today.

If we read on after the part taken for today’s first reading from the Book of Genesis, we should know that eventually, Sodom and Gomorrah would still be destroyed by God, with a rain of fire and brimstone from the heavens. Then we may be wondering, did Abraham not ask the Lord to spare those two cities for the righteous who lived in them and for the sake of Lot and his family, Abraham’s own relatives?

We must then understand that everything that happens in this world and indeed, in the whole universe and creation, must follow the will of God and all that God had intended everything to be. It does not mean that God does not listen to His people and to our prayers. He did listen and He is a much better listener than all of us are. He answered Abraham’s prayers by rescuing Lot and his family through His Angels that He Himself sent to Sodom and Gomorrah to rescue them.

But it was fated and by God’s will that the two cities were destroyed because not even ten righteous people could be found in them, like Abraham requested from God. Only Lot and his family, who were less than ten in number, could be considered as righteous, from what we read on from the Book of Genesis’ accounts. And in that occasion, when Lot begged God through His Angel to spare the small town of Zoar because he was afraid that he would not be able to reach safety in time, God listened to him and spared the small town.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us then recall what the Apostle St. Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Colossae, our second reading today, when he mentioned about our baptism and the wonderful gifts that God had given us from that baptism. This is significant because by baptism, all of us have not just received pardon and forgiveness from all of our sins as mentioned in that Epistle, but even more so, that we have been made nothing less than sons and daughters of God Himself.

And that is because through baptism, we become sharers in Christ’s Passion, suffering, death and Resurrection. We share in the glory of the Cross, by dying to our past sins and by embracing Christ and believing in the glory of His Resurrection. Just as Christ is the Son of God, we share through His humanity as the Son of Man, the same relationship with God, our loving heavenly Father.

Today, let us all realise that the best way to pray and communicate to God, our loving Father, is to follow the example of Christ, Who prayed to His heavenly Father in the purest and best prayer known to us, which we all know as the Pater Noster, or the Lord’s Prayer. In that prayer, all the four essence and intentions of prayer is covered, namely that of ‘Adoration’, ‘Thanksgiving’, ‘Atonement’ and ‘Petition’.

Rather than beginning His prayer with petition after petition, or request or demand one after another, the Lord showed us all that we begin by glorifying and adoring God, thanking God for everything that He has done for us, for all the wonders and glories He had shown us, and also admitting that after all, God’s will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, not our own will or desire.

The Lord’s Prayer is a model upon which our personal prayers should be made, as prayer is in its pure essence, as all of us must realise, is an intimate form of communication between God and us, much like how Abraham communicated in private with God as shown in our first reading today. A true communication is two-way between the two parties, and not unidirectional. That was why, in prayers, we must open our hearts and minds to God just as God listens to us.

Even with all of our concerns and petitions that we wish to make in our prayers, first and foremost we must understand and realise that everything will ultimately be in God’s hands, and His will shall be done. And we must make our petitions with the openness in mind and heart at all times, allowing God to make known to us what His will is for us, just as we pray and ask Him to intervene for our sake, whatever it may be.

Can we trust in God and believe in Him wholeheartedly from now on? God will never abandon us, and He will always provide for us, as the Lord Jesus Himself assured us all. If an evil person, or any ordinary person, or any fathers know how to do good and take care of those who are dear to them, what more will the Lord will do for us, as each and every one of us are truly dear to Him? Remember all that He had lovingly done for His servants throughout history, and what He had done to Abraham and in rescuing Lot and his family from destruction.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God is always listening to us, and in truth, we do not even need to say anything at all. Of course God Who knows everything, has already known everything in our hearts and minds, even our deepest secrets and thoughts. But are we opening our hearts and minds to listen to God? Are we allowing Him to speak to us just as we speak to Him? Let us all reflect on this, and strive to improve our prayer life, so that we may truly spend the time in quality prayer with God, our loving Father.

Let us be ever more faithful from now on, and do not let the business of our life in this world, all sorts of worldly concerns and temptations to distract us from God. Let us all be open to God’s grace and be willing to listen to Him, by being ever more prayerful in our daily living. May the Lord continue to guide us and strengthen us all in faith, and may He empower us all to live in accordance with His will, as Abraham, our father in faith, has done. Amen.

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Saturday, 27 July 2019 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture which brought to our attention the Covenant which God has made and renewed between Himself and His people as our first reading today highlighted from the Book of Exodus, sealing the Covenant between God and man through the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrificial lambs on the Altar.

In that occasion, God renewed and reestablished the Covenant which He had made the ancestors of the people of Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the holy patriarchs of Israel, and made the Covenant anew as He led them through the desert out of the slavery in Egypt, fulfilling the promise which He had made to His servants mentioned. He has blessed His people and made them plentiful and mighty.

He gave them His laws and the Ten Commandments, upon which all of His people must attach themselves to, as the symbol of their commitment to the Covenant which God has made with them. A Covenant in itself is essentially a binding agreement and promise made between two parties, in which both parties are obliged and bound to fulfil the conditions and the provisions of the Covenant.

God has always been faithful and committed to His Covenant, as He has proven yet again and again throughout the ages, from the very beginning, showing care, love and concern for His people; chiding, rebuking and punishing His people with whom He had made the Covenant with, whenever they fell away from the path of righteousness that they had been led along, and failed to fulfil their part of the Covenant.

It was unfortunately the people who have failed to commit themselves fully and wholeheartedly to the Covenant between them and God. They were distracted and easily tempted by the temptations of sin, which pulled them away from the right path shown to them by God. They ended up disobeying and rebelling against God as they followed their own path and pursued their own desires and wicked thoughts.

And this is what we are also hearing in our Gospel passage today, the meaning of the parable that the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples, on the wheat and the weeds growing in a field. In that parable, we heard of a sower who sowed good seeds of wheat in a field, and then, an enemy came quietly at night to sow the seeds of weeds that are not just undesirable but can also harm the good crops.

As the parable mentioned, we see clear symbolism in that parable meant to remind us of the Covenant which God has made with us, and the many obstacles in our lives that often become stumbling blocks in our journey towards God and His truth and salvation. The sower was none other than the Lord Himself, while the enemy referred to Satan and all the forces of evil seeking our destruction. The wheat referred to the good things that God has given to us, while the weeds referred to the corruptions of sin in our midst.

Another interpretation is that the wheat refers to all the righteous and faithful people of God while the weeds are those who have rejected God and refused to believe in Him, and instead walking down the path of sin. And yet, God, as the sower, did not want to remove those weeds before the appointed time, allowing the wheat to grow together with the weeds. And this is representing just how God is so loving and forgiving, full of compassion and mercy towards us.

How is that so? That is because despite of our disobedience, stubbornness and constant rejection of His love through sin, God is still ever patient and He extends to all of us the opportunities and chances to be forgiven from our sins and to be healed from all of our shortcomings and faults, by His own infinite grace and love. God cares for each and every one of His children, and blesses everyone, be it that they are good or bad.

But it is important that all of us seek to be forgiven from our sins, as ultimately, although God is loving and merciful, but the fact remains that sin has no place before God, and as sin corrupts us, our souls and our beings, if we remain adamant in our rejection of God and refusal to repent from those sins, then just like the weeds in the parable, in the end of time, we will be cast out into the eternal fire, to suffer for eternity because of our own decision to reject God and His generous love.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able therefore to follow the Lord our God with all of our hearts and with all of our strength? Let us all devote ourselves to Him and let us all strive to do our best to be faithful to Him just as He Himself has been so faithful and so filled with love for each and every one of us. Let us all obey His laws and commandments, and live our lives from now on with the commitment and desire to be righteous and just, worthy of His eternal inheritance.

May God bless us all, and may He empower us to live ever more faithfully according to His ways from now on. May He be with us all in our journey of life and guide us towards the right path in Him. Amen.

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Friday, 26 July 2019 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, namely St. Joachim and St. Anne, her father and her mother respectively. They were remembered as those who were faithful and committed to obey the Lord and His laws, which they passed on to their daughter, Mary, preparing her well for the crucial role she would end up taking as the Mother of Our Lord and Saviour.

The parents of our blessed mother Mary taught her to be obedient to the Lord, to be righteous and just in accordance to the Law which God has revealed to His people through Moses, as we ourselves have also heard in our first reading passage today, which related to us the important Ten Commandments that God revealed to Israel at Mount Sinai, as the core and basis of the laws which He has provided for them.

And in the Gospel passage today, we heard of the parable of the sower which we all should be familiar with, as spoken by the Lord Jesus to His disciples and all the people who were listening to His teachings. In that parable we heard how the sower of the seeds spread the seeds that fell onto different kinds of soils and conditions, and as a result the seeds grew differently and ended up in various conditions.

The Lord also explained how all those seeds that fell by the roadside and got eaten up by the birds, or those that fell on the rocky ground and perished, and those seeds that fell among brambles and thistles and were choked to death, were symbolic of those who have received the seeds of faith from God, and yet, failed to allow those seeds to grow and germinate in them, therefore, they bore no fruits in them.

This has to be understood in the context of how the Law of God, which God has given to His people at Mount Sinai through Moses, had been neglected and abandoned by the very same people who have received them firsthand from God, and even those who have witnessed God’s miraculous wonders and works in the first place. They did not allow God’s laws and words to take roots in them, and as such, they ended up being unfaithful.

They refused to believe because they allowed the many concerns of the world, the temptations of worldly desires and the pressures of sin cause them to fall and to get further and further away from the Lord. But what if the opposite happen then, brothers and sisters in Christ? That was exactly what happened with Mary, who not only prepared especially for the role she was to undertake as the Mother of God, but she was also brought up well in faith.

It was her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne who brought her up well in faith, instructing her in the ways of the world and to be a righteous, just and obedient person, as a servant of God. In the traditions of the Church, St. Joachim and St. Anne were truly loving and caring parents who brought up Our Lady well, showing to us what it truly means to be parents to our children, and especially as Christian parents.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, through the faith and good examples shown by St. Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of our Blessed Mother Mary, we are all called to reflect on our own Christian lives, especially in our own Christian families, in how we live our lives together in our respective families, in our roles either as a father, or as a mother, or as a child, or as a son-in-law or as daughter-in-law, or as any other members of the family.

Christian family is a very important part of the Church, as without good and faithful Christian families, the foundations of the Church will crumble and collapse, and countless souls would have been lost to sin and to the devil’s machinations. And the devil and his allies know this perfectly well, and thus, they constantly assault our Christian families and the institution of marriage itself, wanting to destroy the fabric of our Christian faith.

Let us all remember that our families must stay together in faith and look upon the good examples set by St. Joachim and St. Anne, in their faith and dedication and in how they raised Mary up well in the faith. Let us all follow in their examples and do what we can to live up to the same kind of faith as they have. Let us all model our own Christian families after the example of Mary’s loving family from now on, praying together and striving to be united together in faith.

May the Lord continue to bless us and our families, and may He bless all parents, that they may continue to remain faithful to their calling as parents, in the responsibilities they have to one another as husband and wife and to their children. May God be with us all, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 25 July 2019 : Feast of St. James, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of one of the great Twelve Apostles of Our Lord, namely St. James the Apostle, also known as St. James the Greater, to distinguish him from another St. James, that is St. James the Lesser or St. James the Just, who was considered as one of the relatives of the Lord and the first Bishop of Jerusalem. St. James the Apostle was the brother of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, both of whom were the sons of Zebedee.

It was the same St. James and St. John who were mentioned in today’s Gospel passage, as they came together with their mother, asking the Lord Jesus for special favours and position among the disciples, seeking the place of honour by His side when His glory days were coming. The other disciples, especially the other members of the Twelve were very angry at what the two brothers had done, and only after the Lord rebuked all of them that they simmered down.

We have to understand the context of what happened at that time in order to appreciate better the significance of what we have heard in the Scriptures today. At that time, the understanding and perception among the Jewish people about the coming of the Messiah or the Saviour promised by God were that the Messiah would be a mighty and conquering King, in the mould of David, His ancestor.

The people thought of the Messiah, which they thought the Lord Jesus was, as someone Who would restore the kingdom of Israel of old, reliving and recreating once again the glorious days of the kingdom of David and Solomon, when the people of God were at the pinnacle of their glory, power and majesty among the people of the world. That was why, in several occasions, the Lord in fact had to hide from the people who had wanted to make and even force Him to become their King.

It is this same understanding and perception which caused the two Apostles, St. James and St. John, to seek the Lord together with their mother, to seek glory, honour and power from the Lord, by asking Him to give them special favours over that of the rest. After all, if a King was about to rise to great power, it would have been good for whoever who stood by closest to Him, was it not?

That was where the Lord corrected their way of thinking and dispelled the false ideas that they might have in their minds when they decided to follow Him. He essentially reminded them that His kingdom and His rule were totally unlike any other in this world. Following the Lord would not be anything like following any other leaders and rulers in this world, as if they sought power, glory, honour and other forms of worldly satisfaction, they would be disappointed.

Instead, the Lord made it clear and plain that in following Him, His disciples have chosen a life of struggle and perhaps even plenty of sufferings and challenges in this world. It was what He meant when He mentioned the cup that He was about to drink, the cup of suffering that He had to endure, the suffering and pain, the burden and the heavy responsibility of the Cross. And just as He had to suffer and be rejected by the world, He revealed that His disciples likely would have to suffer in the same way too.

That was what St. James endured as he became a faithful follower of the Lord from then on, carrying out faithfully the mission which God has entrusted to him. It was told by Apostolic tradition that he went to spread the faith in lands as far as the present day Spain, where the great shrine to this saint now exists in the famous Santiago de Compostela in northern parts of Spain. St. James had to endure many challenges along his journey, and in the end, he was also among the first to be martyred.

According to the Acts of the Apostles, St. James was the first of the Apostles to be martyred, when king Herod wanted to please the Jewish people, arrested St. James and beheaded him as a show to gain favour with the Jewish religious and community elites, the chief priests and the Pharisees. The other Apostles and disciples of the Lord too, eventually, would come to suffer in the way that St. James had suffered.

But all of them have moved on from what we have seen in our Gospel passage today, the preoccupation with worldly concerns and desires for things like power, fame, influence, wealth and other forms of worldly satisfaction and joy. They have accepted the Lord’s cup of suffering courageously and faithfully, living up to their faith and devoting themselves to be witnesses for His sake, and working to the best of their abilities to spread the Good News.

As mentioned in the first reading today by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians, all of us have received a great treasure from Christ Himself, the true treasure of our lives that can never be lost from us, unless we ourselves reject the treasure that Christ has given to us. This most precious treasure is none other than the promise of eternal life and glory, true happiness and joy of sharing in God’s inheritance through the salvation which He has brought unto us.

It is hope in that promise, the promise of the great and true treasures of the Lord that helped the Apostles, St. James and his fellow witnesses of faith, to persevere even through the most difficult persecutions and challenges, knowing that while all the treasures of this world, the treasures of power, of human glory, of fame and of wealth can be destroyed and perish, the true treasure that is assured for us in God will never be destroyed.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we willing and are we able to follow in the footsteps of St. James and the other holy Apostles of the Lord in their dedication to the Lord? Are we able to dedicate our time, effort and focus into the service for the greater glory of God? We have all been called to be the successors of the Apostles, following in the path that they have started, through their courageous deeds and efforts.

May the Lord continue to guide our path, and may He continue to encourage us so that we may seek to live like the Apostles, shunning the tempting desires of the pleasures and the glories of this world, and instead seek the true treasure that lies in God alone, by serving Him with all of our hearts and with all of our strengths from now on. May God bless us all and our good endeavours. Amen.

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Wednesday, 24 July 2019 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Sharbel Makhluf, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about the moment when the Israelites rebelled against the Lord in the desert from the Book of Exodus, and then from the Gospel passage we heard from the Lord Himself speaking to His disciples on the parable of the sower.

In the first reading today, we listened to the anger and rebelliousness of the people of Israel who did not show gratitude to the Lord for having freed them from the slavery in the land of Egypt. They grumbled and complained against the Lord and Moses, His servant and their leader who had led them out of the land of Egypt, saying that they would rather be enslaved in Egypt and enjoy the bountiful food and drinks there rather than to suffer in freedom in the desert.

And yet, the Lord continued to provide for them patiently, promising them food and drink, providing them with nothing less than bread from heaven, and also flocks of birds to give them meat to eat daily, as well as crystal-clear, clean and sweet water to drink. And all of these God gave to His people Israel, for the entirety of the forty years during which all of them journeyed through the desert, where there was no life, nothing to eat and nothing to quench a person’s thirst with.

Sadly, that would not be the last time that the people disobeyed God and refused to listen to Him and to Moses. They would constantly grumble, rebel, disobey and work against the Lord, as the people continued to complain that life had been better in Egypt, or that the food and drink that the Lord provided to them were not as good as what they had expected or what they thought they had experienced in their former life in Egypt.

And let us all keep all of those in mind as we move on into our Gospel passage today, in which the Lord mentioned the famous parable of the sower to His disciples and to the people. In that parable, we heard of how the sower spread the seeds to several different places, and depending on where the seeds landed, they ended up and grew differently based on the conditions of the locations where they landed at.

Those seeds that fell on the rocky ground, or by the roadside, or those that fell among the thistles and brambles were those seeds that fell on unfavourable grounds that did not allow those seeds to grow properly, and therefore preventing the seeds from growing into a well developed plant that can bear rich and bountiful produce or fruits, unlike those seeds that fell on the rich and fertile soil.

And this is what had exactly happened to the Israelites as mentioned in our first reading today, as those people have received the ‘seeds’ of faith from God, having received the truth of God and His laws through Moses, and yet, they did not let the seeds of faith to grow deep in their hearts and minds. They were bogged down and distracted by the concerns of the world and by their desires for worldly pleasures.

That prevented them from being truly faithful to the Lord, and that was why they constantly rebelled against God, again and again. They did not provide the good and fertile soil for the seeds of faith to grow well in them, and as a result, they did not have a genuine faith for God. That was why they continued to slip and fall into sin, again and again. They did not allow God to enter into their hearts.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we going to be like them as well? God has also given us the same seeds of faith, and unless we do differently from what the Israelites had done, we will end up falling into the same trap of faithlessness and disobedience against God. And therefore, today, we should look up to the examples shown to us by one of our holy saints, whose feast we celebrate today, namely that of St. Sharbel Makhluf.

St. Sharbel Makhluf, also known as St. Charbel Makhlouf was a Maronite monk and priest, whose piety and commitment to the Lord was truly exemplary and legendary, as many people came to regard him as a paragon of virtue and faith, in how he dedicated himself completely to the Lord in prayer and through a holy life. He allowed the Lord to make use of his life as a wonderful display of what being true Christian means for all of us.

Many miracles and wonders happened after he passed away, and his body was found to be incorruptible and in excellent condition even decades after be passed away. This is the truly good example of how the Lord’s sown seeds of faith have grown wonderfully and bountifully in a fertile and rich soil, that is the rich and fertile soil of our hearts and minds that are fully attuned towards the Lord and are centred on Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore devote ourselves to serve the Lord from now on with all of our hearts, with all of our strength and courage, and with all of our abilities, and not allowing ourselves to be distracted and tempted by sin and the desires and greed within our hearts. May the Lord be our guide and may He empower us all to live faithfully from now on. Amen.

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Tuesday, 23 July 2019 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about the trust and obedience that each and every one of us must have in our lives towards God, our loving Father and Creator, the One Who loves each and every one of us, and by Whose hands we have been brought to freedom from sin, through the gift of His own beloved Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour.

In our first reading today, the people of God, the sons and daughters of Israel were brought out of the land of Egypt by God’s own great power. Those who were saved enjoyed God’s saving power because they obeyed the Lord and His commands, which He made through His servant Moses. They followed the Lord’s instructions, on the Passover and what they ought to do, smearing the blood of the Passover lambs on their house doorposts.

Those who did not do what the Lord has commanded them to do, and refused to believe in the Lord and obey Him, like the Egyptians and their Pharaoh, as the latter constantly refused to let the people of Israel go free until the very end, all of these suffered because of their disobedience and stubborn refusal to listen to God. They rejected God’s truth and love, and therefore, received the wrath of God as a result.

In our Gospel passage today, this message was reiterated once again by the Lord Jesus Himself, as He mentioned before His disciples and the people, that all those who do the will of God, His heavenly Father, obey Him and follow His ways, are all those who will be considered as His brothers, His sisters and His mother. This happened when the relatives of the Lord came to see Him, and those were waiting while the Lord was busy teaching the people.

It may seem that the Lord Jesus was being rude in rebuking His own relatives and refusing to acknowledge them in such a public manner before His own disciples and so many of the people. But if we look at it more carefully and understand the context and purpose in which the Lord made that comment, then we will realise that the Lord was making a point, calling on the people to be truly faithful to the Lord.

And it also showed how the Lord would not be limited by the boundaries of societal norms and familial relations, which often caused people to be divided and grouped together, to the exclusion of others. What the Lord has done was to show that God’s love is extended to all the people equally, with no favourites and cliques. All those who has obeyed the Lord and done His will shall be considered as God’s own beloved ones.

That is precisely because of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has assumed our humanity in the flesh, the Divine Son of God Who has willingly taken up our human existence and essence to be His own, that in His person is perfectly united and yet distinct, two natures, fully Divine and fully Man at the same time. Through His humanity, and by His sacrifice on the Cross, He has made a new Covenant between us and God.

And by this Covenant, each and every one of us have been made worthy of adoption by God Himself, to share with Christ and through Him the status as the beloved children of God. But are we willing to be part of this great inheritance? More often than not, we are distracted and prevented from finding our way because of the many temptations present in this world, because of sin.

Today, perhaps, all of us should look upon the examples set by one of our holy predecessors, namely that of St. Bridget of Sweden, whose feast we celebrate on this day. St. Bridget was born into a noble family and was a devoted mother of a large family. She was remembered for her great piety and generosity in helping the poor and the needy, in being generous for all those who were in need.

St. Bridget devoted her life to the Lord, especially after her husband passed away early, and began the foundation of a religious order eventually named after her, the Brigittines, also known as the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, gathering men and women from many backgrounds to dedicate themselves to the Lord in prayer and service in monasteries. She went on a pilgrimage to Rome and stayed on there, performing many more good works throughout the rest of her life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the piety and commitment shown by St. Bridget of Sweden should become a great inspiration and example for each one of us to follow, in our own lives, that we may also do the same and may also grow ever closer to God, in our obedience and wilful following of God’s will in each and every single days of our life.

May the Lord continue to guide us all in our journey of life, and may He strengthen us all to live courageously with faith from now on, for the sake of His greater glory. Amen.

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Monday, 22 July 2019 : Feast of St. Mary Magdalene (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of one of the great disciples and followers of Our Lord Jesus Christ, one who is often considered to be an equal to the Twelve Apostles of the Lord, and one who has followed Him through much of His ministry ever since He called her from her past life, and she was also prominently mentioned in quite a few parts throughout the Gospels.

Today’s feast of St. Mary Magdalene, holy woman and devout disciple of the Lord Jesus reminds us of the great transformation that has happened to the life of this woman, who according to some Apostolic traditions and Scripture, was a sinner who lived a life of sin and debauchery, and the Lord Himself cast out many demons out of her. St. Mary Magdalene was known thereafter as a very dedicated follower of the Lord.

In all of these, we can see how God transformed the life of this woman, from someone who was sinful and corrupted into someone who is truly exemplary in faith and worthy of being an inspiration to many other Christians throughout the ages. In St. Mary Magdalene we see someone who has welcomed the Lord into her heart and into her life, allowing Him to work wonders in her and through her.

On this day, all of us are called to reflect on our own lives, and see how each and every one of us have lived them thus far. Many of us may not realise that the story of St. Mary Magdalene is actually not different from our own stories, her life being similar to our own lives in one way or another. We must not have the misconception of thinking of her as a wretched being whom God miraculously rescued and made clean, or that what she has done is impossible for us to emulate.

Many of us tended to take two extreme positions, both of which led us to the failure in appreciating the significance of St. Mary Magdalene, her examples and her faith. On one side, we look down on her as a sinful woman, whom God saved through mercy and pity, and therefore failing to realise that those same sins she had committed, are the very same sins that have corrupted us and which we ourselves have committed in one way or another.

On the other extreme, we may think that our sins are so severe and terrible that we cannot be forgiven by God, or that God is angry with us and our sins, and will exact punishment and destruction upon us because of those sins. This is called despair, brothers and sisters in Christ, and we must never despair before God. For God’s love for each and every one of us is so great and powerful that not even the greatest of sins can hold against His love, as long as we are fully repentant of our sins.

We must remember and indeed realise that many of the saints whom we venerate and glorify today were themselves sinners, and some among them were in fact infamous for their terrible sins. Some were murderers, while others were adulterers and unfaithful, worshipping pagan idols and gods, or performed wicked and selfish actions in their lives. But what were common among all of them is the fact that all of them repented and turned away from their sins.

They followed in the example of St. Mary Magdalene, who left behind her past life to follow God with all of her heart, which can be summed up in a way through what we have heard in our first reading passage today from the Book of Song of Songs. In that Book, the writer described a great longing and desire for God, which surpassed everything else, born from a genuine and true love for God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as I have just mentioned earlier, each and every one of us must realise and appreciate just how great God’s love is for us. He looks for us and desires for us to be reconciled with Him, and went out all the way to find us, like a Good Shepherd looking for all of us, His lost sheep, scattered in the darkened world due to our sins. And we must also remember how He endured the most bitter and painful of sufferings and pains, on the Cross, for the sake of our salvation.

Therefore, if God has loved us so much, should we not love Him in the same way then? St. Mary Magdalene had shown us her own good example, in her faith and commitment, in her genuine love for the Lord, leaving behind all traces of sin and disobedience behind her. Are we willing and able to make the commitment to do the same before God? Are we able to persist through the many temptations to sin in life?

Let us all pray that God may be moved and through the intercession of St. Mary Magdalene, that each and every one of us will realise how generous God’s love and compassionate mercy is, that we do not give in to despair, but remain hopeful in His love and merciful forgiveness. May the Lord also continue to guide us as we journey in our lives towards His grace and salvation. Amen.

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Sunday, 21 July 2019 : Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, we are all reminded of the revelation of God’s truth to us, which He has reserved to all those who are willing to listen to Him and His truth, that all of us who listen to Him and come to believe in Him may come to embrace righteousness and justice in God’s truth. All of us are reminded that God has showed us all His love and generous compassion all these while, and how it is us mankind who are often ignorant of His love.

In our first reading today, we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about the encounter between God and Abraham, His servant by the oaks in Mamre when Abraham stayed in Canaan. God appeared to Abraham to reveal to him that whatever He has promised to him in the Covenant He has made with him would be upheld, through the miracle of a son that Abraham would receive from God.

Even though Abraham had earlier on contravened God’s provision by the insistence of his wife Sarah, who tried a shortcut of having a son through her slave, Hagar, but God revealed to Abraham that His Covenant and promise would remain true as how He has planned it, and not as how man planned it. Although God did bless Ishmael, the son that Abraham had with Hagar, but the fullness of His promise and Covenant lies only in the promised son that Abraham then would have with Hagar.

Before we move on into the New Testament readings, it is important that we see what God has revealed to Abraham, and, although not included in the first reading passage today, exactly how Sarah, Abraham’s wife, responded to the revelation. Sarah did not believe in the words that the travellers spoke to Abraham, not knowing that those travellers were actually God Himself in person. She laughed secretly on hearing that she would have a child even though she had been very old then.

But God knew what was in her heart and mind, and asked Sarah why she laughed at what He has revealed to both her and Abraham. Sarah denied it, but God reminded her that He knew everything, and that to prove to her, she herself would indeed bear a son, and that son would be named Isaac, whose name means ‘he laughs’ in reference to the lack of faith of Sarah in God’s revelation of truth.

From what we have heard and discussed, we can see that Sarah did not fully trust in God and placed more faith in her own thinking and perceptions, in her own capability to sort things out, when she chose to take things into her own hands by using her slave to bear Abraham a son on her behalf, and then as mentioned, when she laughed at the words of God, probably thinking that it was ridiculous for anyone to have the notion that she could bear a son at such an age.

And now, let us all compare what we have heard in the first reading from the Book of Genesis to the Gospel passage today, in which the Lord Jesus interacted with two sisters, Martha and Mary, who ended up becoming those counted among His closest friends and disciples. In that occasion, Martha and Mary welcomed the Lord Who came into their house, and then we were shown the contrast in how the two of them welcomed the Lord.

Martha was busy preparing the house, getting ready for the meal and doing everything to show as hospitable a welcome as possible for the Lord. She did have good intentions in doing so, and most likely she believed that it was her best way of welcoming the Lord, as perhaps many of us would have also done. If a guest comes to our house, certainly we will do our best to prepare the house for the guest’s coming.

Meanwhile, Mary was with the Lord by His side, listening to Him preaching and teaching to her. Mary spent her whole time and focused all of her attention and effort to the Lord, unlike Martha who was preoccupied and busy with all of her preparations. Martha became angry at her sister and asked the Lord to tell Mary to help her in her preparations, justifying that she was so busy doing all the work by herself while Mary did not help out at all.

That was when the Lord reminded Martha that Mary has chosen a better path, one that is not clouded by our human and worldly fears and concerns, our desires and our prejudices. Mary focused her whole self on God and had total faith in Him, and that was all that matters. It was not that Martha was wrong in what she had been doing. Surely, Martha loved the Lord too, for otherwise she would not have even made the effort to prepare to welcome the Lord properly according to her standard of hospitality.

However, it was her great preoccupation and indeed, distraction caused by all of the things she was doing in the midst of her efforts and preparations that became obstacles for her in her effort to welcome the Lord into her heart. She was so busy trying to welcome the Lord into her house that she has forgotten to welcome Him into her even more important house, the house of her soul, that is her heart!

And that was what happened with Sarah in the Book of Genesis as well, because she was so busy and distracted being concerned of trying to have a son with her husband Abraham, that she had less faith in God and tried to have a shortcut instead by using her slave Hagar as a means to achieve her goal, and when as mentioned, God came up to her and told her what His plan was for her and Abraham, she did not believe, because she forgot to welcome God into her house properly, that is her heart.

Contrast that with Abraham, who like Mary, welcomed the Lord and brought Him into his own house, both literally and also figuratively, because Abraham trusted in God and believed in Him, and he listened to Him with all of his heart and attention. That was why in another occasion, when God asked Abraham to test his faith, by asking him to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, Abraham listened to God and complied with faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how about us then? Do we also act in the manner of Sarah and Martha, who were distracted by their business and concerns in life, or do we act in the manner of Abraham and Mary, who had true and sincere faith for God? Let us all reflect on our own lives, our own actions and deeds in life thus far. Have we been faithful as we should have been faithful? Have we made the effort to welcome God into our hearts, into our minds and into our beings?

This is a reminder for each and every one of us not to allow our busy schedules, the many distractions and temptations in life to prevent us from appreciating the faith which we have in God. Let us all overcome those temptations and turn ourselves wholeheartedly from now on to God, focusing our whole attention to Him just as Abraham and Mary had done. As St. Paul mentioned in his Epistle today, to all of us, God has revealed the wonderful truth of His love.

Let us all therefore be faithful bearers and witnesses of God’s love, from now on, so that in our every actions and deeds, we will always be true and be dedicated in all things, devoting our every moments and opportunities to bring glory to God and to show His love and wonderful mercy to all of our fellow brethren in this world. May God bless us all and may He guide us in our journey of life. Amen.

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Saturday, 20 July 2019 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Apollinaris, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us are reminded of the promise of God’s salvation and His ever present loving kindness in our midst, because we are all so fortunate to have been beloved by God. Each and every one of us are precious in the sight of God, without any exception. God is generous with His love and He will always be faithful to the Covenant He has made with us.

In our first reading today, we heard of the Lord guiding His people Israel as they went in hurry out of the land of Egypt right after their very first Passover celebration, when the Pharaoh finally let the Israelites go free after the Lord sent the last Great Plague on the Egyptians, killing all the firstborn children of Egypt. God brought them and provided for them, and asked them to bring unleavened bread along with them as sustenance along the journey.

In the Gospel passage, we heard yet another time when the Lord revealed His salvation and great love for His people, through none other than the Saviour He Himself has promised, in Jesus Christ, His own Begotten Son, through Whom the whole race of mankind was to be saved from eternal damnation and from the fate of sure destruction. The Lord Who has once saved His people, now committed Himself to save all of them from certain death.

The liberation of Israel under the leadership of Moses in the Old Testament was indeed the prefigurement and prelude to the true liberation of not just Israel, but that of all mankind under the leadership of Christ. Just as the Israelites suffered under the tyranny of the Pharaoh and the Egyptians, all of us mankind have suffered greatly under the bondage of sin, which corrupted us and brought us closer to eternal damnation.

God, Who loves each and every one of us, does not want destruction to be our fate, and therefore, He sent us the promised salvation through Christ, His own Son, by Whose wonders and works, He revealed the true extent of His love and generous mercy towards us, His own beloved people. Even though we have sinned against Him, constantly being stubborn and rebelled against Him, He still loves each one of us nonetheless.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, if God has loved us so much that He has been willing to show us all these wonderful love and blessings, shall we not then strive to show Him the same kind of love and commitment? Shall we not devote our time, effort and attention to He Who has been so generous and kind to us? Let us all think about this even as we carry on living our lives faithfully as Christians.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Apollinaris, a holy bishop and martyr, whose example in faith and whose dedication to the Lord can be a source of inspiration for us in how we should live our own lives with faith and dedication to the Lord. St. Apollinaris was one of the earliest bishops of the Church, successor to the holy Apostles of Christ. He was appointed as the first Bishop of Ravenna in what is today Italy, near the capital of the Roman Empire.

He was persecuted and suffered greatly with his flock during the persecution of Christians by the early Roman Emperors, but he continued to evangelise to the people and preach the Good News regardless, performing many miracles and wonders before the people. He was oppressed and made to suffer and it was told that later on he was arrested and persecuted as the leader of the Church in Ravenna, and yet, despite all these, he did not give up his efforts.

Instead, he continued to serve the Church faithfully and ministered to the people of God to the best of his abilities, which showed his dedication, commitment and love for God, as such courage and dedication would not have been possible without a heart that is so filled with genuine love for God and with true faith in Him. God has a centre part in his life, and this is what each and every one of us as Christians should be doing as well.

Let us all therefore contemplate and strive to do our best from now on, to become ever better Christians, through our own words, actions and deeds. May the Lord continue to guide us down the path to salvation in Him, and bless us all in our every good endeavours. Amen.