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Friday, 4 May 2018 : 5th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the continuation of the earlier story about the struggle of the Jewish and non-Jewish factions in the early Church, as recounted from the Acts of the Apostles. In that account, we see how the Apostles mediated the two factions, and found an ideal solution, the middle way between both factions’ ideas and desires.

The Jewish faction wanted a strict observation of the Jewish law, even among the Christians of non-Jewish background. This made difficulties in the work of evangelisation among the Greeks and the other Gentiles, as some of the provisions of the Jewish law were difficult to be followed by the non-Jewish peoples due to the cultural differences and practices.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles wanted a relaxation of the laws and the rules pertaining to the Jewish customs and tradition, not requiring those Christians of non-Jewish origins to follow those rules and regulations. Instead, as long as the faithful, those who have been newly baptised, obeyed all the rules and commandments as stipulated by the Church elders, which were much simpler and meaningful than the extensive Jewish traditions, then that would have been enough.

The dispute went on to the Apostles, who came together with the entire Church to settle the issue once and for all. They prayed to God over the matter, asking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to be with them in their decision-making, and they decided that all the faithful, regardless of their prior background or customs, must adhere to a set of basic and fundamental rules, essentially, what the Lord has revealed to His disciples, as the true Law He has given us.

And this, is what the Christian faithful were exhorted to believe, and not the additional rules which became a burden to the faithful people of God. The Apostles agreed that the faithful should not be burdened by additional rules and regulations which have no meaningful impact on the genuine faith life as expected of all Christians, and this was the decision which was relayed to the entire Church at the time.

All of these ultimately redirected the focus of the Christian faith, back to what we have heard in today’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus said to His disciples, “Love one another just as I have loved you.” In that short sentence, the Lord Jesus summarised essentially all that is meant for us to be a good and faithful Christian, that is by obeying God’s commandments and laws, the Commandments of Love.

For love must be at the centre of every Christian persons, and at the very heart of our faith. Otherwise, our faith and indeed, our life is empty and meaningless, for God is not inside our hearts and beings. First of all, of course, we must love the Lord our God, with all of our heart, with all of our strength and capability, doing our best to focus ourselves on Him and do everything for the greater glory of His Name. This is the first and foremost thing that all of us as Christians must do.

If we do not love God, then of course we cannot call ourselves as Christians. And yet, that is what many of us often do in our lives. How is that so? Let us just see at how we often lived out our lives, in our daily actions, and in all that we do. We often spend so much time trying to attain for ourselves earthly pleasures and satisfactions, that we end up forgetting about God and putting Him aside, in our seeking of power, of wealth, of worldly pleasures and satisfaction?

And then, if we do love God, then we have to show it in our interactions with one another, for each and every one of us are God’s children, the ones whom He loves. If God loves each and every one of us, then how can we not love one another as well? If we hate someone, would it not mean then that we do not love God as well? For surely God also loves the one whom we hate or are angry with?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are therefore called to fulfil our Christian obligation to love, and to serve the Lord with love. Let us all from now on, if we have not done so, love the Lord our God and put Him at the centre of our lives and devote ourselves wholeheartedly to Him. And then, let us all love each other, just as we have loved God, and just as He has first loved us all.

May the Lord be with us all, and may He bless all of our endeavours, so that in all the things we do, we will always be blessed and be filled with God’s grace and love. May God bless all of us, and walk with us, all the days of our lives. Amen.

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Thursday, 3 May 2018 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast day of two of Christ’s great Apostles, counted among the Twelve. St. Philip was the Apostle renowned for his great intellect and wisdom even prior to being called by the Lord, and he was the one credited in the Acts of the Apostles for the baptism of the Ethiopian official. Meanwhile, St. James the Apostle, the one known as St. James the Lesser or St. James son of Alpheus, was relatively little mentioned in the Scriptures, but was credited with many evangelisation work in various places.

In today’s first reading, St. Paul, another Apostle spoke a testimony of his faith in the Lord, telling the faithful in the city of Corinth about how the Apostles were the beginning and the foundation of the Church, as they witnessed the events surrounding the life of Jesus, His ministry, His marvellous works and miracles, His suffering and Passion, His crucifixion and death, and then, His glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven.

In the Gospel today, the Lord also spoke to His disciples and the Twelve Apostles, about Himself, and the truth about Himself, as the Messiah and the Son of God, the One promised to all of mankind by God ever since the beginning of time. But at that time, as St. Philip uttered to the Lord, “Show us the Father”, the disciples were still unable to comprehend all the things that the Lord had shown them, despite all the deeds and miracles He had done before them.

The Lord taught them and opened their eyes, and later on, after His resurrection, He sent them the Holy Spirit, Who descended on them and dwelled in them, giving them the strength and the courage to go on with their appointed mission, preaching the Good News of the Gospel to the people all over the world. They carried on God’s truth upon the people living in ignorance and darkness, and despite the challenges they faced, they remained strong and faithful.

But as we have seen, the Apostles were not strong people at the start, and neither were they very firm in their faith. They were once also ignorant, and many of them were called by the Lord from the most undesirable of origins, at least according to the standards of the time. Some of them were uneducated fishermen of the lake of Galilee, while others were murderers and rebels, and one was a tax collector.

Yet, it was not mankind who decided what one would become, as man often looked only at the superficial matters and not at the heart and the mind. But God looked inside the heart and the mind, and He saw in the Apostles, a heart with the capacity for faith, for hope and for love. It was all these qualities which eventually allowed them to be open to God working His power and wonders through them.

Now, all of us have to realise that each and every one of us as Christians must also walk in the same path as those Apostles had walked. They dedicated their whole lives to the Lord, caring for the needs of the Church and all the faithful. All of us are also called to this same mission, as the works of the Apostles are still ongoing and not yet completed. There are still more people out there who have not yet heard of the Word of God and the Good News of His salvation.

And how do we carry on our lives from now on then? It is not by going to the streets and preach openly about God. Rather, we must be thoroughly transformed in our lives, just as the Apostles had been, in all of our words, actions and deeds, so that, others may see us and believe in God through us. We are all called to be active disciples of the Lord, living out our faith through our daily actions.

Let us all draw ever closer to the Lord, and be ever more faithful, day after day, inspired by the courage and the faith of the Apostles. Let us all seek to love the Lord ever more devoutly, and find our way to bring greater glory of God through all we do in our lives. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Wednesday, 2 May 2018 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about the dispute that arose within the Church during its earliest days, when things came to head between the more conservative Jewish Christians, especially those who used to belong to the Pharisee group, and the more open-minded Christians led by the Apostle St. Paul, who wanted to reach out more vigorously to the Gentiles or the non-Jewish people.

The more conservative faction demanded that all the laws and observances in the Jewish custom and tradition must be fulfilled and obeyed by all Christians, even for the Gentiles and all the non-Jewish people such as the Greeks and the Romans who did not practice many of the traditional customs of the Jews, such as circumcision and the rituals for washing and cleansing as mentioned in the Gospels and in the Old Testament.

In order to be able to appreciate better why was such a matter very important and crucial for the early Church, and why there was such a controversy and division among the faithful, we have to understand the history and the context of the cultures present at that time, which happened during the height of the Roman Empire. If we read the history prior to the time of Jesus, there had been similar controversy during the time of the Maccabeans, when the Jewish people revolted against the tyranny of the Greek rulers of the Seleucid Empire.

At that time, the Greek King Antiochus IV Epiphanes tried to enforce a common culture and practice throughout his empire, and forcing the entire Jewish population to follow the customs and practices of the Greeks, such as their worship of the Greek pagan gods and idols, establishing their temples on the cities of the Jews, the sacrilege committed on the sacred places of God, including the Temple in Jerusalem, and the outlawing of circumcision, which the Greeks saw as an aberration.

Similarly, the Jews saw the customs of the Greeks as abominations, their naked actions and competitions in the gymnasiums, their clothings and their culture, their drunken revelry and many more, on top of their pagan beliefs and worship. This is compounded by the fact that the Jewish people held strongly to the belief that they were God’s chosen people, and therefore, they were superior to the pagans.

At the time of Jesus, the aftereffects of the Maccabean rebellion was still fresh in the minds of the people, when those who rejected the Greek culture and customs managed to free themselves from the shackles of tyranny of the Greeks. They became more careful and very protective of their cultures and traditions, which some identified with their independence and sovereignty as the Jewish nation.

That was why such a great trouble and conflict arose over the issues of these traditions and customs, especially because many of the Jews refused to admit that there could be a better way than following and obeying fanatically those customs and traditions, to a fault. That was when the Lord Jesus came in their midst, and reminded them of their excesses and unreasonable attachment to the laws and customs.

Why so? That is because many of those traditions and customs have been made over hundreds of years of history, in order to satisfy men’s needs and desires, rather than truly following and obeying God’s Law. As a result, enforcing those customs on the non-Jewish people became in fact, a great obstacle for those people to accept the Christian faith. I have just mentioned how the Greeks and also the Romans, whose culture was very similar to the former, abhorred certain practices of the Jews such as circumcision.

Should the Church fathers insisted that the Gentiles must follow those practices and customs, it would have made it very difficult for the people of the non-Jewish origin to follow the Christian faith, as it would have subjected them to lots of cultural stigma and difficulties, from among their own people. Instead, the Apostles, beginning with St. Paul, eventually decided that most importantly, all Christians, regardless of their origins, must believe in the basic tenets of the faith, that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, and there is no other God save Him alone, and all other teachings preserved by the Church and passed on to us.

In today’s Gospel, we heard of the Lord speaking to His disciples about the importance of all of His faithful ones to remain united with Him, and to cling to Him, as the only source of truth. For indeed, He is the True Vine as He mentioned in the Gospel passage today. And all of us ought to be linked to Him, as one big family, as one Church, members of the same Vine, all linked to the Lord through the branches of the Vine, that is the Church.

We spoke of this unity present in the Church, because all of us are part of this unity with God. We all believe in the same faith, which our priests and bishops have received from their predecessors, and ultimately originating from the Church fathers themselves, the Apostles and disciples of Our Lord. The Apostles and the disciples of the Lord have decided what it means for us to be true Christians, by the regulations and rules they have agreed together, to be observed by all the members of the Church, no longer bound by the old laws of the Jews, but by the new Law of Christ.

However, throughout time, this unity was to be tested in various occasions, and many had failed to preserve this unity and many have faltered in trying to remain true to their faith in God. There were those who denied the truth found in the Church, or worse still, perverted those truth to attain their own selfish desires and agenda. They were the heretics who tried to snatch the souls of the faithful, down the wrong path, because they refused to listen to God’s truth or obey His words.

But there were equally many of those who wanted to protect the truth and to preserve the truth in the Church, and they strove against the heretics preaching their heresies and false ways, standing up for their true, orthodox faith in God. St. Athanasius the Great was one of them, a great defender of the faith and a faithful servant of God. St. Athanasius was the Patriarch of Alexandria who stood up for his faith against those who adhered to the heresy of Arianism.

The heresy of Arianism at that time was so serious that many among the faithful, and especially among the priests and bishops subscribed to that heresy. Having been made popular by the preacher Arius, it stated that the Lord Jesus was not co-equal or co-eternal with the Father, but merely a created being. This was a great heresy, as the Church and the Scriptures had firmly established that God exists in the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Who existed since before the beginning of time and equal with one another, indivisibly bound by perfect love.

St. Athanasius firmly stood his ground against the heresiarch Arius, opposing his views and openly went against his teachings, and encouraged the faithful to stand up against his false teachings and preachings. However, there were many of those who had been swayed by the charismatic Arius, and many bishops and priests who supported his heresy. St. Athanasius had to endure challenges and difficulties, even going up against Emperors and powerful fellow bishops, as he was exiled from his See of Alexandria due to such opposition.

Nonetheless, St. Athanasius did not give up or shrink away due to all of these opposition against him. He continued to campaign and work zealously against the false teachings of the heretics, and his firm views and orthodox faith can be seen this very day in the version of the Creed which the holy saint himself composed, the Athanasian Creed, a much more comprehensive version of the Nicene Creed, specifically crafted to condemn the false teachings of heretics.

Many souls have been saved because of the works of this holy saint, and because of all that he has done, he has preserved the unity of many of the faithful with the True Vine, that is Christ. The devil knows that if he is to be successful in getting the souls of the faithful, he must strike at those who work hard to preserve the unity of the Church. That was why he was so persistent on his attacks against St. Athanasius, as well as the many other devoted servants of God, working tirelessly to keep the faithful from the ravenous fangs of the devil.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, now, having heard of the developments of our faith and how we have come together as one Church, no longer divided by customs or racial identity, but as one people together before God, let us all realise of the obligations that we have, to serve the Lord with all of our hearts and with all of our strength. This is what we need to do, that is to walk in the footsteps of the Apostles and the saints, particularly remembering the hard work of St. Athanasius the Great, our holy predecessor.

Let us all therefore do our best, working together as part of one united Church, that we may be exemplary in all of our actions, words and deeds, carrying out our lives filled with God’s love and grace. Let us all do our best, in everything we do, so that we may inspire many more people, even those who are still living in sin and away from God, as the reflections of God’s light in this world, that they too, may turn towards the Lord because of us, and be saved. May the Lord be with us all, and may through the intercession of St. Athanasius, our good works in Him will bring greater glory to God and His Name. Amen.

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Tuesday, 1 May 2018 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, just as the world celebrates May Day or Labour Day today remembering the hard work contributed by the workers from all over the world. As Christians, we recall the great virtues of St. Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster-father of Our Lord and Saviour.

St. Joseph was a carpenter as the Gospels mentioned, and he lived and worked in the small village called Nazareth in Galilee, where he met the young virgin named Mary, and as we all know, they became the member of the Holy Family together with the Lord Jesus, born in Bethlehem under their guardianship and loving care. St. Joseph protected the young Lord Jesus ever since His birth, bringing Him over to Egypt for protection upon the Angel’s guidance, and then returning with Him and Mary to Nazareth once it was safe for them to do so.

St. Joseph brought up the Lord Jesus together with Mary, His mother, and likely taught the young Jesus how to live in this world, and probably have taught Him his trades and skills as a carpenter as well. The villagers of Nazareth themselves, many years later, would remember the Lord Jesus as the Son of the carpenter at the time when He came to them, revealing His true nature and Who He really was.

Unfortunately, at that time, the people disparaged the Lord and treated Him badly, refusing to believe in His teachings and words, even though they have witnessed the great works He had done, and heard the many amazing stories and feats that Jesus had done, all because of the fact that they knew Him well as the Son of the village carpenter, St. Joseph. Despite being an honest and upright man himself, people at the time often looked down at his profession as a carpenter.

A carpenter was taught to be a menial job that no one wanted, and if possible, one would try to avoid having to do such a job for a living. Why is that so? That is because the work was tough and back-breaking, and yet the returns were minimal. One could not get rich depending on such a work, and generally, such a work like a carpenter does not bring prestige or honour for whoever it was who took it as a profession.

But St. Joseph showed the true mentality and attitude of a worker who was rooted in God and who was devoted to his cause as expressed through his works. Despite his unfavourable conditions and all the difficulties he might have experienced, and even the humiliations he might have endured and despite the temptations he might have received, in escaping the condition he was in, St. Joseph remained faithful to the mission entrusted to him by God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us should follow the example of St. Joseph, the faithful and honest worker, devout servant of God. He was humble and committed, righteous and just, despite having been chosen by God to be the protector of the Holy Family and the Messiah, and despite being the heir of David. He followed God’s commandments and was a good father at the same time, protecting and guiding the young Lord Jesus, bringing Him up in the best way possible.

To all of us Christians, St. Joseph is a great role model and an inspiration. All of us should follow his examples, that in all of our dealings, in all of our work, we do not forget about God, and centre our lives and all that we do in God. Otherwise, it is very easy for us to fall into the temptations set up on us by Satan and all of his wicked forces, all of whom are trying to snatch us from God.

There are many temptations around us, brothers and sisters, and we must be aware of them, lest we fall. In our work and in our career, as we are probably quite aware, many of us are striving to attain more recognition, more payouts and more benefits, seeking to gain greater achievement and attain greater glory. As such, many of us spend hours after hours trying to gain for ourselves all of these, but often, at the expense of those who are dear to us.

And not least, in our pursuit for power, glory, wealth and human recognition, we often neglect God and we also forget about our obligations to Him. As such, we end up becoming more and more distant from Him and separated from Him, and we become easy prey for Satan, who will drag us deeper into the trap of sin he has prepared for those of us who are unable to resist the temptation of worldliness and earthly pleasures. Many of us also end up doing whatever we can in order to get more of what we desire, at the cost of causing pain and suffering for others.

Let us all instead, follow the example of St. Joseph, and strive to resist the temptations of our desires and greed. Indeed, it will not be an easy path to take, as challenges will definitely be plenty, and there will be lots of opposition, but surely, all of these are worthwhile, for God will surely reward us at the very end, all of His loyal servants and disciples, when He comes again to gather all of His faithful ones.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, inspired by the great examples of St. Joseph the Worker, and remembering what it is that all of us Christians ought to actually be doing in our lives, let us all strive to build up for ourselves the eternal riches in God, through our faith, love and commitment to serve God with all of our hearts, by loving one another, and not to put our trust in worldly possessions and riches, all of which are just mere illusory and temporary in nature.

May the Lord be with us always, and be with all of our work and endeavours, so that in everything we say, act and do, we will always do them, for the greater glory of God. St. Joseph the Worker, pray for us always. Amen.

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Monday, 30 April 2018 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we continue to hear the discourse of the works of the Apostles from our first reading, which for the duration of Easter is taken from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. In that, we heard how St. Paul and St. Barnabas went to the mostly Greek population of the Eastern Mediterranean cities, preaching about the Lord and His salvation.

But the people misunderstood their teachings and the miracles they performed before the people of the city. Many of them thought that the Greek gods such as Zeus and Hercules themselves have descended down to earth and graced them with their presence. This was how the gods in the Greek mythology often behaved, and the people thought that St. Paul and St. Barnabas were indeed, gods.

That was why they brought sacrifices and offerings before them, as if they were gods, and worshipped them. The two Apostles were enraged at what they had seen, and they indignantly stood up for their faith before those who misunderstood their intentions. They rebuked the people by saying that they were man and mortals just as they were, and not gods as they thought those two were.

Nonetheless, the people still misunderstood the intentions of the Apostles, and later on, upon the instigation of some of the enemies of the Lord, the people would rise up against them and struck at the two Apostles, leaving them almost dead. But God was with His faithful servants, and they continued on their mission work, travelling from place to place to preach about the one and true God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if we look more closely upon what the two Apostles had done, they truly remained faithful to their Lord and Master, despite what must have been a great temptation to be adored and praised, more so as a living god who came amongst the people. Who would not be tempted by such a situation? Surely everyone would be tempted. However, the two faithful servants resisted the temptations.

Many of the people refused to believe in the teachings of the Apostles because they were stubborn, thinking that their way of life and their intellect are superior to whatever the Lord has brought them through His Apostles and disciples. That was why many of the pagans stubbornly refused to listen to St. Paul and St. Barnabas, because they refused to let them to show them the way to the truth, and they preferred to remain as they were, living in ignorance and sin.

That was why many of the Jewish people and their leaders were also stubborn in their opposition against the Lord and His disciples. That was because of their pride and stubborn minds and hearts, which refused to let the Lord’s truth to enter and make its works among them. They shut the doors of their hearts and minds tight against the teachings of the Lord and against the words of the disciples, persecuting the Church in the process.

Yet, the Lord never ceases His efforts to reconcile these people, by sending them one after another, messengers and disciples to call them to repentance, from the time of the Apostles to our present day. Such was His great love for us sinners, that He wants each one of us to be reconciled to Him. One of such great servants was Pope St. Pius V, one of the great and holy successors of St. Peter, who presided over a period of great reform in the Church, completing the Council of Trent, which removed sinful practices and excesses from the Church.

Pope St. Pius V reigned as the Supreme Pontiff and the Vicar of Christ for the entire Church at a particularly difficult time when the Church was assaulted from both the inside and from outside. From inside, corruptions and wickedness have pervaded among the clergy for many years and decades prior to the reform, and these were stamped out by the reforms of the Council of Trent, which Pope St. Pius V courageously enforced strongly.

From the outside, the Church was assaulted by the forces of the protestant heresy, which threatened the souls of many of the faithful, as well as by the forces of the pagan Turks, attacking the Church and Christendom from the east. But Pope St. Pius V worked hard to coordinate an effort to counter all these threats, sending out many missionaries especially the Jesuits to counter the heresy of the so-called ‘reformation’, and assembling a great alliance to fight the forces of the Turks, that eventually triumphed.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the examples of the saints and the Apostles, and also the courage and faith of Pope St. Pius V should have also inspired each and every one of us as Christians to be fully devoted to God. Let us all do whatever we can in our actions, and do our best to preach the Good News and the truth of God to our fellow brothers and sisters. Indeed, there will be challenges as we have seen what happened to the Apostles, but remember, if we do nothing, then they will fall into damnation.

May the Lord be with us all, that we may be more courageous and faithful as true and living Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit in all of our actions and deeds. May the Lord bless us all, and all of our endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 29 April 2018 : Fifth Sunday of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s Scripture readings, we heard about the Lord Who spoke to us with His parables, comparing Himself and the Father as the Vine and the Vinegrower. In the first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard the first works of Saul, who would later on be known as St. Paul the Apostle, just right after his conversion to the faith.

What is the significance of these passages to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is ultimately a reminder for all of us, that everything we say, everything we do, and all the things that we have, ultimately belong to God and must be for God. God is the source of everything we have, and He is the One Who has given us and blessed us with everything we need, most important one of which, is our life.

God is the True Vine, from which everything else originated. Nothing can exist when they are separated from God, and if one should sever himself or herself away from God, sooner or later, he or she will perish. Sadly, in reality, there had been many occasions throughout history, when individuals separated themselves from God and chose to go their own way through disobedience against the will of God.

Firstly, God created Angels to serve Him and to glorify Him. But one of the Angels, the greatest and the mightiest among them, the most brilliant one, Lucifer, chose to rebel against God and against His Creator and Master. He wanted to claim God’s position, and in doing so, severing himself from God. As a result, he was thrown down and banished from heaven, forever from then, known as Satan, the great enemy, whose defeat and final destruction has been assured and prophesied.

But Satan did not want to go down quietly and on his own, so he tried to strike at those whom God loved and cherished, in particular His most beloved ones, that is us mankind. That is why, he struck at our ancestors, Adam and Eve in the Gardens of Eden, tempting them to disobey God’s commands, alluring them with sweet lies and false promises, the temptation of knowledge and power, essentially providing them with an ‘alternative’ to God’s way.

And unfortunately, they chose to listen to Satan over their obedience to God, and thus mankind fell into sin by eating the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. All because of their greed and unbridled desires, and having Satan who manipulated these greed and desires, we fell, and we sinned. And that was how mankind severed from the True Vine that is God. God never intended for us to be separated from Him, but unfortunately, we chose such a separation.

Why did I choose this narrative for today? That is because the account in Genesis is truly symbolic and relevant for what we have heard in today’s Gospel passage about the Vine of the Lord. By a tree we have been cast down, as we ate of the forbidden fruit instigated by Satan and by our own greed. We have chosen to sever ourselves from God, and as the Lord mentioned in the Gospel today, that no one who is separated from God can have life and survive, indeed, all of us mankind have been destined to perish together with Satan in eternal damnation.

However, God created us all in His very own image, far greater than all the Angels, even that of Lucifer, the tempter of all. And He created us all because of His great and unsurmountable and perfect love for us. If He has created us all because of His love, then it is illogical for God to desire for our destruction and annihilation. It is us who severed our connection to Him, but He wants to restore that connection He had with us.

And how did He do so? He did so through another ‘tree’, that is the tree of the Cross. While once mankind, having disobeyed the Lord by eating the fruit from a forbidden tree, fell into sin and disgrace, now, with the New Man, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, He bore the tree of the Cross, that bore a new fruit, the fruit of obedience and faith. It was Christ’s love and obedience for His Father, which ultimately redeems us from our sins and from our past wrongdoings.

By the cross, we receive the fruits of God’s love, and we saw His commitment to the Covenant which He has established with us. And through the cross, the Vine is remade and reestablished, with God and man reconciled and reunited by the actions of Christ, equally Man and equally God. The Cross is the bridge which has connected God and mankind, bridging over the previously impassable gap between the two.

Now that Christ has restored the vine, all of us who believe in Him as Christians have been made parts of the vine as members of His Church. He has established the Church in this world, as the physical and real existence of His all-embracing Vine. And how did we become part of this Vine? It is because we have received our faith from the Church, from the priests and our bishops, who themselves, received their faith from their predecessors.

And ultimately, those received their faith from the Apostles, who received their faith from the Lord Himself. Thus, while the Lord is the Vine, the Apostles are His principal branches, and our priests and bishops are the branches that emerge from those principal branches, and all of us Christians make up the entirety of the Vine, as members of God’s Body, the Church.

Now, it is important for us all to take note, that even though the Lord, Who by His love and ultimate sacrifice on the cross has reestablished the crucial connection between us and Him, but the threats presented by Satan and all of his wicked allies have not ended yet. Instead, these threats and attacks will only increase all the more, because Satan, realising that he has lost his grip on us, will try all the more to bring us down with him.

That is why, as all of us should well realise, that becoming a good and devout Christian in this time and era is increasingly becoming a challenge for us. Increasingly, keeping our faith as Christians and standing up for our faith become more and more difficult, as our Christian values of love, of faith, of hope, and of zeal, clash with the increasingly immoral ways of this world, seduced by Satan and his allies.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are called to follow the examples of the Apostles, including that of St. Paul, who willingly chose to turn to God after his conversion, dedicating his whole life to the service of God, to preach the truth and the Good News of the Lord to His people, that many more people would repent and be saved from the certainty of eternal damnation in hell.

God wants us to be courageous in our faith and to be devoted to Him in this way. He does not want those who are just Christians in name and by formality only. He said this in the Gospel passage today, as He said that those branches that is not healthy will be cast aside and thrown away, pruned to make sure the whole Vine is healthy. To each and every one of us have been given the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and now, whether we are to use them or not, and how we use them, is entirely up to us.

Let us all therefore pledge ourselves to God, and to His cause, inspired by the examples of the Holy Apostles and saints. May all of us, faithful disciples of the Lord be able to commit ourselves, our time, effort and attention, to do God’s will through our every words and actions, so that we are truly Christians in spirit and in action. May the Lord be with us all through this journey, and may He help us all to persevere in faith. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Saturday, 28 April 2018 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the truth as revealed by the Lord, and which we have heard through the Church, having been passed down through the Apostles, and from the Apostles to their successors. And we call ourselves as Christians, because we believe in the message of truth which Christ, Our Lord Jesus Christ, delivered into this world.

Unfortunately, as we can see in both the Acts of the Apostles and in the Gospel today, there were many of those who were skeptical and who refused to believe in the truth that Christ had brought into this world, and this included initially even the Apostles themselves. They failed to believe at first, how He is truly the Son of God and the Saviour of the world.

They failed to see this truth at first, even though the Lord Jesus had stated it plainly from the beginning to them, and even though they have directly experienced and witnessed God’s miraculous works through Jesus, as no one else had ever done before. They saw how He had turned water into wine, healed and opened the eyes of the blind, loosened the tongues of the mute and opening the ears of the deaf, feeding five thousand and four thousand men and more with just a few loaves of bread and fishes.

And then, they saw how He even raised people who have been dead back into life. He raised Lazarus from the dead after four days, and all who saw these miracles were astonished. Yet, equally many of those who had seen these miracles, were also the ones who would later on condemn the Lord Jesus to death, death on the cross when they were instigated by the Pharisees and the elders of the people.

In the Acts of the Apostles, as St. Paul and St. Barnabas went around many cities and towns in the Eastern Mediterranean area, they preached about the Lord, the Saviour of this world. Many of the Gentiles, or the non-Jewish people, mostly Greek and some Romans, believed in their teachings and came to convert to the Christian faith. Some of the Jews also believed in them, and they enthusiastically welcomed them and asked them to preach to them.

However, there were many of those who refused to believe, some among the Gentiles because they saw the efforts of the Apostles as an affront to their traditional pagan gods and way of life. While there were quite a few among the Jews who believed in the lies spread by the elders about the disciples having stolen the body of Jesus and therefore spoke lies about the resurrection of the Lord.

Thus, they persecuted the Apostles and rejected their message, chasing them out of their town. Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? Why with all the challenges and difficulties that the Lord and His disciples had faced throughout their work? These were all caused by our stubbornness, mankind’s pride and hardened hearts. The enemies of the Lord had many reasons to oppose Him.

They wanted to preserve their earthly influence, status and authority, and they saw the Lord as a great threat to all that they have accumulated for their own benefit. Now, these were the same things which faced the followers of the Lord, whose memory we remember today. St. Peter Chanel, missionary to the Oceanian islands of Wallis and Futuna, and St. Louis Marie de Montfort, founder of the Montfortians.

St. Peter Chanel was a missionary who went to the islands to evangelise to the people living there, who have not yet heard of the Lord and His truth, much like St. Paul and St. Barnabas who went to faraway places in the past. Many came to believe in the Lord through St. Peter Chanel’s works, and even the son of the king of the island came to believe, and asked to be baptised as a Christian.

The king was furious and did whatever he could to prevent that from happening. When that failed, he sent his son-in-law to murder St. Peter Chanel, and thus, eventually this courageous servant of God was martyred. Yet, his martyrdom proved to be fruitful in the end, as eventually, most of the people embraced the Christian faith, and even his murderer converted to the faith as well and repented his sin.

Meanwhile, St. Louis Marie de Montfort was renowned for his effort at preaching and evangelisation, as well as commitment to the Catholic education of youths. Yet, he did not have it all easy during his ministry, as he had his share of opponents, who disagreed with him and refused to listen to him. He was assaulted and even poisoned before, all for his hard work in preaching the truth of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what each one of us must realise is that God will always His enemies and all those who disagree with Him. And definitely, these will also be against us if we are faithful to the Lord and His ways. But are we going to side with those who oppose the Lord? Or are we going to stand up for our faith as St. Paul had done? The choice is ours to make.

Let us all pray therefore, asking the Lord for faith, that we may truly be able to believe in Him wholeheartedly, and not be swayed by the falsehoods of this world, or by the sweet lies of Satan and his tempters. Let us all pray also for strength and courage, and guidance of the Holy Spirit, that we may follow faithfully in the footsteps of the Holy Apostles, in their courage and outspokenness, in preaching the truth and standing up for their faith.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to guide us in our journey of faith, that we may always draw closer to Him, day after day, and receive from Him the gift of eternal life. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 27 April 2018 : 4th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the continuation of St. Paul’s testimony before the Jewish community in a synagogue, which was recorded in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. In that testimony of faith, St. Paul mentioned how God had continued to show His love and mercy to His people, sending help after help to them through time, culminating in the coming of the Messiah, Who was promised to them.

But many of the people refused to acknowledge Him or to accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. Indeed, there were many of those who plotted to have Him destroyed and viewed Him as a threat to their own position and authority within the society. These included the Pharisees and many among the priests and the elders of the people. In the end, not only that they refused to believe in the Lord, but they arrested Him, levied false charges against Him and crucified Him.

Yet, having known all that would have happened to Him, the Lord Jesus continued on regardless with His mission, and He faced the challenges and oppositions courageously, knowing that by His obedience and by His commitment, He would save the people of God, and rescue them from their sins. That He would also do, even to all those who have wronged Him and rejected Him.

That was why, if we remember, the Lord Jesus, as He laid crucified on the cross at Calvary, prayed even for His very enemies and persecutors, asking His heavenly Father not to take into account what they had done on that day, for ‘they did not know what they were doing’. He forgave them, even after all that they had done, fulfilling what He Himself had taught His disciples, to forgive their enemies and to pray for those who have persecuted them.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, what is the significance of these things to ourselves? How can these be relevant to us? Indeed, it is important that in order to appreciate and fully understand what we have heard today, that we reflect on our own lives and actions thus far. And let us all ask ourselves this question, how have we lived our lives as Christians all these while? Have we truly believed in the Lord as we should have?

The reality is that, for many of us, we have not been living a true Christian lifestyle, as we often put our own worldly desires and concerns ahead of our obligations and responsibilities as Christians. We often forget about God and we only remember Him whenever we are in need of something, a favour from Him, and once we get what we wanted, we often quickly turn away from God and forget Him yet again.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why many of us are at the moment, merely Christians by formality only, as we do not truly embody our Christian faith in our actions and in our dealing with one another. Rather, we are like the Pharisees and the elders who rejected the Lord, doubting Him and turning their hearts from Him. We spurned His love because we love ourselves too much, and we are too engrossed in our own concerns that we forget how much God has loved us.

How often do we pray to the Lord? And how many of us always think that we do not have the time for Him? That is because God did not occupy a place of greatest honour in our hearts, as we all really should have done. When we are so self-centred and thinking only about ourselves, then it is easy for Satan to enter into our hearts and tempt us with all sorts of things that will prevent us from realising God’s presence and love in our lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not the way that we must be taking in our lives. No, definitely it cannot be the path we walk through. Let us all remember that God must be the centre and the focus of our lives, as without God, truly we are nothing, and our existence mean nothing. Remember, that we have initially been doomed to an eternity of suffering and annihilation because of our sins, but God chose to allow us to escape that fate, because He loves us all.

Let us all from now on, devote ourselves anew to our God, remembering just how much He loved us all, to the point of accepting death, death on the cross, for our sake. And just as He has risen into glory, He wants us all to share in His glory as well, through our faith in Him, and by the virtue of our baptism and by our genuine and honest Christian life, that we may be saved.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen our faith within us, that we will grow ever more devout and more committed as Christians, day after day. May the Lord bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 26 April 2018 : 4th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are called to continue the good works of the Apostles, as St. Paul and many other disciples of the Lord who have testified before the people about God and His many good works, and ultimately, ending in the perfect fulfilment of all that God has promised His people, and what the Apostles was testifying about.

God has loved us all His people, and it is why He has given us opportunities after opportunities, time and again, for us to repent and to turn away from our sins. He does not want us to fall into damnation, as what would have happened, if we continued down our path of sin. He has given us the way out of this predicament, by the coming of His Saviour, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the testimony of faith which His Apostles and their successors have brought us.

The Apostle St. Paul was not afraid to speak up for his faith in God, and he revealed before the Jewish people in today’s first reading passage from the Book of Acts, about the Lord Jesus, despite the threats which the Pharisees and the elders from Jerusalem had given, against all those who taught and preached in His Name. He was not afraid of all those threats, and continued to speak in the Lord’s Name courageously.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the kind of faith and dedication which all of us as Christians should also have in our own respective lives. Sadly, however, many of us have been inactive, passive, ignorant, or even repulsed at the thought of living our lives for God’s sake and in obedience of God’s will. Instead, we follow the whims of our own desires, and we end up living our lives led by our selfishness.

That is why so many of us are still so far away from the Lord and from His salvation, as we have not been able to let go of our desires and petty ambitions. We have been tempted by this world, and Satan has given us false happiness and promises of false joy, which many of us took up too gladly and too happily, without thinking of the consequences of what would happen if we chose this path instead of God’s path.

And this is the reality which each and every one of us need to realise, right now. Many of us are still lost and not sure of how we should proceed forward with our lives. Many of us are still too preoccupied with the many worldly concerns through which in fact, Satan and his allies were trying to keep us chained and enslaved, to our sins and wickedness, which separated us from God and His love.

That is where, all of us as Christians must come in, following in the footsteps of the Apostles, such as that of St. Paul the Apostle. We must be ready to stand up for our faith, to show our faith through real and concrete dedication to our faith. This is what each and every one of us must do, as those who profess to believe in God, that in everything we say and do, we will always do all we can, to bring greater glory to God.

Let us all from now on, be inspiration to one another, by living our lives with faith, and committing ourselves to the Lord in our hearts, with all of our strength. Let us all be beacons of God’s light in this world, so that through us, the works of God and His loving mercy may be exercised amongst us, so that more and more people, many more souls will come to believe in God and be saved. May the Lord bless us all, and be with us in this journey. Amen.

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Wednesday, 25 April 2018 : Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate together the feast of one of the Holy Evangelists, who wrote the Four Holy Gospels. And today we focus therefore on St. Mark the Evangelist, who wrote the Gospel of St. Mark, and who was also mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as one of those who followed St. Paul in some of his journeys around the Mediterranean sea.

St. Mark wrote his Gospel book with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as well as with the accounts of the Apostles and the disciples, first-hand accounts from all those who have witnessed the actual events recorded in the Gospels and in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Through his works, St. Mark and the other three Evangelists made sure that all of us are also aware of what had happened at that time.

And that is how St. Mark had devoted himself in his effort of evangelisation, as he recorded all the things he saw and experienced throughout those journeys, so that he might be able to pass down the teachings of the Apostles through the recorded works in the Gospels, and later on, the Church would come together and decide what would encompass the body of Scriptures that would eventually become the Holy Scriptures or the Holy Bible.

We might misunderstand or we might not realise the importance and significance of St. Mark’s works, but do you realise that the power of a pen is truly mighty, just as the saying goes, that the power of pen is mightier than the power of swords. Just at the stroke of a pen, countries had gone to war and countless lives have been lost, just at the stroke of a mere pen.

And those were done by the wisdom of men. How much greater and mightier then, if the work was done by God and by His wisdom? Then, it would have ended up in a much greater deed! And that was exactly what happened with St. Mark and his Divine inspired works in the Gospel. Through the sacred treasure of the Word of God, compiled together as the Bible, the Church has spread the words of the Good News and salvation far and wide to many people.

And that was exactly what we have heard in our Gospel passage today. The Lord Jesus, just before He ascended into heaven and left this world, gave His disciples a final commandment, one that is still the command that He gives His Church to this very day, the obligation which He gave to His Church and to all of us as Christians. What is this obligation? It is the command that all of us should go forth to all the nations and preach the Good News of God’s salvation to all.

St. Mark has done his part, by doing such a great service to the Church and to countless faithful ones through his writing of the Holy Gospel, the one attributed to him. Many people have believed in God through what he had written, and many turned to Him and repented because of what they have read from the accounts of the life of Christ, the Saviour of the world in that Gospel.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is our turn to do our part, to follow in the footsteps of the Lord, in doing whatever we can, to be the bearers of the truth of God and His Good News to the people of many nations. And how can we do this? It is by living our faith seriously and with commitment, devoting ourselves and our entire lives to God, by doing His will, and by practicing our faith with real and concrete action, that we truly live up to our Christian obligations.

Let us all do this, brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us do our best and spend time and effort to develop ourselves in faith further and deepen our spirituality and relationship with God. Let us all follow in the footsteps of St. Mark the Evangelist, that we may, in our own way, be it through words, or actions, or through our works and writings even, as the Evangelist had done, or both, or all, we may bring more and more souls closer to God. May God bless us all and our endeavours. Amen.