priestly sermon

by

Sunday, 4 June 2017 : Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday all of us celebrate the great Solemnity of the Pentecost Sunday, the day when it was told that the Holy Spirit of God came down from heaven, and descended upon each and every one of the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord. And filled with the Holy Spirit, they went forth out of their hiding place, and openly proclaimed the truth of God and His Good News.

That is why, this occasion is a very important one in the history of the Church, for indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that today we mark the time of the beginning and birthday of the Church. For before the Pentecost, if we read through the Gospels and the first part of the Acts of the Apostles, all the disciples of the Lord met in hiding places, hidden from view, because they feared the oppression by the Jewish authorities. But after the Pentecost, all of them courageously set forth, to do what the Lord had commanded them to do.

And on that day, three thousand people were also made new disciples of the Lord, by the baptism which the Apostles administered to them, whose hearts have been touched by the Holy Spirit of God. It was from that moment, that the Church began to grow and flourish, with more and more people turning to the Lord day after day, the sign of the work of the Holy Spirit, as the Scripture says, ‘Send for Your Spirit, o Lord, and renew the face of the earth.’

Indeed, as the passage said, the descent and bestowal of the Holy Spirit from God transformed the disciples of the Lord so completely that all who saw and heard them must have been completely amazed. Here were people who had once hidden themselves and ran away from the Lord, abandoning Him when He was arrested during His Passion, and yet, after the Holy Spirit was given to them, they were willing to even shed their blood and lay down their lives for the sake of the Lord.

They have devoted their whole lives thereafter to serve the Lord, preaching the Good News with zeal and commitment, even though they were mostly uneducated and illiterate. Yet, the Holy Spirit guided them and gave them the wisdom and knowledge, such that even the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were amazed by their great wisdom and by the authority with which they preached about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the same Holy Spirit which God had given to them, had been passed on through generations after generations of the disciples of the Lord, through His Church, as it grew and developed, and more and more people came to know of the Lord and followed Him. The Holy Spirit does its work through the Church, and it gave courage and strength to many followers of the Lord in times of difficulty and challenges, and comfort in times of sorrow and sadness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Holy Spirit is often portrayed either as a white dove, or tongues of flame, as in the Gospels, the moment when Jesus our Lord was baptised, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit descended as a Dove over Jesus, as the Father spoke to all about His Son, His Beloved One. And then, at the time of the Pentecost, the tongues of flame, the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles and inflamed their hearts with zeal, just as the Lord Jesus inflamed the hearts of the two disciples who were on their way to Emmaus.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life, which God has given to give a new life to His people, a new and blessed life, as seen by the prophet Ezekiel. In the Pentecost Vigil readings, one of them spoke about the vision which the prophet Ezekiel saw of a vast valley filled with dry bones, which the breath of God filled them with new life, and the bones became new people, a vast throng of the people of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if we all receive the Holy Spirit, we shall receive this new life from God, a new life that is no longer bound and chained by sin, but one that is free, as the life of those who have lived in the Spirit. We are no longer people of the flesh, living by the desires of our flesh and bodily existence, but instead, we have become people of the Spirit of God.

And the Holy Spirit, as our faith and the Church taught us, has seven gifts which It has bestowed us, the gift of wisdom, the gift of understanding, the gift of counsel, the gift of fortitude, the gift of knowledge, the gift of piety and the gift of the fear of the Lord. These are the gifts which had been given to us, as the Holy Spirit descended upon us who have been received the Sacrament of Baptism, and reaffirmed in us through the Sacrament of Confirmation.

However, these gifts are just like seeds sowed in the field, which will not germinate, blossom or bear fruits if they are not taken care of properly. That is also what the Lord Jesus spoke of in His parable of the sower, when He spoke of how the seeds of faith are sowed, but only in a fertile and good soil, that they will grow properly and bear rich fruits, in many multiples, hundredfolds and more from what have been sowed.

In the same manner, without proper action, all of the gifts which the Holy Spirit has given us will not materialise if we do not do anything, worse still if we do what is contrary to what the Lord had taught and told us to do. That is what the Lord mentioned as the fate of all those seeds which fell away from the fertile soil, be it that temptations choke away the faith we have, or that we become ignorant of the truth which the Lord Himself brought us.

Therefore, it is important that all of us Christians understand fully what it means to become a Christian, that is as those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, as our Lord, Master and Saviour. And it is important for us that we do as Christians ought to do, or else, we will scandalise our Lord, our faith and His Church. And then instead of bearing good fruits of the Holy Spirit, we will only bring about condemnation upon ourselves.

How do we then lead our lives? It is by looking at the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit and have them as our inspiration. First of all, we must have the gift of wisdom, the wisdom to discern the things good from bad, to choose what is right from what is wrong, and of course, secondly, the understanding that if we do what is right and just in the sight of the Lord, we will never falter and fall into damnation, for it is by doing what is wrong and evil that have brought us further away from God and His salvation.

Third of all, we need to have the gift of counsel, and nurture it, and what does it mean? It means that now that we have the wisdom and understanding of what is right and wrong, what is just and wicked, now we need to be examples for others and encourage others to do what is right and just, and avoid all sorts of wickedness and evil in our respective lives. We must give good counsel and guidance to each other, and help one another to avoid the temptations and false promises of the devil, which he designed to bring us to destruction.

And then, fourth, we must have the gift of fortitude, the ability to remain strong amidst the temptations and challenges that we are sure to face in the midst of staying faithful to God. There will be pressure and persuasion for us to divert ourselves from the way towards the Lord. However, if we remain firmly faithful to the Lord, we will not be disappointed, for God Himself will bless us and give us His eternal grace.

There will be persecutions and difficulties, but which one do we want to choose, brethren? A temporary false happiness that result in an eternity of damnation and suffering, or a temporary suffering and pain that lead into an eternity of true joy and happiness with God? That is why fifth of all, the gift of knowledge is important, that we know what lies ahead of us. We have to know what the Lord wants us to do with our lives, and what He is leading us to, that is the path towards salvation.

And sixth of all, the gift of piety and the last, the gift of the fear of the Lord is important, for it is indeed easy for us to lose our way in life, and lose focus on what we are to do in this life, but if we remember first of all, that the Lord is our Master, and the One Whom we ought to love for His love and kindness, and yet at the same time, fear because of His anger against our sins and wickedness, then we will definitely think twice before we are to commit any sorts of actions that bring about sin into our hearts.

And last of all, in all these gifts, the greatest gift the Holy Spirit has given us all, is the gift of love. For it is the love of God that had made everything possible, that He has given us life and created us, from nothingness He made us all, because He loves each and every one of us and cares for us wholeheartedly. He gave us His Spirit so that we may have life in us, and not just any life, but true life that He blessed and made perfect.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we rejoice today in remembrance of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the Church, let us all remember that the same Holy Spirit has been given to each and every one of us, with all the gifts and blessings that has been granted to us. It is now then time for us to do whatever we can, through our righteous and just actions in life, to provide the best conditions for ourselves, so that the fruits of the Holy Spirit may be brought up from us, and we may be bountiful in graces before the Lord.

May the Holy Spirit be with us, inflame our hearts with zeal, love and devotion, so that we may grow to love the Lord with ever greater effort and commitment. May the Holy Spirit give us the courage to continue our good works, in loving and caring for our fellow brethren, and may the Holy Spirit transform us all completely as what had happened to the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord, that we who were once timid and ignorant of our faith, may now become brave and courageous workers of the faith.

May God bless us all, brothers and sisters in Christ, and may He continue to watch over us and keep us in His love at all times. Let us all be the modern day Apostles and disciples of the Lord, bearing His light and salvation to more people of all the nations, by our actions and by our deeds. Come, Holy Spirit, come and inflame us with Your light. Amen.

by

Saturday, 3 June 2017 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the penultimate day of the Easter season, as tomorrow we will together as the whole Church celebrate the great Solemnity of the Pentecost, the birth time of the Church at the time when the Lord sent His Holy Spirit to all of His Apostles and disciples, sending them forth to all the nations and to all the peoples to preach His Good News and truth.

Yet, at the same time, we must also keep in mind, that to become a disciple of the Lord is not something that is very simple or safe. As the reality is that, as disciples of the Lord, there will always be challenges, difficulties, and times when we may feel to be alone amidst all those who are up against us, as what the Apostles and the disciples themselves had experienced.

As we heard in the readings today, the first reading taken from the Acts of the Apostles spoke of the life which St. Paul had in Rome during the last years of his life and ministry, a relatively peaceful time before what was told to be the first major official persecution of the Christian faith by the Roman Empire, when the city of Rome was engulfed in a massive firestorm, and blame quickly were laid on the Christian communities. It was told that St. Paul met his martyrdom by beheading at that time, the year of our Lord sixty-four.

Many Christians became victims of the persecutions, be it by the Jewish authorities, the chief priests and the Pharisees in the earliest days of the Church, or by the opposition and persecutions by the Roman authorities, including the one which I had just mentioned. And there were also resistance by those pagan priests and philosophers, who refused to see their old and traditional pagan worship to be replaced by the Christian faith.

But, at the same time, there were also many people, Jews and Gentiles alike, who were willing to receive the words of truth, and to accept the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. These people were willing to turn away from their past sinful ways, and become Christians, and thus strengthening the foundations of the early Church. Many of them eventually also met persecution, suffering and even martyrdom because of their faith, and also refusal to apostasise from their faith.

If not for their courage, the bravery and devotion of the Apostles, disciples, saints and martyrs who have laboured hard for the sake of the Lord and His Church, many souls would not have been saved, and many would have been lost to damnation in hell. We too, would not have received the faith we now have, if not for the hard work of all those who have passed down the faith to us, just as the Apostles passed down the teachings of the Lord to their successors.

Today, we remember the memory of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, who were Christian converts in the country now known as Uganda. They became Christians after missionaries came to their area, bearing the word of God’s truth, and they converted to the faith, leaving their pagan and sinful ways behind them. However, this met with a great resistance by the king, who wanted to eradicate all traces of Christianity in his domain.

Therefore, the king ordered the arrest, persecution and also killing of many of the. Christian converts and missionaries, who suffered terribly under the great persecution. Yet, St. Charles Lwanga and many others who had been sentenced to death because of their faith refused to renounce the Lord and their newfound faith. They remained true to their devotion and as a result were executed. St. Charles Lwanga himself met his martyrdom by being burnt alive on a stake.

But their martyrdom inspired many more Christians to persist in their faith, and it was told that many of their persecutors eventually became Christians themselves, and including even the king. Through all these examples, all of us as Christians living in our world today must realise that, first of all, there are a lot of things that we still need to do, in order to bring the testimony of our faith to all those who have not yet known or even have rejected the Lord.

And then, we must remember that when we face difficulties and persecutions from the world, we have to stay firm and resolute amidst those challenges. If we give up or allow ourselves to be distracted by temptations of the world, then our failure to act will cause not just ourselves but also potentially many others to fall as well, and their damnation will be on our own, and we are the ones to be blamed for that.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all continue to strive to lead a holy and righteous life, by doing what the Lord had taught us to do, and by devoting ourselves completely, heart, body, mind and soul to Him, keeping in mind the zeal and the courage which the Holy Apostles, saints, and martyrs, including St. Charles Lwanga and his companions had shown in their respective lives. May the Lord be with us all, and may He bless all of our works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

by

Friday, 2 June 2017 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Marcellinus and St. Peter, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about how Jesus forgave St. Peter three times in the Gospel, after He was risen from the dead, and St. Peter professed his love and devotion to Him anew, also three times, and Jesus commanded Him to go forth and do His will, following Him and feeding His sheep throughout the world.

In the first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard how St. Paul stood before king Agrippa and queen Berenice, as he was about to embark on the journey to Rome, the final leg of his journey and ministry, for he already knew through the Holy Spirit, that he would glorify the Lord through martyrdom at the capital of the Roman Empire.

Both St. Peter and St. Paul were unlikely people to be called by God, according to human and worldly standards. Why is that so? That is because, St. Peter was an illiterate and uneducated fisherman of the lake of Galilee, hardly someone a person of this world would employ in the very important mission to preach the Gospel and the Good News to many people.

And how about St. Paul? As we all should know, St. Paul was once known as Saul, a great enemy of the Church and the faithful, a terror and nightmare of all those who follow the Lord’s way in Jerusalem, Judea and throughout the country of the Jews at that time. Saul was very zealous and dedicated, to the point of frenzy in his hunting of Christians and all those who follow the Lord’s way, arresting them and even torturing them.

Yet, the Lord called both of them, and transformed them into His great servants, those to whom He had entrusted with the very important mission, that is the conversion of souls and salvation of all mankind. St. Peter was entrusted with the leadership of the entire Universal Church, which God had established in this world, with St. Peter as its base and support. And also St. Paul, who was the important Apostle through his missions and journeys, evangelising to the pagans and Gentiles, the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Both of them were the main pillars of the Church, supported and joined by all the other Apostles and disciples of the Lord, by all the holy men and women, all those who have left everything behind in order to follow and to serve the Lord. There were many of those who had given all of their lives in order to advance the cause of the Lord, calling more and more souls to know the Lord and to repent from their sins.

And these include St. Marcellinus and St. Peter, the two renowned saints who were told to have perished in the most severe persecution to ever face the Church in its early days, under the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who ordered the persecution of all Christians, the burning of all Christian texts and bibles, and the destruction of churches and Christian properties. Many martyrs were born of that persecution, and yet there were many tales of those who persisted in their faith, laying down their lives for the Lord rather than choosing apostasy.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, many of them, especially St. Peter and St. Paul knew what would be their fate if they continued faithfully to preach the Good News of the Lord and convert more and more souls to the true faith. In the Gospel today, the Lord Himself had mentioned it to St. Peter, how he would also be bound and brought to where he would not want to go, similar to St. Paul, and both ended up in Rome and met their end in martyrdom there.

But through their faith and devotion to the Lord, they glorified the Lord by their lives and by their heroic martyrdom, becoming great inspirations in faith for the many generations of Christians until this very day. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, in our world today, there are still many things that we can do as Christians in order to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles and saints.

I do not mean that we should intentionally seek martyrdom or persecution, but rather, as Christians, we can no longer be content with just sitting still and doing nothing for the sake of our faith. As the members of God’s Church, all of us have been called by God from our diverse backgrounds and origins much as St. Peter and St. Paul had been called, all sinners who were called to redemption and holiness.

God has given us the gifts, through His Holy Spirit, in order to guide us through this mission He had entrusted to us. Now, it is entirely up to us to choose whether we want to proceed with it or not. Thus, now, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all renew our commitment to God, to serve Him with ever greater zeal and devotion, and also to carry on living a good and devout Christian life, through our actions in life, by loving our fellow men, showing mercy to sinners and to our enemies, and to preach the Word of God and His truth through our upright life.

May the Lord bless all of our works and endeavours, and may He empower each and every one of us to be worthy sons and daughters of His, filled with the Holy Spirit, rich in love, mercy, compassion, hope and faith. Amen.

by

Thursday, 1 June 2017 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Justin, Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard first of all the tale of St. Paul the Apostle, who was arrested by the Jewish authorities, and was therefore put to face the court as a suspect against the allegations and false witnesses placed against him by the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the two leading power holders in the Jewish community at that time.

The Pharisees were those Jews who adhered very closely to the Jewish laws and customs as passed down through many generations from the time of Moses. They were the ones who were always trying to make the works of Jesus and His Apostles difficult by challenging them and harassing them at every available opportunity, as they saw Jesus as a threat to their power and influence in the community through His revelations and truths that undermined their own authority.

Meanwhile, the Sadducees were those who were commonly the nobles and the powerful lords in the society, who enjoyed the trust and prestige of the king Herod and his courtiers. They were the ones who enjoyed worldly power and influence, and refused to believe in anything that were supernatural or angelic in nature. That was why they were also stubbornly against Jesus and His teachings, because He taught them about the resurrection and life after death.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees were usually rivals for influence and they detested each other because of their stark differences in ideologies and beliefs. Yet, they came together because of their common hatred and opposition against the Lord’s teachings and truths, which St. Paul was preaching to the people of God. And thus, the enemies of the Lord put aside their differences and worked to destroy St. Paul.

Yet, they were not truly united in their purpose, and intense differences and conflicts still raged between them. That was why, the moment St. Paul noticed this weakness and used it to his advantage, as his time had not yet come, as he announced himself as belonging to the faction of the Pharisees, the entire audience exploded in fury, with the Pharisees and the Sadducees violently going at each other.

Why did I bring this up, and why did I go in depth into this fact? That is because in our Gospel today, our Lord Jesus was praying to His Father in heaven, at the time when He was about to go into His Passion and death. In this supposedly last prayer, He prayed for the sake of all of His disciples and all those who believe in Him, that they all may be brought into perfect unity through the Holy Spirit, so that they may be one just as the Lord Himself is one, perfectly united in the Holy Trinity, inseparable and indivisible.

That means, all of us as Christians must not be like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who first of all, rejected the Lord and His teachings because they trusted in their own human power, intellect, influence and all the things that they thought made them great. Those in fact had become the source of their downfall, as they became proud and divided among themselves, each with their own ego and pride.

But that is not what we as Christians should do. For our ways is not the ways of this world, and we should follow what the Lord had commanded all of us to do. And what is it that He has commanded us to do, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is for us to remain united to one another, by our connection through the Church, as all of us are members of His Church, and all of us are believing in the same God and Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as Christians, all of us ought to put our complete trust in the Lord, and keep up the faith which we have in God. There had been many people who had suffered because they kept their faith, including that of St. Paul the Apostle. Many other holy saints had suffered martyrdom because they refused to let go of their faith, or to deny their Lord and Saviour before others.

St. Justin the Martyr was one of such holy saint, whose feast we commemorate today in his honour. He was a renowned philosopher and teacher of the faith, who converted from the Roman paganism to the Christian faith because the traditional beliefs of paganism and polytheism, as well as all the philosophical thoughts at that time failed to truly satisfy his desire to seek for that emptiness inside his heart to be filled, which he eventually found in the Lord, Who filled it with His love and truth.

It was told that he contributed a lot to the establishment of the early Church, as he travelled around the Empire preaching about the Lord Jesus and His salvation to many people. Eventually he was arrested by the Roman authorities upon the report from a philosopher he debated against, who was a particularly hostile opponent of Christianity.

And despite being threatened to give sacrificial offerings to the Emperor and to the Roman pagan gods, under the threat of pain, suffering and death, St. Justin stood by his faith, and declared before all that he remained true to his faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord and Saviour of all, and if he had to die, he then died in the Name of the Lord, glorifying Him by remaining faithful to Him to the very end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Justin the Martyr has shown us all that as long as we remain united to the Lord through His Church and by the faith which we have in Him, we shall not be shaken, for the Lord Himself will safeguard us, and He will guide us along the path of justice and righteousness. And we will remain united and one, amidst all the challenges and the temptations the devil is throwing at us.

Let us all not be divided among ourselves, as what the Pharisees and the Sadducees had experienced, but instead, let us all strive to remain united to the Lord through His Church, and pray for the eventual unity and conversion of all Christians to the truth, that the bitter truth of the divisions in our Church may be healed, and all of our separated and misled brethren may seek reconciliation, and return to the Holy Mother Church. May the Lord bless us all. Amen.

by

Wednesday, 31 May 2017 : Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate together the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which essentially commemorates the moment when Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus visited her cousin Elizabeth in the mountainous regions of Judea, travelling there to see how her cousin Elizabeth was doing, after hearing the miraculous news of her pregnancy at a very old age.

Elizabeth was then pregnant with St. John the Baptist, the herald of the Messiah, who was miraculously conceived after many years of unsuccessful marriage without any children between Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah. At the same time, Mary was bearing within her, the Lord and Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ, Who was conceived in her by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Divine Word and Son of God Who took up the flesh of man to be born of the Virgin, Mary.

That was why the feast of the Visitation happens after the feast of the Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel came to Mary to proclaim her the Good News of God, that she would become the mother of God. Upon the acceptance of Mary, as she said to the Archangel Gabriel, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me as He willed it.’, the Lord was conceived in her womb.

Through these two simple, humble and yet pious women, the Lord had made the salvation which He had promised to His people for a long time into a reality. He had promised them from the beginning of time, from the time when mankind first fell into sin, by telling them that salvation will come to them through their descendant, through a Woman whom God will bless as the bearer of the Saviour.

Therefore, as we today celebrate this feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, all of us have to keep in mind, first of all, how the Lord has loved us so much and blessed us so much, that He has given us the best of all gifts possible, by the giving of His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be our Saviour and Liberator, that all of us may be freed from our sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in what we heard in the Gospel today, when Mary came to the house of Elizabeth, St. John the Baptist in the womb of Elizabeth was so joyful that he reacted with jubilation and his mother could feel his joy, knowing that the Lord and Saviour has come. In that manner, St. John the Baptist had done the first of his duties as the herald of the Messiah, announcing to all the coming of the Lord.

And Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit, sang the song of jubilation and praise, which we also know as the Magnificat. Such was her joy of having received the fullness of God’s grace by entrusting the salvation of the world through her, by the Child in her womb. This is the same joy we all should have, having received such great love and grace from God.

Secondly then, all of us should take note the way of life these two holy women had done, righteous and just throughout their lives, especially that of Mary, the mother of our Lord. She has faithfully committed herself completely to her Son, and to the mission which has been entrusted to her as the mother of God and Saviour.

She has faithfully walked the path, beginning from her acceptance at the time of the Annunciation, and then to the Nativity, when she had to give birth to her firstborn Son in a stable, and had to escape the persecution of king Herod. She has had the joy of following her Son as He grew from a Child to become the One through Whom the world was to be saved.

And she has to endure the greatest pain a mother can have, that is to see her own Son arrested, tortured, ridiculed, rejected by those to whom He had given Himself to in service and love, and ultimately dying on the cross. Yet, Mary remained faithful all the way, even to the foot of the cross and to the tomb. This is why she is our role model in faith, and all of us Christians should follow her examples in our life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us from now on reaffirm our faith in God, and reaffirm our commitment to live a faithful life devoted to Him. Let us all draw closer to the Lord and always strive to do as what He had told us to do, as Mary and Elizabeth had done. And let us all always be filled with joy, knowing that through God, our salvation has come, and indeed, all of us should share that joy and truth with the whole world.

May the Lord bless us all and remain with us always, especially through times of challenges and difficulties, that we will not falter and fall into sin. May He continue to bless our works and guide us at all times, that we will always walk in His path. Amen.

by

Tuesday, 30 May 2017 : 7th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard from the Sacred Scriptures about St. Paul and about our Lord Jesus Christ, both of whom in the respective Scripture passages, were going to the end of their ministry. At that time, St. Paul had been informed by the Holy Spirit, that he was about to reach the end of his ministry. He was about to be arrested in Jerusalem by the authorities and from then on, proceeded to Rome for the final leg of his journey. All of this had been known to St. Paul, and he was saying his farewells to the elders in Ephesus.

And in the Gospel, Jesus our Lord was thanking His Father through prayer, at the time when He was about to enter into His Passion, the end and last stage of His earthly ministry. He mentioned how He has fulfilled perfectly what He was prophesied to have come for, and had gathered the people whom God had called upon to be His own. Thereafter, He would go on to His Passion, to accomplish perfectly through obedience and suffering, God’s promise of salvation for all mankind.

St. Paul and our Lord Jesus Himself had done a lot for the sake of the people of God, and they had contributed and done such great feats that many souls were saved by their works. They were at the end of their respective missions, and surely they were looking back at what they had done, and indeed, they could be very confident indeed, that whatever they had done, they had done well and they had given all that they could for the sake of the Lord.

They had not done all those things for their own sake though, and they did not do all their works to glorify themselves, unlike what other people would have done. They obeyed the Lord and followed Him, as St. Paul followed the path shown to him by the Lord through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and as Jesus our Lord, the Son of God obeying the will of His heavenly Father, God the Father in heaven.

Through all of these, the examples of these two which the Scriptures today had mentioned, all of us are called to reflect on our own actions in our own respective lives as Christians. Have we, as Christians, been as faithful and devoted as St. Paul had been in his faith? Perhaps we have not done as mighty a deed as what he had done, in numerous situations, where he had to endure persecution, rejection and torture, imprisonment and even death threats. However, are we confident that we are living a true Christian life?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in order for us to be true Christians in life, we all have to devote ourselves to do what the Lord had commanded us all to do, and not just to be lukewarm or inactive Christians. That means, we have to listen to the Lord, Who had taught us that we have to love Him with all of our heart, with all of our mind and with our entire being, devoting ourselves completely to Him, and then, showing the same kind of love to our fellow men and women, loving them at least in the same way as how we loved ourselves.

This is what all of us as Christians have to do in our respective lives, and one in which I am afraid to say but, in reality, many of us as Christians have not lived up to. We have not been truly faithful in actions and deeds, for in many cases, while we believe in God, many of our actions had not shown such a reality. And in the end, because others see that we do not act in the manner as how we should have acted according to our faith, we caused scandal to the Lord and to our faith in Him.

Let us ask ourselves, how many of us slandered others, bringing hurt and pain through our words, by our lack of empathy and consideration for the feelings of others around us? How many of us have caused others, our neighbours to suffer simply because of our own selfishness in life? How many of us have brought sorrows and sadness upon others because we only think about ourselves? It is all of these things which have prevented us from truly living a good, Christian life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, listening to the Lord and taking note of the examples He Himself had shown, and which His Apostle, St. Paul had done before us, let us all reflect on all these, and let us have a new resolve in our hearts, that is the new resolve to live our lives faithfully and filled with sincere devotion and commitment, to serve the Lord with all of our hearts, with all of our bodies, minds, and with all of our strength, and do the same to our fellow men and women, showing love, care and concern wherever it is possible.

May the Lord bless us all, all of our works and endeavours, and may He strengthen us in our faith, so that we may draw ever closer to Him and find salvation and true joy in Him, together as one people, blessed by the Lord and His love. Let us do our best so that when the time comes for us to give an account before the Lord, we can confidently show Him what we have done out of faith in Him. Amen.

by

Monday, 29 May 2017 : 7th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day through the readings of the Sacred Scriptures we have been reaffirmed in our faith, as we receive the story of how the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ propagated the faith and the truth which they had received, and by their works, as shown through the works of St. Paul the Apostle and his contemporaries, that they had devoted their time to reveal the truth of God to His people.

In the Gospel today, we heard how Jesus revealed the truth which He had told His disciples with clarity. He has always taught the people using parables, that is using stories such as the story of farmers sowing seeds, or the story of the prodigal son, or the story of the mustard seed, the story of good versus bad shepherds, and many other stories, all of which are means by which Jesus delivered His teachings, which contained many truths hidden behind the story.

Why did Jesus use parables in order to deliver His message to the people? That was because the truth that Jesus brought may be too difficult to be understood, and that is why Jesus used those stories, which could be easily related to by the people, who were mostly uneducated, illiterate farmers, fishermen or shepherds. And that was why Jesus used many terms related to farming, fishing and husbandry in order to deliver His messages.

But more importantly, it was then through the Apostles that Jesus revealed the fullness of His truth, as He explained the full truth of His messages, explaining the meaning behind His parables and teachings. And to them, He had given the gifts of the Holy Spirit, descending upon them, granting them the full knowledge of the faith. The Lord Himself said that they would not need to worry what to say or preach, for the Holy Spirit Himself would guide them in all of that.

The Lord had granted the Holy Spirit to guide us in our way, by putting in us the seeds of faith, hope and love, and by revealing to us the fullness of the truth which the Lord Himself had brought into the world. And that was how the Church grew and spread, from what was just a small group of the Apostles and disciples of the Lord, eventually making up thousands, and then millions and billions upon billions of souls which have been saved in God.

All of these would not have been possible, had the Apostles and the other disciples of the Lord had not laboured hard in the way that they had, sacrificing their time and effort, suffering and being persecuted for doing what they had done, and many of them had to endure prison, torture and difficulties in doing so. And yet, as the saying goes, the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians. Without their sacrifice, many people would not have had the chance to attain salvation.

It is therefore now up to us mankind, in our world today, to continue the good works of the Apostles, to continue the mission which God had entrusted to them. Their mission has not yet ended, brothers and sisters in Christ, for in our world today, still filled with wickedness and evil, with all sorts of selfishness and human greed, we still need to be witnesses to God’s truth and revelations to the people who have not yet believed in God.

All of us need to do our part in order to evangelise and preach the Good News, not only by words and proclamations, but more importantly also through our actions. In all the things we say and do, we must show that we are truly and genuinely a people who belong to God, who obey His will and who walk in His path. And if we are to persuade others to believe in Him as we have done, we have to be genuine in our faith, and devoted wholeheartedly to Him.

Let us all pray, brothers and sisters in Christ, that all of us will be able to devote ourselves ever more faithfully to God, committing ourselves, our time and our efforts to serve Him and our fellow brethren, children of the same God. May the Lord bless us all and strengthen us in our faith always. Amen.

by

Sunday, 28 May 2017 : Seventh Sunday of Easter, World Communication Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we are celebrating the seventh and second last Sunday in the season of Easter, as we approach its ending, with the coming of the Solemnity of the Pentecost next Sunday. Today we also celebrate the occasion of the World Communication Sunday, bringing to our attention the importance of communication, not just as a primary method for us all to relate with one another, but more importantly, it is through communication that we are able to spread the Word of God to others, and call more people to salvation in God.

The Apostles whom we heard in the first reading today were the ones who preached the Good News of the Lord to the world, speaking the truth of Jesus Christ and bearing His light into a world darkened by sin and evil. Had they not gone forth and courageously telling the people of the truth of Christ, many people would not have known of God’s salvation, and these souls would have been lost from God, and might have fallen into eternal damnation.

They bore the truth of God to the people, and those who heard them were touched and were moved in their hearts to follow the Lord and obey His will. But did the Apostles do all the work on their own accord? Did they do all of these by their own strength and power? No, it was because they all, as their Lord had shown them, remained firmly connected to the Lord, through none other than constant prayer and devotion.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard how Jesus Himself prayed to His Father in heaven, in a series of long prayers from the Gospel of St. John, how Jesus prayed for the sake of His Apostles and His Church. He showed them how to pray to God, the Source of their life and the Master of all. Jesus glorified and thanked the Father, as He had also done in the Lord’s Prayer, which He had taught the Apostles in a separate occasion.

Prayer indeed is not as what many of us envisioned it or knew it. Prayer is not a litany of supplications and demands, wishes and wants. Many of us thought that through prayer we are able to get what we wanted, just by asking the Lord our God and everything will be granted to us. We turned to God only when we need Him, and when He did not give us what we wanted, that is when we ended up becoming angry at Him and left Him behind.

Many of us did not realise that prayer is how we truly ought to communicate with God, to speak to Him from heart to heart, and not just utterances from the mouth alone. It is perfectly possible for someone to utter words of prayers without understanding them, or without meaning them. What good will it be for us to pray and yet not meaning what we say? And what good will it do for us if we are to pray for our own selfish intentions and wants?

Today, as we celebrate the occasion of the seventh Sunday of Easter and also the World Communication Sunday, let us all remember these two things, which are truly very important for us as Christians. First of all, let us all remember that we Christians need to pray, as prayer is the foundation and the fabric of our faith. Without prayer, our faith will be easily shaken, and we will easily fall into temptation and into the traps laid down by the evil one.

For prayer is what strengthens the foundation of our faith, and genuine prayers help us to grow in our spirituality and in our relationship with God. Through prayers, we communicate with God, and as in all communications, such interactions should be two-way in nature. We also must allow God to speak in our hearts, just as we want to speak with Him.

It is very often that we as human beings living in this world are often too busy and too preoccupied by our worldly matters, by our work and occupations, to the point that we are unable to hear the words which God spoke to us in the depths of our heart, because we are simply too busy to take note, and the noise of this world prevented and distracted us from listening to Him.

It is important therefore, for us all to spend time with God, and not just be preoccupied with our work. After all, we all often bother and worry about many things we have in this world, about how we do our work, about how we perform in life, about whether we can get promotion in life, in work and in our career, but do we all realise that all these things are ultimately not the most important things in our life?

God knows all that we need, brothers and sisters in Christ, and it is often that what we need are not what we want. Many of us may think that we need money, possessions, wealth, fame, recognition from others, glory and praise. Yet, all these things are truly not what we need in life. There are many people out there who are rich, powerful, respected and filled with glory and honour in accordance to the world, and yet, they are not happy in their lives.

Prayer is the way for us to seek the Lord and gain true happiness through Him. For it is He alone Who can satisfy us truly and Who will provide us what we need in life. It is why we need to pray, and not just any prayers, or just by uttering words of prayers without meaning them or understanding them, but making those prayers out of the sincerity of our hearts, from the desire we have to share our burdens, our concerns and our worries with Him. And then, let Him take care of everything for us, in His own way. Let Him speak to us, so that we may know what it is that He really wants from us.

And therefore, we come to the second thing, which all of us Christians need to take heed of. And that is the fact that, all of us as Christians need to share the knowledge, the joy and the things which we have received from the Lord, for we have known the Lord, and we have spoken with Him, from heart to heart. As the Apostles had once laboured and worked hard to evangelise and to preach the Good News, it is now therefore our turn to do the same.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us as Christians, as the members of God’s Church have been given the same mission which He had given His Apostles, at the time when He ascended to heaven in glory. He commanded all of them to go to all the ends of the earth, and preach the Good News to all the peoples, that all of them may come to know the truth of the Lord, His love and the promised salvation He has brought to them, so that through baptism, all of them may be saved.

This is what we need to do, brothers and sisters in Christ, that is to communicate the truth of God to all the nations, to our fellow men and women, to those who have not yet known the Lord, and even to those who have rejected or abandoned Him. But we do not have to worry, for the Lord will ever be on our side, guiding us and telling us what to do.

And we do not need to begin from great things, for what is needed is indeed for each and every one of us to begin from ourselves, by making sure that all of us are truly faithful to the Lord, by practicing our faith with zeal. Then, let us all also do what the Lord had taught us to do, by loving our brethren, forgiving our enemies and all those who have caused us hurt and suffering. By being role models to others, we can inspire many more people to come to the Lord.

May the Lord therefore empower us all, as He had sent us His Holy Spirit, so that all of us will be filled with the courage and strength to do what we need to do, in order to become ever closer to the Lord, and to bring more and more people to His salvation and love. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

by

Saturday, 27 May 2017 : 6th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, as we approach the seventh Sunday of the season of Easter, which is also the World Communication Sunday, we speak about the preaching of the Apostles to the people across the Mediterranean, throughout the many cities and towns, spreading the faith in Jesus to all the peoples, by the means of preaching and teaching.

It was by communicating that the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord had become witnesses to His truth and resurrection, to all that He had revealed to them, and to all that He had done for the sake of the whole race of mankind. These faithful servants went forth and told the people who have not yet heard of God’s salvation, and therefore allowing more and more people to come to believe in the Lord and His truth.

They courageously went forth to distant lands, to the places where no one had yet known the Lord and His love, those who were still living in darkness and ignorance, all those who were still living in a state of sin. Without the courage of these Apostles, who taught and preached with zeal, many more souls would have been lost to the Lord, into the damnation in hell.

And that was what the saint whose feast day we celebrate today, had done by devoting his entire life, in order to avoid such a fate for those who have remained in ignorance of the Lord. St. Augustine of Canterbury, the founder of the Church and its architect in the lands of the Anglo-Saxons, now known as England, set forth from Rome, under the orders of the Pope at that time, Pope St. Gregory the Great, going away from his homeland, in order to be a missionary to the people who have not yet received proper guidance in the faith.

At the time, the collapse of the Roman Empire authority in Britain has left the Christian faith over there to fall into decline, as the pagan barbarians invaded, and disestablished much of the foundations of the Church in that area, which had not been strong and extensive to begin with. As a result, St. Augustine of Canterbury went to a region mostly filled with ignorance and lacking in faith in the Lord.

Nonetheless, St. Augustine of Canterbury persevered through the difficult times, and despite the challenges he faced, including opposition from the pagans and the enemies of the Church. St. Augustine of Canterbury patiently preached to the people, calling them to accept the truths as the Lord had revealed to His Church, and therefore for them to accept Him as their Lord and Saviour.

Gradually, St. Augustine of Canterbury managed to reestablish the Church in England, establishing his diocese in Canterbury, and at the same time building crucial infrastructure and foundation for the Church in that region, which eventually flourished and many people came to end up converting to the Christian faith. This is what he had done, for the sake of the Lord and for His people, all of the hard work he had done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, all of us are called to reflect on the actions of St. Augustine of Canterbury, as well as the works of the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord, all of whom had devoted much of their life’s work and energy in order to advance the cause of the Lord, and bring more and more souls back to the Lord’s loving embrace.

All of us should follow their examples, and learn to do the same with our lives. All of us should devote our time and effort to accomplish what the Lord had commanded His Apostles and disciples to do, and which therefore had become the same command that all of us need to obey as well. This is what we need to do, in order to fulfil what the Lord had wanted us to do.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all come ever closer to the Lord, and be ever more committed to Him. May He bless us all and give us the strength to persevere in this life, filled with ever more zeal and love for Him. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

by

Friday, 26 May 2017 : 6th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Philip Neri, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the message of the Holy Scriptures speaking to us clearly about what to expect if we are to remain true to the Lord and obedient to His truth. If we are to remain as His disciples and are faithful to Him, we will end up facing difficulties, troubles, and sometimes even persecution and sufferings that our predecessors, the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord had faced.

Yes, that was the reality of life for the many disciples and followers of the Lord, for most of its earliest history. There were many persecutions and challenges against the faithful, and the Church members were struck with tribulations and arrests. The Lord however was ever faithful to His people, never leaving them behind in their time of need.

Indeed, there would be sorrow and pain, suffering and anguish to be suffered by God’s people, as the Lord Himself had mentioned to His disciples. He did warn them beforehand that in order to follow Him, one therefore must be ready to sacrifice and to give their all if they are to obey the Lord and follow Him, for there surely will be those who would persecute them and challenge them in their faith.

But what the Lord offered us is greater than any other promises, for even though the path of His faithful ones will be painful and filled with sufferings, but at the end of it all, God will reward all those who keep their faith in Him with true joy and satisfaction, for the final victory over evil and death will be theirs. They will then avenge their sufferings and pains caused by their enemies and all those who had persecuted them.

The devil on the other hand, is also always offering us an alternative path, one that seems to be easy and less risky, one that seems to be more lucrative and enjoyable as compared to the path of the Lord. These are the temptations which he had placed in our path, hoping that we will take them and therefore fall into the trap of sin, and thus perish in damnation with him.

When times get difficult, and when challenges come on our way, it is easy for us mankind to end up being distracted and be tempted to leave behind our sufferings, and instead seek for the easy way out. That is indeed when we end up walking in the path of darkness instead of walking in the light of God. This is not what we as Christians should do, for we have to be resolute and strong in our faith, resisting those temptations in life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day let us all heed and learn from the examples of St. Philip Neri, a renowned and holy saint who lived during the time of the Counter Reformation, and who was credited and famous with the founding of the Oratory, in order to carry on and continue the missionary works which he had started. He was known for his labours and works among the sick and the poor, serving the most destitute of the people of God.

St. Philip Neri ministered to many sinners, prostitutes and all those who have been abandoned and rejected by the society. Certainly, all of his works did not entail easy or manageable tasks, and many of them required him to devote most of his time to a life of service, both to God and to His people. He encountered challenges and rejections, where people refused to believe in all that he had said.

And yet, St. Philip Neri persevered through all of them, calling many people to repent from their sins, and indeed, they repented and turned away from those sins towards the Lord. Many souls who had once been condemned to damnation, had been saved by the good works of St. Philip Neri, all because of the fact that St. Philip Neri never gave up on the mission which God had entrusted to him, and he placed his complete trust in the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us as Christians have to do the same, and following their examples, we should do our best in order to show our love, care and concern for our brethren in need, all of those who have sinned against God, and all those who have been sundered from God’s love. We have our calling, mission and responsibility in order to help our brethren who are still lost to the Lord, that these may find the way to return to our God and His salvation.

May the Lord strengthen our faith, and may He empower us all in order to become ever more faithful in all things, so that we may draw ever closer to God, and find our salvation in His most Holy Name and Presence. May God bless us all. Amen.