priestly sermon

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Wednesday, 30 November 2016 : Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate together the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle of Jesus Christ and the brother of St. Peter the Apostle, who were among the first ones that Jesus our Lord called, and in fact St. Andrew was also known as St. Andrew the First-Called as he was first to be called by Jesus, and then he called St. Peter to the service of God.

St. Andrew and his brother St. Peter were fishermen at the lake of Galilee, together with St. James and St. John. When you think of what fisherman does and what is their standing in the society, certainly you would not have thought immediately that these people would later on become great and called the Apostles of our Lord. But that is precisely how God works, for He calls simple and ordinary people, and transforms them by the power of His grace and love.

St. Andrew was among those whom the Lord had chosen to be the principal servants of His, to be the bearers of His Good News and His teachings, His words of salvation and liberation from sin for all mankind to hear, to see and to witness, that through what the Apostles had witnessed from the Lord, and which they shared to others, they might bring all these people away from the darkness and from the brink of death into a new life blessed by God in His grace.

And certainly, their work would not be an easy one, for many challenges were facing them at that time. First of all, the Jewish authorities were against them, in how the Pharisees, the elders, the chief priests, the teachers of the Law and even secular authorities like the Sadducees and Herod’s supporters were against them. Many of these people had viewed Jesus and His ways and teachings as threats to their own authority, and just as they had persecuted Jesus and condemned Him to death, the same they had done for His followers as well.

Indeed, given such an opposition, especially from a stubborn and hard-hearted people, it would be easy to just throw in the towel and give up everything. We may be thinking that it is not worth the effort to suffer, to toil and even to die for the sake of our Faith, and for the sake of the Lord, but let me tell you, the Apostles would have thought completely otherwise.

The Apostles brought the Good News of God to all mankind, going to faraway places and converting the people into the light of God. What is at stake there was none other than the fate of many, countless souls, all those who had not heard of the words of the Lord and His ways, and thus lived in sin and darkness. Had the Apostles not be brave, courageous and had they not gone out of their way to preach the Good News, many, millions and more souls would have been lost, including that of ours.

Why is that so? That is because if they had not preached the Good News to others, then the Good News would only remain with them, and others would not have heard of it. And if these others would not have heard of it, then the knowledge of God and His salvation would have ended there and then, and no one would be there to instruct people throughout the many years following Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension in the Faith, and therefore, neither would we have heard God’s salvation.

It was thanks to the hard work of the Apostles and their fellow disciples of the Lord, who have labourer hard, toiled hard, and persevered earnestly for their faith in God, for the evangelisation of the peoples, as what we have heard in the first reading today from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Rome. Through the works of the Apostles, many have heard of the Lord, and many have been turned from their sinful ways.

Divisions have been healed, and no longer were there distinction between Jews or Greeks, free or enslaved, for all have been freed and made equal in God. At that time, the Jews viewed themselves as superior to all the pagan peoples, the Gentiles, or non-Jews. They thought that because they were the direct descendants and heirs of Abraham, they deserved to receive God’s promise and not the other people.

But God made it clear through His teachings and through what the Apostles then disseminate among the people, Jews and Gentiles alike, that everyone are beloved by God and all who believe sincerely in Him will be saved. What matters is their love for God, their sincere devotion and their faith. And this was what the Apostles had laboured for, working tirelessly, suffering for persecution for our sake.

St. Andrew himself travelled to many places, including what is now Turkey and Greece. It was told that he helped to establish the See of Constantinople, the second in preeminence among all the dioceses in the world. It was there that he became the first bishop of the community of the faithful there, and spread the word of God to many people, and in the end, was martyred through crucifixion on an X-shaped cross, bringing glory to God.

Today, as we rejoice in the memory of the glorious Apostle St. Andrew, let us remember that as Christians, we still have that very same mission which our Lord has entrusted to His Apostles and disciples all those years ago. There are still yet many who have not heard of the word of God, His ways and His promised salvation. There are indeed many souls to be saved and many opportunities for evangelisation.

We are called to be the disciples of Christ, to be like His Apostle in our world today. We are called to serve Him through sincere faith and through zeal, that by our good works and by our courageous witness of the Lord and His teachings to others, we may be the source of eternal life and salvation for many others, that the salvation God has promised will not be ours alone, but also will belong to many, countless other souls.

Let us all ponder on this, and discern on what we can do, as Christians, as those who believe in Jesus our Lord, and of course, as those whom He had called to be the bearers of His Good News to the nations. As it had happened to the Apostles before, persecutions, challenges and difficulties will be part of our lives, but we should never fear, brethren, for God will always be with us, as He had been with His Apostles and all the martyrs and saints who have laboured and even gave up their lives for His sake.

May the Lord awaken in us the spirit and the strength to carry out His will and good works in our respective communities, that by the examples of St. Andrew and the other Holy Apostles, we may be inspired to serve Him with ever greater zeal and commit ourselves to works of redemption, calling all sinners to repentance in God, and thus make ourselves worthy of Him. May God bless all of our endeavours. Amen.

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Tuesday, 29 November 2016 : 1st Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture passages and readings we have heard revealed to us that we truly live in a time of grace, not quite as what we heard in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah yet, but it is a time of grace because we have all heard and received the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we have received through the Church, that is from our priests and bishops, who in turn received it from the Apostles who received it from the Lord Himself.

In the Gospel today, Jesus prayed and thanked the Father for revealing His truth to those whom He deemed worthy of it, not based on the standards of the world, but based on their own faith. Those who were intelligent and had the worldly knowledge then, for example the Pharisees, the elders, chief priests, the scribes and the teachers of the Law all rejected Jesus because they refused to abandon their mistaken way of thinking and embrace the Lord’s teachings.

It was all the normal people, the commoners and all those who were deemed to be uneducated, and even many of those regarded as sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes who actually accepted Jesus as their Lord and listened to Him. Those who have sinned regretted their sinful ways and turned back towards the Lord in sincere repentance. They welcomed the Lord into their midst and they were saved.

What we heard in the Gospel today also pointed out to what great privilege we have for having heard the message of God’s salvation and Good News. Many people before the Lord came had hoped for a long time to be able to receive God’s assurance of salvation and Good News but were not able to. We have received the Good News through the Church, and yet sadly there are those among us who do not appreciate what a great grace we have received.

In this time and season of Advent therefore, it is appropriate and important for us to get ourselves properly prepared and ready for the Lord, that when we come to our celebration of Christmas, we can celebrate it meaningfully, purposefully and then it will benefit us in our way towards the Lord and in our effort to seek salvation in Him.

Have we put our focus and attention on Christ for this coming Christmas? Are our plans for the celebrations putting Christ at the centre of all? We have to understand that if our focus is wrong, then our joy and celebrations will feel empty, as there is something missing from all of them, something that all those kings and prophets were looking for and waiting for, and yet they were not able to get what we now have received through Christ.

This season of Advent is a time for us to take stock of our actions and how we have lived our lives. It is a time for us to reflect and take some time to prepare ourselves spiritually and mentally so that we may appreciate just how great is the grace we have received through Christ and His coming into the world, which is what this Christmas celebration is precisely about.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all commit ourselves to the Lord anew and devote ourselves ever more to Him, listening to His words in the Scripture and understanding His ways through the teachings of the Church. Let us all deepen our spiritual life through prayer and devotions to Him, and be ready for a wonderful celebration of Christmas, commemorating the birth and entry of our Lord Jesus into this world. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 28 November 2016 : 1st Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard from the Scriptures firstly about the anticipation of the coming of our Lord Jesus, as promised by the Lord, in the visions and promises shown by God to His servant Isaiah. And this is the essence of the season of Advent, which is about the waiting, the expectation and the anticipation for the coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

As mentioned in yesterday’s homily, the celebration of Christmas must be centred in Christ, and not on other things. Our joy and our rejoicing must be focused on the Lord, for it is indeed not about us but about Christ. Yet, many of us and many in this world has the wrong priority in how they celebrate Christmas. They put themselves first when they rejoice and when they celebrate, worrying about what gift they will give or receive, what will they wear at the celebration, what will they eat and drink, and how they will celebrate.

God is easily forgotten out in that manner, and instead of being the focus of our joy, we make ourselves, our ego and greed as the focus instead. That is why, in this season of Advent, it is important for to us to spend some time, all the more why the Church gave us this excellent opportunity of having the four weeks to discern, prepare and anticipate for the coming of our Lord Jesus.

We should read carefully and discern what we have heard in the Gospel today. The words of the army captain or centurion is what we have always recited during the Mass, which I am sure we have come to many times and we may even have memorised the words by heart. But when we say it, do we say it with proper understanding or instead just merely saying it out of familiarity and routine?

‘Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof’ is the sentence uttered by that army captain, as a sign of great faith and respect which he had for the Lord Jesus. He believed wholeheartedly that God would be able to heal his servant to perfect health, and at the same time, he also understood completely how unworthy he was to accept the Lord at his home, the home of a sinner and an unworthy man.

We have to understand it based on history, and how the perceptions of the Jewish society was at that time. The army captain was likely to be a Gentile, or a non-Jew, whom in the eyes of the Jews at that time, they were seen as pagans and unbelievers, in the same rank as those like the tax collectors and prostitutes. We can already see how the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law criticised Jesus in several occasions for coming into their houses, sitting and dining with them at the table.

Therefore, the army captain might have felt uncomfortable that this good and wonderful Master and Lord would want to come into his house, the house of a sinner in the eyes of the Jewish people, and therefore, he instead made an even more powerful profession of faith before the Lord. He believed that God would be able to heal His servant just by an order. Most people would want the Lord to touch them and to do something for them so that they would be healed, but this army captain believed so much that he knew that the Lord would heal his servant just by a word from His mouth.

And thus for his faith, the Lord rewarded the army captain greatly and acknowledged his faith before all. Now, let us all ask ourselves, in this season of Advent, we are preparing and anticipating for the celebration of Christmas, but at the same time we are also aware that the Lord will come again as He had promised us. So, when He comes again, are we ready in our hearts, minds, souls and bodies to welcome Him?

Let us take heed the examples of the army captain and his faith. That is the kind of faith that we must have every days of our respective lives. We must understand that we are all sinners who are unworthy of the Lord, and yet God still wants to help us and to save us from our destruction by our sins. Then, if the Lord is willing, are we willing to accept Him and welcome Him too?

Let us use this time of Advent meaningfully, so that we will be able to prepare ourselves spiritually and mentally that when Christmas comes, we will be able to celebrate it with true joy and with proper focus on our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Come Lord Jesus, come and save Your beloved people. Amen.

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Sunday, 27 November 2016 : First Sunday of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the beginning of the new liturgical year cycle as well as the beginning of the season of Advent, a season of preparation and spiritual journey for all of us Christians as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the feast of Christmas. On this day we begin the time of spiritual renewal and discernment, as we are getting ready for the commemoration of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

And as we begin today’s celebrations and the season of Advent in general, let us all take into consideration what we have just heard from the Scripture readings, where we see how the prophet Isaiah prophesied about the coming of the Lord, Who would come to reveal His ways and truth to the whole world, that everyone and every nations may no longer bicker and fight over one another and with one another, but live in peace and harmony in the Lord.

And this prophecy has been fulfilled in Christ, the Saviour Who has come into the world and fulfilled all the promises God had made for His people, and in this season of Advent we are preparing ourselves to celebrate His coming into the world, both that of the past and the future, as the meaning of the term Advent, taken from the Latin word ‘Adventus’ which is translated into English as the arrival or the coming of someone or something. In that word, there is the connotation associated with expectation and waiting, as the precursor to something that is to come.

We may indeed wonder, brothers and sisters in Christ, on what we are truly preparing ourselves for in this season of Advent, but we do not need to look far beyond what we can already seen around us, in how the world and many people celebrate and rejoice during Christmas, and how many of us perceive Christmas and its festivities. Advent cannot be understood separately from Christmas as its existence is intimately and closely tied with that of the celebration of the birth of our Lord.

While in the beginning, Christmas was indeed a joyous season and time when all the faithful rejoice over the Nativity or the birth of our Lord Jesus, God made Man, over time, as we can clearly observe in our world today, Christ has become forgotten and ignored during the anniversary of the moment He was born into the world. The birthday Boy from Whom we got the name ‘Christ’mas has been ignored and overlooked on His own big day.

Instead, many of us and the world celebrate it with many forms of secular joy amd celebrations, festivities and feasts that are not centred in the figure of Christ, and what many children are familiar with in this world are figures like Santa Claus, his supposedly elvish helpers, magical reindeers, all of which elements are distractions for many of us, especially for our children, in how we ought to be truly celebrating Christmas.

We often associate Christmas with great feasts and gatherings, where our children enjoy the parties and the gifts they received, and we worry about what we are to wear to such an occasion, worrying about what we will say when we meet with our relatives and friends, and even what kind of decorations we ought to be putting up this Christmas, whether it should be cones, or stars, or statues of Angels, or bells, or whatever other things out there we tend to be worried about when Christmas time is approaching.

All these things are what have distracted us from our true focus and the true purpose of Christmas. If we do not understand what Christmas is about, then our joy and celebrations will be meaningless and empty, and we will not benefit a single bit from it. And that is why this season of Advent is very important for us, as a time for us to take a step back, stop whatever we are doing and reassess ourselves and ask ourselves this question, what is Christmas? What does it mean to us?

Let us all understand, brothers and sisters in Christ, that in Christmas, we are celebrating Christ Who was yesterday, today and future. He came that time two millennia ago, as the fulfilment of the long promised salvation, and that was the moment when our Lord Himself took up our form and our flesh, becoming Man like one of us and entered into this world. But then, through what He had done, He has saved us all by His death on the cross, and offered His own Body and Blood to us all, so that all of us who share in the Eucharist will be saved.

And that is what we celebrate, the Christmas of the past, when the Lord first came into the world, and the Christmas of the present, as the Lord Himself is present and living in each and every one of us who have worthily received His Body and Blood in the Eucharist. And finally, we celebrate the future coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Christmas of the future, the day we are looking forward to, as He has promised, that He will come again at the end of time to bring all of His faithful ones into eternal glory and life.

Therefore, we can see that Christmas is indeed about Christ, and all the other celebrations and joys we celebrate are secondary. Our primary and main joy comes about because Christ our Lord has been willing to do what needed to be done for the sake of our salvation, and because of that He willingly emptied Himself and came down, the Divine Word made flesh, to be one of us, so that by that action, He may unite us with Himself, and by dying on the cross, sealed away and destroyed all of the fetters and chains binding us that is our sins.

We rejoice in Christmas because now we know that death is not the end of everything. There is indeed hope and light in our journey, and that light and hope is Jesus our Lord, the One Who ought to be commemorated and celebrated in Christmas. He is the Lord and Master of Christmas, the One Who ought to be the focus of all our attention as we prepare to celebrate this annual solemnity of Christmas.

This Advent season is one of preparation and also of longing. We prepare ourselves body, heart, mind and soul to welcome the Lord, both He Who came into the world two millennia ago, and He Who comes into us as we receive the Eucharist, and He Who will come again as He had promised, to succour and bless His faithful ones, all the same Lord Jesus our Lord and King.

And we long for Him just as the people of Israel once long for the promised land, after a long journey in the desert for forty years. By their disobedience they had been made to wander in the desert and perish, but those who were faithful persevered on and eventually were granted entry into the land of milk and honey, the lands promised to their forefathers. In the same manner, we also long for the Lord and for His coming, which timing we are not aware of.

Yes, that is also the essence of today’s Gospel, which reminds us that the coming of the Lord will catch many people by surprise precisely because they were not expecting it to happen. And when He comes again, what will He find in the world? How will He find us at that moment? Will we be worthy in His eyes because we have obeyed Him and fulfilled His will? Or will we instead be caught in wickedness and in sin?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is what we really need to think about and consider during this season of Advent, right from the very beginning. Are we prepared for the Lord? Are our bodies, minds, hearts and souls ready for the Lord in case He comes again? Are we ready to celebrate Christmas with the right mindset and right attitude?

Let us all take some time to reflect on these, and do our best to prepare ourselves thoroughly, so that this season and time of Advent will be useful and meaningful for us, and being fully utilised, we will be ready to celebrate Christmas in the correct manner, having great joy and celebrations, but not for our own sake or for our own glory, but instead, placing the Lord Jesus Christ at the centre of all of our celebrations and our joy.

May the Lord Jesus bless us and keep us in His grace and love, and may He strengthen our wavering spirit and faith inside us. May He help us to persevere through the challenges and difficulties, resisting the many temptations of the world, so that we may be always ready no matter what time or moment it is, for the sake of His glorious Second Coming, that when He comes, He will find us ready and true to Him in faith, and thus be worthy of eternal life with Him in joy. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 26 November 2016 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the Word of God from the Sacred Scriptures telling us of the hope of our future inheritance, the promise of everlasting life in pure bliss and joy in the perfect realm and world God has promised before us, to all those who are faithful to Him, that He will bring all of us into paradise, to enjoy forever the fruits of His love, never to be sorrowful or sad anymore, ever again.

At the end of the Book of the Revelations of St. John the Apostle, after all the parts describing the great persecution and sufferings that will await the faithful, and subsequently what happened to the wicked, who endured the great wrath of God, and had their cities and all things destroyed, in the end, after all things have been judged, God will reveal to all the heavenly Jerusalem, the true Holy City where all the faithful ones will dwell with their God forevermore.

But the path to reach this heavenly inheritance will not be an easy one, brothers and sisters in Christ, otherwise everyone would have been easily saved and no one would have to face condemnation and hell. There will be plenty of obstacles, dangers and threats to our safety and even to our very own lives, and we should not be complacent in this matter lest we falter.

It is easy for us to be complacent if we do not live our lives with faith and be courageous in living up to what the Lord expects us to be. It is easy for us to fall into the trap of the temptations of the world, that is when we fall into the lures of pleasure of the flesh, of drunkenness and other vices and wickedness just as our Lord Jesus highlighted in today’s Gospel passage.

This is especially true in our era today, the time that we are living in, when we are experiencing daily the pressure to conform to the expectations of this world. We live in a world often obsessed with success, with fame and greed, with individualism and the ego of man, so much so that we end up being pressured to conform to these ways, which are often contrary to the ways of the Lord our God.

Take for example the abundance of materialism as a culture in and around us, through various advertisements and other means of communication. We are always inundated with so many of these messages and influences, that we are in danger of losing our focus and our way, becoming more and more attached and obsessed with the values and pursuits of worldliness rather than striving to become more faithful disciples and followers of our Lord.

We have to take note of the seriousness of this matter and prepare ourselves, brethren, for all that God had said in the Scriptures He will do in His own time, and when He comes to deliver judgment to all, we certainly will not want to end up on the wrong side, as our vices and wickedness outweigh our good deeds and virtues. We must not think that there is always time available for us, and therefore we can delay seeking God’s mercy and forgiveness until the very end.

Indeed, we do not even have the slightest idea or hint of when this will happen, and it can happen anytime. The Lord may just suddenly appear and declare His salvation to all whom He deems to be worthy, and if we are not prepared, we will be like those five foolish women who did not bring extra lamp oil with themselves. As a result, they missed the opportunity given to them, and God rejected them.

As Christians, all these readings and the readings for the past few weeks should have awakened in us the sense of great urgency to live in accordance with the ways of our Lord and at the same time, it is also a reminder for us to learn to resist worldly temptations of wealth, money and possessions. Otherwise these will easily tempted us as how they have tempted our ancestors and predecessors.

Let us all therefore strengthen our own spiritual life and connection to God through sincere and fervent prayers. Let us all put our focus and effort to serve the Lord through various means and commit ourselves day by day, by loving one another, showing charity and mercy to the poor, the weak, the ostracised, the unloved, and those who are sick and dying.

Let us all show forth our faith to others and to the whole world. Do not be afraid of ridicule, rejection and even persecution, but just do what we can do in order to remain as true Christians amidst this difficult time. God will be with us and He will guide us to Himself. Rich will be our reward when He comes again in glory and find us in our faith and worthy of Him. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 25 November 2016 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we approach the closing of the current liturgical year, all of the Scripture readings which we heard and received all have that ‘Apocalyptic’ slant, that is, many of them are talking about what will happen soon, in the future, when as foretold in the Book of the Revelations of St. John the Apostle, our Lord will come again in His glory to save all of those who are faithful to Him.

And we are told about what will happen at the great and Last Judgment of all the things living and the dead, as we pronounce every time we recite the Creed, when the Lord Jesus, the Great Judge of all will give His judgment on every single one of us, from the lowest among us to the greatest, from the richest to the poorest, from the kings to the lowliest peasants and beggars, all will receive judgment according to their deeds in life, as written in the records of the Lord.

And we are also told how those whose lives have been worthy in the eyes of the Lord have their names written in the Book of Life, while those who have been wicked and been against the Lord and His ways in their lives do not have their names written in that Book. It is a measure of comparing between those worthy and unworthy in the sight of God.

And the Lord’s Judgment is simple, that those who have been found worthy and whose names are in the Book will receive the eternal glory and joy promised to them, and the others whose names are not found in the Book will receive for their part, eternal damnation and suffering, separated from God’s love and grace without any hope of escape or succour.

In the Gospel, we heard Jesus telling His disciples and the people about knowing and being able to discern the sign of times, so that we will not be caught unaware of what will happen, as we have just discussed earlier on. We cannot remain ignorant and complacent in how we live our lives, as many of us tend to do, for the danger is that when the Lord suddenly comes again, we may be caught unprepared, and by then, no amount of regret is going to save us from what is to come.

And how do we prepare ourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ? Then let us all heed what Jesus told His disciples in another occasion in the Gospels when He told them about what will happen at the Last Judgment when He will separate the worthy ones from the unworthy and wicked ones. All of what Jesus told them is about the failure of the wicked ones to stretch out their hands to help out those who are needy, poor, naked, suffering and in prison, while those who are worthy have already done something to help these.

Therefore, that is what we need to do, brothers and sisters in Christ, by making ourselves readily available to help those who are weak, the least and the ostracised ones in our society, those who are unloved and those who have no one to care for them, poor and in need of help. This is what we need to do as Christians, as our form of Christian love and charity to our brethren, what God has asked us all to do.

Today we also celebrate the feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria, who is a devout and holy woman whose examples can be our inspiration on how we should live out our lives in faith. It was told that she was a noble by birth and was renowned by her beauty and also her piety, who converted to the Faith through visions she received from the Lord.

She showed concern for all of her fellow Christians who were suffering under persecution by the then Emperor Maxentius, by challenging the Emperor himself to rescind his persecution order and let the Christians be. The Emperor was told to have gathered over fifty best philosophers to argue with St. Catherine, but they were all soundly defeated by the wisdom of God found in the holy woman and servant of God. Many of them in fact were converted to the faith and would later be martyred together with her.

St. Catherine was arrested and put in prison, and while in prison, her courageous faith and zeal continued to bring forth even more good fruits, and more people converted because of her, and it was told that even the Empress herself believed and was converted, and thus, even the Empress would join St. Catherine in her martyrdom. She met her end knowing fully that God is with her, and through her, many good deeds have been done. She is therefore truly worthy of the Lord and His promise.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by her examples, by her piety and devotion, and by her dedication and commitment to live a life filled with faith and devotion to God. We should do our best to help one another, and to give our life into a dedication of service to our less fortunate brethren, so that in the end, when it is time for us to give an account of our own lives and be judged, our names will be written in the Book of Life and we shall receive the fullness of God’s promise. May the Lord guide us in this endeavour and bless all of us. Amen.

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Thursday, 24 November 2016 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate together the feast of the faithful servants of God who worked hard to spread the Good News and the faith in the region now known as Vietnam. One of them was St. Andrew Dung-Lac, one the first local Vietnamese priests who with many of his fellow Christians, missionaries and priests were put to death and endured great sufferings for their faith in God.

At that time, the regime of the Vietnamese Empire was led by staunchly anti-Christian party, who viewed the faith with an extreme suspicion and dislike, and they were mistakenly seen as collaborators to the foreign forces, and therefore gained the instant opposition from those who were in power. The missionaries and those who helped them were facing great difficulties and were threatened with suffering and even death.

Yet, they did not fear and neither did they back down from the mission which had been presented to them, which is the conversion of souls and redemption of sinners, by the means of evangelisation. And by their hard work and dedication, they had gained many converts to the faith, who themselves had to endure great persecutions and difficulties, as the authorities tried very hard to stamp out the growing Christian community.

And from the local communities rose even more devoted people who took up the cross and the calling of the Lord, joining the sacred order of priesthood as St. Andrew Dung-Lac had done. Many others helped the work of evangelisation in various ways, as priests or religious or the laity. The faith grew and spread quickly, and many more souls were saved, but this brought even greater persecution against them.

And thus that was how many of these faithful were forced to choose between life and death, in either continuing to serve the Lord faithfully and die or to recant their faith and reject their Lord and be allowed to live. Many of the faithful chose to be faithful and remained true to their Lord and Master despite all the threats made against them. And thus they met their end with courage and joy in martyrdom, knowing that their reward in God is great at the end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the examples of the Vietnamese Martyrs of the Faith, St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his many companions in faith, the religious, priests and missionaries and even the faithful among the laity should become inspiration for each and every one of us Christians living today, as the reality of persecution and opposition by the world and all those opposed to our salvation in God is indeed true and real.

Yes, even today many of our brethren in faith still suffer the daily effects of rejection, ridicule and persecution by the world, by worldly authorities and all those who do not seek to see us be saved by the Lord Jesus, and many even had to risk their lives in practicing their faith, and often have to practice their faith secretly under the pain of death, and yet they often face the challenges with courage and commitment to God.

We should help one another, brethren, supporting those who are in need of our help. We should pray for one another, and ask the Lord to help and guide us through these turbulent and uncertain times. We should not fear or give in to the demands from those whose intent is our destruction, as we have to hold fast to the promise God made to all those who remain true and faithful to Him, that to them, He will grant the true joy of having everlasting life with Him.

And God is forever faithful and completely trustworthy, brothers and sisters in Christ, unlike us mankind who can be unreliable and untrustworthy. We can put our trust in God without fear or doubt. Now, what we need to do is, look at our own respective lives, look at our actions and deeds, and then think of what we can do and contribute in order to bring ourselves closer to God, fulfilling His will and desires.

May the Lord help and guide us, and may through the intercessions of St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions, the holy Vietnamese martyrs, we may grow ever more committed in living our lives filled with faith, and thus in the end of the days, we are worthy to share with them the eternal kingship and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He comes again as King to rule over us forevermore. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 23 November 2016 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr, and St. Columban, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Abbots)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are reassured yet again by the Lord, that we will never be alone amidst the difficulties and challenges that we may face as those who belong to the Lord. It will not be easy for us to stay faithful and devoted to God, and be a true Christian. If we have not had difficulties and challenges thus far, then perhaps we have not been true to our faith in God, or we might not have practiced our faith as we should have.

There will be clashes and conflicts arising between the ways of this world and the ways of the Lord which we are following. We can already see it clearly in the world we live in today. While this world is inundated with materialism and greed, our faith promotes moderation, charity and compassion for our fellow humanity, helping those who are poor and less fortunate than us. And while this world is filled with hatred and prejudice, the Lord taught us to be inclusive and to love one another without reservation.

And this is where divisions can arise, as the world may at times reject our ways and then act to condemn what we are doing, and rally against us. At times, there will also be ridicule and false charges levied against us, just as the people once condemned and rejected Jesus our Lord. But we must not lose hope, just as our Lord overcome the humiliation of the cross and transformed it into a symbol of triumph, defeating sin and death forever, we too will triumph in the end.

God has given us His words that He will not abandon us to the darkness and to the devil. Opposition will always be there against us, but God will send us His help and providence. He will never left us alone, and if we are faithful, we shall receive the rich rewards of the promise given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, the promise of everlasting life and glory with Him in heaven.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we commemorate the feast of two saints, Pope St. Clement I, holy Pope and Bishop of Rome during the days of the early Church, and St. Columban, a holy religious and Abbot renowned for his great faith in the Lord. Both of them were devoted servants of our Lord, and of the people entrusted to their care. Both of them were very important in the establishment of the early Church and in the strengthening of the faith of the faithful.

Pope St. Clement I was one of the first successors of St. Peter the Apostle, chief of the Apostles and the first Pope and Bishop of Rome. He succeeded Pope St. Linus and Pope St. Anacletus who in turn succeeded St. Peter, as the fourth Bishop of Rome and Pope, and thus leader of the entire Universal Church. He helped to establish the jurisdiction and leadership of the bishops over the Church, and in his many letters and Epistles, he taught many of the faithful throughout the Church about the faith and how to remain strong in their faith.

Eventually Pope St. Clement I was martyred because of his faith during one of the persecutions of the faithful by the Roman authorities. However, he faced his death with joy knowing that God is on His side, and He will never abandon His faithful ones to destruction, since He would preserve their souls, and although his body and the bodies of the other martyrs would face destruction, but their souls are eternal.

Meanwhile, St. Columban was a renowned Irish missionary and religious who travelled and ministered throughout the region of Gaul, that is now known as France. He worked hard and preached about the faith in many places, establishing religious communities throughout his journey sites in France and also Italy. He helped to bring discipline to the many religious communities at that time, and also strengthen the foundation of their faith.

St. Columban faced many challenges and oppositions throughout his works and travels throughout the land, even against bishops, nobles and kings. However, he was never deterred by these, and continued to work hard and preached the word of God and His truth with zeal and commitment. These are the good examples that we all have to follow and emulate, as we continue to live our lives in this world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all today spend time to reflect and pray, so that all of us will learn to put our complete trust in the Lord, and change our ways and actions so that we will be able to attune ourselves to God and His ways. May the Lord help us and bless us always, and may He keep us in His grace forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 22 November 2016 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the apocalyptic messages from the Scripture readings that we heard, about the coming of the end of times, when the Lord will come to judge all of His peoples. But before that, as foretold in the Gospel and in the Book of Revelations, there will be tribulations, challenges, difficulties and all kinds of obstacles on the path of us all, the faithful people of God.

There will be many false prophets who are trying to dissuade us and lure us away from finding our way to the Lord, and these are active out there, spreading lies and sweet promises trying to gain our attention and allegiance to their cause. And it will be difficult to remain true in our faith to God, challenges and obstacles abound and plenty in our path. But God had also foretold this to us through His disciples, and we ought to expect this outcome.

And we do not know of the time of our Lord’s coming, which will come suddenly in the end at the time of His own choosing. When God comes, will He find good on earth? Or will He find plenty of wickedness instead? It is more likely that it will be the latter one, as mankind increasingly forget about their Lord and God, and continued to act in ways that are contrary to His ways and teachings.

We live in this world today at a time when the world increasingly becoming more secularised as well as materialistic. We live at a time when in the hearts and minds of many people, God no longer exists. To many people, God is not a priority for them, and some others even contended that God does not exist at all, and actively seeking to persecute the faithful who are living their daily faith, ridiculing and striking at the holy people of God.

And in the ever more materialistic world we have today, increasingly there are more and more temptations and all the other obstacles placed by the agents of the evil one in order to make us stumble and fail in our journey towards God. We are inundated with messages from advertisements and other forms of communications, with inappropriate conduct and behaviour, with improper persuasions of lust, pleasures of the flesh, greed and other wicked things.

The question that we are facing now is, what are we, as Christians, going to do in the midst of this difficult and troubling times? Do we run away and pretend that we know nothing about what is happening? Should we be ignorant and just carry on with our normal routines and our daily lives? Or should we fall into the line and conform with what the world expects all the people to be like?

There is a better option, brothers and sisters in Christ, and that is to stay faithful and committed to the Lord in all of our ways, as what the holy martyrs and saints of the past had also done. St. Cecilia, whose feast we are celebrating today, is one of those great examples. She was a young noble Roman woman who devoted herself to her faith in God. But she was asked to marry another nobleman.

At her marriage, she sang her heart out to the Lord, telling all who were present that she devoted herself wholly to the Lord, and that is why she is now patron saint for all musicians, all who devoted themselves to the Lord through song and music. She continued to lead a chaste life, devoted in holy virginity to the Lord, and through her many others were inspired to lead a more devout life and existence in the world. Even she convinced her husband by a vision to be baptised as a Christian.

St. Cecilia, her husband and some others of the faithful were martyred for their faith by the Roman prefect, at that time when a great persecution of the faithful was carried out. Yet, their examples and their inspiration continued to inspire many people throughout the centuries. We too should follow the examples of St. Cecilia in how we lead our lives.

May the Lord help us that we may resist the temptations of the world and grow ever more devoted and stronger in our faith. Let us all commit ourselves to God, be true in our ways and never fear, for God will always be with us and reward all of His faithful ones in the end. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 21 November 2016 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, remembering and commemorating the moment when the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ was presented to God at the Temple after she was born, much as her Son Jesus, her Firstborn Son was presented to God.

It is likely that she is the firstborn child of her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne. The practice of the offering of the Firstborn has deep roots in the history of our salvation, from the time of the Exodus, when the people of Israel were saved and brought out from their slavery in Egypt. At that time, the Lord showed His might to the Egyptians and their Pharaoh, who refused to let the Israelites go, raining down ten great plagues upon them.

It was the final plague that finally caused the Pharaoh to relent and let the people of God go, when he planned destruction on God’s people by seeking to kill all the firstborns of Israel. But God turned that around into triumph for His people by instead destroying the firstborns of Egypt including the firstborn of Pharaoh. Thus the offering of the firstborn children to God is a reminder of this great and eminent goodness of our Lord for His people.

And at the same time, it is also a reminder of how God saved His beloved creations, His firstborn ones from the assault by Satan and all of his fallen allies, as they sought to bring about our downfall by causing us to be tempted and fall into sin. And that was how Satan brought down Adam and Eve, our first ancestors. But God did not forget about us, and He still loved us, as shown in how He made a promise to them, that He will deliver them from all the ruination that Satan had caused.

And He foretold that a Woman will come to crush Satan and all of his spawns, to be the sign for the ultimate defeat of the evil one which God had foretold from the very beginning. And that woman was again mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, who foretold of the coming of the Messiah through the same woman. And that woman is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the one who bore the Saviour of the world, Jesus into this world.

If Jesus was presented to the Lord as the Saviour of all, worthy and unblemished, then His mother Mary, who was also conceived without the taint of sin, the Virgin of Immaculate Conception, was presented to the Lord as the worthy and blessed Ark to contain the New Covenant which God was making with His people in Jesus Christ. Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant, through which God made into reality the salvation He promised to us mankind.

And Mary is our role model, our greatest intercessor before God, whose actions and dedication to God is rivalled by none. She gave her whole life to God, and she dutifully carried out what had been entrusted to her as the Mother of God and our Saviour. In the Gospel today, we may mistook the idea that Jesus was being rude to His mother if we do not understand what He was actually trying to say. He did not go out to meet His mother and brothers who were waiting for Him, and instead saying to the people He was teaching who are His mother and brothers.

But Jesus was in fact saying that, be like His mother in all things, so that they will be worthy to be called sons and daughters of God. Therefore today, let us all model ourselves after Mary in her great obedience to the will of God, her willingness to have God leading her on the way to salvation, and her commitment without end, even unto following and witnessing her own Son’s death on the cross.

Let us be inspired by her actions and examples, and let us all also ask for her to intercede for our sake, that she will beseech for our sake, we who are sinners, that God her Son will show us His kind mercy and love. O Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us now and to the end of our lives. Amen.