providence

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Monday, 5 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Mass of the Dedication of a Basilica)

Psalm 80 : 12-13, 14-15, 16-17

But My people did not listen; Israel did not obey. So I gave them over to their stubbornness and they followed their own counsels.

If only My people would listen, if only Israel would walk in My ways, I would quickly subdue their adversaries and turn My hand against their enemies.

Those who hate the Lord would cringe before Him, and their panic would last forever. I would feed you with the finest wheat and satisfy you with honey from the rock.

 

 

Alternative Reading (From the Mass for the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)

 

Judith 13 : 18bcde, 19

My daughter, may the Most High God bless you more than all women on earth. And blessed be the Lord God, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has led you to behead the leader of our enemies.

Never will people forget the confidence you have shown; they will always remember the power of God.

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Monday, 5 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Mass of the Dedication of a Basilica)

Numbers 11 : 4b-15

“Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish we ate without cost in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and garlic. Now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to look at, nothing but manna.”

Now the manna was like coriander seed and had the appearance of bedellium. The people went about gathering it up and then ground it between millstones or pounded it in a mortar. They boiled it in a pot and made cakes with it which tasted like cakes made with oil. As soon as dew fell at night in the camp, the manna came with it.

Moses heard the people crying, family by family at the entrance to their tent and YHVH became very angry. This displeased Moses. Then Moses said to YHVH, “Why have You treated Your servant so badly? Is it because You do not love me that You burdened me with this people? Did I conceive all these people and did I give them birth?

And now You want me to carry them in my bosom as a nurse carries an infant, to the land You promised on oath to their fathers? Where would I get meat for all these people, when they cry to me saying : ‘Give us meat that we may eat?’ I cannot, myself alone, carry all these people; the burden is too heavy for me. Kill me rather than treat me like this, I beg of You, if You look kindly on me, and let me not see Your anger.”

 

Alternative Reading (From the Mass for the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)

 

Revelations 21 : 1-5a

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had passed away and no longer was there any sea. I saw the new Jerusalem, the holy city coming down from God, out of heaven, adorned as a bride prepared for her husband. A loud voice came from the throne, “Here is the dwelling of God among mortals : He will pitch His tent among them and they will be His people; He will be God-with-them.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death or mourning, crying out or pain, for the world that was has passed away.” The One seated on the throne said, “See, I make all things new.”

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My Prayer Intention for Monday, 5 August 2013

1. For Monsignor Konrad Krajewski, who was appointed the new Almoner of His Holiness the Pope. May the Lord bless him in his new position and his new role, in managing the Pope’s charitable activities, that he will do his work dutifully for the sake of God’s Church and God’s people. We also thank You for giving him to us, through his excellent services as the Assistant Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, ensuring that we have wonderful Papal Masses that bring all of us as one in worshipping You through the Holy Mass.

2. For the people in positions of governance and responsibility to the people. May the Lord plant in them the seeds of responsibility and devotion to their position as people entrusted with others under their care. May they know to put those entrusted to them first before themselves, and dedicate themselves fully in the service to those given to them. May they become truly good shepherds that the people, the sheep of the flock of God, may look up to and follow. May they never be engulfed in their own selves and selfishness, and put love in all their actions, and not to be corrupted or tempted by the power and authority given to them.

3. For people who are in hunger, both for physical food, or for spiritual food of love. May the Lord satiate them and their hunger, through our own actions, their brothers and sisters. May we all learn to share with one another what we have more, what we have that may alleviate their hunger, their hunger for love, and their hunger for food. May we know that in sharing our love, and in sharing what we have, we will have more and not less, because we share them in happiness and joy, with our brethren in need.

May the Lord who is merciful and kind, look upon us His children who are suffering, who are in the darkness of sin, that our plight and petitions may be lifted up, and reach His presence in heaven, that He may show His love and mercy to us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 28 July 2013 : 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God who is our Father is kind, and He is loving, because He is love, and true love personified, in all its perfection. The Lord cannot deny Himself, and He loves everyone without exception. This love He had poured down upon the world through the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Messiah, our Saviour. And to add to that, the numerous reminders He had sent us and His people, Israel, through the prophets and their prophecies and the visions and revelations He had given them.

He loves us all and He will surely listen to our needs, and He truly knows all that we need. That is why we should never worry, and instead we all should put our full trust in Him, for He is a loving God, who is just and righteous in all the things He does. But remember, brothers and sisters, that He is also an avenging God, just as He is loving, because He hates sin first of all things, and all things evil and abhorring in His eyes. If we sin and do not repent, we will face the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were wiped out from the face of the earth for their sins.

But our Father in heaven does not just want empty worship and prayers either, as many of us would certainly had done in the past, paying lip service to the Lord who loves us. He wants from us our hearts, our full attention and dedication, just as He Himself had paid full attention to all of us sinners, all these while. We are like lost sheep to Him, whom He cannot ignore, and He would use all in His power to bring us back, like a shepherd going all out to find even one lost sheep.

So that we would not be lost, like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were lost in their debauchery and their sinful lives, where sin had blinded and deafened them to the Lord their God, He had sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be a new light, a new hope for all of us. And one of the things that He had done to make sure that we will not be lost forever was that to teach us how to pray, how to pray to the Lord our God with all our hearts, our minds, and our full attention, that our prayer is indeed truly a prayer, pure and beautiful in the eyes and ears of the Lord.

To pray is to communicate with our Lord, and that is the key essence of what a prayer truly is. To pray is not to bring in endless litanies of requests and wishes, or bugging our Lord for His help whenever we are in dire straits. To pray is not to turn to the Lord only when we are in difficulties and in need of great help, or in the state of danger. Indeed, as the Lord has told us, and Christ His Son has taught us through His disciples, that prayer must be done, at all times, with a sincere and pure heart.

That was why Christ taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer, the very prayer that came out of the mouth of the Word of God, Christ Himself. This prayer is a perfect prayer, the most sincere and purest of all prayers that are ever be in this world, be it on earth or in heaven. The Lord’s Prayer, which we recite and pray every Mass and most likely pray every day, is the model prayer for all of us. It is a simple yet a clear-cut prayer, straight to the point in its meaning, and pure in its intentions.

Yes, a prayer must always begin with glorifying the Lord our God and praising His Name, and all His love and kindness that He had shown us, all His beloved children. A prayer must never be a litany of requests and petitions, but indeed, it must be a humble prayer, showing our sincerity and humility before the throne of God, for we are nothing and full of sin, and yet He rescued us and made us whole and pure once again, with none other than the Blood of His own Son’s sacrifice on the cross.

In a prayer, we have to listen to God just as God listens to us. A prayer is a two-way communication between God and man, the link between our Creator and us His creations. He speaks to us in mysterious ways and in the depth and the silence of our hearts. If we keep our hearts closed to Him, we will not be able to listen to Him. It is often that we have to cast away our pride and sinfulness, and the deafening noise of the world, so that we will be able to listen to our Lord, and communicate sincerely with Him through prayer.

That is why brothers and sisters, whenever we pray, we should close ourselves from the world, and take away any form of distractions which may distract us and disturb our precious link with the Lord our God. Do it in silence and in the privacy of our rooms, and it is also important that we make use of every opportunity we have to be silent, even at a workplace, to listen to the Lord speaking to us. Even that is prayer, brothers and sisters in Christ!

That is also why in the Mass, it is important to have silent moments, after the readings, during the time after we receive the Lord in the Holy Communion, and even at times before the Mass starts or after the Mass has finished. These are precious moments we can use to communicate with our God, especially if we are busy with our work in any other times. It is important, brothers and sisters, that we respond to the Lord’s calls and know what He wants us to do with our lives. Be like the prophet Samuel, who in his youth was called by the Lord and he answered to it, and listened to the word of God.

As I had mentioned, God is merciful and loving just as He is just and a punishing God. If we ask and knock at His door, He will surely listen to us and consider our repentance. You see, brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord does not take pleasure in seeing the punishment and suffering of His children, and He certainly does not enjoy punishing us for our sins. Indeed, it caused Him great pain to punish mankind for their sins and their rebellions, and it is especially hard for the Lord to punish His own chosen people of Israel, when they erred and preferred the pagan gods and idols, and their constant rebellions during the journey from Egypt and after they had had the Promised Land as their own.

That is why, in our prayer, what is important is for us to recognise our own weaknesses, our own sinfulness, and our own unworthiness, that we lay them all bare before the Lord our God, that the Lord who sees all, will see our sincerity and the sincerity of our repentance, our contrite hearts, the true offering from us that He desires. Open the doors of our heart to Him, just as He opened His doors for us to enter. That we may be in Him just as He is in us.

Do not fear God and His punishment, but be courageous and approach the throne of God, the throne of mercy. For the Lord is the Divine Mercy who will embrace sinners and those who sincerely acknowledge their faults and seek to be healed. For Christ had come to save sinners and those who are sick from sin, and bring them back to health once again, that is a life of grace in God. However, He cannot do much help to us, if we ourselves did not open the doors of our heart for Him to come in.

He knocks at our doors too, brothers and sisters in Christ, just as we knock at His doors in heaven, to give Him our prayers and petitions. In the same way, the Lord too longs to speak to us all in our hearts. That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, harden not our hearts the way the Pharaoh and the people of Israel had once hardened their hearts, but open it, for the Lord who wants to come in and dwell within us. Listen to Him and do what He wants us to do, and our lives will be blessed.

May the Lord who saved us from death deliver us from evil and his corruptions, that we may not suffer the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah, where not even ten righteous ones could be found. May He protect us from harm and bring us to the life eternal that He had promised us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord who speaks to us in silence helps us to gain greater understanding in the importance of prayer in our lives, so that we will always be attuned to Him, in line with His will, and always ever be in His grace. God bless us all. Amen!

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Sunday, 28 July 2013 : 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Luke 11 : 1-13

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” And Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this :

Father, may Your Name be held holy,

May Your kingdom come;

give us each day the kind of bread we need,

and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive all who do us wrong;

and do not bring us to the test.”

Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to his house in the middle of the night and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine who is travelling has just arrived, and I have nothing to offer him.’

Maybe your friend will answer from inside, ‘Do not bother me now; the door is locked, and my children and I are in bed, so I cannot get up and give you anything.’ But I tell you, even though he will not get up and attend to you because you are a friend, yet he will get up because you are a brother to him, and he will give you all you need.

And so I say to you, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.

If your child asks for a fish, will you give him a snake instead? And if your child asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.”

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Sunday, 28 July 2013 : 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Psalm 137 : 1-2a, 2bc-3, 6-7ab, 7c-8

I thank You, o Lord, with all my heart, for You have heard the word of my lips. I sing Your praise in the presence of the gods. I bow down towards Your Holy Temple and give thanks to Your Name.

For Your love and faithfulness, for Your word which exceeds everything. You answered me when I called; You restored my soul and made me strong.

From above, the Lord watches over the lowly; from afar, He marks down the haughty. If I walk in the midst of trouble, You give me life. With outstretched am, You save me from the wrath of my foes.

With Your right hand You deliver me. How the Lord cares for me! Your kindness, o Lord, endures forever. Forsake not the work of Your hands.

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Saturday, 27 July 2013 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we who believe in Christ had been marked by the Lord our God, with a special mark, for each one of us, to distinguish us from those who do not believe and do not have faith and love for the Lord. That mark is none other than His own Precious Blood, the Blood of the Lamb of God, which He gave to us to mark His faithfulness and love for us, to mark the New Covenant He has established with all of us, with all mankind, a covenant that will never be broken.

The Blood of the covenant of Christ reminds us of the first reading today, when Moses sealed the covenant between the people of Israel and the Lord their God with the blood of animals, the blood of lambs and goats sacrificed on the altar made to God. The blood sealed the promise that God had made with their father Abraham, that his descendants would prosper and enjoy God’s blessing and be led to the Land of Promise.

On the other hand, the covenant involve a two-way promise and vow, and therefore, just as the Lord has vowed to bless His people and care for them, so the people too must keep their part of the covenant, to obey the laws of the Lord, and live according to His will. If they remain faithful to their part in the covenant, their lives will truly be happy and blessed, and they will receive the fullness of their covenant with God.

But if they break their part of the covenant, by disobeying the Lord and doing wicked things not in conjunction with the Lord’s will, then they will not receive the blessings that the Lord had promised them, and instead, they will truly suffer for having turned their back on the Lord and His covenant, the covenant of love He had offered freely to Abraham and his descendants that they will be blessed.

That was exactly what many of the people of Israel did, even just after Moses had sprinkled the blood of the covenant on them, as they complained against Moses and the Lord for having brought them in the journey through the desert to the Promised Land.

They complained because they did not keep themselves strong enough in the faith that the devil could come to them and sow the seeds of discord and evil in their hearts, and the seeds of desire and greed, desiring ever more things from the Lord, complaining to the Lord when they did not receive enough, even though the Lord had fed them with bread from heaven, the manna, and with quails and birds for them to eat, and also provide them with sweet and clear spring water to drink.

No, brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not the way that we should follow, the rebelliousness and the hard-hearted people of Israel during their sojourn in the desert. We must instead follow the path of Christ, of love and dedication, which we should give to the Lord and to our fellow men, and also thanksgiving to the Lord when it is due. That is because the Lord had given us much, very much indeed, that He gave us nothing else more precious, nor that there will ever be anything that is to be more precious, than His own Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Saviour, and new hope of life eternal.

We must fortify ourselves, brethren, in our hearts and minds, that we will not succumb to the evil one. Prevent the sower of evil from sowing seeds of evil and sin within our hearts. Do not let him to reign free over us, and enslave us to the chains of sin and death. The devil will always try and utilise everything that is within his power to corrupt us and turn us from the path of the Lord, that is salvation, towards the path to hell and eternal damnation.

We must have a strong and healthy prayer life, that our heart will be defended from the assaults of the evil one. In doing so, our faith and dedication to the Lord will be complete.” But remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that faith cannot stand on its own, and without good and positive acts in our words, deeds, and actions, our faith will be dead and empty. Yes, as empty as that of the people of Israel in the desert. They had been given manna, the bread from heaven and quails as food during their desert journey, and yet they still complained and blasphemed against His Name.

Our Lord is faithful, just as He is loving, brothers and sisters in Christ. He loves us all so much, that He shed His own Body and His own Blood, through the cross, that all of us be redeemed in a new covenant that He established by His own sacrifice, for our sake. This is no blood of the lambs and goats that die, brothers and sisters, but here is the Blood of the Lamb of God who lives, the Lamb who has triumphed and conquered Satan and evil. This Blood, the divine blood given to us out of the Lord’s own will, is the blood that purifies and cleanses, washing our beings white and pure again from all the filth and darkness of sin within us.

We receive this Blood and the Body, in the Eucharist, which the priests turned from the humble bread and wine, into the very Being of our Lord and Saviour, who died as the lamb of sacrifice, the True Lamb, who is the only one worthy to redeem us from all the weights of our faults and evil, all the horrible things we had committed, things abhorred by the Lord our God. He established this new covenant, a covenant not only with the people of Israel of old, but with all mankind, without exception. He established this new covenant, especially for sinners. The greater the sin that a sinner has, the more the Lord wants to come to redeem him or her from their fate that is death and hell.

He paid for this new covenant and sealed it with His own Blood, not blood of any animals, but the most precious Blood possible, the divine blood of the Lord, poured down on us from the cross, given to us to drink in the Eucharist, in the form of wine transubstantiated into His Blood. We who partake in this divine gift is sealed in the new covenant with God, through Christ, and as long as we remain faithful to God, we will ever be in God’s grace, and we will receive the gift of eternal life Christ had promised all those who believe in Him.

Our Lord loves us so much and He wants all of us saved, from our fate of certain death in sin. He has given His best and His all in His part on the covenant. But as I have mentioned, a covenant is made between two parties, in which both parties have to commit to the covenant that it is made valid and true. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we ready to commit ourselves to Christ, to His love? Are we ready to take up our own crosses and follow Christ, so that we will make whole the new covenant of the Lord?

Are we ready to commit ourselves to the Lord present in the Most Holy Eucharist? In His Body and Blood that He gave us that He may be in us and we in Him? Let us from now on strive to be the loving partner of our God in that holy covenant, and play our part, that is following the Lord’s commandments that is love. Love our God and love our fellow brethren as we love ourselves. For God is love! Amen.

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Saturday, 27 July 2013 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Psalm 49 : 1-2, 5-6, 14-15

The God of gods, the Lord has spoken, He summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. God has shone from Zion, perfect in beauty.

“Gather before Me My faithful ones, who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” The heavens will proclaim His sentence, for God Himself is the judge.

“Yet offer to God a sacrifice of thanks, and fulfill your vows to the Most High. Call on Me in time of calamity; I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me.”

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Thursday, 25 July 2013 : Feast of St. James, Apostle (Psalm)

Psalm 125 : 1-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6

When the Lord brought the exiles back to Zion, we were like those moving in a dream. Then our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongues with songs of joy.

Among the nations it was said, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord had done great things for us, and we were glad indeed.

Bring back our exiles, o Lord, like fresh streams in the desert. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs and shouts of joy.

They went forth weeping, bearing the seeds for sowing, they will come home with joyful shouts, bringing their harvested sheaves.

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Sunday, 14 July 2013 : 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan. This is a well-known story by Jesus to show that nobody is beyond help, and nobody is beyond salvation, for everyone is truly equal before God, and God loves them all the same.

Why Samaritan? In order to understand this, we need to look into the history of the people of Israel and the region of Jesus’ time, that is two thousand years ago. At that time, the region north of Judea, where most of the Jews lived in, and where Jerusalem is, is called Samaria, the former lands of the northern kingdom of Israel.

The northern kingdom was destroyed about more than seven hundred years prior to the birth of Jesus by the powerful Assyrian Empire, and the people of the northern kingdom were taken away from their homeland and scattered among the nations in exile. In their place, the pagan peoples of Assyria and its constituent nations came in and settled in that region, together with the local people of the land of Canaan.

The people of Samaria, as the region was to be known henceforth, were therefore a mix of people, but considered as evidently ‘non-Jewish’ by the Jewish people who would return from the exile in Babylon, those who settled in Jerusalem, and in the former Kingdom of Judah, in what was then to be known as Judea.

That marked the beginning of distrust between the Jewish people and the Samaritans, as they were called by the Jews at the time. They were considered as pagan and as a people without hope for salvation, because the Jews at the time believe that they, as the chosen people, the chosen race, are the only ones worthy of God, and no others are worthy of the Lord.

Yet, without going further into the long story of the history of the two peoples, we can see in today’s Gospel reading in particular, the disparity between the reaction of the Jews, and that of the Samaritan, when confronted with an injured person, a person in suffering. The Levite and the priest portrayed by Jesus were high ranked members of the Jewish society and were usually held in high regards, and yet they ignored the suffering of the robbed person and went on their way. But the Samaritan, cursed and held in contempt by the Jews, stopped and gave it his all to provide the best aid he could give to the suffering person.

The purpose of the readings today, brothers and sisters, is however not to put Jews against non-Jews, and not to discriminate against either the Jews or the Samaritans. The real purpose is to show that while it is not easy to become the disciples of the Lord, the Lord had not made it so difficult for us to follow His precepts and walk in His ways, just as the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy had mentioned.

The Lord had given His commandments to the people, as a set of laws to govern how the people of Israel should live their lives, and He had given them to Moses, so that he could make sure that the people of God would continue to keep God’s laws in their hearts, as long as they live, and pass them down the generations, so that their children, grandchildren, and so on would continue to live according to the Lord’s way through His commandments.

But over time, the true meaning of God’s commandments had been lost, and they had been replaced with laws made by men. The laws had become empty rituals and observations that had lost their heart, the centre of all things, and of all the law. What is this thing? This thing is none other than love, for God’s commandments are truly the commandments of love!

To love our God, with all our hearts, with all our minds, with all our strengths, and with all our being, just as we do the same to our neighbours, loving them, our brothers and sisters, forgiving those who had wronged us, and bring love to one another, sharing them so that love will not perish inside us, but grow, nurtured by our love with one another, and together with our love for God, who loves us all, without exceptions.

It is not difficult to love, and it is indeed possible to love without making much effort, but love requires a true sincerity of the heart to be accomplished, because love requires our hearts to be free of the entanglements of evil and its rotten fruits, like hatred, jealousy, sloth, greed, and so many other corruptions that evil had brought into our hearts.

We like to make excuses, brothers and sisters in Christ, excuses so that we will not need to love one another, and even not to love God! Because we like to linger in our own sense of security and pleasure in this comfortable world, so that we will not want to step beyond that sphere of security, to go out of our way, whenever we see someone hurting, someone in pain and suffering, and someone without love.

We like to love ourselves more, to be selfish, and to think of ourselves before that of others. No, brothers and sisters in Christ, we cannot be like that. To be Christian means to be with one another in Christ, to become brethren in our Lord and God. To be Christian means to be like the Good Samaritan, not because he is a Samaritan, but because he showed mercy, love, and compassion to those in need, to those who are suffering, and to give their love to others, that the love in all will grow and blossom.

It is important for all of us to show love in all the things that we do, in all our actions, in all our words and deeds, so that we truly belong to God who is Love, and not to the devil. It is easy for us to just walk away and ignore those in need, just as what was done by the priest and the Levite, abandoning the suffering to their pain, and go on about their own business.

Does it not ring a bell to our own actions, how we often walk away from those in suffering, and pretending not to see what had happened, or pretending to be deaf to the cries of those who are suffering, and who greatly need our help? Even little actions of love from us, can mean a great deal of difference to them.

Let me relate to you, a real-life story, in which a toddler was ran over by a car on the street, because the toddler’s parents were busy shopping in the nearby market, and they did not notice that their child had been separated from them. The toddler did not die instantly from the crash, and indeed had hope of survival from the injuries sustained from the accident, but because nobody was aroused to give their help, the child bled to death on the scene.

Did that accident happen on an empty road? on an abandoned street? No, the accident happened in a very busy road, where lots of people were passing around, and while some glanced at the injured toddler on the street, nobody were aroused to give a hand to help. They just walked on, pretending that nothing had ever happened. The worst are those who would say, either openly or secretly in these ways, “Pity”, “How very unfortunate”, “Where are the parents” “So tragic”, when they could just nudge themselves into taking action, which might have meant a big difference between life and death.

It is not difficult, brothers and sisters, to follow the commandments of the Lord, to be His disciples, because all that we need to do, is to obey Him and His will, and do His bidding, that is to do the works of love, and helping one another, especially those in need, is already good enough. We do not have to make excuses that, “Sorry I cannot help, too busy”, or if we would like to give in terms of financial donation, “Sorry, I am not rich enough, or I am still poor, so why should I give to the poor? Wait until I become rich then I will donate.”

Because acts of love can be as simple as showing love to those who are unloved, those who are ostracised, and those who have been growing up without love. Love is increasingly a more difficult commodity to find in our world today, and it is up to us, to rekindle the love in the hearts of our brothers and sisters. For no matter how great we are, without love, and therefore, without God, as the centre of our life, we are nothing.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us pledge ourselves to the Lord, that we will always keep His commandments faithfully, by first believing in Him and loving Him with all our hearts, with all our minds, with all our strengths, and with all our being, and then to love one another, as brothers and sisters, children of the same God, reflecting the love that we have received from the Lord, in our own actions, in our own words, and in all the things that we profess in our lives.

Remember always Jesus Christ, our Lord, whose perfect selflessness and love for all of us, God’s children, made Him to obey fully the will of God His Father, to die on the cross for us, the ultimate form of love, the love one has for one’s friend, that one would give life to another that that other one may live. Christ showed His love for us through none other than His death, a humiliating death on the cross, but which was converted to the cross of glory and hope, when He rose again, and gave us all, the hope of salvation and eternal life, if we believe in Him. May God remain with us always, and we too, remain in His love. Amen.