provision

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Thursday, 13 March 2014 : 1st Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

We often forget, brothers and sisters, in our busy life and hectic schedules, that first and foremost, we should have no need to worry about this and that at all. We tend to forget this basic fact, and ending up to worry without end, and to fill our days with endless concerns and wants.

Brethren, our Lord provided us with all the things we need, and He provides us along the way, to help us with our respective lives. We may not realise this because He did so secretly, quietly helping us to make through things. It is often ourselves who screwed things up, because of our worries and concerns, which made us to take wrong decisions in life which may cost us dearly in the future.

And we know and should know that our Lord loves us very much, and He is willing to bless us and help us, but what He needs from us is that for us to ask Him and beseech Him for that help. It would be as simple as asking Him and knocking at His door, to seek for the Lord’s help, simple indeed or so it may seem to be.

But, we often forgot about this and did not realise this fact, and we often ended up depending solely on our own human power and based our decisions on our flawed judgment, which led to problems and uncertainties in our own lives. All these because we failed to recognise that in life, we cannot succeed if we do not depend on God, His love and loving help.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God knows our needs and He will give us what is good, only if we go to Him and ask Him for it. He will not makes us to fall into a disaster or destroy us purposely simply because He cares and loves us very much. It is entirely against His character and will to cause trouble and problems for us. It is we ourselves who make problems for ourselves.

The Lord provides for all of His servants, to those who keep to His laws and commandments, for those who did not look away from His ways and keep themselves always in His grace. He gives all of them the best of His blessings and inheritance, as He had proven to the Queen Esther of Persia, His servant, when she asked Him for His help.

In today’s first reading, the prayer of Queen Esther, to put things into context, the Queen Esther of Persia, the wife of the then Emperor of Persia, Xerxes the Great, the greatest of the Emperors of Persia, was a Jew with a Jewish background, and a great enemy rose in the court of the Emperor, in the person of Hamman the Agagite, who despised Mordechai, the Queen’s uncle.

Hamman devised a plan and gained the heart of the king, and this plan, which was devised against all the people of Mordechai, that is the Jews, were to be slaughtered and killed without mercy and have their possessions taken away from them. This was where Queen Esther came into the scene, as she, as the Queen, tried to use her position and relations with the Emperor, to prevent that catastrophe from facing her own people.

That was what she was praying for, she prayed for strength, guidance and help, that she may be guided in her dangerous attempt to prevent the plans and devices of those who hated God’s people. And God heard her and the prayers of His people, by first destroying Hamman the great enemy, and by delivering the enemies of His people into the hands of justice.

Now you see how powerful God’s help is, and all we need to do is to sincerely and genuinely ask for His help, seeking for Him to show mercy towards us. If we do so, He will certainly come to help us, and provide us with all that we will need. May God help to open our minds and our hearts, that we may, in great humility, always seek for Him and ask for His mercy. Amen.

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Sunday, 2 March 2014 : 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 6 : 24-34

No one can serve two masters; for he will either hate one and love the other, or he will be loyal to the first and look down on the second. You cannot at the same time serve God and money.

This is why I tell you not to be worried about food and drink for yourself, or about clothes for your body. Is not life more important than food, and is not the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow, they do not harvest and do not store food in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not less worthy than they are?

Can any of you add a day to your life by worrying about it? Why are you so worried about your clothes? Look at how the flowers in the field grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his wealth was clothed like one of these. If God so clothes the grass in the field, which blooms today and is to be burnt tomorrow in an oven, how much more will He clothe you? What little faith you have!

Do not worry and say : What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? Or  : What shall we wear? The pagans busy themselves with such things; but your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Set your heart first on the kingdom and justice of God, and all these things will also be given to you.

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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Tuesday, 26 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we approach the end of our liturgical year cycle, we listen to a lot of readings regarding the forecast for the future. In the first reading, we heard the prophecy in the book of the prophet Daniel, when the Lord revealed His plan for mankind, to the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar in a dream. This dream was also told to Daniel, who gave all who heard these words of revelation, in the court of the Babylonian king, showing to them the signs of the things to come, which many of them yet refused to believe.

The kingdom of God, that is the eternal and glorious kingdom that will last forever, is coming, and Jesus Himself has foretold it to the people as we heard in the Gospel reading today. And it is important that we take heed of what has been revealed to us in truth. Let us not be ignorant as the Babylonians and the people of Israel at the time of Jesus, who listened but did not believe.

First, it was revealed to us, that the coming of the kingdom is imminent. Indeed, in the timing of God, the kingdom of God may come anytime soon. And we have entirely no idea when this will happen. Only God Himself knows when He will come again, that is at the end of time, to bring all those faithful to Him, into the eternal glories prepared for them. If we are not prepared for the coming of God’s kingdom, when it truly comes, we will have no share in it.

Then, linked to the first one, it was revealed to us too, that there will be false prophets and false messiah, proclaiming that the kingdom has come, and that they are the Christ, the One who is to come. It is indeed hard to discern which one is truth and which one is lies, and many seeds of lies have been planted by the evil one, in order to deceive us from the reality and the truth.

Yes, especially in the recent years, there had been people exclaiming that the kingdom of God has come or will come through them, if the people would follow them and obey their teaching, which are not the teachings of the Lord. They brought about portents of doom and destruction, and foretold of doom to come, which in the end did not come true. Worse still, some of them established cults, and managed to convince people to commit mass suicides, as some of them had reached worldwide fame in the 1990s.

This is our weakness, brothers and sisters. Not because we are not faithful or anything, but most importantly because we are too concerned about ourselves, our well-being, and being too self-centred, that we tend to forget what is more important in our lives, and what we are called to do in this life. We worry so much about the future and about what will happen, because we simply cannot tear ourselves, even for a moment, away from our concerns and possessions in this world.

Too often a times that we are fixated at the ties that keep us connected to this world. Well, it is not that it is wrong to do so, but we have often fixed our eyes too much towards the world, that we end up forgetting everything else. And Jesus said things in the Gospel today, precisely so that we will not repeat this same mistakes, again and again.

He reminded us on the greatness of love that the Lord has for us, and the promise He had granted us through none other than Jesus Himself, who came to fulfill God’s great plan for salvation. We also should not be deceived by the lies of the devil, and then became overly worried for ourselves. Worry not, brothers and sisters! That is why we are reminded of the love God has for us. The Lord will take care of us, and give us all that we need. Note, what we need, and not what we want.

We often want things that we do not need, and this results in hunger, great hunger not easily satiable. And it is often that the more we want, the even more we grow to want in time. This created that irresistible tie with the world, which caused us to worry so much in the first place. But what does worry bring us? It brings us nothing! That is because worry paralyzes us, and make us idle, doing nothing, even if these things that we ought to do will have saved us instead.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us renew our resolve and our dedication to the Lord in our faith, that we will put in Him all our trust and love, without seeking alternatives or easy way outs. Do not trust in false prophets or false prophecies, and instead put our trust completely in God. The Lord did tell us that calamities and suffering would happen before His coming, but they do not determine the time of His coming.

Hence, let us put aside our fear, our worries, and our uncertainties, and open ourselves to the love and care that God pours out for us. May the Lord who cares for us, and loves us unto giving Himself to us, continue to watch over us, guide us, and provide for us, as we walk this path, and may that when He comes again, we will be found worthy, having fulfilled His will and commandments, obeying the instructions that Jesus had given us. May the Lord bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 10 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 5-13

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 bother 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, 29 September 2013 : 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 145 : 7, 8-9a, 9bc-10

The Lord gives justice to the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free.

The Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord straightens the bent. The Lord loves the virtuous, but He brings to ruin the way of the wicked. The Lord protects the stranger.

The Lord sustains the widow and the orphan. The Lord will reign forever, your God, o Zion, from generation to generation. Alleluia!

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Friday, 20 September 2013 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon, Priest and Martyr, St. Paul Chong Ha-Sang, and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Luke 8 : 1-3

Jesus walked through towns and countryside, preaching and giving the Good News of the kingdom of God. The Twelve followed Him, and also some women, who had been healed of evil spirits and diseases : Mary called Magdalene, who had been freed of seven demons; Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward; Suzanna, and others who provided for them out of their own funds.

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Tuesday, 17 September 2013 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Robert Bellarmine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

1 Timothy 3 : 1-13

If someone aspires to the overseer’s ministry, he is without a doubt looking for a noble task. It is necessary that the overseer (or bishop) be beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, responsible, judicious, of good manners, hospitable and skillful in teaching.

He must not be addicted to wine or quarrelsome, but gentle and peaceful, and not a lover of money, but a man whose household is well-managed, with obedient and well-mannered children. If he cannot govern his own house, how can he lead the assembly of God?

He must not be a recent convert, lest he become conceited and fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must enjoy a good reputation among the outsiders, lest people speak evil about him and he fall into the snare of the devil.

Deacons, likewise, must be serious and sincere and moderate in drinking wine, not greedy for money, they must keep the mystery of faith with a clear conscience. Let them be first tried and, if found blameless, be accepted as deacons. In the same way the women must be conscientious, not given to gossip, but reserved and trustworthy.

A deacon must be husband of one wife, and must know how to guide his children and manage his household. Those who serve well as deacons will win honourable rank, with authority to speak of Christian faith.

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Sunday, 11 August 2013 : 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 12 : 32-48

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, and an inexhaustible treasure in the heavens, where no thief comes and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Be ready, dressed for service, and keep your lamps lit, like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding. As soon as he comes and knocks, they will open the door to him. Happy are those servants whom the master finds wide-awake when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will put on an apron, and have them sit at table, and he will wait on them. Happy are those servants, if he finds them awake when he comes at midnight or daybreak!

Pay attention to this : If the master of the house had known at what time the thief would come, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.

Peter said, “Lord, did You tell this parable only for us, or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Imagine, then, the wise and faithful steward, whom the master sets over his other servants to give them wheat at the proper time. Fortunate is this servant if his master on coming home, finds him doing his work. Truly, I say to you, the master will put him in charge of all his property.”

“But it may be that the steward thinks, ‘My Lord delays in coming,’ and he begins to abuse the male servants and the servant girls, eating and drinking and getting drunk. Then the master will come on a day he does not expect, and at an hour he does not know. He will cut him off, and send him to the same fate as the unfaithful.”

“The servant who knew his master’s will, but did not prepare and do what his master wanted, will be soundly beaten; but the one who does unconsciously what deserves punishment, shall receive fewer blows. Much will be required of the one who has been given much, and more will be asked of the one who has been entrusted with more.”

 

Alternative reading (Shorter version)
Luke 12 : 35-40

Be ready, dressed for service, and keep your lamps lit, like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding. As soon as he comes and knocks, they will open the door to him. Happy are those servants whom the master finds wide-awake when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will put on an apron, and have them sit at table, and he will wait on them. Happy are those servants, if he finds them awake when he comes at midnight or daybreak!

Pay attention to this : If the master of the house had known at what time the thief would come, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.

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Saturday, 10 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we are urged by none other than our Lord, that we should invest and go to work, in order to make use the gifts that God had given us through the Holy Spirit that He had planted in each one of us the faithful ones in God. He had given us much gifts, abilities, and power, through the Spirit, which if we utilise them, we will truly be able to make a great difference in ourselves, in our neighbours, our fellow men, and in our society, through those gifts given to us.

Yes, brothers and sisters, within us all is the Spirit that God had given us when we were baptised, and when we were confirmed in our faith, given with the Holy Spirit that strengthens and nurtures. We have been given with the seeds of faith, hope, and love, as well as compassion, kindness, care, patience, and devotion, that all of us ought to utilise and nurture in our hearts, as well as in our own communities, that they will not remain just a seed, but will germinate and grow to become healthy and fruitful.

The love that is in us will never grow if we just keep it within ourselves, and the other gifts of the Spirit will also just languish in us and be wasted, if we keep them unused and sealed within our hearts. In order to let them grow and prosper, effort is required, and not just any effort, but strong, dedicated and purposeful effort, with strong contribution from our side, and a significant investment of our attention and our sweat. We do not gain anything from slacking up or resting.

Just like farmers, brothers and sisters, the farmers who worked hard day and night, ploughing the land, planting the seeds, and putting manure or fertilisers on the land, that the seeds will be provided with enough nutrients and therefore can grow to healthy and strong plants, that will in the future bear much fruits. The farmers cared for their plants with love, and give them their full attention, that they grow big and laden with much flowers and therefore, much fruits.

The fruits that are juicy and sweet cannot be born, if the plants are not taken care of carefully and with great dedication, and neither can they be produced, if the farmers have slackened off in their works, and let the plants to their own in growing up. They carefully removed the weeds and the pests, preventing them from eating up the fruits and threatening the health and survival of the plants. In the end, they reaped much fruits, an abundant and bountiful harvest, the sweet products of harvest, which bring them happiness and joy.

That is how, brothers and sisters in Christ, we should also do for the seeds of faith, love, and hope planted by the Lord, the Sower, in each of us, within our hearts. These seeds need our attention, our dedication, and our great effort, in order to grow, bloom, and prosper. As I have mentioned, the seeds need good soil and manure or fertiliser, to ensure that they have the right nutrients and sufficient ones in order to grow properly into healthy and vibrant plants. So, how do we then ensure this to what the Spirit had planted in us? That is faith, hope, and love?

It is by our actions, our deeds, and our words, that we contribute to the growth of the gifts of the Lord within us. How we act and what we say, the words that we utter, determine the growth, the health, and the survival of the ‘plants’ in us, that is what God had given all of us, the gifts, the talents, and skills we have been endowed with in our lives. Each of us do have our own unique skills and talents, but none of these will be useful nor beneficial if we do not practice them and use them.

We give the nutrients and fertilisers to these gifts, by our actions and our words that reflect the goodness that is the Lord, or in short, by following the Lord and His laws, all of His commandments, just as Christ had told His disciples in the Gospel reading today. We have to made evident the commandments of the Lord in our own lives, through our acts of love, words that promote love, and our loving embrace for one another, for our brothers and sisters especially those who are rejected and without love.

It will not be easy, and our path will be littered with dangers and threats, but our God will walk with us through all these obstacles, and if we remain strong in our faith and in our bond and dedication to Him, we will make it through, and at the end, lies the reward, the eternal reward of everlasting life in the glory of heaven, which God had reserved for His holy saints, the people who had persevered through fire and through the test of life, and had been found worthy of God’s Kingdom.

Today, brethren, we celebrate the feast of a great saint, that is St. Lawrence, a deacon of the early Church and a martyr of the faith. He was also known as St. Lawrence of Rome because he was one of the seven deacons serving the Diocese of Rome under the other great saint Pope St. Xystus II (Sixtus II) whose feast day we had just celebrated a few days ago. He met his martyrdom almost at the same time with the saintly Pope during the height of the persecution of Christians under Emperor Valerian in the mid-third century after the birth of Christ.

St. Lawrence was the disciple of Pope St. Xystus II and helped him in the governance of the Church in the times of difficulty, with extreme persecution and hunts against the Christians by the pagan Roman Emperor and the entire Roman military at the time. He helped to manage the Church and the Diocese of Rome in the midst of that difficult times, and he bravely defended the faith and the Church after the death of its leader the Pope in martyrdom, by standing up to the Roman authorities and proclaiming the sanctity of the Church and the greatness of God.

St. Lawrence was asked by the prefects of Rome after the martyrdom of Pope St. Xystus II to gather the wealth of the church, because of a law that required all Christians and others to surrender their wealth to the church if convicted of any act of treason to the state, which was exactly the situation given to St. Lawrence, in that he was to gather the riches of the Church to be confiscated by the state. He gathered the poor people of God, and bravely proclaimed to the prefects, that those are the wealth of the Church, its true wealth, and in all its glory, the Church is even richer than the Emperor himself.

In such courage of defending his faith, his Church, and his God, St. Lawrence brought upon him the wrath of the Emperor and he was martyred. But as we all know, brothers and sisters in Christ, to all of us who believe in Christ and become a part of the Church, accepting our Lord and God and our Saviour, death has no power over us, and indeed, St. Lawrence was raised in glory to the heavenly kingdom of our God, as one of the holy men and women who along with the angels praise the Lord and intercede for our sake on earth.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us follow in the footsteps of St. Lawrence, the great deacon and martyr, and in all the holy saints and martyrs of the Lord, that we will make use of the gifts and talents God had given to all of us, that we will nurture it through love and love in our actions and our words, that the love in us will grow and grow to encompass everyone, every one of God’s children, our brothers and sisters. In doing that, we follow Christ, His laws and commandments, and at the end of time, He will raise us up, and be given our reward of eternal life with Him in heaven. May God bless us always and remain us at all times. Amen.

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Thursday, 8 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Dominic, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Numbers 20 : 1-13

The whole congregation of Israel came to the wilderness of Zin in the first month and the people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died and was buried there.

Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered together against Moses and Aaron. They disputed with Moses saying, “Would that we had perished with our kinsmen in the presence of YHVH! Why have you led YHVH’s community to this desert to die here with our cattle? And why did you bring us out of Egypt to this wretched place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates and there is not even water for drinking.”

Moses and Aaron fled from the assembly to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and fell on their faces. Then the Glory of YHVH appeared and YHVH spoke to Moses, “Take your rod and assemble the community, you and Aaron, your brother. In their presence command the rock to give forth water and you will make water gush from the rock for the community and their livestock to drink.”

So Moses took the rod from before YHVH as he had been ordered. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly in front of the rock and said to them, “Listen, you rebels. Shall we bring water for you from this rock?” Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. And then water in abundance gushed out for the community and their livestock to drink.

But YHVH said to Moses and Aaron, “You did not trust Me nor treat Me as the Holy One in the sight of the Israelites; because of that you shall not lead this community into the land that I am giving you.”

It was at the waters of Meribah that the sons of Israel quarrelled with YHVH and where He showed His holiness to them.