Psalm 25 : 2-3, 9-10, 11-12
Prove me, o Lord, put me to the test; examine my soul and my heart. For Your love is ever before my eyes, and I live in truth and faithfulness.
Let me not share the fate of sinners, nor lose my life with the violent; their hands are guilty of crimes, their right hands are weighed down with bribes.
But I will walk in integrity, redeem me, o God, be gracious to me. My foot stands firm in the straight path, I will praise You, o Lord, in Your assemblies.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, to follow Christ is to suffer and to endure rejection the way the world had rejected Him first, and we have to carry our own crosses in our faith journey with our Lord. That is what the Lord Himself told us we should do, to follow Him and love Him through the journey of the cross.
Our Lord is a loving God, and He loves all of His children, regardless of their backgrounds. We are all equal before the Lord. But as much as the Lord loves all of us, He is also a just God and a good God, who rejects the filth of sin and the corruption of evil. That was why He wanted to end the wickedness of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose sins had become so bad that they ended up angering the Lord greatly so that He would want to punish them.
Lot, the relative of Abraham settled in the valley of Sodom after his separation from Abraham, which occurred because of conflict between their shepherds over the matter of land. He then settled in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, and therefore would have been subjected to the destruction of the city by God’s wrath for its sins.
But God is a loving God and is not heartless, and that was why He would not let those who are just and good to suffer from the suffering and punishment intended for those who had rebelled against the Lord. Therefore, even without the interventions of Abraham, God certainly would still go and send His angels to help rescue Lot and his family, the only righteous ones that can be found in all of Sodom and Gomorrah, so that they would not suffer the same fate as the sinful ones.
The questions of Abraham to the Lord, his interventions to save the righteous merely serve to highlight even more clearly that our Lord and God is both a vengeful and angry God, but also a just and loving God. A God who detests sin and all of its evil fruits, and yet also forgiving and merciful to those who are repentant and those who love Him. He wants us all to return to Him, and He does not want us to be lost just because of our faults and those of our forefathers’.
Yet, it is indeed difficult to find good and repentance in our world, and that was why, despite Abraham’s repeated pleas to the Lord to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, if as little as ten righteous people could be found, the two cities were not spared simply because of the wickedness of those who stayed in them, not even ten righteous ones could be found. Only Lot and his family were considered righteous, and therefore, the Lord sent His angels to rescue them from the catastrophe of God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.
God loves us, but He also wants all of us to understand the need to be pure and good, as our Lord is good, and nothing evil can stand before Him and survive. The Lord is merciful, and if only we approach His throne with a contrite heart full of regret and grief for our sins, He will embrace us and reunite us with Himself.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, God gives us a chance at repentance and redemption in this life, one made possible by none other than the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord on the cross at Calvary. This sacrifice bridged the unbridgeable chasm between us and God. God will welcome us back if we are truly sincere in our repentance and our love for Him who also loves us with all of His heart.
May God be with us, as He had been with Abraham and may we all also remain faithful to God’s covenant with us, keeping His commandments and teachings passed down to us from the Apostles through the Church. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our faith in the Lord is possibly the greatest treasure that we will ever have in this world. What is treasure? A treasure is something that we find precious and really have a substantial meaning and value to us, either in financial terms or in any other terms. Basically, it is something very valuable to us, and presumably we will want to have it and keep it from losing it.
But, if we notice, in our world today, too many people are enamoured with treasure, so much, that they become obsessed with it. Treasure in this means worldly treasure, the treasure of wealth, possessions, goods, and amenities, that come with our world today and all its conveniences. All of these materialisms widespread in our world today, can easily be seen in the amounts of the advertisements in our television programmes, and in the internet media.
These advertisements take advantage of our human desire, of our greed and desire to have more of the material goods and pleasures that this world can offer in its various forms. Not that this is bad, brothers and sisters in Christ, as a tempered desire for possessions and wealth may indeed be beneficial if not necessary for mankind at times. We do need money and certain goods in order to lead a good normal life in our world today. What matters is however, do we really seek what we need? Or do we seek so much more than what we need, that it becomes a kind of greed?
When Christ mentioned that in the treasures lie our heart, He was not further than the truth. Indeed, our heart certainly lie with our treasures. Imagine a man with an enormous wealth stored inside a safety box inside his house. Certainly he will do all that he can in order to ensure that the treasure ‘chest’ remain safe from all external threats, such as thieves and even maybe natural disasters. He would not have done such things if his heart had not been with the treasure.
But what Christ had rightly warned us is that, these kind of wealth are temporary. my brothers and sisters. They are not permanent, nor will they remain with us forever. We will not bring our wealth and possessions with us to the afterlife, be it to heaven or hell, because in heaven we have no need for such possessions, because the Lord alone is our possession, and we will have enough, and in hell, no amount of material goods will be able to alleviate the ultimate suffering of the separation of man from God.
Another example I would like to bring to your attention is the recent curious cases of entire life savings being destroyed by termites that managed to get into the safely kept money, and almost brought disaster to the old lady who had saved the money. The bank kindly replaced most of the money for her, but this gives us yet another reminder that these possessions are not permanent, nor will they be able to withstand natural forces, just as Christ had mentioned.
And yet another case, where a safety box in a bank in India was thought to be untouched and safe, but in fact a colony of termites managed to find their way inside and destroy whatever it was that were kept inside that safety box. Nothing of this world lasts, brothers and sisters in Christ.
That is why, Christ told us, to seek the true treasure of our lives, that is God, because God, unlike the worldly material possessions can never be subjected to rust and the natural forces of destruction, termites or whatsoever. If we keep faithful to God’s covenant with us, keep His commandments at all times, God will belong to us, and we too will belong to God. This divine possession is lasting and eternal, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Yes, of course, we are free to seek to obtain possessions and treasures of this world, but always remember that in doing so, let us always remember that in God, we have the true treasure, such that we will never be led astray by the worldly treasures or even overcome by our greed and human desire, that we fall into sin and be led away from God, which will end likely in eternal damnation in hell. No amount of our wealth in this world will be able to save us or alleviate our suffering in hell, my brethen.
Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a former noble youth from Italy, from the very renowned Gonzaga family of lords, dukes, and kings. But despite being the firstborn of the family, and therefore was entitled to inherit all the titles he was entitled to, with all its possessions and wealth, that many of us even today can only dream of, he was awakened to the true treasure of this life, that is the Lord.
He forsook all the privileges he had and his inheritance, seeking to become a religious, dedicating his entire life and entire being to the Lord. He forsook the inheritance of the powerful and the wealth of the world to seek a nobler and greater purpose in life, that is the Lord, and to serve the people of God. Yes, many opposed his decision, especially his father, who was completely surprised and angered by his decision. Nevertheless, in the end, St. Aloysius Gonzaga managed to be what he wanted to be.
Although unfortunately, St. Aloysius Gonzaga died early in his early twenties, in his short life, he had shown us the virtue of seeking the true treasure of our life. No, this does not mean that all of us should enter the monasteries and embrace the ascetic lifestyle of monks, and neither we should impoverish ourselves by selling all the things that we have. Yes, some of us can do that, if they do choose to do so, but what matters is, to look beyond the material and the pleasures of this world, in seeking the real treasure that will never be depleted, and that will never be lost.
No matter how much money and possessions that we have, eventually, they can run out. No matter how much pleasures we have in our lives, they can also run out, and we can also become bored of such possessions and pleasures, because they are not the true treasure. The love of God, that is our true treasure, will fill us and renew us, such that we will never be empty again. He will fill us and make us whole. God is always with us, if we too, love Him and remain in His grace. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how we should love God and do things for the sake of the Lord, but we must do it because we truly love Him, with the full sincerity of the heart, and not with any hidden intentions or desires. It is natural for us to have those kind of desires, to be glorified and praised ourselves, as it is part of our human nature. We are naturally attracted to glory and power, and that is why, even in the things that we do, we would certainly want to be praised and glorified for the successes we achieved.
When we pray, when we fast, and when we do things that the Lord told us to do, do it in secret and in our own private space, although it is not wrong indeed to do it in the open. That is because when we do things in secret, we are safe from the presence of others who can look at what we are doing. In doing that, it will remove that obstacle of pride from our hearts, because when someone is with us, we no longer focus on ourselves when we pray, and because we subconsciously know that someone is looking at us, and we are certainly tempted to exaggerate things so that people would praise us.
When we closed off ourselves from the world, in our prayer, our fasting, and our almsgiving, we can then focus solely on the Lord, and to whom we give the alms to. So that we will not be led astray and instead believe in our own personal human glory instead of bringing glory to God. Remember that prayer is a conversation between ourselves and the Lord, not a means through which we should glorify ourselves by showing our piety to others.
It does not mean then we should never pray in public or do something pious in view of others. Indeed, doing it at the right moment, and especially with the right intentions and understandings would enable us to be tools of evangelisation, as these also may bring light and understanding to others who had no understanding about the faith in the Lord. Through our prayers, our actions, which we share to them, we will be able to bring a new light to them, and may even bring them to salvation through their acceptance of Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
Yes, whenever we pray, fast, or do something according to our faith, be it in public, or in private, do it for the right intentions, and for the right state of our heart and mind. That we do these all for the glory of God, and God alone, and for the sanctification and purification of our sinful self and the salvation of our soul, and not to accumulate and gather human glories and human praises.
If we know then how to pray sincerely with our heart, and use that chance to truly communicate with the Lord who loves us, and wants to speak with us, we will then find the true meaning of our faith in God, and we will be enriched in our own lives, by the love that God gives us and through His grace, that He grants to those who truly loves Him, and not merely loving themselves in the guise of loving God.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be sincere in all our actions, and do not place ourselves before the Lord in all things. Do not place our desires and our greed to take over us and make us fall into sin, yes, into the sin of pride, because we glorify ourselves rather than God. Be truthful in all our actions, and do them because we truly love the Lord in all the things that we do. Do not seek personal glory, but glorify the Lord at all times.
For human glory is fleeting, and human achievements are temporary in nature. But great is the glory and the reward that await us in heaven, if we remain faithful, truthful, and steadfast in our faith in God, and remain in His love. Remain always in God’s grace, and He will grant us the eternal reward of glory in heaven. Seek not what will not last, but seek what will last forever.
Today, we also commemorate the feast of St. Romuald, a well known religious and abbot, whose life was truly exemplary to us. St. Romuald was once a sinful man, who indulged in all things evil in his youth, and led a debauched life. But after a life-changing experience and revelation of the faith, he changed his ways, and became a truly holy and dedicated person for the Lord. He founded many monasteries and established a strong monastic practice in the society at the time.
St. Romuald in particular placed a great importance on the understanding on the faith, and the serenity of oneself in prayer, that one can be truly be united with God, and truly focus themselves to the Lord their God, avoiding any kind of distractions that may lead them astray from the path of salvation. St. Romuald’s life also shows the kind of prayer that the Lord wants from us, a prayer made out of pure love and dedication for the Lord, in the silence of our hearts. It does not mean that all of us should become monks or join the religious orders in order to do so, but even a simple act of taking a time in silence, in the midst of the business of our lives, we can achieve this, that through a well-conceived prayer, our faith in God will grow ever stronger, and we will be ever closer to Him.
May God strengthen us, strengthen the edge of our humility, and remind us at all times to bring glory to Him, and not to strive for our own personal glory. May He bless us at all times in all the things that we do, that in all that we do, we bring life and love to all around us, that in whatever things that we do, God will be praised and glorified, forever and ever. Amen.
Psalm 31 : 1-2, 5, 7, 11
Blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven, whose iniquity is wiped away. Blessed are those in whom the Lord sees no guilt and in whose spirit is found no deceit.
Then I made known to You my sin and uncovered before You my fault, saying to myself : “To the Lord I will now confess my wrong.” And You, You forgave my sin, You removed my guilt.
You are my refuge; You protect me from distress and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Rejoice in the Lord, and be glad, you who are upright; sing and shout for joy, you who are clean of heart.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened again to the words of the Scripture, in which Christ told His disciples that they should keep themselves pure in all things, so that they will not fall into sin. Brethren, sin is our weakness, and our body is our weakness, ever since Adam and Eve our ancestors disobeyed the Lord and ate from the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Ever since humankind was exposed to that knowledge of things good and evil, we have been prone to the corruption of sin, particularly in our body, through our being, our minds, and our hearts. Mankind has done things evil in the eyes of the Lord ever since the day of our rebellion, until God once had wanted to destroy all but Noah in the Great Flood, such great was the extent of our forefather’s sins.
God loves us very much, brothers and sisters, for all of us are His children, His most beloved children, the greatest and most precious to Him of all creation, so much that He had entrusted this world to our care, that we become its stewards. But as much as our God is a loving God, He is also a jealous and a just God, and He cannot let sin stand in His presence, because He is good and perfect, and no sinner can stand worthy in front of Him in heaven. That was why He sent His only Son, that through Him salvation of mankind may happen, and those who repent and believe in Him, may become worthy of Him once again.
Brothers and sisters, Christ did not mean that we should literally cut off our appendages and our limbs because it caused us to sin. Yes, without these limbs indeed we cannot do what is bad, and therefore can sin no longer, but what Christ truly meant was that we should cut us off from sin itself, from all attachments to sin, especially from our hearts. If our hearts is pure, our hands and legs, and our mouths and eyes will not ever cause us to sin.
In addition, yes, indeed, if we cut away these limbs, we cannot do what is evil, but then it will also similarly hinder us from doing what is good, because certainly our limbs can be used for either good or evil. It is entirely within our choice whether we want to use it for good or for evil. It is also to note that no sinner is beyond redemption, and even the greatest of sinners, were he or she to repent, he or she can become the greatest of saints if God so desires of them.
Yes, brethren, there are hope for sinners. All of us are sinners, and even the greatest of the saints, who were also sinners. But what differentiates the saints from the condemned are that those who were condemned did not turn away from their sins and their vices, and continued to do things abhorrent in the eyes of the Lord. That was why they were thrown into hell, all and whole, because their heart and their bodies remained in darkness.
But saints did not remain in darkness. Yes, they had much faults and past sins, but all these drove them to approach the throne of God for mercy. Full in knowledge of their iniquity and unworthiness, they surrendered themselves to God and opened themselves to His love and mercy. They did not elevate themselves nor did they become arrogant and haughty, one of our greatest weaknesses that is pride. They lowered themselves and repented truly in their hearts, and a new light was born in them, and consequently, they were purified and made whole and worthy once again before the Lord. The Lord is pleased with them, and joyfully welcomed them back, like a father welcoming a long-lost prodigal son.
Our hearts are important, brothers and sisters in Christ, because within our hearts lie the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, and it is the most important part of our beings. If our hearts are pure, and we keep the Holy Spirit strong within us, and with a powerful anchor of faith in God, we will be able to resist any temptations of the devil and the world’s evils. It is within our hearts that lies the key to defeating evil and keeping strong the faith we have in God.
That was why Christ told His disciples and the people who were with Him that even if they had already had evil thoughts with the opposite sex, they had already committed adultery, even though they had not actually done the deed itself. That is because our hearts are the start of everything, whether things good or evil, is ultimately decided by the state of our hearts. If our hearts are evil and filthy with sin, we will definitely be more inclined to do things that displease the Lord, and vice versa, that we will be more predisposed to do things that please the Lord if we keep our hearts pure and filled with light.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not fear evil, but face it with courage and faith. Let the Holy Spirit come and dwell within all of us, and keep ourselves firmly anchored in God, and in our faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That the Spirit will become the Treasure that St. Paul mentioned in the first reading today, encased within our unworthy bodies, but when unveiled through our actions and our words, the Spirit will proclaim the glory of God, for all to see, that they too may believe and repent! Amen.
Psalm 33 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
I will bless the Lord all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the lowly hear and rejoice.
Oh, let us magnify the Lord, together let us glorify His Name! I sought the Lord, and He answered me; from all my fears He delivered me.
They who look to Him are radiant with joy, their faces never clouded with shame. When the poor cry out, the Lord hears and saves them from distress.
The Lord’s angel encamps and patrols to keep safe those who fear Him. Oh, see and taste the goodness of the Lord! Blessed is the one who finds shelter in Him!
Brothers and sisters in Christ! Today we celebrate a great mystery of our faith, that is the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, or Corpus Christi, in which God gave His own flesh and blood for us to consume, that He may live in us, and we in Him, that we can gain eternal life through Him. He gave up Himself that we may live, that we have a share in His death and His glorious resurrection.
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist is the centre to our faith, and the Real Presence of Christ our Lord in the consecrated bread and wine is what makes our faith truly Catholic. That is because we believe that in the Holy Mass, whenever the priest offers the bread and wine and consecrate it before the Lord, in the same words that Christ had used on the Last Supper, the bread and the wine truly become the Real Body and Blood of our Lord, and not just a purely symbolic or memorial reenactment of the Last Supper, but a real transformation of the material of the bread and wine, into the Body of Christ.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, what we receive in the Eucharist is the real Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave us His Body to eat and His Blood to drink, and therefore, as the Eucharist is divine, being the essence of God Himself, we must treat it with the greatest deference and respect. For this is the God who came down to us as man like us, and died for us, by shedding His blood, the Blood of the Lamb of God, that all mankind may be saved.
The Lamb of God had been slaughtered, and He did not resist, nor did He protest against His unjust sentence of death, even though He is without sin, because without His death, without His sacrifice, as the only completely perfect sacrificial lamb, there is nothing that can match the severity of all the sins of all mankind combined together. Only Christ, God incarnate as man, has this power and authority over sin, and by His sacrifice, we are made pure again, white as snow.
But Christ did not give us His Body and His Blood in the Eucharist without reason, ever since He gave His disciples the first Eucharist in the Last Supper, and as He had always mentioned, that those who eat that Bread, the Bread of Life, and drink from the cup of salvation, will gain eternal life, because Christ Himself would dwell within all of us, and we would then have a share in His glorious resurrection, and therefore eligible for salvation. Only if we accept Christ, live according to His commandments, and receive Him in the Eucharist, then we gain the fullness of salvation.
As Christ would dwell within all of us who receive Him in the Holy Eucharist, our bodies must be worthy of Christ, of God who is good and perfect. We may be lowly and weak mortals, but as long as we keep our faith in God and strive to do only what is good in the eyes of the Lord, we are worthy of Him. Remember the saying, that our body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit? That is because the Lord Himself through His Real Presence in the Eucharist has been willing to come to us, through the bread and wine transformed that we consume, that He would then dwell in us forever more.
That is why, we must not defile our bodies and minds with sin and corruption of evil, because our very body itself has become the very Temple of God, where the Lord resides, just very much like the Temple of Jerusalem, at the time of King Solomon, when God was willing to come down and reside in the Temple built by Solomon, and His presence overwhelmed all the people who witnessed it, so great is His majesty and power.
The Lord had decreed that no filth of evil and sin should enter the Temple, and there were large dedicated places where the people can wash and purify themselves prior to entering the Holy Temple, so that they would not defile the place physically and spiritually with the filth of their sin. It is kind of parallel to how we purify ourselves with the holy water as we enter the church building at the holy water font, and seal ourselves in purity, with the Name of the Holy Trinity and the sign of the victorious cross, in which we rebuke evil and reject Satan, and therefore, would then enter the holy place of God and preventing us from defiling that Holy Temple.
The same therefore, should apply to all of us. Ever since the Lord is willing to dwell within all of us, through His Real Presence in His Most Holy Body and Blood, we have become the new Tabernacle, the new Temple of the Lord, each one of us, who had been baptised, and who had received the Eucharist in good standing in the faith through the Church. We must therefore respect the same with regards to ensuring the purity of our own beings, that we, as the Temple of God, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, will not be defiled by our human weaknesses and sin.
St. Paul, in the same book as our second reading today, in his first letter to the people of Corinth, confirm this, that our bodies are indeed the Temple of the Holy Spirit, as the Holy Spirit also dwell within all of us who have received the Spirit, ever since the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles in Pentecost. Thus, our bodies became ever greater in terms of the need to maintain its purity, against the evils of the world, and against the temptations of the evil one through worldly pleasures and desires, that corrupts and bring darkness to our otherwise pure and holy Temple, where God resides.
Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, our God has indeed dwelled within each one of us, and this is symbolised by yet another great event in the history of salvation, when Christ gave up His Spirit and died on Calvary, when He finally shed His own life and blood, for the redemption of all mankind. At that moment, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant and the Lord Himself supposedly reside, from the rest of the Temple in Jerusalem, tore in two pieces from top to bottom, at the moment when Christ died on the cross.
That moment, when the veil was torn, was a defining moment. It symbolises that the Lord is no longer limited to just that holy space within the Temple in Jerusalem, as He had been, ever since He chose to dwell at the Temple, since the time of the King Solomon of Israel. Through the tearing of that veil, God made His new covenant, which He proclaimed in the Last Supper, complete, with all mankind.
That new covenant is the redemption offered by the death of Christ on the cross, through which we receive His Body and His Blood, given freely to all of us. So that, ever since, Christ, who is God, dwells within all of us who receive Him in the Eucharist, ever since the time of the Apostles, who was commanded by Christ Himself to continue the celebration of the Eucharist, in memorial of His Sacrifice on Calvary.
But beware, brothers and sisters in Christ, this is where exists a danger in misunderstanding the meaning of Christ, when He said about the Eucharist as a memorial. Many wrongly interpreted it as the sign that the celebration of the Eucharist is nothing more than a memorial, a symbolic celebration and imitation of the real sacrifice on Calvary. That the bread and wine that we consume are mere bread and wine, and not the Body and Blood of Christ.
Beware, brethren, that we do not fall into confusion and falsehoods spread by the evil one. For within that Eucharist, within the bread and the wine, Christ is present, really present, in His complete being, and that is what we call and know as the Real Presence of God in the Eucharist. We believe that our priests, with the same authority that Christ had given to the Apostles, in the consecration of the offerings of bread and wine, bring about the complete transformation of that bread and that wine, to become the Most Precious Body and the Most Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, some of us may ask, why then the bread still look like bread, and the wine still look like wine? And there seems to be no change in the physical appearance or substance of the bread and wine? That is exactly the wonder of the mystery of our faith in Christ. Because, yes, the bread and wine’s outside appearance remains that of physical bread and wine in shape, but it has in fact been completely transformed into the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in what we call as transubstantiation, because there is a real change or ‘trans’ in the substance of the bread and the wine, into the flesh and blood of our Lord.
Remember! That Christ Himself often repeated that those who did not partake in His flesh and His blood, those who did not receive His body and blood, will have no part in Him, and will not have eternal life. Only those who willingly, and in worthy state receive the Lord into themselves, through the Eucharist, will gain the eternal rewards from Christ, that is eternal life and glory with Him in heaven. That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is very important that we take the Eucharist seriously, that from now on, we begin to participate more in the Mass and in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, that we truly understand our faith, and why we have to regularly receive our Lord in the Eucharist.
The Body and the Blood of Christ, each is Christ complete in themselves, that means, if we only receive the Body, that is the ‘bread’ or the Blood, that is the ‘wine’ we do not receive half of Christ, but in fact, we have received the fullness of Christ in each of them. When we receive either the Body of Christ or His Blood, we receive Christ in His fullness, in His glorious majesty and power, into ourselves. That is why, brethren, we must be worthy! We must be worthy to have the Lord dwell within us, as His Temple!
Remember that if we willingly and knowingly receive the Lord when we are in the state of mortal sin, we will be damned instead of being saved, because we did not keep our house in order, and did not receive the Lord properly and worthily. That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, keep our bodies, our Temple of the Holy Spirit, away from fornication and corruption of sin. Keep ourselves pure, as best as we are able to, and welcome Christ every time we receive Him in the Eucharist, that He will see that our ‘house’ that is our heart, in good order, and therefore reward us with His grace and blessings.
If we had sinned and in the state of mortal sin, which prevents us from truly accepting the Lord into ourselves, into our defiled Temple, that is our being, we must first abstain from receiving the Eucharist, from receiving our Lord. What we must do is indeed, first to ask the Lord for His mercy and forgiveness, and seek a priest to be forgiven from our sins. Remember that to our priests, God has given the authority to absolve sins, if only we ourselves are humble and willing enough, to admit our own sinful nature, and seek to return once again to God’s love and embrace. Only once we have been absolved, then we can receive the Lord again, and He will once again dwell within us, transforming us from inside with His love.
Let us reflect on the mystery of our faith, that is the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ on this sacred occasion, that from now on, we will increase our dedication for our Lord, really present in the Blessed Sacrament, in the form of His Body and His Blood, which He had given freely, so that we may live, and we may share in Him, the fruits of eternal life and salvation. God bless us all, now and forever more. Amen!
Psalm 18 : 8, 9, 10, 11
The Law of the Lord is perfect : it gives life to the soul. The word of the Lord is trustworthy : it gives wisdom to the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right : they give joy to the heart. The commandments of the Lord are clear : they enlighten the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure, it endures forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, all of them just and right.
They are more precious than gold – pure gold of a jeweller; they are much sweeter than honey which drops from the honeycomb.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of the Visitation of our Blessed Virgin to her cousin, Elizabeth, who had become pregnant earlier than Mary herself, when the angel appeared to Zechariah her husband, that she would bear in her old age, the one who was to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. That child born of Elizabeth, as we all knew, is St. John the Baptist, who straightened the path for the Lord and brought many to repentance through his baptisms at the Jordan, and his call for repentance.
Mary herself had been pregnant by the time of that visitation to Elizabeth, after another angel, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her and revealed to her, the culmination of the promised salvation that God promised His people through the prophets throughout history, that she would bear a Son who would be the Son of God Most High, Jesus Christ, the Messiah who would save all mankind and bring them back to God their Father who loves them all.
The moment of salvation at the time when the visitation happened was truly at hand, because the Saviour Himself is about to be born into the world, and preceded by another, John, who was born before Him to prepare for His way. It is through both John’s call for people to repent, and ultimately, the works of Jesus the Messiah, that the plan for salvation that God has crafted since the day that men fell from grace, came into perfection.
Yes, that is because, ever since our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, had rebelled against the commandments of the Lord by choosing instead to follow the foul advice of the evil one hidden as the devilish snake, and therefore brought sin into mankind and into the world. Ever since, men has suffered as a result of sin, because of our sinfulness, we became unworthy of God, who is perfect and good.
But God did not abandon us, and neither did He leave us with nothing and condemn us directly into hell that is prepared for Satan and his rebellious angels, who followed him in his rebellion. He loves all mankind, whom He created last of all creations, and whom He loved over all other things. It was a great sadness surely that has been in God’s heart, seeing that men who have sinned against Him, having to suffer eternal separation from Him, suffering the same fate as Satan and his angels.
Therefore, God gave us a promise at the beginning of creation, to Adam and Eve herself, that from them would rise a salvation that will deliver mankind from the hands and tyranny of Satan, the snake, and whom the deliverer would destroy Satan and his hold over us forever. This deliverer is none other than Christ the Messiah, the very Son of the Most High God, who was born through Mary.
God even said that although Satan would harass the children of Adam throughout time, but eventually the woman born from them would crush the snake under her feet. This woman is Mary, whom through her crucial role of being the Mother of God, and the Mother of our Saviour, she crushed Satan forever under her feet.
Why did Elizabeth said that Mary is blessed amongst all women? That is because of Mary’s own actions that allow salvation to be executed perfectly, for through her humble acceptance on the will of God, she had made possible the salvation that God offered through the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ, incarnate into man, through Mary, His mother. She is blessed because she, amongst so many other women, many with much greater wealth, and many with much greater power, was selected to be the vessel for the coming of the Messiah in this world.
Her own humility, and her acceptance of her part in the divine plan of salvation made her blessed among every other women, and indeed, that is why she also became our greatest intercessor, the greatest of all saints, because of her own purity in life, through her Immaculate Conception, and through her great virtues throughout her life. And who would be best to help us to bring our prayers to the Lord if not Mary, our Lord’s own mother? Remember that at Cana, through the urging of Mary, Jesus was willing to perform His very first miracle, which saved the wedding couple from potentially disastrous humiliation.
But be careful, brothers and sisters, that we do not glorify Mary beyond God Himself, because, Mary is the Mother of God, but she is not a goddess. We revere and glorify her because of her great virtues, and we ask her for her intercession, and that is why all the prayers that we have for her, so that she would bring her Son to listen to our cause. But we do not worship her and neither do we accredit her with the goddess status, as many people outside the Church had misunderstood, and even used this misunderstanding to attack the faithful ones in the Church.
Today, we celebrate and commemorate the great joy that accompany this Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, because on this day, it was proclaimed that Mary is the Mother of God, the Mother of the Saviour, Jesus, who would come to save all mankind and complete the long planned salvation. Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit that had dwelled within her ever since the conception of Jesus, praised God in a song that we know knew as the Magnificat, as a song of pure and unadulterated joy.
A great joy indeed because the Lord is about to come and end all the works of evil in this world and on mankind. He who is the great judge would make all things good once again, and bring justice to this world, protecting the humble and the weak, and punishing those who are arrogant and overconfident in their own powers.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us glorify God, for His willingness to come down upon us as a lowly man through His mother, Mary, had enabled us to hope once again, for the eternal life and salvation, which Christ, through His death on the cross, had freely offered everyone, without exception. Through Mary, let us reach Christ her Son, and allow her to help us in our attempt to reach salvation.
For Mary, the greatest saint, is the perfect role model for all of us to follow. By following her virtues and examples, we can only become closer to God, as long as we do God’s commandments, by following the examples of our Lady. Have faith, brothers and sisters in Christ, for God will never abandon us, and today, we are joyful, and we are commemorating that completion of salvation, which allows mankind to be reunited once again with God, God who is love, and God who loves us, so much that He sent His only Son, for us, that we may live. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 