pursuit

by

Saturday, 25 May 2013 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor; Pope St. Gregory VII, Pope; and St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Virgin (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we learn about God, that God is our Father, our creator. God shaped us from dust, in His own image, that we look like Him, and receiving His Holy Spirit through His breath, we gain life that is anchored in the Spirit that is in all of us.

He is our Father, and like our earthly father, He loves us, protects us, and grant us His grace, through His guidance and numerous blessings to us. He taught us many things through subtle means, and He opened our eyes to the knowledge of the world. He brought us up since the day of our conception and cares for us till the day of our death.

God who is our Father loves us, brothers and sisters in Christ, that He even sent His only Son, one of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, to be one of us, to be a lowly man like us, and in doing so, He brought us even closer to Himself, because we now, through Christ, truly become children of God, because Christ Himself, the Son of God, is our brother, just as He is our Lord and Saviour.

But we have rebelled against His love and His faithfulness to us, and we have rejected Him since the first days of creation, beginning with the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, when they ate the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, trusting Satan in the snake more than they trust the Lord their God and their creator.

Yes, one weakness that mankind particularly has today is greed, my brethren, especially greed for knowledge, curiosity, and an excess of it, which resulted exactly in the rebellion of the first mankind, because of their curiosity of the knowledge of good and evil as tempted by Satan. The Lord has given each one of us wisdom and intellect, but we have never felt enough, and are always curious and wanting to know more.

This is how our modern world rapidly becoming less and less faithful to God, and many turn their hearts away from total obedience and love for God. Many question their faith, because they are curious about the truth behind it, and they trust more alternatives to God such as scientific discoveries, because in those discoveries, they gain more and more knowledge, and this displaces God in their hearts, because to them, science seems to offer them something tangible, as science itself represents something that must be verifiable and visible.

Yes, our God and Lord may not be visible to us, and His presence may not be easily felt, if you apply the standards of science, and the standards of our human stature to it, but God does exist in our hearts, brothers and sisters in Christ, and He is present in all of us, through the Spirit of life that He has given us. What mankind is lacking truly is the ability to transcend that greed for more knowledge and more understanding, but in the process, those greed transform them into a corrupted being.

That is why Christ asks us to be like the children, to have faith like the children, because children are pure and innocent, and in the children lie the fullness of the love of God, and they are beings that can truly love God with all their heart, their mind, and their soul, without being disrupted and clouded by the evils of this world, simply because, in the innocence of their heart, they know only the love of God.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, we too should follow the children’s example, in their pure and unadulterated love for God. If you see a child pray, you can see that their prayer is pure, and not like many of us who utter litany of wishes in our prayer, because we have been tainted by greed and desire, desiring that God grant us our wishes, although prayer is in fact the bridge of faith, our pure connection, a two-way connection between us and God, instead of being a help line or a wishing line.

That is why those of you who are parents with young children, it is important to educate your children well, and ensure that they are protected from the evil influences that are ever present in our world, and in our surroundings. In a world where knowledge had become much more readily accessible and in the reach of even children through the media and the internet, there is a need for greater vigilance, brethren, that we, and especially young children, do not fall prey to Satan’s advances. Knowledge is good, and knowing more is good, but are we able to truly distinguish between truth or lies? and are we able to distinguish between what is good and what is bad?

Today, we also celebrate feast of saints, my brothers and sisters in Christ. Saints because we do not just celebrate one saint, but three saints! They are St. Bede the Venerable, a holy monk living in the seventh and early eighth century England, who contributed greatly to the development of the Church in Britannia, and we also have Pope St. Gregory VII, a great Pope, and a great reformer Pope, who championed the freedom and the authority of the Papacy against secular powers that try to usurp the Church’s authority from it, and finally St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, a virtuous religious sister who often received visions from the Lord, and was known for her great piety and love for God.

St. Bede the Venerable was a great author who wrote extensively on the early histories of the British Isles, but also made important chronicles of the development of the Church in the West and in Britain, especially in the well known history of the Church and people of England, that is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. His works brought great advancement in the field of learning and knowledge. This shows the greatness of wisdom and intellect that God has given us, and if we utilise it right, we can bring about great good to mankind, just as St. Bede the Venerable had done.

Pope St. Gregory VII, is a great Pope of the medieval era, who championed Papal supremacy and authority over the rulers of Christendom. He persevered over the power of the secular ruler, in the person of the Holy Roman Emperor, the Christendom’s ruler at the time, over the appointment of bishops, which rightfully should belong to the successor of the apostles, the successor of Peter, that is the Pope, alone. He triumphed against those who in their pride think that they know it all and did not pay proper respect to the Lord out of their pride and arrogance.

St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi gained many visions which she received regularly from the Lord, and through her writings on her visions and experiences, many believed in the Lord. This is the proof that knowledge and wisdom indeed comes from God, and from God alone. We humans receive our knowledge and wisdom from the Spirit that is also our life, but we are prone to think that this knowledge and wisdom is our own, and disregard the Lord’s role in it.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us from now on, follow in the footsteps of these great saints, and pursue the true knowledge, the truth that is in the Lord. Do not be tempted by the falsehood that this world offers, that is Satan’s temptation. God who loves us will grant us truth, wisdom, and knowledge that is anchored in Him, that we will not fall like Adam and Eve once did. May God be our light of guidance, and steer us on the path to return to Him one day. Amen.

by

Friday, 5 April 2013 : Friday of the Easter Octave (Scripture Reflection)

Christ is the stone whom the builders rejected, and had become the cornerstone. What is a cornerstone? It is most commonly associated with an arch, but can also be found in other structures, that this stone bear the weight of the entire structure, and keep the whole structure together. As long as the cornerstone remains in place, the building would stand safely despite forces applied against it. But if the cornerstone is to be removed, the entire structure would crumble in moments, since the cornerstone is truly the key part of the building structure, without which the building could not stand.

Yes, Christ is our cornerstone, the cornerstone of our life. For we cannot live without Christ, who is God, and who had come down from heaven to die for our sake, that bearing our faults and sins, He gave us a new hope of eternal life in Him. If we keep Christ as the cornerstone of our life, we will be saved, as with Christ as our cornerstone, we will stand firm despite the assaults of the evil one, and the temptations of worldly pleasures that threaten to derail us from our path to return towards the Lord who loves us.

Yet many of us make different things false cornerstones of our lives, that is not Christ, and not of Christ. These false cornerstones are the false focus of our lives, that end up diverting our attention from God and from doing the good works that is of our God, and end up being selfish, prideful, and arrogant in defiance of the love of God and ignoring the need to love our fellow mankind. Some examples of these false cornerstones are money, possessions, false pleasures, and false idols.

We often involved ourselves in mindless pursuit of wealth and money, to achieve more and gain more from our career, to gain more promotions that we can enjoy more and get more goods and live our lives to the fullest. Is it so? I am not so sure. Remember that more often that not when we dug deep into the pursuits of these worldly desires, we often neglected to do things that we should have done. What are these? Basically love and care for others, and our love for God. God had loved us whom He created and He sent us His only Son that we can be saved, and it is natural that we should love Him back, and He also told us to love one another as we had loved ourselves.

Indeed, we have often neglected those around us in our pursuit of false satisfaction, in gaining more money and more possessions, neglecting our families, our children, our parents and those who are dear to us. We forgot about them, and we cared ultimately only for ourselves, and sometimes we even inadvertently or unintentionally cause pain and suffering to others, just that we can gain pleasure for ourselves. That is when we put our trust in men rather than God, and placing our trust in our own weak self rather than placing it upon God who can indeed be trusted. Had He not watched us all the days of our life since our birth?

Let us reflect on this, and pray, that our faith in God will be strengthened, that we will once again make God the cornerstone of our lives, by throwing away all the false cornerstones of worldliness, that eventually would only bring temporary satisfaction, but one that leave one’s heart continuously longing for the true fulfillment that can only be filled by the divine love of God, and love itself. It is not wrong to gain money and possessions, but we must be careful lest we become slaves to them instead of being their master. Indeed, we should strive to master our possessions and use them for the good of others. Get rid of selfishness, pride, and arrogance, and sharpen the edge of our humility and love.

May God always remain as our cornerstone, the cornerstone of our faith, and the cornerstone of our lives, that by entrusting ourselves fully to Him, we will not be disappointed, and will be rewarded with abundant graces and blessings. Amen.