Reflection of the Bible

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Friday, 21 February 2020 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are presented through the Scripture passages we heard, of the topic which often came up in the discussion of our faith, especially regarding the matter of salvation and faith. We are reminded that our faith cannot be empty and devoid of good and concrete actions, or good works based on that faith, because without those works, our faith is truly empty, meaningless and dead.

That is the essence of what St. James had mentioned in his Epistle, that faith without good works is the same as having a dead faith, and having a dead faith is meaningless and pointless to us, as it does not lead us towards God but instead to eternal damnation like those who have sinned and disobeyed God, and refused to repent from their sins. For faith, by itself, without the backing of concrete action, is no better than just formality or even hypocrisy for some.

St. James used the example of how even the demons and evil spirits, who rebelled against God and were formerly angels of heaven that were thrown down because of their sins, still believed in God and had to obey Him as their Lord and Master, no matter how they begrudged it or hated it. After all, they were created by Him and they still have to acknowledge His authority and power. That was why the demons and evil spirits obeyed Jesus when He ordered them to get out of the people they had possessed.

Yes, indeed, they believed and had faith in God much as we do, but the evil spirits and demons did not hold fast to their faith and instead put their trust in their own pride and rebellion, following Lucifer, their leader, whom now we know as Satan in their rebellion of pride and vanity, and they all fell and were condemned. They had faith but acted otherwise, no different from many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law whom the Lord Jesus often rebuked because of their hypocrisy and lack of true faith.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord spoke about those who were unfaithful and preferred to save themselves rather than to gain the kingdom of God. These people were those who were too engrossed in their desires for worldly ambitions and pleasures, that they would rather save their lives in this world rather than to save themselves in the world that is to come. They put faith as a mere formality and at face value, but inside their hearts, there was no love for God.

The Lord spoke of this again with reference to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who often opposed Him and worked against Him all the time. They had faith in God indeed, and they claimed to be the most faithful and pious of all God’s people, and yet, their faith were superficial and for show, as they prayed publicly and made show of their piety that they might be praised and honoured for that, and they revelled and enjoyed in such treatment.

Those people had faith in God and yet did not show their faith through genuine good works, and instead, they acted in ways contrary to their faith and to what they had been teaching the people, and that was why they were considered as hypocrites. Their love for themselves and their own ego and desire surpassed and overcome their faith in God, and that was why, they refused to believe in the Lord’s truth and all the wonderful and miraculous deeds He has performed before their own eyes.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are therefore called to be truly faithful to God, not just in name or as a formality only, but that we must be genuine in wanting to follow God and His ways at every moments of our lives. We are called to be His witnesses in our respective communities and places, to proclaim His glory and truth by our lives, lived with faith and true dedication, and not just faith in name only.

Today, we can look upon the good examples set by one of Our Lord’s faithful saint, whose life and works are truly an inspiration for all of us as Christians. This saint is none other then St. Peter Damian, a holy bishop, Cardinal of the Church and a Doctor of the Church whose feast we celebrate today. He was a member of the Benedictine Order, and was remembered to be a great reformer of the Church and the Christian faith.

St. Peter Damian devoted much of his life to serve the Church in various capacities, beginning from religious life as part of the Benedictine monks, and his tremendous piety and love for God were evident even from those early days. He worked closely with some of the Popes, and was involved in the major reforms of the Church at that time which was facing my corruptions and immoral behaviours of its members, especially that of the clergy, from the influences of the secular world.

For his many works and contributions, the then reigning Pope wanted to make St. Peter Damian a Cardinal, a great honour which he resisted and rejected for quite some time before finally he accepted the important role as the Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, one of the most prestigious role in the Roman Church, becoming the right hand man of the Pope in reforming many Church practices and disciplines, guiding many back to the path of obedience to God.

For that and his many other contributions, we can see how St. Peter Damian was not just a man who had an empty and meaningless faith. Instead, he showed us all what it means for us to have a genuine, living and worthy faith, faith that according to St. James as faith which is lived through good works, and through those same good works and faith, we will be blessed by God and brought to salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we carry on living our lives in this world from now on, let us all reflect on today’s Scripture readings and the words of St. James, and being inspired by St. Peter Damian and his lifelong dedication to God, let us all strive to dedicate ourselves to God with a newfound zeal and strength. May God be with us throughout this journey, and may He bless us all now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 20 February 2020 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the Scriptures, we are reminded that we should be careful not to indulge in ourselves and our desires, that is to indulge in our desires and pride, so that we will not end up being swallowed by them and fall therefore into sin. We are reminded that as Christians we should instead be humble and allow God to work His wonders through us and our lives, opening ourselves to His truth and love.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. James, St. James mentioned how as Christians we should not seek worldly glory and attention, hubris and ambition, ego and desires. St. James made a mention of the discrimination that people often make based on status, wealth, prestige, fame and all sorts of parameters by which we classify and categorise people. We tend to look down on those whom we deem to be inferior to us, while we honour and praise those whom we deem to be powerful and mighty.

And all of that were because we ourselves sought acceptance, recognition and status. We honour and welcome those who are rich and those who have important status because we want to gain benefit and satisfaction from the relationship we build with those who can benefit us and provide us with material sustenance and worldly benefits. Those who are of no status and importance in the eyes of the world are often ostracised and put aside because we perhaps think that we can gain nothing from them.

We need then to take note that St. James was not against the rich or the powerful, but rather our prejudices and our bias against those who are weak, poor and those who we are often judgmental against. And all these are caused by our own inability to resist the temptation of power, of wealth, of fame, glory and renown, of pleasure and many other worldly desires that often lead us down the path of sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what St. James wrote in his Epistle is a kind reminder to all of us Christians to be charitable in our words, actions and deeds. In everything we say and do, we should reach out to everyone, and love everyone equally without discrimination. We should also resist those temptations of power, of glory, wealth and fame, praise and vanity, all the things that will lead us astray from God and from His path.

We have to look at the example set by Christ Himself, as described in our Gospel passage today. The Lord Jesus asked His disciples Who they think or say He was, and while some said that He was a prophet and the One promised by God to come, St. Peter spoke firmly that he believed that Jesus was the Messiah and Holy One of God. What St. Peter spoke was the truth, but then we see just how cunning the devil can be, as he used that opportunity to strike and tempt Christ Our Lord.

St. Peter immediately rebuked the Lord when He mentioned how He would have to suffer and die at the hands of His enemies, which was indeed part of His ministry in this world. St. Peter rebuked the Lord saying that He should not have said such things and that He would not die as He had said. In fact, the devil tried to tempt Jesus again, by saying that because He is the Son of God and King of Kings, He should not have to suffer and die in such a manner, which befitted a slave more than a King.

Yet, that was what the Lord had exactly done, in accepting humbly His mission to save us all, out of His great compassion and love for each and every one of us. He resisted that temptation to leave His mission and be spared of the suffering that He was about to undertake for our sake. Although He was great and mighty, the Divine Lord and God, King of all kings, He willingly humbled and emptied Himself, so that by offering to His heavenly Father, His own worthy offering of His Most Precious Body and Blood, on the Altar of the Cross, He could save all of us mankind from our sins and from certain annihilation.

As Christians, all of us are called to imitate the love which Christ has shown to all of us, His ever generous love and compassion by which He has touched each one of us, calling us to repent from our sins and to embrace His wonderful mercy. We are called to love everyone equally, for we must also not forget how Christ loved us all even when we are still sinners, wicked and unworthy, disgusting and terrible because of all of our sins. Christ is still willing to forgive us despite all of that, provided that we make the commitment to change our way of life and follow Him with all of our heart.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore deepen our faith and grow further in our spiritual relationship with God. Let us all spend more time with God and do our best in our lives to serve Him and to glorify Him by our actions at all times. Let us resist the temptations put in our path by the devil, who sought our downfall by appealing to our pride, ego and desire. May the Lord be with us always and may He bless us in our every good works and endeavours. Amen.

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Wednesday, 19 February 2020 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of God in the Scriptures through which we are reminded that all of us need to be righteous in God’s eyes and have genuine faith in Him. We must not give in to the temptations of our pride, ego, ambition and desire which are great obstacles in our journey of faith towards God. St. James reminded us of this in his Epistle in our first reading passage today.

In that passage, St. James reminded all of us as Christians to keep ourselves pure and blameless from all the corrupting power of sin and evil. And as he described it to us, he was actually making a reference of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of that time, who were the religious elites of the community that were deeply engrossed in maintaining their way of observing the laws of Moses, and enforced it to great detail.

They prided themselves in their pious observance of those laws, their supposed righteousness and uprightness, praying openly in public places and seeking praise and honour from the people of God. They were also quick to judge all those whom they deemed to be unworthy, or those whom they saw to be less pious than they were. They opposed the Lord Jesus and His disciples for the same reason, persecuting Christians in the early Church for their faith.

Yet, as St. James mentioned in his Epistle, they failed to look upon themselves in the mirror. They were so caught up in their vanity and pride, greed and ego that they failed to see how they were sinners too, and in fact, their desires and pride made them to be sinners even greater than those whom they had persecuted and judged against. They were busy pointing out the flaws and faults in others, that they failed to see how their own pride and ego brought them to love themselves much more than they loved God, and their treatment of their brethren was not what the Lord had commanded us all to do.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why we need to learn from this experience and from what St. James had shared with us. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were blinded by their pride, their attachments to worldly pleasures and pursuits, their fears and jealousy, their insecurities and their desires that caused them to act in the manner that led them further and further into the slippery path of sin.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the miracle which Our Lord performed as He healed a blind man from his trouble, restoring his sight completely to him. The man could see again and was overjoyed, but the Lord told him not to tell of that to anyone. The Lord did not want unwanted attention because of what He has done, which may cause difficulty for Him and His disciples, especially because the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were always after Him and seeking for the opportunity to attack and accuse Him.

In addition, He also does not want the publicity to make Him to be distracted from His works, as He humbly obeyed the will of His heavenly Father, in ministering to the people, healing and making them whole once again. We can see how this is in contrast to the attitude of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who succumbed to their pride and desire. And the Lord showed us all that as long as we are blinded by those things, it will be difficult for us to progress in our faith journey.

We should seek the Lord, just like the blind man, who was healed from his blindness. But instead of being healed from physical blindness, we seek to be healed from our spiritual blindness instead. We should seek the healing of our souls and minds, our hearts and our beings that have been blinded by pride, ego, ambition, desire and human greed that led us into sin against God. Let us all be touched by God’s healing and compassionate love, that in His wonderful and generous mercy, we may be forgiven our sins and be made whole again.

May the Lord bless each and every one of us, and may He strengthen us in faith, that we may live courageously and faithfully from now on, as God’s faithful disciples and as true witnesses of our faith in Him in everything we say and do in our lives. Amen.

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Tuesday, 18 February 2020 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we have all been reminded of the great love of God for each and every one of us, and yet at the same time we are also warned of the dangers of our human desires and wants, our personal ambitions, ego and pride, which can lead us down the slippery path of sin that will make it difficult for us to resist the temptations to sin against God.

In our first reading today, St. James mentioned in his Epistle to the faithful, how God is ever good and ever loving, and if we put our trust and faith in Him, we will never be disappointed. And we should not say that temptations come from God, as indeed, St. James explained how temptations come from within us, through our desires and pride, ego and ambitions that twisted our thoughts, our minds and our hearts. And all those temptations and desires lead us to sin, and sin eventually lead us to damnation.

And this is what the Lord actually mentioned in our Gospel passage today, as He told the people who heard Him to be careful of the ‘yeast of the Pharisees’ and the ‘yeast of Herod’ and to keep their eyes open and be vigilant, that they themselves would not fall into sin and into damnation. What do these yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? This is where we need to look deeper into the significance of why Christ brought these two up in His teaching.

First of all, the Pharisees were the powerful group of intellectuals and men of high social standing, for their ardent and often zealous and rigid adherence to the laws and customs of the Law according to Moses. The Pharisees were the enforcers and guardians of the tradition and customs of the Law, and they took great pride in having such a position and honour among the people. The Pharisees saw themselves as the guardians of the traditions and the people, and as such they zealously guarded their positions and ways.

And this is what the ‘yeast of the Pharisees’ is all about. It speaks of the pride and ambition, the ego and desire in the hearts and minds of the Pharisees to maintain their position and privileges at all costs, even in opposing the Lord and Saviour Who has come into this world bearing the truth and salvation of God. They would rather resist Him and oppose Him and His works, rather than to lose their authority, power, control and influence among the people.

This is how pride and ego, ambition and desire can be so dangerous, as indeed they can lead us to temptations, and being tempted to maintain our ego and pride, we will end up making actions that are not just contrary to our faith, but are even scandalous and directly opposite of what God has taught us to do. And this is what the Lord meant by the ‘yeast of the Pharisees’ that we, the people of God, must be careful and vigilant against.

How about the ‘yeast of Herod’ then? Herod was the king of Galilee at the time, and he was infamous for his adulterous relationship with Herodias, his own brother’s wife, whom he married when she was still legally married to Herod’s brother, Philip, who was then also still alive. Herod was overcome by his desire and greed, and sinned by his desires, which resulted in his adultery. And not only that, when he was hosting a party, Herod succumbed to this same desire even towards his own stepdaughter.

When the daughter of his brother and Herodias danced in the party before Herod and his guests, Herod was again overcome by desire and made vows and promises that eventually led him to cause the death of St. John the Baptist whom he had arrested earlier on. Herodias wanted him dead, and made use of the opportunity through her daughter to make the request to Herod, a request that he could not reject because of the vows he had just made earlier on.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, here we can clearly see how this ‘yeast of Herod’ and the earlier mentioned ‘yeast of the Pharisees’ are the same ‘yeasts’ that we also have in us, the yeast of sin, of pride, ego, ambition, greed and desire. We are always struggling with them and unless we make the effort to resist the temptations they caused us, we will likely fall into the slippery trap of sin, and become trapped further and deeper into the darkness, finally into damnation.

Therefore, all of us are reminded today to keep ourselves pure and worthy of God, resisting the temptations to sin and distancing ourselves from things that can lead us to immorality and actions that are against God’s will and ways. Let us all have the resolve to live our lives from now on with ever greater zeal and faith, focusing ourselves on living our lives with greater commitment to God in all the things we say and do, in our every actions and deeds.

May the Lord continue to guide us and bless us in everything we do, and may He strengthen all of us that we may be ever stronger in faith and be more capable of resisting the temptations in life, the ‘yeasts of Herod and the Pharisees’ as we have talked about earlier. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 17 February 2020 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the message of the Scriptures through which we are all reminded that as Christians, we have to put our full trust and faith in God. We must be careful lest our pride, ambition, ego and desire in us lead us down the path towards ruin and sin. As we heard from the Gospel passage today, that was why the Pharisees refused to believe in Jesus and in His works and truth.

The Pharisees were often too proud of themselves and their actions, believing that they were always right and the best in everything they do and in the way that they obey and follow the Law of God. They criticised and looked down on others who they deemed to be unworthy and sinful, people like the tax collectors, prostitutes and people who were crippled and diseased. They also looked down on the Lord Himself and His disciples, whom they deemed to be dangerous influences on the people.

They were usually so full of themselves and so blinded by their pride that they were not able to open their hearts and minds to welcome the Lord, and as we heard in today’s Gospel passage, they argued with the Lord and asked, probably even rather demanding to see a miraculous sign. The Lord must truly have been sad to see their stubbornness and refusal to believe. For the truth was that all the while the Pharisees followed Him and His disciples, they have seen His miraculous signs and deeds.

Yet, despite having seen all those wonderful signs and miracles, they failed to believe and instead doubted the Lord and His works. They criticised and attacked Him, questioning His authority and legitimacy, and even going to the extent of associating Him and His miracles to the collusion with the prince of demons, Beelzebul. They asked for signs and wonders, and yet when the Lord graciously showed them all those things, they refused to believe.

They put their trust in their human intellect and judgment, their prejudices and thoughts, rather than to trust in the Lord. They were proud and could not bear to humble themselves before the Lord Who had come bearing His truth into the world. To them, the Lord Jesus was a rival and a dangerous threat because they feared of losing their much cherished privileges and honour, their own authority and glory among the people. All these things clouded their thoughts and judgements and prevented them from opening themselves up to the Lord.

This is why St. James in his Epistle which is our first reading passage today reminded us that all of us need to trust and have faith in God, and must not allow doubts, pride, desire, or whatever obstacles we often placed in our own journey of faith, to be a true obstacle in preventing us from finding and appreciating God’s love and grace. St. James reminded us as Christians that we need to be steadfast in our faith, to trust in God as there will be lots of trials and challenges that will come our way, which will test our faith and dedication to God.

How do we then overcome those challenges, both the doubts and the temptations of pride and desire from within us, and those challenges and trials that come from elsewhere? It is by deepening our relationship with God, through a healthy and living faith, filled with prayer and closeness to God, by obeying God and following Him through our lives and actions. And today, perhaps we should look upon the examples of today’s saints, whose feast we celebrate, namely that of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order.

These seven men who founded the Servite Order, a religious institution that remained and flourished until today, were those who were called by God, during the high Middle Ages era in Italy, when each of the seven men met one another and began to live their lives with a new emphasis on sanctity and obedience to God. They dedicated their lives to God, caring for the material and spiritual needs of the people living around them. Many people were touched by their devotion, faith and hard work, and many chose to follow their examples.

That was how the Servite Order eventually came to be, as thousands upon thousands enrolled themselves to the banner of the Order, under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom the seven holy founders had deep devotion for. Until this day, the lives of the seven holy founders continue to inspire many in the Servite Order, both the religious, priests and friars in the order, as well as the numerous lay groups associated with the Servites, all aiming for a more holy and dedicated life to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how about us then? What are we going to do in order to follow the Lord? Are we able to put our faith and trust in Him with all our heart and get rid of ourselves all the obstacles of pride, ego, ambition, greed and desire that have prevented many, such as the Pharisees among others, from truly believing in God? Are we able to commit ourselves, following the good examples set by the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order?

Let us all seek the Lord with ever greater zeal and devotion from now on then, and live our lives from now on with ever greater faith and be ever closer to God with every passing moments of our lives. May God be with us always, and may He bless us and strengthen us in our faith and courage to live in Him. Amen.

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Sunday, 16 February 2020 : Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday all of us are reminded through the words of God in the Scriptures on the need for us to have true and genuine faith in God and to live righteously each and every moments of our lives in accordance with God’s laws and commandments. As Christians we are called to be role models in our faith and in our lives, to show by our actions and deeds, how we can be faithful to God.

From our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Sirach, we heard of the commandments and laws that God has given us mankind, and how we have to follow and obey these laws and commandments as are our obligations as those who believe in God to walk in His path and to live our lives as how He has taught and instructed us all to live them. Otherwise, our faith is empty, meaningless and dead, and we are no better than hypocrites who believe in one thing but act in a completely different, even contradictory manner.

And that is the essence of what we have just heard in our quite lengthy Gospel passage today, in which we heard the Lord Jesus going through with the people on the importance of having genuine faith in God and not being hypocrites as He used several examples to explain to them and to make them understand that their faith was truly more than just merely a formality or as something that was to be just taken lightly.

He used the examples comparing the actions of the Pharisees as at that time, the Pharisees who were then the intellectuals and the elites within the community, were those who often looked highly upon themselves and praised themselves for their piety and adherence to the laws and customs of Moses, while looking down on others whom they deemed to be inferior, unworthy and dirty, like the tax collectors, prostitutes, people with diseases and those possessed by demons, and the Gentiles or the non-Jewish people.

But they failed to realise that in their attitude and way of living their faith, they have placed way too much emphasis on the rituals and their details right to the most minute of details. Historically, the Pharisees placed a lot of attention and focus on how the laws of Moses were practiced and emphasised the details and the way the rites were to be practiced, for example, when cleansing the hands, the Pharisees would emphasise how the cleansing ought to be done a few times and right up through the whole arms up to the elbows, otherwise the cleansing and purification were not up to standard or valid.

And the Pharisees liked to trumpet their piety and observance of the laws and customs before others, doing their prayers publicly and wanting to be praised and seen by everyone. However, the Lord pointed out that many of them did not truly have genuine faith and love for God. For they loved their laws and customs in their rituals and details much more than the Lord Himself. The Law that God gave to us mankind was meant to lead us to Him and not to end up becoming a distraction.

That was why then the Lord went to explain using some other examples of how we, God’s people must truly have faith in God and not just look at the letter of the Law. To understand the Law just by its letters alone is not enough, as it is indeed possible for someone to carry on the words of the Law and the required actions, even without love and faith for God. But do those actions then justify us or benefit us in any way? Certainly not! For such actions, done by those who do not believe in what they have acted are indeed no different from the actions of hypocrites who do not act in the way they believe in.

Therefore the Lord presented to us a different path, showing us that we must indeed seek to love God with all of our hearts, with all of our strength, and with all of our efforts and intentions, just as the very first commandment of God in the Ten Commandments have been revealed to us. If we truly love God, with all of our heart and strength, then naturally we will try our best to keep ourselves pure and away from sin, and do our best to live in accordance with the Law of God.

When the Lord mentioned how in the law, those who murdered and killed committed a great sin against God, and how in truth, if we even have the intention to murder or are angry at someone, we have actually already committed a great sin, the Lord was actually revealing to us that sin begins with a desire in our hearts, through which we are tempted, and should we give in to that temptation, we will easily fall down that slippery slope of sin, into graver and even graver form of sin.

That is why He similarly brought out the sin of adultery and infidelity against one’s own spouse, in which that when someone already has a desire for someone else in his or her hearts and minds, and indulge in that desire, the sin has already trapped that person since that moment. Similarly, if we indulge in that desire and allow ourselves to be tempted, we will end up falling deeper and deeper into sin, more and more serious with time.

Those who placed a lot of emphasis on the letter of the law will fail to realise that as the Lord Himself said, that as long as we are unable to comprehend the spirit and meaning of the Law as He revealed and taught to the people, we will continue to fall into the trap of sin, and will have difficulty to love the Lord with genuine faith and obedience. The Pharisees focused so much on the details of the Law and the regulations that they became rigid and fail to appreciate what the Lord truly wants to do with us through His Law.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God has revealed to us through Christ, His Son, that He has given us His Law and commandments because of His infinite and ever-present love for each and every one of us. And it was because of this same love that we have been so blessed for having these laws and commandments that God has given us to guide us in our path so that we may find our way to Him and be saved. God gave us His laws to show us His love and guide us to Him, and not to burden us unnecessarily, unlike what the Pharisees and some others thought.

We are truly blessed to have received this wisdom and revelation, which as St. Paul mentioned in his Epistle to the Church in Corinth, our second reading today, is part of God’s divine plan to bring us to His salvation. He has revealed to us the truth of His love through Christ, giving us this faith that we now have. Unfortunately, many of us as mentioned, did not appreciate this faith which we have, and we focus on the wrong things in life, that we end up focusing on the trivialities of rules and regulations and treating our faith as a formality rather than truly having a genuine faith and relationship with God.

It is time for us now to break free from this, brothers and sisters in Christ. It is time for us to turn once again to the Lord, Our God, with our every strength and capabilities, with our every attention and focus, that we truly live our lives from now on with a renewed spirit of faith. We are called to deepen our relationship with God and to embrace His love with all sincerity, knowing that He has loved us first so greatly that He gave us His Son, to suffer and die on the Cross for our sake, that we may live and not perish.

Let us all from now on no longer treat our Christian faith as a mere obligation or formality, and learn to live our lives with sincere desire to become ever closer to God, by our every words, actions and deeds that show that we truly belong to God, our Lord and Master. Let us all bring forth this as a witness of our faith, to spread the wonders of God’s love and truth in our respective communities and places, that many more people will be saved together with us.

May the Lord continue to bless us and guide us in our journey of faith in life, and may He strengthen us with courage and the zeal to carry on living our lives daily with faith despite all the challenges and temptations to do otherwise, that we may resist the temptation of vanity, pride and desire, so that we may truly have a genuine and living faith in us. May God bless us and our many good works, for His greater glory, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 15 February 2020 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scripture we are all reminded that we have to learn to trust in God and in His providence, and not to give in to fear and uncertainty, or else we may end up taking the wrong actions and walking down the wrong path, ending up with sin against God. In our first reading today, this was exemplified by the story of the king of Israel, Jeroboam, while in our Gospel we heard of the account of the miraculous feeding of the four thousand.

In the first reading, king Jeroboam, who was chosen by God to lead the ten tribes of the Israelites in opposition to king Rehoboam of Judah, began to take things into his own hands and disobey God. He feared that the people of Israel, who at that time according to the Law still had to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to God, would then be touched and made to return their allegiance and love to the house of David instead of to Jeroboam.

As such, Jeroboam took drastic actions in making for his own kingdom two sites where golden idols were built and put as the focus of worship, and he appointed priests of his own, not in accordance to the Law which stipulated that the priests could only come from the descendants of Aaron and the Levites. And Jeroboam himself offered the sacrifice on the heathen altar he has built for the purpose of the worship of those golden idols.

Through this action, king Jeroboam led the people to sin against God, and the root of his folly was because of his fear and pride, that allowed him to be tempted by Satan to establish a rival worship centre, that did not even worship God but golden idols instead, a mockery of God and a reminder of how the Israelites first sinned at Mount Sinai when they worshipped the golden calf instead of God.

We see here what can happen when we allow ourselves to be swayed by fear and pride, as king Jeroboam was afraid that he would soon lose control over his kingdom and his people would betray him to the rightful kings in Judah, if he allowed them to continue the rightful and legitimate worship of God in Jerusalem. He was likely also too proud to admit that he had to depend or trust in God, and therefore, took matter to his own hands.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it was this same fear and uncertainty that the disciples of the Lord also faced when they saw the multitudes of people gathered to hear their Lord and Master, as described in our Gospel reading today. The Lord wanted them to have food because many of them had been following Him for days and there were not much food in the area, and neither did those people bring sufficient food with them for sustenance.

The disciples were worried and concerned, fearing that they would not be able to get enough food for the people. In another occasion, the disciples estimated that it would have cost quite a lot of money to get sufficient food to feed all the whole multitudes of people. But the Lord Jesus then showed all of them that they really do not need to be afraid or be fearful, but rather, they must learn to trust in God.

That was when the Lord performed the amazing miracle, breaking merely seven loaves of bread, and yet, the whole multitude of four thousand men and many more women and children were fed until they were all full and satisfied, with plenty of leftovers to spare. He showed all of us that as long as we have faith in Him and trust in Him, He will provide what we truly need, and we have to learn to trust in Him and not in our own often flawed human instincts and judgements.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in today’s readings from the Scripture, let us all reflect on our own lives and discern how we can be more faithful from now on. Let us all deepen our faith and build a stronger and better relationship with our God from now on. And may the Lord be with us always, and may He bless us in our many efforts and works, giving us the strength and courage to be ever faithful in all things in life. Amen.

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Friday, 14 February 2020 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the continuation of the story from the Book of Kings on the kingdom of Israel after the time of king Solomon. At that time, after king Solomon has passed away, the kingdom passed to his heir Rehoboam, who followed in the sins of his father’s last years of reign and disregarded God’s will and wisdom, reigning tyrannically and ended up causing the division of Israel as God had foretold His people.

Jeroboam was given the command and kingship over the northern portion of the kingdom of Israel, consisting of the ten tribes of the Israelites who went up in rebellion against king Rehoboam and the house of David. This division happened because of the disobedience that Solomon and then his son Rehoboam had shown before God. And unfortunately, Jeroboam himself also fell into sin and disobeyed the Lord, and as a result, his family’s rule too eventually did not last, and other kings took over the throne of the northern kingdom.

All of these accounts of the downfall of the glorious days of the ancient united kingdom of Israel highlighted to us how in God we can have reassurance and true happiness, while away from Him there can only be division, misery and darkness. Many of the kings of Israel and Judah were unfaithful to God and led the people further and further into sin, embroiling them into bitter conflicts and wars that eventually led to the downfall and conquest of both kingdoms by the Assyrians and the Babylonians respectively.

Then we have our Gospel passage today, in which the Lord Jesus healed a man who was deaf and mute, by touching His ears and tongue, saying the word, ‘Ephphata!’ that means ‘Be opened!’ which caused the man to be immediately healed from his afflictions and was able to speak and hear again. Through the Lord’s hands and power, the man was cured and made whole again, and everyone who saw the miracle believed in Jesus.

And this is the fulfilment of the prophecy which the Lord gave to His people through His prophets, that His salvation would come to them through His Messiah, the Saviour Whom He promised to them all. And Our Lord Jesus Christ is the promised Saviour, Who came bearing God’s truth and His salvation, touching those who were sick and troubled, and calling many to repent from their sins and to turn towards righteousness in God.

The essence of our Scripture passages today is therefore a reminder that while we may have fallen into sin and become afflicted, struck with divisions and troubles because of those sins and disobedience, but God is the One Who is able and indeed the only One Who can truly heal us from our afflictions and deliver us from our troubles and issues. And what we must all realise is just how much God loves each and every one of us, and how He wants us to be reconciled to Him.

And that is why He gave us His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ to be our Saviour and Redeemer, to loosen the tongues of those who are mute, open the ears of the deaf, make the blind see, allow those who are paralysed to move and work again, and even raise the dead back into life. Through Him, we mankind are restored and made whole, to be reconciled with God the Father, through His singular act of supreme and ultimate love, that is His sacrifice on the Cross.

But do we appreciate what God has done for us? More often than not we ignore His love and generous offer for forgiveness and mercy. We turn a blind eye and brush aside His compassionate care for us. We prefer to carry on living in sin, and allow ourselves to be tempted again and again by the devil rather than to walk in His path, just as how the people of Israel and Judah once lived, rebelling constantly against God, eventually leading to their own downfall and exile.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we need to embrace a new way of life, that is the way of Christ. Let us all now take a look at the lives and inspiring examples of two saints who have been made the Patron Saints of Europe for their wonderful many contributions to evangelisation and the conversion of many souls. They are St. Cyril and St. Methodius, who were two brothers highly credited with bringing the Christian faith to the Slavic peoples in Eastern Europe and for codifying the Cyrilic alphabets, named after St. Cyril himself, now widely used in that region.

St. Cyril and St. Methodius were born in Greece and later on were sent on missions to different areas and territories across Eastern Europe and Western Asia, spreading the Christian faith and conducting diplomacy with the foreign powers in the regions they visited. They were then sent to the Slavic areas upon invitation from one of the kings who requested missionaries to evangelise the people who were mostly still pagan then.

St. Cyril and St. Methodius dedicated themselves to the mission they have been entrusted with, and did even more than what they have been called to do, in helping not just the conversion of the people but even as mentioned, the ordering of the Slavic alphabets and language, as well as codification of laws and customs modelled on the laws of the Roman Empire and the laws of the Church at that time. They truly showed what it means for us to be Christians, in serving God with all of their heart and might.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to follow in the footsteps of St. Cyril and St. Methodius? Are we willing to commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and devote our lives from now on with greater love and fidelity to God? Let us all seek to be ever more faithful, each and every days of our lives, making good use of all the opportunities that God has given us in this world. May God be with us always and may He bless us with faith and strength to live our lives according to His will, and heal us from our afflictions. Amen.

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Thursday, 13 February 2020 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the message of the word of God speaking to us through the Scriptures about the fall of Solomon into sin, when he at his old age began to be swayed by his many wives and concubines who continued to practice their pagan worship of idols and gods, and eventually led to the king himself and many of the people succumbing to the pagan idolatry themselves, offering sacrifices to those false idols and gods.

God was angered at the faithlessness of Solomon and his sins, which led the people of Israel deeper into sin against Him. And as a result, eventually the kingdom of Israel was divided into two halves, one of which was the kingdom of Judah led by the descendants of Solomon from the house of David, while the northern kingdom of Israel composed of the ten tribes in opposition to the house of David had their own kings. Many of the subsequent kings did not have faith in God and acted wickedly, allowing pagan worship and idolatry to run rampant.

From what we have just heard and discussed, we can see how there was a prejudice against the pagan neighbouring people of the Israelites. Beginning with the account of how king Solomon was seduced and persuaded by his many foreign wives and concubines, these neighbours of the Israelites were often considered as pagans, wicked and unworthy of God. This went along with the notion that the Israelites were the chosen race and a people whom God Himself had chosen to be His own.

As a result, the people of Israel often looked down on the Gentiles or the people who were non-Jewish in origin or in faith, and they considered them as being unworthy, dirty and sundered from God’s love and grace. Yet, what we have also then heard from our Gospel passage today serve as an important reminder that God’s love for His people transcends the boundaries of race, and unlike what the people then believed, God did not just choose to keep one people for His own, but in fact, made all of the children of man, His own beloved children.

In that Gospel passage we heard of the encounter between Jesus and a Syro-Phoenician woman who came seeking His help to heal her very sick daughter, having heard that the Lord had healed many of the sick who were brought to Him. Syro-Phoenicia was a region located just north of the region of Galilee where Jesus often ministered among the people with His disciples, a region that has always been outside the original land of the Israelites, and therefore the woman was likely a non-Jew or Gentile. In another account, the woman was also known as a Canaanite woman, and Canaanites referred to the people of Canaan who lived in the land before the coming of the Israelites.

What the Lord Jesus said to the Syro-Phoenician woman might seem to be quite rude if we do not understand the intent behind the Lord’s utterance of His words to the woman. The Lord responded to her request for help for her daughter with the harsh words, ‘that one ought not to give the food to the dogs’ which implied a very demeaning and condescending attitude. But the woman responded in kind, that ‘even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of the house master’, which showed not just her incredible faith but also humility.

The Lord did not in fact intend to be rude to her or to embarrass her. In truth, what He uttered was meant to highlight the ugly reality behind the way the Israelites had been behaving up to that time, especially the attitudes of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were highly influential and respected within the community. Many of them looked highly on themselves and treated their faith with pride and even jealousy, seeking praise and recognition for their piety and devotion to God.

And yet, in their hearts and minds, God was not present or that He was relegated to much less important position. That was why, although they were supposed to be the ones leading the people of Israel towards God, when He Himself appeared in their midst, they were the ones who opposed and rejected Him, harassing Him and criticising Him and His disciples at every possible opportunities. This was contrary to the action of the Syro-Phoenician woman, who humbled herself and had complete faith in God.

The Syro-Phoenician woman, a foreigner and a woman, a pagan and a nobody that everyone looked down on, was in fact the one who had faith in God greater than everyone else. That was why, by the words He uttered, the Lord Jesus wanted to make an example of the Syro-Phoenician faith to the people, how they ought to get rid of any prejudices they once had, and believe that ultimately, everyone is beloved by God, and that even those who were deemed as sinners could be saved, while those who proudly thought of themselves as righteous, fell along with their sin of pride, as what had happened to king Solomon and many among the Pharisees.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are therefore called to reflect on our lives and how we are to act in these lives and opportunities we have been given in this world. As Christians we are called to put God as the centre and the focus of our entire lives, and everything we say and do, should be in accordance to God’s will, and for the sake of His greater glory. Let us all get rid of pride and ego from our hearts and minds, purge away greed and desires from our beings that we may truly follow the example of the Syro-Phoenician woman in having such a strong faith in the Lord.

Let us do our best in whatever opportunities that God has granted us, that we may truly live our lives with genuine faith from now on, growing deeper in our relationship with God and in our faith and trust in Him, going forward in our lives. May the Lord continue to guide us and be with us, through each and every moments, through challenges and trials we may face in each of our journeys of life. Amen.

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Wednesday, 12 February 2020 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of God in the Scripture that speak to us of the importance of our external and even more so, internal orientation towards God in our respective lives. If our internal orientation towards God is not proper and we are instead distracted and scattered by the many temptations in this world, we will likely fall into sin and away from God’s grace.

In our first reading today, we begin with the story of the greatness of Solomon, Israel’s greatest king and son of David, who together with his father ushered the golden age of the old kingdom of Israel. Solomon’s glory, wealth and power were legendary and everyone honoured and praised him for his great wisdom and might, that as we heard in today’s passage, even the Queen of the distant country of Sheba troubled herself to go all the way to Jerusalem just to meet with Solomon.

God had granted Solomon his great wisdom, his wealth, power and glory because earlier on at the start of his reign, when Solomon was still young and new to the throne, inexperienced and weak, he prayed to God asking for wisdom to help him in ruling over the kingdom of his great father David. God blessed Solomon because of his great humility and also his uprightness, his desire not for worldly power but instead for wisdom and guidance.

However, in time, as Solomon grew increasingly older, as the Scriptures would show us, he became more and more influenced by his many wives and concubines, who still kept their pagan ways and practices. Solomon was probably consumed by his pride and greed, and he allowed all those things to cloud his judgment and led him and the Israelites into sin during the last years of his reign as king over Israel. And comparison was made between David and Solomon, how the latter did not remain faithful to God while David did, despite also having sinned against God a few times.

That is because David truly loved God with all of his heart, and his heart was aligned with God, and he maintained that love and devotion throughout his life to the very end. Although he, as a man, was also tempted to sin and fell on a few occasions, David has always put the Lord as his priority and sincerely repented from his sins and shortcomings. As a result, he remained firmly in God’s grace, and his reign remained good and strong by God’s providence.

Let us all compare this to what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, in which Our Lord Jesus had just had an exchange with the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who criticised Him and His disciples for not following and adhering to the commandments of the Law of Moses, on the matter of ritual cleansing and purification. At that time, according to the Law, everyone were to clean themselves before they ate food, and the Pharisees observed that the Lord’s disciples did not do so.

The Lord rebuked the Pharisees by being critical over their obsession on the wrong aspect of the Law, their focus on the trivial details and the way of the observance of the Law which they prescribed to, in being overly critical of those who did not adhere to their way of observing the Law. And Jesus also rebuked many of those Pharisees for their lack of genuine faith and for being hypocrites because they showed off their piety and actions to be praised by others rather than because they truly loved God with all their hearts.

This is related to what we have heard in the case of king Solomon, because it is likely that all of his glory and greatness eventually affected and influenced him, and as a result, he neglected his interior disposition and orientation towards God, allowing the devil to enter into his heart and mind, sowing the seeds of rebellion and sin, just as what had been done to the Pharisees. The latter’s insecurities and fear of losing their influence over the people made them vulnerable to the temptation of pride and desire which made them stubborn in opposing the Lord and His many good works.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the lesson that each and every one of us as Christians must take is that we are all called to be vigilant in our lives that we must make sure that our faith in God is truly genuine and sincere, that God must be at the centre of our lives, as the reason and purpose of our every words and actions. We must not do things just because we want to be seen as better than others or to be praised, for our faith is not for ourselves to boast about, but rather for us to grow in our relationship with God.

If we allow pride and desire to interfere with our faith, as king Solomon and many of the Pharisees had done, it showed that we do not love God as much as we should have, and despite our apparent and external show of faith, in truth, we love ourselves more than we love God. And in time, this attitude will lead us to walk further and further away from God and from His righteousness. Let us all ponder about this and discern carefully how we will carry on living our lives with faith from now on. May God be with us all, and may He bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.