Reflection of the Bible

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Sunday, 14 October 2018 : Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we are reminded of the Lord Who has given us His wisdom and His words of truth, as He revealed through His own Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who came into this world bearing the revelation of the divine truth, and then later on, by the sending of the Holy Spirit into this world, to be with the Apostles and the disciples, and therefore, to be with His Church.

God’s wisdom and truth are indeed so wonderful, that He has desired to give us this wisdom and truth, because of the great love which He has for each and every one of us. Through His wisdom and truth, God revealed to us what it is that He desires from each one of us, and how we should live our lives, in accordance with His will, and with the way that He has shown us. And that is what He presented before us through our Gospel passage today.

In that Gospel passage, we heard of a young, rich man, who came to the Lord Jesus, with the desire to gain eternal life. The Lord then told the young man first, whether he has obeyed and fulfilled the commandments of the Law as revealed through Moses. The young man replied that he has fulfilled the many commandments and kept them closely throughout his life, having been an obedient member of the Jewish community.

But then, the Lord asked him to do something that he could not bear doing, that is, to sell away all of his riches and to give them all to the poor, leaving everything behind and follow Him as His disciple. The young man immediately went away in sorrow, not being able to do what the Lord had asked of him, because he had great amount of wealth with him. It is likely that he could not bear to be separated from all those worldly achievements that he had gained and possessed.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what is then the significance of what we have just heard in the Scripture passages, particularly that of the Gospel? First of all, we must not interpret the meaning of the Scripture literally, thinking that we should equate following the Lord with the total abandonment and selling of all of our worldly possessions and goods, for this is called interpreting God’s words without understanding the context.

Yes, indeed, there are those among us who are called to do so as part of their vocation, as religious nuns and monks, who left behind everything to live a life of total commitment to God, but that does not mean for the rest of us, we should just follow what we heard to the letter without understanding its meaning. Instead, we are called to listen to the word of God, speaking in the depth of our hearts and minds, and discern carefully on what it is that He wants us to do in our lives.

The issue which the Lord brought up in our Gospel occasion today, is that we mankind, even though we may be able to fulfil our obligations and our duties in our faith in God, but we can precisely do such efforts even without truly appreciating the true purpose and intention of why we do what we are doing, as part of our faith. The young and rich man fulfilled all the obligations of the Law, but in truth, he was not able to dedicate himself fully to the Lord, as shown when he was called by the Lord to dedicate himself fully to Him.

He was not able to commit, and left in sorrow because ultimately, he loved his riches and goods more than that of the Lord, and given the choice between those things and God, ultimately, God was secondary in importance to him. Then, if we carefully scrutinise what the young man said, he asked the Lord Jesus, “Good Master, what must I do in order to gain eternal life?”, in this question lies a desire from the man to want something for his own satisfaction.

What do I mean by this? The man asked Jesus in that manner, out of desire to gain for himself eternal life, and probably not because he truly loves God. This is a reality that exists even within our Church, where there are many among us faithful who have our faith and practice things within our faith, the various devotions, prayers and actions, because we want something for ourselves, be it for personal glory and fame, or for personal salvation and benefit.

It is not wrong that we want to be saved, for indeed, if we want to be saved, then we must seek it and desire it, otherwise, how will we then attain salvation if we ourselves do not want it in the first place? But we must not let that desire to supersede first and foremost, our love for God. Ultimately, we want to be saved and gain eternal life, not because we are afraid of hell or punishment from God, but rather, because we want to be together again with God and be reconciled with Him.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called to rediscover this purpose of our faith and our lives. If we have been wayward all these while, failing to recognise these shortcomings of our lives, and if we have been disobedient and been unable to give our best in serving the Lord, putting Him in secondary and even worse places in our hearts and minds, then perhaps, we should really consider spending some time in prayer and in the quietness of our hearts, in order to find out what it is that we can do, in order to become closer to God.

The Lord reminds us through the same Gospel passage, that the path to enter the kingdom of heaven is narrow and difficult, but at the same time, also manageable and accessible, given that we put our trust not in the human wisdom, power and intellect, but instead, in the wisdom and the power of God. Many of us failed to make progress because we are not having the correct focus in life, and we are easily distracted, as we depend too much on our worldly possessions, power and other achievements, and we end up becoming too attached to all of them.

Let us look at these examples, brothers and sisters in Christ, beginning with those who think that just by doing what we are supposed to do for our faith, by coming to Mass every Sundays, and yet, we are not focused at all on the Lord and become easily distracted, because instead of focusing our attention on God, we cannot wait for the Mass to end so that we can go back to our various worldly commitments and activities.

And then, some of us profess to believe in God and followed all obligations of the Church, coming regularly for Mass and also become active part of various ministries in our parishes, but then, in how we behave towards one another, towards our fellow Christians, we scandalise our faith by our actions. Many of us brought slander and gossip into our interactions, even within the ministries and Church groups we are part of. We bicker and fight even over the smallest of matters and over trivial things.

That is exactly what happens when we allow our so called human wisdom, intellect, power and ability to take over and control us in what we say and do. The clashes and incompatibilities between our varying human desires and wants will end up tearing us apart and causing divisions among us. This is what we cannot and should not do with our lives. And as the example of the young and rich man in the Gospel passage today has shown us, we should strive to overcome our human desires and attachments to all sorts of temptations present in this world.

And this means that we must resist the temptation of worldly pleasures, power, prestige, honour, fame, glory, wealth and all sorts of things that can bring about unhealthy attachment and desire. It is not wrong for us to possess wealth or possessions, or to achieve something in our lives, but we cannot be overtaken and swallowed by our desires for those things.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, the Lord has called us all, each and every one of us, to be His true disciples. And that means, each and every one of us should respond with a thorough and genuine conversion of heart, changing our attitudes in life, from one that is world-centric and self-centric into one that is centred on God alone. Let us all turn towards God with a renewed faith, and with a renewed zeal, from now on. May the Lord be our guide in our journey towards Him and His everlasting life. Amen.

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Saturday, 13 October 2018 : 27th 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 we are all reminded to be true followers of Christ, in all of the life which we have lived thus far, and to obey and listen to the will of God, as much as we are able to do it. This is an important reminder, as sometimes, we may end up living our lives and living our faith devoid of true understanding of what it is that God wants us to do in our lives.

In the first reading today, St. Paul wrote to the Church and the faithful in the city of Galatia, explaining to them, both to the Jewish and the Gentiles among the faithful, about what they should be doing in following God’s will and in obeying Him. The Jews, even among the Christians, at the time still thought that they had to obey the Law of Moses, all the accumulated and compiled traditions and customs of the Jewish people in its entirety.

And the inability to agree on whether the Christian faithful ought to follow the Jewish laws and customs or not, have divided the communities of the faithful in many places, including that of in Galatia. Some of the Jews wanted that all the faithful must obey the entirety of the laws and the customs of the Jews, while there those among the Jews and the disciples themselves who thought that it should not be the case.

But the Lord Himself made it clear to His people, through what He has revealed throughout His earthly ministry, and through what He has taught His disciples and the Apostles, and by the wisdom and understanding, truth and revelation bestowed on them by the Holy Spirit. The truth is that, to be followers of the Lord, then we must truly believe in Him, listen to Him, and keep all the commandments and do them in our own lives.

And the Lord said that His commandment is about love, first of all, the love of God with all of our hearts, minds and with our whole being fully immersed in the love of our loving Father and Creator, and then the same love which we ought to have for our fellow brothers and sisters, our fellow men, all brethren in the same God, our Father. It is not about a burden or an imposition of practices and traditions that were done, many of them, without understanding their real purpose and meaning.

Many of the people then just followed and obeyed the practices of the Law without knowing what they were for. For many of them, it ended up becoming a formality and something that is an obligation, and for some others, it was even worse, as they ended up making use of those practices and impositions of the Law, to advance their own selfish desires and positions, such as what was done by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.

Many of us unfortunately also share the same blame in this manner, as many of us have not been truly and wholeheartedly faithful, in how we approach our obligations to the Lord as Christians. To us, we have received the fullness of truth, as according to St. Paul, in the same Epistle he had written to the Galatians, which should have set us free from our bonds and from our old ways of sin. But many of us have not allowed God’s truth to set us free.

And that is because of our own inability to resist the temptations to sin and to keep on falling again and again into our sinful ways, and despite the reminders and calls which the Lord made to us, many of us are often still too stubborn to accept His calls deep in our hearts. Now, are we willing to overcome these challenges and resolve to overcome this unwillingness to allow God to transform our lives for the better?

Let us all turn towards God, from now on, with all of our hearts, with our every efforts, and commit ourselves towards Him with a new resolution and courage in our hearts. Let us all strive to seek our focus and our source of unity and our salvation in God, our loving Lord and Father. May the Lord be with us throughout this journey, and guide us to His everlasting glory. Amen.

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Friday, 12 October 2018 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened first to the exhortation from St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city of Galatia, where he mentioned how all those who believe in God, and did what the Lord has asked them to do, are considered as the sons and daughters of Abraham, the one who is widely considered as our father in faith. This must be understood in the context of the attitudes of the Jewish people, even those who lived in the diaspora.

Many of the Jews still upheld the view that they were the chosen people and race of God, who were descended from Abraham, and therefore, were partakers of the Lord’s promise and covenant, and in some ways, superior and better than that of the pagans and the non-Jewish people, or the Gentiles. And some of these people were among those who opposed the works of St. Paul and his fellow disciples of the Lord, in their evangelising mission.

That was why St. Paul rebuked the attitudes and mentioned that despite their thinking that the title of the children of Abraham belonged to them alone, but in reality, Abraham’s true descendants were those who not only descended from him through flesh, but even more importantly, those who follow the same faith and live in the same way as that of Abraham. For, if one profess to be a descendant of Abraham and yet does not do what he has done, then truly, that person has scandalised Abraham’s faith.

The Lord Jesus also faced the same predicament during the time of His earthly ministry, as shown in today’s Gospel passage. The Lord Jesus was opposed by those who refused to believe in Him, slandering Him and saying all sorts of falsehoods against Him, even to the point of equating His actions with that of the prince of demons, Beelzebul. Then, the Lord rebuked them by saying that if the devil is divided in his own kingdom and among his own allies, then his dominion would have collapsed and be destroyed.

What the Lord Jesus meant when He said all of those words? First of all, He wanted to highlight that those people who thought of themselves as so righteous and just, and opposed the works of the Lord, are themselves causing the breaking and the division of the house of God, that is God’s people. At the time when they should all come together to believe in the common faith, instead they allowed the devil to come into their hearts and create divisions in them.

At the same time, the devil and his forces, instead of being divided among themselves, they are in fact, united in their purpose and desire to see us mankind fail and fall away from grace. Although each of them might clash or disagree on other matters, but in their common desire for the ruination of souls, the kingdom of Satan is fully united in this purpose. And that is why we must ever be vigilant, lest we allow our own ego, human desires, ambition and greed to make us fall.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, through what we have heard from the Scriptures, about what happened in the past to the community of the people of God, of the bitter division, disagreement and the refusal of some among them to receive the word and truth of God, and now, unfortunately, that is why even within our Church, there are many divisions and disagreements. Even among us Christians, many of us accuse one another and are often unhappy and angry towards our fellow brothers and sisters.

And this is what is unbecoming and unworthy of us as Christians, to be enemies to one another and to be divided to each other, as what the Lord has said, that a house divided within itself will not be able to stand. Our attitude towards each other is exactly what the devil needs in his efforts to bring down to ruin as many souls as possible, by weakening the Church and the unity of God’s people.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all strive to overcome these divisions and disagreements between us, by placing God once again at the centre and as the main focus of our lives. Let us put aside our differences, by resisting the temptations and the pull of our ego, human desires, greed and all sorts of things that have so far caused us to sin and to be divided against our fellow brethren.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to guide us in our path, and may He bless us all in our journey, that we may persevere throughout our efforts, and do our best to preserve the unity among ourselves, and be united in praising and glorifying Him, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 11 October 2018 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about the loving nature of God, and how we mankind, as God’s beloved children should put our trust in our God, and place ourselves in the caring hands of our loving Father. We heard how the Lord Jesus in today’s Gospel describing the loving nature of God as like of that of fathers, who loved their children.

And because God loves each and every one of us, then He will surely listen to us, should we ask Him to look upon us and to take care of us. He will not purposefully harm us or do something that ends up making us to suffer. When we suffer, in truth, we are actually acting in the manner that we misuse the freedom that God has given to us, which therefore end up causing us to make others suffer in order to satisfy our own personal desires and greed.

That was why, St. Paul in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Galatia chided and rebuked the faithful living in that city because of their lack of faith and ability to live faithfully in accordance to that faith. They have succumbed to the temptations of their flesh, and instead of putting their trust in God, they fell into sin through their wicked and unfaithful attitudes and behaviours.

God reminded us that He is always there for us, ready to welcome us back, even when we have erred, disobeyed and failed to listen to Him. He will not turn a deaf ear to us, should we call upon Him, and crying out for His mercy. But first of all, we must also be willing to commit ourselves to the path of reconciliation, to be ready to be forgiven, and ultimately, ready to make the commitment to change our way of life.

However, the issue for many of us is that, we are often too preoccupied, too busy and too distracted in our lives, that we failed to notice this, and we failed to realise just how much God loves each and every one of us. We have been blinded and made deaf by the distractions, temptations and all the noise present in this world. We have been pulled away by the allure of human desire, of worldly glory and many other things that have been keeping us away from God.

Are we then able to overcome these temptations in life, and rediscover this love which we should have for God, our loving Father? For many of us, we have been wayward in our faith, and we have not been truly faithful, as we spent more time trying to gain for ourselves worldly acceptance and glories of this world. But this is exactly where we end up forgetting about God, His love and His caring nature for us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we should reflect on what we have just discussed and look deeply into our lives and how we have acted in our lives thus far. Have we been living in this world filled with the desires of worldliness and human greed, in trying to satisfy our own selfish desires and wants? Or have we been truly devoted to the Lord, in all of our actions and deeds?

Today, we celebrate the feast of Pope St. John XXIII, also known by his nickname of the ‘Good Pope’. He was the Pope who initiated the Second Vatican Council, in bringing about reform and renewal to the Church, almost six decades ago. He was remembered as a holy and devout servant of God, who spent his whole life, trying to bring the people of God closer to their loving Father.

Pope St. John XXIII was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, in a poor farmer family in northern Italy. He was born into poverty and hard life, and yet, he was raised well and heard the call to priesthood and holiness early in his life. He became a priest and was involved in the social works in the Church among his local community early on, inspired by the examples set by his local bishop, who devoted himself to the care and the well-being of the poor, especially the workers who were oppressed by the then horrible conditions at work.

Later on, he became the Apostolic Delegate to Bulgaria, and then later still, the Apostolic Delegate to Greece and Turkey. In his role as the representative of the Pope to those countries, he fostered many good relationships both with the state as well as with the Christians belonging to the Eastern Orthodox traditions, who have always treated Catholics with much suspicion and animosity. But Pope St. John XXIII’s persistence in love and kindness have softened many hearts and won much adoration and praise.

In his many other roles and capacities, he was also remembered for his role in saving many Jewish refugees from Europe during the time of the Second World War when millions of Jews were massacred by the NAZI regime in Germany. He also helped to reconcile the relations between the Church and the state in France after the war, and many other good deeds, as the Pope of the Church, when he led the entire Church in the journey of discovering their faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we too, should follow in the footsteps of this holy Pope in our own life, in how we live our lives, in our actions and deeds. Let us all turn towards God with all of our hearts, and turn ourselves towards God. And if we want to be one with God, then our actions must also show this faith and love which we ought to have for God. May the Lord be our guide and be our help, and bless us always in our every deeds and works. Amen.

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Wednesday, 10 October 2018 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the Scripture passage, in which we continued the story told by St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in Galatia. St. Paul told them how he came to be the Apostle of Christ, and how he conducted his ministry during the early years of his mission. He met with the other Apostles in Judea and Jerusalem, and he was affirmed in the mission by those Apostles who supported his efforts.

Yet, St. Paul did not have it easy throughout his mission, as he encountered difficult moments when he had to even go against the other Apostles at times, for their indecisiveness regarding the matter of the obligations for Christians to follow and obey the old law of the Jewish people, that is the laws of Moses. There were many among the Jews, especially among the Pharisees and the teachers who became believers of Christ, who wanted the imposition of Jewish traditions and practices in its entirety on the Christian faithful, even among those who were of non-Jewish or Gentile origin.

St. Paul disagreed with those who wanted such an imposition, and argued with them, and also with the some of the Apostles and elders of the Church who did not take a firm action against those who wanted such an irresponsible action and un-Christian attitudes to go on. The disciples and the Apostles therefore argued among themselves, and yet, whatever disagreements they must have had at that time, eventually through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they overcame those differences.

What is the key, brothers and sisters in Christ? How did they overcome their issues and troubles? It is because they discerned carefully the will of God, and took into consideration their weaknesses and the challenges they encountered through prayer, that is through intimate and close relationship with God. They are in close relationship with God, following the example set before them by none other than the Lord Jesus Himself.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard how the Lord Jesus taught His disciples the prayer that He Himself made, directed to God His Father. Although He is indeed the Son of God, but this prayer is in fact the proof of the amazing love and closeness which He enjoyed with His Father in heaven. In His prayer, the Lord’s Prayer or Pater Noster, we are reminded of the special relationship which we have with God, Who is our loving Father.

Through prayer, we help ourselves by quietening our minds and hearts, our senses and our entire being, and indeed, making ourselves closer to God. This is when we will be able to discern well what it is that God is willing to tell us in the depths of our hearts and in the deepest recesses of our minds. Otherwise, if we allow the noise of this world to overcome us, that is why we end up placing our own selfish needs and desires before our obligation to God.

We should instead reflect on the words of the Lord’s Prayer, which we may have uttered frequently both during the Holy Mass and in our own devotions and prayers, but perhaps failed to understand or say it meaningfully. If we look through the words of the prayer, we will realise that first of all, our focus in this life, should be to centre ourselves on God and to put God’s will above all else, and thank Him for all the good things He has done for us.

Are we able to refocus our attention to the Lord in this manner? In the same prayer, the Lord Jesus also asked His Father to forgive us mankind our sins, just as we have forgiven others who have sinned against us. This is how the Apostles were able to forgive one another their faults and return their focus to serve the greater glory of God. That is why we also need to do the same in our own lives, and in how we live up our own Christian lives.

Let us all turn our attention towards the Lord, and renew our commitment to live from now on, in the way and the path that God has shown us, and that we may become ever closer to Him, through prayer and through quality time spent with Him. May the Lord be with us and may He continue to guide us through this journey of life, that we may continue to glorify Him by our deeds, day after day. Amen.

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Tuesday, 9 October 2018 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day first of all we heard about the persecution of Christians as mentioned by St. Paul the Apostle, who recounted what he had done when he was still know as Saul, when he hunted down all Christians, all those who believed in God and followed the teachings and the truth as revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world and Son of God.

Saul was once thought to have the potential to be a very influential and powerful Pharisee, as he was born into privilege, an educated and bright young Jewish man from Tarsus, having many close connections to the other Pharisees and the influential members of the Jewish Sanhedrin and High Priesthood. Saul seemingly was destined for a life of glory and greatness, of power and privilege among the Jewish people, being an elite among the elites of the society.

But God had a very different plan for Saul, and He called him to be His disciple, through the dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus, where He revealed Himself and the truth to Saul, calling him to turn away from evil and from his misguided past ways, and embrace the truth of God, and follow Him just as the other disciples of His had done. Saul eventually became a believer, was baptised, and from then on, became a great champion of the Christian faith.

Yet, in accepting the role into which God had called him to, Saul, who take up the new name of Paul to mark his conversion and acceptance of the Lord, he had to abandon all the worldly glory and power, influence and privileges he once enjoyed, and instead, having to endure all sorts of insults and difficulties, challenges and rejections. He had to endure torture in prison, and even almost being killed on many occasions.

Nonetheless, to the very end, as St. Paul showed throughout his travels as recorded in the Book of Acts of the Apostles, he endured all of those challenges and sufferings with patience, hope and faith, because he trusted in God wholeheartedly, and placed himself completely under His care. He went to wherever God called him to go, and did what the Lord had asked him to do. He endured it all, until he met his martyrdom in Rome.

St. Paul showed us that to be a disciple of Christ we must be thoroughly focused on Him, if we are to resist the temptations to do otherwise. This is shown in the Gospel passage today, in what we heard about the encounter between the Lord Jesus, and His friends, Mary and Martha. When the Lord came into their house, both of the sisters were so happy to welcome Him, and while Mary listened attentively on what the Lord told her, Martha instead was busy preparing all the food and all the hospitality work.

Martha became too engrossed in her works, and seeing her sister attending by the Lord’s side without helping her, she became annoyed and asked the Lord to tell her sister to give her a hand to help. But the Lord Jesus then reminded Martha, that Mary had in fact done what is right, that is, to focus her attention to the Lord, and not to all the hectic and busy matters of the world. Martha wanted to please the Lord by her actions, but in her choice of action, she ended up losing her focus on Him and instead on all of her chores.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, many of us mankind, even among us as Christians, we have not been truly living our faith as how we should have, as we are too busy and preoccupied by our worldly concerns and desires, for wealth, for glory, for human praise and for all sorts of pleasures of the body and joy of the world. That is why we end up drifting further and further away from the Lord, because of the pull of these temptations.

Today we mark the feast of two holy servants of God, whose lives should become inspiration for us on how we should live out our own lives. First St. Denis, bishop of Paris, was a holy martyr of the faith, during the years of persecution of Christians by the Romans. St. Denis was a great missionary and evangeliser, who together with some other bishops and priests managed to gain so many followers and converts, that they earned the anger of the pagans.

Thus, St. Denis and his companions were arrested and tortured for their Christian faith. But they refused to let go of their faith or to betray their Lord for the pagan gods and the worship of the Emperor. He was beheaded with a sword, but miraculously, even after the beheading, the head of St. Denis continued to preach about the truth of God, and his hand carried his own head up, and walking down on a few miles from the place of his execution, he continued to preach, until he eventually stopped and passed on, a place marked with what is now the Basilica of St. Denis in Paris.

The examples and the miraculous occasion which accompanied St. Denis’ martyrdom inspired many of the Christians then suffering from persecution, and many others who witnessed his courage and faith, and the astounding spectacle of the miraculous talking head became believers in the faith and converted to the true faith. Many of them would also eventually became martyrs themselves.

Then, today, we also celebrate the feast of St. John Leonardi, a holy and devout priest who lived in the late era Renaissance Italy, remembered for his great piety and encouragement of many others to live a more devout and holy life, especially in the devotion he fostered for the Blessed Sacrament and to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. His work inspired many others to follow his example, and eventually they began a religious order together.

St. John Leonardi dedicated himself to the Lord thoroughly and spent his efforts trying to be more and more committed to serve the Lord, in each and every days of his life. His examples should also therefore, inspire us to live a more dedicated and pious life, just as St. Denis and his companions have inspired us to remain faithful and courageous in living our faith, even despite the challenges we encounter in life, one day after another.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us therefore turn towards God with a renewed heart and with a new commitment. Let us spend more quality time with Him, to know what is His will for us, and what we can do more, in order to live our lives with faith, imitating what St. Paul the Apostle had done in his life. May the Lord bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 8 October 2018 : 27th 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 the Scripture, reminding us that we must stay rooted and true to the core message of what the Lord has taught us to do. Our faith is about believing in God and in doing what He has showed us to do, and the core of our faith, is in truth, about love. Loving God and loving one another are the two most important commandments of the Law, which the Lord Jesus mentioned to the teacher of the Law who asked Him what is the most important commandment of the Law.

In the Gospel passage today, we listened to the parable of the Good Samaritan, in which the Lord Jesus told us about a person who was attacked as he was on his way to Jericho, and left for dead by the roadside. No one bothered to help him or to assist him, even the priest and the Levites, who were those considered to be good and worthy among the members of the community. Instead, it was a Samaritan who stopped by and helped the man.

This parable today served as a reminder at the time of the Lord Jesus, in a community which was bitterly divided among themselves and with their neighbours, that is between the Jewish people, descendants of those Israelites especially of the southern kingdom of Judah who returned from the exile in Babylon, and the Samaritans, who were descended from the people of the northern kingdom of Israel, who intermarried with some of the local people of Canaan.

The two people were bitterly divided among themselves and accused each other of not having the faith in the One Lord in Whom they each believed in their own ways. In another occasion in the Gospels, when the Lord spoke with a Samaritan woman by the well of Jacob in Samaria, the Samaritan woman explained clearly what divided and made the Jews and the Samaritans, that is, their differing views on how they ought to believe in God and on where they should worship God, a prejudice and bias that lasted hundreds of years.

That was why they were so much against each other, and refused to listen to reason in their dealings with one another. In fact, it was so bad that the Samaritans would not have anything to do with a Jew and likewise, a Jew would also ignore and not have anything to do with a Samaritan. The Samaritan woman was genuinely surprised when she was greeted by the Lord Jesus, as it was not something which was common or acceptable at the time.

Now, the Lord Jesus used the example of the Good Samaritan, in order to break down these barriers and unfortunate divisions that have kept the people of God separated, and even bitter and angry against each other for so long, for so many years. God wanted His people to come together and overcoming their differences, and all the negative emotions and balances accumulated for those years, and changing them all with love.

That is after all, what God has made it clear, as He revealed it to us through His own Son, that love, is the heart and the centre of the Law, which He has given to us. There is no more important commandment of God other than first and foremost, for us to love God with all of our strength and abilities. If we do not love God, then we cannot have faith in Him or have anything to do with Him, and then, if we love God, then we must also love our brothers and sisters in our midst, for if we love God, we must then also love our fellow men.

Why is that so? That is because, all of us have been created by God out of His great love for us, and not just a few among us, but for every single one of us. If God loves everyone, even to the greatest of sinners, then who are we to hate one another, or to condemn those who we think are less worthy than us just because of their faults and sins to us? God wants us to abandon this mentality which the Jews and the Samaritans used to have for one another, in their hatred and refusal to come together and love each other.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, many of us have plenty of blame in this regard as well, in how we live our lives as Christians and therefore as the members of the one Church of God. How many of us have often been prejudiced against others, even within our Church groups and ministries. We ended up gossiping and talking badly, or even treating others in manners which if we look back and think carefully about it, are not Christian at all in nature.

Now, let us all contemplate on this, and remember all the shortcomings we have committed thus far, all the prejudices and biases which we often have, as well as our failures to love one another as the Lord has taught us to do. Let us all overcome our human pride, our prejudices and all the other wicked behaviours within us, that we may turn away from sin, and from all the wayward attitudes we have shown in life thus far. Let us turn from now on, wholeheartedly towards God, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

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Sunday, 7 October 2018 : Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s readings from the Scripture, we are reminded of the gift of blessings from God, in the form of holy matrimony, which God had decreed from the moment that He created us mankind, man and woman, to complement each other and to be united with one another in a holy union blessed by God. This union was mentioned in the first reading we have today, in the Book of Genesis.

The Lord created mankind first with a man, Adam, who was all alone among his race, while God created all creatures male and female, according to their natures. And that was why, God created a woman, Eve, who was taken from the man, in a very symbolic act of taking the bone and the flesh from Adam when he was in a deep sleep, and God made woman out of man. Regardless whether it was how God actually created us mankind, the truth and reality remains that God made us man and woman.

And the act of taking the bone and the flesh from Adam is in fact God’s reminder for us that we were created to be for one another, to share the love that God has given us, and to complement each other. And our relationship and union, in the sacred bond of matrimony, between a man and a woman, is in fact a reflection and imitation of God’s own perfect union of love, which is present in the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Through the sacred bond of matrimony, God also blesses us with children, as His gifts of love for us, to be fruitful and bountiful just as He has commanded us man at the beginning of creation, and to multiply and to fill the earth with our kind. This was the foundation of families and the foundation of our human communities, and indeed, the foundation of our faith and our Church.

For all of us have been born into this world as a small, little baby, each one of us, growing up in a family, where God’s love was given to us through our fathers and our mothers. And it is in the family that all of us learn what it truly means to be human beings, to be those whom the Lord has given intellect, wisdom and the ability to survive in this world. Without our families, then our human society will eventually perish and be destroyed.

Similarly, the family is the foundation and the core part of our Church and faith, as it is through the family that the faith, which has been preserved by the Church, is imparted at the beginning to the small children, baptised and raised in good faith by their parents. If the children were not raised well by their parents, ultimately, not only that they will likely lose faith, but they will also grow to be people who are without love in their hearts, capable of committing all sorts of wickedness and atrocities.

Unfortunately, brothers and sisters in Christ, the reality is such that, the foundation of our family and marriage life has always been shaken very badly right from the beginning of time. Throughout the Bible, in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament, there had been cases when the people who have agreed to be joined in blessed union of matrimony, sought instead to break that bond for various reasons, that is divorce.

First of all, we must understand that the Church does allow for certain exceptional cases where the marriage was not consummated and with various other valid considerations and conditions where the Church decided that the couple can be granted an annulment. An annulment is different from the case of divorce, in that the marriage was considered to have never taken place at all in the eyes of God and the Church.

However, what the Lord Jesus was referring to, in our Gospel passage today, when the Pharisees looked for Him and tried to test Him on the matter of marriage and divorce, was that of validly contracted marriages and unions which were deliberately sought to be broken by the desires of man. And the Pharisees argued that they were allowed to divorce as according to the Law of Moses, as long as settlement has been made and documents have been signed and agreed on, the marriage can be dissolved easily.

But God made it very clear to the people, that the matter of marriage is in fact not just a formality, which can be easily overwritten and overridden by the statutes of human laws, customs and practices. Instead, as mentioned, the bond of marriage is a matter of divine law, a divine union blessed by none other than God, Who has decreed that a man and a woman are united in the same love that unites the Holy Trinity together, and what He has united, no man should divide.

This, in truth, is the foundation of our marriages and families, and why we should indeed put a lot of attention to them. The devil knows this as well, and that is why, he is always on the offensive, trying to strike at us, God’s children, in our marriage and family life, that by destroying this important unit and foundation of our Church and faith, he can lure more souls into the damnation in hell.

In many cases of divorce, it was caused by our human frailty and inability to resist the temptation of the pleasures of the flesh, as well as other desires. Many people fell into adultery because of their inability to resist the temptations of their flesh, which are constantly persuading them to turn away from the Lord’s path and into the path of debauchery and unfaithfulness. Many have not been faithful to their respective spouses, and this resulted in the breaking away of families.

And when we become divided, we end up losing our faith, and the children are also badly and negatively affected. The devil then has a great time trying to pull us into ever deeper trap of his temptations and false promises of pleasure, of glory, of material goods and other things that have become thorns in the body of our family and marriage. We find it hard to restrain the temptation to sexual pleasures, to materialism and many more things that made us to desire separation and ending of the sacred bond of matrimony.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, at the same time, we need to realise that there are just a lot of things that each one of us as Christians can contribute to help all those who are troubled in their family and marriage life. Even there may be those who are in our midst, and among those whom we know, that are currently suffering in their family and marriage. Are we then going to ignore them should they come to us seeking help, advice or assistance? Or are we going to lend them a listening ear and to extend our hands to help wherever possible?

Today, all of us also celebrate the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, on the seventh day of October every year. This feast was once also known as the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, commemorated after the great victory of the Christian army and forces at the Battle of Lepanto against the enemies of Christ and His Church. At that time, the enemies of the Lord and His Church mustered a massive and overwhelmingly powerful forces, that threatened the very existence of Christendom, but through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, the Christian forces managed to obtain a decisive victory.

The significance of that event and this celebration then goes beyond just the historical importance of that victory to the survival of Christendom and the Christian faith as we know it. All of us must realise that we are in a constant battle, every single day and every single moments of our lives, against the devil and all of his evil forces seeking our downfall and damnation. He is the source of all of our troubles, including all the current forces and efforts aimed at the dismantling of our institution of sacred matrimony and the family.

That is why, at this moment, it is all the more important that we seek for necessary help in order to prevent us from falling into the temptations and into threat of eternal damnation. And the Lord has provided us a very good source of help, in His beloved mother, Mary, and through the rosary which she has introduced to us, through St. Dominic, and many other saints, through whom she revealed to us the rosary as a means by which we can come closer to God.

Why is that so? That is because the rosary is a series of prayers, which prominently involved the Hail Mary, a prayer invoking the prayers from Mary, the Blessed Mother of Our God, and also extolling the virtues of her life. Far from being a meaningless and repetitive prayer as many of its opponents and detractors often claimed, the rosary is a very effective weapon in our battle of life, against the forces of evil.

Many of us do not realise that we have often been lacking in our prayer life and in our spiritual development. And through the rosary, we are in fact reminded of the need to reorientate our lives to the Lord, by following the examples and the inspiration of Mary, the Mother of God, who is the perfect disciple and follower of God, in how she obeyed the Lord and put her trust in Him so completely, allowing God to do His wonderful works through her.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all keep the sanctity of both our married life and family life, by putting God at the centre of our lives, by devoting ourselves more to His mother, Mary, that in this month of October, month of the Holy Rosary, we should spend time to pray together, as a family, together between husband and wife, and the children, asking for the intercession of Mary, that she will continue to pray for our sake and ask her Son to help us in our battle against evil.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us sinners and help us that we may imitate your examples in faith, in your obedience and devotion to your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Saturday, 6 October 2018 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bruno, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard of the end and conclusion of the story of Job, the suffering servant of God. Modern Biblical scholars contended that Job did not necessarily represent a historical figure, but rather, a figurative representation of us as God’s people and followers, who live in this world, and are therefore, exposed to all sorts of temptations and from the attacks by the evil one, Satan.

Satan tried to tempt Job and to strike at him, making bets with the Lord, that if he struck at Job, surely Job would fall into temptation and in his anger, he would abandon his faith in God and curse Him. But Job remained faithful and true to his faith, and he did not allow all the sufferings he encountered to be obstacles and hindrances in the way of his faith. He remained firmly faithful and believed that all of what he had to endure, was part of God’s will and plan.

And in the end, God executed His plan and saved His people from the darkness of their sufferings and despair, as He showed clearly in the example of Job, as mentioned in our first reading passage today. We heard how Job was healed from all of his afflictions, and even had his possessions and blessings returned to him, not just what he once had, but in fact double of what he had before.

Through this, God wanted His people to know, that in Him alone there is hope and true salvation, liberation and freedom from all of our troubles, from all the challenges, difficulties and all sorts of obstacles that we may encounter in one way or another in our respective lives. Indeed, the path will be a challenging and difficult one, just as Job’s multitudes of sufferings and pains showed us, but in the end, if we remain faithful to God, our rewards will be great and everlasting.

In the Gospel passage today, the Lord also spoke to us the same message of hope, with the bold proclamation of the defeat of Satan as foretold by the Lord Jesus Himself before His disciples. It was a premonition of what would happen, at the time of Jesus, when the Lord finally put His plan to save His people into its fulfilment and perfect completion, by the crucifixion in which, He gathered all of His people and took up all of their sins and faults, and died for their sake, in an act of perfect love and self-sacrifice that became the source of our salvation.

By the loving sacrifice of Christ on the cross, we have been made free and saved from our fated destruction at the hand of death and sin. And that marks the ultimate defeat of Satan and all of his diabolical plans to bring about our downfall through sin. Through His loving sacrifice, He destroyed forever the dominion of sin over us mankind, and opened for us the path to eternal life and salvation in Him.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are called to have faith in God just as Job and all the faithful servants of God, those who went before us have done. Indeed, there will be plenty of obstacles and challenges facing us, just as faced by those who have shown their courage and commitment, piety and dedication, but as long as we anchor ourselves strongly in our faith, and in our willingness and desire to love God, God will protect us and guide us on our journey.

Today, we celebrate together the feast day of St. Bruno of Cologne, a holy and devout priest, servant of God, who founded the religious order of the Carthusians. St. Bruno was a great teacher of the faith, inspiring many with his deep love for God and great piety, in all of his actions, words and dealings. His great and deep humility also touched many people who had the opportunity to know him.

St. Bruno dedicated himself to a life of service to God, in poverty and simplicity, in how he declined appointment to the office of bishop and in his commitment to serve the greater cause of the Lord. St. Bruno entrusted himself completely to the love of God, and gave himself fully to Him in love, inspiring many others who followed in his footsteps and thus marking the foundation and growth of the early Carthusians.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to trust the Lord and to give ourselves so completely as Job, St. Bruno and the many other holy men and women of God had done? We are all challenged in this manner, reminding us that as Christians, we ought to give our best to the Lord, in all of our whole being. May the Lord help us, and with the intercession of St. Bruno, guide us in our journey of faith towards Him. Amen.

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Friday, 5 October 2018 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the Sacred Scriptures speaking to us first of all of the rebuke and reminder which God spoke to Job, continuing on in our discourse on the Book of Job, when Job who suffered from the attacks by Satan as well as from the false accusations against him made by his own friends, went through a long series of conversations with God.

God rebuked Job because he was falling into the temptation to despair and to lose hope, amidst all of the difficulties he had to suffer at that time, and when his own closest friends and confidants accused him wrongly of having sinned before God as the cause of his afflictions. The Lord made it clear to Job that His will shall be done, and He has plans for each and every one of His servants, including Job.

And all that has to be done, is to trust in the Lord and to have faith in His providence, to listen to His will and to follow His footsteps. For in the end, it is God Who should be the focus and the centre of our lives. Yet, many of us tend to be preoccupied with many distractions and temptations of worldly goods and riches. That is why we end up being angry of God at times because we do not get what we want, all the desires and wishes we have.

When we are so stubborn and when we close our hearts and minds to the Lord, that is why we heard in the Gospel passage today, how the Lord was so angry and frustrated at the cities of the lake of Galilee, where He performed many of His miracles and deeds, taught among the people in the synagogues and marketplaces, healing many of their sick and their dying, and guiding them to understand the truth of God.

But the people still refused to believe in Him and even doubted Him, they did not truly have faith in Him and in His teachings. And the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law among them in particular opposed the Lord and made His life difficult, as they continued to accuse Him and hound Him throughout all the works He had done among the people, refusing to acknowledge Him and His teachings as the truth of God.

That is what the Lord then also told His disciples, the reality that there were just so many in this world who were still unable to accept His truth, and refused to allow Him to speak to them and to reveal to them the truth, because of precisely the obstacle of our pride, greed and human desires. And many of us in the Church, among us Christians are to blame from this attitude.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called to abandon all these un-Christian attitudes and instead, learn to focus on the Lord, and to give our very best in our faith and trust in Him. Indeed, there will be moments and times when we will be tempted to walk on our own path and not to follow the Lord, but let us all remember this, as we recall what the Lord told Job, that He alone is the Master and Lord of all things.

For all the greatness and glory, wealth and power, fame and influence, material goods and all sorts of pleasures that we may attain and even accumulate in abundance in this world, all of these are merely temporary and impermanent. There is nothing that will last forever, and none of our worldly possessions will avail us on the day when the Lord calls on us to give an account of our lives before Him.

Rather than worrying excessively and endlessly about the things that we can neither control nor master, let us instead spend our time and effort to do what God wants us to do with our lives. And this requires us to be attuned more deeply to the Lord, and to be able to find out what it is that He really wants us to do with our respective lives, and most likely, it is to show the love which He has shown us, both to Him and to our fellow men, which is our calling as Christians.

May the Lord help us all to discover our true purpose and vocation in life, and may He continue to inspire us and guide us in our journey, that despite all the challenges we encounter and face in our daily living, we will always strive to be true to our faith in God, and to follow Him every day of our lives. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.