Reflection

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Thursday, 24 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the season of Advent ends today as tomorrow we joyfully celebrate the great solemnity of our Lord’s Nativity, Christmas, the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, into this world, the Lord and the Divine Master of all, Who assumed the humble flesh of ours, and became a Man like ourselves. This is the essence of Christmas, and this is what we celebrate together.

And appropriately, the readings from the Sacred Scriptures today in the first reading from the Second Book of the prophet Samuel spoke about the king of Israel, David, the faithful servant of God, who wanted to build a house for the Lord, as he thought that it was improper for him to dwell in a majestic palace made from cedar and gold, while the Lord Who was present in the Ark of the Covenant remained under a Tent, the Holy Tent of Meeting.

And it was told how God refused David’s offer to build a house for Him, and He told him how his son, Solomon would be the one to build the magnificent House, the Temple of God in Jerusalem. And we know how that great Temple was built with the best quality wood and stones, with abundance of gold and silver, and such a great gathering of worldly precious goods that may have never been surpassed ever since.

Such was indeed the attempt of men to glorify God from time immemorial, as both kings David and Solomon tried their best to glorify God in the best way they could give and provide, by honouring Him with the best sacrifices and with thrones and dwellings made from gold, silver and many precious stones, so that all who gaze upon that great House of God would be awed and would bow down before the one and only True God.

And how is this relevant for us, brothers and sisters in Christ? What is its relevance to our celebration of Christmas? That is because that magnificent Temple of Solomon was destroyed and razed to the ground by the Babylonians. Nothing was left of that Temple, and the Ark of the Covenant too disappeared without a trace, likely destroyed in the midst of the carnage as well.

That catastrophic event marked the symbolic rupture in the Covenant which God had established with His people, because that people refused to listen to Him and obey His commandments, and instead, they followed their own rebellious paths, and they served and worshipped pagan gods and idols. They were unfaithful to their part of the Covenant and consequently they suffered the consequences of having broken the covenant of the Lord.

Then, even though the Temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt and made even greater in size and majesty by the king Herod the Great during the time of Jesus, but the Lord Himself revealed through Jesus Christ that He had transcended the physical Temple where the people worshipped and offered sacrifices, for He no longer just spiritually dwelled among His people, but in the very matter of the world, in His own Flesh and Blood, in Christ, He dwelled and is now still dwelling among all of us His people.

Yes, just as on one occasion Jesus spoke of how He would tear down the Temple of God and rebuild it in just three days, when the people and the Pharisees misunderstood Him thinking that He referred to that magnificent stone edifice that is the Temple built after the return of the Israelites from exile and then enlarged by king Herod. Instead, He was referring to Himself, to His own Body.

Christ is the very Presence of God, for He Himself is God, the Divine Word incarnate into the flesh, that by assuming our form, He made Himself real and tangible to us all, and dwells completely among us in physical form and in spirit. And this happened from that moment of His conception and then birth into this world, which is Christmas! God Who was once invisible to us have made Himself visible and tangible, that we all would know that He is with us as He has always been ever since the beginning.

And He did not just stop at that, for He Himself came into this world in order to save us all, and He did just that by raising Himself up as the Lamb of the perfect offering and sacrifice in atonement for all of our sins and rebelliousness against God. And He gave us His own Body and His own Precious Blood, so that all of us who share in His Body and Blood, that is the Eucharist we receive worthily, will also share in the eternal life He has promised us.

Yes, this is because God Himself dwells within each and every one of us. Just as St. Paul rightly put it, when he said of each one of us as the Temples of God’s Most Holy Presence, the Temples of His Holy Spirit, for God Himself is within us, as we share His Precious Body and Blood, and as we too have received the Holy Spirit that He had sent to all who believe in Him and remain faithful to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us reflect on all this, as we approach the day of Christmas tomorrow. Let us know and understand, and realise that Christmas is not just a joyous celebration of our Lord’s coming and birth into the world, but it should also be a moment when we give thanks to God and strive to do our best in order to make ourselves ever worthy to be the dwellings of our Lord Most High.

May God continue to bless us all in everything and in all of our endeavours, so that we may grow ever stronger in our love and dedication for Him. May He continue to guide us on our path, and may this Christmas be a moment for us to understand even deeper how much God has loved us that He was willing to suffer for us and to be one like us, and to be united with us by the giving of His own Precious Body and Blood for our salvation. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 23 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of Kanty, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, as we are approaching Christmas in two days’ time, we heard about St. John the Baptist, whose role was truly great but many of us did not realise how crucial he was to the plan of salvation. Indeed his role was less than that of our Lord Himself, the Saviour, and that of His blessed mother Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant. Yet, through the acts of this faithful, holy and devoted servant of God, the world which had for long lost its hope, heard the beautiful news of the coming of God’s salvation.

For John the Baptist was what God had promised to His people through the prophets, as He spoke of him to the prophet Isaiah as a voice proclaiming in the wilderness of the coming of God’s kingdom and His salvation, and as the messenger which God had promised who would make straight His paths when He came into this world, as the one who would initiate the beginnings of God’s work of mercy in this world.

And even though his role as the Herald of the Messiah and the King of the Universe was truly great, prestigious and incomparable in some way, but he remained humble and committed to his mission as a servant, and he refused to give in to human pride and desire, as whenever people asked him whether he was the Messiah, he rejected it and said that he was not the Messiah, but the one who would precede Him and who would proclaim Him to the world when He revealed Himself.

And in another occasion, St. John the Baptist also humbly proclaiming that he was not even worthy to untie the straps of the sandals of the Lord, and how when his disciples complained about the growing popularity of Jesus, he proclaimed openly that while He increased in might, power and popularity, he as the servant who had done what he had been tasked to do, should decrease and become less important.

From this we can learn very important lesson about ourselves, as St. John Baptist had shown us the way of the servant of God, faithful, committed and devoted to the truth that God had brought into this world. This Christmas and all of its celebrations is not about us, and it is not about how much wealth, glamour and bling that we can showcase to one another, and not about the rich foods and drinks, and all the other worldly things that we share with one another. It is truly about the Lord.

Yes, it is rather about the joy that our Lord had brought into the world, to all of us, because we who were once destined to be damned and destroyed, to suffer forever the torment and the torture of our eternal soul in hell because of our disobedience and our sins against Him, had been given a new hope of salvation and a new life which He promised to all of those who are willing to change themselves and follow Him.

Let us today, as we reflect on the examples of humility and obedience of St. John the Baptist, also reflect on what St. John of Kanty, a priest and saint whose feast we celebrate today, in what he has done in his own earthly life. St. John of Kanty was a Polish priest known also as St. John Cantius, who was renowned for his dedication and commitment to the Lord, and how he served and helped the poor around him by his many works and his charities.

He was thoroughly dedicated to the advancement of the knowledge of the divine truth, and by his long years of studies and by the many works and many manuscripts that he had written, he had inspired many people to live their lives faithfully to the Lord and to accept the fullness of truth as espoused by the Church and its teachings.

The same thing St. John Baptist had also done as what St. John of Kanty had done in his life, in proclaiming the truth of the Lord, as He was coming into the world in Jesus Christ, and thus these two devoted servants of the Lord preached the true joy of Christmas that is to come, that is our Lord, our True and only Joy. And in doing so, they remained humble and unassuming, fulfilling what had been tasked to them to do, and not taking credit upon themselves.

This is what all of us Christians should do as well, and in how we celebrate the feast of Christmas, let us all share the joy that can be found in our Lord Jesus Christ with all the peoples, especially to all those who are still living in ignorance against Him and those who have yet to hear of the Good News of His salvation. Let us all through our words, actions and deeds be the bearers of the Lord’s salvation to all of His peoples.

May Almighty God bless us all, and may He strengthen our faith always, so that this Christmas will be ever more meaningful to us, and that we may be able to celebrate it with full and complete understanding of its importance, and what it means to us and to our brethren, especially to those who did not yet know Christ our Saviour. May God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Tuesday, 22 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, as we approach even closer to Christmas, we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures and we heard two parallel stories from the Old and the New Testament, firstly of the story of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, who thanked the Lord profusely for having listened to her prayers, as she was once unable to have a child and was ridiculed by the other wife of her husband, but the Lord answered her prayer and gave her Samuel, her firstborn son.

And Hannah went on to have many more children with her husband after that, but her very first son, as she had promised to the Lord, was dedicated to a life of total service to God, who would eventually become the prophet Samuel, a great Judge over the people of God, and the one who would anoint the first kings of Israel, Saul and David, and gave them the necessary guidance to lead the people of God with faith and dignity.

In the Gospel, what we heard today is commonly known as the prayer of the Magnificat, the prayer and song of Mary glorifying and thanking God for all of His majesty, His love for His people, and for all the things that He had done to bless and reward all those who have been faithful to Him, and all that He had done to bring down all those who have rejected Him and those who persecuted His faithful ones.

Mary visited Elizabeth her cousin, and both of them were pregnant with their own respective child. And for the case of Elizabeth, her condition was indeed very similar to Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, for she too was unable to conceive a child in her womb for many, many years. And even more so, she was already very old by the time the Lord fulfilled her wishes, and through her a great prophet, messenger and servant of God, John the Baptist would be born.

But all these are incomparable with what the Lord would do through Mary, for in Mary, God has made His grand plan for our salvation complete and perfect, and by her perfect and complete obedience to His will, the Saviour of the world Himself would be born through her, and the King of all kings, the Master of the whole universe would be incarnate into flesh, and born as a Man through her womb.

What greater honour God could give to a mortal man like us, other than the honour that He had granted Mary, His chosen one to be the vessel and the mother of the New Covenant that He would create with all of us mankind? This is why, today’s readings in preparation for Christmas, asked us all to focus on the joy that is in Christmas, the hope that we see through Christmas, and the love that is the heart and the essence of Christmas, that God’s Love has been shown and manifested to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The two women, Hannah and Mary sang a song of thanksgiving, of praise and of glorification to God, for He had done wonders for them, and brought them from the abyss of darkness and from sorrow into the great joy and happiness of the eternal Light that God had provided. This joy, incomparable and beyond any understanding, is the joy that all of us should also have, the true joy of Christmas, that is Christ, the love of God for men, made Man.

Thus, just a few days before Christmas, let us all reflect on how we celebrate it. Do we celebrate it just as any other secular festivals, gift-exchanging sessions and merrymaking? Do we celebrate Christmas just because we are happy that it is a holiday time and a time for new goods and new things to have? If this is what we think of Christmas, then we really need to rethink our priorities and our understanding of it.

Let us all strive so that our Christmas celebrations will not be merely celebration of worldly joy and pleasures, that it will not just be selfish celebration of love, but also be a celebration with one another, of the love of God that He had shown to us through Jesus Christ His Son, and through all that He had shown us and shared with us, His love, let us all also share this joy, this hope and this love to those who have little or none of them.

May Almighty God bless us all in all of our endeavours, and may He strengthen our faith, and remind us always that Christmas is the time for us to rejoice, because He has come into the world, He has triumphed and brought His people into the salvation which He had promised all of us. Amen.

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Monday, 21 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Peter Canisius, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast day of one of my patron saint, St. Peter Canisius, the Doctor of the Church, defender of the Faith and one of the very important figure in the history of the Church’s work on saving the souls of mankind. He was a very important figure in the Church at that time, and his works still influenced the Church even until this very day.

In order to understand the importance of St. Peter Canisius and his works, and how he can also inspire us to be like him and to follow his footsteps, then we ought to look at the Scripture readings we have just heard today and reflect on their meaning and understand them. For they spoke of the joy that is coming in Christmas, the True Joy of the world, for a world that was once enslaved by sin and darkness, had found its way to the Light.

In today’s readings, we have to understand the suspense, the expectation and the desire that the people of God had had for the many years of their constant and frequent exiles and sufferings, for God to come and rescue them from their distress, and there is indeed no greater desire than for all of us mankind to be freed from the bonds and the chains that enslaved us to sin, because of our disobedience against the Lord our God.

And the celebration of Christmas is the celebration of this great joy that we have because we have been liberated from all those chains and bonds, and we know that a new hope had arisen through the Saviour we have, Jesus Christ our Lord, born on the Christmas Day. This is the true essence of Christmas, and the very reason why we should look up to it and expect it so much, but yet, many of us have been misguided and lost the intention of Christmas amidst the world’s attempts to reconfigure it to serve their own purposes.

If we look at the way how the world in many places celebrated Christmas, and if we ask anybody about what Christmas truly mean to them, the answer that we are likely to receive is that Christmas is a season of fun, of happiness, of celebration and partying, where one would meet up with friends, families and relatives, exchanging gifts and trying to impress one another as best as possible, with the newest clothes, with the nicest foods and drinks.

Well, in all these, indeed we can find joy and happiness, and to many of us, it is an opportunity to let go the hectic schedules and busy lifestyles that had occupied us throughout the whole year. But, if we do not understand how important Christmas is to us, and if we do not appreciate what it truly means, then we are in danger of just repeating again and again our celebrations of Christmas year by year without meaning and without true joy.

Christmas has become so commercialised and filled with materialism to the point that all the things associated with Christmas become things such as shopping, lights and glitzy glamour, gifts, Santa Claus and his elves, and many other secular forms of Christmas celebrations. We tried to spend as much as we can from our pockets to make our Christmas celebrations the best ever, but have we forgotten what Christmas truly is?

Without Christ, there can be no Christmas, and indeed, as Christmas is truly our Lord’s birthday, the day when He entered into our world as a humble Human Being through the womb of His mother Mary, Christmas is indeed about Christ. Without Jesus Christ in our celebrations of Christmas, whatever joy we have is incomplete, and whatever happiness we have is really empty.

And thus how do we then celebrate Christmas? We should first understand the importance of Christmas to us, and why it happened in the first place. If not for the infinite and ever-encompassing love that our God has for us all, the love that transcended every boundaries and every considerations, and if not the dedication and commitment that He had for us, willing to send His own Son to die for our own sake, for our salvation, there can be no Christmas, and conversely, there would be no hope for us.

St. Paul in one of his letters and epistles spoke about how God had loved us so much, and so much so that even though we were still sinners, delinquents and rebels, He still endeavoured to love us and to give us the salvation and the hope that we truly and urgently needed. Great is the love of the one who loves tenderly and sincerely those who love them, but even greater and boundless is the love of those who love even those who hated them and those who refuse to love them.

And that was exactly what He has done for us. And imitating that same love, St. Peter Canisius, the saint whose feast we celebrate today, worked hard in order to bring God’s love and salvation to his brethren in the world filled with falsehoods and darkness and evil. He lived at a difficult time, during the time of the heresy of Protestantism which lured away many of the faithful from the path to salvation.

At that time, it was very difficult to be counted among those who stayed faithful to the true faith in the Lord. The temptations and the pull to join the heresy of men were just very great, and many fell into sin and damnation, rejecting the teachings of the Church that God Himself had passed down through the Apostles, and which the Church had faithfully kept down the ages. Instead, they preferred to follow their own ways.

Amidst all this, St. Peter Canisius, a Jesuit priest, also known as the Society of Jesus, was among one of the most prominent figures who led the counterattack against the forces of heresy, delving even into great troubles and risks, going forth to bring the truth and to explain it with great clarity to the masses of people who had been misled by the devil and by their succumbing to their own human frailties and desires.

As a result, many countless thousands returned to the true faith and repented their rebellion against God and His Church. And St. Peter Canisius was renowned from then on as a great evangeliser and disciple who brought many people back away from the threat of eternal damnation and into salvation once again. Many believed in the truth once again, repented and changed their ways after they had heard the preachings of St. Peter Canisius.

And his works did not just stop at that, as he also wrote extensively in his work, the Catechism according to St. Peter Canisius, a set of three books filled with the truth and the core tenets of our faith. Even until today, many people were still saved through that amazing work, and countless souls were brought to God’s salvation.

Having heard and witnessed the examples of St. Peter Canisius, let us all reflect on the fact that our celebration of Christmas must not just be limited to ourselves. Our joy and the joy of our celebration cannot be a selfish one that is centred only on ourselves, but rather, let us put and keep our Lord Jesus Christ at the centre and the heart of our celebrations, and let us always remember Him and His love, on how He has loved us all and desired for us all to be saved from our sins.

And we as those whom Christ had called, and who had received the fullness of God’s grace, love and truth, should go forth and share the joy we have, that is Christ, our True Joy, to the rest of the world. And how do we do this? Following the examples of St. Peter Canisius who faithfully and devotedly practiced his faith in his actions and words, we too must do the same.

Yes, we have that obligation to bring God’s Good News to those who still linger in the darkness of this world. We cannot profess to celebrate Christmas with joy while our brethren still failed to understand the fullness of God’s love in Christmas. Let us through our actions be an inspiration to all those who see us, hear us and interact with us, just as we have ourselves been inspired by St. Peter Canisius and the other holy saints of God.

Let this be our Christmas gift to our brethren, and let that gift be that of love, in imitation and following the example of the love which our Lord had first given us all, which He made perfect through Jesus Christ. May Almighty God bless us in all of our loving endeavours, and may He continue to guide us all the days of our life. St. Peter Canisius, faithful servant of God, pray for us sinners to the Lord. Amen.

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Sunday, 20 December 2015 : Fourth Sunday of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this last Sunday before Christmas, all of us are invited to reflect on the theme of Love, after we have gone through Peace, Hope and Joy in the previous Sundays. These aspects are the aspects of true Christmas celebration, and indeed, out of all of them, Love is the greatest of them all and the most important one as well.

Today’s Scripture readings are diverse from its origins and meanings, but all of them speak about the same thing, that is, our God is Love, and He loves us all, and through His Love made manifest and real, we received Christ our Lord, Jesus the Saviour, through Whom all of us see for ourselves, witness for ourselves and receive for ourselves, the eternal covenant of love which God had established once and for all with us, for all eternity.

God had given us His love unconditionally, perfect and pure, for He loves us all since the moment when He created us, only for us all to abandon Him and to reject His love, preferring to walk on our own paths towards doom and destruction, listening instead to the lies and surrendering ourselves to the temptations of the devil who desires not our good but our downfall together with him in eternal damnation.

We may think that God demands from us many things, to be perfect in all things and to be good in all things, but this is not what He wanted from us. At least not when this leads to an obsession with doing what is proper and right, instead of truly understanding what is God’s will for all of us. This has happened before among the people of God, namely with the Pharisees, the scribes and the teachers of the Law.

These people were entrusted the care of the sheep and the flock of the Lord, as the appointed shepherds who were given the authority to teach the faith and to lead the people of God to find their way to Him. But they misunderstood God’s intentions, and they thought of God as a demanding God Who wants absolute obedience to the letter of the Law.

To this end they ended up enforcing the Law on the people of God. Indeed, the Law of God is something that we mankind must obey, but obedience must also come with understanding of the intention of the Law. The Law was not given to us in order to punish us or to make our lives difficult, but instead God gave His Law because He loves all of us, and He knows how easily we could be swayed and tempted to follow the devil and his ways.

The Law was meant to bring discipline to the people of God, especially if we noticed in the Old Testament how unruly and rebellious the people of Israel were, as they from time to time again betrayed and abandoned their Lord Who had loved them, protected them and cared for them, for the pagan gods of their neighbours. Yet, they misunderstood the Law as something rigid and something unbending, as something to be done and to be feared.

And over time, the sacrifices of animals, sin offerings and the peace offerings and many other kind of sacrifices which details we can read in the Book of Leviticus, became the focal point of the faith of the Israelites, but after having done these for so long, many became so accustomed to them, that in truth, the reason, the understanding and the meaning behind them were already lost to them.

And the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in the various parts of the New Testament, especially in the Gospels went against Jesus and His disciples many times, because they greatly disapproved what He had done, in seeming contravention and disobedience of the Law of God, such as healing people on the Sabbath, not washing ritually before having a meal, and various other points of contention they raised against Him.

But they totally missed the point and failed to see that all these laws, rules and regulations were made because of the sole intention of bringing mankind ever closer to God, that if they have erred, they have a guide which can lead them back to the Lord and to reawaken once again the love which they ought to have for the Lord. This is the meaning of the Law, which is love.

And in the Gospel today we heard about Mary, the mother of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, who was visiting her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, the Herald of Christ. Elizabeth uttered the words that would today be in our prayer, the Hail Mary, or Ave Maria, which started with these words, “Hail Mary, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you amongst women…”

This means that Mary who was truly great and honoured in our faith, blessed among all women and indeed among all mankind, not just because she had been prepared specifically to be the Mother of our Lord, conceived pure without sin, but even more importantly, because of her faith and because of her obedience to the will of God, and the fulfilment of the Law with true intention.

Mary’s faith is an example for all of us, as even though the announcement of the Archangel Gabriel to her must really be a shock to her as it was revealed to her the role she was to play in the history of salvation, as the bearer of the new Covenant of Love which God would establish with His beloved people. This was certainly not an easy task, and that required a commitment beyond belief, and yet, Mary entrusted herself to God and gave in herself to the will of God.

She kept faithful and carried on her role as the mother of our Saviour, and she followed her Son through times of good and difficulty, and as prophesied by Simeon, the faithful servant of God, her own heart would be pierced with a sword, the sword of pain and sorrow, when she saw her own Son dying and suffering terrible persecution, dying on the cross.

But she remained faithful to the end and beyond. And in this her faith is an example for us, as the love and devotion which she shows for the Lord, is what the Lord truly wanted from us. God wants from us not the offerings of sacrifices, pledges of money and material wealth, or anything similar to those. Just as He has loved us in everything, we too should love Him in the same way.

And love is not about the kind of love that we may be familiar with, for the love that this world knows, the kind of secular love is selfish, and it is often intertwined and linked with the desires of men’s hearts. The kind of love that God has, and which He had given us, is a perfect and selfless love, love that is unconditional, and which He has offered freely for us even though we have sinned against Him and rejected Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day let us all reflect on this love which God has shown us and which we need to give Him as well, the expression of love from our hearts, so that our Christmas celebration will be truly meaningful, for this Christmas will not just be about the gifts and all the glamours of the world, but rather, instead it is the celebration of God’s love which He had shown and made perfect through Christ.

May God bless us all and keep us all in His grace, and may He strengthen us all in our faith, so that we may draw ever closer to Him. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Saturday, 19 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about God’s proclamation of the coming of His salvation to His people which He made through two of His servants, the first of which is Samson, who was famous for his great strength and courage, and which we often know as someone who combatted against lions and triumphed against them, and then also St. John the Baptist, the Herald of the Messiah, who prepared the way for the coming of the world’s Saviour.

On this day, we heard the message of hope, amidst all the darkness of the world. For at the time of Samson’s conception and birth, the people of Israel had been subjugated by the Philistines, a warlike people who constantly waged wars against the people of God, enslaved them and brought them much suffering. And the people of God longed for liberation and cried out for God’s mercy, and the Lord heard them.

And through Samson, God worked His power, just as He once through Moses worked to liberate His people from the suffering and enslavement by the Egyptians. With His power and might He brought His own people out of Egypt into the land which He had promised to their ancestors, and then at the time of Samson, when the people of God were again in trouble and were persecuted, God made His will manifest through Samson, to whom He granted the strength to defeat the Philistines.

And then, in order to fulfil all the promises which He had made to mankind since the beginning of time, He sent once and for all, the Final and Great Deliverer and Saviour, through Whom all of mankind, all of creation would be made free from the greatest slavery to have ever implicated us, that is the slavery of our souls by sin, and by the wickedness and the evils which the devil had planted in us through his temptations and lies.

While the slavery of the people of Israel by the Egyptians, their subjugation by their neighbours, the Philistines, and the Assyrians and the Babylonians in the later era were painful and difficult for the people of God, but these only affected the body and not the eternal soul. And while these people might inflict pain on the body and the flesh, but they could not harm the soul, and eventually the suffering inflicted were only temporary, for as long as the people of God remained faithful and true to their Lord, they would be safe.

However, sin is a far greater threat to us, since sin afflicts the soul itself, and as long as we are tainted by sin, corrupted by the evils of this world, we will never be free, even though our bodies and our flesh may be free in the sight of this world. This is why, even though we all may be healthy and good in appearance, but truly deep inside all of us are sick, sickened by the disease of sin that is slowly eating away at our soul.

And the effects of sin last forever, for sin leads to death, and death in the state of sin leads to eternal death, that is total and complete separation from the love and mercy of God, into the eternal hell without any hope for redemption or escape. And this is not what God wants from us, and it is not what He desires for us. For He Who loves us all will not want to see us fall into eternal darkness and be lost from Him forever, and thus He has done many things in order to bring us back into His embrace once again.

And thus, as we approach the celebration of Christmas which will be in less than a week’s time, let us all reflect on what we truly celebrate in this Christmas season. Again, I would like us to reflect on our own actions and how we approach Christmas. Did we celebrate Christmas because we are happy to be part of the festive celebrations and to receive all the gifts we received from one another? Or are we genuinely happy because we know that through Christmas we who once despaired, have finally gotten a new hope?

Christmas is Joy, and Christmas is Hope, and Christmas is Peace and Love, which are the aspects that the four Sundays of Advent are focusing on in order to help us to understand its true meaning. Christmas is truly not about just ourselves and whatever we do in preparing for it, we should not lose sight in Christ, for Whom we actually celebrate, for He has indeed come as a Saviour, a Deliverer, a Shepherd and a Guide to help bring us out from the abyss of sin and darkness and into the eternal light.

Just as He had liberated His people from the oppression of the Pharaoh and the Egyptians long ago, and from the oppression of the Philistines, the Assyrians and the Babylonians, bringing them back from their exiles, He too have endeavoured to save not just one people or one race, but the entire humanity, all of His beloved children, all of whom had been afflicted by sin and sundered from Him, but because of His great love, He had endeavoured to reunite us with Himself.

Let us all thank the Lord for His love, His dedication and His commitment for us this Christmas, and let us all devote ourselves to be ever more devoted and committed servants and followers of our Lord, abandoning our old ways of sin and embracing the fullness of His truth and His ways, obeying Him in all things. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 18 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we hear from the Sacred Scriptures on the proclamation of the coming of the Messiah, Who is the Heir and Son of David, which the Archangel Gabriel first delivered to Mary, His mother, and then also to Joseph, His foster father. Through this, God made it clear to His people that the salvation which He had promised them is coming true, and He was coming to deliver them from the evil one.

For many years, we mankind have lived in suffering in this world as a result of our sins and disobedience against God, and we are earning the bitter fruits of our ancestors’ inability to resist the temptation of the devil, and we have also been put under the thrall of the wicked one, so that sin weighed us down and became a huge stone hanging on our necks, threatening to bring us down into the abyss of darkness, the eternal fire and suffering.

But God does not wish this fate to be ours, as He created us and loved us more than all the other things and beings that He had created, for we all have been crafted in His own image, and He Himself breathed life into us. He has given us life, and therefore, all of us are intended for life with Him, and not to suffer death and suffering itself, instead enjoying forever the fullness of the richness of God’s grace.

Nevertheless, it was our rebellion and desire to follow our heart’s wants and desires which had sundered us from the fullness of God’s love and grace, and we were doomed into suffering on a hard life on earth, toiling without end, and in the end, to be claimed by death, as our bodies return to the dust from which we came from, and there seemed to be no escape from our punishment and our fate.

But God had another path that He had intended for us, that is the path of atonement and forgiveness, and in this, He promised His people that a deliverance will come upon all those who remain true to Him and to their faith in Him. And over the years, God continued to keep up that promise, and renewed again and again, the covenant which He made with them, as He made His covenant with Abraham, with Moses, with David, and through the prophets, made clear His will to the people.

It was through Jesus our Lord that God had made complete and perfect His promises to us, as through Him, a new Hope was shown to us, and in Him, our hearts that were once filled with despair and darkness, could finally see the Light of our Lord once again. And this is the essence of Christmas, the celebration and the joy we experienced, which is truly because our Lord has come to save His people.

The joy of Christmas is not about all the glamour and the glory associated to all the celebrations, the bright lights and all the commercial goods associated with it. Yes, it is a season of festive giving and happiness, joy and celebrations, but do we even remember Who or what we are celebrating it for? Is it for ourselves? Yes, partially for ourselves indeed, but why? Do we know the reason?

It is the joy we feel because of the hope we have received by the coming of our Saviour that is the true reason for our Christmas joy, for He is the true Joy of the world often forgotten by us all, even as we joyfully celebrate this Christmas. This Advent season, a time to prepare for Christmas, let us all commit ourselves to find the way to celebrate Christmas meaningfully in our families and communities, no longer be bound and consumed by the consumer celebration of Christmas, but celebrate it with full understanding of our faith.

May the Lord bless us and keep us in His grace, and may all of us be able to find the true meaning of Christmas in Jesus our Lord, Whose birth had blessed us with a new hope and the salvation He promised us. Let us all strengthen our faith and follow Him in all of His ways. Amen.

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Thursday, 17 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we listen to the words of the Sacred Scriptures telling us about Christ our Lord and His origins in the accounts of the world and men. God had come into the world through the means of His blessed mother Mary, through Whom He assumed the flesh of Man, and became one like us.

Through the sons of Adam He had come forth into the world, and then through the line of Abraham, the faithful servant and beloved child of God, He had come into the world in order to fulfil the covenant and the promise which He had made with him. Then, God also fulfilled the promises He made to David, the faithful king and servant of God, by being born into His line and family as was promised.

And one may think that because Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, but merely His foster-father, then Jesus was not the Messiah because He is not of the family of David, as the prophets had prophesied that the Messiah is also the Son of David. Yet, in the Jewish customs and laws, a legal father, even though he was not the biological father, but as long as he is legally married to the mother, he is the father of the child, and the child is the legal and rightful heir of the father.

Thus, this is how God made Himself manifest into the world, by His choice of the Holy Family of Mary and Joseph, to be the ones through whom He would descend into the world and save it. By fulfilling the promises He had made to His beloved people, He endeavoured to bring all of them to Himself, and bring them to salvation and eternal life which can only be found in Him.

All these are to remind us that our Lord loves all of us, and it is His desire that we should be reconciled to Himself and not be condemned for all of the wickedness and sins that we have committed. Yet, many of us willingly and openly rejected His love and mercy, and we instead walk on our own paths, following our own desires and wants, and refusing to believe in Him and refusing to listen to Him whose words is our salvation.

Now the challenge is upon us all, brethren, whether we are to walk on the same path as all those who have rejected the Lord and instead chose the ways of this world, that is often contrary to the ways of the Lord, that is the way that does not show our obedience to the will of God. God has been so kind such as to provide us with the means to salvation and the free offer of forgiveness that He had granted us, and yet, we spurned His love and rejected all these gifts in exchange for a life of pleasure and wickedness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we draw closer to Christmas and as we enter this one last week of Advent, let us all reflect on the nature of Christmas, what it truly means for us, and how we are going to celebrate that great day and occasion, when our Lord Himself came into this world in order to save it and liberate us from all of our afflictions.

Do we celebrate Christmas because we like to have all the fun and the joy for ourselves? For all the new clothes, gifts and all the glamours the world had associated with it? Or do we want to celebrate Christmas as a glorious and great thanksgiving for the love which our God has given us? Remember, as St. John himself had written in his Gospel, that the Lord so loved the world, that He has given us His only Son, so that through Him all may be saved and have eternal life.

Let us all keep these in mind even as we continue to live through our lives, and as we prepare to celebrate Christmas again this year. Let us not forget Who Christmas was made for, and Who Christmas was truly celebrating. It was a celebration of God’s love, the love He had shown us, and thus we too, should show the same love to one another, sharing all the graces and blessings He had given us.

May our loving Father and Almighty God be with us always, and may He strengthen our faith in Him, that in all things we may realise the great graces and blessings we have received. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 16 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we hear the message of the Sacred Scriptures, telling us about the Good News of salvation that He Himself has proclaimed many times through the prophets, through His many other servants, and finally through Himself in Jesus Christ, the Lord our Saviour Who came into the world in our form, taking up our flesh in order to save all of us.

God did not forget about His people and all those whom had been lost from Him, for He had endeavoured to gather all of His beloved ones to Himself, and called upon all those who were lost, so that they would hear the voice of their Shepherd, and therefore follow Him into the path towards eternal life and salvation in Him. He wants us all to be saved and to receive eternal life and to never again be lost.

And that is why all of us should be grateful, for God had stretched out His hands, and by His might He had gathered people from many nations, through the Church, the Apostles, bishops and the servants of God through whom many peoples of many nations are called ever closer to the holy presence of God. Through the hard works of the missionaries who prepared the path for the Lord, many souls have been saved and made ready for the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us today are called to be faithful servants of our Lord, just as St. John the Baptist had been. St. John the Baptist was the one who heralded and announced the coming of the Lord and Messiah, and he taught them about what to do in order to attain the salvation which our Lord and Saviour has brought us, that is through genuine and sincere repentance and through the baptism that cleanses from the taints of sin.

In the same way, the Church also sent out many missionaries, preachers and workers of the faith, who worked hard just like St. John the Baptist, to preach the Word of God and to proclaim the Good News of His salvation to the entire world, the four corners of the earth. And just like John, they also encountered sceptics, dissidents and all those who refused to listen to the word of God, and who even made it difficult for the servants of God to spread the Good News.

Indeed, God is loving, merciful and forgiving, and it is His desire that as many people as possible come to listen and understand His will, and through the words of the Gospel, hopefully many would repent their sins and their wicked ways, and return to the path of the light. But if there is no one to bring the word of truth to the souls that are now dwelling in the darkness of this world, who will then allow them to come to the light? Some may come to the light eventually, but many will not.

Therefore, all of us, the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, and as the members of God’s Holy Church, we all have to understand that the mission which our Lord Jesus had entrusted to His Apostles, and thus to His whole Church, and thus to all of us living today, is far from done, and there are indeed still so many things that we can do, in order to bring the salvation of God to our brethren.

Remember that Jesus had commissioned His Apostles to baptise the peoples of the whole world in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and to proclaim His truth to all of them? The same task is now ours, and we too should walk in the footsteps of the faithful servants of God. And it does not mean that we should go to faraway places to preach and to make sermons about the faith, but instead, we should always begin from somewhere close, from our own homes.

Have our families been examples and role models of faith for others? Have we practiced what we believe in our own daily life actions and works? Or have our faith been merely on paper only and on the surface only? We should not think that we can convince others to follow whatever we tell them, if we do not practice the faith that we believe in, on our own.

Let us in this season of Advent, as we continue to prepare to celebrate the commemoration of our Lord’s entry into the world in Christmas, let us all prepare ourselves body, heart and mind, so that in all things, we may become ever more faithful and be ever more devoted to our God. Let us all give more effort to accomplish what the Lord had entrusted us, that is to preach the Word of God and the Good News to those who still have not heard of these yet, and therefore bring our brethren into salvation as well. May God bless us, now and forever. Amen.

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Tuesday, 15 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard our Lord Jesus Who told us clearly in the face, that whatever we believe in God, His ways and all of these, we must not just stop at believing and merely knowing on what are we supposed to do, but instead we must go further and apply our faith, whatever we believe in, in our own lives and actions.

The parable about a father with his two sons made this fact clear enough for us. The father represents the Lord our God, while his two sons are representatives of all of us with our various reactions to our Father’s wishes and desires, which can indeed be categorised into two major categories. First of all, the first son on the surface obeyed the father, gracefully with his mouth uttering his readiness to do his will, and yet he did not do what he had said he would do.

This represents all those whose faith are merely superficial, that is faith merely on paper only. This is the faith of those who have little or no commitment in love to God, and whose hearts have no place for the Lord. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law belonged to this category, and as well as surprisingly, majority if not most of mankind.

Yes, many of us if we look at how we live our daily lives, we should immediately realise how even though we call ourselves as Christians, we do not truly live as Christians should live. As Christians and member of God’s Church we should follow the will of God, His teachings and commandments, and obey the laws and rules of the Church and the Sacred Tradition that has been passed down to us from the Apostles and from the Lord Himself.

Yet, many of us prefer to choose what we like to believe in and what we do not like to believe. This is a phenomenon commonly known as ‘Cafetaria Christians’ as just as those in cafetaria or a market choose what they want to buy and what they do not want to buy, we too choose in what we want to believe. And yet, this is something very wrong for us to do.

Indeed, we must believe in the entirety of the teachings of the Church and embrace wholly what it means for us to be Christians, rather than choosing what we like to believe and skipping and rejecting those that do not appeal to us. We either believe in the entirety of the Christian teachings or not at all, and there can be no compromise or middle way in these, as some would believe.

Thus we ought to reflect on the Lord’s parable of a father and his two sons. The second son was the better of the two because he did what the father had asked him to do, even though outwardly he was unwilling and showed apprehension. Surely this is what had happened to many of us as well, as we have doubts, uncertainties and apprehensions about many things even as we live our lives as Christians, but if we take heed of the examples of the second son, we know that God favours those who do His will and obey Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us therefore put the effort to live faithfully as Christians from now on, if we have not done so, and continue to do so, if we have already did. Let us all obey the entirety of the teachings of the Church and keep holy whatever has been entrusted to us as God’s children and as members of His Church. Let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord and bless His glorious Name through our own actions, obedient and filled with faith. God bless us all. Amen.