Reflection

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Friday, 18 July 2014 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we should grow to appreciate more the tenets of our faith, and not just to know and understand them, but also to put them into the deepest parts of our hearts and minds. It is only if we had done this that we may truly be good and faithful servants of our Lord, who follow Him not out of blind faith, but out of true understanding and appreciation of His precepts and laws.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ time are hardliners and ultra-orthodox purists who took up a very conservative and strict stance on how the people ought to live out their lives in accordance to the faith and to the laws of God as revealed to the people of God via Moses and the prophets who came after him. They criticised Jesus and His followers, and were constantly at their heels, trying to disturb and harass them at every opportunity because they failed to understand the true meaning of the law of God, and in doing so, they believed in God through blind faith and ended up causing greater harm than good.

Jesus today in the Gospel advocated and taught us the importance of understanding the words of the Lord found in the Holy Scriptures, and finding the true meaning of what our faith, and indeed of what our God is all truly about. And He highlighted that using the example of His own servant David, who out of hunger, were allowed to eat the bread of offerings in the Temple, normally reserved only for the consumption of the priests. David and his companions ate the bread.

All of this is to show that God is love, and all about love. He loves all of His creations, and in particular all mankind, the most beloved of all His creations. And the laws which He had given to them through His prophets, is just another form of His love and dedication which He showed them. Through the Law, He hoped that mankind would be able to find their way to Him and ensure that these beloved ones of Him did not fall along the way as they seek the way to reach out to Him.

Sadly, throughout the history of mankind, and the history of the people of Israel, the chosen people of God, they had grown corrupt in their ways, and even with the prophets to remind them about the love of God espoused and enshrined in the Law, they still chose to ignore the pleadings of the prophets even to the point of rejecting and murdering them to shut them up for good.

And even after God had rescued His people when He showed His mercy to the exiled ones of Israel, they still persisted in their unruly behaviour, as shown in the occasions of the apostasies during the time of the Maccabees, when many of the people of God chose to honour their own safety and well-being in exchange for abandoning their Lord and their faith. But the worst of all was indeed not the ways of the people who veered away from the Law of God, but the rise of those who took the Law for granted and used it for their own selfish and self-aggrandising desires.

The Pharisees and the Scribes were among these, and they used the Law to impose on the people a very strict and unbending set of rules and obligations that ended up mocking and ridiculing the Law itself, causing the people to forget the true meaning and intention of the Law, in exchange for a blind observation of the faith which they truly did not understand and misinterpreted, to the point that the Pharisees regarded themselves as being superior to others and casually condemned all those who were against them.

Jesus our Lord came as the Saviour of the world, and of all His beloved people. Therefore, as part of His great mission, He came to clarify all doubts and remove the layers of untruths and distortions which the people had made with the Law. He came to bring the Law into its perfection, the Scriptures and the prophecies of the prophets and servants of God into their complete fulfillment, and to bring love, the love of God Himself, into the world once again.

And to show that love, which God had shown mankind and all creations since the beginning of time, He showed that through His ultimate act of love, the sacrifice on the cross on Calvary, when He bared Himself and opened His own heart to all of His beloved creations. In that, He made the Law perfect and revealed the entirety of the meaning of God’s love and precepts.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, even today there are still those who refuse to listen to God’s loving words and His calls for us to repent and to follow Him and instead, trusting in their own human wisdom and intellect and thinking that they know it all better than anyone else, walk on their own paths towards their own doom.

We must not end up being focused so much on ourselves, that we forget or ignore everything else, especially God and His love for us. Our fear of losing things precious to us and our attachments to the world can often stand in the way of truly becoming faithful disciples of the Lord. The concerns and worries of king Hezekiah of Judah, although a faithful servant of the Lord, was to become his taint and the blotch of ink that spanned through his otherwise immaculate record.

King Hezekiah was so distraught that he was to die young, that he begged the Lord for mercy, and kindly, the Lord heard him and extended his life. But later on, we found that if we read the Holy Scriptures, that King Hezekiah showed off his wealth and glory to the Babylonian ambassadors, priding in his own greatness and human power, all these while rejecting and refusing to listen to the word of God which He had spoken through His prophet.

King Hezekiah is an example of how attachments to worldly things and all other distractions that exist in this world may lead to our detachment from the Lord and His way, and end up being too caught up in our own concerns, worries and others, that we do not glorify God in our works and actions, but instead glorify ourselves and the evil one.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be mindful of all these, and let us be careful, lest our worldly attachments bring us into ruin. Let us all have a good and healthy relationship with our God, through devout prayer and obedience to the teachings of the Church, through which Jesus our Lord had made clear the purpose of the Laws of God, purified from all the corruptions of men, the Pharisees and others.

May Almighty God bless us and be with us always, that He may guide us to Him, and straighten our path and make it secure, that we may not fall into the darkness, but remain always in the light. Amen.

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Thursday, 17 July 2014 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear about the infinite goodness of the Lord, and His infinite love and grace which He had shown us since ages past. Mankind sadly however do not recognise this great love which had been shown them, and we often tend to disregard and disrespect the care and the blessings which God had showered us with.

Jesus offered us a lighter burden to bear, not in a sense that the burden that we have to bear if we follow Him will be lighter, but we have to understand it from the perspective and the whole picture of the Lord’s intentions for us. While the Lord is loving and forgiving, the world and Satan is definitely not so. If we choose to follow the path of the world, the path may seem to be easier and the burden may seem to be lighter than if we follow the Lord, but at the end of the road, there is nothing but despair, hopelessness and darkness.

And if we have chosen our lot in the world, that means we have put our trust and our bet on Satan and his followers. Then that means we will have no part in the Lord and His salvation, and we will be excluded from all the blessings and graces He had intended for us since the beginning of time. The truth about the heavy and excruciating burden that we are to bear will not be evident until it has come too late for us.

The burden that is given by our Lord to us may seem to be heavy, but at the end of all that, is the relief beyond all relief, and liberation from all forms of bonds and chains that burdened us, when we come to meet our Lord once again at the end of our lives. It is this liberation that we seek for, and which we ought to aim for in our lives, and not to seek the easy way out through the falsehoods and lies of Satan.

God has promised us that He will bring us to a new and eternal life in His Kingdom, and we know that God always speaks the truth, and He never lies to us. It is we who have often lied to the Lord, speaking on one side that we love our God and worship Him, but in our hearts and actions, we do not reflect the same kind of attitude expected from us. Instead we act and profess our faith in the ways of the evil one, Satan.

It is truly amazing how great is the love that God has for all of us, that even after centuries, millenia and countless ages of rebelliousness and our constant lack of faith, we have been constantly forgiven and accepted back all the time to the loving embrace of our God. He certainly did not hesitate at all to forgive us, if our repentance is genuine and true. However, many of us continue to persist in our sinful ways, preferring the burden of Satan rather than the burden of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is time for us to awaken from our slumber. Let us all cast away all the lies and the falsehoods of Satan, which he had cleverly and cunningly done in order to conceal the truths about his path to destruction. Many of us are currently walking in the same path as Satan, that is towards eternal damnation and destruction. Satan makes it seem easier for us to follow suit with the world’s ways and customs, and purposely makes it difficult for us if we are to follow the way of the Lord.

But this is exactly why we have to awaken to our faith and be removed from our passive and inaction in our lives. We have to make the great choice between following our God or following the evil one. We have been too long lulled by the easy weight of the burden of this world, and we always like to shun the burden God gives us just because it seems to be difficult and heavy.

Let us no longer be complacent in our lives, throwing away all the laziness and inaction, and from now on, let us all truly be faithful and loving children of our God, and in our actions and deeds, let us all be truly worthy of being called and counted among His children and servants. Let us all say confidently to the Lord, come Lord, come and save Your servants, and give us the promised everlasting life You have promised us, no matter what difficulties and challenges the world may present to us.

May Almighty God continue to bless us, guide us and empower us, so that we may all remain faithful to Him and continue our good works for the good of all of our fellow brethren, helping each other to reach out to the Lord and towards the promise of eternal life in God. Amen.

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Wednesday, 16 July 2014 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of our Lady of Mount Carmel (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Marian feasts)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel, a particularly renowned devotion to Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is known primarily for the distinctive brown scapular that our Lady had asked those who devote themselves to her to wear. This scapular is the sign of our devotion to the Blessed Mother, which we express through our pious prayers and dedication to the mother of our Lord.

The feast today is celebrating the patroness of the Carmelite religious order, which was established in the region of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the era of the Crusades, nearly a thousand years ago. The Carmelites were a religious group who was truly devoted to the Lord through their devotion to God’s people and through their devotion to the Most Blessed Mary, mother of God. Their patron is none other than Mary, who was given the title of our Lady of Mount Carmel, a sign of her patronage of the order.

The brown scapular is a sacramental, and its use, with a proper and genuine faith will help mankind who wear it on their path to salvation. But that is exactly why, we cannot simply wear them without genuine and dedicated faith to the Lord, as wearing them without that kind of faith does not do anything good at all. The brown scapular of our Lady of Mount Carmel reminds us in fact, that we need to adhere to the examples shown by Mary herself, and follow her in her piety and faith to God.

For Jesus in the Gospel did not humiliate or chastise Mary and His own relatives when He said the words of how those who do the will of God are His brothers, family and mother. In fact, what Jesus said affirmed the faithfulness and the zealous piety of Mary, and her worthiness to be the very Mother of God, the one who bore Christ the Saviour into this world.

Mary is the greatest and most faithful servant of our Lord, who gave herself up in total surrender to God, especially when the Archangel Gabriel showed himself to her, and announced the Good News of the Lord. She accepted her role faithfully and with complete and full trust in the Lord without even a single hint of hesitation. She willingly allowed herself to play a crucial part in God’s plan of salvation, even though that would eventually bring her to much sorrow.

Mary has been entrusted by our Lord to be our mother as well, when on the cross at Golgotha, He entrusted Mary His mother to the care of John, His disciple, and vice versa, He entrusted John to the care of His own mother, Mary. By this act, mankind had also been entrusted to the loving care of Mary, so that Mary is also our mother and the same love she had shown to Jesus our Lord, she shows to us as well.

As we heard in the Scriptures today, mankind had fallen into a state of self-preservation and self-glorification, trusting more in the own power and might rather than in the power of God. The old kingdoms of Israel and Judah of the Old Testament fell because of their many wicked kings who only thought of themselves and of the powers and the glories of the world. And the contemporaries of Jesus such as the Pharisees and the Sadducees thought only of themselves and their own safety rather than following the will of God through Jesus His Son.

Today, Jesus through His mother calls all of us to repentance and penance, that is to totally change our ways for the better. We ought to abandon our ways of sin and rebelliousness against God, and instead follow the Lord with all of our hearts, just exactly as how Mary had once done when she lived her earthly life in this world. If we follow her examples, we are sure to be safe in our journey towards God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all remember today as we wear the brown scapular, and all the subsequent days, to consecrate ourselves both to Mary our mother, and to her Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us follow her and walk with her, as she leads us towards the throne of her Son. Let us throw far, far away all pride and arrogance from our hearts, all forms of wicked desires and wants for pleasures, and seek instead the Lord our God with all of our hearts.

May God Almighty, together with the intercession of His Blessed Mother Mary, our Lady of Mount Carmel, bring us ever closer to Him and keep us ever close to. His heart. Amen.

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Tuesday, 15 July 2014 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are given a clear warning, one that is really true and genuine by our Lord Himself, who is thoroughly concerned with our safety and well-being. He did not lightly condemn the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum and the other cities of Israel and Galilee, but He did so because of the constant opposition and rebelliousness which the people showed Him.

These people, particularly represented by the factions of the Pharisees and the Scribes, or the religious, as well as the Sadducees or the ones in power, constantly and viciously were always following Jesus to try to disturb and disrupt His works, in particular the former group. They persuaded and bribed the people to act against Jesus and His disciples, and for all these rebelliousness, Jesus rebuked them as we heard in the readings today.

The Lord truly meant good for His beloved people, and He did not curse without reason. For in the first reading, God gave His reassurance to the people beleaguered and attacked from all sides without hope, and delivered them from the way of harm into salvation. God meant good for all of them, but they often did not appreciate or show gratitude for such love which God had shown them, and instead they betrayed Him and His love by worshipping other gods, pagan gods and idols.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is easy for us to think that because we live in an age and time where paganism is no longer prevalent or existent then we are safe from this problem. As a matter of fact, even in this day, this kind of disobedience still exists in our world and in our society. When the pagan gods of the natural elements, stone and gold went away, come the gods and idols of wealth and possessions, such as money, career and consumeristic behaviour.

Our world today is filled with them, and its people filled with endless desires and greed for these, and they are never satisfied, their desires and wants ever growing. These are the new idols of this world, which feeds on the desire of mankind, and grow on mankind’s endless desire and quest to gain more and more happiness in this world, even though the happiness that they seek is nothing more than really the pleasures of the flesh.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Bonaventure, a great saint and thinker in the Church, whose works were so numerous and amazing that he was given the title of the ‘Seraphic Doctor’. He was once also a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Chyrch, chosen for his intellect and great leadership qualities, which he showed clearly in his life. He was of the Franciscan religious order and his numerous works, together with that of St. Thomas Aquinas, his contemporary, had helped to develop the teachings of the faith enormously.

St. Bonaventure was truly brilliant in his writings and works, and through his writings many aspects of the faith become clearer to us today. But he was not just merely an intelligent and excellent writer of the faith, as he was also a contemplative thinker and a faithful servant of the Lord, whose thoughts are always aimed and focused on the Lord alone. He was a champion of maintaining a balance and relations between reason and faith, showing how reason can complement faith, and how faith can truly be a guidance to men.

St. Bonaventure also shows how the ways of this world is not always necessarily evil, provided that we take precautions and be careful in our life. If we stay unceasingly and solidly obedient to our Lord and God, definitely there will be no difficulty in doing this. Challenges and difficulties will still be on our way, but nothing will be impossible if we stay close to the Lord, as St. Bonaventure had once done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we from now onwards reject Satan and all of his false promises? Shall we turn away from the rebelliousness of our ancestors and turn to God alone? Let us pray to St. Bonaventure, asking for his intercession, that he may ask the Lord to strengthen the faith in us, that our faith will be a strong and vibrant one, and will not be easily affected or corrupted by this world and the evil one’s influences.

May God bless us all, and continue to guide us in our works, that we may serve Him to the best of our abilities. Amen!

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Monday, 14 July 2014 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is easy to misunderstand what Jesus meant when He said that, He did not come to bring peace into the world, but conflict and discord. It is easy to misinterpret what Jesus meant and find contradiction with it, if we do not understand what He truly meant in His words. In fact, Jesus mentioned the apparent contradiction that exists always between Him and His ways, with the ways of this world.

The contradiction and all the opposition is the cause behind the discord and disunity that will exist between those who follow Christ and those who follow the ways of the world, which is really the ways of Satan, rebelliousness and disobedient behaviour against the Lord and His gracious order and kindness. This contradiction arises because the Lord cannot possibly tolerate the ways of those who are openly in rebellion against His will.

This is the meaning of why the Lord came not to establish an everlasting peace, but to unearth the discord and opposition of the world against Himself. It is not to be until the end of days, when the Lord will judge all creations and cast away all things wicked and evil away from His presence for eternity, then there will be a true, genuine and everlasting peace.

Therefore, we have to be vigilant and be careful in our life, for we need to know that this world did not welcome Jesus with peace and honour, and thus they will neither treat us in a different way. Discord and hatred will enter into the hearts of men when they are confronted with the truth of Christ among them, and families therefore can even be split, when there are some in the family who decide to abandon the wicked ways of the world and follow the Lord.

These had happened in the past with many families of martyrs in the early days of the Church. Many saints, especially holy women, who lived in a family who still worshipped the pagan gods in the Roman Empire, were asked to choose between God and their life, and they chose to die rather than abandoning their faith in God. They suffered grievous torture and persecution, and yet they did not give up.

Many in this world, especially as we know in our world today, do not welcome Christ and His teachings. More and more people move further away from the teachings of the Lord and fall deeper into the traps of Satan. It may not be obvious at first, but this world today is increasingly hostile to us, where the teachings of the Church and the central moral tenets of our faith are constantly under attack.

It is sad that many of the faithful are either unaware of this truth, and how many of them do not stand with God and His Church on various issues, and rather stand by the world and its ways, for various reasons. Some did so out of ignorance, while others purposefully did so in order to be accepted into the world, so that they will not be ostracised or rejected.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we make a difference? Shall we be the new light in this darkened world? Let us no longer fear but be strong and be courageous to defend our faith. It may not have to end like what happened to the martyrs of the early Church, but it is doubtless that our lives will not be easy if we choose to walk in the way of the Lord. Yet, it is the path to righteousness and is rich in rewards.

Today we also celebrate the feast of St. Camillus de Lellis, an Italian priest of the late Renaissance period, who was an army member and fought in the wars that engulfed Italy at the time. Having seen great human sufferings and sickness throughout conflicts and many other unfortunate occurrences, he was truly touched by God, and repented from his ways of war and violence, and from then on sought to help mankind as best as he could.

Although it was not easy, but St. Camillus de Lellis tried his best to help those who suffer both physically from sickness, as well as spiritually and mentally from sin and other impurities of the world. He did not live long and always suffered from various afflictions, and yet he was truly a champion of peace, of love, and ultimately of the faith in the Lord. He truly practiced his faith with zeal and dedication.

Therefore, let us stand with our God, and let us stand with one another welcoming our Lord through our welcome for Jesus. Let us follow Him and vow to no longer following the path of evil. Following St. Camillus de Lellis, may we also become true bearers of peace and champion love for one another.

May God Almighty help us to keep us away from the evil one, and so that we may be ever faithful. May He make us wonderful testimony bearers of the faith, that more and more people will come to believe in the Lord, and bring true peace into this world. Amen.

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Sunday, 13 July 2014 : 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate a special occasion in our Liturgical year, when we celebrate Bible or Scripture Sunday, when we honour the Book from which we gained all that we need to know about our faith, and about our Lord and God. For the Bible or the Holy Scriptures is in itself the Word of God, the words of revelation which God had given to mankind over the ages, through His many prophets and servants.

The Holy Scripture is the revelation of the word of God, through which God made His will known to mankind, and through the advancement in technology and availability of printing, now we can have them as what we know now as the Bible. We have this privilege which members of the early Church did not have, and we should indeed be truly grateful for these gifts of the Bible we have with us.

How did then, the people of God and the faithful know about the Holy Scriptures? They did it through passing around oral stories and traditions, which they kept faithfully down through the generations, which were eventually compiled together and made into what we know as the Holy Scriptures, of which there are a total of seventy-three books, comprising of forty-six books of the Old Testament, of the time before the coming of Jesus Christ, and twenty-seven books of the New Testament, after the coming of Christ into the world.

One may ask, then, why the division between the Old and the New Testament? It is all in fact because of Christ, that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who as divine incarnate, became Man and came into this world. If we read the Gospel of John, on the first chapter, in what was faithfully read every Mass as the Last Gospel, it is all made clear. Jesus is the Word of God, who was made flesh, and became Man, for the sake of our salvation.

Thus the Old Testament refers to the ancient and old revelations of the Lord and the faith, before the Word Himself came into the world, while the New Testament reveals truly the new testament of faith, by none other than Jesus Himself, the Word of salvation. Those who believe in Jesus and in His teachings will be saved, and those who reject them will be doomed and damned for eternity.

There are sadly however, those who believe strictly in the words of the Bible as it is, without considering the different meanings that it may have carried and not immediately obvious to us, and sometimes even to the greatest intelligent minds that men possessed. This belief, which is also known as ‘sola scriptura’, is definitely wrong, and is truly a chief cause for the great divisions between the many so-called branches of the Church, separated by the evil act of the ‘reformation’ a few centuries ago.

The greatest flaw is that, no man should ever claim to be able to understand or fully comprehend the meaning of the word of God contained in the Holy Scriptures all by himself or herself. This emphasis on the sole dependence on the Holy Scripture is not right, and will confound our understanding of the true faith in the long term. What then, should be the foundation of our faith? We should put our faith in God, and on His teachings which were made known to us through the tradition of faith among God’s people.

The sacred tradition of the faith is important, and it is also present strongly in our Church. This sacred tradition is the one that complements our faith and understanding of the faith, as we obtained from the Scriptures. It is like a guide for us in understanding the Scriptures, that we may not make the same mistake as what many throughout the ages had done, misinterpreting the Scriptures and the Holy Gospels as they liked.

It is important that we guard ourselves from the misinterpretations and misunderstandings of the Gospel’s and the Scriptures’ message, that we do not end up causing divisions among ourselves and in the Church, as what had happened before in the past. Our feeble and limited minds are not capable of understanding the fullness of the truth of God, and therefore we are bound to misunderstand its true meaning without guidance.

This is precisely the mistake that caused so many people to stray away from the faith in the one and only Church of Christ, to follow their own flawed human instincts and ways, in an open rebellion against God and His will.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all remain faithful and obedient to the teachings of Christ through the Holy Mother Church, that is the Holy Catholic Church, the one and only legal and rightful authority on this earth and under heaven to teach the fullness of faith, as its role in defending the fullness of the truth of the faith. If we do so, we will be able to adhere more faithfully and closely to the truth of the Scriptures and the Word of God.

However, brothers and sisters, we have to always remember that being faithful alone is not sufficient. This is because a faith without works is dead. Remember this saying? It comes from the Letter of St. James the Apostle, who wrote how our faith must be living and genuine, and based on strong sense of love. Faith that is based on strong and living love is a strong and solid faith.

Jesus told His disciples and all of us these, in His parable of the sower and the seeds, where He mentioned the fates of the seeds that ended up in various different types of soil and growth conditions. In this parable, Jesus clearly explained how faith cannot remain dormant, but must be always living and growing so that it may prosper in us and we may be saved.

The seeds are the seeds of faith, and none other than the word of God, which God had planted in us through His Holy Scriptures and teachings which He imparted to us through His disciples and Apostles. But those seeds really have different fates depending on how we use them and how we put them in our own lives, which is indeed the soil where the seeds grow on.

The first scenario, where the seeds fell along the path and got eaten by the birds, represent the situation when the word of God is not properly internalised by us, and as a result, Satan, represented by the birds, come and take us deep into the darkness. This is what happens when we do not receive the word of God, and reject what the Lord had revealed to us.

The second scenario, the seeds that fell on the rocky ground and were not able to grow well, because they did not have deep roots, is basically our faith if we do not commit the word of God into our lives, that is exactly what I had mentioned. Yes, if we do not have a living faith, then our faith will not take deep root in our hearts, and with the coming of troubles, we will stumble and fall into darkness and evil.

The third scenario, the seeds that fell on soil infested with thistles. Thistles are plants that can grow quickly and wrap themselves around other plants, eventually competing with those plants for nutrients, and in the end, literally choking the life out of the other plants. In this case, as Jesus mentioned, the worries and concerns of the world, the pleasures and corruption of the world get in the way, and the word of God did not take root either.

It is only when we commit the word of God that we heard and read from the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Gospels into our hearts and minds, and commit to real and true actions in our lives, then the word of God may grow healthily and strongly in us, and therefore gain for us a rich bounty of harvest and returns in the faith. With regards to this, Jesus did not just promise a meager or small increase in the results, but in fact, none less than thirty, sixty, and hundred-fold or even more from what we put in as our effort.

What is this eternal reward then? This great reward is none other than eternal life with God, which He grants to all those who remain truly faithful to Him, and to those who did not just talk about their faith, but also live that faith in their daily lives. This is the way for us to achieve salvation in God, the culmination of our long effort to reach out to our Lord. It cannot be done without hard work, that is to ensure that the word of God is growing on a rich and good soil.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, on this occasion of Bible Sunday, let us all use this opportunity to renew our commitments to the Lord, first by reading the Bible itself, so that we may know His words, and then, apply what we know into our own lives, in our words, actions and deeds. Then, and only then, we can truly grow strong in faith and reap rich rewards in the end.

May our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, bring into us a greater understanding of the Word of God, so that we may live always in His grace, and remain truly faithful to Him. Amen.

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Saturday, 12 July 2014 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

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

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s lesson from the Holy Scriptures show us that while God is great and Almighty, enthroned above all else on thrones and angels, and covered by the holy and mighty seraphs and cherubs, He is still a loving and gentle God, who loves us all equally, and who gave us the greatest gift in none other than Jesus, His own Son and His own self.

Many of us often cower in fear before God, thinking that He is some sort of monster or such great figure that we need to fear and be trembled at, such that we ended up closing ourselves against Him, and do not let Him to come into our hearts. Our God is a loving God and a merciful God, just as much as He is God who hates and dislikes sin in all of its forms.

We fear many things, and we have various forms of our own fears in life. And foremost of all, we fear death in all its forms. Some people fear of losing their loved ones, and some fear of losing their possessions and material goods. Others fear darkness, while some fear the light instead. And as I said, many of us fear God and His presence.

But as mentioned in the Gospel today, rather than fearing those things that cannot harm our soul, and can merely our bodies and our earthly presence in this short life we have on earth, we should rather worry about the One who has the power to destroy us body and soul for eternity, that is none other than God Himself, who has the authority over all the living and the dead, including all of us.

Nevertheless, as I have said, there is no need for us to fear God, for He is truly loving and forgiving. If only that we draw nearer to His throne of mercy, then we, as long as our hearts are genuine in our own love and dedication to the Lord, will be given redemption and forgiveness. We have this fear in our hearts that God will punish us or hate us because of our sins, and therefore, this creates a mental block that prevent us from proceeding on our way to salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why we need to balance, between our fear of God, and our love for God. God is both merciful and wrathful, the former for our love and repentance, and the latter for our rebelliousness and sins. We must not fall into the trap of fear, that is so much fear that we are afraid to seek God’s forgiveness and therefore end up falling deeper into sin and darkness.

We cannot be lax in our life either, as if we end up too lax with ourselves, then we may fall into the other trap of Satan, that is temptation. If we do not have a certain discipline in our life and in our faith, we will stumble and fall in the face of the constant onslaught of the devil. We must be ever vigilant and ready to resist the devil, and follow always in the ways of our Lord.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, the key lies in our readiness and focus in this life, and in our obedience and constant devotion to the Lord. Let us all change our ways so that we may reflect better our Lord’s ways. Let us ask God, who is enthroned among the seraphim and the cherubim, that He may send His angels to help us and guide us on our way, that we may remain well within God’s love and grace.

May Almighty God be with us, and may He strengthen our faith so that we may not fall into temptation and sin, and that we may also walk faithfully in His ways. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 11 July 2014 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listen about how God cares for us, and indeed, how He takes very good care of us, even after we have sinned and rebelled against Him. And even though this life we have in this world may be difficult and filled with challenges, He will not abandon us or let us walk alone in the darkness.

And today we celebrate the feast of St. Benedict, a well-known saint and monk, who was also known by the name of St. Benedict of Nursia, who founded the Benedictine religious order, and was well-known for his strict rule for his religious order, which entails a strict regimen of prayerful life and life lived in perfect harmony with one another and with God.

But this rule also shows the great values of love, faith, and hope that is instilled in generations of monks and religious, not only in St. Benedict’s religious order, but also many other orders who drew their inspiration from St. Benedict and his works. From this we can see, how this saint was truly a great saint, and how his works had laid a strong foundation of faith for many throughout history.

St. Benedict and many other holy men and women, and many religious and workers of the Lord were truly as what Jesus mentioned in the Gospel today, that is to be like sheep among the wolves, to walk in the path of God amid a worldful worth of sin, temptation and difficulties which Satan placed in our way, to prevent us from reaching salvation in God.

St. Benedict and the many others who came before and after him were all truly faithful and good disciples of the Lord. Not only that they remained faithful amidst all the cunning tricks and lies of the devil in order to subvert all mankind into his cause, but they also worked hard, for the good of all God’s people, and spreading the Good News to the whole world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must follow in the examples of St. Benedict of Nursia, that in our faith we must be truly dedicated to Christ our Lord. We cannot be half-hearted in our faith. Instead, we must ensure that every actions and deeds that we do is in tune with the Lord and His will. We must have a good prayer life and time dedicated for the Lord in our lives. We cannot excuse ourselves of having no time for God.

For if we do not open ourselves to the Lord and allow Him to work His wonders in us, then we risk endangering ourselves by bringing ourselves closer to the corruptions of this world, and yet without God as our anchor for us to hold onto, so that we may not be lost in the torrents and streams of this world. Many of mankind had failed and had fallen on their way to the Lord, all trapped and fell along the way as they got distracted from their true goal in life, that is God.

In this life, mankind are always tempted, every day of their lives. We cannot escape from the allures of the world, and all the good things that Satan used in order to detract us and pull us away from our way towards the Lord, and therefore into damnation. It is easy for us to follow our desires and our needs, and therefore forget about what our Lord had taught us. And this is truly dangerous, brothers and sisters, for we have to remember that, we have just this one chance, and only this chance in life to be freed from the ensnarement of sin.

We need to have a discipline in this life, to control our actions and deeds, so that we may temper our desires, so that we may not be enslaved by them, and therefore will not easily succumb to the temptations of Satan. Therefore, let us follow the example set by St. Benedict and many other holy men who followed after him, and also many those who came before him. We must have a heart shaped and dedicated for love, one that will not bend in the face of evil and its temptations.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all commit ourselves to a new life in Christ, one that is founded on light and not on darkness, one that is founded on love and not hatred, and one that is founded on life and not death. Let us all work together, so that we may begin anew in Christ, and live worthily from now on, if we have not done so. May Almighty God guide us and bless us on our way. St. Benedict of Nursia, pray for us as well, that we may be more like you in faith. Amen.

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Thursday, 10 July 2014 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the words of the Lord in the Holy Scriptures today, both in the reading from the Old Testament and from the Holy Gospels are the true revelation that God is concerned with us, and He is truly not angry with us, or despise us in any way. On the contrary, He was concerned so much that He gave us none other than Jesus, to be our Hope and to be our Saviour from our certain destruction.

Yet in a way, it was also a lamentation by our God, on how mankind turned away and did not listen to the words of God, and spurned the love He had shown them, and did not care about the attention He had given them so much over the ages past. The words of Jesus in the Gospel also highlighted this fact. He taught His disciples to expect rejection, just as much as they should expect to be accepted by those whom they preach the word of God to.

Yes, brethren, our Lord seeks for us and He wants to be with us, accompany us, and talk with us, all the days of our lives. So much and so great is His love, that He truly does not want to be separated from us. But, what did we do to Him then? We often shut the door in front of Him, and we like to cast Him out of our lives. We rejected Him in favour of following the ways of the world.

Therefore, we cannot think that those who rejected the words of the Lord as mentioned in the Gospel, as well as the errant children of God in Israel, in the time of the Old Testament, are people separate from us, or that we are immune to the same errors and possibilities of falling into sin. As long as we remain in this world, we are always susceptible to the works of Satan and evil in corrupting our hearts to his purpose. We are always susceptible to sin, and we may also end up like those who were mentioned, unless if we take active steps to prevent it.

Let us today reflect on our lives, on the actions, words and everything we do, and see and think if all of them had been done in accordance to what the Lord taught us, and what He wanted us to do. Have we walked faithfully in His path, or do we prefer to follow our own path in life, following everything as we desired and as we wanted?

This is important for us, and indeed, it is crucial that we maintain a very healthy and active reflective lifestyle, thinking through our life actions, on whether they reflect ourselves as children of God, or as the children of this world, of Satan. It is easier for us to walk in the path of darkness compared to the path of light, and it is indeed tempting for us to be lax in our actions and deeds, so that we end up being like the people of Israel who disobeyed the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we seek the Lord anew? Shall we truly renew our efforts in finding Him, and following Him in our lives? It is indeed not an easy path, but it is truly manageable. Shall we continue our rejection of the Lord’s free offer of love, which He extended to all of us? Or shall we rather ignore Him and close the doors of our hearts to Him? The choice is ours, and we have been given free will to choose our path.

Let us therefore discern well, and use this opportunity to think well, of our actions and deeds. Let us no longer follow the rebelliousness of Satan and his fellow fallen accomplices, but let us all show and profess our undying and eternal devotion to our Lord. Remember always, brethren, that He died for us, so that we may live. There is no greater love than this, and there is no care greater than the care shown by God to us.

May Almighty God be with us all, keep us safe, and bless us with His grace forever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 9 July 2014 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings from the Holy Scriptures are truly appropriate for the occasion of the day. For today we celebrate the feast of many martyrs of the faith, that is the Chinese martyrs, who died defending their true faith zealously despite persecution and oppression from their own countrymen and authorities who viewed them as their enemies.

The Chinese martyrs are led with St. Augustine Zhao Rong, one of the first Chinese native priests, who was brought up in the faith, together with many others who were converts to the faith, and who zealously defended their faith, even unto the point of death. The Chinese martyrs, or more appropriately termed the martyr saints of China were a large group of holy martyrs, both native Chinese faithful and many missionaries from different countries who committed themselves to the spreading of the Word of God.

However, the situation and the general condition in China during the times when these martyrs lived, that is between the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, and some to the early twentieth century coincided with the reign of the Qing Dynasty in China, which was highly isolationist and suspicious of any threat to its rule, as they themselves were the conquerors of China and were not safe in their reign, beset by numerous rebellions.

Although I try not to go to much into detail about the history of China at the time, but it is very important for us to understand it briefly to know the reason why the faithful were tortured and had to suffer even death. The Chinese civilisation and the many dynasties ruling over the Empire of China had a very long and venerable history, and rich ensemble of achievements, as long as very long history of self-sufficiency and prosperity.

The Chinese people and the Empire in particular sees itself as the centre of the world, and the centre of all civilisations, as the Middle Kingdom, another name that China is well known of, a direct translation of what the Chinese people called their own state, even until today. The other civilisations, states and countries were considered inferior to the Chinese civilisation, and these were often regarded as barbarians.

When the first missionaries brought the faith to China, and in particular when the age of active missionary actions brought the faith to China a few hundred years ago, the faithful were seen with both contempt and suspicion by both the authorities and the people as a whole. The missionaries were valued by the authorities, including the Chinese Emperor, for their skills in science and other aspects of knowledge and learning, but regarding the faith, they were greatly restricted in their actions.

Yet this did not stop many from listening to the word of God, to the word of truth, and casting aside the falsehoods of the world, they chose to follow the Lord and became one of the faithful like us. But because of the prejudice and the hostility with which the others saw these faithful, they suffered greatly under persecution, both secretly and openly. And eventually many died and were killed under various circumstances, especially when the faithful were openly attacked and persecuted against.

St. Augustine Zhao Rong and many of his other companions in sainthood and martyrdom, coming from different era and times, encompassing several centuries, might have had different lives and different experiences of faith, but they all shared the same experience of defending their faith and their soul against damnation, in choosing to keep faithful to the Lord instead of apostasy for the sake of worldly safety and well-being.

Their examples showed us how martyrdom is not something confined to the past, to the times of the Ancient Rome or the Middle Ages, but is something that is real to us and to the faith. Persecution and martyrdom is common, especially in our world today, where intolerance against both our faith and we ourselves, the faithful is constantly on the rise, from various avenues and sources. Persecution and opposition against the faithful is getting more and more common, and even acceptable to the world.

But as we see in the Scripture readings today, the Lord called many to His side, and made them His disciples and Apostles, all with the sole intent of bringing His words and salvation to this world and all of the people living in it. God sent them first to His first chosen people, the direct heir and descendants of Abraham that is the people of Israel. Yet, the first among God’s chosen ones did not respond well, and thereafter, God sent all of His disciples to proclaim His words among all the nations, for the salvation of all peoples.

As rejection and opposition faced the disciples and the Apostles as they ministered with their Lord to the Israelites, the same kind of reception should also indeed be expected for all the servants of the Lord across the entire world, going about to preach the words of salvation and living their faith, just as what happened to saints and martyrs throughout the ages, including St. Augustine Zhao Rong and the others, the martyr saints of China.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all ask the intercession of the holy saints and martyrs of China, of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his companions, so that they may pray to God to strengthen our own faith, that in our time today, we may always be true to our faith, and live our faith genuinely in full obedience to the Lord, rebuking Satan and all of his false promises and lies.

May the examples of the martyrs help us to live our own faith with zeal and love, for the good of all of us, and for the good of all mankind. May Almighty God bless us all. Amen.