Reflection

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Tuesday, 10 June 2014 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings focused on the theme of courage and commitment to carrying out the will of God, without fear and doubt, and the desire to bring the light of Christ to all the peoples, through ourselves and our actions. This is the essence and the heart of today’s Scriptures, which focus on the importance of courage as the servants of the Lord.

We are often doubtful and fearful to showcase our faith to others, and we prefer to keep things to ourselves, and in that way, we keep the light of Christ that is within us under the cover of darkness, and therefore we prevent others from seeing the same light which could have been their salvation. We keep our light hidden and therefore we are found wanting by the Lord.

We have received much gifts and wisdom from the Lord our God through the Holy Spirit which He had granted us through the Apostles. God has given much for us, in terms of resources and understanding, in order to help one another to know and understand God and His will. If we do not make use of these, then it is the same of wasting the good talents and potentials which He had granted us, and we will not receive a favourable treatment from God henceforth.

As I mentioned earlier on during the Solemnity of the Pentecost Sunday, we mankind have been given the Holy Spirit, those of us who believe in the Lord and keep our faith in Him alive. And the Holy Spirit that dwells in us will bear many fruits, the fruits of the Holy Spirit, but only if we allow ourselves to be part of the Holy Spirit and to allow Him to come and make a difference in our lives.

By receiving the Holy Spirit we have received the revelations of truth about God, and in us, we have the knowledge of salvation and everlasting life. And we reflect the very light of Christ, the light of hope He bore, in ourselves, and we show this through our own words, deeds and actions. That is how we become the light of the world, just as Christ is the true light of the world.

If we do not listen to Christ and His teachings, we risk to be stagnant and idle, and our lives become unremarkable. We must have the flavour of Christ in us, and the vibrancy of the light He has in us, so that we may truly be the salt of the earth and the light of the world for the sake of all around us, who see us and become believers on the account of this flavour and uniqueness that is in us.

Our lives cannot be empty and meaningless, for if we do so, them we lose the main impetus in life, that is to make a difference in all that we do, both for ourselves and for others around us. What is this difference that we need to make? We need to make a difference in the lives of others, that through whatever we do or say, we bring new life to them, and that we bring them new purpose in life.

In doing so, we pass on the light and the flavour, that just as the cook add the salt into the dish, and the dish gradually become salty in its entirety, we too may make everyone justified and glorified through our exemplary lives, that whoever sees us, see not ourselves, but the Father who loves us all.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all strive to improve ourselves, on terms of our saltiness, our flavour, that is the vibrancy of our faith, and strengthen the ligh of God that is present inside of us. Let us not be easily affected by doubt or fear, but instead put our complete trust in the Lord, let us stride forth with courage, enlightening mankind who are still in darkness and bring them back into the light.

O Lord our God, be with us today, and make our lives meaningful and useful to You and Your people, that in whatever we do, say or act, we will always bring glory to Your Name and bring enlightenment to Your people, that they too may realise Your love and draw closer to You. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 9 June 2014 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ephrem, Deacon and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today in the readings, we heard the famous Beatitudes or meaning, Blesseds, which is also known as the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus to the people. In that discourse and teaching, Jesus showed the people how people who do the will of God are blessed by Him for obeying His will. Through the Beatitudes, Jesus encouraged us all to carry out what we should be doing, to be truly blessed in the presence of God.

The Beatitudes showed us the criteria and the expectations that God kind of requires from His children, as they all embody the nature of God, that is love and mercy. However, in this world today we have often forgotten these things and be preoccupied by much concerns for the world and many other factors, that we fail to carry out what the Lord wants from us, as He laid them out in the Beatitudes.

For example, the Beatitudes blesses those who seeks peace and are peacemakers, and yet our world today is filled with hatred and violence, where brothers can fight against brothers, sisters fight against sisters, and quarrels are frequent among ourselves, which truly does not represent the peacemakers that we are supposed to be.

We too often find it difficult to show mercy to others and to forgive others for the mistakes, the wrongs, injustices and any other negative actions that they had done unto us. Indeed the Beatitudes blesses those who are merciful, but how many of us give mercy voluntarily to those who have hurt us? How many of us can genuinely forgive those who had wronged us? It is not easy, and it is in our human nature to seek vengeance and retribution rather than being merciful.

We often become judgmental of others, and we thought of ourselves as being the best, often in the disadvantage of others, that we get further and further from fulfilling the words of Christ in the Beatitudes. All these are because of our bad habits, tendencies and vulnerabilities in dealing with others and in our natural vulnerability to sin and evil.

Today we celebrate the feast of a saint, whose life has been dedicated to do the will of God, and in committing all that God has mentioned through the Beatitudes in his life. Today we commemorate St. Ephrem, also known as Ephrem the Syrian, who was a great inspiration source of many faithful during his lifetime, and a very faithful and hardworking servant of the Church and the people of God through his various ministries and roles in the Church.

St. Ephrem served the people of God dutifully and faithfully, and most importantly, he was very dedicated to the Lord, like the ones poor in spirit, as he sought the Lord for guidance. He received great graces and blessings, just as the Lord had pointed out in the Beatitudes. He also acted as mediator and communicator between many peoples, and between different ideas, providing important mediation between them and therefore promote unity and peace among the faithful.

As such, he was truly blessed by God, and he was made worthy of heaven, and recognised as such by the Church, in addition to the recognition of the vast amounts of work that he has done. He is our inspiration, and he should be our role model, someone who we aim to become, and perhaps even more, practising what the Lord Himself had recommended, as He stated in the Beatitudes.

Let us all ask for the intercession of St. Ephrem, that in our lives, we will always strive to become a good and responsible person, one who fear God, and yet love Him and who carry out His works dutifully. Let us all be like the persons whom the Lord described in the Beatitudes, beginning with small things, and gradually do all that the Lord asks of us.

May God remain with us, and through the intercession of His saints, let us all continue to profess and renew our faith, that we may truly be blessed by God, and be worthy of Him at the end of all times. God bless us all. Amen.

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Message to the Faithful and Reflection on the Occasion of the Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday

Liturgical Colour : Red

Brothers and sisters in Christ! Today I wish you all Happy Pentecost and indeed happy birthday to us all as the members of His One Church, the One Body of Christ. Today is indeed the birthday of the Church, as the Pentecost day when the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles marked the very beginning of the Apostolic ministry of the Church as we know it.

The Pentecost day from its name signify a period of fifty days since the celebration of the Passover, that is the Jewish Passover. Why do we call this solemnity, the solemnity of the Pentecost? That is because the Jews also celebrate Pentecost, but for a different purpose. After the people of Israel had been brought out of Egypt, they travelled for days through the desert, from the Red Sea to the Mount Horeb, or the Mountain of God.

There the people encamped on the plain, while Moses ascended up the mountain to meet the Lord and receive something that was truly very important. The Pentecost celebration by the Jewish people celebrated that moment when the Lord gave His gift, the Law which He revealed to Moses, to the people of Israel, as a guide on how they should live their lives worthily of the Lord. The Pentecost for the Jewish people therefore originally meant the reception of the Law as the means of enlightenment, that the people who was once lawless and without guide, now has the Law to guide them.

As we witnessed in the Scripture reading, the reading on the Tower of Babel, which many of us are quite familiar with, shows how mankind after creation had grown proud on earth with their accomplishments, and tried to challenge God by building the tower that reaches to the heavens. As a result, God punished mankind who had grown proud by confusing their languages and customs, that they become separated into many peoples and many languages. Hence the people of God became leaderless and without guidance.

But God did not intend to let this go on forever. So first through Moses He gave the people the Law, as the first guide for them to seek Him. But it is not perfect, for although the Law itself in its entirety is perfect, but mankind whose wisdom has been brought to disarray by God has different mindsets and ways of thinking. That is why we often disagree on many matters big and small, and we often have different opinions on things and other occurrences. The same therefore happened to how the people of God interpret the Law.

Some took a laidback and leisurely attitude to the Law, while others took the Law very seriously and even to the point of being very detailed and thorough in their observation of the Law. There were widely differing views and interpretations, which ended up in the corruption of the true meaning of the Law. The observation of the Law over time became ritualistic and formal observations, and the elders of the people over time interpret the Law in ever more varying ways so as to create extensive new rules and regulations that the people have to obey, an astounding six hundred and thirteen rules in all for the people to observe.

Hence, that is why the people grew ever more distant from the Lord, and they grew ever more wayward, particularly that of the leaders and the priestly class. These people grew to enjoy the power that they possess as judges of the people, and abused their power in many occasions. Over time, this grew worse, and these leaders ended up leading the people of God further from salvation, as they committed wicked things and sins before the eyes of God.

The Lord promised the coming of the Messiah, who would liberate the people of God and brought them to a new light and understanding about God. And He had well-prepared the people long before the coming of this Messiah, who came in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, and also the Son of God. He is the Word of God made flesh, and by entering into the material body of mankind, He entered our world in order to redeem it.

The Son, Jesus Christ was with God, and is now with God, and He is equal with the Father, and together with the Holy Spirit, He is One. Yes, there is only One God, omnipotent and unsurpassed in all things, but at the same time, the Oneness of the Lord consists also of three distinct and equal Divine Persons, in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each of them are equal to each other, but they are not the same to each other. Yet, they are perfectly bound in love, forming what we know as the Most Holy Trinity.

And this was the truth which the Messiah and Son brought into the world, together with the proclamation of God’s love and saving works, which He intended to fulfill through the works of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. He taught the people of God by the means of parables and stories, as well as explanations, which He made even clearer to His disciples, the Apostles. But they had not been able to understand it yet before the coming of the Holy Spirit, for the understanding is in them, but their confused mind still blocked them from truly understanding the completeness of truth in Christ.

This is where the Pentecost came in, the Christian Pentecost, that is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples, the beginning of the Church of God on earth. Just as the first Pentecost involves the revelation of God through the Law, the second and greatest Pentecost involves the revelation of God in its completeness and fullness through the Holy Spirit Himself that descended directly to the people of God through the Apostles.

Jesus had promised the disciples often, that He would send them the Helper, or the Advocate, which in fact is the Holy Spirit. And He fulfilled that promise on the Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descended like a fire on each of the disciples, who went on to preach from then on, without fear and full of courage, the truth about Christ and the Good News of His salvation, passing down the Holy Spirit to all those who are faithful to God.

The Holy Spirit filled the hearts of the disciples and their minds, inflaming in themselves the fire of wisdom, understanding and love. The Holy Spirit is the great Teacher promised by Jesus, that He would teach mankind the complete truth about the Law and the Love which God has for mankind, and through Him would come the entirety of the revelation of His plans for us, that is for our salvation.

The Most Holy Trinity is working in tandem in order to make sure that everything goes on smoothly. God the Father is the source of all things, of all knowledge, wisdom and power, and the Son, Jesus, is the channel, through which the Father made manifest all of His love for mankind, which culminated in His death on the cross, the ultimate proof of love by God for men. And lastly, the Holy Spirit is the energy, the power that makes everything possible, through which the grace of God enters mankind, and that was exactly what happened at the Pentecost.

We can see clearly the difference between what happened before the Pentecost and after that. Before the Pentecost, the disciples were often doubtful and fearful. Even when Jesus was still with them, they often had doubts and fears while following Him. When Jesus was arrested by the chief priests, the disciples were scattered, like sheep whose shepherd had been struck down. Even Peter denied the Lord three times in order to preserve his own safety, because he was uncertain, afraid and doubtful.

But after the Holy Spirit had descended on the disciples on Pentecost, there was a drastic and total change in attitude and outlook in them, that the once fearful disciples became courageous and fearless in proclaiming their faith openly. From the meetings that were carried under locked doors into the public preaching on the streets and in the Temple, and persevering even against the harsh persecution by the chief priests and the Pharisees. That is the power of the Holy Spirit.

However, all of this would not have been possible if they had not opened themselves and commit themselves to do the will of the Holy Spirit. We too, brothers and sisters, have received the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation, when the Spirit granted to us in Baptism is strengthened with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit like that of the Pentecost day when the flames of the Holy Spirit descended unto the disciples of Christ.

But we cannot be idle, for if we remain idle, then we will never bear any fruits of the Holy Spirit. There are seven fruits of the Holy Spirit, all of which bear the testimony of God’s love and blessing on us, and they need to be cultivated in us, if we are to bear these fruits. The Apostles and the disciples of Christ opened themselves completely to the Spirit and were committed to do the works of the Holy Spirit, and therefore they bore many fruits in their lives and received rich rewards in the end.

In the parable of the fig tree, Jesus said that a tree that bears no fruit or bad fruit is useless, and ought to be thrown into the fire and perish. That will be the same for us, if we fail to make use of the Holy Spirit which had been passed down to us through the Sacrament of the Church from the Apostles. We have to bear fruits, the fruits of the Holy Spirit, if we are to receive rich rewards from the Lord, otherwise, we will be cast out from His presence and unworthy of Him.

Let us all therefore, in this Pentecost day celebration, renew our commitment to the Lord, and recall the day when we received the Holy Spirit unto ourselves. Let the Holy Spirit make great works within us, that we may bring the love of God to all the peoples of all nations, and bring many souls closer to God, that they too may receive the Holy Spirit and be saved. God be with us all, and may His Spirit be upon us always. Amen.

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Saturday, 7 June 2014 : 7th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all the faithful followers and disciples of Christ, who have been called by Him to be His servants and His messengers through many nations, and to proclaim His truths to them. But we have to also be ready of the challenges and obstacles that will be on our path to the Lord. St. Paul and the other Apostles all endured sufferings and persecutions throughout their respective ministries, and all except St. John the Evangelist, the disciple whom the Lord loved, met their end in martyrdom.

Of course this did not diminish the role of St. John the Evangelist in any way. Rather, it highlighted the role he played to be the one through whom God revealed His plans for the future, and the end of times, as written in the Book of Revelations or the Book of Apocalypse, the last book in our Scriptures. This book was written by St. John the Evangelist based on what he witnessed in the visions he received while he was exiled on the island of Patmos in Greece.

Indeed, what Jesus said in the Gospel today was not wrong, for indeed, St. John the Evangelist would live to witness the coming of Christ, the Second Coming, which we also await today. But this Second Coming of Christ which John witnessed was not the actual coming of Christ, but the vision that he received, and thus he was the first to witness the perfect fulfillment of Jesus’ Messianic mission, and the complete fulfillment of the prophecies of the prophets of old.

Yet, brethren, again if we look at the Book of Revelations and its contents, there is indeed a bleak and dark future that awaits us. It again brings us to the reality, on how Satan, our former master and dominator, and the enemy of all the faithful desires to carry out his final plan to bring about the downfall of mankind, to drag them together with him into the fate awaiting him and his fellow fallen angels, and to taste power and dominion again, even if for a while.

The world is darkening, and we all know it. Mankind grow ever more engrossed in sin and wickedness, which brought about even greater darkness. The forces of this world has already started moving against us, and we will face even greater challenges from now on. We know that the position of our Church in defending its truth and positions on the central tenets of the faith and life is getting more and more difficult, with opposition and attacks that are piled up against us. This is the work of the devil to destroy us, but we must persevere.

What is important, brothers and sisters in Christ, is that we must pray. We have to pray constantly and fervently, with heart, mind and soul focused on the Lord. In doing that, we keep ourselves strongly anchored in the Lord, and we will not be easily swayed by the forces and attacks of the devil designed to make us falter on the way towards salvation. We need to have a good and healthy prayer life, that we keep constant communication with the Lord our God.

Why so? That is because through prayer we allow ourselves to listen to God and find out what is His will and plan for us. Prayer is a two-way communication between us and God, and we should always keep it that way. For prayers that are made to be like litany of requests are meaningless and in fact harmful for us, as it feeds our pride and negative emotions, through which the devil may attack us. The Lord loves us and He knows what we need, and hence, there is absolutely no need for us to demand from Him anything. Rather, let us instead spend precious and meaningful time with Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us from today onwards change our way of life, that we become more profoundly and strongly anchored to God, so that in all of our dealings, in our words, deeds and actions, we may truly reflect on our true nature, that is as the children of God. Let us increase our charity and life-giving actions, helping one another to reach the Lord our God.

May God continue to watch our steps, strengthen us in our faith, and affirm us in His everlasting love. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 6 June 2014 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Norbert, Bishop (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the calling and the commissioning of St. Peter the Apostle, when the Lord Jesus talked to him, heart-to-heart on the shore of the Lake of Galilee after His resurrection. He asked Peter three times whether he loved Him more than anything or anyone else, and Peter affirmed his love and faith in Jesus. And Jesus gave him His sheep to care for, as His vicar on earth, which is the position inherited by our Pope today as the successor of St. Peter the Apostle.

For those of us who do not realise the significance of such an action by Jesus in today’s readings, Jesus asked Peter three times for his answer whether he loved Him is exactly because, for the same number of times, Peter had betrayed His Lord by denying Him on that night when Jesus was brought before the Sanhedrin, that is the Council of the elders and the chief priests to be condemned to death.

Peter surely knew that the Lord did such when He asked for his love three times, that the Lord knew of His denial, and how he had fallen as a disciple of His, but yet when Jesus asked him and affirmed his love for Himself, Peter had truly been forgiven by the most merciful Lord, and from then on, became the greatest servant of the Lord, leading the flock of Christ as His vicar on earth.

Today we focus on the Lord in His merciful and loving aspect, just as He is caring to all of us. But He also revealed today that to be His followers and servants is definitely not easy, and various challenges will await us if we decide to remain true to His path, as St. Peter himself had been told and what truly happened to him at the end of his life, as well as what had happened to St. Paul, who had to endure prison and incarcerations after incarcerations.

Jesus told Peter himself how he would die at the hands of the godless, and those who refused to listen to the truth of Christ. This was in fact the same fate that awaits all those who went on to preach the Good News, including the other Apostles and disciples of Christ, and St. Paul himself. They all met their deaths in various ways, but nevertheless, through their death, they brought glory to God, and through them more and more people came to know of the Lord and be saved.

All of these bring about the reality about our faith. For too long we have indeed been complacent in our faith, and we often take a laid-back attitude about it, pretending that we have easy and blissful life all the time in this world. On the other extreme is also that we are afraid to seek the Lord and ask for His forgiveness whenever we have committed sins in our respective lives. We therefore become isolated and do not receive the Lord’s forgiveness and instead we fall into even greater darkness, committing even greater evils.

We have to realise, brothers and sisters in Christ, as today’s Scripture readings had highlighted it to us, that we have to accept the realities it presented to us, that first, God is loving and merciful, for to those who have the will and desire to love God, He will grant them pardon and rich blessings. And secondly, that His way is different from the ways of the world, and this is why, suffering and persecution will be a part of the lives of those who keep their faith in God.

But God is always with us, and He will guide us, if we remain faithful, and that He assured the disciples and the Apostles, and rich indeed would be their reward for keeping the faith in heaven. And today, brethren, we also commemorate yet another faithful servant of God, that is St. Norbert, a bishop of Germany, who lived during the middle of the Medieval era Europe, and was also known as St. Norbert of Xanten, for he was born in that city.

St. Norbert led a very holy and religious life, and a life of simplicity and humility, especially after an incident which almost took his life, which he attributed to divine protection, and ever since, he deepened further his spirituality and dedication to the Lord. He established and strengthened religious orders and helped to spread the teachings of the faith to many people, and gained great following in the process.

He was a great reformer of the Church and the faith, adamant and strong in his principles in reforming the Church for the better, especially after he was appointed as the Archbishop of Magdeburg, an important position in the Church. And in conducting and pushing forward with his reforms, he made many enemies, many of whom sent assassins after him. Nevertheless those attempts failed, and St. Norbert continued to carry out his good deeds and works until his passing from this world.

We have to realise, brethren, that we have many graces awaiting us if we allow God to come to us, and do not close ourselves to the loving hands of the Lord, which He extends freely to us, offering us forgiveness and everlasting love. May St. Norbert intercede for us, that we may be brought ever closer to reconciliation with our God, and receive great blessings in our lives. Let us also face the challenges and opposition in life with joy and happiness, knowing that God is always with us, His beloved children. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 5 June 2014 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

God has given glory to His Son, Jesus Christ, and He has shown it through Him, as He Himself revealed to the disciples as in the Gospel today, and also based on what He has done in this world. To the rebellious and wretched nation and people who constantly disobeyed His will and commandments, He once again showed His truth and glory through Christ, who performed such wonderful miracles on the kind and scale which have not been seen before in this world.

And through those too, God wanted to remind the people of the love which He has for them and the concern which He always has for them, through all ages. Through Jesus, mankind watched firsthand the undeniable evidence for the love of God, and He proved it through His willingness to bear the suffering and punishments for our sins on the cross and to die to save us from death.

He rose up from the realm of the dead and entered into His glory to bring us from the darkness and hopelessness of this world into the new hope and light of the world that is to come. He wants us to be saved, and to do so, He did not hesitate to give His all, even His life for our own good and safety. All these so that we may have hope in Him, and through Him, enter into the eternal life He has prepared for us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must always keep the tenets and the basics of our faith strong, trusting in God in the matter of all that He had revealed to us. What are in this faith? We must always believe that the Lord is God, One and only Almighty and omnipotent God, Lord above all lords and Sovereign of all sovereigns and powers on earth and in heaven.

And then not just that, but that He is One, but has three separate and yet equal Divine Persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all three of whom are different and separate from each other, and yet at the same time also are completely united to each other in perfect love and harmony, forming the Most Holy Trinity that is the basic of our faith.

And that the Son, who is the Word of God, was made flesh and descended into the world as one of us, and we know Him as Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, who revealed to His disciples the glory that He had in Him, just before He was to be betrayed to the chief priests and the elders to be crucified. The Son is worthy, and He offered Himself to the Father to be the One to make clean the people of God, as the only sacrificial victim worthy to absolve the sins of all mankind, something, that the blood of animals cannot do.

And that through His suffering and death, He endured for us the punishments and sufferings which should have been our due for our sins and unworthiness, and instead He bore them upon Himself, and liberated us from death by His rising from the dead on Easter day. The Risen Christ is the proof that God gave as a final reminder of His love to all of us, which St. Paul bravely stood by in the first reading today.

We also have to keep all of these basic tenets of our faith, and we have to keep in mind always the love that God has for all of us. God is Love, and He will always love us, and He will never want us to be separated from Him, unless it is we ourselves who want to be separated from Him. Hence, brethren, loosen our hearts and open them for the Lord, and allow His love to touch us tenderly and transform us into creatures worthy of Him.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Boniface, a bishop and a martyr of the faith. He was a bishop in the region of what is now today’s western areas of Germany, and he did many evangelising and preaching works throughout the still pagan areas of Germany, then still occupied in its eastern portion by many separate pagan tribes worshipping the pagan gods such as Odin, Thor, and other related Scandinavian pantheons.

St. Boniface worked hard for the faith, and managed to convert many people and helped them to accept the faith in God, abandoning their sinful old ways and cast down their pagan idols to accept the Lord Jesus as their Saviour and God. He preached in many places and villages, explaining about the faith to the people who then went on to accept the faith.

A particularly famous and renowned happening about St. Boniface and his evangelisation is that he felled a sacred oak in Germany, where the populace had once worshipped the pagan gods there, especially the god of thunder, Odin. When St. Boniface spoke up against the pagan worship and courageously hacked the oak tree down, the people waited for the gods to punish St. Boniface. However, seeing that no harm came upon St. Boniface, they laid down their pagan worship and eagerly took up the faith in God.

St. Boniface was martyred when he met a rogue group of pagan bandits on his way to preach to villages, and he was slain by them, while trying to defend himself with the Gospel book. He welcomed death readily, even at that moment when he was already very old. He did not fear to die, as long as He had brought the light of Christ to so many people and saved so many souls from destruction and damnation.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, inspired by the examples shown by St. Boniface, let us all be courageous in defending our faith, and let us all have a living and strong faith, one that is anchored firmly on the basic tenets of our faith and put all our trust completely in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. May He guide us always and remain with us always, all the time. Amen.

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Wednesday, 4 June 2014 : 7th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus our Lord is our Shepherd, and He is always on the watch. Never for even a single moment He let His sight away from us, for He cares for us and He will not want us to be lost in the darkness of the world, and indeed, in that darkness, the wolves, that is Satan and his fellow fallen angels await to see when mankind, the sheep and flock of the Lord are at their most vulnerable moments, and then strike to drag them into the eternal darkness and damnation.

As our Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd, He is someone who truly loves and is dedicated to us, His sheep, and He will not let us to fall into the hands of the devil and his agents, who are trying all the time to steal us away from our Shepherd and drag us together with them into damnation and eternal suffering in hell. That is the aim of those forces arrayed against us, and we should always be vigilant.

Our Shepherd is always with us, ever since He dedicated Himself completely to us through His sacrifice on the cross. He gave Himself out of His love for us mankind, and as our Shepherd and a good shepherd, He cares for us sincerely and unconditionally, even unto giving up His life for His sheep. This is what we are taught and what we have with us as our assurance of faith. God our Shepherd is always with us.

The wolves are always watching and waiting for moments of weakness, when we are most vulnerable to snatch us, and we know these from the moments in our lives when we feel dejected, when we feel sad and sorrowful in our daily lives, when we are met with failure, and even when we meet successes in life and glory, when we allow ourselves to be open to Satan and his agents to enter into our hearts and therefore into our lives.

There are these moments when we put our guard down, when we feel weak in the faith, and especially those moments when we feel that the Lord is not with us, and we question whether He even cares for us or loves us, for He is not apparently there for us when we need Him very much. But this is the persuasions and temptations of the devil, my friends, for the devil whispered lies in our ears and in our hearts, that the Lord is not with us, because we cannot see Him and feel His presence around us.

But this is false, brethren, for our Lord is truly beside us, and He watches over us all the time, and all that we need to do, is to open ourselves to the Lord and let His love and care for us to flow freely into us, and we surely can feel His works all around us, all of which are meant to keep us safe from the forces of Satan, that is the wolves trying to rip us apart from the loving embrace of our God.

We often do not realise how much our Lord loves us, and we often think that we ourselves are all that we need in this world. And in this, we breed our ego and pride, allowing them to flourish and become fertile ground for the devil to spread his seeds of rebelliousness and disobedience within us. This we cannot allow, brothers and sisters in Christ, for we must not allow even any inch of our hearts and minds to be taken over by the evil one, or we will go astray and be lost.

Let us all from now on, reflect on the love which our Lord has for us. In our breath, every single breath that we take in life, and every help He has placed on our way, our priests and those who minister the Gospel to us. Yes, all these are the manifestations of God’s eternal love and care for us, and which He showed foremost through none other than Jesus Christ, who became one of us, to be our Shepherd and guide us back on the way to God our Lord and loving Father.

May we grow stronger in our faith and devotion to our Lord and Shepherd, that from now on we will heed only the leads of our loving Saviour, and disregard all the dissenting voices and disobedience which Satan has taught us and planted in our hearts ever since the days of our ancestors. May the Lord continue to be with us, all the days of our life and keep us always firmly in His love. God bless us always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 3 June 2014 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the continuation of the prayer of Jesus for His disciples, for all mankind and for the world. Jesus made clear to all of His disciples of the truth about all things on Himself and all the things that He had come into this world for. He made clear to all mankind that it is through Him all salvation will come from, and no one can reach the Lord other than through Himself.

God has given all to His Son, Jesus Christ, that in Him can be found hope and redemption. And it is this that we believe in and treasure as our faith. Jesus has given His all in order to save mankind, which was His mission upon coming into the world. Despite the difficulties and the challenges that He faced, He obeyed the will of the Father perfectly and thus bring glory to God and redemption to mankind.

Today’s readings are both about those who are about to face danger and peril, and in both cases, indeed they would face a violent death in the end. As we know and heard, Jesus in the Gospel today was praying for His disciples, and He did this during the time after the Last Supper just before He went through His Passion and suffer for our sake, and died on the cross.

In the first reading, St. Paul also showed his anguish, having been accused and resisted by many of those whom he had been sent to work with, and he was also about to be judged in Jerusalem, after having been arrested and sent back for judgment by the authorities. We know that eventually St. Paul would appeal to the Roman Emperor and asked to be judged in Rome, where he would eventually meet his end, by beheading on the order of the Emperor Nero, who instigated the first official persecution of the faithful and blame them for the fire of Rome.

But both of them did not fear the persecution and death they were to face. Instead, they welcomed death openly without fear, and they continued to work for the Lord’s sake all the way till the end. St. Paul continued to minister along his way to Rome, converting many to the Lord, including those in Malta and in Rome itself. And Jesus as we all know, healed the severed ear of the servant of the High Priest, Malchus, and He forgave those who condemned Him to death, on the cross itself.

This is an attitude and a way of life which we all should emulate in our own lives, that is to truly bring about a genuine and living faith in each one of us. We have to be like St. Paul and Jesus in their mission that they carried in complete faith to God the Father. And today, we celebrate the feast of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, holy men who did not fear or hesitate to defend their faith unto death, and worked for the sake of the Gospel.

St. Charles Lwanga was born in what is today modern day Uganda in south-central part of Africa, and he was born into the then kingdom of Buganda, which still practiced animism and abhorrent practices, especially wicked sexual practices and perversions prevalent at that time, particularly those committed by the king of Buganda himself.

St. Charles Lwanga had quite a high and significant position in the court of the king, and while the whole court and country was made to reaffirm their paganistic beliefs and cast out Christianity, which when this happened just about one and a half decades ago, the faith of the One True God began to enter into Buganda and converted many to the true faith.

St. Charles Lwanga himself secretly converted to the faith and through his works in secrecy, he managed to convert many people, especially many convicts and others who then joined the true faith together with St. Charles Lwanga. But the end came for him, when he chose to stand by his faith, when the king’s sexual perversion and debauchery went bad and by persuading the victims of the king to adopt the faith and resist the king’s influences, St. Charles Lwanga and some others were punished and tortured, and were finally executed.

St. Charles Lwanga stayed faithful to the end, and publicly showed his faith to others, and even praying over his executors as they tortured him, hoping that they too will be baptised and receive the faith as he had done. His faith and devotion to the faith was truly commendable, and we too should be inspired by what he has done.

Our faith must be strong and vibrant, and we cannot be idle. We have to stand fast by the Lord’s side and not be afraid of rejection or persecution by the world or others disagreeable to our faith, that is those who are still in the darkness of Satan and the world. Let us all be courageous, and be inspired by St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, the Ugandan martyrs, in their faith, so that we may grow ever more worthy of the Lord and be righteous before Him.

May God be with us all, and may St. Charles Lwanga intercede for us together with his companions in heaven. May God help us all. Amen.

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Monday, 2 June 2014 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Marcellinus and St. Peter, Martyrs (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we indeed believe in God and we put our trust in Him. However, as we all witnessed in our own lives, and in today’s Scripture readings, we know that things are not always good and nice to us all the time. There will be moments of difficulties and challenges that we will need to overcome, and opposition and resistance will always be a part and parcel of our lives.

Today we celebrate the feasts of two saints and martyrs of the faith, who are truly renowned in the Church, that of St. Marcellinus and St. Peter, both of whom received their martyrdom in the early fourth century, three hundred years after the birth of Christ. They went through one of the most intense period of persecution of the faithful, done by the Roman Emperor Diocletian, the last of the systematic and thorough persecution of the faithful people of God.

Although not much informations from their era remained to tell us greater and more about their tales and life stories, but through the Church, which preserved the knowledge about them, the two saints and martyrs were faithful servants of God, as both a preacher and for the case of St. Peter, an exorcist who cast out demons and evil spirits. They went around proclaiming the Good News through words, deeds and actions.

However, at that time, the Roman Empire had not yet accepted Christianity, and to live as a Christian at that time, and in many of the preceding years, decades and centuries, it was best to keep it secret and well-hidden the fact that someone was a Christian, or else from various quarters, persecutions and oppositions against them, often ending in violent deaths, would happen.

These martyrs lived at a time when the most infamous and destructive of the persecutions happened, the Diocletian persecution, when Christians were literally hunted throughout the Empire for maintaining their faith. These persecutions occurred in waves of intensive and efficient hunt for the faithful, destroying their Scriptures wherever they can be found.

That was indeed a tough and trying time to be faithful and to be identified as such, but St. Marcellinus and St. Peter remained true to their calling, and continued to serve the people of God despite the obvious threats to their lives. They did not fear death or persecution, because they know that God is with them and ultimately that their lives belong to God.

They did not fear death or evil, also because the Lord through His Holy Spirit is in them. They received the Holy Spirit through baptism and the laying of the hands on their heads by the successors of the Apostles of Christ, and this empowered them to go on with their arduous and challenging ministry. Yet they did not give up because the Spirit gave them strength.

We too, brothers and sisters in Christ, have received the Holy Spirit and the grace of God through our baptism and our confirmation in the faith, and we therefore have been similarly empowered to be ministers of the Gospel and His servants in this world much like St. Marcellinus and St. Peter, who had ministered without fear and doubt, even when faced with persecution and certain death.

Brethren, the devil hates us all, and he will certainly do everything within his power to strike at us, just as he had once done to the holy martyrs both in Rome and in other places where the faithful faced grievous persecutions. Let us all be strong and be inspired by the examples of St. Marcellinus and St. Peter, who had courageously defended their faith before God and before His people.

May God strengthen us, guide us, and be with us always, that we may bring glory to Him and save many souls from the darkness of the evil one in this world and together reach out to salvation in the Lord. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 1 June 2014 : Seventh Sunday of Easter, World Communications Sunday (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today in the readings we all see the power of prayer, and how we need to pray, constantly and consistently throughout our lives. We must be filled with prayers every single moments of our lives, so that we will be in constant touch and communication with the Lord our God, who loves us.

Today we celebrate the Seventh Sunday of Easter, and at the same time we also celebrate World Communication Sunday, which indeed ties in smoothly with the readings of the Scripture we have today. Communication is one thing that I find to be increasingly lacking in these days and in the world today, and people increasingly becoming less and less communicable due to various reasons, but more importantly because of the rise of virtual communication.

The rise of the social media such as Facebook, Twitter and many other forms of internet or media-based communication had eroded the traditional sense and meaning of communication, to the point that many had forgotten what it meant by communicating with others. Especially teenagers today had often forgotten the important communication skills as they get more and more glued to their smartphones and gadgets that prevent them from interacting with others in a proper way.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, not just that, but the sinister effect of excessive technological innovations and developments is that mankind increasingly becoming isolated and uncommunicable to not just their fellow men, but also to God their Lord and Creator. Imagine how hard it must be for many who are so engrossed with their online activities, games, and applications to be able to take some time to spend it with God, not to mention significant amount of time they should have spent with God.

See how Jesus prayed to His Father in today’s Gospel, see the sincerity and the focus that Jesus showed as He prayed to the Father for the sake of His disciples and all of mankind. He prayed to the Father to bless them and to guide them through life, and show His favour upon them. His prayers are the example of how we too, should pray. Our prayer must bring glory to God and not to ourselves, and our prayer must be a sincere and genuine relationship and communication with the Lord, a two-way talk that is from heart-to-heart.

The Apostles too, gathered together and prayed regularly, as we witnessed in the first reading today. There are two types of prayers indeed, one that is personal and the other which is communal. Both are equally important, and we should not proceed forward in our faith if we exclude any of the two, or even both from our lives. We have to pray in person, in one-by-one contact with our Lord, but we must also be praying together as a united Christian community to our God.

Remember, brethren, that our faith is both personal and communal. We cannot say that we just keep to ourselves and pray alone to God without regards for the community, for we have been united to one another, all the believers in Christ, as part of His one Body and Spirit, and therefore we cannot disregard our brethren in faith in our communication with God. However, at the same time, we also cannot disregard having a personal relationship with God and establish a good and working communication with Him either.

In today’s world, as I had mentioned earlier, the increasing prevalence of alternative forms of communication through various means is a great danger when these are used without careful deliberations and considerations by the users, as they do not just erode our ability to properly communicate with each other, but also erode the relationship we have with our Lord and God. How many of us can spend time with God and sacrifice the time we normally use to play our games and using our social media platforms? Not many of us, if I would say it.

So today, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are challenged on our way of communication, and also through our way of praying, that whether we have spent the necessary time with God, communicating effectively and sincerely with Him, rather than spending the time meaninglessly to enjoy the decadence of the world which is quite evident these days.

Have we been an effective and responsible communicator? And with regards to the use of social media, have we been responsible in its use? We have to realise that as much as social media can be harmful and destructive in its use, as the many examples in our world today can testify, it also has its potential and great uses, which many of us have yet to employ.

The social media and other forms of communications we have today provide us with enormous potential for evangelisation and spreading the Good News of the Lord, if we use it purposefully and meaningfully. With the internet, we can easily spread the Good News from one person to many people around the world with the click of the mouse and the typing of a keyboard, where this would have been impossible if we rely just on the word of mouth, direct contact, or any other forms of traditional communication.

This said, it is why we need to be careful and be prepared, that everything that we do or say will bring glory to God, and not end up causing more harm than good, both to ourselves, and also to others. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate this day, let us all come together and pray, communicating with the Lord our God, just as Jesus had done, asking Him to bless us and guide us in our lives.

Let us all pray that we will be responsible and purposeful in our communication with others, and use whatever are in our means, in order to bring greater glory to God and reveal Him to all the peoples of all nations. May God bless us in our endeavour, and be with us always. Amen.