rejection of evil

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Tuesday, 11 November 2014 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Martin of Tours, Bishop (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 36 : 3-4, 18 and 23, 27 and 29

Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and live on it. Make the Lord your delight, and He will grant your heart’s desire.

The Lord watches over the lives of the upright; forever will their inheritance abide. The Lord is the One who makes people stand, He gives firmness to those He likes.

Do good and shun evil, so that you will live secure forever. The righteous will possess the land; they will make it their home forever.

 

Homily and Reflection :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/10/tuesday-11-november-2014-32nd-week-of-ordinary-time-memorial-of-st-martin-of-tours-bishop-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

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Saturday, 8 November 2014 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are reminded of the need for us to stay true to our faith. We cannot be lukewarm and be passive in our faith, and we cannot just pay a mere lip service and obedience to the Lord. This is what Jesus meant that we cannot be servant to both God and money, as when we serve one, we will loath the other, and refuse to follow the other.

Why is this so? That is because the ways of the Lord and the ways of this world are diametrically opposite to each other. While one is filled with love, with genuine care and devotion to the Lord and to one’s fellow brothers and sisters, and filled with forgiveness and mercy, truth and justice, the other is filled with the desires of the flesh, that is our human desires and the things of this world, filled with not love but hatred, filled with jealousy and vanity rather than humility and harmony and peace.

The people of the Lord lives according to the ways of God and desires things that reflect the teachings of Christ. Meanwhile, the people of the world lives according to the ways of this world and desiring things that belongs to this world. But if we notice, we mankind are never easy to satisfy, and in fact, in many cases, we are often unable to be satisfied.

It is in the nature of mankind that we often ask for even more when we have received some things for ourselves. We always feel that we do not have enough and always wanting for more to satisfy our ever growing desires. And there is no better example than our own contemporary culture and livelihood, in the world around us today. Our world is thoroughly filled with the materialistic and consumeristic culture, which pervades all aspects of our lives.

Materialism and consumerism are the vile aspects of our world and our society today, in which we live in a world obsessed with the earthly materials and possessions. We can ask ourselves, and remember every time when we watch the television and access the internet these days, on how many advertisements we see every single moment we do these?

Those advertisements are promoting materialistic behaviours, as they play directly into our desire for more of the material goods and possessions. Some are dealing with food, which may lead us into greed and gluttony, desiring always the best of foods in our lives. We have to note, though, that food is not something to be shunned from, and it is not wrong for us to enjoy our food.

However, the problem is when we start to eat our foods lavishly without abandon, and without proper consideration for our brethren who are less fortunate than us and have less to eat than us. Greed is the undoing for many people, as we desire for ever more things, and in the process, we often trample at the rights of others and even cause suffering to them.

Hence, if we walk in the ways of the world and follow our own desires, we are likely to come into confrontation and clash with the ways of the Lord. If we do so, then at the day of judgment we will be found wanting by the Lord, for not only that we failed to do as we supposed to do, as the children of God, but also because we are likely to have caused pain and suffering for those around us.

Certainly this is not the fate that we want in this life. And that is why, we need to learn to follow the true path as shown by the Lord, that is the path of love, the path of peace, the path of humility, and the path of temperance. All of these are important if we are to seek the Lord’s salvation and His promised salvation for us, the eternal life which He had promised all those who believe in Him.

It is important for us to have temperance in us, that is to be able to restrain ourselves and know the limits of our desires, so that we know how to limit our wants such that we will not fall into greed. Temperance is also knowing the truth, how our Lord and God cares so much for us, that He provided us all with everything that we will ever need, in all His various ways, which we often do not realise. He gives us His grace and blessing, and just as St. Paul had mentioned in his letter, we too need to learn to know how to be satisfied with what we have, the blessings of the Lord.

And following the Lord means for us to know how to love, first that is to love God our Lord who had first loved us very much, and then to love one another just as much as we loved our Lord and just as much as we loved ourselves. If we have loved in that way, certainly we will no longer commit whatever evils that are the ways of this world. How is this so?

It is because if we know love, how can we stand when someone is being hurt and being cheated out of his or her money and possessions? And indeed, how can we even contemplate causing pain and suffering to others for our own benefit? And how can we contemplate doing something that bring goodness and riches to us, but bring about poverty and pain to others?

And if we know justice, how can we stand when injustice happen to others, and how can we even contemplate acting in a way such as to disadvantage others around us, for our own personal advantage? That is why, as I have mentioned, that the ways of the Lord are diametrically opposite to the ways of this world, and we cannot serve both at once, as our heart and our conscience will soon lead to contradict one action from the other.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all no longer be lukewarm in our faith, and let us all no longer be on the fence. We have to make a conscious and clear choice to stand up for the Faith and be firmly at the side of the Lord. And when we do so, we will find ourselves becoming more attuned to the ways of Christ, and as such, we will grow better and stronger in the faith, and in love within our actions.

May Almighty God guide us to be loving in all of our actions, rejecting all forms of hatred and violence, rejecting all forms of fornications of the flesh and the soul, the ways of this world, and exchange it for the ways of our Lord. Let us all seek salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ, by being righteous and just, as well as loving in all of our actions, and live our lives fully in genuine faith in the Lord. God bless us all. Amen.

 

First Reading : 

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/07/saturday-8-november-2014-31st-week-of-ordinary-time-first-reading/

Psalm : 

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/07/saturday-8-november-2014-31st-week-of-ordinary-time-psalm/

Gospel Reading : 

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/07/saturday-8-november-2014-31st-week-of-ordinary-time-gospel-reading/

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Saturday, 9 August 2014 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), Virgin and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today Jesus reminded us in the Gospel that we all ought to have faith in us, and not just any faith but genuine faith that is truly real, solid and concrete, and not just a lip service or superficial faith. And Jesus also told us that what matters is whether we have that faith, no matter how small or insignificant it is compared to others, but what matters is how we use that faith and grow that faith that we may become stronger and more devoted to God.

It is important that our faith must be cultivated and strengthened, through the active implementation of the Lord’s teachings that we had received through the Church of God. This is linked to the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the sower, where even a small seed if grown strong and healthy will eventually become a large and towering tree with plenty of branches with solid roots that will stand against any storms and strong and healthy lives that will impress all who see it.

Thus, our faith too must be like that, strong as a solid rock, immoveable despite all the attempts of the evil one to undermine our faith, and it must also be visible for all to see, not in order to satisfy our human ego and desires, but rather to bring even more people closer to God through faith and through love. In this manner, we can become a role model for many through our words, deeds and actions.

And today we celebrate a saint whose life and actions represented just all that, a true example for others who see her. This saint is St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a name which the saint took when she entered religious profession, and she was also well known as St. Edith Stein, a German Jew convert to the faith who endured great sufferings as part of the genocide against the Jews by Adolf Hitler during the holocaust, and who was eventually martyred for her faith.

St. Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family, keeping the old Jewish faith in a strongly religious environment. However, although St. Edith Stein admired her mother’s great piety, she herself became an unbeliever in her adolescent and early adult years, pursuing higher studies and intellectual pursuits to eventually become a philosopher and educator.

However, after learning the truth about the Lord in the faith, and after reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, St. Edith Stein went through a complete transformation and change in her self, and she chose to follow the Lord and be baptised into the Church. Thereafter, St. Edith Stein continued teaching, but focusing more on teaching the faith and producing many great writings and works on the faith.

St. Edith Stein openly and vocally condemned and opposed the increasingly violent and intolerant treatment of the Jews by the rising NAZI party under Adolf Hitler in Germany, and she spoke openly against the vile treatments they had received, having been born as the descendant of Jacob herself. She entered the convent and took up the religious habit, taking up the name of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, enduring one difficulty after another having to escape persecution by the NAZIs before eventually arrested and put to death with many other faithful ones in a gas chamber.

Thus died a great martyr of the faith who stood up courageously for her faith, and whose faith was indeed both strong and evident for all to see. Her faith was strong and despite difficulties and challenges, she continued to persevere for the sake of God and for the sake of His people. Her courage to stand up for her faith, and her devotion until the end exemplified the kind of faith that we also need to have, a robust and living faith, not hidden but shared for the benefit of all.

May St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross pray for us, that our faith too may be strong and alive, that we will be able to follow her example in being faithful to the Lord. May Almighty God also bless us and keep us always in His love and grace. Amen.