reunion

by

Sunday, 28 July 2013 : 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God who is our Father is kind, and He is loving, because He is love, and true love personified, in all its perfection. The Lord cannot deny Himself, and He loves everyone without exception. This love He had poured down upon the world through the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Messiah, our Saviour. And to add to that, the numerous reminders He had sent us and His people, Israel, through the prophets and their prophecies and the visions and revelations He had given them.

He loves us all and He will surely listen to our needs, and He truly knows all that we need. That is why we should never worry, and instead we all should put our full trust in Him, for He is a loving God, who is just and righteous in all the things He does. But remember, brothers and sisters, that He is also an avenging God, just as He is loving, because He hates sin first of all things, and all things evil and abhorring in His eyes. If we sin and do not repent, we will face the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were wiped out from the face of the earth for their sins.

But our Father in heaven does not just want empty worship and prayers either, as many of us would certainly had done in the past, paying lip service to the Lord who loves us. He wants from us our hearts, our full attention and dedication, just as He Himself had paid full attention to all of us sinners, all these while. We are like lost sheep to Him, whom He cannot ignore, and He would use all in His power to bring us back, like a shepherd going all out to find even one lost sheep.

So that we would not be lost, like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were lost in their debauchery and their sinful lives, where sin had blinded and deafened them to the Lord their God, He had sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be a new light, a new hope for all of us. And one of the things that He had done to make sure that we will not be lost forever was that to teach us how to pray, how to pray to the Lord our God with all our hearts, our minds, and our full attention, that our prayer is indeed truly a prayer, pure and beautiful in the eyes and ears of the Lord.

To pray is to communicate with our Lord, and that is the key essence of what a prayer truly is. To pray is not to bring in endless litanies of requests and wishes, or bugging our Lord for His help whenever we are in dire straits. To pray is not to turn to the Lord only when we are in difficulties and in need of great help, or in the state of danger. Indeed, as the Lord has told us, and Christ His Son has taught us through His disciples, that prayer must be done, at all times, with a sincere and pure heart.

That was why Christ taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer, the very prayer that came out of the mouth of the Word of God, Christ Himself. This prayer is a perfect prayer, the most sincere and purest of all prayers that are ever be in this world, be it on earth or in heaven. The Lord’s Prayer, which we recite and pray every Mass and most likely pray every day, is the model prayer for all of us. It is a simple yet a clear-cut prayer, straight to the point in its meaning, and pure in its intentions.

Yes, a prayer must always begin with glorifying the Lord our God and praising His Name, and all His love and kindness that He had shown us, all His beloved children. A prayer must never be a litany of requests and petitions, but indeed, it must be a humble prayer, showing our sincerity and humility before the throne of God, for we are nothing and full of sin, and yet He rescued us and made us whole and pure once again, with none other than the Blood of His own Son’s sacrifice on the cross.

In a prayer, we have to listen to God just as God listens to us. A prayer is a two-way communication between God and man, the link between our Creator and us His creations. He speaks to us in mysterious ways and in the depth and the silence of our hearts. If we keep our hearts closed to Him, we will not be able to listen to Him. It is often that we have to cast away our pride and sinfulness, and the deafening noise of the world, so that we will be able to listen to our Lord, and communicate sincerely with Him through prayer.

That is why brothers and sisters, whenever we pray, we should close ourselves from the world, and take away any form of distractions which may distract us and disturb our precious link with the Lord our God. Do it in silence and in the privacy of our rooms, and it is also important that we make use of every opportunity we have to be silent, even at a workplace, to listen to the Lord speaking to us. Even that is prayer, brothers and sisters in Christ!

That is also why in the Mass, it is important to have silent moments, after the readings, during the time after we receive the Lord in the Holy Communion, and even at times before the Mass starts or after the Mass has finished. These are precious moments we can use to communicate with our God, especially if we are busy with our work in any other times. It is important, brothers and sisters, that we respond to the Lord’s calls and know what He wants us to do with our lives. Be like the prophet Samuel, who in his youth was called by the Lord and he answered to it, and listened to the word of God.

As I had mentioned, God is merciful and loving just as He is just and a punishing God. If we ask and knock at His door, He will surely listen to us and consider our repentance. You see, brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord does not take pleasure in seeing the punishment and suffering of His children, and He certainly does not enjoy punishing us for our sins. Indeed, it caused Him great pain to punish mankind for their sins and their rebellions, and it is especially hard for the Lord to punish His own chosen people of Israel, when they erred and preferred the pagan gods and idols, and their constant rebellions during the journey from Egypt and after they had had the Promised Land as their own.

That is why, in our prayer, what is important is for us to recognise our own weaknesses, our own sinfulness, and our own unworthiness, that we lay them all bare before the Lord our God, that the Lord who sees all, will see our sincerity and the sincerity of our repentance, our contrite hearts, the true offering from us that He desires. Open the doors of our heart to Him, just as He opened His doors for us to enter. That we may be in Him just as He is in us.

Do not fear God and His punishment, but be courageous and approach the throne of God, the throne of mercy. For the Lord is the Divine Mercy who will embrace sinners and those who sincerely acknowledge their faults and seek to be healed. For Christ had come to save sinners and those who are sick from sin, and bring them back to health once again, that is a life of grace in God. However, He cannot do much help to us, if we ourselves did not open the doors of our heart for Him to come in.

He knocks at our doors too, brothers and sisters in Christ, just as we knock at His doors in heaven, to give Him our prayers and petitions. In the same way, the Lord too longs to speak to us all in our hearts. That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, harden not our hearts the way the Pharaoh and the people of Israel had once hardened their hearts, but open it, for the Lord who wants to come in and dwell within us. Listen to Him and do what He wants us to do, and our lives will be blessed.

May the Lord who saved us from death deliver us from evil and his corruptions, that we may not suffer the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah, where not even ten righteous ones could be found. May He protect us from harm and bring us to the life eternal that He had promised us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord who speaks to us in silence helps us to gain greater understanding in the importance of prayer in our lives, so that we will always be attuned to Him, in line with His will, and always ever be in His grace. God bless us all. Amen!

by

Wednesday, 17 July 2013 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters, today we heard the story of Moses, how he was called from his exile in Midian, from his job as a shepherd, to be the liberator of the people of Israel, how God appeared to him through the means of a burning bush that remained untouched by the fire. God called him to be the shepherd of His people, Israel, and to guide them as a leader to lead them to the promised Land that God had given to Abraham and his descendants.

The same happened to us, because Christ had called all of us to follow Him, to follow Him out of the land of our slavery, that is our world of sin and evil. He called us out of the land of sin, just as He had once called His people, the people of Israel, whom He had chosen among the nations, out of the land of Egypt and the slavery under the Pharaohs.

Just as He had brought freedom to the people of Israel from the yoke of the Egyptians, so He had brought liberation to us suffering from the yoke of Satan, that is the yoke of sin. He opened the gates of salvation just as He had opened the sea for the people of Israel to walk through in the past. He led His people to safety in His love and care for all those who belong to Him, because we are His sheep and He is our shepherd.

The Lord revealed the truth through His Son, to all of us, as we had heard them through the teachings passed down directly from the Apostles themselves, who listened to the words of the Lord, when He still walked on this earth. He hid the knowledge from the haughty and the prideful, those who trusted their wisdom better than the true wisdom of the Lord. It does not mean that God hates those who are learned and knowledgeable or wise, but in fact, the Lord wants us to focus on Him and not on ourselves, and that is why He rebuked those who thought highly of themselves and their wisdom, because they did not honour God and give due glory to Him, who is the source of all wisdom, but give glory to themselves.

Those who put their trust in human wisdom and achievements often did not give due glory to God, because without God, mankind is nothing, and they will not have wisdom, if it has not been instilled by the Holy Spirit. Only through Jesus and His disciples that the teachings they took can be passed down to us in revelation.

In our pride and natural sense of arrogance, in our human achievements and brilliance, we like to glorify ourselves upon our successes, and did not give proper thanks to the Lord who had actually made it possible for us to gain those successes. In our world of knowledge today, we tend to think that we have found what we need to know about literally everything, and begin to shun the Lord whom we think as inexistent.

But the Lord is real, brothers and sisters, as real as His death for us, for our sake that we do not have to suffer death, but gain a new life in Him. Our wisdom does help us, brothers and sisters, as our intelligence is given by the Lord, but if we do not use it correctly, our wisdom can become a trap, in that it prevents us from reaching out to the Lord, because in our wisdom, we can succumb to our sense of pride, that we would close ourselves, our hearts from the Lord.

To us, God has given wisdom and knowledge, so that we can use them for the sake of ourselves and the world around us. It is not for us to be proud in ourselves and shut ourselves from God’s love. He came so that we can be saved, from the tyranny of sin, evil, and thus, death. Just as He had lifted up the people of Israel from the slavery in Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land of milk and honey, so He did bring us up from this slavery of sin, into a new life, and eventually the eternal bliss of everlasting life in happiness in heaven.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us reaffirm our faith in our God, the source of our wisdom, our intelligence, and of course, our salvation. It is from the Lord Jesus Christ that we received this new life, filled with hope, and the wisdom that came from the Holy Spirit. It is because of our Lord Jesus Christ that we no longer need to fear death, because He has taken away our sins through His sacrifice in death, that all of us who remain faithful in Him, will be free from the tyranny of sin, forever, just as the people of Israel had been liberated from the yoke of the Pharaoh.

May the Lord be with us, protect us, and empower us, that we will remain strong against the challenges of life, the yoke of suffering that is bearing down with us, and together with Christ, let us carry our crosses, walking towards the Lord our God, who loves us, and who wants us to be reunited with Him.

by

Sunday, 14 July 2013 : 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Colossians 1 : 15-20

He is the image of the unseen God, and for all creation He is the firstborn, for in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible : thrones, rulers, authorities, powers… All was made through Him and for Him.

He is before all and all things hold together in Him. And He is the head of the body, that is the Church, for He is the first, the first raised from the dead that He may be the first in everything, for God was pleased to let fullness dwell in Him.

Through Him God willed to reconcile all things to Himself, and through Him, through His blood shed on the cross, God establishes peace, on earth as in heaven.

by

Saturday, 13 July 2013 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we should indeed not fear evil nor sin, and neither should we be afraid of Satan and his forces of deception in this world, for all of us are the children of God, the children of the true Light. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour is always on our side, if we remain in His love and remain faithful to Him. Satan has no hold over us, because our soul that is the Spirit of the Lord is eternal. He can only touch our bodies, through the corruptions that he tried to impose on us through the world, but in no way that he can harm our soul.

Our Lord and God is the only One who can harm our soul, because He is the Great Judge of all things, that on the day of the Last Judgment, He would judge all beings living and dead, and separating the upright and righteous ones from those who are wicked. To those whom He shows His favour and love, He will reward with heaps of glory and happiness, to be in eternity in perfect union with Him, our Lord, our Creator, never to be separated again, in perfect love, unity, and harmony.

But to those whom He shows His wrath because of their wickedness and apathy towards love, He would condemn for eternity in hell. No, not hell of fire, but an eternal separation from God, and therefore, the soul is condemned for eternity, a dead soul, since the Spirit will no longer remain with them. That is why only the Lord can harm us bodily and also our souls, because He has all the authority in the universe to praise the righteous and condemn the evil and wicked ones. The same fate awaits the devil too, in the manner of the wicked.

The Lord who is loving had shown us His care, protection, provision, and compassion throughout time, ever since creation. He showed His love for Israel, who is Jacob, blessing him with twelve sons and other children, just as He had shown His love for Abraham, His servant, and made an everlasting covenant with him. He showed His love for Joseph, whom He brought away from slavery and made the Governor of Egypt, in charge of all the preparations for the years of famine.

Yet He is also forgiving for those who had wronged Him, for us sinners who had repeatedly disobeyed Him and betrayed Him to the devil, the way that Judas Iscariot had done. Just as Joseph forgave his brothers for having sold him to slavery and their hatred and jealousy for him, so the Lord also forgave those who had wronged Him through sin and evil, ever since the time of Adam and Eve, the first ones that He created amongst mankind.

He showed His mercy to the people of Israel repeated times, when they continuously rebelled against His will, and even abandoned Him to the pagan gods of the people of Canaan. He led them to the land of ever-flowing milk and honey, and continued to watch over them, even as they rebelled against Him. And when the people of Israel came under great suffering under the tyranny of the Babylonians, He sent them deliverance through Cyrus, the first Persian Emperor, who liberated them and allowed them to return to their own lands.

But none of this can be compared to the Lord’s greatest act of love and mercy, that is, in His great love, sending His own Son, the very part of Himself, the Holy Trinity, into the world, that the Word of God became flesh and walked on this world, that the world that has been tainted with evil and sin, may have hope of new life through Jesus Christ, the world’s Saviour.

The Lord sent Jesus to be our Redeemer, to save us from our fate that is death, and to reconcile us to Himself. Christ had become the great bridge, that crosses the infinite chasm of sin separating us from God, ever since Adam and Eve first disobeyed the Lord. Only in Christ lie our salvation, and only in Him that we have hope of new and eternal life. The Lord had shown His love and mercy for us in no lesser way, none other than by suffering insults and rejection, lashes and blows, and ultimately the death on the cross for us.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Henry, also known as Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, the great divine ordained of the successor of Rome in the West, as the secular Vicar of Christ, under the jurisdiction of the Pope, as the Bishop of Rome and the true Vicar of Christ. St. Henry made great efforts to strengthen the Church and pried power away from the hands of the secular nobles into the Emperor’s hand and the jurisdiction of the Church.

In doing so, St. Henry had laid a stable foundation for the growth of the faith, and the cultivation of the faith amongst many throughout the world. He greatly strengthened the cause of the Lord, and built the work of salvation over the power of the power-hungry and wealth-hungry secular nobles, who constantly warred amongst themselves for wealth, reputation, and land.

St. Henry acted as the champion of the faith, as the champion of the Church, and indeed, as the champion of the Lord, who brought the Lord closer to many ordinary people, and his works enabled more to be in contact with the Lord who loves us and who wants to save us through Christ, His Son. St. Henry never gave up the struggle despite opposition from the nobles, and his efforts rewarded him with the glory of heaven, as the only Holy Roman Emperor and German monarch ever named saint.

We too, brothers and sisters in Christ, can follow in the footsteps of St. Henry, and also many other inspiring saints, to bring the Word of God closer to many who have yet to receive it, and to bring the Lord’s salvation and love ever closer to those who seek it. Let us also defend our faith, our faith in the Lord who loves us, and who redeemed us through His death and bring us new life through His Resurrection from the dead. Let us be zealous and devoted to our faith in God, through the Church, and obey the teachings of the Church, that is none other than the teachings of the Apostles, and therefore, the teachings of the Lord Himself.

May the Lord, accompanied by His faithful servant, St. Henry, and multitudes of holy men and women of the Lord and the angels, bless all of us with love, hope, and faith, and give us the Spirit to love, the Spirit to be compassionate, the Spirit of forgiveness and mercy, that all of us will be worthy of our Lord, who is Love and mercy. God bless us all. Amen.

by

Friday, 12 July 2013 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today Christ in the Gospel Reading we listened to, told us that He would send us like sheep among wolves, and that we must ever be ready, as this world will hate us just as it has hated the Lord first, and that even those closest to us may betray us to the enemy, because they disagree with the Lord. But it does not mean that we should be apathetic or even hostile to our families and our societies. Rather, it means that we should not put our trust in men, but in God alone. Because the Lord who loves us would take care of us and protect us with His power.

The Lord sent His Holy Spirit to the Apostles, which came down to them on the day of the Pentecost. The Spirit inflamed their hearts and gave them great and unprecedented courage and strength to preach the Good News of the Lord, first to the people of Israel, and then to the whole world. The Apostles gained much good progress in their ministries, but they also faced intense persecution and rejection, from the Jews and the pagans alike. It is often that they have to put their lives on the line, and almost all of them would die of martyrdom, but none of them lose the faith or abandon the Lord. Rather, they placed all their trust in the Lord, and remain faithful all the way to the end.

The Holy Spirit too had been given to us, through the unbroken chains of shepherds in the bishops, from the Apostles themselves. All of us have been given the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit that brings love, hope, and faith within our hearts. This Spirit burns with a fire of love and zeal for the Lord. But ultimately, it is up to us, whether to use the gifts that the Spirit offered, or ignore them altogether, ignoring the Spirit that is within us.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, we must be fruitful in the Spirit or the Spirit that has been given to all of us will be useless. We must bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the most important of which, that is love. If we obey the will of God and make our lives truly in reflection of the Spirit that is within us, made evident through our words, deeds, and actions, we will truly be rewarded by the Lord who is loving and faithful.

For our Lord is faithful, and He is true to His covenant. He fulfills His promise in ways that not even mankind can ever understand. He remained true to His covenant while the descendants of Abraham left Him and abandoned Him for other gods, the pagan gods of the people of Canaan. To those who are faithful He gave His grace and blessings, as we heard today from our first reading, on the reunion of Joseph and Jacob, his father.

For Joseph had been lost to his father, ever since his brothers betrayed him to the slave masters, out of their hatred and jealousy to Joseph. The slave masters sold Joseph to the Egyptians, and the brothers would have expected Joseph to disappear forever from their lives, finally rid of the favourite son of their father. But God has other plans, plans that lie beyond the understanding and knowledge of man.

Joseph was made as the instrument of salvation for thousands if not millions, throughout Egypt and the whole world, as the Lord made visible His plans to Joseph through dreams, of the coming famine and hunger that would engulf the world, and would have caused the death of millions, had preventive actions not been taken by Joseph, through the guidance of the Lord.

Eventually, the Lord brings all His people together once more, and reunited Joseph with his father, beginning with the arrival of Joseph’s brothers to purchase grains from Egypt during the years of famine, and ultimately ending with the revelation of the true identity of Joseph, then the Governor and Regent of all Egypt. All these continue to show how wonderful and magnificent the Lord is, the Lord our God.

He has His plans for the good of all mankind, and He cares for all of us without exception. That is why He sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, one with Him in the Holy Trinity, so that we may live, and have hope instead of being doomed to death and separation from the Lord in hell. Today’s readings also told us that we must always put our complete and undivided trust and attention in the Lord our God, and not in man. For although we must indeed respect our families, and love our brothers and sisters, we must trust in the Lord more, for even brothers and sisters can turn against us, like the case that Joseph had shown all of us, that his brothers betrayed him to the slave masters out of their jealousy of him.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called again by the Lord to be the ministers of His Gospel and Good News, and also the ministers of His people, to serve the people of God, that is one another, with love, compassion, and kindness. To show mercy to our enemies, to pray for them and bless them with the Lord’ blessings, that they too may come to see the light and repent. We are also called to bring the light and love of God to our own families, to our own societies, to those who are nearest to all of us. Remember that mission does not just happen in some far away countries, but it must also happen even in our country, in our own homes, because even there, there are still many lost souls awaiting for the Lord to help them, through us.

May God empower us and give us a new hope and strength, to carry out the mission that He had entrusted to all of us, with faith, devotion, and love, that we will never give up despite the challenges that await us, or the oppositions that will face all of us, even from within our own families, from those closest and dearest to us. God bless us all, and may He strengthen us all with His Spirit, that we can be more like Him, and bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

by

Friday, 12 July 2013 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Genesis 46 : 1-7, 28-30

Israel left with all he owned and reached Beersheba where he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. God spoke to Israel in visions that he had during the night, “Jacob! Jacob!” “Here I am,” he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I will go with you to Egypt and I will bring you back again and Joseph’s hand will close your eyes.”

Jacob left Beersheba and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father with their little children and their wives in the wagons that Joseph had sent to fetch him. They also took their flocks and all that they had acquired in Canaan. And so it was that Jacob came to Egypt and with him all his family, his sons, and his grandsons, his daughters and his granddaughters, in short all his children he took with him to Egypt.

Jacob sent Judah ahead to let Joseph know he was coming and that he would soon arrive in the land of Goshen. Joseph got his chariot ready in order to meet Israel his father in Goshen. He presented himself, threw his arms around his father and wept on his shoulder for a long time. Israel said to Joseph, “Now I can die, for I have seen your face and know you are alive.”

by

Tuesday, 9 July 2013 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Saints Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord is driven to compassion for the sake of all of us, because of our poverty, the poverty of our souls, of our sinfulness, and our lack of leadership. That is because we are all like sheep without a shepherd, going in all directions and getting lost. Christ came into this world, and painstakingly taking all of us into His fold, as the Good Shepherd, seeking the lost ones one by one, until all of us are found once again and reunited.

The Lord our God does not wish us to be lost or forever separated from Him. He came down Himself and suffered for our sake, that eventually we can be reunited with Him for eternity. For there is no other option besides salvation, other than eternal damnation. That is why Christ came to us to offer us the other option that is salvation and eternal life. He became our shepherd, the Good Shepherd, so that we will no longer be lost. He became our guide, our leader, the light of our path, and our God.

Today we celebrate the memorial and feast of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his companions, who are the Catholic martyrs from China, and many of them were martyred during the Boxer Rebellion at the turn of the twentieth century, when a severe persecution against Christians in China occurred. Many Christians, including St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his companions were murdered brutally for their faith, because they refused to renounce their faith and kept holding steadfastly to their faith.

St. Augustine Zhao Rong himself was a Chinese diocesan priest who served in several areas in China before he was arrested, tortured until his death in the defense of his Christian faith. He did not give up on the Lord and remained faithful. The same case had happened for many other martyrs of China, many of whom were repeatedly asked and offered to reject the Lord and reembrace pagan practices, but they refused and were received into heaven with a martyr’s glory.

These martyrs, the local Chinese and the Western missionaries, were joined in death for the sake of their faith in Christ, and they embody to us, the virtues of a faithful life dedicated to the Lord. A life lived with zeal and love for the Lord and His people, and with purpose. Opposition and persecution will naturally come, but they will be able to subvert the faith of the just ones.

Indeed, brothers and sisters in Christ, even today, the Church throughout the world, particularly in China, where St. Augustine Zhao Rong and companions met their martyrdom, where religious freedom, superficial as it is, is very limited and bordering on being non-existent. The Church was forced to serve the atheistic government, who views the Church as a hostile entity, and therefore they tried to destroy it. When the attempts to destroy the Church had not been successful, they resolve to weaken the Church by seizing it out of the Universal Church.

Many people there still suffer today, and Christians in the Church suffer an even greater suffering, being seen as ‘hostile’ by the government, and as a ‘threat’ that needs to be eliminated. Yet, as the saying goes, that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians, persecution and opposition brings fervour and zeal to the people of God, that they may not just persevere through the tough times, but indeed prosper and grow.

But seeds cannot grow without proper care and provision, as we need labourers to constantly care and give all their time into the effort. That is why the Lord said that though the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. We need more labourers to harvest the field of the Lord, and these harvests are simply the people who come to know the Lord, and to be saved. The labourers are none other than our priests, supported by all of us, the laity.

All around the world, including in China, there are increasing shortage of priests to serve the people of God. The number of the people in the Church has grown significantly while the number of priests had been stagnating for quite a long time. This makes it increasingly difficult, especially in the areas where the Church is growing, to project itself through love and service, and also to conduct worship in the Mass, in which priests are badly needed.

It is more and more difficult to gain new priests nowadays, brethren, because the world increasingly shut the Lord out of the minds of the young people, many of whom are called by the Lord. Yes, many are called, but few responded, and among those who responded, even fewer followed his calling through to the end in service of the people of the Lord. It is important that we bring the zeal and devotion, and the love for God back to all of us, especially those whom the Lord had called and entrusted with His flock.

Even priests and religious brothers and sisters must also be growing in faith and love. All of us cannot be complacent otherwise we would be caught unprepared by the devil, whose works are many, and whose deceit and trickery threatened to corrupt many people and turn them away from the Lord their God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, inspired by the devotion and zeal of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, his companions, the martyrs of China, let us persevere against the opposition and the persecution of the faith in any form that is there in this world, in our society, and even in our families. Let us foster a prayerful and loving atmosphere in our homes, in our communities, in our parishes, that we can allow the faith to grow strong in all of us, especially our youths, some of whom may be future priests and servants of God and His people.

Pray, brethren, and pray hard, for the sake of our Church, for God’s people, and especially a special intention for the Church in China, for our brethren in faith unjustly treated and persecuted for their faith and obedience to the Lord rather than to the secular and Godless authority. May the Lord strengthen them in faith, give them courage, and remain with them through their ordeal, and may He also be with us, at all times. Amen.

by

Monday, 1 July 2013 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 8-9, 10-11

Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless His Holy Name! Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.

He forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; He redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger; He will not always scold nor will He be angry forever.

He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does He punish us as we deserve. As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him.

by

Monday, 24 June 2013 : Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (First Reading)

Isaiah 49 : 1-6

Listen to me, o islands, pay attention, peoples from distant lands. YHVH called me from my mother’s womb; He pronounced my name before I was born. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword. He hid me in the shadow of His hand. He made me into a polished arrow set apart in His quiver. He said to me, “You are Israel, My servant, through you I will be known.”

“I have laboured in vain,” I thought and spent my strength for nothing.” Yet what is due me was in the hand of YHVH, and my reward was with my God. I am important in the sight of YHVH, and my God is my strength. And now YHVH has spoken, He who formed me in the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him.

He said : “It is not enough that you be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the remnant of Israel, I will make you the light of the nations, that My salvation will reach to the ends of the earth.”

by

Sunday, 23 June 2013 : 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listen to the word of the Gospel, in which Jesus asked His disciples about His true identity. And we heard how Peter, the leader of the disciples, proclaimed the truth about Jesus, that He is indeed the Messiah sent by the Lord for the salvation of this world. The truth however, is not known to many, as the people, in their ignorance, thought Him merely just as another prophet sent by God, or a holy men. There were even those like the Pharisees, the elders, and the chief priests who rejected Him outright and saw Him as a rival to their teaching authority.

Christ our Lord is indeed the Messiah, and He is also the Son of God, one of the Holy Trinity, and therefore, is the Supreme King of all Creation, of all the Universe. He is the most powerful being in all creation, and yet, He lowered Himself by descending from His glory in heaven, to be like us, to be born of a humble virgin, in a stable. A king, yet born in a stable. That is also why Christ, though He is a king, He did not flaunt His power or authority, but remain humble through His service to others, to His disciples, and most importantly to the people who needed His help and mercy.

That was also why He strictly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone on the truth that Peter has shared with all of them, that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and God Himself. That is because, the mission of Jesus was not to be glorified in this life on earth and become like a king, but indeed, to suffer, through rejection, pain, and even more suffering, so that He could fulfill the mission that was entrusted to Him by His coming into this world, that is to save all mankind from their fate of death, through His own death, and the shedding of His blood.

Too long mankind had waded in the depths of darkness, in the depth of evil without the light of God, ever since creation, when they rebelled against the love of God by choosing to follow the words of Satan instead of the will of God. Although mankind seemingly prosper with wealth and affluence that they gained from their ownership of this world, but the pleasures of the flesh and the body cannot satisfy what mankind truly wants. They were hungry and thirsty, for the one thing that could solve all of their desire, that is the love of God.

God loves us, and that is why He wants to save us, save us from death that is our fate and punishment because of our forefathers’ rebellion against Him, and by our constantly sinful ways and evil doings in this world, that brought ever greater evil stain on our own souls. He came down into this world to show His ultimate love for us, to be one of us, save without sin. He lived among us, and we knew Him as Jesus Christ, and the people of Israel at that time too recognised Him through the great many miracles He had performed during His earthly ministry.

His death is the last piece of the plan of salvation that God had crafted ever since mankind left His embrace that day long ago in the Garden of Eden. The death of Christ and the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God unites us to Christ, because He then became for us, the unending stream of the fountain of life, which water nourishes and satiates all kinds of thirst. His Blood cleanses and purifies us from our sins. If we accept Him and believe in Him as our Lord and our Saviour, just as Peter had done, He would be with us, and we would be with Him.

That is because upon accepting our Lord Jesus Christ, we become His, and He becomes ours. Through our unity with the Lord, we are made whole again, and we are once again worthy of our God and our Creator. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, profess our faith in the Lord, just as Peter had done, but do not just stop there, but go further and make our faith truly alive, by practicing it through our love and our service to our neighbours in need, just as Christ had done during His ministry in this world.

Let us never be separated again from our Lord and our God, and let us be transformed by His love, that we will emerge from the depths of darkness we were in, and become truly the children of light. God be with us all, forever and ever. Amen.