revelation

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Thursday, 28 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we approach the beginning of the Advent season and the end of the current liturgical year, we are reminded yet again, on the imminence of the coming of Christ, that is His glorious and final, second coming, in which He will judge all things and all creations living and dead, in one final judgment for the souls of all mankind.

The time will come indeed, for the enemies of the faithful ones in God to gather and plot against the people of God, with their chief and lord, that is Satan the deceiver, for a final attempt to wrest victory from the hands of God. Just like in our first reading, where Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den by the machinations of his enemies, who pushed hard for his imprisonment and punishment, the same too will happen at the end of times, as Jesus Himself had mentioned.

Indeed, if we listen to the readings today, our fate as the faithful ones of God seems to be very bleak indeed, as we know that there will be lots of opposition, lots of suffering, and lots of tough times for us to go through. There will be oppression, and when we will be facing insults and anger of the people shown against us, for keeping the faith in God alive and strong in us. Well, to be honest, even these days, we all know that all of these are already happening, even daily these days!

Difficult times will certainly be upon us, but we should not be overly worried or give in to fear. Remember that the Lord protects all who are faithful to Him, and He cares for all of them, that is us. He will not leave us in jeopardy, nor will He abandon us to the evil one. It is we who often abandon Him, to choose the better and easier way out, taking the shortcut of the world, thinking that it will lead us to an easier and more enjoyable life later on.

Such is the delusion the enemy is trying to put to us, in order to bring us away from the Lord, and therefore from salvation. Through this world, the enemy has made his move, intended to bring many souls into damnation, a state where eternal suffering without hope and love will be upon us who stumble on our path towards the Lord. We must stand strong, and we cannot give in to the temptations of the devil.

It is not, however, that we should shun the world, hate the world, or anything like that. Rather, hate the developments that had grown accustomed in our society, where consumerism and excessive greed has eaten ever deeper into the hearts of mankind. Our modern day society is one where we can say that money is god, money is everything. Yes, money is indeed important, and we cannot deny that. We need money and other things which money can buy, so that we can sustain ourselves and continue living.

However, needing money does not equate the glorification of money, and the corruption of our hearts by greed. Yes, the greed for possessions and material wealth. It is pervasive in many in our world today. How many people have you known that enslaved themselves to their work and their career? How many people are obsessed with getting more wealth and possessions? How many people spent hours or even days of their time gambling and playing in casinoes in order to gain fast money? How many people did illegal jobs and corrupt funds just so that they can fill their coffers with more money?

Yes, these are the realities of our world. So many people have been ensnared by the temptations of the world, the allures of money, wealth, and worldly pleasures, which few indeed could resist. After all, given a choice, who in the right mind would choose suffering and difficulties over easy life and pleasure? And yet, brothers and sisters, the fact that you all are here today, is that, the very fact that we all still have faith and truly believe in the Lord our God and Saviour. We believe in Him and His promise, that at the end of all things, He will come again, and give us who remain faithful in Him, an eternal rest and glory with Him.

While we are living in this world today, we ought not to hide ourselves from the world and remain passive. We must not shield ourselves from criticism and persecution. Rather, go out and preach the Good News and the words of the Lord’s salvation, especially to those who did not believe, and those who persecutes you. We do not have to say a single word to do that. Our actions will do just the same. Remember what Jesus had said, and when we follow them, we will do fine.

Yes, for example, when someone insults us and our faith, do not insult them back. Instead, embrace them, love them, and pray for them. That is the way of the followers of Christ, the Christian way of life. Whenever people persecute us for our dedication and devotion towards the Lord, do not be angry at them. Rather, let love fill ourselves, and pray for them. Embrace them with your love. In doing so, not only that we do not corrupt ourselves with the anger and the negative emotions that the devil wanted to trap us with, but we may even help to bring more souls to salvation, to join us to be saved by God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, keep our faith up! Never fear, and keep the Lord always foremost in our heart. Let us all be loving children and disciples of our loving God, always loving and always forgiving, especially to those who hate us most, and to those who insult us and persecute us for our faith. Remember, they too need to be saved, just like us. God bless us all, and all peoples. Amen.

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Wednesday, 27 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are told, on the risks facing those who are loyal and obedient to the Lord and to His laws. Jesus foretold the suffering that we will face as those who obey and follow Him. And just as the world had hated Him and persecuted Him and His followers, the disciples and the Apostles, we too will likely face the same opposition, suffering, and rejection from the world.

But we should not fear, brothers and sisters, for the Lord certainly will not remain silent or abandon us in our troubles and tribulations. He will send His help to us, and He will take care of us with gentle love and kindness, that only He, our Lord and God can provide. Remember what we had heard in our first reading today, taken from the Book of Daniel. The king of Babylon, Belshazzar, profaned and blasphemed against God by desecrating the sacred vessels that had been taken from the Temple of God in Jerusalem.

The king Belshazzar used those vessels, used for offering gifts and pure holiness to the Lord, for profane actions, in drunken stupor and feasting, with his nobles and his women. He desecrated the Lord further by invoking the name of his pagan gods, together with his guests, and praising these false gods instead of the One, True God, whose sacred vessels the king of Babylon had desecrated in His presence.

Belshazzar was reprimanded severely by the Lord Himself, and shown the wrath of God through His own hands, writing the prophecy of his ends, the overthrow of his person as king, and his replacement as the king of Babylon, by the Persian ruler, Cyrus, the one who later went on to free the Israelites from their bondage and servitude, allowing them to return to their land.

Such stories are told again to us, and we listen to them, so that we will always be reminded, on how the Lord will care for us and provide for us, even if the entire world is to turn against us. Yes, the forces that has power over this world, that is the forces of the evil one, hates the Lord and those who believe in Him. But this does not mean that we should entirely shun the world, hide ourselves from the world, and hate the world and all of its things.

Instead, we have to show our courage to stand up for our faith, and for God, that in all of our actions, our deeds, and our works, we proclaim the glory of God, the love of God, and the hope that God had brought mankind, to all the world, for all to see, witness, and hopefully, believe. Daniel did not hesitate to show the truth and the entire revelation behind the word on the wall, even if he risked his own life because he had said something bad about the king.

Jesus did not hesitate either, and He made it plain to all those who followed Him, that to be His disciples, and to belong to Him means suffering, plain and unadulterated suffering because there will be opposition and even oppression. Faith and salvation are not simple and easy to obtain, as they require complete and thorough dedication of ourselves.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called yet again, to give of ourselves fully to the Lord in faith and love. Distance not ourselves from God’s love, but let us indeed draw closer to Him and towards His infinite love. We all have a choice, brethren. Will we choose to be closer to the Lord, and draw ever more closer towards His presence, even with suffering to pay in this world? Or will we instead choose to take the easy way out? By evading all the persecutions and the sufferings in this world, with the price of distancing ourselves from our Creator, and then to be thrown away into eternal suffering? The choice is ours.

May the Lord therefore continue to guide us, that in our hearts, He may continue to invigorate a spirit of love, that we will always continue to dedicate ourselves to Him, and in the end, receive the crown of glory and the entirety of the promised salvation He had promised us, in. Jesus His Son. Amen.

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Wednesday, 27 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 21 : 12-19

Before all these things happen, people will lay their hands on you and persecute you; you will be delivered to the synagogues and put in prison, and for My sake you will be brought before kings and governors. This will be your opportunity to bear witness.

So keep this in mind : do not worry in advance about what to say, for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.

You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. But even though, because of My Name, you will be hated by everyone, not a hair of your head will perish. By your patient endurance you will save your souls.

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Wednesday, 27 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Daniel 5 : 1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for his nobles, a thousand of them attended and he drank wine with them. Under the influence of wine, he ordered that the gold and silver vessels his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem be brought in so that he and his nobles, his wives and concubines might drink from them.

The gold and silver vessels taken from God’s Temple were brought in, and the king and his nobles, his wives and concubines drank from them. While they drank wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone.

Suddenly a Man’s fingers appeared opposite the lampstand and wrote on the plastered wall of the king’s palace. Watching the hand as it wrote, the king turned pale. So terrified was he that his knees knocked and his legs gave way.

Daniel was brought in and questioned by the king, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father brought from Judah? I have heard that you have the spirit of the gods, that you have insight and extraordinary wisdom. I have heard that you can interpret dreams and solve problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple, wear a gold chain around your neck, and be appointed third in rank in my kingdom.”

Daniel replied, “You may keep your gifts or give them to someone else. Just the same I will read and interpret the writing for you.”

“You have defied the Lord of heaven. You had the vessels from His Temple brought to you, and together with your nobles, your wives and concubines, you drank wine from them. You praised the idols made of silver and gold, of bronze, iron and stones, which neither see, nor hear, nor understand; but you never glorified God who has power over your life and all your fortunes.”

“So He sent the hand that wrote the inscription, which read MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. And these words mean : MENE, God has numbered the days of your reign and put an end to it; TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; PARSIN, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.”

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Tuesday, 26 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we approach the end of our liturgical year cycle, we listen to a lot of readings regarding the forecast for the future. In the first reading, we heard the prophecy in the book of the prophet Daniel, when the Lord revealed His plan for mankind, to the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar in a dream. This dream was also told to Daniel, who gave all who heard these words of revelation, in the court of the Babylonian king, showing to them the signs of the things to come, which many of them yet refused to believe.

The kingdom of God, that is the eternal and glorious kingdom that will last forever, is coming, and Jesus Himself has foretold it to the people as we heard in the Gospel reading today. And it is important that we take heed of what has been revealed to us in truth. Let us not be ignorant as the Babylonians and the people of Israel at the time of Jesus, who listened but did not believe.

First, it was revealed to us, that the coming of the kingdom is imminent. Indeed, in the timing of God, the kingdom of God may come anytime soon. And we have entirely no idea when this will happen. Only God Himself knows when He will come again, that is at the end of time, to bring all those faithful to Him, into the eternal glories prepared for them. If we are not prepared for the coming of God’s kingdom, when it truly comes, we will have no share in it.

Then, linked to the first one, it was revealed to us too, that there will be false prophets and false messiah, proclaiming that the kingdom has come, and that they are the Christ, the One who is to come. It is indeed hard to discern which one is truth and which one is lies, and many seeds of lies have been planted by the evil one, in order to deceive us from the reality and the truth.

Yes, especially in the recent years, there had been people exclaiming that the kingdom of God has come or will come through them, if the people would follow them and obey their teaching, which are not the teachings of the Lord. They brought about portents of doom and destruction, and foretold of doom to come, which in the end did not come true. Worse still, some of them established cults, and managed to convince people to commit mass suicides, as some of them had reached worldwide fame in the 1990s.

This is our weakness, brothers and sisters. Not because we are not faithful or anything, but most importantly because we are too concerned about ourselves, our well-being, and being too self-centred, that we tend to forget what is more important in our lives, and what we are called to do in this life. We worry so much about the future and about what will happen, because we simply cannot tear ourselves, even for a moment, away from our concerns and possessions in this world.

Too often a times that we are fixated at the ties that keep us connected to this world. Well, it is not that it is wrong to do so, but we have often fixed our eyes too much towards the world, that we end up forgetting everything else. And Jesus said things in the Gospel today, precisely so that we will not repeat this same mistakes, again and again.

He reminded us on the greatness of love that the Lord has for us, and the promise He had granted us through none other than Jesus Himself, who came to fulfill God’s great plan for salvation. We also should not be deceived by the lies of the devil, and then became overly worried for ourselves. Worry not, brothers and sisters! That is why we are reminded of the love God has for us. The Lord will take care of us, and give us all that we need. Note, what we need, and not what we want.

We often want things that we do not need, and this results in hunger, great hunger not easily satiable. And it is often that the more we want, the even more we grow to want in time. This created that irresistible tie with the world, which caused us to worry so much in the first place. But what does worry bring us? It brings us nothing! That is because worry paralyzes us, and make us idle, doing nothing, even if these things that we ought to do will have saved us instead.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us renew our resolve and our dedication to the Lord in our faith, that we will put in Him all our trust and love, without seeking alternatives or easy way outs. Do not trust in false prophets or false prophecies, and instead put our trust completely in God. The Lord did tell us that calamities and suffering would happen before His coming, but they do not determine the time of His coming.

Hence, let us put aside our fear, our worries, and our uncertainties, and open ourselves to the love and care that God pours out for us. May the Lord who cares for us, and loves us unto giving Himself to us, continue to watch over us, guide us, and provide for us, as we walk this path, and may that when He comes again, we will be found worthy, having fulfilled His will and commandments, obeying the instructions that Jesus had given us. May the Lord bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 26 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Daniel 2 : 31-45

Daniel said to king Nebuchadnezzar : “In your vision you saw a statue – very large, very bright, terrible to look at. Its head was of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.”

“As you watched, a rock cut from a mountain but not by human hands, struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, smashing them. All at once the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold crumbled into pieces as fine as chaff on the threshing floor in summer. The wind swept them off and not a trace was left. But the rock that struck the statue became a great mountain that filled the whole earth.”

“That was the dream. Now the interpretation. You, o king, are king of kings, to whom God of heaven has given dominion, strength, power, and glory, and into whose hand He has placed humankind, the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, making you ruler over them. You are that head of gold.”

“After you, another kingdom inferior to yours will rise. Then a third kingdom of bronze will rule the whole world. Last shall be a fourth kingdom strong as iron and just as iron breaks and crushes everything else, so will it break and smash all the others.”

“The partly-clay and partly-iron feet and toes mean that it will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some strength of iron, just as you saw iron mixed with clay. And as the toes were partly iron and partly clay, the kingdom will be partly strong and partly weak. Just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, the people will be a mixture but will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.”

“In the time of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom never to be destroyed or delivered up to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and put an end to them. And it will endure forever. This is the meaning of your vision of a rock cut from a mountain not by human hands, the rock which struck the statue and broke into pieces the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God has shown the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation reliable.”

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Saturday, 23 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr, and St. Columban, Abbot (Gospel Reading)

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

Luke 20 : 27-40

Then some Sadducees arrived. These people claim that there is no resurrection, and they asked Jesus this question, “Master, in the Law Moses told us, ‘If anyone dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife, and any child born to them will be regarded as the child of the deceased.'”

“Now, there were seven brothers; the first married a wife, but he died without children; and the second and the third took the wife; in fact, all seven died leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be a wife? For all seven had her as a wife.”

And Jesus replied, “Taking a husband or a wife is proper to people of this world, but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come, and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Besides, they cannot die, for they are like the angels. They are sons and daughters of God, because they are born of the resurrection.”

“Yes, the dead will be raised, as Moses revealed at the burning bush, when he called the Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For God is God of the living, and not of the dead, for to Him everyone is alive.”

Some teachers of the Law then agreed with Jesus, “Master, You have spoken well.” They did not dare to ask Him anything else.

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Thursday, 21 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have been called by the Lord, to be His possessions. Yes, indeed, to be within His Holy Family, with Him at the centre of all, at the centre of our own lives. That is what He meant, when He said that all those who do the will of God, belongs to Him and He claims at His own.

It may seem to some that the Lord Jesus was being rude towards His own family, especially to His own mother, Mary, who had given birth to Him. But this is not so! Why so? That is because indeed, when we try to portray what happened in our human language, it is distorted in its true meaning. What the Lord truly meant was in fact that, firstly, He is the property of all mankind, of all creation, and He belongs to all of us, just as we all belong to Him.

Then secondly, Jesus meant for all of us to be more like His own mother, the role model of all the faithful. Yes, Jesus in fact praised His own mother in a subtle means, through what He had said. He highlighted the goodness and the faith that is in Mary, His mother, whom we celebrate today, the event of her presentation just after her birth.

For the Blessed Virgin Mary, she was born in a state of purity, without the taint of original sin, and she led a pure, holy, and immaculate life from then on. This is to prepare her to become the very vessel, the gateway through which the salvation of our Lord would come down to us. Through her, our Lord Himself came upon this world in Jesus, God incarnate into Man.

Today we celebrate this Mother of our God, when she was presented after her immaculate birth, at the Temple of God, just as her Son Jesus was presented many years later. From this presentation, mankind has presented to the Lord, the one through whom the Salvation of the world would come. As we approach the end of this liturgical year, we talk a lot about the end of times and the final salvation of all souls, and therefore, in Mary, the Lord has further advanced the path of mankind, to be closer and closer towards the final end.

Mary is a role model for us, to follow in our journey of faith. That was what Jesus meant, as He spoke to His disciples and the people who heard Him. As the Lord said in the Book of the prophet Zechariah, that He will make His people His own, and taking them into His own presence and being. And they ought to rejoice, for God Himself has come to dwell among us, within us, and alongside us.

And this happened through Mary, and with the full cooperation from this wonderful and yet humble and good woman. Without the cooperation, the perfect obedience, and dedication of Mary, the salvation of the Lord would not have come. Through Mary and her own words, ‘I am the handmaid and servant of the Lord, be it done unto me as what He willed.’, Mary made salvation to come unto this world, and also at the same time, showed the kind of virtue and obedience that the Lord expects from all of us.

That is why our Lord said, ‘Those who do the will of God are My family.’ Essentially, what Mary had done, is what we are all expected to become. Obey the will of the Lord, keep His laws and precepts foremost in our lives, and cast away all things that made us unworthy. And indeed, just as Mary was presented before the Lord, we too should do the same.

Yes, brethren, surrender ourselves to the Lord, and to His infinite and undying love. Open the gates of our hearts to allow God’s love and mercy to flow unrestricted in their fullness into us. Present our dirty and sinful selves, that we may be made whole and pure again, worthy of the Lord who will bring us into Himself, and made us all His family, to enjoy the happiness He had prepared for all of us.

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners and help us to draw ever closer to Your Son. Amen.

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Thursday, 21 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 12 : 46-50

While Jesus was still talking to the people, His mother and His brothers wanted to speak to Him, and they waited outside. So someone said to Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside; they want to speak with You.”

Jesus answered, “Who is My mother? Who are My brothers?” Then He pointed to His disciples and said, “Look! Here are My mother and My brothers. Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is for Me brother, sister, or mother.”

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Wednesday, 20 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, those who had been given more, will be given more, and those who have little, and do not utilise it, will be thrown out, and what he has will be taken away from him. That is what Jesus often told His disciples, through various parables, one of which is what we heard today, on the parable of the ten pounds.

All of us have been given with the rich gifts from the Lord. These are the gifts of faith, hope, and love. But these seeds will not grow if we just let them be. Yes, we have to nurture them and make them grow, that they will bear fruits. And that is what the Lord our God desires from us all. In this manner therefore, we are reminded of the parable that Jesus had used to bring this point across to the people.

The pounds of silver are likened to the gifts, each of the servants were given equal amounts of them. This is like all of us, all of whom are the servants of God, were given the same gifts of faith, hope, and love, which initially lie dormant within us. What we do with these gifts determine what these seeds will become, either to grow and multiply fivefold, tenfold, more or less, or remain the same as how it was when God gave these gifts to us.

The last one speaks about the action of the third servant, who admitted to his master, that he had the silver pound hidden, in fear and in idleness, that when his master returned, the pound of silver remains as it was, that is the same silver pound. He was duly chided, punished, and cast out, as an unworthy servant, who had squandered the gifts that had been given to him, and let those gifts go to waste.

That is what we should not do, brothers and sisters in Christ, that is to let these gifts God has granted us to go to waste. It is a waste if we do not use these gifts for others, and keep them hidden within ourselves. We must open ourselves and nurture those gifts, by spreading them with real action, real dedication, and real commitment, to do the will of God, at the centre of which is, love.

How to make sure that we truly be fertile and grow well, into creatures of faith, hope, and love? That is by putting into concrete action, these three cardinal virtues of our faith. Faith, by being not afraid to stand up against things that are in opposition of our faith, the things that are against the laws and precepts of the Lord. This has been shown by the seven brothers and their mother, who died martyrs of the faith, by their perseverance against the threats and tortures dealt to them by the king, Antiochus Epiphanes, and the wickedness he promoted among the people under his rule, including that of Israel.

These brothers and their mother endured grievous sufferings for standing up for the Lord, and remaining true and upright to the laws dictated by the Lord to mankind. They did not give up even when the king offered them wealth, possessions, the glories of the world, and all the pleasures and the beauty that the world could offer them. Instead, they, one by one, faced death willingly and joyfully, for they know that their rewards would be great with God, in heaven.

This is the kind of the living faith that God wants us to have. Not in the way that we should lay down our own lives for the Lord, but in the way that we should follow closely what the Lord had taught us, and uphold all of those values and tenets, and do not steer away from them. Our dedication to God should be as strong, or aspire to be like them. We should not be easily swayed by the fear of difficulties that will definitely be in our path.

Then comes hope. Hope is not just an abstract concept, but something that can be made concrete, through none other that our own actions. Our actions can indeed bring either hope, or its opposite, that is despair, towards others. We have been given love by our Lord, who planted in us the seeds of hope, together with that of faith and love. Have our own actions then, reflect this hope? Have we uplifted others who are without hope? And bring new hope to those who are in despair?

These are the questions that we should ponder upon, as we act in our daily lives. Have we show hope to others in need of it? Have we actually put down others or dampen the hope of others? Let us reflect on them. And finally, we go to the last of all virtues, and the greatest of them all, that had also been placed by God in us. This is love.

What is love? Love is the greatest expression of one’s care and affection to another, and this is modelled after the acts of the One who showed the greatest love of all, towards us. Yes, our Lord Himself is love, and His love for us is so great, that indeed, He gave us Jesus, through whom He made manifest His long planned salvation for all of us, that we will not die, but live eternally with Him.

So we all, as the children of God, should also reflect love in all of our actions. We must profess love, just as we have professed faith and hope. Without love, our faith in God is empty and meaningless. Our faith must be alive, and that is through love, and through hope. Similarly, we cannot love without first having faith and love, or that love will be grossly incomplete. They are all intertwined, and all are gifts of the Lord Most High to us.

We have a choice, brothers and sisters. The Lord has given all of us gifts and entrusted in our hands. Just like the pounds of silver given to the servants of the master. The Lord is our Master. We have a choice, whether we remain idle and do not let these gifts to grow, or invest in them, allow them to develop, through concrete actions, based in those values, namely faith, hope, and love.

Therefore, brethren, let us make a decision, and indeed, let us decide decisively, to follow the expectations of our Lord, that is through concrete dedication of ourselves to others in our actions, words, and deeds. May the Lord continue to watch over us, strengthen us, and bless us. Amen.