risen from the dead

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(Holy Week) Monday, 10 April 2017 : Monday of Holy Week (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
John 12 : 1-11

At that time, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where He had raised Lazarus, the dead man, to life. Now they gave a dinner for Him, and while Martha waited on them, Lazarus sat at the table with Jesus.

Then Mary took a pound of costly perfume, made from genuine spikenard and anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair. And the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Judas Iscariot – the disciple who was to betray Jesus – remarked, “This perfume could have been sold for three hundred silver coins, and the money given to the poor.” Judas, indeed, had no concern for the poor; he was a thief, and as he held the common purse, he used to help himself to the funds.

But Jesus spoke up, “Leave her alone. Was she not keeping it for the day of My burial? (The poor you always have with you, but you will not always have Me.)” Many Jews heard that Jesus was there and they came, not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus whom He had raised from the dead.

So the chief priests thought about killing Lazarus as well, for many of the Jews were drifting away because of him, and believing in Jesus.

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Wednesday, 29 March 2017 : 4th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
John 5 : 17-30

At that time, Jesus replied to the Jews, “My Father goes on working and so do I.” And the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him, for Jesus not only broke the Sabbath observance, but also made Himself equal with God, calling God His own Father.

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I assure you, the Son cannot do anything by Himself, but only what He sees the Father do. And whatever He does, the Son also does. The Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He does; and He will show Him even greater things than these, so that you will be amazed.”

“As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whom He wills. In the same way the Father judges no one, for He has entrusted all judgment to the Son, and He wants all to honour the Son as they honour the Father. Whoever ignores the Son, ignores as well the Father Who sent Him.”

“Truly, I say to you, anyone who hears My word and believes Him Who sent Me, has eternal life; and there is no judgment for him, because he has passed from death to life. Truly, the hour is coming and has indeed come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and, on hearing it, will live. For the Father has life in Himself, and He has given to the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has empowered Him as well to carry out Judgment, for He is Son of Man.”

“Do not be surprised at this : the hour is coming when all those lying in tombs will hear My voice and come out; those who have done good shall rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. I can do nothing of Myself, and I need to hear Another One to judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me.”

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Saturday, 19 November 2016 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 20 : 27-40

At that time, 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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Saturday, 17 September 2016 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Robert Bellarmine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)
1 Corinthians 15 : 35-37, 42-49

Some of you will ask : How will the dead be raised? With what kind of body will they come? You fools! What you sow cannot sprout unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body of the future plant but a bare grain of wheat or any other seed.

It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in decomposition; it will be raised never more to die. It is sown in humiliation, and it will be raised for Glory. It is buried in weakness, but the resurrection shall be with power. When buried it is a natural body, but it will be raised as a spiritual body.

For there shall be a spiritual body as there is at present a living body. Scripture says that Adam, the first man, became a living being; but the last Adam has become a life-giving Spirit. The Spirit does not appear first, but the natural life, and afterwards comes the Spirit.

The first man comes from the earth and is earthly, while the second One comes from heaven. As it was with the earthly one, so is it with the earthly people. As it is with Christ, so with the heavenly. This is why, after bearing the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly One.

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Friday, 16 September 2016 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and St. Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
1 Corinthians 15 : 12-20

Well, then, if Christ is preached as risen from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is empty and our belief comes to nothing.

And we become false witnesses of God, attesting that He raised Christ, whereas He could not raise Him if indeed the dead are not raised. If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith gives you nothing, and you are still in sin. Also those who fall asleep in Christ are lost.

If it is only for this life that we hope in Christ, we are the most unfortunate of all people. But no, Christ has been raised from the dead and He comes before all those who have fallen asleep.

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Sunday, 14 August 2016 : Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Corinthians 15 : 20-26

But no, Christ has been raised from the dead and He comes before all those who have fallen asleep. A human being brought death; a Human Being also brings resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. However, each one in his own time : first Christ, then Christ’s people, when He comes.

Then the end will come, when Christ delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after having destroyed every rule, authority and power. For He must reign and put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed will be death.

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Sunday, 5 June 2016 : 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 7 : 11-17

At that time, a little later after Jesus healed the servant of a captain, He went to a town called Naim. He was accompanied by His disciples and a great number of people. As He reached the gate of the town, a dead man was being carried out. He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; there followed a large crowd of townspeople.

On seeing her, the Lord had pity on her and said, “Do not cry.” Then He came up and touched the stretcher, and the men who carried it stopped. Jesus then said, “Young man, I say to you, wake up!” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

A holy fear came over them all, and they praised God saying, “A great Prophet has appeared among us; God, has visited His people.” This news spread throughout Judea and the surrounding places.

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Thursday, 12 May 2016 : Seventh Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 22 : 30 and Acts 23 : 6-11

The next day the commander wanted to know for certain the charge the Jews were making against Paul. So he released him from prison and called together the High Priest and the whole Council; and they brought Paul down and made him stand before them.

Paul knew that part of the Council were Sadducees and others Pharisees; so he spoke out in the Council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, son of a Pharisee. It is for the hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial here.”

At these words, an argument broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the whole assembly was divided. For the Sadducees claim that there is neither resurrection, nor Angels nor spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all these things.

Then the shouting grew louder, and some teachers of the Law of the Pharisee party protested, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Maybe a spirit or an Angel has spoken to him.” With this the argument became so violent that the commander feared that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He therefore ordered the soldiers to go down and rescue him from their midst and take him back to the fortress.

That night the Lord stood by Paul and said, “Courage! As you have borne witness to Me here in Jerusalem, so must you do in Rome.”

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Sunday, 8 May 2016 : Seventh Sunday of Easter, World Communications Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the death and martyrdom of St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Church from the Acts of the Apostles, our first reading, and we also heard from the Revelations according to St. John, about the promise of the world to come, and the promise that our Lord and Saviour, Jesus, will come again at the end of time to succour His people.

And in the Gospel, we heard about the prayer which Jesus our Lord made to His Father, for the sake of His disciples, all who believe in Him, and ultimately, for the entirety of the whole Church. He prayed for their sake, that God His Father through Him would bless those multitudes of people, and that He would bring them into the salvation and the glory which He had promised the faithful ones.

In all these, what we have heard from the Scripture readings pointed out to us about the nature of our faith in God, on how persecution will be part and parcel of our life, but as mentioned, God will not leave them alone, and He will continue to guide them and show them the path towards eternal life. God will be their strength and their foundation. If they are to keep their hold on Him, they will not be disappointed.

Why does this matter, brethren? Jesus mentioned to us the troubles that is facing the Church, and another had been presented by the tale of St. Stephen and his martyrdom. External pressures and persecution against the Church and the faithful are a reality, and these will not go away. Since the very earliest times of the Church, there had been those who opposed the message and the truth of Christ, from the Romans to the Jews, and then from the heretics and the other unbelievers, the Turks and now we have those who refused to believe in God, the atheists and those who rejected Christ.

And we can still recall quite clearly how in the past century, and in some places even until this very day, persecution of Christians is a reality. The horrors of the persecution especially by the atheist and the hostile Communist regimes in Soviet Union, its satellite regimes in Eastern Europe and beyond, and then the terrible persecutions in China and in North Korea, which for the latter is still continuing even unto this very day, and for the former persecution also still happened from time to time.

In the Middle East and in other parts of the world, Christians are also still persecuted, rejected and ridiculed for their faith in God. They are facing difficulties for keeping their faith, were blocked from being able to live out their faith lives freely, and some were even persecuted and tortured, and martyred for their faith, just as St. Stephen was, for standing up for their faith and for being courageous in not fearing the persecution of the world.

In this matter, with regards to the external persecution of the Church and the faithful, we have to keep praying and hoping. We have to keep in mind what Jesus our Lord had said, and what St. Stephen had shown all of us. Jesus said that once it was such that if someone made another lose an eye, then it is ought to be that the one who made the person to lose an eye, also lose an eye as well. But it should not be so with us Christians.

The principle of justice by revenge no longer applies to us Christians, for that law in the past was given by God as a means to rein in His often rebellious people, who frequently disregarded His laws and commandments, and thus harsh measures as a deterrent was appropriate to keep them in check. Yet, the purpose of the Law remains the same, that is for mankind to be able to discover and to love their Lord.

It is in our human nature to hate and to hold grudge against another. And to those of us who have experienced grudge before, most of us I believe, and including me as well, we know how dangerous and powerful hatred and grudge could be. We tend to keep it inside us, and it causes us to feel anger and indeed, it can make us do dangerous things, even to the point of inflicting harm and pain on others.

This world is running on the principle of reciprocation such that, if someone caused us harm and pain, then we also want to inflict harm and pain upon that person as well. But do we all realise that in doing so, we are merely perpetuating the cycle of hatred, pain, anger and suffering? We inflict pain on someone, and that someone did the same to us in revenge, and then we having been slighted one more time, decide to retaliate, which leads to even more retaliation of even greater degree. It is a painful and endless cycle which only leads to more and more hatred, pain and suffering.

Instead, as Christians, we ought to show love, true love that is unconditional and pure, just as the Lord Jesus Himself had shown to us. The love that Jesus our Lord showed us can be summarised also in the words He had spoken in the same occasion as He condemned those vengeance justice. He told us that we ought to forgive those who have sinned against us, and we ought to pray for those who hated us and persecuted us.

And even in the Lord’s Prayer, when Jesus prayed in another occasion to the Lord God His Father, one key essential element of the Pater Noster is that we pray that God will forgive us our sins just as we have forgiven those who sinned against us. And that was exactly what St. Stephen did just moments before his death. He forgave them and asked the Lord not to hold their sins and faults against them. The same action has also been done by our Lord Himself, as He hung upon the cross, forgiving all those who have called for Him to be crucified.

This means that, as Christians, we have to pray for perseverance and strength, that amidst the persecutions and the challenges presented to us by the world, we may not give up and surrender ourselves to the demands of the devil and the world. And yet, we must also pray for the strength to love and to forgive, that we may forgive those who have persecuted us, and love them even though they have hated us first. Hopefully through that love, they may be healed from the hatred and grudge they had against us, and be able to find repentance and forgiveness for all of their sins by God.

And lastly, just as I have mentioned that great troubles had always come from the outside of the Church, Jesus also mentioned about the coming troubles that would come from within the Church. He always warned His disciples against the false prophets, the wolves dressed in sheep clothing to deceive the faithful and to lure them away from the salvation in God.

And these false prophets and selfish men and women had brought about divisions and disunity within even the Church itself, with peoples making followings among themselves by spreading inaccurate and wrong teachings about the Lord in order to serve their own purposes, desires and ego. Throughout the centuries since the earliest days of the Church, we have been aware of those who have brought about this disunity, from the Gnostics, Arius, Nestorius, and then to Martin Luther, to John Calvin, Zwingli, King Henry VIII of England and many others who have misled the faithful and brought great divisions in the Church.

Jesus prayed to the Father that He will always keep His faithful people in the Church united, and He prayed hard for that unity, repeating again and again and emphasising of the need for the unity, so that the faithful may all be united as one people and one body in the Church, just as He Himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit are perfectly united in one Godhood, the Most Holy Trinity.

Therefore today, and indeed from now on, in addition to praying for the persecuted faithful around the world, and praying for the faith of the Church, we also should pray and work for the complete unity of the Church of God. The Church of God does not just consist of the buildings and the structures, and it does not consist only of the priests, the bishops and all the religious. Instead, it is the one and only body consisting of all, without exception, the faithful people who believe in God, who through the Church are journeying together towards their salvation in God.

And we all should realise that the unity of the Church had been long shattered, and many who claim themselves as faithful are outside the Church. There is no salvation but through God’s only Church alone, Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. Therefore, while there is hope for all others, our brethren in faith outside the Church, but for them to receive God’s salvation, they must find their way back to the Holy Mother Church, and thus, it is our task and responsibility now to welcome them, to help them and to encourage them to return.

Let us all pray for one another, and for all the faithful, that everyone may return and reside within the embrace of the Holy Mother Church, the Body of Christ, so that together, all of us God’s people may praise and worship Him together as one people, and we may find our way to His salvation. Let us all work together, so that each and every one of us may draw ever closer to God’s love. May God help us, and may He restore the unity to the Church, and may He help all those who are persecuted for their faith. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 8 May 2016 : Seventh Sunday of Easter, World Communications Sunday (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 17 : 20-26

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper, “I pray not only for these, but also for those who through their word will believe in Me. May they all be one, as You Father are in Me and I am in You. May they be one in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”

“I have given them the glory You have given Me, that they may be one as We are one : I in them and You in Me. Thus they shall reach perfection in unity; and the world shall know that You have sent Me, and that I have loved them, just as You loved Me.”

“Father, since You have given them to Me, I want them to be with Me where I am, and see the glory You gave Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You have sent Me. As I revealed Your Name to them, so will I continue to reveal it, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I also may be in them.”