sacrifice of Jesus Christ

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Friday, 9 January 2015 : Friday after the Epiphany (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are reminded of the purpose of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into this world. He came not just for nothing or just to save the righteous ones, but even more importantly, from the story of the healing of the leper, we should know that Jesus came into the world in order to save the weak, the sinners, the wicked and all those who have been lost to Him.

Remember that Jesus Himself said to the Pharisees to rebuke them? He said that He came into the world not to save the righteous nor the healthy, but to save those who need His help, those who are separated from His love, and all those who are far away from His grace. He came as a doctor to heal the illness of the sick, and for our case, this illness and sickness is sin, the taint and corruption on our body and soul that prevented us from receiving the grace of God.

In short, Jesus desires for us to be forgiven from our sins, to be cleansed from our iniquities and sins, and to be made whole again, so that no one will be lost in the end. All those who are lost will be brought back together again, so that in the grace of God they may be saved. That is the meaning and intention of God’s love, which He freely offers to all those who seek Him and who are willing to listen to His urgings and calls.

But all this cannot happen without our part to play, and we need to do something on our part ourselves. God offers us His salvation and grace freely, but if we are not responsive and unreceptive to His offers, then it will be useless for us. We will not be part of God’s salvation. We must be receptive and also take the initiative to allow the work of God to take place in ourselves, so that God’s salvation may come to work for us.

Jesus Himself said that if we need anything, we only have to ask and it shall be given to us, and we just have to knock at the door, and the door will be opened for us. That is the truth, and God is generous with His love. The problem is of course that many of us for various reasons refuse to do these, and therefore shutting ourselves out from the richness of God’s grace.

Many of us are too proud to ask for God’s help, or to lower ourselves to seek God’s mercy and forgiveness, and that is why many of us are still lost in the darkness of this world, and many of us continue to sin because we are too proud and haughty, thinking too highly of ourselves to humbly beg for the forgiveness for our sins. And on the other hand, many of us are also too afraid to ask for God’s help because we fear His punishment, His anger and His wrath, and hence, again we continue to live in sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if any of us are among these two groups of people, then we should indeed reflect, on the love of God, which He had shown through Jesus and through His loving sacrifice on the cross, the torture and sufferings He went through for our sake. We should open wide the doors of our heart to allow the Lord to come into us and to transform us from being the creatures of evil and sin into the people of the Light.

Therefore, let us all show love in our actions, loving one another and caring for each other, forgiving one another of the faults and mistakes we have done to each other. We have to live out our faith with real action, and we have to open up ourselves to the Lord, not to enclose ourselves within our pride and fear. Do not let pride prevent us from seeking out to the Lord and seeking His forgiveness for our sins. And of course, we should not allow our fear to come in the way of our seeking of the love of God.

May our Almighty and loving God be with us always, that we may not lose our way as we find our way towards Him and His salvation. May all of us grow stronger in faith and love, so that in all things we say, do and act, we may have the love of God in us. Let us throw far, far away all forms of pride and fear from our hearts and embrace God with love. God bless us all. Amen.

First Reading :

Friday, 9 January 2015 : Friday after the Epiphany (First Reading)


Psalm :

Friday, 9 January 2015 : Friday after the Epiphany (Psalm)


Gospel Reading :
https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/08/friday-9-january-2015-friday-after-the-epiphany-gospel-reading/

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(Usus Antiquior) Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord, Octave Day of Christmas (Double II Classis) – Thursday, 1 January 2015 : Offertory, Secret Prayer of the Priest, Communion and Post-Communion Prayer

Liturgical Colour : White

Offertory

Psalm 88 : 12, 15

Tui sunt caeli et Tua est terra : orbem terrarum et plenitudinem ejus Tu fundasti : justitia et judicium praeparatio sedis Tuae.

English translation

Yours are the heavens and Yours is the earth, the world and the fullness thereof You have found. Justice and judgment are the preparation of Your throne.

Secret Prayer of the Priest

Muneribus nostris, quaesumus, Domine, precibusque susceptis : et caelestibus nos munda mysteriis, et clementer exaudi. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus. Per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English translation

Accept our offerings and prayers, we beseech You, o Lord. Cleanse us by Your heavenly mysteries and graciously hear us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Preface of the Nativity

Vere dignum et justum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere : Domine, Sancte Pater omnipotens, aeterne Deus : Quia per incarnati Verbi mysterium nova mentis nostrae oculis lux Tuae claritatis infulsit : ut, dum visibiliter Deum cognoscimus, per hunc in invisibilium amorem rapiamur. Et ideo cum Angelis et Archangelis, cum Thronis et Dominationibus cumque omni militia caelestis exercitus hymnum gloriae Tuae canimus, sine fine dicentes :

English translation

It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should always and in all places give thanks to You, o Holy Lord, Father Almighty, eternal God, because by the mystery of the Word made flesh, from Your brightness a new Light had risen to shine on the eyes of our souls, in order that, God becoming visible to us, we may be borne upward to the love of things invisible. And therefore with the Angels and Archangels, with the Dominions and Powers, with all the hosts of the heavenly army, we sing of Your glory without end saying :

Communion

Psalm 97 : 3

Viderunt omnes fines terrae salutare Dei nostri

English translation

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Post-Communion Prayer

Haec nos communio, Domine, purget a crimine : et, intercedente Beata Virgine Dei Genetrice Maria, caelestis remedii faciat esse consortes. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

English translation

May this communion, o Lord, cleanse us from sin and, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, make us partakers of the heavenly remedy. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Friday, 17 October 2014 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together as we heard in the Scriptures being read this day, the love and mercy of our Lord and God, who had delivered us from the power of death, so that we may be freed from the bondage and slavery of sin which leads eventually to death. Through Christ and what He had done in this world in full obedience to the Lord, He had brought us safety and reassurance against the power of death.

That is because by His suffering and death, He willingly took upon Himself the scourge of death, and all the consequences of our sins, so that those who trust in Him and believe in the words of truth and the Good News He brought, may gain the fullness of salvation and new life just as He had promised to the people of God. Christ had broken the power of death and freed mankind from the tyranny of sin by the act of His ultimate love and obedience to God the Father.

As mentioned ll by Jesus, that we have nothing to fear from sin and death if we are faithful to the Lord through our devotion and faith in Jesus, the Lord and Messiah sent by the Father to be our beacon of hope in this darkened world. As long as we keep ourselves strongly attached and faithful to the teachings of God, we will be safe from all evils and difficulties related to sin and death. Yes, Satan will do all in his power to try and wrest us back from the Lord, and bring us back into damnation, but if we are vigilant, we will not easily fall again for his lies and tricks.

That was why Jesus warned the people to be vigilant and careful against the yeast of the Pharisees. What is this yeast of the Pharisees? It is namely the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the human soul and heart, which infect us all mankind, as the tools and leverages of Satan in trying to subvert us and turn us against the Lord our loving God and Father. It is pride, jealousy, hatred, lack of faith, and many other vulnerabilities that exist in our hearts.

The Pharisees were a group of social elites in the society of the people of God at the time, and they commanded great respect from the people and wielded great teaching authority in teaching the matters of the faith. They took great pride in their position and authority, and were jealous in guarding them against anyone they saw as threats and potential rivals to their power and authority, as well as prestige.

This is what brought them into direct conflict with the group of the Sadducees, the rational thinkers and the powerful nobilities in the society of the people of God, as the Pharisees acted as the extremely orthodox and zealous defenders of the laws of Moses, to the point that they pointed out the extremities in the application of those laws through their own actions, leading the people away from the true intention and meaning of those laws.

They violently rejected Christ, who they saw as a revolutionary preacher and a great threat to their teaching authority and influence. To this end, they always tried to disrupt His teachings and also to test Him wherever He went, asking many questions designed to trap Him, in which they failed, for the Lord knew all that were in their hearts and minds, and their evil desire to bring about His downfall.

This was why Jesus was so adamant in His warning to the people, that they need to guard themselves against the yeast of the Pharisees. Indeed, as I have mentioned, that through His own actions and act of supreme and ultimate love on the cross, Jesus had given us all new hope through our liberation from the tyranny of our sins and from the enslavement of evil, but this does not mean that we can just get this easily without effort.

In order for us to be saved, then in all of our actions we have to guard ourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees, that is hatred, jealousy, prejudice, greed and desire, violence, anger and wrath, pride and arrogance, and many other things which are indeed the main cause for all of us mankind in our committing of sins and evils. The many sins and evils of this world can be traced to these evils, the evils of our hearts, which we should indeed excise and remove from ourselves.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the successor of St. Peter who was the first Bishop of Antioch. He was a martyr of the faith, who was martyred in the defense of the Faith which he held so dearly. St. Ignatius of Antioch was a convert to the Faith in his youth, and he was also told to be among the children whom the Lord had called to His embrace as told in the Gospels.

St. Ignatius of Antioch succeeded St. Peter in the leadership of the faithful in the major city of Antioch, one of the first dioceses in the world, and the place where the faithful were first called by the appelation ‘Christianos’, which eventually became the name we are now known for, the Christians. St. Ignatius of Antioch led the faithful with love, and he devoted himself to them completely, leading them to live their faith truthfully and with zeal.

He wrote extensively, and in his many letters both to the other bishops and to his own faithful, he affirmed the many central teachings of the Faith, and urged all of his people and peers to adhere closely to the teachings of the Lord as revealed in the Good News the Apostles and disciples of Christ preached. And to the end, St. Ignatius of Antioch remained true to his faith, and even in suffering after he was arrested, he continued to attach himself strongly in faith to the Lord.

He suffered martyrdom in the Colosseum, being thrown to lions and other wild beasts, the fate which also awaited many other of his successors and contemporaries in faith, but indeed, he did not fear death nor he had any need to fear death. Why so? That is because he had been faithful in his life, and was completely devoted to the Lord, and in his righteousness, he was justified and made true in faith, and death no longer has any power over him and all the other faithful who kept their faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all also reaffirm our faith in God, following in the footsteps of St. Ignatius of Antioch and the other faithful saints and martyrs. Let us all not just have faith in mere words, but with real and true actions as well, so that our faith may be alive and living well, and so that we may be truly devoted and our Lord who sees our living and genuine faith, will justify us and bring us to His promised eternal life and reward, and free us forever from the threat of death. God bless us all. Amen.

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(Usus Antiquior) Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Double Major Feast, II Classis) – Sunday, 14 September 2014 : Gradual and Alleluia

Philippians 2 : 8, 9 and Tradition of the Faith

Christus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.

Response : Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum, et dedit illi Nomen, quod est super omne nomen.

Alleluja, alleluja.

Response : Dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulcia ferens pondera : quae sola fuisti digna sustinere Regem caelorum et Dominum. Alleluja.

English translation

Christ became obedient for us unto death, even the death of the cross.

Response : For which cause also God had exalted Him and had given Him a Name which is above all names.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Response : Sweet is the wood, sweet is the nails, and sweet is the load that hangs thereon, to bear up the King and Lord of heaven, nothing was worthy except you, o Holy Cross. Alleluia.

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Wednesday, 3 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we come together to celebrate the feast day of a great saint of the Church, that is Pope St. Gregory the Great, one of the great popes of the early Church, who was one of the few Popes who was given and truly deserved the title ‘the Great’, all because of his works and dedications to the Church of God, as the great reformer who brought great changes to the practices of the Church in ways that benefitted countless souls and helped them on their path to redemption.

Pope St. Gregory the Great was born in Italy at a time of difficulty when the civilised world was under great trouble after the fall of the Roman Empire in the Western regions of Europe including Italy. The Roman Empire in the East managed to reclaim Italy, but it led to a long series of conflicts and warfare that characterised the early life and indeed much of the life of Pope St. Gregory the Great.

Pope St. Gregory was renowned to be a very great and prolific writer, whose numerous works and writings had inspired countless faithful, brought countless souls back from the brink of damnation, and had also been of a very great impact to the development of the faith in the Church, as well as in terms of the liturgy of worship in the Church. He took part in rejuvenating and reforming many parts of the worship, to make them proper and truly worthy of the Lord in various aspects, including rites and music.

What we know now as the Gregorian Chant can in fact be attributed partly to its namesake, that is none other than Pope St. Gregory himself, he who reformed the ways that Church music was used, and how eventually this beautiful liturgy of worship then developed throughout the many centuries between him and us, and become essentially what we know as the Mass of the Ages, or the Mass of the Tridentine Roman Rite, a Mass and celebration of the liturgy in perfect beauty and worship worthy of the Lord.

Pope St. Gregory the Great also wrote extensively on various topics, on the various aspects of the faith, and he also took part in the defense against heresies and schisms before he was elected the Pope of the Church. He did many good works, the results of which is that the rejuvenation and empowerment of the Church and its teachings on the faith, which brought light and hope to mankind living in darkness and despair after the fall of the Roman civilisation.

He was thus known, along with St. Augustine as one of the greatest Doctors of the Church, especially in the western regions of Christendom, and the legacies of his work can still be easily and clearly felt, both in his successor, the Pope we have today, and the heart of the Church in Rome, where Pope St. Gregory was once the Bishop of, and finally throughout the entire Universal Church itself, particularly in his writings and in his reforms on the celebration of the sacred liturgy.

All of these are to remind us, in accordance with what we heard in the Scripture readings today. Jesus cast out demons in His mission, and those demons tremblingly obeyed the commands of He who is God, and He who is the Word of. God made flesh in Jesus, and He who holds all the authority over all heaven and earth. And God is the One who made all things possible, including all possibilities for us, and the growth of our faith.

We mankind are easily lured away from the path of truth, that is away from the path of the Lord, the path towards salvation. Sin is the tool that Satan used in his continuous and tireless efforts to lure mankind away from salvation and into eternal damnation with him. That is why, the Lord who loves us wants to save us, by sending unto us Jesus, His own Son, to redeem us from the power and dominion of these evil spirits.

Jesus meant business when He came into the world, to heal the afflicted and the oppressed sons and daughters of men from the tyranny and dominion of Satan and his allies. He brought fear to the forces of darkness, which had been for long unchallenged and supreme in their control and grip over mankind. His words is power, and He brought healing and salvation to all those who had been long gripped and enslaved in darkness, bringing them back into the light.

God is truly indeed the One who made all things possible. It is through Him that all things are made possible and real, and through the help of the actions of the disciples and Apostles of our Lord, their successors, the bishops and the priests we have today, we receive this same truth which had been revealed through Jesus and what He had done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, then what had Pope St. Gregory the Great done in order to relate to these Scripture readings which we heard today? Pope St. Gregory the Great had reformed, established and standardised the ways of worship in the Church, creating a golden standard upon which the later generations would look back upon for reference and guide. Pope St. Gregory not only contributed in terms of his voluminuous writings and letters that helped the faithful to grow stronger in their faith, but also through his works in bringing the heaven itself, the glory of God to earth.

For indeed, the Holy Mass itself can be likened to the heavens brought down to earth, the glories of heaven and the majesty of God brought into our humble abode, no matter how gloriously decorated it is, to house the very Real Presence of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, in the Most Holy Eucharist, which is truly the heart and the centrepiece of the Mass. The Mass is the Sacrifice of our Lord, in which we celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, when He single-handedly took all of our sins at once, and became the lamb of sacrifice to make us whole again.

Therefore, in essence, the celebration of the Holy Mass itself is a celebration of this very important and crucial moment in our history, and indeed, in the history of all creations. We are celebrating something divine and not something of the world. And thus, a proper and fitting celebration and way of worship is necessary, as a way for us humble men to glorify and praise our Lord who gave Himself for us, to rebuke Satan forever and get us out of the dominion of evil into the light.

Thus, Pope St. Gregory the Great acted similarly to what St. Paul, Apollos and the many other disciples of our Lord, by sowing the seeds of the Lord on fertile soil and helping these seeds to grow by nurturing them and providing for them. Those seeds of faith, hope and love have been planted by the Lord in our hearts, and it is up to us all to allow them to grow and bear fruit. And Pope St. Gregory the Great, together with numerous other saints and holy people of God made this possible.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on our lives and on our actions, on whether we have lived our lives according to the will of God, and to the way which our Lord Jesus had shown us. Indeed, there will be challenges along the way, as Satan and his allies certainly would not waste their time to attack and assault us in any way possible. But if we remain vigilant and strong, we will be able to resist them and remain true to the Lord?

And how can we do this? None other than through prayer, charity and total devotion to the Lord through our complete and total participation in the celebration of the Holy Mass. Prayer helps us to establish a crucial link with our Lord and God so that we may know His will for us, that we may live more closely according to His ways. And charity helps us to live our faith that we may have a real, concrete and living faith based on our actions and deeds, and not just by empty belief alone.

And lastly, as Pope St. Gregory the Great had initiated and done, we have to have a very great respect and good attitude towards the celebration of the Holy Mass, in which we have to see it as the celebration of the sacrifice of heaven, the very ultimate sacrificial act of our Lord Jesus, who gave His own Body and Blood for us, that all of us who take part in Him may be saved and gain eternal life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore from now on, let us participate fully in the Mass, not by distracting others and ourselves from the Lord, as participation does not equal loud music, loud prayers or excessive gestures. Instead, let us understand the importance of the liturgy of worship and follow what our ancestors and our fathers in faith used to do. In that, our faith will grow, and from there too, the seeds of our love will germinate, grow and produce rich fruits.

May Almighty God bless us all, protect us and guide us on our way in this life, so that we may remain ever faithful, and that we may bear real and living fruits of our faith and love, both for our fellow men and for our Lord. May all of us be gathered together and be empowered with strength to overcome the challenges and the temptations of the world made by Satan to hinder us. May God be with us all, forever and ever. Amen.

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Sunday, 25 May 2014 : Sixth Sunday of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God loves all of us, and He had shown that repeatedly, again and again, in many occasions, including all that we heard in the readings of the Scriptures today. He cares for us, and genuinely He does so, without concern even for Himself. What else can we expect from the Lord and God who gave even His own life for us, in exchange for our eternal bliss and happiness?

But we have to play our parts as well, brethren, for God gives of Himself freely for all, but only for those who accept those gifts that the Lord will exercise His grace and blessings. And therefore, only those who accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour, through the waters of baptism, believe in His words and His teachings as taught to us by the Apostles and which we received through the Church, and finally carry out those will and commandments of God faithfully, will receive the grace everlasting that God had promised all of us.

We are still in the midst of the holy Easter season, a season of the celebration of life, that is the new life in Christ, and we are fast approaching its end, when we will celebrate the solemnity of the Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, and more precisely, as we all know, the descent and the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and the disciples of Christ as He Himself had promised.

The Lord precisely meant this when He said that He will be with them, and that He will not abandon them as orphans. He cared for them so greatly that even after Jesus had left for His heavenly glory and throne in the Ascension, which we will also celebrate soon, He sent His people the Holy Spirit, which enlightens and bring truth to all those with the ears, hearts and minds to listen to the word and the will of God.

We too have received this faith in its great purity and enlightened nature through the Church, and through the many priests and bishops who had carried forward the truth and the faith which they received from the Apostles. And we too are therefore charged with keeping this faith alive and strong, that many others may also hear and know of the Lord’s saving passion and love.

This will not be easy, because the world itself is part of the dominion of the evil one, and the devil is definitely opposed to any goodness that we do in the Name of the Lord. He will use everything in all of his power to prevent and delay his eventual downfall, as he know it, and in the process bringing down as many souls of mankind with him into hell to suffer and perish with him for eternity.

Thus, that is why it is important for us to keep the faith within us strong and alive, and endowed by the Holy Spirit, and not just leave it at that, but also allow the Spirit to bear His fruits within us. We all know the fruits of the Holy Spirit, with faith, hope and love being the principal ones that we need to have and bear fruits of. We who have been baptised either at birth, or when we made that conscious effort and choice to accept the Lord in our adult years, have received a great grace from the Lord, who washed away our sins and planted His Spirit in us.

And those of us who had received the Sacrament of Confirmation has been affirmed even more strongly by the gift of the Holy Spirit, similar to what the Apostles had received on the day of Pentecost. But all this will go to naught if we do not use whatever things and graces that God had granted us through His Spirit and let it go to waste or worse, by committing things evil and wicked in His eyes.

We have to be faithful servants of the Lord, and loving children of His, who are committed to fulfill His laws and commandments every days of our lives. That is living faith, the kind of faith that God needs from us, the love that we show for Him, and the dedication that we have for Him. He desired from us this, and that we show in our words, deeds and actions the love God had shown for us, so that many more will come to believe in God and be saved like us.

Let us all today come together with a spirit, and the courage and strength to evangelise, to spread the love of God to all the peoples of all nations. Let us all bring the light of God to our brethren, and share the joy of Easter with them, not just by mere words or preaching, but also through our own actions and deeds, that in all the things we do and say, we proclaim the Lord who is Risen and who loves us all so much that He gave Himself for our salvation.

May the Lord continue to foster and strengthen the faith in us all, and strengthen and empower us with His Holy Spirit, that we may bear the wonderful fruits of the Holy Spirit, for our own good, and the good of our fellow brethren around us. May God be with us all, bless us and enlighten our path, always and forever. Amen.

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Monday, 5 May 2014 : 3rd Week of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Today brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to keep the truth, stand by that truth and stay faithful to that truth. And what is this truth? It is the truth proclaimed by Christ Himself when He taught the people and His disciples, about His mission, His nature, and the nature of God’s salvation. It is also the truth proclaimed by Stephen the first deacon of the Church in today’s first reading against those who refused to believe in the truth.

As we all should know, this world is not for Christ and His truth, and indeed the world which is filled with the evil one’s influences and darkness, opposed Christ at every turn and at every possible opportunities. This is why, there will be many hurdles and obstacles in the way of those who speak for the truth, and in the way of those who work and pledge themselves to the truth of Christ, which is what we are all, brothers and sisters in Christ are supposed to do.

What is this truth? This truth is plain and simple, which lay open and available in the entirety of the teachings of the Church. That God is one and indivisible, and loving in of His aspects. But He exists in three separate and yet equal divine persons, that is Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father creates, the Son who is Word, blesses and carries out the work of the Father, and the Holy Spirit empowers and strengthens all. All three united in one, that is the essence of our faith in God who is the Trinity.

But that is not all, for God so loved the world and all of us His beloved creations who had fallen into sin and darkness, that He willingly laid aside His power and divinity in the person of the Son, who became incarnate into Man, to be one of us, through the Blessed Virgin Mary, and were born as Jesus the Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, fully divine and fully man.

Why? So that through the Son and His perfect obedience, He as the new Adam and the beginning of new life and new era, may cast away the veil and the darkness of mankind’s sins and rebellions, which began with the disobedience of the first Adam. That He became the perfect offering and sacrifice through whom the sins of mankind may be erased in its entirety and completeness, ridding them of the obstacle that barred them from returning to their loving Father.

Jesus spoke of Himself when He referred to the living bread of eternal life. That those who eat that bread will never die, not in a sense of literal death that we know of, that is the death of the physical body, which we all have to face at one point, at the very ends of our lives. What He referred to was the eternal death of the spirit, the total separation of our souls from the love of God, which is called hell, the state of hopelessness and eternal damnation.

This is what those who believe in Christ and His truth, will avoid in the end. They will not face this fate of eternal suffering. Although death may claim their bodies and their physical flesh, but it will not claim their souls, for their souls are pure and worthy of the Lord, and the Lord who loves us and gave Jesus for our sake will not let us to be claimed by death and sin. And in the end, even together with our bodies we will rise with Christ when He comes again at the end of time. Death has no power over any of us, as long as we believe sincerely and fully in God and His plan which He had revealed through Jesus.

It was the very same truth that Stephen the deacon had proclaimed to the people of God and to his prosecutors, the chief priests, the elders and the Pharisees and the Sadducees who themselves had been opposed to Christ since the very beginning. The same truth that they also refused to believe in, even after hearing them from Christ Himself, and then His Apostles and disciples, which includes Stephen.

Those people hardened their hearts against the Lord and participated actively in the resistance and hindrance of the good works of God in this world, deceiving many and preventing the salvation of many souls who remained lost to the darkness. And these are exactly who we should not become. We cannot refuse to accept the truth in God, and therefore, we must, without exception, receive the faith we received through the Church in its fullness.

And we have to be like Stephen too, who did not fear to state the truth, and preach the Good News, even against tough opposition and persistent rejection, for the sake of salvation of souls. Remember that the Lord loves all, even those who hated and rejected Him. He would not want them to be lost, unless if they continue to refuse to believe until it is far too late.

May God therefore guide us in our works, and encourage us with His strength, that we may carry out our duties, just as Stephen had done, in the footsteps of Christ, to preach His salvation to all the peoples of all nations with courage, for the sake of our salvation, all of us. May God guide us always as we walk in this path. Amen.

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Sunday, 6 April 2014 : 5th Sunday of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we celebrate the fifth and last Sunday of Lent, we come ever closer to the holy season of Easter and to the Week when we will celebrate the most important mysteries and features of our faith, when Jesus Christ our Lord gave Himself for us and died for us. And today that is why if we notice the readings, they all drew the same conclusion, that deliverance is upon us, and God has prepared deliverance for all of us without exception.

Yes, we are all God’s beloved children and people, and therefore it is just natural that God would intend good things for us. He did not intend us any harm or let destruction be our fate, because He created us in His love, and He wanted only good things and blessings for us. It was we ourselves, mankind, who cursed ourselves and turned our back on the love of God, that we were headed into doom and eternal destruction.

Yet, we are truly special in the sight of the Lord, for unlike Satan and his fellow fallen angels who rebelled against God, we were all given a second chance of eternal life and salvation, because God loved us so much, so much so that He gave us that love in the form of Himself, in Jesus His Son, the Word made flesh and born into this world through the Virgin that He might save us all.

That is why Jesus our Lord is the hope for all lives, for all of us in this world, past, present and the future. That is because through Him, mankind were given hope once again, a light which pierced through the darkness of our souls and the darkness of the world around us. He breathed new life into us, and through His teachings, He showed us how to love God and be in His eternal grace.

Today we heard the very well-known story on the Resurrection of Lazarus, who was brought back into life by Jesus after he had died of an illness for a few days. Through this wondrous miracle, we were shown that Jesus is Lord and He is all powerful, being God, having absolute and complete power over life and death. And as He is the Master of life, life is His to bestow, and on Lazarus, man among whom He loved, He gave that life so that all who saw it may also believe in Him and therefore themselves gained life for themselves.

Yet it is also important that today we make a clear distinction so that we will not be confused later on. Lazarus was resurrected and was returned to life, but not by His own power or will, but by the grace and power of God through Jesus. The same also happened during the time of the prophet Elijah, who returned the life to the son of a suffering widow whom he was staying with.

Jesus, on the other hand, who is God and who was with God as His Word, rose from the dead by the power of His own will and might, as the Lord over life and death. That was the key difference between Christ and Lazarus in their respective resurrections. And this is also to show that Christ is the Saviour, the new hope for all mankind, that all who believe in Him and in the Father who sent Him, He will raise up to new life like that of Lazarus, and even more.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have often forgotten about Christ in our own busy schedule in life, and in all our occupations and works, that we have turned away from the Lord and in the life and salvation that He offered us all. That is why, we have to constantly remind ourselves of the fact of our frailty and weakness, that we are predisposed to sin and vulnerable to committing trespasses to God.

It is why this Lent is the perfect time and opportunity for all of us to repent and commit ourselves to change our ways. This Lenten season is the time for renewal and rejuvenation of our souls, in which we can reorientate ourselves that we may forsake what is evil and harmful for our salvation and seek the love and mercy of God.

We should not waste this perfect opportunity, and make best use of it, so that we will be able to reach out for the Lord and His salvation, and we should humbly ask the Lord for His mercy and forgiveness rather than hardening our hearts as what the people of God had once done, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. God is rich with His mercy and love and He will not forsake us, providing that we ourselves are open to accepting His love.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus is the life, and the bringer of the new life in salvation that He freely offers us all. We should all take the time from now on to make concrete our love and devotion for the Lord, that we may commit to changing our ways for the better and dedicate ourselves to God without reservations. We should be like the two sisters Mary and Martha, who loved the Lord, who had faith in Him and believed in Him.

Let us all now resolve to seek God and to have Him always in our heart, committing ourselves to total change of self, abandoning all things that are evil in the sight of God, washing ourselves clean from these taints, and commit to doing good from now on. May the Lord our God and Father, see always the good that is in us, and our desire to be reunited with Him, and thus forgive us our trespasses and welcome us back into the grace and blessings He had prepared for all of us. God bless us all. Amen.