salvation

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Saturday, 22 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorials of St. Paulinus of Nola, Bishop, Saints John Fisher, Bishop and Thomas More, Martyrs (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the words of the Gospel, in which we are told not to worry about our needs and our desires in this world. Christ had taught His disciples that the Lord takes care of the needs of His people, and He will protect those whom He considers as His own. Therefore, as long as we belong to Christ, to the Lord, we will be safe and we will always be provided, with all the things that we need.

Worry is a natural part of a human being, and worry cannot be separated from our own selves, from our own insecurities and our own natural predisposition to the desire for things, material or otherwise, in order to secure our own survival. Such is also the law of nature according to those who study it, that we are always concerned with our own survival, and therefore would do all that we can in our own power, in order to maintain our survival.

That is why we grow increasingly concerned with our own human needs, of food, of material goods, and even of relationships and love. We worry about things that may happen to us in the future, especially if those things may affect us in a negative manner. Fuelled by these insecurities, we end up becoming selfish and overprotective of ourselves and those precious to us, that end up in numerous causes for sorrow and anguish.

Many problems of this world can be traced to our own worries, our own insecurities. The reason that many nations maintain powerful armies and forces is because they are always ever insecure about their own future, with often endless probabilities and possible scenarios of ‘enemy’ attacks on them, so that they, in their insecurity, end up building that tool of destruction, in order to protect themselves, but inadvertently, when the violence does come, that tool is often used to cause great destruction and mayhem in our world.

One of the most important reasons why countries become embroiled in long-drawn conflicts is because of conflict over resources and material wealth of the earth, with well-known examples of crude oil, gas, and other precious metals, which become a source of contention between states, and led to the build-up of enmity and mutual hostility between nations.

That was why Christ told us that we should not worry, and indeed that we should put a complete trust in God, for God who loves and cares for us will take care of us and provide us all that we need. Let us take note that it is very often that what we want is not what we truly need. Many items that we want are merely the product of our own desires and greed, driven by this world, which had brought upon us countless lucrative deals that entice us to want to have more and more of such goods.

Commercialism and materialism are rampant in our world today, brothers and sisters in Christ. One can just imagine its extent from the insatiable human desire for things that bring wealth and prestige to their owners. Our media is filled with advertisements and channels that promote decadent lifestyles. A lifestyle of great excesses and waste. A lifestyle that is apathetic to the needs of others, and a lifestyle that is often lived in ignorance of the reality of life in this world.

Today we commemorate the feast day of St. Paulinus of Nola, a bishop who lived in the later years of the Roman Empire, and also the feast day of St. John Fisher, a bishop in the late Renaissance England, in the times of the English Reformation, and his fellow saint, with whom he was also martyred, St. Thomas More, who is also known as the patron saint of lawyers.

St. Paulinus of Nola was a bishop who renounced his privileged early life as an influential senator of the Roman Empire, and chose to follow the ways of the ascetics, to give himself fully to the Lord, and eventually became a priest and bishop of Nola. He was also a well-known writer and poet, with many of his writings influencing later people and saints of the Church.

The example of St. Paulinus of Nola, who disavowed wealth and did not pursue human glory and possessions. He looked for what is more valuable to him, and indeed should be truly valuable to all of us, that is the Lord Himself, our real and true treasure. He did not find it shameful to abandon all the worldly pursuit of wealth, and all the fame and affluence he had while he was an influential senator of Rome.

It does not mean that all of us should then become monks though, and follow ascetic lifestyle. But certainly the examplary life of St. Paulinus of Nola, whose writings inspired many in the faith, and whose pursuit of the true richness in Christ, can become a powerful driving engine behind our own personal journey in the faith. And equally, just as St. Paulinus of Nola had shown all of us, the examples of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More too, cannot be ignored.

Saints John Fisher and Thomas More lived in a difficult time, a difficult and troubled time to be a follower of the Lord, and to be the faithful ones in the Church of God. For they lived at the time when the English Reformation begun, under the persona of King Henry VIII, whose greatest sin was to break away from the Apostolic authority of Rome just because he did not get his second marriage approved, in his crazed and ultimately fruitless pursuit for an heir, a son to inherit the throne of England.

St. John Fisher was the bishop of Rochester, and a closer advisor to the king, while St. Thomas More was a laity, the powerful chancellor for the king of England. When the king began his upstart new ‘church’, naturally, he wanted all of his subjects to follow him into his rebellion against the authority of the Church, especially those nearest to him in confidence and power.

Those who followed the king into his disobedience and rebellion gained prestige with the king and much material wealth and affluence, which was also the reason why many followed the king into his disobedience against Rome. Yet, St. Thomas More, and also St. John Fisher, despite the offers made by the king, particularly St. Thomas More’s lucrative chancellorship, they remained steadfast to their faith in the Lord, and remained firmly within the Church, against all attempts and temptations for them to leave the Church of God.

In refusing the order of the king, they faced suffering, persecution, prison, and eventually death in martyrdom, in their defense of the faith. They remained faithful and true to the Lord to the end, and they received their eternal reward and glory in heaven, having shedding their blood for the sake of their faith.

The lesson to be learnt here is of course not that we must shed our blood and our life like what the two martyrs of the faith had done, but just like St. Paulinus of Nola, we must value our faith and the Lord our God as the much more valuable and priceless treasure, the true treasure of our life, over any kind of worldly and material wealth, that is offered by our world, and especially in our present day world, becoming ever more tempting in their approach to all of us.

Do not give up our faith in God and our righteousness for moments of pleasure and false happiness, through the means of material goods of this world. Not that we cannot enjoy what this world can offer and neither should we restrain from gaining any material possession or money, but all of these must be done in moderation, so that it would not end up in these shutting out the Lord from our hearts, because remember that the Lord Himself said that wherever the treasure is, the our hearts lie.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today renew our commitment to strengthen our faith in the Lord, that we will ever keep Him in our hearts, that He will know that we belong to Him, and will reward us greatly when He comes again as our King. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 21 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 6 : 19-23

Do not store up treasures for yourself here on earth, where moth and rust destroy it, and where thieves can steal it. Store up treasures for yourself with God, where no moth or rust can destroy it, nor thief come and steal it.

For where your treasures is, there also your heart will be. The lamp of the body is the eye; if your eyes are sound, your whole body will be in the light. If your eyes are diseased, your whole body will be in darkness. Then, if your light has become darkness, how dark will be the darkest part of you!

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Friday, 21 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious (Psalm)

Psalm 33 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7

I will bless the Lord all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the lowly hear and rejoice.

Oh, let us magnify the Lord, together let us glorify His Name! I sought the Lord, and He answered me; from all my fears He delivered me.

They who look to Him are radiant with joy, their faces never clouded with shame. When the poor cry out, the Lord hears and saves them from distress.

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Thursday, 20 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today in the Gospel reading, we heard the very prayer that all of us should know by heart, the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father, Pater Noster, the prayer that we always say in every celebration of the Mass, the prayer that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught us through His disciples, and which show the perfect sincerity in prayer, and indeed, the perfect prayer itself, how a prayer should indeed be prayed.

Prayer should not be a litany of demands and wishes, as I am sure many of us would consciously or unconsciously do. That in prayer, we always put, “We want this, Lord; We need this, Lord; I hope that You can help me in this, Lord; please help us, o Lord”. No, not that it is bad to ask Him all these things, providing that we do so politely and in a sincere love for Him, and not to consider and look at God as a ‘magic genie lamp’ that can fulfill all your wishes with a single whim.

Prayer is a perfect way of connecting with the Lord our God, as a two-way communication between us and our Creator and our Lord. Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, prayer is a two-way communication, and therefore we should not convert it into a one-way request or demand from us, in which we alone speak and the Lord listens. No, in fact, in prayer, we should take a moment of silence, to let the Lord speak to us. Yes, He speaks to us in a subtle way, in our hearts, and too often, as we live in this ‘noisy’ world, the words that God speaks to us become lost.

A good prayer life will strengthen us, brothers and sisters in Christ, and it will bring us ever closer to God, who is our Father. Why is God our Father? That is because Christ is the Son of God, His very Word, through whom God created the world and all creation. And because Christ had descended unto this world, becoming man like us, and was born as a humble baby in Bethlehem through the Virgin Mary, He became one like us, and therefore, all of us too become the children of God, because Christ is our brother. God is also our Father because He created us, gave us life, and cared for all of us with His perfect love.

We should always give thanks for our Lord’s kindness and love for us, because He provides for all of us with all things He had created for us in creation. He gave us all that we need to live. He has given all that we need to live, our ‘daily bread’, and that is why, we do not need to worry about so many things in our lives. God has taken care of what we truly need in our lives. All things that come beyond these are born out of our greed and our desires, our natural desire to have more and more and never to feel enough.

In prayer too, we need to remember to forgive, just as Christ had told His disciples, ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ That is another important essence of prayer. We do not just pray for our loved ones and for ourselves, for indeed, those who are good and in good grace of the Lord has enough grace for themselves, though it is indeed good to pray for them, for everyone. But what is better is that in our prayer, we should forgive one another, especially forgive the faults and sins of those who had caused us grief and hurt, either physically, emotionally, or in other means that they had brought suffering upon us.

We too are not out of faults and blame, and surely at some point of time in our lives, we had done things that cause hurt and suffering for others, and therefore, we too, should ask for the same forgiveness for our own faults, just as we need to forgive others. The Lord who sees our love and our compassion for our fellow brethren, and our merciful heart will be pleased with us, and will grant us an abundance of graces.

These are the things that should be within our prayers, a humble request for the Lord to forgive us from our faults and our sins, that we be made worthy of Him, and at the same time, asking for forgiveness of our own brethren and our enemies who had inflicted the same suffering upon us. Through forgiveness we will be forgiven, and through love we will be loved as well. Jesus Himself had said that we should forgive one another first before we give our offering to the Lord, so that we will truly bring to the Lord a worthy offering, that is our loving heart, untainted by enmity and hatred.

Let us reflect on the words of the Lord’s Prayer, that from now on, we will truly mean what we say. Too often we just mumble the words of the prayer, just because we had memorised it completely by heart. But do we then mean what we said? Do we understand the meaning of the words that had left our mouths? Do we practice what we had said in our prayer? Let us take this moment to pledge ourselves to God, that from now on we will love Him as our Father, and will truly take every moment of prayer as precious moments during which time we are able to communicate directly with Him.

Do not let ourselves be tempted by the evil one too, brothers and sisters. That is why we pray, that the Lord will deliver us with His power from the power of the evil one, Satan, the old serpent, who tricked our ancestors, and made them to fall into sin and death. Christ had come to free us from the chains of sin, and He delivered us from the slavery of evil, just as He had brought the people of Israel from the tyranny of Pharaoh and Egypt. That was what St. Paul in the first reading today warned us as well, that we will always stay vigilant against the works of the evil one, that we will not falter and fall like Adam and Eve did.

Pray with our hearts, brothers and sisters in Christ, and do not just pray with our mouths. Pray often, and have a healthy prayer life, and keep our hearts and minds completely focused on the Lord, every time that we pray. Remember always the sacrifice of Christ our Lord, through which we gain redemption and salvation, every time we pray. That when we pray, we no longer think of ourselves or our own selfish desires and greatness, but think of God alone, and solely having the intention to praise Him and give Him thanks for all eternity. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 20 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 6 : 7-15

When you pray, do not use a lot of words, as the pagans do, for they believe that the more they say, the more chance they have of being heard. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need, even before you ask Him.

This, then, is how you should pray :

Our Father in heaven,

holy be Your Name,

Your Kingdom come,

Your will be done on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts, just as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.

Do not bring us to the test, but deliver us from the evil one.

If you forgive other their wrongdoings, your Father in heaven will also forgive yours. If you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive you either.

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Thursday, 20 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

2 Corinthians 11 : 1-11

May you bear with me in some little foolishness! But surely you will. I confess that I share the jealousy of God for you, for I have promised you in marriage to Christ, the only Spouse, to present you to Him as a pure virgin. And this is my fear : the serpent that seduced Eve with cunning could also corrupt your minds and divert you from the Christian sincerity.

Someone now comes and preaches another Jesus different from the one we preach, or you are offered a different spirit from the One you have received, with a different Gospel from the one you have accepted – and you agree!

I do not see how I am inferior to those super-apostles. Does my speaking leave much to be desired? Perhaps, but not my knowledge, as I have abundantly shown to you in every way. Perhaps my fault was that I humbled myself in order to uplift you, or that I gave you the Gospel free of charge. I called upon the services of other churches and served you with the support I received from them.

When I was with you, although I was in need, I did not become a burden to anyone. The friends from Macedonia gave me what I needed. I have taken care not to be a burden to you in anything and I will continue to do so. By the truth of Christ within me, I will let no one in the land of Achaia stop this boasting of mine.

Why? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do!

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Wednesday, 19 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Romuald, Abbot (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how we should love God and do things for the sake of the Lord, but we must do it because we truly love Him, with the full sincerity of the heart, and not with any hidden intentions or desires. It is natural for us to have those kind of desires, to be glorified and praised ourselves, as it is part of our human nature. We are naturally attracted to glory and power, and that is why, even in the things that we do, we would certainly want to be praised and glorified for the successes we achieved.

When we pray, when we fast, and when we do things that the Lord told us to do, do it in secret and in our own private space, although it is not wrong indeed to do it in the open. That is because when we do things in secret, we are safe from the presence of others who can look at what we are doing. In doing that, it will remove that obstacle of pride from our hearts, because when someone is with us, we no longer focus on ourselves when we pray, and because we subconsciously know that someone is looking at us, and we are certainly tempted to exaggerate things so that people would praise us.

When we closed off ourselves from the world, in our prayer, our fasting, and our almsgiving, we can then focus solely on the Lord, and to whom we give the alms to. So that we will not be led astray and instead believe in our own personal human glory instead of bringing glory to God. Remember that prayer is a conversation between ourselves and the Lord, not a means through which we should glorify ourselves by showing our piety to others.

It does not mean then we should never pray in public or do something pious in view of others. Indeed, doing it at the right moment, and especially with the right intentions and understandings would enable us to be tools of evangelisation, as these also may bring light and understanding to others who had no understanding about the faith in the Lord. Through our prayers, our actions, which we share to them, we will be able to bring a new light to them, and may even bring them to salvation through their acceptance of Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

Yes, whenever we pray, fast, or do something according to our faith, be it in public, or in private, do it for the right intentions, and for the right state of our heart and mind. That we do these all for the glory of God, and God alone, and for the sanctification and purification of our sinful self and the salvation of our soul, and not to accumulate and gather human glories and human praises.

If we know then how to pray sincerely with our heart, and use that chance to truly communicate with the Lord who loves us, and wants to speak with us, we will then find the true meaning of our faith in God, and we will be enriched in our own lives, by the love that God gives us and through His grace, that He grants to those who truly loves Him, and not merely loving themselves in the guise of loving God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be sincere in all our actions, and do not place ourselves before the Lord in all things. Do not place our desires and our greed to take over us and make us fall into sin, yes, into the sin of pride, because we glorify ourselves rather than God. Be truthful in all our actions, and do them because we truly love the Lord in all the things that we do. Do not seek personal glory, but glorify the Lord at all times.

For human glory is fleeting, and human achievements are temporary in nature. But great is the glory and the reward that await us in heaven, if we remain faithful, truthful, and steadfast in our faith in God, and remain in His love. Remain always in God’s grace, and He will grant us the eternal reward of glory in heaven. Seek not what will not last, but seek what will last forever.

Today, we also commemorate the feast of St. Romuald, a well known religious and abbot, whose life was truly exemplary to us. St. Romuald was once a sinful man, who indulged in all things evil in his youth, and led a debauched life. But after a life-changing experience and revelation of the faith, he changed his ways, and became a truly holy and dedicated person for the Lord. He founded many monasteries and established a strong monastic practice in the society at the time.

St. Romuald in particular placed a great importance on the understanding on the faith, and the serenity of oneself in prayer, that one can be truly be united with God, and truly focus themselves to the Lord their God, avoiding any kind of distractions that may lead them astray from the path of salvation. St. Romuald’s life also shows the kind of prayer that the Lord wants from us, a prayer made out of pure love and dedication for the Lord, in the silence of our hearts. It does not mean that all of us should become monks or join the religious orders in order to do so, but even a simple act of taking a time in silence, in the midst of the business of our lives, we can achieve this, that through a well-conceived prayer, our faith in God will grow ever stronger, and we will be ever closer to Him.

May God strengthen us, strengthen the edge of our humility, and remind us at all times to bring glory to Him, and not to strive for our own personal glory. May He bless us at all times in all the things that we do, that in all that we do, we bring life and love to all around us, that in whatever things that we do, God will be praised and glorified, forever and ever. Amen.

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Tuesday, 18 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if yesterday we heard the virtue of forgiveness and not pursuing hatred into vengeance, by showing mercy and love to one another, today we heard that we must love one another, and not to give into that hatred, that we should love even our enemies, and being our enemies, we need to love them even more, so that our love would truly stand out as being true love, and not love that is not sincere.

But no, brothers and sisters, it does not mean we should forsake or stop showing love to our friends, and to those who are dear to us. In fact we must love them even more, especially because loving someone with whom we had already had good relationship with is easier, and it is natural therefore that we should shower them with more love.

But to love only those whom are already on good terms with us and also love us back is easy, and therefore does not need much effort, as loving our enemies, just as the Lord had told His disciples as we heard in the Gospel reading today. Loving our enemies is the first step for us to discover the true meaning of love. Because love is not just giving ourselves to those whom we deem worthy of our love, and therefore is conditional. Instead, love should be unconditional, and we should offer it to everyone. Yes, even to those who hate us and persecute us. They are in fact in ever greater need for our love.

This is a challenge the Lord posed to us, to love our enemies, just as we love those who love us back, and just as we love ourselves. If we love our enemies, then we have surpassed that barrier, which prevented us from truly appreciating the meaning of love. For love is not to be kept within ourselves, and neither should it remain just within our circle of friends and close ones, but in fact should be shared, that it will grow and bring its blessing to many more people.

Many of those whom we are enemies with are most likely just because of circumstances, and many people in this world indeed remain unloved, and lacking love, they are unable to comprehend the meaning of love on their own, and therefore may resort to committing evil things, which inadvertently may lead to them being our ‘enemies’.

Remember that an enemy is a subjective term. If we consider someone our enemy, then that someone, if he or she responds in kind, we will also be his or her enemy, and therefore, being enemies are in fact reciprocal, and from there, eventually it will likely become worse, as seed of distrust and hatred grew between the parties involved. That is why loving our beloved ones and hating our enemies do not work anymore, because, while we grow ever closer with those who are dear to us, our enemies will also, in time, become our more and more troublesome enemies.

Loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us however, is a key that breaks the cycle, this cycle of hatred and enmity, and bring forth a renewed chance at a relationship. If someone considers us his or her enemy, but if we do not do the same, and instead act with love towards them, this may even sway them and touch their hearts, that whatever evil had caused that enmity in their hearts will be erased, and therefore allowing our love to come into them, the love that we receive from God, that they too will be loving like us.

Is it not much better to have more friends than enemies? Indeed, in fact, we should not have enmity to anybody at all. We are all the same children of God, equal before His eyes and presence. We should not let the evil one poisons our heart with enmity, fear, wrath, anger, and jealousy, which eventually is the main cause to many cases where relationships turn sour into becoming enemies.

Do not let the evil one spread his lies and his evil upon us. Be friends and loving with everybody, and then we will finally understand the true meaning of love. Just like our Lord Jesus Christ, who did not pick those whom He died for on that cross. Yes, indeed, Christ died for all mankind, and He offered His salvation freely for all who would accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. He forgave His enemies, the chief priests and the Pharisees, those who called for His death, and who had crucified Him.

Forgiveness and love are not easy to be done. To forgive means to forget all the anger, jealousy, and hatred, and all the negative emotions that are bound to accompany us, whenever we are hurt, whenever we are persecuted and treated badly. But, if we ourselves do the same thing in revenge to another, is it not then we ourselves are the enemy here? We are merely perpetuating the cycle of evil.

Love is what God desires of us, because we are His children, and we are ought to be like Him, and God is Love. That is also what He told us through Christ His Son, and through the commandments that He had given to Moses on the holy Mount Horeb, that all of us should love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our minds, and with all our strength and being, and then also to love our neighbours, be it those who love us or those who hate us, just as we love ourselves. Just as it is not right to hurt ourselves, is it not also improper for us to hurt our neighbours, our brethren, whom we ought to love? Especially those in the deepest depth of darkness and those without love.

Let us share our love through our actions and through our words, that all of us will be more like our Lord who is Love, and that we will be able to practice what Christ had taught His disciples, to love our enemies, and to pray for those who had persecuted us, and to bring hope to those who are downtrodden. Be like Christ, brothers and sisters, and show Him through our actions to all who see us, that they too may believe and be saved! Amen.

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Tuesday, 18 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

2 Corinthians 8 : 1-9

Now I want you to know about a gift of divine grace among the churches of Macedonia. While they were so afflicted and persecuted, their joy overflowed and their extreme poverty turned into a wealth of generosity. According to their means – even beyond their means – they wanted to share in helping the saints.

They asked us for this favour spontaneously and with much insistence and, far beyond anything we expected, they put themselves at the disposal of the Lord and of us by the will of God. Accordingly, I urged Titus to complete among you this work of grace since he began it with you.

You excel in everything : in the gifts of faith, speech and knowledge : you feel concern for every cause, and besides, you are first in my heart. Excel also in this generous service. This is not a command; I make known to you the determination of others to check the sincerity of your fraternal concern.

You know well the generosity of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Although He was rich, He made Himself poor to make you rich through His poverty.

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Monday, 17 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we learn how to be true followers and disciples of the Lord through our own deeds and actions. That we reflect in our actions love and compassion that is of the Lord, and do not promote violence and hatred. People then can recognise the presence of God within us, and will know that we belong to the Lord, and may then follow Him themselves, inspired by what they have seen within us.

The reference to the ‘eye for an eye’ and ‘tooth for a tooth’, was the ancient Law of Israel, contained in the Law of Moses, given to the people of Israel during the Exodus. The Law entitled those to whom had been afflicted, an equal retribution to what had been afflicted on someone. While this seems to be a just decision, but it can cause a perpetuation of hatred and violence if misused, as what had most certainly happened over the centuries of the usage of that Law.

If we misuse the Law, and perpetuate hatred with that Law, by the means of unending cycles of revenge brought by the demand for equal punishment for those who made faults upon us, then we are no longer children of God, because God is good and He is love. Instead, we become the children of the devil, because the devil represents destruction, hatred, and violence, represented in the misused law of justice, turned into a mockery of revenge.

Instead, we must be courageous to break away from that cycle of evil, of hatred, of vengeance, and of violence, by committing ourselves steadfastly in the ways of the Lord, in that of love, compassion, and kindness. We should be ready to forgive others when they made mistakes to us, and even when they hurt us, because when we hurt someone back because they hurt us, that will cause a lasting enmity which may simply continue without end, and will end up causing even more problems in the future.

We need to show that we belong to God, and that we reflect the works of the Holy Spirit through our words, actions, and deeds, and not belonging instead to the devil, who works ceaselessly to deceive God’s children and bring them into the pit of falsehood through the means of the world’s temptations that would ensnare the weak-hearted and those without a strong faith in God.

That is why we need to fortify ourselves through our faith, and by living that faith, through good deeds and actions, anchored and based in the Lord, that we reflect Him in all the things that we do. By having a firm anchor in God, we will not be easily led astray and therefore, will not fall into temptation of evil, and will not follow him into the path of evil, that is revenge, seeking vengeance, hatred, and perpetuation of violence, such as presented by the ‘eye for an eye’ law.

Instead, we will seek the truth of God, the love of God, and will aim for a perpetuation of love, or peace, harmony, and friendship among the children of God, that instead of a deadly and vicious cycle of evil and hatred, in its place, we follow a wonderful cycle of love, that perpetuates love and brings hope instead of death.

One may ask, why did then the Lord who is good, gave to His people this kind of law which would certainly have ended with vengeance, evil, and hatred? Surely He would keep away things of evil from His children? That is in fact because of the very stubbornness of the people of Israel, most evident during their Exodus from Egypt, when they repeatedly disobeyed the Lord, to the point of rebellion, so that the Lord had no choice but to impose a strict Law on them, so that they will not stray even further. God’s intention was good, and that was why He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to explain the true meaning of the Law, that it was intended for love, and not for vengeance, and that such laws are in fact unnecessary.

In particular, brothers and sisters, we also need to learn the value of forgiveness, because it is never easy to forgive someone of their faults to us, especially if it causes us pain and suffering. But if we do not forgive and instead choose to claim equal justice and vengeance, that would perpetuate the ill feeling between us, and will not promote the cause of love. God wants us to live in peace and loving harmony with one another, and the first step we must take in order to achieve that is, to forgive.

Once we know how to forgive, we would be able to halt the progression into the endless cycles of revenge and hatred, because we break that cycle, by our act of love through forgiveness and mercy. Remember that although we are sinners and deserve death, and that the Lord hates sin, and yet, the Lord is willing to forgive us from our sins, and gave us even His only Son as a sacrifice to redeem us from our sins, that we can be made worthy for Him.

If our Lord can do so much for our sake, then is it not right that we should also do what He has done for us? After all, we are His beloved children, and children ought to emulate what their father is doing, and there is no better father than God Himself, who is the Father of all mankind and of all creation.

Let us, brothers and sisters in Christ, become children of God through our love and dedication to God’s truth, peace, and love, by our actions and concrete deeds, so that through us, we will propagate a new light in this world darkened by evil and hatred. Sow love with our actions, and we will reap peace as a reward. Let us always strive for peace and harmony. If only all people would know to love one another and forgive, this world would have been a much better place. Amen.