Scripture Reflections

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Friday, 15 April 2016 : Third Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the well-known story of how St. Paul, the great Apostle and servant of God was converted from his past life as Saul, the great enemy of the faithful and the nightmare of Christians at that time. St. Paul when he was young, he was a zealous and fanatical Pharisee who strictly obeyed the Law of God, and was inflamed with false zeal against the followers of Christ.

But he led a wrong life, thinking that what he had done was righteous and just, as he thought that he was serving the Lord when he hunted down the disciples and the followers of Christ. But he was mistaken, for in all of those works, he was chasing down the same fault that the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the elders of the people had done, that is to pursue their earthly matters first before that of the truth.

They refused to believe in Jesus, except for some who were willing to listen, because of their ego and pride, which prevented them from opening their hearts and minds to God, and therefore being able to follow Him. And in this misguided path therefore, St. Paul in his youth as Saul ended up committing great sins against many of the faithful, many of whom suffered grievously under his torture and works.

But God chose him to be an instrument of His salvation to the many nations. And he was called from a great sinner he was, a persecutor of the faithful, to be the champion and defender of the Faith in front of many of the enemies of the Lord, including his former friends, the Pharisees and the elders, and later on in his life, against the pagans who refused to follow the Lord and against the Roman authorities.

In all these, we see how great God’s work was. We see the greatness of His plan and His mysterious ways, which many of us may not be able to fathom, and yet from there came the salvation of the Lord to the many nations of this world. We have to keep in mind, as we remember this story of the conversion of St. Paul, from a great sinner who became a great saint, and as the invaluable tool of God’s work and evangelisation among the people especially among the pagan nations, that we too should do the same.

God did not call the mighty and the powerful, nor the perfect and unblemished to be those upon whom He showed His grace and blessings. In fact all of us should realise just how imperfect we were. We are all sinners, and so does all the saints as well. Even saints were themselves once sinners, and they also committed the same sins that we have committed. But there is one very important thing they did which distinguished them in the end.

And what is that, brethren? It is the ability to seek reparations for one’s own sins and faults. It is the ability to humble oneself and realise the nature of one’s own sins that have prevented that person from truly being able to reach out to God and to attain salvation in Him. God is calling not the perfect, but sinners and delinquents, rebels and disobedient ones, whom He was willing to forgive if they themselves make the effort to be forgiven.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we all ready to follow the path of St. Paul? St. Paul walked the path of repentance, turning his back against all those things, the awful deeds which he had committed against the followers of Christ. Those were grievous sins indeed, but through his actions and works, St. Paul has earned more than redemption for his faults, by totally committing himself to God, and submitting himself to His will.

We too can follow his examples, by practising our faith actively in our own lives. Let us no longer be lukewarm in our faith, but instead let us all be burning flames of faith, of true zeal in God, not brought out of hatred and human desire, but out of love, from the desire to love both our God, and our fellow men, who are our brethren in the same Lord. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 12 April 2016 : Third Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is sad today to witness the persecution and death of the first martyr of the Church and our faith, St. Stephen the Protomartyr, one of the original seven deacons who have been selected to be those who would serve the people of God and distribute the goods they share with one another, and minister to them in love.

But St. Stephen did not fear the persecution by the world or the threats and pressures laid upon him. He made a long and passionate speech to the Council, reiterating the truth of God, and how God has worked to bring salvation to mankind throughout history, how mankind have rejected Him, and how God Who still loved men, sent to us the Saviour in Jesus Christ.

St. Stephen courageously defended his faith and spoke the truth. He did not mince his words or held back the truth, even though doing so certainly would have brought about the anger and wrath of the Council members, and which means his own death and suffering at their hands. But he faced it all with grace, knowing that God would be with His faithful ones.

The Council members, made up of the high priests, the elders, Pharisees and Sadducees, and the teachers of the Law refused to listen to the truth that St. Stephen had spoken. These people were seeking the bread of this world, that is trying to satisfy their earthly needs. But in doing so, they lost sight of what they truly should have looked for, that is for the eternal Bread of Life.

And the Living Bread of God had come upon them, Jesus, the Saviour of the world, the Divine Word Incarnate into flesh, Who walked among us as we are, dwelling among us and showing to us the way to salvation and eternal life. And He was the One Whom St. Stephen had been standing up for, defending his faith and belief in Him, even though many others refused to believe.

Thus, this is the same challenge that our Lord Jesus Christ is presenting to all of us, as we continue to walk through this life in this world. Are we doing things so far merely in order to satisfy our needs, desires and wants, or are we looking for and seeking for something greater and beyond our mere needs and wants? The essence of being Christians is that we should take up the challenge and seek for the greater glory and true satisfaction that we can find in God alone.

Let us all therefore work together and strive to find the true happiness in God, by committing ourselves to obey the Lord and His laws, and to follow Him in all of His ways. We have no need to worry if we are not capable of doing it, as God did not call the great and the mighty to do His will, but instead He called on the weak and those who are struggling, and to them, if they are faithful, God will bestow great blessings and graces, as He had shown with St. Stephen.

Let us all reflect on our own actions and practices. Have we been truly faithful to God in all the things we say and do? Have we been insincere in our faith, or indifferent? If we want to be truly faithful to God, then we should really show it through our words and actions. St. Stephen had shown us the example, and we ought to learn from it. We do not have to do the same thing as he had done, but what we need to do is to change our lives for the better, and serve God with greater commitment from now on.

May God help us and strengthen our resolve in this journey, and may He help us to find our way to Him, and attain eternal life and redemption that can be found in Him alone. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 10 April 2016 : Third Sunday of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about the works of the Apostles in preaching about Jesus our Lord and Saviour, and how the Pharisees and the elders were unhappy about that, and attempted to stop the Apostles from teaching the truth to the people in the Name of Jesus. But the Apostles were not at the least daunted or threatened.

They were in fact encouraged and heartened by the fact that they were able to endure the same suffering that their Lord had suffered at the hands of those who rejected Him. And they became ever more dedicated in carrying out the work entrusted to them. And because of their hard work, and the commitment of all those who came after them, countless souls had been saved, including us all, from the threat of eternal damnation and death.

And this is related to what we have heard in the Gospel today. The Gospel from the Gospel according to St. John told us about what happened in the days after Jesus had risen from the dead. On that occasion, at the shore of the Lake of Tiberias, while the disciples of Christ spent their time doing about what they have used to do before following Jesus, that is fishing, Jesus appeared to them.

And while they had spent the whole night trying to catch fish and yet caught nothing, He told them to follow His instruction, and spread the net on the side of the boat. Immediately they caught so many fishes, that the net almost broke, and the ship almost sank under the weight of the catch. And yet the two of them held on, and the Lord showed His Apostles the way through this yet another miracle He had performed.

In that reading, we should notice that there are many symbolisms related to our faith and our Church, as well as the mission which Jesus was giving His Apostles, and through them to all of us living even today, for us to undertake and to be responsible for. Therefore, let us now go through them one by one as we reflect on the words of our Lord today.

The fishermen, the Apostles represent all of us, God’s chosen people, including His chosen priests and all those who have given themselves to the service of the Lord and to His people, and the boat represents the Church, in which all the faithful are part of, and where all the faithful ones should be contained in. It is the vessel of salvation through which we find our liberation from sin and death, and find our path to eternal life.

Just as in another occasion when Jesus walked on the water approaching the disciples who were on a boat in the middle of a storm, the same symbolism is applied, where the Church is the boat, rocked by the waves and the winds from the terrible storm, representing the opposition of the world and the difficulties it is facing, as shown in our first reading today by the opposition of the elders and the chief priests.

But the Lord shows us that He stands by His Church and His faithful ones, and knowing this very well, the Apostles knew that the Lord was with them, and that was why they did not give up, even though they faced great persecution, scrutiny and pressure from the authorities to give up their work of evangelisation among the people. They continued their hard work regardless, and most of them indeed were martyred defending their faith.

And what is the hard work that they have done? It is the hard work of bringing the truth of God, the words of our Lord Jesus as He had spoken it, and delivering these to the people who have yet to hear of them. This is the command that our Lord had given to His disciples just before He ascended into heaven, and the command which is still relevant and in force even unto this very day, and likely into the future as well.

Why is this so? That is because we have to realise that, even though our Church today has grown to the point that it is definitely irrecognisable to the Apostles in the past, but the same conditions still apply. There are still many people who are outside the bounds of the Church, who are still outside the relative safety of the vessel of salvation, who have yet to hear the words of our God’s salvation and truth.

There are also many, even within the Church itself, and who called themselves as Christians, and yet, they hang dangerously at the edge of the precipice to damnation, as their actions showed contrary to their faith. And these are in danger of falling outside of the Church and the guarantee of salvation, as by their own actions they had made themselves unworthy of God’s promise.

The Apostles had been called to become fishers of men, leaving behind their old job behind, and instead of looking for fishes to be eaten and sold, they have been called to a higher purpose. They were to call upon men and get them to listen to the salvation which God has offered through His Church. And when they caught those so many fishes inside the net, this was in fact a representation of what they were to do, that is to gather many people from many nations, to be included as part of the Church and thus sharers in God’s salvation.

The same task is now awaiting us as well. There are so many of our brethren out there who need our help, our guidance and our assistance in leading them to God. If we do not do our part, then who else will? Let us therefore learn from the example of the Apostles, in their courage and commitment to God, and in their faith, in how they followed the Lord, knowing that doing so would earn them hatred, persecution and condemnation by the world, but eternal life and glory from God.

May God help us and may He awaken in each one of us the desire to love Him and to love our fellow men, so that we may be stirred in our hearts and encouraged in our limbs and bodies, that our mouths may speak the truth of God, our eyes may see the plight of our brethren still living in sin and darkness, our ears may hear their pleas, and our arms and legs may be moved to touch them and to help bring them closer to God and to His salvation. May God strengthen us and our faith, and keep us always in His love. Amen.

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Saturday, 9 April 2016 : Second Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard how the Apostles assigned the first seven men to be what is called the order of Deacons, to serve the community of the faithful by distributing to them food and the daily rations, as the faithful at that time, if we read the rest of the Acts of Apostles, lived together as a community, sharing their goods and blessings with one another.

And then we heard in the Gospel about Jesus Who appeared to His disciples in the midst of a storm and walked on the water to reach out to them. The Apostles were scared and doubtful, thinking that they had seen a ghost. Their faith was still weak and wavering, and doubt was in their hearts. And this happened just after Jesus had fed the multitudes of five thousand men and countless other women and children with just five loaves of bread and two fishes.

The disciples then were still not able to comprehend the divine nature of our Lord Jesus, their Lord and Master. They were still in conflict on the nature and the truth which Jesus had told them about Himself. They thought that such miraculous works would have been possible and beyond human ability to comprehend. That was why they were doubtful, fearful and scared as they witnessed what the Lord had done.

But remember what Jesus had told them? Do not be afraid! And that was what He had told them all. It is I, your Lord and Master, do not be afraid! To Thomas, one of His Apostles, who have doubted about His resurrection, and who refused to believe that He had risen from the dead, Jesus also appeared to him, and told him, do not be an unbeliever! Believe!

We can clearly see the transformation between the Apostles at the time when Jesus was still walking with them on earth, and how they were after He had risen from the dead and sent them the Holy Spirit. They were thoroughly transformed, from those who were doubtful and whose faith were easily shaken, have become the pillars of the Church, as the foundation upon which God’s Church were gathered and where it could expand outwards from.

The lesson which all of us can learn from this is that, as all of us are members of the Church, we too have the same obligation as the Apostles to continue to carry on their good works for the people of God, our fellow brothers and sisters in the same Lord Jesus Christ. And each and every one of us can play our part to contribute to the good works of the Lord made through His Church.

We may have our fears, doubts, apprehensions and other things that are in fact obstacles to our active participation in the works of the Church, but this is precisely where we need to make a stand and change our lives for the better. We are just like the Apostles too, as after all, we are all still human beings, with our imperfections, our shortcomings and our weaknesses.

But God made the weak strong, and encouraged those who were downtrodden and without hope. He aroused in all of us the Spirit of love, the Spirit of hope, and the Spirit of faith, His own Holy Spirit through which He brings in us the best of our efforts to care for our brethren, and to show compassion to the weak, the poor and the unloved. And from all this, God will make us the instruments of His grace to the world.

Let us no longer be fearful or doubtful, and instead, let us all step forward filled with faith in our future, as we embark on this journey of faith, and as we celebrate the joy of this Easter season. Let us all be examples of faith to our brethren around us, and awaken in one another the strong desire to love our Lord, and at the same time, the spirit of charity and compassion to each other.

May God strengthen us in our resolve to live our lives with faith, and let us all embark on this journey to bring ourselves and one another closer to God and closer to His salvation. God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Thursday, 7 April 2016 : Second Week of Easter, Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are presented from both the readings from the Acts of the Apostles and the Holy Gospels, of the realities of the contrast and conflicts that are present between the ways and the thinking of this world, as opposed to the ways of our Lord, which He had revealed to us through Jesus, His Son, and which He had passed down to us through His Apostles and His Church.

In the first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we continue on from the discourse of the previous days, telling us how the Pharisees, the elders and the chief priests were trying to bully the Apostles and the followers of Christ, using threats and fear in order to pressure them to stop their work and their preaching among the people of God. They thought that by doing so, they would be able to halt such an insurgency against their authority, but they were very wrong in this matter.

Not only that they were not at the least disturbed or affected by the threats, but they even courageously fought back by stating the truth before all of them to hear, as they pointed out that they ought to be obeying God rather than obeying any human authority above that of God’s. And that was a direct rebuke against the elders, the chief priests, the teachers of the Law, the Pharisees and all those who had been trying to stifle and hinder the works of God as exercised through His Apostles.

Through their examples, we can see how courageous we should be as well in how we lived our lives and in how we live our faith. Many of us today prefer to conform to the world and its ways rather than to stand by our Lord and God. Certainly, we have not been as faithful to Him as the Apostles had been. But if we think that those Apostles were extraordinary and beyond our means, then let us remember that they were once sinners too like us, and human as they were, they were not perfect. They too had their doubts and uncertainties, and moments when their faith was challenged.

But God showed them the way, and led them out of their uncertainty and doubts, and He blessed them with courage and strength in order to persevere through those challenges and made their faith firmer and stronger. And through His Holy Spirit, they spoke the truth of the Gospel and the truth as revealed through Jesus Christ our Lord to the whole world, that all those who heard the truth may find their way to salvation.

Today, we celebrate the feast day of a great educator, a holy and devout man, namely, St. John Baptist de la Salle, a priest hailing from Rheims, who lived about two hundred years ago. St. John Baptist de la Salle inspired a great movement and effort through which Christian education and evangelisation were boosted and spread rapidly throughout the world, as missionaries and faithful educators went forth to the four corners of the world preaching the truth of Christ through education.

St. John Baptist de la Salle was born from a privileged family, and he eventually entered the priesthood and devoted himself as a canon of the Cathedral of Rheims, living a comfortable life as how many of the clergy of those years had lived. But instead of remaining as he was in that comfortable position, he went forth and abandoned those comforts, as he heard the higher call to serve the less privileged, the abandoned and the unloved, especially those who have none to bring them the truth of our God.

That was when St. John Baptist de la Salle founded the society of the Brothers of Christian Schools, which members devoted themselves to the advancement of the education of the masses, and the evangelisation of the truth of God through the same education, that through the practice of the faith in their daily action, all of them may find the path to God’s salvation through greater understanding of their faith.

We should see in his examples, and the examples of those who have been inspired by his examples, as the inspiration for us as well, that we may follow in the footsteps of St. John Baptist de la Salle and the Apostles, in preaching the Word of God through words and actions, that all of us may receive the salvation which God has promised to us through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let us commit ourselves anew, brothers and sisters in Christ, and commit ourselves wholly to help one another to reach out to the Lord and His salvation. Let us help one another, reminding each other of the obligations we have to follow the Lord and to obey Him even if the whole world may be against us. Let us make use of this season of Easter to deepen our faith and commitment to the Lord, and help to propel ourselves further on the way to eternal life. May God help us and bless us all in our endeavours. Amen.

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Wednesday, 6 April 2016 : Second Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard that very famous phrase from the Holy Scriptures, from the Holy Gospel according to St. John, verse 3, which spoke about the love of God, that it is so great, that He was willing to send us His Son, Who is Jesus our Lord, that through Him we may not face death, but find eternal redemption and eternal life through Him.

What we have learnt from the Scripture readings today is that God loves us all, and He wants to save us all from the threat of hellfire and eternal damnation, as well as everlasting death. He shall not abandon us to the sufferings of eternal hell. God will protect all those who are faithful to Him, and He shall send His Angels to protect His people, guarding them from those who sought to bring them to damnation.

This was seen in the examples of the Holy Apostles which we heard as told by the Acts of the Apostles. The Apostles were preaching the faith and the truth told by Jesus our Lord to the people, and the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law, the elders and the chief priests were not happy that these Apostles were drawing the people away from them and gaining in influence and human regards.

As a result, they persecuted the Apostles, restricting them and arresting them whenever they could, including what we have witnessed today from the Acts of the Apostles. They imprisoned them and wanted to judge them falsely with false accusations and false judgments in order to silence them and stop their evangelising works. But God had other plans for them, one that no human authority and power could have undone.

For God freed the Apostles through His Angels, and by His guidance, they continued their ministry to the people of God, and despite the continued opposition by the Pharisees and the other enemies of the Lord and His truth, the Apostles continued to establish the Church and strengthened it through turbulent and difficult times. And more and more souls were saved by being welcomed into the Church and by their belief in the Lord Jesus.

God shows His grace and blessings to all those who have kept their faith in Him, and He shall not disappoint all those who have placed their trust in Him. For indeed, while the trust of men is feeble and weak, and can cause disappointments easily, but to trust in God is like to trust in a strong and firm rock, immovable and solid, amidst all the uncertainties and challenges of this life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we proceed through this joyous season of Easter, let us all reflect on our own lives, our deeds and actions. Let us all think about how we have lived our lives and in how we have interacted with one another. Have we truly been faithful to God? Or have we instead been swayed by the temptations of this world to deviate from the necessity for us to keep our faith strongly anchored in Him?

Let us ask ourselves, if we have placed our trust far more in ourselves rather than trusting in God and in His promises. This is the reason why so many of us were so reluctant in following God and in committing ourselves to His cause. Remember, brethren, that the Lord Himself had spoken, how the harvest is plentiful in this world, and yet the labourers are few. We have to step up and be courageous in committing ourselves to bring the Lord closer to ourselves and to our brethren around us.

Let us help one another on our path, and help each other to strive to walk in His path in our actions and our dealings with one another. Let our actions be examples for others, through whose actions, we may bring them closer to God, and therefore make ourselves each to be worthy of the Lord and of the salvation and the eternal life He has promised us. May God bless us all and keep us always in His love. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 1 April 2016 : First Week of Easter, Friday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the two Holy Apostles, St. Peter and St. John who gave great testimony in front of all the elders, the leaders, the elites, the teachers of the Law and all those who were influential among the Jewish society at the time, the testimony of their faith in Jesus, through Whom God had brought into this world a great new light.

Those leaders and elders refused to believe in Jesus, and they thought that by sentencing Him to death on the cross, handing Him over to the Romans and after having rejected Him, and turned their backs from Him, humiliating Him and forcing Him to suffer a most painful death, they thought that they have finally succeeded in getting rid of the One Whom they thought to be their rival.

But in the Gospel, we were shown again, how amazing was our Risen Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world Who had conquered death itself. He showed Himself to have risen from the dead to the Apostles in several occasions, reassuring them and strengthening their faith, that all was not lost, but in fact was the beginning of a new time of grace.

By His death and resurrection, Jesus has opened the gates to salvation, and He has opened the path for us all to walk in, from the darkness into the light. Through Him, mankind who once thought that everything was lost to them, and that there is no hope to escape from the pain of death, now they all have received a new hope, an assurance of life and everlasting peace, joy and harmony through Him, so long as they make the choice to trust in the Lord and follow Him.

And this is where He also laid the work ahead for all of us, just as He had shown it through His Apostles. Today’s event of the miraculous fishing in the Lake of Tiberias is very important as well as meaningful, because it represents the Church, and all of its works to gather the people from all over the world, from many nations, to the Lord and to His salvation.

For you see, the boat represents the Church, and the Apostles are the servants of God and the members of the Church who have been saved by their faith and by their commitment to God. The net represents the efforts and works of the Church in the evangelisation and conversion of the world. The many fishes represent the people of God coming from different countries, origins and places, having different races, languages and cultures.

Remember that Jesus has called His disciples at the beginning of His earthly ministry, calling simple fishermen such as St. Peter, St. John, St. Andrew and St. James? He called them that they may no longer be just fishing for fish and for sustenance, but instead, from then on, to fish for men, that is to look for the lost souls of mankind, and bring them to the salvation in God.

And their works are not yet done even today, brothers and sisters in Christ, and thus we have a long way ahead of us, and a very important mission through which many of our fellow brethren may be saved and may find their way to the Lord. Thus, in this Easter season, as we all rejoice together in the joy of the resurrection and the promise of the life to come for all of us the faithful ones, we have to realise that we have to bring this joy also to those who have not seen the Lord and His truth, that they too may be saved.

May God awaken in all of us the spirit and the desire to love Him by loving one another, and by helping one another on our path towards redemption and eternal life. Let us seek to bring God’s salvation to all, through our words, actions and deeds that will become examples for all to see. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 28 March 2016 : First Week of Easter, Monday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we continue to rejoice in the Easter celebrations, let us all heed the words of the Scripture, reminding us that God’s love for all those who are faithful to Him will keep all of us safe from all harm and troubles, and no enemy is going to be able to threaten us or harm us if we put our full trust in the Lord our God.

In this Easter season we all rejoice together celebrating the triumph that our Lord had shown us against the forces of evil and darkness, the triumph and victory He had shown us all against sin and against death, as He proved that mankind has a way out of their enslavement to sin, and they do not need to fear sin and death, for the Lord Himself had shown them His care and love, and through Him, they have hope for a new life renewed in grace.

But alas, it is mankind themselves who refused to listen to reason and refused to accept God’s offer of grace and forgiveness. They refused to open themselves and allow God to come in and transform them for the better. They shut themselves out of God’s love and tender mercy, and instead in their pride and arrogance, they thought that only their ways were correct.

That was why the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law refused to listen to the Lord and His truth, and even after He had suffered, died and risen to glory, they refused to accept the truth that He is the Lord, the Messiah, the Saviour of all, even the Saviour of all of them, all who have rejected Him. Remember, that on the cross, Jesus prayed for those who have condemned them to death? He has forgiven them from their sins, and even to those sinful people, He has offered His salvation and redemption.

And yet, they were adamant in their refusal. Why was it so, brothers and sisters in Christ? Why did the Pharisees, the elders and the chief priests persisted in their futile and wicked attempts to oppose Jesus, so far as to tell lies and falsehoods to the people, telling them that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was false? Should they not instead then believe in Him Who had shown everything just as they had been foretold by the prophets?

No, that was not the case because of their attachment to worldliness and human greed, the temptations of power, glory, fame and majesty, the allures of human praises and the temptations of things that please the flesh. They were highly respected in the society, and they held important positions of power and honour. To give all these up by abandoning all of their old, worldly ways to follow Jesus the Lord in all things were simply too much for most of them.

They were jealous of the Lord and His teaching authority, and of the truth which He was preaching to the people of God. They saw Him as a great and dangerous rival to their own influences, to their own fame and positions, and as they were so attached to all those, they were unwilling to let them go, and thus they persisted in resisting the Lord’s good works and set obstacles in His paths.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we hear all these things today, let us then ask ourselves. Are we like the Pharisees, the elders and the chief priests? Did we allow our worldly attachments to dull our love and commitment to God and His ways? Did we allow ourselves to be taken over by our greed, our pride, arrogance, haughtiness, and all the vices and wickedness in our hearts, by jealousy and hatred?

Let us all dedicate the time and opportunities given to us this Easter in order to push ourselves ever further on the path towards eternal salvation, and let us all seek to resist the temptations of our flesh, telling no to Satan and reject all of his evil and wicked advances. Let us all pray, that God will strengthen our faith and our resolve, to become ever more faithful and devoted in His presence. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 25 March 2016 : Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is Good Friday, and we all know that today marks the very special moment in the history of our faith and of our salvation, because on this day we celebrate together the love of our God, the great and infinite love which He had for every single one of us, by bearing our own sins and iniquities upon Himself, and ascending to the hill of Golgotha, He bared Himself before all to see, and though rejected and ridiculed, He persevered to the end for our sake. Yes, so that by His suffering and death on the cross, He may bring us all out from the darkness and into the eternal light.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, one might be asking, that given the gravity of the situation of the day, of what we commemorate, then why we do call this day Good Friday? Should it not be one of sorrow and sadness, remembering how our Lord and Saviour was hated, rejected, cast out and sentenced to death on the cross? But this is where exactly we have to understand the meaning of our Lord’s works and His greatest work of all, that by sacrificing Himself and offering Himself on the cross, He has brought us all a new hope, and as well as a new life. Today is Good for us, because if not for this day, all of us would have no hope, and our existence in this world would have been meaningless.

Yes, we have ever suffered in this world, suffered pain and bitterness, sorrow and sadness, and all the other forms of sufferings because of the consequences of our sins and disobedience against God. We have betrayed our Lord, broken our promises to Him, failing to keep His laws and covenants, and by listening more to the words of Satan the deceiver and also to our own human desires, pride, greed and submitting ourselves to sin, rather than to obey the Lord and to live in accordance with His will. It was our destiny and fate for us to face persecution and punishment at the end of our earthly lives, an eternity of suffering and separation from the Lord our God in hell.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God does despise our sins and He was angry at us with our disobedience. But we must not forget that just as much as He was angry with our sins and wickedness, He also still loved us with equal and even greater intensity, for all of us are beloved in His eyes, and He had created all of us out of love, to enjoy forever the blessings and graces that He had promised to all of us. Yet, because of our disobedience, we have been sundered from Him, separated from those blessings and graces intended for us, and that is why we suffered, because of our sinfulness.

And therefore to that extent of helping us and to keep us away from our fate of being destroyed for our disobedience, God Himself intervened for our sake, by sending to us His Deliverer, the Saviour Who would bring all mankind out of their sins and their misery, and bring them from the darkness of sin and into the light of righteousness in Him. And for this purpose He would send no mere man or any mere servant, but He sent to us His own Son, the very Lord God and Creator of all life and all the universe. He sent to us as a Redeemer, the Word of God, He Who is part of the Trinity, One God and Lord of all things, and yet, in all these, He was willing to empty Himself and came down to us in the form of a humble Man.

All these were done, so that by His humble and perfect offering before God His Father, the Lord God may accept His offering, and use it as the redemption and grace for all of us mankind who have ever lived, from the days of Adam to the days of the last man at the end of time. God offered Himself on the cross for us, that all of us who have a share in His suffering and death, may receive the gifts of eternal life and redemption from our sins. This was a sacrifice beyond all other sacrifices and offerings, for if in the past, the people of Israel offered the blood of goats and doves in order to absolve them temporarily from their sins, but God Himself offered His own Flesh and Blood, the perfect and spotless offering beyond all others, which was the only one worthy to redeem the whole multitude of our sins, every single taint of original sin that had held us back from our salvation and reunion with our loving God.

And if He had loved us so much, then what are we all supposed to do, brothers and sisters in Christ? Christ had chosen to die for all of us, for all mankind, from the least of sinners to the greatest among them, and from the humblest and smallest person, to the great and the mighty. He did not choose from us, and neither was He biased against a certain group or towards a certain person, but He offered His love, mercy and salvation to all. It is our choice now then, whether we are to accept that rich offering of love and mercy, or whether we want to reject them and instead continue to proceed on with our own lives.

Today we are all reminded that the cross that our Lord bore on His way to Calvary, and the cross on which He was nailed to, and hung between the heavens and the earth is a cross of love, the cross of mercy, the cross of forgiveness. For it was through that cross, that God made His love evident to all, and it was through that love, that He endeavoured to gather all of His beloved children to Himself, and took for us, for our sake, the punishments intended for us. And that cross is also the cross of victory, of the triumph against evil and sin, and of the triumph against death. For we know that His death was not forever, and neither did death had any power over Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, but we also have to realise that the cross of Christ is also a cross of suffering, as well as a cross of responsibility. Jesus Himself had said to His disciples, that all those who want to follow Him ought to take up their own crosses and follow Him. So, all of us mankind also have the same obligation to carry up our crosses with us, if we are to follow Him. This is what Jesus told us about how by becoming His followers and disciples, life will be difficult for us, because of all the opposition by the world, and by all the forces of darkness that did not desire to see us saved from our fated destruction.

And just how do we carry our crosses, brethren? It is by remembering that the cross itself is a symbol of love, a bridge between God and mankind, which our Lord Jesus had built for us. For once because of our sins, a great and wide chasm had existed between us and God, and none of us could go to the Lord without crossing that chasm, which was impossible. But our Lord Jesus made it all possible by His death on the cross. For we all who share in His cross, dying to ourselves and our sins, share with Him the glorious joy of His resurrection and brought into a new life of righteousness worthy of our Lord. It was through this that God Himself made the bridge between Him and ourselves, that is the cross of Christ.

Therefore, in order to carry our crosses, we ought to remember that the cross itself is a joining between two components, the vertical bar and the horizontal bar. The vertical bar represents the love and the relationship we have with God, while the horizontal bar represents the love and the relationships we have with one another, with our fellow men. And hence, if we are to be faithful to the Lord, and to be worthy of the salvation which He had offered us through His cross, we ought to remember to obey His covenant and His laws, that is by loving Him with all the might of our bodies, minds, hearts and soul, and do the same to our fellow brethren around us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all use this opportunity to reflect on our own lives. Have all of us been faithful to the Lord, and obeyed all of His laws and commandments? Or have we instead been more faithful to our whim and desires? Have we been loving and merciful in our interactions with our brethren around us, showing them acts of love and mercy, of care and compassion, of tenderness and justice? Let us all do so, if we have not done so yet. Let us all go forth in celebrating this Easter Triduum and the whole joyful season of Easter, by bringing forth the joy that God brought us, and share it with others who have little or none. May God bless us and keep us, and may through His holy Cross, He brings us to eternal life in Him. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

by

Wednesday, 23 March 2016 : Wednesday of the Holy Week, Memorial of St. Turibius de Mogrovejo, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard again how Judas Iscariot went on to betray the Lord Jesus, bargaining with the chief priests and the Pharisees to hand Him over for the thirty pieces of silver coins they offered to him. Today is the traditional day in the tradition of our Church when it was told that Judas went to deal with the Pharisees about the price he would receive for betraying his Lord and Messiah.

And how is this relevant to all of us, brothers and sisters in Christ? As tomorrow is the beginning of the Easter Triduum, we should enter it with good understanding of what we are celebrating, so that when we go through it, we may find ourselves t benefit far more rather than if we do not understand or are aware of what all the important celebrations of our liturgical year are about, especially that of the upcoming few days.

Judas chose the world and its wealth instead of Jesus, His teachings and truth. He was a thief whom Jesus called to be one of His disciples. God called His disciples from various origins. Some were fishermen, some were zealots and tax collectors, and some were criminals like Judas. But what distinguished him from the others of the Twelve was that, even though the others abandoned their past lives, leaving behind everything to follow the Lord, but Judas did not.

We know how St. Peter, the chief of all the Apostles and the most devoted disciple of Jesus once also betrayed Jesus when out of fear as the Jews arrested his Lord and Master, and under suspicion because he was counted among His disciples, then he denied knowing Him, denying his own Lord, to Whom he had promised that he would even lay down his life for Him.

But what is the difference here? The difference is that, while St. Peter realised the gravity of his sins, and in the same manner, Judas also did, when he regretted having sold out his Master for thirty pieces of silver, but while Judas gave up on himself, and out of despair, hanged himself on a tree, seeking the easy way out of the trouble, but St. Peter began a long path to redemption and greatness.

Judas did not repent from his sins even though he did feel regret for his actions. He had given himself up to the temptations of the world, the temptation of money, which he was not able to resist throughout the time when he was following Jesus. He helped himself to the funds of the group, stealing from the money that should have been used to help the poor and for the common good for his own selfish benefits. And therefore, he was condemned because of his failure to turn himself away from sin, resisting those sins and seeking forgiveness from God.

St. Peter professed one more time his faith to the Lord when He asked of him three times, whether he loved Him. And as St. Peter professed his sincere and genuine love for his Lord, the Lord was happy and pleased with His faith, and entrusted to him the flock which He had established in this world, that he would become the anchor and the core through which the Church of God would grow and encompass all the people who have been saved in Him.

In all these, we have to realise one simple fact, that even all saints were themselves once sinners, and some of them were even great sinners. St. Augustine of Hippo is one of the most prominent and well-cited example, of how even a great sinner can become a great saint, only if he or she would come to realise the gravity of their sins, and know that they need to do something about it, and indeed, take the necessary action.

Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Turibius de Mogrovejo, one of the first saints hailing from the New World, or which is now known as the American continent. St. Turibius de Mogrovejo lived a few hundred years ago during the time when the people living in those places lived under slavery and harsh treatment by the Spanish who ruled over them and pressed hard on their lives, exploiting them at every possible opportunity.

St. Turibius de Mogrovejo led the people to live faithfully, and in his actions, he showed his examples to them, and worked among them even though heat, through difficult and challenging times. He helped to build facilities and infrastructures that benefited the indigenous peoples, and therefore helping them to live more comfortably and as a champion of their rights, St. Turibius de Mogrovejo helped the people to rediscover their rights.

In all these, we all should see how even the act of a single man could have such a great impact on many others. It does not need extraordinary works and events in order for us to do something that is good and something that can benefit our brethren around us. What we need to do is that we need to begin doing something and committing ourselves to do things that will bring happiness to others, and begin from small things and taking small steps to help us to become ever more righteous and committed to our Lord.

May God bless us all strengthen us, and may He keep us close to His side, and awaken in us the strong desire to love Him, so that in all the things we do, we will always strive to reach out to Him and to the salvation He offers us all with love and great kindness. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.