Season of Easter

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is indeed a great day, the day when we celebrate the feast of not just one, but two of Christ’s Twelve Apostles, His principal and the greatest of His disciples. We celebrate on this day the feast of the Apostles St. Philip and St. James. Both of them worked hard for the sake of the people of God, and as the other Apostles had done, they spread the Good News to many during their missions.

St. Philip was also known as Nathanael, a learnt and wise man of Israel, who was told to be fluent in Greek, and thus eventually he went on to preach the Lord and His truth in the regions of Greece and Roman Asia at the time, going from cities to cities, preaching to the masses and gaining for the Church many new converts and members. He went about the Greek communities and gaining many new faithful from among them.

In the end, in one account, St. Philip even managed to convert the wife of the proconsul of a region where he ministered in through his miracles and preaching. The proconsul was enraged and ordered St. Philip to be arrested, and he together with the other Apostle, St. Bartholomew, and other disciples were crucified upside down by the order of the proconsul. And it was told how St. Philip preached to the crowd gathering there from the cross, such that they wanted to release him, but this was not allowed by St. Philip himself.

Meanwhile, St. James the Greater was the brother of St. John the Apostle, once a fisherman along the Lake of Galilee, whom Jesus called together with His other Apostles, St. Peter, St. Andrew and St. John his brother. St. James the Greater played an important role during the early Church, spreading the Good News of God’s salvation after Christ’s resurrection and ascension into heaven.

It was told that St. James went to preach the Good News to the faraway regions such as the province of Iberia in what is today Spain, spreading the Gospel to the people there and helped to establish the Church in faraway regions from its origins in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. And he was therefore today renowned especially in the region known as Santiago de Compostela, where his body lay buried, because it was there where he apparently did his works of evangelisation.

And it was told that, as written in the Acts of the Apostles, how king Herod arrested St. James when he returned to the Holy Land, and in order to please the Jewish authorities, the Pharisees and the chief priests, he executed him. Thus, St. James was among the first of the Apostles to meet his end in martyrdom, but certainly, his works and legacies could still be felt even many years after his death.

Through his tireless works and commitment to the cause of the salvation of mankind, St. James and St. Philip the two Apostles of our Lord, they might have gone ahead of us to the glory of heaven. However, the impact of their actions can still be felt clearly even today. In this regard, we indeed need more and more people who are willing to commit themselves to the Lord and walk in His path as these two Apostles had one.

Truly, it will not be an easy one for us, as there would opposition against all those who are faithful and kept their faith. But Jesus reminded us yet again in the Gospel today, that we who have believed in Him, has seen the Lord Himself through Jesus, and by our faith in Him, we have been justified. And because we know the Lord, we will also do what He has asked us to do, and through these therefore, we would be blessed and saved.

During this season of Easter, which is coming to an end soon, let us therefore reflect on our own lives, and on how we have acted in our life so far. Have we been committed to our Lord, and have we been faithful to Him, through all of our words and actions? Can we call ourselves true Christians, as those who do not just believe in the Lord through mere words, but also through real action?

The examples of the Apostles St. Philip and St. James show us that there are still many things that we can do as the followers of Christ in order to fulfil the commands which our Lord had placed in the shoulders of the Apostles. Both the Apostles took the charge with zeal and vigour, and despite the challenges and the difficulties that faced them, all these did not prevent them from carrying out the missions which the Lord entrusted to them.

Let us all therefore look forward, and as we are about to celebrate the Solemnity of the Pentecost Sunday soon, let us all recommit ourselves, and rediscover the gifts of the Holy Spirit which had been given to us, and make use of them all in order to help those who are still in darkness, by showing them the love of God manifested through each and every one of us the faithful ones of our Lord, that more and more souls may see the light of God and be saved. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 14 : 6-14

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you know Me, you will know the Father also; indeed you know Him, and you have seen Him.”

Philip asked Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough.” Jesus said to him, “What! I have been with you so long and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever sees Me sees the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?”

“All that I say to you, I do not say of Myself. The Father Who dwells in Me is doing His own work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do.”

“Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in Me will do the same works that I do; and he will even do greater than these, for I am going to the Father. Everything you ask in My Name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Indeed, anything you ask, calling upon My Name, I will do.”

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 18 : 2-3, 4-5

The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Day talks it over with day; night hands on the knowledge to night.

No speech, no words, no voice is heard – but the call goes on throughout the universe, the message is felt to the ends of the earth.

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Corinthians 15 : 1-8

Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, of the Good News that I preached to you and which you received and on which you stand firm. By that Gospel you are saved, provided that you hold to it as I preached it. Otherwise, you will have believed in vain.

In the first place, I have passed on to you what I myself received : that Christ died for our sins, as Scripture says; that He was buried; that He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures; that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. Afterwards He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters together; most of them are still alive, although some have already gone to rest.

Then He appeared to James and after that to all the Apostles. And last of all, He appeared to the most despicable of them, this is to me.

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Monday, 2 May 2016 : Sixth Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the words of the Sacred Scriptures telling us about the works and journeys of St. Paul the Apostle during his time when he journeyed through the Eastern Mediterranean regions, visiting cities after cities, towns after towns, and encouraging the faith of the Christian communities which he was visiting.

There were people who welcomed him and helped him just as the faithful had in some of the cities that St. Paul visited, but in even more occasions, there were also many of those who refused to listen to his words, rejected him, cast stone at him and ejected him out of their cities and towns. This is just as what Jesus our Lord Himself had foretold to His disciples, that they would be accepted, but also would be rejected as well.

And in the Gospel today, Jesus encouraged His disciples that He would not abandon them to face the challenges of the world alone on their own. He would send them the Helper, His own Holy Spirit, Whom He would send to those whom He had deemed to be worthy, His servants and people who went about preaching His truth and His Good News to mankind.

As we approach the coming of the feast and solemnity of Pentecost Sunday, which will be in about two weeks’ time, we are going to hear more and more about the promise of God’s Holy Spirit, which He shall pour down and bestow on all those whom He has deemed to be worthy. And the Spirit shall empower them, encouraging their hearts to be steadfast and steady in their faith in God.

The Holy Spirit shall inflame lukewarm hearts and strengthen the faith of those whose faith are shaken. But, in order to fully realise and utilise the graces and blessings of the Holy Spirit, we have to cultivate the seeds of faith, hope and love which it has placed in each and every one of us, that the gifts of the Spirit to us may grow and multiply, and bring all of us ever closer to God and being ever righteous and just, we may be found worthy of Him.

God always helps those who want to help themselves. And to those who have faithfully kept His commandments and walk in His ways, He shall give even greater gifts. And this grace we can find in the person of the saint whose feast we are commemorating today, namely that of St. Athanasius, a great and holy bishop, and an exemplary role model for many of those who followed him in his way of life.

St. Athanasius lived at a time when the persecution against Christians have ended, and the faithful were free to live out their faith as they wished. However, divisions appeared in the society by the vicious works of the devil, who through his persuasion and through the false prophets which he had planted among the faithful, he had lured many people away from salvation, and even threatened to corrupt the pure teachings of the Church and tore it apart.

But this is where St. Athanasius came into the fray and intervened for the love of God’s Church and the faithful, and for the zeal he has for the Lord and the Faith which he has in Him. St. Athanasius, a holy and devoted bishop, was a simple and loving man, but when he was asked to stand up for his faith in the matter of the heretical teachings and aberrations that threatened to bring countless peoples into damnation, he was inflamed and full of zeal, and spoke out harshly against those heretics who twisted and corrupted the Lord’s teachings for their own purposes and desires.

Many times, St. Athanasius encountered trouble for his vigorous opposition against the heretical teachings, particularly the false teachings of Arius, the false prophet and heresiarch, who advocated that the Lord Jesus was not God, but instead was a mere man without any link to power or divinity, as just one among God’s creations. This teaching was false, and misled many, even among the priests and bishops who in dissent followed Arius’ errors and spread his heresy among many more people.

This was where St. Athanasius did not pull back his opposition, and he was renowned for his Athanasian Creed, the creed of faith that expanded upon the original Nicene Creed, and emphasised at every step, the fundamentals of the Christian faith, particularly the divinity and equality which Jesus our Lord has with the Father, three Divine Persons but one God, the Most Holy Trinity.

St. Athanasius clearly did not have it easy. Just as there were many who accepted and welcomed his views, and proceeded on to defend the true faith, there were also many of those who refused to believe in the truth and preferred to walk the path of heresy, including even the powerful and the mighty. As a result, St. Athanasius was even persecuted and exiled from his see for a few years, and had to endure great difficulty and suffering. But he did not give up.

Through his efforts and hard work, he managed to bring many souls back from the darkness of the heresy they espoused, and these repented and returned to the true faith. Had St. Athanasius not be courageous and be devoted in resisting the pull of heresy and the false teachings, more and more people could have encountered damnation and fall into the eternal darkness of hell.

Therefore today, as we reflect on the passages from the Holy Scriptures, let us all also think of what St. Athanasius had done, and realise that each and every one of us can also follow in his footsteps. We do not have to do great things as he had done, but we should begin from even simple steps such as putting into our lives the practice of true faith, and put into real action, all that we have believed in the Lord, and become truly faithful as St. Athanasius had been.

Let us pray to the Lord, that all of us will be blessed in all of our endeavours. Let us draw closer to God and ask Him to bless us in everything we do, so that we may have our works successful and help to bring each and every one of us closer to our Lord, our loving God and Father. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 2 May 2016 : Sixth Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 15 : 26 – John 16 : 4a

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper, “From the Father, I will send you the Spirit of truth. When this Helper has come from the Father, He will be My Witness, and you, too, will be My witnesses, for you have been with Me from the beginning.”

“I tell you all this to keep you from stumbling and falling away. They will put you out of the synagogue. Still more, the hour is coming, when anyone who kills you will claim to be serving God; they will do this, because they have not known the Father or Me. I tell you all these things now so that, when the time comes, you may remember that I told you.”

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Monday, 2 May 2016 : Sixth Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 149 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b

Alleluia! Sing to the Lord a new song, sing His praise in the assembly of His saints. Let Israel rejoice in his Maker, let the people of Zion glory in their King!

Let them dance in praise of His Name and make music for Him with harp and timbrel. For the Lord delights in His people; He crowns the lowly with victory.

The saints will exult in triumph; even at night on their couches. Let the praise of God be on their lips, this is the glory of all His saints. Alleluia!

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Monday, 2 May 2016 : Sixth Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 16 : 11-15

So we put out to sea from Troas and sailed straight across to Samothrace Island, and the next day to Neapolis. From there we went inland to Philippi, the leading city of the district of Macedonia, and a Roman colony. We spent some days in that city.

On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the bank of the river where we thought the Jews would gather to pray. We sat down and began speaking to the women who were gathering there. One of them was a God-fearing woman named Lydia from Thyatira City, a dealer in purple cloth.

As she listened, the Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. After she had been baptised together with her household, she invited us to her house, “If you think I am faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us to accept her invitation.

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Sunday, 1 May 2016 : Sixth Sunday of Easter, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the essence of the readings from the Holy Scriptures on this day is that we ought to be doing the works that we have been expected to do as the followers and disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. The essence of today’s readings is one of action, that is good actions that we need to accomplish in our own respective lives, so that we will be worthy of God and His presence in us that bring us to justification and eternal life.

In the first reading, we heard about the dilemma faced by the early Church with regards to the obedience to the Law of God, and more specifically the laws of Moses passed down through the generations, with all of its modifications and additions, which resulted in a very complicated and numerous set of rules and regulations that the Pharisees and the conservatives in the Jewish society in particular, enforced on the people of God.

These rules and regulations covered everything in the Jewish society, all sorts of etiquettes and expectations in all kinds of activities, from how you ought to wash and purify your hands before you have a meal, and the rites involved in the commemoration of the Sabbath day, not withstanding the strict observation of the sabbath and its prohibition of any sorts of activities, as certainly all of us would have seen throughout the Gospels, how the Pharisees strictly enforced it.

But all these rules and regulations, are they helping in bringing the people closer to God? They are a burden and an unnecessary chore for those who wanted to follow the Lord. Indeed, the Jews themselves did not fulfil the entirety of the obligations of the human laws, and were struggling with it themselves, not to think about how difficult it would be for the different kinds of people at that time, Greeks, Syrians and Romans, and many others who became members of the Church.

These would have to abandon their old ways of life and embrace the strict rules of the Jewish traditions, if the Pharisees and the conservatives among the early Christians were to succeed in their endeavours. It would be difficult, as then those new faithful would be ostracised by their own societies and communities for being different, following a foreign culture instead of their own. But, the Apostles through the Holy Spirit reminded the whole assembly that this is not what the Lord wanted from His people.

Instead, He made it clear to them on many occasions, that if they love Him and truly love Him, they would listen to His words and do as what He had asked them to do. And His words and will are that they ought to love Him with all of their hearts, their minds and with all of their abilities and capacities, giving all of their beings and attention to Him above anything else, and then do the same to their fellow brethren.

It is what the Lord Jesus had revealed to all of us mankind, that His Law, the Law of God is truly the Law of Love. And love is that one should give it his or her all to another whom he or she love, unconditionally and with full intention of love. Love is unconditional and selfless, giving of oneself to another, just as what the Lord Jesus Himself perfectly had shown to us, by His death on the cross, the ultimate love, that no better love exist, other than for one to give His life for another.

But is love just a feeling, or something that we should enjoy with one another? No, it is not, brethren. Love without concrete and real action is empty and meaningless. Love without commitment is empty and without real significance, and it is indeed not love. Love must be active and filled with many good deeds, showing our care and concern for our fellow men and women, and showing our piety and dedication to our Lord.

This therefore ties in perfectly with today’s great celebration, which coincides with the sixth Sunday in the season of Easter. On the first day of May, in the secular world we heard about the term May Day or Labour Day, the day which commemorates all the workers of the world, all those who toil and labour for the sustenance of themselves and their families, and hoping for a better life.

But in the Church, we celebrate it with even more meaning than just worldly work and labours. Today we mark the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. St. Joseph is the foster father of our Lord Jesus, and he was a carpenter in Nazareth, both before and after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was an upright man, who upheld integrity and justice in his profession, and worked with zeal and faith, a model worker for all.

He showed us all that a good worker is not just someone who is looking to gather and gain more money or possession for themselves. Otherwise, he himself would not have been satisfied with the job of a carpenter. A carpenter’s job was an honest and humble job, but at the same time, it was tiresome and does not produce much money, and at that time, the society tended to look down on these kind of menial works.

That was why the people of Nazareth was skeptical and indeed refused to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, because they thought they knew Him as the Son of a mere carpenter. They looked down on Him and sneered at Him, thinking that He was a nobody Who dared and tried to make Himself famous by breaking through the social prejudice. That is how mankind is, and that is how we ourselves live in our world today. We tend to categorise people and become prejudice against others based on who they are, what they are working as, or in how they act.

But again, God made it clear to all of us, that we should strive for love, and all of us should be honest and upright in all things. A good worker is someone who knows love, and a person who knows how to love is someone who can show their love for another through real and concrete actions and not just through mere words or proclamations.

Thus, all of us are called to love, to obey the Lord’s commandments, that is love. We should not be like the Pharisees who were overly attached to their human laws, rules and regulations that stifled the faithful who wanted to follow the Lord, but was discouraged by the kind of commitment they need to make by obeying those draconian rules.

Yet, we must also be aware that love is not something that is easy to do or to be attained. True love require effort, commitment and sacrifice. Jesus Himself had shown the example for us, that out of His love for us, He was willing to spend His time with us, teaching us and helping us to find the way to God through Him, and He even bore the multitudes of our sins, all the punishments intended for those sins, and bore it upon Himself, carrying that cross to Calvary.

We should walk in our Lord’s footsteps, and in the footsteps of his foster-father, St. Joseph the Worker, St. Joseph the Carpenter. We should be upright and uphold integrity and justice in all of our actions and in all of our dealings with one another. And most importantly of all, as I have emphasised again and again from just now, that we must all have love for each other, and show them through genuine acts of love, and show the same love for our Lord as well.

And all of us who have done all these faithfully, well, we know our heavenly reward is awaiting us at the end of the day. Just as all the workers are rewarded for their hard work and deeds, we too shall be rewarded, so long as we remain faithful to the Lord our God. In the second reading from the Book of Revelations of St. John the Apostle, at the end of that book, we hear about the heavenly city of Jerusalem, the City of God descending from heaven, in which all the faithful shall live forever with God.

And thus, if we are faithful, and if we show love for God and for each other, God shall find us worthy and just, and He shall welcome us into His City, and He shall wipe away all of our tears and sorrows, and place true joy inside each and every one of us. Let us all endeavour and work hard for this purpose, brethren, that all of us will draw ever closer to Him.

Let us all ask for the intercession of His foster-father, St. Joseph the Worker, that he will always intercede for our sake, and pray that all of us may persevere in our good works, for the sake of our salvation. May God bless us all always and keep us in His grace forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 1 May 2016 : Sixth Sunday of Easter, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 14 : 23-29

At that time, Jesus answered Judas, not Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples at the Last Supper, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him; and We will come to him and make a room in his home. But if anyone does not love Me, he will not keep My words; and these words that you hear are not Mine, but the Father’s Who sent Me.”

“I told you all this while I was still with you. From now on the Helper, the Holy Spirit Whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I have told you. Peace be with you! I give you My peace; not as the world gives peace do I give it to you. Do not be troubled; do not be afraid.”

“You heard Me say, ‘I am going away, but I am coming to you.’ If you loved Me, you would be glad that I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you this now before it takes place, so that when it does happen you may believe.”