Seventh Sunday of Easter

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Monday, 18 May 2015 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 67 : 2-3, 4-5ac, 6-7ab

Arise, o God, scatter Your enemies; let Your foes flee before You. As smoke is blown by the wind, so blow them away; as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish before You.

But let the righteous be glad and exult before God; let them sing to God and shout for joy. Sing to God, sing praises to His Name. Rejoice in His presence.

Father of orphans and Protector of widows – such is our God in His holy dwelling. He gives shelter to the homeless, sets the prisoners free.

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Monday, 18 May 2015 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 19 : 1-8

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul travelled through the interior of the country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples whom he asked, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answered, “We have not even heard that anyone may receive the Holy Spirit.”

Paul then asked, “What kind of baptism have you received?” And they answered, “The baptism of John.” Paul then explained, “John’s baptism was for conversion, but he himself said that they should believe in the One who was to come, and that One is Jesus.”

Upon hearing this, they were baptised in the Name of the Lord Jesus. Then Paul laid his hands on them and the Holy Spirit came down upon them; and they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy. There were about twelve of them in all. Paul went into the synagogue and for three months he preached and discussed there boldly, trying to convince them about the Kingdom of God.

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Sunday, 17 May 2015 : Seventh Sunday of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the last of the seven Sundays of Easter and the beginning of the last week of the Easter season. Next Sunday will be the Solemnity of the Pentecost, when we celebrate the great ending of the season of Easter, by recalling the birth of the Church through the sending and the descent of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and disciples of Christ.

And today we heard about how Jesus cares for all those who are under His care and protection. He prayed to His Father to bless and protect all those whom He had chosen and called, and to preserve them in His love so that they would not be lost, unless they themselves choose to be lost. This is to reflect the events that were about to happen at that time, when Judas, the faithless disciple betrayed Jesus and chose the greed of the world and money over faith to the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us must understand that the fundamental part of our faith in God is to understand and comprehend the wholeness of the love of God. And this love is so great and so unconditional and selfless in nature, that for us all mankind who are used to the kind of selfish love and desires in the world, it is indeed difficult to understand the extent and nature of the love that God has for all of us.

But that is why our faith in God should be filled with the attempts by us to understand more about this love, which God had shown us, for God Himself is Love, and if we claim to know what love is, then we have to know what God has done for us. For we are all sinners and wicked in nature, through what we have done in our respective lives, be it in small or great things. And yet, God continues to love us and care for us, the love which He showed us by sending Jesus to our midst, that He may dwell among us, His beloved people and save us.

This celebration of Easter is truly a celebration of God’s love, which had been made real and concrete through Jesus, our Paschal Lamb, the Lamb of God who had willingly given Himself up to be sacrificed on the cross for us. From the cross He had offered up His Body and shed His Blood, as the perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sins, and by His Blood and His death therefore, we have been cleansed and made holy by the Lord Himself.

At the times past, after the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt, the people of Israel made a covenant with the Lord their God through Moses, who offered animal sacrifices on the altar at the foot of God’s holy mountain, and the blood of the lambs and goats sacrificed were sprinkled onto the people, who then became part of God’s covenant and became partakers in His grace and blessings.

Remember then, when our Lord Jesus Christ spoke at the Last Supper, the moment when He uttered the prayers we heard in today’s Gospel? Yes, the moment when He gave the bread and wine He blessed and transformed into His own real Flesh and Blood? He said, this is My Body which is given up for you, and this is My Blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins and as the seal of the new Covenant which God made with us all through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Jews who cried out for His death, asking for the crucifixion of the Saviour before Pilate, the Roman governor, spoke of how they would bear the Blood of the One they had condemned to death upon themselves and their own children, without realising the importance of these words. And often, we ourselves also overlook the importance of these words for our salvation. For this shows how by the Blood of the Paschal Lamb, Christ, we have been sanctified and consecrated to the Lord.

And unlike the blood of lambs and goats of the old days and times, this Blood is none other than the Most Precious Blood of our Lord and Saviour, and together with His Most Precious Body, we all have shared in them and become partakers in God’s new Covenant and therefore, receive the fullness of His blessings and grace. And all of us Christians that belong to the one and only Church of God, have been part of this new Covenant and sanctification that Christ mentioned, since the day of our baptism.

Regardless whether we were baptised as infants or as fully conscious adults, on the day of our baptism, we have cast aside our old life and our worldliness, and either by our conviction or by the conviction of our parents and godparents, we have made the decision to reject Satan and all of his evil and wicked lies, and vow to preserve the faith, the true faith and understanding of the Lord and His ways which have been passed down to us through the Church.

And by the waters of baptism, we are reborn anew, that is to be born again in the Lord. We have shared in the death of Christ, and we leave behind our sickened and corrupted old past, and then were raised again into a new life, sharing in our Lord’s resurrection. This is the essence of Easter and why we celebrate it with so much joy, because indeed it is inseparable from our own history of being saved in the Lord.

And then we also receive the Holy Spirit and its power and encouragement through the Sacrament of Confirmation, when our faith in the Lord is affirmed and strengthened. And we share in the Most Holy Eucharist, by receiving our Lord’s own Body and Blood, and thus become full participants and sharers in God’s Covenant that He has sealed with His own Blood and His own sacrifice on the cross.

We have all been consecrated and sanctified for the Lord, and He has chosen us all, to be loved by Him and to receive the fullness of His grace and love. As I have mentioned earlier, the Lord Himself is love, and by His love, the perfect and selfless love, He has willed for us all to repent and to change from our sinful ways, into new lives blessed by Him. And this is what had happened to us all.

But then, this then should remind us of what we need to do from now on. Christ is our Teacher, our Lord and our High Priest, and by the baptism we received, we have shared the same mission, the priestly, kingly and godly nature of our Lord. Therefore, we have a mission before all of us, that Christ Himself had entrusted to His Apostles and disciples, and therefore to all of us.

We have to carry the message of our Lord’s salvation to the nations, preaching His love and the care which He has shown us, to all the peoples, that they too may realise how great is the love that God has for them, just as He had shown us. God loves everyone, and it will indeed be very troubling if we have people who failed to be saved and rescued if it is within our power and ability to help them.

Let us therefore remember that we have been marked and chosen by our Lord to be saved, and we have been sanctified and prepared by Him, for a mission to continue His good works in this world, that is to save as many souls as possible from the darkness and sin, and from the depredations of Satan and all of his forces. Let us renew our commitments and efforts to help each other in reaching out towards salvation, and let us not be apathetic to the cries of our brethren who long to see and listen to the word of God. May God be with us all and with all of our endeavours. Amen.

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Sunday, 17 May 2015 : Seventh Sunday of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 17 : 11b-19

At that time, Jesus prayed to His Father, saying, “Holy Father, keep those you have given Me in Your Name, so that they may be one, as We also are. When I was with them, I kept them safe in Your Name; and not one was lost, except the one who was already lost, and in this the Scripture was fulfilled.”

“And now I come to You; in the world I speak these things, so that those whom You gave Me, might have joy – all My joy within themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to remove them from the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”

“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. I have sent them into the world as You sent Me into the world; and for their sake, I go to the sacrifice by which I am consecrated, so that they too may be consecrated in truth.”

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Sunday, 17 May 2015 : Seventh Sunday of Easter (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 4 : 11-16

Dear friends, if such has been the love of God, we, too, must love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and His love comes to its perfection in us.

How may we know that we live in God and He in us? Because God has given us His Spirit. We ourselves have seen and declare that the Father sent His Son to save the world. Those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in them and they in God.

We have known the love of God and have believed in it. God is Love. The one who lives in love, lives in God and God in him.

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Sunday, 17 May 2015 : Seventh Sunday of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 102 : 1-2, 11-12, 19-20ab

Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless His holy Name! Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.

As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove from us our sins.

The Lord has set His throne in heaven; He rules, He has power everywhere. Praise the Lord, all you His angels.

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Sunday, 17 May 2015 : Seventh Sunday of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 1 : 15-17, 20a, 20c-26

It was during this time that Peter stood up in the midst of the community – about one hundred and twenty in all – and he said, “Brothers, it was necessary that the Scriptures referring to Judas be fulfilled. The Holy Spirit had spoken through David about the one who would lead the crowd coming to arrest Jesus. He was one of our number and had been called to share our common ministry.”

“In the book of Psalms it is written : ‘May another take his office.’ Therefore we must choose someone from among those who were with us during all the time that the Lord Jesus moved about with us, beginning with John’s baptism until the day when Jesus was taken away from us. One of these has to become, with us, a witness to His resurrection.”

Then they proposed two : Joseph, called Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and Matthias. They prayed : “You know, Lord, what is in the hearts of all. Show us, therefore, which of the two You have chosen to replace Judas in this apostolic ministry which he deserted to go to the place he deserved.”

Then they drew lots between the two and the choice fell on Matthias who was added to the eleven Apostles.

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Message to the Faithful and Reflection on the Occasion of the Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday

Liturgical Colour : Red

Brothers and sisters in Christ! Today I wish you all Happy Pentecost and indeed happy birthday to us all as the members of His One Church, the One Body of Christ. Today is indeed the birthday of the Church, as the Pentecost day when the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles marked the very beginning of the Apostolic ministry of the Church as we know it.

The Pentecost day from its name signify a period of fifty days since the celebration of the Passover, that is the Jewish Passover. Why do we call this solemnity, the solemnity of the Pentecost? That is because the Jews also celebrate Pentecost, but for a different purpose. After the people of Israel had been brought out of Egypt, they travelled for days through the desert, from the Red Sea to the Mount Horeb, or the Mountain of God.

There the people encamped on the plain, while Moses ascended up the mountain to meet the Lord and receive something that was truly very important. The Pentecost celebration by the Jewish people celebrated that moment when the Lord gave His gift, the Law which He revealed to Moses, to the people of Israel, as a guide on how they should live their lives worthily of the Lord. The Pentecost for the Jewish people therefore originally meant the reception of the Law as the means of enlightenment, that the people who was once lawless and without guide, now has the Law to guide them.

As we witnessed in the Scripture reading, the reading on the Tower of Babel, which many of us are quite familiar with, shows how mankind after creation had grown proud on earth with their accomplishments, and tried to challenge God by building the tower that reaches to the heavens. As a result, God punished mankind who had grown proud by confusing their languages and customs, that they become separated into many peoples and many languages. Hence the people of God became leaderless and without guidance.

But God did not intend to let this go on forever. So first through Moses He gave the people the Law, as the first guide for them to seek Him. But it is not perfect, for although the Law itself in its entirety is perfect, but mankind whose wisdom has been brought to disarray by God has different mindsets and ways of thinking. That is why we often disagree on many matters big and small, and we often have different opinions on things and other occurrences. The same therefore happened to how the people of God interpret the Law.

Some took a laidback and leisurely attitude to the Law, while others took the Law very seriously and even to the point of being very detailed and thorough in their observation of the Law. There were widely differing views and interpretations, which ended up in the corruption of the true meaning of the Law. The observation of the Law over time became ritualistic and formal observations, and the elders of the people over time interpret the Law in ever more varying ways so as to create extensive new rules and regulations that the people have to obey, an astounding six hundred and thirteen rules in all for the people to observe.

Hence, that is why the people grew ever more distant from the Lord, and they grew ever more wayward, particularly that of the leaders and the priestly class. These people grew to enjoy the power that they possess as judges of the people, and abused their power in many occasions. Over time, this grew worse, and these leaders ended up leading the people of God further from salvation, as they committed wicked things and sins before the eyes of God.

The Lord promised the coming of the Messiah, who would liberate the people of God and brought them to a new light and understanding about God. And He had well-prepared the people long before the coming of this Messiah, who came in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, and also the Son of God. He is the Word of God made flesh, and by entering into the material body of mankind, He entered our world in order to redeem it.

The Son, Jesus Christ was with God, and is now with God, and He is equal with the Father, and together with the Holy Spirit, He is One. Yes, there is only One God, omnipotent and unsurpassed in all things, but at the same time, the Oneness of the Lord consists also of three distinct and equal Divine Persons, in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each of them are equal to each other, but they are not the same to each other. Yet, they are perfectly bound in love, forming what we know as the Most Holy Trinity.

And this was the truth which the Messiah and Son brought into the world, together with the proclamation of God’s love and saving works, which He intended to fulfill through the works of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. He taught the people of God by the means of parables and stories, as well as explanations, which He made even clearer to His disciples, the Apostles. But they had not been able to understand it yet before the coming of the Holy Spirit, for the understanding is in them, but their confused mind still blocked them from truly understanding the completeness of truth in Christ.

This is where the Pentecost came in, the Christian Pentecost, that is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples, the beginning of the Church of God on earth. Just as the first Pentecost involves the revelation of God through the Law, the second and greatest Pentecost involves the revelation of God in its completeness and fullness through the Holy Spirit Himself that descended directly to the people of God through the Apostles.

Jesus had promised the disciples often, that He would send them the Helper, or the Advocate, which in fact is the Holy Spirit. And He fulfilled that promise on the Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descended like a fire on each of the disciples, who went on to preach from then on, without fear and full of courage, the truth about Christ and the Good News of His salvation, passing down the Holy Spirit to all those who are faithful to God.

The Holy Spirit filled the hearts of the disciples and their minds, inflaming in themselves the fire of wisdom, understanding and love. The Holy Spirit is the great Teacher promised by Jesus, that He would teach mankind the complete truth about the Law and the Love which God has for mankind, and through Him would come the entirety of the revelation of His plans for us, that is for our salvation.

The Most Holy Trinity is working in tandem in order to make sure that everything goes on smoothly. God the Father is the source of all things, of all knowledge, wisdom and power, and the Son, Jesus, is the channel, through which the Father made manifest all of His love for mankind, which culminated in His death on the cross, the ultimate proof of love by God for men. And lastly, the Holy Spirit is the energy, the power that makes everything possible, through which the grace of God enters mankind, and that was exactly what happened at the Pentecost.

We can see clearly the difference between what happened before the Pentecost and after that. Before the Pentecost, the disciples were often doubtful and fearful. Even when Jesus was still with them, they often had doubts and fears while following Him. When Jesus was arrested by the chief priests, the disciples were scattered, like sheep whose shepherd had been struck down. Even Peter denied the Lord three times in order to preserve his own safety, because he was uncertain, afraid and doubtful.

But after the Holy Spirit had descended on the disciples on Pentecost, there was a drastic and total change in attitude and outlook in them, that the once fearful disciples became courageous and fearless in proclaiming their faith openly. From the meetings that were carried under locked doors into the public preaching on the streets and in the Temple, and persevering even against the harsh persecution by the chief priests and the Pharisees. That is the power of the Holy Spirit.

However, all of this would not have been possible if they had not opened themselves and commit themselves to do the will of the Holy Spirit. We too, brothers and sisters, have received the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation, when the Spirit granted to us in Baptism is strengthened with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit like that of the Pentecost day when the flames of the Holy Spirit descended unto the disciples of Christ.

But we cannot be idle, for if we remain idle, then we will never bear any fruits of the Holy Spirit. There are seven fruits of the Holy Spirit, all of which bear the testimony of God’s love and blessing on us, and they need to be cultivated in us, if we are to bear these fruits. The Apostles and the disciples of Christ opened themselves completely to the Spirit and were committed to do the works of the Holy Spirit, and therefore they bore many fruits in their lives and received rich rewards in the end.

In the parable of the fig tree, Jesus said that a tree that bears no fruit or bad fruit is useless, and ought to be thrown into the fire and perish. That will be the same for us, if we fail to make use of the Holy Spirit which had been passed down to us through the Sacrament of the Church from the Apostles. We have to bear fruits, the fruits of the Holy Spirit, if we are to receive rich rewards from the Lord, otherwise, we will be cast out from His presence and unworthy of Him.

Let us all therefore, in this Pentecost day celebration, renew our commitment to the Lord, and recall the day when we received the Holy Spirit unto ourselves. Let the Holy Spirit make great works within us, that we may bring the love of God to all the peoples of all nations, and bring many souls closer to God, that they too may receive the Holy Spirit and be saved. God be with us all, and may His Spirit be upon us always. Amen.

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Sunday, 8 June 2014 : Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 20 : 19-23

On the evening of that day, the first day after the Sabbath, the doors were locked where the disciples were, because of their fear of the Jews. But Jesus came, and stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be with you!” Then He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples kept looking at the Lord and were full of joy.

Again Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.” After saying this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! Those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; those whose sins you retain, they are retained.”

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Sunday, 8 June 2014 : Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Corinthians 12 : 3b-7, 12-13

No one can say, “Jesus is the Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There is diversity of gifts, but the Spirit is the same. There is diversity of ministries, but the Lord is the same. There is diversity of works, but the same God works in all. The Spirit reveals His presence in each one with a gift that is also a service.

As the body is one, having many members, and all the members, and all the members, while being many, form one body, so it is with Christ. All of us, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, have been baptised in one Spirit to form one body and all of us have been given to drink from the one Spirit.