sinfulness

by

Tuesday, 11 February 2014 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Marian feast)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I am sure that all of you know the importance of today’s celebration, that is commemorating the Mother of our God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who appeared in an apparition to St. Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes more than a hundred and fifty years ago. Our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to her and showing her concern and care for us all mankind, who are still in state of sin and unworthy of her Son, Jesus our Lord.

Lourdes today had become a very popular site of pilgrimage, besides that of Fatima, another site of major apparition of Mary. In Lourdes, Mary appeared to St. Bernadette and over a period of many days and apparitions, she showed her concern for mankind, and eventually through the act of penance made by St. Bernadette, a clear spring of water gushed out of the ground at the grotto of Lourdes, at the site where Mary showed herself to St. Bernadette.

The water was pure and holy, and ever since then, it has caused many miraculous cure of the sick, those who came and immersed themselves in the water with full faith in God. And this ties in well with another event that we are celebrating today, indeed tied to the miraculous nature of the apparition at Lourdes, that is the World Day of Prayer for the Sick.

Every year many people visit the grotto at Lourdes, now a major pilgrimage place, and there are many different kinds of people who went there. There are the healthy ones, who seek to pray and to have the time spent with God and Mary, His mother, asking for her intercession before her Son for their sins, and there are of course the sick, who come there to seek healing and miracle of Lourdes, to be healed of their afflictions and illnesses.

It does not matter who comes to Lourdes, because everyone indeed are sick, and they seek to cure this sickness be it the sickness of the body and flesh, or the sickness of the soul and the spiritual. They seek to be cured and completely healed from their afflictions, and to be made healthy again in body and in spirit.

Yes, we are all sick, brothers and sisters in Christ, because sin is in all of us, and even the smallest of sins is a black taint upon our souls much like a festering wound seeking to destroy and kill us. Sin is a disease that afflicts not just our hearts, but also that of our flesh and our soul. As long as sin is within us, then we are sick and we are not well.

That is why the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Bernadette that time, to help all of us to seek the cure in God. It is not in the power of Mary herself or in the water that made whoever was cured of their conditions whole, because it was God who made them whole, after hearing the intercession of Mary, who intercede on behalf of those who believe in her message delivered through St. Bernadette and the Church to us.

We have to realise that all of us sin, and many of us make major mistakes and great sins in life, and as long as sin is in us, we are greatly hindered in our way towards the Lord. Worse still is that sin may prevent us from reaching our goal that is the Lord and instead bring us to eternal damnation in hell, for the punishment of our sins.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is important that all of us seek to understand our faith, and understand what God wants from each one of us. What God seeks from us is actually simple, that is love, devotion and complete understanding of His ways. And we should all show this in our words, deeds, and actions. We should not just have empty faith in God, for empty faith is as good as dead.

And we should always seek to emulate the examples shown by His mother Mary, whose actions are model for all of us who believe in God. Mary is the perfect example of obedience, righteousness, and faith. Follow her obedience to the will of God, and we will be fine. Follow her righteous and upright life and actions, and we will be fine. Follow her unconditional love and faith for God, and we will be fine.

And in Mary too we have a great helper who can help us to reach for the Lord, her Son. She does this in many ways, but first, she prays for us at all times, and intercedes for each one of us before her Son at the foot of His throne in heaven. If only we are to ask her for help, and if only we show our concern at our own sinfulness, then Mary would have gladly helped us and intercede for our sake.

Through what happened at Lourdes too, Mary showed that at times she wanted to play a more direct role in helping to bring mankind closer to salvation and this she did, out of her love for her fellow mankind, still trapped in the quagmire of sin. She prays without cease for our sake, for the sake of all of us sinners still in this world, before it is too late for us.

May we therefore realise the gravity of our own sickness, of our sins and the illness in our souls, that we may seek God’s forgiveness and help from Mary His mother. Let us all also pray for those among us who are sick, and also for those who had yet to listen to God and remained in darkness, that God too may call them out of their afflictions and into good health by receiving Him as their Lord and Saviour.

O Holy Mother of God, our Lady of Lourdes, our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, pray for us sinners, now at the hour of our death. Amen.

by

Monday, 10 February 2014 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White (Virgins)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God loves us all so much, and this world so much, that He wanted to be involved with us, and He wanted to enter into our lives, and indeed, He came to dwell among His people in His love. He cannot deny the love He has for us, because the love He has for all of us is pure love, the purest of all love. It is not lust or desire, but a true desire and wish for all of us to be one with Him, and for us to be freed from all the chains and fetters of sin that had separated us from Him.

That was why He sent the people prophets after prophets and messengers after messengers, to reveal both the love He has for us, and the designs He had planned for each one of us. He gave them law to obey and follow, that they may walk always faithfully in His ways, and not be corrupted by the ways of this world ruled by Satan, the father of evil and sin.

And He chose to involve Himself with His own people, first by freeing them from their slavery in Egypt, and delivering them from their oppressors into the Promised Land. Through Moses His servant He gave them the true physical manifestation, in short, a proof of His love for them. He gave them His own laws, the law of love, written by Himself on the two stones as the sign of the Covenant He had made with them, a Covenant of love, that the people of God would love their God and God would love them equally back.

Yet, the people of God did not remain always faithful, and many times they rebelled against Him and His love. They followed other gods, did things wicked in  His eyes and even killed His prophets and messengers sent to remind them of the need for them to love God as part of their Covenant with Him. But God did not give up on His love for the people.

That was why He chose to even dwell among them, to dwell in the Temple which His faithful servant David had planned for Him and his son Solomon built for Him. The Temple marked yet another physical proof of God’s love for all of His people, His beloved children, and a clear proof of His desire that He wanted all of them to be with Him and He, in them.

And as the final proof of love, He gave of Himself, through Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, the Divine made Man. Jesus was the true, perfect, and complete manifestation of God’s love surpassing even the previously mentioned examples of God’s love. After all, who would have abandoned all the glory and power of heaven and all creation, to descend upon this world and become a lowly Man?

Jesus our Lord and God emptied Himself of His divinity and assumed our humanity, that He might dwell among all of us, as one of us. Yes, indeed, God who is Love was manifested in the flesh! In the flesh and blood of Jesus our Lord indeed! Through the intermediary role of the Blessed Virgin Mary, God made clear His love to all mankind.

Jesus showed God’s infinite love for us by ministering to us, being a servant to His people, healing them from their afflictions, and empowering them with the revelations of God’s love. Jesus shared the love of God to His disciples, and from them we receive God’s love as well as the revelation on its nature. Yes, Christ showed His ultimate love for all of God’s creations by becoming the Lamb of sacrifice, hung on the cross and died for the sake of all of us.

There is no love greater than for someone to give up his life for his friend. Indeed, this was what Jesus meant, and He showed it by His own action. He died to save us, and through His glorious resurrection, He picked us up, and made us to stand up again, now on the solid foundation of faith and on the solid foundation of hope of eternal life, and on the solid foundation of love. This is the new Covenant of love that Jesus had made with all of us, sealed with the outpouring of His own Blood.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Scholastica, who was a renowned religious figure, and the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the order of the Benedictines. Together, the siblings founded the order, and helped many to find their way to love God and dedicate themselves to Him. St. Scholastica was known for her great piety and dedication and she often spent long hours in prayer.

The dedication and devotion that St. Scholastica had for the Lord is an example for all of us in how we should respond to the love that God had shown to us. Just as the Lord had loved us so much, then we too should respond in the same way and respond to Him with our own love. We should dedicate ourselves to the Lord following the example of this pious and holy saint.

Brethren in Christ, let us therefore pray for one another, that we all may grow in love, and grow to love our Lord more and more, that we may be able to fulfill our part of the Covenant God had established with us, that we love Him just as He had loved us. May our Lord continue to love us, watch over us, and bless us. Amen.

by

Saturday, 8 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani, and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins and Saints, or Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord had always loved us and He always cares for us, no matter what. That was why Jesus was so moved with compassion, that despite His fatigue after preaching to the people for so long, being confronted with even more of the faithful people, He continued on serving them and preaching to them.

Lord Jesus and His love for His people is the example of how much God loves us and cares for us, and despite our constant rebellion and disobedience against His will, He wants us to be with Him again, and that was why He sent His Son Jesus into this world, that through Him, His intentions and love could be made clear, and through Him, we can find a way to reach the Lord who loves us.

We see how people sought Jesus even across mountains and lakes, and across rivers and deserts. They did not mind hunger, thirst, or fatigue, and wanted to hear more from the Lord, the words of the Good News and salvation, the medicine for their soul. And that is how sad the state of our world today, if we can compare it to how it was at the time of Jesus as said in the Gospel today.

Our world is obsessed with all things, everything except God’s love. Many sought wealth and power, and affluence and position in the society. Yet, look at what Solomon in the first reading had sought. He sought none of them. What he sought was wisdom from the Lord, to be able to discern good from evil, and therefore from there, know what ways would please the Lord, that is doing what is good.

The world today was rife with desire and greed. People sought not love but power. People sought not sincerity but wealth. People sought not peace but hatred and violence. We have often forgotten that all of these are obstacles to the true treasures of the world. The true treasures are love, hope, and faith, the fundamental virtues and elements of our belief in the Lord.

God loves us and He is like a Father to us, and indeed, as we pray the Pater Noster, God is indeed our Father, as He had sent His own Son Jesus into this world to be with us, to be one of us, that we too may call the Lord our God Father, just as Jesus called Him Father. And as all fathers do, He will love us and care for us with all the blessings He can give us.

The problem with this world today is that everyone simply had forgotten all of these facts, hidden under layers of the devil’s lies and deceit, and hidden under all the tempting pleasures and happiness offered by the world in wealth, affluence, and power. We have forgotten God’s love and we do not realise that He always has His eyes and His heart aimed at us.

Today we celebrate the feast of two saints of the Church, that is St. Jerome Emiliani, an Italian priest who lived just five centuries ago, and St. Josephine Bakhita, who also lived at about the start of the modern era and was notably a former slave. Both of them were great saints who dedicated their lives to God, and serving mankind with love, reminding them of God’s own love, which was reflected in all of their actions.

St. Jerome Emiliani was a dedicated worker of the faith, who showed his zeal to God through love. He served the sick and the poor, even with his own expense and support, ensuring that these people, considered least in the society might enjoy the love of God as reflected through his own actions. He helped the sick during epidemics and times of difficulties, and his works of love had helped mankind to open their eyes and be touched again by God’s divine love.

St. Josephine Bakhita was a former slave, who was converted into the faith and liberated from her slavery. She chose to join the religious congregation of the Canossian sisters, where she remained and served the people of God with love and zeal, much as St. Jerome Emiliani had done. St. Josephine Bakhita’s love for God and for her fellow mankind was pure and true.

These two saints had shown us how our actions too can bring love to others, and none other than God’s own love whom He had shared with us. We cannot keep the love of God within us but we ought to share them with the world, that many will be reawakened from their slumber and realise once again the love that God has for all of them.

Just as God has awakened the wisdom in Solomon, let us all pray, brethren, that He will also awaken in many, the seed of faith, that combined with our actions of love, they too may heed God’s call to abandon all that is wicked and unworthy, changing their ways and therefore be one of us, worthy of God’s eternal kingdom. God be with us all and all our brethren, all mankind. Amen.

by

Saturday, 8 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani, and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins and Saints, or Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Psalm 118 : 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

How can young people remain pure? By living according to Your word.

I seek You with my whole heart; let me not stray from Your commands.

In my heart I have kept Your word, that I may not sin against my Lord.

Praise to You, o Lord; instruct me in Your statutes.

That with my lips I may declare all Your spoken decrees.

I delight in following Your laws, more so than in all riches.

by

Wednesday, 5 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Prophets are despised in their own country and were not well accepted at the place of their birth. That was the reality that Jesus brought up in front of His very own neighbours and fellow countrymen in the Gospel reading today. Jesus Himself was doubted and rejected by the people of His hometown, the small village of Nazareth.

Why so? That is because we mankind, in our own distorted way of perceiving the world around us, including that of our friends and relatives, our fellow men, we tend to focus on things of the world, in the glory and power of the world, and adhere to the many prejudices and preconceptions that existed in the world.

The reality of life in the time of Jesus, just as it was before that and after that, even until this day, was indeed harsh. The poor has nothing and suffered a lot under the rich and the powerful, who had everything they need and want. The rich oppressed the poor and they showcased their power with brilliant displays of wealth and affluence.

This created the mentality and prejudices among the people, especially one who was accustomed to a very hierarchical societal nature. The society of Israel, even though distinctions between peoples were not as severe as some other cultures, such as the caste system in India among others, was still quite bad. The priests and the kings and the lords were at the top of the society, respected and feared for their power, while the poor peasants lay at the bottom of that same hierarchy.

The prophets and the Messiah were imagined by the people of Israel as people of great power and wisdom, as well as learning, which was well out of the league of the poor, who could barely even afford to have a comfortable and decent living. Therefore, that is why, because in reality, many of the prophets were people called by God to live a completely devoted life to God, and abandoning all privileges, they were often poor.

In the mind of the people, those who lived with the prophets, coming from the same village, town, or neighbourhood as the prophets, those people cannot be a genuine prophet of the Lord. Simply because they assume that they know who these prophets were! Yes, such was human arrogance and assumption! The same therefore also happened to Jesus as He preached to His own neighbours in Nazareth.

They would not believe in Jesus because they always had thought of Him as a mere carpenter and a carpenter’s Son, that is the Son of Joseph the carpenter, His foster-father. A carpenter, even though a respected job for its hard work, but a carpenter is often considered low in the society’s eyes, and certainly not determined for greatness.

This lens of unbelief prevented the people from knowing and understanding the truth that was in Jesus, that He is the Messiah, the very Divine incarnate, who had come to bring salvation and new hope to all of them. If only they would believe in Jesus, they would have received salvation directly from the Lord. Instead, they cast Him out of His own village and rejected Him.

In our first reading, the scenario is a bit different, but it is in the same spirit. King David of Israel, having his reign made secure by the Lord after numerous insurrections, civil wars, and conflicts, had been lax in his faith, and through the veil of lens of power and human glory, king David did things despicable in the eyes of God.

It might seem a trivial issue that David asked his officer Joab to conduct a census of the people of Israel and Judah, seeing how many people capable of being drafted to his ever growing kingdom and army. Yet, in this precisely, David, the faithful servant of God, was taken in by the allures of Satan, who deceived mankind with false promises of glory and power.

In doing what he had done, David seemed to be unsatisfied with all the glories that God had given him. In counting the number of his subjects, it seemed that David desired even more power and glory, forgetting that all of that had been possible because of the Lord and His grace, which He had poured generously upon David.

That was why, God taught David a lesson through His punishment, to remind him of that all of his glory came from the Lord and he could never do or gain anything without God his Lord. We too should learn the same lesson, that we should not depend solely on our human power or wisdom, but instead seek to follow and trust the Lord, from whom all goodness came.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of St. Agatha, also known as St. Agatha of Sicily. St. Agatha was very dedicated to the Lord and was very faithful, despite temptations of the world and attempts to turn her to the debauched ways of the pagan world of her time.

St. Agatha devoted herself to God and vowed to maintain her virginity. A Roman centurion was allured by St. Agatha’s beauty and tried many times in vain to persuade her to be his bride. Angered by her rejection, the centurion used the fact that St. Agatha was a Christian against her, and in the midst of a brutal persecution against the faith, she was arrested and tortured.

St. Agatha endured the persecutions and the sufferings that she had to go through in prison, and she even went through a brutal removal of her breasts as one of her executioners’ punishments. She remained true to her faith to the end and did not walk away from the way of the Lord. St. Agatha and her zealous faith showed us all, that we have to put our trust in God, and place our faith in Him, for in Him, we secure our heavenly inheritance.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today therefore seek to love God ever more, and dedicate ourselves in faith to Him and to His ways. Let us always walk faithfully in His ways, and following what He had taught us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. May our Lord continue to be with us and guide us, as we walk through this darkened world, that we may not succumb to temptations of the evil one, but remain ever faithful to Him to the end. Amen.

by

Wednesday, 5 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 31 : 1-2, 5, 6, 7

Blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven, whose iniquity is wiped away. Blessed are those in whom the Lord sees no guilt and in whose spirit is found no doubt.

Then I made known to You my sin and uncovered before You my fault, saying to myself, “To the Lord I will now confess my wrong.” And You, You forgave my sin, You removed my guilt.

So let the faithful ones pray to You in time of distress; the overflowing waters will not reach them.

You are my refuge; You protect me from distress and surround me with the songs of deliverance.

by

Tuesday, 4 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today in the readings that we heard, we see the nature of love that is in the family. In the first reading we heard how Absalom, the rebel son of king David met his end at the end of his rebellion, and his father David grieved greatly for his death, indeed the sorrow of a father losing his son to death.

And in the Gospel, we heard how the temple official, Jairus, asked Jesus to heal his daughter for she was about to die, due to her grievous illness. And Jesus was moved with compassion and love for the faith the father had in Him, and He resurrected the dead daughter of Jairus when she had died before Jesus reached her home. And the family was once again reunited in happiness and love.

And not to forget the woman with the hemorrhage issue, whom the Lord healed by the touch of the woman’s hand on fringe of the cloak of Jesus. Her faith in God made her whole again, and her trust in the love of God who is Father made her healed from her afflictions. The woman trusted in Jesus and her faith was made an example to everyone.

Family is a unit in our society, which is often under attack these days. The sanctity of the family had often been under attack these days, by the forces of evil in this world, who like to see the family unit disbanded and destroyed. And yet family remained as one of the greatest bastion of the faith and love, in which many people were taught for the first time of the faith in God and how to love just as God has loved us.

And I am very sure that all of us can remember our own families and each members in the family, how each members has his or her own roles in the family. One is the father or the husband, who protects the family and provides for the family by working hard. The other is the mother, or the wife, who sometimes may also work, but whose primary role is in the upbringing of the family, and the children born out of the holy union of marriage.

And of course, there are the children, the gift of God’s love to us. Indeed, children are gifts of love, and therefore should not be taken lightly. Caring and loving the children are the primary duties of the family members, the father and the mother in particular. They are supposed to love one another and show the example of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in all events.

Losing a family member is not an easy thing to endure. Many of us would have endured this one way or another in our respective lives. How our loved ones no longer physically remain with us, as death claimed them and they passed on to the afterlife. And it is often only when we have lost someone that we realise how precious that someone is for us, and only when it is already too late.

David had had many wives, and he had many children. It was common for kings of his time, and even many up to recent days, especially in the Eastern cultures to have many wives and even concubines, and scores of children. The more wives and children they have, be it the sons and daughters of their wives or concubines, the more prestigious and powerful the kings would be regarded.

In such families, including that of David, there were often no love. Much of the interactions in fact were based on rivalry and hatred for each other, as well as based on greed and human desire for power and glory. Each sons would fight with each other for power and influence, and often even would try to claim the kingdom for himself. And that was exactly what had happened to Absalom.

Family not based on love will likely not survive long, and sadly, that is what afflicts many families today. Families often have become mere formality and even at times, considered as obstacles and hindrances by many. That was also why there are so many divorces and abortions of innocent babies, and the numbers are increasing without slowing down.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why Jesus came to this world, in order to teach us of the importance of love, including that of family love. His works and miracles bring happiness and joy to the people, and new hope to those who were afflicted with illness or sorrow. And God is our Father, and He sees us as His children. And Jesus wanted to show us, how much God our Father has loved us.

Indeed, so great is His love that He sent us Jesus, His Son, that through Him, and His death no less, we may have new life in Him. To those who had been sealed with the waters of baptism, we have been made the children of God. God is our Father and we are His children. And if we, as His children, remain faithful and continue to follow His ways, as children ought to obey their parents, then we will have no need to worry at all.

If we make mistakes, do not be scared or afraid. We should be brave to step forward as the woman had done, after she was cured from her bleeding issue. Even though she certainly trembled from head to the feet when she made that confession, but the Lord saw her faith and reward her.

If we make mistakes, then God our Father will chastise us. But He will not destroy us or cast us aside, because just as all fathers, He still loves us very much no matter what, unless if we continue to defy and disobey Him. Listen to our God, our Father, and pay attention to His calling and His guide. Follow Him and walk always in His ways.

May our Lord Jesus Christ continue to bless us, that we may love God our Father ever more, imitating the love that Jesus Himself had shown us, His people and His children. Keep us in Your favour, o Lord, and remind us when we err and walk away from Your path, o God our Father. Amen.

by

Tuesday, 4 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

2 Samuel 18 : 9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30 – 2 Samuel 19 : 3

Absalom was riding a mule and happened to meet the guards of David. As the mule passed under the thick branches of a big oak tree, his head was caught in the oak tree and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule he was riding went its way.

Someone reported to Joab, “I saw Absalom hanging from an oak tree.” So he took three spears in his hand and thrust them into Absalom’s heart while he was still alive in the oak tree.

David was sitting between the two gates. The watchman posted at the roof of the gate, on the wall, saw a man running alone. So he called out and reported to the king.

So the king said, “Move away and stand there.” He moved aside and stayed there. The Cushite arrived and said, “Good news for my lord the king! YHVH has done you justice today and saved you from all those who rebelled against you.”

The king asked the Cushite, “How is the young Absalom?” The Cushite answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rebel against you end up like that young man.”

The king was greatly disturbed and, going up to the room over the gate, he wept and said, “O, my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, o Absalom, my son, my son!”

It was reported to Joab, “The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.” So the victory that day turned into mourning for all the people, when they heard that the king was grieving over his son.

by

Monday, 3 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, and St. Ansgar, Bishop (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Bishops)

Today we witnessed the exorcism conducted by Jesus our Lord on the possessed man of Gerasenes, and how even the evil spirits obeyed the Lord and feared His authority. In today’s readings, we listen about the concept of authority and power, and how mankind had interacted with these across time, with the story of the rebellion of Absalom, the son of David, and how Jesus cast out the demons from the man.

The authority of Jesus was clear. He was the Son of Most High God as the demons themselves proclaimed. He was the Word of God made flesh, incarnate into Man in Jesus through Mary His mother. The evil spirits, the Legion feared Him because they knew who He was, even if mankind could not recognise who He was.

The evil spirits feared Jesus as Lord not because He has wealth, influence, or power that denote greatness in our human eyes. The greatness of the Lord is not measured in terms of human power and glory. What is power and glory to us mankind have no meaning and are nothing before the Lord our God. Jesus Himself showed us all this through His own actions.

Jesus was great not just because He was already the Lord and Almighty God, but because in His actions He showed the perfection of God’s love and mercy to us all. He was great because even though He has power, majesty, and authority, He chose to come down and be our servant, that through His works, we may have new hope in Him, and as our Shepherd, He guided us through the narrow gates towards salvation.

As Jesus mentioned in His Last Supper with the disciples, that the true meaning of leadership is service. A leader must be the servant of the people whom he or she leads, and the power and authority that the leader has been given must not be misused. True authority does not equal oppressing others or destroying those whose ideas or views not necessarily in line with our own views and opinions.

The Lordship and authority of Jesus is one of humility and service, and He did not boast of His miracles and achievements, while mankind like us must have been tempted to glorify ourselves or seek praise and glory from others for what we have done, gaining credits for our works. The irony is that, it is always the devil and the evil spirits in league with him that clamoured to proclaim Him! Yes, such as the evil spirits that inhabited that man of Gerasenes.

The authority of Jesus in casting out the numerous demons, the Legion, from that man showed His power and sovereignty over all things, be it angel, man, or demons, and is a testimony clear enough for all of us today to hear. We are fortunate to be able to witness this testimony through the Holy Gospels written by the Holy Apostles, who witnessed what happened first hand on that day.

If we trust in the Lord and in His power, then we will have no need to worry, for our Lord will be with us and He will take care of us well, and He shows us how to live a good and faithful life. The contrast we can see in the first reading today, which is centred on the civil war in Israel, between king David, the faithful servant of God and his own son, Absalom.

Absalom as the oldest son of king David was driven by his youth and ambitions, and he aspired to be the king of Israel, even though his father was still the reigning king and the chosen one of the Lord. Absalom succumbed to the taste of power and human glory, and that doomed him, causing him to rise up in rebellion against his own father.

As the story would go, Absalom was defeated in that war, and he lost his life in the process. The example of Absalom and David in today’s reading showed the frail nature of human power and glory. Power and glory in human terms are just temporary. We cannot hope to depend on our human power, as if we depend on them as Absalom had done, then we shall fail.

In a way even king David also had a part of blame on himself in this matter. David as a king as was common among the kings of his time, had many wives and children. Having more wives and children was associated with power and glory, and the more wives and children one had, the more powerful and prestigious was one seen by their people and their neighbouring countries.

Trusting in human power and authority was what had made David, the faithful servant of God, to err in some occasions. First of which was his plot to kill Uriah after committing adultery with the latter’s wife, Bathsheba, despite Uriah’s great loyalty to him, and then David’s sin of wanting to count the number of the people of Israel and Judah, as if he revelled in the great glory God had given him and was immersed in a moment of self-glorification and self-praise.

And David met his troubles because of what he had done, be it the rebellions of his sons and their mischievous behaviours, or the disease and pestilence that swept across the land and killed many, as the sign of God’s displeasure. This is proof that trusting in human and worldly power does not bring us good. Rather than be proud of our own power, ability, and achievement, we should rather trust in the Lord and walk in His ways.

Today, brethren, we celebrate the feast of two saints of the Church, that is of St. Blaise and St. Ansgar. St. Blaise was the well known patron for throat based diseases, which feast day usually saw the traditional blessing of the throats with two crossed candles. St. Blaise was a renowned physician who went around many places to heal peoples, often with miraculous results, and people flocked to him seeking the consolation of the flesh as well as the soul.

St. Blaise was a faithful follower of the Lord, and practiced his faith truthfully in the works that he had done, but when Christians were persecuted by the last persecution of Christians by Emperor Licinius of the Eastern Roman Empire, he was arrested by the governor of his province and subsequently was tortured and martyred for his faith in the Lord.

Meanwhile St. Ansgar was an Archbishop who lived in northern part of Germany during the late Dark Ages, and was renowned as the Apostle of the North, for his works of evangelisation, bringing the Good News of the Lord to many peoples in the northern Europe, where paganism still dominated most of the people. St. Ansgar tirelessly worked for the cause of the Lord and gained many converts, even baptising lords and kings of the pagans.

Despite his position in the Church, St. Ansgar did not have an easy work ahead of him. Often times many of his supporters withdrew their support from him, and St. Ansgar had to proceed with his missions with great difficulties. Yet, St. Ansgar persevered and he never complained. And the Lord gave him the help he needed through various sources, and he prevailed in his missions.

The examples of St. Blaise and St. Ansgar show that if we walk upright in the path of the Lord and if we remain faithful to Him and trust always in Him, then we have no need to fear at all about the work we are to do, our about our lives. God will care for us and He will protect us. He has all the power and authority, and no evil shall dare to approach us, for they know who they will be dealing with if they mess with us.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today therefore put our trust in God, and keep our faith in Him strong, especially avoiding the bad influences of this world, taming our greed and desire, particularly for power, authority, and influence among many others, and seek only for the Lord. May our Lord therefore be with us, and guide us to walk upright at all times in His ways, that we may never again fall into sin. Amen.

by

Saturday, 1 February 2014 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Mass of our Lady)

2 Samuel 12 : 1-7a, 10-17

So YHVH sent the prophet Nathan to David. Nathan went to the king and said to him, “There were two men in a city : one was rich; the other, poor. The rich man had many sheep and cattle, but the poor man had only one little ewe lamb he had bought. He himself fed it and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup, and slept on his lap. It was like a daughter to him.”

“Now a traveller came to the rich man, but he would not take from his own flock or herd to prepare food for the traveller. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared that for his visitor.”

David was furious because of this man and told Nathan, “As YHVH lives, the man who has done this deserves death! He must return the lamb fourfold for acting like this and showing no compassion.”

Nathan said to David, “You are this man! YHVH speaks : ‘Now the sword will never be far from your family because you have despised Me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite for yourself.'”

“Thus says YHVH : Your misfortune will rise from your own house! I will take your wives from you and give them to your neighbour who shall lie with them in broad daylight. What you did was done secretly, but what I do will be done before Israel in broad daylight.”

David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against YHVH.” Nathan answered him, “YHVH has forgiven your sin; you shall not die. However, because you have dared to despise YHVH by doing such a thing, the child that is born to you shall die.” Then Nathan left and went to his house.

YHVH struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David and he became sick. David entreated God for the child; he kept a strict fast and lay on the ground the whole night. The elders of his house asked him to rise from the ground but he refused. Nor did he join them to eat.