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Saturday, 8 June 2013 : Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, just yesterday we celebrated the great feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, but at the same time, we cannot forget Mary, His mother, who is often also depicted with a flaming heart just like that of Jesus. But while Jesus’ heart in the Most Sacred Heart iconography shows a wreath of the crown of thorns, the heart of Mary was pierced with a sword, which depicted the prophecy of Simeon the prophet, who predicted that Mary’ heart would be ‘pierced’ by a sword, that is her Immaculate Heart.

Yes, just as Christ is loving and filled with love, in His Most Sacred Heart, so does His mother too, with her Immaculate heart, for she was born without sin, in immaculate condition, and her heart was filled with pure joy and love of the Lord. That is what we are celebrating today, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Yet, just as I had mentioned it, that same heart, which is immaculate, pure beyond reasoning and filled with love, would have to be ‘pierced’ with a sword. Not in the literal meaning of course, as this sword represents the heart of Mary that was rendered to pieces in great pain as she watched her Son, our Lord Jesus in His Passion on the way to Calvary, suffering the sins of all mankind unto His death on the cross.

Imagine for all of you mothers out there, that when your children encounter something dangerous, or their lives are in great danger, I am sure that those who are mothers will immediately be faced with the greatest fear of their life. You all will be seized with fear, but even more so, with the feeling of love for your children, that great love bonded by ties of blood that is stronger than anything else, which links between mothers and their children. No mother will want to see her children suffer or face pain. True and loving mothers would even give themselves in place of their children, so that they may live instead of her.

Then, therefore, imagine Mary herself, our Lady, the Mother of Jesus, who had been given the good news by the Archangel Gabriel, that she would bear the great Son of God Most High, whom was to be the Messiah and Saviour of all mankind, the promised salvation that was pronounced through the countless prophets of the ages past. She bore Jesus for nine months in her womb, and with Joseph, her husband, she braved the pain of childbirth at that night in Bethlehem, until she gave birth to Jesus, our Lord and God.

She nurtured Him with love and compassion, and as perfect as a care that a mother can give to her child. With Joseph as the head of the family, they protected the infant Jesus from external dangers such as Herod by escaping to Egypt, and eventually settling down to a happy life in Nazareth, as a simple carpenter family.

But even from the very beginning, the baby that she had is indeed not any ordinary being, but the Lord Himself incarnate into a human being, the vessel of salvation, for through Jesus, the Lamb of God, salvation would come forth to all mankind. Ever since His birth, kings and wise men had pledged their fealty and praise by bringing Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The prophet Simeon and the prophetess Anna told her of the greatness that her Child would become and Simeon also foretold her about the sorrows that she would face later.

Mary watched Jesus grew up from being an infant, into an adolescent, during which time he was left behind in Jerusalem, when Mary in great fear, searched for her Child with Joseph, until they found Him in the Temple in Jerusalem. When Mary told Jesus about why He had made things difficult for His family, that was not a chastisement at all, neither was it a scolding. It was in fact the love that Mary has for her Son.

So much that she loves Him that she fears if anything were to happen to Jesus, a feeling that surely all the mothers out there would understand. None of us wants our children to be hurt or lost somewhere. We would do our best to galvanise all available forces until our child can be found, as if a great treasure had been lost.

Mary experienced a lot of strange occurences and happenings throughout her grooming of Jesus, but she did not question the Lord nor did she waver in her faith, but instead, she kept her faith strong, and kept everything in her heart. Indeed, such a great heart that our Blessed Virgin Mary has, to store all that feelings, anxiety, and emotions that she had for her Son in her Immaculate Heart!

She accompanied Jesus through His adulthood, through His ministry after the baptism at the Jordan, and she became the catalyst that allowed Christ to perform His first miracle at the wedding in Cana. Through her help, and her great concern for the wedding couple, she managed to persuade Christ to give them aid by performing the transformation of the water into wine, saving the wedding of the couple.

She accompanied Jesus through His last days on earth, in His Passion, and followed Him through the scourging and the condemnation, and unto Calvary below the cross, on which hung the Saviour of the world, made to suffer all the weight of the sins of the entire world, of all mankind past, present, and future. It is at that point, that the prophecy of Simeon came true, that a sword would indeed pierce her Immaculate Heart.

That great loving heart, and the heart that had accompanied the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, ever since His birth, now had to witness the cruelty through which Christ died on the cross for the salvation of mankind. She understood it as a part of God’s plan for salvation, for without the death of Christ, the Lamb of God, there can be no salvation. But imagine the great amount of pain that must have been inflicted to our Lady, seeing her Son mocked and insulted, and condemned to a criminal’s death on the cross.

And yet, despite all of that, she remained faithful to the Lord, and was as firm as ever in her mission entrusted to her by God. She had been faithful since the very beginning, when she accepted God’s will in making her the vessel through which the Saviour of the world would be born, and all the way until the end, she remained faithful. Truly, how great is our Lady and her Most wonderful Immaculate Heart, pure and loving, filled with all the warmth of God’s love, and in this heart we can see the great journey and struggle that our Lady had to go through, along with her Son, Jesus Christ, all the way to the end at Calvary.

Yet, as we know, everything did not end at Calvary, as Jesus our Lord rose again in glory on the third day after His death, and through His glorious resurrection, the salvation of mankind was fulfilled completely, and indeed, our Lady had a great part in this. Just as what we saw in the coat-of-arms of our late Blessed Pope John Paul II, of a cross with a letter M at the bottom. That ‘M’ is Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who supported Jesus in His life, since His infancy, all the way to that sorrowful day on Calvary.

Jesus entrusted His mother to His disciple, John on that day, and also entrusted John to His mother. Through that act, therefore, He also made all of us, all mankind, the children entrusted to Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, all the love and warmth of the heart of Mary will be poured out to us, and her love will help us and guide us in a straight path to her Son, Jesus. It is indeed true, the saying that, “To Jesus, through Mary”.

Mary is our mother too, and just as she had cared for her Son, Jesus, she will also love and care for us. Pray to our Lady often, and ask her for her intercession for all of us sinners who are still suffering in this world, that just as at the wedding in Cana, she will also help intercede for our sake before her Son, that Jesus would show us His wonderful mercy.

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, the most wonderful heart of Mary, pierced by a sword of sorrow at the cruel death of Your Son, be with us and guide us in our own paths towards Your Son, that we will stay faithful, and that we will not inflict ever more wounds to increase the suffering of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, for every sin that we commit is another wound that we add to the wounds of Christ.

Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed are you amongst women and blessed is the Fruit of your womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

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Friday, 7 June 2013 : Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (Gospel Reading)

Luke 15 : 3-7

Jesus told the Pharisees and the scribes this parable : “Who among you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and seek the lost one till he finds it? And finding it, will he not joyfully carry it home on his shoulders?”

“Then he will call his friends and neighbours together, and say, ‘Celebrate with me, for I have found my lost sheep!'”

I tell you, in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner, than over ninety-nine decent people, who do not need to repent.

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Thursday, 23 May 2013 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Mark 9 : 41-50

If anyone gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ and bear His Name, truly, I say to you, he will not go without reward. If anyone should cause one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble and sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone around his neck.

If your hand makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand, than with two hands to go to hell, to the fire that never goes out.

And if your foot makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a foot, than with both feet to be thrown into hell.

And if your eye makes you fall into sin, tear it out! It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, keeping both eyes, to be thrown into hell, where the worms that eat them never die, and the fire never goes out. The fire itself will preserve them.

Salt is a good thing; but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.

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Monday, 6 May 2013 : 6th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, to be with Christ, and to remain faithful in Him, as His disciples, and as His children, is not easy, and never will be easy. There is bound to be rejection and opposition against Christ, especially by the agents of the evil one, who does not want mankind to be saved, and he wants rather that mankind fall with him into hell, in his jealousy of the Lord.

There will be those who also will hear and follow the Word of God, just as the first reading today has told us, about the devout Jewish lady named Lydia, and her family, who listened to the apostles, and became a believer, and who were baptised and therefore were joined into the number of those who were promised eternal life in God.

That is why we should never give up nor abandon the task that Christ had entrusted us, just as He had entrusted the same task to the apostles, that is to evangelise and bring the Good News to all nations, to the ends of the earth, that all will listen to the Good News, repent, be baptised, in the Name of the Holy Trinity, and therefore gain eternal life in salvation.

As the apostles had shown us, and all the disciples in Christ had shown in the early times of the Church, that preaching the truth of Christ and the Good News would bring about opposition, apathy, and even persecution by those who did not believe, and those who had closed their hearts from the truth that Christ had brought. They had closed their ears and the doors of their hearts to Christ. Nevertheless, they too are the children of God, our brethren.

We must not act n the same way that they had acted on us, that is we should not counter their hatred and opposition with hatred on our own, or any kind of loathing. Rather, let us, through our words, and most importantly our actions, show them, what being the followers of Christ is like, that is filled with love and compassion, that is of the Lord, that they too will eventually learn the truth, and believe.

This is because, for the Lord, nothing is indeed impossible, and even the most hardened enemies of Christ, may eventually repent and become great saints and disciples, with full dedication to the Lord. Remember that many of the greatest saints and holy men in the Church were once great sinners and even fornicators, with all sorts of evil-led life imaginable, but yet they repented, and then became ardent defenders of the faith, and now they enjoyed their great rewards in heaven, and became now, our intercessors before the throne of God.

Even St. Paul himself, the great missionary, the Apostle to the Gentiles, was also once a great enemy of the faithful, a great persecutor, who captured many who believed in Jesus, and subjected them to torture for their faith, and who had once vowed to destroy the Church of God. After his conversion to the faith on the way to Damascus, when the Lord Himself appeared to Paul, he became the greatest champion of the Church, and through him, many people were saved.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us persevere in the mission that God had entrusted to us, that we will become great missionaries like the apostles were, even though we are also great sinners ourselves. Let us keep our faith in God burning strong, and let us keep our sight always in focus towards the Lord. May God grant us strength and courage to be His evangelists and may the light of God be brought to all mankind. Amen.

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Tuesday, 19 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent, Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of Blessed Virgin Mary (Scripture Reflection)

Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, and Mother of God, was not the natural and biological father of Jesus, our Lord, but legally and in all understandings, he is a father of our Lord, the foster father, who took care of Jesus while He was still young, and also protected Mary, His mother, in the Holy Family. He is the role model of how a father should be like, a loving and caring person, who put their family at their utmost care and attention.

Joseph was an upright man, and he was also righteous in the eyes of God. This is why, in the addition to Mary and her ultimate obedience to God, why God decided to come into this world through them, through Mary, as His mother, whose womb would be where He would come forth, and through Joseph, whose character and personality, made him as good as a foster father as one can be for Jesus, the Son of God Most High.

For Jesus was human as much as He is divine. Fully human yet also fully divine, all united in the person of Jesus, the Christ. He needs a father figure who can love Him and care for Him in the human and earthly manner, just like God His Father in heaven is His true Father provides for Him through the Holy Spirit. This father figure is Joseph, who by that virtue, is also the ‘father’ and patron of our Church.

For our Church was established by Christ Himself, and which He built on Peter His Apostle. This Church can therefore be considered to be under the protection and patronage of Joseph, God’s foster father. For he protected our Lord when King Herod chased after Him after His birth, and by the initiatives given by the angel in the dream, he brought the Holy Family to Egypt.

He cared for our Lord in His early years and teach Him all the trades that he knew, that is as a carpenter, that is why Jesus was also known as the ‘Son of a carpenter’, for his foster father Joseph, was neither a rich, influential, nor a powerful man. He was just a righteous man of God, dedicated to his family, as well as to whatever God has given him the hands for, that is to make good works with the wood, and from there perhaps bring glory to God.

Many of us today are shy about our upbringing and our backgrounds. Worse still, many of us are reluctant to tell people about who our parents are and what they are like, especially when we have become successful, influential, powerful, and rich. Many of us tend to prefer to forget our past and ‘move on’, to enter the world as new men and women, forgetting our parents who had brought us up to who we are today. Through their hard work, just as Joseph’s hard work and care as the father, and Mary’s nurturing love, they had brought us up, to be strong men and strong women we are today.

Jesus learnt His lessons on humanity and what it is like directly from His parents, who prepared Him for His eventual ministry after His baptism at the Jordan. Joseph particularly taught Him the virtues of hard work and being upright just as he was upright before the eyes of God, just as Mary showed Him the love and care that a mother would have on her son.

How many of us, in our families had done as what the Holy Family had done? and how many of fathers out there who had shown their care for their sons, their daughters, and their wives? Yes, indeed, I can say that there are many amongst us who had done so, or at least aspired to do so, but there are yet still many out there who ignored all these noble examples of Joseph, in bringing up the child Jesus to be whom we eventually know Him to be, the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Just as Abraham is faithful, and even to the point of giving his only son as a sacrifice to God, when he was tested, therefore even greater is the love and faith that God has in us, that as the perfect Father, He gave us His being in His only Son, a third of the Holy Trinity, to be a worthy sacrificial victim, worthy to redeem all of us from all our sins and our rebellions from Him. Why? Because we are also His children, as Christ is human just like us, He has lowered Himself to take the form of a lowly and humble Man, that we can be saved. They and Joseph, are indeed a role model to all fathers, but even not only just to the fathers, but also to all of us. Since all of us are called to love and care for one another.

Let us remember all this as we approach the Holy Week which will happen next week. As we approach the memorial of our Lord’s endless and unconditional love for us, to give Himself up for our sake. Also let us remember of course Joseph, His father, who gave so much to his Son and family, through his protection and his righteousness, protecting them from harm and showering them with love. Let us pray to St. Joseph, that we can be as loving as him, that we can be as righteous as he is, and we can take care and love for our families, friends, and all the people around us, just as he did, and just as our Lord did.

St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us sinners. Amen.

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(Special) Readings for Baptismal Catechesis, for the 4th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

John 9 : 1-41

As Jesus walked along, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Master, was he born blind because of a sin of his, or of his parents?” Jesus answered, “Neither was it for his own sin nor for his parents’ sin. He was born blind so that God’s power might be shown in him. While it is day we must do the work of the One who sent Me; for the night will come when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

As Jesus said this, He made paste with spittle and clay, and rubbed it on the eyes of the blind man. Then He said, “Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam.” (Siloam means sent.) So the blind man went and washed and came back able to see. His neighbours, and all the people who used to see him begging, wondered. They said, “Isn’t this the beggar who used to sit here?” Some said, “He’s the one.” Others said, “No, but he looks like him.” But the man himself said, “I am he.”

Then they asked him, “How is it that your eyes were opened?” And he answered, “The Man called Jesus made a mud paste, put it on my eyes abd said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went, and washed, and I could see.” They asked, “Where is He?” and the man answered, “I don’t know.”

The people brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made mud paste and opened his eyes. The Pharisees asked him again, “How did you recover your sight?” And he said, “He put paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “That Man is not from God, for He works on the sabbath”; but others wondered, “How can a sinner perform such miraculous signs?” They were divided, and they questioned the blind man again, “What do you think of this Man who opened your eyes?” And he answered, “He is a prophet!”

After all this, the Jews refused to believe that the man had been blind and had recovered his sight; so they called his parents and asked them, “Is this your son? You say that he was born blind, how is it that he now sees?” The parents answered, “He really is our son and he was born blind; but how it is that he now sees, we don’t know, neither do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is old enough. Let him speak for himself.”

The parents said this because they feared the Jews, who had already agreed that whoever confessed Jesus to be the Christ was to be expelled from the synagogue. Because of that his parents said, “He is old enough, ask him.”

So a second time the Pharisees called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Tell us the truth; we know that this Man is a sinner.” He replied, “I don’t know whether He is a sinner or not; I only know that I was blind and now I see.” They said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” He replied, “I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

Then they started to insult him. “Become His disciple yourself! We are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses; but as for this Man, we don’t know where He comes from.” The man replied, “It is amazing that you don’t know where the Man comes from, and yet He opened my eyes! We know God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone honours God and does His will, God listens to him. Never, since the world began, has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

They answered him, “You were born a sinner and now you teach us!” And they expelled him. Jesus heard that they had expelled him. He found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “Who is He, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus said, “You have seen Him and He is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe”; and he worshiped Him. Jesus said, “I came into this world to carry out a judgment : Those who do not see shall see, and those who see shall become blind.”

Some Pharisees stood by and asked Him, “So we are blind?” And Jesus answered, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty. But you say, ‘We see’; this is the proof of your sin.”

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Sunday, 10 March 2013 : 4th Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday, 2nd Scrutiny for Baptism (Scripture Reflection)

Forgiveness. Something that is easy to be said, but difficult to be done. Something that we want to do, but hard to do, because either we lack love in our hearts, or have the hatred and darkness in our hearts that block us and prevent us from carrying out acts of forgiveness and mercy.

Today, our Lord Jesus Christ showed us the virtues of forgiveness and mercy, just as what God the Father had done for us, through the parable of the prodigal son. It shows the extent of God’s boundless and infinite love for us, who are sinners, but yet He is willing to take all of us as His children. After all, are we not His most beloved of all creation? The very beings created in His image? Though indeed, we were marred by our rebellion, beginning from the rebellion of our foreparents Adam and Eve, who fell into Satan’s temptation.

But God again shows that no sinner is beyond His mercy and salvation. That is why, out of His great love for all of us, the only One worthy to redeem us, His Son, Jesus Christ, was given to us as a ‘Sacrificial Offering’, the perfect offering that redeemed us every single cents of our debts, that is our sins and faults.

We who had been saved by Christ through His Sacrifice, and through our baptism, either when we were infants or when we were already adults, when God took us to be His sons and daughters, are like the elder son of the father in the parable, who had already had a share in the wealth and all the properties of the father, who is God represented. We should not act like the Pharisees, who thought themselves of worthy, and that others who had ‘erred’ in their eyes, they labeled as sinners and unworthy to share their salvation and faith.

For the Pharisees in the blind man case, represented exactly the sentiments of the elder son, where pride, arrogance, and power trumped over humility, love, and compassion. Just like the elder sons of Jesse, whom the Lord asked the prophet Samuel to visit to appoint the new king of Israel, they had been rejected although they were strong, powerful, and has that aura of command, being the elder and thus more mature sons according to the society’s norms.

No, the Lord seeks not these kind of strength, pride, and power, for these things often corrupted men and deviates their heart from their true love for God, and instead to love mankind, the world, and all the temptations of power and glory that Satan offered through the world. God desires indeed the qualities found in David, whom he chose as the new king of Israel to replace the disobedient Saul.

For David is humble and loving, and he truly loved the Lord with all his heart and after his anointing, he set out to do good throughout all his life, for God’s sake. And except for the sin he committed in murdering the husband of his future wife (he is still like us after all, a sinner), he was committed to a life of dedicated love to God, and to all his fellow men, whom he ruled justly.

It is through humility and love that we can learn the true nature of God, that is love, mercy, and compassion. For if we let ourselves be blinded by our pride, jealousy, our hatred, and all things of evil and sin, we blind ourselves, not only from the truth in our fellow men, but also blind ourselves from God. This is exactly what happened to the Pharisees and the people gathered, who condemned the blind man, cured by Jesus, failing to see God’s work in Jesus, and failing to listen to the testimony of the blind man, which is truth.

For they are too embroiled in their own self-vanity, pride, and preservation, and jealousy against all who intruded into their sphere of control and power (who was indeed Jesus), that they rejected God directly, out of these sheer darkness in their hearts. For them, these had closed their hearts from God’s love, but still, God gave His life to save all, including them, and He forgave them in the end at Calvary. This is how great the love that God has shown us, that He gave Himself for us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us strive that we will not be like the ungrateful and arrogant elder son, who think highly of himself and failing to see God’s love in all, and for all, even for the greatest sinners, represented by the younger son. Because he has been always with the Father as we are with the Father through Christ and through our baptism, but we have to reach out and help out those who are still struggling, and those who had lost their way to God.

Help one another, strengthen one another in faith, and bring the Good News to others who had yet to receive it. Let us, brothers and sisters in Christ, as One community, One Church in Christ, do our best to show God’s mercy, forgiveness, and love, through our charity and our actions, which will make God’s love manifest in this world. That more can be saved, through our action, not out of jealousy, not out of pride, but out of love, and humility, and let us rejoice together when anyone returns or comes to the Lord, acknowledging Him as their Saviour.

May God bless us all, and bless those who had rejected Him, those who had hated Him, and those who had closed their hearts to His love. Amen.

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Saturday, 9 March 2013 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, Religious (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear once again, God’s call to us to return to Him in full sincerity. Not to depend on things that are temporary, and not to depend on vanity and self-preservation, and pride, like what the Pharisee did in glorifying himself before God, and did not humble himself, like the sinful tax collector did. Yes, the tax collector is sinful, but at the same time he is also humble, and not only humble, but also sincere in his repentance for his sins, and in his desire to return to God and to love Him back just as God loves him.

The path to God is not easy, and it is not through constant prayers the way that the Pharisee did, but rather, when we pray, we should humble ourselves before God, because first, we are sinners and unworthy of God, and yet He had sent His only Son to die on the cross for our salvation. He had been rejected, but yet return in glory so that all who believes in Him has the hope of reconciliation with God, and eternal life through Him.

We have often rebelled against the Lord in various ways, in many moments in our life in this world, just as our forefathers did, and like what the people of Israel had done, in the time when they still were as kingdoms in Judah and Israel, that they turned a deaf ear on God’s prophets, abandoned God for false gods, and massacred His prophets.

Of course, we did not do such things as killing God’s prophets and abandoning Him for idols that are false gods, but in our modern world today, we too have our own ‘false gods’ that had detracted us from God and His path. Worldly temptations, money, and allures of worldly pleasures, consumerism, and excessive capitalism, are just a few examples of the world’s new false gods that can detract us from our path towards the Lord, and turn our hearts towards Him.

Many people in our world today lack the love and faith they once had in the Lord, because that space in their heart that should have been reserved for the Lord, had been taken over by vices and corruption, by things that are not of the love and not of God. Many have also lost their ways, in their seeking of alternatives besides God.

Let us, brothers and sisters in Christ, first, not to fall in the same way as they are, and let us help one another that all of us will remain strong in our faith and our love for God, and not only that, let us help those who have already lost their way and have already turned their heart away from God, that they too may once again listen to the words of God, and be healed from their afflictions.

Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Frances of Rome, also known as Francesca of Rome, who was a pious wife of a wealthy commander of the Pope’s troops in the early 15th century, and she had considerable wealth and therefore, expected to be able to lead a happy life, without having to worry at all. Yet, she inspired many others, especially women at her time, to do plenty of works of charity, to help the poor and the marginalised, through her own works of charity, and she also founded a confraternity of pious women like herself, called the Olivetan Oblates of Mary, and thus helping to spread further the works of God and the love of God in her society, through prayer, and through service.

Let us imitate St. Frances of Rome, to do as what she had done, and in our life, not to be detracted by wealth and other temptations as St. Frances successfully did, and rather than letting ourselves getting enamoured by them, let us use them for good use in our works and services for the poor and the less fortunate around us.

St. Frances of Rome, pray for us.

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Friday, 8 March 2013 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Scripture Reflection)

Today we hear again about love, and about compassion, these two most wonderful things in the world that came to us from God Himself. For God is love, and God is compassion. He loves all things, and especially all mankind, the last and greatest of all of His creations. Of course God hates all forms of evil and sin, but even greater is His love is for us sinners, if only that we too show Him our sincere and pure love for Him.

That is why the greatest commandments of all is to love, and even the base and heart of all the ten commandments in the Ten Commandments given to Moses, in all the prohibitions and the wordings are basically about love, and the commands given by God not to spurn the love between God and man, and the love between mankind themselves, who are fellow brothers and sisters in God. That is why love is very important, especially in our world today, when love is increasingly marginalised and misinterpreted.

For love is not just a commercial kind of love, and love is not desire and lust. Contrary to what popular perception is, love is not just limited to the love between a love-struck male and a love-struck female. That is just one form of love, and there are many kinds of love, and true love is definitely much more difficult than just to say “I love you” or giving presents and expensive gifts to show our ‘love’.

For to love means to have the profound and concrete change in our heart, and our being, and in some cases even to give ourselves in its entirety, to the other person, especially in the case of our love to God, to love Him with all our hearts, our minds, and our souls, and of course love between man and woman who have been made one by God, and no man should divide and separate such a divine union.

The reason why the institution of love, marriage, and the family had been under attack and had been subjected to much destruction in recent years is because of the growing absence of love in our world today, either between spouses, within the family itself, between the parents and the children, and between man and God, and between man and their fellow neighbours. Many of our world’s troubles today are because of the lack of this love, that man began to turn their back against God, abandoning Him for other pursuits, either for material goods or for the fame among men.

Violence in our world today has also arisen because of this growing lack of love, where brothers and sisters would not hesitate to attack one another physically or verbally, totally disregarding the commandments that God had given us, that is to love one another as we love ourselves. In too many cases today, we love ourselves too much, and we think too highly of ourselves. We are increasingly becoming less communal and more individualistic, and began to isolate ourselves from others, either in our busy career, in our busy commitments, or in our material properties and wealth, and at the same time also isolating ourselves from God and His love.

That is exactly the kind of love that St. John of God, whose feast we celebrate today, want to get away from. For St. John of God was a holy and pious man of God, and often strived for his personal piety and salvation through prayers and faith in God. However, one day, a great enlightenment came for St. John of God, through another saint, St. John of Avila, who advised him to put his personal piety and salvation behind an even more important matter, that is love for others, and service for the poor, the needy, and the less fortunate.

Since then, the light of love within St. John of God, which was previously confined within him, was released and he did plenty of good works for the sake of the poor, the abandoned, and the weak in the society of his time. This is the kind of love that God wants us to have, to care for our brethren, our fellow mankind without any hesitation, qualms, or ulterior motives, and to die first in ourselves, that we can be born anew as caring persons that place the well-being of others before our own.

It is not easy to cast away our selfishness and our strong love for ourselves, but brothers and sisters, if we help one another, and keep a strong prayer life, God will show us how to love others. It is not enough just to love God or to love ourselves alone, but to love others unconditionally is the final piece in the puzzle, that allow us to become truly beings of love that God desires, for when we love others in this way, and give ourselves to them, our own love for God will only become more perfect and more profound.

Let us pray brothers and sisters in Christ, that our life will be filled more fully with love, and that our actions too will be based on love and compassion. That we can do more things as God wanted us to do, to help one another, especially those least among us. Forgive one another’s sins and faults too. For if we do not forgive, we can never fully love one another, with the grudge and faults being in the way for that perfection of love. Let us imitate St. John of God, and also experience his moment of epiphany, when he understood that love can be more perfect, and faith can be more perfect, when it is shared and used for the good of others around us, rather than just kept within ourselves.

St. John of God, pray for us sinners, that we may follow your footsteps and grow in love for one another, and love for God our Father. Amen.

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Saturday, 16 February 2013 : Saturday after Ash Wednesday (Scripture Reflection)

Today Jesus, our Lord, shows us that no one is beyond redemption, and no one does not have hope for eternal life in Him, since all mankind, though sinners as they are, they do have the ability to listen and come towards the Lord, who will forgive them if only they would turn their hearts sincerely back towards Him.

We must make use of this Lenten season to take concrete steps in our path to return back to the Lord. Yes, the Lord calls us, and He wants us to return home with Him, and dwell no longer in our world of sin. This however, requires not just a sincere heart for repentance, but also through our actions of love and mercy, especially towards our fellow men, our brethren in Christ.  If we want to be forgiven by God, first we have to forgive those around us, who have offended us, and even caused us pain and suffering.

If we inflict pain and suffering back in return for the same pain and suffering, we are merely prolonging the endless cycles of hatred and evil. It is through the act of love and mercy that the Lord taught us, that we can truly liberate ourselves from this cycle, and thus release us from the bondage of the evil one, and then, and only then, we can be reunited with our Father in heaven who loves us.

If we do so, the Lord will bless us, and not only He will forgive us, but He will make us prosper in our lives, and also those around us. For God rejoices when a lost son or daughter of His is found once again, for is the shepherd not overjoyed when even a single sheep of his flock that was lost, is found? As the Scripture says, even if only one sheep was lost, the shepherd would go and look for it, and when he found it, he will be happier, even happier than having the other sheep that were not lost.

No, this does not mean that the Lord does not care for those who believe in Him and stayed faithful to Him. This means that the Lord comes especially to seek those who are lost, and have yet to receive His inheritance of love and everlasting life through Him, those who are still under the yoke of Satan, that is the yoke of sin and death. We who believe in Him are already saved, and already have a part in God’s inheritance, that is if we stay faithful. Let us help the Lord, to reach out to our brothers and sisters, particularly those who are still in darkness, those who still do not yet know the Lord, and have yet to receive the Good News.

Let us therefore this Lent, not be hypocrites and seek only to make ourselves holy and worthy, but rather, let us help one another to make ourselves worthy of God through penance and good works in Christ. Let us help this world become a better world, for everyone, that through our labour, the love of God is made manifest in this world, that many will see and then believe, becoming lost sheep no more, but one with the flock of Christ. Amen.