sinners

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Wednesday, 5 June 2013 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Psalm 24 : 2-4a, 4b-5ab, 6-7bc, 8-9

In You my God I trust; let me not be put to shame, let not my enemies exult over me. Those who hope in You will never be humbled; those who turn away from You will suffer disgrace! Teach me Your ways, o Lord.

Make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.

Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.

Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.

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

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the one who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the law of the Lord and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but cuts off the way of the wicked.

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

Sirach 5 : 1-8

Do not rely on your wealth. Do not say, “I am self-sufficient.” Do not let yourself be carried away by greed and violence; they would make you their slave. Do not say, “Who can stop me?” For the Lord has power to punish you. Do not say, “I have sinned and nothing has happened!” For the Lord bides His time.

Do not be so sure of pardon when you are heaping sin upon sin. Do not say, “His compassion is great! He will forgive the vast number of my sins!” For with Him is mercy but also anger; His fury will be poured out on sinners.

Do not delay your return to the Lord, do not put it off from day to day. For suddenly the anger of the Lord will blaze forth and you will perish on the day of reckoning. Do not rely on riches wrongfully acquired for they will be of no use to you on the day of wrath.

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 30 March 2013 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Psalm after Seventh Reading)

Psalm 41 : 3, 5 and Psalm 42 : 3, 4

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I go and see the face of God?

Now as I pour out my soul, I remember all this – how I used to lead the faithful in procession to the house of God, amid shouts of joy and thanksgiving, among the feasting throng.

Send forth your light and your truth; let them be my guide, let them take me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You reside.

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my gladness and delight. I will praise You with the lyre and harp, o God, my God.

 

Alternative Psalm (If there is baptism)

 

Psalm 50 : 12-15, 18, 19

Create in me, o God, a pure heart; give me a new and steadfast spirit. Do not cast me out of Your presence nor take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Give me again the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will show wrongdoers Your ways and sinners will return to You.

You take no pleasure in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, You would not delight in it.

O God, my sacrifice is a broken spirit; a contrite heart You will not despise.

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 30 March 2013 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Psalm after First Reading)

Psalm 103 : 1-2, 5-6, 10, 12-14, 24 and 35

Bless the Lord, my soul! Clothed in majesty and splendour; O Lord, my God, how great You are! You are wrapped in light as with a garment; You stretch out the heavens like a tent.

You set the earth on its foundations, and never will it be shaken. You covered it with the ocean like a garment, and waters spread over the mountains.

You make springs gush forth in valleys winding among mountains and hills.

Birds build their nests close by and sing among the branches of trees. You water the mountains from Your abode and fill the earth with the fruit of Your work. You make grass grow for cattle and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth.

How varied o Lord, are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all – the earth full of Your creatures. May sinners vanish from the earth, and may the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, my soul!

 

Alternative Psalm

 

Psalm 32 : 4-7, 12-13, 20, 22

For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.

The heavens were created by His word, the breath of His mouth formed their starry host. He gathered the waters of the sea into a heap, and stored the deep in cellars.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.

In hope we wait for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield.

O Lord, let Your love rest upon us, even as our hope rests in You.

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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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Sunday, 17 March 2013 : 5th Sunday of Lent (Third Scrutiny for Baptism) (Scripture Reflection)

Love, faith, hope, and forgiveness. These are the virtues that the readings taught us today. Faith, hope, and love being the three most important virtues being taught by Christ to all of us, and forgiveness or mercy, being the extension of love into the faults and sins of others. These virtues make our faith in God alive and manifest, and through these virtues, our world can indeed be made better, despite the ever-presence of sin, darkness, and evil.

For in our world today, it is too easy for people to judge one another, to condemn one another, to have no love for one’s fellow men, and rather to destroy one another through endless litanies of curses, personal attacks, and condemnations. It is in our human nature to seek out the faults in others, and to condemn others when they fall. But yet, as the case of the condemned woman in adultery in our Gospel today showed, we are often blind to our own faults and predicaments in that case.

So focused we are in the faults of others that we forgot that we too, are sinners before the eyes of the Lord, equally if not more unworthy to stand in front of our God who hates sin, than even the one whom we are condemning and judging against. For sin had been in the hearts of men, and had always corrupted mankind’s actions and behaviour ever since the day of the first rebellion of our forefathers.

This is why God, our Father, sent His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to be our redeemer, to redeem us from our certain death, that is our destiny for having sinned against God. It is through Him that God’s works became manifest in this world. Through healing of the blind, the deaf, the paralytic, the possessed, and even Lazarus, whom He resurrected from the dead. Nothing is impossible for God, only if we believe in Him, and have faith in Him.

Through the power of God too, we learn the value of forgiveness, for He forgave the woman who was accused of adultery from her sins, providing that she truly repented and that she led a virtuous life from then onwards. He did not accuse, for He, who will be the great Judge of all at the Last Judgment, sees into the hearts of all the people, and in this case, He looked into the hearts of all, the condemned woman, and those who condemned her.

Indeed, she had been sinful in His eyes, and her sin of adultery was plain for Him to see, but even more so were the sins of those who had brought her before Jesus, so that they could test Him, find a mistake in Him, and then arrested Him. These motives clearly did not escape the attention of our Lord, who found them to be wanting, even more than that of the women.

This is why we have to learn not to judge others and condemn others, especially without base, without proper reasoning, and with malice in our hearts, intent on the destruction and downfall of others. For hatred, jealousy, and vice can eventually bring our judgment to be corrupted, and we are no longer wise judges just as Christ was, when He judged both the woman, and the people who shouted for her death, but in fact was testing Jesus.

Christ has the power to forgive, just as the power to heal, as He is after all the Son of God. But those people in Israel at that time, particularly the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, blinded by jealousy and by their hatred of Him, as well as by their rigid and unreasonable attachment to their human laws, prevented them from approaching the Lord for healing and forgiveness, and instead, they persecuted Him, and eventually brought Him to His death on the cross.

Nevertheless, notice that Christ, despite all these oppositions, still wanted to save them, and forgave them for what they had done, even until the very end. We should imitate Christ’s example, and begin, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to forgive one another, no matter what pain and faults the other one has done for us. It is time to forgive, to let go of our anger, hatred, jealousy, and whatever negative and evil feelings we may have.

Instead, let us cultivate love and compassion in our hearts, that we can grow to love God further and more, and also to love all men as we have loved Him, who also loves us all. Let us set aside our differences, and embrace one another as brethren, and pray for those who persecutes us, for those who judges us unjustly. Do not judge them back, and do not despise them, but instead worry about the salvation of their souls. Pray for them.

We will therefore grow in our compassion and our love, and our hearts will no longer be hardened like that of the Pharisees. Instead we will have hearts like a contrite man and a humble tax collector, who came bowing low before God, fully aware of the extent of his sins. And also to be like Christ, to be moved by the plight of others, with a heart of compassion, to love others, to care for them, and to listen to their needs and cries.

Today, let us also pray for our brethren who has decided to join God’s Church, through the calling that each of them had received from the Lord, that God will strengthen them in their journey, that as they approach their baptism on Easter Vigil, they will grow ever stronger in faith, hope, and love, from now on, and forever.

May God guide us and bless us, to ever be loving children of His, to ever bring glory to His Name, through our loving and forgiving actions in this world, deprived of such love, mercy, hope, and compassion. Amen.

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Tuesday, 5 March 2013 : 3rd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Psalm 24 : 4bc-5ab, 6-7bc, 8-9

O Lord, make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.

Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. In Your love remember me.

Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.

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Saturday, 2 March 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Luke 15 : 1-3, 11-32

Meanwhile tax collectors and sinners were seeking the company of Jesus, all of the eager to hear what He had to say. But the Pharisees and the scribes frowned at this, muttering, “This Man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So Jesus told them this parable.

Jesus continued, “There was a man with two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Give me my share of the estate.’ So the father divided his property between them. Some days later, the younger son gathered all his belongings, and started off for a distant land, where he squandered his wealth in loose living.”

“Having spent everything, he was hard pressed when a severe famine broke out in that land. So he hired himself out to a well-to-do citizen of that place, and was sent to work on a pig farm. So famished was he, that he longed to fill his stomach even with the food given to the pigs, but no one offered him anything.”

“Finally coming to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will get up and go back to my father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against God, and before you. I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me then as one of your hired servants.’ With that thought in mind, he set off for his father’s house.”

“He was still a long way off, when his father caught sight of him. His father was so deeply moved with compassion that he ran out to meet him, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. The son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.'”

“But the father turned to his servants : ‘Quick!’ he said, ‘Bring out the finest robe and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet! Take the fattened calf and kill it! We shall celebrate and have a feast, for this son of min was dead, and has come back to life; he was lost and is found!’ And the celebration began.”

“Meanwhile, the elder son had been working in the fields. As he returned and approached the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what it was all about. The servant answered, ‘Your brother has come home safe and sound, and your father is so happy about it that he has ordered this celebration, and killed the fattened calf.'”

The elder son became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and pleaded with him. The son, very indignant, said, ‘Look, I have slaved for you all these years. Never have I disobeyed your orders. Yet you have never given me even a young goat to celebrate with my friends. Then when this son of yours returns, after squandering your property with loose women, you kill the fattened calf for him.'”

“The father said, ‘My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But this brother of yours was dead, and has come back to life; he was lost, and is found. And for that we had to rejoice and be glad.'”

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Thursday, 28 February 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the one who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the law of the Lord and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like a chaff driven away by the wind. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.