special homily

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Saturday, 21 February 2015 : Saturday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brother and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the calling of Levi, who would become the Apostle St. Matthew, who is also one of the great Four Evangelists, or the writers of the four Holy Gospels. In this therefore we learn a very important fact, which the prophet Isaiah in his book, that is our first reading today, had also talked about, that is the forgiveness offered to all sinners who repent from their sins.

First of all, let us all understand the background of what had happened, and why the Pharisees and the people in general hated the tax collectors so much and considered all of them as great sinners, and loathed to be near them and less so, to come to their place and eat with them? That is because, the tax collectors were seen as the traitors to the nation and to the people, as their job was to collect taxes from the people to be given to the Romans, who at that time ruled over Judea and all of the Promised Land of Israel.

No one likes to pay taxes, and less so if they have to pay tax to a foreign master and ruler. And the Jews were a proud nation, proud of their status as the chosen race and chosen people of God. Since the time of the Exodus, they have slowly grow in their pride, as well as in their prejudice against sinners, who they saw as unclean and had to be cast out of the society of the people of God and be denied the grace of God. Anyone, therefore, who associated themselves with these sinners, correspondingly were also considered as unclean and as sinners.

But in all these, they failed to pay heed and notice a great fact, that they were all also sinners, and truly, no one could boast rightfully that they were less or more righteous or worthy of God’s salvation, since all of mankind are really sinners in the eyes of God for their disobedience against God. And even those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who liked to show off their piety in the public places, as Jesus had pointed it out rightly, that they were even greater sinners by their actions and by what were in their wicked hearts and minds.

They were not thinking about God in their hearts, and less so about the people of God, who had been entrusted to them, teachers of the Law of God, who should have guided these people to God. Instead, they forsook their duty to seek worldly glory and human praise. And through their actions, they deceived and misled the people of God and cast them even further into sin.

They were judgmental against sinners and refused to have anything to do with them. But as Jesus had shown everyone, He showed that God is merciful and loving, just as He is just and hating towards all forms of sins. And indeed He came to rescue first the most sinful ones, the ones who lie furthest from the grace, light and salvation of God. There is only one objective, that all these sinners would repent, change their ways and sin no more, and thus become worthy to receive the salvation of the Lord.

God hates the sins but not the sinner. But if we sinners do not change our sins and abandon our sins before it is too late for us, then God’s wrath will be upon us all the same. That is why in this season of Lent, we are constantly reminded of our sins and all the wickedness we have committed before the presence of God and men alike. We have to know of our sins, realise how wicked they are, and change our ways.

If we do so, we can be assured that the grace of God will be upon us. The prophet Isaiah affirmed this to us, and the life of St. Matthew himself give an even greater testimony of the sinner turned saint. There were many of the saints who were once great sinners. But what differentiated them from the other great sinners was that they repented, they knew of their sins and abandoned them, changing their ways and devoted themselves from then on to the service of God and mankind.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Peter Damian, a great bishop and Cardinal of the Church, as well as a Doctor of the Church by his numerous works and writings that still help and influence us even to this very day. He was a nobleman who gave up everything and all forms of worldliness to join religious life in prayer and devotion to God. But God had great plans for him.

St. Peter Damian in his roles and works would be instrumental in rooting out sins and wickedness from the Church of God, assisting the Pope, the Vicar of Christ in the governance and reform of the Church, so that all the wicked peoples not worthy of the service of God and unrepentant were cast out and rejected by the Church. As a result, the Church was purified of those who were like the Pharisees, sinful and yet refusing to change their sinful ways and misleading the people of God into sin.

He helped to reform many parts of the Church establishment, and through his numerous works and writings, he helped many people to be awakened to their sins and wickedness, and therefore helped to bring many souls to salvation and closer to the Lord their God. And this is exactly what we all should do as well, as the members of the Church.

We are all sinners too, and we are all equal before God. Never look down upon others who have sinned, as if we do so, then we too will be judged in the same way by the Lord. Instead, let us help each other, that everyone may be called to the Lord and abandon their sins and wickedness, and renew their effort to love the Lord their God and commit themselves to Him and His ways.

May the example of St. Peter Damian inspire us all, that we may use this season of Lent to truly repent from our sins, change our ways and lead a righteous life from now on, and help to keep one another in righteous life and avoid sin. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 20 February 2015 : Friday after Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the days of Lent, and the readings call us all to remember our true purpose of celebrating and going through this sacred season of Lent, the forty days of preparation for the coming of Easter. In this season, we go through fasting and abstinence on certain days, as a public and concrete way of showing our sincerity in following the Lord, by preparing ourselves body, mind, heart and soul for the celebration of our Lord’s Passion, death and resurrection.

But are we fasting and abstaining in the right way and for the right purpose? That is the essence of today’s readings. Are we fasting and abstaining for show so that people may be awed at what we are doing and therefore praise us greatly for doing so? Are we fasting and abstaining because our parents said that we must do so, or because the Church is teaching us to do so? Are we merely following the teachings of the Church without understanding them?

When we fast we have to realise that we are not doing it for ourselves, but for God. We fast and we abstain ourselves from eating meat and controlling our earthly and human desire, these are all to suppress our human emotions and desires, which often lead us to sin and to wickedness before the presence of God and men alike. Fasting and abstinence are meant for us to realise our frailty and our sinfulness, that we are truly unworthy sinners, given grace and forgiveness by our ever loving God.

Fasting and abstinence are meant to help us to restrict ourselves from the worldliness and things that often lead us away and distract us from following the teachings of our Lord with the wholeness of our hearts. This is why, even though the rules on fasting and abstinence involve food that we consume, but they should not be limited to this only.

Yes, fasting and abstinence can come in the form of restricting and limiting ourselves from our favourite hobby and activity, which often took so much time from us that we end up wasting our time and being unable to contribute positively and in a good way towards those who are around us. There are truly many things we can do and we can choose from many options.

We can abstain from computer gaming, watching our favourite television programmes and videos, from the sin of gluttony and sloth, from the pleasures of the flesh, and something as simple as stirring ourselves from laziness when we see someone around us who are suffering, not having enough food, enough love or respect by others as a fellow mankind.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the readings remind us that this Lent is a time for us to focus on the right things and fast as well as abstain for the right purposes. We fast because we know that by our sinfulness, we have been separated from our Lord by a certain degree. The more we sin, the further we have been separated from our loving God. And this is what all of us should be aware of.

We fast and abstain to remind ourselves on our own sinfulness, and it is also a kind reminder for us all who have more in terms of food, care, love and the goodness and graces of the world, we should share them with those who are less fortunate. That is the kind of fasting and abstinence that our Lord truly wants from us, and not those done for the sake of human praise and appearances as the Pharisees had done.

May the Lord awaken in us all the desire to love one another and to share the joy and grace we have, that no one will ever be in need again. May this Lent be a blessed season for us to reflect on our sins and therefore seek God’s forgiveness and repent in total sincerity. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 19 February 2015 : Thursday after Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we progress through the season of Lent, and as we recall yesterday’s imposition of ashes on our foreheads, we continue to prepare ourselves to welcome Christ into our lives and celebrate with full joy and attention, and earnestly seeking to reconcile ourselves with the Lord, so that through this perfect opportunity during this Lenten season, we may be fully prepared to rejoice together with Him at the coming of Easter.

What is the significance for this, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is that we have been given a great opportunity to redeem ourselves, despite all of our wickedness and sins, so that we may be made clean and worthy once more. God is loving and forgiving and He desires for us all to be reconciled with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ, who had offered Himself in exchange for the consequences of our sins.

By dying on the cross He destroyed our death, and freed us from the bonds of death and from the chains of sin, and by rising from the dead, He restores us to life and give us the hope of a new and eternal life, one that is no longer tainted by sin, but filled forever with grace and the light of God. But if we think that this is going to be easy or to be a honeymoon period, then we have to really think it through very carefully.

For as we heard in the Gospel today, following Christ our Lord means taking up our cross and follow on the path of the cross of Christ. And if Jesus was rejected, mocked and spat upon during His arduous path towards Calvary, then the same will also happen to us all who decided to follow Christ. All the followers of Christ will also suffer as our Lord had suffered.

We must be ready to make a commitment and to devote ourselves to walk righteously on the path towards the Lord. Otherwise, if we are not able to commit and to show genuine devotion, and continue in our sinful ways, then we will not be able to receive the fullness of God’s grace, or even worse, that is to be rejected by God and receive condemnation.

Our faith must be real and concrete, and we all must be dedicated in our actions to show the faith we have to God. We have to practice what we believe in, or otherwise, our faith is useless and has no meaning. This season of Lent is therefore a time for all of us to look back into our own actions in the past and reflect on them. Have we been acting in accordance with our faith? Or have our actions proved otherwise instead?

This is the season of forgiveness, and it is also the best time for us to return to the Lord and ask for His mercy. And having been given this great chance, let us not waste it and make best use of the time available. Do you know that the souls suffering in hell wish that they are able to relive their existence on earth even if just for a single second?

Why is this so? In that single second, they wish that they would have been able to repent and change their ways before the Lord, and they wished that the Lord would have forgiven them. It is too late for them now, and nothing can save them from the fiery and painful suffering of hell, a total separation from God from where there can be no escape. That will also be our fate if we decide to do nothing and ignore our Lord’s call for our repentance.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, let us all be proactive in this season of Lent. Forgive one another and do not be in conflict anymore with any of our brethren. If we are angry with anyone or hold any grudge upon someone, let us quickly seek to restore the relationship between us and forgive each other. Love all those who are around us, and love also those who have hated us and persecuted us.

May Almighty God bless us all in this holy season of Lent, that we will find our way in getting closer and closer to Himself. May He forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven the faults of those who had hurt us and caused trouble to us. Let the grace and love of God fill us in this time onward, so that from now on, the community of the people of God will grow greater ever in grace. God be with us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 18 February 2015 : Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple or Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the beginning of the holy and solemn season of Lent, the forty days period that begins today and ends on the beginning of the Holy Week, as a season of preparation for the approaching celebration of the most important aspects of our faith, that is the celebration of our Lord’s death and resurrection from the dead.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the beginning of that penitential season, a time for us to reflect on ourselves and on our own lives, in terms of what we had done in this life and in what we have failed to do as the Lord commanded us. This is a time for us to seek God’s forgiveness and mercy, taking advantage of the rich mercy and love which He had shown us through our Lord, Jesus Christ.

In today’s readings, first taken from the Book of the prophet Joel, the content is one of humble lamentation and begging for supplication, by the people of God who had longed for a long period of time, the salvation in God. They have longed for the rescue and the help which only our Lord could give, the true joy and happiness which only He can give us and nothing else of this world could.

And in that same reading, we can see how our Lord Himself also desired for the salvation of His beloved people, no matter how sinful or wicked they were. It is only one thing that the Lord wants out of them, that is for them to abandon their sins, and from then on to love Him with all of their hearts and with the full and complete strength of their beings.

Sin is a great bane for mankind, that is the one which has separated us from the love of God, and it has caused us much great sufferings in this world. Before sin entered into the world and into the hearts of men, everything were good and perfect, and mankind were destined for a life in eternal joy and happiness as the Lord intended it, to live with Him and reign with Him forever.

Yet, our pride, our desire and greed, our emotions and our prejudice had prevented us from accomplishing such a wondrous life. Our ancestors were tempted and they failed. They gave in to the temptation of Satan, that is the temptation of knowledge. And ever since then, mankind had been in rebellion against God, and without God, mankind cannot stand up and preserve themselves, for truly we need God in our daily life.

Yes, our Lord and God provided us with everything that we need and He knows all that we will ever need. There is absolutely no need to worry for anything, as if we trust in Him, we shall never be disappointed. But, many of us continue to worry about the things of this world, and we are often swayed to follow our peers and be corrupted by the many concerns and pleasures of this world, the pleasures of the flesh.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, ever since sin entered into the hearts of men, we have been made dirty and unworthy, as desire and greed became a part of us. We are not easy to be satisfied, and we also easily becoming jealous and hateful towards others, all because of desire and vanity, pride and arrogance, thinking that the world is all about us and everything revolves around us.

And today in the Gospel, God made it clear to us that He meant business. He showed the depth of our wickedness as even in fasting we can commit sin, by fasting for the sake of doing it, or even worse, as the Pharisees had done it, by showing off their supposed piety by fasting very publicly and openly to gain human praise and earthly prestige, but in their hearts there was no place for God.

In their pride and arrogance, they showed the worst human qualities and capacities for sin and wickedness. They were so caught up in their pride, for being supposedly the elites of the society and the role models in faith, that they forgot to give glory to God, the One whom they ought to serve and welcome into the world. Instead, they rejected Him and piled troubles and obstacles upon obstacles in God’s work of salvation, and as a result, they were accursed and rejected as well by God.

What is the best attitude, brothers and sisters? What is the attitude we should adopt then? It is through humility and understanding of our own sinfulness, and in knowing the corruptions and wickedness that had separated us from the Lord, then we can be led on the right path towards salvation and life in the Lord our God. And on this day, this Ash Wednesday is a reminder of our own frailty, of our own sinfulness and wickedness, and of how much we need the Lord our God to be in our lives.

When the priest imposes the ashes upon our forehead, and with the words that accompany it, these are a reminder for all of us to know that as we are created from dust, from the earth, then to the earth too our bodies will return. Our bodies may perish when we die and turn back to the dust, but our soul is eternal and will live forever, either in eternal joy with God, or in eternal suffering in hell. And on the day of the resurrection, on the last day, God will raise us up all body and spirit, and we will rejoice forever in His glory, with a renewed body of glory, if we remain faithful to Him.

We are all reminded through this, that whatever achievements we have in this life, and whatever glory and praises we have accumulated in this life. And whatever honour and fame we have received from men, in the end all these will not benefit us. Jesus our Lord had repeated this many times, with the example of the parable telling us how a rich man piled up his great wealth and thinking he had it all secure for his future happiness and indulgence, when the Lord was in fact about to end his life there and then.

An important lesson for us all is that we should not build for ourselves a treasure that will not last. Build instead the eternal treasure and riches which we can only build through our obedience to our Lord, and not through greed and hoarding of the resources and the goods of this world. Our earthly life is just temporary, and is a precursor to the eternal life which we will all receive from God Himself at the end of time, if we remain faithful to His laws and precepts.

It is imperative therefore for us to reflect on this imposition of the ashes, and as we begin our Lenten journey, the forty days of retreat and recollection of our own lives, which is designed to help us to find our way again to the Lord and to rediscover the focus and purpose of our lives, that is to bring glory to God by our actions and deeds. We have to indeed recall the forty days of suffering and difficulties which our Lord Jesus went through as He walked in the desert for forty days and nights without food.

The devil tried to dissuade Him and pull Him away from His works of salvation by telling all sorts of lies about humanity, and taking advantage of the human emotions, needs and wants in order to prevent the salvation of many souls to be done. But the Lord Jesus remained completely obedient to the wishes of His Father in heaven, and despite the temptations, Jesus continued on without qualms and with firm conviction in the faith of the Lord.

In the same way therefore too, we will all eventually encounter difficult times in life. There will be temptations that threaten to cause us to sin and do even more wicked things. If we are unable to resist, then the lures of Satan will get to us eventually. What is at stake is nothing else than the fate we are to face, whether it be eternal suffering for our disobedience or eternal life and happiness for our obedience.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we enter into this season of Lent and begin our preparation for Easter earnestly, let us all take a step back in our lives, take the time out from our busy daily schedules, and learn to find some time to be with the Lord our God. This is a season of prayer, of sincere atonement and seeking for God’s mercy and forgiveness. Fasting and abstinence are meant to help us to achieve this, and when we fast and abstain, we must have a clear goal in mind, that is to help us overcome the distraction and temptation on our way to God, and not to show it off to others.

May this season of Lent help us to become ever more faithful children and servants of our God, and may He continue to watch over us and guide us so that we will not be overcome by the forces of evil arrayed against us. God bless us all. Amen.