St. Cyprian

by

Friday, 16 September 2016 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and St. Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 16 : 1, 6-7, 8b and 15

Hear a just cause, o Lord, listen to my complaint. Give heed to my prayer for there is no deceit on my lips.

I call on You, You will answer me, o God; incline Your ear and hear my word. For You do wonders for Your faithful, You save those fleeing from the enemy as they seek refuge at Your right hand.

Under the shadow of Your wings hide me. As for me, righteous in Your sight, I shall see Your face and, awakening, gaze my fill on Your likeness.

by

Friday, 16 September 2016 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and St. Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
1 Corinthians 15 : 12-20

Well, then, if Christ is preached as risen from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is empty and our belief comes to nothing.

And we become false witnesses of God, attesting that He raised Christ, whereas He could not raise Him if indeed the dead are not raised. If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith gives you nothing, and you are still in sin. Also those who fall asleep in Christ are lost.

If it is only for this life that we hope in Christ, we are the most unfortunate of all people. But no, Christ has been raised from the dead and He comes before all those who have fallen asleep.

by

Wednesday, 16 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today what we heard in the Scripture Readings from the Old and the New Testament is that all of us ought to wake up from our lack of wisdom, from our lack of understanding of the will of God, and thus we are unable to discern what is best for us to do in this life, in our actions and deeds, where our confusion resulting in the devil being able to enter into our hearts and minds and tempt us to commit sinful things.

This is what will happen if we do not put our trust in the Lord and instead rely and depend on our own whim and desires. Each of us have our different desires and wants, and when these differ from each other and no one would want to give way to the other, then conflict would arise, and this is the root of many of the sorrows and bitterness in this world, past, present and in the coming future.

Those who trust in the wisdom of men will be disappointed, as they should all realise that the intellect and capacity of mankind to understand the world around them is limited and filled with prejudice and preconceptions. We look at the world through tinted glasses of our human judgment, and as a result, we have the tendency to judge others based on what we see and what we have experienced in life.

Thus, this was why they judged St. John the Baptist and Jesus as they went about seeing what the two had done in their ministry and work in this world. They used their prejudices to think badly of St. John the Baptist as a madman and a lunatic, while of Jesus they thought of Him as a heretic and someone who refused to follow and obey the Law, and preferring to follow His own way.

Yes, these were the prejudices of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, which in what I have often mentioned, they were often so fixated in fulfilling the requirements and rigours of the Law that they forgot about God’s intentions of giving those laws to mankind in the first place. They thought that just because they were educated and filled with human and worldly wisdom, then they were to be esteemed and respected, and they thought that they had the right to judge others based on their judgment.

They were too focused on themselves, and rather than realising what God wanted from them, they became self-righteous, self-serving and filled with all sorts of selfishness and ego that characterised their actions and their deeds, and in how they always worked to undermine the good works of Christ Jesus our Lord. They thought of Jesus as a rival and as someone who would steal their glory and privileges from them, and giving in to their ego and pride, they committed great sins before the Lord.

This is clearly what we do not want to replicate in ourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ. Our path forward should be filled with humility and trust in the wisdom and in the will of God, recognising that our opinions and intellect would not provide everything that we need, and that we may commit errors and mistakes, whereas the Lord can never be wrong.

It is just as what was said that those who want to follow Jesus must first die to themselves before they are able to follow Him and walk in His ways. This does not mean a literal death, but rather, the ending of one’s own pride and ego, the ending of the desires and the greed that had been for so long a great obstacle on our path to redemption. We have to first get rid of our selfishness and our self-loving and self-serving attitudes before we can truly serve and follow the Lord our God.

Today we celebrate the feast of two saints, whose lives and examples can hopefully be an inspiration to all of us, so that we too may be able to walk in the same path that they have walked in. It is important for us to remember what Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian had done in their life, in their work to bring greater glory to God, and in their commitment to the people of God.

Pope St. Cornelius was the Bishop of Rome, Pope and Leader of the Universal Church whose leadership was essential to help and guide the faithful during a time when they lived in fear of the authorities and the world, where they were persecuted daily for their sins. He led the people of the faith against the great persecution against the faithful led by the Roman Emperor Decius, who was infamous for his especially bloody and harsh persecution of Christians.

Together with many of the faithful and their leaders, which include St. Cyprian, an influential Bishop of Carthage, they led the faithful through a difficult time, including dealing not just with the external threat of official persecution but also the internal divisions and disagreements within the Church itself. The persecution had caused a great division in the Church, with the faction favouring harsh stance on those Christians who had been known to give way to some demands of the worldly authorities in place of their safety, and those, on the side of Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian, who favoured mercy and forgiveness on these people.

In this, we can see clearly how the readings today stack up and is repeated once again there, with those favouring harsh persecution and treatment of their fellow brethren in faith as those who were like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, in trusting their own human judgment and intellect in coming out with solutions and in how they deal with issues such as the one presented to them.

It does not mean of course, that God tolerated the sins of those who have committed sin and not being faithful to Him. God still despises all of those sins, even to the smallest and least of sins. However, what differentiates everything is the fact that God does not hate us or despise us as a human being, as His creation in any way. He loves us all greatly, and desires nothing else other than for us to repent our ways, to change and to be welcomed back into His grace.

Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian brought the mercy of God to these people, reminding them to keep themselves worthy and pure from sins, and these two courageous and holy men did not fear even the pressures and threats from the world, and bravely embraced martyrdom, dying in defending their faith. They remained true to the end, and rather than placing their own interests, wishes and wants first, they placed God before everything else.

Let us all learn from their examples, and let us all learn to be more committed, devoted and faithful in our ways. May Almighty God help us and guide us on our way, so that we may grow less and less attached to ourselves and grow smaller in our ego, dying to our selfishness, and rise anew as people dedicated to the Lord, filled with His love, caring and loving one another as He had taught us. God bless us all and may He bring us to eternal life. Amen.

by

Wednesday, 16 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Luke 7 : 31-35

At that time, Jesus said to the people and to His disciples, “What comparison can I use for this people? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace, about whom their companions complain, ‘We piped you a tune and you would not dance; we sang funeral songs and you would not cry.'”

“Remember John : he did not eat bread or drink wine, and you said, ‘He has an evil spirit.’ Next came the Son of Man, eating and drinking and you say, ‘Look, a glutton for food and wine, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But the children of Wisdom always recognise her work.”

by

Wednesday, 16 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 110 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Alleluia! I thank the Lord with all my heart in the council of the just, in the assembly. The works of the Lord are great, and pondered by all who delight in them.

Glorious and majestic are His deeds, His righteousness endures forever. He lets us remember His wondrous deeds; the Lord is merciful and kind.

Always mindful of His covenant, He provides food for those who fear Him. He shows His people the power of His arm by giving them the lands of other nations.

by

Wednesday, 16 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Timothy 3 : 14-16

I give you these instructions, although I hope I will see you soon. If I delay, you will know how you ought to conduct yourself in the household of God, that is, the Church of the Living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth. How great indeed is the mystery of divine blessing!

He was shown in the flesh and sanctified by the Spirit; presented to the angels and proclaimed to all nations. The world believed in Him : He was taken up in glory!

by

Tuesday, 16 September 2014 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how Jesus healed the son of a widow from Naim, bringing him back from death into life, in which He showed to the people, the loving and merciful aspects of God, who truly loved and cared for all of us. He had pity on the mother who was sorrowful for having been left alone by her son, and brought them back into true joy and happiness in God.

And in the first reading, in the letter written by St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Corinth, about the nature of the Church of God, and how in the Church, which is in fact comprised of all of us who believe in Christ the Lord, there exist a certain hierarchy of its members, which allow the Church to function as a body, just as in our body we have various organs and parts that have distinct functions working together in order to achieve certain goals and actions.

St. Paul mentioned how each members and each people in the Church have their own distinct gifts from the Lord, also known as the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which the Apostles and disciples themselves had received during the occasion of the Pentecost day. Everyone had been called by the Lord for a specific purpose and task, and one ought not to think proudly of himself or herself so as to assume that they can gain for themselves the entirety of the goodness and the gifts of the Lord.

Thus, the Church of God, which is centred on our Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, and we as the members of His Body, has a specific task in order to carry out and continue the good works which Jesus had initiated in this world, that is the works of love and mercy, as He showed through the rising of the son of the widow of Naim from the dead.

The Church of God comprised of many different people, and indeed, different groups of people, from the laity to the ordained ministers, that is the sacred priesthood and those who dedicated their lives in the service of God, and everyone else, including those of us who belong to the group of those who serve the Lord and yet also still live in this world.

And even among the priesthood, we have various roles, such as the bishops and then the priests themselves. Bishops are those who have been given a greater role in the Church, as overseers of a group of priests and the laity, and they are entrusted with the sheep of the Lord’s flock, as the shepherds, who are then led by the chief shepherds on earth, that is the Pope, the Bishop of Rome and the Vicar of Christ in this world, the representation of the Chief Shepherd of all, Jesus Christ.

The bishops therefore lead the Church in the works of love and mercy, and are also entrusted with the supervision duty of the body of the faithful in the Church, and they are also entrusted with the management of the Church. That said, there are also many others who are also involved in the management of the Church, both among the laity, as well as those in the priesthood and the ordained ministry.

The priests serve the people of God in various means, that is by providing them a spiritual guidance and protection against the harms of the devil, and in some cases also by providing alms and charity works for them. Then, the deacons, as we heard in the New Testament, were appointed as those who would serve the people of God directly, aid in the works of charity of the Church, to aid the priests and the bishops, so that they can channel to the people of God, particularly the poorest and the weakest, the love of God through His Church.

Yet, it is sad indeed, that many today in the Church aspire to have everything in their greed and lack of faith. Many began to question their roles in the Church and some even fought in the name of what they described as equality. Therefore we have those who proposed such outrageous ideas such as the abolition of the sacred priesthood and the ordained ministry, as well as the ordination of women to the priesthood.

Those who proposed and supported such proposals failed to understand that each of us in the Church have our own unique roles which help to supplement each other and therefore, it makes the Church stronger. To go against this natural law of order would in fact mean to destroy the unity and strength of the holy Church of God and undermine its authority in this world. Every one has been given a specific and particular gift which enables us to have our own roles in the Church to carry out what the Lord had planned for us.

Brothers and sisters, today we celebrate together as the Church the feast day of two great saints, whose life will inspire us to appreciate the beauty of the order and hierarchy in the Church, namely that of Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian, both holy martyrs of the faith, at the time of the persecutions of the Roman Empire.

Pope St. Cornelius was the Pope and the Vicar of Christ in the middle of the third century after the birth of Christ, during the reign of the Emperor Decius, the great persecutor of the faithful. Then St. Cyprian was his contemporary, as the Bishop of Carthage and the supporter of Pope St. Cornelius’ view regarding the faithful.

The two saints lived in a difficult time, when Christians and all who believed in the Lord were persecuted heavily and when their very lives were threatened by the Roman authorities. And amidst those persecutions, there were those among the faithful who submitted to the will of the state and the Emperor, and gave offering to the pagan idols, essentially an act of apostasy, or leaving the Church of God, who should be thereafter be treated the same as the pagans.

However, some of them repented their sins and returned to the embrace of the Holy Mother Church, and were received back among the faithful as long as they were sincere in their repentance. But, there were those in the Church who were opposed to the return of these so called traitors and apostates and demanded much stricter regulations to even allow them to be readmitted into the Church.

St. Cyprian and Pope St. Cornelius were the champions of those in the Church who would allow the faithful who had gone astray to return to the Church as long as their repentance was sincere. They worked hard among the faithful and among those who had gone astray to bring them back towards the Lord and to heal them from the afflictions of their souls. The laity themselves also played their own parts and supported the works of their shepherds, while they also kept their faith alive and strong despite even great persecutions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, these saints, Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian, who were both eventually martyred for their faith, had showed us the model of their faith, which showed love and mercy for the least of the society, those who were rejected because of the stigma of their status as apostates and betrayer of their faith. They showed that while in the Church itself there were already many different groups of people, there would always be a space for those who realised their errors and repented for their sins.

Let us all therefore reflect on the Scripture readings of this day, and grow to find in our hearts, the role that we can play as part of the Church of God. Let us all work together to continue the good works of Christ, to bring God’s love to all the peoples, and to heal many from their afflictions, both physical, and even more importantly, to heal the spiritual aspects of many people.

May Almighty God, together with the intercession of the holy saints, Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian, bless us this day and guide us, so that we may also follow in their footsteps, to serve the people of God and love one another in the Lord. God bless us all and bring us into His light. Amen.

by

Tuesday, 16 September 2014 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Luke 7 : 11-17

A little later Jesus went to a town called Naim. He was accompanied by His disciples and a great number of people. As He reached the gate of the town, a dead man was being carried out. He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; there followed a large crowd of townspeople.

On seeing her, the Lord had pity on her and said, “Do not cry.” Then He came up and touched the stretcher, and the men who carried it stopped. Jesus then said, “Young man, I say to you, wake up!” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

A holy fear came over them all, and they praised God saying, “A great Prophet has appeared among us; God, has visited His people.” This news spread throughout Judea and the surrounding places.

by

Tuesday, 16 September 2014 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 99 : 2, 3, 4, 5

Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God; He created us and we are His people, the sheep of His fold.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His Name.

For the Lord is good; His love lasts forever and His faithfulness through all generations.

by

Tuesday, 16 September 2014 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Corinthians 12 : 12-14, 27-31a

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

The body has not just one member, but many. Now, you are the Body of Christ and each of you individually is a member of it. So God has appointed us in the Church. First Apostles, second prophets, third teachers. Then come miracles, then the gift of healing, material help, administration in the Church and the gift of tongues.

Are all Apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Can all perform miracles, or cure the sick, or speak in tongues, or explain what was said in tongues? Be that as it may, set your hearts on the most precious gifts.