St. John of Capestrano

by

Monday, 23 October 2017 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s Scripture readings we are presented with two very interesting contrasts in the passages we heard, both involving very rich men, who had plenty in worldly terms, blessed by God in all that they do, bountiful with all sorts of wealth and possessions, yet with very different outcomes.

In the Old Testament, we heard how Abraham, the patriarch of the Israelites and father of many nations was mentioned. Then in the Gospel, we heard the Lord Jesus telling us in a parable about a rich man who had plenty of grains stored in numerous granaries, earning him great amount of riches and wealth.

But the contrast lie in the fact that while Abraham put his trust and faith in God, as he was ready to leave behind everything in the land of his ancestors to travel into an uncharted territory solely based on God’s call, the rich man mentioned in the Gospel had trust only in himself and in his riches. The rich man mentioned in the Gospel was happy with his many riches, but not satisfied, because he wanted to have more.

Abraham placed his trust and faith in God, believing that in all he has received, all of them were due to the grace and blessings from God. He was satisfied in what he had received and was willing to give back to God what He deserved, that is his love and commitment. That was why God blessed him and chose him among many others, to be the father of many nations and as the progenitor of the race of the first chosen people of God.

The rich man in the Gospel put his trust in his wealth and possessions, and loved them more than his love for God. He was thinking about them all the time, worrying that he would not have enough barns to store all of his grains and not enough storehouses to contain all of his wealth. But God rebuked him, saying that all that he had gained would be for nothing, as if his life was to be taken away that very night, all the wealth and possessions he had would not save him.

It is therefore an important reminder for each and every one of us, that we should realise that the true treasure of our life lies in God alone, and in God we have that inheritance and promise of eternal glory that last forever, and not temporary in nature. Meanwhile, all kinds of worldly assurances and matters can be easily destroyed and perish, and if we put our trust in these, we will only be disappointed in the end.

Let us all therefore spend some time to reflect on our lives. Let us all think on how we have led our lives thus far, on whether we have spent too much time trying to assemble for ourselves worldly glories, fame, wealth and renown, to the point that we have forgotten what it is that we really should be doing with our lives. We should devote ourselves, our effort, our time and attention to the Lord, so that in all the things we do, we do not do them for our own selfish gains, but for the greater glory of God.

Today, we celebrate the feast day of St. John of Capestrano, a renowned holy man and priest, who was a Franciscan friar and preacher, giving himself wholeheartedly to the Lord, abandoning behind all forms of worldly glory, as he was once an influential ruler and governor of the province of Perugia in Italy. He left everything behind and joined the Franciscan order to serve the greater purpose of God, trusting everything to Him.

St. John of Capestrano travelled through many cities and villages throughout Europe, preaching against heresies and excesses of human nature. He called many people to repent from their sins and to turn once again towards God. He was also involved in many embassies sent by the Pope to the rulers of Christendom, going from place to place to combat heresies as well as to settle matters of state, or broker peace between kingdoms and rulers.

The examples shown by St. John of Capestrano should inspire us all as Christians, that we should put God ahead of everything else in our lives. There will indeed be plenty of temptations urging us to do otherwise, but we will do well in obeying God and putting our trust in Him, as Abraham our father in faith, St. John of Capestrano and the many other holy saints had done in their lives.

Let us all therefore renew our commitment to God, by learning to be faithful in all the things we do in life, by trusting God in each and every moment of our lives, and by learning to let go of the temptations of material goods, wealth and all other things that do bring us temporary pleasure and happiness, but in the end, bring us only to disappointment and become obstacles in our journey to reach out to true happiness found in God alone.

May the Lord bless us always, and may He continue to guide us in our path, that in our journey towards Him, we shall be able to draw closer to Him and find justification through our faith and commitment in Him. Amen.

by

Monday, 23 October 2017 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Luke 12 : 13-21

At that time, someone in the crowd spoke to Jesus, “Master, tell my brother to share with me the family inheritance.” He replied, “My friend, who has appointed Me as your Judge or your Attorney?” Then Jesus said to the people, “Be on your guard and avoid every kind of greed, for even though you have many possessions, it is not that which gives you life.”

And Jesus continued, “There was a rich man, and his land had produced a good harvest. He thought, ‘What shall I do, for I am short of room to store my harvest? Alright, I know what I shall do : I will pull down my barns and I will build bigger ones, to store all this grain, which is my wealth. Then I will say to myself : My friend, you have a lot of good things put by for many years. Rest, eat, drink and enjoy yourself.'”

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be taken from you. Tell Me, who shall get all you have put aside?’ This is the lot of the one who stores up riches for himself and is not wealthy in the eyes of God.”

by

Monday, 23 October 2017 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Luke 1 : 69-70, 71-72, 73-75

In the house of David His servant, He has raised up for us a victorious Saviour; as He promised through His prophets of old.

Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of our foes. He has shown mercy to our fathers; and remembered His holy Covenant.

The oath He swore to Abraham, our father, to deliver us from the enemy, that we might serve Him fearlessly, as a holy and righteous people, all the days of our lives.

by

Monday, 23 October 2017 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Romans 4 : 20-25

Abraham did not doubt, nor did he distrust the promise of God, and, by being strong in faith, he gave glory to God : He was convinced, that, He Who had given the promise, had power to fulfil it.

This was taken into account, for him to attain righteousness. This was taken into account : these words of Scripture are not only for him, but for us, too, because we believe in Him, Who raised Jesus, our Lord, from among the dead, He, Who was delivered for our sins, and raised to life, for us to receive true righteousness.

by

Sunday, 23 October 2016 : 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Mission Sunday, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this holy day of the Lord, as we gather together as one people, we heard about that familiar parable from our Lord Jesus, about a Pharisee and a tax collector, who went to the Temple in Jerusalem to pray to God. The Lord contrasted the attitudes of the Pharisee who prayed with pride and haughtiness, clamouring and revelling in his achievements and supposed piety, looking down on others who were not like him, including the tax collector.

Meanwhile the tax collector prayed with great humility, bowing down himself and lowering himself before God and before others, for surely those who came to the Temple would be able to see that tax collector bowed and humbling himself, although tax collectors at that time were feared because of their money, their wealth and influence. But unlike the equally influential Pharisees, the tax collectors were often negatively seen as traitors to the country.

And the prevailing opinion then were obviously stacked against the tax collectors, prostitutes and all others whom were considered as unclean, outcast and unworthy of God’s salvation. And the people, the Jews became elitist in their attitudes, thinking that as the heir of Abraham and God’s covenant, they alone deserved to receive the love and the salvation of God. And chief among those who exhibited this attitude were the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.

But as the Lord Himself made it clear to one of His prophets, Jesus son of Sirach, also known as the prophet Sirach, our first reading today, that all mankind are equal before Him, in His presence. No one can claim to be better than any other based on their race, background, skin colour, appearances, wealth, status, fame or any other parameters that this world often used in order to distinguish how each one are treated.

God did call Abraham to be His servant, and by his obedience, God rewarded him and his descendants with favour beyond that was given all the other nations. But that does not mean that God favoured the Israelites alone, and condemned the other nations, the other peoples. After all, if God did not love those people whom the Israelites often called as pagans and barbarians, then why would He even bother to create them in the first place?

God created us mankind because He loved us all, and He has loved us all so much that His intention for us was that all of us may dwell for eternity in perfect bliss and happiness, knowing true joy and love in what He has prepared for them since the beginning of time. Alas, all of that were not meant to be, as in our disobedience, sin has become a part of us, corrupting us and made us to be unworthy.

Yet, God Who still loved us all so much, each and every one of us, would not give up on us. If He no longer loved us, then there would be no reason at all for Him to prolong our existence, and just as He had willed us to being, He could have destroyed us all and wiped us out from this world. Instead, He gave us another chance, one after the other, help and assistance, guidance and hope through His prophets and servants, and ultimately, by sending His own Son to be our Saviour.

God loves all of His children very much, and He desires for all of these to be reunited with Him in perfect harmony. And this require these same children, that is mankind, to be changed, transformed and altered completely in their ways, that they abandon their past ways of sin and be converted into the light and truth of our Lord. And that is indeed the essence of the Scripture readings that we heard today.

God does not look at hubris, pride and arrogance, and neither does He need any abstract and fake faith that was not founded upon true and genuine commitment and devotion to His ways. That was why He rebuked the action of the Pharisee both in the parable and in reality, because they were so full of themselves, that they had forgotten their true purpose, the purpose entrusted to them as the leaders and guardians of God’s people.

They forgot that they themselves were sinners too, just as the tax collector, all the other tax collectors, prostitutes and those who have been shunned from the society were sinners too. All of us have sinned before God, and regardless whether they are small or big, minor or major, all of us have been equally tainted by sin and therefore had been rendered unworthy before the Lord.

And unless we are reconciled with our God, we shall be doomed to eternal damnation and oblivion, in hellfire reserved for Satan and his fellow fallen and rebel angels. Certainly, this is not the fate that we want for ourselves, but unfortunately, as we have often witnessed, there are many distractions and temptations that kept us from finding the path to our salvation in God.

And one of the major distraction is that pride and prejudice we have within us, as the Pharisees and their fellow allies have exhibited. As Christians, we cannot follow down this path, as we cannot become enclosed within ourselves, trapped in the quagmire of greed and human pride. Rather, as Christians, we should open ourselves to love and to show care and concern for our brethren, all those who need our help.

And rather that condemning others for their sins, perhaps we ourselves should reflect on our own sinful ways first. Jesus told the Pharisees and all those whom they have gathered in one occasion to test Him by condemning a woman caught with committing adultery, that those who had no sin, ought to cast the first stone against the woman. It is yet another reminder that we have to be humble before God, and not to judge others before we look at ourselves.

Instead, let us offer a helping hand to our brethren in need, and all the more this is necessary because we have received the fullness of God’s truth and revelations through the Church, and thus, as the Apostles and the saints before us, we have that same obligation and responsibility given to us by the Lord Himself, that we ought to help and lead and guide each other that all of us may be saved together in God.

May the Lord help us in our endeavours, that through faith, commitment and devotion to the ways of the Lord, through humility and awareness of our own sins, we may discover the path to reach out to the Lord and find salvation in Him. May He guide us as we walk through this challenging path of life, and may He bless us always in all things, that we will persevere and not give up as we approach His merciful and loving embrace. Amen.

by

Sunday, 23 October 2016 : 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Mission Sunday, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 18 : 9-14

At that time, Jesus told another parable to some people, fully convinced of their own righteousness, who looked down on others : “Two men went up to the Temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself, and said, ‘I thank You, God, that I am not like the other people, grasping, crooked, adulterous, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and give the tenth of all my income to the Temple.'”

“In the meantime the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’ I tell you, when this man went back to his house, he had been reconciled with God, but not the other. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised up.”

by

Sunday, 23 October 2016 : 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Mission Sunday, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Timothy 4 : 6-9, 16-18

As for me, I am already poured out as a libation, and the moment of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness with which the Lord, the just Judge, will reward me on that day; and not only me, but all those who have longed for His glorious coming.

Do your best to come to me quickly. At my first hearing in court no one supported me; all deserted me. May the Lord not hold it against them. But the Lord was at my side, giving me strength to proclaim the Word fully, and let all the pagans hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will save me from all evil, bringing me to His heavenly kingdom. Glory to Him forever and ever. Amen!

by

Sunday, 23 October 2016 : 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Mission Sunday, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 33 : 2-3, 17-18, 19 and 23

I will bless the Lord all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the lowly hear and rejoice.

But His face is set against the wicked to destroy their memory from the earth. The Lord hears the cry of the righteous and rescues them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves the distraught. But the Lord will redeem the life of His servants; none of those who trust in Him will be doomed.

by

Sunday, 23 October 2016 : 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Mission Sunday, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Sirach 35 : 15b-17, 20-22a (Greek Septuagint – Sirach 35 : 12-14, 16-18)

The Lord is Judge and shows no partiality. He will not disadvantage the poor, He Who hears the prayer of the oppressed. He does not disdain the plea of the orphan, nor the complaint of the widow.

The one who serves God wholeheartedly will be heard; his petition will reach the clouds. The prayer of the humble person pierces the clouds, and he is not consoled until he has been heard. His prayer will not cease until the Most High has looked down, until justice has been done in favour of the righteous.

by

Friday, 23 October 2015 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about God who chastises us and challenges us to live according to the way of the Spirit and not according to the way of the flesh. This may be easy to be said, but much harder to be done in reality. This is because we mankind are always vulnerable to the assaults of the devil through the flesh, through his many lies and temptations designed to turn our hearts and ways against God.

And if we are not careful, we may be drawn deeper and deeper into the trap that is our sins, and we will be trapped further and further into the trap of sin. And the more we succumb into it, the more and greater we shall fall. This is just as what St. Paul had mentioned in his letter to the Church and the faithful in Rome, our first reading today, that the evils in our heart assert themselves first.

In today’s reading, it was made clear of the conflict and clash between the way of this mortal world and the mortal life we have on this earth, our mortal flesh, with the way of the Lord, the way of the Spirit of God as revealed through Jesus and through His Law. The Law of God is something that easily attunes itself to us as all of us were indeed created good, righteous and just, but sin marred all of these.

This is why we have the tendency to seek things of the flesh, to fulfil our own desires first, as our desires and the temptations of our flesh prevented us from seeing the truth and the wonders of the Lord found only in righteousness and obedience to His Law. Instead, we find joy and pleasure in entertaining our own human emotions and needs, and we cajole ourselves in the pursuit of earthly glories and greatness.

And we tend to place great pride and confidence in our own human abilities and intellect, so much so that this resulting in the inability for us to recognise God’s truth when it comes upon us, because we take great pride in maintaining our own ways and customs, and we refuse and we are unwilling to change our ways for the better. And this also led to the conflict between peoples, between mankind, for the needs and wants of one person will inevitably clash and overlap with that of the needs of others.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us need to understand that in order to truly become followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, and thus, in order to be able to attain salvation through Him, we have to discard our earthly ways and resist the temptations of our flesh. Otherwise, as we have just discussed, that the flesh will assert itself first, therefore, our sins and wickedness will assert themselves and block out all the good things that we are actually capable of doing.

Let us instead, look up to the example of the saint whose feast we are celebrating today, namely that of St. John of Capestrano, or also known as San Giovanni di Capestrano, an Italian saint and Franciscan priest who lived about more than five hundred years ago, who was a famous preacher and a dedicated servant of God, who committed himself to the conversion of heretics and pagans, and to the purification of the ways of the faithful from all the taints and impurities of sin.

St. John of Capestrano laboured hard in all situations and conditions, as well as in many places and among many peoples, against all sorts of heresies and perversions of the faith among the faithful. And he did not fear even the strong, mighty and powerful in his missions, for to him, his mission was to bring as many souls as possible, out of the misery and the quagmire of their sins.

He even joined a great Crusade against the godless and the heretics, and fought as a brave and courageous defender and champion of the faith, showing his dedication to the very end, dying of a disease contracted during the Crusade, that he adhered strongly and faithfully to the ways of the Lord and to His Law, and rejected the ways of the flesh, of this world and Satan completely.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we not also follow in his footsteps, and learn how to reject Satan’s temptations through our mortal flesh and bodies? Shall we strengthen our spiritual defences by strengthening our prayer life, devoting ourselves ever more to the Lord and spending more time with Him in prayer, and also by committing ourselves to works of love and charity, especially to our brethren around us?

May Almighty God be with us always, and may He ever guide our path in the way of His love, and may He ever strengthen us that we can resolutely reject all the lies and falsehoods of the evil one. God bless us all. Amen.