strength of faith

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Thursday, 17 July 2014 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear about the infinite goodness of the Lord, and His infinite love and grace which He had shown us since ages past. Mankind sadly however do not recognise this great love which had been shown them, and we often tend to disregard and disrespect the care and the blessings which God had showered us with.

Jesus offered us a lighter burden to bear, not in a sense that the burden that we have to bear if we follow Him will be lighter, but we have to understand it from the perspective and the whole picture of the Lord’s intentions for us. While the Lord is loving and forgiving, the world and Satan is definitely not so. If we choose to follow the path of the world, the path may seem to be easier and the burden may seem to be lighter than if we follow the Lord, but at the end of the road, there is nothing but despair, hopelessness and darkness.

And if we have chosen our lot in the world, that means we have put our trust and our bet on Satan and his followers. Then that means we will have no part in the Lord and His salvation, and we will be excluded from all the blessings and graces He had intended for us since the beginning of time. The truth about the heavy and excruciating burden that we are to bear will not be evident until it has come too late for us.

The burden that is given by our Lord to us may seem to be heavy, but at the end of all that, is the relief beyond all relief, and liberation from all forms of bonds and chains that burdened us, when we come to meet our Lord once again at the end of our lives. It is this liberation that we seek for, and which we ought to aim for in our lives, and not to seek the easy way out through the falsehoods and lies of Satan.

God has promised us that He will bring us to a new and eternal life in His Kingdom, and we know that God always speaks the truth, and He never lies to us. It is we who have often lied to the Lord, speaking on one side that we love our God and worship Him, but in our hearts and actions, we do not reflect the same kind of attitude expected from us. Instead we act and profess our faith in the ways of the evil one, Satan.

It is truly amazing how great is the love that God has for all of us, that even after centuries, millenia and countless ages of rebelliousness and our constant lack of faith, we have been constantly forgiven and accepted back all the time to the loving embrace of our God. He certainly did not hesitate at all to forgive us, if our repentance is genuine and true. However, many of us continue to persist in our sinful ways, preferring the burden of Satan rather than the burden of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is time for us to awaken from our slumber. Let us all cast away all the lies and the falsehoods of Satan, which he had cleverly and cunningly done in order to conceal the truths about his path to destruction. Many of us are currently walking in the same path as Satan, that is towards eternal damnation and destruction. Satan makes it seem easier for us to follow suit with the world’s ways and customs, and purposely makes it difficult for us if we are to follow the way of the Lord.

But this is exactly why we have to awaken to our faith and be removed from our passive and inaction in our lives. We have to make the great choice between following our God or following the evil one. We have been too long lulled by the easy weight of the burden of this world, and we always like to shun the burden God gives us just because it seems to be difficult and heavy.

Let us no longer be complacent in our lives, throwing away all the laziness and inaction, and from now on, let us all truly be faithful and loving children of our God, and in our actions and deeds, let us all be truly worthy of being called and counted among His children and servants. Let us all say confidently to the Lord, come Lord, come and save Your servants, and give us the promised everlasting life You have promised us, no matter what difficulties and challenges the world may present to us.

May Almighty God continue to bless us, guide us and empower us, so that we may all remain faithful to Him and continue our good works for the good of all of our fellow brethren, helping each other to reach out to the Lord and towards the promise of eternal life in God. Amen.

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Saturday, 28 June 2014 : Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Galatians 1 : 11-20

Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, that the Gospel we preached to you is not a human message, nor did I receive it from anyone, I was not taught of it but it came to me as a revelation from Christ Jesus.

You have heard of my previous activity in the Jewish community; I furiously persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. For I was more devoted to the Jewish religion than many fellow Jews of my age, and I defended the traditions of my ancestors more fanatically.

But one day God called me out of His great love, He who had chosen me from my mother’s womb; and He was pleased to reveal in me His Son, that I might make Him known among the pagan nations. Then I did not seek human advice nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me. I immediately went to Arabia, and from there I returned again to Damascus.

Later, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. But I did not see any other Apostle except James, the Lord’s brother. On writing this to you, I affirm before God that I am not lying.

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Saturday, 21 June 2014 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are reminded yet again today that we should put our trust in God and leave all things to Him who cares for us. We do not need to worry or think about what we are to do today and what we ought to have in our lives. As I have often mentioned, in this life, we often confuse between our needs and our wants, between the things that we truly need in life and things that is in our desire and greed.

Yes, we also often confuse between things that are truly precious and dear to us, and things that are what form our desire and our greed. In our world today filled with materialism and consumerism, this is becoming more and more out of hand, and instead of doing what the Lord wants us to do, we are getting more and more separated from Him by committing things unworthy in His sight.

What are some of the examples? We always worry about the latest gadgets and newest inventions that are marketed to us as things that we need to have so that we look ‘cool’ and acceptable to the society, and we also often beg and seek these things to fulfill our own feeling of inferiority and need for acceptance, but we fail to look beyond that, to find what we truly want and need in life.

God is with us, brothers and sisters, and He knows perfectly all the things that we need at all the moments of our lives. I am sure many of us did not realise this, but if we do take some time to think and reflect, have you realised that actually in many moments of our lives, we have been blessed by God who intervened in His own way and in His own time to help us and to be with us? God never left us alone.

We have to learn to let go of the many desires and egoistic feelings that we have in us. We cannot succumb to our desires and wants, as this will inevitably lead to more and more desire and more and more wants. Mankind are inherently greedy and desire pleasure, hence, we are predisposed to seek pleasures and comfort in life, forgetting what we truly need to do in life.

Today we commemorate the feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a holy man and a dedicated worker of the faith and servant of God, who was born in the late Renaissance Italy, into a noble and wealthy family, one of the most influential and powerful families of that era in Italy. He was destined for greatness, both in inheritance and great wealth. However, the heart of St. Aloysius Gonzaga turned somewhere else.

Instead of dwelling in his privileged status and in his material wealth, of which he had so much that he need no more, St. Aloysius Gonzaga wanted to become a priest and a missionary, working to spread the Good News to the lands which were still in the darkness without the knowledge of God. As such, he wanted to join the Jesuits, but his family was adamantly against his choice.

However, despite persuasions and negotiations, his family failed to convince St. Aloysius Gonzaga to do otherwise. Eventually, St. Aloysius Gonzaga fulfilled his desire and became a Jesuit, and he committed himself totally to God, and even during a plague, when many died from the sickness, he did not fear and continued to commit himself to the patients and the sick in love, eventually succumbing to the disease himself. But in dying, he had shown us all, the power of love and faith that is lived in that love.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to live like St. Aloysius Gonzaga had done? Are we able to get our eyes and our minds away from our continuous desire for more and more goods and pleasures? We must really make the effort to do good for others as St. Aloysius Gonzaga had done for others. Let us really live our faith and be faithful to God, practicing our faith with love. May God be our guide and our strength. Amen.

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Wednesday, 4 June 2014 : 7th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus our Lord is our Shepherd, and He is always on the watch. Never for even a single moment He let His sight away from us, for He cares for us and He will not want us to be lost in the darkness of the world, and indeed, in that darkness, the wolves, that is Satan and his fellow fallen angels await to see when mankind, the sheep and flock of the Lord are at their most vulnerable moments, and then strike to drag them into the eternal darkness and damnation.

As our Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd, He is someone who truly loves and is dedicated to us, His sheep, and He will not let us to fall into the hands of the devil and his agents, who are trying all the time to steal us away from our Shepherd and drag us together with them into damnation and eternal suffering in hell. That is the aim of those forces arrayed against us, and we should always be vigilant.

Our Shepherd is always with us, ever since He dedicated Himself completely to us through His sacrifice on the cross. He gave Himself out of His love for us mankind, and as our Shepherd and a good shepherd, He cares for us sincerely and unconditionally, even unto giving up His life for His sheep. This is what we are taught and what we have with us as our assurance of faith. God our Shepherd is always with us.

The wolves are always watching and waiting for moments of weakness, when we are most vulnerable to snatch us, and we know these from the moments in our lives when we feel dejected, when we feel sad and sorrowful in our daily lives, when we are met with failure, and even when we meet successes in life and glory, when we allow ourselves to be open to Satan and his agents to enter into our hearts and therefore into our lives.

There are these moments when we put our guard down, when we feel weak in the faith, and especially those moments when we feel that the Lord is not with us, and we question whether He even cares for us or loves us, for He is not apparently there for us when we need Him very much. But this is the persuasions and temptations of the devil, my friends, for the devil whispered lies in our ears and in our hearts, that the Lord is not with us, because we cannot see Him and feel His presence around us.

But this is false, brethren, for our Lord is truly beside us, and He watches over us all the time, and all that we need to do, is to open ourselves to the Lord and let His love and care for us to flow freely into us, and we surely can feel His works all around us, all of which are meant to keep us safe from the forces of Satan, that is the wolves trying to rip us apart from the loving embrace of our God.

We often do not realise how much our Lord loves us, and we often think that we ourselves are all that we need in this world. And in this, we breed our ego and pride, allowing them to flourish and become fertile ground for the devil to spread his seeds of rebelliousness and disobedience within us. This we cannot allow, brothers and sisters in Christ, for we must not allow even any inch of our hearts and minds to be taken over by the evil one, or we will go astray and be lost.

Let us all from now on, reflect on the love which our Lord has for us. In our breath, every single breath that we take in life, and every help He has placed on our way, our priests and those who minister the Gospel to us. Yes, all these are the manifestations of God’s eternal love and care for us, and which He showed foremost through none other than Jesus Christ, who became one of us, to be our Shepherd and guide us back on the way to God our Lord and loving Father.

May we grow stronger in our faith and devotion to our Lord and Shepherd, that from now on we will heed only the leads of our loving Saviour, and disregard all the dissenting voices and disobedience which Satan has taught us and planted in our hearts ever since the days of our ancestors. May the Lord continue to be with us, all the days of our life and keep us always firmly in His love. God bless us always. Amen.