suffering of our Lord

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Saturday, 15 August 2015 : Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we celebrate a great feast of the Church. It is a special solemnity in honour of the Assumption of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is none other than the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Assumption refers to the moment when Mary did not suffer earthly and bodily death, but was lifted up by the power of God, or assumed, into heaven, body and soul altogether.

This is a great occasion, which the Church and faithful had believed in for quite some time, even since the days of the early Church, when the tradition of the Apostles and the Church passed down through the ages told us about how the Blessed Virgin Mary spent the rest of her earthly life after the death and resurrection of Jesus her Son, and how she was assumed into heaven at the end of her worldly existence.

This belief in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is presented richly in the Scripture readings which we heard during the Vigil Mass and the Mass of the Day of this special solemnity. We heard a lot about the Ark of the Covenant, crafted at the time of Moses from precious ornaments and materials, in order to contain the Law of God, the two stones containing the Ten Commandments God had given to His people.

And how is it relevant to today’s celebrations and festivities? This is because while the old Ark of the Covenant has been lost, especially at the time when the First Temple of God built by Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians during the fall of Jerusalem about five hundred and eighty-six years before the birth of Christ, we now have a new and everlasting Ark of the Covenant, that is no longer something perishable and destroyable by fire and by human means.

The old Ark of the Covenant contained the two stones of the Law of God, the Ten Commandments which represents the Law. And besides the two stones, it also contained the manna, the bread which kept the people of Israel alive during their time in the desert where there is no life, for over forty years during the entirety of their journey. And then last of all, it also contained the staff of Aaron, the staff of priesthood and authority as given by God.

Do you know that Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God, is the new Ark of the Covenant? We may not be able to notice this, but let me elaborate in a while. She is the new Ark of the Covenant, because firstly, she contained all of the same things that the old Ark had contained, but all were even far better than the original Ark.

For she bore within her, in her womb, the Lord God Himself, Jesus Christ, who is the Bread of Life, the High Priest and the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets of God. In Jesus all the things that were stored in the first Ark of the Covenant, were also present. And through this comparison, we can already see what the purpose of Jesus and His coming into the world were.

He came to bring life and care to His people, by shedding for them His own Body and Blood, offering it as a perfect offering and sacrifice to the Lord, as the atonement for all of our sins, as the High Priest for all of us mankind, and by doing this, He fulfilled perfectly what the Law had said, and which the Prophets had prophesied about. And He made a new Covenant with all of mankind, a new Covenant sealed with His own Blood.

And He came into this world, in a vessel great and far purer than any vessel that this earth could have given Him. For while the original Ark of the Covenant was made with pure gold and precious goods of the earth, the new Ark of the Covenant, that is Mary, the bearer of the new Covenant made in Jesus Christ, is pure, immaculate, both body and soul, free from the taint of sin, as God had intended her to be, and in her life, her actions were flawless.

This is why, as the mother of our Lord, the Master and Lord of all life, and One who has conquered death, Mary did not suffer death nor the consequences of sin, which had brought death upon all mankind. And it is therefore fitting for the mother of the Master of Life, the new Ark of the Covenant, to be spared from death which all of us mortals have to endure, as the consequence of our sins. This is firstly because she has no sin to begin with, set aside from the rest of mankind as the bearer of the Lord.

And then, as the mother of God, it is completely comprehensible that the Lord would not let death to claim her, for He Himself had conquered death. Thus, this is why, we believe in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as the symbol of triumph against death, as God Himself had prophesied at the beginning of time, when men first fall into sin.

The woman would crush the head of the serpent, and this is the triumph that man would bring to Satan and his forces, who have hounded us and endangered us for so long. This is the triumph against evil that God had promised us. Through Mary, we saw a great light and had hope once again. A world in darkness, a future of hopelessness, because of Mary who bear the new Covenant, the Promise of the Lord, had crushed forever our oppressor.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, however, one thing that we have to take note today is that all of us too, are in fact the Ark of the Covenant. Why is this so? That is because we have received the Lord into ourselves too! We who have received Him in the Eucharist, have the Lord Himself dwell inside us, because the bread we eat is His real Body, and the wine we drink, is the very Blood of our Lord Himself.

What is important for us to take note is that we have to be aware that just as the Ark of the Covenant was prepared with the best materials possible, and the new Ark, Mary, who bore our Lord in her womb, was prepared immaculate, holy and perfect, we too have to do the same with our own Ark, which is our body, our heart and our soul. Otherwise, truly we have sinned and blasphemed against our Lord.

Remember that St. Paul reminded us in his letter to the Church and the faithful in Corinth that we are all the Temple of the Holy Spirit? That mean we have been made the Temple of the Holy Presence of God Himself. And if we defile the sacredness and the sanctity of this Temple, then truly, we would make ourselves unworthy of our Lord and condemn ourselves to the eternity of suffering in hell.

Therefore, today, all of us ought to leave the Mass knowing that we all have been challenged, so that we can take note of our own words, actions and deeds, so that in all things we do and say, we can try to achieve and maintain the sanctity of our lives, our body, heart and soul. This is what we need to do, and what we can do, in order to keep ourselves worthy of our Lord, who does not tolerate sin, and yet He gives us chance after chance, for He is loving and merciful.

May Almighty God, and His mother, the Blessed Virgin assumed into heaven, body and soul, continue to be with us, and help to guide us, that we may find our way to Him, and so that we can keep ourselves holy and worthy, so that at the end of the day, we will be worthy of the eternal inheritance promised to us, God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 14 August 2015 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how Joshua, the leader of Israel and successor to Moses, the faithful servant of God, gathered the whole people of Israel and reminded them of the wonders and good things that God had done for them, from the time of their ancestors right down to their time, reminding them of how much God had done for them.

God had given so much to His people, even though from time to time, again and again they have disobeyed and refused to listen to Him and obey to Him. He has blessed them from time to time, and renewed His covenant and promise to His people yet again and again, but many rejected His offer of love and mercy, and many people continued to live in their ways of sin.

God is forever faithful and He is always ready to give His mercy and love to all those who seek them. But at the same time, it does not mean that He will let us to go our own path, that is He will not tolerate our sinfulness and our wayward behaviour, as if closing one eye against those sins. He is loving towards all of His people, but at the same time, He despises all forms of wickedness and sins.

In the Gospel today, Jesus spoke to the people about the importance, the sanctity and the nature of marriage, which is between one man and one woman, as decreed by the Lord since the beginning of creation, when He first created us mankind. Man and woman had been created to complement each other and to accompany each other, so that, as God had said, that man will join with woman and become one body, and that union is blessed and sanctified by God.

What God had made one, no man should ever separate or try to divorce. And that was what Jesus had said. He rebuked the people for their sinfulness and their refusal to open their hearts to admit the Lord into their hearts. He related this to how Moses had to allow the people to veer off from the true way to which God had led them, just so that the people might have their desires fulfilled.

The people of God always tried to bend the rules and challenge the order as established by the Lord, because they were easily tempted by worldly desires and by the sins they have committed. God has been very patient to endure from the people all the troubles and rejection which His people had given Him. They did not honour the holiness and sanctity of the sacrament of holy matrimony.

This is just as they did not regard the holiness and sanctity of life, which many of us should realise that in these days, more and more people treat life as if something that can be used and manipulated, no longer as something that is important and crucial. They trampled on life and the sanctity of marriage, dishonoured the Lord and the Law which He had given us for our sake.

God had given so much for us, and yet in our many actions, we showed how we despised and hated Him, and how we have not listened to Him calling us to be good and holy, just as He is holy. We have been immersed in this ‘culture of death’, where life to us, and the institution of the family is to us no longer important, and we rather place ahead, our desires and our selfishness.

Today, we celebrate the life of a great saint and martyr of the Faith, whose examples and life should inspire us to do differently from how we have done and how we have lived our lives so far. He is St. Maximilian Kolbe, the saint of the Holocaust, a Polish priest and missionary, whose many works and evangelising missions were known far and wide.

Bur best known to us was the action which he took during the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust, where the Germans under control of the NAZI party, led by Adolf Hitler, where many countless millions suffered in terrible conditions in various concentration camps and prisons, where their dignity as a human being is often completely ignored.

St. Maximilian Kolbe was among many of those who have been arrested by the NAZIs in their desire to destroy the dignity of many human lives. But he continued to minister to the people of God suffering and without dignity, raising hope and courage in their hearts. He celebrated the Holy Mass with them and encouraged them with his examples and words.

And his greatest act was, in imitation of the love of God for us, he volunteered to substitute himself with a man condemned to death because he failed in his attempt to escape from the concentration camp. He was willing to die in the man’s place, and especially after he knew that the condemned man had family waiting on the other side of the fence.

He willingly accepted death and became a martyr for the Faith, following the examples of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who had willingly given up His own life, laying it down on the cross, that through His ultimate sacrifice, all of us may be saved. Thus the examples of St. Maximilian Kolbe and ultimately the examples of Christ Himself should have inspired us all to love the Lord our God ever more, and shun all forms of wickedness and evil.

May the Lord our Almighty God help us to keep holy our lives, and awaken in all of us the desire to love all life, and the desire to keep the holiness found in all life and in marriage, the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. May He bless us and keep us faithful to Him always, so that we may be like His faithful servant, St. Maximilian Kolbe, whose memory and life we honour today. Amen.

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Thursday, 13 August 2015 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Pontian, Pope, and St. Hippolytus, Priest, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard first in the first reading from the Book of Joshua, the continuation of the narration of the story of Israel’s passage from Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan after their Exodus. Moses who led them through the desert for forty years because of the disobedience and rebellion of many among the Israelites, had passed away, and now had been replaced as leader by Joshua.

The people of Israel had reached the vicinity of the River Jordan, which separated the Land of Promise and the other lands. And in a repeat of what He had shown to the people at the Red Sea, God made His people to cross the river Jordan on dry ground, opening the river before them and halting its flow so that they might pass unhindered and enter into the Promised Land of Canaan, which was to be their inheritance.

In the Gospel however, we heard about Jesus who spoke of a parable to His disciples and to the people, teaching them a story about a servant who had owed a large debt to his master, and he was supposed to be punished. But when the servant begged for mercy and forgiveness, the master’s heart was touched and moved, and he forgave the servant all of his debts.

But the servant did not follow the example of his master, and he confronted another servant who owed him a small amount of debt, a mere fraction of what the former owed his master and which he had been forgiven from. The master who knew what the wicked servant had done was very angry, and he did not let the wickedness to go unpunished. The punishment for the old debts were reinstated and the wicked servant went to his suffering without mercy.

How are these two readings related? They may seem to be distinct and unrelated, but in fact they are really very related in meaning, in reality as well as in symbolism. For we all have to understand that what we witnessed today in the Book of Joshua was the final part of the long journey of Israel through the desert, where they wandered for over forty years as mentioned.

They wandered so many years in the desert because of their disobedience, since they refused to listen to the Lord, and feared men more than God, and they did not put their full trust in the Lord, even though again and again, many times they had witnessed first hand the glory and power of God. They were too stubborn in their heart to appreciate the love and care with which God had taken care of them.

But God is at the same time also merciful and loving, just as He is filled with hatred and righteous anger towards all sorts of sin and wickedness. He shows mercy to all those who repented and those who committed themselves to change their way and follow Him. But those who were unrepentant and refused to listen to Him, He will cast away from His presence into the utter darkness and eternal suffering.

God is the master in the parable, and we are the servants whom the master has command over. The debts are our sins and wickedness, which have become our undoing. The debts bring with them punishment and justice, that is death, and we should have deserved death because we have sinned and disobeyed our Lord, the Master and Lord of all life.

But God heard our pleas and prayers, and He forgives us our sins, just as He had sent down to us His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that through Him, our sins may be destroyed and we may be freed from them. He has granted us pardon just as the master had pardoned the wicked servant from his debts. Now what matters is that, we have to heed the clear lesson from Jesus’s teaching and discourse on this matter.

We have to listen to the word of God, His teachings and His ways, and then practice it ourselves in our own actions and in how we live our lives in this world. The wicked servant did not imitate his master in his mercy and love, and instead, he oppressed others in his own ego and pride. As a result, he was punished severely for his wrongdoings. Thus, we too should not follow his ways, and rather, submit ourselves to the way of the Lord, loving one another and forgiving each other our sins.

Today we celebrate the feast of Pope St. Pontian and St. Hippolytus, who were at that time the rival Pope to St. Pontian, elected by rival camps in the Church, at a time when division could be ill-afforded, as the Roman Empire was stepping up its great and terrible persecution of both the Church and the faithful. The two camps bickered at who should have been the legitimate Successor of St. Peter, and much harm was done to the Church.

But by the grace of God, the two men were reconciled with each other, and the misunderstandings that happened and came between them were dispelled. As a result, the unity of the Church was restored completely. Pope St. Pontian and St. Hippolytus were arrested by the authorities and were sentenced to death in the mines of Sardinia.

They were both martyred there, and before he went off to his death, Pope St. Pontian voluntarily relinquished the leadership of the Church, to allow others to step in and rebuild the community he left behind when he went to his martyrdom. And the forgiveness and reconciliation which Pope St. Pontian and St. Hippolytus showed each other should be an inspiration for all of us, as the driving force behind our own conversion to the truth and reconciliation with our Lord and God.

Remember when the people of Israel passed through the River Jordan? It was there too that Jesus our Lord was baptised by St. John the Baptist. This is also a symbolic meaning, of how when we were baptised, we pass just as the Israelites through the waters of baptism, from a barren land, the desert, into the promised land of milk and honey, and so we are brought from our past state of sin into a renewed life filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

May Almighty God be with us always, and fill our hearts with the desire to seek Him and to find His mercy, that He may forgive our sins and trespasses, and make us worthy again of His love. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 12 August 2015 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how Moses looked at a glimpse of the Promised Land from Mount Nebo, the place of his death. Moses finally saw the land to where he was leading the people of Israel for forty years, the fruits of his long labours. However, he was unable to enter the Land because he had not been fully faithful, and on one occasion, he disobeyed the Lord and His will because of his anger against the people.

At that time, the people of Israel grumbled against the Lord and against Moses. They complained because they were hungry and thirsty, and they demanded what they wanted. They refused to listen to the Lord, and Moses was hard pressed by their demands. God commanded Moses to show the people of Israel His power, by speaking to the rock to let water to gush forth out of it.

However, Moses was so angered by the people he had led with much patience and hard work, and he struck the rock with his staff instead of speaking to it. Water still gushed out of the water and the people were able to drink and be satisfied. But God was not happy at Moses because of his disobedience, and as a result, together with Aaron and Miriam, his siblings, who earlier on had also rebelled against the Lord and Moses, they would not enter the Promised Land.

Yet, God who loves those who show their faith and dedication to Him showed Moses His mercy, and He allowed him to have a glimpse of the Land of Promise before he died. And when he died, God took him up to heaven to be with him. It was said by Jewish tradition that when Moses died, Satan was trying to claim him for himself, but God sent His Archangel Michael to wrestle with Satan and prevented him from getting Moses.

In the Gospel today, we heard about how Jesus spoke to His disciples and to the people on how they ought to resolve a problem that arose among them. He spoke to them how to deal with those who have not followed the commandments of God, or otherwise, living in heresy. God did not condemn them directly, or punished them directly if we noticed it. God instead gives them chance.

Yes, it does not mean that God hates sinner through and through, and once we sin we are rejected by God totally and completely. This is a misconception which many of us often have about the Lord and about sin. However, we have to take note that what the Lord despise is not the sinners themselves, but the sin which they have committed.

Thus, what God wants from us is not to punish us or to oppress us, but instead to save us from harm and liberate us from our own desires and our own wickedness. That is why He sent us Jesus to be our Saviour, to deliver us from the certainty of destruction and annihilation that await us had we remained on our path of doom, that is if we continue to live in our state of sin.

What matters is that we have to seek God’s mercy and forgiveness, by humbly accepting and acknowledging our own sinfulness and weakness, that is our predisposition to sin and the wickedness that we have committed before God and men alike. We must aspire and seek to change our lives, our way of life, so that our actions are no longer based on worldly things and we no longer commit sin, but repent completely and turn ourselves perfectly to follow the Lord our God.

Today, we celebrate the feast of a saint whose life can be a great inspiration to all of us on how we live our lives. St. Jane Frances de Chantal was a noblewoman who had a normal life as were other nobility at that time, having four children in her family. However, she was widowed early because of an accident, and she eventually devoted the rest of her life to serve the Lord as a religious.

She established a religious order, Congregation of the Visitation, which was unusual among the other religious orders for women at the time, because they were very active in their works and outreach to the poor and the sick, whom they often ministered in many places, as more and more followed the examples of St. Jane Frances de Chantal and her sisters.

In her examples too, we can see the work of God in place in this world. God through her and her congregation, as well as through many other media, is trying to help all of us to liberate ourselves from the allures of this world, and from the entanglements of our sins. We too should also help in bringing one another closer to God and away from our past and present state of sin.

Let us all realise the love and mercy which God had shown us, and which we all should appreciate, because they were very great indeed. Let us all seek God’s mercy and love in all things. May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, welcome us all into His kingdom and bring us into everlasting life. Amen.

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Tuesday, 11 August 2015 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Clare, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard how God will guide His people against all odds and challenges, and He will go before them to protect them and provide them with all the things they need. He defeated their enemies and their persecutors before them, just as He had done with the Pharaoh and the Egyptians who once enslaved them, and with the Amalekites, the kings Sihon and Og who opposed them.

They have no need to fear or be worried, for the Lord was guiding them and leading them, and He blessed them beyond compare. And they received the blessings and the promise of God, settling down eventually in the Land which God had promised to them and to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God did not backtrack on His promises and He did not ever break the promise He made.

On the other hand, it is His people who have often broken their part of the bargain and promise, for they have not always been faithful to the Law and to the commandments, preferring to follow their own ways and obey their own hearts’ desires. As a result, many, many times they had gone astray and thus committed sin before God and men alike.

This is also happening to us all as well, because many of us have also not been faithful to the Lord, and preferring to follow our own hearts’ desires, our wants and our ego, rather than humbly following the Lord and His ways, and listening to His will. And in this, we should again also heed what Jesus had said to His disciples, that they ought to look at the little children and imitate them in their faith.

Why is this so, brethren? That is because unlike adults around them, children up to a certain age were still innocent and pure, and they will believe everything that they are told and taught with. They are like pure and blank slate awaiting the moment for them to be filled up and written with. And therefore, their faith is truly genuine, and when they are faithful to something, they are not affected by the concerns or things around them. This is their innocence, and this is their genuine faith.

Compare this to ourselves, in our own faith. Whenever we say that we are faithful to the Lord, how often is it that we are distracted by the many worldly things around us? How often is it that we delay in doing something that pleases God, just because the world does not approve of it, or that we are afraid that our friends and family, or our society would denounce us?

This is because in our hearts and minds, we have been filled with much worldly things and concerns. We are unable to detach ourselves from them, and all of our actions are determined by whether we give in to these desires and influences or whether we are capable of resisting them and not to give in. And today we celebrate the feast of a saint, whose examples may be an inspiration for us to do just that.

St. Clare, also known as St. Clare of Assisi was one of the first followers of St. Francis of Assisi, and she was the founder of a religious order and tradition following the examples and the tenets of St. Francis of Assisi, focusing on the Lord and abandoning worldliness by living in poverty, so that in all things, those who followed that way may be able to better able to resist the temptations of the world.

She was born into a noble and wealthy family, but she abandoned them all in exchange for a life totally and completely dedicated to God in prayer and good works. She worked for the sake of the poor and the abandoned ones. She helped to inspire many others to also do the good works for the sake of all those who need it. And thus, she was renowned for both her works and for her great piety.

And many people venerated her after her death, and looked up to her, just as they did for St. Francis of Assisi, because of their role and works. And we too should walk in their footsteps. Let us all therefore pray so that we all may put our complete trust in God and obey Him in all of our actions and deeds. God bless us all and keep us safe from all harm. Amen.

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Monday, 10 August 2015 : Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about God who has given us all so many good things, so many wonderful things that He had planted in us, as seeds that will germinate in due time, if we cultivate them and they will prosper. He has sowed many things in us, and He has given us the seeds of faith, the seeds of hope and the seeds of love.

All these are within us, inside our hearts, and await our action and work to awaken them. As Jesus said in the Gospel today, that the seed, that is the grain of wheat, if it does not die, then it remains alone and meaningless. Only when the grain of wheat falls onto the ground, then life can spring out from it and a new plant can grow from the seed.

This means that, by using the life of Christ as a comparison, we must take action and live our lives with faith and real action based on that faith in order that we may have the seeds inside us to bear much good fruits. If we do not do anything or do things that are contrary to what our Lord had taught us, then the seeds of faith, hope and love in us will not germinate and grow.

Jesus was faithful to the mission which He was entrusted with by His Father, that is to bring about salvation to all mankind, by teaching them the truth about the Lord and how to live their lives in accordance with the Law of God. And He was faithful to the very end, as He needed to endure all the sufferings and the punishments intended for our sins and wickedness, so that all of us may have a new hope of life.

He took up all of our iniquities and all the sufferings which should have been ours upon Himself, and bearing that great and heavy cross, He walked on and ascended patiently towards Calvary, faithful to the mission for which He came into this world and ultimately because of the great and boundless love which He has for all of us, and the pity and mercy which He has shown us, because He pitied our state, lost in the darkness of this world and not knowing which way to go to.

And He showed us all an example, on how to live our lives so that we too may share in the promises which He had given us and our ancestors, by leading an example Himself, showing that unless we take up our crosses and join Him, then we would have no part in the life and salvation which He will give all of His faithful. And just as He had died on the cross and rose again on the third day from the dead, we too must do the same.

This means that we should die to ourselves, to the temptations and desires of the flesh which have caused us to sin, and to throw far away all forms of worldliness and all sorts of selfish attitudes which remain in us. We should die to our desires, to the allures of the flesh and worldly pleasures, so that by sharing the death of Christ, we mah also share in His glorious resurrection, and be found worthy to receive the gift of eternal life He had promised all of us.

On this day, we celebrate together the feast of St. Lawrence the Deacon, who was also a great martyr of the Church and defender of the Faith. St. Lawrence was a deacon of the Church of Rome, appointed as such by Pope St. Sixtus II, whose feast we had just celebrated a few days ago. St. Lawrence was a hardworking servant of God, who gave his all in service to God and to His people.

St. Lawrence continued to remain faithful and committed to the tasks placed before Him. He ministered to the people of God, especially to the faithful ones during the persecution of the faithful and the Church by the Emperor Valerian. He ministered to the people of God, caring for them and kept a great and well-ordered system of distribution of goods to the faithful people of God.

And when he was arrested together with many other members of the Church, he remained true to his faith in God, and remained resolute and strong in his devotion to God until the end. He embraced the challenges and sufferings he was to face openly, and without fear, for he knows that, it is only by dying to his fears and placing his complete and full trust in the Lord that he will be saved and brought to the eternal glory promised by the Lord.

We can learn from his examples, in how we live our lives. We should follow his example in showing love to one another, caring for the poor and the less fortunate, and by loving those who are unloved and rejected, and then by also having a complete and full trust in the Lord, placing our trust in Him alone, and knowing that all who remain faithful to the Lord will not be disappointed.

May Almighty God be with us all always, and may St. Lawrence intercede for our sake always, that we may be helped on our path towards redemption and eternal life, that we may be righteous and just, and be found worthy at the end of our days. God bless us all. Amen.

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(Singapore) Sunday, 9 August 2015 : Holy Mass for SG50 Golden Jubilee of the Independence of Singapore, National Day Mass (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Gold

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are celebrating the great occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of our nation Singapore. On this Golden Jubilee of our nation’s sovereignty, where fifty years ago, our nation began its long journey on its own as a sovereign and independent nation. And we gather on this day to give thanks to the Lord, for all of His blessings for Singapore.

And this year we celebrate this truly special occasion, because our young nation has already reached the fifty years mark of its existence as a proud and independent nation, and when we look back, we should see how far we have gone from a small and backward fishing village, from our years as a burgeoning nation, to be a metropolis we are today, a bustling and global city.

We have to give thanks to God who had given us so much help and assistance in the years past, that whenever challenges came our way, He provided our nation with help in what we may see sometimes as unexpected. And yet, we know that our nation had survived, and become what it is today. Of course, the future is yet to come, and is yet to be known, and it will have its own challenges, and therefore, we continue to pray for our Lord’s guidance as we go on as a nation to face the uncertain and yet promising future.

But on this special day, as we celebrate fifty years of nationhood and nation building, let us all take some time of withdraw and reflect on what had happened all these while. There is one clear danger to all of us, as we become more affluent and prosperous, and as we grow more and more globalised and surrounded by all the good things which we have enjoyed all these while.

And this danger is that we tend to become more and more selfish and insensitive to the plight and the concerns of others who are around us, be it in Singapore and beyond. It is quite common knowledge for us that many people in Singapore are stressed and troubled about many things, but if we look into the causes, we can see how these revolve around prosperity, good things, and material wealth, things such as cars, money, possessions, shopping and lifestyles, and many other things that if we look at it, actually we have no need for all these things.

Yet we worry, because we have become so affluent and so accustomed to having all these good things, that we have grown to desire them all the more, as is our human nature. We are by our nature filled with desires and are greedy, seeking to have more of what we already have. We have the tendency to covet what others have and what we do not have.

And it is something that we have to be mindful of, as we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our nation Singapore. We have to be careful in how we act from now on, if we do not want Singapore to be a nation filled with selfishness and lacking in love and charity. For a nation that loses its integrity and harmony, because everyone is bothered about their own needs and desires, will certainly fall apart.

We have to reflect on what Jesus had told the people and His disciples in the Gospel today, that all of us have no need to worry or be concerned of what are to have in life, every single day of our lives. For God who knows all, had known all of our needs without exception, and in His own way and in His own time, He will provide us all that we need.

All that we are often worried about are in fact our wants, our insatiable desires, which often will bring us to cause even harm and danger to others around us. How many times have mankind cause suffering and oppress others around them so that they can have what they want or to have a comfortable life on top of others’ discomfort and sufferings?

What we want for our nation Singapore is that from now on, the fiftieth year of our nation onwards, we may become an ever more united people, a people united with love and charity, that be it rich or poor, strong or weak, and regardless of our differences, in ideas, in our racial origins, in our languages and many others that distinguish us as a melting pot of peoples, we may be united in our actions, which bear love to one another.

And as Catholics in this nation, we all have a duty to our nation, that is to show our faith through our actions, so that the love of God may be made concrete and real for our nation and for all of us together. Let us all from now on profess our faith through action, caring for others around us who are less fortunate, those who are without jobs, those who are sick and dying, and those who have no one to love them or care for them.

For this Golden Jubilee, this SG50 celebration is not just for a select few, but for everyone, and even for others around the world who share the joy with us, seeing how God had blessed our nation such. The joy we have now should be shared with all, for joy that is shared will be much, much greater than joy that we keep to ourselves.

And therefore, let us all make a renewed commitment to the Lord, that we will become ever better disciples and followers of His, and through our actions, let us all bring ever more good things for this world, for our nation, and for the peoples, our brothers and sisters around us. May Almighty God, our Father and Lord of all the nations, bless our country Singapore, bless all of its people, and may His grace and blessings continue to be with us as we go forth to the future. God bless Singapore! Amen.

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Sunday, 9 August 2015 : Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we have heard the words of the Scripture readings which all told us about one aspect of God, that is how He cares for all of His beloved ones, and He showed them all that care, by providing them with what they need, first of all food, the food that perishes, the earthly sources of food that fill up our stomach, and then, more importantly, He provides us with the true Food that lasts forever.

In the first reading we heard how the prophet Elijah was desperate and suffering from torment, which if we understand the background of the story from the previous chapters, was because of the intense persecution which the wicked king Ahab of Israel and his wife, queen Jezebel had initiated against the faithful ones and especially against Elijah, after he had shown the power of God against the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal on Mount Carmel in Israel.

The armies and forces of the king were sent to capture and torture Elijah, and he was fleeing from all these. Rejected by his own king, by his own people, and with people crying and seeking for his blood, we can indeed see why Elijah was desperate and truly suffering from all the challenges he was facing then. But what is important is, we have to take note what God did with Elijah.

God gave Elijah food and drink to strengthen him and his body, and sent His angels to serve him. The nourishment empowered him and gave him the strength to go on for the journey he was to embark on, to the Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, to meet God and to find out what His will was for the people of Israel. This is together with another occasion in which God also sent ravens to feed Elijah during his time running from the authorities, to give him strength against all the difficult challenges.

And if we link this to how God showed His great love to the people of Israel during their time in the desert, then we will surely be able to understand how much God had loved us, that He provided everything we need for us. When the people of Israel were thirsty in the desert, He gave them crystal clear and sweet water that gushed out from the rocks itself to drink, and when they were hungry, the Lord gave them manna, the bread of angels from heaven to eat, as well as large birds to be their food.

And we know how Jesus fed the multitudes of five thousand men, not counting the women and children present then, and on another occasion, He also fed more than four thousand men and the accompanying women and children as well. He knew that they were hungry after following Him for days and not having any food with them, and He fed them, giving them what they need to sustain their body.

All these should have awakened us to the fact that God truly cares for us all, regardless of our sins and rebelliousness which had torn us apart from His grace and love. He who created us with love, continues to love us from time to time, again and again, and He would not let us go hungry or thirsty, and He would not let us go on unloved and without His grace wherever possible.

He gave us everything we need, and most important of all, which we should remember, is that He gave us all life. Life is a gift from God to us, that when His Spirit entered our bodies made from dust and the earth, His Spirit dwelled in us and life entered our bodies and we are alive. But many of us have seemed to forget about this fact, and we showed no gratitude at all to the Lord who had given us all that we need in life.

Hence, all of us really need to think of how we have lived our lives so far, and see whether we have been grateful for the love and all the blessings our Lord had given us. But then, we also have to look beyond mere worldly sustenance and the fulfillment of what our bodies require. And in this, we have to reflect on what our Lord Jesus had done, and what He had taught us.

When Jesus was in the desert, as He was fasting for forty days and forty nights in preparation for His ministry after His baptism at the Jordan, Satan tempted Him to turn the stones into bread to satisfy His hunger after fasting for such a long period of time. But Jesus rebuked Satan by saying that men do not live on bread alone, but on every words that came from the mouth of God.

This is truly significant, for we have to see it in terms of who Jesus really is. Jesus, if we look at the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John, is the Divine Word incarnate, He who is God, who was God, and who will ever be God, the Word that created all of creations including all of us, and the Word which came down from heaven by the will of God, that with the Holy Spirit, He assumed the flesh of man, and was born of the Virgin Mary.

He is truly Man, but at the same time, He is also truly and fully God. He has two natures, God and Man, distinct but completely and perfectly in harmony and united in Jesus Christ, Word of God made Man. And if we remember the passage from the Gospel today, how He referred to the ancestors of the people to whom He was speaking to, and how those people ate the manna but still died, this will help us to understand indeed.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Bread of Life, the Living Bread, and all who have share in Him, His Body and also His Blood, shall have eternal life and not die. Remember that Jesus rebuked Satan by saying that men do not live on bread alone but on every words that came from the mouth of God? Jesus is the Word, and all who share in Him, have life in them.

For those who ate of the bread of the world, including manna, the bread of heaven, all these satisfied only the needs of the flesh, which our Lord indeed had blessed us and provided for us whatever we need. But, more importantly, all of us are longing to be satisfied spiritually, in our hearts, minds and souls, that we may be made satisfied by whatever we receive from the Lord.

And this satisfaction comes from Christ alone, and when Christ gave us freely His Body and His Blood to be shared and to be received as part of us, we have essentially receive the spiritual and bodily nourishment for ourselves, and if we allow God to dwell in us, by receiving Him worthily, His Body and His Blood and Presence which is in the Eucharist, then we shall shine and be justified, and if our actions reflect what we have believed in, then we shall be saved.

Again, we see how God loves us so much, that He wants to make us complete, nourish us and make us whole again. For we have been tainted since sin entered into us, by the disobedience and rebellion which we have committed against Him from generation to generation. And only through God that we can be completely reconciled to Himself, and that was what Jesus had done.

That when we are all still sinners and unworthy, God had allowed Himself to take up the burden of the sins which we have committed, and placed upon His own shoulders the price and punishments for our sins, ever since the days of our first ancestors until today, and in the many years and time to come. He placed all of them on Himself, so that, by offering the perfect sacrifice of love, He may reconcile all of us to God, and be given a new chance at redemption and eternal life with God.

And those who share in His Body and His Blood, which He shed from the cross for us, will therefore receive the effects of God’s saving works, and thus also will be liberated from the bonds of sin, the wickedness of this world that had been holding us back all these while. Therefore, today, let us all pray for the grace that we may be ever strengthened in our faith and in our devotion to God, so that we can worthily receive our Lord and Master into ourselves, and as He dwell in us, He may bring us closer to life eternal.

May Almighty God be upon all of us, and give us all of His graces and blessings. And may He help us to overcome the weakness of our desires, so that we may be able to focus our own attention to seek out the true gift and goodness which came from God alone. May He bless us now and forever and give us His light to shine on our path to find Him. Amen.

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Saturday, 8 August 2015 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Dominic, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about how Moses reminded the people of Israel about how they ought to always remember about God their Lord and Master, who have cared for them so much, and who have provided so much for them in all that they need, so that they prospered and became great. This is necessary because they have often forgotten God’s great love and ended up worshipping the pagan idols and following their pagan neighbours’ ways.

In this we can clearly see that there is a lack of gratitude which the people of Israel, and by extension therefore, all of us as well, on the gratitude which all of us ought to show the Lord our God for His everlasting and continuous love for us, and for all the mercy He had shown us, for every grace and opportunities which He had blessed us with.

We should indeed ask ourselves, whether we have shown gratitude for all that God had done for us in our own lives. Moses reminded the people of Israel not to forget about the Lord for all that He had done, and for all the good things which we have received from Him. But we know how easily we forget Him when we have many goodness with us, and when we celebrate, how many of us truly give thanks to God first before anything else?

Worse still, many of us even attribute all the goodness to ourselves, refusing to believe that all things had been made possible because of the grace and the blessings which our Lord had shown us. We often become even haughty and proud of our own achievements, thinking many things had happened to us and good things had happened to us because of our own power, without realising that without God, all of our power and devices will be nothing.

And if during good times we forget about the Lord and did not give Him thanks, then on the opposite end, whenever we have trouble, then we are quick to worry. We are quick to look for Him whenever we have problem, but we forget to give Him thanks whenever we have good things and good times with us. And when we do not get what we need, we blame the Lord for not helping us, and we often become angry at Him, and even abandon Him.

This is exactly what I meant about a lack of gratitude, and even more importantly, a lack of faith, which we often do not realise. Indeed, we may profess to be faithful to God, but truly, how strong is our faith for Him? If we are truly faithful to Him, then we should have remembered Him at all times, be it at times good or bad, and be it when we are rejoicing or when we are deeply troubled.

Today, we celebrate the feast day of a great saint, namely that of St. Dominic, also known as St. Dominic the Guzman, the founder of the Dominican religious order, or the Order of Preachers. St. Dominic was well known for his great and enduring faith in the Lord, and for all the dedication which he showed to the Lord his God. He served the people of God tirelessly and ministered to them.

And what made his order known as the Order of Preachers was because St. Dominic’s own passion and hard works to help many of the lost souls who have gone astray. And he went forth to show them God’s truth and love by preaching to them about this truth, and his words pierced deep into their hearts and minds, and many chose to repent from their past sins, and followed the Lord.

The examples of St. Dominic had shown us that indeed, if we just have more faith in the Lord, what we think is impossible would become possible, for we have to remember that what is impossible for men, is possible for God, for nothing is impossible in the eyes of God. If we just strive to have more faith, then surely we will be better able to see how God had impacted our lives in so many ways, and gave us so many blessings that we cannot count them.

And therefore, let us pray, so that we may be strengthened in our faith, that in all things we do and say, we may strive to be ever more faithful to the Lord our God, and follow Him in all of His ways. Let us all give Him thanks for all of His goodness, and seek His mercy and forgiveness when we have committed sin, and learn the grace to know that we have enough, for we have been provided with the Lord’s love and grace at all times. May the Lord our God, our loving Father be with us always. Amen.

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Friday, 7 August 2015 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Sixtus II, Pope and Companions, Martyrs, and St. Cajetan, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard clearly in the first reading which was taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, on how God loves all of us mankind greatly, and how He has blessed the people of Israel again and again, bringing them out of Egypt and out of their painful slavery, and bringing them across the Red Sea and providing them with what they need for many, many years, so that even as they went through a great desert, they did not go hungry and thirsty.

And we have to understand the context and situation of the time in order to really understand what had happened at the time. The people of Israel, despite such a great treatment and blessing by the Lord, who gave them all that they needed, they continued to bicker and to complain against the Lord, and demanded all the more, even though they have been blessed beyond many others.

Thus, on this occasion, we witnessed how Moses, after journeying for many years in the desert with the people of Israel, he reminded all the people of the love and care which God had shown them, which no other peoples had experienced and which no other deities or false idols had done for anyone besides what God had done for His beloved ones, even considering their rebelliousness and refusal to believe.

He chastised them for their stubborn hearts and minds, which had refused all the love which God had poured unto them with great care and tenderness. He taught them that they ought to be thankful and be grateful to the Lord for all that He had given to them. And they ought to live according to the Law which God had given to all of them, a set of rules and regulations to be followed, that they all may remain forever in the grace of God.

This is very linked and related to what we heard in the Gospel reading today, where Jesus spoke of how we have to die to ourselves and to take up our crosses and follow Him, if we are to live righteously and justly in the grace of God. He spoke of this, because for many of us, just as it was for the people of Israel, it was very difficult for us to let go of many worldly things, which entanglements often prevented us from finding our way to God.

How many of us often find it difficult to resist the temptations of the flesh? How many of us have been greedy for the many goods of the world, for the allure of money and possessions, for the pull of sexual gratification and the desires of our heart? Indeed it is not easy for us to resist all of them, but if we give in to them, and do nothing about it, then we truly ought to fear for the sake of our souls.

We are reminded yet again on this day, that we should go forth and seek the treasure that lasts forever, that is the true treasures of heavenly grace, found only and given only by our Lord for those who are faithful to Him. This surpasses all other things of this world, the false and impermanent treasures that is plenty in this world, but which can be destroyed by fire, by rot, by the interventions of men, and are not eternal.

Thus, we ought to resist all the temptations and challenges that come our way, and live faithfully to the ways which God had taught us, and which we have learnt through the Church, where we are together as one people, facing all the oppositions and challenges from all those who rejected Him and followed Satan instead, and this is our cross to bear, that is the cross of our own temptations and sins.

Let the examples of the saints whose feast we celebrate on this day be an inspiration to all of us. Pope St. Sixtus II was the Bishop of Rome and Leader of the entire Universal Church in the early Church, and he was a very devoted servant of God who cared for all those entrusted under his care, as the shepherd appointed by God to be the one to lead all of his people to Himself.

He worked hard together with many other holy men of his time, many of whom were arrested together with him during the great persecution against the Church and the faithful by the Roman Emperor Valerian. They refused to recant their faith in God and continued to stand firm in their faith in God, and their examples inspired many others to stand by their faith, despite all the temptations and offers by the authorities that if they recanted their faith, they would be rewarded handsomely and enjoyed many good things.

This is exactly what Jesus meant by gaining the world and losing your soul, for if they had accepted the offers, then indeed they would not suffer grievous death that the holy martyrs had suffered, but then, they too would lose forever the grace and salvation which had been promised to them, and for a temporary respite and moment of goodness in this world, they have lost forever the promise and surety of eternal life.

St. Cajetan, the other saint whose feast we celebrate today, was a priest known for his great piety and holiness, and with his works to bring back many of the people who have gone astray from the Church to return to the Holy Mother Church, and to repent from their sins. He established together with another Saint, St. Jerome Emiliani, a religious congregation devoted to the care of the people of God.

Therefore today, inspired by the examples of these holy saints, let us all ourselves walk in the path of the Lord, removing from ourselves the taint of sin and corruption of the world, and instead focus on the Lord and in His ways, carrying our cross together with Him, giving Him thanks for all He had done for us, and together reach out to the everlasting life and inheritance He had promised all of His faithful. God bless us all. Amen.