suffering of our Lord

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Friday, 17 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about Jesus who contended with the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, on the matter of the observance of the Sabbath day and its laws. The teachers of the Law contended that the disciples of Jesus violated the Sabbath law by crushing grains of crop and eating them.

We have to understand first what the situation was all about. The Law of the Sabbath was one of the many laws and ordinances which God had given unto men, since the time of Moses His servant, beginning with the law that prescribed the celebration of the Passover, the first Passover when Israel was about to be liberated from slavery under the Egyptians. This is what we heard in our first reading today.

Ultimately, in order to understand what Jesus had reasoned with the Pharisees in today’s readings, we have to understand the purpose of such laws in the first place. Jesus showed that the Law is created not to subjugate men under blind obedience and new oppression, but rather to help men to liberate themselves instead from the oppression of sin and disobedience.

The first reading today taken from the Book of Exodus is about the details of the celebration of the first Passover which took place at the land of Egypt, when at that night which was different from any other previous nights, God Himself descended and with His might saved His own people by the blood of unblemished lambs, which marked the houses of the faithful.

The focus here should not be on how the occasion was celebrated, as with the law of the Sabbath, it is very easy for someone to follow the rituals and the celebrations while forgetting the true intent for such commemorations. The Law of the Sabbath is for God to remind His people, that just as He had loved them so much by liberating them from their oppressors and slavers, then they too should devote their time for Him, at least for one day.

But the application of this law had become screwed in the end, as something intended for the benefit of men, that they can find time to spend with the Lord their God, became in itself an oppression, for the elders and the leaders of the people failed to understand the significance of the Law, which is not for God to punish or oppress men but truly to love them even more.

God knows how lawless we can be, and how disobedient we can be. He knows the extent of our rebelliousness ever since the day when we mankind first committed sin before Him, and yet, in His tender mercy and great love for us all, He still endeavoured to give chance after chances, and opportunity after opportunities. It was because of His great love that He had rescued us time and again from ourselves, from our sins and wickedness, from our selfishness and evils.

And continuing from the first reading today, where we talked about the Passover, the very first Passover when God passed over His people marked with the blood of the unblemished lambs so that all those marked were not to suffer death unlike the Egyptians, then do we all realise that God had given us an even greater Passover, a new Covenant which He had established with us?

This new Passover, the new Covenant is the covenant with the Blood of the one True Lamb, the Lamb of God, who became the Paschal sacrifice. Instead of the blood of the mortal lambs, God had given Himself to be the Lamb for the slaughter, so that by the outpouring of His Blood on us, we who share in this Sacred Blood may share the salvation and life which He had given all who are faithful to Him.

The Blood of the Lamb of God is the mark of the new Covenant, which all of us believers and faithful ones have received through the Church. We all share in the Body and Blood, the Most Holy and Real Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was indeed the love of God that made all these possible. Without God’s love, then there would have been no hope for us all.

Therefore, on this day, as we reflect on the Scripture passages, let us all keep in mind, the fact that God loves us, and He does not give us something too heavy a burden for us to endure. What He wants from us is just simply our love and our obedience, and nothing more. For He who have loved us so much and given us so much, is truly worthy of being loved.

May Almighty God be with us and guide us on our path, so that in all the things we do, we may avoid becoming blinded to the will of God, and following our faith to God emptily without meaning and reason. We must go forth and understand our faith more so that we may truly serve our Lord with all of our hearts and with all of our strength.

Let our minds and hearts be filled with genuine love for our Lord and whenever we do something let us do it because we love the Lord, and not because we think that we are just following a law and commandment, for the sake of doing it, which is meaningless and empty. May God bless us in this endeavour, and remain with us always, our loving God who gave us life and freed us from the darkness of our sins. Amen.

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Thursday, 16 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Mass of our Lady of Mount Carmel)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate a great feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ in her aspect as the Lady of Mount Carmel, which is a mountain found in the Holy Land, in what is now Israel. She is the patroness of the great Carmelite religious order which was founded at the very site of Mount Carmel during the time of the Crusades almost a millennia ago.

From there the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary represented as our Lady of Mount Carmel spread around the world as the Carmelites established their monasteries and chapels all over the earth. And the most popular part of this devotion is the wearing of the brown scapular around one’s neck, which consists of an image of the Blessed Virgin carved on a simple brown-coloured material with strings linking both sides of the scapular.

To all those who regularly wear the brown scapular, through the promises which our Blessed Mother had mentioned herself when she appeared to her servants in the Carmelite order, the protection and blessings against evil and its forces will be in power against all those who seek to corrupt and destroy us. Those who wear the scapular devoutly and live their lives in good faith will be shielded from the malice of the devil.

All these point out to one thing, why do we devote ourselves in prayer and thanksgiving for our Blessed Mother Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ? That is because she is the mother of our Lord, and she lies the closest to the presence of her Son in heaven. She is always constantly thinking about us, praying for us, and beseeching her Son to show His mercy to all of us, especially those of us who graciously seek it from her.

God had honoured His own mother, not just because of her virtue of being His mother. But if we notice in the Gospel today, how Jesus mentioned to the people, who are His brothers and sisters, and who are His mothers. He was not insulting or rebuking His mother in that case, as we would have thought if we just look at it at the surface.

In fact what Jesus did was truly pointing out the great virtues which His mother had done. Mary is great and truly blessed because she is indeed firstly the mother of our Lord, but also because of her exemplary faith, piety and devotion to her Son, and the love which she showed to all of us, whom He had entrusted to her as her own. Remember when Jesus entrusted Mary His mother to John and then entrusted John to her? In the same way, God had entrusted His own mother to be our mother, and entrusted all of us to be under her care.

This devotion to our Lady of Mount Carmel, the popular devotion of the brown scapular of Mount Carmel should be strong reminders for us, that all of us ought to lead a life that is exemplary and filled with faith, just as the life which our mother Mary had once led during her time in this world. We should look up to her and see her virtuous examples, and strive to make it as part of our own life.

Let us on this day, renew our faith and commitment to the Lord our God, through the intercession and guidance of His blessed mother Mary, our Lady of Mount Carmel. May the brown scapular we wear today with devotion be a reminder for us always, to lead a life filled with faith and real dedication to our Lord. May this be an inspiration for us to resist evil and wickedness, and take these out of our own lives, replacing them with righteousness and light of Christ.

May our Blessed Mother Mary, our Lady of Mount Carmel always intercede for us in the hour of need, and may we draw ourselves closer to her, so that through her we may get ever closer to the throne of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 15 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard in the first reading from the Book of Exodus, how God called Moses His chosen servant while he was in exile in Midian, so that He might reveal to him the truth about the mission which He had entrusted to him. It was His will that He would deliver His people from their suffering and oppression by the Egyptians who made them their slaves.

He called Moses in the wilderness, on top of His own holy mountain, Mount Horeb, in a bush burning as if burnt by fire, and yet it is not burnt. It is the Lord Himself who revealed Himself to the world through Moses. This is echoed in the Gospel today, where our Lord Jesus Christ praised His Father in heaven, for revealing the truth and the wisdom of God to simple and humble men, and not to the prideful and the haughty.

If we note, God called Moses not as a mighty prince of Egypt, but as a humble shepherd who lived in simplicity in exile. He called this seemingly hopeless and futureless person who had once fallen from grace and glory, outcast and downtrodden, poor in speech and trembling in the sight of a great challenge which God had placed before him.

But this is exactly what God had done, for His plans and His ways are not like what we always like our think. God’s wisdom and ways are beyond the ways of men, and the mightier and more powerful we are, the less likely we are to understand the ways of our God. Our Lord does not go about as we often do. He does not boast His might over the weak and the downtrodden, and He does not despise those who are poor, unloved and dejected.

Thus He called Moses, His servant, from amongst his sheep and goats, and sending him to liberate a people living in great poverty and oppression as slaves. He sent his servant not at the head of a great and conquering army to liberate His people, but with a stick and nothing more. It may seem ridiculous to most human observers at the time, but God does things in marvellous ways indeed.

Through Moses God did His many wonders, a simple and humble man, a prince no longer but one counted among the slaves, who with his walking stick challenged the mighty Pharaoh of Egypt, one of the mightiest secular rulers at the time. And God raised His hands against Pharaoh and Egypt such that, after witnessing the true power and strength of God, let the people of Israel go.

And in the same way therefore, God had called and chosen us all from among the nations to be His people. We have been called from our various origins, all to be His people and to follow Him hopefully for the rest of our days in faith. And through us God will work His great wonders to the people, as by our actions, words and deeds we will bear witness to our Lord’s might and call many peoples to come to His presence.

On this day, we celebrate the feast of St. Bonaventure, a great bishop, preacher and a notable Doctor of the Church, who was a Franciscan Cardinal of the Church, a simple man, who gave himself to a simple life in a life dedicated to the service of the Lord and His people, and yet he was called for something even greater, and through his many works and teachings, which inspired so many people, he was also renowned by his title of the Seraphic Doctor.

St. Bonaventure joined the Franciscans, a religious order renowned for its simplicity, holiness and filled with devotion to God. He would have been content with such a simple, prayerful life, and yet God called him to a greater purpose. He preached against heresies and published many of his writings which became a great source of inspiration in the faith. Eventually, the Church recognised his great efforts and he was made a bishop and then a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, giving him even greater reach and responsibility.

The example of St. Bonaventure shows us that while we are perhaps simple and small in comparison with others we see around us, and even though our achievements seem to be minuscule compared to that of mankind combined together, but it is exactly what God needs. He calls not the mighty and the prideful, but the simple, to be moulded into His tools, for the good of all mankind.

May Almighty God inspire in us and awaken in us the fullness of love and faith in Him, so that we may devote ourselves ever more to His cause just as His servants Moses and St. Bonaventure had been. We may be small and insignificant, but God reveals His wisdom precisely to those like us, so that by our actions and deeds, filled with the goodness and truth of our Lord, we may be deemed righteous and just, and be worthy of the glory of heaven that awaits us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 14 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard in our first reading from the Book of Exodus, how after more than four hundred years of suffering in Egypt in slavery, God sent His saviour and liberator to His people Israel, through Moses His servant, whom He designed to be special from all the others of His people. He has been marked since His birth to bring about God’s deliverance to Israel.

And then in the Gospel, we heard about Jesus denouncing the cities of the people of God, namely the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum in Galilee, all the cities where the Jews, the people of God lived. It was in these cities, in these places that Jesus had taught the people and showed His many works and miracles to them. But then why did Jesus rebuke them and criticise them in today’s readings?

That is precisely because even though Jesus had done so many works and miracles among them, the people there indignantly refused to believe in Him and they also refused to listen to His teachings, and instead they continued to live as how they have lived all that while. That inertia and unwillingness to change, even though they have witnessed all the things God had done through Jesus, was what aroused the great anger of God.

The same had also happened in the event of the Exodus at that time, when the people of Israel had seen the might of God, who brought the Ten Plagues to crush the Egyptians and forced the Pharaoh to let them go to the Promised Land. And when he and the Egyptians tried to capture back the Israelites, God opened the Red Sea before His people and made the sea to destroy the Egyptians.

Such was the great power and majesty which God had shown them, that truly, they should have all believed in Him and walked faithfully in His ways. However, as we have witnessed if we read the rest of the account of the Exodus, that the people of Israel, beginning from the worship of the golden calf as their god, and in many other occasions, have refused to believe in God, and constantly rebelled against Him. And to those who continued to be unrepentant, He showed His great wrath and punishment.

This is therefore a lesson for all of us to take note of. Should we linger longer in our ways of sin, the ways of this world and all of its wickedness? Or shall we instead bring ourselves to greater devotion to our Lord and walk faithfully in His ways? The choice is indeed ours, brothers and sisters in Christ, and all of us have eyes to see, ears to listen, hands and limbs to touch and feel, and minds and hearts to discern and understand.

We may not have seen what the Lord had done in His miraculous works and we may not have heard from Him directly His words and teachings, but we believe in Him all the same. Remember what Jesus told Thomas the doubtful disciple after His resurrection when He appeared to him? He said that he believed because he saw Him, but even more blessed are those who did not see and witness anything and yet still come to believe.

Therefore, let us all not walk in the same path as the people of the cities which Jesus had rebuked in today’s Gospel, as even though they witnessed what the Lord had done, but their hearts were hard as stone and their minds closed against the love and truth of God.

In their pride, in their haughtiness, they have walked the same path as that of their ancestors, and they would meet destruction in the end, just like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and even worse, as those people did not see God and His works. The greater is the punishment and anger of God for all those who witness His works and yet refused to believe in Him.

Today we commemorate the feast day of St. Camillus de Lellis, an Italian priest who is a preacher and a faithful servant of God, who ministered especially to the sick and wounded, to the poor and those who have nowhere to go to be treated. He founded the Camillian religious order, named after him, which was also known as the Ministers of the Sick.

He and his many other companions worked together to help many people who were suffering from various maladies. They worked together to bring the people who were sick back to good health, and the joy in them, knowing that they were not abandoned but there would still be some out there who cared for them. This was indeed God at His work, which He exercised through St. Camillus de Lellis and those who followed in his footsteps.

Therefore, having heard the story of the works and dedications of St. Camillus de Lellis, are we all moved in our hearts to also do the same for others who are around us? God works through us, and through us He wants to heal us all and make us all whole once again body and soul. If others see what we have done in the Name of the Lord, they may also be stirred in their hearts to come and believe in the Lord as well.

Hence, today, let us all, in the words that Jesus had once spoken, be no longer an unbeliever but believe with the fullness of our hearts, so that through our faith, we may be justified and be brought into the goodness and glory that He has promised to His beloved and faithful ones. May Almighty God guide us in our path, strengthen our faith and bring us all into His everlasting kingdom. Amen.

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Monday, 13 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how the people of Israel in Egypt after the time of Joseph were mistreated and made into slaves. The Pharaoh or ruler of Egypt feared that these people who grew numerous and mighty him and his country, and thus he oppressed them and made them suffer. In this, as we compare to what Jesus had said in the Gospel, we can see indeed how conflict and clashes would come between the Lord and those who follow Him with the ways and norms of this world.

And as we see the conflict between the Egyptians and the Israelites, there would also conflict between us all who follow the ways of our Lord and those who follow the ways of this world. This is the fact which our Lord Jesus highlighted to His disciples and to all of us through them, that following Him and walking righteously in His path will not be an easy one. There will be plenty of challenges and difficulties awaiting us, as the conflict and clashes between our interests and ways will be our obstacles.

If we look at the history of the Church and our faith, then we will realise how in many occasions, for one to accept the faith and to believe in the Lord would often mean estrangement and opposition from one’s own family members and friends. Often many of the holy martyrs especially in the early years of the Church had to suffer martyrdom because they held fast to their faith despite the staunch opposition from their own families and friends.

That is because the way of the Lord is often opposed to the ways of the world, and for one to abandon the way of worldliness for the way which our Lord had taught us often mean for many, the estrangement from the norms of the society at large. And to many people who do not understand the way of God, it would indeed seem very strange that we would give ourselves and devote ourselves to this way.

This is just as the way of the world is selfishness, the way of the Lord is selflessness, and while the way of this world is materialism and consumerism, the way of our Lord is temperance and gratitude for whatever we have. While the world values appearances and human approval, the Lord values simplicity of heart and righteousness, and the courage to stand up for the truth, even when many others do not agree with us or approve what we are doing.

However, we have to take note that while the Lord Jesus Christ warned us about the conflict, clashes and confrontations that would come our way, it does not mean that we ought to go out there and purposely cause trouble for ourselves, inviting problems and dangers that may endanger those who are around us. Some of us may have misinterpreted the intentions of our Lord in this manner, as we may think that we have to confront the world actively and overpower it.

No, this rather means that we should be vigilant and be prepared that we may be ostracised, shunned, made an object of shame of, humiliated, or even tortured both physically and mentally by others, because of what we believe in. But do we then succumb and give up to the temptations and forces of the world? No, we must resist them. We must be courageous to stand up for our faith in the face of all these difficulties.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Henry, also known as Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, the sovereign Augustus and ruler of the revived Roman Empire in the west, God’s secular representative in the world. St. Henry II, was a great and benevolent Emperor, who led many of the faithful in the Empire, leading many other Christian nations at the time.

However, he also encountered many great challenges in his role as the paragon of faith and virtue. He combatted many forms of vices and excesses during his reign as Emperor, and he strengthened the Church and its many works by his tireless support of the Church and its activities, even though in many occasions he had to deal against the many people who opposed him and his reforms.

St. Henry was remembered for his upright actions and for his devotion to the Lord even though many people resisted and tried to undermine his works and reforms, for the good of the faithful, and even for the good of those who have resisted his works. Indeed, what he had done was a clear example of what we have just discussed this day. If we are truly faithful to the Lord, the path forward will not be easy, and challenges will surely come our way, but if we stay faithful to the end, our rewards in the Lord will be great indeed.

May the examples of St. Henry inspire us always and help us to be true to our faith and to defend it with all of our might. Let us show our faith in our actions, words and deeds, so that all who see us will know that we truly belong to the Lord. We have no need to fear anything for the Lord is with us, and whatever difficulties and challenges we will encounter, there will always be hope in the end, for the Lord will reward all those who keep their faith in Him even amidst persecution. God be with us all, and may He guide us in our way. Amen.

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Sunday, 12 July 2015 : Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the desire of the Lord our God, our loving Father and Creator, who sent forth His disciples, messengers, Apostles, prophets and even His angels to go to the nations and the many peoples all over the earth to call them to Him, and to reunite all of His scattered loved ones back into His loving embrace.

In the Gospel we heard how Jesus sent His disciples two by two to the many towns and villages, to preach the Good News of His salvation to the people, to heal the sick and to cast out demons from them, and to proclaim the time of repentance, for them to change their ways, the ways of sin, so that they may walk on the path towards grace and salvation in God.

In the second reading from the Epistle or letter of St. Paul to the faithful in Ephesus, he mentioned how God has destined all of us to be in perfect love and unity to Himself, as the very purpose of why He created us in the first place. He created all of us mankind and all the creatures so that He may love us all, and give us the fullness of the love of His heart, and yet, we have rejected Him many, many times.

We who have disobeyed Him have been sundered from that love which should have been part of us. And our portion should therefore have been hell, destruction and eternal damnation, and yet, we are truly fortunate, for just as our Lord despises sin and all forms of our wickedness, He still loves us even more than all that. He is loving, merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness, and He generously offers to us His mercy which He made completely evident through the sending of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, into this world, that we all may be saved through Him.

But sadly, our attitudes are often like that shown by the king Amaziah of Israel whom we heard in our first reading, rejecting the prophet Amos and telling him to go back to his own country of Judah, and to come no more to disturb his land of the northern kingdom of Israel. He refused to listen to the reminders which the Lord sent to His people to remind them of the bad and wicked deeds that they have committed in His sight.

We mankind are by our nature, we are always prideful and filled with self-serving attitudes. We like to think that we are always in the right and that the others are wrong or mistaken in their ways, because we often fail to look deep into ourselves and discover what actually went wrong with us. Our pride and arrogance, our attitudes and stubbornness are all that actually keep us separated from the love and grace of our Lord.

It was just like the king of Israel, Amaziah, who refused to listen to the truth as preached by the prophet Amos, even though it was the fact, no matter how terrible they might have sounded, but that is exactly because what he and the people of the northern kingdom had done were indeed wicked in the sight of God. And we know that what Amos and the other prophets prophesied about would come true in all their fullness, and the wicked were cast out in the utter darkness and suffering.

And yet God gave them chance after chance, opportunity after opportunity, just as He gave His people chance after they disobeyed Him and rebelled against Him during the Exodus from Egypt, when they abandoned Him for the pagan gods and a god made of gold. He forgave them and continued to love them even though He did punish them, but to those who adamantly refused to change their ways and continued to sin, there was no forgiveness.

In the Gospel, Jesus told His disciples to minister to those who are sick, both physically and spiritually, that is by delivering the truth of God as espoused in the Scriptures and in the testimony of the prophets, and opening the eyes of the people and their senses to the truth, so that they may repent and turn from their sinful ways. Yet, there are always those who would refuse to listen and continue to dwell in their sins.

To this people, the Lord rejected them and would hold their disobedience and stubbornness as testimony against them on the day of judgment. Do we want to share in their fate, brethren? We surely will if we continue to walk in the path of worldliness and sin. There is no future in following that path, for indeed the temporary goodness and pleasure we gain by that path is not worth the eternal suffering due to us.

Shall we therefore on this day, realise and understand how much God has loved us and how great is His everlasting love for us, that His mercy He richly provides for us all, so that all of us who repent our sinful ways may be saved? All of us have a choice, and the opportunity has been given to us to reflect on our own actions and consider it carefully, before what we do in this life bring great repercussions for us in what is to come.

And we also ought to realise that all of us who have been saved, and we who have committed ourselves to the way of the Lord, who believe in the fullness of His truth, also have a mission to carry on. Today happens to be the commemoration of Bible or Scripture Sunday, which should have brought us all to the greater realisation of what we ought to do from now on, if we have not done so.

Let me ask all of us these simple questions, how many of us actually regularly open up the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, and read it? How many of us are actually familiar with what the prophets and messengers of God had said? How many of us know what Jesus taught to His disciples, and what His servants like His Apostles wrote in the many letters preserved in the Holy Scriptures?

If our answers to these are no, that is because we have not understood or read the Holy Scriptures, if at all. We have a mission, brethren, to evangelise and to spread the Good News of our Lord, so that we may extend the mercy and love of God we have just discussed about, to the nations and to the peoples who have yet to hear them and witness them.

But how are they going to believe in us if we ourselves do not have what we ought to know within each one of us? It is important for us to read the Holy Scriptures regularly so that we may have ever growing and greater understanding of what our faith is truly about. And then, it is important that we also have to make it complete by knowing, understanding and obeying the ancient traditions of the Church, the teachings as preserved by the Church from the time of our Lord and His Apostles.

Let us all therefore, from today onwards, renew our commitment to our Lord and God, so that through all the things we do which we commit in faith and hope for our salvation, and the salvation of many around us, we may bring ourselves together as one people closer to salvation and eternal life promised by our Lord to all who has been faithful to Him, and let us all deepen our understanding of the faith, by reading and studying more of the Holy Scriptures, so that our hearts may be opened to the word of God contained in the Bible. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 11 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of a renowned saint, that is of St. Benedict of Nursia, also known as St. Benedict the Abbot, the founder of the Benedictines religious order, one of the largest and earliest established religious orders in the world. He was one of the earliest pioneers of monasticism and religious life dedicated to God.

St. Benedict founded many communities of the religious and the faithful, but his life began as a Roman noble in the fifth century after the birth of our Lord, where he once had a great prospect in life, a quality education and a good company of friends and even those who professed their love for him. But, St. Benedict gradually saw how wicked the sins and actions which his companions had committed, and gradually withdrawing himself from worldliness, he found the true purpose of his life.

He sought true satisfaction in life by leading a life filled with prayer, sanctity and devotion to God. When the devil at one time tried to tempt him by filling his mind with the beautiful image of a woman he once loved in his youth, he resisted the temptation by purging it from the flesh by self-mortification, lying on a bed of thornbushes to remind himself of the sinfulness of such thoughts. By purifying his flesh, he gained the purification of his soul and being.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Scripture readings today, the first of which was taken from the last part of the Book of Genesis, talked about the passing of Jacob in Egypt, continuing from where we left off yesterday, and the begging of the sons of Israel, or Jacob, on their brother Joseph, whom they had once betrayed and sold to the slavemasters.

They feared his retribution for all the wrongs they had wrought on him in the past. But this is where they failed to see that whatever evil they had concocted and planned against Joseph, God had turned them into something good for the benefit of many people. The way of the Lord is truly far beyond our comprehension and understanding, and His ways is truly far beyond us and our ways.

What the Lord Jesus wanted to tell the disciples was in fact of the same nature as well. This is because He told them about not needing to worry about anything in life, as God who cares for His beloved ones would be with them and providing them with all the things that they need. And indeed, this was the case, and will always be for all of us who put our trust in Him.

Brethren, it is the fallibility of our human nature for us to have fear, worry and uncertainties inside each one of us. It is exactly because we do not have faith in the Lord, and because we put our hopes on worldly things and matters that we end up sinning before God and men, for we act in ways so as to preserve ourselves, our own prosperity, material goods, well-being, often at the expense of others around us.

The examples of St. Benedict and all that he had done should have inspired all of us. It does not mean that all of us ought to abandon everything and pursue religious life as he had done. Some of us indeed may follow in his footsteps, in the footsteps of the many holy priests and servants of God in giving their lives up for the service of the Lord and His people, but for the majority of us, what we need to do is to live faithfully and reject all of the temptations of the world, which Satan is offering us for the destruction of ourselves.

Can we indeed try to look away and detract ourselves from the temptations that is the worldliness all around us? Do not worry about these things, for truly what is more important is the salvation of our soul. There is no point for us to have a good life in this world, to have plenty of everything, and yet in the world that is to come, we have nothing, because in our striving for goodness in this world, we have brought suffering to others, we have not been obedient to God, and we have ended up sinning before His presence.

Let us all build for ourselves the richness and treasures of the world that is to come, by listening and obeying all that the Lord had shown us. May the examples of St. Benedict and that of other holy saints be inspiration for us, so that we may be forever true to our commitment to our Lord and God. May He bless us and keep us in His grace, and strengthen our faith in Him always. God be with us all. Amen.

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Friday, 10 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Today, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the theme of the readings from the Scripture, is reassurance which God shows all those who believe in Him and who put their trust in Him. In the first reading from the Book of Genesis, we heard how God reassured Jacob, who was hesitant and unsure about moving to Egypt with all of his family and possessions.

In that occasion, Jacob, who had long grieved and were distraught over the loss of one of his favourite sons, Joseph, heard again the hope of seeing his son alive, when his other sons came back to him bearing the good tidings from Egypt. But in his heart, doubt and fear still existed, asking if this is not something that is not real, or that he in his old age should have remained in Canaan and not going forth on this journey to Egypt.

But God reassured him that this journey is part of His plan for him and for his descendants, and He will bring him back, and much later on, all of his descendants, back to the Land which He had promised to them since the days of Abraham their forefathers. God reassured Jacob that He will lead them and guide them, and great will be the rewards for His beloved people.

This is closely linked with the Gospel today, which if we look closely, it is about the Lord sending His disciples to the people whom they would be ministering on. He reminded them that they would be sent like sheep among wolves, to be the ones who would be sent in the midst of danger, oppression, harshness and plenty of difficulties as what would befall all those who follow the Lord and His way.

But He also reassured them at the same time, that He will be with them, and He will not leave them alone on their own, for His Spirit will be with them and will be upon them, just as He promised the sending of the Advocate, the Helper, the Holy Spirit which He had sent to all of His faithful. He will not leave us empty and alone in this journey of the faith.

God is our Hope, He is our Reassurance, our Strength and Power, and the One in whom we can totally trust everything we have to. He is patient as He is loving and forgiving, and despite all of the difficulties and challenges which we have presented Him with, through our actions and deeds, He has endured all of them, and opened for us the doorway to His mercy, providing that we make the effort to seek it.

Can we learn to put our trust in Him? For too long we have placed our trust in the power of men, and we can see where that leads us to. The power of men is feeble compared to the power of the Lord, and to trust in the power of men is indeed like what Jesus mentioned in one of His parables, those who built their houses on the foundation of sand.

That is why we fear and we do not have faith, because if we rely on our own strength, then truly we have no strong support and anchor to keep ourselves steady in this ever-challenging world. Then, all of us should indeed go forth and change our ways, that we can learn to put our complete trust in the Lord. He will bring us who are faithful to Him much goodness, and He will reunite us together, all to be in His presence forever, in eternal bliss and joy, just as on the day when Jacob saw Joseph, his beloved son, once again.

May Almighty God bless us all, and guide us in this journey, which we take as we live in this world. May He lead us to the path that leads us to Him, and help us so that in Him we may find our reassurance and our comfort. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Thursday, 9 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we heard how Judah argued with Joseph to show mercy to Benjamin, who was accused of stealing the silver cup of the Regent of Egypt. The brothers of Joseph did not recognise who Joseph was, but their pleas and commitment to repentance of their past sins moved Joseph so much, that eventually he revealed who he was to all of them.

In the Gospel today, we heard about Jesus who sent forth His disciples to proclaim the Good News to the people of God, preaching the words and promises of God’s salvation. He sent them to reveal the truth of the Lord to mankind who have lived for so long in the darkness, so that by the light which He is bringing into the world, He may help us to realise that we ought to walk and live in the light and abandon the darkness which had enveloped us for so long.

There is a link between the two readings which if we realise it then all the things will make sense to us. In the first reading, the brothers of Joseph made pleas after pleas to Joseph, begging him to let Benjamin go, and instead take one of them as a hostage in the place of Benjamin. And eventually Joseph gave in and showed mercy to them, revealing to them who was his real identity, as his brother.

In the similar manner therefore, if we look at it, the brothers of Joseph actually resembles all of us who seek God’s mercy and forgiveness, while Joseph represents the Lord who is loving and merciful. Despite all of the bitterness, the betrayal and the sorrow that his brothers had wrought him, Joseph continued to love his brothers and forgave them their faults to him that many years ago. Joseph represents that love which our Lord continues to show us even though we have betrayed Him, rejected Him and brought Him so much sorrow by our rebelliousness.

God is just like Joseph, and if we seek Him with all of our might and with all of our hearts’ attention, then He will listen to us and our pleas. He has great love and mercy for us, seeing us suffering from the results of our sins. We have been sundered from His grace and love, and we suffer just like the sons of Israel suffering not just from hunger because of the great famine, but even more so because of the guilt, of having betrayed their own blood, their own brother and selling him to the slave masters.

We too have betrayed the covenant which our Lord had made with us, and we spurned His love and His care for us. We rejected His rich offer of forgiveness, which He had extended to all of us who have sinned against Him. Do we not appreciate this mercy which our Lord had shown us at all times? Do we not know how the angels and the saints are praying daily and at all times for our sake?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on the lives of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his many companions who had given up their lives for the sake of their faith in God. Despite the challenges they faced, they did not give up their faith, and chose to die rather than to commit sin by disobeying the Lord and falling once again into a life of sin.

Together, they, who are called the Martyr Saints of China have endured rejection, persecution, torture and suffering from those who refused to believe in God. They have been tempted with the offers from those worldly peoples, offering them positions, fame, wealth and safety in exchange for them to recant their faith and to reject the Lord their God.

They refused to do so, and remained firm, even when threatened with torture and suffering unto death. They have sought the Lord with all of their hearts, and indeed their prayers were heard, and in the faith and righteous way of life, even until the end, they justified themselves in faith and they were all received into the glory of heaven in the presence of God.

We can do the same too with our lives, brethren, in a way that we all should stand up for the Lord, and for the faith we ought to have in Him. Do we still succumb to the temptations of this world, the temptations of pleasures especially that of the flesh? We have to remember that it is meaningless for us to be safe in the world, and yet lose everything in the world that is to come.

And we have to take note that we all are still empty in us, and we hunger for the spiritual nourishment and fulfilment which only God can give. What can we do then? Draw closer to God and walk in His ways, listen to Him and do what He had commanded us to do, and carry out the mission which He had commissioned His Apostles to do, that is by our actions, spread the Good News of His salvation to all the peoples. May God bless us all in this endeavour. Amen.

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Wednesday, 8 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the story of Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob, whose favouritism showed by his father caused the enmity of his brothers and led him to be sold by them as a slave who was then sold to the Egyptians. And we knew how Joseph rose through his years of difficulty and suffering to become the Regent of all Egypt, the second man in the whole country after the Pharaoh himself.

We heard in today’s first reading how a great famine enveloped Egypt and all of the world, but thanks to what God had done through Joseph, Egypt was fully prepared to face the famine with its years of preparation during the time of plenty. And the other sons of Jacob came to Egypt, save for Benjamin, to buy food and grains to alleviate the famine they were facing in the land of Canaan.

In the Gospel reading, we heard how Jesus called His twelve Apostles, the twelve chosen from among many to be His principal disciples, the ones to become the pillars of His Church and the spearheads of His works after His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. And He commanded them to go to the villages and towns and to gather back the lost sheep of Israel.

There is a great connection here between the readings which we may not be able to realise on face value, as we need to look deeper into them. The twelve Apostles of Christ were chosen in such a number to represent the tribes of Israel, the twelve sons of Jacob. So just as the Lord gathered His twelve disciples to Himself, He symbolised the gathering of all the sons of Israel, the people of God, once scattered around the world, back to His loving embrace and presence.

And just as there was a great famine all over the world including that of Canaan, where Israel or Jacob and his sons lived, there were great darkness awaiting the people of God scattered around the world because of their sins and disobedience. They also suffered from hunger, not the hunger for bread or food, but the spiritual hunger of the heart and soul, the desire and longing for the Lord to come and fill their hearts and nourish their souls.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, looking at the readings of today’s Scripture readings, there is something that we need to realise, and that is, our Lord is concerned with us, and He is thoroughly concerned about the state of our soul, whether we are in a state of grace, or instead in a state where sins and disobedience have brought us far away from His salvation and from His love.

The sons of Israel all represented us in this world, from how they plotted against Joseph out of jealousy for his dreams and his being the favourite son of their father. We are all by our nature selfish and thinking first of ourselves, and we do not like it when we see someone else doing better than us or having better things than us. This is where our desires, greed, jealousy and haughtiness become our undoing.

Therefore, what do we need to do, brothers and sisters in Christ? Let us all learn from the example of Joseph, who if we read the story today in the first reading from the Book of Genesis to its conclusion, then we ought to know that he forgave his brothers, despite all that they had done to him, all the suffering they had caused him. That is the example which our Lord Jesus Christ had shown us as well. He shows us that the way of the Lord is forgiveness and love.

May Almighty God guide us on our way, so that we may walk faithfully in His ways, and be reunited to Him with one another, so that just as He gathered back all the sons of Israel through the means of Joseph, He may also gather all of us mankind back into His loving presence, that we who were once sundered from His presence may find a good reunion and unity to Him who loves us all and wants us back to His embrace. God bless us all. Amen.