suffering of our Lord

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Saturday, 6 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Norbert, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops and Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, what the Church wants us to remember and keep in our minds is very clear. The theme of the Scripture readings which we heard is on humility and on generosity of almsgiving, that when we give others we must be generous, and we must always think of others first before we think about ourselves.

Unfortunately, it is in our own human nature to resist this, and to do things in opposition to this. We are by nature selfish, and we always think of ourselves first. It is easy for us to fall into the temptation of money, possessions and other forms of worldliness. And indeed, most of mankind from time to time and from ages to ages had been seeking their own personal aggrandisement, and for the enlargement of their own ego, their own power and their own domain.

Wars and violence had been fought over the inability of men to let go of their ego and desires. As a result, many had died and suffered because of this inherent fault in men’s hearts and minds, the results of mankind’s greed and ego. In the first reading today, we heard how the Archangel Raphael who was sent by God to heal both Tobit and Sara revealed himself in full before all of them, to show the fullness of the work of God accomplished in them.

God wanted to show them all that He sees all and He knows all that they do, and therefore all that we do as well. He rewards those who are faithful to Him and keeps their faith in Him, those who have done what is good to one another. Those who shows love and compassion on all their brethren in need. God saw all that Tobit had done, his charity and love for his desolate and abandoned brethren, those who died and was murdered without anyone left to care for them.

Remember what Jesus Himself had said? In one of the Gospel passages, Jesus mentioned about how the righteous will be separated and put aside from the wicked at the Last Judgment on the last day, and God Himself will judge all of them. The righteous He will praise and bless, for they have done what is good to the least of their brethren. They did not turn a deaf ear to those who called for help and their eyes saw the plight of the suffering and their hands and legs were moved by it.

The wicked on the other hand did not do all these, and their eyes, their ears and senses were closed against the pleas of the weak, the innocent and the oppressed. They were unable to comprehend that true greatness lies in the service to others and helping one another, and not by advancing one’s own greatness and glory. Unfortunately, wealth and possessions have the tendency of corrupting ourselves and our priorities in life.

The wealthy have the tendency of wanting to preserve more and more of what they have already had, and also to add up to what they had and made their possessions even more. It does not mean however, that wealth, money, riches and possessions are inherently evil by itself, as in fact they were all neutral, but in how men had used them, more often than not, they used them for selfish purposes instead and for evil.

The lesson which all of us ought to take out from this is that we have to firstly care for one another with loving and tender care. And then, when we give to others, we must be truly sincere and generous. We should not even be expecting for any returns or rewards for having done so. If we expect rewards, then it is already selfish for us to do so.

The Archangel Raphael told Tobit and his family that those who were humble are blessed and praised by God. He revealed that God truly cares for those who are faithful to Him. He will never leave them behind. The same therefore, had happened in the Gospel today with the woman who had donated all of her belongings and possessions to the Temple. That is because in her heart, she had devoted it all to God, while the rich men did not have their hearts fully concentrated at the Lord.

Therefore, as we today also celebrate the memory of St. Norbert, also known as St. Norbert of Xanten, who was renowned for his devotion to the Lord and his devotion to renew the faith and purify it from all the corruptions and evils that had crept up into the Church and its faithful the years, and despite oppositions and even assassination attempts, he remained faithful and dedicated to his cause. Hence, all of us should also be inspired to follow in His footsteps.

Brothers and sisters, let us all pray to the Almighty God, that He may keep us strong and faithful to our calling, and let us all be closer ever to the throne of His love. Let us all devote ourselves ever more strongly to our God. May God be with us all. Amen.

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Friday, 5 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the healing of Tobit, who had long suffered from blindness. The Lord had mercy on him and blessed him through His agent, the Archangel Raphael. He sent Raphael to bring about healing to both Sara who was afflicted by the demon Asmodeus who killed her seven husbands, and to Tobit, to open his eyes so that he might see again.

Just as in the story of Job, the suffering but faithful servant of God, this shows that God is ever faithful and ever loving, and He always cares for us and loves us all tenderly. He will never leave behind all those who are faithful to Him. His gift and grace will be ours if we are able to faithfully cling to Him and devote ourselves to His ways. And He showed this by the promise which He had made to His people and which He fulfilled through Jesus, His Son, whom He sent into the world.

The Gospel reading which we heard today does not mean that Jesus repudiated or rejected the fact that He is the Heir of David and the One whom God had revealed to the world as the promised Messiah. It rather shows that because the people associate the Messiah with merely human terms of power and kingship, that He would rule in the kingdom of His ancestor David, and nothing more.

They thought that He would renew the kingdom of Israel, again in earthly and worldly terms, but the Lord Jesus our Messiah is much more than that, for just as He is Man, the Son of David, Heir to the kingdom which His ancestor had established and made firm, thus He is also the Son of God, the One who was to come into the world in order to save it.

Thus, Jesus would make it clear to the people, that His nature is both Man and Divine. This is what we believe in our faith as well. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Word of God made Flesh, had incarnated Himself as one of us while at the same time retaining His full divinity. This is important to be taken note of, especially considering what our Lord Jesus has done for our sake.

For what Christ had done is by suffering in our place, the suffering which all of us should have suffered from, that is the just punishment for our sins. We should have suffered death for our rebellion and disobedience against God, but through Christ who died for us, we will indeed die as a mortal being, but while once death had been the gateway to eternal darkness and suffering, now death is the new beginning of a new life in God, and it is not something that we should fear any longer.

This is because Jesus our Lord, Son of Man and Son of God, had shown us that He has the key to break free from the hold of death, that by His resurrection after His death, He showed us all how there is life to come after death for the faithful. Thus, all of us who keep our faith in God have nothing to fear, since if we continue to be faithful, God will remember our faith in Him and bless us richly.

If Christ is only Man, then His sacrifice would be in vain since no amount of mortal blood and sacrifice is going to be enough to redeem the fullness of mankind’s sins and faults. It is because of the great Divinity who chose to lay down His life that the whole human race may be healed and forgiven from their sins, since He assumed the very flesh of our beings, that by His death and resurrection, we too may follow in His ways.

Today we also celebrate the feast of St. Boniface, who was a bishop in what is now Germany, renowned for his many works in advancing the faith, preaching it and teaching it to many people. He was also renowned for his enforcement for the true practices of the faith against the evils of the world that had encroached even against the Church and the faithful at the time.

He was involved in many preaching and evangelisation missions, which brought him to many lands still inhabitant by pagan peoples and nations. He preached to all these people and hearkened them to listen to the word of God, repent and change their ways. And even when the people refused to turn their hearts to God, he kept trying and continued to persuade the people by his teachings, until one day when he was ambushed by armed robbers who struck at him and his followers.

Until the end of his life, he remained truly faithful to God, forgiving his assailants and telling his followers not to engage in violence to fight against violence. His example, together with the example of many other saints and holy people of God, highlighted the glory and rewards which God will give all those who have devoted themselves to Him. They are now in the glory of heaven because of their fatihful devotion to the Lord who have loved them first.

Let us all therefore devote ourselves completely to the Lord our God, throwing aside all distractions and distortions of the evil one, inspired by the examples of the holy saints, particularly that of St. Boniface whose examples and memory we celebrate on this day. May God be with us always, and may He bless us and heal us from all of our afflictions. Amen.

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Thursday, 4 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard in the first reading from the Book of Tobit, how Tobias, the son of Tobit went and found Sara, the woman troubled by the demon Asmodeus who had killed seven of her previous husbands. And we heard how Tobias wanted Sara to be his wife, even while knowing the fate which have befell her previous husbands. He took her as wife and they prayed together on their first night together as husband and wife.

And in the Gospel today we heard how Jesus emphasised again the true meaning of the Law of God, the Ten Commandments which truly can be categorised into two main laws, that is firstly to love God with all of our might, and then show the same love to our fellow men, the others around us. The teacher of the Law was able to understand this, and Jesus praised him for that before the people of God.

Through these readings, there are several things that we ought to learn, but principal and greatest of all, it is about love. Yes, the love which mankind ought to have for God, their Father, Lord and Creator, and the love which they ought to have for one another, one of the greatest forms of which is marriage, or holy matrimony, the indivisible union between man and woman as decreed by God and blessed by God.

This is important to us all, brothers and sisters in Christ, for we all have to realise that just as the Church is the embodiment of Christ’s presence on earth, the tangible form of His Body on earth, then the family, and the institution of the family itself is the core and base for the structure of the Church. Without a strong family structure and foundation, the Church may find itself in trouble from various challenges.

And the family as an institution and a crucial unit of the Church had come under constant and ever increasing attack from the world and all the allies and forces of the devil, trying to destroy the family, and the families of the faithful. They hoped that by doing so, they would also undermine and destroy the faith itself as well. This is how so dangerous the time is now for us and for the Church of God.

We know of the phrase that a family that prays together stays together. The same extends also to the Church, for the family is indeed the building block of the Church. Therefore a Church that is composed of strong families praying together will stay together. We see a good example in our first reading today. Tobias and his new wife, Sara, prayed together before the Lord, asking for His blessing and healing, that the shame of Sara and the works of Asmodeus be removed from her.

It is an example for all of us, that we have to know love, and love must begin from ourselves, and practiced in our own families. A family that does not practice love will not last, and it will soon crumble apart under the pressure of human desires and selfishness. If we have loved one another, then we shall learn how to control our own natural selfishness, and growing to care more for others around us, eventually we shall know what is love.

For God Himself is Love, and if we do not understand love, then we also would not understand the love which He had shown us first. What is His love? Even though we are all sinners and wicked, having done what is wicked in the eyes of the Lord, and therefore deserve utter destruction and annihilation, but instead of casting us aside, He gave us a new chance, to change and repent our sinful ways, that we may be made anew, in a new life once again blessed by God.

And if He had loved us first, then it is only right that we should love Him too. He has given us His all, by sending us the ultimate form of love through Christ, who had given up His own life in sacrifice, so that by His death and by His resurrection, He might bring to us a new life. Such was the love that He had shown us. If we have loved one another, should we not love the Lord our God in the same way?

And if we have loved our God greatly, then we also ourselves cannot forget that, we have to love one another too. We cannot exclude one form of love from the other. If we know how to love God, then we also have to love each other, or else whatever love we have learnt from the Lord, we do not use it for the benefit of others around, and we will be found wanting. On the other hand, if we love one another only, and do not love God then our love is not complete.

Therefore, as I have mentioned earlier, in our families, we must have love, that is we have to first love one another, father, mother and children all must have love in them and love for each other. Then, there must also be that love for the Lord. It is in the family that the responsibility is laid to bring up all the children properly in the faith. This is the duty and responsibility which had been entrusted to parents as well as to godparents at the moment of baptism.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore pray for all of our families. Let us all hope that God will continue to bless and grace all our families with the strength and courage to serve Him and love Him despite the oppositions and rejections of the world. May Almighty God be with us all, with all of our families, and strengthen the faith in us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 3 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how two people in different places, both suffering from the depredations of evil and troubles of the world, namely Tobit and Sara, both were so distressed after having been harassed by others around them, on top of their suffering which they have endured all the while. Tobit and his blindness and the criticisms others placed on his charitable works, and Sara with the problem of her deceased seven husbands because of the vile works of the demon Asmodeus.

The Gospel today spoke about the resistance which Jesus encountered from the Sadducees, one of the two major groups in the society of the people of Israel at the time, one of the two influential parties that were involved in the governance of the people of God. The Sadducees were the ones who were close to the positions of secular power if not the holders of the secular power themselves.

They were a pragmatic group of people, who thought with reason and thinking in terms of facts and proofs, that just like what we know with science today, these people refused to believe in something if they were unable to explain it, or feel it, or witness it directly with their own senses. Thus they did not believe in the angels, or any spirits, or in the resurrection of the dead.

This was the opposite of the other group, the Pharisees, who believed in all of them, and as a matter of fact, was equally extreme in their views as the Sadducees had theirs. The Pharisees were ultra-orthodox in their views on the faith, and they were very strict in their observations of the Law, while if we look at the Sadducees, they were almost atheist in nature. And it was against the Sadducees that Jesus stood up against in the Gospel today.

The Sadducees were too engrossed and attached to worldliness and think in terms of the world to be able to appreciate and understand the true nature of men. They were those people who live only for themselves, filled with selfishness. They could not comprehend life beyond this world, and therefore they also likely feared death, because death means the separation from the goodness of this world, and it is the ultimate uncertainty for them.

But the truth and the fact is that death is merely just the transition in our lives, between the imperfect life we have now in this world, and the life in the world that is to come, the perfect life no longer marred by sin and darkness of the world. Instead of fearing it, we should rather embrace it instead. God always sends reminders after reminders to us, to keep us straight in the path of this life, that we may ever be faithful and true to the end.

And in the first reading, we are shown this by the example of the healing of Tobit from his blindness and the exorcism of Asmodeus who had troubled the household of Sara. The Lord heard their respective prayers and sent the Archangel Raphael to heal them from their afflictions and troubles. This is one proof of the work of God which He had done through His angels, which the Sadducees did not believe in.

God works in mysterious ways, including what He had done with Tobit and Sara, and if we read more thoroughly the Book of Tobit, then we would now how wonderful God’s plans are, which God made real and tangible through the Archangel Raphael. We are reminded that there are many things that we may not understand, but all we need to do is to keep that faith we have in the Lord and God will reveal to us and teach us everything we need to know.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, martyrs of the Faith, who were martyred for their faith in the country now known as Uganda. He was once a servant and confidant of the king of his country, who heard about the teaching of the true Faith by the missionaries, and then when he and others who have converted refused to recant their faith, their deaths were ordered by the king.

The courage and devotion of St. Charles Lwanga and his fellow companions in faith and martyrdom is a clear reminder for us that while the true teachings of the faith is with us now, and while we receive the same faith which the saints have received, but just as Jesus was opposed at every corners by various factions, including the Sadducees as we heard today, then we too will inevitably meet challenges along the way too.

Then in that case, are we going to just give in and conform to the views of others around us? Tobit and Sara were also mocked and humiliated many times for what they have done, and for having kept the faith, and at times they were so distraught and pressured so as to be so desperate, that Sara once even thought of taking her own life, but they persevered on, and they remained faithful.

God cares for all those who remain true to Him and He preserves all those who cling to Him faithfully, as He had shown through what He had done to Tobit and Sara. He blessed them, healed them and gave them far more than what they had lost. The same He had also done to Job, the suffering but faithful servant of God.

Let us all therefore, inspired also by the examples of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, tortured and killed for their faith but raised to the glory of heaven, that we too may do our best to be righteous in the eyes of the Lord and remain true to our faith in Him in all the things we do. Amen.

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Tuesday, 2 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Marcellinus and St. Peter, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the well known teaching of our Lord Jesus on the matter of the paying of taxes to Caesar. From there came the words we all must have known, that we ought to pay back or give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God. This is a clear reminder for us, to do our duties to the Lord, which we often forget and neglect.

Why is this so, brothers and sisters? It is because we are often so occupied by the many things of this world to the point that we forget about giving glory to God. It is too often that we seek to please the world and give in to the demands of the world, at the expense of our faith in the Lord and at the cost of our conviction to walk in the way of our God.

We try to please the world, try to be accepted and not to be different from the opinion of the majority, trying to be seen as being open and receptive, all so that we may feel the acceptance by the world, that the world may welcome us and even praise us for what we have done, and also to give us that sense of comfort. But at what cost, brothers and sisters in Christ?

At the cost of our very own soul and our own salvation. We have been given much by the Lord, from our lives to our talents and skills, and all the other graces and blessings He had granted us. But at the same time, this cannot mean that we ought to be on the other extreme, that is to give honour to the Lord alone and rejecting all that is in the world.

For this will mean bringing and unnecessarily causing the opposition of the world upon us. Yes, indeed in the ages past and even now, many have suffered persecution, oppression and even martyrdom for their faith, but this does not mean that we have to purposefully look for this kind of trouble by actively opposing the world and rejecting the world completely and entirely.

Truly, what we should do is just as what Jesus had advocated in the Gospel today. It is the middle way between the two extremes. The Pharisees had tried to trap Jesus in His own words, that if He chose any of the two choices, then they would condemn Him. If He chose to say that we should obey God alone, then the Pharisees would condemn Him before men, before the Roman leaders. If He chose to say that we should obey human authority alone, then they would also condemn Him because then He would have blasphemed against God.

In the same way therefore, we must walk the path of compromise between the two. Remember, give to the world what is due to it, and give to the Lord, what we owe to the Lord. We owe the world the obedience to the human norms and laws, taxes and other things that bind us as people of this world. On the other hand, we owe the Lord even more, namely our love and obedience, our obedience to His laws and commandments, and ultimately our lives itself is due from the Lord.

What we have to take note is, we must be very careful and vigilant, that in observing the laws of this world, we do not make compromises that undermine the wholeness of the truth of the Lord which we have received, and the wholeness of the faith which we have for the Lord. We should be good citizens and follow the customs of the world, but not to the point of sacrificing or giving in to worldliness in the matter of faith and in the matter of our obedience to God.

Today we celebrate the feast of two great martyrs, St. Marcellinus and St. Peter the Martyr, both of whom were Roman martyrs of the early Church, who were martyred at the time of the great persecution against the Church and the faithful by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. They were likely martyred because of their opposition to the Emperor’s demands that all Romans, including Christians, must offer sacrifices to the pagan gods and to the Emperor.

Most if not all Christians at that time were good citizens, paying taxes and obeying the laws as far as they do not impinge on the core tenets of the faith. When the Emperor and the Roman state began to encroach upon this and force things that would cause the people to sin against God, many of them refused to follow suit and as a result were martyred, as St. Marcellinus and St. Peter were martyred.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on this today, so that we may find our true path in this world, that while we conform to some ways of the world, we will be careful not to let anything to sway or distract us away from our true allegiance to the Lord our God. May God Almighty be with us always and guide us, so that we may resist the temptations of the world and remain faithful to Him. Amen.

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Monday, 1 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Justin, Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the parable of the vineyard tenants which was told by Jesus to the people including to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were there as well. This parable tells us that there were tenants entrusted with the care of the vineyard by its owner, and yet they refused to fulfill their part of the bargain, by acting wickedly and trying to claim the vineyard as their own.

This parable is a clear representation of the reality between God and mankind, and in what God had done to men, and how men responded to the works which God had done in them. The vineyard owner himself is a representation of the Lord, who owned this universe and this world, just as the vineyard itself represents the world we are living in. The tenants represents all of us mankind, who have been given the trust to take care of the world since the beginning of time.

In the Book of Genesis, after God had created men, He entrusted to them the world to be cared of. He entrusted them with the stewardship and guardianship of the world, that they would take care of and reign over all creations in the world, but not by their own might, but because they were supposed to be the stewards of the Lord, the true Master of the world and the universe.

But we have grown proud and we gave in to our human greed, beginning from the time when we succumbed to the temptations of Satan, who tempted us with knowledge and power. Ever since then, we have desired all things to ourselves. And in the same way, we grew wicked and disobedient to the way of the Lord. We prefer to walk on our own path, and again and again, we showed that by committing ever more sins in the sight of God and men alike.

Ever since the days of Noah, the times of the Tower of Babel, the peoples of Sodom and Gomorrah, the rebelliousness of the sons of Israel on their way out of exile in Egypt, the wickedness of the kings who ruled after Solomon, and the continued wickedness, eventually culminating with the corruption and the stubbornness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who rejected Jesus, the Son of God whom the Father had sent into the world.

This was perfectly represented by the parable, where the wicked and evil tenants refused to pay their due, the rent and share of the harvest which they ought to pay to the owner. Servants after servants were sent to them, but they were rejected, tortured and even murdered, precisely as how the people of God, all mankind had constantly refused to listen to God and to His messengers, and killed His servants.

And they also refused to listen to the One whom He had sent to be the Saviour of all, the Messiah and Son of God, Jesus Christ, who foretold of His own suffering and death at the hands of the wicked when He told of this parable to His disciples. It was just as the wicked tenants plotted against the son of the owner out of their own selfish desires, they were unrepentant and rebellious.

In the first reading from the Book of Tobit, we heard how Tobit, one of the exiles of the Northern kingdom of Israel after it was conquered by the Assyrians, continued to do what is upright and good in the sight of God. This is despite all the challenges that he had to face and the mockery which he had to endure from his own people, who mocked him for tirelessly helping those who were destitute and rejected themselves.

Tobit indeed suffered, and misfortunes befell him, as he lost his sight, and people continued to mock him, friends and relatives left him behind and forgot about him, but he remained faithful and devoted to the Lord, just as another faithful man of God, that is Job, had once also experience. Both remained firm in their faith to God, and in the end, they were healed and made whole once again. They received blessings and graces even greater than what they had before.

And today, we also ought to reflect on the life of St. Justin, martyr of the Faith, who was a Roman martyr of persecution of the faithful by the Romans. He was once a pagan and a philosopher, who looked for various teachers and inspirations including from the past philosophers and teachers, but he was not satisfied with all that he had discovered for many years of his education and journey.

St. Justin eventually discovered Christ through his discussion with an elderly Christian, who opened his eyes to the greatness and the truth of the Lord. He found solace and true satisfaction in the Lord, and he changed his pursuit and focus in life to serve the Lord, the one and only God of all.

He eventually preached to many people after he became a Christian, and established a school in Rome, preaching to ever more people, until his enemies and those who feared the Faith accused him of wrongdoing and he was martyred with his followers. And through that, he was raised to the glory of heaven for shedding his blood and life for the sake of the Lord.

All these examples of holy men and servants of God show us that God will reward well all those who had placed their faith and trust in him, namely, the good and faithful tenants who do things according to what they are expected to. These will receive the inheritance and the parts intended to all others who have not been faithful, the wayward and wicked tenants.

As mentioned in the Gospel, the Lord would come just as the vineyard owner came in the end to bring justice and punishment to all the wicked tenants. This should be a reminder to all of us, not to be like the wicked tenants in our lives. Rather, we should be good tenants, namely faithful servants of God and good stewards of this world entrusted to us. We should heed the examples of the holy men, Tobit, Job, St. Justin and his companions, and many others who have devoted themselves to the Lord.

Therefore, let us all pray, that all of us may grow less attached and affected by our human desires and greed, but let us all instead grow stronger in humility, and in our faith and devotion to the Lord our God, so that at the end of all, the Lord may say to us, ‘Well done, My faithful servant. Come into the inheritance I have prepared for you.’ Let us all seek this in life. God be with us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 31 May 2015 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Trinity Sunday, and Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this great and solemn day, we celebrate together the wonderful occasion of the Trinity Sunday, on which day we commemorate and reflect together the very centre tenet of our faith, that is our faith in the Lord our God who is only One, but exists in Three Divine Persons, separate and equal to one another, and united with the perfect bond of love, in Oneness of God, the Triune Unity, Trinity that is bound together as one indissoluble Unity.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the mystery of our Faith, which we all understand and indeed have to believe if we are to call ourselves as Christians. We believe that there is only one God, who created all the universe, all things that we know of, and all the living ones including us mankind.

And we also believe, that this one God has three different Aspects, all distinct from each other, namely the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but which is united perfectly in love, as God that is only One. One but three, and three but one, this is the greatest mystery of our Faith, and yet it is also the centre of our faith.

For many ages, people have tried to bend this truth to their own selfish desires, by failing to understand the fullness of this mystery of the Trinity. Some trying to contend that because such feat is impossible, then God cannot be Three but One at the same time, and therefore, apostasy and heresy began to appear, apparently condemning the true Faith as those who worshipped many gods, because they thought that God is only one.

And therefore, the same people also did not recognise Jesus Christ, the Son of God as divine and Lord. Some thought that He was merely a creature, a creation of God, which means that He was no more than just a Man. And some also doubted the presence and the existence of the Holy Spirit. All these failed to understand how God works, and if they had read the Scriptures more deeply and carefully, they would have discovered the truth.

Just as we heard in the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses spoke about God who created us, and who had cared for us so much with His boundless love, that no being had ever done the same before and after. And all these had its roots back to the foundation of the world and the whole universe, at the moment of creation, when God created everything out of nothingness, as narrated in the Book of Genesis.

The very first pages and the very first verses of the Holy Bible itself would have told us clearly of the nature of God, take for example, the whole account of the creation of the universe and the earth in the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. There was once nothing, and the Spirit of God was in everything in that nothingness, and then, God willed everything into being, by His words, that is the words that leave His mouth and carried out His will into being.

The Spirit of God is in everything and by the Word, made everything to be. Remember that we believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and through the Son? This is how exactly it works. God the Father willed creation into being, and that will is made clear through His Word that proclaimed it to all the universe, and that Word is the Son, if we read the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John.

And the Spirit is then sent to all things, to make all things be, and to give life to all things. Remember what God said when He was about to create mankind in His image? He said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness.” This is yet another proof of how God is a Trinity and yet a Unity, united in their actions in creating all things, included us all mankind.

God the Father created us with His will, and He achieved that by the Word He spoke, which is the Son, through which He let all creations to know His will, and by the Holy Spirit He made all things to be. The Three Divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit all working together as one in perfect harmony. They cannot be separated from each other, and without one of the Trinity, the Divinity is not complete.

And that is how St. Patrick taught about the concept of God who is One and yet Three, as he evangelised to the then pagan peoples of Ireland, by using the symbol of the three-leaf clover, now one of the important symbols of that country. The three-leaf clover is also an important and widely used symbol to represent the Holy Trinity. Just as the three-leaf clover has three parts all connected together to form the whole body of the clover, and that they are not separable, or otherwise, it is no longer a ‘three-leaf’ clover, then it is the same with the Holy Trinity.

And just like a flame has three properties, of its matter, the shape and form of flame itself, the light that emanates out of the flame, and then the heat of the flame itself, it is the same with the Trinity. Without any one of these three properties, a flame is no longer a flame, and yet any of them represents the flame itself. No one can deny after seeing the light of a flame, or feeling the heat of the flame, or touching the matter of the flame itself can deny that it is a flame, and yet, each properties are distinct from each other.

Thus this is the great mystery of our Faith, is it not brothers and sisters? And yet, this is what we believe, and what we always profess and believe in, every time we mention the Holy Trinity in the Creed. I believe in God the Father Almighty, and then in His son, our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us on the cross and who will judge the living and the dead at the end of time, and then in the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, do we really mean what we say, every time we utter the words of the Creed? Or do we just repeat it meaninglessly and without understanding like a robot? It is important that we understand how important is our Lord for us, how much He had done for us, and just as the astonished Moses mentioned in the first reading we had today, indeed God had done so much for us.

God the Father had created us from nothingness, and from the dust He formed us and gave us life. And when we erred and went into sin, He ceaselessly loved us and cared for us, hoping for us to repent and change our ways so that we may not fall into eternal damnation. And He sent us none other than His Son, the Word of God made flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, so that, by the offering of Himself, His own Flesh and Blood, He made us all partakers of the new Covenant He established with us, and those who believe in Him therefore has the path to eternal life.

And last of all, He sent us His Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and through the Son, to give us a new life, to renew in us the strength and courage in our faith, so that we may truly be brave to choose to walk with the Lord and obey Him in all things despite the opposition of the world. All these showed God’s care and love for us, that the Three parts of the Trinity all working together to secure our redemption and liberation from the darkness and deliverance into the Light.

May on this day, on this solemn feast of the Most Holy Trinity, all of us be awakened to realise the love which the Lord, our Creator, our Nurturer and our Saviour has for us, and enable us to walk righteously in His path from now on, that we may reject all forms of sin and cast out all forms of wickedness from our hearts. May the Most Holy and Blessed Trinity be glorified and be praised forevermore, in heaven and on earth. Glory to God, the Undivided Unity and the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, ever loving God of us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 30 May 2015 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we have heard today of the doubt of the Pharisees, and how they doubted the works and the authority of Jesus, when He taught in the Temple, by challenging Him to provide the origins of His teaching authority, which came to clash with the authority with which the Pharisees themselves had taught.

The Pharisees were jealous with the popularity of Jesus, who from time to time again proved to be able to draw big masses of people who clamoured and wished to hear the truth which Christ had brought into the world. The Pharisees taught as with they were judging the people, by asserting how they were right and that the people whom they taught were wrong. Well, Jesus did the same too, but when He taught them, His teaching was such that it was done with true and clear authority.

It is indeed like what we heard from the first reading from the Book of the prophet Sirach or Ecclesiastes, on the nature of revelation of God’s truth in us. It is like a people who had longed for something good and then saw what they want. Truly, once they saw it, they would do all in what they are able to in order to find it and get hold of it. And thus, the same too happened with the people who longed for the truth, and having been oppressed for a long time under the lies of the world.

The moment they see the truth which Christ brought, it was like a great Light which pierced the darkness of the world, and which pierced the darkness that had once veiled our eyes. What Christ had taught, is done with true authority and rings true in our hearts, because deep within all of us, we have that desire to love the Lord and to follow what is right.

The Pharisees refused to listen and believe, because they have that one weakness which all of us also have and share among us, that is our pride. The human pride is one of the greatest obstacles that prevented us from being truly faithful and devoted to the Lord. It prevented us from being able to introspect into ourselves to look at our shortcomings and weaknesses, which we truly ought to seek the Lord who could have helped us to redress the issue.

Therefore, one of the first thing that we must do is, to throw far, far away our pride and to learn humility, that is the readiness and willingness to listen to others, and not least of all, but in fact the most important is, for us to be able to listen to the Lord, our loving God. We are often too distracted with the variety of things, temptations and other things in the world, and all these noise prevented us from truly hearing the word of God, which He spoke softly inside our hearts.

We often miss this because we are unable to perceive the subtlety of the Lord speaking to us because we are so occupied with the things of this world. We are too busy with ourselves to even pay attention to Him and to spare some thoughts to Him. That is why we have the tendency to always think that firstly, we are always right. We always blame others first in all things.

Can we learn to dispose our ego and cast away our pride? If we are unable to do so, then I fear that the word of truth, that is the word of God will be drowned in the ocean of ego and human desires. If we want to move forward in the path towards salvation and eternal life, then the only way is by growing deeper in our spirituality, and most importantly, by nurturing our prayer life. If we are able to pray regularly and frequently with genuine intention, then we will be able to communicate more efficiently with our Lord and know what is His truth.

Let us learn to take a break from all the distractions and noise in the world, and learn to quieten ourselves down, so that we may find the voice of God in us, and speak with Him in the silence of our hearts. Let us devote ourselves ever more to the Lord our God. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 29 May 2015 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the glory of the saints, and all of the faithful servants and followers of God, whose lives had been righteous before God and exemplary before men. This is a reminder for all of us that we too can be like them, and we also can walk in their footsteps, doing the things that they have done, that is to love and serve the Lord with all of their heart and strength, and to do the same to their fellow men. In doing so, God will also find us to be just and righteous, and we will have the same share of grace and glory as all the saints in heaven.

And in the Gospel today we heard about how Jesus cleared the Temple and its ground from the filth and corruption of worldliness, by casting out all the money changers, merchants of animal sacrifices, and other forms of vices that had corrupted and tainted the Temple and its premises. The house of prayer and the dwelling of God on earth has become a marketplace, a place of worldliness and sin. That was why Jesus was so angry and His wrath was so great that He cast them out in anger.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this story may be very well known to us, and we knew what Jesus did that day in the Temple. After all this has been replicated many times in the documentaries and films about the life of Jesus. But do we understand its true significance? It is not just about the Temple of God in Jerusalem, but indeed it is about all of us who have been chosen and taken out of the world to be the disciples and children of God.

All of us who have accepted our Lord as our God and Saviour have been marked with the seal of baptism, the seal of confirmation and the seal of the Most Holy Eucharist, and this means that the Lord Himself, by the Eucharist which we have received, have entered into our bodies and hallowed it, made it holy to be the Temple of His Presence. The Holy Spirit has dwelled in us also by the Spirit given to us by the Sacrament of Confirmation, and the life which we have itself, is the proof of the presence of God our Father, our Creator who gave us life.

In all this, it is beyond deniable fact that the Lord dwells in us and we are His holy Temple. If we defile this Holy Temple, that is our body, our soul and our very being, then we know that just as we knew the story of Jesus clearing the Temple from all the filth of corruption, the same anger and wrath that God had shown then will be directed to us as well.

But we do not have to be fearful or afraid, and that is because what matters is for us to change our ways and find a way to repent and turn our hearts back to face the Lord, for He is merciful and willing to forgive us, but only if we ourselves are willing to make a difference in our own lives. Remember, brethren, the fact is that we all ought to be ashamed and indeed angry, when we look at ourselves.

Why is this so? That is because if we are truly concerned about ourselves, then we ought to see the kind of mess and the abundance of filth and corruption that had marred the Temple of God, that is our body, our heart, our mind, our soul and our very being. Are we not ashamed to have such a dirty and wicked dwelling for our Lord? But instead of being ashamed forever, we must indeed jolt ourselves awake and ask ourselves, what we can do from now on.

Let us all be thoroughly reformed. If we have sinned constantly until now and refused to follow the way of the Lord, then let us stop all things that we do and reevaluate our lives and priorities. Remember that the grace and forgiveness of God will be ours only if we make the conscious effort to seek it by humbly asking for His forgiveness and mercy. Let us all seek God’s grace by doing what is right and just before His eyes, beginning from ourselves and then by doing good and loving one another just as He had taught us.

Just as Christ had purged the Temple from all the merchants and the wicked things that dwelled there, let us all also purge our own Temple, our own body, heart, mind and soul from the wickedness that had marred the purity of our very own Temple, where the Lord Himself dwells. God be with us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 28 May 2015 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the very beautiful and encouraging words from the Holy Scripture, beginning with the dissertation from the book of the prophet Sirach, who spoke about the nature of God and all of His wonders. He spoke of how God has created all things good and perfect, for us all to enjoy together, but it was because of our disobedience and sins that the perfection became marred and destroyed.

The light that once filled up this world has been veiled by darkness, that is the darkness of our sins. Our wickedness has served to be hindrance and obstacle for us to know how good and how great is the blessings and love which God has shown all of us. Therefore, we truly are blind, blind to the love of God, just as the blind man in the Gospel today cried out to Jesus, asking for His help to heal him from his blindness.

And that Gospel passage on the healing of the blind man by Jesus, is a reminder to all of us to reflect on our own actions in life. What are we now doing with regards to our lives filled with sin? What have we done so far in order to overcome the evils that had consumed us and what have we done to bring ourselves to the light? Do we act like the blind man who recognised who Jesus was and begged Him for mercy, to be healed from his blindness? Or are we content to stay on in our ignorance and blindness in the darkness of the world?

The blind man cried out to Jesus asking for Him to heal him, and he recognised Jesus as the Son of David, the One with power and authority to make him whole again. And he did not give up, even when the people tried to shut him up and scorned him. He refused to give up and continued to ask the Lord for His mercy, and eventually, by the faith which he has, he was healed and made whole.

Have we been like the blind man who was so persistent in asking for God’s mercy and forgiveness? Or are we equally stubborn in refusing to accept the fact that we are afflicted and in trouble and therefore need a profound change in our attitudes and actions so that we will not fall into damnation and eternal suffering? The fact is that God always attunes His ears to listen to our cries and pleas for mercy, and He tirelessly continues to remind us to repent and change our ways.

Let us all be inspired by the blind man and his total faith in the Lord, so that we too may also follow suit and do the same, proclaiming our faith and devotion to He who can heal us from our afflictions that is sin, the darkness that had clouded our minds and beings, to the point that we are unable to see beyond the darkness. If we know that we are in danger, then all the more we should put in the effort to change our lives for the better and seek the salvation which only our Lord can give.

Remember, brethren, that the Book of Sirach had also reminded us of the love of God, which He would shower on all those who cling faithfully to Him. He is ever faithful to all those who are also faithful to Him, and all that have done His will shall not be disappointed. The love of God endures, even though our sins have become like a mountain. What matters is that we respond to that love and mercy which our Lord had shown.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be drawn ever closer to the throne of our Lord’s mercy and open wide the floodgates for the love of God to enter into our hearts. This is the time for change, the time for mercy, for us to seek the forgiveness of God for our sins and sin no more, so that we may be truly free from the blindness that have afflicted us, and welcome the Light into our lives. May Almighty God have mercy on us and forgive us our sins, and may He lead us on this new life filled with grace and blessings. Amen.