suffering of our Lord

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Sunday, 17 May 2015 : Seventh Sunday of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the last of the seven Sundays of Easter and the beginning of the last week of the Easter season. Next Sunday will be the Solemnity of the Pentecost, when we celebrate the great ending of the season of Easter, by recalling the birth of the Church through the sending and the descent of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and disciples of Christ.

And today we heard about how Jesus cares for all those who are under His care and protection. He prayed to His Father to bless and protect all those whom He had chosen and called, and to preserve them in His love so that they would not be lost, unless they themselves choose to be lost. This is to reflect the events that were about to happen at that time, when Judas, the faithless disciple betrayed Jesus and chose the greed of the world and money over faith to the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us must understand that the fundamental part of our faith in God is to understand and comprehend the wholeness of the love of God. And this love is so great and so unconditional and selfless in nature, that for us all mankind who are used to the kind of selfish love and desires in the world, it is indeed difficult to understand the extent and nature of the love that God has for all of us.

But that is why our faith in God should be filled with the attempts by us to understand more about this love, which God had shown us, for God Himself is Love, and if we claim to know what love is, then we have to know what God has done for us. For we are all sinners and wicked in nature, through what we have done in our respective lives, be it in small or great things. And yet, God continues to love us and care for us, the love which He showed us by sending Jesus to our midst, that He may dwell among us, His beloved people and save us.

This celebration of Easter is truly a celebration of God’s love, which had been made real and concrete through Jesus, our Paschal Lamb, the Lamb of God who had willingly given Himself up to be sacrificed on the cross for us. From the cross He had offered up His Body and shed His Blood, as the perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sins, and by His Blood and His death therefore, we have been cleansed and made holy by the Lord Himself.

At the times past, after the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt, the people of Israel made a covenant with the Lord their God through Moses, who offered animal sacrifices on the altar at the foot of God’s holy mountain, and the blood of the lambs and goats sacrificed were sprinkled onto the people, who then became part of God’s covenant and became partakers in His grace and blessings.

Remember then, when our Lord Jesus Christ spoke at the Last Supper, the moment when He uttered the prayers we heard in today’s Gospel? Yes, the moment when He gave the bread and wine He blessed and transformed into His own real Flesh and Blood? He said, this is My Body which is given up for you, and this is My Blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins and as the seal of the new Covenant which God made with us all through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Jews who cried out for His death, asking for the crucifixion of the Saviour before Pilate, the Roman governor, spoke of how they would bear the Blood of the One they had condemned to death upon themselves and their own children, without realising the importance of these words. And often, we ourselves also overlook the importance of these words for our salvation. For this shows how by the Blood of the Paschal Lamb, Christ, we have been sanctified and consecrated to the Lord.

And unlike the blood of lambs and goats of the old days and times, this Blood is none other than the Most Precious Blood of our Lord and Saviour, and together with His Most Precious Body, we all have shared in them and become partakers in God’s new Covenant and therefore, receive the fullness of His blessings and grace. And all of us Christians that belong to the one and only Church of God, have been part of this new Covenant and sanctification that Christ mentioned, since the day of our baptism.

Regardless whether we were baptised as infants or as fully conscious adults, on the day of our baptism, we have cast aside our old life and our worldliness, and either by our conviction or by the conviction of our parents and godparents, we have made the decision to reject Satan and all of his evil and wicked lies, and vow to preserve the faith, the true faith and understanding of the Lord and His ways which have been passed down to us through the Church.

And by the waters of baptism, we are reborn anew, that is to be born again in the Lord. We have shared in the death of Christ, and we leave behind our sickened and corrupted old past, and then were raised again into a new life, sharing in our Lord’s resurrection. This is the essence of Easter and why we celebrate it with so much joy, because indeed it is inseparable from our own history of being saved in the Lord.

And then we also receive the Holy Spirit and its power and encouragement through the Sacrament of Confirmation, when our faith in the Lord is affirmed and strengthened. And we share in the Most Holy Eucharist, by receiving our Lord’s own Body and Blood, and thus become full participants and sharers in God’s Covenant that He has sealed with His own Blood and His own sacrifice on the cross.

We have all been consecrated and sanctified for the Lord, and He has chosen us all, to be loved by Him and to receive the fullness of His grace and love. As I have mentioned earlier, the Lord Himself is love, and by His love, the perfect and selfless love, He has willed for us all to repent and to change from our sinful ways, into new lives blessed by Him. And this is what had happened to us all.

But then, this then should remind us of what we need to do from now on. Christ is our Teacher, our Lord and our High Priest, and by the baptism we received, we have shared the same mission, the priestly, kingly and godly nature of our Lord. Therefore, we have a mission before all of us, that Christ Himself had entrusted to His Apostles and disciples, and therefore to all of us.

We have to carry the message of our Lord’s salvation to the nations, preaching His love and the care which He has shown us, to all the peoples, that they too may realise how great is the love that God has for them, just as He had shown us. God loves everyone, and it will indeed be very troubling if we have people who failed to be saved and rescued if it is within our power and ability to help them.

Let us therefore remember that we have been marked and chosen by our Lord to be saved, and we have been sanctified and prepared by Him, for a mission to continue His good works in this world, that is to save as many souls as possible from the darkness and sin, and from the depredations of Satan and all of his forces. Let us renew our commitments and efforts to help each other in reaching out towards salvation, and let us not be apathetic to the cries of our brethren who long to see and listen to the word of God. May God be with us all and with all of our endeavours. Amen.

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Saturday, 16 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings told us about how Apollos, the faithful servant of God and preacher of the faith told the truth about Christ to many people of many nations among the Gentiles or the non-Jews, and how many were converted because of his works.

But he himself was not perfect, as he did not have the full revelation of truth which only the Holy Spirit could give, and he received it once he was baptised in the Spirit by the Apostles, and the fullness of the truth of God was revealed to him through the means of fellow disciples who explained the truth to him in greater detail.

And in the Gospel Jesus spoke about how He taught in parables and stories, veiling from the people the fullness of the truth, and while they understood the meaning of the stories, but the real meaning behind all of them were not revealed until the time when the Lord deemed it right to reveal them so. And a very important truth He revealed that day, that all of us should ask when we need something, and because we want to know the truth, then we all should ask about the truth.

That means, as we live this life and live our faith, we cannot be passive or complacent or lazy. Otherwise, our faith will be empty and meaningless, and then, it is easy for Satan, the evil one, to plant all of his seeds of lies and discord within us. And this is how so many people fell into heresy and sin against God, because they did not know the truth or lacking the knowledge of the truth, and yet they took matter into their own hands and in their pride, they ended up subverting and changing the truth to serve their own purposes.

We are all prone to this, and it is easy for us to the many temptations to deviate from the truth. Sometimes, we are too proud to admit that we do not know about something, and therefore, we remain in our error and in the state of lacking knowledge. And sometimes we are too proud to ask because we do not want to lower ourselves and thus lose our prestige and ego.

Thus, let us all today reflect on this, on how we all should really open up ourselves to the Lord. All of us must be proactive in our faith, that if we know that we lack something that God’s grace can give, then we must really throw far, far away our ego and pride, and open ourselves to receive God’s grace and blessings, that is the truth which He wants to show us but we are often unable to grasp because of that same ego.

Let us all learn to be more humble in all things, especially before the Lord our God, and let us realise that firstly we are all sinners and then we are also lacking in the knowledge of the truth necessary to liberate us from the depredations of evil and sin. We often presume to know many things while the truth is that we know none. Let us ask the Lord to allow us to know more about how wicked we were, and indeed, how wicked we are now in our ways, and how we can change for the better.

May Almighty God bless us all, forgive us our sins and empower us with strength, courage and humility, so that we may grow ever deeper in our faith and stronger in our humility, realising our sinful ways and be truly converted to the Lord our God and walk humbly always in His ways. Amen.

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Friday, 15 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about joy, that is the true joy we are to find in the Lord, knowing that He is with us and that He cares for us very greatly and deeply. And it is this knowledge which can sustain us to go on in living this life filled with faith, amid the ever increasing challenges of the world. We know that the Lord is with us and never abandoning us even at the darkest moments, and this is why we can persevere with our faith.

In the first reading, we read how St. Paul encountered great difficulty during his works at the region of Achaia in Greece. He was opposed by a group of stubborn and unrepentant Jews who refused to believe in God and on top of that, they were also jealous of the influence that St. Paul had among the populace, who even converted many of the Gentiles or the non-Jews to the one true faith in God.

But despite the opposition and the persecution he faced, he remained resolute in his mission and in the convictions to carry out the works which he had been entrusted with. St. Paul and all the other Apostles were guided and protected in their missions by the Lord, who we witnessed today in the Acts of the Apostles as having been protected, albeit indirectly, by the Roman governor of Achaia, who refused to judge and condemn him for the supposed faults that he had been accused with by the Jews.

Indeed, at the end, the Apostles and the disciples of Christ faced rejection and martyrdom at the hands of those who were opposed to the Lord and His ways, but this is because by the very act of such brave death and fearless devotion to God, they proclaimed by the shedding of their blood and by their suffering, a true faith that endured even the challenges and the temptations of the world.

Remember, brethren, that despite the intense persecutions of the Church and the faithful, the Church continued to grow and prosper, and many people continued to heed the call of the Lord’s word, as the saying goes, that the blood of the holy martyrs is the seed of Christians. This is to show us that, the courage of all the holy disciples of our Lord have brought us all to salvation. For if they had been afraid to preach the truth of Christ, then none of us would have heard of it and thus have a chance for salvation.

Just yesterday, we celebrated the great solemnity of the Ascension when we commemorate the great ascension of Jesus our Lord into the glory of heaven. And before He went to heaven, He placed a charge and commandment to all of His disciples, which remain true even unto this day. This is so that all of them would go forth into the world and boldly preach the Gospel and the Good News of salvation to all the peoples, so that everyone from every corners of the world may hear them and be saved.

Therefore, we are all truly called to continue the missionary and evangelising works of the holy Apostles and disciples of our Lord who had predeceased us, and yet their works remained clearly represented by what we have today in the Church of God. If we have received God’s salvation through the Church and the words which had been passed down to us, then we ought to also pass on the same faith to all those who have yet to hear them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all renew our commitment and devotion to the Lord. Let us all not be distracted and deterred by the challenges and the problems that will face us if we are to walk faithfully in the way of our Lord. Instead, let us think about the fate of our brethren around us if we had not lift a finger and put in the effort to help them escape the depredations of the evil one and darkness.

May Almighty God bless us and strengthen us in our faith, so that we may be ever more devoted to Him, and may He awaken in us the sense of care and love for our fellow brethren, so that we may follow suit in the footsteps of the holy Apostles in guiding each other to the Lord, through devoted actions and deeds rooted in the true faith. God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Thursday, 14 May 2015 : Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord and Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the great solemnity of our Lord’s Ascension to the heavenly glory, to claim His seat at the right hand of God, the end of His earthly ministry, by which He had liberated us all mankind from the depredations of evil and the tyranny of sin. The Ascension is the final act in God’s glorious works to liberate all of us and make us whole again, and the final proof that indeed Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah, God and Man who had come upon us to free us.

Just as the Resurrection provides us hope of a new life, then the Ascension is a foretelling of our own fate if we remain faithful to the Lord and it shows us what will happen to us as well, at the end of days. We know that since ages past, that there had been several individuals who did not suffer death, because of their faith and righteousness. The Patriarch Enoch, one of the first sons of man was lifted up from this world and walked in it no more, because he was righteous before God.

And Elijah the prophet also was taken up in flaming chariots in the sight of his successor Elisha, as a clear sign of God’s favour for all of his hard work and dedications in his many years of preaching God’s word and calling for the repentance of sinners. And the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ is even greater than all those mentioned, for He rose up to heaven on His own power and might.

The Ascension has many meanings, of which first it shows us the triumph of the forces of good, the Lord and all the faithful against all evil, for this decadent and darkened world cannot hold against us, for our Lord had shown us the path to break free from that darkness. As such, it is a proof that we have triumphed against evil and sin, as exemplified by the Resurrection and the Ascension confirms it. The Lord ascended in great triumph and glory, and so shall be our glory and triumph when it is our time to ascend in glory because of our faithful life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Ascension also affirms that our Lord Jesus Christ is both Man and God at the same time. There were detractors and unfaithful ones, even unto this day, who believed that Jesus is mere man and nothing more, or that He is God and Divine only, and not a man. All these were inadequate and false beliefs that did not do justice to the truth about Christ our Lord.

If Jesus is just mere man, then what He had done for us would be for nothing. For the death of a mere man would not be sufficient to atone for the combined sins of all mankind, whose wickedness had built up to such a great extent, that only the One and only God, whom through Jesus, was incarnated into Man, and as both God and Man, He went through the sufferings and the pains, which are supposed to be our punishment, for all of our sins, so that, by bearing our sins, He brought us free from all the burdens of those sins.

And the Ascension proves this, just as the Transfiguration before the suffering and death of Christ showed a brief glimpse into this reality and truth. While it was only Peter, James and John who were at the mountain with Jesus at the time of His Transfiguration, more disciples, if not all of them were at the place and moment when Jesus ascended into His glory in heaven. This proves beyond doubt, that not only that He has conquered death by His resurrection, but that He truly came down from heaven and was returning to the place where He came from.

And how is this important and relevant for us all? That is because before He ascended into heaven, Jesus reminded the disciples of the one very, very important mission which He had entrusted to them and to the whole Church of God. This mission is that His word, the revelations of truth that He had brought into the world, the way to salvation, may be preached and taught to all peoples, to all mankind throughout the world.

All of us Christians who belong to the Church of God and who had been baptised in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit must go forth to the nations to preach to them the message which Christ had brought into this world, and which His herald, St. John the Baptist had also delivered, that is repentance of sinners, that men may abandon their sinful ways and embrace fully the ways that Christ had taught them, and which we now keep in faith through the Church.

Thus, as we celebrate the occasion of today’s glorious Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven, let us all remember that all of us also will enjoy the same experience, if we are all faithful to the Lord and obey Him in all of His commands. The glory of heaven and true joy are ours, if we follow the Lord and do all of the things that He had commanded us to do, and this is that we ought to call on the others who have yet to hear the word of God, so that they may be saved too.

Remember that just earlier I mentioned some of the righteous ones whom God had saved from death and brought into the heavenly glory? This is to show us that, although indeed we will all as mortals still suffer the effects of physical death, but that death for all the faithful will be nothing more than a passing moment and a transition between the imperfect world and life that we have now, with the world that is to come.

Do we all realise that it has been too long for us to stay hidden in this darkness and how long we have been suppressed by the sins and the wickedness that we have committed thus far in life? Let us therefore throw away these shackles of sin and unworthiness, which prevent us from truly realising the great potential that lie within each and every one of us. We have a duty and a responsibility, brethren, and it is indeed time now for us to act.

Let us all go forth and practice what we believe in, so that our faith will no longer remain just as a mere belief, but also brought completely into concrete and real action, so that all who sees us will know that we believe in God, and therefore, they too may believe by what we have done. And because we have done what is righteous before God, and bring others to Him as well, then the glory of our Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension will also be ours, and eternal life and the glory of heaven will be our just reward.

May Almighty God, the Ascended Christ, who went forth to prepare the places for His righteous ones, continue to guide us and bless us, so that we truly can merit to be counted among those whom He chose out of the nations, to be reunited with Him in the glories and wonders of eternal life in heaven, filled with true joy and happiness. God be with us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 13 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter, Memorial of our Lady of Fatima (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast day of our Lady of Fatima, the ninety-eighth anniversary since the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to three young children at Fatima in Portugal almost a hundred years ago, in a series of apparitions where she revealed to them the messages of utmost importance, seeking for the repentance and conversion of the world, and the consecration of Russia to her, which was at that year, precisely at that very moment, was about to fall into the long darkness of communism.

This feast of our Lady of Fatima is a reminder for all of us yet again, how we have been given so many reminders and opportunities to repent and change from our sinful and wicked ways, and the one who had appeared so many times to us so that this may happen, is none other than the loving mother of our Lord, that is Mary, the ever faithful mother of us all. She appeared to us and reminded us from time to time, in her many apparitions, to reveal to us the truth about our sins and about the love and mercy that God is willing to show all those who repent from their sins.

Why does Mary care so much about us, brethren? And why is she our mother when she is clearly the mother of Jesus, our Lord and God? To understand this, we have to understand what happened at the very last moment of Jesus’s earthly life when He was on the cross. While He fulfilled the very act of perfect love by which He redeemed all of us and gave us new hope of life, He entrusted His mother to John, His beloved disciple, and then in the same way, He also entrusted His disciple to Mary, His mother.

This can be easily overlooked, but in that single moment, God had entrusted us all and gave us the very best gift He could give us, that is of His own mother, who in her selfless dedication and love, had cared for Him with ultimate patience and care since His birth, and then on that day, to follow His Son on the way to His suffering and death on the cross, which is for our sake.

Imagine the sorrow and the sadness that assaulted the heart of Mary, as she watched her own beloved Son, as He was mocked, ridiculed, rejected, scourged, carried that heavy and painful cross, fell on the ground three times, having His hands and legs pierced by the nails, lifted up for all to see, and eventually died on the cross. All these, our Lord Jesus Christ had done, so that through Him, we may be saved and not suffer the consequences of our sins, that is death and hell.

Which mother would just ignore the plight and the cries of her children? Therefore, in the same way, Mary, whom God had made to be our mother as well, cares for us deeply and she is concerned for the state of our souls, which if nothing is done, we are truly prone to fall deeper into our sinfulness and the darkness that surround us, so that we are forever lost to the Lord.

And this is what God, and therefore, His mother Mary do not want to happen. He died for us so that we may be saved, and not suffer the eternal death in hell because of our sins. This is why, we have our best ally and friend with us, Mary, our mother, who ceaselessly prays for our sake, with all the other saints and with all of the angels, particularly each of our guardian angels, that we may be awakened from our slumber in the darkness and make the effort to come back into the light.

Thus, our faithful devotions to our Lady of Fatima is a constant reminder for us to keep our own lives in check, so that in all the things we act, say and do, we will always do them in accordance with the will of God, and remain righteous and just in all of our ways without exception. Remember, brethren, that Mary is always interceding for our sake, near to the throne of Jesus, her Son our Lord and God. She weeps for us whenever we commit sin, and rejoices whenever we repent from those same sins.

Let us all therefore put in great effort to fulfill what our Lord mentioned in the Gospel passage we heard today, that if we listen to His words and does His will in all that we do, say and act, then we truly are worthy to be called His friends, His family and as people that belongs to Him alone, and thus, if we are worthy, then the fullness of God’s grace and blessings will be with us, and happiness as well as joy will be with us and never depart from us again.

O, our Lady of Fatima, blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had appeared to the children at Fatima calling for the repentance of sinners and the conversion of the world, pray for us all always, so that we may always heed the word of God in all that we do, and abandon all sorts of evil and wickedness. Remember that what matters for us in this life, is the state of our soul, and let us not seek the suffering and damnation of hell, but let us together with our blessed mother Mary, enjoy forever the glory of heaven. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 12 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martrys, and St. Pancras, Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how God is ever faithful and how He will always provide for all those who continue to cling on to Him and not swayed by the tides of the world. In the first reading we heard how St. Paul and Silas his companion were freed from prison by a great earthquake when their enemies plotted against them to destroy them, and in the process the jailer himself was converted to the faith.

And in the Gospel we heard how our Lord Jesus promised the coming of the Helper, the Advocate and the Guide of all things, that is the Holy Spirit, which He would send to His Apostles and therefore to His Church after His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. This is to remind us that while this coming Thursday we are going to commemorate our Lord’s glorious ascension into heaven, He is always with us wherever we are.

God dwells in us and He is always with us, and even though we are always disobedient and rebellious, but He is ever faithful. And to all those who keep their faith in Him, He will grant such great favours and graces so as to mark them apart from all others who have not given Him their love and dedication. So we are truly very fortunate if we can count ourselves as one of the faithful ones of God.

God is always with His people, with all of His children that is all of us. He is always on our side, blessing us and giving us His graces from time to time. We have to think about this every time we breathe and have life, every single day of our life. Remember that the Lord, who is Lord and Master of all life have been so gracious and kind so as to overlook our sins and faults, to give us the opportunity for repentance.

It is very easy for the Lord to just destroy us and cast us away from His presence forever. After all, we all have betrayed His trust and His love, and chose to side with Satan and rebel together with him. But His love for us overcomes His anger at us, and His wrath is overcome by the care and pity which He has for us, His children, who are like lost sheep wandering in the darkness of this world.

Thus, He has called us out of this darkness, and to those of us whom He had called, He also entrusted us to call our brethren out of the same darkness. That is why, He gave us His Spirit, which encourages us and gives us the strength and will to overcome all the forms of indecision, fear and apathy, so that we all may help one another to be ever closer to our Lord and be saved by His mercy and grace.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Nereus, St. Achilleus and St. Pancras, all of whom are martyrs of the faith. They are all the holy defenders of the faith, who did not give up their faith despite the threat of persecution and death by those who were opposed to the Lord and to the truth they were preaching by their words and actions. St. Achilleus and St. Nereus were members of the Roman army while St. Nereus was a noble who all lived at the time of the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, infamous for his great and harsh persecution of all Christians.

St. Nereus and St. Achilleus was once pagan soldiers who took part in the persecution of the faithful, but after witnessing the example of the faith of many those whom they have persecuted, they themselves became believers and refused to obey anymore orders to persecute the faithful ones. As a result, they were tortured and put to great suffering, until eventually they were beheaded for their refusal to embrace the pagan gods.

St. Pancras was a young noble who was baptised at a young age and who led an exemplary Christian life, donating his goods and possessions to the poor and practicing the faith in his actions, and although he was discovered because of this, he refused to recant his faith in God despite being offered much wealth and power by the Emperor himself. As such, he was also beheaded for his faith after great sufferings.

All the holy martyrs might have met their death and end at the hands of their persecutors and those who do not believe in God, but they receive great and rich rewards in heaven, and through their bravery, courage and examples, they inspired countless others to believe in God and thus saved many more souls for the Lord.

These things are examples that we can adopt and discern on, as we all have also been called to walk in the same path that they have walked. It does not mean that we must antagonise others and face martyrdom, but rather that we all have to trust the Lord fully and completely, and place all of our hope in Him, and be courageous and proactive in how we live out our faith.

May Almighty God guide us and strengthen us in our faith, that by the Holy Spirit which He had sent us, we may become ever more courageous and stronger in our commitment and devotion to spread the word of God to many more people and thus lead more people towards salvation and new life in God. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 11 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we celebrate together this wonderful day, we are all reminded that we are witnesses of the truth and the revelations which our Lord Jesus Christ had brought into the world. We are all called to be the messengers and servants of God’s message of truth and conversion for the whole world, that all who still dwell in the darkness may abandon their sins and be welcomed back into the light.

And what is important for us all to take note is that, if we walk in this path, that is as the faithful servants of our Lord, preaching and proclaiming His truth to the whole world, then our path will not be easy. There will be staunch opposition and rejection from the world and from those to whom we have gone to preach the message of our Lord. There will also be ridicule and persecution of the faithful, that is all of us.

There are many people who still live in the darkness of the world and remain in the state of sin. Some of them will hearken and listen to the word of God, if someone is to bring these words to them. Just like the Apostles in the past, as exemplified by the examples of St. Paul who preached in many cities and places, that his message of the truth of Christ was heard far and wide, and many people turned towards the Lord.

A people who lived in the darkness had seen a great light, and this was the prophecy of the prophets who foretold of the coming of the great Messiah who would liberate His people and bring them into wholesome new life. Christ is this light that shines upon the darkness and reveal to us the truth of God, the truth about ourselves and what we can do to free ourselves from the clutches of darkness.

And He had tasked His Apostles and other disciples with the command to continue His works of revealing to the nations and all of His wayward sheep, the people of God wandering in sin and darkness, the truth which would dispel all the lies of Satan and unveil the wickedness of all of our sins. The purpose of this is so that we may stop sinning and doing wicked things before the Lord, and thus condemning ourselves to eternal suffering of hell.

God loves us so much that although we are sinners, and often unrepentant and rebellious, but He was willing to show His enduring and everlasting love, which He showed through Jesus Christ. God loves us all, and He wants to show His love and mercy, forgiving us from our sins and trespasses against Him. Yet, He also hates and despises each of our sins at the same time. Thus, it was in His desire to reveal to us this fact, so that we may be awakened from our indecision and slumber, into a new life where we actively seek God’s mercy and forgiveness.

It is through us all, we who have been baptised and part of the whole unity of the Church of God, that God is exercising His good works in this world. But the world itself resists, and all the forces aligned with Satan and all evils also resist this revelation. For in this revelation comes to light the ugly nature of sin and wickedness in the world and Satan, and they resent it.

That is why there will be difficulties and great challenges for us all even as walk in this way of faith. It is because of this resentment and opposition, for the world and Satan his master want to keep as many souls condemned and in state of rebellion against God as possible. But God will be with us, and we truly have no need to fear. Satan and his forces can only harm our physical body, but not harm our soul, for our soul belong to God alone.

What we are doing in the Name of the Lord in fact dispel those lies and darkness, helping many of our brethren who are lost and not knowing their way in life, so that they may now find their way to God through actions and deeds, as well as through sincere and devout prayer.

Therefore, we are now called to give our best and to do our best in our respective lives, that we may be ever more faithful and devoted servant of our Lord, through our faithful words, actions and deeds. Let us all show this love for God to our brethren, and by showing how we live a faithful and good Christian life, caring for one another in need, so that all who sees us will come to believe in what we believe, and therefore have the gate to salvation opened for them.

May Almighty God be with us always, that we may be ever more confident and dedicated, to be preachers and proclaimers of His Good News among the nations, bringing salvation closer to ever more souls, and help our brethren to return to our Lord, that we may worship Him together as one people, freed from the bonds of sin and the darkness of this world. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 10 May 2015 : Sixth Sunday of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this holy day of Sunday of the Lord, the sixth in the Easter season, all of us heard about how God revealed His love for us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and how He called all the peoples, of all the nations, to come together and be saved, through the holy waters of baptism, genuine conversion and by receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The message today is very, very clear, that to all of us the faithful, we are always reminded that God is love, and God is merciful, and He has called us out of the darkness, so that we may abandon the darkness, and embrace the fullness of His mercy, grace and love. And then, it is also very clear, that God calls all peoples, of all nations without bias and preference.

What truly matters is indeed, that we whom God have called out of the darkness, follow Him in all of His ways, and heed His teachings. Before the Lord, all of us are equal and same as brothers and sisters. This was to counter the attitudes of the Jews and the people of Israel, who since the time when they were chosen as God’s first called people, have adopted an exclusivist and elitist attitude, to the condemnation and exclusion of others from the possibility of receiving the grace of God.

They thought that they alone were worthy of God’s salvation because they were God’s chosen people and often took for granted the grace and the patience which God has always given to them and show them. As such, they were often rebellious and unrepentant, and they even refused to listen to reason and the truth, when the Lord sent them repeated reminders and revelations through His prophets, and last of all, through the Lord Jesus Himself.

This also continued with the conflicts and struggles between the Jewish members of the faithful and their Gentiles counterparts. The Gentiles are all the non-Jews, which include people from various nations and origins, primarily the Greeks, many of whom had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, and by the works and the teachings of the Apostles, they had walked in the way of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God had made it clear, that He intends for the salvation and liberation of all peoples. That is because the new Passover and salvation He brought is a new and more perfect one as compared to what He had given the people of Israel in the past, when He liberated them from the Egyptians through the hands and works of Moses, His servant.

This new Passover is the Passover of the Paschal Lamb, which we are particularly celebrating on in this season of Easter. The Paschal Lamb, that is our Lord Jesus Christ, had become the new Lamb of sacrifice, by whose Flesh and Blood, He had made righteous and chosen, a people whom He had chosen for Himself, and whom He had called from among the nations, that is all who sincerely believe in Him and in all of His teachings.

In that way, He had chosen us, and by His sacrifice and death, which we profess in our faith and proclaim to others, He had freed us from the eventual fate of suffering, pain, despair and destruction in hell. Instead, to those who have accepted Him as their Lord and Master, He grants a new life filled with hope, love and grace. And this is regardless of our background, regardless of our origin and race.

Everyone who heeds God’s call and does His will are worthy of Him and all that He had prepared and promised to them. They have been marked by God for salvation just like the people of Israel had been marked with the blood of the sacrificed Passover lambs. And further on, God did not just wash away our sins through the waters of baptism, He also gave us the Holy Spirit, to dwell in us and to become the source of our hope and inspiration.

The Gentiles received the Holy Spirit as a clear sign from God that everyone without exception enjoy the favour of God as long as they follow His commandments that is Love. As long as we have love in us, and we give that love firstly to our Lord and God who had loved us first, and then also give the same love to our fellow men, by caring for one another and showing care and concern for all those in need, we have been found worthy in the eyes of the Lord.

And today we are all reminded that, all of us have a mission which our Lord Jesus Christ had commanded us all to do, just as He had given the commands to His Apostles. This is to love one another just as He had loved us first, for such a great love that even though we are sinners through and through, rotten to the core and to our souls, but He was willing to come down in humility and obedience, and to give up His life for us on the cross that we may have life.

And therefore, we must show this love to others, especially to all those who have yet to know of this love, and who are still languishing in the darkness, not knowing the way to go. We have to be the ones to bear the light of our Lord to them, by showing it through real and concrete actions, so that when they see us doing love, practicing love and showing love in all things, they too may be moved in their hearts and soul, that they may abandon their sinfulness and wicked world and follow the Lord as we all have done.

Let us all never be judgmental upon others just because we see that they have done something wicked. Let us not judge sinners as we have to remember that we are once sinners too, be it small or great. Our duty and responsibility is to lead them all to mercy and forgiveness by God, and to allow them to see the light through our actions, so that they too may become the children of God.

But we must be careful not to offer false mercy to others who need mercy. False mercy is for us to bring forgiveness to others unconditionally. Yes, it is important for us to be merciful and to forgive, but it also requires others to be repentant, and indeed to be truly sorry for their sins and commit themselves to no longer doing the same sin for the rest of their lives. This is true mercy and not false mercy. False mercy that does not bring about repentance only cause further injustice and wickedness.

Therefore, let us all carry forth this mission with great courage and joy. All of us Christians who have been baptised in the Name of our Lord, and who have received the Holy Spirit ought to, and indeed we must be witnesses of our faith, as witnesses of our Lord’s love in His death and resurrection to all the nations. May all peoples, all mankind be hearkened to come to the throne of our Lord’s most merciful love, so that as many souls as possible are saved from the destruction because of our sins.

May Almighty God be with all of us, that in all of our deeds and actions, He may always remind us in our heart and mind, to be faithful to Him and to show others what it truly means to be a Christian. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 9 May 2015 : 5th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the Lord reminding His disciples that if they were to follow Him and continue to walk in His path, then it will not be easy for them. There will be difficult times and challenges for them, as the way of this world is not the same as the way of the Lord, and indeed, it is diametrically opposite to it.

That is why, while we champion the sanctity of life, and how every single life is important and necessary, the world championed the culture of death, that is the destruction of the meaning and holiness of all life, and also the disregard for people’s livelihood, in an environment that is often based on the survival of the fittest and the suffering of everyone else.

Meanwhile, we believe in the values of Christian charity and love, that we should show love to all of our brethren without exception, even to our enemies and to all those who hated us. This is the wonders of our Christian faith, and which the Apostles stood up proudly for, defending that faith against the wickedness of this world. And the world that despised Christ will also despise us too.

The Apostles encountered difficulties, challenges, rejection and other troubles throughout their ministry and work, but they rejoiced at the thought of being persecuted for the sake of defending their faith to God, and thus being persecuted for the sake of Christ Himself. Remember that Jesus Himself said, that all those who are persecuted because they believe in Him will receive great rewards? This is exactly what He means.

We do not have to be hostile to the world, or to withdraw ourselves completely to the world, as these attitudes would instead backfire on us. This is because doing such things means that we isolate ourselves from the world, and ultimately from the many souls and peoples whom we are able to rescue and save from the darkness by our actions, our words and our deeds.

Yes, all of us baptised into the Church of God have received the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit which the Apostles had received from the Lord. And with this Spirit we ought to be courageous and reach out to all those who have yet to hear the Word of God, so that they too may be saved, by turning their backs against the sinfulness and wickedness which they have committed previously.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all persevere and resist the challenges and difficulties of this world, with which Satan always tries to lure and trap those who lack vigilance and awareness, with temptations and persuasions, so that we may be praised and accepted by the world. Remember, brethren, that we should not seek what is temporary and illusory. The wealth, possessions, goodness, fame and all the praise of this world count for nothing, if we do not build for ourselves a rich heavenly inheritance.

Therefore, let us all from now, start building up our treasure in heaven, by following the Lord closely and faithfully in all His ways, that beginning from ourselves, we may inspire many others to also follow the Lord and walk in His ways, and thus be saved.  This is what we ought to do, brothers and sisters. Let us not wait until it is too late for us. May God guide us in this path and keep us straight in that path, so that we will remain always faithful to Him, and therefore receive our just rewards of everlasting life. Amen.

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Friday, 8 May 2015 : 5th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we all ought to reflect on the nature of God’s love for us. His love for us is true, genuine, perfect and transcending all forms of selfish love and worldliness, and His love is given to us freely! And yet, it is us all who have often rejected His love. We prefer the love of this world and the love of ourselves.

And this is why all of us have to learn that if we become the disciples of our Lord, them all of us ought to grow stronger in our humility and dedication to one another, and to be less in the attention which we pay to ourselves and to our desires. We must die to our desires and our greed, and rise up at the call of others, when they cried for justice, for food and for love, which many in our world today lacks.

As we have discussed earlier on this week on the matter of the observation of the laws of Moses, the customs of Israel, the over-emphasis on such strict observation of the faith by the Jews and their demands that all the faithful followed such strict laws caused the people to lose sight of what being a true disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ really means.

To be the true disciples of our Lord, we have to be completely and thoroughly changed in our ways and be converted to His cause, not just externally, but also internally as well. We cannot be so focused on ourselves and then be blind to the plight of others who are around us. Thus, as we seek to obey the Lord and follow His commandments, we cannot blindly follow them and worse still, to do them for the sake of being seen and praised for having obeyed the Law of God.

The Jews themselves, as emphasized by the examples of the Pharisees, were too caught up in the act of maintaining the law at the strictest possible application, that they ended up doing the law injustice, for they failed to understand the real and true meaning of the Law. The Law is meant to guide us in the way of love, that is teaching us on how to love one another, and also to love God.

As such, we have to understand what Jesus had taught us about the commandments and Law which He had given us. To love God means to give ourselves completely in our being to Him, and with all of our strength and might we ought to focus all of our attentions to Him, so that whenever we do something we always give glory to God and we will not even contemplate doing something that will go against the way of the Lord.

And if we love God, then we will also definitely follow in His footsteps and not turn left and right in the pursuit of other things. We will be faithful no matter what challenges and temptations that lie on our way. This is our faith, and this is what we should do in the name of our faith to the Lord. And if we love God, then we will also love our fellow men, so that in all that we do, we may bring goodness to others around us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore reflect on this occasion, on what we can do more to love our Lord and to love one another. If we have not shown love in our actions, then perhaps this is the time for us to begin to do so. May God guide us on our ways and help us to keep faithfully all of His commandments and remain true to Him, our Lord and Saviour. God bless us all. Amen.