Sunday Mass Reflections

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Sunday, 23 October 2016 : 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Mission Sunday, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this holy day of the Lord, as we gather together as one people, we heard about that familiar parable from our Lord Jesus, about a Pharisee and a tax collector, who went to the Temple in Jerusalem to pray to God. The Lord contrasted the attitudes of the Pharisee who prayed with pride and haughtiness, clamouring and revelling in his achievements and supposed piety, looking down on others who were not like him, including the tax collector.

Meanwhile the tax collector prayed with great humility, bowing down himself and lowering himself before God and before others, for surely those who came to the Temple would be able to see that tax collector bowed and humbling himself, although tax collectors at that time were feared because of their money, their wealth and influence. But unlike the equally influential Pharisees, the tax collectors were often negatively seen as traitors to the country.

And the prevailing opinion then were obviously stacked against the tax collectors, prostitutes and all others whom were considered as unclean, outcast and unworthy of God’s salvation. And the people, the Jews became elitist in their attitudes, thinking that as the heir of Abraham and God’s covenant, they alone deserved to receive the love and the salvation of God. And chief among those who exhibited this attitude were the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.

But as the Lord Himself made it clear to one of His prophets, Jesus son of Sirach, also known as the prophet Sirach, our first reading today, that all mankind are equal before Him, in His presence. No one can claim to be better than any other based on their race, background, skin colour, appearances, wealth, status, fame or any other parameters that this world often used in order to distinguish how each one are treated.

God did call Abraham to be His servant, and by his obedience, God rewarded him and his descendants with favour beyond that was given all the other nations. But that does not mean that God favoured the Israelites alone, and condemned the other nations, the other peoples. After all, if God did not love those people whom the Israelites often called as pagans and barbarians, then why would He even bother to create them in the first place?

God created us mankind because He loved us all, and He has loved us all so much that His intention for us was that all of us may dwell for eternity in perfect bliss and happiness, knowing true joy and love in what He has prepared for them since the beginning of time. Alas, all of that were not meant to be, as in our disobedience, sin has become a part of us, corrupting us and made us to be unworthy.

Yet, God Who still loved us all so much, each and every one of us, would not give up on us. If He no longer loved us, then there would be no reason at all for Him to prolong our existence, and just as He had willed us to being, He could have destroyed us all and wiped us out from this world. Instead, He gave us another chance, one after the other, help and assistance, guidance and hope through His prophets and servants, and ultimately, by sending His own Son to be our Saviour.

God loves all of His children very much, and He desires for all of these to be reunited with Him in perfect harmony. And this require these same children, that is mankind, to be changed, transformed and altered completely in their ways, that they abandon their past ways of sin and be converted into the light and truth of our Lord. And that is indeed the essence of the Scripture readings that we heard today.

God does not look at hubris, pride and arrogance, and neither does He need any abstract and fake faith that was not founded upon true and genuine commitment and devotion to His ways. That was why He rebuked the action of the Pharisee both in the parable and in reality, because they were so full of themselves, that they had forgotten their true purpose, the purpose entrusted to them as the leaders and guardians of God’s people.

They forgot that they themselves were sinners too, just as the tax collector, all the other tax collectors, prostitutes and those who have been shunned from the society were sinners too. All of us have sinned before God, and regardless whether they are small or big, minor or major, all of us have been equally tainted by sin and therefore had been rendered unworthy before the Lord.

And unless we are reconciled with our God, we shall be doomed to eternal damnation and oblivion, in hellfire reserved for Satan and his fellow fallen and rebel angels. Certainly, this is not the fate that we want for ourselves, but unfortunately, as we have often witnessed, there are many distractions and temptations that kept us from finding the path to our salvation in God.

And one of the major distraction is that pride and prejudice we have within us, as the Pharisees and their fellow allies have exhibited. As Christians, we cannot follow down this path, as we cannot become enclosed within ourselves, trapped in the quagmire of greed and human pride. Rather, as Christians, we should open ourselves to love and to show care and concern for our brethren, all those who need our help.

And rather that condemning others for their sins, perhaps we ourselves should reflect on our own sinful ways first. Jesus told the Pharisees and all those whom they have gathered in one occasion to test Him by condemning a woman caught with committing adultery, that those who had no sin, ought to cast the first stone against the woman. It is yet another reminder that we have to be humble before God, and not to judge others before we look at ourselves.

Instead, let us offer a helping hand to our brethren in need, and all the more this is necessary because we have received the fullness of God’s truth and revelations through the Church, and thus, as the Apostles and the saints before us, we have that same obligation and responsibility given to us by the Lord Himself, that we ought to help and lead and guide each other that all of us may be saved together in God.

May the Lord help us in our endeavours, that through faith, commitment and devotion to the ways of the Lord, through humility and awareness of our own sins, we may discover the path to reach out to the Lord and find salvation in Him. May He guide us as we walk through this challenging path of life, and may He bless us always in all things, that we will persevere and not give up as we approach His merciful and loving embrace. Amen.

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Sunday, 16 October 2016 : 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hedwig, Religious and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this holy day of our Lord, we listened to several different discourses from the Holy Scriptures, telling us firstly from the Book of Exodus, the tale of the time when the Israelites defeated the people of Amalek, the greatest enemy of the people of God by the guidance of the Lord through Moses, His servant.

Then, we heard about how inspiration and true wisdom comes from God in the form of the Scriptures itself, as St. Paul mentioned in his correspondence letter to St. Timothy. The Scriptures are the words of the Lord, His servants and His prophets who all delivered the word of God to us all and made known to us all His will. By reading through the Scriptures we will then come to understand the way that God wants us to walk and tread on.

In the Gospel then we also heard about Jesus our Lord Who taught the people using the parable of an evil judge and a widow who harassed him day and night, from time to time, so that the evil judge who did not bother about anyone, would come to her rescue by giving what she righteously desired for, the protection and guarantee over her share of inheritance.

In the end we heard how the evil judge acquiesced to her demands and fulfilled what she had asked him, just so that he might be spared from her constant nagging and demands. In all these three readings and the Psalm which we heard, we can see a theme that is arising to us, telling us to look towards the One and the only One indeed Who can be the freedom and the liberation from our troubles.

God stood by His people on that day when Amalek unexpectedly and unprovoked launched an attack on the people of God, Israel. He stood by them faithfully as they fought against this ferocious and dangerous enemy, and eventually they triumphed, not by the might of their own arms, but because God was with them. This was shown to us through Moses who was told to raise his hand holding the staff of God in his hands. Whenever he lifted up his arms, the people of God would be winning, and when he became tired and lowered his arms, the people of God were losing against the Amalekites.

How is this relevant to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is relevant because we ourselves are always in a constant struggle and conflict, not just within our own lives in this world, with all of its goods and troubles, but even more importantly, the battle and conflict over our souls, the eternal soul within us that will determine our fate for eternity, whether it will be in glory with our God or in agony suffering torment for the consequences of our wickedness.

And we are not in this conflict alone, brethren. Satan is more than willing, and indeed wanting and desiring to claim us all, our souls, and bring all of these with him as he descends into hell with all of his fellow rebel angels. But on the other side, we have our guardian Angels, whom God had sent together with His many other Angels, all the servants and holy men and women He had called and inspired to lead us to the right path and to resist the pull of evil.

God protects us from the depredations of these demons and all those seeking to destroy us with themselves. However, it does not mean that we do not have to do anything and just wait patiently and quietly for salvation to come to us. In that same second reading, St. Paul as mentioned earlier on told St. Timothy about the importance of the Holy Scriptures for us.

It is therefore that by adhering and understanding the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures that we are able to appreciate better what our Lord wants from us, and which is the way that we need to take as we embark on this life. Otherwise we may lose our path and ended up committing ever more sins and wickedness that will eventually be held accountable against us.

How many of us spend time to read the Bible and its contents, trying to understand the Word of God contained inside it? How many of us attempted to comprehend the examples of the holy saints and the servants of God as written and recorded in the Old Testament, and the Apostles and the other disciples of the Lord in the New Testament? There are truly many examples of their courageous faith, and also some other examples of wickedness that we should avoid.

But we must also be careful lest we fall into another trap of the devil. Never think that the devil cannot use the Word of God as contained in the Scriptures against us, as he had shown when he used the Word and twisted its meaning against Jesus Who was fasting in the desert just after He was baptised in order to test Him and made Him fall. But he did not meet any success at all.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to spend time reading through the Scriptures, for the Word of God is key to our ability to keep the faith and understand the Lord and His will, His commandments and ways. But we have to understand it and read it through the guidance and help from the Church and from our Faith. That is why we should not allow ourselves to have our own interpretation of the meaning of the Word if these are not in accordance with the teachings of the Church.

Let us all from now on devote ourselves to be ever more devoted and committed people and servant of our God, spending time to read the Scriptures and then commit ourselves to do what the Lord had told us to do through His words in the Scriptures, loving our brethren who are in need, be charitable and be loving to our unloved, hated and ostracised brethren, being merciful and forgiving to all those who have slighted or angered us whether intentionally or unintentionally.

May the Lord bless us all and keep us always in His grace, that we may draw ever closer to Him and at the end of our days, He may bless us and strengthen us, and consider us all worthy of His salvation and eternal life. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 9 October 2016 : 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day of the Lord we heard about the wondrous healing of the servant and general of the kingdom of Aram or Syria, Naaman, who lived during the time of the division among the people of God, comprising of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. At that time, the prophet Elisha also did his many works among the people, calling the people to repentance and to abandon their sinfulness, but often without much success.

It was then that at that time, Naaman, who had tried to find a cure for his leprosy without much success, looked towards the land of Israel, for the news and words about the prophet Elisha and his miracles had reached even the ears of the king and people of Aram, and thus Naaman set forth for the land of Israel in order to find the prophet and get him to cure him from his afflictions.

And when Naaman had found the prophet Elisha, he was told by the prophet to bathe in the river Jordan seven times, but the general in his pride initially refused to obey the instructions of the prophet, thinking that it was such a menial thing to do, even though he had travelled a long way so that the prophet might heal him by the means of miracles and wonders.

But in the end, after he had been persuaded by his retainers, he relented and obeyed the prophet’s commands, and even as he bathed in the river as he was told to do, he was healed from his leprosy, and his skin became as good and smooth as that of a baby. And realising that he had been healed, the general Naaman hurried to find the prophet and thanked him profusely for having exercised such a miraculous sign to him.

And Naaman wanted to reward the prophet for what he had done, but the prophet refused it, and instead, Naaman who insisted that the gifts he brought were not wasted, then offered it to the One Who made it all possible, that is to YHVH, the One and only True God, the God of Elisha, the God of Israel, and the God of Naaman. It was God Who had healed Naaman from his sickness, and he had been made whole and perfectly healthy again.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as I have pointed out earlier on, the prophet Elisha and his predecessor Elijah did not have much success in their works among the people of God, and they were often rejected, ridiculed, harassed, and even threatened with death by all those who refused to reject and cast aside their sinful ways, such as the worship of Baal and the other pagan gods, as well as their debauched lifestyle.

Meanwhile, Naaman the Syrian sought for healing in the Lord and he found it, and while the people of God refused to accept the rich offerings of God’s grace and mercy, which He had made clear and offered through His many prophets, this foreigner would come and thank the Lord for all that He had done for him. This despite the Israelites’ attitude over the ages and times that they were the chosen people of God and others were treated as pagans and damned before God.

The reality is very clear, that while the people of Israel at that time had no leprosy on them, and that their bodies are clean and without blemish, but the same could not be said of their inner beings. They had sinned and committed wickedness before God and men alike, and therefore sin had corrupted their hearts, minds and souls. Yes, they were sick with leprosy, that is sin, the leprosy of the soul.

Naaman might have been inflicted with the leprosy of the flesh, but eventually his faith and obedience to God, his gratitude and thankfulness to the Lord had saved him and God had made him whole, not just from the leprosy of his flesh, but also from the leprosy of his soul. Certainly, even though it was not specifically mentioned in the Scriptures, God would have forgiven Naaman’s sins as well, and if he continued to live in grace after that, he would be counted among those who have been saved from the world.

The same point is also reiterated in the Gospel today, where we heard how God healed ten lepers who came to Him, begging that He showed mercy to them and desired for Him to heal them from their afflictions. He did not heal them straight away, just as Elisha once did with Naaman, but instead sent them away to see the priests that they would be healed.

And on their way, the ten lepers were healed from their leprosy, and when they all realised it, they were all rejoicing and were very happy about it, but only one of the ten healed lepers realised entirely what had happened, and went back to Jesus to thank Him and indeed, worshipped Him as his Lord and Saviour. The other nine lepers were too happy that their leprosy had been healed that they forgot entirely about the One Who had made it all possible.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the lesson which all of us can learn from these Scripture readings, from the examples of Naaman and also from the ten lepers healed by Jesus is that firstly, we should not be discriminatory in how we look on others, and especially not in terms of how and who should be saved in this world. God does not look upon our backgrounds, races, or other identities, and neither is He biased against anybody. To Him, all of us mankind, be it great and powerful or weak, rich or poor, famous or unknown, each and every one of us are equal in His sight.

The people of Israel often looked down on their pagan neighbours, thinking that these had no place in God’s kingdom and that they were hopeless cases unworthy of salvation. However, from all that we have heard in the Scriptures certainly and completely refuted this claim. God had made it clear that all has a chance to attain His salvation, and all that is important is that those who desire to find Him must repent and change their ways.

And then, secondly, sin as I mentioned is like leprosy, but unlike the leprosy of the flesh and body, it is the leprosy of the soul, that is our inner being. Sin corrupts all things, and it corrupts our hearts and minds as well. And eventually, it will also corrupt our physical bodies as well, for if the heart and soul is corrupt, these will show in the physical appearances and actions as well.

The danger for many of us is that, because sin can cause us to grow and become ignorant of it, as we are desensitised to our own sins, then we tend to ignore our wrongdoings and even perhaps embrace them as something we like and want to do. This is what led many to their downfall and ultimate fate, that is condemnation and eternal suffering in hell.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listen to the readings today and reflect on them, let us all think about how we as Christians can resist the temptations of sin and the temptations of worldly pleasures. These things, these temptations will always be there, and indeed, they will always threaten us all. But are we doing anything about it? Or do we just let these come and corrupt us all body and soul?

Let us all ponder on this even as we continue and go back to our own daily lives. Let us all seek to be ever more righteous, just and be more devoted to God and His ways, following the path of sin no more. Let us all stop the corruption that sin has caused in us, and seek to purge these corruptions from us, by leaning ever closer and devote ourselves ever more to the Lord. It is in God alone that we will find our succour and salvation.

May God help us in this endeavour, and may He forgive us all our sins, and heal us from all of our afflictions, just as He had healed Naaman and the lepers, that we may be freed from sickness, both of the body and of the soul. Amen.

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Sunday, 2 October 2016 : 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the word of God in the Sacred Scriptures which spoke to us about the faith which all of us have to have in the Lord as His people. This is shown in the first reading, taken from the Book of the prophet Habakkuk, when the prophet in his anguish cried out to the Lord, asking Him why He had not moved His hands in order to help the people who have suffered from the persecutions and troubles in the world.

This is a common form of doubt, which we mankind often uttered in our anguish, in our moments of difficulty and suffering, as we thought that God had turned a blind eye to our sufferings and therefore did not care about us. Worse still, some and indeed quite a few among us used this to justify for their reason of abandoning the faith in God, and thinking that God does not exist. This is all in fact, what happened when we mankind try to think of the Lord in terms of human understanding.

It is often that we do not realise just how much God takes part in our own lives in His own mysterious ways, taking care of us and fulfilling our needs. We often do not realise this because firstly, we are not able to understand the way that God does things. His divine ways are often mysterious and seemingly incomprehensible to us because our human intellect and thoughts do have a limit in our ability to understand heavenly ways.

There is a story which is quite well known and is often repeated as an example to show the love which God has for each and every one of us. It might as well be a true story or adapted from one. It was told that a man was walking along the seashore with God side by side, and as they walked along that seashore, both of them left behind their footprints in the sand. There were therefore two sets of footprints, one belonging to God and the other for the man.

And then, when times went rough for the man, when difficulties and challenges came his way, he noticed that on the sand there is only one set of footprints instead of two. Then the man complained and became angry at God, whom he accused to have abandoned him when he was in his time of greatest distress and trouble. The attitude of the man in this story is no different from what we have heard from the prophet Habakkuk, and certainly not different from what we have heard in the real life. 

But God simply calmly and slowly said to him with love and concern, that when the man was having a difficult time, there was only one set of footprints because that footprints belonged to the Lord Himself, Who was carrying the man on His shoulders, helping him to shoulder and carry his own burdens. The man did not know it, but God did His works and wonders, helping the man to persevere and carry on despite the difficulties.

Thus, let us all spend some time to reflect on this, brothers and sisters in Christ? God loves us all so much, that He has given us His own Son, out of His boundless love and His never-ending desire to see us saved from harm’s way, and be liberated from our bondage to sin and to its consequence that is death. He wants us all to enjoy forever the gifts of the eternal life in bliss which He and prepared for us, and not for us to suffer damnation in hell for eternity.

He has willingly carried that burden for us, the burden and the consequences of our sins, so that by taking upon Himself our sins, we who believe in Him and put our trust in Him may die together with Him to our sins and to our past wickedness, and therefore, share also in His glorious resurrection and victory against sin and death. Just as death has no power over Him, it is therefore not going to have any power over us either.

God wants us to be well and good, and He wants us all to be saved. And to that extent, He has given us all His own Spirit, the Holy Spirit to guide us and to show us the way to reach out to Him. The Spirit that has descended down upon us Christians who believe in the Lord lives in our hearts and minds, and from there, it inflames our hearts with the strong desire to love the Lord and to follows His laws and precepts.

And today, as we celebrate together the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, we also remember all of our own guardian Angels, whom God had sent and stationed at our sides, protecting us from the machinations of the evil one, and reminded us from time to time whenever we are going towards the wrong path. These guardian Angels are always on the front line of the spiritual warfare raging around us which is waged for the sake of our souls.

Therefore today, first of all, let us reflect on our own lives and think of our actions. Have we been faithful to God in the way that He wanted us to? And secondly, let us all think, how have God been so kind to us in His love even when we do not realise it? How can we thank Him for His limitless and never-ending love for us? And last of all, let us all ask our guardian Angels to pray for us and to watch over us at all times, that we will not falter and be snared by the traps of the devil who desires only our ruination.

Let us all change ourselves and our ways from now on, if we have not been faithful and be thankful of God and all that He had done for us. All that He had done, He had done for our sake alone. Let us all imitate our Lord in all of our ways, so that in everything we do, we will always do them with love and compassion, showing care, concern and mercy for our fellow brethren, and devote ourselves wholly to the Lord our God. Amen.

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Sunday, 25 September 2016 : 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Lord our God spoke to us to remind us about how we ought to live our respective lives in this world, so that we do not give ourselves in to debauchery and excesses of life, and not to sell our bodies and our beings to enjoy and be corrupted by the pleasures of the life of this world, which will then lead us into danger of falling into eternal damnation in hellfire.

That is what the passage from the Book of the prophet Amos, our first reading today, spoke to us when the prophet Amos rebuked the people of Israel for their lives lived in wickedness and in disregard of the laws and the commandments of the Lord, following the whims of their own desires and living lavishly and with pomp and grandeur, without regard to God and as what we can assume, without regards for those who were poor and less fortunate as well.

And this is exactly what the Lord also wanted to reiterate to us through His Church when we hear about the parable that our Lord Jesus told to His disciples, about Lazarus the poor and the rich man, which many of us should probably be quite familiar with. We heard how Lazarus the poor man had nothing upon himself, and he had to beg even in order to get food. And yet the rich man who had plenty on himself did not spare anything for Lazarus, and thus that poor man died in agony and suffering.

Yet, as we all heard, Lazarus was given rest from all of his sufferings and pains, and was brought up to heaven to enjoy forever with all the saints and all the holy and people worthy of God, the eternal bliss and joy of heaven. Meanwhile, the rich man also eventually died by an unknown cause, and when he died, he was cast down into the great depth and darkness of hell, where he suffered from the great pain and agony there for eternity.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what is important is that we must understand that God does not despise the rich nor that He hated these people for having wealth, possession, money and all the things that they have. He does not hate them, for after all, rich or poor, strong or weak, famous or unknown, male or female, all are equal in the sight of God, for everyone are all equally the beloved children of God, our loving Father and Creator.

God does not look at the riches or the strength of mankind when He loves us all. What He sees instead is the heart, the inside of our heart, our minds and our souls. He sees what we have done and committed in our daily lives, and we cannot hide anything from Him or deny Him anything. Yes, that is because He is God Who created us and Who knows everything, omniscient and omnipotent, Almighty in all of His deeds.

Even rich men and all endowed with wealth can be good and generous with their deeds, giving and caring for others who have less or none. There were many examples in the past and present, where generous people have stepped up to the occasion, offering whatever they could to help their fellow brethren to be able to meet their life requirements. In fact, because they had greater wealth and things with them, they could be generous and give more to help even more people to make their ends meet.

On the other hand, there were also people who were poor, but they also oppressed those who were poor as they were, and these people mistreated their fellow men and even made profit out of the situation. In God’s eyes, those who are rich and yet give generously and act kindly and with love and concern for their brethren are better than those who are poor and yet are wicked and oppress their fellows for their own benefit.

God sees our deeds, brothers and sisters in Christ, and He knows everything that we do, and what we have failed to do. The rich man has been blessed with great riches, and he had everything that he needed to lead a comfortable life and even more. And yet, when given many opportunities to help the poor Lazarus, and by assumption, other poor people around him, he failed to do so. He did not lift even a finger to help them or to alleviate their sufferings.

We also have been given many opportunities in this life to care for our fellow brethren, helping them either in terms of material, that they can make their ends meet, or in terms of spiritual needs and love. Wherever we are, we are always encountering those who are in need of our help, of our presence, and even among our friends and families, there are also those who are in need.

Then let us ask ourselves, are we able to devote ourselves to help these needy people? Or do we rather be like the rich man who did nothing to help the plight of Lazarus and perhaps the other poor and weak people as well? God has given us many blessings, graces and sustenance in this life. Some indeed have more and some have less, but that should not be the reason why some would have to suffer and perish just because they have little of what they need to survive.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all devote ourselves from today onwards to be more charitable and generous with our giving. Let us all not be selfish and greedy, which are the things that have brought much misery to the world today, not because wealth and possessions are necessarily evil in the first place, but because we mankind are unable to resist the temptation of greed and desire, which led us into such situations where we cause harm and agony for others.

God knows all of our deeds, and all the things that we have not done in order to help alleviate the suffering of our own fellow men, when we are clearly capable of doing so. It will be accounted from us on the day of judgment, and if we are found wanting in our faith and in our actions, we will end up like that rich man, who is suffering for eternity the consequences of his ignorance and his lack of love for his brethren.

Let us all realise, brothers and sisters in Christ, that the more we have been given, the greater is the responsibility which we have been given. Let us all not be hesitant and be ignorant of the needs of those who are around us, but instead open our hearts and minds to them, and pour out our love for them. Let us all bring the love of God to our fellow men, and make them realise that God is with them, and His love is ever present in our world today, despite all the sufferings and pains that mankind are suffering from.

May God help us all today, that we may be ever more like true Christians in how we live our lives, that we may be filled with love and devotion for our Lord, as well as caring and loving for our fellow men. May He bless us all and keep us in His grace, and may He welcome us all into His heavenly glory, the same glory and joy which Lazarus enjoyed, and which will be ours as well, if we are ever always faithful to our loving God. May God be with us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 18 September 2016 : 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we all heard a simple and yet clear and very important message from the Holy Scriptures, which each and every one of us ought to take note of as we live our lives in this world so that we do not end up walking down the wrong path and doing the wrong things. That is because today’s readings are truly about the choices we make in life.

In the first reading today taken from the Book of the prophet Amos, we heard God chastising His people through His prophet Amos, about their wickedness and unjust actions, all borne out of greed and selfishness, desiring to have more for themselves while doing that cause disadvantage, pain and even suffering for others who have less from them or even none. They were dishonest, wicked and selfish.

They cheated people from their money, even the poor and those who have little. They adjusted the size of their scales and measurements to gain more profits for themselves, so that they sold at the same or higher price a commodity that they sold at a smaller piece or weight because they rigged the measurement. They have also unlawfully and unjustly charged and made life difficult for many people, all to serve their own purposes and wishes.

This is linked to what we heard in the Gospel today, when Jesus told His disciples the parable of the untrustworthy and dishonest steward, who used his power to serve his own purposes and wants. The steward was found out in his dishonest actions, and the master was not pleased and fired him. Yet, when the steward found out that he has been dismissed from service, instead of being remorseful and regretting what he has done, he did it all the more.

Yes, we may sometimes misunderstand the meaning of today’s Gospel and the parable if we think in human terms. Many of us may even find the actions of the steward to be right and just, considering that he might be only trying to preserve himself and secure for himself something after he has been fired from his work and left jobless. And his reasoning was just that he was too embarrassed to beg, and that he has no strength to do menial and tough jobs.

That is exactly the human way of thinking, as what Jesus Himself made clear at the end of His parable, that one cannot serve both God and money at the same time. The reference to money is the reference to the worldly ways, how we used to live in this world, the expectations and all the things which this world had taught us to do, which often come in conflict and contrast with the ways that God had taught us to do.

As Jesus Himself said in another occasion, what use is that when a man gain everything he wished for and wanted for in the world, and yet lose his soul to damnation? That is what mankind’s shortcoming is, seeking to build up for themselves guarantee and assurance in this world and yet they do not take into account the world that is to come.

Then we come to the moment when we should also ask ourselves. As Christians, have we been building for ourselves the treasures of this world and yet forgetting the true goal of our lives? More importantly, have we done in accordance to what the Lord had told us to do, and which the Church of God had taught us? Or have we instead followed our own selfish desires and greed, as those wicked people in Israel in the past had done?

As Christians, our actions, words and deeds should be in accordance to what the Lord had shown us, the way that He has laid before us. Otherwise, if Christians do not live in accordance to what God had shown us, then it is a scandal not only for ourselves, for God’s people in the Church, but also to the Lord Himself. At the end of the day, we have to realise that we have grave responsibilities to bear, and the choice lies at our hands.

Indeed, we have a choice, and we should indeed make the choice and take a stand. Do we choose to stand with the Lord and obey Him, His laws and walk in accordance with His ways? Or do we rather stand with this world, ignoring the Lord and following the whims of our own desires? We have that choice given to us, as the free will granted to us by the Lord. It is therefore up to us, to choose whether we want to follow the footsteps of that dishonest servant, or whether we seek to be a better person than that.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all called to live up to our faith by devoting ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord and His ways. We cannot serve both the Lord and our worldly desires and wishes. One have to go for the other to be served, or else we are only shortchanging ourselves and others who are around us. Are we courageous enough to make that stand? Are we willing to make a difference in our own lives?

Let us all spend some time to think about this. Let us all discern and pray to the Lord, asking Him to guide us and to show us the way forward. Let us ask for courage and strength to stand up to the temptations of the world, and for us to be able to control and tame our human greed and desires, and grow less troubled by the troubles and the persecutions that will come our way by choosing to stand up with the Lord our God.

May God be our guide, and may His love and His grace be ever present in us all, that each and every one of us may become true children of our God, and all who see us may know that we truly belong to Him, as we live as how He had taught us and shown us, and we may always remain henceforth in His favour. God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 11 September 2016 : 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this holy day of our Lord we heard the very compelling message and reminder from the Scripture passages we have listened to, that is about mercy, forgiveness and God’s everlasting grace and love for all of us, His most beloved ones. That we all should really come to appreciate the vastness of God’s great and boundless mercy, and understand His desire to bring us all into His loving embrace.

In the first reading, this is shown by the exchange that happened between Moses and God, Who was angry at the people of Israel for their sins and disobedience. To put it into context, we have to understand what had transpired and occurred before this event. At that time, the people of Israel had just left the land of their slavery, Egypt after God has freed them with His mighty hand, delivering them from the hands of the Egyptians and their Pharaoh.

They have been delivered with great miracles and wonders. God Himself showed pity on His beloved people who have been made to suffer and labour in great pain for many years, bringing them out and leading them through the desert, even opening up the sea in front of them and destroying the forces of their oppressors, casting the sea itself upon them. And yet, despite all these, the people of God disobeyed Him and spurned His love.

We all know what happened, brethren, how the Israelites rejected God and abandoned Him for the golden calf which they forced Aaron, the brother of Moses to make for them. They worshipped that golden calf as their god, even though God had done so much for them, showing His miraculous deeds in liberating them from their oppressors and casting out their chains.

Is it not thus just for God to be angry at His people? He has given them so much, and that was what He got back in return. Well, if God thinks as we humans do, then probably He would be angry at us, showed His wrath and destroyed us. But no, for God loves us all just as He hates our sins. It is a reminder to us all that, first, God is not happy with our sins, just as He showed His anger to His people through Moses, but it does not mean that He is also considering our destruction without reason either.

Rather, it is we ourselves who have chosen to bring the destruction and the troubles upon ourselves. God gave His people His love unconditionally and yet they refused to obey Him and listen to Him, much like what we also heard in the Gospel passage today, the well-known parable of the lost sheep, the lost silver coin, and finally that of the prodigal son.

Through those parables and stories Jesus our Lord wanted to make it clear to all those who listened to Him, and indeed, to all mankind, how great is God’s love that He is willing to forgive our sins and disobedience, and willing to welcome us back into His loving embrace once again, that is His great and boundless mercy. That great love is shown by the joy that comes about when a shepherd discovered a lost sheep, and when someone found the lost coin, and when someone beloved was thought to be lost, but found again.

It is all too easy for us to think that God is all merciful and ever forgiving, that He will always overlook our sins and wickedness in these lives we are living now in this world. We should not forget that He is our Father and Lord, Who is responsible for us and Who truly cares for us from His heart. Which father will want his children to grow up wrongly or to become a bad and wicked person? A good father will want to guide his children to become good people, and God is no exception to this.

We as God’s children have often become wayward and lost our way. Just as sheep that became distracted by its surroundings, went its own way and became lost, or like that younger son, the prodigal son, who followed his own desires and the wishes of the world, and therefore became lost to his father. And when these are separated, they are in danger, the danger of death and destruction.

Wolves and danger are always around, threatening to strike at the lost sheep, which is without protection and guidance from the shepherd. Alone and separated from the herd, wolves and other predators have an easy time to pick on the lost sheep. Similarly, the prodigal son suffered in the foreign land, having squandered off all of his money on worldly pleasures and desires, and had to even wanting to eat the waste food and scraps that were fed to the pigs.

Let us all think and internalise all of these as we remember the passages which we have just heard. Let us look at our own actions, our own words and how we have interacted with others around us. Have we been acting like that of the prodigal son ourselves? Let us remember all the times when we turned our backs to the Lord and chose to follow our own desires and wants. Let us all remember all the times and moments when we have stumbled in our faith, in our lack of faith and commitment to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Gospel is a reminder for us all that God is merciful, is kind, loving and compassionate, especially towards each and every one of us. However, if we do not act on His offer of mercy, forgiveness and love, then there is no way forward for us, as God’s mercy and love is a two-way thing, that is between us and Him. After all, let us ask ourselves, if someone loves another and yet another person do not return the same love, then is there real love there?

And accepting God’s mercy and forgiveness require us to make a profound change upon ourselves, on our way of life, on our attitude and interactions with one another, that we are like the prodigal son, who truly did not remain prodigal and lost but instead he chose to return to his father, despite fully knowing the great extent of his unworthiness as he had sinned and committed wickedness against his own father.

Let us all think carefully about this, and think of what we can do from now on if we have not started yet on our path to seek God’s merciful heart. First of all, we must not be afraid to seek out the Lord, for fear and doubt are often what prevented many people from being able to discover that path upon which they ought to walk on in order to attain the salvation in God.

Then, we must be able and we must be ready to commit ourselves a hundred percent into a thorough and complete change of ourselves, our lifestyle and our way of interacting with one another. If we are ready to do all these, then we are on our way to receive the Lord and His mercy. Otherwise, we are still far away, and the danger is there that we will not reach the Lord’s mercy at all, because we ourselves are barring our own path to that salvation.

Mercy without repentance does not exist, as God’s mercy is offered freely to all, but only those who respond to it positively, and with genuine and sincere intention from the heart will receive the grace and the forgiveness from God, and returned to be one in His embrace. Let us all consider these even as we embark on this journey to reach out to the Lord and His mercy.

Then, let us all each and every one of us, members of the Church, through our Christian faith, help one another and devote ourselves to help each other to find our way to the Lord, by showing in our own actions, how we can love instead of hate, how we can forgive instead of keeping grudges and seeking vengeance, and how to bring peace and harmony instead of conflict and war. God is always ready for us, but are we ready for Him? Do our actions show that we are ready?

Today, let us all also spare some thoughts to all those who are victims of violence and conflict. The tragedy of the terrorist attack fifteen years ago today, followed by many other related miseries and sufferings for many should show us all how important it is for us to truly bring ourselves closer to God, seek to bring peace and harmony in all things. Let us all not be swayed by the temptations of the world, but instead renew that special relationship we have with our God.

May God help us and keep us in His love, that His mercy will be extended to us and that we may be ready to welcome that same mercy, willing to be forgiven and to repent from all of our faults and sins. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 4 September 2016 : 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday’s Scripture readings all speak with harmony and clarity, telling all of us to be prepared, to be ready and not be complacent, in view of the things that are to come our way, and in view of our own mortality. This is what the Lord wants all of us to know, that we may be aware of our own shortcomings and vulnerabilities, so that we may be ready and be worthy of what God will give us at the end of our days.

It is very often that in this world, people are afraid or unwilling or even sometimes violently against speaking and talking about matters pertaining to death. We are reluctant and we often found talking about the end of our earthly lives unnerving and repulsive. Yet, that is the very reality of our existence, which we need to acknowledge and understand, or else, we will fall into the trap of Satan, which is using all that it could in this world to deter us from our salvation.

We mankind were not created to suffer death and suffering its consequences. That was not the intention of the Lord, our loving God Who created us out of His perfect love for all of His creations. And we all enjoy the greatest favours of the Lord and receive the greatest forms of His love, for we are all special, having been crafted and made in His very own Image. We are all the reflections of God’s Image, and yet, we have also diverged from Him, because of our sins.

Sin is the thing that have sundered us from the perfect love of God. Sin is what makes us all suffer death, for sin is the sting of death, according to St. Paul in his first Epistle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth. Because we have sinned, beginning with the disobedience of the first man and woman, eating the fruits from the forbidden tree of knowledge, having been deceived by Satan, we have been made unworthy of God’s grace and the life eternal He had bestowed us with.

But God’s love for us is so great that He does not wish us to perish and to be separated forever from Him, for sin leads to damnation, and damnation brings harm and destruction to the eternal soul. All those sinners who refused to repent from their sins and change their ways, all these have been condemned in death, and in death they will suffer for eternity in hell. And hell is the just reward of all those who have not obeyed the Lord and walked the path of wickedness in this world.

We may think that we fear death because of what we heard of hell and the extent of sufferings that we will suffer there, but this is in fact not the reason why we truly fear death. That is because now we as Christians know that we have hope in the one and only exit from this dark fate of ours, that is in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. God had sent us His only beloved Son, that through Him all of us may come to believe in Him, repent from our sinful ways and be redeemed.

If we truly believe in Christ, in His teachings, do all the things that He had commanded us to do, and repent from all our sinful ways, committing ourselves to a genuine change in life, then surely we do not need to fear, for then death is no longer a punishment, but in fact it becomes a liberation, as the moment when our earthly life ends and then our new life with the Lord begins.

And because of that we truly have no need to fear death, but only if we have been faithful and have walked faithfully in the path of our Lord. If we have not repented from our sins and continued in our wickedness, then the Lord Himself will reject us, not because He does not love us, but because sin has no place in His presence, and He hates all those sins that we have committed and which He had seen and witnessed.

We fear death because we are all often too attached to the many tempting things in this world, be it money, possessions we have, privileges we obtained, or the relationships and other things we often covet and desire in this world. And all of these attachments are the things that prevented us from being able to truly overcome that fear of death.

We fear death because we are afraid of losing these, and Satan played along with our fears, by seemingly trying to help us to preserve our lives and prolong our earthly existence, to the point that even some if not many among us become obsessed with the maintenance of our lives. And this world is rightly feeding into our desires for such, by inundating us with messages and influences of materialism and hedonism.

How many of us are obsessed with our beauty and appearances? How many of us spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars or more on cosmetics and clothing apparels, trying to make ourselves look youthful and presentable? Of course, it does not mean that we should appear dishevelled and untidy among others, but it means that we should not let our desire to retain our favourable appearances or other worldly desires to control us in that manner.

Similarly, we also tend to want to store up more things for ourselves, working hard and earning more money that we may stockpile them in preparation for the years to come. There is nothing wrong with this, and in fact, we need to do these in order to survive, and also to provide for our own families, to care for each of our spouses and children alike. But it is the obsession with work and money which is not what we should have in us.

We mankind tend to plan for many things, hoping that things will turn up the way we want them to be. Unfortunately, more often than not, this is not the case. We have to understand that often we are not in control of many things in our life. And as I have mentioned that the central theme of today’s Scripture passages is the impermanence of our life, and that we are mortal. We do not control how long our lives will last. God, the Master of all life, alone knows when our earthly existence will end.

That is why we must always be well prepared. We cannot ignore death as a mere fleeting event or something that will come about far in the future. Rather than fearing it or ignoring it, we must use whatever time we have now to rectify the wrongs and mistakes which we have done, and accumulate for ourselves the treasures and wealth in the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians we are all called to be active and to be participative in our faith, that we show our faith through our loving actions to our brethren. This is the way for us to seek the Lord, by caring and showing concern to our brethren in need around us, and by the giving of ourselves to help them. It is not by building up earthly glories and wealth that we are considered rich by the Lord, but instead, we are rich in the eyes of the Lord and are found worthy, when we are able to love one another, and when we have that genuine faith for Him.

The time is coming, brethren, when God will decide to call us back to Him. Do not assume that we have much time. Start from this very moment and reflect on our own past lives. Have we been faithful to God? Have we been doing enough to ensure that we are worthy of our Lord’s salvation when He judges us at the end of time? This is our choice to make, brethren, and we should make our stand from this very moment onwards.

Let us all therefore seek to renew our relationships with God, and renew our efforts to commit ourselves anew to Him, not just through mere words alone, but also through concrete actions. Let us not be so focused or obsessed on what we have in this world that we forget what we can do in order to help others in need, but instead use what we have in this world in order to share our blessings and joy with one another, that all will have enough, and all will be able to share the joy in God, and receive salvation in Him together as one. May God help us and bless us in this. Amen.

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Sunday, 28 August 2016 : 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are called to remember what God had said to us through His words in the Sacred Scriptures, beginning from our first reading which was taken from the Book of the prophet Sirach. What the prophet Sirach mentioned was the very important concept of our life which all of us should take on deep into ourselves and embrace with vigour and zeal.

The greater the power you have, the humbler you should become. And through humility and our faith, we shall be blessed and be glorified by God. For the Lord treasures not the power and might of the world, and neither did He value the wealth and the riches of this earth which we have obtained for ourselves. For all these things cannot last, and even fire, water and moth will be able to destroy them in a mere short moment.

And that is where this day’s wonderful Scripture passages are directing us to, that is to understand that while it is easy for us to succumb to our pride and our desire to have power, influence and authority, fame, glory and renown in this world, it is much more difficult to let all these go and resist the temptations of the flesh and of the pleasures and wonders of this world.

As Jesus mentioned in His parable today about the wedding guests in wedding parties and the position of honour, we have to reflect on our own lives and experiences. It is natural for us all to desire fame, position, honour, glory and all the other things which we mankind have craved and wanted, as ever since desire and greed entered into our hearts, we have been enslaved to those desires and greed.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, ever since Adam and Eve our ancestors desired knowledge of good and evil, eating the fruits from the forbidden tree of knowledge, we have fallen into this trap set upon us by Satan, who was loathe to see us brought into joy and happiness with God while he himself, out of his pride, was cast out of heaven and cursed to remain forever in the darkness and despair of hell.

We always tend to seek for better places for ourselves, for better positions, for better incentives and to gather more of the things that bring pleasure to us. And it does not help that this world is doing exactly what encourages us to live through this hedonistic and materialistic lifestyle. From ages to ages, we have seen rich people, kings, nobles, lords and other people with privilege who desired for more of what they had, and this had led them into oppressing the poor and the weak, or to confront each other, desiring one another’s possessions.

Wars and conflicts had arisen because of people’s greed and insatiable desires. That is the reality of how things often work in this world. And mankind often would not have enough even if they had achieved or attained what they wanted. Sooner or later, they would crave for more and desire for more, unless they make the conscious effort in order to rein those desires and practice to resist the lures of worldly pleasures.

Perhaps, the great saint whose feast we celebrate today can help us to shed some light on what we can do, and indeed what we need to do, based on his own life experiences, in order for us to be able to find our way to reach out to the salvation in our God. He is St. Augustine of Hippo, also known as St. Augustine the Great, one of the Four Original Doctors of the Church, and an important pillar of Christendom.

St. Augustine however was not always as great or holy as he is now known to be. Many of his great works and writings reflect the greatness of his mind and intellect, as well as his great faith and devotion to the Lord. Yet, in his youth, which many were not aware of, he was a great sinner who lived in wickedness and debauchery, far from the reach of the Lord’s salvation and grace.

He was born into a rich and influential family, and his father was an important official and administrator in the government of the Roman Empire at that time, and he was also a pagan like his father was, though his mother, St. Monica, whose feast we have just celebrated yesterday, was a devout Christian. St. Augustine received the best of educations and privileges, enriched with learnings from the philosophers and intellectuals of the Greek and the Roman world.

And it was then that St. Augustine fell into a life of hedonism, materialism and desire. He fell into the lure of the Manichaean heretical teachings after having been influenced by his friends and peers, a wicked and confused teaching that was a mix and match of elements from different ways of thought and cultures that intermingled at the time.

For a while, the hedonistic and materialistic practices of Manichaeanism and his peers influences on him satisfied his needs, desires and wants. Being a philosopher that he was, he also craved for more knowledge and for more satisfaction in this world, and yet even after many years, he still felt that something in him was lacking and incomplete, and he went on to search for that longing to complete himself, and that was where and when he found the Lord.

His mother, St. Monica, had always hoped and tried fervently in order to bring him back to the Lord, to receive Him as his Lord and Saviour, and to turn away from all of his sinful ways. Despite him having disappointed her many times, as St. Augustine in his youth led a very debauched way of life, moving from one relationship to another, and even having a child out of marriage, she did not give up.

Eventually, St. Monica’s persistence and prayers, as well as St. Augustine’s own growing dissatisfaction with the Manichaean beliefs, his then lifestyle and work as a teacher of philosophy and rhetorics, and finally his meeting and interaction with another great saint and Doctor of the Church, St. Ambrose of Milan brought him to convert to the Faith.

It was in God that St. Augustine found his true fulfilment and satisfaction, all of which the world could not give. For God gives His people and His faithful ones the richness of His love, one that cannot be destroyed by fire, or by water or by any other earthly forces. And unlike banks and institutions we often place our money and possessions in, entrusting to these our living and our goods, which when they collapse and perish, our goods also perish with them, God is the only One Who is truly trustworthy.

From this lesson we learn of St. Augustine of Hippo, his life and experience, there are a few things that we can benefit and learn from even as we live our lives now in this world. First of all, while God is loving and forgiving, it is really up to us to make the difference in our lives. God calls all sinners and wicked people to return to Him, and yet, if we are the ones who refuse His offer of mercy, then there will be no way open for us to reach the salvation of God.

Secondly, it was told that in one occasion, God appeared to St. Augustine in a vision as he walked along a coastline as a young boy, who used a seashell to pour the seawater into a small hole he made on the beach. St. Augustine was then very fascinated at the Bible, as he was very much into reading the Scriptures after he converted to the Faith. He wanted to understand and comprehend the nature of God and His mysteries, and God appeared to him in that vision to clarify things with him.

St. Augustine asked the boy about why he was doing such a meaningless task, as such a feat of emptying the sea into that small hole was indeed an impossible thing to do. Then the small boy, God, told St. Augustine that what he was doing in trying to understand and comprehend the mysteries of God was equally meaningless and useless, as God was too great and far beyond our understanding to be understood by our simple minds.

This is a reminder for us that, no matter how great we are in this world, we are still nothing compared to God, and truly, we are nothing without God. We may boast all we like about what we have, about our power, wealth, fame, glory, family and many other things we are used to boasting for, but in the end, none of these will matter in the end.

This is precisely what the Lord told us about in His parable, that the first would be last, and the last would be first. That means, those who pride themselves in their worldly greatness, boasting their wealth, fame and glory would be last and considered last when the Lord comes to judge all the people. Why is this so? That is because, when we boast of ourselves, we close our hearts to others, including God. Rather, as St. Paul made it clear in his Epistle to the Corinthians, let all those who boast, boast of the Lord.

When we are so focused on ourselves, that is when we tend to ignore others who need our presence and our help. We become ignorant of those in need and therefore not only that we do not do as what our Lord wanted from us, but we also end up even causing pain and suffering, either intentionally or unintentionally and thus leading us into sin.

But third and last of all, the example of St. Augustine of Hippo also showed us that sin does not have the last say over us. Even he was a great sinner in his youth, and later on changed his life so profoundly and completely that probably no one would have recognised him in his later life, a great sinner turned to be a great saint. God did not hate us the sinners, but He does hate our sins.

Therefore, brethren, what are we waiting for? Are we waiting until it is too late for us to change our ways and be redeemed? Are we still too engrossed with ourselves, our deeds and our achievements in this world? Let us all take this opportunity to reflect and to think deeply about our actions and their impacts on ourselves and others around us. Have we been truly faithful to God? Have our actions been done in accordance with what God wanted from us?

May we be able to find our way to the Lord by deepening our relationship with Him, and may God also be our guide in this journey, that walking in the footsteps of St. Augustine of Hippo, we too may be turned from being creatures of sin and darkness, into the worthy and loving children of God. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 21 August 2016 : 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Pius X, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard both the message of hope and also a warning from the Lord our God. We heard about how the Lord promised His people the salvation and liberation He would give them all, who have suffered from exile and troubles, as He revealed it to them through His prophet Isaiah in the last chapter of his book, as the portent and premonition of the future.

Through those reassuring and encouraging words, God wanted to remind His people that He would not abandon them to the darkness, no matter how bad the situation was. However, it does not mean that they could just continue to sin in the way that they have sinned, or to continue the wickedness they have committed in life, by selling themselves heart, mind and soul to the pagan gods and idols, to the fornications of the body and the soul.

God reminded us about this through what He said in the Gospel today, on the parable of the narrow door. He reminded His people that the door to the kingdom of God is a narrow one, and we should not take for granted that we are saved that we may do things as we like, or to think that God will overlook our trespasses and wrongdoing. For ultimately, while He is indeed a loving and merciful God, but He is also a just and jealous God, Who does not hold back His anger against the sins we committed.

That said, He hated the sins we committed and not we ourselves as human beings, His own creations. He loved us all as His children and His people, but when we err and when we refuse His love and mercy, how else could He be not angry with us? It is our own actions, our own stubbornness and all the rejections and refusals we have made against Him has been our undoing thus far.

And we should not think that we have all the time in the world to be doing what we wanted. Some people had that misconception, thinking that it was alright to do all they wanted in life, even sins and debauchery, fornication and corruption of the mind and soul, thinking that they could just ask the Lord for mercy at the last hours of their lives, and God would forgive them.

In the first place, God may call us back to Him at any time He wishes, for we do not control when we shall die, as it is under His authority alone. Our time may suddenly be up, and we do not know it. If we are astute and wise enough, then we can clearly see the dangers of delaying, of waiting and doing things that kept us away from getting closer to the salvation found in God alone.

We should heed God’s warning that all those who are found to be unworthy of Him shall suffer in the darkness and in nothingness for all eternity. Shall we want such a fate to be ours? Shall we want for such an eternity of regret and pain to be ours? We who are still breathing, living and walking on this world have that ability, that choice to make a difference with our lives, and indeed, the ability to change our fate, but only through a real and thorough transformation of our entire being, from a being of darkness to be a being of the light.

We, like the Israelites of old, live in moments of exile from God. Truly, all mankind have been sundered from God by the very sins which we have committed in this earthly life, and by the disobedience shown by our ancestors. We were destined to perish and to be condemned, but God had another plan for us. His love for us is so great that it is impossible for Him to let us perish in darkness and sin, unless it is we ourselves who want such a fate.

Through Christ He has opened a path to our redemption, by calling all of us back to Him, to regret our sinfulness and embark on our path towards repentance and thus forgiveness. This path is not an easy one for us to take, for it requires commitment and dedication from us, that we may find our way to Him and not be lost because of us being distracted by all the temptations and other things that are obstacles in our path towards Him.

And He has also sent us holy people, those whom He had chosen from among us sinners, all those who have left behind their sinfulness and devoted themselves to the way of the Lord, obeying His laws and walking in the light, that is the saints. And probably, all of us can learn much from the holy saint whose feast we are celebrating today, that is of Pope St. Pius X, the holy Pope of the Eucharist.

Pope St. Pius X, one of the Popes of our recent memory, having lived and worked approximately a century or so from our own time, was born into a poor family living in the northern region of Italy, in the area known as Mantua, as Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto. He was born into a poor family of many children, and yet his parents placed great importance in his education and good upbringing.

He grew up with good upbringing in the faith, excelling in his studies and then also growing deeper in his desire to serve the Lord through the priesthood. Eventually his family’s support and permission, he became a priest and began to minister to the people of his rural and poor area, caring for them and showing them the way to God’s love.

It was told that he was very angry for some people after they did not show proper reverence in his parish church during the Holy Mass, but at the same time he helped these wayward people to find their way through patience and also through hard work. It was exactly as what St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews that is our second reading today mentioned, as the love of God our Father is a tough love as what Pope St. Pius X exhibited to his parishioners.

Even when eventually he was appointed as the Bishop of Mantua and as the Patriarch of Venice, he continued to be humble, remembering his roots, and continued that same commitment he had for the poor, the sick and the least among his flock. And as Pope St. Pius X, the leader of the Universal Church, he helped to reform the faith and the Church.

He was particularly renowned for his efforts to return the sense of the sacred in the celebration of the Holy Mass by promoting the use of Gregorian Chants in the Mass. He also advocated for the reception of the Eucharist starting at a younger age, in order to bring the Lord closer to His people at even younger age that they may grow to love the Lord all the more ever more devoutly.

In all these, we saw the examples of a great saint whose life has been filled with good deeds, but we too are capable of the same deeds as well, for all saints were themselves sinners like us, but what matters is that they decided to change their way of life and follow the ways of God. We too can emulate the examples of Pope St. Pius X and be devoted to the Lord as he had devoted himself.

May we grow to love our loving God all the more as we continue to live our earthly existence day after day. May we not fear God for His ways of disciplining us but instead grow to understand that He cares for us and He wants us to be freed from our bondage to sin and eventually be reunited with Him in perfect love. May God bless us and our endeavours, henceforth, now and forever. Amen.