Sunday Mass sermon

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Sunday, 14 August 2022 : Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday after we have heard all of our readings and passages from the Sacred Scriptures, it is clear that the message the Lord has given us through His Church is that, all of us as Christians must remember that being the followers of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, is something that is not trivial and which will often require from us time, effort, commitment and even the willingness to suffer and to endure persecution in the midst of us living our lives with faith. Persecution has been part and parcel of the lives of many Christians from the very beginning, and that is true even right to this very day.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah detailing to us what happened to the prophet as he was almost brought to death’s door as his many enemies, the officials of the kingdom of Judah, rose up against him and demanded the king to punish him to death for all that he had said and done in delivering the words of God’s truth, but which his enemies used as accusations to persecute him and to remove him, using accusations such as him being a traitor to the nation and to the people for his works, so that he would be put to death. It was then that the king told the men that they could do all they wanted to Jeremiah.

Contextually, Jeremiah brought God’s words to the remnants of Judah, who was then rebelling against the rule of the king of Babylon. Jeremiah warned the people of the impending destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, the city and its Temple, and how many of them would be brought into exile far away from their ancestral lands. All those things were due to the people’s own disobedience against God, their stubbornness in refusing to listen to Him and to the prophets and messengers whom God had sent to them to remind them of their obligation to follow the Law. They had closed their hearts and minds from God and refused to listen to His call.

But Jeremiah had help from God, as He sent some who were sympathetic to Jeremiah and his cause, and helped him to get out from the cistern in which the enemies of Jeremiah had hoped that the prophet would die from drowning and hunger. Not only that, one of them would also house and protect Jeremiah, even as the whole kingdom and city eventually fell just as Jeremiah himself had prophesied, and protected him from harm’s way. Nonetheless, we have heard just how terrible was the persecution and the challenges that Jeremiah had to endure in the midst of his ministry and work.

In our second reading today from the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author of this Epistle spoke of how many of the witnesses of the Lord and His truth had suffered because of what they believed in, and the author also encouraged all of them by telling them to look upon the Lord Jesus, their Lord and Saviour, Who has suffered Himself as He faced rejection and persecution from the world, from His enemies and from all those who refused to listen to Him. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews exhorted all of his target audience to be faithful and strong in enduring those challenges and trials, remembering how the Lord Himself suffered, and how they were all suffering the same thing together with the Lord. They were not alone in their suffering.

There had been many saints and martyrs, most prominently during the early days, weeks, years, decades and centuries in the history of the Church, when the Church and the faithful were still facing a lot of hardships, having to proclaim the truth of Christ, His Gospels and the Good News of His salvation against the various oppositions and hurdles from firstly the Jewish authorities, the members of the Sanhedrin composed of the Pharisees, the Sadducees and other most influential members of the Jewish community, many of whom were against the Lord Jesus and His teachings. There had been many early persecution against Christians by the Jewish authorities, and before his conversion, St. Paul the Apostle as Saul was one of the leaders of these bitter and harsh persecutions.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Lord Jesus Himself, how He revealed before His own disciples that becoming His followers would not mean having good and peaceful lives. Instead, His teachings and truths would more likely than not bring about hardships and challenges, divisions and misunderstandings to arise even between close family members, relatives and friends. The Lord highlighted that fact, saying how family members would even rise against each other just because of their differences in opinion regarding the Lord and His truth. This would in fact presage how quite a few of the martyrs came to be because they were persecuted by the members of their own families, for refusing to abandon their faith in God.

That is the reality for us as Christians, as the followers of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, in following Him and dedicating ourselves to Him. Our Christian faith and truth often come at odds against the acceptable norms and practices of the world, not only back then during the early years of the Church, but also even throughout history right up to this very day. There are still areas and parts of the world where believing in God and to be Christians may mean great sufferings and even high chance of death, from persecution and other reasons. We must never take our faith for granted, especially if we live in places where being Christians are acceptable and comfortable, or where everyone are Christians.

The Lord has revealed to us that more often than not being Christians require us to make a stand, and even at times we may have to go against those who are closest to us. But that is the reality and nature of the world, as not everyone readily accepts the Lord as their Saviour and King, while others may also be more lukewarm in their faith, accepting the ways of the world and as a result, also find our way of living our faith through life to be incompatible and unsuitable. Frictions and difficulties, disagreements and divisions are often then unavoidable, at times even when we have tried to avoid that from happening.

That is why this Sunday as we listened to these readings from the Scriptures, all of us are invited to reflect and discern on our lives as Christians. Have we as Christians been truly faithful and dedicated to God as we should have? And have we lived our lives in accordance to the Law and commandments that God has revealed and given to us through His Church and His servants? If we have lived our lives more in conformation to the world’s expectations and ways, then perhaps it is time for us to reassess the way how we lived our lives so that we may grow to be better and more committed Christians.

Let us all also keep in mind all of our fellow brothers and sisters who are suffering just because of their faith in God. May their courage and commitment to God just as what the saints and martyrs had shown us, continue to inspire us to live our lives ever more worthily in God’s path. Let us all remind one another that God is and will always be with us, His faithful servants, by our side at all times that we may be strengthened and inspired to do more for the glory of God. May all of our actions, words and deeds also always therefore be exemplary, that we may strengthen one another in faith, and perhaps even inspire more people to come to believe in God. Each and every one of us also share the same mission and expectation as God’s followers and disciples to proclaim Him and His truth to the people of all the nations.

May the Lord therefore continue to guide us and bless us, and may He strengthen and encourage us in faith that we may always be faithful to Him to the very end. May He bless our every works and good efforts, and our every dedication to His cause. Let us all strive to be ever more committed to the Lord and be good Christian role models in our everyday living, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 7 August 2022 : Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are called to remember the faithfulness of God to His Covenant and promises which He had made with us and our forefathers. We are reminded of the love that God has for each one of us, and how fortunate we truly are for having received such wonderful blessings and graces from God. All of us are also reminded that at the same time we have the responsibilities and obligations entrusted to us, as servants and stewards of God’s creations, this world and all within it.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Wisdom, we heard the author speaking about regarding the historic moment of the first Passover which happened in the land of Egypt, before the Lord freed and delivered His people out from slavery into freedom, and before He led them to the Promised Land. The people of God back then had seen nine of the Lord’s ten great plagues which He sent to the land of Egypt to punish the Egyptians and their Pharaoh for enslaving the Israelites, and for the Pharaoh’s stubborn refusal to let the Israelites go free. The Lord had sent Moses to deliver His words and to bring forth the plagues on Egypt, so that the Egyptians would finally let the people of God go free.

The people believed in the Lord and obeyed His instructions for the first Passover, slaughtering the unblemished young lambs and painting the doorposts of their houses with the blood of the lambs, and having the Passover meal together as families and a community, a mark of sanctification and also a symbol of how God had chosen and kept apart His people, as a chosen race and people called to holiness with God and in God’s path. They were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and therefore were the inheritors of the Covenant which God had established with their forefathers.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, from which our second reading was taken from today, spoke of the faith of those same predecessors who had followed the Lord and dedicated themselves to the Lord. The author mentioned Abraham and Sarah, who have followed the Lord from the land of their ancestors, with Abraham entrusting himself completely to the Lord, knowing that the Lord would provide and that He was always faithful to the promises He had made. Abraham and Sarah followed the Lord into a foreign, distant land, and although Abraham was then childless and already relatively old, but he believed in the Lord when He said that Abraham would be the father of many nations.

God made a Covenant with Abraham and his descendants, and He blessed him and all of those descendants, saying that they would be all His people while He would be their God. And He fulfilled that promise to Abraham when He gave him Isaac, the son that He had promised to Abraham and Sarah. And then, earlier on as mentioned, when the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites were suffering in Egypt, they were remembered by God and God sent Moses to guide them out of Egypt, showing His might and power before the Egyptians, and saving them all, as they ate of the Passover, keeping them from harm while the Angels of God were killing the firstborn of the Egyptians, and later on, He also opened the sea before them all, allowing them to escape and also crushing the army and chariots of the Egyptians sent to chase them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have seen throughout history, as shown in the Scriptures and other traditions of our faith, how God has always been faithful to His Covenant with His beloved people, and He renewed that same Covenant again and again, culminating in the New Covenant which He had made with all of us mankind, all the children and descendants of Adam. He made the New Covenant through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, that through Him and the loving sacrifice He had made on His Cross at Calvary, all of us received the sure guarantee of the Lord’s salvation and grace.

In the old and original Covenant, God renewed His promises through the Passover meal, while the people ate of the unblemished Passover lamb, while in the New Covenant, the Lord gave us all the fulfilment of His promises and gave us all His own Precious Body and Blood, in the Eucharist to partake, the Paschal Lamb, our Lord Himself, His Body broken and His Blood poured out for us and for our salvation, delivering us from our enslavement to sin and death just as the Israelites were delivered from their slavery in Egypt. The Lord has again shown us His enduring and powerful love, which He has always given to us freely and generously, and the Covenant that He had made with us always endures.

Now, brothers and sisters, having heard the love that God has shown us, His faithfulness to the Covenant that He had made with us, all of us are then called to remember that a Covenant is a solemn agreement and pact made between two parties, and in this case, it is a Covenant between God and us mankind. God promised Abraham and his descendants of His blessings and providence, which He had fulfilled all the time, but at the same time, much had also been expected of us as partakers of that same Covenant. Each and every one of us have been entrusted by the Lord to be the stewards and caretakers of this world and this life we are living in.

That is why we also heard from our Gospel passage today, the very appropriate parable for today’s theme, that is the parable of the diligent and lazy stewards. The Lord Jesus told His disciples and the people who were listening to Him about this parable in order to show all of them that as God’s followers, one cannot be idle or inactive, ignorant of our mission and calling, as each one of us must embrace the mission and the calling which our Lord had given us. All of us have been given the gifts, talents, opportunities and many more things to help us in our journey, and we all should embrace all these wholeheartedly.

Like what the parable had mentioned earlier on, the stewards were entrusted with care of the properties of the master, who went away for some time, and while the diligent steward did everything as he was told to do, fulfilling his duties and obligations, and perhaps doing even more than what he had been tasked to do, the lazy steward delayed in doing the work and engaged in merrymaking and even abusing his authority and office, and when the master returned suddenly, the diligent and good steward was rewarded wonderfully while the lazy steward faced his just punishment and condemnation.

Through the Covenant God had made with us, God expects us to be active and committed party to His Covenant, and this involves us doing whatever we can to be the good stewards of this world, of our community and of God’s creation. That is why He had taught us all His Law and commandments, telling, teaching and guiding us on how we ought to be living our lives, so that we can be good role models and sources of inspiration for all those who are around us. Each and every one of us are called to show this faith we have, the love that we have for God in concrete ways through how we live our lives, in each and every one of our words and actions.

Otherwise, brothers and sisters in Christ, imagine if we profess to believe in God and yet we act in a manner that is totally contrary to God and His ways? That would have scandalised our faith and the Lord Himself for all those who have witnessed and experienced our actions and interactions with them. God has loved us so much and He had done so much for our sake, and yet more often than not, it is we mankind who had disobeyed Him, distanced ourselves from Him, not listening to His words and advice, ignoring His calling and abandoning the missions which He had entrusted to us.

Today therefore, as we reflect on the messages of the Sacred Scriptures that had been presented to us, and also what we had discussed just earlier, let us all discern carefully what each and every one of us as Christians are expected to do in our lives, so that we may truly live up to the expectations and the commitment that we ought to make as part of the Covenant that God had so kindly formed with us. In Him, we will find assurance and certainty of true joy, happiness and satisfaction as God has always been faithful to us, to the Covenant of love that He made with us. Hence, we are all called to commit ourselves as well, dedicating our time, effort and attention to Him.

May the Lord, our most loving God and Creator, Who has kindly looked upon us, His beloved children, though sinners and disobedient, help us all to find our way back to Him. May all of us rediscover once again the joy in serving and loving the Lord our God, and may we draw ever closer to Him, in each and every moments of our lives. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 31 July 2022 : Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us heard the words of the Scriptures which essentially delivered to us one key message, and that is for us to shun and avoid excessive attachments to worldly desires and pleasures, to all the ultimately meaningless and endless pursuits of power, fame, glory, influence, riches, properties, and many other things that we often crave and desire for in our world today. All those things are obstacles and hindrances in the path of our journey towards God. That is why each one of us are reminded this Sunday of the need for us to reject the temptations for all those worldly things and desires.

In our first reading today from the Book of Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth, we heard the author exhorting the people that all of their pursuits of knowledge, of worldly matter and desires, of wealth and riches, all of those were ultimately nothing and meaningless. He pointed out how all the efforts that we put into accumulating and amassing all of them for ourselves would not last in the end, and they were really superficial at best. All of the hard work and the busy actions of the people, seeking for more profits, money, for more glory and fame, for more achievements and other worldly matters, in the end, they would not have peace.

Why is that so? That is because by our own human nature and our societal norms, we often crave for more and more of these worldly things that we desire for, and when we have gotten our hands on them, more often than not, we will not truly be satisfied. That is because those things do not provide us with lasting and true happiness and satisfaction. As soon as we are happy and satisfied with what we have gained and received, we are likely to desire for more, and we will never have enough, and the temptations to seek for more of what we desire will be great. And in the end, we spent many, countless hours in trying to gain more of those things.

The Lord is reminding us through the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes that if we continue to indulge ourselves in worldly desires and attachments, then in the end, we cannot keep all those things anyway, and nothing that we keep or gain in this world will be brought with us to the life that is to come. Whether we end up in the blissfulness of God’s presence in Heaven or whether we end up in the deepest pits of hell, our worldly possessions, status, riches, wealth, fame, and other things that often define us in this world are not brought over with us. When we pass on from this world through death, all of us shall leave it with nothing on us, just the same way as how we entered this world.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord speaking to His disciples and followers, and also particularly to a person who asked Him to be the arbiter in their family conflict over inheritance, by asking Him to persuade his brother to share with him the family inheritance. As we all are aware of, matters of family inheritance are usually always very complicated and protracted, with the conflicting parties desiring to get more portions of what they considered themselves as being entitled to. And what usually made it difficult to resolve is because each party tend to keep making demands and no one can truly be satisfied with the arrangements made.

And not only that such conflict and struggle leads to extended suffering and hardships for everyone who are involved, but it also ruined and destroyed relationships between people, between families and relatives. In the end, no matter who received more of the inheritance or property, everyone lost. They lost precious time, relationships and love that cannot be repaired and time as we know cannot be turned back. How can all the values of the properties, the riches and the valuables that we squabble over, ever compare to the value of our relationship with one another, the familial bond and friendships among other things?

Not only that, but all those things that we often spend a lot of time worrying and being concerned about, in the end, can be lost and destroyed within merely short amount of time. What can be destroyed by fire, by water, by moth, decay or any other worldly means, are not true treasures, brothers and sisters in Christ. And even if what we have are not destroyed or overcome by those, in the end, death is the ultimate end of all of them. As the Lord’s parable in our Gospel passage today may show us, each one of us are reminded not to be blinded and misled by our attachments to the world and our desires.

The Lord told the disciples and the people a parable in which He mentioned how a rich man who had a vast holding of farms and estates had so much harvest that he was planning on how to extend his already vast possessions even more, planning to build more granaries and storage barns and spaces to contain more of his harvest and wealth, thinking of the bounty and prosperity that he was to enjoy for many more years to come. The Lord then ended the story with a bitter anticlimax and reality for the rich man, as He said that the rich man was about to die and to leave behind everything that he had worked so hard for, accumulated and assembled, as was his fate.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as what we have heard from the Scriptures revealed to us, all of us have to keep in mind and be vigilant that we do not allow ourselves to be easily swayed by the temptations and attachments we have to worldly things and matters. The Lord warns us not against having worldly possessions or for gathering money or other things that we may need in the world. What He warns us against is the excessive attachments and obsessions for those things which can lead us down the path to ruin, distracting us from the path that we should be taking towards God and His salvation.

In our second reading today, we heard from the Epistle that St. Paul wrote to the Church and faithful in the city of Colossae, the Colossians, we heard of the reminder that we should put our focus and attention on things that are above, and not on worldly things and matter. St. Paul exhorted the faithful to get rid from themselves the immoral and improper attachments to worldly desires and vices, all the things that have always kept us all back from finding our way to God. All that made us to continue to be stubborn in refusing to listen to God and His calling, which He had repeatedly made for us. We are all reminded and called to holiness, and to be rid of excessive attachments to worldly desires and pursuits.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all live our lives from now on as faithful and genuine Christians, no longer enslaved or burdened by our many unhealthy attachments to worldly desires and temptations. All of us should do our best to focus on the right things in life, and not to be distracted by all those things that can lead us down the wrong path. We have to heed what we have heard today from the Scriptures and what we have just discussed earlier on, so that we can be living our lives as Christians as good role models and inspirations to one another, in our lives that are focused on God and His truth, following His ways and not being overly and excessively obsessed on worldly matters and things.

Let us all instead seek to serve the Lord and to live our lives to the fullest, loving God and loving our fellow brothers and sisters, appreciating all the blessings we have received, sharing whatever love and joy we have, and not to be greedy, selfish or filled with greed. Let us all dedicate our time and effort therefore to do what we should do as Christians, in being generous with love and kindness to one another, building up for ourselves the true treasures that we can find in God alone, and not the illusory and temporary treasures of this world. May the Lord be with us always, and may He give us the strength and the courage to persevere through the hardships in life, the challenges and trials, the temptations that we may have to face, in each and every moments of our lives. Amen.

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Sunday, 24 July 2022 : Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us heard the words of the Lord calling on us to come to Him and to put our faith and trust in Him, because He as our loving God and Father will always listen to us and show His love for us, at every opportunities. Today’s Scripture readings remind us of just how beloved we are by God and how precious we are all to Him, that He has always been willing to communicate with us and to accommodate us, as we heard from those Scripture passages. Hence, as we spend the time to reflect on those passages let us constantly remind ourselves of God’s ever present love for each one of us.

In our first reading today, we heard of the story of the encounter between God and Abraham in the Book of Genesis during the time when God visited Abraham in human disguise to announce to him the coming of his long awaited promised son, Isaac, of which God told Abraham that Isaac would be born within the year. At that time, the Lord also spent time with Abraham to discuss regarding Sodom and Gomorrah, and told him of what He planned to do with the cities and their people who had committed grievous sins and wickedness against God. God would destroy and erase the memory of Sodom and Gomorrah as a punishment for their sins.

Abraham was immediately reminded of his nephew Lot, who had parted ways with him earlier on and was dwelling in Sodom with his family. Therefore, Abraham tried to ask the Lord for clemency and patience, and begged Him to reconsider on behalf of any of the righteous who could have been there in Sodom and Gomorrah, which would have included Lot and his family as well. Hence, we heard how Abraham negotiated with God, and continued to ask Him if God would destroy the cities should there be some of the faithful there in those cities, in cumulatively decreasing number of five.

God listened to Abraham and reassured him that if He could find the number of the faithful that he mentioned, He would reconsider and not bring harm to the two cities and the people in them. Unfortunately, based on what happened, Lot and his family alone were considered righteous among all the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and there was not even ten people who could be considered righteous, and hence God did not spare the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. But God did send His Angels to help Lot and his family to get out of Sodom to safety, and He brought them all out safely, save for Lot’s wife who hesitated, looked back against God’s warnings and was turned into a salt pillar.

Nonetheless, Abraham tried and asked the Lord, and the Lord heard him. The Lord rescued Lot and his family from harm, and He also provided for them afterwards, just as He has also provided for Abraham, giving him the promised son, the inheritance and more blessings. The Lord has always ever been faithful, to the Covenant which He had made with us, His people, all that He had done for our sake, in all the promises He made and then fulfilled to us, among others that He had done, again and again throughout time and history. All these are because God truly loves each and every one of us.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the words of the Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples regarding the matter of prayer, how to pray to God and also on the matter of asking God, for help and attention. In that passage, we heard the Lord teaching the disciples how to pray, with the prayer that He Himself had composed, directed to God, Who is our Heavenly Father, the prayer we now know well as the Lord’s Prayer or the Pater Noster. The Lord’s Prayer is a model and exemplary prayer which embodies all of what a prayer is all about, as it combines thanksgiving, supplication and petition, praising and glorification, as well as seeking for forgiveness and mercy from God.

How this is significant is that, because God is our Father and like any fathers, as the Lord Himself mentioned, He would not purposely let us down, reject us or harm us. He loves each and every one of us because we are all like His children, and as both our Father and Shepherd, He listens to all of us just like how He listened to the petitions and prayers of Abraham, as well as those of many of our other predecessors. He did not turn His ears or heart away from us when we ask, plead or beg Him. Instead, He listens to us patiently, even when we make a lot of often outrageous demands and wishes on Him, or when we expected Him to do something for us, or to fulfil our desires among other things.

However, many of us often do not even seek the Lord in the first place when we are in need of help. We instead turn to other sources of comfort and possible solutions, turning to money, worldly means and others, to the idols of our world instead of entrusting ourselves in the Lord’s care and love. That was precisely how and why so many of our predecessors had fallen into the wrong paths, as they did not have strong faith and relationship with God. They were easily shaken and tempted to abandon the Lord for the other worldly refuge that brought us further and deeper into troubles in various ways.

Too many of us are also easily disappointed whenever we feel that the Lord is not listening to us or that He does not fulfil our wishes and wants, our demands and desires. But this is exactly where we must realise and remember that God as our Lord and Master, and our Father and Creator, has no obligation whatsoever to fulfil our needs and wants. But God knows us well, and He knows what we truly needs, and everything will happen according to His will, rather than our will and desire. We must not forget that we cannot and should not impose our will and desire on the Lord, as that is not how prayer and our relationship with God work. That is why, the Lord in His prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, has these words, ‘Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven’.

And those of us who do not dare to ask the Lord, we did not realise that often we just have to speak to Him and ask Him. God knows what we want and what we need, but at the same time, He also wants to engage us in a conversation much as how we also want to engage in active conversation with our family and friends. It is by building up that genuine and strong, living relationship with God that we may come to know more of our path in life and what we need to do for us to achieve a more wholesome and faithful life as the disciples and servants of our Lord. We have to knock on the Lord’s door, and call on Him, ask for His help and kindness.

To do this, we often require the humility to do so. Often times, our pride and ego may come between us and God, as we become reluctant to lower ourselves and humble ourselves so that we may be the listener in our communication and relationship with God. That is why, for us to develop a truly genuine and vibrant relationship with God, we will need to be open-minded, humble and be willing to listen to God speaking to us. He has always been patient like that of a father patiently guiding his children, sometimes disciplining and punishing at times, rewarding at others, but with the intention for our own good and true happiness. But we as children, we often acted naughtily by being stubborn and not listening to our Father’s words.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all called to be grateful to God and to open ourselves to Him, with us having received so much favour and blessings from God, our loving Father Himself, so much so that as St. Paul mentioned in his Epistle to the Colossians in our second reading today, that He has given us the ultimate gift of love through Jesus Christ, His Son, by which He has provided us with the sure path to return and to be reconciled with Him. That is because through Christ, all of us have been made sharers in the new Covenant that He established with us, by His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross.

God has given us so wonderful a gift, even before we asked Him, and without us even asking for it. Through Him and all that He had done, He opened for us the path to eternal life and everlasting joy. God has not spared for us even His most beloved and only Son, so that through Him, we may receive the sure guarantee of salvation. Therefore, all of us are reminded and called to turn our hearts and minds fully towards the Lord, entrusting ourselves to Him. Let us all not harden our hearts anymore, but open them to allow God to come knocking at us and enter into our lives, just as we come to Him, knocking on His doors seeking for His grace, love, compassion and mercy.

May the Lord, our most loving God and Father be with us always, and may He continue to guide us in our lives and journeys of faith, and may He continue to encourage us and strengthen us that we may persevere through even the worst of challenges and trials in life. May God bless us always, in all of our deeds and efforts, in all of our good endeavours, for His greater glory. Amen.

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Sunday, 17 July 2022 : Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us are called to remember to trust in God and in all that He has planned for each one of us. We must have trust and faith in Him, because through God alone that there is true hope and way out of our troubles and predicaments. God knew all that we need and all things in our hearts and minds. In how the Lord cared and provided for Abraham, our renowned father in faith, and how He reassured both Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, the Lord showed us that all of us have nothing to fear.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis, the account of how the Lord came to visit Abraham and his wife Sarah in a disguise. The Lord was immediately recognised by Abraham, who welcomed Him into his tent and dwelling place, giving Him the best hospitality that he could provide. The Lord then came and ate of whatever Abraham provided for Him, before telling him the good news that He had come to personally tell Abraham, by saying that what He promised to him when He made and sealed the Covenant, would finally come true at last.

The Lord made a Covenant with Abraham, then named Abram, a middle-aged man who was childless because Sarah, then known as Sarai, was barren and unable to have any children. As such, Abraham was prepared to pass on his inheritance to his servant named Eliezer, as he was without a son. God promised Abraham that he would have descendants as numerous as the stars, through the means that God would give him, and despite the age of Abraham and his wife Sarah, everything was possible for God.

Abraham did falter for a while in this, as he listened to the advice and pressure from Sarah, for him to take one of her slaves, named Hagar, to bear for himself a son. That led to the conception and birth of Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar. Although now Abraham technically had a son then, but the Lord again reiterated and emphasised that the son through whom Abraham would pass on his inheritance would be that of his son with Sarah, to be named as Isaac. And even the name Isaac itself has a deep and profound meaning which may not be immediately apparent to us.

The name Isaac means, ‘the one who laughs’ or ‘the one who rejoices’ which can be a reference to the great joy which Abraham and Sarah must have experienced when their long-awaited child was finally born. At the same time it also refers to what happened after today’s first reading passage, when Sarah heard about what the Lord spoke to Abraham, how Sarah would bear a son within a year, and Sarah, in partial disbelief, laughed upon hearing those words, which the Lord knew about and told her when she tried to deny it, that she did laugh.

We can see from the first reading story of Abraham, Sarah, God and the son promised by God to both Abraham and Sarah, that trusting and having faith in God will not lead to disappointment. Instead, when man tried hard to do things their own way, that would lead to complications that they might not have foreseen earlier on, as for example, the birth of Ishmael, the son between Abraham and Hagar, Sarah’s slave eventually became friction and trouble for both Hagar and Ishmael when Isaac, the promised son for Abraham and Sarah was born. Ishmael and Hagar had to be cast out and sent to the wilderness, although in the end, God did provide for them and made Ishmael the father of many great nations too, for he was also a descendant of Abraham.

We see in that how God even made what was imperfect and flawed into ideal, still fulfilling His promise to Abraham that he would become the father of many nations. Not only that Isaac, his promised son and heir became the father of nations, but even Ishmael too, the son born because Abraham and Sarah were impatient with God’s promise. God still showed His love, care and providence for us all, His beloved ones, no matter what. He blesses those who are faithful to Him, and even those who have fallen off the path, God still patiently tried to reach out to and to be reconciled with them.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the story of the moment when the Lord came to visit the house of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, who were all His friends. Mary and Martha welcomed the Lord into their house, and we heard of how while Mary was by the Lord’s side throughout the time, listening to the Lord speaking and teaching to her, Martha was very busy preparing everything for welcoming the Lord, likely busy with the cooking and all the other house chores and works.

And as we heard, Martha became a little irritated that Mary did not help her at all with her work and preparations, and she told the Lord to tell Mary to give her some help. That was when the Lord told Martha that what Mary did was not wrong, as she was truly making good use of the time, and welcoming the Lord not with all the busy preparations and celebrations, but by opening her heart and mind, and by being present there with the Lord, cherishing every single moments of His Presence.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in our Scripture passages today, we are all called to realise just how often we have ignored the Lord and not cherishing His Presence, His love and grace in our lives, all because we are too busy with too many things and preoccupations that we fail to focus our attention and efforts on the Lord. The Lord has always been present in our midst, but many of us are too preoccupied with our worldly desires and other things to be able to notice His Presence.

What Martha did was not wrong. In fact, Martha busied herself because she wanted to give her best to serve the Lord, to be the best provider of hospitality and care, love and attention to Him. She did all that out of love for God, but her way of doing things made her distracted from her main purpose of serving the Lord. And if that action done out of noble and good intention could end up distracting Martha, then all the more if our worldly pursuits and desires ended up distracting and leading us away from God’s path.

In our second reading today, we heard St. Paul writing to the Colossians, in his Epistle to them, regarding the revelation of God’s truth and love to His people, which He had made available to all of us through His disciples, the Apostles and saints, and through His Church. He did all these so that we may come to know Him more, and therefore, will be able to follow Him with greater commitment and dedication. If we do not know the Lord as much, then how can we become close to Him, and how do we know what we need to do in order to be faithful to Him? That is why as Christians we are called to deepen our relationship with God.

And that is also why through our Scripture readings this Sunday, all of us are called to appreciate more the Lord’s Presence in our lives, just in the way Abraham immediately recognising the Lord’s Presence even when He came to him in disguise. All of us often fail to realise that God is ever present in our midst, watching over us, and caring for us. Many of us are too focused on our troubles and trials, or are too preoccupied with our worldly ambitions and plans, our many attachments and other matters that we overlook the Lord’s ever present love and kindness in our midst. God is and has always been there, but we are often too blinded and distracted to notice Him.

That is why we are all called to be committed in our Christian living and work like Martha, but at the same time not forgetting the presence of God and cherishing His presence in our midst like Mary, and like our father in faith, Abraham, we should recognise the Lord and His loving works and presence among us. Each and every one of us as Christians are called to be true and faithful disciples of the Lord in all things. Let us allow God to lead and guide us in every opportunities so that we may grow ever closer to Him, and continue to glorify Him through our lives, our words, actions and deeds, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 10 July 2022 : Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in our Scripture passages this Sunday, all of us are reminded of the Law and the commandments that God had put in place and revealed to us. He has taught us His Law and commandments so that through them we may learn how to be true Christians, in all things. Through what we have heard today, we are all reminded to live our lives as genuine Christians should, in devoting and spending our time and effort to act in the manner that the Law of God has shown us, and not merely paying lip service or being outwardly pious and yet, deep inside, we do not have a firm and living faith within us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Deuteronomy, the words of the Lord reminding His people during the time of the Exodus, at that moment when they were still on the journey towards the Promised Land. The Lord told them all through Moses that they all ought to obey the Law and the commandments that He had given them, and they ought to be faithful and to observe what He has revealed and taught to us. At that occasion, the Lord also proclaimed that His Law is not something that is too difficult or impossible to be accomplished, and in a prophetic way, mentioned how the Law has been brought to them, dwelling in their midst, and would later on come even closer to them, through the One Who came down from Heaven.

The Lord back then mentioned to the people that there was no need for anyone to go to Heaven or to reach out to Him, for everything had been provided for them, and the Word of God has dwelled among them. For truly, the Law of God as passed down through Moses is itself a part of the Word of God, which Moses revealed to the people. However, it was not just that, for later on, as we all know that the Word of God has become incarnate in flesh, descending into our midst and dwelling amongst us as one of us, taking up our human nature and appearance, in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.

And it was through Christ our Lord that the Law is revealed to us all in its full meaning and purpose, and He revealed to us what the Law is truly all about, what the commandments of God were meant to do for us. Those commandments were meant to help us to learn more on how to love God and to love one another, to grow ever more worthy and to lead a more righteous and holy life and existence so that we may grow ever closer to God, and we may find our way to do His will and obey His commandments and laws in each and every moments of our lives, not merely paying lip service or being outwardly pious, but truly and genuinely filled with righteousness, virtues and love for God and our fellow men.

That was essentially what the Lord mentioned in what we have as our Gospel passage today, regarding the interaction between Him and one teacher of the Law who asked the Lord about who would gain eternal life and how to gain it. The Lord pointed out exactly to the same Law of God, which the teacher of the Law was surely very familiar with. The teacher summarised the whole Law, in what the Lord Himself also mentioned, that the Law is about loving God with all of our strength, might and capacity, and then loving one another in the same manner, showing that love at all opportunities.

It was also then that the Lord told the teacher of the Law what it means to love and to show that love to one’s fellow brethren. Through the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan, which I am sure we are well aware of, the Lord presented the story of a man from Jericho who was beset with robbers who left him almost dead. Then we heard of the three men who came to the place, beginning with a priest and then a Levite, followed by a Samaritan. Among the Jewish people and society, the first two men occupied a very high and respected place among them, as those were the ones whom God had called to be His priests and servants, sanctified and dedicated to God.

On the other hand, the Samaritans were those who lived in the region of Samaria, the old capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, north of Jerusalem and Judea. That region was occupied by a mixture of peoples, descendants of the Israelite remnants and other foreigners that were brought in to replace those whom the Assyrians had exiled during their conquest of Israel and Samaria. Those people had their own customs and traditions, different from the descendants of the Israelites in Judea. As such, the Jewish people and society tended to have a very negative and even hostile opinion on the Samaritans, whom they saw as heretics and pagans.

Hence, it would be indeed most impactful hearing how those two respected men, the priest and the Levite just passed the injured man by and leaving him behind, while the often reviled and hated Samaritan was the one who stopped by and helped the injured man. Not only that the Good Samaritan helped the man, but he even provided for the injured man everything he needed to recover fully, and promised the innkeeper to return and to provide more for the injured man should he have the need for it. The Good Samaritan went the extra mile not only for someone he did not know, but presumably for one belonging to the people who had always hated and despised him and his people, the Samaritans all those while.

And that, brothers and sisters in Christ, is what the Lord told the teacher of the Law and all of us about what true Christian love and obedience to the Law is all about. One cannot be true Christians if he or she had not placed himself or herself after the Lord and that of his or her other fellow brothers and sisters. In this world today, there are plenty of unfaithfulness and wickedness because mankind put themselves before God and others, putting their own selfishness, ego and pride, their desires and greed ahead of the love they ought to have for God and for their fellow brethren. That is how we have caused so much wickedness in this world to happen.

When they begin to seek to advance their own glory and achievements, that would be when man begin to persecute and inflict suffering on others, or that like the priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan, they ignore the plight and suffering of others. And some even feed on and grow fat and happy on the exploitation of the poor and the marginalised, those who are unable to defend themselves, those who are vulnerable and weak, and all those who have no means to protest against the exploitations done on them. As Christians, all of us are called to heed on the good examples of the Good Samaritan, and not only that but also that of the Lord Himself.

For the Lord Jesus Himself acted in the same manner as the Good Samaritan. Although each and every one of us have often been disobedient to Him, treated Him badly and with disdain, being sinful and wicked in our actions and lives, and in how we treated Him when He came into our midst bearing His love and truth. Despite all of that, Christ still loved each and every one of us, as our loving Father and Creator, God has shown His love through His Son, His compassion, mercy and patient kindness, which He extended to us by His loving sacrifice on the Cross. He willingly took up the burden of His Cross, battered, rejected, humiliated, tortured and broken for our sake, out of love for us.

He showed us His most generous and selfless love, shedding His own Precious Blood and dying for us, because He loves us all and took the extra mile to reach out to us, just as the Good Samaritan in His story had done. The Lord showed that He did not just speak of love, but He showed it through direct action and dedication, by presenting that love to us in the best way possible. He showed us that His love transcends everything, even our sins and all of our disobedience and evils. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God, and God as the Head of the Church according to St. Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians in our second reading today, He is showing us in concrete ways how we all ought to obey the Lord and His Law and commandments.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore seek to follow the Lord ever more faithfully in our lives, from now on. Let us all do our best to walk in the path that the Lord has shown us, putting Him above all else and loving Him with all of our might, and doing the same to our fellow brethren as well. Just as the Lord has loved us so greatly all these while, let us devote ourselves to Him in love as well, and learn to fill ourselves up with the same love in how we interact with with one another. Let us all strive to be holy just as the Lord is holy, to be loving just as He is filled with love, and to do our best to glorify God by our lives. May He continue to guide us and empower us all to be true and devout Christians, following the examples of the Lord in the way the Good Samaritan acted towards his suffering fellow brother. Amen.

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Sunday, 3 July 2022 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we gather together to celebrate the Eucharist, all of us are reminded through the readings of the Scriptures of the calling of the Lord, Who has told us of His love, grace and kindness, and also called on us to be the witnesses of this same love and compassion to our world today. Through the Scripture passages we have heard today, we are all reminded that as members of the Church of God, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, we are all sharing in the same mission that God has entrusted to us His Church. And that mission is for us to proclaim His truth and love to all the people of all the nations, so that more and more may come to believe in God and be saved.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which God spoke to His people through Isaiah, the prophet who delivered unto them the hopeful words of the coming of God’s salvation, the coming of the Saviour or the Messiah of God, which would later on come true in the coming of Christ into this world. The words of God’s salvation and truth have been revealed to His people, telling them that despite all the trials and challenges they have faced and were going to face, the Lord would one day show His saving help and bring them deliverance much in the same manner as how He had once freed their ancestors from the land of Egypt.

Back then, during the time of the ministry of the prophet Isaiah, the nation of Israel had been long divided into two parts, the northern kingdom, called Israel, centred in Samaria and the southern kingdom, called Judah, centred in Jerusalem, the City of God. And by that time, the northern kingdom had been crushed and utterly destroyed by the Assyrians, who destroyed Samaria and carried off most of its populations to far-off exile in Assyria, Babylon and beyond. And thus, the people of God was scattered all over the world, exiled from and losing their homeland, the land that God had given to their ancestors.

All these were due to the disobedience and infidelity of the people who often hardened their hearts and minds against God. God sent them many prophets and messengers, to remind them, guide them and help them to find their way back so that they might be reconciled with Him. Yet, many of these prophets, messengers and servants of God were persecuted, rejected and killed, all because they told the people of the sins and wickedness that they had committed before God and men alike. The Lord has shown His kindness and mercy, His ever generous love and compassion, and that was met by many of the people with apathy and indifference, or even hostility and stubbornness.

Yet, God never ceased to love His people, and still continued to reach out to them. He called on all of them to return to Him, to repent from their sinful ways and to embrace once again His ways. The Lord called on all to be His disciples and followers, which He had done through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, through Whom the prophecies of Isaiah and the many other prophets came true. Through Christ, His Son, God revealed to us how He calls on all of us, not just the Jewish people, who were the direct descendants of the people of Israel and Judah, but also the whole entire world, the entire race of mankind, to be His people.

That was what St. Paul made clear in our second reading today, in the Epistle that he wrote to the Church and the faithful in the region of Galatia in Asia Minor. At that time, during the early Church, one of the common problems facing the Church is the divide and the disagreements existing between the Jewish converts to the Christian faith and those Gentiles who became believers, and each group frequently differed in their understanding of what the Church and the Christian faith is all about. Hence, that led to much controversies and even bitter divisions that hurt the unity of the Church, the Body of Christ, and endangering the fate of many souls.

Hence, St. Paul yet again reminded the people that each and every one of them are members of the same Church, having been called and chosen, and having decided to put their faith in the Lord and in His salvation. They should no longer be divided or be hostile against each other, or be exclusive and stubborn in their attitudes, in thinking that each one of them or their groups were better than the others, or that their way should prevail over that of other different ways and paths of believing in God. St. Paul reminded all the Christian faithful, and hence all of us today, that we are truly one people, one flock in one Church, worshipping the same one only True God.

This truth is what the Lord wanted to propagate to the whole world, as He sent out His disciples as we heard in our Gospel passage today, two by two as they went on their missions, to preach the Good News and to prepare the way for the Lord. In that Gospel passage today, we are reminded yet once again of the primary mission of the Church, which is evangelisation. The Church, composed of all of the faithful people of God, the priesthood and the laity, all alike, all have been entrusted with the same mission, and that is to proclaim the Good News of God, His salvation and to bring all peoples of all the nations to God, that they may all come to believe in God.

However, this cannot happen unless each and every one of us first live our lives well in accordance to the way which the Lord Himself had revealed to us. If we ourselves did not live our lives in the way that the Lord had taught us to do, then how can we proclaim His truth and ways to others? In fact, as it had happened many times throughout the history of the Church, the actions of those who were hypocrites and those who claimed outwardly to be Christians and yet were most un-Christian-like in their actions, words, deeds and way of life, had driven more and more people away from the Lord. That happens even right up to this very day.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through the Scripture readings that we have received and discussed earlier on, we are all called to remember that our lives ought to be reflection of our Lord’s truth and love, and we are all called to build an authentic community of believers, in which each and every one of us from every segments of the Church, in our various communities and groups, all of us are filled with the love of God, and with the desire to spread the Good News and the love of God to all people. And to that extent, all of us have to embody our beliefs in our every words, actions and deeds, to the best of our abilities, so that all who see us and witness our actions and works may believe in God as well through us.

Let us all hence seek the Lord wholeheartedly from now on, doing our best in whatever capacity we have now, and in all the opportunities that God had provided us. May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to guide us all and bless us in our every good efforts and endeavours, and may all of us be ever more worthy to walk in His Presence and to be with Him, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 26 June 2022 : Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we recall the words from the Sacred Scriptures that we have just heard today, we are all reminded that the primary mission of the Church has been and will always be that of evangelisation and mission. That is what all the faithful had been called to, as our primary objective, in proclaiming the Lord to all the people of all the nations, to everyone whom we encounter in life. Each and every one of us are called to be faithful and committed followers and disciples of the Lord, in dedicating our time, efforts and lives for the greater glory of God.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of Kings of Israel and Judah, the story of the calling of Elisha, the one whom God had chosen to be the successor of the prophet Elijah, the prophet who had worked and laboured for many years in the land of the northern kingdom of Israel. Elijah had worked hard to call the people who had disobeyed the Lord, fell into the path of sin and darkness, all those who had abandoned and betrayed the Lord, those who have worshipped the pagan idols and gods and persecuted those who remained faithful and all the prophets sent into their midst to remind them.

Elijah spent most of his years working alone amidst those who were hostile against him, and Elisha was called to be the one to succeed him, as Elijah’s time in this world was coming to an end. Elisha followed Elijah, and left behind his house, his family, and entrusting himself to the Lord wholeheartedly. Elisha embraced the calling that God had made to him, and henceforth, he became the prophet of God, the successor of Elijah. He answered God’s call with faith and he did what the Lord had asked him to do. That way, Elisha showed us all how each and every one of us ought to respond to God’s call, that is with faith and obedience.

In our second reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Galatia, St. Paul spoke of Christ our Lord Who has freed us from our bondage to sin, freeing us from the chains that have enslaved us from the beginning when we first fell into sin. Through Christ, His Son, God has brought upon us His salvation and the hope of eternal life, and delivered us from the precipice of death and destruction. The Lord has given us the sure means to eternal life and guaranteed us salvation, as long as we entrust ourselves to Him, and He also showed us the new path going forward, which we ought to follow in our journey towards Him.

And that was where St. Paul spoke about the way of the Spirit, which is distinct from the way of the flesh. St. Paul said that as Christians, as those who believe in the Lord, we must be truly faithful to Him and walk in the path that He has pointed out to us, versus the path that the world has shown us, which many of us are familiar with. As Christians, we are all called to embrace His calling to holiness, leaving behind the trap of sin, which had kept us down for so long. We are all challenged to rise up to our faith, and to live our lives virtuously according to the way of the Lord while resisting the pleasures of the flesh, the temptation of human pride and greed.

Then, lastly in our Gospel today, we heard of the Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples and followers, telling them to follow Him wholeheartedly. He sent them out in pairs to go to places that He Himself was to visit to prepare the way for Him. There were those who received the disciples well and there were those who refused to listen to them, and when the disciples asked that those who rejected the Lord ought to be punished and destroyed, reminiscing of what happened with the ancient Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord rebuked the disciples for such suggestion, and moved on to the next village.

This tells us that the Lord is calling on each one of us to follow Him, to believe in His truth and to walk in His path, and He loves us even more than our trespasses and sins. Despite the stubbornness of those who refused to listen to the disciples at the time, the Lord did not want to punish them because ultimately, He knew that some of them may yet have the chance to be redeemed in the future, and He still left the path open for those people to walk, and to enter into His merciful care, should they choose to listen to Him and soften their hearts and unseal their minds from listening and paying attention to God.

And among those whom He had called, in that same Gospel passage the Lord seemed to be quite harsh when He told those who said that they had matters to settle and to handle before they were to follow Him, such as burying their parents first or saying goodbye first, and that those who turned their back on the kingdom of God has no place in it. First of all, we must not read into the Lord’s intention literally and without understanding the context, especially considering the additional intention of the writer of the Gospels, which in this case is St. Luke. In fact, the Lord’s intention in uttering such words is to convince us all that we cannot be divided in our attention or easily distracted in our path of following the Lord.

Otherwise, we will end up being easily pulled away from the right path, and we will end up dividing our attention and time, and then falling off that path that God had set before us, as what our ancestors and predecessors had experienced. The same people of Israel that the prophet Elijah and Elisha ministered to, did not have their heart fully focus and attuned towards the Lord, and as a result, they veered off the path and were easily tempted and swayed by worldly temptations, committing sins and vile things before God and man alike. The same thing can happen to us as well unless we actively strive to remain faithful in God and to do His will.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we recall and discern the messages that the Lord had presented to us in the Scriptures, we should remind ourselves that each and every one of us have been called by God to contribute our efforts and ourselves to the mission He has entrusted to us, that is in evangelisation to the whole world. Each one of us have been given different gifts, talents, abilities and opportunities so that hopefully each one of us can do what we can in our respective and often distinct situation and capacities, to glorify God by our lives and to bring His salvation to more and more people, all around us, and to whoever we encounter in life.

The message that the Lord wants us to receive and understand today is that each one of us can do our best wherever we are and in whatever we are doing. There are indeed some of us who are called like that of the prophet Elisha, to leave everything behind and to follow the Lord wholly and wholeheartedly. That was what our priests and religious had been called to, into their mission of serving the Lord and us, His people, the community of the faithful. But at the same time, we must not forget that the laity also have a massive impact on the works and efforts of the Church, and each one of us, especially the laity have the obligation and calling to fulfil, to be exemplary in faith in each and every one of our own way of life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore embrace wholeheartedly our respective calling in life, and for those of us who have not yet discovered what our calling in life is, let us all spend the time to discern well, and to pray for the Lord’s guidance, to be open-minded and welcoming to God’s calling, so that we may soon come to know what it is that we can do as God’s followers and disciples in our world and communities today. Let us all also pray for strength and perseverance so that we may be better able to resist the temptations to conform to the way of sinfulness and evil, and that we may be more committed to the path that God has shown us.

May the Lord continue to help us and guide us in our journey throughout life. May He empower each one of us to be His faithful disciples, filling up our hearts with His love and help us in our daily struggle against evil and sin. May God be with us always and bless our every good works, efforts and endeavours, all for His greater glory, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 19 June 2022 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, Corpus Christi (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, also known as Corpus Christi, marking the commemoration of the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. Today we commemorate the Lord truly present in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which we partake and consume during every celebration of the Holy Mass. As Christians, we all firmly believe that the Eucharist we partake and receive in the Holy Mass is none other than the Most Holy and Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord Himself.

Although the appearance of the bread and wine remains, but the mystery of our faith in what is known as Transubstantiation means that the bread and wine had actually, by the power of God, through the priests, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and the authority given to them by the Lord through His Church, become the very essence, reality and matter of the Lord’s own Body and Blood. We have faith that this is the truth, and what we truly eat and drink is the Lord Himself, Whose Body has been broken for us, and Whose Blood has been shed and poured down to us, to wash us clean and to bring us to salvation and eternal life.

In our first reading today, we heard the account of the encounter between Abraham, the father of the faithful and Melchizedek, the High Priest of Salem and the High Priest of God Most High. In that occasion, Abraham gave offering to God through Melchizedek, who then offered Abraham’s offering to God, as His High Priest. Melchizedek according to Church tradition had always been a rather mysterious figure, but one who was highly respected and regarded, and there were many theories and explanations that some tried to provide with regards to Melchizedek. Some said that Melchizedek prefigured Christ Himself, in His role as the High Priest, just as Melchizedek being a High Priest of God as well.

Regardless what it was, the link between Melchizedek and Christ established Christ as the High Priest of all mankind, Who offered the sacrifice and offering on our behalf, for the absolution of our many sins. And this is where He uniquely offered on our behalf, the perfect and worthy offering, of none other than His own Precious Body and Blood, the only offering that is worthy enough for the atonement and forgiveness of our sins. Hence, Our Lord offered His sacrificial offering both as the High Priest as well as the Paschal Lamb being sacrificed.

In our second reading today, from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, we heard the Apostle recounting to the faithful what happened at the night of the Last Supper, when the Lord Instituted the Holy Eucharist, by offering the bread and wine that He had blessed, and gave them to His disciples, saying clearly that the bread was truly His Body, broken and given to them, while the wine was truly His Blood, shed and poured on all the people, to all sinners, for the salvation of souls and for the forgiveness of sins. He instituted the Holy Eucharist to give us all the means by which we can be saved from the darkness of our sins.

At the Last Supper, the Lord began His offering as the New Passover and the New Covenant that He established with all of mankind. He offered His own Precious and Holy Body and Blood because in the past, the offering and sacrifice of even unblemished lamb was not sufficient for the absolution of the whole multitude of mankind’s many sins. At the original Passover in Egypt, which the Israelites henceforth commemorated every year, the Passover lamb was slain and then its blood used to mark the houses of the Israelites, that they might be rescued and freed from the slavery and suffering they endured in Egypt. Thus, in the New Passover that the Lord had brought with Him, He Himself, as the Paschal Lamb, and the High Priest, offer on our behalf, the sacrificial offering to redeem us and free us from the suffering and slavery to our sins.

But that sacrifice and offerings did not end at the Last Supper. On the contrary, everything that happened during the Passion of the Lord, His suffering and journey, the suffering and rejection He endured, and His Way of the Cross, culminating with His death and suffering on the Cross. It was at Good Friday that His sacrifice and offering was completed and made perfect, as He offered His own Body and Blood, the Divine Word Incarnate, as the perfect and unblemished offering that cleansed all the faithful from the taints of sin. Through the gift of the Holy Eucharist, the Lord has given us the assurance and guarantee of salvation and eternal life.

That is what the Lord also meant to do as highlighted in our Gospel passage today, as we heard from that the account of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand men with unknown thousands more of women and children with merely five bread and two fishes. He fed them all, and nourished them, giving them the strength to go on, as they were all hungry after following Him and listening to Him for His words and teachings. He then later on would tell them that He is the Bread of Life, the One Who had come into this world to bring life and nourish all of us, with the food that is His Body, and the drink that is His Blood, and as He said it Himself, all of us who share and partake in His Body and Blood shall never die and will have eternal life.

That is because when we eat His Body and drink His Blood, the Lord Himself has come to dwell within us, and He has made us into the Temple of His Holy Presence. As long as He remains in us and we remain in Him, we shall not be lost from Him, and we shall forever enjoy the glorious inheritance and true joy that can come from the Lord alone. The Lord has given His Body and Blood to us freely, and through this act of ultimate love and sacrifice, He has opened for us the gates of Heaven and the path to eternal life. This is what He has promised us and provided for us, and yet, many of us still do not have the firm faith in His providence and love.

Many of us still do not show that we truly believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist. We may profess our faith in the Real Presence in the Eucharist, but from the way we behave and respond to the Eucharist more often than not showed just how little we appreciate the Lord’s Real Presence in the Eucharist, and how little the faith and love that we have in Him. We treated the Lord with indifference and even contempt, in the manner how we receive the Holy Eucharist, in our lack of respect for the Holy Mass and the important tenets of our Christian faith, and in not living our lives in accordance to what we have been expected as Christians.

Today, each and every one of us are reminded that we have been so fortunate that the Lord, our most loving Father, Creator and Master, have been so kind, patient and compassionate towards us that He has given us all His Son, to be Our Lord and Saviour, and by Whose sacrifice, both as our High Priest and Paschal Lamb, He has brought unto us the assurance and guarantee of salvation and eternal life, by giving us His own Body and His own Blood, for us to partake, that He may dwell in us, and that we may always be together with Him.

Let us remind ourselves that we are in the Holy Presence of God, that the Lord Himself has dwelled amongst us, and within us. Let us remind ourselves that we have to be worthy of Him, and strive to be better Christians for now on, in honouring and loving the most loving and perfect sacrifice that He has shown us, in bringing about our salvation. Let us all deepen our faith from now on, in the Real Presence in the Eucharist, that what we receive in the Holy Eucharist, is truly real Body and the real Blood of Our Lord, and not just merely bread and wine, or just merely a symbol.

And we have to begin that from ourselves. We have to give due reverence and honour to the Holy Eucharist, in the manner we receive it, such that we ensure that we are in a proper disposition and state of grace, just as St. Paul said that it would be harmful for Christians who are not in the state of grace to partake of the Holy Eucharist. We have to keep in mind that our every actions and deeds reflect our faith and what we believe in, and how can we expect others to believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist, Transubstantiation and that the Most Holy and Precious Body and Blood of the Lord is truly present in the Eucharist, at every celebration of the Holy Mass, if we ourselves have not wholeheartedly believed in it and showed that we truly believe?

May the Lord, Who has given us His own Precious Body and Blood, for our salvation, continue to love us and may He strengthen each and every one of us by His grace and love. May all of us draw ever closer to the Lord and His saving grace, with each and every moments of our lives. May God bless us all and be with all of our works, efforts and good endeavours, now and always. Amen.

by

Sunday, 19 June 2022 : Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all called to seek the Lord, in Whom alone lies our salvation and hope. Through the Lord alone we will gain an eternity of happiness and true joy, and the true satisfaction for our lives. The Lord has come into our midst to bring us His help and reassurance, delivering all of us from our troubles and trials. This is the message that the Scripture passages today has presented to us, reminding us to keep our faith in the Lord and to bear our crosses in life together with God, with faith and joy.

In our first reading today, we heard of the words from the prophet Zechariah, who began his ministry in the years following the return of the exiled Israelites from the lands of Babylon and other distant lands back to their lands, during the early years of the Persian Empire. The prophet Zechariah prophesied and spoke of the coming of the salvation of God, that will come through the One Whom He would send into this world, the Saviour and Deliverer Who would restore the people and reconcile them fully to God, after they had been separated from Him, punished and humiliated because of all their disobedience and sins.

The prophet Zechariah spoke prophetically about the One Whom the people would pierce, and how the sorrowful mourning for Him would truly be great, and how on that very day, the Lord would spring forth His salvation and grace to all of His people. And all of that were clear references and prophetic revelation about what the God Himself would do through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Surely we are all familiar with how the Lord Jesus suffered, rejected by the people, betrayed and abandoned by His disciples, and then put to bear the burden of the Cross, which He then carried obediently to Calvary, where He died for each and every one of us, pierced in His hands, feet and side, by our sins and our transgressions.

The prophet Zechariah was obviously not speaking about the liberation that had by that time come upon the people of God, who had been rescued by the decree and action of the King of Persia, Cyrus the Great, years prior to Zechariah’s own ministry. Instead, Zechariah was speaking about the coming of the Lord, the Messiah or Saviour Whom God has promised to His people. It was by the actions carried out by the Lord Jesus that the salvation, light and hope from God has come into our midst, revealing to us that sin and death do not have the final say over us. Through Him, we have seen the path to our salvation and eternal life.

If only that more of us can believe in the Lord wholeheartedly and trust in His providence and love, then many more people would have come to believe in God and be well on their way to His salvation and grace. Unfortunately, many among us are still unable to entrust ourselves to Him, because of various reasons, but most commonly is because we do not yet know Him well enough. The Lord has revealed Himself to His disciples and in our Gospel today, He asked them who they thought He was. And the disciples frankly told Him that others said that He was one of the Prophets or Elijah himself returning from Heaven, but St. Peter told the Lord right away that he believed in Him as the Holy One of God, the Messiah.

It is that kind of faith that we ought to have, brothers and sisters in Christ, considering just how much God had gone through in His efforts to reach out to us and to love us, despite us all being sinners and having disobeyed Him time and time again. Despite our mistakes and transgressions, the Lord kept on patiently reaching out to us and loving us, because each and every one of us are truly precious to Him, and as St. Paul mentioned in our second reading today, in his Epistle to the Galatians, there are no distinctions between Jews or Greeks, or anyone based on their birth or by any other categories or divisions. Each and every children of God are equally beloved and cared for by Him.

And so great is that love, that as mentioned, He willingly took up His Cross and endured the whole burden of its weight, for our sake. The whole weight of the Cross is not just the physical weight of the wood of the Cross, but even heavier is the combined weight and burden of our innumerable sins, of all mankind past, present and future. Every single man that had existed, exists now which includes all of us, and will exist in the future, all of their sins and the consequences and punishments had been borne by Christ, Who offered Himself on the Cross for our sake, that all of us may be saved through Him, through our faith and trust in Him.

The Lord has generously reached out to us out of His enduring and everlasting love. But do we also reciprocate His love as well? Do we show Him the same love and devotion, the same commitment and love that we should have shown Him? We have been reminded of how great the love that God has shown us, and now, we are all challenged and called to love God and trust Him more, to be His faithful witnesses and courageous disciples, in proclaiming His truth and hope to all the whole world, to our respective communities today. That is our Christian calling and mission, and we must not forget about that, and we have to embrace that wholeheartedly as well.

May the Lord, our loving God, Father and Creator be with us always, and may He continue to strengthen us in our faith, so that in everything we say and do, in our every actions in life, we may always glorify the Lord and be exemplary in all things, inspiring many more people to come to believe in God as well. Let us all renew our faith and commitment to the Lord, and let us do our best to live our lives as missionary disciples of Christ, at every opportunities available to us. May God bless our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.