Sunday Mass sermon

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Sunday, 17 March 2019 : Second Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we celebrate the second Sunday in the season of Lent, we listened to the words of God speaking to all of us and reminding us of the nature of this season of Lent as a time of change and transformation, that we may transform ourselves, our lives, our actions, our habits and our every aspects, from one that is wicked and unworthy of God, into one that is good, righteous and worthy before God. This is the Covenant that God made with us mankind.

The Scripture readings today began with the narration from the Book of Genesis, recounting to us the moment when God made His Covenant with Abram, the man whom He called from the lands of Ur, to become the ancestor of many nations. God knew Abram’s heart and mind, and He saw the faith and love that Abram had for Him, and that was why, He chose Abram from among all the other men and women of his time.

God made a Covenant with Abram, promising him that He will always be faithful to the Covenant and the promise that He made to Abram and his descendants, that he would become the father of many nations. This was amazing considering that Abram at that time was already quite old, with a wife, Sarai, who was also equally quite old and likely way beyond childbearing age. Without a son to carry on his legacy, Abram was the unlikeliest person to be the father of many nations.

And yet, Abram chose to believe in God, and placed his trust in Him. He sealed the Covenant with God with the offering of sacrifices, which marked the beginning of God’s Covenant with Abram, His servant, who therefore was known as Abraham. Abraham received the blessings of God’s grace, and from then on, became the father of many nations through his son, who also was a father of many nations.

The change of name from Abram to Abraham is a significant marker in the Scriptures as the moment whenever a great change of life and a new commitment has been made. For example, Sarai also received a new name, Sarah because she was to become the mother of many nations just as Abraham became the father of many nations. Initially she did not believe that God was serious in the promises He had made, but eventually believed when a son was born to both her and Abraham, Isaac.

There are many other examples throughout the Scriptures where name changes occurred, most prominently being Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, who became known as Israel after the Covenant that God had made with his grandfather was renewed and reinforced, as Israel became the progenitor of the race of the first chosen people of God. And we have more examples in the time of the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.

Some of the Apostles also had their names changed indicating a great change that happened in their lives. Simon received a new name from the Lord, being called Cephas or Peter, which means ‘Rock’, as he left behind his previous identity as a fisherman of Galilee and accepting the role for which he was soon to be known, as the Rock of foundation of God’s Church. Levi similarly was called Matthew, after he left behind his tax collector job to follow the Lord.

And we know of the Apostle, St. Paul, who was once known as Saul. Saul was a great enemy of the Church, persecutor of the faithful, destroyer of the communities of the Christian faithful in his many purges during the earliest days of the Church. However, when he encountered the Lord on his way to Damascus, he went through a great conversion experience, and had his life completely overturned and changed, as he embraced a new identity as God’s champion, and the defender of the faith as Paul.

We have seen from these few examples, as well as many others which have not been mentioned today, how God changed the lives of many of His people throughout history. And as Christians, we too have been changed by God, through our baptism. Do we realise that at baptism we choose our baptismal names? For those of us who were born as Christians, the names have been chosen for us, while those who became Christians as adults, chose our baptismal names for ourselves.

These baptismal names are taken from the names of the saints of God, God’s holy men and women, those whom the Church had deemed and declared to be good, righteous and virtuous enough, to be deserving of the glory and honour of being with God in heaven. And they are our role models in life, in how they have exemplarily lived their lives, obeying God’s commandments and living righteously in all the things they have done.

We adopt the baptismal name with the names of those saints because we hope to emulate the good examples of those saints in our own lives, in turning towards the Lord with all of our hearts and with all of our minds. And through baptism, we go through a complete conversion experience, where we have been freed from our past, sinful life and enter into a new life in the grace of God. That is why through the Sacrament of Baptism, each one of us had gone through a change so significant that it heralded a new era of hope in our lives.

In the second reading passage today, we listened to the words of St. Paul in the Epistle he wrote to the Church and the faithful in the city of Philippi, where he mentioned that our citizenship is in heaven, and how the Lord will transform us, in body, mind, heart and soul, in our whole being, as how His own Transfiguration, as recounted to us in our Gospel passage today, has prefigured and told us. And this is because Christ has made with each and every one of us, the New and Eternal Covenant, the Covenant of the Cross.

Thus, linking this Covenant, that is True and Eternal with the original Covenant between God and Abraham, we see finally the full truth of God’s love and compassion, His care and mercy for each and every one of us His beloved and faithful ones. By His Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, He wanted us to know, through what His disciples witnessed, the ultimate fate and promise which He has given to us, to all those who have been faithful to Him. We shall be transfigured to be like Him, at the time that God appointed.

Therefore, each and every one of us are called to be transfigured or changed, completely in body, mind, heart and soul, just as much as Abraham committed himself to a total change in life and attitude, and just as much as the Apostles, St. Peter and St. Matthew embraced a new life of service and faith in God, and in how St. Paul turned his life almost completely upside down by embracing the faith and the same Covenant that God had forged with us all.

Yet, we must also not forget that a Covenant involves commitment and promise made between two parties, in which each one promises to be faithful and true to one another. God is ever so faithful and true to the Covenant that He has made and renewed again and again with each and every one of us, that in the Gospel today, He left behind His glorious Transfiguration, and descended down the Mount of Tabor, to go down the road to Jerusalem, where He would eventually face His suffering and death on the cross.

The Lord showed us all that if we want to follow Him faithfully, then we must be prepared to, in His own words, carry our crosses and follow Him, to share in the cross that He has borne, and to suffer just as He has suffered for our sake. It is not easy to become a Christian, as we will often need to cast away our past way of life, rejecting the pleasures and excesses of the world, resisting the temptations of the flesh, and to be righteous in our words, actions and deeds, even when the world and the society around us are against us.

The Lord humbled Himself and emptied Himself of all glory, so that by His humble obedience, He had saved us all through the love that He has for each and every one of us, so great that He was willing to go through such suffering, such pain and such humiliation just so that we may be saved from our fated destruction because of our sins. Are we able to do the same as He has done? He has been faithful to the Covenant that He has made with us, so are we able to be faithful to that Covenant?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why during this season of Lent, we are all called to retrospect on our lives and reflect on how we have acted towards one another, how we have spent our time and effort in fulfilling the commitment of our Covenant with God. Have we embraced that profound change that the Covenant of God has brought into our lives? Have we rejected the path of sin and disobedience, and resisted the many temptations found in this world?

This Lent, let us all grow more generous in the giving and sharing our blessings with one another, in our almsgiving and care for the needs of those who are not as fortunate as we are, in our love and attention for those who are lonely, unloved, ostracised and rejected by the society. Let us all also resist the temptations of the flesh and of our body, by the genuine and pious act of fasting and abstinence throughout this season of Lent.

Let us all grow ever closer to God, and become truly worthy to be partakers of the Covenant of God, the New and Eternal Covenant which He has made with us all, by the outpouring of His Most Precious Body and Blood on the altar of the cross, the Most Worthy Lamb of God slain for us for our salvation and redemption from sin. He has given everything for us, as the proof of His faithfulness to the Covenant He made with us. Again, are we able to do the same for Him? Are we able to give everything in our lives for Him?

May this Lenten season be a turning point in our lives, the moment when we embrace the Covenant that God has made with us, and allow God to enter into our lives and transform us, completely in body, mind, heart and soul, that we become God’s holy people. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 10 March 2019 : First Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we listened to the words of the Lord through the Scriptures reminding all of us of the need for us to prepare ourselves spiritually as we journey through this blessed season of Lent, a time of preparation and purification of ourselves, before we come to celebrate together the sacred mysteries of the Holy Week and the glorious joy of Easter. We are all reminded of all of the sins we have committed in life because of the temptations that Satan placed before us.

Today we listened to the temptation of the Lord Jesus by the devil in the desert, for forty days when He fasted from food and drink, right after He was baptised, to prepare Himself for His ministry in this world. The Lord met the devil who presented before Him three temptations by which the latter hoped to the good works of the Lord’s salvation to fail, by trying to tempt Him with the same temptations that we mankind often face in life.

While the first Adam, representing all of us mankind have fallen into sin, but Christ, Who became the new Adam, showed to us all that the sting of Satan, that is sin and death, no longer has power and dominion over us. The old Adam might have fallen and failed to remain faithful, but Christ showed us all mankind what it truly means to be faithful, and He defeated Satan in what can be seen as a rematch between Satan and mankind. The first man fell, but the New Man, Christ, overcome the three temptations by which Satan had tempted us throughout time, beginning from Adam and Eve.

The first temptation is the temptation of desire and selfishness, represented by the temptation when the Lord Jesus was told by the devil to turn the stones into bread when He felt hunger creeping up His flesh, just as Satan tempted Eve with the good looking fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The devil was taunting the Lord, by saying that it is well within His power and authority to turn even rocks into bread, but that would be an abuse of His power to satisfy a selfish desire, the desire to satisfy the hunger of the flesh.

This is a warning for us all that gluttony and desire of our flesh can become our undoing, unless we make the conscious effort to resist those temptations. The desire to satisfy the needs of our body can easily end up becoming an obsession and a growing craving and desire for even more, as we are often prone to fall into the temptation of wanting more of whatever good things we have already had with us.

Many of us fall simply because we cannot resist the urge and the temptation of sexual pleasures and the temptations of our stomach, desiring good food and indulgences, and it is often that all these came from as simple as by looking at another person with desire, or at their possessions, and being jealous or being filled with desire to own what others have, to satisfy our own selfish desires.

To us, many of us will not easily find it enough just to have some good things we have gained in life. Soon enough, we would crave for even more, as the satisfaction that comes from fulfilling all these desires of ours are not long-lasting or permanent. Instead, we continue to find ways to gain more for ourselves and we become enslaved to the desires of our flesh, and disobey God and sin as a result.

The second temptation Christ faced was the temptation of glory, which imitated what Satan tempted man with, when he tempted them with the glory of the world, all of its knowledge and goodness, if they were to eat the fruits of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. Satan presented to the Lord Jesus the whole glory of the whole world, which he said that he would grant Him if only He were to worship him as God. Jesus quickly rebuked Satan and did not fall to the same temptation, humbling Himself before His Father, despite of His own Sonhood and Divinity.

We know just how He humbled Himself, that eventually, He even willingly emptied Himself of all glory and dignity, when He chose to take up the cross, bearing it upon His shoulders, taking up all the heavy burdens of our sins on Himself, and to suffer and die on the same cross, so that by His humble obedience, contrasted to the pride of man and the pride of Satan, in their respective pursuits for glory, all of us have been saved.

Then, in the last temptation that Christ faced from the devil, we heard how He was brought up to the parapet or the peak of the Temple of Jerusalem, with the devil asking Him to jump down from the top of the Temple with the intent to prove that God would intervene and save His Saviour from harm. The devil did this to make the Lord Jesus fall by means of ego and pride, by testing and doubting God at the sane time, just as he has tempted Adam and Eve, to be like God if they were to eat from the fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge.

This is a very common temptation that we often encounter all around us, especially because pride is most often the most dangerous of all kinds of sins. It was exactly the sin of pride that caused Satan to fall from the grace of God because of his vanity of pride, thinking that his seeming perfection, beauty and glory, as the greatest and most brilliant among the Angels God had created, gave him the right to boast about his own might and desiring even to take over the place of God.

Therefore, this is a sin that the devil is certainly well-acquainted with, and by which he will relentlessly assault us, to make us to fall as well into the same path towards damnation and destruction. And we easily fall into pride, to succumb to our ego and the ambitions inside our hearts. When people praise us and say good things about us, it is easy to slid into our prideful mode, and grow more and more egoistic and ambitious, thinking that we are greater than who we actually are.

And in time, unless we resist this temptation, we will begin to resent others and seek only personal glory and power, greatness and good things for ourselves. We will not even hesitate to cause others to suffer just so that we can enjoy what we want to enjoy and gain what we desire for ourselves, be it prestige, wealth, standing and position in society, influence, fame, and even appearances, beauty and vanity, and many others.

Even by now, we should have seen how the devil has so many means by which he is capable of attacking us with, to tempt us and even to pressure us into disobedience against God. And last of all, he tempted the Lord as he has done with us, with the temptation of worldly glory, that is to gain for ourselves everything that is good in life, the glories and wonders of the world, all of its riches and pleasures, so long as we are willing to bow to Satan and worship him.

This is what happens when we are distracted and swayed by the many idols present in our lives. These idols now no longer refers to those idols of the pagan gods, made of clay or stone, wood or gold, but rather, those idols refer to the desires that we have for worldly glory, for material wealth and possessions, for luxury in many forms, for indulgences and practices that kept us distracted in life and preventing us from living our lives as true Christians.

We may say that we are Christians and we love God, and we may think that we worship Him and serve Him alone, but as long as our actions in life show that we prefer to follow the path of worldliness, the path of selfishness, entertaining our greed and desires, satisfying our ego and pride, all that Satan has tempted the Lord Jesus with, then we are not true disciples and servants of out God. Instead, as long as we persist in walking down this path, we are the followers of Satan.

How should we then carry out our lives from now on, brothers and sisters in Christ? As long as we allow ourselves to be swayed and to be tempted by the devil, we will not be able to proceed down the path towards the salvation in God. And the best way forward for us is to listen to the Lord and follow His example, in how He Himself has resisted the temptations of Satan, to the very end.

He withstood the assaults of Satan through love and obedience to His Father, reminding us that we need to listen to the word of God, and put our trust in the words of God, rather in the words of Satan, the deceiver and enemy. This is the key essence of what each and every one of us as Christians must do in order to break out of the traps which Satan had laid down before us, through his many temptations.

If we are able to put God back at the centre of our lives, then Satan will no longer have power over us, for God will become the source of our strength and He will be our foundation in life. And in order to do this, we need to have a profound change in attitude in our own lives, from one that is selfish, self-glorifying and self-indulging, into one that is selfless, filled with love and care for others, and self-mortification.

Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that our primary goal in life is truly to serve the Lord and to glorify His Name, by all of our actions and deeds in life instead of to glorify ourselves. If we live only to glorify ourselves and serve our own purposes, then we must remember that our earthly life is limited, and no matter how much power, glory, wealth and worldly bounties we enjoy now, or plan to enjoy, the moment our earthly lives come to an end, or when disasters strike and destroy our hard earned worldly things, which are impermanent and temporary, what else will we have?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to follow the examples of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the new Adam and model for us all mankind, and He is calling on us to take up our crosses in life, and follow Him. We have to commit ourselves to endure the same cross of suffering that He has borne for our sake. And if the devil has struck so hard against the Lord, again and again, by stirring up the Pharisees and others who opposed Him, many times, causing so much difficulties and problems, then we can expect to encounter the same opposition, challenges and hardships in life.

This is why in this season of Lent, we are called to renew our commitment to the Lord, to turn ourselves once again to God. There may have been many occasions when we have been tempted to turn away and to give up our faith, but we must persevere on, or otherwise, we will fall into damnation with the devil, and the way forward for us is only through the Lord. Let us all carry our cross in life with faith and conviction, knowing that in God alone we have hope and true assurance.

God will be with us, and He will guide us through this difficult journey. Let us all learn to rid ourselves off all the wicked things by which the devil has tempted us with, the allures of pleasures, especially that of the flesh, the temptation of greed, and the stubbornness of pride. Instead, let us put God at the centre of our lives once again, and fill our lives with obedience and love for Him. May the Lord continue to bless us and our works, and may He continue to watch over us. May all of us have a meaningful and fruitful season of Lent. Amen.

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Sunday, 3 March 2019 : Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we listened to the words of the Lord speaking to us with regards to the matter of our expression of faith, and how our lives ought to be bearing good fruits, the good fruits of our faith in God. Throughout the readings from the Scriptures we have heard today, surely we can recognise the intention of the Lord when He spoke of how good fruits come from good trees, and conversely, bad fruits from bad trees.

First of all, we ought to examine what the Lord Jesus told the people about His parable highlighting the example of a person who wanted to remove the speck or splinter in another person’s eye, and yet, that person failed to realise that there was a log in his eye all along. This is likely mentioned as a rebuke to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were in attendance among the people listening to the teachings of Jesus.

That is because the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law often acted in ways where they were quick to judge on actions by others which they deemed to be not on par with the standard which they demanded, in the matters of observance of the laws of the people of Israel. But they themselves did not realise that their limited understanding and in fact, misunderstanding the true purpose and intention of the Law, was a great shortcoming and flaw in their way of life.

Yet, when the Lord pointed all these things before them, they were quick to go to the defensive mode, and resisted the Lord’s efforts to deliver the truth to them. And in fact, they became even more stubborn in refusing to listen to the Lord despite His repeated attempts to do so. That is because of the pride and ego in their hearts, as well as their many attachments to worldly desires, for affluence, for power, for glory and wealth.

That is exactly what we have just discussed earlier, how bad fruits come from bad trees just as good fruits come from good trees. What this means is that, as long as the heart and the mind, that is our internal selves are not in the right condition and status, and are not attuned to the will of God, then most likely our actions, and the words that come out from our mouth will not be in accordance with what we are expected to do as Christians, that is as God’s followers.

This is something that the farmers and most people of the time of Jesus would have understood, and that was why He used such a parable to deliver His idea to them. The farmers would have known that bad trees ultimately does not just come from nowhere. There can be many reasons why bad trees come about. It can be from the bad seeds, or more commonly, even if the seeds were good, but they were not grown with the right conditions, the good seeds would become bad trees too.

And inevitably, bad trees will produce bad quality fruits, and in the end, the whole existence of the tree becomes meaningless. In agricultural terms, trees that do not produce good fruits are good for nothing, and instead of taking up the precious nutrients, they are uprooted and destroyed, replaced with another tree that is healthier, better and produce good fruits. Thus, it will be the same with us, if the Lord comes and asks for reckoning of our lives.

What does this mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that our lives are just like that of the trees mentioned, and our lives produce its ‘fruits’ that is our actions and our words, in how we deal with one another. And how we act depends on how we have been internally disposed and oriented in our spiritual and mental outlook. Thus, we will find that a person who is good and kind in heart is unlikely to do things that are wicked or evil, and vice versa.

How do we then produce good fruits in our lives? First then we must be properly aligned with the ways of the Lord, that we truly become like the good trees. But even good trees can turn bad when they are not properly maintained and managed, and that is what happens when we continue to expose ourselves to wicked practices and habits, which are like poisons that seeped into the plants that make even good trees into bad ones.

I am referring to every moments that we gossip negatively about others, every moments when we are jealous about each others’ achievements and possessions, every time we cause hurt when we say nasty things to each other, every moment we are overcome by our ego and pride, in not wanting to share our fortunes and blessings with those who are needy, poor and weak in our midst, every time we fail to stand up for the sake of the oppressed and the marginalised in our society.

As we are all frail human beings, prone to sin and easily tempted by these wicked things, it is inevitable that we will stumble at times, and do all those wicked manners mentioned. However, unless we make the conscious effort to resist those temptations and not to give in to the demands and pressures of our pride, ego, greed, ambition and desires, we will likely end up committing more and more of such sinfulness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all reminded that bad trees that produce bad fruits are meaningless and useless, and will be destroyed. And hence, the same will happen to us, if we continue to live our lives in sin, and that was what St. Paul wrote in the Epistle to the Church in Corinth, our second reading passage today, that the sting of sin is death. And this is eternal death, total and complete separation from God’s grace and love.

Yet, in the same passage, St. Paul wrote that sin and death no longer have any power or dominion over us, if we put our faith in Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. The Lord has triumphed over sin and death, and He gave us the assurance of eternal life and glory, if we have faith in His love and providence, and if we can put our trust in Him. He has shown us the way, how we can nurture our lives in a good way, and bearing good fruits of life.

To each and every one of us, God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit. And we are taught that there are fruits of the Holy Spirit that we can bear forth, if we make use of the gifts that God has given us, obeying His commandments and listening to His will. And each and every one of us must realise this calling that we have received, to be bearers of the good fruits of faith in our daily lives.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all from now on change our perspective and way of life, that if once we have not borne good fruits in our lives, and have borne wicked and evil fruits of sin by our actions, then from now on let us cease producing those wicked fruits and turn instead to produce good fruits by a profound change in our attitudes in life, from sin into faithfulness, from hatred and jealousy into love, from selfishness into selflessness.

Are we willing to make that profound change in life? It will not be easy for us to commit to the ways of the Lord, but with effort and commitment, with dedication and hard work, we will be able to overcome that stubborn attachment we have to sin, and enter into a new life filled with God’s grace and love. All that we need is the desire and the willingness to persevere through the challenges we may encounter if we keep our faith in God, and remain in God’s love always.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, just as it is not easy for a farmer to grow a tree and maintain it in good health, until it can produce its good fruits, it is therefore not easy for us as well to produce good fruits in life. We are called to persevere through the challenges and the sufferings we may have to encounter for God’s sake, as in the end, our rewards will be rich and wonderful, nothing less than an eternity of true joy and happiness with God.

May the Lord continue to guide us through our lives, that we may keep to our faith in Him, and remain devoted to Him at every single moments of our life. May the Lord be with us all, and may He bless all of our good works, that we may always bear good fruits, at each and every moments of our life. Amen.

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Sunday, 24 February 2019 : Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we are called by God to be people who are filled with love and forgiveness, to be compassionate and to be merciful to all those whom encounter in this life we have on earth. God showed His love to all of us, when He spared us from our fated destruction, although we truly have deserved to be destroyed and be annihilated because of our disobedience and therefore, our sins.

God made us out of His love for each and every one of us. He gave us life and provided everything for us, and God in fact gave and entrusted the whole creation to us, that we may be His stewards of the creation. And yet, instead of gratitude and love that we should have shown Him, we have betrayed and abandoned Him for the devil and all of his lies and false promises, falling into sin as a result.

Yet, God did not give up on us and He continues to love us all despite of the sins we have committed. Yes, He does despise our sins, and sin has no place in His presence, but He still loves us all in our beings, as He has always done ever since He created us mankind. God could have easily destroyed and banished us into eternal damnation if He had desired it to be such, but He did not do that because He truly still has that boundless and wonderful love for us.

Unfortunately, sin is a reality present within each and every one of us, the sons and daughters of man. Sin is a very dangerous disease that is within us, trying to destroy us from within, corrupting not just our bodies, but also our hearts and minds, and our eternal souls. Unless we remove this taint of sin from within us, we will not be able to be reconciled with God, and that is, when we continue to remain in this state of sin, and refuse to cast these sinful ways aside, then we will fall into eternal damnation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if only we can understand and know of all of those things that we have done throughout the long history of mankind thus far. All the sins and wicked things we have committed all these while, from the time that we have first disobeyed God until this very day. For so many years all of the combined wickedness of our sins have truly become a massive mountain of sin, of unimaginable dimensions.

And yet, in the end, despite of all these, God still loved us all dearly, and even wanted us all to be redeemed and saved. Are we not ashamed at the sins that we have committed, and how we have not recognised the love which God has shown us, all these while? He has been willing to forgive us all these sins, and indeed, He desires to do so, despite of our constant and continued impertinence and stubbornness.

God is so patient and loving, so merciful and kind towards us. This is what each and every one of us have to realise, that for every sins we commit further in life, we are just going to make the Lord even more hurt, for all the compassion He has shown to us, and yet we are so stubborn and resistant to the love He is showing us so generously. God wants to forgive us our sins, and yet, we are the ones who have resisted to be forgiven.

Let us all look at some examples from the Scripture passages today, beginning from our first reading today. It was a story of the encounter between David and king Saul of Israel. In order to understand better the context of what happened at that time, we must look into the historical background of the relationship between the two of them. King Saul was the first king chosen by God to be king over His people Israel, while David was the one whom God had chosen to be the successor of Saul as king, after the latter fell from grace.

David was still a young man when he rose to great prominence after he defeated Goliath, the giant Philistine champion during battle between the Israelites against the Philistines. And David became a commander in the king’s army, gaining more and more influence and fame, as he won victories after victories, and God’s grace was clearly with him. Meanwhile, Saul, who disobeyed God’s commandment, and persisted in his disobedience, was growing further and further away from God’s grace.

Saul saw in David a great threat to his authority and legitimacy as king, and therefore, he tried in all various kinds of ways, to remove the threat of David, treating him with much suspicion and hating him, having tried to kill David in several occasions. If not for the assistance of his close friends, including that of Jonathan, one of Saul’s sons, David would have been killed by the plotting and the attempts of the king.

David had to run away and live as a fugitive for many years, and what we heard in our first reading passage today happened during those years when David was in the run. He has suffered much at the hands of the king, who wanted him to be dead. Yet, when David and his followers found the perfect opportunity to kill the king instead, when the king and his retainers were sleeping in a cave, David conscientiously and resolutely refused to do so.

David had all the opportunity to do so, a perfect timing and chance to turn his own fortunes completely upside down. He could have ended his period and time in exile and stopped all the sufferings and pains he had to endure as an exile and criminal. He could have seized power as the rightful king of Israel, as the one who had been anointed by God through the prophet Samuel to be the true king. And yet, David did not do all these. Instead, he still treated Saul with respect, and indeed, as his king.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, now, let us all look at our own lives and actions thus far. Have we been as forgiving as David had been to those who have hurt us and slighted us? Or have we instead acted with vengeance and hatred, with jealousy and anger? It is definitely much more common for us to do the latter than the former. Many of us are unable to let go of that hatred, of that anger, of that jealousy and bitterness within us, and as a result, we continue to hold grudge against one another.

Perhaps we should reflect on the great patience and mercy that David has shown to Saul, and even more so, the even far greater patience, mercy and compassion that God Himself has shown to us, His people. God has been ever so patient with us, despite all of our constant disobedience and actions that had made Him to be angry with us, again and again. But as a loving Father, He continues to love us regardless, and in His actions, He wants us all, His beloved children, to walk down the right path.

King David has followed this very example shown by the Lord Himself, in practicing mercy and forgiveness, compassion and love through his own actions and in how he dealt with those who have slighted him and made his life difficult, principally that of Saul, his predecessor. Now, we are challenged today, to do the same with our own lives, to think of all those whom we may have hated and held grudge against all these while.

Are we able to forgive others just as God has forgiven us? It is not easy to forgive, as forgiveness requires us to let go of the anger and all the emotions, the greed, the desires and the pride present within us. Our ego and pride often come in between us and the ability to forgive, as we often think that to forgive others means that we must humble ourselves such, and let go of the animosity we are feeling towards the other person. And then, we also often refused to be forgiven, because the same ego and pride within us made us to resist forgiveness, as we do not like to think that we have erred or made a mistake in some way.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we willing and are we able to let go of the ego, pride and the anger within us? God Himself has shown us the way, and He Himself has forgiven us so generously, full of compassion and mercy. He forgave us for all of the multitudes of sins we have committed and all the wickedness that we have done in life. Although our sins are numerous beyond count, God loves us, and forgives us, and then, how can we not forgive our fellow men our sins to one another too?

Let us all from now on, therefore, turn towards God with all of our hearts, with all of our strengths and with the strong conviction to love the Lord and to be filled with His compassion and love. May the Lord, our loving God and Father, be our Guide and may He show us the way forward in life, in forgiving all those who have wronged us, all those who have hurt us, just as He Himself has forgiven us our sins. Let us all also be courageous in life, to change our way of life, from that of sin to that of righteousness.

May God be with us always, and may He empower us all to live with faith from now on, that we will draw ever closer to Him, and be worthy to receive from Him to promised eternal life and glory that He has given to us all, His beloved and faithful people. Amen.

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Sunday, 17 February 2019 : Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we listened to the words of the Lord through the Scripture passages reminding us all of the need for each and every one of us to trust in the teachings and the ways that the Lord has shown us all, and not in our own human abilities and power, and neither in the matters of the world. All of us heard that we are called to turn towards God with all of our hearts and with all of our strength. God will bless us all greatly and wonderfully if we have done so.

In our first reading today, we heard the sayings of the prophet Jeremiah, in which the prophet cursed all those who trusted in their worldly power and in their own human glory, on how those people would never find true happiness in life as long as they continued to trust in the powers of the world. Instead, all those who trusted in God and in His power would be blessed and would receive all goodness in due time, as God has promised. They would receive true joy and happiness from God Himself.

Then, in the second reading today, we heard from St. Paul in the Epistle he wrote to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth, where he spoke of the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ as the proof of the faith that all of the faithful had believed, that they had not believed in vain in the Lord, Who had overcome even death itself, our greatest enemy of all. Death is the result and consequence of sin, just as sin is caused by our disobedience against the will of God.

This is the proof that it is the faith and trust in God alone that will overcome all sorts of difficulties and challenges. There is no other foundation or any thing in this universe capable of replacing the Lord as the centre, focus and hope of our lives. Any other foundation and trust in other things beyond the Lord is superficial and illusory in nature, and we will not be able to gain true joy, assurance and satisfaction because we will never find true peace unless if we go through God.

Why is that so? Brothers and sisters in Christ, we should look upon the history of our humanity’s past, at all the various actions and things that we mankind had done and which we had experienced throughout time. We see how mankind always tried to do their best, to attain the best for themselves, to gain the most joy, pleasure, happiness, glory, fame, power, and all sorts of good things for themselves, and yet, they were never truly happy and secure in their lives.

On the other hand, instead of experiencing true joy, peace and happiness, our predecessors experienced much sorrow, agony, pain, suffering, despair and lack of peace in their lives, all because of them putting their trust and their focus on the wrong things, as they placed their trust on worldly assurances of money, of human glory, prestige, of pleasure of the body and the temptation of greatness and hubris, ambition and pride.

Everyone suffered, when those who had power, greatness, wealth, prestige and the means of worldliness oppressed those who have less, little or none, in their pursuit to gain more of those worldly desires and temptations for themselves. But they did not gain more happiness, joy and satisfaction among themselves, because by our nature, greed will only lead to even more greed and desire, and when we have something, we naturally desire even more.

That is why, we can never be satisfied by anything of this world, no matter how hard we try it. And we must not forget, just as the Lord Himself said in another parable He taught His disciples, showing the futility of those who sought to enrich themselves with many worldly things, that a rich man who tore down his many barns in order to accommodate even more goods in them, but was told by the Lord of his foolishness, as his own life would be taken away from him that very night, and none of his amassed wealth and glory would be his any longer.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why as I have mentioned earlier, death is our greatest enemy, for death marks the moment when our earthly life and existence ended. And that is why, throughout history and time, men had tried again and again, futilely, in order to try to overcome and cheat death. Many spent much money and resources, efforts and trying various methods in order to attain for themselves eternal life and youth. Many tried to keep themselves alive and appearing good, without success.

People had been spending a lot on beauty products and those things that were claimed to have life-lengthening and rejuvenating effects on the body. But in the end, no one can extend one’s life even by a millionth of a second, for everything is according to God’s will, and when God calls us back, and to give an account of our respective lives, we have no way to refuse this call. And none of our earthly glories and power will follow us through.

That is why, today’s Gospel passage, in which the Lord went through with His disciples and followers a series of blessings and curses for certain groups of people, which we know better as the Sermon on the Mount or the Eight Beatitudes, we heard exactly what we have just been discussing on our search for happiness, our often futile efforts to preserve ourselves from death, by searching and desiring for more worldly things, and allowing ourselves to be tempted by the devil.

In the Beatitudes, the Lord reminded all of us His people, that unless we learn and try to let go of all these wicked desires, and restrain all those thoughts of pride, ambition, and not allowing our ego and pride to overcome us, we will end up falling into sin, deeper and deeper, and eventually, as mentioned, sin leads to death, and not just any death, but eternal death and damnation. For those who sin and does not repent, they have no part in the Covenant that God had made with all those who are faithful to Him.

Those who are proud and ambitious, those who oppress and persecute others just so that they can earn for themselves more worldly glory, power, wealth, riches, majesty, fame and all other things we often desire, all of us who choose to put our trust in all these worldly things, will find ourselves disappointed because even though now we may enjoy what we have, and indulge in the pleasures they provided us, but these things will not last forever.

The time will come when the reckoning of our lives will be upon us, and unless we have done what the Lord has commanded us to do, then we may end up falling into eternal damnation, and has no share in the Covenant, the salvation which the Lord Jesus Christ, Our God and Saviour has brought upon us by His sacrifice on the cross. Only those who are humble, those who are poor in spirit, meaning those who look at themselves not with pride but instead with humility before God, will receive the fullness of God’s glory.

And through the Beatitudes, God is calling us all to follow this path that He had set before us all. He is calling us to be faithful, in all things and in all of our dealings and actions, that we place God as the very core and centre of our lives and existences. We are called to be peacemakers, to be those who bring the love of God to one another, sharing the love and blessings which He has so generously given us, so that each and every one of us may enjoy the fruits of God’s wonderful love.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, from now on, if we have not done so, let us all grow in faith in God, and devote ourselves to love God and to turn ourselves away from the path of sin and wickedness. Let us all strive to overcome our attachment to worldly temptations and goods, and instead, make the effort to put our complete trust in God. Let us all seek the Lord with all of our strength, and let us all grow ever closer to Him, from now on, through the lessons of the Beatitudes, and bear the fruits of the Beatitudes of Christ in our daily living. Amen.

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Sunday, 10 February 2019 : Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, the message from the Scripture readings that we have heard is very clear, and that is, for us all as Christians, each and every one of us have been called by God to be His followers and disciples, as those whom He has willingly bestowed His love and grace to, and we have been called with a purpose and mission given to us, to become His witnesses and messengers among the nations.

But as we heard from the Scripture passages today, we saw how many of those whom God had called, felt that they were unworthy to be called by God, feeling that as they have committed sins before God, they would not be considered clean and worthy enough to become the ones through whom God would perform His many wonderful works among the people. In the Old Testament, we heard this in the calling of the prophet Isaiah as a prophet, and then in the Gospel in the calling of the Apostles.

But it was exactly for this reason that the Lord has called and chosen those whom He deemed to be worthy to become His servants and messengers, witnesses and champions among the people. Instead of boasting of their might and greatness, their abilities and their talents, they humbly admitted their imperfections, their corrupted nature due to sin, and their weak selves, as mere men amidst the Holy One of God, Jesus Christ, Lord and Saviour of all.

This is why the Lord chose them, although they were sinners and imperfect, because they were willing to admit humbly of that fact, and not putting their own selfish desires and ego above their commitment and desire to love the Lord, their God. And that was why the Apostles, the prophets of old, and the many other faithful servants and messengers of God were able to give their whole life in commitment to the works of God, despite the challenges that they had to encounter throughout their lives and respective ministries.

Many of them had to labour hard and endured hardships throughout their ministries. The prophet Isaiah had to withstand the stubbornness and rejection of the wicked pagans and idol worshippers among the people of the kingdom of Judah, especially early during his ministry. In one occasion, he had to confront the king of Judah, Ahaz for his lack of faith, and openly proclaimed God’s words before him, promising the coming of the Messiah, as Ahaz showed false humility and doubt in the power of God.

And as what the Apostles themselves, St. Peter and the other of the Twelve, with the many other disciples of the Lord, St. Paul the Apostle, the many other holy men and women, many of them martyrs of the Church, had shown us through the many accounts of their works throughout the New Testament and as told to us through the tradition of the Church and the story of the lives of those saints and martyrs, we have heard how in those numerous occasions, those faithful predecessors of ours have given their all to God.

This is contrasted to the attitude of those who claimed themselves to be great and pious during the history of the people of Israel. During the time of Isaiah and the other prophets, especially that of Jeremiah, who came after the former, who had to contend with many who claimed themselves to be the Lord’s prophets and accused Jeremiah of falsehoods and lying to the king, when in truth Jeremiah prophesied the truth about the coming of the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The false prophets meanwhile wanted to gain more power, influence and glory for themselves, by trying to please the king and his nobles with false promises and lies.

And at the time of the Lord Jesus, we heard of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, two groups of people among whom, many rose up to oppose the works of the Lord and His disciples, because they saw the Lord and His disciples as rivals to their own teaching authority and positions of privilege and honour within the community of the Jewish people. They did not want to lose all that they have gained in privilege and power.

That was why they allowed their ego and pride to overcome them and to get in the way of their faith and obedience to God. In essence, they put their own ego, pride, ambition and desire at the centre of their existence, and set God aside. And when this happened, that is why they did not allow God’s truth to enter into their hearts and minds, and although they have seen and witnessed His miracles and power for themselves, they refused to believe because of their stubborn hearts and closed minds.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, for each and every one of us, we have been called to reflect on what we have heard in today’s Scripture passages, to know what it means for us to be called by God to be His servants. If we can understand our direction in life and our purpose in following and serving God, then surely we will be able to follow the Lord, and serve and love Him better than what we may have been doing all these while.

First of all, there are two important lessons that we must take from today’s words of the Lord. It is the lesson on humility and commitment, that each and everyone of us must heed in becoming God’s followers and servants. By following the examples of the prophets, the Apostles and the holy saints who have gone before us, we can find ways to be better in our faith life and devotion to God.

To follow the Lord, we must learn to trust Him with all of our hearts and with all of our effort. And this often requires us to have that humility of heart and willingness to listen, to have an open mind ready for receiving His words and listening to His will for us. Otherwise, we will be easily swayed by worldly temptations and concerns, just as the false prophets, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had shown us, in their refusal to listen to God because of their own sense of pride, ego and the greed in their hearts.

And then, we also need commitment, because a lot of the work and missions that the Lord has given and entrusted to us require us to put our hearts and minds to them, devoting our whole effort and abilities to do what the Lord has commanded us to do. And often, as the Lord Jesus said to the Apostles, as they were fishing in the lake, that they need to ‘put out into the deep’, and this means that more effort is required for us to do what we are supposed to do as God’s servants. A fisherman who could not find any more fishes to catch in the waters near the coast need to go further in order to catch more fishes in the deeper waters. And hence, it is often that we need to challenge ourselves beyond the ordinary to do the good works of God.

We often think that we are unworthy and that we are incapable of such deeds, or that the challenges that we have to face are too great to be overcome. Then we need to remember that God did not call the perfect and those who considered themselves as great and mighty ones to do His will. He called imperfect and sinful people, many of them were poor, uneducated, brash and also ambitious, filled with wickedness and unworthiness.

It was God Who made all those whom He called worthy, as we heard how the Seraph touched the lips of Isaiah with the burning charcoal from the altar of heaven, symbolically showing the divine providence by which Isaiah would speak, with the authority of God. And then the Holy Spirit was sent to the Apostles and the disciples, and the same Holy Spirit came to dwell in the faithful in the Church, the fullness of His many gifts, that revealed the truth of God and guided the disciples of the Lord in their ministry.

This is a reminder to all of us as Christians, that each and every one of us have been called by God to follow Him and to do what He has commanded us to do. He will give us the necessary strength and abilities in order to be able to do what we are supposed to do, and He will be with us, guiding us on our way through the challenges and the difficulties we may encounter along the journey. We have to put our trust in the Lord and give our very best in our service to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all turn towards the Lord with faith, and love Him with greater fidelity and learn to commit ourselves more thoroughly and wholeheartedly from now on, that our every words and actions, everything we say and do, will be for the greater glory and honour of God, and not for ourselves and our selfish desires and ambition. May the Lord be our guide, and may He strengthen us all in our faith, from now on, and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 3 February 2019 : Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we listened to the Lord speaking to us and reminding each and every one of us of what He has called us to be, to become His beloved children and as His followers, filled with His love. He has called us to be open to the love that He has shown us all, and which He has bestowed upon us. Unfortunately, many of us are often too preoccupied and distracted in life, to realise this love that God has placed in our midst, the great gift He has given to each and every one of us.

In all that we have heard today, from the readings of the Old Testament, New Testament and the Gospel passage, we heard of various expressions of God’s love, and how His servants have acted out of love for Him, and we are all called to emulate and show that same love that God has given to us, in our own lives. If we do not love each other as God has loved us, then we have not truly lived up to the fullness of our Christian faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Corinth, St. Paul wrote about the variety of gifts and wonders that God had given to us, in the various miracles, powers and talents He blessed us with, and yet, St. Paul reminded the faithful that all of those things are meaningless and useless, unless there is love in us, at the centre of our every actions and words, attitudes and direction in life.

In the first reading today, we heard of the words of the prophet Jeremiah, one of the most important and prominent prophets of the Old Testament time. The prophet Jeremiah was called by God to be His servant, to follow Him and to perform the great tasks entrusted to him, that is the conversion and repentance of the people of the kingdom of Judah, who is falling deeper and deeper into the path of sin and disobedience against God.

The prophet Jeremiah had a difficult task, and he encountered numerous challenges throughout his ministry, if we read more about his story as recorded in the Book of Kings. He had to face the wickedness of the people of Judah and their kings, together with their unwillingness to repent and change their ways, despite repeated reminders from the prophet, and the signs and warnings he gave of the inevitable coming of the downfall of Judah and Jerusalem.

He also had to go against many false prophets and lying seers and influential priests and leaders, who gave false prophecies and ideas to the people and the king, and the prophet Jeremiah was therefore seen as a crazy, unstable and unreliable madman, and worse still, some even saw him as a traitor to the nation, for having spoken such prophecies of the upcoming downfall of the kingdom of Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem and the suffering of the people.

And the prophet had to endure so many sufferings and pains, incarceration and prison, on top of the rejections and other forms of humiliations he had had to endure throughout his years of ministry. Any reasonable human beings would have given up their works and efforts in the face of such enormous opposition, challenges and difficulties. But why did Jeremiah not give up? He continued on regardless, and continued to be true to his mission to the very end.

That is because of his love for God, his understanding of God’s will, and how despite all the things that he had to suffer, but God had entrusted in him a very important task, which he had to do for the benefit of his fellow men, even if those people were stubborn and hard hearted, constantly refusing to believe in the word of God that he spoke of. He put his trust in God, that God will provide for him, and if he had not done what the Lord had commanded him to do, then many of his fellow men would have fallen deeper into sin and therefore into damnation.

In the Gospel today, we heard something that is very similar, of the moment when the Lord Jesus came among His own townspeople and neighbours in the village of Nazareth, where He proclaimed the truth about Himself and about the fulfilment of God’s salvation. The people went up against Him and many doubted Him, thinking of Him as a liar and upstart, using the argument that He was merely the Son of the village carpenter, St. Joseph, whom they had known for many years.

The Lord Jesus also encountered numerous other difficulties and challenges, throughout His earthly ministry. There were many who listened to Him and followed Him, but there were equally many if not more, who refused to believe in Him, doubted against Him just as what the people of Nazareth had done, and went against Him, particularly many among the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the priests of the Temple of God. In addition, the king Herod and his supporters, the Herodians and the Sadducees were also against the Lord.

They tested Him, made His journeys and teachings difficult, placing obstacles and barriers, challenges and persecutions, all for the sake of maintaining their own authority, their own prestige and status within the community of the people of God. They did not want to lose the privileges and the good things that they have gained for many years just because of the apparent challenge from that seemingly charismatic prophet, Jesus Christ, Whom they saw as a dangerous rival to their worldly schemes and ambitions.

We see in all of these, the lack of love which many of the people of God unfortunately experienced, that they did not have that love which they ought to have for God. In them, there is no place for God, for their hearts and minds have been filled up and corrupted by worldly desires, ambitions, ego, pride, and many other forms of distractions and temptations that have often prevented us from being able to love from our hearts. Instead of loving God, and loving our fellow men as we have been taught to do, we only care about our own desires and wants.

We may have all the talents, gifts, wonders and all other sorts of amazing things in our life, but if we are unable to love from our hearts, then everything that we have and everything we possess are meaningless and useless for us. Why is that so? That is because God has created us all to love, and to exist in love with Him and one another. And love is the essence of our existence. The moment we stop loving, we end up becoming selfish, egoistic, greedy and wicked, filled with all sorts of negativities that could have been avoided if only we allow ourselves to be filled with love.

What is love, brothers and sisters in Christ? Love is what the Lord Himself has shown us, not just by mere words but also through real actions. He showed us what love is all about, and taught us how we should also love through our words and actions in life. Many of us mistook love for desire and greed, and many also mistook love for pride and ego, or lust and promiscuity. All these are false forms of love that the devil has put in our midst in order to confuse us and to prevent us from finding our way to God’s salvation.

God has shown us what love is all about. True and genuine love is selfless and sacrificial in nature, filled with commitment and giving. He showed us what perfect love is, when He patiently ministered to us and cared for us, even with all of our rebelliousness and stubbornness, refusing to believe in Him and to love Him. We even ended up hating Him and being angry with Him, when we misunderstood His intentions, will and love for us. But God still loved us all nonetheless, even to the greatest of sinners.

It is this love that is reflected in His disciples and followers, including in prophet Jeremiah, in how he still carried out his obligations and calling as prophet despite all the nasty persecutions, troubles and sufferings that he had to face for so many years. All of these allowed him and multitudes of saints and martyrs to show the same love, first for God and then second, for their fellow men, even to those who have made them to suffer and persecuted them.

All of these are caused by them being inspired by none other than the examples of true love that the Lord Jesus has shown us, by His ultimate, loving sacrifice on the cross. He emptied Himself and embraced fully all the grievous and painful punishment that should have been ours to bear. His love for each and every one of us was so great, that He was able to endure all those wounds and pains inflicted on Him. His love for God, His Father and for each and every one of us, is the same love that we must have, every single moment of our lives.

Now then, brothers and sisters in Christ, how should we then emulate and show genuine love in our actions, words and dealings each and every days of our life? It is by learning to show love, selflessness and genuine compassion for those whom we encounter daily in our own lives, to not be selfish and be filled with desire and greed. Let us be generous in our giving and in our love, forgiving those who have caused us much pain and suffering. It is when we have this love in us, and God is at the centre of our lives, that we will have found our true peace in life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all pray that we will be given the courage and strength, to show love in all and everything that we say, do and act in our daily lives, that even when the world itself is against us, and even when we are tempted to give up and find another way, we will remain strong in our love and in our faith in God, and filled with this love, we will not be swayed by the falsehood of the devil, and be able to live our lives faithfully from now on. May the Lord continue to be with us and guide us in our path. Amen.

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Sunday, 27 January 2019 : Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, we are called to reflect on the important role that each and every one of us have to play as part of God’s Church, and how we can contribute, in our own unique ways, to the fulfilment of the many wonderful works of the Lord through His Church. These have been made clear to us through the readings of the Scripture that we heard today. We are all part of Christ’s one and only Church, and we all have important roles to play.

St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians, part of which is our second reading passage for this Sunday spoke about the nature of the Church, as the very one and only Body of Christ, consisting of all of us, the faithful people of God, as its organs and parts, all of which are inseparable from each other, united in purpose and function, and missing even one part can cause the whole part and the whole body to falter and suffer.

In the same Epistle, St. Paul also wrote about how each different parts of the Body of Christ, the Church, were made to be different, some with greater honour and some with less, some with more prominence while others with less, not because they were to be prejudiced against one another, but rather, because the Lord intended for each part to work together, and to learn to take care of one another, as ultimately, as just mentioned earlier, everyone is part of the same Church, and missing even one part can have grave consequences.

In the first reading today, we heard of the prophet and priest Ezra proclaiming the Law of God before the whole community of the Israelites who had just returned from the exile in Babylon. It was at the time when the community of Israel had just enjoyed a newfound freedom and a new hope for a new life back in their homeland. The Law of God being proclaimed by Ezra was a reminder for all of them that God was always in their midst, and at the centre of their lives and existence.

This means that the Church is an agglomeration of peoples of various backgrounds and talents, of diverse abilities and natures, like a beutiful And through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour and God, we heard the fulfilment of the promises of salvation which He had made for His people, the fulfilment and the revelation of the true meaning and significance of the Law He has given His people, as we heard in our Gospel passage today. The Lord proclaimed in His own hometown of Nazareth in Galilee, the fulfilment of God’s prophecies and promises, in the coming of the Messiah Who would save all of the people. And He was referring to Himself.

This is the mission that the Lord has entrusted to His Church, the Body of Christ, that is to proclaim the Good News of salvation, as Ezra the priest had proclaimed it before the people, and as the Lord Jesus Himself proclaimed before His own hometown assembly in Nazareth. The primary mission of the Church is indeed the salvation of all mankind, by its faithful witness of the Lord’s truth and the proclamation of the Good News.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, each and every one of us are called to do the same with our own lives. By virtue of our common baptism, each and every one of us have received and shared in the priestly, kingly and prophetic ministry of Our Lord. And by the same baptism, we have also been made parts of the one Body of Christ, God’s Church. As such, our lives are meant for the glorification of God and for the proclamation of His truth, to bring the love of God into the midst of this world, into our respective communities.

But as St. Paul compared the works and the functioning of the Church with a human body, each one of us as members of the Church cannot function and work independently of one another just as much as the organs of the body cannot work independently of one another. For example, heart is the most important part of the body as it pumps the blood to the various organs and parts of the body. If the heart stops working, then the person will also stop living, and yet, the heart cannot work on its own. Its activity is controlled by the brain, and without the lungs to support its function by absorbing oxygen from the air, the heart is useless.

Therefore, each one of us as members of the Church do not exist on our own, and neither do we act only selfishly for the sake of our own salvation. It is in fact selfishness that is the root of our own downfall, as when selfishness, greed and pride, ego and stubbornness come into our midst, to the centre of our Church, that we end up causing the downfall of each and every one of us. And this has indeed happened many times throughout the history of the Church and the world.

How is it so? It is exactly because of our selfishness and pride, that we see members of the Church causing scandal and showing unbecoming attitudes as Christians by their behaviours such as gossiping against other members of the Church, by slandering against those whom we do not like, by even direct insult and power-plays that caused much grief and hurt in the community of the faithful, and more often than not, causing the tearing apart of the fabrics of the Church’s unity and existence.

We often see how the laity are divided against themselves, and also priests being divided against their brother priests, scandals and conflicts within the religious orders and communities, as well as the divisions, anger and lots of misunderstandings between the priests and the laity, between the bishops and their flocks, among many others. All of these are in fact, if we realise, the tools of the devil in trying to undermine and destroy the unity of the Church, in order to snatch as many souls as possible into damnation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called to put an end to all of these. We are called to be more resilient in resisting the many temptations of life, the temptations of power, influence, money and many other worldly temptations present out there. These are the things which often come in the way of us realising our role and part to play as members of the Church, and the greatest obstacles that cause divisions and sufferings within the Church.

And some of us may feel uncertain, lost, unworthy or reluctant to do what we are supposed to do as members of the Church. But again, as mentioned, God made us all to be parts of this Church with all of our imperfections and weaknesses, and also our strengths. God did not make any one to be perfect, and no one can claim to be able to do everything for the Church, no matter how good or talented we are, as we are not perfect and have our own limitations.

After all, God Himself chose imperfect men to be His Apostles, and many sinners, including tax collectors, rebels, prostitutes, and others to be His disciples and followers. Many among them were uneducated and foolish, but God gave them the strength and the gift of faith to be able to perform all the things that He had entrusted to them. And we saw how all these came to be, all the wonderful deeds that the Apostles and the countless other holy men and women of God had done throughout history.

That is why it is important that we learn how to work with one another, making use of our respective strengths and abilities, to serve the Lord and perform the works which He has entrusted to us all in His Church. God has called us all to help one another and to make best use of the abilities and talents that we have been given for the greater glory of His Name and for the good of each and every one of us, and all of mankind.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today therefore, let us all renew our commitment to live our lives filled with faith, in all of our actions, words and deeds, so that in each and every single things that we do, we will work together as the members of God’s one universal Church, caring for the needs of one another, and loving our fellow brethren as much as we are able to do so. May the Lord be with us all, and may He bless all of our works, always. Amen.

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Sunday, 20 January 2019 : Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the wonderful works of the Lord, which He had performed before all for the first time in the flesh, as the Gospel passage today related to us the story of the miracle at the wedding ceremony held in Cana. I am sure that all of us are familiar with this miracle, how the Lord Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine, when the wedding couple ran out of wine for their very important day.

In order to better understand the significance of this miracle, we must understand the context and historical importance of what had happened at that time. A wedding ceremony is a very important event in the life of the person, according to the traditions of the Jewish people, and in fact, a wedding involved not just the two persons who were getting married, but rather, the whole community, as everyone rejoiced together when a man and a woman is joined in sacred matrimony.

On such an important day, for the wedding couple to run out of wine is tantamount to a massive embarrassment that can affect them for the rest of their lives. As the bride and the groom and their respective families were usually in charge of the celebration and festivities, and all the details with regards to the wedding ceremonies, running out of wine can be interpreted as a sign of misfortune, disgrace and lack of divine favour for the marriage.

That was why the wedding couple in that Cana’s wedding was likely to be worried and distraught, as their own reputation and families were under grave threat. Thus, they sought the help of the Lord, by the help of His mother, Mary, to whom they sought for help. The Lord Jesus was reluctant to help them, as it was not yet His time to reveal Himself before the people, but His mother Mary helped the wedding couple, by asking the servants to listen to the Lord’s words and obey Him.

In the end, the Lord commanded the servants to fill up jars of water used for purification purpose, and then bring some of the water to the steward of the wedding. Miraculously, the water has been turned into wine, by the power of the Lord. This was the first miracle that He performed before the people openly, and the wedding couple was indeed saved from the humiliation and shame that they could have endured had the Lord not miraculously turned the water into wine.

Last week, as we begun the current season of Ordinary Time, we had the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which marked the official beginning of His earthly ministry, when He revealed Himself to the greater community. And today we heard of the moment of His first miraculous deed among the people. There were many more miracles He was to perform among the people, healing the sick, casting out demons and evil spirits, feeding multitudes of people miraculously, and many more.

This is the fulfilment of what the Lord had promised to His people through the prophets, particularly the prophet Isaiah, who has spoken widely on the coming of the salvation in the Messiah Who was to come. And all of these have been fulfilled in Christ, the Messiah Who was promised, the Lord Jesus, Who came into the midst of His beloved people, performing God’s many wonderful works and miracles. And He called many disciples and followers to walk in His footsteps, to continue the good works He had begun.

The Lord had mercy on His people, because He saw how despicable the state they were in, and how great their sufferings had become, all because of their own sins and disobedience. He wants to reconcile them to Himself, to forgive them from their sins and their disobedience, because of His enduring and boundless love for each and every one of us. He showed His compassion when He decided to help the wedding couple at Cana, even though it was not yet His time to reveal Himself through His miracles. Yet, He was moved and did the miracle because of His love for them.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, what St. Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth spoke of the various gifts that God has bestowed upon each and every one of us, and the calling which He had made to us, to embrace those gifts and talents, which have been given to us for a purpose. And that purpose is for the glorification of God as well as for the benefit and good of our fellow mankind. For God’s works in this world are not yet completed and His mission for us is still yet in progress.

He gave His followers and disciples a very important commandment before He ascended into heaven. This commandment is that all of them must go forth and be witnesses and preachers of the Good News and the truth that He has revealed to the world. They are to go forth proclaiming the Lord’s truth and baptise peoples of all the nations in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. And thus this has been the mission entrusted to the Church, that is all of us the faithful people of God, to the end of time.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, to this end, the Lord Himself had said to His disciples, that He would give them the Helper, the Holy Spirit of God Who will guide them and teach them what they needed to know. And thus the Spirit granted us various gifts, for our respective missions and roles as members of the Church of God. We cannot do everything on our own, and no matter how much we try, there are always a lot of work that needs to be done.

Some of us have been called to a greater ministry of the diaconate, priesthood and the episcopate, dedicating ourselves to the service of God. These are those of us who have been called to the consecrated life, dedicating our whole lives and energies to serve both God and His people. But it does not mean that if we are not a deacon, or a priest or a bishop, then we are less important or have less responsibilities or things to do. In fact, the laity are still called to a great purpose and responsibility as members of the same Church of God.

The priests of God serve the whole Church, ministering to us all and celebrating the Sacraments of the Church. But without the support of the laity, those who have devoted their lives as priest, deacons and bishops will have a very hard time in fulfilling the good works and missions of the Church. The laity’s support in various ways are important, as I have mentioned earlier, in how we have been given many gifts, unique to each one of us.

For example, in those who have been called to the married life and creation of families, as symbolically mentioned in our Gospel passage today of the Wedding at Cana, we have a very important role to play in the Church, as the good and faithful Christian families are the basic units and pillars of the Church. It is in the family that the children learn first of the faith, and practice that same faith. If the family is not functioning as it should have, or diverged from the true faith, then we may end up having people losing their faith, especially those who are young among us.

And to others have also been given various other gifts, as administrators, volunteers and advocates, giving our respective talents to benefit God’s people. That is how the Church is able to reach out to so many people and to so many communities, by the tireless and numerous contributions of its members, both that of the laity and the priests alike. And now, we are also called to do the same with our own lives, if we have not done so thus far.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called to reflect on our own lives, and how each and everyone of us can contribute, no matter how small it is, to the whole good works of the Church, fulfilling the mission that God has entrusted to us, and commanded us to do. Just as the Lord began His first miracle at that wedding in Cana, fulfilling the will of His Father and loving God’s people, then we should also begin our own ministry, in loving God and in loving our fellow men, if we have not already done so.

Let us all pray, that in the depth of our hearts and minds, God may reveal to us and that we may discover and discern carefully what we need to do as faithful members of His Church and as His followers and disciples in our present day world, in our respective communities and families. Let us all give what we can give to serve the Lord and His people, using our own talents and abilities for the good of all people. Let us not hesitate any longer but be courageous in living our faith from now on.

May the Lord continue to guide us in our journey of life, and may He give us the strength to be missionaries of faith, in contributing our talents and abilities for the missions and works of His Church, from now on. May God always bless us all and our good works and endeavours, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 13 January 2019 : Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which is liturgically marking the last day of the current season of Christmas before we enter the Ordinary Time prior to the coming of the season of Lent in early March this year. On this day we commemorate the moment when the Lord Jesus was baptised at the River Jordan by St. John the Baptist, marking the occasion when the Lord finally began His ministry in this world after approximately thirty years since His birth.

St. John the Baptist was apprehensive at first when the Lord came up tp him asking to be baptised by him. He recognised Jesus as the One Whom he had been working all the while for, in order to prepare a straight path for His coming, and of Whom he had testified before the people, that not even he was worthy of untying the straps of His sandals, and how although he baptised with water, but the Lord would baptise them with the fire and the Holy Spirit.

But the Lord insisted despite St. John the Baptist’s reluctance, for everything was to be done in accordance with God’s will. The baptism of Our Lord Jesus was a momentous occasion, in which, the Lord Himself, God Incarnate in the flesh of Man, went through the same rite of passage as all of us the faithful people of God, just as by Him assuming His humanity has united His humanity to our own human existence.

The act of baptism itself, as St. John the Baptist performed it at the Jordan River, is a powerful symbol and reminder, that the people of God have been saved and liberated from slavery, as the Israelites in the ancient times were brought out of the land of Egypt where they were enslaved by the Egyptians and their Pharaoh. When the Pharaoh sent his army and chariots to chase after the Israelites, God opened the Red Sea before them and allowed them to pass through the sea unharmed.

Therefore, by the passing through the waters of the Red Sea, God’s people had been brought by the great power of God from slavery into freedom. And this is linked to another slavery by which not just the sons of Israel, but all mankind suffer from, that is the slavery to our sins. Sin is born out of disobedience and unwillingness to obey the will of God, and its consequence for us is death. Unless we are freed from the slavery of sin, we will surely perish.

This is where God revealed the great wonders of His love for each and every one of us, that even when we have sinned against Him, disobeyed His commandments and disregarded His will, but because God still loves us regardless of these wicked things we have done, He gives us a new hope and deliverance, just as He has once liberated His people from the tyranny of the Egyptians and their Pharaoh.

This time, He is liberating us from the greatest slavery that has enslaved all of us mankind, that is sin and death. And the symbolism of water that is used at baptism is indeed very profound, for water is both the symbol of death and life, as it can cause destruction by its powerful force, and yet, it is also necessary for the presence and propagation of life. Without water, life cannot exist, and water is essential for the maintenance of life.

By this symbolism of water, which is both used at the baptism of the Lord at the River Jordan, and in our own Christian baptism, the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, the Lord unites us all who have received this blessed and holy Sacrament, to His own experience of suffering and death, as well as to His glorious resurrection and triumph over sin and death itself. We share in the same redemptive experience that the people of Israel had experienced by the Red Sea and throughout the Exodus, and now we have even much more than that.

For God Himself has willingly endeavoured to save us, by His mighty deeds, in leading us out of the tyranny and enslavement by sin, through none other than His own beloved Son, Jesus Christ, Who is God incarnate, the Word of God made Man, through Whom God has given us our salvation. The Lord unites our own mortality to His own humanity, and gathers all of our unworthiness, our sufferings and pains, our sins and all the defilements present in us, and placing them upon Himself on the cross He bore, He became the source of our salvation and eternal life.

That is why, on the celebration of the Easter Vigil, on which day most people who are baptised as adults receive this blessed Sacrament of Baptism, we have the reading of the passage from Exodus on the salvation of Israel crossing through the Red Sea. Just as the Israelites passed on from their old life of slavery and suffering into a new life of blessing and grace with God, thus, we too, have passed on from our old life of sin and disobedience against God, into a new existence and life that is blessed and holy.

That is why, the Sacrament of Baptism is the first of the Sacraments to be received by any Christians. We received it either as a small infant, if we had been born into faithful, Christian families, or as someone who have desired and sought conversion to the true faith, and went through a period of instruction, after which we were baptised just as the Lord Himself was baptised in the Jordan.

At the moment of baptism, our old life and our old iniquities and sins are washed away and cleansed, and our existence is renewed and made blessed by God. Our old life and sin have been destroyed just as we share in the death of Christ on the cross. And through baptism, God made us all His adopted sons and daughters, just as at Baptism of the Lord Jesus, the voice of the Father was heard, “This is My Son, My Beloved. My favour rests on Him.”

This is why we have also been made the sons and daughters of God, by virtue of our shared humanity with Christ. If Christ is the Son of God, and if we are His brothers and sisters by our shared humanity, then we too can be called children of God. And because God has taken us to be His children, the fullness of His love and grace are slated to be ours. But we must also remember at the same time, that baptism is not the end of the journey for us.

Although baptism has erased the taints of original sin and the sins we have committed previous to our baptism, but this does not mean that we cannot sin anymore after our baptism. We are surely aware how many of us Christians keep on falling back again and again into sin, not listening to the will of God, our loving Father, and instead, preferring to follow the lies and falsehoods of Satan, the deceiver.

Satan knows that through baptism, he has lost his hold on us, and sin and death no longer has their grip on us. But, he still does not want to let us go, and as long as we still continue living in this world, our earthly existence, our bodies and our beings are still vulnerable to sin, and this is where the devil is trying very hard to try to pull us back into sin. And we must be careful lest we fall back into the same predicament, for if we live in a state of sin, we may yet fall into eternal damnation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, as we commemorate the glorious and wonderful moment of the baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ, let us all remember the moment of our own baptism. If we cannot remember it because we have been baptised as infants, then the least we can do is, try to remember the date and time of our baptism, by asking our godparents or parents, who surely can remember the time of that very crucial event in our life.

Let us today give thanks to God for the gift of baptism, in His willingness to take us as His adopted sons and daughters, and for the love which He has shown us, day after day. Baptism is only the beginning of a new journey in which we must make sure that we listen to the will of God. Baptism is the beginning of the time of grace and yet also struggle in which we must often face divisions and even persecutions for standing up to our faith.

May the Lord bless each and every one of us always, and may He allow us to remember the joy of our baptism, and that we may know what we need to do in our lives now that we have been made God’s own beloved children. Let us love Him more and more, each and every days of our life. Let our life and existence glorify God and let us proclaim the wonders of His love by our own loving actions to our fellow brethren. Amen.