Sunday Mass sermon

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Sunday, 18 August 2024 : Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in this Sunday each and every one of us are reminded that we are all expected as Christians, as the holy and beloved people of God, to be full of love and trust for the Lord and to follow Him in all of our ways. The Lord has revealed His truth and His ways to us, and gave us all His own Body and Blood to partake so that we all become part of Him, united as one people of God, and the Lord Himself dwells in us. Therefore, as the Lord Himself has brought us all into this new existence through His giving of His own Body and Blood, the Eucharist, we all should be truly transformed in all things, in all our whole lives so that we may truly be worthy to be God’s holy and chosen people.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Old Testament, from the Book of Proverbs in which the author of this Book spoke about the Wisdom of God having established itself upon this world and then calling upon the people to come and partake in the bread and wine that has been prepared for them as food and drink so that they all might gain enlightenment and knowledge, and all these were actually precursors and premonitions of what the Lord had planned for us, in sending unto us His own beloved Son, through Whom He bestowed upon us His Wisdom, by the words of truth and the Good News He has given us and by the Holy Spirit that He has granted to all of us, so that each and every one of us who partake in His Body and Blood all have a share in His Wisdom and knowledge, and therefore come closer to the path to salvation.

Then in our second reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in Ephesus, we heard of the Apostle St. Paul exhorting the Christians in that place to behave themselves well and to carry out their lives in accordance to their Christian faith and beliefs, and not to be easily swayed by worldliness and wickedness of the temptations and vile things around them. He reminded them not to live as how the pagans lived, and all those who lived in their worldly manners, which kept them all away from the true salvation in God. In their folly and preoccupation with worldly matters and things, they have ended up losing sight on the true treasures that they can find in God alone. We are therefore also reminded to live in the manner that is truly pleasing to God.

Each and every one of us should do our part in living our lives faithfully and worthily so that in our every moments in life, in our actions, words and deeds, we will always proclaim the Lord through our exemplary and good life, showing that we are truly God’s beloved people, belonging to Him and blessed by Him. As Christians we should always be careful and vigilant with our actions, words and deeds so that they may not end up contradicting what we believe in, and which then will make us look foolish in the eyes of the world. Those who profess to believe in God and yet act in manner that is contrary to their own beliefs are essentially hypocrites and are no better than unbelievers and pagans. If we truly consider ourselves as Christians, as God’s people and as His followers, then we ought to be truly committed to Him.

In our Gospel passage this Sunday, we then heard of the continuation of the discourse of the Bread of Life, of the Lord our God, our Saviour, Who has given Himself in His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood to us to share and partake so that all of us who have eaten of His Body and drank of His Blood, we may receive new life and grace from Him, and receive the assurance of eternal life from Him, that one day we shall share with God the true and full happiness, joy and glory that we shall enjoy forever  in His Presence, no longer being separated or sundered from Him anymore because of our sins and wickedness. This is a core tenet and belief that we have as Christians, that the Eucharist that we receive and partake is the Lord Himself, truly present in the bread and wine.

We believe in the doctine of transubstantiation, in which the bread and wine offered during the every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, by the power and authority of God Himself, passed down to the Church and all of us God’s faithful people through His Apostles and their successors, our bishops and priests, they have converted those bread and wine into the very essence and reality of Our Lord’s own Body and Blood, an unbloody sacrifice united and is indeed the very same bloody Sacrifice that Our Lord Himself has offered from His Cross, as He laid suffering and dying, pierced and nailed to His Cross, that is His Altar, from which His Blood, the Blood of the Lamb of God, and His broken Body became the most perfect and worthy sacrifice and offering for the atonement of our innumerable sins and faults.

Therefore, as we have listened through the readings of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all presented and reminded of the great things which God Himself had done for us, as our most loving Father and Creator, in reaching out to us with His ever great, persistent and enduring love, the love which has always endured despite our repeated disobedience and stubborn attitudes against Him. The Lord has made available to us His ever generous mercy and forgiveness, and He waits for us to make the decision to turn away from our wickedness and sins, and to embrace once again His grace and kindness, His providence and compassionate love. That is why we should embrace God’s Wisdom and reject the foolishness of this world, the foolishness and stubbornness of our ego and pride, which have often become obstacles in our path towards God and His salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all hence commit ourselves anew to the Lord and do whatever we can so that our lives, our every actions, words and deeds, our every interactions with one another may always be exemplary and be filled with righteousness and grace of God. May all of us be the shining beacons of God’s light and truth, and may each and every one of us continue to inspire our fellow brothers and sisters in living our lives worthily of the Lord and in drawing more and more people ever closer to God and His grace, His salvation and light. May we all be the ones to worthily proclaim God and His love to this world, so that by our actions and lives, we may truly profess Him and proclaim Him at all times with great and ever enduring faith, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 11 August 2024 : Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures presented to us, we are all called to remember God’s providence and love for each and every one of us, in how He has constantly reached out to us with generous love, kindness and compassion at all times. He has provided us through His various means, helped us all when we have difficulties and challenges, in His own unique and mysterious ways. Essentially, He never abandoned us and has always wanted us all to be truly blessed and provided for, at all times. Ultimately, He gave to us the ultimate gift in His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, through Whom God has saved all of us and gathered us all once again, giving to us all the gift of the Living Bread from Heaven.

In our first reading this Sunday, taken from the First Book of Kings of Israel and Judah, we heard of the moment when the prophet Elijah, who had been sent to minister to the people of God in the northern kingdom of Israel. At that time, Elijah had been persecuted and oppressed by the Israelites and their king, Ahab, and his wife, Queen Jezebel, both of whom had disobeyed God and persecuted His prophets. The latter in particular was very hostile against Elijah because of his role in leading to the deaths of four hundred and fifty priests of Baal, the false god promoted by Queen Jezebel, as Elijah showed everyone that God is truly the one and only True God against the false god Baal at Mount Carmel, where a contest was held between Elijah, the sole representative of God, and Baal’s four hundred and fifty priests. The Lord showed His power before His people, while Baal was impotent.

Elijah was persecuted afterwards, and he had to flee into the desert. We heard his frustrations and sufferings when he expressed it to the Lord there. But God reassured Elijah and strengthened him, giving him the courage and resolve to carry on with his mission despite the challenges and trials he had to face. He sent to Elijah an Angel bearing food and drink for him to consume and to be strengthened in his body. Through the food that he received, he was empowered, and making the journey of forty days and forty nights, he eventually went all the way to the Mountain of God, Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai, where the Israelites once established a Covenant with God at the time of their Exodus, and where God revealed Himself to all of them. It was there that God would appear to Elijah as well, reassuring him and strengthening his resolve to continue to minister to the stubborn and rebellious Israelites.

Then in our second reading this Sunday, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Ephesus, we heard of the reminders with St. Paul told the people of God of the great grace and love which all of them had received through the Lord, by the grace of His love, of the loving Father the Creator, the presence of the Son in this world in our midst, and by the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit in all of us, who have received the gift of the Spirit of God from the Father Himself through His Son. That is why all of us as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people, each and every one of us should always strive to be ever faithful and committed to Him, and to be exemplary in all of our lives and actions. We should always be righteous and just in all of our dealings and attitudes in life.

And as St. Paul himself mentioned to the Ephesians, that they all had to imitate the Lord’s own examples in loving us and in showing us His commitment to the Covenant which He had made with us and constantly renewed with us. God has always shown us all His patient and ever enduring love, His most generous love and kindness, His compassion and mercy which He has kindly extended to each one of us without exception. Even the greatest of sinners have access to God’s generous love and mercy, and He has always been patient in guiding and leading us all to Himself. He has given us all ample opportunities, moments and times for us to embrace Him and His loving kindness, His mercy and forgiveness, and for us to repent from our sins and change our ways in life. But that is up to us to choose, to make a stand and be faithful to the Lord in all of our lives.

In our Gospel passage, from the Gospel according to St. John, we heard the continuation of the discourse on the Bread of Life which we have begun last Sunday, when the Lord told them that He is the Living Bread from Heaven, the Bread of Life, through Whom God wanted to give us all the assurance, nourishment and promise of eternal life, that all who worthily partake of His Body and Blood, all shall receive the fullness of His grace and love, and receive the promise of eternal life. We heard how the Jewish people and many among those who have heard Him openly grumbled and doubted Him because He told them that He is the Bread from Heaven, the Bread of Life that God would give to His people, comparing Himself to the manna, the heavenly bread that their ancestors had received and consumed, and how this Bread of Life is far better than all that manna in the past.

The Lord reiterated again that He is the Bread of Life, and this is a precursor and premonition of what would soon happen, when the Lord Himself offered His Body and His Blood at the moment when He accomplished and perfected His mission through His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross. By His willing acceptance and shouldering of all of our many sins and wickedness, our faults and mistakes, God through His Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, had taken up upon Himself, as the Paschal Lamb, the Sacrificial Victim to be offered on the Altar of the Cross for the forgiveness of all of our sins. Through His offering of this most perfect and worthy of offerings, He Who is also our Eternal High Priest, had created for all of us the New and Eternal Covenant, the one Covenant through which God reconciled us all to Himself and restored us to the state of grace.

And all of us receive from Him, through His Institution of the Most Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, which we commemorate every year on Holy Thursday, His very own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, which have been broken and shed for us from His Cross, the same ultimate sacrifice that He has performed and offered on Calvary on Good Friday. Each and every one of us who partake of His Most Precious Body and Blood receive this same Bread of Life that Christ our Lord had promised to us, and He therefore dwells in us, making us all part of the same Body, the Body of Christ, the Church of God, uniting us all into one people, one flock of those whom God had called, chosen and saved from this world. It is through God Himself that we have been saved, and we should not squander this great opportunity that has been granted to us.

Through what we have therefore heard from the Scripture passages this Sunday, each and every one of us are reminded of God’s most generous love and kindness which He has always given to us, His providence, love and patient nurturing and care, which He has always given us freely. Therefore, recognising this fact and reality that we are truly blessed to have been loved in such a manner by the Lord, our most loving God and Father, let us all strive to live our lives worthily for Him, to love Him first and foremost in all things and distance ourselves from any forms of sin or corruptions that can prevent us from coming towards the Lord and His loving Presence. Let us also realise that while God’s love and mercy have been extended to us freely and generously, as mentioned earlier, we need to embrace His love and mercy, and act upon them so that we can be truly reconciled and reunited with Him.

Hence, let us all continue to do our part as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people, so that in each and every moments of our lives we will always put our faith and trust in Him, believing in His Providence and help, in all the guidance, strength and all the things that He will bless us all with in our respective journeys in life. There will likely indeed be challenges, trials and difficulties we may encounter in our journey, but as long as we remain faithful to the Lord and trust in Him throughout our journey, in the end, we will be triumphant with Him, and we will receive the fullness of all the wonders and blessings, the graces and all the good things that God has promised and reassured us with, through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. May all of us continue to walk faithfully in the path that Our Lord has shown us, and let us all continue to inspire one another to do the same, to be ever faithful at every moments of our lives. Amen.

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Sunday, 4 August 2024 : Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded on one very important aspects of our Christian faith, the very core tenet of our beliefs, namely that of the belief in the Real Presence of the Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist which we partake at every celebrations of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We are all reminded that as God’s people we are all cared by Him, and He has always loved us most generously and tenderly without any exception. Each and every one of us are beloved of the Lord, so much so that He has provided for us physically and spiritually in all things most wholesomely just as how He had shown it in the past through what we have heard in our Scripture passages this Sunday. And ultimately, He gave to us all the ultimate and best gift of all, namely that of His only begotten Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of Exodus in which the Lord provided His people, the Israelites, with food and provisions during the time of their Exodus and journey from the land of Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan through the desert. At that time, the Israelites after having travelled through the desert for some time began complaining about their state of life, as they compared their status to when they were still enslaved back in the land of Egypt. They were saying that it would have been better for them to remain in Egypt as slaves and enjoying whatever bounties and food that they had in Egypt rather than to be free and to wander off in the desert on their way to this land promised to them by God.

This showed that the people of Israel did not have faith and trust in the Lord, and showing just how little confidence they had in God Who up to that time had showed them repeatedly His love and kindness, His compassion and mercy. God has not abandoned His people even when they disobeyed Him and refused to listen to Him. He provided for them and helped them, just as He had done earlier on in Egypt. He showed them His power when He led the people out of Egypt, striking upon the Egyptians with ten great plagues that humbled the Egyptians and their Pharaoh, forcing them to admit that the Lord is truly the one and only God, the Master of all, and that He is the Lord over all the Israelites, whom He brought out of the land of Egypt with great power, even opening the sea itself before them. He kept on doing these even when His people doubted Him and did not fully put their faith and trust in Him.

As we heard in that passage from the Book of Exodus, the Lord sent to the Israelites bread from Heaven itself, the manna, which gave them sustenance and provision for their entire time and journey in the desert, over the whole entire forty years period of that journey. He also gave them flocks of birds in the evening just as the manna came in the morning to make them all have their fill, and despite the desert being mostly inhospitable for life and without any food, but God made His people miraculously not just surviving in their forty years sojourn in the desert, but also thrived during that whole period. He also gave them crystal clear and good water to drink throughout their journey, giving them everything they needed even amidst all their rebellious attitudes and actions.

In our second reading, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in Ephesus, we heard of the words of the Apostle speaking to the people of the need for all of them to reject and abandon their past lives of sin, their disobedience against God and their wickedness, all of which should be exchanged for a new life filled with God’s grace and light, His truth and love. As Christians, St. Paul reminded all of us that we should no longer allow ourselves to be easily swayed by worldly temptations and all sorts of desires, ambitions, pursuits for fame and glory which many of us often indulged in, all of which can lead us astray from the Lord and His path as many of our predecessors had experienced. Instead, we should embrace the path that the Lord has shown us wholeheartedly, allowing Him to transform our lives to embody what we believe in Him.

Then, in our Gospel passage this Sunday, from the Gospel of St. John, we heard of the discourse of the Bread of Life from the Lord to His disciples and to all those who have come seeking Him. At that time, which was just after the Lord performed the wondrous miracle of the multiplication of the loaves of bread and fishes, feeding many thousands of people, many among the people were astonished at what they had experienced, in receiving the miraculous feeding with bread, that they came seeking for the Lord when He went away with His disciples. They were seeking Him as the Lord Himself mentioned because they were satisfied after being fed with all the food and they were seeking satisfaction and pleasures of the world, but they did not truly have strong and genuine faith in the Lord yet.

That was why when the people mentioned how their ancestors were fed by the heavenly bread, the manna, the Lord told them all that it was indeed God Who had provided and given them the bread to eat, to sustain and nourish them throughout the journey, a feat which the Lord Himself also replicated and repeated again before their own eyes, as they saw and witnessed how the Lord gave them multitudes of food from merely five loaves of bread and two fishes. Through this act and event, God showed them all His loving Presence being manifested through His Son in this world, showing them how He had been truly present in their midst, loving them and caring for them as He has always done. And not only that, but He was giving them even more than just merely physical bread, as He gave Himself to be the Living Bread, broken and shared for them, something that far surpasses even the manna.

For through His loving sacrifice made and offered on the Cross, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has given us all His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood to share and partake, so that all of us may truly gain the perfect fulfilment and satisfaction, giving us the ultimate gift and nourishment that no physical sustenance can provide us. Through the Most Holy Eucharist, Our Lord’s own Presence in the flesh, in His Body and Blood, all of us have become the Temple of God’s Holy Presence, as He dwells within us, and the Holy Spirit He has imparted upon us blessing and sanctifying us all with His grace. But even more importantly, we must realise just how fortunate we are for us having been loved in such a way by our loving God and Creator, and we are therefore called to do our part in the Covenant that He has established with us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, each and every one of us as part of His one united Body, through this sharing of the Most Holy and Sacred Communion, of all the believers in Christ, we are all called to sanctify our lives and existence by doing our very best in each and every circumstances in our respective lives that our whole lives, our every actions and deeds may be truly filled with God’s light and truth, His grace and love. We should be thankful for everything that God has given us, and make best use of the many opportunities and the talents and abilities which He has blessed us with, so that in everything we say and do, in our every interactions with one another, we will continue to be good examples and role models, inspirations and strength for one another to continue living our lives as genuine Christians at all times.

May the Lord continue to guide us in our journey, and may He continue to strengthen and nourish us all with His Bread of Life, the Holy Eucharist that we continue to partake in. Let us all continue to focus and put the emphasis of our lives upon the Lord in all the things that we say and do, in all of our every moments in life. May we all as Christians also continue to live ever more worthily in all circumstances, doing our best so that we may continue to grow ever stronger in our love and faith in the Lord, and that our lives may continue to bring glory to the Lord, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 28 July 2024 : Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we all listened to the words of the Lord in the Scriptures, we are all reminded that each and every one of us are the ones whom God had loved and shown His favour to, and all of us need to realise just how fortunate we all to have been beloved by the Lord in such a way. All of us has received from the Lord Himself the generous love and kindness, forgiveness and mercy for all of our wrongdoings and evil deeds, as long as we are willing to seek Him for forgiveness and mercy. Therefore each one of us as His disciples and followers, as Christians, are all called to do our best in our lives in each and every moments so that our lives may truly be a reflection of God’s love and truth, and that we may truly be His worthy disciples and followers.

In our first reading today, taken from the Second Book of Kings of Israel and Judah, we heard of the account of the miracle that happened during the time of the prophet Elisha and his ministry among the people of the northern kingdom of Israel. At that time, as we heard, there were a hundred men assembled in that place where Elisha was. Then while they were there, a man brought the products of the first harvest to Elisha, a total of twenty loaves of bread. If we assume that each of the hundred men eat one loaf of bread each, there were not nearly enough for a quarter of their number to eat, less still for all of them. In addition, there was also a famine raging at the timeline of this event in the land of Israel. As such, if we understand the context of these events, we can see just how significant this miracle from God truly was.

As we have also heard in our Gospel passage of a similar miracle by the Lord Jesus, the prophet Elisha miraculously made the loaves of bread to be sufficient for all the hundred men to share and eat, with leftovers, just as the Lord had said it. This was the proof of God’s love for His people, that He did not just care for them spiritually, but even also physically, and ensuring that they had enough for themselves in whatever they need in the physical sustenance and requirements in their lives. He did not abandon them all and still loved them all even though many of them at that time had disobeyed Him, disregarded His Law and commandments, persecuted His prophets and messengers, among the many other evil and wicked deeds which they had done. He has always loved them and His love for them endured through all that, and He wanted them all to repent from those sins and return to Him.

As mentioned, related to what we have just heard from the first reading passage, the Gospel passage this Sunday also spoke of a similar miracle that had happened, where in the Gospel of St. John we heard of the account of how the Lord Jesus performed the great miracle of the multiplication of the loaves of bread and the fishes, which the Lord made it such that all the five thousand men and many thousands more of women and children assembled there could have their fill and still there were so many bread leftover that twelve whole baskets of them were gathered in the end. Through this account of the Gospel, which is related to the first reading’s account of the miracle of the prophet Elisha, we are all shown how God would provide for all of His beloved and faithful people. He would not abandon those whom He loved and all of them would be shown kindness and providence in God’s own mysterious ways.

God did not spare us any effort to reach out to us and to gather us all back to Himself, calling on all of us to return to Him with a lot of patience and love. He sent them His prophets like Elisha and many others to remind them of this love and of all the kindness which He has generously given to them. And He promised to all of them the One Who would save them all, the Saviour, in the Person of none other than His own Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God manifested in the flesh, that the same Christ is the One Who gave that miraculous feeding to all the thousands assembled there to listen to Him. He fed them with the bread and fishes until they were full, with leftovers like at the time of the prophet Elisha, and He also provided them spiritually through His teachings and words.

From our second reading passage taken from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Ephesus, the Apostle spoke about the calling and mission of all Christians, of God’s holy and beloved people to be truly faithful and worthy of the Lord in all the things that they do and carry out in their lives. He reminded all of us through this Epistle that all of us ought to always strive to do what God had taught us to do, to be righteous and faithful in all things, being committed to God and His ways, and to be loving and compassionate to one another, showing our generous love and kindness to everyone around us. As Christians, each and every one of us must always exude the love and grace of God in all of our lives, in each of our actions and at every moments.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all have heard from the Scripture passages we received this Sunday, we are all reminded yet again as we have constantly been reminded, of God’s ever present and enduring love for us. We should no longer take God’s love and generosity for granted, and we should also share this same love in our own lives, by being generous and kind, what we give out of generosity from our hearts, we shall be blessed manyfold more by the Lord, just as we have seen how God multiplied the loaves of bread. It is also a lesson to remind us all not to worry about our lives and not to lose our trust and faith in God. We must always remember that in the Lord and with Him, all of us will eventually be triumphant with Him, and it is in Him alone that we can find true happiness and joy in life, and not in all the pleasures of the world, all of which are fleeting and illusory in nature.

May the Lord, our most loving and compassionate God, Who has always watched over us and remembered us even when we have sinned against Him, continue to love us ever more generously, and may He continue to shine His love, kindness and mercy on us, especially when we come to Him seeking for His mercy and forgiveness. Let us all continue to do our part in our respective lives so that by our renewed dedication and commitment to God, we may grow ever stronger in our relationship with Him, and we may continue to bear witness to His love and kindness at all times. May He bless us in all of our works and efforts, all of our deeds, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 21 July 2024 : Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded that as His holy and beloved people, that is as those who profess our Christian faith and truth, our obedience and commitment to Him, each and every one of us must always live our lives worthily and commit ourselves to follow the Lord in all things, to do what He has taught us to do, to follow His own examples in everything we do. Each and every one of us as Christians are called to fulfil our respective missions in life, to do what the Lord has entrusted to us to do, He, Who is the Chief and Good Shepherd, so that in all the things that we say and do, we will help to ensure that we inspire and are good role models for our fellow brothers and sisters around us, thus helping and inspiring each other to come ever closer to God.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah in which the Lord first began by chiding His faithless and wicked people, especially all those who have misled them all into the wrong and wicked paths, namely the ‘shepherds’ and guides of the people, referring to the wicked and unfaithful kings of Judah who have disobeyed the Lord and established the worship of pagan gods and idols on the holy sites and places of worship of the Lord, as well as those false prophets who were aplenty, claiming to represent God’s will and speak His words, when they in fact advanced their own ideas, preferences and agenda, desiring to gain things and benefits for themselves rather than to do what is right to the people of God and to truly do God’s will.

The prophet Jeremiah had often spoken against those false prophets and all the wicked practices of the people of Judah and their kings, prophesying about the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, which would indeed happen very soon at that time, when the Babylonians came to conquer the kingdom of Judah, destroying Jerusalem and its Temple. And everything that the prophet Jeremiah had said would indeed come to pass with the Babylonians bringing many of the people of Judah into exile in distant lands away from the lands that they and their ancestors had lived in, a consequence of the rebelliousness and wickedness of their lives and actions before God and men alike.

But at the same time, the Lord also reassured His people of His continued love and generous mercy and forgiveness, as He told them that He would gather them all back and then appoint over them shepherds and guides who would take good care of them all, referring first of all to how they would eventually return to their homeland after many years and decades in exile, and how the Lord would allow and help them to rebuild their lives once again, as they would reestablish their homes and cities, rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem which would once again be the centre of the proper and worthy worship of the Lord. All these things would indeed come to be just as the Lord had decreed and willed them all to be.

In our second reading this Sunday, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Ephesus in which the Apostle spoke of this great love and salvation which God had made available to all of us, His beloved ones, through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Who has come into our midst, to all of us, the beloved children of God, so that by His coming into this world, and by everything that He has willingly done for us, all of us may receive from Him the assurance of eternal life and true happiness with Him. And He did all these by the willing and most selfless sacrifice, all the sufferings that He endured from His Cross, which He brought and carried with Him all the way to Calvary.

Yes, indeed, God had saved us all and shown us all the most perfect and worthy example of His ever enduring love for us by His Son’s Passion, the suffering and all that He experienced, as He offered for us, on our behalf, the most worthy offering and sacrifice of His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, the Body and Blood of the Lamb of God, persecuted and slain at the Altar of the Cross at Calvary, on the day of our salvation, that is Good Friday, so that through His offering and sacrifice, all of us may receive the full assurance and guarantee of eternal life and salvation through Him. This is truly the perfect example of God’s ever enduring and generous love for us, which we ought to remember at each and every moments of our lives.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark, we heard of the Lord Jesus Who continued to teach to the people and care for them despite Him and His disciples being physically tired from all the works and missions that they carried out among the people. The disciples had wanted to go off to a secluded place to avoid the crowd so that they all could have a rest after the continuous and ceaseless streams of people coming to the Lord to have Him heal their sick ones or to listen to His teachings and words. But the Lord had pity on the people, who were described in the Gospel as those who were without any shepherd and guidance.

This was in fact a fulfilment of what the Lord had proclaimed earlier on through the prophet Jeremiah and the other prophets, that God would indeed send to His beloved people a new Shepherd, the One Who would gather all of them and show them the path towards Himself, He Who is the Good Shepherd and the Lord of all, none other than Jesus Christ Himself, the Saviour. Through His Son, the Lord gathered everyone back to Himself, calling upon everyone to embrace once again His love and providence, and to follow the path that He Himself has shown us so that we may not be lost again to Him through our disobedience and sins. God wants each and every one of us to be fully reconciled and reunited with Him.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all have heard from the Sacred Scriptures and as we have discussed and discerned them all earlier in their messages, we are all reminded that as God’s most beloved ones, we must always realise just how beloved and precious each and every one of us by God, Who has done everything for us so that we may have the path towards eternal life. Let us all therefore reject all sorts of wickedness and evils in our lives and strive from now on to be ever more committed to God, in all the things that we say and do, in our every interactions with one another. May the Lord be with us always and may He continue to empower and strengthen us all so that we will continue to follow Him and be faithful to Him, ever reminded of the great and ever enduring, most wonderful love that He has for each one of us, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 14 July 2024 : Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are presented with the readings from the Sacred Scriptures in which we are all reminded first of all of the great and ever enduring love which the Lord our God has for each and every one of us, of His patience in seeking us out and in helping us to find our way back to Him. He has always been sending out His servants and disciples to reach out to us, to help and guide us in our journey back to Him. Through all that He has done for us, God has opened for us the path to eternal life and true happiness through Him, and all of us should then remember of every efforts that He had done in loving us despite all of our rebellious behaviours and disobedience against Him.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of the prophet Amos in which the interactions between King Amaziah of the northern kingdom of Israel and the prophet Amos, who hailed from the land of Judah, is presented to us. At that time, both the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the two kingdoms where the people of Israel, the chosen people of God lived in, had been separated for a long time, for about a few centuries. The northern kingdom of Israel came to be because many of the Israelites rebelled against the House of David after the reign of King Solomon because they were taxed and exploited, which made them to declare independence under a new king, who then also led the people into sin because he established an independent centre of worship in Bethel.

Why was that so? Understanding this will be important to understand the conflict and friction between the King of Israel and the prophet Amos, God’s prophet who had been sent to the Israelites from the land of Judah. The king of the northern kingdom of Israel ever since the first one, Jeroboam, up to that of Amaziah had been carrying out the worship of idols in the temple built in Bethel, in opposition to God’s Law, which stated that the people of God, the Israelites, must go to Jerusalem, to the Temple of God there where the Lord’s Holy Presence resided, to worship Him. Jeroboam established instead a golden calf idol, which was reminiscence of what the Israelites did during their Exodus from Egypt, in rebellion against God.

In addition to that, King Jeroboam also established a new order of priesthood not in accordance with God’s Law which decreed that the priests were to be selected only from among the Levites. As such, ever since, the people of Israel had disobeyed the Lord, committed great sins against Him. Yet, despite all of that, the Lord still loved His people and cared for them all nonetheless, as He continued to sent prophets after prophets to help and guide them all in their paths. The Lord continued to try to reach out to them even when they continued to close their hearts and minds against Him, like how King Amaziah of Israel attempted to harass the prophet Amos to go back to the land of Judah. But Amos stood his ground and told the king that God had sent him to the land of Israel to do His will, to bring His people back to Him.

In our second reading today, we then heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Ephesus where the Apostle spoke of the great love of God which He has always shown and poured down upon us as he wrote about all the grace, love, kindness, wisdom and all the things He has revealed to us, especially through His beloved Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. St. Paul told the faithful people of God and hence reminded us all of the intentions which the Lord, our loving God and Master has always had for us from the very beginning. God has created all of us as the most perfect and beloved ones among all that He had created. He has intended for us to share in the fullness of His overflowing and ever generous love.

Unfortunately, through our disobedience and refusal to listen to Him, we have spurned God’s love and squandered everything which He has prepared and intended to give to us. That is why we have been cast out of the Gardens of Eden, from God’s Holy Presence. It was not because God despised us or hated us, and it was not because God intended or wanted us all to suffer in this world from all the various sufferings and hardships, and less still from the unavoidable fate of death. Rather, it was our own disobedience and sins which had led us into this fate, our conscious rejection of God’s love and grace, choosing to allow Satan to tempt us and to persuade us to turn away from God and His path of righteousness and virtue. We chose to listen to his lies and sweet false promises, rather than to trust in God.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord Jesus sent out His disciples in mission to the places that He Himself would be going to, in order to reach out to more people and to call more and more people to God’s path and loving embrace once again. Through all that He had told the disciples to do, in bringing only what they needed and to trust in the Lord, and most importantly in the missions and works that they had carried out, in healing the people and performing great signs and miracles, casting out demons and proclaiming the Good News of God, once again we have been shown the great love of God which had indeed been manifested through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, Whom St. Paul had been writing about in our second reading this Sunday.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all stop our stubborn attitudes and behaviours, and strive from now on to recognise just how beloved and fortunate we are to have received God’s love and grace. We must be thankful that God has always remembered us and put us first and foremost in His thoughts, and He has always been kind and generous to us in all things. All of us must also continue to do our part to love Him and put Him as the most important one in our lives, the One Who we all should be committed to in each and every moments of our lives. And as Christians, as God’s disciples and followers, we should also follow in the footsteps of the Apostles and disciples of the Lord, in proclaiming His Good News and truth, showing His love and compassion for all of us through our own worthy lives and actions.

May the Lord, our most loving, compassionate and merciful God and Father continue to watch over us and be gracious to us. May He continue to be patient in loving and caring for us all, His often wayward children, who have often disobeyed and angered Him by our many sins and wickedness. Let us all commit ourselves to turn away from those sins and reject this path of evil, and commit ourselves anew to the path of righteousness and virtue from now on. May God be with us all, and may He empower us all so that we can continue to be courageous to live our lives worthily as His disciples and followers, and as His beloved ones, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 7 July 2024 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded through the readings of the Sacred Scriptures that we must always be obedient to God, be humble in all things and keep in mind that no matter how great we are, ultimately everything that we have, and all of our greatness and achievements, all of these are only possible because of God, His guidance and blessings towards us. Through God’s help and guidance all of us have received the strength and the means to persevere through the challenges of life, and by His providence, we have been guided to reach the path towards salvation and eternal life with God. However, we must always be ever vigilant and careful, lest the many temptations present around us may lead us astray into the path of ruin and damnation.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel in which God called Ezekiel and sent him to the people of Israel in exile in Babylon, to speak to them all at the place of their exile to remind them all of their loving God and Master, the One Who had chastised and punished their ancestors and predecessors for their sins and wickedness, but One Who also would embrace them all once again with His ever generous and enduring love because after all, despite all the anger and punishments that He had given against those same people. This is because ultimately, God has always loved His people, whom He had called and chosen to share in His love and inheritance, and as a loving Father to His beloved ones, that He had treated as His children, He wanted them all to grow up well and to follow the path that He has shown them.

Therefore, God’s chastisements and punishments to the Israelites were ultimately meant to lead those wayward people back towards Him. He wanted them all to repent from their sinful ways and to remember His love for them, and how as God’s chosen people, they were supposed to live righteously and virtuously in God’s path, and not to give in to the wickedness of the world, all the temptations of sin that could bring them all into destruction and damnation. Their exile in Babylon was meant to remind them all that without God, there would be no good future for them, and there would only be desolation and suffering if they continued to disobey the Lord. On the other hand, if they embraced God’s mercy and love, His compassion and kindness, then there will be path out of the darkness and despair for them.

In our second reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Corinth, we heard of the words of the Apostle St. Paul reminding the faithful there about the dangers of temptations and the corruptions of human desires and pride, all of which can lead the people into the path of sin and evil. He used himself as an example and told the faithful in Corinth about how he has constantly been reminded by the ‘thorn of Satan’ to keep him reminded of his own imperfections and frailty, lest he became to proud because of all of his works and achievements in proclaiming the Good News of God to more and more people among the Gentiles in his missionary journeys. Through this example, St. Paul wanted to remind and warn the other faithful people of God not to give in to the very dangerous allures and temptations of worldly fame, glory and ambitions which could lead them astray from the path of God’s righteousness.

Then in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the moment when Lord Jesus returned to His hometown of Nazareth after He has raised the daughter of Jairus the synagogue official from the dead. We heard how the townspeople of the Lord’s own hometown doubted and questioned whatever the Lord had done and performed in other places, which certainly had been spread widely among the people, and the people of Nazareth as we heard, many of them refused to believe that the Lord Jesus could have done all the miracles and the wonders which they heard that He had done in other parts and towns of Galilee. They also raised up the point and fact of how He grew up in their midst, and His own Mother Mary and other family members were there in that town, and how He was the mere Son of the town carpenter, namely St. Joseph, His foster father.

From all these things which we have heard today, all of us are shown again the dangers of our pride and ego, our thinking that we know it better than God on how we should progress in our lives and how we should act. Those people of Nazareth, the Lord’s own neighbours and relatives, all of them refused to believe in Him simply because they likely presumed that they knew Him well and they knew about His humble background, being the Son of a small town carpenter, an occupation that was considered as honourable and was necessary, and yet often maligned against and disregarded by the community as a poor man’s job, as a hard labour job that was done only by those who were uneducated and illiterate. And hence, those people hardened their hearts and minds with their prejudices, refusing to believe that the Lord could have performed all those miracles and wonders, and spoke all those wise words and teachings.

It was this same pride and ego, this inability to restrain the desires for worldly glory and temptations which had brought the Israelites, the people of God to their downfall all those years ago. Those temptations misled them down the path towards ruin and condemnation, and God chastised them all for those sins and wickedness that they had committed. Yet, the Lord still loved them all and sent them His prophets and messengers to help them, even though in their stubbornness, they refused to listen and believe in Him, persecuting those prophets and messengers of God, as they had also done to the prophet Ezekiel. And in the same manner, the Lord Himself had also been rejected and persecuted by those whom He had been sent to, the ones that whose midst He had come into so that He might help and lead them out the path of darkness into the Light of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened and remembered the words of the Lord contained within the Scripture readings which we have received this Sunday, let us all therefore reflect on our own way of life, our own actions and all the things which we had done. Let us all ask ourselves whether we have allowed our pride, ego, desires, ambitions and all the things that often distracted and misled us in this life to bring us away from the path of God’s salvation. Let us all continue to dedicate ourselves and our every moments in life to serve the Lord ever more faithfully, and let us continue to be humble, to be willing to listen to God speaking to us all through His Church and through everyone we encounter in life, so that by listening to Him and obeying His will, we may find our path in life, and be guided ever more to walk in the path towards God’s salvation and grace.

May the Lord, our ever loving God and Creator, continue to love and help us in our journey, and may He continue to bless us all in our every actions, words, deeds, and our every efforts to carry out His Law and commandments in every moments of our lives. May God be with us all, His beloved people and His Church, so that by His Presence and ever loving guidance in our lives, we may continue to walk faithfully in His path, and be the good and worthy role models and inspirations for one another, that our lives may always be illuminated with God’s light, His love and truth, at all times. Let us always remember God’s ever enduring love, and be thankful for all that He had done for us, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 30 June 2024 : Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded through the words of the Sacred Scriptures which we have heard and received that each and every one of us as God’s most important Creation, as the pinnacle of His works in this Universe and world, as His most beloved ones are truly precious to God, and we should truly be thankful to Him because He has always shown us His grace, kindness and love despite our many transgressions, stubborn attitudes and disobedience against Him. He has always put us first and foremost in His mind, reaching out to us to find us, to be reconciled with us and to help us all out of our predicament. He has always wanted each and every one of us to find our way back to Him, so that what was once lost from us through disobedience and sin, we may regain through our renewed obedience and faith in Him, through His love and ever generous forgiveness for our sins and transgressions.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Wisdom in which it was highlighted that God created all things good and perfect, and what we all must realise is that because God Himself is all good and perfect, He did not create evil or sin, or any of the imperfections in this world. He created all things including all of us mankind in the state of perfection, all good and wonderful, truly worthy of God as the Master and Lord of all creation. Especially for us, we have been made and crafted in the very image and likeness of God Himself. All of us were never meant to suffer and to endure all the challenges and trials present before us and our predecessors in this world, as we were all meant to exist in the Presence of God, to enjoy fully His love and grace, experiencing fully His inheritance and everything that He has prepared for us in this world.

And as mentioned by the author of the Book of Wisdom, God also did not create death or rejoice in our destruction. Rather, our deaths came about because of our own doing, by our failures and inability to follow the Lord wholeheartedly, in our conscious choice to follow the path of rebellion and disobedience against God, which essentially us rejecting the love of God, His grace and kindness, and hence, when we reject God, the Lord and Master of life, then the life which He has granted to us will depart from us, and we will not have share in Him, and that was how death came to claim us, because when life departs us, then we suffer from death, as the prime consequence of sin, which in turn is the consequence of our disobedience against God.

If we wonder why God Who made us all good and perfect had allowed us to disobey Him and to commit such evils, this was because He granted to us the gift of free will, the great gift which He has bestowed on us, because He wants us to love Him by our own free will, and that we truly choose to love Him and not by coercion or force. This is because true love is something that comes voluntarily and freely from the heart, and not something that God can force from us. Thus, He gave us the gift of free will, which is something that His Angels have also been given, as was evident from how Satan, once known as Lucifer, the most brilliant and mightiest of all the Angels that God had created, chose to embrace and give in to his pride and ego, his ambition and desire, rebelling against God and falling from grace, becoming the great enemy of all the faithful. It was him who also successfully tempted our first ancestors to sin, to disobey God just as he himself had done.

In our second reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Corinth in which the Apostle exhorted all of the faithful people of God to be filled with love just as much as they had been filled with knowledge and other riches of all sorts, imitating and following the good examples of Christ Himself, the Lord and Saviour of all, Who had loved everyone, all of us so greatly, that He was willing to empty Himself of all glory, honour and riches, of all dignity so that by His loving embrace of our sufferings and by bearing upon Himself all of our sins and their consequences, He might open for us the path to salvation and eternal life, showing us all the path to return once again to the loving Presence and grace of God, to regain what we have lost.

God had sent unto us all His own beloved Son, so that while our ancestors sinned by engorging upon the forbidden fruits and desiring and craving after knowledge, glory and riches of the world, thus, by His Son’s perfect obedience, and by His willingness to abandon all glory and honour, He has shown us all how we can come out from our state of deprivation and the darkness all around us in this world. Through His Son, God wants us all to find our way back to Him, and to have the chance to be reconciled with Him. He has given us many opportunities, again and again, for us to embrace Him and to accept the generous love and mercy which He has always shown us. He has reached out to us, calling out upon us to follow Him once again into the path of righteousness, abandoning our wickedness and sins.

And in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Mark of the story of the two great miracles that the Lord Jesus performed during His ministry, the well-known healing of the woman who had long suffered from haemorrhage or bleeding issue, and also the raising of the dead daughter of Jairus, the synagogue official, back into life. These two miracles showed us first of all the love of God which He has generously given to us through His Son, through which He has come into our midst, touching our lives and strengthening us, leading us back to His loving embrace, giving us new hope and rejuvenating our lives. And as the Lord had done to both the woman suffering from haemorrhage and the dead daughter of Jairus, He showed us all that He is truly in charge of all things, over all the matters of the world, over all life and death. And again, He does not want us to be lost forever to death, but to return to Him and to live and exist with Him forever in a renewed bond of love.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we listened to these words from the Scriptures, all of us must heed the message which the Lord through His Church had been giving to us, as He calls upon us to listen to Him and to embrace His love, compassion and mercy. He wants us all to seek Him with faith and love, just as how the woman while trying to hide her shame and condition, dared to brave through the huge crowd around the Lord with the firm hope and faith in her heart, that the Lord could heal hear from her predicament, and that of Jairus, who remained faithful and trusting in the Lord when He reassured him and his family that his daughter did not die and would be returned to him, while others laughed at the Lord and mocked Him. We too must have this strong, enduring and vibrant faith, trust and hope in the Lord, at all times.

Each and every one of us are sinners, brothers and sisters in Christ, and by our ancestors’ disobedience against God and by our own conscious choice to disobey Him and to disregard His Law and commandments, we have fallen into the state of sin, and been corrupted by sin’s dangerous stranglehold on us. But the Lord Who has loved us all has never given up on us, and He has given us the sure hope and guarantee of our liberation and salvation through His own Beloved Son, and what we all need to do now is for us to embrace this most and ever generous love and mercy. The question is then, are we willing to humble ourselves and seek Him, recognising how wicked and fallen we have ended up in, and are we willing to embrace Him with the faith and trust which those people mentioned in our Gospel passage today had shown us all?

Let us all therefore return to the Lord, our loving God and Father, with renewed love and desire to serve Him and to follow Him all of our lives, rejecting from now on all the allures, temptations and false pleasures that sin and evil have tempted us with, and committing ourselves henceforth to live ever more faithfully in God’s Presence. May the Lord continue to help, guide and strengthen us all in this journey of faith throughout our lives, and may He bless our every good works, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 23 June 2024 : Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded that in God alone we have hope and salvation, and as His people, we must always have this strong faith and trust in Him, believing that it is in Him that we shall always have the assurance of true happiness and eternal glory, all of which shall be ours if we remain steadfast in our dedication and commitment to God. We need to have faith and trust in the Lord even when we are encountering difficulties, challenges, trials and tribulations, as it is during all those period of challenges that we often lose our faith in God and ended up veering off into the path towards destruction and damnation. This is why we are all reminded this Sunday that we must always stay steadfast to this faith that we have in the Lord.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Job in which the Lord spoke to His servant Job, who had been afflicted greatly by many misfortunes affecting his property, family and personal health due to the attacks from the evil one, Satan, who wanted to test Job’s faith and trust in God. Job suffered greatly, but earlier on in the Book of Job, he did not waver in his faith and remained steadfast in trusting the Lord, not allowing all those misfortunes from tempting and misleading him down the path of rebellion and disobedience against God. He did not give in to despair, and while he struggled amidst the trials and challenges that he had faced, he continued to follow the Lord faithfully and blamed himself more for the misfortunes that he had faced.

This was where God reminded Job of the vastness of His mysteries and all the things that were hidden from human understanding and perception, as something that is beyond our capacity and ability to know and understand. God told Job that He has the power and dominion over all things, and everything in this world happened because of what He has willed to be, and nothing is ever beyond His reach and ability. This is why through these words and reminders, we are also called to heed the fact that we must always put our faith and trust in the Lord, and we must never lose hope and the focus on Him, as it is in Him alone that we can find lasting and true peace that endures and saves.

In our second reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth, the Apostle spoke of the salvation which everyone has received from the Lord through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, the Son of God, through Whom God had revealed His salvation to everyone, so that through His Son, all of us mankind, who have once been separated from Him, may find the sure path to be reunited once again with Him. It was indeed a great mystery of God’s salvation and saving works among His people that He has sent none other than His own Beloved and begotten Son to be Our Saviour, and through the amazing manner by which He had done so, in lovingly bearing for our sake, our many burdens and the punishments for our sins and wickedness.

Again, we are all reminded that our hope is in the Lord, which He has made clear through His Son, through Christ’s Light and Hope, which has illuminated our path in the darkness surrounding us, all the evils and wickedness, the power of sin and corruption that have surrounded and dominated us all these while. Despite all these things arrayed against us and all the challenges and trials that we have to face in our path and journey, but God reminds us all that in Him alone that there is truly the path to eternal life and true happiness. Separated from God, we truly have nothing and we cannot persist amidst all the challenges and trials facing us, and without Him as the anchor of our lives, we will easily be swept away by the destructive forces and waves of sin, evil and wickedness around us.

This is precisely what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, in which the famous story of how the Lord Jesus calmed and dissipated a great storm was told to us. We heard how at that time the Lord and His disciples were struck by a great storm which battered their boat and threatened them with all the winds and the waves, all of which were greatly dangerous, and the disciples were all panicking, thinking that they would drown in that place with all that went against them. When they awakened the Lord, He rebuked them for their lack of faith in Him, their lack of trust in God’s power and providence, and then went on to calm the waves and the storm with the mere power of His words and will.

This occasion is a reminder for us all, that God is always with His Church, represented and symbolised by that boat that was floating and battered by the great waves and the wind. The disciples were representing all of us, all the holy people of God, the members and parts of God’s Church. Those winds and great waves represent the great obstacles, trials and challenges which were facing us all in the Church, all the oppositions, persecutions and hardships that many among the faithful had to face. All those challenges and obstacles may indeed seem to be very daunting and terrible, scary and seemingly insurmountable, but we must never lose faith in the Lord, and remain firmly faithful in Him. We must not lose heart and give in to the temptations and challenges, or else, we may end up losing everything.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded that we must always establish our lives and our livelihood, our actions and everything in our lives upon the firm foundation that God alone can provide us. It has certainly been too often that we have been disappointed again and again by the many worldly means and provisions which had been our staple and our means of survival, and yet, none of those could truly provide us with true and lasting satisfaction and happiness besides that of the Lord and His loving providence. That is why we are reminded again and again this day that we should always strive to put God at the centre and as the focus of our whole lives and existence.

May the Lord continue to be with us all, His beloved people and His Church, and may He empower each and every one of us so that by our whole lives, our actions and by our examples, we may always be good role models in leading and inspiring more and more people to be ever more faithful to the Lord, to commit themselves to Him and to do His will, as we have all been called to do. May God bless our every efforts and endeavours, and may He be with His Church, and grant us all His strength and grace, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 16 June 2024 : Eleventh 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 live faithfully in the Lord and to commit ourselves to the path which the Lord has shown to us so that we may truly bear rich fruits of our Christian faith. Each and every one of us are reminded that as Christians, our lives cannot be idle and devoid of virtues and good deeds, for if we do not live our lives as Christians should live, then we may end up scandalising our faith and our Christian way of life, as well as besmirching the Holy Name of God. We Christians are known by our fruits, the fruits of our Christian faith, that is our actions and lives that are truly in accordance with God and His ways, as we live out our lives faithfully each day in His Presence. Those who profess to be Christians and yet act in a different manner are truly deficient and dead in faith.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, we heard of the words of the Lord to His people, the Israelites and their remnants, which was at that time in exile in Babylon and in other places, that He would renew His people, just as they had fallen from grace and been cast down into defeat and exile from their homeland. The Lord used the allusion to a cedar tree to show how the Lord would renew the cedar tree, that a new sapling would regrow and be reestablished on the mountain of Israel, which firstly showed us all how God would not abandon His people even as He chastised and punished them because of their sins and wickedness. God after all still loved all of His beloved people who were all like His children. And like a loving and caring Father, He wants all of His children to grow up well and in the right way.

This is why He chastised and disciplined them when they disobeyed and refused to follow Him and His ways. The Lord does not want any one of them to be lost to Him forever, which could indeed happen through our disobedience and wickedness, all of which led into sin, and sin brings us all into the dominion of death and eternal damnation, condemned and separated forever from God, from His love and grace. That was why, while mankind disobeyed Him from the very beginning of time, God did not obliterate and destroy them all. He gave them chances and opportunities, again and again for them to return to Him and to find their way once again towards Him. Many had been lost along the way, but not few had been saved from the precipice of destruction, and brought into salvation in God.

In our second reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Corinth in which the Apostle reminded all the faithful people of God that they must all live in faith, in the spirit and not in the way of the flesh. St. Paul often exhorted the faithful to be vigilant and to guard themselves against all those things of the flesh which may cause us mankind to fall into temptation and hence into disobedience against God. Throughout history, many people have fallen into these various temptations, failing to resist all the things that led them to follow the whim of their desires and greed, all the things that kept them from finding the path towards the Lord. When mankind prioritised themselves and forgot about God, His path and His teachings, that is when we are likely to fall into sin and destruction.

That was why the Lord reminded us all through His Apostle St. Paul that as Christians, we are all God’s beloved and holy people, and as is therefore expected from us, we should strive to live each and every moments of our lives worthily of the Lord, by cultivating our faith within us, allowing our faith to continue to grow and flourish throughout time, so that we may truly bear rich fruits and wonderful things and deeds in each and every moments of our lives. This is why we believe that our faith must always be supported and made alive and vibrant, living and true through our actions, by showing it in our love for God first and foremost, and then in our love for one another, for our fellow neighbours, brothers and sisters just as the Lord Himself had taught us.

Without these genuine and real actions, then our faith is no better than those of hypocrites and unbelievers. Those were the faults of many among our predecessors, as they made empty gestures and meaningless faith, while on the other hand, they committed grievous sins and wicked deeds against God and their fellow brothers and sisters alike. That is why we are cautioned that we should not walk down this same path which had led so many of our predecessors towards their downfall and destruction. We should always strive to inspire each other that even in the smallest and simplest things we say and do, we will always strive to embody our Christian faith in all things. This is how we can then make our faith truly alive, and how we can bring real impact and great fruits of our dedication, the fruits of love and hope, the fruits of goodness and virtues in our community of the faithful and in our world today.

In our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel of St. Mark, we heard of the Lord speaking about the parables of the Kingdom of God, comparing the Kingdom of God firstly to a sower of seeds and what happened when the seeds germinate and grow into plants that bear rich fruits and products, and then also to a small and tiny mustard seed which when it germinates and grows, it becomes a great and large tree under which many birds and other animals may take shelter in. All of these are ways for the Lord to explain and to make it clear that each and every one of us are parts of this same Kingdom of God, the Church that the Lord has established in this world, manifesting God’s kingdom and dominion through each and every one of us, through our very lives and efforts.

Through us and our works, our contributions and efforts, each one of us are part of the nurturing of the Kingdom of God being present in our midst, by us all partaking in the good works and efforts of the Church in each and every unique areas in life and in every particular missions and vocations that we have been called into. Through our every actions, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, all these will lead to the blossoming of the Kingdom of God in our midst, and we must never underestimate the impact of our actions. Our actions and way of life can either positively or negatively impact those present around us, as good and virtuous acts and works can truly lead to many others believing and following the Lord as well, and more therefore would be doing good deeds and works, but on the contrary, the same will also happen if we do negative and wicked acts, which may turn people away from the Church and the salvation in God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore realise that each one of us are cooperators of the truth and love of God, each and every one of us are the labourers in the vineyard of the Lord, and we have been called to our respective vocations and ministries, to proclaim the Lord through all of our words and deeds, and to be the shining beacons of God’s truth and Good News. May all of us continue to grow ever stronger in our faith in the Lord, and may the Lord continue to help, guide and support us in our journey throughout life, to do His will and to glorify His Name, now and always. Amen.