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Friday, 15 November 2013 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the reading today, particularly that of our first reading today, can be no further from the truth. This is the reality facing mankind today. Our world has grown to be a world where people turned skeptical, especially against anything that they cannot truly prove by their common sense. Men believe the things that they can see and are awed by the achievements that they had made.

Mankind become ensnared in their own selves, and praise their own greatness, through the achievements they had accomplished. Mankind were not satisfied with just believing in God and all of His goodness, because the devil had sown in each one of us, distrust and lack of faith, the seeds of rebellion against God and His will.

They grow merry and indulge themselves in the pleasures of the world. They give no regards to the Lord or to His laws and precepts. They grow only to care for themselves and turned themselves against one another. They grow engrossed in the pleasures that they see and observe in this world, thinking at the same time that they are smarter and wiser than their Creator. Their attachment to the world, became their greatest undoing.

The Lord will punish these people who grew proud and become disrespectful of their Lord and God. This is sadly the things that is happening now in our world. Mankind grew more and more disrespectful of the Lord their Creator, being distracted by the pleasures of this world, and by the beauty of God’s creations themselves. They worshipped these, regarded these as thing of marvel and worthy of praise, and yet do not praise the very One who created them all, in their ignorance.

Take for example, the growing apathy for the faith and for God, which many people attributed to their attachment to ‘science’ and ‘reason’. They argued that they discarded their faith because of the advancement of science, which opened their eyes to reason and therefore, they argued again, opened their eyes and minds to rational thinking. Thus, they grew hostile to any ‘superstitions’ which to them is exemplified by none better than our faith itself.

These people allow their ego and their senses to delude them, into thinking that what is actually real is unreal. God is real, and He is truly present for us, with us, and even within us. Remember that it was Him who gave us life! And yet, because we cannot truly feel Him with our feeble and limited senses, we think of. Him as non-existent, and instead chose the things of creations that He made, as new object of marvel, and even to the point of worship.

Brethren, this was no different from how people in the past, in many different civilisations, and some even until today, worship the natural elements and other things of great wonders to us. They worship the sun, the stars, the moon, the trees, animals, and other natural objects, even this world itself. This is no different from what is happening today.

We may not worship these inanimate objects, the creations of God anymore, but we have done essentially the same in a different way. First, we worship money and all things of material, giving it great honour and place it foremost before all other things. Then, we also marvel a lot at our universe and its splendour, seeking to see more, understand more, and find out more about the mysteries of our universe, but doing these, without giving due honour to the One who created them all, that is God.

We tend to forget that these wondrous things are merely things created, and they are just like us. It is perfectly alright for us to go and observe them, observe and note the phenomena that happen around us, and learn from them, as it is in our nature to be curious and want to seek more. But what is not right is if we do not pay attention or honour the One who created them all, who is God. These things may indeed be distractions in our attempt to seek God if we are not careful.

Use science, learning, and wisdom of the world for good, that is to utilise them for good purposes, and for tools to help us on our way to reach God our Lord and Creator. Do not let them instead control us or corrupt us in any way. That is what St. Albert the Great, the saint whose feast we are celebrating today has exemplified through his own life. A pious saint, and yet a wise and well endowed saint, with the knowledge of the world and with great faith to the One who created all things.

St. Albert the Great was a religious who was made a bishop in the medieval era Europe, where he spent much of his time in intellectual pursuit, studying the ancient philosophers and various other knowledge. St. Albert the Great learnt a lot of knowledge and worldly wisdom, and it was reflected in his numerous writings and works. And yet, at the same time, his piety and zeal for the Lord burned brightly, and his faith is undimmed.

St. Albert the Great went around Europe at the time, preaching the Good News, and was particularly caring about the people who are without wisdom and knowledge. He established many institutions of learning and schools, aimed at bringing more people to be aware of their surroundings, understanding their existence, and the beauty of God’s creations, while at the same time rooting out any misunderstandings about the faith in the people.

Through St. Albert the Great, many souls were saved and taken away from damnation, by enlightening them with the knowledge of the world, and even more importantly by endowing them with greater understanding of the Lord their God and Creator. It is through him that many has been made aware of the love of God, and the care that He has for all of them.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, inspired by the example of St. Albert the Great and other saints, let us adore the Lord our God, and praise Him for His wonderful works, just as we adore and be captivated by the good things we observe around us. Let us not be distracted and be misled by the evil one, and let us make the effort, to strengthen our faith, that in all things we do, we will always proclaim the Lord, profess the Lord, and be with the Lord at all times. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 13 November 2013 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brethren in Christ, today we listen again to the healing miracle of the ten lepers by the power of Christ our Lord. The Lord has authority over all things, as the Lord and Creator of all things in this universe. He alone has the power to alter everything as He saw fit. He had come down to us in Jesus His Son, to bring about concrete change to all of us, reaching out to us all as we are all in one way or another, sick.

Yes, we are sick, and we are ill, brethren! Not the illness of the physique or those that are visible to the eyes, but the illness that is inside our souls. This is what Christ had come to us to cure. For physical illnesses and diseases can have many cures but for this illness of the soul, there is only one and only cure, that is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus, as He Himself had said, came especially for the sick and for those who are downtrodden. And yes, we are all sickened, brothers and sisters, and this sickness, that is of our soul, is the illness of sin. Yes, sin is our suffering and the pain that had infected us, affected us, and made us all unworthy before God our Lord.

Sin is a leprosy, yes the most terrible form of leprosy indeed, that is the leprosy of the soul. All of us have sinned at one point of our lives, and indeed, even from day to day we have sinned and inflict on ourselves more and more of this leprosy. And just like leprosy, sin spread like disease, affecting all of us, corrupting the health of our souls. Sin has no bounds and it affects everything.

Yet, unlike our diseases of the body, which inflicts physical pain and suffering to us, which none of us would certainly like, sin is often enjoyable and even attractive to many of us, that we are constantly always tempted to commit sin in our daily lives. That is why, sin is so dangerous, and we all ought to be careful, lest we all fall into corruption of sin.

The Lord Jesus came to us to heal us from this affliction, just as He showed His power by healing the lepers, the paralysed, those with physical debilitation, as those with spiritual illness, as those whose demons He had cast out. But often, we are too proud to admit our sinfulness and indeed, this illness, this leprosy of our souls. We are like those portrayed by the Book of Wisdom in our first reading as the proud and the mighty, those who do not bend their knees to acknowledge our Lord, the Master of all.

We are also often like the nine other lepers, the ones who did not return to Jesus after knowing that they have been healed. Jesus did not ask them to give Him thanks or worship Him for what He had done, but yet the one leper, the Samaritan, returned and give thanks and glory to God. For he knew that it is God who is the One with the power and authority, healing him from the leprosy that had affected him.

We are often like the nine other lepers, because we are often too immersed in our joy and happiness, when we received good things from God, that we failed to give Him thanks for all the blessings He had granted us. We often even give glory to ourselves and praise ourselves instead of God. That is what happened to the nine other lepers, that they were so engaged in their happiness, that they dashed off back to their old lives without stopping and use the chance to thank God as the Samaritan had done.

Nevertheless, brethren, we must not think that God does not want us to be happy, as what He wants from us is merely our love for Him. It is only right and just that we thank Him for the multitudes that He had given us. Not the least of which, is the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the greatest gift God had given us mankind, because in Jesus, we are saved and given a new lease of life, and He did this precisely by striking against that leprosy of the soul, that is sin!

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us take time to reflect, whether for the many good things God had given us, we have thanked Him properly for them. God does not need us to utter a long litany of thanks, as what He truly needs is, none other than our love, and our wholehearted dedication to Him. May the Lord who loves us dearly, continue to bless us and watch over us, as we grow in His love. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 13 November 2013 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Reading : Green

Wisdom 6 : 1-11

Listen, o kings, and understand; rulers of the most distant lands, take warning. Pay attention, you who rule multitudes and boast of the numerous subjects in your pagan nations.

For authority was given you by the Lord, your kingship is from the Most High who will examine your works and scrutinise your intentions. If, as officials of His kingdom, you have not judged justly or observed His law or walked the way God pointed out, He will oppose you swiftly and terribly; His sentence strikes the mighty suddenly.

For the lowly there may be excuses and pardon, but the great will be severely punished. For the Lord of all makes no distinction, nor does He take account of greatness. Both great and lowly are His work and He watches over all, but the powerful are to be judged more strictly.

It is to you then, sovereigns, that I speak, that you may learn Wisdom and not stumble. For those who keep the holy laws in a holy way will be acknowledged holy, and those who accept the teaching will find in it their defense. Welcome my words, desire them and they will instruct you.

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Thursday, 7 November 2013 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 15 : 1-10

Meanwhile tax collectors and sinners were seeking the company of Jesus, all of them eager to hear what He had to say. But the Pharisees and the Scribes frowned at this, muttering, “This Man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So. Jesus told them this parable :

“Who among you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and seek the lost one till he finds it? And finding it, will he not joyfully carry it home on his shoulders?”

“Then he will call his friends and neighbours together, and say, ‘Celebrate with me, for I have found my lost sheep!’ I tell you, in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner, than over ninety-nine decent people, who do not need to repent.”

“What woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one, will not light a lamp, and sweep the house in a thorough search, till she finds the lost coin? And finding it, she will call her friends and neighbours, and say, ‘Celebrate with me, for I have found the silver coin I lost!'”

“I tell you, in the same way, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner.”

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Friday, 1 November 2013 : Solemnity of All Saints (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters, rejoice! Rejoice indeed, I say to you! That is because today is indeed a great feast for all creation. Today is the feast of All Saints and holy people of God, those who had been made holy in God and who have been made righteous and glorious, receiving the eternal rewards and glories of heaven.

Yet, we should not think that these saints are superhumans or truly people who we all cannot become. There is a danger in us seeing them as people with divine and miraculous powers. It is important for us not to get this misconception. That is why many people outside the Church of God and even inside the Church have this misconception that we worship and pray to the saints as if they are gods.

No, brethren, as we all should know, that this is not the case. These saints were once like us, and they were indeed mere humans like ourselves, with all of our strengths as well as our weaknesses and shortcomings. These saints were just like us once, and some of them were even at one point of time, great sinners, whose sins could indeed be considered very abominable and evil in the eyes of the Lord. Among them were murderers and liars alike. They were no different from us, when they still walked in their mortal bodies in this world.

Yet, what sets them apart, is their realisation and understanding of the reason for their lives, that they, particularly those who sinned greatly, discovered the ugly nature of their sinful acts and from there, resolved to change themselves for the better. They left behind their sinful selves and cast away that empty shell of sin, cutting away the veil of darkness that separate them from God and His love.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why we have our saints and blesseds, whom the Church and the entire Body of Christ had declared to be worthy of the glory of heaven. They have transformed themselves to become the vessels of the light and love of the Lord our God. They have used the gifts given to them, using them for the good of others, loving all mankind, just as the Lord had asked all of us to do. And finally, they loved God in their own ways, each no less great than the other.

Sainthood is not an easy matter to get, for being saints mean that those people have been found worthy of the glory of heaven. It is not easy for us to be worthy of the glory of heaven, as we have to be mindful of the sins and evils we have committed, be it in our words and our actions. And yet, remember again, brethren, that saints and all the holy people, were also once sinners like us, but they have been made worthy, because they realised their sinful nature and changed themselves from that point, for the better.

In this, then we have to take note of what our Lord Jesus Christ had said in the Gospel today. It is a very familiar passage for us all, as it is the Sermon at the mount, or the Beatitudes, where Jesus taught His disciples and all the people who were following Him, on the blessings that He gave and attributed to the people who had done what is good. Essentially these are the people who are truly blessed and found worthy of the kingdom of heaven.

So are these categories then a sign of greatness and glory? Of might and power? No! In fact, when you look at the Beatitudes, the characteristics of those who are blessed, are being merciful, peaceful, loving, and essentially, all that Jesus Himself had preached throughout His ministry. It is these people who love peace, who seek love with one another, and those who put the Lord and His precepts above everything else.

We too can become saints, brethren! Sainthood is truly not outside our reach. The late Blessed Pope John Paul II himself, soon to be raised to the glory of heaven as a saint, called all of us the faithful ones in God, to become more saintly and aspire to be them, through his universal call to holiness. All of us truly have within each one of us, the ability to become saints, and receive the rich and glorious rewards of heaven, only if we make a decisive choice.

Let us therefore, brothers and sisters, from now on, resolve to make ourselves into new persons in God, that all of our actions, our words, and our deeds will be truly a reflection of the Lord, that we will be righteous in all of our deeds, that we will be made worthy and holy, before the Lord our God, that one day, we will be able to join His choir of angels and saints, praising His Name forever and ever.

Remember brethren, the Beatitudes and the other teachings of our Lord. Be loving, be men of peace, be humble, be gentle, and be faithful to our Lord. Happy all Saints day to everyone, may they intercede for us sinners still in this world, and God be with us all. Amen!

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Tuesday, 29 October 2013 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 13 : 18-21

Jesus continued speaking, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? Imagine a person who has taken a mustard seed, and planted it in his garden. The seed has grown, and become like a small tree, so that the birds of the air shelter in its branches.”

And Jesus said again, “What is the kingdom of God like? Imagine a woman who has taken yeast, and hidden it in three measures of flour, until it is all leavened.”

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Tuesday, 22 October 2013 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Blessed Pope John Paul II, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 12 : 35-38

Be ready, dressed for service, and keep your lamps lit, like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding. As soon as he comes and knocks, they will open the door to him.

Happy are those servants whom the master finds wide-awake when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will put on an apron, and have them sit at table, and he will wait on them.

Happy are those servants, if he finds them awake when he comes at midnight or daybreak!

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Saturday, 12 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 27-28

As Jesus was speaking, a woman spoke from the crowd and said to Him, “Blessed is the one who gave you birth and nursed you!” Jesus replied, “Truly blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it as well.”

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Wednesday, 9 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priest)

Luke 11 : 1-4

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

And Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this :

Father, may Your Name be held holy, may Your kingdom come; give us each day the kind of bread we need, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive all who do us wrong; and do not bring us to the test.”

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Sunday, 6 October 2013 : 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the great importance of the faith and love we have in God, because they empower us and give us strength to do many magnificent things. It does not matter whether we have a small or a large faith, since all of these are truly perceptional by us, and what truly matters is in fact, whether we truly have a real faith and devotion to the Lord our God.

Faith is the key component of our life and our salvation. We cannot love God without faith, and vice versa, as we also need love to be able to have faith in God. That is why, faith and love are paramount virtues and values we must have, if we are to be saved in Christ, and receive His grace and love. Faith and love are the essential components of our lives and ought to be the centre of our very lives.

With faith, everything is possible, and certainly, our Lord and God is faithful to us, even when we have that very little faith in Him. This lack of faith is precisely the reason why, if we read the Old Testament, why the people of God, that is Israel, rebelled against God and His love so often, that He casted them out of His sight in anger. And even so, He still have faith in these rebellious children, sending prophets after prophets, and messengers after messengers, in order to convince them to repent their sinful ways and return to Him and His love.

That even in the New Testament, the lack of faith and love in God’s people is why they are so stubborn, and continue in their sinful ways, especially the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who sought their own glory instead of the glory of God, and led the people into sinning against God. They even rejected Jesus, God’s own beloved Son, the Word made flesh, to bring salvation to the people and condemned Him to die on the cross.

And yet, it is the Lord’s perfect faith and undying love in us that enabled us to be saved through the loving sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, that the offer of salvation and freedom of all evil and sin be extended to all mankind. God can just choose to obliterate us all and condemn all of us to oblivion, and that was indeed the much easier course for Him to take. After all, we have rebelled against Him with Satan, and corrupted His creations with our sins and evils.

And yet, He chose the hard way, to bear all of our sins upon Himself, and to suffer the consequences of all those sins, culminating in His death on the cross at Calvary, when He gave up His life, so that we may not die, but gain new life in Him, who is risen from the dead, rising with Him into glory. All these are because the Lord never abandons us, and He is always with us, loving us tenderly and providing us day by day.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, even if our faith in the Lord is just a little, but if that faith is genuine, we can truly do great things with it. The Lord always provides, brethren, and He never fails to do so. His power and authority is exercised in us when we have faith and love for Him, no matter how small it is. After all, we can never accomplish something, if we merely remain idle and believe that we re incapable of achieving anything.

Let me tell you all a story, a simple illustration on this idea of how important faith is in our life. There are two boys in a school, with similar performance in their academics and their studies overall. They are in two different classes, with two different teachers. In this case, both boys are taught very differently from one another.

One boy was taught to be positive in learning, and whenever he failed or did badly in his examinations, the teacher encourages him and convinces him that failure is not necessarily something bad, but in fact as an opportunity for one to learn from past mistakes and make improvements in the future.

The other boy, on the other hand, was taught by a very strict and authoritarian teacher, who always demands result from the students, and always punish severely those who performed badly in their examinations. The boy failed a few times during his studies and was reprimanded by his teacher.

Therefore, in your opinion, brethren in Christ, which among these two boys will likely have a better performance in the end? Certainly it is the boy whom the teacher always encouraged him whenever he failed and did not perform well in his studies. Yes, the one who will perform better is the one whose teacher gives strength and hope at times of despair, one who can therefore develop faith in themselves and their own abilities, and thus will be capable and more motivated to do better in studies or anything else.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we heed the words of Christ and the prophets today, let us open ourselves and our hearts to God’s divine love, that He will sow the seeds of faith in us, that our faith and love for Him may grow, and grow well, that we will be firm in our devotion to the Lord our God. Let us not be fearful of any evil, or any troubles, as the Lord will surely take care of us, if we keep strong and burning, the faith and love that is in us.

May the Lord our God strengthen our faith, that with whatever little faith that is in us, we will stay true to the path of the Lord, and remain committed to fulfill His commandments through our actions and our words. May God who is loving and faithful, keep us within His embrace and bring us one day to heaven that is our reward. God bless us all. Amen.