teachings of the Church

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Saturday, 10 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it may be a bit difficult for us to understand the message and the meaning from the various readings and passages we heard today from the Sacred Scriptures, but they all really spoke to us, just as the Church had selected those particular passages for today, that we all as Christians ought to be true to our faith, and to be completely and thoroughly committed to our Lord without aberration.

In the first reading, St. Paul in his Epistle to the Church and to the faithful in Corinth spoke about being in Communion with God and what was the significance of such a privilege which had been accorded to all those who have accepted the Lord through holy baptism, and as members of God’s one and only Church, the vessel through which all those who profess their faith in God would be saved.

But at that time, pressure that existed against the faithful and the Church was truly great, as especially those who held public offices and wanted to continue their lives and careers as per normal found it difficult to balance and cooperate between their secular and worldly life as well as career with their Faith and belief in God. Many of them therefore compromised with their faith and belief in God in order to achieve what they wanted.

One of the examples mentioned by St. Paul was the sharing of the faithful of the offerings and food which had been made as sacrifices and offerings to demons and the pagan idols and gods. It was profane for members of the Church to participate in such actions, as that showed that they were willing to compromise on their faith, agreeing to worship the false gods and idols in return for acknowledgement and worldly opportunities.

Even considering the difficult conditions they were in, there were many among them who continued to commit wickedness and unworthy actions and deeds even after they have become a member of the Church and were counted among the faithful ones. In doing so, they have committed scandal in front of God and His people, and such actions were contra-productive in bringing about the salvation of God to the world.

These are the same people whom God Himself mentioned in the Gospel passage we heard today, when He rebuked all those with weak or nonexistent faith, those who built their houses on weak foundation that will topple and fall should a powerful wind or wave sweep over them. They did not have a genuine and strong faith and dedication to the Lord, and temptations or pressures from the world could easily take over them.

But the Lord was not asking us to rebel openly against the world and bring troubles upon ourselves. He was not asking us to go out into the open fields and places to proclaim openly our faith for all to see and hear. Indeed our goal is to preach to them the Good News with zeal and sincerity of faith, but it must be done with the patience and the courage which all of us should have in our faith.

We should look at the examples of our holy and devoted predecessors. These are the holy martyrs and saints, all those who often do not desire and indeed did not compromise their faith and the ways of the Lord they followed in order to satisfy or appease the world and its demands and wishes. Let us all seek to be true and devoted disciples and followers of our Lord as they had done, and commit ourselves day after day doing the good works of God. May God help us in our endeavours. Amen.

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Friday, 9 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Claver, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are called to put our attention into two things, that is firstly, we have to remember the mission which God had entrusted to us all through His Apostles, as St. Paul succinctly placed in what he wrote in his Epistle, that we all are servants and preachers of the Gospel, the Good News of God. We are the evangelisers of this new and current time and age.

We serve the Lord by preaching the Good News which He has brought upon this world, by being witnesses of His death and resurrection. We are God’s servants, and thus we should speak, act and do things in accordance with what He has revealed to us and taught us, or else, others will not come to believe in us if we ourselves do not act in accordance with God’s ways.

And that is in tandem with the second thing that we heard in today’s Gospel, that is about how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law for their hypocrisy and lack of genuine faith, using the well known parable of the plank and the eyes. They were rebuked as those who wanted to remove the sins in others while they themselves committed great sins and yet they turned a blind eye to these.

In order to understand this, we have to understand what it was like at the time of Jesus. The Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and scribes, the elders and the priestly class and caste are among the elites and the highly respected and influential members of the community, and also rightly feared for their influence and oppression of all forms of dissent against their authority.

They considered themselves pious and great in faith, as guardians of God’s laws and commandments. They treasured their customs and traditions, valuing highly their appearances and showy prayers in public as signs of their faith. And yet, in all these, they did not glorify God, and neither did they honour Him as He should have been honoured. They thought only of themselves and their human needs and desires.

And in that, they did not just oppress others around them but they also misled and misguided them to the wrong path. Instead of bringing the people closer to God, they have closed the path off to many, and including themselves as well. That is a reminder for us not to be like them and not to act as they have acted. We must instead be true to our faith and be committed in all things, that whatever we do, we do not for ourselves, but for the greater glory of God.

Perhaps the example of today’s saint, St. Peter Claver can be a source of inspiration and example for us all to follow from today on. St. Peter Claver was a Spanish Jesuit priest who went forth to the New World, what is today called the American continent. He went specifically to the Spanish colony in what is now Latin or South America, ministering to the people there, preaching among those who have yet to accept the Lord as their Saviour.

It was told that many people listened to his sermons and preachings, and as many as three hundred thousand people converted to the Faith and gave themselves to be baptised through his works, and that he baptised them all by himself throughout his forty years of working among them. He was hardworking and dedicated to his mission, that is to save the souls of those who still lived in the darkness and in ignorance of the Lord and His saving works.

St. Peter Claver did not allow himself to succumb to the same temptations facing the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. Despite of his privileged position as a priest and as a Spanish, which accorded to him immense benefits and privileges as both a member of the clergy and as a European versus all the natives and the pagans living in the New World, he lived simply and even when given privileges, he chose to live among the slaves, to whom he had dedicated his life’s works to.

The examples of St. Peter Claver should serve as a reminder to us all, brothers and sisters in Christ, that as the disciples and servants of our Lord, we must live according to what He has commanded us to be, that is to love and to give ourselves in love to one another, just as St. Peter Claver had done. And he also gave himself to the poorest, the weakest, those who were oppressed and who were at a disadvantage.

Let us all therefore vow to make ourselves better disciples of the Lord, by following in the footsteps of our holy predecessors, the saints and servants of God, and not fall into the temptations of this world. May God help us to love each other ever more sincerely with each passing day. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 8 September 2016 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when we all celebrate together the birthday of the Mother of our Lord, who was born of her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, and destined from the moment of her conception, immaculate and free from the taints of sin, to be the bearer of God’s salvation.

On this day, we celebrate together the birth of the one who would eventually become the Ark of the New Covenant, the bearer of the Messiah and the Saviour of the world. Today is a significant event, for the birth of Mary heralded the beginning of the time of grace, as God’s long awaited plan of salvation for His people was being fulfilled through her.

And as we listened to the message of the Sacred Scriptures, surely all of us would wonder why then the Lord would bother to go through so much trouble just in order to deal with us His people. We must be wondering why would He go through all these to help us and to bring us out from the darkness and into the light of His salvation. But that is exactly the wonder of the mysteries that God had revealed to us, that is His love.

God loves us all so much, so much so that in His love, He certainly would not want to see us suffer and perish in the darkness together with Satan and his allies who He had condemned into the eternal damnation. For us, there is still hope if we are able to commit ourselves to change our ways and to repent from all those sins and the things that kept us separated from God.

But in order to establish firmly the covenant and promise which He had made with us mankind, His beloved people, He has given us the perfect gift in His own Son, the Divine Word Incarnate, the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. And as promised by Himself to us through His prophets and servants, He would Himself come and dwell among us, to be one with us, that we may be His people, and He may be our God.

If at the ancient times, God descended among His people in pillars of cloud and fire, then God has since then decided to dwell among us, to be with us His beloved ones, and what way is better than for He Himself to come down upon us and dwell among us as one of us? He took up our flesh through the intermediary of His mother Mary, that as He share in our flesh and existence, so will He share with us His glory and the eternal life He has promised us.

And through Mary, His mother and along with her, He has shown us the examples of how we ought to live our lives that we may be considered and be counted among His faithful and righteous ones. She is a role model for us all in how she had been faithful to the mission which has been entrusted to her. Mary since her birth has been a devoted servant of the Lord, pious and righteous in all her ways.

But most importantly, even though there were uncertainties and doubts in her heart, she gave her all and devote herself completely to the care and love for her Son, Jesus our Lord. She persevered through all the challenges, protecting and guiding her Son through His life. And having followed Him through her life, following Him even through the moments of His Passion, looking at His suffering at the hands of His tormentors and enemies, and eventually witnessing His death on the cross, certainly what she had done was not merely something ordinary.

Having stood by faithfully and committed herself completely to the Lord, and by being righteous, upright and just in all of her actions and deeds in life, Mary is indeed the best role model for all of us the people who are faithful to God and members of His Church. By following her, we will be able to find the best path to reach out to the Lord our God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we rejoice and celebrate today in commemoration of the birth of the mother of our Lord, Mary, the Mother of God, let us all also take some time to reflect on our own actions in life, and see in what way we can emulate and follow in the footsteps of Mary. May the Lord help us in this endeavour, and guide us that we may find our way to reach Him and the salvation which He has promised us all. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 7 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today with regards to the readings taken from the Sacred Scriptures which we have heard, I would like to talk about the devotion and life of our holy priests and all those who have devoted themselves fully to the Lord, as religious brothers and sisters, monks and all others who, according to St. Paul, has chosen the path of celibacy, that is rejecting marriage as what others normally do, but instead choosing to remain virgins and devoting that virginity and commitment to the Lord.

And this is something that is very important for us to know and to understand, as it is the central and core tenet of our holy priesthood as well as those who have devoted themselves to the religious life. It has been passed down to us by the Apostolic Tradition of the Church for over a millennia that all those who entered religious life or be ordained as a deacon or a priest and beyond be required to be unmarried for many reasons.

Many of those who are against the Church and attacked the Church ridiculed our approach to celibacy, by saying that such things are unnecessary or even foolish, and that is because they did not understand the reason why it was there in the first place. Had they understood its reasoning and the history of this practice that dated from the beginning of the Church, then they would not only stay silent but they would come to embrace the beauty and the gift of our celibate religious and priests.

From the beginning of the Church, many argued against celibacy because of the fact that many of the Apostles were married. In fact, St. Peter the Apostle was married too. However, if we noticed further, those were also the lives which they led before God called them to be His disciples and Apostles, upon which they left behind their professions as fishermen, tax collector and others, as well as their families behind.

And then this is also tied to the practices of the early Church, notably in Rome and its local churches and parishes, but also were widespread elsewhere, that priests who were married at that time, became embroiled in the scandals and undesirable interactions between them and their wives, as well as their children. It was difficult indeed to divide their attention between serving the needs of their own families and the people who had been entrusted to them as their flock, the sheep of the Lord.

Then, matters arose regarding their children and inheritance issues about them. It was known then that there were quite a number of priests who tried to push on the properties of the Church and the faithful to their children as inheritance, which was viewed with disgust and disdain by the Church as a whole as a sign of corruption. But truly, at the same time, we have also to understand that as males were usually the breadwinner of the family, as priests had a full time work, he was usually unable to provide for their children, and hence such situations often arose.

Thus, after we have discussed about this matter, its history and how it came to be, now we all can see how the priests, religious and all those who devote themselves to the Lord, to the Church and to His people cannot be divided in their attention between serving the Lord and serving his own personal needs and family needs. What we need are those who can commit themselves fully a hundred percent in their attention, to shepherd the flock of the Lord without bias or distraction.

And in this time and era, the need is even greater for the Church and the faithful to have devoted and faithful shepherds in our priests and all those who have given themselves to the service of God. And there were so many challenges and difficulties facing them that we almost should pity them for their sufferings and the tribulations they faced that we all may have salvation from God through their hard works.

But it is truly not pity which we should give them, but rather our prayers, support and assistance. We should assist the priests and the religious we have around us, caring for them and helping them in their ministries by doing our part as members of the Church, as the priests cannot work alone, but must be supported and assisted through our efforts, that the contributions of the laity and the priests alike will bring good things to mankind and to the whole world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all pray for the increase in religious and priestly vocations, that more and more young people, young men and women who are called by God may be able to respond in kind and devote themselves fully to Him and to His people in the Church. And among us, let us all give support to all those who have given themselves to God and sacrificed much in order to serve the Lord with all of their heart.

Let us all help them and give them our firm backing, that through their works and through our support, God may exercise His works in this world and bring all the people together through the Church, that everyone may receive salvation, justification, and the grace of eternal life. Pray for all of our priests and religious, that God will always be with them. Amen.

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Monday, 5 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what the Scriptures brought out to us today is the reminder for us that the Lord Jesus Christ brought upon us a new life, one that is free from the corruption of sin, one that is free from the old ways of wickedness and evil. He showed us the new path to tread on, as we approach the throne of His everlasting grace and mercy.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we heard in the Gospel today, the usual and common argument that often arose between Jesus and His opposers, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, whether it was right and lawful to heal a sick man on the day of the Sabbath. The Sabbath day is a day in the week which is dedicated to the Lord, and according to Jewish customs, no one is allowed to do anything or any work.

The purpose of establishing such a day was so that the people of God has a time to rest and leave behind their work and busy life behind, and then spend some time with their Lord in prayer. Otherwise, they would forget about the Lord and carried on their daily works and thus paid no heed to the One Who had freed them from the slavery by the Egyptians and Who has loved them generously.

But over time, the people forgot the intention of the Sabbath, and the elders of the people, the teachers and masters of the Law ended up using these laws to further their own gains and agenda, and in this manner they have misled the people into thinking that to obey the Lord means to follow the rules imposed upon them without question, even when they did not fully grasp or understand them.

And what was intended for good things instead became a source of suffering and difficulties. God never intended for His laws to become a hindrance for people from doing what He desires of them, that is to do good and be good, to love and to care for their fellow brethren, and ultimately, by doing these, that they may be able to show the same love to their Lord and devote their whole lives to Him.

Doing the work of God is also the same as bringing glory to the Name of the Lord. It is a disgrace indeed if the people of God did not act in the way that God had taught them to do, but instead following their own whim and their own desires, which was exactly what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law did. Not only that they misled the people and laid on them heavy burdens, but they also stopped people from doing good on the holy day just because the law they made said so.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is important that we realise how much God loves us all, and it is important for us to appreciate that love He has for all of us. He never abandon us in our times of need, and He always treasures us all and our company. Shall we not give Him back the same kind of love that He had shown us first? We have spurned and rejected His love many times, and yet He still offered His mercy to us all. Is that not enough reason for us to repent and change our ways?

As St. Paul mentioned to the faithful in Corinth, let us all also seek to purify ourselves and make ourselves anew in God. Through baptism we have been cleansed from the original sins of man, and thus now, from now on, let our actions, words and deeds be a reflection of who we truly are, the beloved children of our Lord and God, that all who see us may know that we belong to Him, and they too shall be converted to Him.

Today we also commemorate the feast of St. Teresa of Calcutta, whom we more commonly knew as Mother Teresa. She was an Albanian by birth, born about just over a century ago in a Macedonian village, and since her youth, St. Teresa of Calcutta, then known as Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu had heard the calling of the Lord to devote herself to a life of piety and devotion in the religious life. She would went on to join the congregation of the Sisters of Loreto, where she eventually went to India, at which place she would devote the rest of her life serving and helping the poor and the least among the society.

She was touched and moved by what she had seen in the great suffering that poverty and disease had brought upon these least privileged among the community, especially those who had none to love them and care for them. Many were shunned by the society and were considered outcasts. Many suffered and died alone even in the worst of places, in slums and sewers not fit for a human being. And these were the reason why St. Teresa of Calcutta was renowned for her efforts in trying to alleviate their suffering, and ensuring that these people had someone to love and care for them.

To that extent, she established the Missionaries of Charity, where she gathered like minded individuals in a congregation to whip up the effort she had initiated to care for the last, the lost and the least of the society, ensuring that they are treated as humanely as possible, and even in dying, to die in peace and with dignity knowing that they too are counted among the children of God. We all know who St. Teresa of Calcutta is, and not because of marvellous and mighty deeds, but rather because she has endeavoured to make God’s love visible for us all, and make it available for everyone.

Through the examples of St. Teresa of Calcutta, may all of us be inspired to follow in her footsteps, caring and loving for our least loved and abandoned brethren. May God bless us all and our endeavours, and may our every actions and words be bearers of God’s salvation to many more lost souls among the nations, that all may be saved in the Holy Name of God. Amen.

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Tuesday, 6 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings speak volumes about being called and chosen by our God, and what therefore being chosen means for all of us, whom God had willingly made to be His disciples and followers. In the Gospel today we heard how Jesus called His disciples, and twelve of whom He had chosen to be His Apostles, the chief among all of His disciples and servants.

And we saw in the same Gospel passage, what the Lord Jesus did with the people whom He had worked with, healing them from their sickness and diseases, comforting the sorrowful and the weak, and also casting out demons and evil spirits from the possessed. And the Apostles were appointed to assist in these wonderful works of our Lord, helping the people of God in various areas.

When God called us to be His servants, He also laid down for us the mission which He had entrusted His Apostles with, namely the conversion and repentance of sinners and that all those who have disobeyed the Lord will return to Him with humility and sincerity in repentance. And He also expects from us what we need to do in order to fulfil that mission, as St. Paul made it very clear in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth.

In that letter, St. Paul highlighted that the wicked will not inherit or enter into the kingdom of heaven, which means that if we have been found wanting and that our faith is not sufficient, or if we have not been faithful to the mission which God have entrusted to us, then we shall not be able to enter into the eternal life and the glory promised by God to all of His faithful ones.

That is very clear because if we act in ways that are contrary to God and His ways, and if our actions are in opposition to what God is about and to what God has shown us, then we will bring scandal not only to His great and holy Name, but we also bring scandal and bad faith to His Church and to the other holy people of God, our brethren.

But the greatest damage lies in that our scandalous and wicked acts will deter those who are approaching the Lord through His Church and through us to receive His salvation and grace. If we, whom God had chosen to be His Apostles and disciples in our current age and time did not do as what we have been expected to do, but instead sinning and committing wickedness in the sight of God and man alike, who will believe in us then?

Therefore, we should all heed what St. Paul wrote in his exhortation to the faithful in Corinth, and strive to do our best in order to lead a holy and disciplined life, far away from sinful acts and wickedness, from all forms of travesty, abnormality and fornications that has separated us from Him. Let us all be true disciples of the Lord in all things, and commit ourselves to His cause.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God has called us all to come to His presence and for us to be transformed into the children of the Light, to be the bearers of His Word and truth into the world. Are we ready to take up the challenge and do His will? The choice is ours alone, brethren, and it is we who can make a difference in our own lives and our own fate, by choosing God over the temptations of the world. May God be our guide, and may all of us remain in His grace forever. Amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Saturday, 3 September 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the key message and the gist of today’s Scripture readings is really very simple, and yet it is at the same time, something very important for us all to take note of, as disciples and followers of our Lord. And that is the value and virtue of humility, and of rejecting pride and hubris, understanding that we mankind are not greater than God and His authority.

In order to understand fully the meaning and nuances behind what transpired between the Lord Jesus and the Pharisees in today’s Gospel, we have to appreciate and be able to understand the history of how it came to be as what it was like at the time of Jesus. By that time, the Jewish people, the descendants of Israel had had the Law revealed to them for over a thousand years, with many generations of peoples passing down the Law of God from mouth to mouth.

God made it clear in the beginning that He created mankind because of His love for all that He had created, and the greatest of which He reserved for us, the most perfect and beloved of all His creations, created in His very own Image. And because of that love, He has endeavoured to forgive them and rescue them from their own downfall, that is sin. Sin has entered into the hearts of men because of disobedience, and the reward for sin is death.

But God did not want such a fate for those whom He had intended to give His love to, and for the ones whom He had cared for, certainly He did not desire for them to perish, but to live and to rejoice together with Him. That was why He sent His messengers and servants among His people, to call them to repentance and to turn themselves to the loving and caring hands of the Lord, that He might take them up and bless them once more.

To that extent also, therefore, God sent Moses to rescue His people from their suffering and tribulation in the land of Egypt. They went out with the guidance from God’s own mighty Hand, and He showed His might before them. And in order to seal the promise He had made with them, He sealed it with the Covenant which He established through the Law that He passed down to Moses His servant, that His people would observe them forever.

These laws and commandments are love, brothers and sisters in Christ. If we read through the Ten Commandments, love the Lord your God and have no idols or false gods before Him, honouring His holy Name and the day of the Lord, all these speak of how we ought to have that love and dedication for God, just in the same manner as God has loved us first.

And the other commandments, exhorting us not to kill, not to steal, honouring one’s mother and father, all are speaking about how we ought then to show the same love we have shown to the Lord, in how we also love our brethren, our neighbours around us. This is what the Lord wanted from us all mankind, His beloved people, that we have love in us, His love, that we may love Him just as much as we have been loved by Him.

Yet, unfortunately, due to the obstinance and the rebelliousness of the people, they disagreed and doubted many times about the Lord, so much so that in order to keep them in check and to help ensure that they are able to restrain their negative desires and traits, God helped them by giving them rules and regulations to help them to manage themselves, that after having disciplined themselves, then they would be better able to find themselves on the right track towards the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, over time, the people of God forgot the intention of God why He established those rules and regulations in the first place. And as the Law was often transmitted from mouth to ear, and then from one to another again, over time, there were many misunderstandings and things that they had added into the laws, which then the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law zealously defended and imposed on the people.

These people saw themselves as superior to others, and they revelled in their pride knowing about their esteemed position and supposed greater piety and honour in the society, something which St. Paul clearly warned against in today’s First Reading, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Corinth. He warned them about human pride and hubris, greed and desire for power which could easily takeover us mankind, and make us not faithful servants of the Lord, but instead as wayward people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians we should learn to be more like king David, whom Jesus mentioned in His words in the Gospel today. When his men were hungry, the king David cared for them and found food for them in the Temple of God, that they might be sustained and not suffer from hunger. That is the kind of love which our Lord also expects from each and every one of us, that we do not overlook the sufferings of others, or worse, by imposing our views and opinions on others.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were fixated on the wrong things. They were so blinded by their blind obedience to the laws of Moses, which was serious misunderstanding of the true intention of the Law of God, that is love. Instead of bringing mankind to love God more, they were making those people to fear Him, as the excessive obligations and rules ended up burdening the people, especially all those seeking to repent and to turn over a new leaf.

Rather, we should learn to be true disciples of our Lord, by not just having empty faith, but also through active participation and commitment of our loving works and deeds, that we show love in all that we do, in all that we say, and after all these, in not claiming the credit for ourselves, or be proud of our achievements and deeds, for all these we have done, all for the sake of the greater glory of our God.

Today we also commemorate the feast of the great and renowned Pope, Pope St. Gregory the Great, who was well known for his great devotion to God, in his efforts to live a truly Christian life. Even though he had been elected to such an important role and position in the Christian world, but he remained humble and was very dedicated to the mission which he had been entrusted with by the Lord.

Pope St. Gregory the Great helped to reform the Church and the lives of the faithful, bringing greater discipline to the Church and to help the people of God to learn how to live as a faithful disciple and follower of the Lord. He helped the poor and the weak in his areas of jurisdiction, improving the livelihood of those who once lived in squalor and filth, showing genuine Christian love to everyone who saw him.

And he also sent many missions to convert many Pagans and all those who still lived in the ignorance of the salvation of God, that through these courageous missionaries, the word of God, that is the love I have mentioned earlier, the desire of the Lord to have all of His beloved children to return to Him, may reach all the ends of the earth, and as many souls as possible could be saved.

In his short earthly life, we can already see how he embodied what we Christians have to do, and how we ought to do it. Can we all devote ourselves to God and to our fellow brethren in the same way that Pope St. Gregory the Great and many of the other holy saints had done, brethren? Are we able to commit ourselves to the Lord fully and wholly without being distracted by the temptations of worldliness, power and all others?

Let us all pray now, brethren, that we may be given the gift to discern carefully how we are to do our actions in life, that wherever we are, we will always be ready to show love where it is needed, to care for the life and wellbeing of others when they were under threat, and to stand up for our needy and poor fellow men who were unjustly oppressed. May God help us in these endeavours, and may He keep us all always in His everlasting grace. Amen.

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Friday, 2 September 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green


Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings are reminder for us to live in accordance with the ways of our Lord Jesus Christ, as how He had taught us, and not in accordance with the ways of the world. And that was presented clearly through the parable which many of us are probably familiar with, that is the parable of the wineskins and the coat.

The context of the event that happened on that day was such that the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist existed alongside the disciples of Jesus. The Pharisees together with the teachers of the Law deemed as the elites of the society, who were supposed to be guardians and masters of the Law of God, while the disciples of John were those who listened to St. John the Baptist and followed him much like how the people followed Jesus.

But they followed the old path, that is the Old Testament and Covenant between God and mankind. They walked through the Covenant which had been made null not by the action of its Maker, the Lord our God, but rather through the disobedience which their ancestors, the ones with whom God had made His covenant with. Those people have sinned and disobeyed the commands of the Lord and profaned His holy covenant.

Yet, God still wished to remake that Covenant which had been broken, and reestablish it so that through the new Covenant He was bringing to them, His rebellious people may have a chance at redemption if they repent from their sins. And to that extent, He brought about a new Covenant which He made not through the sacrifice of the imperfect and worldly animals and blood, but instead through the perfect offering and sacrifice of the Blood of the Lamb, God made that new Covenant with us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that new Covenant was more complete and perfect than the first covenant. This new Covenant revealed to the people what He expected from each and every one of them, that is to show genuine faith and love for Him, and not just to show it through sacrifices and offerings as what the people in the past had done.

Especially for the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, they were so fixated on their rites and traditions, in how they have preserved the observances and the Jewish customs, that they have neglected what they ought to do, that is loving and showing devotion to God. They were too focused on things that are superficial, and in the end, they end up misleading the people of God into the wrong paths.

The New Covenant of God showed forth new norms and ways that ought to be obeyed. And we are all people of the new Covenant. We no longer live under the bonds of the old one, and we are promised the glorious and joyful outcome of the new Covenant so long as we are able to fulfil our commitment to God, showing forth our devotion and love for our God.

And if we are all people of the new Covenant, then can our actions be representative of those who truly belong to it? If we do things that are not in accordance to the Lord and His ways, then we may bring about scandal upon ourselves, and not just to ourselves but also to the Church and to the people of God. Let us all reflect on this, so that in all the things we do, we may always proclaim the greater glory of God.

May the Lord bless us and keep us, and may He protect us all, and guide us, so that we may learn how we ought to seek Him, and approach Him, that through our many works, through our actions, we may find our salvation through being steadfast to the new Covenant God has established with us His people. May God bless us and keep our paths to Him straight and secure. God be with all of us. Amen.