teachings of the Church

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Wednesday, 13 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard from the Scriptures speaking to us about trusting in the power of God and trusting in our own power, intellect and capabilities. In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah spoke against the pride of the king of Assyria, likely to be the king Sennacherib who came to besiege Jerusalem and boasted his might before the people of Judah.

As a context to what he was speaking about, the king of Assyria conquered many nations and peoples, and these people were sold into slavery and brought under the heels of the Assyrian Empire. However, there is one people whom he was unable to subjugate, that is the people of Judah, as God was standing with them and supported them against their enemies.

The king of Assyria boasted about his might and power before the people of Judah and before their king. He boasted about how many other nations had tried to go up against the Assyrians and those had been crushed, and their gods were unable to stop those things from happening. And thus, he blasphemed against God, thinking that nothing could have prevented him from achieving what he wanted, even against the power of God.

But he was completely humbled when God struck him and his forces down, sending His Angel to destroy a hundred and eighty-five thousand among the Assyrians’ mighty host. And thus, the Assyrian king was forced to retreat in great humiliation, and he would no longer trouble the people of God in Judah. And in the aftermath, the bickering and manoeuvring for power led to the very own sons of Sennacherib to kill their own father.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that short story about what happened during the time when the proud and the mighty went against the people of God is a reminder for all of us, that the power of men is feeble and untrustworthy. All the wealth, fame, influences and glory which we have in this world are not permanent, and without warning, we may lose them at any time, and having all of them does not necessarily free us from troubles to come.

And of course we do not bring them with us when we die. Whatever we have accumulated in this life will not follow us to the afterlife. In the Gospel today, we heard about our Lord Jesus Who revealed that those who place their trust in the wisdom and intellect of men do not know the truth which God brought into the world. It is likely because they were so self-absorbed by their great deeds that they ended up ignoring God and what He was trying to tell them.

We often place our trust in perishable treasures, things that can easily perish by fire, by thievery or by any worldly deeds and causes. But if we learn to look beyond all these, then perhaps we may be able to find that true treasure which all of us should strive for, that is for the kingdom of God, and for the reward of the just and the faithful ones. These are the treasures that will last forever and will not rot or be lost.

Let us all look at the example of St. Henry, the saint whose feast we are celebrating today. St. Henry was also known as the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II, the secular leader of Christendom at the time. St. Henry although he was one of the most powerful and influential person living at that time, having enormous wealth and influence, but he remained a simple and humble person.

St. Henry reigned wisely and built a great relationship with the Church, supporting its numerous good and charitable and evangelising work with zeal, while stabilising his Empire and devoting his time for the good of his people. St. Henry devoted himself to the state and to the betterment of his people, and he was a great role model to all of them.

He helped the establishment of the Church in many places and sincerely supported the Church in many matters. He was a very devout and committed person, and helped to enforce many of the rules of Christian celibacy to both the religious and the populace in general, avoiding all forms of impropriety and wickedness. In this manner, he showed the people how to be truly faithful to God in all of their actions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all heed the examples of St. Henry, the faithful and devoted ruler. Let us all learn to be humble and to be receptive to God’s transforming love in our midst, that we will no longer be subjected to our greed and human desires, and from now on, may all of us be able to commit ourselves, all our lives to the Lord our God without hesitation. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 12 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the plotting of the enemies of God in the first reading, the forces of the king of Aram and the northern kingdom of Israel which came together against the forces of the southern kingdom of Judah, the kingdom of the rightful king of Israel, David and his descendants. The enemies of the Lord came together to destroy the faithful, and many were fearful.

But God consoled His people and gave them great hope, as He promised to stand by them, but they must have faith in Him. If they themselves did not have faith in Him, how would then He help them? They must trust in the divine providence of God, believe in them and sincerely turn away from their rebellious and disobedient ways. The people of God faltered because they have long been distracted by the many temptations of this world, and as a result, they have drifted away and forgotten their roots in God.

But He was willing to forgive them and to overlook their transgressions, if they are willing to listen to Him and to be thoroughly converted to His cause, repenting all of their previous sins. And to that end, He had sent them His only beloved Son, Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world, to be their Lord and Saviour. And yet, when He performed many miraculous deeds before them, their hearts were closed against Him, and they refused to get up and change their old ways of sin.

That was why in the Gospel today, Jesus was cursing several cities in which He had performed those miracles. Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida, and these were cities and towns in Galilee where Jesus did much of His works and ministries in, and these were cities which were predominantly inhabited by the Jews, the descendants of the people of Israel of old.

In order to understand this matter fully, we have to understand the animosity that existed between the Jews and those others who were their neighbours, the Canaanites, Samaritans, Phoenicians who lived in Tyre and Sidon, the Greeks and the Romans. At that time, the region was profoundly multi-racial with peoples from different origins and cultures living together among each other.

As those who belonged to the race and group which God had once chosen to be His people, they felt great pride in that heritage, and over time, that led to contempt against all the others who did not belong to their group, alleging that those people, the pagans and non-Jewish people were unworthy of redemption and salvation.

And yet these people were incapable of showing the dedication and faith as was required of them, and they did not show repentance required for them to be forgiven from their sins. Some of them ignored Jesus, although many accepted and welcomed Him. But there were others like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who rejected Him and cast doubt on His teachings, challenging Him and His disciples wherever they went.

God lamented this lack of faith among His people, even as He had shown them directly His might and power before them. It was just the same after the people of Israel had been brought out of the land of Egypt, when God liberated them through His great power, striking at the Pharaoh and the Egyptians for refusing to let the Israelites go. But then, it was the same as how it was at the time of Jesus. No sooner that He had made them free, they began to wander, and surely we are all familiar with how they had made for themselves the golden calf soon after the Exodus from Egypt.

All these, brothers and sisters in Christ, are reminders for all of us. Temptations are always around us, and they always seek to distract us from our path, trying to turn us into other ways that do not lead to God. And our faith in the Lord is surely not always perfect, as there are certainly times and moments when we face difficulties and we feel that we have no one to turn to.

And surely we also have that feeling that we have been abandoned and no one, even God cared for us. However, we really have to learn to resist those thoughts, and instead of dwelling in fear and uncertainty, we should learn to give our trust to the One and only Being Who can save us from all distress, and to the One Who is always forever faithful even though we have constantly been unfaithful.

Let us all reflect on this, and let us all change our way of life, so that from those who are wayward and unfaithful, we may become faithful once again, not just in appearances and words alone, but also through our actions and in all things that embody who we are. May God help us in this endeavour and may He guide us in our journey to reach out to Him. Amen.

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Monday, 11 July 2016 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the great feast day of one of the most renowned holy saints of Christendom, one known for his great piety and discipline in faith, the one who made religious life to be such a devout and popular profession in his days. St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder and first Abbot of the Benedictine religious order had a great role in the history of the Church, in helping many to find their calling and vocations in God, and advance the cause of the Lord.

St. Benedict of Nursia was born five centuries after the birth of Christ at a time when Christianity has become the majority faith for the people in the then known world. The Christian faith has become the faith followed by the people from the lowest to the greatest in the society, and the Church was still growing rapidly and developing its structure and practices. However, it was very often that heresies and all other false teachings arose in the Church, and people were also often lukewarm about their faith.

They have become complacent about their faith, just as what we heard in the Scriptures today, in the Book of the prophet Isaiah, where God rebuked His people for their empty offerings and sacrifices which were not made in real and genuine faith and devotion for Him. The people had come to see those sacrifices as obligations and as merely a process, and they had no real love for the Lord.

And in the Gospel Jesus also rebuked the people who followed Him, all those thinking that His coming into the world would usher an era of eternal peace where there would be no more suffering or difficulties, where being a follower of the Lord would entail one to a life of complacency and enjoyment, and where no more work is needed. Being a Christian in fact means a life of challenges and difficulties, as the world of darkness from which we have been rescued from would not remain silent even as we approach the salvation in our God.

Jesus Himself warned that His coming would bring about conflict and struggle, even among the closest of friends, among the inner circles of the families themselves, where one member of the family, being a Christian might be pitted against the other members of the family and even be persecuted. There had been many examples in the history of our Faith and the Church, where the faithful had been torn between their families and the faith, their friends and the Lord. And those who chose the Lord often faced suffering and even martyrdom.

And thus, St. Benedict who founded several communities of the faithful who chose to devote themselves and their whole lives to God in a life of seclusion and prayer. St. Benedict was renowned for his famous Rule of St. Benedict, which became the foundation of the order which he helped to establish, as those communities which he had established eventually grew to become what we know as the Benedictine order.

The Rule of St. Benedict encompassed the rules put in place to ensure that the lives of those who chose to join the religious order of St. Benedict are filled with devotions and prayers, and filled with hard work to cultivate their faith in the Lord. They lived together and worked together in harmony, and in the challenges and the difficulties that they faced, they have nothing better and greater than God Himself Who stood by them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it does not mean that all of us should abandon our current lives and devote ourselves to become monks and religious like St. Benedict and his followers had done. Of course if there are some among us who had been called and chosen, and if they had chosen to follow the fullness of the examples of St. Benedict, then it is in fact a great thing, and we should give our support and encouragement to them.

But for the rest of us, each and every one of us have also been called to give our best effort to live as true and devout Christians, as those who do not just profess the faith on paper or with mere words alone, but also through hard work and dedication. Indeed, the path forward for us will be challenging, but at least then if we remain faithful to the end, then our way forward is clear, and God rewards all those who keep their faith in Him despite all the difficulties and the challenges faced.

Let us all therefore imitate the examples of St. Benedict of Nursia and his Benedictine followers, devoting ourselves in each of our own way, but most importantly be sincere in our faith and devotion, and commit ourselves wholly to God, not just with our mouth or gestures, but from the deepest depths inside our hearts and our minds. May God help us and strengthen us. Amen.

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Sunday, 10 July 2016 : 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the story of the Good Samaritan from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who told this story to His disciples and to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were following them on their journey. This story is the perfect story to tell us about how not to be prejudiced and be bigoted in our life, and it also showed us all what we all need to do as Christians.

The story of the Good Samaritan need to be understood in the context of the historical and the socio-political situation at the time, when the people of Israel, the descendants of the kingdom of Judah lived in the southern portion of Israel known then as Judea, centred around Jerusalem, and the northern approaches and regions known as Samaria, inspired from the ancient capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, which had been destroyed by the Assyrians, and had been repopulated by the Canaanites who were the neighbours of the Israelites.

Thus, the Jews always looked at the Samaritans with suspicion and contempt, as they deemed those Samaritans to be pagans and unworthy of God’s salvation. It was such that if we read the story of how Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman by the well, that the Jews commonly did not speak or communicate at all with the Samaritans, and less still to deal with them in any matter.

But they too are rightful children of God, and just as all of us the Gentiles, to whom the word of the Lord in the Gospel should also be preached to. They too believed in God, but they had no guide or prophets to help them, until the Lord Himself came to them and showed them the way forward. And when He came to tell them the truth about the salvation which He offered for all those who were willing to listen to Him and to follow Him, they did as what the Lord had asked them to do.

Even when the Lord called, they responded with faith and embarked on the journey to salvation. They followed the Law, even though their own way, and they repented with sincerity, opening their hearts and welcoming the Lord to their homes, even as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law rejected Jesus and His teachings, opposed Him and made His works and ministry very difficult.

The prejudice against the Samaritans by the Jews is something which we ourselves often have done in our own lives, in our own communities and societies, and even within our own families and within our own circle of friends. Let us all ask ourselves, how many of us have not ever been biased against another person? It is our innate human nature that we tend to compare, and we compare many things indeed, from our appearances, and then to our money, wealth and possessions, and then many more.

We compare against each other, and when we do not have something, then we become jealous and we have that tendency to also desire what we do not have. And when we have something which others do not have, then we start to be proud and gloat at others who do not have them. And that is when we start looking down on others and then ostracise them or treat them badly as what the Jews had done when they looked down on the Samaritans.

What Jesus our Lord showed in that story of the Good Samaritan is not a case example to discredit or to shame the Jews, and neither was it an example used to praise the Samaritans without reason. It is a story to show us all the example of Christian love which each and every one of us should be doing, and the fact that a Samaritan showed that kind of love to the man who was robbed and left to die, while the supposedly pious Levite and priest just walked past the man, told us volumes that we should not judge a book by its cover.

All of us should not just profess an external faith in God without true love and commitment for Him. For us to truly be able to commit to Him, we need to give our all, to love Him as the commandment said, that we ought to love our God with all our heart, with all our might, and without any hesitation so that in all things we say and do, we will always show that love and devotion for Him, and be able to commit ourselves thoroughly to Him with all sincerity.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Scriptures today, we have also heard the words of encouragement from God that all those who devote themselves to His cause will receive empowerment and strength, and God will be their strength amidst the challenges and troubles of this world. He will stand by our side through all of those challenges. If we are faithful to His Law, obey them with our heart and sincerely commit ourselves, then we will be blessed and we will receive grace from the Lord.

God has given us so much love, that He even has given us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord to be our Saviour and salvation. Is it not right that we should return the same love to Him? Is it not right then that we should also love all those whom He had loved without reservation? God did not discriminate with His love, and His love was given equally to all, Jews and Samaritans alike, Jews and Gentiles alike.

Today we celebrate the occasion of Bible Sunday, the commemoration of the Book of the word of our Lord, through which we have received the Good News of God’s salvation, the call for us all to be redeemed from the darkness and the sins that have enthralled us for many ages. And we are the messengers and heralds of that same Gospel which the Apostles and the disciples of Christ had persevered so hard for during those trying times, preaching the word of God to the nations.

And we have therefore the obligation and duty to reach out to all the peoples of all the nations. Jesus our Lord gave one last and the most important commandment of all when He was about to depart from this world into His heavenly glory. And that command is for all of us Christians to become the messenger of His Good News, the bearers of the truth of His Gospels, and bring all the peoples of all the nations into the loving embrace of God through baptism in the Holy Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Are we all able to commit ourselves to love both God and our fellow brethren? Are we all able to devote ourselves anew to God in all of our actions and dealings? Let us all reflect on this, and seek to change ourselves for the better. We have to help each other in our journey to the Lord, and we have to keep one another in mind, even as we go forth in this journey of our faith. Let us not leave anybody in the darkness, but endeavour as much as possible that all of us may find justification in God through our living devotion.

May God enlighten our minds and our hearts through the regular reading and understanding of the Holy Scriptures, and let us all also seek greater understanding by seeking more guidance from the Church, and drawing from the traditions of our Faith, so that having the word of God inside each and every one of us, we may be awakened to the reality of the state of our souls, and therefore do our best to attain salvation in God, by practicing what the Lord our God had given us in His laws and commandments. May God help us and preserve us, give us courage to live our lives with full faith, from now on and till forevermore. Amen.

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Saturday, 9 July 2016 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Companions, Martyr Saints of China, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, the theme of today’s readings are clear, and they all spoke to us, encouraging us and empowering us to do more for the sake of the Lord and His Church, that is to fulfil our calling and mission as those whom God has chosen out of the people in the whole world as those called Christians.

We may think that being a Christian is easy, but we are in fact mistaken if we think in such a manner. If we think that being a Christian is easy and does not require much effort, that is because we ourselves have not done what is expected of us as Christians, as those who truly heard the call of God, understood His laws and precepts, and followed Him with all of our heart’s might.

As it was in Jesus’ time, opposition and challenges are likely to await all of us if we follow the path of the Lord faithfully. Many of the people to whom Jesus was sent to, was adamant in their refusal to obey and listen to the words which the Lord had revealed to them through Jesus His Son. And they persecuted Him and His followers, trying to undermine them and even harm them in all opportunities given to them. The same or more can be expected of us as well.

But should we all then be afraid or be hesitant in answering God’s call? Shall we all be passive and no longer respond to God’s call? No, that is exactly what we should not do at all. To reject God’s calling out of fear and indecisiveness, as well as the desire to preserve ourselves, avoiding danger and trouble is selfishness, and selfishness has no place before God.

In the first reading today, we heard how the prophet Isaiah was called by God to be His servant and to be His messenger to the people of the kingdom of Judah, preaching to them the truth of His anger at their sins, and what they should be doing to repent from their sins and their wickedness, that they might be saved. Such a task was not easy, and indeed, it would lead to persecution and many troubles for him, as it was not easy to turn the heart of the people who had been accustomed to their sinful ways.

But God calmed him down and gave him the courage to do so. In the vision that he saw, he saw the great glory of God which surpasses everything else. He saw the throne of God in heaven, and the glory of the Angels and all that essentially will be the promise of his salvation and faith in God. And God purified him and made him worthy to be His servant through the blazing fire of the Temple of God in heaven, and from that moment on, he spoke only the truth and the will of God.

And we knew how the prophet Isaiah spoke many things about God, and from him we knew the hope of our salvation, as he also spoke about Christ our Lord, the One Who was promised to bring us out of our sufferings and misery, to bring us into the eternal life which has been promised to all those who are faithful to God. And Isaiah spoke of all this, while berating the people for their sins, even the king of Judea, Ahaz, without fear for his life.

Jesus told His disciples in the Gospel passage today, that we must not be afraid of the one who is only able to harm the body, that is Satan, all of his allies and all of the forces of the world. Instead, we must be wary and fear the One Who is able to harm the eternal soul, that is the Lord our God, our great Judge, He Who will judge all the peoples without exception, on their eternal fate.

And if we are faithful to Him, God will take care of us all, as He loved us all as His beloved children. And Jesus represented this with how much God cared for even the animals and the plants we can find around us, and how much more He therefore would love us and care for us, as we are the most beloved of all His creations? Therefore we do not need to worry, since worry will only distract us from the true goal, that is to be with our God.

Let us all draw the example from the holy martyrs and saints whose feast we celebrate on this day. St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his many fellow compatriots in faith all have tasted great sufferings and pains in their lives as Christians. They were all together beatified and later were canonised as saints, as the Holy Martyr Saints of China. They have endured challenges and persecution, torture and ridicule, and even had to bare their lives before their accusers, all those who resented and rejected the one true Faith.

The Faith has been brought to China by the brave and courageous missionaries who braved the long journey from Europe to Asia, the hostile conditions on the way and the opposition they faced during their journeys. And when they arrived in China, they found a sophisticated and cultured people who have not yet heard of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And thus, they began to preach about Him to them, and slowly but gradually there were more and more who believed and the Church there steadily grew.

But the rulers and the officials viewed the Church and its activities in China with suspicion if not with open contempt and disdain. And they even openly tried to discourage the faith, just as how it had been under the early and middle years of the Roman Empire, when many of the faithful were persecuted and even killed for the reason of their faith in Jesus Christ.

Yet, despite all these, the courageous holy servants of God did not give up and persevered on, continuing to devote themselves to God and committing themselves to the mission which had been entrusted to them. And even when they were cornered and offers were made to them to abandon their faith and reject the Lord in exchange for safety and assurance that they would be treated well from then on, they did not do so.

They remained true to the Lord and continued to defend their faith and their Lord to the very end. And God rewarded them with the glory of Heaven, which He had promised to all those who remain true to Him and keep their faith even though they had been pressured to do otherwise. God does not abandon those who have been faithful to Him, but He gave them the joy of His presence and grace.

Let us all heed the examples of these holy saints, and commit ourselves anew to God. Let us no longer be hesitant but instead be filled with courage for all of us as Christians have been called as the prophet Isaiah had once been called, to be the beacons of light to all the nations, bringing forth the word, the will and the truth of God to all the nations. May God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Friday, 8 July 2016 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the words of comfort from our Lord, He Who is always rich in mercy and love, ready to forgive us our sins and wrongdoings, as long as we are genuine and real in our repentance and in our desire to be forgiven. God showed His mercy to all those who are willing to listen to Him and be thoroughly converted to His cause, abandoning all of their past wicked ways and sins, and commit themselves to righteousness from then on.

In the first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Hosea, God revealed His mercy to His people, willing to forgive them for the sins that they have committed. He would heal them from their afflictions and brought them from their suffering into the joy of everlasting life He promised to those who would devote themselves to Him. He shall be their foundation and they would be strong amidst the challenges they would face in the world.

But all these require penance and genuine turn towards the Lord, one that requires effort and hard work. One cannot be complacent and think that without effort they would be able to receive all the goodness of God. In the psalm today, which was taken from Psalm 50, was a psalm by the king David of Israel, renowned as it was inspired directly from a moment in David’s life, when he committed sin before God by committing adultery with the wife of his bannerman.

King David committed that sin, and the anger of God should have fallen upon him with all the curses and the condemnation. And yet, after David showed great remorse and humbly submitted himself before God, God had mercy on him, forgave him, and restored the graces and blessings which He had promised to him and to his descendants.

David was humble, and he was willing to commit himself fully to God. And that was one trait and quality which many of us unfortunately often lack. Those who would put their trust in God shall not be abandoned, for God is forever faithful. He gave them hope, as Jesus spoke to His disciples in the Gospel we heard today, how being His disciples would mean that they would encounter challenges and difficulties, but God through His Spirit would be with them through all those troubles.

All these therefore pointed out to us that we have to learn to let go of those things that keep us in the state of sin and which prevented us from finding our way to the Lord. All of us should learn to look beyond all our worldly attachments so that we may be better able to appreciate the kindness of our Lord, He Who is loving and merciful towards us.

Nothing in this world will be able to sustain us, not even our own power and might. If we trust in them, no sooner will it be that they fail us. Even David at the height of his power as the king over all Israel, all his enemies defeated and humbled around him, and even if everyone thought that he would be able to get whatever it was that he wanted, but he was humbled because of that ego and desire that was in him.

And even the richest and the mightiest among us, even the wealthiest person and the most powerful of kings and rulers will have to face the judgment of God at the end of their lives. Not even their vast wealth, influence or power will do them any good. These will not save them, but their deeds and faith in God will. The same applies to all of us as well. Shall we not now think about our actions and carefully decide of what we are going to do from now on?

Shall we obey God and follow His ways from now on? It is important that we truly go and devote ourselves to Him, for the sake of our souls. Let us all not wait until it is too late for us, but from now on, do our best so that we may gain favour with our God and be forgiven for all of our sins just as David had been forgiven in his humble submission. May God bless us and strengthen us all in our faith and devotion to Him. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Thursday, 7 July 2016 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the love which God has shown to His people, and the anger that was aroused in His heart when those same people refused to acknowledge and to appreciate that great love which He had shown them. They have been rescued from their suffering and enslavement at the hand of the Egyptians and the Pharaohs, and God Himself carried them out of the land of Egypt by His mighty power.

God has provided them with many things, and even cleared their way ahead of them, destroying their enemies and all those who plotted evil against them. And yet, they were almost always unfaithful and disobedient, refusing to listen to the precepts of the Lord their God, disobeying their commands and preferring to follow their own selfish desires.

In their disobedience, they have brought upon themselves the anger and the punishment of God. But God still loved them, and He wanted to help them and rescue them from the destruction that awaited them. And hence to that extent, God sent them His promised salvation that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who came into the world to deliver to all mankind the word of God.

Despite all the things which they have seen and witnessed, even the healing of the sick, the opening of the eyes of the blind, the curing of the tied tongues of the mute and the opening of the ears of the deaf, the people still refused to believe. They doubted Jesus and His teachings, as shown by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who even went so far as to make it very difficult for Jesus and His disciples to do their works and ministry to the people.

And there were many others who followed Jesus just because He amazed them with the wonders of His miracles and works. These were satisfied by the food they ate when Jesus fed the multitudes of men and women, and they were astonished at what they saw when Jesus did all those miracles, even to the point of raising and returning someone from death back to life.

But they did not have strong and genuine faith in them. The moment their Lord was seized from them, and once Jesus was arrested, they abandoned Him quickly, everyone tending their own businesses and matters. It is the same with their ancestors who disobeyed the Lord and followed their own rebellious path, more often so because they were preoccupied with themselves and their desires so much that they were not able to let these go when the time comes for them to choose between God and the world.

Now let us ask ourselves, are we like them? Are our actions and all our directions in life mimic what those people had done? Have we been truly faithful to the Lord our God? Or have we rather been wayward and disobedient? The answer lies within ourselves. Let us all reflect on what we have done in life, and whether we have that courage and drive to follow on through with our faith, devoting our whole life to the Lord.

Do we let the temptations of this world to be obstacles on our path to God? Yes, they will become obstacles for us, but are we embracing them instead of pushing them aside or resisting them? Do we make the conscious effort to be faithful in all things? It will indeed not be easy for us, as challenges and difficulties are waiting for us, but the reward for remaining faithful to God to the end, is great.

Let us all no longer hesitate but be filled with faith and conviction, giving it all to be faithful and devoted to God in all things. Let us do our best in order to be devoted and committed servants of our God, and thus be worthy of His eternal glory and the life everlasting He had promised to all of His faithful ones. May God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 6 July 2016 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking about the people of the northern kingdom of Israel, to whom the prophet Hosea had been sent to. The people of Israel had been blessed with much blessings, as their ancestors had been faithful to God and to His covenant with them. And at that time, as a background, the prophet Hosea was sent to the northern kingdom of Israel at the time of relative prosperity.

And all that prosperity as well as their own stubbornness and lack of faith had made the people of God to lose track and deviate from the true faith in God. They refused to listen to the prophets which had been sent to them to remind them of what they ought to do to repent and to turn back to the Lord. They disobeyed God and instead, they lived in debauchery and wasted themselves on the prosperity and the wealth which they had gained.

And instead of following their one and true King, they followed the king whom they have set over themselves. Those kings had misled them into evil ways and thus into sin. But despite of this, they continued on with their wrong path, and they therefore sank deeper into the darkness. And yet, God continued to send His help again and again, one after another with the hope that some of them would realise their errors and return to Him.

That was why Jesus our Lord, Who came into the world in order to save it, also sent His twelve Apostles and the many other disciples He had to preach His Good News to the people, spreading the truth about God’s love and mercy to them, and calling them to repentance and to turn themselves to God’s ever great and generous mercy.

But the resistance by all those people to whom the Apostles and the disciples had been sent to, was great. They did not like it when they had to change their ways to suit that of the ways of the Lord. For them, it was much more preferable for them to continue with their then way of life rather than to abandon them for the sake of the Lord. Many of them were too attached to worldliness and thus their hearts were set against God and His message.

Then, this is where we should take note of what happened to the saint whose feast day we celebrate today. She is the famous saint whose story must be quite familiar with many of us. St. Maria Goretti was a young woman who was devoted to the Lord, and has promised herself before God to remain holy and pure in all things. She lived with another family as her own father had passed away when she was still very young.

The son of the family where St. Maria Goretti lived in took an interest in her, and he on one occasion, threatened St. Maria Goretti and wanted to rape her when she was alone, but St. Maria Goretti, even when threatened with a sharp knife, refused his advances, and courageously reminded him that such an act is a great and mortal sin that would condemn both of them to the eternal fires of hell.

Faced with such a setback and opposition, the boy panicked and as he gave in to his fears and anger, he struck at St. Maria Goretti many times with the knife. As she laid dying from her wounds in the hospital, she forgave her murderer with love, and wished that he would be with her in Heaven.

And indeed, while the murderer refused to repent and did not show regret over his actions in the first few years of his imprisonment, but after a bishop visited him in prison and told him how St. Maria Goretti had forgiven him and even prayed for him, and as on one night she even appeared before him and spoke to him, the murderer, Alessandro Serenelli, repented sincerely and changed his ways, eventually even becoming a member of a religious order, dedicating himself to a life of piety and devotion to God.

This wonderful story of the life and death of St. Maria Goretti, and how her murderer had been converted into the way to salvation should be inspiration for us all as well. Let us not be like the people of Israel in ancient times, who placed their worldly desires and greed above their faith in God. The same problem had caused that Alessandro to murder St. Maria Goretti, and also many other sinful things which we mankind commit in this world today.

Let us all no longer give in to our human desires and the greed that is in our hearts. Let us instead devote ourselves ever more faithfully to our God, and give ourselves to Him in all the things that we say and do, so that we may draw ever closer to the throne of His love and mercy. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 5 July 2016 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the message of the Sacred Scriptures is very clear, as the messages in unison are reminders for all of us, not to put our trust or to worship the pagan gods and idols, which the people in the past had worshipped, the pagan gods and idols of wood, gold, silver, bronze and carven artefacts.

The first reading taken from the book of the prophet Hosea spoke about the lamentation and the anger which God had for His people, especially those in the northern kingdom of Israel who abandoned Him and instead followed the path of their neighbouring countries, those who worshipped the gods and idols of carved stones, gold and silver statues, the gods of the Canaanites, Baal, Asherah and many others.

Just as their ancestors had done at the time of their Exodus from Egypt, they were and can indeed be considered as fools for abandoning the sure certainty and the guarantee of their God for the comfort of the worldly falsehoods and for the beings crafted by mere human hands, of idols made from gold, silver, wood or other precious stones.

Since times and moments immemorial, mankind had worshipped objects of nature, both visible and invisible. They have worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars, and even elements such as fire, water and all the other creations of God. They were awed by their glorious appearances and how wonderful they were. But they did not realise or understand that all these things were mere creations, and not the Lord and Creator.

And all of us have the privilege to know the truth, that by what had been revealed to us, we know that we worship the Creator God, Who had created all those wonderful things, and yet we also know that those things were mere creations, and thus do not deserve our obeisance and worship. Those people put their trust in those things, and worse of all, they worshipped those creations of their own, the works of their own hands.

All that is because they were incapable of understanding the will and the intention of God. They were unable to comprehend the mysteries of God, and instead, they put emphasis on themselves, thinking that whatever greatness and glory they have received were due to them alone. And thus, many men who thought in accordance to the ways of the world would not be able to comprehend the will of God, just as what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law showed us.

The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees were those supposedly chosen from among the people, educated and filled with wisdom and the teachings of the Law and the prophets, and as such, they were highly respected in the society. And yet, when they saw what Jesus had done, which was clearly the works of God made evident in the world of man, they refused to acknowledge it, and even made a grave lie and false accusation that Jesus had done His works with the power of demons.

Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? We do not have to look further than the tension that arose between them and Jesus our Lord. They were the powerful and the privileged ones in the society. Through their authority, they gained honour, respect and many other things through their influence, but Jesus, Who came to dispel all falsehoods and revealed the entirety of God’s truth to us, thus became a great threat to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.

Their ego and pride prevented them from opening their eyes, minds and hearts, to look beyond the veil of jealousy and human greed, in order to realise that indeed they were the ones who had been mistaken in their approach. They were too self-centred to be able to realise the love of God which has been poured for their sake. They thought that they were doing the right thing, while the fact is that they are just serving their own purposes.

Today’s Scripture readings serve as a reminder for us all, so that as we live our own lives today, we may keep ourselves free from those temptations, the temptations of power, the temptations of the flesh, and all the things that kept us away from truly being faithful to God. And we may think that in this current times, we no longer do what the ancients were doing, worshipping the idols of gold, silver, bronze or wood, but we are mistaken.

For there are always idols that keep us away from the Lord, no matter in what form it is. Do we not realise that many of us are so preoccupied by our work, by our income, wealth and possessions, which distracted us from following the Lord our God? Do we not realise that there are many modern day idols of materialism, of selfishness and of human pride that still stand on the path which we ought to take, as obstacles on our way to salvation?

Let us all reflect on this, and let us also see the example of St. Anthony Zaccaria, the faithful servant of God, whose feast day we are celebrating today. St. Anthony Zaccaria was an Italian priest, who lived a few hundred years ago, and he was well known for his piety and charitable acts, and became a great role model for many people, championing strong piety and devotion to God.

In particular, he made popular what is called the forty-hour devotion, the long period of solemn adoration and worship of the Blessed Sacrament, which is indeed the Lord Himself in the presence within the Eucharist. Through this devotion, which he championed and by his many other works and establishments of societies and religious groups dedicated to further the cause of the Lord, he had brought many souls from the precipice of darkness and back into the light.

Let us all therefore also follow in his footsteps, brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us throw away all the idols of our life, those things that do not bring us closer to God and instead became barriers and obstacles on our path to Him. Let us not be distracted by ceaseless and endless pursuits of money, fame, wealth and human glory, but instead, put our trust in the Lord. Let us live our lives faithfully to God, and increase our devotion to the Lord, perhaps following the examples of St. Anthony Zaccaria through regular adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. May God help us all in all things. Amen.

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Monday, 4 July 2016 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard firstly the prophecy of the prophet Hosea, who came to pronounce the words and the will of God at a time of great turbulence. At that time, the kingdom of Israel had been divided into the northern kingdom also called Israel, and the southern kingdom of Judah. And the people of the northern kingdom, to whom the prophet Hosea had been sent to, had become corrupt and wicked, revelling in the pleasures and the goods of the world, as they lived in prosperity and wealth.

The prophet Hosea often rebuked the people for their debauchery and wicked ways, but at the same time, as what we have heard in today’s first reading, he also spoke of the coming of the time of God’s forgiveness and redemption of His people, as a hope for those who chose to keep their faith in their one and only true Lord and Master. Those who would abandon their past obstinate attitude and embrace fully God’s love and mercy would receive the rich fruits of God’s mercy and love.

And this has been proven in what we have heard in the Gospel today, the well known story of how Jesus healed the woman with bleeding issues, and how He raised the daughter of the synagogue official from death and back into life. We saw through these examples, that if we have faith in God, everything will be made possible for us. And God will not abandon all of His faithful ones to despair and hopelessness.

Because the woman had faith in Jesus, and she dared to seek Him to heal her from her afflictions, God saw her faith and praised her for the faith which she had, and healed her from the sickness that had troubled her for so many years. And because the synagogue official believed in Him, and sought for Him when his daughter was in trouble, and in fact had died, because of this Jesus healed the daughter and returned her to life.

From all these, we heard that faith in God is what saves us all. If we do not have faith in Him, then there is no way that we would achieve salvation. After all, Jesus Himself had said that only through Him that salvation can be achieved, and beyond Him there is no hope for salvation, for He is the Bridge, the Way to the Lord our God, the One Who linked us between ourselves and God our Father.

Let us then look at the example of the holy and faithful St. Elizabeth of Portugal, whose feast we are celebrating today. St. Elizabeth of Portugal was once a Spanish princess who married the King of Portugal and hence became the Queen of Portugal. As Queen, she was devoted to her people, and committed many charitable works that made the people’s livelihood better.

She was a pious person, and she devoted her life to God. She was a great servant of God and tried her best to show the people how they ought to live as the people of God, by having true faith in Him, by loving one another. And she was indeed leading by example, doing as much charity as she was able to. And after her husband, the King of Portugal passed away, she left behind her life as queen, and devoted herself to God by entering the religious life.

And yet, even so, she still committed herself to many good works, including to broker peace among the kingdoms at the time which were rife with rivalry and warfare. She made peace among the fighters and warmongers, and won for the people of God the peace and harmony through which more good works of God’s salvation could be done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Elizabeth of Portugal had great faith in God, and for that great faith she was rewarded with the glory of heaven. And even after she passed away, her examples and works in life still continued to inspire many others, and indeed, became a source of courage for many of those who were unsure and uncertain about following God.

Shall we too do the same as those people had done? Shall we also follow in the footsteps of the holy saints of God, the woman whose faith healed her from her bleeding affliction, and the synagogue official whose faith restored her daughter back to life, even from death? It is our choice now, brothers and sisters, and we must now choose, whether we are going to be faithful to God, or whether we are going to abandon Him for some other things.

Just as at the time of the prophet Hosea, there are many temptations in this world. And as we progress on, there are going to just be more and more temptations along our path, be it wealth, possessions, fame, human glory and praise, as well as many others.let us ask ourselves, are we able to resist these temptations? Are we able to be truly faithful to our God without being overly attached to all the things I had just mentioned?

May God strengthen our faith for Him, and enkindle in our hearts the fire of His love, that through them, we may draw ever closer to Him and find salvation and succour in His presence, and be worthy to receive the promise of eternal glory and praise He had promised to all those who believe in Him and keep their faith in Him. God bless us all. Amen.