Temple of the Holy Spirit

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Friday, 9 October 2015 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Gospel Reading)

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

Luke 11 : 15-26

At that time, some of the people said, “He drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of the demons.” Others wanted to put Him to the test, by asking Him for a heavenly sign.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, “Every nation divided by civil war is on the road to ruin, and will fall. If Satan also is divided, his empire is coming to an end. How can you say that I drive out demons by calling upon Beelzebul? If I drive them out by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive out demons? They will be your judges, then.”

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God; would not this mean that the kingdom of God, has come upon you? As long as a man, strong and well armed, guards his house, his goods are safe. But when a stronger man attacks and overcomes him, the challenger takes away all the weapons he relied on, and disposes of his spoils.”

“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me, scatters. When the evil spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through dry lands, looking for a resting place; and finding none, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.'”

“When it comes, it finds the house swept and everything in order. Then it goes to fetch seven other spirits, even worse than itself. They move in and settle there, so that the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

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Sunday, 8 March 2015 : Third Sunday of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 2 : 13-25

At that time, as the Passover of the Jews was at hand, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple court He found merchants selling oxen, sheep and doves, and money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the Temple court, together with the oxen and sheep.

He knocked over the tables of the money changers, scattering the coins, and ordered the people selling doves, “Take all this away, and stop turning My Father’s house into a marketplace!” His disciples recalled the words of Scripture : ‘Zeal for Your House devours Me like fire.’

The Jews then questioned Jesus, “Where are the miraculous signs which give You the right to do this?” And Jesus said, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then replied, “The building of this Temple has already taken forty-six years, and will You raise it up in three days?”

Actually, Jesus was referring to the Temple of His Body. Only when He had risen from the dead did His disciples remember these words; then they believed both the Scriptures and the words Jesus had spoken.

Jesus stayed in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, and many believed in His Name when they saw the miraculous signs He performed. But Jesus did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all of them. He had no need of evidence about anyone, for He Himself knew what there was in each one.


Alternative reading (Readings of Year A)

John 4 : 5-42

At that time, Jesus came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there. Tired from His journey, Jesus sat down by the well; it was about noon. Now a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” His disciples had just gone into town to buy some food.

The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?” (For Jews, in fact, have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift of God! If you knew who it is, who is asking you for a drink, you yourself would have asked Me, and I would have given you living water.”

The woman answered, “Sir, You have no bucket, and this well is deep; where is Your living water? Are You greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, together with his sons and his cattle?”

Jesus said to her, “Those who drink of this water will be thirsty again; but those, who drink of the water that I shall give, will never be thirsty; for the water, that I shall give, will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to Him, “Give me this water, that I may never be thirsty, and never have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.” The woman answered, “I have no husband.” And Jesus replied, “You are right to say, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you said is true.”

The woman then said to Him, “I see You are a Prophet, tell me this : Our ancestors came to this mountain to worship God; but you Jews, do you not claim that Jerusalem is the only place to worship God?”

Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, the hour is coming when you shall worship the Father, but that will not be on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for that is the kind of worshippers the Father wants. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit, and truth.”

The woman said to Him, “I know that the Messiah (that is the Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will tell us everything.” And Jesus said, “I who am talking to you, I am He.”

At this point the disciples returned, and were surprised that Jesus was speaking with a woman; however, no one said, “What do You want?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and ran to the town. There she said to the people, “Come and see a Man who told me everything I did! Could He not be the Christ?” So they left the town and went to meet Him.

In the meantime the disciples urged Jesus, “Master, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” And the disciples wondered, “Have anyone brought Him food?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me, and to carry out His work.”

“You say that in four months there will be the harvest; now, I say to you, look up and see the fields white and ready for harvesting. People who reap the harvest are paid for their work, and the fruit is gathered for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.”

“Indeed, the saying holds true : One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap where you did not work or suffer; others have worked, and you are now sharing in their labours.”

In that town many Samaritans believed in Him when they heard the woman who declared, “He told me everything I did.” So, when they came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days. After that, many more believed because of His own words, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is the Saviour of the world.”


Alternative reading (shorter version of Year A reading)

John 4 : 5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42

At that time, Jesus came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there. Tired from His journey, Jesus sat down by the well; it was about noon. Now a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” His disciples had just gone into town to buy some food.

The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?” (For Jews, in fact, have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift of God! If you knew who it is, who is asking you for a drink, you yourself would have asked Me, and I would have given you living water.”

The woman answered, “Sir, You have no bucket, and this well is deep; where is Your living water? Are You greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, together with his sons and his cattle?”

Jesus said to her, “Those who drink of this water will be thirsty again; but those, who drink of the water that I shall give, will never be thirsty; for the water, that I shall give, will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to Him, “Give me this water, that I may never be thirsty, and never have to come here to draw water. I see You are a Prophet, tell me this : Our ancestors came to this mountain to worship God; but you Jews, do you not claim that Jerusalem is the only place to worship God?”

Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, the hour is coming when you shall worship the Father, but that will not be on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for that is the kind of worshippers the Father wants. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit, and truth.”

The woman said to Him, “I know that the Messiah (that is the Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will tell us everything.” And Jesus said, “I who am talking to you, I am He.”

In that town many Samaritans believed in Him. So, when they came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days. After that, many more believed because of His own words, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is the Saviour of the world.”

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(Special – Singapore) Saturday, 14 February 2015 : Solemnity of the Anniversary of the Dedication of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 2 : 13-22

At that time, as the Passover of the Jews was at hand, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple court He found merchants selling oxen, sheep and doves, and moneychangers seated at their tables.

Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the Temple court, together with the oxen and sheep. He knocked over the tables of the moneychangers, scattering the coins, and ordered the people selling doves, “Take all this away, and stop turning My Father’s house into a marketplace!” His disciples recalled the words of Scripture : ‘Zeal for Your House devours Me like fire.’

The Jews then questioned Jesus, “Where are the miraculous signs which give You the right to do this?” And Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then replied, “The building of this temple has already taken forty-six years, and will You raise it up in three days?”

Actually, Jesus was referring to the Temple of His Body. Only when He had risen from the dead did His disciples remember these words, then they believed both the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken.

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Sunday, 18 January 2015 : Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, World Day of Migrants and Refugees and Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the calling of Samuel, who had been called by God in his youth, when he was still under the tutelage of Eli, the judge over Israel. He was called to be the servant of God, and to be the one who would lead the people of Israel back to the Lord, as the messenger of His will and desire for His people.

And in the Gospel we heard about the parallel story of how the Apostles, that is the chief disciples of the Lord, were called. They were called from their respective lives to be the bearers of the Good News of the Lord. And therefore, just like Samuel, they brought much goodness to the people of God. They were after all called to be the bearers of God’s great Light to a people who lived in a great darkness, to dispel that darkness and bring them all back to the true Light.

Why was Samuel called by the Lord? And why was the Apostles and the disciples of Christ called by Jesus to follow Him and to do His will? That is because there is indeed much wickedness in this world, so much so that it disgusts our Lord to see such great darkness and wickedness existing among us His people. Thus, He called His servants and all those whom He had chosen to be the bearers of His will to His people, to call them to repentance.

The people at the time of Samuel was led by the judges whom God had appointed over His people. But they were only faithful as long as the judges were alive. As soon as they passed away, they returned to their old way of sin and wickedness, following the customs and practices of their Canaanite neighbours. Therefore, God was angry with them and they suffered greatly at the hands of their persecutors.

Similarly, the people at the time of Jesus lived at a time when they were adrift among the false practices of the people around them. Just a century or so before the birth of Christ, if we read the Book of the Maccabees, then we should know how many of the people of God readily submitted to the pagan ways and rejected the way of the Lord, and they sinned greatly before God.

Nevertheless, it does not mean that God did not love His people. It is neither that He desired their destruction and annihilation. In fact, God loves all of them, and He desires only for their salvation. And that is why, He called Samuel to bring His warnings and His truth to the people, that they might repent and follow Him again. And in the same way, He called His Apostles through whom He made clear His truth and teachings, and from them, the same truth is passed down to all of us.

In the second reading, St. Paul in his letter to the Church in Corinth reminded the faithful that they must avoid all forms of sins and fornications, of the flesh and of the spirit. He reminded the people that they are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, that is the very Temple and House of God where God Himself resides. If they committed sin and fornications, then they would have defiled the very House and Presence of God Himself, and they committed grave sin that threatened condemnation on them.

Therefore it will be the same for all of us if we choose to live wickedly and be filled with sin. All of us who have believed in Christ and accept Him into ourselves through the Most Holy Eucharist have been made into the dwelling and the house where God Himself resides. Thus, we are all the Temples of the Lord’s Holy Presence and we have to maintain the purity and sanctity of this Temple, that is our body, our mind, our heart and our spirit, so that no taint of sin or wickedness may come and harm our purity.

How is the reading today relevant to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is because all of us have been called to be the disciples and followers of Christ, and we all have been baptised in His Name, and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have been granted such great grace to have the Lord Himself dwelling in us. Thus first, we have to maintain ourselves in a state of purity and avoiding the taints of sin as best as we can.

But we cannot just stop there, brethren, as the gifts and graces which we have received are the same gifts which God had given to Samuel, and also the same gifts as He had granted the Apostles and disciples in the ages past. Therefore, we too have the same obligation and duty as that which had been given to the prophets and the Apostles, that is to bring the revelations of God’s truth to mankind and to call mankind back to the Lord, abandoning their sins and embracing fully the way of the Lord.

Are we able to be like Samuel and say courageously to the Lord, “Lord, speak, for Your servant is listening!”? It is very difficult for many if not most of us to listen and to allow God to speak in us, within our heart. He speaks to us in a subtle way, and if we allow ourselves to be distracted by the many things in the world, the many pleasures and evils in it, then I would say that, we would be deaf to the Lord calling for us, to repent and to follow Him with all of our heart. Let us change our ways therefore, that we may truly be faithful and active disciples of our Lord.

And again therefore, it is related once again to how we live our lives. No one will believe in what we preach should we not live according to what our faith tells us. No one will follow us if we do not do as what we have preached to them. Thus, our faith in God must be truly a living faith, and in living our faith, we too can preserve the sanctity of our Temple, the Temple of God that is our body, our mind, our heart, and our soul.

Today we mark the World Day of Prayer for Migrants and Refugees. We ought to pray for all those who have been displaced by various causes, either by war, injustice, oppression or any other reasons, which cause them difficulties and sufferings. If we are truly the Temples of God, the dwelling place of our Lord, then by nature all of us should act according to what our Lord would have done, that is to love those who are least, weakest, the ostracised and the rejected ones in our society. Migrants and refugees are often among these, and if we do not love them, then who will?

Let us share some of our love and our joy, our blessing and our grace with them, the migrants, those who have travelled far from their homeland, as well as refugees who have been displaced from their lands. After all, was not Abraham a migrant too? He travelled far following the will of God, and he obediently followed His commandments, and his descendants Israel also have to move from place to place, suffering difficulties along the way. Thus, let us all share a thought for this, and give them the best we can do. Do not shun them, or ostracise them or reject them, but let us welcome them all with love.

Today we also mark the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, where we pray for the eventual reunion of all the faithful and all those who profess faith in Christ, under the orthodox and true teachings of the Faith, according to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church under the sovereignty and leadership of the one and only Vicar of Christ, the Pope of Rome, whom God had appointed to be His sole representative on this world.

Thus as we begin this solemn week of prayer, let us all commit ourselves to keep ourselves pure and righteous, following the Law of God and be obedient to His teachings, so that all others who see us, will believe and repent from their sins. Let us pray sincerely for the conversion of heretics and schismatics who have separated themselves from the true faith in particular, that they may have their eyes opened and their senses awakened, so they may know what the true Faith is like and abandon all forms of lies and falsehoods which Satan had planted in them to divide the Church of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be true to our mission in life, that is to keep ourselves faithful and at the same time, bring our brethren who are still in darkness and all those who have gone wayward, to return them to the path towards the Lord. Hence, now we pray, we act and we do things that will show the faith we have in our Lord, our loving God, and He who sees it all and knows it all, will reward us richly forevermore. God bless us all. Amen.

 

First Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/17/sunday-18-january-2015-second-sunday-of-ordinary-time-world-day-of-migrants-and-refugees-and-week-of-prayer-for-christian-unity-first-reading/

 

Psalm :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/17/sunday-18-january-2015-second-sunday-of-ordinary-time-world-day-of-migrants-and-refugees-and-week-of-prayer-for-christian-unity-psalm/

 

Second  Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/17/sunday-18-january-2015-second-sunday-of-ordinary-time-world-day-of-migrants-and-refugees-and-week-of-prayer-for-christian-unity-second-reading/

 

Gospel Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/17/sunday-18-january-2015-second-sunday-of-ordinary-time-world-day-of-migrants-and-refugees-and-week-of-prayer-for-christian-unity-gospel-reading/

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Sunday, 18 January 2015 : Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, World Day of Migrants and Refugees and Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Corinthians 6 : 13c-15a, 17-20

Yet the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body. And God who raised the Lord, will also raise us with His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

On the contrary, anyone united to the Lord becomes one Spirit in Him. Avoid unlawful sex entirely. Any other sin a person commits is outside the body but those who commit sexual immorality sin against their own body.

Do you not know that your body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit within you, given by God? You belong no longer to yourselves. Remember at what price you have been bought and make your body serve the glory of God.

 

Homily and Reflection :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/18/sunday-18-january-2015-second-sunday-of-ordinary-time-world-day-of-migrants-and-refugees-and-week-of-prayer-for-christian-unity-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

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Wednesday, 24 December 2014 : Fourth Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple or Violet

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the Eve of Christmas, the day before the big celebration of our Church, commemorating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ at Bethlehem in Judea, the very moment and a singular very important event in the history of the world when the Lord who is Divine, Almighty and ever powerful, would come into this world, as a Baby, laying down in a manger in a dirty and cramped stable fit only for animals.

Today as we end the season of Advent, the season of preparation for the coming of Christ, the feeling is indeed one of joy and jubilation, as reflected in the Scripture readings today. In the Gospel, Zechariah, the father of St. John the Baptist gave thanks to God for His providence and love for us, and for granting to him the grace of having John born of his wife, Elizabeth, at their very old age.

In the first reading we heard about king David of Israel who had finished most of his wars and conquests, and peace had settled over all the land, and he wanted to build a proper and worthy House for the Lord. But the Lord refused to allow him to do so, as it would fall to his son, Solomon, who would build the first Temple of God, the dwelling of the Lord among His people.

All of these readings have the same purpose, that is to declare for us the eventual coming of the Lord, who will come to claim all of His beloved ones. Thus while we are today at the very gate of Christmas to celebrate the moment when He came into the world the first time, in the Baby Jesus, this does not mean that we celebrate something that is relevant only in the past, as God will come again at the end of time as He had promised us. He went forward and ascended to heaven in order to prepare the place for us.

At this point, it is fitting for us to realise the true meaning of our celebration of Christmas as well. This love and desire by God to dwell among us and to embrace us as what He had done through Jesus, the Divine incarnate into Man, is well reflected by today’s readings too. It is all about Emmanuel, the name of the Saviour promised through the prophet Elijah. It means God is with us, and this is what we celebrate in Christmas, that is we celebrate God who loves us so much, that He was willing to assume our humanity and to dwell among us.

Christmas is indeed about Christ, as the name suggests, and it is about God’s Love made manifest through Christ. It is because of this same love, that even though we are sinners and have disobeyed God, and thus deserve punishment, condemnation and destruction, but God gave us another chance, and His love us so great that He is willing to forgive us and willing even to dwell among us, to be with us united perfectly in love.

The first reading talked about the House which king David proposed to make for the Lord, as it was not befitting for the Lord, so he thought, to live under a tent. But not even the Temple created by Solomon his son would actually be fit for the Lord, no matter how mighty and glamorous it is, as we can read in its detailed descriptions in the Book of Kings. That is because that Temple and the Temple that was rebuilt and existing during the time of Jesus, were of human origins, made by human hands, but God had designed another Temple, a place truly deserving and worthy of His Real Presence.

And what is this Temple? It is all of us, brethren, every single one of us, mankind whom God had made with His own hands and given even the very image of Himself as our image. We are the Temples of the Lord’s Presence, and the Lord who came into this world and which we celebrate in Christmas, is really about God coming into us and dwelling in us. That is the meaning of Emmanuel, God is with us.

But unfortunately, many of us if not most defiled ourselves with sin, the very reason why we have been separated from God’s love in the first place. Sin and wickedness corrupted us and defiled this Holy Temple that is our body and our beings. Remember that the Scriptures and our Lord exhorted us to keep holy this Temple and not to defile it by fornication, wickedness or any form of sins?

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we embrace Christmas and all of its joys and celebrations, let us not be distracted and lost our true purpose in celebrating this Christmas. Let us commit ourselves to change our sinful ways so that this Temple we have in ourselves will no longer be defiled, but will be worthy of the Lord present in each one of us. Remember that the Eucharist we receive regularly is His Real Presence, and thus He dwells in us even now.

May this Christmas be meaningful to us, so that we may truly be transformed into the loving and faithful children of our Lord, whose birth into this world we celebrate in this occasion. May Almighty God guide us and lead us into His love, and help us to resist all forms of temptations and all the lies of Satan designed to bring us into sin and damnation. Amen.

 

First Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/12/22/wednesday-24-december-2014-fourth-week-of-advent-first-reading/

 

Psalm :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/12/22/wednesday-24-december-2014-fourth-week-of-advent-psalm/

 

Gospel Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/12/22/wednesday-24-december-2014-fourth-week-of-advent-gospel-reading/

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Monday, 8 December 2014 : Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is a great and joyful day, a great solemnity and celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the dogma of which had been promulgated by Blessed Pope Pius IX and confirmed just a few years later by the visions of St. Bernadette Soubirous at the now famous Marian site of Lourdes in France.

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is about the fact that because Mary is the mother of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, the Word of God and the Son incarnate into flesh through the Blessed Virgin, hence it is only fitting that because Christ is pure and without the taint of sin, being God of all goodness, then Mary, His mother, who bore Him in her womb for nine whole months, be made equally pure as well, so that she, as the vessel of the Holy Presence of God, is also without sin.

Thus, this is the meaning of the Immaculate Conception, immaculate which means pure and free from sin, and then conception, the moment when a baby, a human being is formed in the womb of the mother. This means that Mary has been prepared and created in such a way that set her apart from all other men, because while all other men were born with the ties of original sin, the original sin of Adam and Eve, our first ancestors, from the mark of their first disobedience against God, Mary was set free from that bond of sin.

Just as the first woman disobeyed the Lord and sinned, and therefore brought evil into the world and into the hearts of men, then the new woman, Mary, is full of grace and free from sin from her moment of conception, and she obeyed the Lord completely, following all of God’s commandments and lived righteously. Therefore, through her, God was willing to grant His blessings and graces to mankind, that is none other than the gift of His own Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

And just as the first men had sinned, and therefore brought the just punishment for sins to mankind, that is death, then through the new Man, born from the new woman, Mary, through His perfect obedience and love for the Lord God His Father, and through His suffering and love for us unto death, death on the cross, and by rising from the dead, He had gained for us a new life in God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, even as we await the coming of our Lord and as we continue our preparation for His coming in this holy season of Advent, we also celebrate with joy and great hope, the culmination of the long-planned plan of God’s salvation for all of His beloved people, that is all of us. Ever since mankind first sinned against God and fell into the darkness, He had made known what He planned to do, in order to save us from certain death.

He cursed Satan, the snake, for his involvement in tempting mankind to rebel against God and follow their own desires, which is a trait that we continue to carry on even until this day, a vestige of what happened that day in the gardens of Eden. He also punished men, both men and women for their disobedience. They had to suffer the consequences of sin, and that consequence, is death. That is why all mankind are mortals, destined to one day die, although indeed, we were not meant for death when we were created by God.

If we are therefore, able to overcome sin, then we will be able to transcend our fate that is death. And that is exactly what our Lord Jesus had come into this world to prove, and through His own mother too, both of whom were conceived without sin, and remained without sin thereafter. He is because He is God who is all good, and even though Jesus was fully Man, He was also fully Divine at the same time, and thus sin have no place in Him.

He was tested and tempted in every way possible, but He obeyed the Lord and the will of His Father to the fullest. And even at His most vulnerable during the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was tempted terribly to let the suffering of the cross pass from Him, but He remained completely faithful to the mission entrusted to Him. As the new Adam, therefore, He began a new beginning for mankind, where through obedience to God’s will, He had brought life to mankind, and in Him lies the hope of victory and final triumph against death and evil.

For Mary, His mother, as I have mentioned, she too overcame the power of sin, remaining holy, pure and immaculate throughout her life. Despite the great burden and responsibility placed on her, when she heard the Good News of the Archangel Gabriel, that she was to be the Mother of the Saviour and Lord, she accepted it with full faith and confidence in God, putting God’s will first before that of hers.

Today’s feast is a kind reminder to all of us, that through Mary and her example of faith, and also through the faith showed by her Son, Jesus Christ, we can be freed from our attachment to sin, and also to gain for ourselves the salvation which has been promised to us. Indeed, we may think that because Mary had been set aside by God, to be without sin for her role, then it may be impossible for us to do as she had done, but have we ever thought, brothers and sisters, that we too, have been called to the same mission as her?

Mary bore our Lord Jesus in her womb for nine months, and in this way, she became the new Ark of the Covenant, for the new covenant which Jesus was to make with all mankind, was in her, and for that purpose she had been made holy and pure. It is because she is also the Temple of God, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, for as the Archangel mentioned, the Holy Spirit itself would dwell in her, and bore the Christ Incarnate in her.

How about us then? We who have been baptised in Christ, and also confirmed in the Lord, have received the Holy Spirit, and through the Most Holy Eucharist, which is our Lord’s very own Body and Blood, we have received Christ Himself into us. Therefore, the Lord dwells in us, in a way very much the same as Mary had Him inside of her. What is it for us then? What does it mean to us?

That means, just as the Lord had set her to be special by preparing her, to be immaculate without sin ever since she was conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, we too must be without sin, for the Lord is in us! Remember what our Lord Jesus told His disciples and what St. Paul further affirmed in his writings? That we are all the Temples of the Holy Spirit, for God dwells in us, and we in Him. If we allow sin, wickedness and fornication to be in us, be it in flesh or in spirit, then we have defiled this Holy Temple, and as I have said, the price for sin, is none other than death.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is imperative that we take this opportunity presented to us, in the holy season of Advent, a season of preparation and contemplation, to think about our way of life, so that we may abhor sin and avoid committing anymore sin in the future. Keep our lives in the Lord and listen to Him speaking in our hearts, by strengthening our prayer and spiritual life, so that He may guide us in the true path, and that we may not fall into the temptation of Satan. Jesus prayed a lot and He always sought to communicate with His Father, and that is an example we should follow too.

May our Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother, born and conceived without sin, pure and immaculate, pray for us all sinners, that we may be given new strength and courage by God, to live this life faithfully without sin, and seek the Lord always in our life. God bless is all. Amen.

 

First Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/12/06/monday-8-december-2014-solemnity-of-the-immaculate-conception-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-first-reading/

 

Psalm :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/12/06/monday-8-december-2014-solemnity-of-the-immaculate-conception-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-psalm/

 

Second Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/12/06/monday-8-december-2014-solemnity-of-the-immaculate-conception-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-second-reading/

 

Gospel Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/12/06/monday-8-december-2014-solemnity-of-the-immaculate-conception-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-gospel-reading/

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Sunday, 9 November 2014 : 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour and Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist at the Lateran (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Corinthians 3 : 9c-11, 16-17

But you are God’s field and building. I, as a good architect, according to the capacity given to me, I laid the foundation, and another is to build upon it. Each one must be careful how to build upon it. No one can lay a foundation other than the one which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit abides within you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. God’s temple is holy, and you are this temple.

 

Homily and Reflection :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/08/sunday-9-november-2014-32nd-sunday-of-ordinary-time-feast-of-the-dedication-of-the-lateran-basilica-archbasilica-of-the-most-holy-saviour-and-saints-john-the-baptist-and-the-evangelist-at-the-lat-5/

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Tuesday, 21 October 2014 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ephesians 2 : 12-22

At that time you were without Christ, you did not belong to the community of Israel; the covenants of God and His promises were not for you; you had no hope and wer without God in this world. But now, in Christ Jesus and by His Blood, you who were once far off have come near.

For Christ is our peace, He who has made the two peoples one, destroying in His own flesh the wall – the hatred – which separated us. He abolished the Law with its commands and precepts. He made peace in uniting the two peoples in Him, creating out of the two one New Man. He destroyed hatred and reconciled us both to God through the cross, making the two one body.

He came to proclaim peace; peace to you who were far off, peace to the Jews who were near. Through Him we – the two peoples – approach the Father in one Spirit. Now you are no longer strangers or guests, but fellow citizens of the holy people : you are of the household of God. You are the house whose foundations are the Apostles and prophets, and whose cornerstone is Christ Jesus.

In Him the whole structure is joined together and rises to be a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you too are being built to become the spiritual sanctuary of God.

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Message to the Faithful and Reflections on the Scripture Readings on the Occasion of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the Mass of an important occasion and an important part of our faith, that is celebrating the Assumption of our Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven by the power and the will of God. This is the dogma and definitive teaching of the Church, declared by the great Pope Pius XII on this day, sixty-four years ago, on the fifteenth day of August of the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifty.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, as the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ has long been the subject of veneration and respect for many generations since the beginning days of the Church. Mary as the mother of Jesus, who is the Son of God, the Divine Word incarnate into flesh, has been considered as the Theotokos, or the Mother of God ever since the Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in the year of 325 of our Lord. This is because she was the vessel through which our Lord and Saviour was born into this world.

If you had noticed, that the readings today, the songs from the psalms and the Gospel itself talk about the Ark of God, or the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the two slabs of stone on which God had written in stone His laws and commandments for His people, and for mankind to be kept faithfully for all eternity. That Ark of the Covenant came to be considered as the Holy Presence of God among men, as God Himself resided in the world, among His people through the Ark.

That was why in the Scripture Reading from the Book of Chronicles today, we are told of the meticulous and very detailed preparations for the carrying of the Ark of God into the Holy City of Jerusalem, that it may be brought from the wilderness where the Ark had resided, to the Tent which the king David of Israel had prepared for the Ark of the Lord. This is because the Ark itself represents the dwelling of God among men, and therefore, later on, it was to be enshrined in the holiest part of the Temple of Jerusalem, in what is called the Holy of holies.

So sacred is that Ark, that indeed, before the occurrence of what is in the First Reading today, what happened was that the Ark had been attempted to be moved to the city of Jerusalem earlier on, but one of the priests of the Levites tribe accidentally touched the Ark when it slipped along the way, and the offending priest was cast down immediately by God for the accidental touching of the Ark. The meticulous preparation was indeed partly because no one, and no human hands should ever touch the Holy Ark of God.

And how is this relevant to what we are celebrating today? That is because the Blessed Virgin Mary is herself an Ark of the Covenant, and in fact, she is the Ark, the one and true Ark, of a covenant that had been established anew by the Lord, the new covenant of Jesus Christ our Lord, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. As she bore the Lord and Saviour in her womb, she essentially became the new Ark of the new covenant which Jesus was to establish and seal by His death on the cross.

And as the Blessed Virgin Mary bore the Lord in herself, she has become the new Ark, that is indeed truly equally sacred and holy in all ways, the same as the old Ark had been. For truly, it must be inconceivable that for the Lord to be born into the world through physical attachments corrupted by sin. That is why, today’s feast is essentially inseparable from that of the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin herself, which means that the Mother of our Lord was conceived without sin, pure and immaculate.

This dogma truly had the background in this purity and holiness of the Ark of God, which was then made anew through Mary, who was to bear the Lord and Saviour of all creation, and no longer just merely the two slabs of stone on which was written the laws and commandments of God. Mary was therefore prepared and made special, pure and immaculate, free from all forms of sin and evil. And therefore, just as in her birth, where she was without sin like her Son, it was truly also inconceivable that death should have any power over her.

This is why the Assumption, in which the Lord brought His own earthly mother into heaven, to show that for she was without sin, pure and immaculate, death has no power over her. Assumption is the proof that God showed men, using the example of His own mother, that death has no final say on us. Instead, He Himself by His sacrifice on the cross had conquered death, and death no longer bound us to itself, and we now have a new hope of life eternal in God.

In the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we honour and look up to Mary, who is both the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and also the foremost and greatest among all saints, as the one whose examples inspire all of us to do better and aim for the better for ourselves. Mary gives us hope that we too may one day be like her, receiving the gift of heavenly glory and our everlasting inheritance as part of the promise and hope which our God had given us.

However, on this sacred and joyful day, we also have to remember that we have our duties and obligations as well. Why is this so? Because all of us who believe in the Lord and who have accepted Him into ourselves, with our God becoming a part of us, and we as a part of the Lord as one Body, we too become the Arks of the Lord’s new covenant. And what is this covenant, exactly? We have to remember what Jesus said at the Last Supper, that the covenant He made was sealed by the giving of His Body and Blood to all mankind.

This covenant becomes ours and we are a part of the covenant when we receive the Lord who is present in the Most Holy Eucharist. Therefore, whenever we receive the Lord in the Holy Communion, we truly become like Mary, to bear the Lord unto ourselves, for the bread and wine are truly transformed completely into the very essence of our Lord, that He is truly present in us, and we become His Ark, or also known as what is called the Temple of God, or the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

And therefore it is very important for us to take note that as the Ark is holy and sacred, and as the Blessed Virgin Mary is holy and blessed, we too must also aspire and work towards having a holy and sacred Ark in ourselves, which means to avoid all sorts of fornications or sins that taint the body, or the soul or both body and soul.

If we are not able to do this, we will not be worthy bearers of the Lord, and we will be punished and cast out from our intended inheritance, and we will not share in the glory of Mary, whom God had brought body and soul into heaven for her role in the plan of God’s salvation of mankind. She is our role model and our hope, for through her God had made it clear to us, that death will not have any power over us, unless if we allow it to rule us again when we succumb to the temptations of sin and defile our bodies and our souls, unworthy of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all reflect on this occasion, and on God’s loving presence among us, and within us. Let us from now on, whenever we attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, work harder and be more intent on keeping ourselves holy and worthy to receive our Lord into ourselves. Surely, we are all sinners and delinquents before God, but if we make the effort to keep ourselves holy and devoted to Him, He will grant us His favour.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, assumed into heaven body and soul by the power and favour of our Lord Jesus Christ, continue to pray for us and intercede for our sake, that we too may also experience the same glory she had received, and join her with all the other saints and holy people of God, to be with God for eternity and where death no longer has any power or say over us. God be with us all, forever and ever. Amen.