throne of mercy

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Wednesday, 12 November 2014 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today it is highlighted to us another virtue in our faith life, that is the value of humility and gratitude in our lives, and how important these are in shaping our lives. For the Lord our God, who loves us so much, had decided to forgive us our sins and show His mercy to us sinners, even though more often than not, our sins were such that they should have been unforgivable as they were so wicked in nature.

As mentioned in the first reading today, taken from the letter of St. Paul written to Titus, while he was in captivity in Rome, mankind were once foolish and misguided, and we were once wholly submissive to our desires and our human needs, that we always seek to better ourselves and find what is good for ourselves, even at the expense of others.

It is difficult for us to obey others, and already it is difficult for us to obey the earthly authorities who made their presence and authority felt, and thus not to say about the authority of our Lord, whom many of us failed to notice in our lives. We are fearless and not repentant of our rebelliousness, because we did not recognise the Lord who is around us and within us, and who is watching everything that we do in this life.

It is therefore difficult for us in our nature to look beyond ourselves, and for many of us, pride and arrogance has walled us in, into ourselves as our desire feeds our pride and that pride further feeds our desire, in a vicious cycle that never ends, and eventually uncontrolled, it will lead to a great danger for us. We will not be able to do the will of God if we continue to remain and linger within this darkness within ourselves.

The Gospel today shows how Jesus healed ten lepers, who sought for His help, and He told them to show themselves to the priests, as was written in the Law, on how they ought to show their purity to the priests before they could be admitted back into the society. God’s power worked along the way, and they were healed while on the way to the priests.

Yet, this was where the behaviour of the one Samaritan who was healed, differed greatly from the other nine, who was also healed. The nine lepers was healed, and they joyfully realised that fact, and gladfully went on their way, presumably and most likely, to return to their old lives, and resumed whatever it was that they had lost. Meanwhile, the Samaritan also realised that he was healed in body, but unlike the other nine, he turned back, knowing who it was that had made him clean once again.

The Samaritan turned back and returned to the Lord Jesus, who praised Him for His faith, and said how his faith had made him whole once again. It is because of his faith that he recognised how Jesus has the power to make him clean, and he had placed his full trust in God, and not in himself. This is the attitude many of us had to adopt and emulate, and we have to abandon our ways, which are more often than not, like the other nine who rejoiced and did not give thanks to God.

How many of us in our lives, and in our daily actions forget to give thanks to those who helped us in various ways? And how many of us in fact, in total lack of gratitude and appreciation even caused pain to those who have helped us, or asked even more from them to satisfy our ever-growing desires? It is difficult indeed for mankind to resist such temptation, as we always try to grab at things beyond our means, and we complain when we cannot obtain them.

It is often that we need the grace of humility, temperance and satisfaction, at what God had given and provided us with His love. In the psalm today, the famous and renowned psalm on the Good Shepherd, we are shown how the Lord is our Good Shepherd, who leads us away from danger and darkness, and providing for us in all that we need, so that all of us who believe in Him, will not be disappointed, but gain eternal life and happiness.

He guides us on our way, so that we may not lose our path and fall into darkness. This very life we have, and all the goodness we have in it, are all the blessings of the Lord, and we ought to be grateful and thankful for that love. Yet, do we realise how often it is that we complain against the Lord, when things seemingly did not go our way? How often is it that we are angry at the Lord for seemingly not fulfilling what we have asked for?

We have to therefore, learn from the faithful Samaritan, the people who were often marginalised and ostracised by the Jews as being pagans and unbelievers, as barbarians unworthy of salvation. And yet, it was the Samaritan who humbly sought Jesus to give Him thanks for having healed him from his leprosy. The Jews, just as the other nine lepers, failed to do so.

We should emulate the example of the Samaritan, seeking God’s love and mercy at all times, and realising the love which He has for us, our Good Shepherd who cares for His sheep. And today, we have the example of another shepherd, a holy saint, martyr and bishop whose example we should indeed follow. This is St. Josaphat the martyr, also known as St. Josaphat Kuntsevych, a Bishop who lived in the early modern time Lithuania during the sixteenth and seventeenth century.

St. Josaphat Kuntsevych was a bishop whose see was reunited with the leadership of the Roman Pontiff, the Pope, after it had been separated for many hundreds of years due to the Great Schism between the Western and Eastern Christianity. As such, St. Josaphat had a very difficult time in managing his flock, as many of them remained loyal to the old and rebellious ways, and refuse to follow their bishop and shepherd in obedience to the Vicar of Christ.

Nevertheless, St. Josaphat remained faithful and devoted, working tirelessly to serve God’s people, even serving those who were openly in rebellion against him. He preached to them the word of God and urged them to remain faithful, and also to follow the teachings of the true Faith. In the end, however, those who were opposed to St. Josaphat rose up and murdered him in cold blood, throwing his body in a river.

The body of St. Josaphat was recovered and brought with honour to Rome, where it received the honour of being buried at the hallowed ground of the Basilica of St. Peter. Later on, with the intercession of St. Josaphat himself, his archenemy, a rival bishop who set up his position in direct opposition to St. Josaphat, repented his sins and was reunited with Rome.

Today, brothers and sisters in Christ, inspired by the examples of St. Josaphat Kuntsevych the martyr and faithful bishop, let us all work together as one people, one Church of God. Let us help one another, in union with our bishops and those whom the Lord had placed over us, as representatives of His authority, so that we may learn of humility and obedience to God’s will.

Let us all pray to the Lord, that He will grant us grace, to diminish in our pride and desires, and grow stronger in our humility and desire to seek the Lord. Let us learn to obey fully the will of God and seek the fullness of His eternal love and mercy, like the Samaritan leper who was healed from his afflictions, giving thanks to God for that love shown to him, and was praised by the Lord for his faith. God bless us all. Amen.

 

First Reading : 

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/11/wednesday-12-november-2014-32nd-week-of-ordinary-time-memorial-of-st-josaphat-bishop-and-martyr-first-reading/

Psalm : 

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/11/wednesday-12-november-2014-32nd-week-of-ordinary-time-memorial-of-st-josaphat-bishop-and-martyr-psalm/

Gospel Reading : 

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/11/wednesday-12-november-2014-32nd-week-of-ordinary-time-memorial-of-st-josaphat-bishop-and-martyr-gospel-reading/

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Tuesday, 28 October 2014 : Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together with the entire Universal Church, the feast of two of our Lord’s great and holy Apostles, two of the Twelve, appointed and chosen by Jesus Himself from among us, to be His chief lieutenants and servants to help in the ministry and works of salvation through Jesus. They became what St. Paul said in his letter to the faithful and the Church in Ephesus, as the foundations of the Faith and the Church which we have today, together with the prophets of God of old.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, two of the Apostles, who was also known as Simon the Zealot, belonging to the group of the Zealots, a very puritanical and extremist group opposed to the Roman rule in Judea at the time of Jesus, a sort of freedom fighter, who was turned from his former path with the Zealots, and instead joined Jesus and became His follower. The other Apostle is also known as St. Judas Thaddeus, or St. Jude, different from Judas Iscariot the traitor. This saint today was especially known in the devotion to St. Jude, as the patron saint of hopeless cases.

St. Simon was as mentioned, a Zealot, a fighter for the freedom for the Jews from the Roman rule, to achieve a physical liberation from the tyranny and oppression of the Romans against the Jews. However, he left all that, when he followed Jesus, to be one of His chief disciples, the Apostles, and instead of fighting for the liberation of the body only and the Jews only, he became the agent of salvation for all mankind, and also for the salvation of both body and soul from sin and death

Meanwhile, St. Jude or St. Jude Thaddeus was also another Apostle of Jesus, often confused with Judas Iscariot the traitor of Jesus. However, while that Judas was unfaithful and got what he deserved, St. Jude or Judas Thaddeus remained faithful to the Lord, and he continued to preach the Good News together with St. Simon the Zealot, whom he was often closely associated to, and that is why we celebrate their feast days together.

Both St. Simon the Zealot and St. Jude Thaddeus travelled together, preaching and spreading the faith in the region of Judea, Syria, and to Egypt and Libya, as well as to many other regions where they preached the Good News of Jesus Christ, the hope of salvation for all the people living in those places who have yet to witness the light of Christ. And through their hard work and ministry, they planted the seeds of the Faith and the Church, which would eventually grow and bring many souls to salvation in God.

Both of them went through many trials and difficulties, acceptance and rejection, by the people and the communities to whom they were sent to. Yet they persevered on, and like St. Paul the Apostle, they never gave up in the face of difficulties, and through their good and hard work, they gained many souls to the mercy of God, and brought them towards salvation. Indeed, these two, among the other ten Apostles, were the crucial and important pillars of the Faith and salvation.

It was told that they were martyred in the region of Syria during a persecution of the Faithful, and they were beheaded with an axe, a symbol often associated to them. But even in death, they continued to bring goodness and good works and wonders to the faithful, as in death they lay down the seeds of faith to the newly faithful, spreading the Good News ever further and greater to the ends of the earth.

And we know that St. Jude was particularly famous because he is the patron saint of the cases of hopelessness and where hope is dim. People ask for his intercession to help in those cases that seem to be impossible and outcome is likely to be unfavourable. However, brethren, we have to be careful lest we think that they are like gods or those who can fulfill our wishes and needs at our whim.

These Apostles, St. Jude Thaddeus and St. Simon the Zealot, as well as the other Apostles are the twelve central pillars of the faith, and besides the Lord’s own Blessed Mother Mary, they stand the closest to the throne of God, their Lord and Master. They were men once, but they have been tested through fire and trials, facing all the difficulties and the challenges of the world, suffering even martyrdom for the sake of the Lord.

They therefore are our role models, the reflection of what we can also achieve if we are to follow in their paths and walk in their footsteps. They represent the fulfillment of God’s promise. Remember what did Jesus say to them at one time, how they will sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel? This is the same promise which God has also given us. We will all sit among the righteous and the just, but only if we remain faithful to the Lord, resisting all temptations of life and the flesh.

The disciples and the Apostles were once also diverse in their occupations, and they were men of the world, and yet they chose to follow God and become His chief servants, to be the ones to help Him to accomplish much good work in this world. They did have the choice to follow the Lord or to follow their own hearts’ desire. Remember what happened to Judas Iscariot the traitor? He cheated the group’s money and possessions, corrupting them for his own benefits, and in the end, even sold his own Lord and Master for a mere thirty pieces of silver. And where did he end up? Not among the Apostles nor the saints, but among the condemned.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to reflect on our own lives and actions. We are all sinners and unworthy of the Lord’s love and mercy. And yet, He offered them to us freely and tenderly nonetheless, giving them through the ultimate act of love, His suffering and death on the cross. We have the choice to continue in our ways of sin, following the wicked paths of the world, or to embrace the mercy and love offered by God.

The Apostles, and especially the ones we celebrate today, St. Simon and St. Jude are our models in life. They themselves were not perfect, and they were sinners, and yet they were willing to allow the Lord to come into their lives and transform themselves, that they would no longer live in sin but became the tools of the Lord in bringing good into this world, and in that, they were justified themselves in their faith.

Let us therefore use this opportunity to begin to follow our Lord Jesus and emulate the examples of His holy Apostles, St. Jude and St. Simon whose feasts we celebrate today. Let us all also become faithful disciples of our Lord, building ever stronger support and foundation for the salvific mission of our Church, the Church of God, for our salvation and for the salvation of all souls. Leave our old lives of sin and darkness and exchange it for the lives in the light of God. God bless us all. Amen.

 

First Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/27/tuesday-28-october-2014-feast-of-st-simon-and-st-jude-apostles-first-reading/

Psalm : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/27/tuesday-28-october-2014-feast-of-st-simon-and-st-jude-apostles-psalm/

Gospel Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/27/tuesday-28-october-2014-feast-of-st-simon-and-st-jude-apostles-gospel-reading/

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Wednesday, 23 October 2013 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Romans 6 : 12-18

Do not allow sin any control over your mortal bodies; do not submit yourselves to its evil inclinations, and do not give your members over to sin, as instruments to do evil.

On the contrary, offer yourselves as persons returned from death to life, and let the members of your body be as holy instruments at the service of God. Sin will not lord it over you again, for you are not under the law, but under grace.

I ask again : are we to sin because we are not under the Law, but under grace? Certainly not. If you have given yourselves up to someone as his slave, you are to obey the one who commands you, are you not? Now with sin you go to death, and by accepting faith you go the right way.

Let us give thanks to God for, after having sin as your master, you have been given to another, that is, to the doctrine of faith, to which you listen willingly. And being free from sin, you began to serve true righteousness.

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Sunday, 13 October 2013 : 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Thanksgiving, especially giving thanks on what is due for us to give thanks for, is what is truly lacking in many of us. We do not give thanks to those who had done good things for us. Worse still, we often seek glory for ourselves, even for things that we do not do on our own, claiming honour and glory for ourselves, even of it is not rightful for us to do so.

That is the essence of the readings that we listened to today, brethren in Christ. A thanksgiving for the Lord who had shown us His care and love, and His dedication, one which we often overlook or simply forget, in the joy of the moment, after we had received the goodness of God.

The readings highlighted one of our major shortcomings throughout life, that is to forget the role of God in our lives, and to overlook Him and His role in favour of our own achievements and glory. That is what happened to the lepers who were healed from their afflictions, which out of ten, only one returned to the Lord to give Him thanks for His mercy and love.

We contrast this to the behaviour of Naaman, the Syrian, and one of the leper who is a Samaritan, who showed their affection to those who had done good unto them, thanking them sincerely on the love shown to them. They have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord, and therefore were made righteous.

Why use the example of a Syrian and a Samaritan? Firstly, I want to highlight the importance of understanding the true desire of the Lord in promoting the right attitude and mindset to His people. He did not intend the examples to highlight the differences between the people of Israel and the ‘pagan’ peoples around them.

Why so? That is because, the people of Israel, having been chosen as the people of God through the covenant God had renewed with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants, they have always thought of themselves to be special. That they are always the good ones, the upright, and the ones ensured salvation as their birthright.

They have always looked at the pagans in disgust and contempt, considering them damned and evil, while in fact, as we all know, as written throughout the Old Testament and even the New, as they had rebelled against God, tested Him, doubted Him, and even abandoned Him for other gods, the golden calf, and the false gods of the people of Canaan who lived around them. They had done what is wicked in the eyes of God and did not repent, but grew to be ever worse and deeper in their wickedness

Thus, in line with their stubbornness and God’s love for all mankind, without exception, He had sent Jesus His Son, to reveal the true nature of His love for all. He wanted to show Israel their wickedness and the need for them to repent, as well as for them to realise that being the first chosen people of God does not give them an excuse for their sinfulness, and that they in fact, should welcome all mankind as fellow brothers and sisters in God.

It is important for us to be warm and welcoming, as well as open to others around us, not to be quick to judge and condemn us, but instead seek on what is good within us, and embrace one another with love. That, is what the Lord truly desires from us, not our length prayers of the mouth, nor our empty obedience, but the love and commitment from our heart, for the sake of one another, and for God Himself.

Jesus our Lord, the Son of God had been sent into this world that through Him we may gain healing and new life, that we abandon the darkness of evil and this world, for the light of Jesus who is the light of the world, healing us from our afflictions that are sins and wickedness of the evil one. He had been sent to heal us from the sickness that engulf us, be it physically or spiritually, just as He healed the ten lepers who came to Him for healing and mercy.

That is why, I have to reiterate again of the importance of thanksgiving and gratitude, for there is no greater thing that we have ever observed in the history of creation, other than the ultimate sacrifice Christ had went through for us, for our sake, that we will not die an eternal death but live a life eternal, and live through not an eternal punishment but an eternal joy with God.

We have to beware of this leprosy, the true leprosy of the soul, that is our pride, arrogance and lack of gratitude for the Lord and His love and instead trusting our own feeble human power. We tend to think good of ourselves and do not give thanks and glory to God. We are often ignorant of the love that God has shown to all of us, not least of which, in the giving of Himself through Jesus Christ His Son, He had made us all whole and worthy once again, rescued from hell and given the promise of eternal life, as long as we remain faithful and true to His ways.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us commit ourselves to cast far, far away this leprosy, the sickness of our soul, away from us, that we cast away the evils and sins from ourselves, purifying our heart, body, and soul in the light of Christ, the light that cast away all the illusions of Satan, the impurities and corruptions of this world, and made ourselves whole and pure again in God.

Today, Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ on this world, will consecrate this world, the entire world, to the care of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in our Lady of Fatima, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Mother of God, through whom Jesus Christ our Lord is born into this world. And therefore, just as she had cared and loved her Son Jesus with all of her heart and all of her love, she too will from now on take care and love our world and all those who live in it, that is all of us, brothers and sisters, all mankind as one.

This world, brothers and sisters, is in great darkness, under the power of evil and Satan, where brothers hurt brothers, where sisters slander sisters, and where mankind slay one another in hatred. It is where violence and injustice are the common order of the day. It is where mankind dwells in their pride, and disobeys God’s commandments and spurns His love on daily basis. It is the perfect example of leprosy of the soul that I have mentioned earlier on.

That is why, through entrusting this world to the care and intercession of Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus, we hope that this world can become a better world, and be healed of this sickness, the leprosy of sin and evil that had infected us all for way too long. It is time for us all, with the help and assistance of Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and through her, with the power and might of God Himself, to break free entirely from the chains of slavery that had bound us for all these times.

May the Lord our loving and merciful God look away from the sins we had committed, and as we approach His throne of love and mercy, may He welcome us back into His embrace, and bless us with His eternal love and grace. May Mary, His Mother also continue to pray for us and care for us in the same way that she had shown Jesus her love, while He was on earth. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 15 September 2013 : 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we truly know of the greatness of the divine love and mercy of our Lord. He is truly our Father and God, because He truly loves us all unconditionally, like that of a father to a son. The parable of the prodigal son, the well-known story of the wayward son and the forgiving, loving father illustrates this nature of our God’s love for us very vividly.

Yes, the Lord our God is a loving God, whose heart is full of tenderness of love and compassion, especially for all of us, the most beloved of all His creations. He is merciful and readily forgives His children, that is all of us, if we come to Him with contrite and sorry heart, seeking for His forgiveness and love. That love and mercy He had given freely to all of us without exception.

He cares for us the way the father of the two sons cared for them. He showered them with abundance and love, and they lacked nothing. Similarly, we have been provided by the Lord with many things, some of us less, some of us more, that shows the depth of His love and care for us. When we go astray, in the same way as the wayward younger son, He seeks for us with love and commitment.

Yet, brethren, we cannot constantly live with sin, be tempted by sin, and showing sin and wickedness, as the Lord God, as loving and merciful He is, He is also a jealous and avenging God. He would not have sin tolerated in His presence. The temptation of doing these things abhorring to God, and Satan always ramp-up their success in corrupting the hearts of men, that we fall and fail, just like the second son of the father, whom left his father to wander to a foreign nation.

God wants us to be His, and that we will return to His embrace, and He longs for that day when we all can be reunited in perfection with Him, and no longer be separated from Him by sin and our stubbornness. In the same way as the father awaited for the return of the prodigal son from his sojourn in the foreign country, day after day, month after month, until the prodigal son returned to his presence, and he rejoiced because of that.

Yet, we are reluctant to return to our loving God, because of various reasons that become serious obstacles in our path towards God, towards returning to His loving embrace. We can easily observe this in the story of the prodigal son, where the younger son feared going home to his father, although if he returned, he would have lived once again in plenty.

One such obstacle is the pull and temptation of worldly pleasures, which prevents us from going back to the Lord, and instead we immerse ourselves in such pleasures excessively, shutting the Lord out of our hearts and our minds. The other obstacle is fear, that is the fear of the wrath of God, the fear of His anger and retribution for our mistakes and our betrayal.

Such fear prevents us from drawing near to the throne of mercy, and also opening our hearts to the love of God. Yes, the Lord who hates sin and evil will certainly be angry on the sins we have committed, but He is not someone who will get angry without any good reason. The anger of the Lord does not always mean a bad thing to us, as He is indeed like a father to us, a loving Father who cares for His children.

And therefore, just like a father, He chastises us whenever we do something wrong, that we will not repeat doing that again in the future. He is angry with us and punishes us as the way that He showed His care, that we will not fall again as our ancestors had fallen into damnation. He punished us not because He wanted us to suffer, but indeed to avoid eternal suffering that awaits us if He did not ‘discipline’ us.

Hence, brethren, let us look into ourselves and reflect on the things that we had done, which had not been what the Lord taught us to do, that brought us into sin, following the example of the prodigal son, who realised the mistakes he had committed, and to the point of being embarrassed of having to go back to his father when he had no other option.

But it is important to note and follow his examples, that despite his initial fear and hesitation, he gathered his courage and returned to his father, who welcomed him and embraced him with love and joy. Then, brethren, we too should follow his example, to be meek and humble before the Lord who is merciful and loving.

Then, finally, let us reflect on the behaviour of the elder son, who became angry at his father for what he perceived to be unequal and unfair treatment by his father. This is a common  behaviour in mankind, which I am sure that we had witnessed quite often in our lives, how people feel that they deserve something more than what they had received and become jealous when they perceive tht others had been treated better when to them, these people deserved it less than them.

The elder son represents those people whom the Lord had chosen and saved since early on in their lives, and therefore remain in God’s love always, unlike the younger son who went astray along the way, and then returns to the fold. It is natural for us humans, relying on our emotions and instinct to resent those whom we deemed to have been treated better than they should have been.

We ought not to be judgmental on others, and indeed, with God, we should rejoice whenever one of the lost ones returned to the Lord and to us. Remember, that even great saints were once great sinners too. In fact, as Archbishop Fulton Sheen had said, the greater the sins one had committed, the closer one should have been towards realising the depth of their faults and iniquities, and thus, be more ready to embrace the mercy and love offered by God.

Therefore, we should help one another, assisting and supporting one another in our lives, that we will ensure that all of us will be saved and freed from sin. Give help and our love to those who are trapped in the seduction of in and the devil, praying to the Lord to open their hearts to His love. We too, brethren, though we have been saved, must be ever vigilant, that we too do not falter and fall to the traps of Satan that he had cleverly and carefully laid down for us.

May the Lord who has shown His love and mercy for us, continue to shower us with His blessings and graces, and continue to care for us like a father loves his children. May we too realise the depth of our sins, and the depth of His tenderness and love, that we will not be hesitant or fearful to approach Him, full of remorse and sorrow, that the Lord who loves us will embrace us, forgive us, and give us a place beside Him in eternal glory. Love one another and love the Lord God our Father. Amen.

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Thursday, 8 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Dominic, Priest (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are reminded today, of our own weaknesses, of our own vulnerabilities, and the need for all of us to follow the will of our God, and follow the thinking of our God, trusting in Him fully with all our hearts, our minds, and all our beings, instead of trusting our own instincts and human emotions.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Dominic, also known as St. Dominic de Guzman, a well known preacher who lived in the high Middle Ages Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth century Europe. He was the founder of the Dominican religious order, also known as the Order of Preacher. St. Dominic was well known for his strong devotion in the Lord, and his unshaken faith, in which he emphasized on the importance of having a strong and vibrant faith in God, as our armour, and put our trust in the Lord, instead of trusting in the power of men.

St. Dominic worked hard to spread the words of the Gospel, preaching to many people of God who had gone astray from the faith, and those in whom the flames of faith had died down. He had made much impact in strengthening the faith and zeal among the faithful at a time when heresies were commonplace in the Medieval Europe, particularly the Albigensian heresy or the Catharian heresy widespread in the Christendom at the time. Not only that, St. Dominic de Guzman was also well-known for being the one who propagated the devotion to the mother of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, through the Rosary.

St. Dominic and his successors in the Dominican religious order continued the spreading of the holy Rosary, as a potent tool and weapon which we can use, in our fight and constant struggle against the devil, as something that can help us anchor our faith firmly in the Lord, through the inspiration of the faith that His Blessed Mother has, that is the faith of Mary. The Dominican friars, monks, and priests continued until today the works and passions of St. Dominic, bringing more and more lost souls back to the embrace of the Lord who loves them.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is important for all of us to continue to have faith in our Lord and in His saving power. Not just any faith, but a strong and immovable faith like that of a rock, faith that will never be shaken by any power of the devil or the temptations of this world. If our faith in the Lord is not strong, the devil can easily sow the seeds of rebellion and distrust in our hearts, and that will make our faith even weaker and less anchored.

That was what happened to the people of Israel during their journey in the desert, when the Lord led them through Moses to walk through the desert of Sinai from Egypt towards the Promised Land of Canaan. Even though the Lord had shown them His power and might through the miracles He had shown them via Moses and Aaron, by the Ten Plagues He had sent to punish their former Egyptian slavemasters, and despite His opening of the Red Sea for them to cross, and finally, even giving them manna, the bread of heaven to eat, and sweet water to drink from rocks, they still rebelled against Him and constantly complained against Him throughout the journey.

They abandoned the Lord immediately after He made them walk through the Red Sea, when Moses went up the Mountain of God and did not come down for forty days, when they decided to take the matter on their own hands, and made a new ‘god’ of gold shaped into a calf, abandoning the Lord their God who had shown them their might, for the pagan idol of gold and the world. They did not have true faith in their heart, nor true love for God, but they merely have amazement, wonder, and even fear for the Lord, for all the things He had done for them, but that is not love or faith.

We must be strong and have our faith firmly rooted in the Lord, that we will not be tempted nor give in to our human weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Ever since our ancestors ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we have been exposed to such weaknesses, negative things such as lust, greed, wrath, anger, pride, and many others. These can derail us from the path towards salvation, that is the path for us to return to our Lord.

What happened to Moses and Peter in the first and the Gospel readings respectively are also examples of what can happen, even to those whose faith are firm and strong in the first place, if we do not keep our faith strong at all times and let it to waver or allow evil to dwell within us and plant his seeds of evil within us. Moses as the leader of the people of Israel and Peter as the leader of all the Apostles, the one to whom God entrusted all His people on earth to.

As the leader of the people, Moses certainly had a great responsibility, and his role as the one who speaks directly to the Lord God made his works even more demanding on him. When the people constantly complained and rebelled against his leadership and the Lord Himself, the strain went too much for him and indeed, at Massah and Meribah, as we heard from the reading today, Moses snapped. In his anger and wrath, he disobeyed the Lord in order to chastise the people. Yes, the Lord in His love still allowed the water to flow through the rocks for His people to drink, but Moses’ disobedience is something that he should not have done. As a result, he was not to enter the Promised Land together with the rebellious people, who had been punished for their lack of faith in the Lord.

Peter, the leader of the disciples of Jesus in his fear that the Lord would suffer and die under the Jewish authorities, rebuked Jesus in that he said that Jesus should not face His death and therefore complete what He was born into this world for. Peter gave in to his fear and uncertainty, and his faith was shaken. But the Lord rebuked Satan who was inside him, and rebuked the one who sowed the seeds of uncertainty in the heart of Peter, and reminded Peter as well, that one ought to put their full trust and attention to the Lord their God and not in the wisdom and power of men.

Yet, despite the apparent weakness of faith of Peter, and his later abandonment of the Lord in his three times denial that he knew Christ, Peter, who was Simon son of John has great faith in his heart, that the Lord who sees all knew about the true faith in Peter. That was why, He named Simon as Peter, which means ‘Rock’ or Cephas in the approximate Aramaic language used by the people of Jesus’ time.

That is because Peter truly is faithful to the Lord, and he truly loved Him, and he showed that in the end by giving up his own life for the sake of the Lord, as the martyr of the faith. He led the people of God in the Church faithfully and dutifully, ensuring that a stable foundation of God’s Church was built, and behold! The Church of God that He established on Peter as foundation remains today as our Church, with our current Pope Francis, as the successor of Peter as the head of the Universal Church.

We too, brothers and sisters in Christ, ought to strengthen our faith and our love for the Lord our God. There are many ways to do this, that our faith will blossom and grow together with our love, both for God and for our fellow men. Pray often, speak to the Lord our God through prayer, that we constantly remain in connection to His will and His words, that we do not easily fall astray of the true path to God.

And following the push by the Dominicans and their founder, St. Dominic, let us pray the rosary often with meaning and devotion, and not just merely chanting the prayers, but that we really mean the prayers in the rosary that we offer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, that she will then deliver our prayers to the throne of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, God and King of all the Universe, who will hear us, and succour us at all times.

May the Lord who is faithful and loving be with us always and give us His love and kindness, strengthening us whenever we are weak, and planting the seeds of faith in us, anchoring it on solid rock foundation, that we will withstand whatever assault Satan tries to make, and whatever temptations this world attempt on us, to lead us astray from salvation into damnation. Let us, inspired by the example of St. Dominic, reach out to one another and help one another in our devotion to the Lord, that all of us will be saved together. Amen.

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Sunday, 28 July 2013 : 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God who is our Father is kind, and He is loving, because He is love, and true love personified, in all its perfection. The Lord cannot deny Himself, and He loves everyone without exception. This love He had poured down upon the world through the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Messiah, our Saviour. And to add to that, the numerous reminders He had sent us and His people, Israel, through the prophets and their prophecies and the visions and revelations He had given them.

He loves us all and He will surely listen to our needs, and He truly knows all that we need. That is why we should never worry, and instead we all should put our full trust in Him, for He is a loving God, who is just and righteous in all the things He does. But remember, brothers and sisters, that He is also an avenging God, just as He is loving, because He hates sin first of all things, and all things evil and abhorring in His eyes. If we sin and do not repent, we will face the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were wiped out from the face of the earth for their sins.

But our Father in heaven does not just want empty worship and prayers either, as many of us would certainly had done in the past, paying lip service to the Lord who loves us. He wants from us our hearts, our full attention and dedication, just as He Himself had paid full attention to all of us sinners, all these while. We are like lost sheep to Him, whom He cannot ignore, and He would use all in His power to bring us back, like a shepherd going all out to find even one lost sheep.

So that we would not be lost, like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were lost in their debauchery and their sinful lives, where sin had blinded and deafened them to the Lord their God, He had sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be a new light, a new hope for all of us. And one of the things that He had done to make sure that we will not be lost forever was that to teach us how to pray, how to pray to the Lord our God with all our hearts, our minds, and our full attention, that our prayer is indeed truly a prayer, pure and beautiful in the eyes and ears of the Lord.

To pray is to communicate with our Lord, and that is the key essence of what a prayer truly is. To pray is not to bring in endless litanies of requests and wishes, or bugging our Lord for His help whenever we are in dire straits. To pray is not to turn to the Lord only when we are in difficulties and in need of great help, or in the state of danger. Indeed, as the Lord has told us, and Christ His Son has taught us through His disciples, that prayer must be done, at all times, with a sincere and pure heart.

That was why Christ taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer, the very prayer that came out of the mouth of the Word of God, Christ Himself. This prayer is a perfect prayer, the most sincere and purest of all prayers that are ever be in this world, be it on earth or in heaven. The Lord’s Prayer, which we recite and pray every Mass and most likely pray every day, is the model prayer for all of us. It is a simple yet a clear-cut prayer, straight to the point in its meaning, and pure in its intentions.

Yes, a prayer must always begin with glorifying the Lord our God and praising His Name, and all His love and kindness that He had shown us, all His beloved children. A prayer must never be a litany of requests and petitions, but indeed, it must be a humble prayer, showing our sincerity and humility before the throne of God, for we are nothing and full of sin, and yet He rescued us and made us whole and pure once again, with none other than the Blood of His own Son’s sacrifice on the cross.

In a prayer, we have to listen to God just as God listens to us. A prayer is a two-way communication between God and man, the link between our Creator and us His creations. He speaks to us in mysterious ways and in the depth and the silence of our hearts. If we keep our hearts closed to Him, we will not be able to listen to Him. It is often that we have to cast away our pride and sinfulness, and the deafening noise of the world, so that we will be able to listen to our Lord, and communicate sincerely with Him through prayer.

That is why brothers and sisters, whenever we pray, we should close ourselves from the world, and take away any form of distractions which may distract us and disturb our precious link with the Lord our God. Do it in silence and in the privacy of our rooms, and it is also important that we make use of every opportunity we have to be silent, even at a workplace, to listen to the Lord speaking to us. Even that is prayer, brothers and sisters in Christ!

That is also why in the Mass, it is important to have silent moments, after the readings, during the time after we receive the Lord in the Holy Communion, and even at times before the Mass starts or after the Mass has finished. These are precious moments we can use to communicate with our God, especially if we are busy with our work in any other times. It is important, brothers and sisters, that we respond to the Lord’s calls and know what He wants us to do with our lives. Be like the prophet Samuel, who in his youth was called by the Lord and he answered to it, and listened to the word of God.

As I had mentioned, God is merciful and loving just as He is just and a punishing God. If we ask and knock at His door, He will surely listen to us and consider our repentance. You see, brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord does not take pleasure in seeing the punishment and suffering of His children, and He certainly does not enjoy punishing us for our sins. Indeed, it caused Him great pain to punish mankind for their sins and their rebellions, and it is especially hard for the Lord to punish His own chosen people of Israel, when they erred and preferred the pagan gods and idols, and their constant rebellions during the journey from Egypt and after they had had the Promised Land as their own.

That is why, in our prayer, what is important is for us to recognise our own weaknesses, our own sinfulness, and our own unworthiness, that we lay them all bare before the Lord our God, that the Lord who sees all, will see our sincerity and the sincerity of our repentance, our contrite hearts, the true offering from us that He desires. Open the doors of our heart to Him, just as He opened His doors for us to enter. That we may be in Him just as He is in us.

Do not fear God and His punishment, but be courageous and approach the throne of God, the throne of mercy. For the Lord is the Divine Mercy who will embrace sinners and those who sincerely acknowledge their faults and seek to be healed. For Christ had come to save sinners and those who are sick from sin, and bring them back to health once again, that is a life of grace in God. However, He cannot do much help to us, if we ourselves did not open the doors of our heart for Him to come in.

He knocks at our doors too, brothers and sisters in Christ, just as we knock at His doors in heaven, to give Him our prayers and petitions. In the same way, the Lord too longs to speak to us all in our hearts. That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, harden not our hearts the way the Pharaoh and the people of Israel had once hardened their hearts, but open it, for the Lord who wants to come in and dwell within us. Listen to Him and do what He wants us to do, and our lives will be blessed.

May the Lord who saved us from death deliver us from evil and his corruptions, that we may not suffer the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah, where not even ten righteous ones could be found. May He protect us from harm and bring us to the life eternal that He had promised us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord who speaks to us in silence helps us to gain greater understanding in the importance of prayer in our lives, so that we will always be attuned to Him, in line with His will, and always ever be in His grace. God bless us all. Amen!

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Monday, 1 July 2013 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, to follow Christ is to suffer and to endure rejection the way the world had rejected Him first, and we have to carry our own crosses in our faith journey with our Lord. That is what the Lord Himself told us we should do, to follow Him and love Him through the journey of the cross.

Our Lord is a loving God, and He loves all of His children, regardless of their backgrounds. We are all equal before the Lord. But as much as the Lord loves all of us, He is also a just God and a good God, who rejects the filth of sin and the corruption of evil. That was why He wanted to end the wickedness of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose sins had become so bad that they ended up angering the Lord greatly so that He would want to punish them.

Lot, the relative of Abraham settled in the valley of Sodom after his separation from Abraham, which occurred because of conflict between their shepherds over the matter of land. He then settled in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, and therefore would have been subjected to the destruction of the city by God’s wrath for its sins.

But God is a loving God and is not heartless, and that was why He would not let those who are just and good to suffer from the suffering and punishment intended for those who had rebelled against the Lord. Therefore, even without the interventions of Abraham, God certainly would still go and send His angels to help rescue Lot and his family, the only righteous ones that can be found in all of Sodom and Gomorrah, so that they would not suffer the same fate as the sinful ones.

The questions of Abraham to the Lord, his interventions to save the righteous merely serve to highlight even more clearly that our Lord and God is both a vengeful and angry God, but also a just and loving God. A God who detests sin and all of its evil fruits, and yet also forgiving and merciful to those who are repentant and those who love Him. He wants us all to return to Him, and He does not want us to be lost just because of our faults and those of our forefathers’.

Yet, it is indeed difficult to find good and repentance in our world, and that was why, despite Abraham’s repeated pleas to the Lord to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, if as little as ten righteous people could be found, the two cities were not spared simply because of the wickedness of those who stayed in them, not even ten righteous ones could be found. Only Lot and his family were considered righteous, and therefore, the Lord sent His angels to rescue them from the catastrophe of God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

God loves us, but He also wants all of us to understand the need to be pure and good, as our Lord is good, and nothing evil can stand before Him and survive. The Lord is merciful, and if only we approach His throne with a contrite heart full of regret and grief for our sins, He will embrace us and reunite us with Himself.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, God gives us a chance at repentance and redemption in this life, one made possible by none other than the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord on the cross at Calvary. This sacrifice bridged the unbridgeable chasm between us and God. God will welcome us back if we are truly sincere in our repentance and our love for Him who also loves us with all of His heart.

May God be with us, as He had been with Abraham and may we all also remain faithful to God’s covenant with us, keeping His commandments and teachings passed down to us from the Apostles through the Church. Amen.

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Sunday, 16 June 2013 : 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters, today we feel the love and mercy of God reaching out to us, willing to redeem us from our sins and our faults, despite our constant rebellion, and despite our constant complaints and whining. He is a merciful and loving God, that He sent to us His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as our only hope at salvation. For it is through the redemptive action of Christ by His suffering and ultimate sacrifice on the cross, through His priceless Blood, that we are all redeemed, and have hope in salvation, providing that we believe in Him and remain steadfast in our faith in Him.

Salvation lies only in the faith in Christ through the Church, that is, brothers and sisters, by the baptism sealed in the Holy Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, in which we are welcomed into the family of the saved ones in the Church of God, our Church. Outside the Church there is no salvation, although Christ did die for all and made all people righteous in redemption, by erasing from them the sins of their forefathers, the rebellion of mankind against the will of God.

The Lord did not come to save the righteous, for they are already saved. He came looking for sinners, for the worst of them, because these are the ones who need salvation the most. If they repent and accept Him as their Lord, they would be saved and be spared from the fires of hell and eternal damnation. The sinful woman, who repented and asked in great humility for forgiveness was a perfect example of this, how the Lord is willing to save those who had repented from their sinful ways and resolved to love God and serve Him henceforth, completing turning their backs to their old, sinful past.

The great and saintly Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen had once said that our relationship to the Lord is akin to that of a candle and a light. A candle and light illuminates its surroundings and reveal the hidden darkness, and unveil all the ugly things that lie hidden in the darkness. The closer something is brought to the light, the more is revealed of that thing in the light. The uglier is the defects, the more visible they become as it is brought ever closer to the light of God.

That is why, just as Christ had told us in the story of the creditor and the two debtors, in which the creditor graciously forgave both debtors from their debts, and as the Pharisees rightfully answer our Lord, that the one with the greater debt would appreciate and love the act more, because of the greater extent of the ‘debt’ that the one has over the other, so does the greater of sinners would then be ever more ready to be redeemed and reunited with Christ, and accepting His mercy.

It does not mean then those with less sin are then less worthy of our God or anything, or that they in any way would not be as pious and humble as those with the greater sin, in approaching the throne of God for forgiveness. Rather, what matters is what is within the hearts of each one of us, that we truly focus all our attentions towards the Lord our God.

What Archbishop Sheen and Christ had said is indeed that the greater is our sin, and the closer we are to the throne of God, the more our sins are being revealed. Therefore, as we approach closer to that throne of mercy, the more we should humble ourselves, because we are ever more reminded of the depth of our sins and our faults, and how unworthy we are before the Lord, who is good and perfect. But the Lord who is good and loving, is willing to make us worthy of Him and redeem us, and cleanse us from the darkness and ugliness that is within us.

That is why, it does not mean that being holy and pious then we become haughty and arrogant of our own holiness and our own sanctity, as indeed, if the words of Archbishop Sheen take hold, its meaning is clear, that those who are closer to God and always remain in His presence, will be even more aware of their sins and their darkness. The holy saints and holy people of God are always reminded of this fact, and the unworthiness of their own soul before the Lord, and that was what strengthened them and empowered them to strive always for holiness and purity of the soul.

Do not be like the Pharisees who were hypocrites, in that they glorify their own sanctity and purity in front of the people, in pursuit of human glory rather that divine approval, and also thought lowly of the sinners like the sinful woman, but he did not give glory to God, unlike the woman, who was in complete awareness of her sins, that she lowered herself before God and served Him in humility.

King David too, who was a great and righteous king of God’s people, Israel, was not free from the temptation of sin. The lust and desire for beautiful woman had corrupted his heart and clouded his judgment that he sinned before the Lord by causing the death of Uriah the Hittite and claimed his wife as his own. But King David also acted like the woman, in that when the prophet Nathan chastised him and brought him to the full awareness of his sins, he submitted to the wrath of God and humbly asked for His mercy and forgiveness, even though he was indeed a great and mighty king.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, do not fear the Lord, for although He was not happy with our sins, but He was willing to accept us back into His embrace and indeed He wants to embrace us again in His caring love, if we want to repent and change our sinful ways, the way that King David and the woman had brought to God their contrite hearts and their obedience to God.

Let us always be reminded of our sins and our unworthiness before God, and most importantly, remember the love of God, and His desire to be reunited with us, which will be accomplished if we accept His offer of salvation, that He made on the cross, and if we accept that offer, by accepting Him as our Lord and Saviour, we will receive eternal life and blessing in heaven.

May God be with us at all times, and purify our hearts from the taints of sin, empowering us with love and charity, to also help one another to return to God, our Father who loves us. Amen.