traitor

by

Friday, 24 January 2014 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 3 : 13-19

Then Jesus went up into the hill country, and called those He wanted, and they came to Him. He appointed twelve to be with Him, and He called them ‘apostles’. He wanted to send them out to preach, and He gave them authority to drive out demons.

These are the Twelve : Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; James, son of Zebedee, and John his brother, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, which means ‘men of thunder’; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alpheus, Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him.

by

Tuesday, 19 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 19 : 1-10

When Jesus entered Jericho and passed through the city, a man named Zaccheus lived there. He was a tax collector and a wealthy man. He wanted to see what Jesus was like, but he was a short man and could not see Him because of the crowd.

So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree. From there he would be able to see Jesus, who was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, come down quickly, for I must stay at your house today.” So Zaccheus climbed down and received Him joyfully.

All the people who saw it began to grumble, and said, “He has gone as a guest to the house of a sinner.” But Zaccheus spoke to Jesus, “Half of what I own, Lord, I will give to the poor and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay him back four times as much.”

Looking at him Jesus said, “Salvation has come to this house today, for he is also a true son of Abraham. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

by

Sunday, 3 November 2013 : 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we hear today how the Lord loves all, even the rich, the privileged, and the sinners. He cares for everyone without distinction of class or rank. What matters to Him is, how dedicated we can be to Him, giving all of our very beings, committed to Him in prayer.

Today, we heard the story of Zaccheus the dwarf, who was a tax collector and a rich man. He climbed the tree despite the obvious difficulty he faced because of his height, just so that he can see Jesus who came to visit the area. The Lord praised him and his faith, particularly in front of those who slander him and Jesus Himself for interacting with a person widely considered as a traitor and a great sinner at the time of Jesus.

This was because, at that time, the place where Jesus conducted His ministry, the present day Israel and Palestine, was under the rule and authority of the Roman Empire, as the province of Judea. The Romans imposed taxes on all their provinces and territories, and in this, they employed the local merchants and agents to conduct the tax collection.

Those people then became wealthy, as they were well paid by their Roman employers, but they became the objects of scorn by their own people, seeing them as traitors who sold their race and their nation to the Romans and get profits and much money from doing so. This is of course not true, but it is what most people believed in, and as such, they developed stereotypes against the tax collectors like Zaccheus and dissociated themselves from these ‘wicked’ people.

That was why the people sneered when Jesus said to Zaccheus that He wanted to have a meal at his place and eat together with him. They did so because they must have thought, how can a teacher and a prophet (to them) like Jesus be mingling together with such sinners, traitors in fact no less. This is compared to the Pharisees who were well respected in the Jewish society, who disdained sinners and considered themselves holy above all others.

It is their pride that became their downfall. They pride themselves in their holiness and great piety, which they had achieved through prayer and rituals they went through every day. But in fact, in their hearts, they do not have God. God was absent from their hearts, and His love did not take root in them. Instead, it is in ‘sinful’ man like Zaccheus, where the Lord truly resided, and made his heart His residence.

Our Lord and God is truly loving and merciful, brothers and sisters, because He is willing to forgive the sins of even great sinners like Zaccheus, providing that they come and seek His mercy and love in humility. And that was precisely what Zaccheus had done. He surrendered himself, baring his sins to God, and made a public proclamation of faith to God. He was sinful, yes, and yet through his humility and love for God, he was forgiven and given glory, while those who slandered sinners and did not acknowledge their sins were rebuked.

God gives mankind many chances to repent, to acknowledge their sinfulness, abandon their old lifestyle of sin, and embrace His laws and precepts, that is basically love, following what Christ had told us in His ministry. Yet, to many of us, it is not easy for us to look away from our sins and instead focus ourselves towards God. We have often been so immersed in our sins, that we have been ensnared deeply by them. Yet, that does not mean that we have no hope.

Indeed, as I always would like to say, the greater the sinner is, the more likely that one is to be aware and to be ashamed of his or her sins. The greater a sinner is, the more that the person can be aware of how evil his or her actions, words, and deeds had been, and consequently approach closer and closer towards the throne of the Divine Mercy, that is God.

This is of course not for everyone, as not many will come to realisation of their sins, or have the desire to repent from those sins. Regardless of how great and how many the sins we have committed, it is often that we either ignore the sins we have committed or commit even more sins. As such, we fall deeper and deeper into the path towards damnation, and away from God our loving Father.

We have to be more like Zaccheus, for despite his sinfulness and how he was slandered in the society for their perception of him, he did not shy himself from meeting the Lord and making the effort to come and see Him, again despite his short stature which made it difficult for him to do so. We ought to be more like him, in making that effort, to seek the Lord, remorseful and shameful of our own sins, and make the same commitment as Zaccheus, to do what is good from then on. Either as an act of charity as Zaccheus had done, or through even simple acts of love to others in need.

Another thing that we have been taught today is, not to become like the people who slandered Zaccheus and Jesus our Lord, simply because of their prejudices and bias, formed by preformed concepts they had on Zaccheus as the ‘traitorous’ tax collector. We should not be quick to judge others for what they are, and indeed we must not judge, as Jesus, in other instances had taught us so.

Why so? That is because if we judge others, then we too can be judged, and often that we who did not notice our own sins, will be judged more than the one whom we had judged. We should never form any prejudice or preconceptions in our minds about anyone, and even if the person has shortcomings in him or her. Rather, what we should do is that we should encourage and help each other, supporting each other on the path towards salvation.

Therefore, let us today aspire to become more like Zaccheus, seeking the Lord in our lives, and vow to change our ways for the better. May the Lord who loves us continue to watch over us, bless us, and empower us always. Amen.

by

Sunday, 3 November 2013 : 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 19 : 1-10

When Jesus entered Jericho and passed through the city, a man named Zaccheus lived there. He was a tax collector and a wealthy man. He wanted to see what Jesus was like, but he was a short man and could not see Him because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree. From there he would be able to see Jesus, who was going to pass that way.

When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, Zaccheus, come down quickly, for I must stay at your house today.” So Zaccheus climbed down and received Him joyfully.

All the people who saw it began to grumble, and said, “He has gone as a guest to the house of a sinner.” But Zaccheus spoke to Jesus, “Half of what I own, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay him back four times as much.”

Looking at him, Jesus said, “Salvation has come to this house today, for he is also a true son of Abraham. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

by

Tuesday, 10 September 2013 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 6 : 12-19

At this time Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God. When day came, He called His disciples to Him, and chose twelve of them, whom He called ‘apostles’ : Simon, whom He named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alpheus and Simon called the Zealot; Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who would be the traitor.

Coming down the hill with them, Jesus stood in an open plain. Many of His disciples were there and a large crowd of people, who had come from all parts of Judea and Jerusalem, and from the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon. They gathered to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. And people troubled by unclean spirits were cured. The entire crowd tried to touch Him, because of the power that went out from Him and healed them all.

by

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 : Wednesday of Holy Week (Scripture Reflection)

Today we again listen on the story of the betrayal of Judas Iscariot and the Last Supper that our Lord Jesus Christ had with His disciples, on the eve of His suffering and death. This we will commemorate tomorrow as the Maundy or Holy Thursday, the commemoration of the Last Supper of the Lord, when He instituted the Eucharist, and gave us all His Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, transformed from the bread and the wine.

He is the Lamb of God, who was brought to the table of sacrifice by his jailors, who did not resist nor fight for His freedom, but laid down His life just like a pure lamb sacrificed, for the forgiveness of sins, except that Christ is so great and so pure, that He alone, as the Lamb of God, is worth the sins of all mankind, ever since the beginning of time, from Adam and Eve our forefathers, and to the end of time.

His Blood that was poured, which He freely gave at the Last Supper, with His Body, became the instrument of salvation, just like the blood of the lamb of sacrifice which purifies away sins, and cleanse the hearts of all the faithful in Christ. It is then up to us, whether we are willing to accept this great gift, or continue to lead our sinful lives in this world and reject the offer of salvation from the Lord.

Will we be like Judas Iscariot? Who spurned the Lord’s love and good works for the sake of money, being a thief he was? Even thieves can repent, but Judas did not, and he allowed greed and evil to enter his heart, and through him, the evil one tried a last ditch effort to stop God’s salvation mission in this world, by trying to kill the very Son of God that had been sent to the world to save it, from the clutches of evil and sin.

We should indeed, reject Satan and his advances, and try our best to live our life according to the teachings of the Lord, that is to follow God’s love and compassionate ways, and obeying His commandments, that is also love. Keep strong our faith in Him, and our hope in Christ, our Lord, crucified and resurrected, that we have hope of eternal life beyond death, providing that we keep strong our bonds with our God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, pray for one another, and show God’s love to one another, that we will always be strong in faith, hope, and love, the three cardinal values of our faith in God, that we will not fall into temptation like Judas Iscariot did, and will not betray our Lord for worldly goods and desires as Judas did, but be repentant like Peter was, and through our sincere contrition and repentance, we will be rewarded by our Lord.

by

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 : Wednesday of Holy Week (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 26 : 14-25

Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “How much will you give me if I hand Him over to you?” They promised to give him thirty pieces of silver, and from then on, he kept looking for the best way to hand Jesus over to them.

On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare the Passover meal for You?” Jesus answered, “Go into the city, to the house of a certain man, and tell him, ‘The Master says : My hour is near, and I will celebrate the Passover with My disciples in your house.'”

The disciples did as Jesus had ordered, and prepared the Passover meal. When it was evening, Jesus sat at table with the Twelve. While they were eating, Jesus said, “Truly I say to you : one of you will betray Me.” They were deeply distressed, and they asked Him, one after the other, “You do not mean me, do You, Lord?”

He answered, “The one who dips his bread with Me will betray Me. The Son of Man is going as the Scriptures say He will. But alas for that one whom betrays the Son of Man : better for him not to have been born.”

Judas, who was betraying Him, also asked, “You do not mean me, Master, do you?” Jesus replied, “You have said it.”

by

Tuesday, 26 March 2013 : Tuesday of Holy Week (Scripture Reflection)

Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God who became Man, is the servant of God mentioned in the book of the prophet Isaiah in our first reading, as the messenger of God, and the labourer of God, who made Israel, scattered over all nations for their disobedience and sins, whole once again, and return them into the the Lord’s fold.

Yet, as the servant of God had mentioned, that He had laboured in vain, because indeed, many of the people in Israel remained deaf and blind to the works of God through Him. Many still rejected God’s servant, just as they had rejected many prophets that God had sent to them across time, since the beginning of Israel to the coming of Christ, God’s servant.

Christ is also to die, just as the people murdered God’s prophet, and so did Christ had to endure the same suffering and death.

However, Christ put His trust entirely in the Lord, God His Father, for He placed a complete trust in Him, as well as out of His great and undying love for all of us, He remained true and faithful to His mission, despite the weight of such a burden and responsibility, that He even wavered at times, greatly distressed in His Spirit.

This is how we can follow the example of Christ. That is to pray, whenever we are faced with great trouble and persecution. Christ prayed at the Garden of Gethsemane prior to His arrest by the temple guards and Judas’ betrayal, so that He would be strengthened for whatever things that are to come.

The lack of prayer and faith is what made Peter betrayed Jesus, just as Judas Iscariot had betrayed Christ for the thirty silver coins he received from the chief priests for his betrayal. Judas had failed his temptation by Satan and allowed Satan to enter into him, to betray the Lord, because he had let himself to falter in his faith, for in fact, he barely has faith for the Lord at all.

For already it was known that from yesterday’s readings, that he appropriated some of the common purse’s money for his own use. He didn’t follow the Lord out of true faith and dedication to God’s mission, but rather as an opportunist, and being a thief he was, he took advantage of the situation, and even betrayed his Master for the sake of money. When he regretted that, it was already too late for him to repent.

For Peter, and also the other disciples, they did have faith in the Lord, but that faith was yet strong enough to endure harsh moments and persecutions. For when the Lord was arrested, and He was brought to the chief priests for trial, the fear that came before all of them, including Peter, prevented their faith in Christ to come forth in them, and instead they cower behind their fears, and their own self-preservation instincts.

That was why Peter denied Jesus three times, all to protect himself, from facing the same fate as that of Christ. He denied Him three times despite having pledged his life to defend Christ just hours before that denial. But Christ saw the true faith that was in Peter, only that it was being shrouded in fear. Once that shroud of fear was removed, the true faith could shine brightly for all to see. That was why Christ forgave Peter through His three questions of love to Peter, and then commended to Him the people of God, to be his as the shepherd, representing Himself as the Chief Shepherd.

Therefore brothers and sisters in Christ, as we approach the Easter Triduum beginning this Thursday, let us pray, that our faith will be strengthened. That we will never again be afraid or be ashamed to stand up for Christ and for the teachings of God and His values. Let us strive to help one another, to strengthen one another in faith, and to bring all God’s people together in love. May God bless our Holy Week celebration, that we will have a fruitful and blessed time. Amen!

by

Tuesday, 26 March 2013 : Tuesday of Holy Week (Gospel Reading)

John 13 : 21-33, 36-38

After saying this, Jesus was distressed in Spirit, and said plainly, “Truly, one of you will betray Me.” The disciples then looked at one another, wondering whom He meant. One of the disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining near Jesus; so Simon Peter signaled him to ask Jesus whom He meant.

And the disciple, who was reclining near Jesus, asked Him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “I shall dip a piece of bread in the dish, and he to whom I give it, is the one.” So Jesus dipped the bread and gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And as Judas took the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus then said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

None of the others, reclining at the table, understood why Jesus said this to Judas. As Judas had the common purse, they may have thought that Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast, ” or, “Give something to the poor.” Judas left as soon as he had eaten the bread. It was night.

When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. God will glorify Him, and He will glorify Him very soon. My children, I am with you for only a little while; you will look for Me, but as I already told the Jews, so now I tell you : where I am going you cannot come.”

Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going? Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but afterwards you will.” Peter said, “Lord, why can’t I follow You now? I am ready to give my life for You.”

“To give your life for Me?” Jesus asked Peter, “Truly I tell you, the cock will not crow, before you have denied Me three times.”