Tuesday

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Tuesday, 8 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Jonah 3 : 1-10

The word of YHVH came to Jonah a second time : “Go to Nineveh, the great city, and announce to them the message I give you.”

In obedience to the word of YHVH, Jonah went to Nineveh. It was a very large city, and it took three days just to cross it. So Jonah walked a single day’s journey and began proclaiming, “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

The people of the city believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

Upon hearing the news, the king of Nineveh got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. He issued a proclamation throughout Nineveh : “By the decree of the king and his nobles, no people or beasts, herd or flock, will taste anything; neither will they eat not drink. But let people and beasts be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call aloud to God, turn from his evil ways and violence. Who knows? God may yet relent, turn from His fierce anger and spare us.”

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not carry out the destruction He had threatened upon them.

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Tuesday, 1 October 2013 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as per the theme of the readings yesterday, today we once again listen to the words of Jesus, on the importance of humility in our lives, in all our dealings with God and with one another. That humility is one of the key elements necessary for the salvation of one, because with humility, many of the necessary attitudes needed for one to be saved can be achieved.

It is too often that we are so preoccupied with ourselves, and immersed in our sense of pride and our natural arrogance that we fail to realise our own shortcomings and our sinfulness. That is why many of us tend to continue to dwell in the world of sin and darkness instead of seeking the light in God. We close ourselves and our hearts to the Lord, all because we think of ourselves as great and beyond reproach.

That was the reason of the fall of many, who put their trust in their own strengths and disregarded any advice that the Lord had given to them through various sources. Pride leads to arrogance, and arrogance leads to even more pride. And in our pride, we forget about God, we forget about those around us, and even those who are dear to us, and we tend to care only for ourselves.

Ever since we have fallen into sin, we have been prone to any kind of sins and evils, including pride. It is also how the devil fell, as Lucifer the lightbringer, who was enraptured by his own beauty and might, as the greatest angel, turned to pride and then jealousy and hatred against God. That is how pride brings down even the mighty and the powerful. Indeed, those who are mighty are more prone to pride than those who are weak, but that does not mean that all of us can be complacent.

The way to greatness is truly through humility, as through humility, we tend to be better able to express ourselves in love, in gentleness, and in faith to God. The Lord who sees us doing these things, will truly reward us and glorify us, just as He had glorified Christ our Lord, His Son, whose sacrifice in perfect humility, brought about the salvation of mankind.

Through His own humility, Christ showed the love that is within Him to all those whom He touched and met. He lowered Himself in great humility so that He can love us all more perfectly. To the extent, that He gave His own life, so that we may live and not die. He sets the example with His own actions, the saving power of His eternal love.

Jesus also told His disciples to be more like little children. Why so? That is because it is the faith of little children that is the purest, the purest faith and love towards God. Very often, we as adults, are so preoccupied with the things and matters of the world, that we forget what is more important in our lives, that is love, gentleness, hope, and God Himself.

If we can just be more like children in our faith, then we will certainly be better persons, with faith untainted by the concerns and corruptions of this world. We ought not to forget our true calling in this life, that is to love, and to love tenderly, especially to those who are unloved, we can truly be like those children, whose faith and dedication to God are pure and total.

That is what was echoed by the saint whose feast day we celebrate today, namely St. Therese of the Child Jesus, also known as St. Therese Lisieux. St. Therese Lisieux was well-known for her great humility, her piety, and her deep spirituality and devotion for the Lord, that she showed in her short life, as she died early in her early twenties, and yet in that short life, she had really done much for the sake of the Lord and His people.

St. Therese Lisieux joined the religious life and devoted herself fully to the Lord, and received series of visions and revelations through her life. She dedicated herself to her life of prayer in simplicity and perfect obedience to the will of God. Through her numerous writings, she communicated her feelings and beliefs, in the life dedicated to God.

It is through her extensive writings, poems, and other works, that St. Therese Lisieux influenced many of us even to this day. Although she had lived only a short life in this world, through her works and writings, she lived on forever, inspiring and strengthening many in their own paths towards the Lord. She is now up there, as one of the saints, interceding endlessly for our sake, we who are sinners still living in this darkened world of pride and evil.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, after we hear the examples set by St. Therese Lisieux and that of many other saints, let us emulate their virtues, their piety and humility, realising the depths of our own sins, and asking the Lord for His pardon out of His eternal love for us. Let us also be proactive in love, that we love tenderly, love sincerely, and love generously, both to God and to our fellow men.

May the Lord continue to shower us with His love and that we will come to ever greater realisation of our own unworthiness before Him, and therefore come ever closer to reach out to the throne of mercy, asking Him to show His infinite mercy to us, and forgiveness for our innumerable sins. God bless us all and watch over us always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 1 October 2013 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 18 : 1-5, 10

At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the midst of the disciples, and said, “I assure you that, unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes lowly like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child in My Name receives Me.”

“See that you do not despise any of these little ones, for I tell you : their angels in heaven continually see the face of My heavenly Father.”

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Tuesday, 1 October 2013 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 130 : 1-3

O Lord, my heart is not proud nor do I have arrogant eyes. I am not engrossed in ambitious matters, nor in things too great for me.

I have quieted and stilled my soul like a weaned child on its mother’s lap; like a contented child is my soul.

Hope in the Lord, o Israel, now and forever.

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Tuesday, 1 October 2013 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Isaiah 66 : 10-14

“Rejoice for Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her. Be glad with her, rejoice with her, all you who were in grief over her, that you may suck of the milk from her comforting breasts, that you may drink deeply from the abundance of her glory.”

For this is what YHVH says : ‘I will send her peace, overflowing like a river; and the nations’ wealth, rushing like a torrent towards her. And you will be nursed and carried in her arms and fondled upon her lap. As a son comforted by his mother, so will I comfort you.’

‘At the sight of this, your heart will rejoice; like grass, your bones will flourish. For it shall be known that YHVH’s hand is with His servant, but His fury is upon His enemy.’

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Tuesday, 24 September 2013 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear a very profound message from our Lord Jesus, that He had made all those who are righteous and do the will of God, being obedient to the Law as His own, as the ones counted among those to whom He gives His everlasting care and attention.

Yes, Jesus had come down from heaven, God incarnate as Man, so that He can be with us, and claim us from the darkness that enslaved us all. He revealed to all the children of God, even today, on the nature of God’s love for us, so much so that He sent His only Son, that we may be saved and have life in Him.

Being the children of God, as the most beloved and precious of His creations, mankind has long been destined for great things. For even the stewardship of this world was entrusted to us through our ancestors, through God’s commands to Adam and Eve, his wife. Yet, we have fallen from grace by our corruption with sin and no longer worthy to call God, our Father.

That is where Christ came in, and His coming into this world had reestablished that link between us and the Father. He had become one of us, that our links with God become ever more tangible, and He who is God, lives within us and is present within us, we who receive the gifts of His Most Precious Body and Blood through the Holy Eucharist in the Mass.

Yes, now that the Lord is in us, and we in Him, we have been made and marked as truly belonged to the Lord, and freed from the bonds and slavery under sin. All this, if we would accept Christ as our Lord and Saviour, and most importantly, showing it in a concrete manner, by following the will of God, that is loving one another, and through that, loving God with all our strengths.

Through Christ, we have been remade, and made pure and wonderful again in the presence of the Lord. Through Him, we cast aside our old and sinful selves and embrace new and loving life, life anchored in faith and love towards God who also loves us dearly. It is precisely like what we read today in the first reading, on the efforts of the rebuilding of the House of God, the Temple, in Jerusalem, after the return of Israel from the exile in Babylon.

The people of Israel had done things abhorred by God and rebelled against His love, and therefore, was punished by being given over to their enemies. They suffered in exile, separated from the land God had promised them, because they had broken the covenant their ancestors had established with God, ever since the days of Abraham.

Yet, God showed them His mercy, and through His power exercised via Cyrus and Darius, the rulers of the Persian Empire, the people of God was allowed once again to walk on the land God had given them and dwell in it. The first Temple and House of the Lord, the one King Solomon had made was destroyed with Jerusalem when the Babylonians took over the city, and yet, in the first reading today, we hear about the rebuilding of the Temple, which would become the Second Temple, still standing by the time of Christ, and was the place where He often taught the people during His earthly ministry.

In the same way, the Lord had established a new Temple, that is the Temple of His Body, that even when the physical Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed soon later by the Romans, the real Temple of God, that is His house, remains. Each one of us who have faith in Christ and obey the will of God, are these new Houses of the Lord, the Holy Temple in which God resides.

And now because we are the Temples of the Lord, then within each one of us had been entrusted with a great light of God. That is why it is important that we do not hide that light, but reveal it for all to see. If we do things that are wicked and against the Lord’s wishes, essentially what we have done is that we have been corrupting that Temple that is our body and our being.

Therefore, the light that is within us will not be able to shine brightly, as it is hidden behind screen of darkness and evils, which marred the light God had given to all of us. Hence, dear brethren, let us from now on respond to this matter, and most importantly, have the resolve to break free from this prison of darkness and returns to the light.

Let us, from this moment onward, no longer fear to show the light that is in us to the world, to all those who are around us. Let us be the light placed on the lampstand, to be shown to all peoples, the bright light within us that can never be dimmed. Remember, that Christ, the Light of the world, is also lifted up high above the earth, that He was seen by all. That all who sees that Light, may have a new hope, that is an eternal life of happiness and true joy with God.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, because we who have accepted and received Christ into ourselves had already had Christ within each and every one of us, therefore, we as the possessions of Christ, should also reflect His light in us, and show it to the world, as the light that nurtures and show the way to others still lost in the darkness.

Let us not be fearful and be courageous to take up the challenge God had given us, to shine brightly and show our faith to the world without hesitation. Be like Christ who showed His love for all, and yes, indeed, for all to see, that all who saw Him receive new life through salvation. May the Lord strengthen us and empower us to love, to love both Him and one another. Amen.

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Tuesday, 24 September 2013 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 8 : 19-21

Then Jesus’ mother and His relatives came to Him, but they could not get to Him because of the crowd. Someone told Him, “Your mother and Your brothers  are standing outside and wish to meet You.” Then Jesus answered, “My mother and My brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

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Tuesday, 24 September 2013 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 121 : 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord! And now we have set foot within your gates, o Jerusalem!”

Jerusalem, just like a city, where everything falls into place! There the tribes go up.

The tribes of the Lord, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord’s Name. There stand the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.

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Tuesday, 24 September 2013 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ezra 6 : 7-8, 12b, 14-20

Let the governor of the Jews together with their leaders build the House of God on its former site. This is the command I give as to what you should do to help those Jewish leaders rebuild the House of God : pay the expenses in full and without delay, with the income from taxes of the province at the other side of the River which is allotted to the king. I, Darius, give this command. Let it be carried out at once.

And the leaders of the Jews continued to make progress in building, encouraged by what Haggai, the prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, had said; and they finished the work according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus and Darius. The House was finished on the third day of the month of Adar in the sixth year of the reign of Darius.

The children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of those who had returned from exile celebrated the consecration of this House of God with rejoicing, offering on this solemnity one hundred young bulls, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs; and twelve he-goats as a sin offering for all Israel, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

Then they installed the priests according to their ranks, and the Levites according to their classes, for the service of the House of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses. Those who had returned from exile celebrated the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, for the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together, and all of them were clean.

So, they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all who had returned from exile, for their fellow-priests and for themselves.

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Tuesday, 17 September 2013 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Robert Bellarmine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear the long preaching by St. Paul in the first reading, on the criteria required of one to be the overseer of the people of God, that is in the more contemporary language, means to be bishops and leaders of the Universal Church, including the Pope himself, our leader and the Vicar of Christ.

Just as not anybody can become the ordained ministers of the Lord, that is priests and deacons, therefore, the higher ordained orders demand even greater requirements and even stricter criteria. That is important because, just as the Pharisees and the chief priests had led their people into ruin, the leaders of the Church and their capabilities are essential to lead the people of God into the right way, that is towards the Lord.

If the bishops are improperly chosen, and if the early Church had not carefully decided on whom should be the overseers, there would certainly be chaos and divisions within the Church, damaging the unity and structure of the Church of God. Bishops should be upright men, who placed the Lord first before all other things, and avoid any form of fornication or impurities that may cause them to deviate from the path of truth.

Bishops, the overseers of God’s work, did not have it easy brethren, as they certainly had much oppositions, and also heavy demands and expectations on their shoulders. That was why, St. Paul was very strict in his criteria of who should be chosen as overseers, as bishops of the Church, especially the Pope, the bishop of Rome, whom all believers look up to, as their moral authority in this world, representing Christ Himself.

The people look up to them as teachers and leaders, and uprightness and righteousness are important priorities for the selection criteria, those with commitment to the Lord and dedication to doing good for the sake of others, and for the sake of God, and those with the heart and dedication for service of the Lord and for His people in the Church. Certainly not someone who desires the position because they desire power, money, and privileges attached such positions.

Yes, brethren, we need someone who is truly dedicated and devoted to his position as leaders and shepherds of the faithful. We need good shepherds, modelled after Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd, who gave His all to His sheep, that is all of us, fully dedicated to us, and most importantly filled with love for us, those who had been entrusted to Him. The same too, therefore, ought to be expected of those who had been entrusted with positions of authority in the Church.

Yes, loving in the same way that Jesus had loved His people, the people of God, especially those who are suffering, those who are unloved, and those who are rejected by the society. Today, He showed His love to the widow of Naim, who had just lost her son to death. He showed His love to her and to everyone, by exercising His authority over life and death, bringing the son of the widow back to life.

He was so moved with compassion over the sorrow of the widow, who had lost the only one she had possessed in this world, her beloved. The Lord truly understood that feeling. Imagine, brethren! How would the Lord feel, with each one of us lost day by day, to sin and damnation, that is to be separated for eternity from He who loves all of us, without exception. If we suffer from such separation, imagine the wounds that cause to the loving heart of our God.

Therefore, we truly need good and dedicated and loving leaders in this Church of God, to be the ones leading us in our approach towards the Lord. We need someone who follow the Lord and His love for those entrusted to Him, and not someone who will immediately run away at the first sign of trouble, or someone who do not love the sheep and do not put all of his heart and effort to his ministry. For those are the false and bad shepherds, the hired men who care not for those given to them.

However, brethren, this should not just be limited to just our bishops, our priests and those in the position of leadership. It is also important for us, to also follow in their footsteps, emulating the examples of the Lord, and become role models and leaders for one another. It is important for us that we help one another and support one another, that we help each other in our journey towards salvation, guided by our chosen leaders, the priests, and particularly the bishops.

Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine, a great religious and leader of the Universal Church, as both a Jesuit and a Cardinal. He lived at the era of upheaval in the Church, where heresies and rebellion against the faith were commonplace. St. Robert Bellarmine was appointed to positions of influence and entrusted with much responsibilities. Yet, he did not remain idle, and instead plunged himself into the work, totally committed to his vocation in life, that is to serve the people of God and uphold the truth of the faith.

St. Robert Bellarmine wrote extensively on the matters of the faith, contributing greatly to the advancement and enrichment of the faith in the Church. Through his works and contributions, many people returned to the faith, and his valuable writings remain widely studied even until today. St. Robert Bellarmine supported the Church’s attempt to counter Protestantism through the Countet-Reformation, working hard to protect the Holy Mother Church.

May the Lord continue to shower us with His love, and especially to our leaders, that we all will continue to reflect Christ and His love, love for all of us,  and the love He had once shown to the widow of Naim. Let us be loving and compassionate to our fellow men, showing them the care Christ had shown to us.

Inspired also by the examples of St. Robert Bellarmine, who committed himself fully to his appointed mission, and through his passionate defender of the faith, let us not be ignorant of the suffering of others, but let us empathise and open our hearts to those who need our love. And do not forget to always pray for our priests! Amen.