understanding the faith

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Friday, 4 September 2020 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture we are reminded as Christians to have a thorough transformation in life, in how we live our lives and in how each and every one of us spend our every moments, to be focused on God at all times, to follow His will and obey His laws, as well as to love Him with all of our hearts, with all of our strength and might.

As Christians, first and foremost, there is a need for us to change our perspective in life and how we live up this life we have with faith, so that if once we have been self-centred, lacking in faith, tainted with sin and with the corruption of desires and temptations, then now we are called into a new life and existence that is no longer reminiscent of the old life we once had, the old life of disobedience, wickedness and sin.

In our first reading today, we heard St. Paul reminding us through his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Corinth, of the need for all of us to see ourselves as the servants of the Lord and as His stewards in carrying out whatever He has tasked us to do. We should also not judge one another but rather, be prepared with how we will all be judged by the Lord, as the one and only true Judge, for our every actions and deeds, our every sins and virtues at the time of judgment.

That is why our attention should be focused on what we heard in our Gospel passage today, when the Lord was confronted by some people, probably the Pharisees, who questioned Him and compared His disciples to the disciples of St. John who fasted and followed the rigorous imposition of the Law of God as revealed through Moses and passed down through the Jewish leaders and elders. By doing so, those people had formed their judgment against the Lord and His disciples for not doing what was deemed to be right.

This is where what we heard in our first reading passage today mattered, that we should not be judgmental in our attitude, and instead, first look into ourselves and our actions first before criticising others, or else we end up becoming hypocrites. And the Lord also used the two parables of the wineskin and wine, as well as the parable of the old and new cloth and patch, to illustrate this to all of us.

In that parable, we heard how the wineskin must be properly matched to the wine to be stored inside it, that old wine ought to be kept in old wineskin while new wine ought to be stored in new wineskin. Conversely, a torn new cloth ought to be patched with new cloth piece as well, and not with an old patch of cloth. What is the significance and meaning behind these two parables, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is a reminder that we need to have an attitude and life that is compatible with our Christian faith, our belief in God.

Unless we genuinely practice our faith in the way that we have believed it, and fill our lives with actions that are in accordance with God’s way, and no longer living according to our old ways of sin, just like the new wine that is compatible with the new wineskin, we will end up being destroyed if we use the ‘old’ way of life and our past sins to live our new faith in God. That is why the Lord used that parable to show, how being His disciples means that we all need to listen to Him, follow Him and do as He has commanded us to do.

Are we willing and able to do it though? It is not easy for us to change the way we live our lives as the tendency is such that we prefer the comfort of life over hardships, to satisfy ourselves and our desires over caring for the needs of others. But this is what being Christians is all about, brothers and sisters in Christ. To be Christians means that we firmly believe in the Lord, embrace His way, His teachings and truth, and the reality is that, often, we may have to endure challenges and trials as we journey along in faith.

But we must not be afraid, because if we are faithful and remain firm in our faith, then the Lord will judge us to be worthy of His eternal kingdom and glory, and He will gather us all in, while those who reject Him, will be by their own decision, be cast out into the eternal darkness and suffering. The choice is on our hands, brothers and sisters in Christ, to choose whether we want to follow the Lord faithfully, or whether we want to continue walking down the path of darkness and sin.

May the Lord help us in our journey, strengthen us in our resolve and empower us all to live faithfully in His presence at all times. May He bless our good endeavours and works, and may He be with us always, especially through our most difficult moments in life. May God bless us, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 3 September 2020 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in our Scripture readings today, we heard about the call for all of us as Christians to be dedicated to God and to put our trust in Him for everything we do in life, to listen to Him and to follow Him wholeheartedly. We should not allow ourselves to be tempted and swayed by human ambition, pride and desires, but instead, allow ourselves to be led and guided by God.

In our first reading today, the Lord reminds us through His Apostle St. Paul, that for all the great wisdom, intellect, power and ability we have in the world, all of these are nothing and insignificant in the presence of God, and if we are to boast, as St. Paul said, let us all boast of the Lord and not of ourselves and our own abilities. And St. Paul mentioned in that same passage, his own name, that of Apollos as well as Cephas, the Aramaic name for St. Peter the Apostle, the leader of all the faithful.

This was because contextually, in the communities of the Christian faithful, there had been intense divisions at the time, especially within the Church in Corinth, to which St. Paul addressed this Epistle, in which segments of the community began to side with certain factions proclaiming that they were for St. Paul, and others were for Apollos, while yet others were proclaiming for Cephas, St. Peter.

St. Paul was the famous preacher and evangeliser who travelled extensively all across the Mediterranean region, establishing the communities of the faithful in many places and was known as the Apostle to the Gentiles for his efforts and commitment, while Apollos was a charismatic Jewish convert to the Christian faith, who gained large following due to his charism, and St. Peter was the leader of the Apostles and the appointed Vicar of Christ. These figures became the rallying points around which the segments of the Christian faithful coalesced around. All of these factions and divisions among the faithful led to the fracturing of the Church unity and the confusions it caused in the Christian community.

St. Paul therefore asked all the faithful to avoid dwelling in human desires, the desires and ambition for power, and to avoid using human and worldly wisdom and understanding to live their faith in God. Instead, all the faithful should trust in God, put their faith and listen to Him. It is just like what we all heard in our Gospel passage today, as we heard the account of the calling of the first Apostles, the fishermen of the lake of Galilee, namely, St. Peter and his brother St. Andrew, as well as the two sons of Zebedee, St. James and St. John.

At that time, St. Peter and others were fishing in the lake without result even after much efforts overnight. But the Lord told them all to put out into the deep waters, and as soon as they followed His instructions, they gained so much fish that the whole boat could not take the great weight of the fishes caught. St. Peter then immediately recognised that Jesus was no mere ordinary Man, but a great and Holy One of God and trembled before Him, knowing that he was unworthy and a sinner.

Then the Lord called on all of them to follow Him, and which they did, abandoning their boats, following Him to be the ‘fishers of men’. Through this, they would gather for the Lord, the ‘fishes’ representing mankind, to the Church, represented by the boat, and therefore into salvation and eternal life in God. This is the mission which God has entrusted to His Apostles and disciples, and which He also entrusted to all of us in His Great Commission, ‘Go forth and make disciples of all the nations!’

Through all of these God is calling on each and every one of us to be centred and focused on Him, and Him alone, not to trust in our own strength and power, but rather, doing our works through our strength and power drawing from God and His strength. And by drawing on strength from Him, then we are called to go out and ‘put into the deep waters’ which means that we need to get out of our comfort zone and go forth, be genuine and good Christians, to inspire and call others to be good Christians on their own accord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we look forward into how we are to live our lives as good and dedicated Christians, and also rejecting the temptations of human desires and worldly glories, let us all look at our holy predecessor, Pope St. Gregory the Great, the saint and holy Pope whose feast we are celebrating today with great joy, in memory of the great contributions and efforts he had made for the greater glory of God and His Church.

Pope St. Gregory the Great reigned as Pope at a time when the Church was encountering difficulties from both the religious spectre as well as from the secular world, as at that time, not only that secular authorities were falling apart as the remnants of the authority and power of the Roman Emperors ruling from Constantinople began to fall apart and Rome came under threat from foreign invaders, but the discipline in the Church and among the members of the clergy had grown lax.

Pope St. Gregory the Great, an experienced administrator for his days before being a priest and monk, and Pope, did a lot of effort to reform the Church and the administration of both the faithful community as well as the secular governance over the region of Rome and beyond. He improved the livelihood of the people and the governance, improved various aspects of Church life and also the discipline in the Church and among the members of the faithful.

Pope St. Gregory the Great was also remembered for his efforts in spreading the Gospel message and convert more and more souls to the Lord. He sent missionaries to Germany and also England, most famously in sending the missionary St. Augustine of Canterbury to be the first Bishop of Canterbury and therefore laying the strong foundation of the Church in England, as well as in other parts of Christendom.

Of course, we also remember his efforts for what would come to be known by his name, as the Gregorian Chant, in his efforts in standardising Church music and improving its quality, which in time, would come to be a vast multitude of hymns and chants that bring great glory to God and bring even more people ever closer to God by the sacredness of the wonderful hymns and chants.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all follow in the faith and commitment of Pope St. Gregory the Great, in our faith and life that each and every one of us may become ever more faithful in everything we do, that we may put God at the centre of our life and existence. Let us follow his example and dedicate ourselves to the greater glory of God and His Church. May the Lord help us and be with us, and guide us through this journey of faith through life. Amen.

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Wednesday, 2 September 2020 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded through the readings of the Scripture, of the need for each and every one of us to overcome the temptations of pride and greed, and to avoid jealousy and hatred in our lives and within our Christian communities and our larger society in general. For as we heard from the Scriptures, it is very easy for us to be divided against each other because of the various conflicting desires that can lead us astray in our journey of faith.

In our first reading today, we heard about the divisions that existed in the early Christian communities, particularly in what St. Paul addressed in his Epistles to the Corinthians. He spoke of how some among the people were proclaiming themselves as the supporters of St. Paul, while yet others disagreed and proclaimed that they were the followers of Apollos. For the context, Apollos was a very charismatic and influential Jewish preacher mentioned several times across the Acts of the Apostles for his missionary efforts.

As written in the Scriptures, Apollos was a believer in Christ, although at first he did not yet know fully of the Christian faith and teachings, and preached to the people of the teachings and the baptism of St. John the Baptist. And it was also mentioned how the differences and the incomplete nature of the truth and teachings that Apollos propagated led to some Christian disciples to pass on to him the truth of Christ.

Regardless, Apollos’ great charism and influential nature brought him many followers, that considering the slight differences in the teachings and styles, led to divisions among the Christian communities, as some sided with Apollos, while others sided with St. Paul, the other great missionary who spread the message of the Gospel to the many communities of the Mediterranean region and beyond, both to the Jews and the Gentiles alike.

And all of those divisions were caused by human greed and ambition, pride and ego, as well as their failure to look beyond worldly matters. That was exactly why St. Paul chastised them and reminded them that ultimately, St. Paul, Apollos and other Christian leaders and missionaries were merely instruments and servants of God, doing the will of God, and working for the greater glory of God, not for their own glory or for their followers’ glory.

And St. Paul also reminded the Christian faithful that it was because of God that everything had been possible, and all the successes that were achieved by St. Paul, Apollos and other evangelisers and missionaries were because of the grace of God and His guidance. Therefore, all of us as Christians must be vigilant not to be tempted by the devil trying to sow divisions between us by making us focus on our differences, as well as on our own personal and worldly agenda rather than focusing on God as we should have.

In our Gospel passage today, we also heard of the healing of the mother-in-law of St. Peter, who had been very sick, and the Lord made her healthy again. And we were told how the people brought many of their sick to the Lord immediately after hearing about the miracle. But then curiously, after a short while, the Lord said that He would go to another place, to the surprise of His followers and disciples.

He said that there were still many others who were in need of Him, His teachings and to hear the truth and receive the healing that He was bringing into this world. And also most importantly, He showed His disciples that all the work that He has done, was ultimately for the greater glory of God, to serve the will of His Father and not to dwell in adulation and human praise. For it was indeed very easy for us to be tempted with pride and hubris, with ego and greed, in human praise and adoration, in fame and influence.

That was why, the Lord Jesus chose to move on from place to place, that His disciples would learn more about humility and refocus themselves on their purpose of serving God rather than serving their own selfish desires. And at the same time, it did fulfil the Lord’s purpose of reaching out to more people, instead of just staying in the same location and serving the people there while getting the praise and reputation for doing so.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture readings remind us all as Christians to be Christ-centric in our lives and in how we live out our faith, and we should not allow ourselves to be easily tempted by the temptations of worldly ambitions and desires. St. Paul has reminded us to be careful of these temptations and not to be divided amongst ourselves because of all these matters. Instead, we should remain united in God, and we should remain focused on Him, and not on ourselves and our desires.

Let us all help and remind each other to be faithful at all times, and dedicate ourselves as best as possible, to serve the Lord at all times, and do what we can in order to be good and dutiful Christians, doing everything for the greater glory of God, and not for ourselves. Let us all be God’s most wonderful instruments in bringing His light and truth into our world. May the Lord bless us always, in our every good endeavours. Amen.

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Tuesday, 1 September 2020 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us heard a very interesting set of readings from the Scripture, relating to the concept of the spiritual life and the Spirit of God working in our midst, and how only the Spirit of God knows the truth of God unlike our feeble and weak human minds, perceptions and understanding.

When we speak of the spirits of God here as described in our first reading by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians, it is a reference to our Gospel passage today, in which we heard the account of the Lord Jesus casting out demons and evil spirits from a man in the synagogue of Capernaum. The man shouted loudly, proclaiming the Lord Jesus as the Holy One of God, the Messiah promised to the whole world and the Son of God.

It is curious that all these came from the mouth of a man possessed by evil spirits. We would have expected that the evil spirits spoke terribly of the Lord or falsehoods about Him, but on the contrary, they spoke the truth. Why is that so? That is because although they had rebelled against God and disobeyed Him, fell into evil, following the path of Satan, but ultimately, all of them, including Satan, were the Angels of God and spirits that were created by God.

God is still and will always be their true Master and Lord, and those spirits, as fearsome and mighty they might seem or appear, or make themselves to appear, but they have no power over God, and no power therefore over Jesus, the One Whom despite His human appearance, was in truth God Himself incarnate in the human flesh and existence, fully Divine and fully Human, two distinct natures united perfectly in His own Person.

That was why those evil spirits recognised Him and proclaimed Him as He was, first of all, perhaps because they wanted to make it more difficult for the Lord to perform His missions, as the words that He is the Holy One and Son of God would inevitably lead Him to the clash and arguments with the Pharisees and the chief priests. But ultimately, they cannot lie before the presence of God, and they had to speak the truth.

And therefore, as St. Paul mentioned in his Epistle, the spirit knows and understand what are imperceivable and unrecognisable to the world, to the physical world. This also comes after yesterday’s readings, in which we heard how the Lord Jesus was rejected by His own people, His own neighbours and townspeople alike, just because they saw Him and knew Him as the Son of a local carpenter.

We can see the contrast and irony how while the evil spirits recognised the Lord Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God, His own people failed to recognise Him and refused to believe in Him. And this is what happened when we allowed our human prejudices, biases and limited human understanding and ability to perceive to mislead us and misguide us. That is why, we must have strong and genuine faith in God, through our living and good relationship with Him.

We do not recognise something that we do not know or which we are not familiar with. That is why when we do not spend time with God, or have little authentic relationship with Him, then how can we expect to know Him properly? It is through prayer that all of us as Christians come to know God, recognise Him by uniting our spirit to Him, opening our deepest self, our hearts and minds to God.

The sad reality is that so many of us Christians have not put priority for prayer in our lives, and we tend to put God as secondary importance in our lives, as we spent a lot more time in trying to pursue our various worldly aims and desires, our attachments to the world, to all sorts of worldly pleasures and matters, and we pushed God aside and relegated Him to a place of much lesser importance in our lives.

That was exactly why many failed to recognise the Lord’s Presence, even those Pharisees, teachers of the Law and those who have witnessed the Lord performing His wondrous miracles, they refused to believe in Him because they had no strong and genuine connection with Him. For many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, although they outwardly seemed pious and faithful, but their piety was rather superficial, and their hearts were not centred on God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all discern these carefully and see how we can be more faithful in words, deeds and actions, be more genuinely committed to God, with all of our hearts. Let us all draw strength from God and let us truly believe in Him and put our full trust in His promise of eternal life and glory, and dedicate ourselves day after day, time from time, to proclaim His glory and truth in our communities, and be the witnesses of His truth and Resurrection. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 31 August 2020 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us heard the unfortunate story of how the Lord Jesus was rejected in His own hometown of Nazareth in Galilee, by His own townspeople, not long after He began His ministry. He proclaimed the truth of God as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah and proclaimed how the Lord’s salvation has finally arrived, in Him.

But the people of Nazareth were bewildered, and all of them who heard Him in the synagogue was initially amazed and then later on confused and found it hard to believe that Jesus was referring to Himself as He read from the text of the prophet Isaiah. After all, they were His neighbours and fellow townspeople, many of whom had seen Him from when He was still very young, and saw Him as He grew up.

And He was merely the Son of the village carpenter, St. Joseph, who although an upright and likely well-respected man, but was poor and worked in a profession that was usually looked down upon. What went through the minds of the people then must have been things like, ‘How did this Jesus gain such wisdom and knowledge? He was just the poor carpenter’s Son!’ or ‘Preposterous! How can He claim Himself as the Messiah? We were just a mere tiny and poor village in Galilee!’

This referred to how that area was among the poorest in the region of Galilee, a small village and not noteworthy at all. Galilee itself was always seen as a backwater region, at the periphery of the Jewish world, then centred in Judea and Jerusalem. Galilee was where the Jewish settlers often lived alongside significant populations of Samaritans, local Canaanites and Syro-Phoenicians.

Thus, to the understanding of the people, it was impossible for someone from Galilee to have been the Messiah, and even less still, the Son of a poor carpenter hailing from the small and poor village in Galilee, the village of Nazareth. And we must also not forget that there must have been tinge of jealousy as the people complained against the Lord more because He tried to show them that in truth, He was not just a mere village carpenter’s Son.

This unfortunate incident, and how the Lord was cast out of His own hometown was exactly what St. Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Corinthians, in our first reading today. He said that ‘your faith might be a matter not of human wisdom, but of God’s power.’ And this is a reminder that we must not use our own human intellect, wisdom and understanding to judge the truth of God. And St. Paul also said earlier how as he came to the people preaching the truth about Christ, he did so with humility and open heart and mind, and thus, sought his listeners to do the same as well.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on these passages of the Scriptures we are reminded how every one of us have to open our minds and hearts, and allow God’s words and truth to enter into us. We must not be prejudiced in any way to others, just as the people of Nazareth were prejudiced against the Lord. As long as we have prejudice, bias and all these, it will be difficult for us to accept God’s truth and have genuine faith. And this applies in our own world as well.

Why is that so? That is because if we are biased, prejudiced, then we are filling ourselves up with ego and pride, and there will be no place either for God or for our fellow brothers and sisters in our hearts and minds. And the word of God and His truth will remain elusive for us. Instead, we have to heed the words of St. Paul, reminding us to be humble before God, to accept His truth and not to allow our judgment be clouded by our prejudices and biases, our worldly perceptions and thoughts.

Let us all seek the Lord with all of our hearts, with all sincerity and faith, and let us devote our time and effort to be faithful witnesses of His truth, proclaiming that the Lord Jesus is indeed the Messiah of God, Who brought with Him and with His sacrifice on the Cross, the promise of eternal life and salvation and liberation from sin and death. Let us rejoice knowing that God has come to us, to be with us, and be thankful for His love, and no longer be stubborn or harden our hearts as His own townspeople and many of the Jewish leaders had done.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen in us our faith, and our love for Him, as well as for our fellow brothers and sisters. May the Lord bless us and all of our works, and may He grant us the courage to persevere in life with faith, in all of our works and actions, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 30 August 2020 : Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday all of us are reminded that being Christians, and indeed, faithful Christians is not going to be easy for us. On the contrary, to be a faithful Christian, we must always be prepared to endure rejection and even persecution for our faith. We must not expect that becoming Christian is the path for good life and happiness to be enjoyed right here in this world, without the need to suffer.

In our first reading today, we heard the anguish and sorrow, the emotions and indeed the stresses faced by the prophet Jeremiah, the prophet sent to the kingdom of Judah during the last days of the kingdom, just before it was to be destroyed and conquered by the forces of the Babylonians. Jeremiah was sent to a people who had largely abandoned God and ignored His Law and commandments, disobeyed His precepts and ways, ignoring and persecuting His prophets and messengers.

And among them all, the works of the prophet Jeremiah was particularly difficult as he had to contend alone against not just the people and their king who hardened their hearts and minds against God, but also against the many false prophets and leaders who used the opportunity to twist the minds of the people and the king further, by saying that the Babylonians would be destroyed and defeated, while some of them said that by depending on the power of the Egyptians and their Pharaoh, Judah would be saved.

Against all these, the prophet Jeremiah stood alone and defenceless, speaking the words of God to the people, until he was labelled and deemed as a doomsayer or even a traitor to the nation and the people for speaking of the coming destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, for speaking out how the kingdom and its cities would the destroyed and the people brought into exile just as how the Lord said it would, due to the sins and disobedience of the people who refused to believe in God.

Jeremiah alone spoke of all these and he faced most bitter persecution, challenges and trials for doing so. He was reviled, hated and made to suffer, even had his life threatened on many occasions by his many enemies who wanted him to be dead. He was in the most difficult spot all the time and as we heard in our first reading passage today, it was no wonder that Jeremiah at times was tempted to forget God and abandon his mission and calling as prophet and messenger to the people of Judah.

This is then related to what we heard in our Gospel today, we heard from St. Peter the Apostle, who had just proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, and thus entrusted with the leadership of the Church and the keys of the kingdom of Heaven as we heard in our last Sunday’s Gospel. In today’s occurrence however, when the Lord Jesus then foretold of His upcoming suffering, persecution and eventually death on the Cross, St. Peter rebuked the Lord and disagreed with Him.

St. Peter said how this could not happen to Him, and He could not and should not meet such an ignominious fate, to die in such a way at the hands of their enemies. For the context, at that time, many if not most of the Jews believed that the Messiah promised by the Lord through His prophets would be a great King like king David, the Messiah’s predecessor, and they thought that the Messiah would lead them to freedom and defeat those who have subjugated and conquered them, such as the Romans.

By that time, the Jewish people had lived for six centuries after the time of the prophet Jeremiah as conquered nation and people, passing on from the hands of one ruler and overlord to another, from the Babylonians to the Persians, then to the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great and his successors, the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt and the Seleucid kings of Asia and Mesopotamia, and then short while of independence under the Maccabees or the Hasmonean kingdom, before once again subjugated by the foreign rulers such as the Herodian dynasty and their overlords, the Romans.

It was therefore not surprising that many among the Jews, including the Apostles and many of the followers of Christ who viewed Him as the coming King Who would lead them to victory in the battle against the Romans and made them all independent once again, and become a great kingdom again just as in the days of David and Solomon, when the kingdom of Israel was mighty, great and respected all over the land.

This was where then the Lord Jesus immediately rebuked St. Peter back and pointed out the true culprit behind all of these, that is none other than Satan, our great enemy, the tempter and the one who is always very hard at work in trying to crush us, defeat us, mislead us and bring us to our damnation. He has tempted the prophet Jeremiah as I mentioned earlier, persuading him to abandon his efforts and ministry, and forget about God. Fortunately, Jeremiah had a strong faith in God, and his love for Him helped him to endure through the devil’s temptations and pressures.

St. Peter had faith in the Lord, and that faith allowed him to publicly proclaim the Lord and His truth before others. It took genuine faith and real courage to speak up in such a way, especially when it could be considered a great sin and blasphemy by the Jewish authorities and shunned by others in the community at the time. St. Peter was therefore, just like the prophet Jeremiah, speaking the truth of God, even though that truth might not be popular or acceptable in the community.

But that was just the beginning for him and the other Apostles, as they would encounter more and more occasions when they would need to stand up to their faith and to remain faithful even though they had to face trials and tribulations. Although they were faithful, but they too were humans, just as the prophet Jeremiah and the other prophets were. They might also experience sorrow, fear, uncertainty and worry over themselves, just as they encounter all those terrible oppositions and persecutions.

What is important here is, brothers and sisters in Christ, is that we must not give in to the temptations of the devil. We must be strong and we must dedicate ourselves to the Lord, just as the Lord Himself showed us. For you see, the Lord Himself had been tempted by the devil when He was fasting and spending forty days in the desert. And although Satan tried his very best to tempt the Son of God, he failed to do so, because the Lord Jesus was firm in His commitment and conviction, and He showed us that through faith, the devil can be defeated.

And on the very last moment, He was tempted a final time in His agony in the Gardens of Gethsemane, when just before He was about to be arrested, betrayed, condemned to death, suffer and die a most painful and humiliating death, Jesus in His humanity, felt anguish and the fear that is also common to all of us. In His agony, it was so much that as He prayed to His Father, His sweat dropped onto the ground as if they were blood.

A hint of this is when the Lord said, ‘Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me.’, as a brief reference to just how terrible an anguish it must have been, for Him to bear the combined weight and burden of all of mankind’s sins. But the Lord remained firm even so, in His obedience to His Father’s will, with the words, ‘But let it be according to Your will, not Mine. Let Your will be done!’ And this is what each and every one of us as Christians are called to follow, the very examples of our Lord Himself, which His Apostles also followed.

In our second reading today, St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans nicely summarised all of these into these, ‘Do not let yourself be shaped by the world around you, but be transformed, by the renewal of your spirit.’ Through these words, St. Paul reminds and calls all of us Christians to dare to be different from the norms of the world and to stand up for our faith, to proclaim the truth of God even when the truth is not something that is favourable, preferred or desired by the society at large.

But we cannot do this alone, brothers and sisters in Christ. In order for us to be able to stand faithfully for our faith, we need God’s support and strength, and we must always be attuned to Him and commit ourselves to Him. As humans, it is likely that we will encounter fear, uncertainties, worries and concerns, when things start to go bad, when we face trials and challenges, and the devil knows this very, very well. He will use whatever is within his disposal in order to tempt us, persuade us, and even coerce us to abandon our struggle and our journey of faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why as Christians we must be prayerful people, so that the Lord, our loving Father will always help us find the way, for it is through prayer, genuine, deep prayer in our hearts that we can understand God’s will and His plans for us. It is often that we are blinded by our own fears, deafened by our own uncertainties and doubts, that we cannot see, hear and perceive God showing us and telling us that He is with us, and therefore, we have no need to fear at all.

And we must also be a charitable people, people living our lives with faith and filled with genuine love for one another. When we love God, as well as loving each other, even when we are difficult times, then the devil has no room in our hearts. Satan loves only himself, and he hates genuine love, selfless love, sacrificial love, the kind of love that Christ has shown us on the Cross. If we fill ourselves with love, brothers and sisters in Christ, then naturally, we will draw closer to God and we will not allow the devil to have any of his means with us.

When we hate, we allow Satan to enter into our hearts, after which he will sow even more seeds of fear, distrust, anger, jealousy, greed, pride and many others. The Lord told us, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” And throughout the history of the Church, even persecutors and enemies of the Church have repented and became Christians, when they saw how the Christian martyrs acted with love, forgave them and had such great faith in God. Not few of these persecutors-turned-converts became martyrs themselves.

Now, brothers and sister in Christ, today therefore we are all challenged by God, to embrace the fact that becoming His followers do not necessarily mean glory and joy in this life we have in this world. On the contrary, challenges and trials will likely come our way as we have likely suffered and endured these earlier as well. But are we willing to take up our crosses in life with Christ, and carry them with faith, hope and love? These are the important questions that we need to ask ourselves as we go forward in life.

Let us all be ever more prayerful, dedicating special time constantly to speak with God, to be more attuned to His will and to follow His path. Let us all be more loving and compassionate towards one another, that by our love, others may truly know that we belong to God, and so will Satan, our great enemy. Let us place our faith in God and fear no more. May the Lord bless us all and each of our endeavours, good works and actions, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 29 August 2020 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of the Passion of St. John the Baptist, remembering the courageous stand that this faithful servant of God showed in the last moments and days of his life, in staying true to his faith and in completing his mission of calling all the people to God. And he did this, even when he knew that he would be persecuted and suffer for all of his dedication.

St. John the Baptist spent several years ministering to the people and calling them to repentance, as those people flocked to him by the River Jordan and were baptised by him in the waters of the river. Many thousands came up to him and sought to repent from their sins, and through this, the servant of God fulfilled his mission as the one who prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah, calling the people to turn away from sin and open their hearts and minds to welcome the Lord’s truth that would come soon.

St. John the Baptist had to face against the opposition first of all from the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, many of whom were skeptical of him, because of his teachings and his proclamations, and because of his way of dressing, very simple and like a wild man living in the wilderness, and most importantly, because he was not part of their group, and St. John the Baptist also had scathing remarks against them, as they professed to be the guardians of the faith of the people, and yet, they misled the people and did not practice the Law in the way they should have done.

St. John the Baptist spoke out courageously against them, calling them the brood of vipers, as their actions turned many people away from God, and thus away from His grace and salvation. In this saint, we see a figure filled with zeal and love both for God and for God’s people, his fellow brethren, who had been entrusted to his care as part of the preparation of the coming of the salvation of God.

And he dared to speak up against king Herod and Herodias, his unlawful wife. Herodias was the legal and rightful wife of Philip, the brother of Herod, who at that time was likely still living. In contravention of the Law of God, which stated that a man may only take his brother’s wife should the marriage be childless, the presence of a daughter of Herodias in the Scripture likely highlighted that this daughter was the daughter of Herodias and Philip, as clearly had the daughter been of Herod, she would not have been named as the daughter of Herodias.

Therefore, Herod had committed adultery with his own brother’s wife, and as a king and leader of the people, such a terrible and immoral deed should not have been done at all. It was unbecoming and wrong for the king to commit such an act, and St. John the Baptist courageously pointed this out to the king and his unlawful wife, Herodias. Herod had St. John arrested, although he still respected the servant of God and did not allow any harm to come to the man of God.

But Herodias held deep grudge against St. John the Baptist and plotted to have him killed. She used her own daughter as a tool to coerce her husband to achieve that aim, and she had her chance when she had her daughter dance at a party held by king Herod for his guests and officials. Using the daughter’s beauty to her advantage and Herod’s weakness in tending to succumb to his flesh’s desires, and also likely compounded by being intoxicated with wine drunk at the celebration, Herodias made Herod to commit the wicked deed of executing St. John the Baptist in prison.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we recall the memory of the commitment and the perseverance of St. John the Baptist, we are called to follow in his good examples, in his faith and dedication, that we will always keep alive our faith and dedicate ourselves to God to the best of our abilities. We should be righteous and be brave in standing up for our faith before others, to be genuine witnesses of our Christian faith.

And we are also reminded to be careful and be vigilant against the temptations of pride and greed, as it was the same pride which prevented the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law to acknowledge God’s truth and that they had been wrong. It was also greed that had led king Herod to commit adultery with her husband’s wife, and how he succumbed to temptation and caused the murder of St. John the Baptist because of his lust for Herodias’ own daughter.

Let us all therefore strive to be ever better Christians through our every words and actions, spending and dedicating our every moments and efforts to serve the Lord and His people with ever greater devotion. May the Lord strengthen us and give us the same courage and faith as St. John the Baptist had shown us all. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 28 August 2020 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we heard the words of the Lord through the Scriptures, we are brought to attention on the matter of ‘wisdom’. What is wisdom to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? What is the significance of wisdom to us? Wisdom is, according to its definition, the ability to discern something with great understanding and grasp of the matter, and to have the ability to make good judgment based on what we know of the situation.

Therefore, once again, what is wisdom to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? The Scriptures placed before us the contrast between divine and human wisdom, between the wisdom of the world, the knowledge and the ways, the understanding and all the combined efforts of people throughout the centuries in trying to figure out more and more about their lives and about the world around them. But, looking at it all, we have never been able to attain true understanding, that is if we keep God out of the equation.

In our first reading today, as St. Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth, clearly addressed to both the Jewish and the Greek converts to the Christian faith, he focused on the matter how the Lord confounded the expectations and the wisdom of man through whatever He has revealed through His Son, Jesus Christ, and which His Apostles and disciples then spread throughout the whole world.

To the Jews, whom having been brought up through the centuries fearing God and His punishments and laws, and the supreme authority of God over all things, many of them could not comprehend the fact that He has come down into this world as a Man, to share in their humanity and to live just in the same way that they had lived. They therefore found it hard to believe, and as St. Paul said, demanded miracles again and again to prove to their confounded beliefs and minds that the Lord Jesus is truly the Messiah and Son of God.

To the Greeks, who valued knowledge and learning above many other things, proven by just how many philosophers, thinkers and politicians came out from their ranks at the time, it seemed foolish and nonsense to believe in the Lord Jesus as they thought that they had known all that there was to be known, in their gods and deities, to which they attributed their understanding of the nature and the world around them, and which is why, their pantheon represent closely the world, both in the behaviours of the Greek gods and goddesses that mimic closely human behaviours, and also their actions.

The Greeks could not comprehend how a mere Man, born of a woman like Mary, could be the most powerful, Almighty God, far beyond all of their own gods and goddesses, and how their understanding, learning and knowledge could have been wrong. But this was exactly where St. Paul, throughout his long years of ministry to the various Greek communities and cities throughout the Mediterranean region, helped to dispel the falsehoods and reveal to them the truth about God.

And while many of the earliest Christians were Jews, but many among the Jewish people still then refused to believe in Christ and His teachings. But nonetheless, the efforts of the Apostles and the disciples did bear fruit, as more and more among those who initially refused to believe eventually were willing to listen to the truth and believe in God. Those who refused to believe clung on to their own wisdom and understanding, such as many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who thought that they could not have been wrong and condemned Jesus as a blasphemer and false Messiah.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through all of these we have seen how the Lord wanted us to understand that it is often our stubbornness and pride that prevented us from being able to seek out and approach the Lord with faith, as we clung to our own interpretations, intellect and wisdom, rather than to trust in the wisdom of God we have heard and which have been revealed to us. We must understand, brethren, that our wisdom and intellect are limited, and are nothing compared to God’s wisdom and truth.

Today, all of us also celebrate the feast day of the great St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the four original and greatest of the Doctors of the Church and one of the most influential early Church fathers and leaders of Christendom. St. Monica, his mother was celebrated in her feast day yesterday, as we heard how her persistence, constant prayer and effort to seek her son’s conversion eventually led to St. Augustine’s conversion, and today, we focus our attention on the great saint himself.

St. Augustine of Hippo was born to St. Monica, a Christian woman and a pagan father, and his early life was surrounded by the many wickedness of the world. And as he grew up, he began to be attracted by philosophical pursuits and learning, which was then dominated by pagan philosophers, prominent among the Greeks as mentioned earlier. The young St. Augustine was curious for knowledge, and he was seeking for truth and satisfaction on knowledge and understanding.

However, no matter how much he tried to find solace and satisfaction in human wisdom, and in his adoption of the Manichaean heresy in his youth, in his hedonistic lifestyle and pursuit of worldly pleasures, none of these were able to satisfy him. It was then that the prayers and efforts of his mother, St. Monica, led him to St. Ambrose of Milan, another one of the four great Doctors of the Church and charismatic leader of the faithful, who began to plant the seeds of faith in St. Augustine.

Eventually, St. Augustine discovered God and His truth, and having found the true wisdom and the truth itself, far surpassing all forms of human and worldly knowledge, he converted to the true faith. St. Augustine had been baptised earlier in his life, but lapsed and resisted for many, many years before finally embracing his faith fully, with the constant and never-ending support from his mother, St. Monica.

And later on, as St. Augustine wrote his most renowned treatise on the Most Holy Trinity, known as ‘De Trinitate’, it was told that as the saint wandered on the seashore looking for inspiration on what to write on this most mysterious and difficult of the divine aspects to be explained, St. Augustine saw a young boy trying to pour water from the sea using a scallop shell into a hole in the sand.

When St. Augustine approached and asked the young boy, the boy said that he wanted to empty the entire ocean into that small hole in the sand. When St. Augustine said that such thing is impossible as the ocean is so vast while the hole in the sand is so small, the young boy, whom in truth was God in disguise, spoke to him, that it was thus the same for the mysteries of God, the concept of the Holy Trinity and others that are just so infinitely great and far beyond the ability of our small human minds to fully appreciate, symbolically shown through the action of trying to empty the ocean, representing the fullness of God’s mysteries, into the small hole, representing our minds and human wisdom.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in our Scripture readings today therefore, all of us are called to reflect on our own lives and our faith. Have we placed our faith and trust in God as we move along in life, or have we instead put our trust more in our own strength and wisdom, in our own limited perception and understanding of things around us? More often than not, we falter in our journey of life and faith because we did not trust enough in God.

Let us all pray therefore for the grace to listen to God and His will, and pray that we will always be strengthened in faith so that we may trust Him more and more, and follow Him ever more faithfully, as St. Augustine had done. And as St. Augustine himself had discovered, let us all find our true joy and satisfaction in life in God, and not in other pleasures of the world, that may be joyful, but are temporary, false and are mere distractions preventing us to find the true joy in God. May God bless us always, and guide us, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 27 August 2020 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Monica (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us heard of the exhortation for us to be holy, to be good and ever righteous in the presence of God, to be ready to welcome the Lord when He comes again as He has promised. And that is why we must dedicate our whole lives in His service and to be ever committed in our faith, not to be lax or complacent in living that faith, or else, we may regret it when the time of reckoning comes.

In our Gospel passage today, this is very well illustrated with the parable of the faithful servant and the bad servant, using the example of those servants to highlight what will happen to us should we take the Lord’s words seriously, or if we choose instead to ignore Him and continue to reject what He has called us to do in our lives. Unless we listen wholeheartedly to God’s words calling us and speaking to us in the depth of our hearts, we will be easily swayed and tempted to abandon His path.

The parable highlighted first of all, the two types of servants, one that is diligent and conscientious of all that he had been entrusted with, while the other servant was lazy and thought that the master would not come back so soon, and did not do as he had been tasked to, and instead abused his authority and treated his fellow workers and those under his authority badly for his own selfish desires.

The servants represent us, brothers and sisters in Christ, all the sons and daughters of man. All of us have been entrusted by God for our various tasks and callings in life. And this passage is a reminder that whatever we do in life, whatever we say and act, and how we interact with one another, all of these are significant and they will count on the moment of our reckoning, be it at the end of our lives or when the Lord finally comes again into this world.

The faithful and diligent servant represent those who have listened to the Lord, obeyed His commandments, and did everything as he or she had been told and taught through the teachings and laws of the Church. Meanwhile, the lazy and bad servant are those who ignored the teachings and laws of the Lord as held by His Church, and those who preferred to live their lives their own way, without regards for the path that the Lord had set before us.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we heard in our readings today, as St. Paul highlighted in our first reading today that, for all of us the faithful people of God, we have been assured of the glory of God and the eternal joy that will be ours. However, we need to trust in God and put our faith in Him, or else, because of our lack of faith, we are the ones who make ourselves stumble in rejecting the surety of the glory of God and instead, exchange it for the temporary pleasures and glory of the world.

Do we want to be like that lazy and bad servant who slacked and took it for granted that his master had granted him so much and so good a life, that he disobeyed and did things to satisfy his own selfish desires? We see how it all ends, when the master came back suddenly and the bad servant was caught unaware by it. Do we want to be caught unaware also in our vices and sins, and then be cast out into the eternal darkness, from where no regret can do anything for us anymore?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we should follow the examples set by St. Monica, whose feast day we celebrate today. St. Monica was a pious and devout woman, who was remembered especially as the mother of St. Augustine of Hippo, the great bishop and Doctor of the Church, one of the finest saints of the early Church. And the role of St. Monica in making St. Augustine to be who he was cannot be underestimated, as it was her persistent faith and commitment, her love for her son and her refusal to give up on him that eventually led St. Augustine to return to the faith.

St. Augustine was born to St. Monica, a Christian woman, and Patricius, a Roman pagan, his father, who led a dissolute and wicked lifestyle, which would eventually also be followed by St. Augustine in his younger days. But despite being surrounded by all sorts of wickedness and vices of the world, St. Monica patiently and faithfully lived her life as a wife and mother, and she also acted with virtue, often giving alms and charities for the poor and the needy.

St. Monica definitely wanted her husband and son to be turned to the light, but the path would indeed be long, arduous and can be heartbreaking at times. Not just that she had to endure her husband, who although respected her, but lived wickedly, St. Monica also had to endure seeing her own son falling into sinful path, as he grew up and began to seek the truth, in a long journey, during which time, he would dwell into false ways like Manichaeism and also various hedonistic ways.

It was so bad that St. Augustine even caused a woman to be pregnant out of wedlock, meaning that he made the woman pregnant while not being married to her. This amongst others, such as his pursuit of pagan philosophical pursuits, must have hurt St. Monica badly, seeing her family like that. Yet, St. Monica patiently put her faith in God and dedicated herself to pray for her family’s conversion.

Eventually, by her patient faith and endurance, her care and concern for her loved ones, St. Monica managed to turn the heart first of her husband, who was said to have converted to the Christian faith and repented from all his sinful ways when he was dying. And when St. Augustine and St. Monica were divided by the former’s adoption of Manichaean heresy and his wicked way of life, St. Monica patiently endured and followed her son, eventually leading her to find St. Ambrose of Milan, the influential and charismatic man who eventually together, managed to turn St. Augustine back into the truth of Christ after many years of resistance.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we see in St. Monica the example of a true and virtuous Christian, who remained committed to God despite the challenges and pains that she had to endure. St. Monica showed true Christian virtues and patiently persevered, continuing to pray and to do what she could, just as the faithful and diligent servant had done, in dedicating her efforts to the greater glory of God.

And you see just how much impact that had caused, as through St. Augustine and the many people whom he inspired and touched, countless peoples and souls had been saved thanks to the perseverance and faith of St. Monica, his loving mother. Are we able and willing to follow in her footsteps, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we willing to make the sacrifices required at times to be faithful to God, in all things?

May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen us and encourage us to be always faithful despite the challenges, trials and tribulations we may encounter in life. May God bless us all, and may St. Monica pray and intercede for each and every one of us, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 26 August 2020 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded through the Scripture passages we heard of the need for us to remain truly faithful to the Lord and not to be led down the wrong path by those who misunderstood and misrepresented the Law for various reasons. And one of these were the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, many of whom did not obey the Lord as they ought to have done as mentioned in our Gospel today as were many others.

In our first reading today, all of us heard of the exhortation from St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the great city of Thessalonica, reminding all of them to remain true to the faith that they had received from him and from the other Apostles and the legitimate teachers of the faith and servants of God, and not to be swayed and misled by those who wanted to twist the truth and misuse Church teachings for their own selfish purposes.

At that time, and as how it would be in the early days of the Church, there were charismatic and influential people who would claim to have the better knowledge of the truth, or mixed the Christian truth with the other religious beliefs and causing confusion and misled many among the faithful into various heresies and syncretic, unorthodox and wicked false faith and ways, which in many occasions caused divisions among the faithful.

St. Paul therefore cautioned the faithful against all those who were leading them astray, exhorting them to remain faithful to the truth of the Church and the Gospels they have received. And the Lord Jesus warned His followers similarly as He told them not to follow the examples set by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. He told His followers on various occasions to listen to those teachers of the Law, but not to follow the way that they have practiced the Law.

And that is because the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were engrossed in focusing on the petty details in the Law, spending much of their time trying to force others to observe the Law as they had done, a very strict interpretation of this Law which unfortunately led them to be superficial in their faith. As they focused on the external applications of the Law, they became proud and liked to show off their piety to others, and even looking down on those whom they deemed to be less faithful and pious than they were.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not the kind of faith that God wants from any one of us. Such faith is empty and meaningless, as faith and its actions, done without clear and proper grasp of the Law, and most importantly without the focus on God and without genuine love and commitment to God, are ultimately meaningless and leads to a faith that is stagnant, and even dead.

As Christians, all of us are therefore called to keep faithfully God’s commandments, and we are called to love Him first and foremost in our lives. Are we able to focus ourselves on God in this manner? Are we able and willing to trust in God wholeheartedly, and do not allow the temptations and falsehoods of the devil to affect us and lead us down the wrong path, brothers and sisters in Christ?

Let us all therefore renew our commitment, to love and serve the Lord with all of our strength, and commit ourselves day after day, filled with genuine and sincere love for Him, for His truth and putting our trust and faith in Him through His Church. Let us all also hold firmly to the truth and the teachings of the Holy Apostles, all the deposit of faith that have been passed down to us through the Church, and help one another to remain faithful and not be misled by the false ways of the world. May God bless us all and guide us in our journey, now and always. Amen.