understanding the faith

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Monday, 8 October 2018 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture, reminding us that we must stay rooted and true to the core message of what the Lord has taught us to do. Our faith is about believing in God and in doing what He has showed us to do, and the core of our faith, is in truth, about love. Loving God and loving one another are the two most important commandments of the Law, which the Lord Jesus mentioned to the teacher of the Law who asked Him what is the most important commandment of the Law.

In the Gospel passage today, we listened to the parable of the Good Samaritan, in which the Lord Jesus told us about a person who was attacked as he was on his way to Jericho, and left for dead by the roadside. No one bothered to help him or to assist him, even the priest and the Levites, who were those considered to be good and worthy among the members of the community. Instead, it was a Samaritan who stopped by and helped the man.

This parable today served as a reminder at the time of the Lord Jesus, in a community which was bitterly divided among themselves and with their neighbours, that is between the Jewish people, descendants of those Israelites especially of the southern kingdom of Judah who returned from the exile in Babylon, and the Samaritans, who were descended from the people of the northern kingdom of Israel, who intermarried with some of the local people of Canaan.

The two people were bitterly divided among themselves and accused each other of not having the faith in the One Lord in Whom they each believed in their own ways. In another occasion in the Gospels, when the Lord spoke with a Samaritan woman by the well of Jacob in Samaria, the Samaritan woman explained clearly what divided and made the Jews and the Samaritans, that is, their differing views on how they ought to believe in God and on where they should worship God, a prejudice and bias that lasted hundreds of years.

That was why they were so much against each other, and refused to listen to reason in their dealings with one another. In fact, it was so bad that the Samaritans would not have anything to do with a Jew and likewise, a Jew would also ignore and not have anything to do with a Samaritan. The Samaritan woman was genuinely surprised when she was greeted by the Lord Jesus, as it was not something which was common or acceptable at the time.

Now, the Lord Jesus used the example of the Good Samaritan, in order to break down these barriers and unfortunate divisions that have kept the people of God separated, and even bitter and angry against each other for so long, for so many years. God wanted His people to come together and overcoming their differences, and all the negative emotions and balances accumulated for those years, and changing them all with love.

That is after all, what God has made it clear, as He revealed it to us through His own Son, that love, is the heart and the centre of the Law, which He has given to us. There is no more important commandment of God other than first and foremost, for us to love God with all of our strength and abilities. If we do not love God, then we cannot have faith in Him or have anything to do with Him, and then, if we love God, then we must also love our brothers and sisters in our midst, for if we love God, we must then also love our fellow men.

Why is that so? That is because, all of us have been created by God out of His great love for us, and not just a few among us, but for every single one of us. If God loves everyone, even to the greatest of sinners, then who are we to hate one another, or to condemn those who we think are less worthy than us just because of their faults and sins to us? God wants us to abandon this mentality which the Jews and the Samaritans used to have for one another, in their hatred and refusal to come together and love each other.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, many of us have plenty of blame in this regard as well, in how we live our lives as Christians and therefore as the members of the one Church of God. How many of us have often been prejudiced against others, even within our Church groups and ministries. We ended up gossiping and talking badly, or even treating others in manners which if we look back and think carefully about it, are not Christian at all in nature.

Now, let us all contemplate on this, and remember all the shortcomings we have committed thus far, all the prejudices and biases which we often have, as well as our failures to love one another as the Lord has taught us to do. Let us all overcome our human pride, our prejudices and all the other wicked behaviours within us, that we may turn away from sin, and from all the wayward attitudes we have shown in life thus far. Let us turn from now on, wholeheartedly towards God, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

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Sunday, 7 October 2018 : Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s readings from the Scripture, we are reminded of the gift of blessings from God, in the form of holy matrimony, which God had decreed from the moment that He created us mankind, man and woman, to complement each other and to be united with one another in a holy union blessed by God. This union was mentioned in the first reading we have today, in the Book of Genesis.

The Lord created mankind first with a man, Adam, who was all alone among his race, while God created all creatures male and female, according to their natures. And that was why, God created a woman, Eve, who was taken from the man, in a very symbolic act of taking the bone and the flesh from Adam when he was in a deep sleep, and God made woman out of man. Regardless whether it was how God actually created us mankind, the truth and reality remains that God made us man and woman.

And the act of taking the bone and the flesh from Adam is in fact God’s reminder for us that we were created to be for one another, to share the love that God has given us, and to complement each other. And our relationship and union, in the sacred bond of matrimony, between a man and a woman, is in fact a reflection and imitation of God’s own perfect union of love, which is present in the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Through the sacred bond of matrimony, God also blesses us with children, as His gifts of love for us, to be fruitful and bountiful just as He has commanded us man at the beginning of creation, and to multiply and to fill the earth with our kind. This was the foundation of families and the foundation of our human communities, and indeed, the foundation of our faith and our Church.

For all of us have been born into this world as a small, little baby, each one of us, growing up in a family, where God’s love was given to us through our fathers and our mothers. And it is in the family that all of us learn what it truly means to be human beings, to be those whom the Lord has given intellect, wisdom and the ability to survive in this world. Without our families, then our human society will eventually perish and be destroyed.

Similarly, the family is the foundation and the core part of our Church and faith, as it is through the family that the faith, which has been preserved by the Church, is imparted at the beginning to the small children, baptised and raised in good faith by their parents. If the children were not raised well by their parents, ultimately, not only that they will likely lose faith, but they will also grow to be people who are without love in their hearts, capable of committing all sorts of wickedness and atrocities.

Unfortunately, brothers and sisters in Christ, the reality is such that, the foundation of our family and marriage life has always been shaken very badly right from the beginning of time. Throughout the Bible, in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament, there had been cases when the people who have agreed to be joined in blessed union of matrimony, sought instead to break that bond for various reasons, that is divorce.

First of all, we must understand that the Church does allow for certain exceptional cases where the marriage was not consummated and with various other valid considerations and conditions where the Church decided that the couple can be granted an annulment. An annulment is different from the case of divorce, in that the marriage was considered to have never taken place at all in the eyes of God and the Church.

However, what the Lord Jesus was referring to, in our Gospel passage today, when the Pharisees looked for Him and tried to test Him on the matter of marriage and divorce, was that of validly contracted marriages and unions which were deliberately sought to be broken by the desires of man. And the Pharisees argued that they were allowed to divorce as according to the Law of Moses, as long as settlement has been made and documents have been signed and agreed on, the marriage can be dissolved easily.

But God made it very clear to the people, that the matter of marriage is in fact not just a formality, which can be easily overwritten and overridden by the statutes of human laws, customs and practices. Instead, as mentioned, the bond of marriage is a matter of divine law, a divine union blessed by none other than God, Who has decreed that a man and a woman are united in the same love that unites the Holy Trinity together, and what He has united, no man should divide.

This, in truth, is the foundation of our marriages and families, and why we should indeed put a lot of attention to them. The devil knows this as well, and that is why, he is always on the offensive, trying to strike at us, God’s children, in our marriage and family life, that by destroying this important unit and foundation of our Church and faith, he can lure more souls into the damnation in hell.

In many cases of divorce, it was caused by our human frailty and inability to resist the temptation of the pleasures of the flesh, as well as other desires. Many people fell into adultery because of their inability to resist the temptations of their flesh, which are constantly persuading them to turn away from the Lord’s path and into the path of debauchery and unfaithfulness. Many have not been faithful to their respective spouses, and this resulted in the breaking away of families.

And when we become divided, we end up losing our faith, and the children are also badly and negatively affected. The devil then has a great time trying to pull us into ever deeper trap of his temptations and false promises of pleasure, of glory, of material goods and other things that have become thorns in the body of our family and marriage. We find it hard to restrain the temptation to sexual pleasures, to materialism and many more things that made us to desire separation and ending of the sacred bond of matrimony.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, at the same time, we need to realise that there are just a lot of things that each one of us as Christians can contribute to help all those who are troubled in their family and marriage life. Even there may be those who are in our midst, and among those whom we know, that are currently suffering in their family and marriage. Are we then going to ignore them should they come to us seeking help, advice or assistance? Or are we going to lend them a listening ear and to extend our hands to help wherever possible?

Today, all of us also celebrate the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, on the seventh day of October every year. This feast was once also known as the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, commemorated after the great victory of the Christian army and forces at the Battle of Lepanto against the enemies of Christ and His Church. At that time, the enemies of the Lord and His Church mustered a massive and overwhelmingly powerful forces, that threatened the very existence of Christendom, but through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, the Christian forces managed to obtain a decisive victory.

The significance of that event and this celebration then goes beyond just the historical importance of that victory to the survival of Christendom and the Christian faith as we know it. All of us must realise that we are in a constant battle, every single day and every single moments of our lives, against the devil and all of his evil forces seeking our downfall and damnation. He is the source of all of our troubles, including all the current forces and efforts aimed at the dismantling of our institution of sacred matrimony and the family.

That is why, at this moment, it is all the more important that we seek for necessary help in order to prevent us from falling into the temptations and into threat of eternal damnation. And the Lord has provided us a very good source of help, in His beloved mother, Mary, and through the rosary which she has introduced to us, through St. Dominic, and many other saints, through whom she revealed to us the rosary as a means by which we can come closer to God.

Why is that so? That is because the rosary is a series of prayers, which prominently involved the Hail Mary, a prayer invoking the prayers from Mary, the Blessed Mother of Our God, and also extolling the virtues of her life. Far from being a meaningless and repetitive prayer as many of its opponents and detractors often claimed, the rosary is a very effective weapon in our battle of life, against the forces of evil.

Many of us do not realise that we have often been lacking in our prayer life and in our spiritual development. And through the rosary, we are in fact reminded of the need to reorientate our lives to the Lord, by following the examples and the inspiration of Mary, the Mother of God, who is the perfect disciple and follower of God, in how she obeyed the Lord and put her trust in Him so completely, allowing God to do His wonderful works through her.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all keep the sanctity of both our married life and family life, by putting God at the centre of our lives, by devoting ourselves more to His mother, Mary, that in this month of October, month of the Holy Rosary, we should spend time to pray together, as a family, together between husband and wife, and the children, asking for the intercession of Mary, that she will continue to pray for our sake and ask her Son to help us in our battle against evil.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us sinners and help us that we may imitate your examples in faith, in your obedience and devotion to your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Saturday, 6 October 2018 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bruno, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests or Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard of the end and conclusion of the story of Job, the suffering servant of God. Modern Biblical scholars contended that Job did not necessarily represent a historical figure, but rather, a figurative representation of us as God’s people and followers, who live in this world, and are therefore, exposed to all sorts of temptations and from the attacks by the evil one, Satan.

Satan tried to tempt Job and to strike at him, making bets with the Lord, that if he struck at Job, surely Job would fall into temptation and in his anger, he would abandon his faith in God and curse Him. But Job remained faithful and true to his faith, and he did not allow all the sufferings he encountered to be obstacles and hindrances in the way of his faith. He remained firmly faithful and believed that all of what he had to endure, was part of God’s will and plan.

And in the end, God executed His plan and saved His people from the darkness of their sufferings and despair, as He showed clearly in the example of Job, as mentioned in our first reading passage today. We heard how Job was healed from all of his afflictions, and even had his possessions and blessings returned to him, not just what he once had, but in fact double of what he had before.

Through this, God wanted His people to know, that in Him alone there is hope and true salvation, liberation and freedom from all of our troubles, from all the challenges, difficulties and all sorts of obstacles that we may encounter in one way or another in our respective lives. Indeed, the path will be a challenging and difficult one, just as Job’s multitudes of sufferings and pains showed us, but in the end, if we remain faithful to God, our rewards will be great and everlasting.

In the Gospel passage today, the Lord also spoke to us the same message of hope, with the bold proclamation of the defeat of Satan as foretold by the Lord Jesus Himself before His disciples. It was a premonition of what would happen, at the time of Jesus, when the Lord finally put His plan to save His people into its fulfilment and perfect completion, by the crucifixion in which, He gathered all of His people and took up all of their sins and faults, and died for their sake, in an act of perfect love and self-sacrifice that became the source of our salvation.

By the loving sacrifice of Christ on the cross, we have been made free and saved from our fated destruction at the hand of death and sin. And that marks the ultimate defeat of Satan and all of his diabolical plans to bring about our downfall through sin. Through His loving sacrifice, He destroyed forever the dominion of sin over us mankind, and opened for us the path to eternal life and salvation in Him.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are called to have faith in God just as Job and all the faithful servants of God, those who went before us have done. Indeed, there will be plenty of obstacles and challenges facing us, just as faced by those who have shown their courage and commitment, piety and dedication, but as long as we anchor ourselves strongly in our faith, and in our willingness and desire to love God, God will protect us and guide us on our journey.

Today, we celebrate together the feast day of St. Bruno of Cologne, a holy and devout priest, servant of God, who founded the religious order of the Carthusians. St. Bruno was a great teacher of the faith, inspiring many with his deep love for God and great piety, in all of his actions, words and dealings. His great and deep humility also touched many people who had the opportunity to know him.

St. Bruno dedicated himself to a life of service to God, in poverty and simplicity, in how he declined appointment to the office of bishop and in his commitment to serve the greater cause of the Lord. St. Bruno entrusted himself completely to the love of God, and gave himself fully to Him in love, inspiring many others who followed in his footsteps and thus marking the foundation and growth of the early Carthusians.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to trust the Lord and to give ourselves so completely as Job, St. Bruno and the many other holy men and women of God had done? We are all challenged in this manner, reminding us that as Christians, we ought to give our best to the Lord, in all of our whole being. May the Lord help us, and with the intercession of St. Bruno, guide us in our journey of faith towards Him. Amen.

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Friday, 5 October 2018 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the Sacred Scriptures speaking to us first of all of the rebuke and reminder which God spoke to Job, continuing on in our discourse on the Book of Job, when Job who suffered from the attacks by Satan as well as from the false accusations against him made by his own friends, went through a long series of conversations with God.

God rebuked Job because he was falling into the temptation to despair and to lose hope, amidst all of the difficulties he had to suffer at that time, and when his own closest friends and confidants accused him wrongly of having sinned before God as the cause of his afflictions. The Lord made it clear to Job that His will shall be done, and He has plans for each and every one of His servants, including Job.

And all that has to be done, is to trust in the Lord and to have faith in His providence, to listen to His will and to follow His footsteps. For in the end, it is God Who should be the focus and the centre of our lives. Yet, many of us tend to be preoccupied with many distractions and temptations of worldly goods and riches. That is why we end up being angry of God at times because we do not get what we want, all the desires and wishes we have.

When we are so stubborn and when we close our hearts and minds to the Lord, that is why we heard in the Gospel passage today, how the Lord was so angry and frustrated at the cities of the lake of Galilee, where He performed many of His miracles and deeds, taught among the people in the synagogues and marketplaces, healing many of their sick and their dying, and guiding them to understand the truth of God.

But the people still refused to believe in Him and even doubted Him, they did not truly have faith in Him and in His teachings. And the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law among them in particular opposed the Lord and made His life difficult, as they continued to accuse Him and hound Him throughout all the works He had done among the people, refusing to acknowledge Him and His teachings as the truth of God.

That is what the Lord then also told His disciples, the reality that there were just so many in this world who were still unable to accept His truth, and refused to allow Him to speak to them and to reveal to them the truth, because of precisely the obstacle of our pride, greed and human desires. And many of us in the Church, among us Christians are to blame from this attitude.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called to abandon all these un-Christian attitudes and instead, learn to focus on the Lord, and to give our very best in our faith and trust in Him. Indeed, there will be moments and times when we will be tempted to walk on our own path and not to follow the Lord, but let us all remember this, as we recall what the Lord told Job, that He alone is the Master and Lord of all things.

For all the greatness and glory, wealth and power, fame and influence, material goods and all sorts of pleasures that we may attain and even accumulate in abundance in this world, all of these are merely temporary and impermanent. There is nothing that will last forever, and none of our worldly possessions will avail us on the day when the Lord calls on us to give an account of our lives before Him.

Rather than worrying excessively and endlessly about the things that we can neither control nor master, let us instead spend our time and effort to do what God wants us to do with our lives. And this requires us to be attuned more deeply to the Lord, and to be able to find out what it is that He really wants us to do with our respective lives, and most likely, it is to show the love which He has shown us, both to Him and to our fellow men, which is our calling as Christians.

May the Lord help us all to discover our true purpose and vocation in life, and may He continue to inspire us and guide us in our journey, that despite all the challenges we encounter and face in our daily living, we will always strive to be true to our faith in God, and to follow Him every day of our lives. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 4 October 2018 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day in what we heard from the Scriptures, we heard both the message of despair, suffering and sorrow, as well as the message of hope and encouragement from God. We heard from the tale of Job in our first reading today and from what the Lord Jesus told His disciples as He sent them all two by two, to go before Him and prepare the way for His missionary works.

Job was in despair and suffered because of his many afflictions, having endured many losses in his family and his possessions, and having his own body plagued by painful boils and scabs. And yet, he did not complain against the Lord or cursed Him, as what his wife had told him that he should do, but instead, blaming his own limited and weak human existence, and the weakness of his flesh for the troubles he faced.

That was the sorrow and anguish which Job showed in the first reading passage today, the feeling of pain and the endurance of tough challenges he had to go through. But despite all of that, he did not complain or falter in his faith in God, as he remained faithful to Him and believed wholeheartedly that despite all the challenges, and remained firm in his conviction, that God will have pity and mercy on him, and save him from his distress.

That is what we heard in the Scripture passage today, showing us that as God’s faithful followers and disciples, we will likely encounter difficulties and challenges in our path. And unless we remain firmly faithful to the Lord, then we may end up falling into temptation and then into sin. And when we are assailed as Job was assailed by Satan, in the many unfortunate incidents and sufferings he had to endure, it will be difficult for us to keep and maintain the faith.

Yet, that is the reality which the Lord Jesus in our Gospel passage today also presented to His disciples as He talked to them about what to expect as they were sent among the people of God. They were sent as if they were to be like sheep among wolves, to endure the challenges, rejection, persecution and all the difficulties facing those who remain faithful and committed to the Lord.

There would be those people and those communities who would refuse to believe in God and refuse to listen to the Apostles and the disciples preaching the truth to them. And in that case, the disciples ought to leave the place behind, and cast the dust off their feet, to show their indignation at just how stubborn the people of that place were, refusing to open their hearts and minds to allow God to speak to them.

But the Lord told His disciples that there would also be many of those who wanted to believe in the Lord and were open to welcome Him and His disciples into their midst. There were many opportunities for the disciples to grow the ranks and numbers of the faithful, and the Lord also promised that He would be with them, guiding their path and leading them to the way He would show them. He showed them His faithfulness and love, that just as Job was rewarded for his perseverance in faith, we too will share in the same perseverance and commitment in our faith.

Many of us are worried and are unwilling to commit ourselves to the Lord because we are so preoccupied with many things and temptations in life. We cannot let go of all these possessions, goods, fame, prestige, social status, relationships, and many other things that often become obstacle in our ability to live our lives fully attuned with God and His ways. This means that many of us Christians have not been living as we should have.

That is why today, we should reflect upon the examples shown by Job, and by the disciples of Christ, many of whom would give up a life of comfort and entrusting themselves completely to the Lord, their God. And one of the followers of Christ, whose feast we celebrate today, is a very good example and inspiration for us, namely St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan religious order.

St. Francis of Assisi was born as Francesco Bernardone, the son and heir of a rich cloth merchant, Pietro Bernardone, one of those who were among the powerful, wealthy and privileged members of the society at the time of the Middle Ages Italy. St. Francis of Assisi was born into a life of privilege, of joy and worldly pleasures, of enjoyment of all sorts of worldly goods and wonders, that led to the decadence and wicked actions of many of the people living at that time.

Naturally, St. Francis of Assisi’s father wanted his son to be successful as he was, and wanted him to inherit all of his possessions, business dealings and worldly achievements. And yet, God has a different plan for young Francesco Bernardone, when He called him in one occasion as he passed by a ruined parish church, calling on him to restore His Church. The young man thought of this as a literal calling to restore the ruined parish church, and took some of his father’s rich and precious clothes, sold them and used the money to fund the rebuilding of the church.

When Pietro, Francesco’s father found out of this, he was furious and demanded that he must account for his actions. Francesco Bernardone fled to the local bishop, and his father demanded that he return to him the money which he supposedly has stolen by the selling of his clothes and property. Francesco took off everything he had, including his clothes, signifying his readiness and commitment to leave behind all of his worldly attachments, to follow the Lord.

Eventually, he would go on to establish the congregation of like minded people, which would eventually be known under his patronymic as the Franciscans, leaving behind worldliness and living simply in a Christian brotherhood and community, and focusing on prayer, faith and loving service to others. They lived their lives preaching the Good News and the truth of God not just by words, but also through their actions and way of life.

St. Francis of Assisi suffered a lot of pain and sufferings throughout his ministry, and he was known to receive the five wounds of Christ on his own body, during a moment of vision, when the wounds caused him great pain for the rest of his life, what is to be known as the stigmata. Yet, he entrusted himself so completely to God, and lived the rest of his life in prayer, that until today, his examples, his piety and devotion to God continue to inspire countless people, many of whom followed in his footsteps.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to follow the Lord and abandon our worldly temptations and desires, just as St. Francis of Assisi had done. We do not have to do exactly as what he has done, but perhaps, we can begin by dismantling and abandoning our often unhealthy obsession over material wealth, desire for fame and glory, and many other things that often become our preoccupations in life.

Let us all turn towards God with a heart filled with love, and renew our faith in Him, as best as we are able to. May the Lord awaken in each one of us a new spirit of love, the courage and strength to love Him and serve Him despite the challenges and difficulties we may face and encounter on our way to Him. May the Lord be with us all, and may He bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Wednesday, 3 October 2018 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the word of God through the Scriptures, telling us first the story from the Book of Job, continuing the discourse on Job that we have had for the last few days. Job was a faithful servant of God who was tested and attacked by the devil, who took everything he possessed, and even had boils and ulcers on his skin, suffering grievously from all the assaults by the devil.

And yet, Job continued to be faithful to God and remained true to his faith in Him, knowing that if it was indeed God’s will that he should suffer, then it shall be done according to His will, and not what Job wanted. He mentioned in what we have as our first reading passage today, about the greatness of God and how His ways are far beyond our ways and His thoughts are beyond our thoughts and intelligences.

And in that spirit, Job entrusted himself completely to the will of God, putting himself at the mercy of what God wanted to do with his life. He humbled himself so much so as to make himself insignificant in the grander plan of God, and submitting himself so fully to the will of God. He was showing the attitude of being a true and committed servant of God, who entrusted himself to God completely.

This was what the Lord Jesus, Our Lord, God and Saviour showed us as well, in the Gospel passage we heard today. In that passage we heard about how the disciples whom the Lord called to follow Him wanted to go and settle their issues and businesses first, but the Lord told them that unless they put their heart and dedicate themselves completely to God’s cause, then they would not be able to follow Him with sincerity and commitment they ought to have.

The Lord also spoke that the foxes have holes and the birds have nests, but the Son of Man had no place to even rest His head. This is then followed by the question from the disciples who wondered where He lived and stayed. The Lord’s answer was merely, “Come and see!” In reality, probably the Lord did not have any fixed place to stay, but moving about from place to place as He carried on doing His work and ministry.

The Lord wants each and every one of us to know that to be God’s followers, as Christians, we must free ourselves from the bonds and the chains of our worldly desires, pride, arrogance, and all sorts of things that can prevent us from finding our way to God. It is often that we are chained to our desires and worldly ambitions, that we forget what is our purpose in life, and therefore we end up distancing ourselves from God.

Many of us put so much importance of our earthly possessions, wealth and all sorts of temptations, of money, of pleasure, of glory and fame, and many others, that we cannot put ourselves completely to the service of God. We spent so much time, attention and effort in trying to assemble for ourselves all sorts of worldly possessions and goods, pleasures and pursuits of worldly glory, trying to accumulate and gain more of these to satisfy our desires.

However, do we realise that actually, it does not matter how much we have accumulated and how much effort we have spent trying to gain all these worldly things, but we will never truly be satisfied, as our human nature will end up causing us to desire and want for more and more. And as we continue to be distracted by these pursuits of pleasure and worldly happiness, we will end up getting more and more distant from God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to turn towards God with all of our hearts, minds, and indeed with our entire beings. We need to adopt the spirit of Job in all of our actions and in how we live our lives, reminding ourselves that to serve the Lord is to give ourselves so completely as Job had been, and as how many of our predecessors in faith have done, in giving themselves totally, even to the point of suffering martyrdom at the hands of those who oppose the Lord and His ways.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all from now on strive to seek the Lord and to love Him with a renewed zeal and effort, that in everything we say and do, we will always seek the glory of God. May the Lord continue to watch over us and guide us in our journey towards Him, and bless us all in our every endeavours. Amen.

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Tuesday, 2 October 2018 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, who are the Angels that God had sent to be with each and every one of us, to protect and to guide, to show us the way forward in life, and to defend us in the constant spiritual battle in life against the forces of evil. The Guardian Angels are our close confidants, whom the Lord placed before us, because of His great love for us.

God loves us very much, and certainly He does not want us to be snatched away from Him by the devil and all of his allies, the fallen angels, demons and wicked spirits, all of whom are waiting actively for us to fall into sin and therefore, into their hands. They are always going about us, tempting us with the various temptations of the world, which are meant to pull us away from the path towards God.

The Guardian Angels sent to guard and protect us are the ones who are always at the forefront of the spiritual battles that occur daily between the forces of God and the forces of Satan, the voice of our Guardian Angel which reminds us to be faithful to the Lord, to be upright and righteous in all things, versus the voice of the tempters, Satan and his allies, trying to tempt us and seduce us into committing sin before God.

That is why we must truly thank our Guardian Angels, who ceaselessly and tirelessly keep watch by our side, watching for every moves made by the devil and all the evil spirits trying to strike at us. Unfortunately, more often than not, we allow ourselves to be attacked by the devil, to be swayed by his lies and falsehoods, by the temptations he presented to us, which led us to sin and therefore separation from God’s grace.

Nonetheless, the Lord never gives up on us, till the very last moment of our lives. Through our Guardian Angels, and by their intercessions, by the prayers of the Angels and saints, God is continuously at work trying to redeem us and to regain our souls from the clutches of the devil and all trying to drag us into eternal damnation together with them. That said, we need to cooperate by our acceptance of God’s extension of mercy, love and forgiveness in our lives.

Today, all of us as Christians are called to reflect on our own lives, on our actions and what we have done in life thus far. Have we been listening more to the advice of our Guardian Angels in taking actions that are in accordance with God’s will and with the teachings of the Church, or have we rather listened to the words of lies and temptation of the evil spirits and Satan?

Let us all strive to follow the Lord’s path from now on, turning ourselves wholeheartedly towards Him. Let us all sin no more and resist the temptations to sin, by shutting out all the distractions of the devil and all tempters ever present in our midst. Should they continue to assail us, let us ask for the protection by our own Guardian Angels, who will stand by our side defending us against the forces of evil.

Let us now pray together the prayer to our Guardian Angels, asking them for protection and guidance. Angel of God, my Guardian dear, to whom His love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to fight and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.

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Monday, 1 October 2018 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the account of the suffering of Job, in which this Biblical Job was a very rich man who was also very devoted to God, as an exemplary and righteous servant. Although according to Biblical scholars and studies, it is likely that Job was a fictional character, but the examples shown by Job, his sufferings and how he dealt with the suffering and eventually overcome it, is an archetype and example for our own respective lives.

We may have lots of questions on why God let Job to be crushed by Satan’s power and manipulations, as what we heard from the conversations between Satan and God in the beginning of the Book of Job. But if we look deeper at the real intention of God through this story of the Bible, and by looking at the entirety of the Book of Job from the beginning towards the end, when Job was vindicated by God, and given double the blessings he once had, we can see that it was never God’s intention to make us to suffer.

Instead, God loves each and every one of us so greatly, that He was willing to do whatever He could in order to bring us to salvation and liberation from all of our troubles. It was through sin that suffering has entered into our lives and into our beings. And sin came from the disobedience against the will of God, which began from the rebellion of Satan, because of his pride and greed, desiring to be like God, and then, through temptations, coming to us mankind.

It was the misuse of the freedom which God has given us which led us to experience suffering, because we do not follow the path which God has shown us. Suffering is caused by the desires and the pride that is within us, which often prevent us from truly being able to experience and realise God’s love and goodness present within us, that caused us to act in ways which lead us into disharmony, infighting, bickering, unhappiness and even anger and hatred against one another.

That is also in fact, the source of the unhappiness which was present in what we heard in the Gospel passage today, when the disciples of the Lord were arguing among themselves who was the most important and the best among them. They bickered and disagreed with each other and became unhappy at one another because of their own personal desires and wishes to be acknowledged as the better one, the superior disciple.

That was why they were also unhappy that someone else besides the disciples of the Lord were preaching and healing the people in His Name. It was because of their pride and their desire, that ended up causing them to be self-centred, exclusive and showing all the unbecoming attitudes that the Lord had to quickly address, by pointing out to them, that unless they become like a little child in their attitude and faith, they would not have any place with Him.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus also known as St. Therese of Lisieux, who was remembered for her famous ‘Little Way’, which she promoted as the way to reach out to the Lord and His salvation. This ‘Little Way’ of St. Therese is exactly what will cure us from the troubles facing us and our world today, and is in harmony with what Job in his account did before the Lord, that is to humble himself and accept his own mortality and insignificance.

As mentioned, suffering came about because of our inability to let go of our human and worldly desires and emotions. Through temptations, we always seek to find more gains for ourselves, and to place ourselves and our desires before anything else. But this is in fact a distraction that prevents us from being able to find our way to the Lord, and has caused many of us to falter and fail in our journey of life.

Job remained faithful through his long period of suffering and pain, because he trusted the Lord completely and did not think of himself and his possessions and things to be greater than the love which God Himself had given him. He said in the midst of his suffering, ‘Naked I have come from my mother’s womb, and therefore naked too shall I return.’, a clear show of his great humility and commitment to love God with all of his heart.

St. Therese of Lisieux was remembered for his great piety and prayerful life, through which she persevered the many challenges and sickness that troubled her for much of her life. St. Therese of Lisieux placed God before everything else, committing her whole life entirely to God. Through her ‘Little Way’, she sought to do and obey God’s will, one little thing and part for a time, for the greater glory of God.

St. Therese of Lisieux made herself small and insignificant before the Lord, but knowing that the Lord will pay attention to even the very smallest and least significant of His followers and disciples. Are we able to make ourselves small and insignificant before the Lord as well? If we want to do so, then we should follow in the footsteps of Job and St. Therese of the Child Jesus in their faith and in how they lived their lives with complete love for God.

May the Lord help us that we may be able to live our lives filled with zeal and renewed dedication to Him. May He empower us all to be inspired by the faith which Job has shown to Him, despite the challenges and suffering He encountered in life. Let us all shun pride and greed in our hearts, and seek to turn to God from now on, with a new faith and commitment. May God bless us all, now and evermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 30 September 2018 : Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we listened to the word of God in the Scriptures speaking to us first about the calling which the Lord made to the seventy elders of Israel chosen from among the people during the time of the Exodus, in which He put in them their Holy Spirit, and they began to be inspired by the Spirit. But there were then two others who were also given the Spirit in the camp of the Israelites and were not among the seventy-two.

Joshua, the one who would eventually succeed Moses as the leader of Israel saw what happened to the two other people receiving the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he wanted to stop them. But Moses forbid him from doing so, and in fact he was pleased at the fact that God sent His Holy Spirit to even more people, and wished that He would send the Holy Spirit to all of His people, and not just the elders chosen from among them.

In the Gospel passage today, we also listened to something that is almost the same in occurrence, when the disciples of the Lord Jesus wanted to stop some others who were not with their group, and yet spoke about the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, and preached in His Name, using His Name to heal people and perform miracles. The disciples did not like this and wanted to stop the work of these people, only to be rebuked by the Lord, just as Moses rebuked Joshua.

Why did the disciples of the Lord did what they have done, and why did Joshua want to stop the two people from receiving God’s Holy Spirit? That was likely because of their inner pride and the desires within their hearts. Even though the disciples had followed the Lord and even though Joshua was likely quite a righteous man, considering that only he and another one of God’s follower survived the forty years of Exodus, but ultimately, all of them were still mortal human beings.

And that means, all of them are still subject to the same frailties and weaknesses that we encounter through our humanity. This is what the Lord said when He told His disciples who were sleeping when they were supposed to accompany Him and keep watch during His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, ‘While the spirit is strong, but the flesh is weak.’ Temptations and allures of worldly pleasures are always by our side.

This is what St. James also wrote about in the second reading passage we have today, taken from his Epistle. He wrote about all those who have lived in riches and pleasures of life, and cheated others from their money, treated others badly and showing no regards for the needs of the hungry, the poor, the weak and the oppressed. This is truly mankind’s wicked side, which all of us unfortunately have. For even the poor and the hungry can oppress those who are even less fortunate from them, and not just the rich and the well-endowed.

In the Gospel passage today, the Lord also mentioned something that seemed to be quite radical. He mentioned that should a part of our body cause us to sin, for example, our hands, which caused us to steal things and therefore made us to sin, then we must chop whichever part that is off. He even mentioned how we should pluck our eyes off whenever we have our eyes to blame in causing us to sin, when we look upon someone and lusts over that person.

But is that what the Lord truly meant and is that what the Lord wants us to do with our own lives? This is where we cannot take the Scripture passage literally and at the surface level, but we must understand the key message, purpose and intention of the Lord, the context in which He made such a strong-worded remark and comment on the behaviour of the people. The key message is that, each and every one of us mankind must turn away from sin, and we must know the urgency for such an action, for otherwise, what awaits us, is nothing else but eternal suffering in hell.

We know just how much God loves us all, that He gave us none other than the perfect gift of His own Beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have received a new hope of salvation and liberation from our sins, and from all the things and obstacles that have prevented us from truly being able to find our way towards the Lord. And this is where we need to listen to Him with an open mind and with an attentive heart.

What the Lord meant with what He said, is that we need to firmly reject sin, in all of its forms, and even the desire and intention to sin, before we commit it in the first place. In another occasion, the Lord also said to His disciples, that even when someone is angry with his or her brother or sister, before he or she took any action to hurt or to strike at the brother or sister, he or she has already committed sin in the heart.

Likewise, should someone look upon another person with lust and desire, then the person had committed adultery and therefore sin in his or her heart, even before that person actually committing any form of real or bodily adulterous action with the person mentioned. Sin is indeed so dangerous that even its allures and temptations can bring us down to damnation, and unless we actively reject sin, before we even commit something sinful, we are in great danger of falling into deeper and deeper sin.

Yet at the same time, we also have to realise that while we are all sinners, but God has also given us the means and the ability to break free from those sins that have plagued and troubled us all these while. God does not actually ask us to do what He said to the people, cutting off our hands, legs, or plucking out our eyes, tongues and all that. The hands, the eyes, the tongue and all these by themselves are without blame.

For the hands, the eyes, the tongue, the legs, all of our limbs and organs cannot function by itself without the working of the brain, that is our mind, and the mind in truth cannot function without the command and the will that comes from the heart and the soul. But how can we take out our heart and soul and still live? Surely we cannot do so, for our heart and soul are integral parts of our life. Sin corrupts these very depths of our inner being, and that is why, when sin entered us, it corrupted us from the inside out.

The Lord spoke of this, when He criticised the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law for their obsession with the maintenance of a clean and pure exterior, and yet, failed to look and discern at the state of our interior cleanliness and purity. That is why, it is important that we understand what the Lord intended when He spoke of cutting off the hands, the eyes, the legs and all sorts of extreme and graphic language He was using. What He truly wanted to say is that, we must immediately and urgently cut off our ties to sin, starting from the depths of our hearts, minds and souls.

How do we do this, brothers and sisters in Christ? This is where the Lord has given us many opportunities and avenues to help ourselves in our journey towards His salvation and grace. First of all, we should repent from our sinful ways and recognise just how weak we are in our battle against sin, and we should make use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation available for us, by the means of frequent and genuine confessions, made regularly with the desire for us to change our lives.

And then, we should also deepen our spirituality and prayer life, by spending more quality time with Our God. Many of us did not spend good, quality time with God, and when we do so, we are often tempted and distracted by the many things and concerns we have in life. That shows clearly in our attitudes in the Mass, when many of us cannot wait but to end the Mass quickly and go back to our daily businesses and works.

That is why many of us have not spent time to be with God and to open ourselves to Him, heart to heart, that we may come to know what His will is truly for each and every one of us. Instead, we were so busy with ourselves, that we ended up getting more and more distant from Him, and we ended up falling deeper and deeper into the traps and temptations that the devil has placed before us.

Then lastly, our hands, our feet, our eyes, our tongue, and all of our limbs and organs have their particular purpose and uses. They can indeed be used for something vile and wicked, but at the same time, they can also be used for good things and for the good works of God. Now, we need to ask ourselves, if we have made good use of our body, our talents and gifts for the good of our fellow men, showing true Christian love and charity in all of our words, deeds and actions?

If we have not done all these or any of these, then perhaps it is now time for us to take action before it is too late for us. Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that all of us are mortal, and our existence and time in this world is truly limited. If we do not make good use of the time and opportunity given to us in this world, and instead continue to live in sin, then I am afraid that when the time comes for us to give an account before God, we will not be ready to defend ourselves.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, let us from now on turn towards the Lord with a renewed zeal and spirit, committing ourselves ever more to a life filled with prayer and devotion, with genuine love for God and with compassion towards our brothers and sisters, our neighbours and all those who are in need of our help. There are still many things that we can do in life, and let us all strive to make use of the gifts and blessings given to us, for the greater glory of God. Amen.

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Saturday, 29 September 2018 : Feast of the Holy Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate together the great Feast day of the three Holy Archangels of God, St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael. They are the ones who are God’s chief Angelic servants, as mentioned by St. Raphael himself, that he is one of the seven Holy Archangels that are always in presence of God. Each one of them are tasked with particular areas in which God entrusted to their care His creations, especially us mankind.

St. Michael the Archangel is the Archangel tasked with the leadership of the heavenly host of Angels, as the Prince of the Heavenly Host, the armies of Angels, in the constant spiritual warfare that rages around us for the sake of our souls. St. Michael has always stood at the forefront of this great battle ever since the time of the War in Heaven as shown through the Revelations of St. John.

St. John saw a vision of the great War in Heaven, of the time when Satan, then known by the name Lucifer, most brilliant and mightiest among all the Angels of God, fell into his pride and greed, and rebelled against God seeking to take over the reign over Heaven and all creation. In that process, one third of all the Angels followed Satan’s lead and also rebelled against God. But one Angel rallied the other Angels in the battle, and it was told that it was St. Michael the Archangel who was the one to lead the Angels into battle against Satan and his forces.

The name Michael means, ‘Who is like God’, and this is a perfect rebuke of Satan’s prideful rebellion against God. Satan rebelled because in his pride, he thought that he could be like God, and he could take over God’s role, overcome by pride in his perfection and brilliance. But St. Michael showed Satan his proper place, by defeating him and his fellow rebel angels, and by the power of God, casting them out from heaven.

St. Michael also appeared to Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, just after he took over the leadership over the people of God and leading them into the land promised to them and their ancestors. Through St. Michael, God reassured Joshua and the Israelites, that He would be with them throughout their journey and struggle to gain the land promised to them. God Himself would fight alongside His people and they would gain what was promised to them, should they remain faithful to Him.

Meanwhile, St. Gabriel the Archangel was sent to Mary, the Most Blessed Mother of Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, in the small village of Nazareth. He was sent to her to announce to her the Good News of God, the final fulfilment and completion of God’s long awaited plan to save His people, by the sending of His own Son, the Divine Word of God, into this world, which would be fulfilled through Mary. Mary was to become the Mother of the Messiah, and therefore, become the Mother of God.

St. Gabriel himself revealed this wonderful news to Mary, and at first while Mary was amazed at what she had just heard from the Archangel, she obeyed the will of God and allowed herself to be part of the great plan of salvation God had revealed through St. Gabriel. And it was also likely St. Gabriel who revealed a similar message of hope to the father of St. John the Baptist, Zechariah, in the Temple, about the upcoming birth of St. John the Baptist, Herald of the Messiah.

The name of Gabriel means, the Strength or Might of God. This is a reminder that with God at our side, we should not need fear anything or any foes, and hope should arise anew in our hearts, knowing that God will provide for us and that He will never abandon those who have been faithful to Him. That was why He sent St. Gabriel the Archangel to announce the Good News of His salvation, the message of hope, to renew the people’s trust in God’s strength and might, by which He will save them all.

Lastly, the third of the three great Archangels, St. Raphael was mentioned in the Book of Tobit, which was the account of the journey of Tobit, an Israelite who went into exile with his countrymen during the years after the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel. The Book recorded the account of Tobit’s suffering and anguish, when he faced rejection even from his own countrymen and then suffering from blindness.

God sent His Archangel, St. Raphael in order to heal Tobit, as well as another person, Sara, daughter of Tobit’s relative, who was also hounded by the demon Asmodeus. She was also in great distress and almost wanted to take her own life because of what the demon had done to her, killing all the men who had taken her as wife. But she prayed to the Lord, asking Him to listen to her plight, just at the same time as Tobit also prayed to God, asking for His help and mercy.

St. Raphael was sent to bring about healing and liberation to each one of them, and God showed His wonderful love and mercy through His Archangel, whose name means, the Healing of God. Sara was freed from the demon Asmodeus, and was married to Tobias, Tobit’s son, who accompanied the disguised Archangel during his journey. And Tobit was also healed from his blindness as well.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have seen from the great blessings we have received, the inspirations we have gained from each of the three great Archangels, St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael, whose feasts we celebrate this day, let us all remind ourselves that God is always with us, and we can always trust in His healing, love and mercy, for indeed, Who is like Our God, though Mighty and All Powerful, but filled with so great love and compassion for us all, His children.

Let us ask the glorious Archangels to be our guide and intercessor, to pray for us and to protect us from the dangers of evil, from the forces of Satan and all those seeking our downfall. May they continue to watch over us and be our guardians and sources of hope, reminding us of our need to love the Lord, to be true to Him and to be ever faithful through all of our deeds and actions in life. Holy Archangels, St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael, Archangels of God Most High, pray for us all. Amen.