waiting for the Holy Spirit

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Friday, 20 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernardine of Siena, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

James 5 : 9-12

Beloved, do not fight among yourselves, and you will not be judged. See, the judge is already at the door. Take for yourselves, as an example of patience, the suffering of the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s Name. See how those who were patient are called blessed. You have heard of the patience of Job and know how the Lord dealt with him in the end. For the Lord is merciful and shows compassion.

Above all, my beloved, do not swear either by heaven or by earth, or make a habit of swearing. Let your yes be yes and your no be no, lest you become liable for judgment.

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Thursday, 19 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, first we heard about the rebuke which St. James placed on those who have been dishonest in their dealings, those who manipulated others and gained profits from the sufferings of others. That was the norm of that time, and in fact, if we realise, it is still very much the norm of today’s society.

How is this so, brothers and sisters in Christ? We just have to look at what men can do in order to get what they need, especially in the matters of money and possessions. Our societies and communities today are increasingly becoming ever more hedonistic, materialistic, and indeed, obsessed with all sorts of worldliness, with all sorts of glory and pleasures that are derived from the possession of those things we often desire in this life.

We often witness how men can even trick other men or women, just so that they could get profit out of their actions, not considering the expense that it is causing those poor fellows. Unbridled capitalism and the desire for ultimate profit has caused mankind to forget about who they really are, about what they are supposed to do for the sake of their brethren. Instead, they have been reduced to mere slaves of these desires that they had.

I am sure that many if not most or all of us can relate to this fact, on how we often think of ourselves first before the needs and the plight of others around us. And that is why we are so easily tempted by the many lies and the sweet temptations that Satan, the evil one, and his fellow fallen angels are offering us and tempting us with. In many occasions, we are simply too gullible and too easy to tempt, to the point that we end up falling into the darkness through sin.

And in the Gospel today, we heard how Jesus spoke to us about casting off our body parts that made us to sin. It may be quite scary for us to hear such a suggestion made by Jesus, but what He meant was not in reality, for us to literally take His words literally and do away with our body parts, although it may indeed help if we do so.

Instead, rather than doing this, what Jesus suggested to us is that, we should strive to remain pure in all things, in our hearts, in our minds, and in all of our actions and dealings. The body itself is often not at fault, since the body acts in the way that the heart, the mind and the soul are wishing it, and corrupt heart and a corrupt mind will inevitably lead to a corrupt being.

Thus, we all have to realise that the way to God is through hard work and through many challenges, as often we may find ourselves pitted against our very own selves, against our desires and wants, against all that our mind or our heart is asking for. If we give in to our desires, then that is what has led us to sin before the Lord our God. This was exactly what has led mankind to act in the way that St. James had deplored in our first reading today.

It is not wrong for us to have our desires and wishes, and it is not wrong indeed to have a desire in life, as long as these desires do not come into conflict with who we are as Christians, who ought to be living a good and worthy Christian lives, obeying the laws and commandments of our Lord. Let us all therefore, commit ourselves to reject the selfish ways of the world, and from now on, ensure that our actions are done in consideration of the needs of others around us.

Let us not be ignorant of the needs of the poor, but instead let us all keep our hearts and minds open to hear and listen to their plea. Let us not manipulate our brethren for the sake of mere profits, but help one another so that each and every one of us may have a decent and comfortable living in this world. May God help us in this endeavour, and may He awaken in us the love which we ought to have for Him. Amen.

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Thursday, 19 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 9 : 41-50

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples, “If anyone gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ and bear His Name, truly, I say to you, he will not go without reward. If anyone should cause one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble and sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone around his neck.”

“If your hand makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand, than with two hands to go to hell, to the fire that never goes out. And if your foot makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a foot, than with both feet to be thrown into hell.”

“And if your eye makes you fall into sin, tear it out! It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, keeping both eyes, to be thrown into hell, where the worms that eat them never die, and the fire never goes out. The fire itself will preserve them.”

“Salt is a good thing; but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.”

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Thursday, 19 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 48 : 14-15ab, 15cde-16, 17-18, 19-20

This is the fate of people trusting themselves, the future of those who rely on their strength. Like sheep led to the grave, they have death as their shepherd and ruler.

Quickly their firm will be consumed in the world of the dead, which is their home. But God will rescue my soul from the grave by receiving me unto Himself.

Fear not when someone grows rich, when his power becomes oppressively great, for nothing will he take when he dies; his wealth and pomp he will leave behind.

Though he praised himself in his lifetime, “All will say that I have enjoyed life,” he will join the generation of his forebears, who will never again see the light.

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Thursday, 19 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

James 5 : 1-6

So, now for what concerns the rich! Cry and weep for the misfortunes that are coming upon you. Your riches are rotting and your clothes eaten up by the moths. Your silver and gold have rusted and their rust grows into a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire, for having piled up riches in these the last days.

You deceived the workers who harvested your fields but now their wages cry out to the heavens. The reapers’ complaints have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You lived in luxury and pleasure in this world thus fattening yourselves for the day of slaughter. You have easily condemned and killed the innocent since they offered no resistance.

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Wednesday, 18 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about St. James speaking in his Epistle, about the way we should act in our lives. He criticised those who made many plans about how they would go about their days, and thinking that they would seek to make more money or income in so and so city or place.

And the reason he put forward was indeed true, brethren, that the Lord is the Master of all, the Lord and Master over our lives and all that we do. He has control and power over all things, and our own lives will not be ours to go about and do as we like. We may plan all that we want to do and what we wish to do with our lives, but ultimately, it is the will of God that will triumph in the end.

Ambitious men and women had from time to time trying their luck and putting the efforts in trying to bring glory to themselves. And they made a lot of effort in order to satisfy what they want, and immersed themselves in their busy schedules and in their plans. But what they did not realise is that, God can take away the life He has given them at any time, as He willed it. Our lives are in His hands, brothers and sisters in Christ.

There is no point for us to be so busy in planning ahead, that we fail to enjoy the fullness of it. If God is to take our life and bring us back to Him tomorrow, will that therefore be a waste then, all that we have planned for ourselves? I am not saying that we should be carefree and disregard anything in life, or leave it entirely to chance and luck in how we live our lives. Rather, it means that we must not let our lives, all of its busy and hectic schedules to control us and swallow us.

If we notice, in our world today, all around us, in our own communities and families, can we tell how many of us are so preoccupied with what we are doing to the point of forgetting everything else? It is because we are so focused with ourselves, our work, our desires and wants, that we have lost sight of the greater picture of life. We become our own slaves, slaves to our desires and needs.

We live in period of selfishness, where everything is about consideration for ourselves and we spare little or none for others around us. And as a result, we do not show love when we are capable of showing love, and we do not show care and concern for one another when we need to show these to our brethren and neighbours around us who need them.

In the Gospel today, Jesus spoke about those who were doing good works and yet not belonging to the group of the Apostles and the disciples. The disciples were trying to stop what those people had done as they did not belong to their group. But the Lord rebuked them and said that they should not stop these good works as those who did not oppose the Lord belongs also to God.

In this, we see the contrast with what was shown by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who were furiously and actively trying to oppose the works of Jesus and His disciples, as they saw Jesus and His disciples as bitter rivals and opponents to their own teaching authority and influence. They selfishly tried to stop the good works of the Lord to serve their own purpose and sinned in doing so.

This is precisely what we have to avoid, brethren. We cannot act in the same way as these people, unless if we want to fall into the same trap as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. In this, perhaps we should follow in the footsteps of the saint whose feast we celebrate today, namely that of Pope St. John I, Bishop of Rome and leader of the Universal Church during its early days and a holy martyr of God.

Pope St. John I reigned during the time of conflict between the powers of the world, between the Roman Emperor Justinian in the east and the king of the Ostrogothic kingdom, Theodoric the Great, who ruled the city and province of Rome at the time. The conflict extended into the matters of the Church, made worse as the Ostrogoths believed in the heresy of Arianism, while the faithful Romans kept the true faith.

As such, conflict grew and the faithful people of God became caught in the entanglement of the conflicts. Pope St. John I worked hard to keep the Church strong amidst the difficulties and persecutions, working for peace among the factions. And yet, the Ostrogoths suspected the Pope as plotting against them with the Romans and thus imprisoned and tortured him.

But Pope St. John I refused to give in to his persecutors’ demands, and he remained strong and resolute in the face of the opposition, and in the end, he met his death at the hands of the enemies of the people of God, but before having shown to the people of God, the examples of faith and commitment which he had shown to God, in not seeking his own personal glory, but instead in bringing forth and proclaiming the glory of God.

Let us all heed his examples, and reflect on the readings from the Holy Scriptures, and learn to live faithfully from now on. Let us all go forth to renew our lives, filled with renewed commitments to God, our Lord and Master. May all of us find our path to our Lord, and through our acts, bound and filled with love, be our justification before His holy presence. May God be with us all, and may He awaken in all of us the selfless love for one another. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 18 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Mark 9 : 38-40

At that time, John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone who drove out demons by calling upon Your Name, and we tried to forbid him because he does not belong to our group.”

Jesus answered, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My Name can soon after speak evil of Me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”

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Wednesday, 18 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 48 : 2-3, 6-7, 8-10, 11

Hear this, all you peoples! Listen, all you inhabitants of the world, high and low together, rich and poor alike!

Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers ring me round – those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?

For no ransom avails for one’s life, there is no price one can give to God for it. For redeeming one’s life demands too high a price, and all is lost forever. Who can remain forever alive and never see the grave?

For we see that the wise die, and pass away like the fool and the stupid leaving to others their fortune and wealth.

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Wednesday, 18 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

James 4 : 13-17

Listen now, you who speak like this, “Today or tomorrow we will go off to this city and spend a year there; we will do business and make money.” You have no idea what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? No more than a mist which appears for a moment and then disappears.

Instead of this, you should say, “God willing, we will live and do this or that.” But no! You boast of your plans : this brazen pride is wicked. Anyone who knows what is good and does not do it, sins.

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Tuesday, 17 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the message of today’s Scripture readings is very clear. It is calling us to reflect on our actions in this world and think about how we should live in order to become better and more devoted followers of our God. It is a call for us to reject the way of this world, the way of greed and pride, and instead embrace the way of love and humility as espoused by the Lord Jesus and which He taught to His disciples and passed down to us through His Church.

It was mentioned by St. James in his Epistle about the discord and the troubles that appeared among the faithful, because of the clashing interests and ways of different peoples, each of whom acted in ways that is in self-preservation and in the fulfilment of the desires of each person. And because those desires are inherently selfish, it is inevitable that it would cause conflict between them.

And he mentioned that this is not the way that the faithful should behave. They must not succumb to the ways of this world. They must learn how to resist the temptations of the flesh, and cast out those ego, pride, selfishness, and all other forms of negativities that prevented them from being found truly worthy in God. We are encouraged as Christians, by the words of St. James, to live a truly Christian love, to show humility and love in all that we do.

A Christian should not be proud or be boastful of his or her own achievements. This is also the message of the Gospel passage today, where Jesus spoke of power and authority, and rebuked the Apostles and disciples for having disputed with each other about who was to be the greatest among them. Christians should not act in ways that show worldliness and in succumbing to such desires and the wishes one have for fame, glory, power, acknowledgement, wealth or any other things that the world desires.

Christians are called to challenge the way that we mankind have lived for all these while. It is unfortunately in our human nature to be proud, greedy, deceitful, filled with anger and wrath, to be desiring things that sometimes are beyond our means. And if we do not get ourselves out of these things and succumb to their pull, it will be hard for us to get out, and it will certainly gather in ourselves all the wickedness and the vile things that this world is feeding us with.

We have been often too distracted in our lives, too many concerns and wants, and there are many obstacles that prevent us from finding that path we need to walk on towards God. And that is because this world is indeed full of distractions and things that prevent us from being able to recognise the Lord present in out lives. This world is offering us many things that seem to be better as compared to following the Lord, and we grow accustomed to these things.

How is this so? We just have to look at the amount of materialism and consumerism that are around us. There are so many advertisements and encouragements for us to satisfy the desires of our flesh, and these serve as the obstacles that prevent us from living as true Christians. Are we able then, to listen to the advice of Jesus, which He told us to help us on our way to Him?

He brought children up to Him, and He told them, that unless they had the faith like those of small children, they would not find their way to the kingdom of God. Why is this so? If we have noticed small children before, they are innocent, kind, good and are willing to learn anything. They are like blank sheets waiting something to be written on them.

That means, they have no worries or concerns, wishes or desires that are obstacles in our path as we try to reach out to the Lord. They were still pure and good, innocent and blameless, while we ourselves have been tainted by the many things in this world that are pulling us away from God and His ways. Jesus told us all that we need to get rid of these distractions so that we may be able to reorientate ourselves and find our way to the Lord.

And the best way to do this is through prayer, devotion, commitment both to our God and to our fellow brethren around us. This means that we should practice our faith in our lives, showing love to one another, rejecting selfish ways and attitudes, and clear our hearts and minds from vicious and vile desires. We have to be disciplined in our own lives, focusing all of our efforts to do what is good and righteous in the sight of God.

Let us all commit ourselves anew to God, and may all of us, in all of our actions, be able to draw closer to the salvation which God has promised to all those who kept their faith in Him. Let us all do our best in order to be ever more devoted and committed children and follower of our God, having pure and genuine faith Him, and resist the temptations and the lies of the world. May God bless us all in our endeavours, now and forever. Amen.