way of the Lord

by

Saturday, 4 July 2015 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints or Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how Isaac blessed his younger son Jacob with the blessing which was intended for Esau, the eldest son. And in the Gospel we heard how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who criticised the way that the disciples of Jesus followed, not fasting and following what the norm of traditions at the time dictated.

It may be difficult to see the link and connection between the two readings, but the truth is that the two are indeed very related, considering what Jesus told them about how new wine ought to be placed in new wineskins, and how old wine ought to be placed in old wineskins. This is related to the two sons of Isaac, Esau and Jacob, each of whom represent the old ways of the world, and the new ways of the Lord and His salvation.

The triumph of Jacob over his brother Esau showed the incompatibility of the old ways with the new ways, and that we must indeed make a choice between the two of them. This also means that if we call ourselves followers and disciples of the Lord, then all of us cannot do what is contrary to what is expected of us as the followers of the Lord.

If we call ourselves the disciples of the Lord, and then we commit things wicked and evil in the sight of God and men, then we discredit and trample on our own faith. In this manner, we are exactly like the old wine being placed into new wineskins. The incompatibility between the two will tear apart the whole wineskin and wine inside it will be spilt and wasted. In the same manner, therefore, if we believe in God and yet did not do as is expected from us, then it created a scandal for us.

We have to realise, brothers and sisters in Christ, that in order to be true disciples of our Lord, then all of us have to show it not just by mere words or proclamations of faith, but instead, we must also show it through work and devotion, which will vindicate our faith, that it is indeed real and genuine. This is what we ought to do, and what we must stand up for.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we have to wake up to the realisation that we have to listen to what the Lord had taught us. He had taught us about love, for He is love Himself, and by showing that love for us, He taught us that we need to love Him and love one another in the same manner. Yet, we know that even among us the faithful, we see so much discord and divisions, infighting and conflict among us.

We should know that faith is meaningless and dead without action and commitment. True faith requires us to go forth and do what the Lord had commanded us to do, to be righteous in all of our dealings, to defend the truth which He had revealed to us, and to stand up for the Lord. Indeed, the world will be hard on us and it will oppose us with all of its might.

But remember, they have also rejected the Lord when He came into the world, and they refused to listen to Him, and persecuted Him and His servants and disciples. This is why we have to have courage in our faith, and do not fear, for God is always with us, and He will guide us on the path, and if we remain faithful to Him, we will receive the fullness of the richness of God’s grace and blessings.

On this day, we commemorate the feast of St. Elizabeth of Portugal, who was the Queen of Portugal in the middle ages, who was renowned for her great faith and piety, and who after her husband’s death, she left everything behind and chose to devote the rest of her life in a prayerful retreat in a monastery. She continued to do great works of charity, even in her old age, helping those who were less fortunate, poor, weak and ostracised.

The examples of St. Elizabeth of Portugal reminds us that while we live in this world, filled with much vices and evil, it does not mean that we have to succumb to it and to follow the way of this world. We can choose to be righteous and just, as St. Elizabeth of Portugal and the other holy men and women of God had done throughout the ages. Let us all go forth and show God’s love to one another, a concrete show of our faith.

May Almighty God be with all of us, strengthen our faith and devotion to Him, and empower us to be even more devoted disciple of His cause. God bless us all. Amen.

by

Saturday, 4 July 2015 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints or Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Matthew 9 : 14-17

At that time, the disciples of John came to Jesus with the question, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not Your disciples?”

Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The time will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

“No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for the patch will shrink and tear an even bigger hole in the coat. In the same way, you do not put new wine in old wineskins. If you do, the wineskins will burst and the wine will be spilt. No, you put new wine in fresh skins; then both are preserved.”

by

Saturday, 4 July 2015 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints or Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Psalm 134 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Alleluia! Praise the Name of the Lord. O servants of the Lord, praise Him, you who serve in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.

Praise the Lord, for He is good, praise His Name, for it is beautiful; for the Lord has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His possession.

I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does – in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in their depths.

by

Friday, 3 July 2015 : Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of one of the Twelve Apostles, namely that of St. Thomas, known also as St. Thomas Didymus or the Twin, whom many of us would know from the Gospels, as the doubting disciple, who did not believe and indeed refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead.

St. Thomas had always been a doubtful disciple, even before the suffering and death of Jesus. When at one moment Jesus mentioned that He ought to go back to Judea despite opposition and plotting by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, St. Thomas commented that they ought to go forth and follow Him, so they could die together with Him. He made such a comment because of his lack of faith, and the doubt in his heart.

And similarly therefore, he refused to believe when the other disciples told him about the resurrection of Christ from the dead, when he was not there while Christ appeared to them the first time after His resurrection. It was indeed noteworthy what he said in that occasion, that unless he saw with his own eyes and touched with his own hands and fingers the very wounds on the Body of Christ, then he would not believe.

Why is this so, brothers and sisters? It is part of our human nature as well, to demand tangible and real explanation for phenomena and things that we do not understand. We want to touch it first, feel it first, and be able to experience it first with our senses, and then only then we believe in something, and even so, we are still often filled with doubt and uncertainty.

And that comes to the problem which our world is facing today, as more and more people refused to believe in the Lord, because they thought that He does not exist, and that He is not real, just because they were unable to see Him, or touch Him, or interact with Him directly, in a way that we normally interact between one another. So, some of us think that God does not exist, and therefore drift away from His path towards salvation and into the uncertainties of the world.

This is our vulnerability, trying to reason and find proof of the existence of God, without realising that God has always been present with us, and indeed, without Him, there would not have been life in us. If we truly know love, and if we truly have love in us, then we would have known God being present in and around us. For God Himself is love. And the manifestation of that love is none other than by the sending of His Son, Jesus, to be our Saviour.

Jesus came into the world, manifesting the love of God which He had given us. And even at that time, those who saw His miracles and works refused adamantly to believe in Him, including the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who have seen so many of His works and yet continued to oppose Him. Better was the faith of St. Thomas, who at least believed when Jesus finally appeared to him and showed him the truth about Himself and His resurrection.

And as Jesus had told His disciples, indeed, we are all truly blessed, for we have believe in Him, even though we have not seen Him, heard Him or touched Him. We believe in Him, because deep inside, we know that, we live by His grace and love, and His tender love and care is always around us, surrounding us and is with us, and to all those who are faithful to Him, He will bless and give all His promised salvation and entry into the eternal life in bliss prepared for us.

Let us all learn from the examples of St. Thomas the Apostle and the many other faithful disciples of our Lord, who remained true to Him despite all the difficulties and challenges. May this be our destination in life, the goal we ought to look out for. May God be with us always, now and forever. Amen.

by

Thursday, 2 July 2015 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about how God healed and forgave the sins of the paralytic man, whom Jesus had made whole and healthy again. And yet the Pharisees and the opponents of the Lord made a lot of noise, complaining that it was blasphemy to think that someone other than God could have forgiven sins.

This was because they failed to understand the true nature of our Lord and His love. For God had loved us so much, and He is indeed Love Himself, so that He was willing to send forth His Son into the world, the one and only begotten Son, who is His Word made into flesh, taking up the appearance and substance of the human body, and yet remained fully divine, so that, by His authority and works, He might bring about healing and salvation for all of us mankind.

This is clearly matched with what had happened long ago at the time of Abraham, when God asked him to sacrifice his own son, Isaac, the one and only promised son which God had promised Abraham when he set out of his homeland to follow Him. The first reading today is actually an affirmation of God’s love, who has done even more than what He had asked of Abraham.

For in his great faith, even though knowing that he would have to kill his son, but he knows that God will certainly find a way for him. And he also knows that even if he did the terrible did, God will raise him up again, as St. Paul had pointed out in one of his epistles. God has the authority for all things, even the things that seem to be impossible for men.

God also did not hold back His only Son, just as Abraham did not hold back his son from God. And while Abraham had such a great faith in God, following and obeying the will of God completely, but God Himself is also ever faithful, to the covenant and promise which He had made with mankind, that He will not abandon us to sin and destruction because of those sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, have we been obedient to God, and have we been faithful to Him as Abraham had done? Or have we instead been complaining and ignoring what we all ought to do as the ones with whom God had made His everlasting covenant? This is unfortunately our bad trait, the nature which have caused so many of us to fall into sin.

God has loved us so much, that even though we sinned and disobeyed Him, He did not straight away reject us and cast us into eternal darkness, even though He was fully capable of doing so. He instead gave us new opportunity, a second chance to redeem ourselves, so that by our devotion and actions, we may be redeemed and be brought back into the grace of God.

May Almighty God awaken in all of us, the love which we ought to have for Him. May He bless us and empower us, that we shall be more devoted to the Lord, and may our faith be considered worthy by our loving God, who will then heal us from our afflictions as He had done with the paralytic man. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

by

Thursday, 2 July 2015 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 9 : 1-8

At that time, Jesus got back into the boat, crossed the lake again, and came to His hometown. Here they brought a paralysed man to Him, lying on a bed. Jesus saw their faith and said to the paralytic, “Courage, My son! Your sins are forgiven.”

Then some teachers of the Law said within themselves, “This Man insults God.” Jesus was aware of what they were thinking, and said, “Why have you such evil thoughts? Which is easier to say : ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? You must know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”

He then said to the paralysed man, “Stand up! Take your stretcher and go home.” The man got up, and went home. When the crowds saw this, they were filled with awe, and praised God for giving such power to human beings.

by

Thursday, 2 July 2015 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 114 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

Alleluia! I am pleased that the Lord has heard my voice in supplication, that He has not been deaf to me, the day I called on Him.

When the cords of death entangled me, the snares of the grave laid hold of me, when affliction got the better of me, I called upon the Name of the Lord : “O Lord, save my life!”

Gracious and righteous is the Lord; full of compassion is our God. The Lord protects the simple : He saved me when I was humbled.

He has freed my soul from death, my eyes from weeping, my feet from stumbling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

by

Wednesday, 1 July 2015 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard the readings from the Book of Genesis, telling us how the son of Abraham by his slave, Hagar, was banished together with his mother, the slave Hagar, as there was only one place for the promise of God which would be fulfilled, that is through Isaac, the son of Abraham and his wife, Sarah.

It may be somewhat confusing, given that we may ask why the Lord was so cruel to this young son of Abraham, Ishmael, who was cast out together with his mother, Hagar into the desert to fend off on their own. However, if we read the passages more carefully, we should notice how God cared for them and loved them too, giving them means to survive and live on their own, promising even that the sons of Ishmael would become great nations on their own.

What would be more significant was that the two sons of Abraham by different mothers would represent two different covenants and traditions, a fact which St. Paul himself had noted and stated in his epistles. There had indeed been two covenants, one that was the former covenant, which God had established with Abraham and his descendants, while the other covenant dealt with the covenant that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself established through His death on the cross, the New covenant and promise of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the banishing of the older son of Abraham represented the banishing of the old order, the old covenant that no longer had power and authority, for it had been superseded by the new covenant which God established through Jesus our Lord, by His suffering and death on the cross. The older son of Abraham also represented by the men possessed by the demons in Gadara, for yet another interpretation of its meaning.

Just as God allowed Ishmael to live for a time with Isaac before he was banished, thus the same also applied to the demons who inhabited the men before they were cast out. They were asking Jesus why He came to torture and destroy them before their time came. The dominion of the demons, Satan and all of his angels over us came about because of our sins, and because we have sinned, then we fell under the tyranny of Satan and his angels, through our sins.

And the time which the demons mentioned, was the time of reckoning, when God would reclaim all those who have been lost to Him and reclaim them for His glory. This time would come at the end of time, when God would cast down Satan and his fellow fallen angels, together with all those who have rejected His salvation, into the eternal suffering and destruction in hellfire.

Those of us who believe in the Lord, have accepted Him in the covenant which He had brought to us, the new covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ. No longer would we be under the old covenant which had been broken by our own sinfulness and rebelliousness, represented by the banishment of Ishmael, but we are now the partakers of the Lord’s new covenant which He established with us by His death on the cross.

And therefore, the blessing of God comes to us who belong to this covenant, and the grace of God fills us to the brim, just as God blessed Abraham and his descendants through Isaac. This new covenant has been fulfilled in has and sealed with the Blood and Sacrifice of our Lord. The wholeness of its rich gifts and blessings will be ours, if we keep our end of the covenant, that is by being faithful to the Lord our God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be partakers of the new covenant which our Lord had established with us with His love. Let us all receive the fullness of God’s love and grace, which He offers freely to all those who keep His Law and commandments, and therefore keep their end of the covenant alive and strong. May God bless us all and keep us in faith to Him. God be with us all now and forever. Amen.

by

Tuesday, 30 June 2015 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the Church celebrates and commemorates the memory of its first martyrs, the first ones who shed their blood and lives for the sake of the Faith, and for the sake of the Lord. Today is a reminder to all of us, that our faith in God requires not just passivity and lip service, but real dedication and commitment, for all the challenges that we will encounter as part of our faith journey.

In the first reading, we heard about the famous destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities infamous for their immorality and vice, where all their people were filled to the brim with sin and wickedness. God punished them all because they did not repent and change their ways, and they were destroyed and banished from the face of the earth forever, to suffer eternal punishment for their sins.

But God showed mercy on Lot and his family, who were the only ones to be found worthy from all the people in the two cities. They were rescued by the angels who led them out of danger into safety. Lot and his family had been persecuted for their righteous ways, and for sheltering the strangers who were truly angels, whom the sinful people in their lust desired to take upon themselves in sexual perversion.

In the Gospel, we see a parallel with Jesus and His disciples who were travelling through a great storm, and the boat was being rocked greatly by the wind and the waves, that the disciples feared that it would sink with them. They feared because they had little faith and Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith. Jesus showed His power and authority, calming the storm before His disciples.

How does all these relate to what we celebrate today? It is because we have to remember the fact that this world and all its ways are diametrically opposite to that of the ways of our Lord. And Jesus Himself warned His disciples that the world that had rejected Him, will also reject and persecute His disciples and followers. And hence, so many of the faithful had been martyred throughout the ages, since the very beginning of the Church until now.

And what we heard in the readings today are our natural reactions to such difficulties, sufferings and persecutions. Like the disciples who were afraid of the storm, representing our challenges and the temptations of the world, we too have fear in our hearts, uncertainty and doubt. There are indeed times when we lack faith in God, and not understanding that He has the power to save us, we resort to methods to preserve ourselves, but more often than not, causing us to sink deeper into the troubles.

And we also often act like Lot’s wife, who turned and looked back at the city that was burning and being destroyed by the Lord, and she turned into a pillar of salt for her disobedience and inability to detach herself from the city. For it was likely that she enjoyed the life she had in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, and running away into the wilderness seemed for her to be a path to uncertainty.

It is therefore her desire and her inability to part with that desire which led to her undoing, and the same also applies to us as well. We ought to therefore learn from the examples of the martyrs in this regard. They were offered the good offers of safety and goodness in the world, and they were offered good prestige and fame in the world, if only that they would abandon their faith in their God.

But they refused, for they knew that to do so would mean accepting temporary joy and happiness that do not last, and condemn themselves to an eternity of suffering, of having been separated from God. They persevered, and although they suffered, they received great consolation and the promise of eternal life which God had promised to all of us who are faithful. Their examples spurred many others to follow in their footsteps.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all follow the examples of the first martyrs and the other martyrs of the Church, those who have defended their faith in the Lord to the very end. May Almighty God bless us with faith and be with us always. Amen.

by

Tuesday, 30 June 2015 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Matthew 8 : 23-27

At that time, Jesus got into the boat and His disciples followed Him. Without warning a fierce storm hit the lake, with waves sweeping the boat. But Jesus was asleep.

They woke Him and cried, “Lord save us! We are lost!” But Jesus answered, “Why are you so afraid, you of little faith?” Then He stood up and rebuked the wind and sea; and it became completely calm. The disciples were astonished. They said, “What kind of Man is He? Even the winds and the sea obey Him.”