Weekday Homily

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Tuesday, 20 September 2022 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Andrew Kim Taegon, Martyr, St. Laurent Imbert, Bishop and Martyr, St. Jacques Chastan, Priest and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all presented with the words of the Lord reminding us to do the will of God and not to fall into the path of sin and wickedness. Again and again we have constantly been reminded of the dangers of sin and the temptations to sin. Unless we are vigilant and put our conscious effort to reject sin and evil, more often than not we may find ourselves stumbling and falling yet again because we are unable to resist the strong pull and allure of sin which can drag us down the path towards damnation and downfall.

In our first reading today taken from the Book of Proverbs, we are all reminded that the Lord values our actions and obedience to His Law, commandments and will more than our sacrifices and offerings. The Lord honours and blesses the just and the righteous ones, all those who have obeyed His will, followed His ways and dedicated themselves to His cause by their real actions and works, instead of just merely paying lip service or making profession of faith. And yet in our way of life and actions, we are often full of actions that are contrary to God’s teachings and truth, as we often follow the whim of our desires, our pride and ego, the norms and ways of this world among others.

The Lord said that those who were haughty and wicked, who oppressed the poor and the weak, all those who were selfish and proud, and thinking only of fulfilling their own selfish and wicked desires, all of these will not flourish with Him, and will not have part in any of His inheritance and graces. The Lord made it clear that all of us as Christians are called to distance ourselves from wicked ways, and embrace wholeheartedly instead the path of righteousness and justice, of all the good things that the Lord Himself had taught us to do. God had taught us His ways, and showed us all how to live our lives in the right manner, and it is in the end, up to us whether we want to follow Him or to follow our own path.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the words of the Lord when the people told Him that His family members, His mother and other relatives were waiting for Him. The Lord then told them all that His brothers and sisters, His mother are all those who listen to the Lord and do His will. While at a glance it might seem that the Lord had been rude to His mother and family, but in truth, the intention behind those words uttered by the Lord Jesus is that, each and every one of us are equally beloved by God, and all of us who do His will, who are righteous and just, virtuous and good, upright and faithful, all of us will share the fullness of God’s love, grace and compassion. And we should look upon our glorious and holy predecessors how we ought to be just doing exactly that.

Today the Church celebrates the memory of the great martyrs and all those who had given their lives for their faith in the region of Korea, as part of the Feast of the Holy Martyrs of Korea, namely St. Andreas Kim Taegon, St. Paul Chong Hasang among the many other local Christians of Korea who were persecuted for their faith, as well as foreign missionaries such as St. Laurent Imbert, the first Apostolic Vicar to Korea, St. Jacques Chastan and many others who had travelled far and wide, to come to the far peripheries of the world and spread the Good News of God to all those who have yet to hear of Him, and who suffered for His sake.

At that time, the state and the government of Korea was highly hostile and suspicious of Christian missionaries and the Christian faith, considering them all as unwanted foreign influences that could potentially bring harm to the state. To that extent, the state carried out intense official persecution much alike what happened during the time of the Roman Empire in the early Church. The Christian missionaries had to operate in secret, in fear of repercussions from the officials and the authorities, and many of the Christian faithful, both the missionaries and converts alike suffered because of their persistence and perseverance in remaining true to their faith in God despite the oppressions.

St. Andrew Kim Taegon was the first local convert Catholic priest in Korea, whose parents were themselves converts, and his father was martyred for his faith. St. Andrew Kim Taegon eventually chose priesthood as his path and finally returned to Korea after years of ministry and studies, during which time then he ministered and preached to his native Koreans about the Lord, having to deal with the intensifying persecution from the government authorities. He was martyred together with thousands of the other Christians who refused to abandon their faith, as he was tortured and beheaded, enduring glorious martyr’s death for the Lord.

Then, I would also like to share the story of St. Laurent Imbert, who was the first Apostolic Vicar to Korea, as the first bishop to establish the nascent hierarchy of the Church in that land. St. Laurent Imbert was a member of the Paris Foreign Missions society or the M.E.P., who together with the other missionary priests clandestinely ministered to the faithful and grew the Church during those difficult years. And it was told that when the officials demanded that he and the other priests surrendered themselves in exchange for the safety of his faithful flock, he willingly surrendered himself and asked his fellow two other priests to do the same as well, saying that ‘The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep’, remembering what the Lord Himself, our Good Shepherd, had done for our sake.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the numerous stories of great wisdom and courage from the martyr saints of Korea should inspire us all to live our lives worthily and to do our best to glorify the Lord by our lives, actions and works. Each and every one of us should follow God’s will and obey His Law and commandments. Let us all no longer distance ourselves from Him or be ignorant of Him calling on us to follow Him in our hearts and minds. May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to strengthen us all each day, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 19 September 2022 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Januarius, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded that as Christians we must distance ourselves from all sorts of wickedness and unworthy behaviour that kept us away from the Lord and which can become a scandal for our faith, the Church and to the Holy Name of the Lord Himself. The Lord has told us all to follow His path, and He has taught us all how we should live our lives, in accordance to His Law and precepts. And that is how as Christians we are expected to be the beacons of God’s truth and love, distancing ourselves from the darkness that often corrupted us and prevented us from seeking His light.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Proverbs, we heard of how God reminded His people that they should not do what is wicked and evil in the sight of God and man alike, and they are called to act fairly and justly towards one another. Each one of them are called to be honest in their actions and dealings, and not to cheat or do bad things on others for our own selfish desires and for our own benefits. Each one of us are called to be caring and compassionate, to be concerned and committed to one another, to our fellow brothers and sisters, all those who have shared with us the same gift of God’s graces and blessings.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord reminded us all through His parable to His disciples, in which He used the metaphor of a lighted lamp to show how nothing that is hidden that shall not be uncovered, and how one’s true intentions will come to be known by God and men alike. This is a reminder how each one of us are called to be genuine in our actions, and not be hypocrites, who pretended to care for others and be faithful, but in truth had no place for God in our hearts and minds. As the Lord Himself said, that there is no place by His Presence, for all those who have not been genuine in their faith and love for Him. That is why unless we are genuine in our desire and efforts to follow the Lord, then we can easily end up falling into the wrong paths of damnation and ruin.

Each one of us are therefore called to abandon our wicked ways and our sinful nature, all the attachments we had on the worldly matters and desires, all of which often became great obstacles in our path towards God and His salvation. We are reminded to reject the temptations of worldly things, and to refuse the advances of Satan and his allies, all of whom are always hard at work in trying to subvert us and turn us away from God and His salvation. We have to embrace the Lord wholeheartedly and do what He had commanded us to do, and not merely paying lip service and doing things from appearances. We have to commit ourselves to the Lord and dedicate our actions to Him.

How should we do it, then brothers and sisters? All of us should follow the good examples set by our predecessors, all those who have lived their lives worthily in the path of the Lord. We should not follow the wrong guidance and we should not heed the sweet lies and falsehoods of the evil ones. We have to reject their path that will lead us down to ruin. We have to raise up and remain faithful to the Lord in all of His teachings and truths. We have to be exemplary and inspirational in all of our actions and dealings so that we may be the beacons of God’s light to the people whom we encounter in this world, our fellow brothers and sisters and all those who seek the Lord and His truth.

Today, the Church and all the faithful celebrate the Feast of St. Januarius, one of the most renowned early Church fathers and saints, whose blood’s miraculous liquefaction has always been the subject of great devotion from many especially from the faithful from around the region of Naples and southern regions of Italy, where St. Januarius was once the bishop of. St. Januarius himself was the Bishop of Benevento in southern Italy as mentioned, and he was remembered for his great dedication to his flock, to the faithful people of God, serving the people faithfully when he and his people faced intense persecutions for their faith.

It was told that St. Januarius and his flock suffered during the reign of the infamous Roman Emperor Diocletian who instituted the last of the great persecutions against the Church. He hid some of his fellow Christians and protected them from harm, at the cost of his own safety. He was arrested, persecuted and tortured, and eventually was charged and condemned to death, being beheaded for his faith and dedication to God, remaining faithful to the very end. The miraculous relic of his blood that still performs its miracles every year to this day serve to remind us of the great courage of this great man of God whose life should become our source of inspiration and strength.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore seek the Lord with our renewed faith and courage, inspired by the examples and faith showed by St. Januarius, holy man and servant of God, who dedicated his whole life to bring glory to God and salvation to his fellow brothers and sisters. Are we willing and able to do this, just as the Lord wants it from us? Are we willing to live our lives worthily so that our every words, actions and deeds become testament and witnesses of our Lord’s truth and Good News, of His love and kindness, His compassion and mercy? Let us all do our best to serve the Lord from now on with faith.

May the Lord continue to strengthen and guide us all, and may He empower us and encourage us to walk ever in His path, and bless our every good works, efforts and endeavours. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 18 September 2022 : Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we heard from the passages of the Sacred Scriptures, reminders for us all to be astute in our actions and dealings, keeping in mind that everything we say and do, everything we commit in action and in our every interactions, all of these are things that we will be held accountable for. Each and every one of us have to account for the good things we do as well as for the evil and wicked things we committed. Not only that, but we will also be held accountable even for those things that we fail to do, whatever we did not do whenever we have the opportunities or the capacity to do it. And as Christians, all of us are challenged to live our lives worthily in the manner that our faith can be inspiration for others all around us.

In our first reading today taken from the Book of the prophet Amos, we heard the Lord speaking through Amos to His people regarding the wickedness committed by some among the people, in tricking and manipulating others for their own personal gains and advantages. He spoke to them regarding just how wicked those who sought profits by cheating on their customers and those who patronised their businesses, by overcharging them for their goods and services, simply because they knew well how to do that, using the means of this world to gain advantages for themselves, building themselves up more material possessions and wealth built upon the sufferings and losses from others.

At that time, the people of God had lapsed away from the path that the Lord showed them, and they were following their own paths and ways in life, refusing to listen to the prophets and messengers whom God had sent to them in order to remind them and help them to turn away from their sinful paths. They persecuted the prophets and rejected them, including that of Amos himself, whom the Israelites and their king ridiculed and the latter told Amos to go back to the land of Judah and not to prophesy anymore in the land of Israel, because Amos always brought them the harsh premonitions and warnings from the Lord, telling them how they would all suffer because of their sins and rejection of God.

But they would then have to account for all of their many sins, having been constantly reminded by the Lord and told to change their ways, and yet they still persisted in their wrong path. The Lord said to Amos and therefore to His people how the wicked would not prosper in the end and would perish, because by their wickedness they would be judged unworthy by God, and will be cast into the eternal darkness and suffering. The Lord has already warned them all many times, but they still hardened their hearts and minds against Him. In the end, because of their rebelliousness and refusal to listen to God, they have only themselves to blame for their predicament and fate.

Those people knew well the ways of the world, and they had wisdom and intellect, knowledge and understanding not only that of the Law but also the prophets and the messengers of God. Yet, they did not do as what they have been told to do, and chose to follow the ways of the world and what was wicked in the eyes of God and man alike. And this is linked well to what we heard in our Gospel passage regarding the parable of the dishonest steward. In that parable we heard the Lord speaking with a story of a dishonest steward who was dismissed from service by his master because of his dishonesty, and who therefore went to do things to ensure his survival by discreetly and unlawfully forgiving the debtors of his master, hoping to gain favour with them after he was dismissed.

And we heard the Lord saying that the master praised the servant for his astuteness and ability to use whatever was in his disposal to help himself, and then afterwards, the Lord also said that this was an example of how those who have immersed themselves in the ways of the world, would always be predisposed and tended to follow the ways of the world, and if one had been dishonest or flawed in their judgment and actions, then they would tend to continue being dishonest and evil in their actions, unless they make the conscious effort to resist the temptations and pressure to do so. And the Lord Himself also said that if we have been dishonest in small things, then who will entrust us with great things, then this is a reminder for us that if we walk in the path of disobedience and sin, then we will have no part in God’s grace and glory.

In our second reading today, in St. Paul’s Epistle to St. Timothy, the Apostle wrote of how everyone are called to be good, to obey God’s will and to live worthily of God, and to discard from themselves the traces of anger, dissension and other things that often prevented us from finding our way towards God. That is an exhortation and reminder from St. Paul for each and every one of us to turn away from worldliness and reject the excesses of worldly desires and greed, as well as resisting the temptations of our pride and ego, which often can become our downfall unless we put our conscious effort and commitment to the Lord wholeheartedly, rejecting the efforts and works of Satan and his allies in trying to subvert us to the wrong path.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to the words of the Scriptures today and as we discern and reflect on their meaning and messages, each one of us are reminded that as the Lord Himself said, that we cannot serve both God and Money. Either we will love one more than the other and despise the other one, or vice versa. And that is why we have to moderate our actions and discern carefully our path in life, so that we may not end up rejecting the Lord and living our lives in sin as many of our predecessors had done. If we are not careful then we may end up going down that slippery path out of which escape may be quite difficult. And not only that, but our actions will be held accountable on us if they caused scandal for the Church and our faith, and made others to fall into sin as well.

That is why each and every one of us are reminded this Sunday to live our lives from now on with genuine faith in God if we have not done so yet, and to be truly committed to Him and not just merely paying lip service to Him. Unless we truly believe in the Lord through our every words, actions and deeds, and unless we embody our faith in our every living moments, in our every interactions with one another, then we are no more than hypocrites and those whose lukewarm faith are not what is expected of us as Christians, and worse still, as I just mentioned, may even bring about scandal to the Lord’s Holy Name and His Church. Do we want to gather for ourselves the favour of the world at the expense of our souls? Or do we rather seek the Lord and His salvation despite having to endure suffering and rejection in this world?

Let us always keep in mind, brothers and sisters in Christ, that whatever we gather, gain and accumulate in this world do not and will not last forever. They can be tempting and alluring to gain for ourselves, but at what cost? Do we want to gain the world and its joys, only to lose our souls, that we enjoy a temporary period of joy only to suffer an eternity of regret and damnation in hell? We are all reminded to make our choice and stand today, and not to delay any longer. For the more we allow the temptations of the world, the allure of desires and evils to distract us from the path towards salvation, the deeper we will end up being dragged into the wrong path, and in the end, we may find ourselves being unable to escape.

Let us now therefore discern carefully our path forward in life, and do whatever we can in our everyday living that even in the smallest things we do, we will always glorify the Lord by our lives and be good examples and inspirations for one another. Let us all draw ever closer to God and continue to be faithful to Him, and not be swayed by worldly temptations or any pressures and coercion to move away from Him. May God be with us always, and may He strengthen each and every one of us, that we may always live ever more worthily in His presence, at all times, and be good role models and inspirations for one another. Amen.

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Saturday, 17 September 2022 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Robert Bellarmine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church and St. Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops or Holy Virgins)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord in the Scriptures, we are reminded yet again on our faith in the Lord and our beliefs in Him, in how we should have faith in us, which He has sown in us, and we should bear rich fruits of faith, through our exemplary lives and actions. Each and every one of us should do our best to love and serve the Lord at every moments throughout life, so that we may truly live our lives as good and dedicated Christians, worthy of being the ones who have been made and created in the image of God Himself, and Whom God had called and willingly made to be His own beloved children and people.

In our first reading today taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth we heard the Apostle St. Paul spoke to the people there regarding the matter of the resurrection from the dead and the resurrection of the body as there were still members of the faithful who did not understand or appreciate what the resurrection truly meant and how it would affect all of them. There were then still members of the Christian faithful, probably those who once belonged to the caste of the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection from the dead who had doubts about the resurrection and did not understand how it works.

St. Paul highlighted how through Christ, the Saviour of the world, Who came into this world, bearing the truth and salvation from God, has shown us a new life through Him, a new existence that goes beyond our earthly life. He mentioned how the first Adam, our ancestor was given life when he was created by God, and how the New Adam, that is Christ Himself, has brought upon us true and everlasting life, that we shall transcend beyond our mortal bodies and existence, and through Him we shall be reunited and reconciled with God. That new life, which God brought upon us through His Son, shows us that our mortality and death do not mark the end of our existence, and instead there is eternity beyond that of death.

In our Christian faith and beliefs, all of us believe that there is life beyond death, and while all of us have to experience suffering and death as consequences for our sins, but the same sins and death do not have the final say over us. To those who are righteous and worthy, God has shown us through Jesus Christ, His Son, our Saviour, that we shall be reunited with Him and shall once again enjoy the fullness of His grace and blessings as He has always intended for us. The Lord has always been so reassuring towards us, and He did not just love us despite our many rebellions and disobedience against Him, but He even sent us His Son to bring His salvation and deliverance upon us.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the well-known parable of the sower by the Lord, in which the Lord Himself told His disciples of what happened to the seeds sown in four different places, by the roadside, on rocky and dry ground, amongst the thistles and brambles, and finally on rich and fertile soil. The Lord went through the meaning of each part of the parable and told them what each of them represented, and how the seeds were truly a reference to the Word of God, the Wisdom and truth which God has bestowed on all of His people. How and where the seeds landed represented how we mankind responded to the Lord, to His truth and love, to His Good News and grace in our midst.

We have to realise that as long as we continue to resist the Lord in the manner of how some among the faithful in Corinth continued to have doubts and reservations on their beliefs, and in their inability to comprehend the resurrection, then it is just like how we mankind tend to shut the Lord out of our lives as we prefer to live them in the manner that we want to live them, following the ways of the world and the paths that may not conform to the path that God has shown and taught us. More often than not we prefer to trust in our own judgments and ideals, and not listening to God speaking to us in the depth of our hearts and minds. And our preoccupation with our own desires prevent us from being able to listen to Him.

That is why today, as we also celebrate the feast of two great saints whose examples and faith can become our inspiration in how we ought to live our own lives, we should give some time to heed their examples and their actions in life. St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Hildegard of Bingen are these two great servants of God who should become our role models in life, that we may grow ever stronger in faith and ever closer to God. Both of them had served the Church and the people of God in various ways, and in their personal holiness and dedication, they have done much to bring the people of God ever closer to their Lord and Saviour.

St. Robert Bellarmine was a Jesuit Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, who was credited for his intense effort in supporting and applying the reforms of the Ecumenical Council of Trent in the midst of great changes in the Church and the community during the Counter-Reformation period. He was very much involved in the renewal of Catholic theology and education, as he was involved over many years in the teaching of theology at the Roman College, now known as the Pontifical Gregorian University, influencing many seminarians who would become future priests and leaders of the Church, impressing many people with his deep intellectual understanding of theology and the Scriptures, as well as his great wisdom.

St. Robert Bellarmine was made as the Rector of the aforementioned Roman College, and then as a Bishop and finally a Cardinal of the Church. He was entrusted by the Pope with the task to assist in the reforms of the Church, and he also wrote extensively on many works and books related to theology and Christian teachings. He also defended the true faith against the many heresies, falsehoods and the other forces arrayed against the Church at that time. Through his ceaseless efforts and commitment to God, St. Robert Bellarmine showed us what it truly means to be truly dedicated as Christians.

Meanwhile, St. Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess who was renowned as a great mystic and writer, and whose contributions to the Church both in her local community and the larger Universal Church were immense. St. Hildegard of Bingen was credited with many writings in various topics and aspects, both regarding Church teachings and even beyond, and devoted her life to the Lord and her community. She wrote extensively on the matters of theology, as well as botany and medicine, and was also credited with the development of monophony in the Church music of her time. For all these efforts and hard work, and for all the contributions that she had done, she was recently therefore canonised ten years ago by Pope Benedict XVI, and then elevated to the position of the Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis, our current Pope.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by the examples shown by St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Hildegard of Bingen, that we ourselves may also be good role models and examples for others all around us, in our faith and in how we live our lives. Let us all be true witnesses of the Lord and proclaim His truth and love, His Good News and all His grace to all the nations through our own lives and actions each day. May God bless us always and may He continue to guide us in all of our actions, in our every efforts and deeds. Amen.

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Friday, 16 September 2022 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are reminded of the hope which the Lord had brought upon us, the hope of the glorious resurrection and new life which our Lord and Saviour has brought upon us, the life that is blessed and filled with grace, with the righteousness of God. God has granted us this new hope and light through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, Whose own suffering and death, and then glorious Resurrection from the dead become the source of our hope and the light that illuminates our path, long darkened by the despair and the evils of the world.

In our first reading today taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth, the Apostle spoke clearly regarding the belief in the Resurrection from the dead, just as the Lord Jesus Himself has been risen from the dead. The belief in the Resurrection of the Lord is one most fundamental part of the Christian faith which set it apart from other faiths and beliefs, that marked it as the one true Faith. The Christian faith is anchored in the belief in the Resurrection of the Lord, without which then our faith in Him would have had no sense or meaning, as without the Resurrection, then we are merely just believing in a dead person who had not existed anymore in this world and who cannot help us, and we are also reminded that there is no hope beyond death otherwise.

Yet, the Lord rose gloriously from dead, and in His triumphant glory, He defeated sin and death, crushing the dominion of Satan and all the forces of evil over us, showing us definitively that there is a sure and clear path to redemption and reconciliation between God and mankind. Through Christ, all of the people of God have been given the passageway towards the eternal and new life in God, as He offered Himself as the worthy Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, to atone for our many sins and to reunite us with our loving God and Creator. By His death, all of us have been sharing in the death to our past sins and wickedness, and by His Resurrection, we have been invited to anticipate our own resurrection into glory and eternal life.

And the Apostles were true witnesses of all these, and they professed their faith, preaching the Good News and the truth of God, guided by the Holy Spirit. St. Paul presented all these as the sole truth, and how if they had not been the truth, then everything that Christians had believed would have been a lie, and all those martyrs who had died defending their faith would have died in vain, and everything and everyone that had placed their faith in the Lord would have done so in folly. Yet, that was not what happened, and the Apostles, including that of St. Paul had spoken so courageously and with such conviction because they themselves had witnessed the truth of the Lord and received wisdom from the Holy Spirit.

Through His coming into this world, the Lord Jesus has shown us the love of God personified and manifested in the flesh, that God’s ever enduring and infinite love has now become tangible and approachable to us. He came in our midst through His Son, Who has willingly embraced us and helped us to overcome our troubles and predicaments, and bore upon His own shoulders, the heavy burdens of our many and innumerable sins. He bore upon Himself the punishments due for all those sins and faults, and offered on our behalf the most worthy offering of His own Precious Body and Blood, that through His loving sacrifice and offering, we may have the certainty of eternal life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to these readings and passages from the Scriptures, we are all reminded that as Christians, we are all witnesses of our Lord’s truth, death and Resurrection. We have received the same truth that the Apostles had spoken so courageously about, and for which many martyrs had laid down their lives for the sake of the glory of God and for the salvation of His people. And therefore we are called to do the same as well in our own lives, and we should do our best to carry out our mission in life in being good and faithful disciples of our Lord in all the things we do, in our every interactions and efforts to glorify Him by our lives.

Today, all of us should be inspired by the good examples set by Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian, whose feast day we celebrate this day. Pope St. Cornelius was the Bishop of Rome and Pope, the leader of the Universal Church at the time when there was intense persecution against the Church and all Christians by the Roman state. At that time, both Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage were contemporaries who were not only facing the challenges from the persecutions by the Roman government on their flocks and themselves, but also the divisions which were caused by the Novatianists or the Novatian heresy.

Back then, there were disagreements and discords within the Church because there were those like Novatian who refused to admit those lapsed Christians and all those who had partaken in pagan sacrifices and ceremonies, and those who like Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian that supported the reconciliation of those lapsed Christians. Novatian and his supporters argued that once those Christians lapsed, betrayed and abandoned the Lord, there could be no return for them, while Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian championed the cause of the reconciliation of those lapsed Christians, reminding the faithful of the ever generous mercy and compassion of God for His people.

In the end, Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian managed to overcome the obstacle and united the Church behind the true path that they championed, rejecting the beliefs of the Novatian party as a heresy, and excommunicated Novatian after he refused to change his views and ideas. All of the other great works that these two saints had done continued to help the Church and the people of God in various other ways, and in the end, each one of them were martyred by the intense Roman persecutions of the Church mentioned earlier, and their courage in remaining faithful to the very end were sources of great inspiration to the faithful people of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by the examples of Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian of Carthage, in their dedication to God and at the same time, in how they extended God’s love and mercy to His people, to those who have by various reasons, lapsed from the Christian faith, fell into sin or forced to participate in the pagan rituals, that they still have the opportunity to repent and turn back towards the Lord, just as how the Lord Himself had reached out to those considered as great sinners, like prostitutes and tax collectors among others, even criminals and all those who were possessed by evil spirits, and those rejected and ostracised by the society.

Let us all therefore remember to bring forth the love of God into our communities, remembering how the Lord Himself has loved all of us and brought His light and hope into our midst as He came to us, through His Son, Jesus Christ, by Whose suffering, death and resurrection, we have been made sharers in the inheritance of eternal life and glory that will be ours if we remain ever faithful to Him. May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to strengthen us in our faith in Him and help us to continue to love Him, now and in each and every moments of our lives. Amen.

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Thursday, 15 September 2022 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we gather to reflect on the words of the Lord in the Scriptures we just heard, we remember that this day we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, remembering the great sorrow that Mary, the Mother of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, had experienced and suffered from, having witnessed everything that her Son had to suffer during His ministry, and then having to see her own Son being persecuted and tortured, betrayed by His own disciple, abandoned by others and condemned to die a most painful and humiliating death on the Cross for sins and faults that He Himself had not committed, and framed for crimes that He was not responsible for.

As with any mothers, seeing her own Son to suffer in such a manner must have been so difficult for Mary. Yet, she persevered through it all, and as sorrowful and painful it must have been for her, she remained true to her commitment to the mission entrusted to her, as the Mother of God, the Mother of the Saviour, to Whom she has dedicated much of her life to, in caring for Him since before He was even born into this world, and right up through most of His life, and unto the very foot of the Cross, where she witnessed her Son dying both as the Paschal Lamb of Sacrifice and the High Priest of all mankind, offering Himself for the salvation of all the whole world.

Mary had received premonition and warning for all these from Simeon the old prophet and servant of God who was awaiting the Messiah or Saviour of the world at the Temple of Jerusalem just as we heard in our Gospel passage today. Simeon told her how Mary would have to see her Son as a Sign for all the nations and how she would have to witness and experience great moments of pain, suffering and anguish, which he described as likened to a sword piercing her very own heart, the most loving and Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Mother of God. All those eventually came true and we knew the image of the grieving Mary, who grieved over the death of her Son.

That is why Mary has always been so attentive to us throughout history, as she continued to reach out to us, appearing in many occasions to different people, encouraging the people of God to be faithful to Him and to return to Him with regret and the desire to be forgiven from their many sins. That is because just as she has experienced losing her Son to suffering and death, and knowing that He had suffered and died for all of our sake, for our redemption and salvation, surely she did not want the sacrifice made by her Son to be wasted by us, as many of us still ignore Him and refuse to follow Him and His truth, and fail to recognise His love.

Not only that, but Mary herself has also been entrusted to each one of us as our own loving mother, as the Lord Himself as we heard in our Gospel passage today, entrusted Mary to St. John the Apostle, His beloved disciple to be his own mother, and he as the son entrusted to Mary. This is a symbolic act by which the Church and the Lord has extended the loving hands of Mary, her love and compassion, her motherly care and her attention to us, her beloved children, to each one of us as her own adopted and equally beloved precious children. We are all so fortunate that our mother even in her sorrow continues to show us her love, through which she has always hoped that we may find the salvation in her Son.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, what has always brought sorrow to our loving Mother’s heart is our constant disobedience and refusal to listen to the words that her Son has always spoken to us. All of us have received His truth and love, His instructions, will, Law and commandments, His teachings and ways through the Church and the Scriptures, but we often still preferred to follow our own paths in life, and those paths more often than not led us down the path of sin and ruin. Many of us have fallen on the wayside in our path towards God and His salvation, tempted and swayed by the many efforts of the devil and his allies in their works to prevent us from being reunited and reconciled with God.

That is why today, as we commemorate this Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, let us all reflect first of all on everything that the Lord, our God and Saviour had done for our sake, in His ever enduring and wonderful love, in reaching out to us with love and in sacrificing Himself for our sake so that through Him we may have life and not perish. Then we also should remember the love that His mother Mary has shown us all, and how we have been entrusted to her as her own adopted children. She has always prayed and interceded for our sake, and wanted the best for us, ever reminding us to turn towards her Son and to be righteous and good at all times.

Let us all therefore ask our beloved Mother Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, to continue to love us patiently and to not be sorrowful anymore, by our commitment and desire to repent from our sins and by our efforts to live our lives with faith from now on, making good use of all the opportunities given to us, in each and every moments to be exemplary in life and to inspire one another to follow the Lord and to be ever faithful always. May God be with us always and may His blessed Mother, Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, our Mother, pray for us always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 14 September 2022 : Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, celebrating the three moments in history related to the Holy Cross of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This day we mark the moment when the True Cross, the actual Cross on which the Lord was hung and nailed on, was discovered by St. Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. It also marked the occasion of the Dedication of the Basilicas and churches built by the same Emperor Constantine on the Mount Calvary in Jerusalem. Lastly, it also marked the moment when the True Cross reentered Jerusalem in great triumph after having been captured by the Persian Sassanians three centuries after it had been discovered.

Essentially, in terms of historical significance, today’s Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross marked the moments when the true Faith and the Cross of Christ was triumphant over the forces of the world, such as the moment when the Christian faith and Church finally triumphed against those arrayed against them, as they were officially tolerated and the persecutions against them rescinded by the same Emperor Constantine the Great through the Edict of Milan. It was a moment of triumph that roughly coincided with the rediscovery of the True Cross of Our Lord and Saviour at the site of Mount Calvary. It was also another moment of triumph when the forces of Christendom triumphed over the pagan Sassanians, and reclaimed the True Cross from the enemy.

However, this Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is much more than just all of that. The most important triumph that this Feast celebrates today is the great triumph that Our Lord and Saviour has won for all of us, as He raised His Cross and was Himself raised on it, for the salvation of all the whole world, of all mankind, of all of God’s beloved children. Through His Cross, Our Lord Jesus Christ has shown us the perfect manifestation of God’s love as well as the perfect obedience of Man, through which God reached out to us and Man reached out to Him, with Christ forming the important Bridge through His Cross, reconnecting us and God.

In our first reading today we heard the story of what happened when the Israelites rebelled against God in the desert, and we heard about the bronze serpent of Moses which was crafted to help the Israelites. At that time, the rebellious Israelites disobeyed God such that the Lord sent fiery serpents to strike at them as punishment for their sins, disobedience and wickedness. Many died from those fiery serpents and their bites, and the people begged the Lord for forgiveness and mercy. It was then that the Lord told Moses to craft that bronze serpent as a sign of God’s salvation and mercy, and all those who saw that bronze serpent after being bitten did not perish.

That occasion is mirrored in our Gospel passage today when we heard of the exchange between the Lord Jesus and Nicodemus, the Pharisee who was sympathetic to Him and His teachings. The Lord spoke of the parallel between what happened back then and what He Himself would have to undergo, as He would be raised up as the Son of Man, before all the people much as how the bronze serpent was raised up by Moses before the whole people of Israel. And just as how the bronze serpent showed the salvation, mercy, compassion and forgiveness from God for His people, sparing them from the fiery serpents, thus, the Lord has also showed the infinite love of God through His crucifixion and His Cross.

The Lord has shown us His enduring and patient love, made manifest through His Son, and this was made possible because He loved us so much that He willingly emptied Himself and took up the appearance and essence of our humanity, by being born of His mother Mary, becoming the Son of God incarnate in the flesh, and becoming the Son of Man. Through His incarnation in the flesh, God made His love visible and tangible for us, and by His voluntary sacrifice on the Cross, the show of God’s ultimate love, all of us have witnessed and received the manifestation of that undying love. By suffering and dying on the Cross, He made us all sharers in His salvation, and die to our sins, and by His glorious Resurrection, He shared with us the new life, free from sin that we shall enjoy for eternity.

Not only that, but as I mentioned earlier, Christ by His humble submission to His Father’s will has shown us all mankind how we can be truly faithful to the Lord, and breaking free from the chains of sin and wickedness that had enslaved us, and how we can gain freedom from death through Christ and His assurance of salvation and new life for us. While the first Adam faltered and failed when tested by the devil, and succumbed to the temptations of his desires, ending up with sin that corrupted us all, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as the New Adam showed us that we should not and cannot bow down to those temptations or to the devil, and we should instead seek the Lord and commit ourselves to Him wholeheartedly.

That is why the devil, Satan, and all of his fallen allies, the evil spirits and demons despised and feared the Holy Cross, because that tool of humiliation that was once used for the worst of criminals, as means for great suffering and humiliation, has become the means by which God saved His beloved people, and through His Holy Cross, the Lord has cast a devastating blow upon the devil and all of his forces, and broke their dominion over us forever, showing us the sure path to freedom from sin and death, and into eternal life. This is why today we mark that glorious triumph of the Holy Cross over the forces of sin, evil and death.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on the significance and importance of today’s Feast, its meaning and purpose, and how it has shown us the salvation of God and the triumph of His Cross, let us all also reflect and ponder upon our own lives. Let us all look upon the Lord on His Cross, the Crucifix, and discern how each and every one of us can be better disciples of His. We cannot continue to live our lives with apathy towards our faith, ignorance or lukewarmness, in how we practice our Christian faith and beliefs. We should not be hypocrites, and should not forget the love and compassion that God has always generously shown us.

Let us all look upon He Who has been crucified for us upon the Holy and Glorious Cross. Let us all glorify and praise Him more and more each day, by our own worthy and grace-filled lives, dedicating ourselves in each and every moments to love and serve the Lord ever more with our every living moments, with all of our might and strength. May the Lord, through His triumphant Cross, continue to guide us forward to the path towards eternal life. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 13 September 2022 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Lord in the Scriptures reminding us that all of us have been gathered as one people and one flock by the Lord to be His followers and disciples, and to receive the bountiful gifts of His graces and blessings. The Lord has gathered us all from the nations and from the world, regardless of our background or origins, all equally beloved by God and all equally precious to Him. And through Him, we shall receive the assurance of eternal life, true happiness and joy, and we will find the path to eternal bliss with Him, at the end of time.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Corinth regarding how the Church is united as one body, the one Body of Christ, composed of all believers, not distinguished by anything or by any considerations of their background, be it whether the faithful were Jews or Greek, at the time when the Jewish people were often harbouring prejudice and dislike for the non-Jewish peoples, also known as the Gentiles, most of whom were Greeks and those who were steeped in the Greco-Roman culture and ways, as opposed to those who fervently and zealously kept the Jewish laws and customs.

St. Paul also highlighted the unity of the Church and the faithful although its members came from among the free and the rich, as well as from among the slaves, the poor and the marginalised in the community. All of the people, regardless of their origins, backgrounds and others, who have been called by God and received baptism through Him, have been made sharers of the same Body of Christ and became that one united Body of believers. And amidst the divisions and the struggles that the different factions of the faithful in Corinth experienced back then, this was a truly powerful, important and timely reminder from the Apostle.

This is a reminder that as one faithful people and community of Christians, all of us in the Church should not be prejudiced, biased or divided against each other. We should not let our differences, whether in opinion or whether in our background and status to be stumbling blocks and obstacles in preventing us from achieving true unity in God. We have to remind ourselves that in the Church we are serving the Lord and not our own selfish desires, ambitions and other things. We are God’s servants and followers, and we should focus our attention on Him, our efforts on glorifying Him rather than seeking attention towards ourselves.

Through the Lord we have received the assurance of salvation and eternal life, an existence beyond death, which all of us in one way or another, and which eventually will experience, as all of us are mortal and will not live in this world forever. As highlighted in our Gospel passage today from the story of the widow of Naim, death is something that will claim us all, and we heard of the sorrow that accompanied this, especially the widow who had to see her own son pass away before herself. Yet, the Lord showed that He is truly the Lord and Master of all life, as He raised the widow’s son from the dead, just as He had done so with the daughter of the synagogue official, Jairus, and with Lazarus, one of His close friends.

All of these showed us that while death exists as a punishment for our sins, that came with the taint of sin which entered to our humanity through our disobedience against God, but the Lord in His most wonderful and loving way has extended His most gracious love and mercy towards us, through His Son showing us that death does not hold dominion over us. Not only through the miraculous resurrection from the dead, but even more importantly, through His own suffering and death on the Cross, and then His own glorious Resurrection, Christ conquered sin and death, and presented to us the sure path out of the darkness and into the light and life eternal.

Today all of us are reminded therefore to focus our attention on the Lord, and on the love and truth which He has revealed to us through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. All of us have been so fortunate to receive this assurance of love, and hence, we should do our best to live our lives worthily as Christians, that is as God’s disciples and followers, in the footsteps of our holy predecessors, the saints and martyrs, who should be our inspiration and role models. St. John Chrysostom, whose feast we are celebrating today, is one of them. He is the Archbishop of Constantinople, the then capital of the Roman Empire and also recognised later on as one of the great Doctors of the Church.

St. John Chrysostom was attracted to the Christian faith and studied theology as well as experiencing ascetic lifestyle as a hermit before he became a deacon, and later on becoming a great priest in Antioch, renowned for his eloquent and courageous sermons, which stirred the hearts of many people. He placed particular emphasis in the care for the poor and was particularly against the abuse of power and privileges by the rich and the powerful against the poor and those who were marginalised by the community. He preached directly to the people, with simple terms and words which helped him to connect well to those whom he was preaching to, helping him to convert countless thousands to the faith.

Eventually this holy man and servant of God was appointed as the Archbishop of Constantinople, and his works and reforms immediately gained opposition from the members of the rich and privileged, the nobles and the powerful clergy who opposed his more simple and disciplined approach in the Church affairs. It was particularly known that he was the enemy of the powerful Roman Empress Aelia Eudoxia, whose extravagant lifestyle was opposed by St. John Chrysostom, and the former also thought that St. John’s sermons were directed against herself. As such, by the efforts of those opposed against him, St. John Chrysostom had to endure exile from his See, and he was banished not just once but twice, as frictions continued to exist between the Empress and her supporters and St. John Chrysostom and his supporters on the other side.

The holy man of God nonetheless never gave up, and continued to serve the Lord faithfully, dedicating himself to whatever tasks and ministries he could perform, even while in exile, until his death. The dedication and hard works of St. John Chrysostom should therefore inspire all of us to trust in the Lord and allow Him to lead and guide us in our journey of faith and life. We have to remind ourselves that we have to serve God in this life and proclaim His truth and love by our lives. Let us all remind one another that God and His love for us have made us truly blessed and fortunate, for by His love, He has gathered us all from all the peoples and all the nations, to be His one flock, one Body of Christ, the Church.

May the Lord continue to bless us and strengthen us in all things. May He empower and strengthen us to be able to face challenges and trials in life. May He give us the courage and the energy to resist against the temptations of this world, and help us to remember that we are all His people, and that we should always be united in love with each other, and not be divided one against another. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 12 September 2022 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Most Holy Name of Mary)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are also reminded that today we mark yet another celebration of Mary, the Mother of God, after her Nativity celebrations just a few days ago. Today we mark the celebration of her Most Holy Name, the name that even the devil and other demons and evil spirits fear, for this is the name of the Woman through whom the salvation of the whole world had come from, in the person of Jesus Christ her Son, the Lord and Saviour of all the whole world. Through Mary, her obedience to God and active participation in the works of God’s salvation, the Lord had made our salvation into a tangible reality.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Galatia or Ephesus, with regards to the coming of the salvation of this world in Jesus Christ, Son of God, Who assumed the likeness and the tangible reality of human flesh by the will of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, and borne into this world through the womb of His mother Mary, who therefore became the Mother of God. Through Mary’s obedience and faith in the Lord, and her willingness to follow the will and commandments of God, and by entrusting herself totally to the Lord, she has actively participated therefore in the works of God’s salvation. Mary has brought the Saviour Himself into this world.

That perfect obedience which she had shown to the Lord and to all of us was indeed the perfect contrast with what the devil managed to get our ancestors to do, in disobeying the Lord’s commands and in causing our ancestors, both Adam and Eve, to succumb to the temptations of their pride and desire. The devil, Satan, the great enemy tempted man with the temptations of knowledge, glory and power, by saying that should they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, then they would become like God Himself, knowing all things good and evil. That allure for knowledge, power and glory was too much for them.

However, the devil could not have his way with Mary, who humbly submitted to the will of God, listening to Him and obeying Him wholeheartedly, just as she said to the Lord through the Archangel Gabriel, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to Your Word.’ That is the solemn profession of her faith, commitment and dedication by which Mary showed that she is truly one worthy of bearing the Messiah, the Saviour of the whole world. That while our ancestors rebelled against God, and while Eve succumbed to the temptations of Satan in disobeying God’s words, Mary as the New Eve obeyed the Lord perfectly and completely.

That is why rightfully, Satan feared Mary so much, just as he feared her Son all the more. Satan feared Mary because he was unable to have his way with her, and he was unable to tempt her, being one that is full of the grace of God and full of love and obedience to Him, full of commitment to her Son, following Him throughout His life and ministry, even right up to the foot of His Cross. Mary showed us all what a true believer and follower of God should do, in following the commandments of the Lord and in doing God’s will. Through her faith and humble obedience, Mary has struck fear to the heart of the devil and the other evil spirits.

That is why the mention of Mary’s name alone would have made the devil to run away, and the demons and evil spirits to scatter, because invoking her name means that we put ourselves to her care and we call on her for her powerful intercession, just as she has constantly pleaded on our behalf before her Son’s Throne all this time. Ever since we have been entrusted by the Lord to His own Mother, and she has been entrusted to us as our Mother, Mary has always reached out to us and showed us her love and concern. That was why she made so many appearances, calling on us, her beloved children to stop sinning and return towards the Lord.

That is yet just another reason why Satan and the other evil spirits fear Mary all the more, because she has managed to bring so many souls away from their clutches and dominion, through her ceaseless dedication to us, through her loving examples and faith, through her inspiration and role model and through the Holy Rosary that she herself has instituted and given to us, by which many people found their way back to the Lord, to His grace and salvation. That is why each and every one of us are called to look up upon our beloved Mother Mary, and follow her examples in faith and ask her to intercede for our sake, we who are sinners and are in need of her help, and in need of the mercy and forgiveness from her Son, Our Lord and Saviour. Let us invoke her most holy name with faith, to defend us from the attacks of the evil one.

May the Lord continue to watch over us all, and may the constant intercession and guidance that His mother Mary has shown us continue to help us in our journey towards Him. May all Christians everywhere always be inspired to live their lives in obedience to God just as Mary herself had done. May God bless us always in all things, and may He continue to guide and strengthen us in all things, and help us to persevere through the many challenges of life. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us too, and listen to us when we call upon your most holy name, and protect us from the evil ones. Amen.

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Sunday, 11 September 2022 : Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are presented with clear message from the Sacred Scriptures of the power of God’s compassion, mercy and love. Each and every one of us have been shown the proof of God’s ever enduring love and patience with us throughout history, and through what we have heard in our Scripture passages today, all of us are reminded just how fortunate we are and how thankful we should have been, because we have this most loving and patient God by our side, Who still loves us even when He chastised and punished us for our sins, like that of a loving father cares for his children as indeed, He is our Father.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Exodus we heard from the story of the moment when the Israelites rebelled against the Lord just shortly after they had been freed from the tyranny and enslavement by the Egyptians and their Pharaoh in Egypt. The Lord had shown His great might and wonders, His miraculous deeds and powers, delivering His people Israel from the land of Egypt by sending Ten Great Plagues on the Egyptians and forced them and their Pharaoh to let the Israelites go free. The Lord opened the sea itself for the people of Israel to walk through and crushed the army and chariots of the Egyptians sent to chase after them.

Despite all these signs and wonders, some among the Israelites failed to have faith in the Lord, and many were swayed by those faithless ones to turn towards wickedness, as they built up for themselves a golden calf idol, no doubt modelled after the pagan deities they witnessed in the land of Egypt and elsewhere, treating that golden calf idol as the one who had liberated them and delivered them from the hands of the Egyptians. They acted on their own volition, in a foolish manner, despite the Lord having spoken on several occasions through Moses that they were not to have any other gods beside Him, and how He, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the one and only True God.

Ironically, this happened at that moment when the Lord was granting His Ten Commandments and Law to His people through Moses, and the very First commandment stated that, ‘I am the Lord your God, and you are not to have any other gods, or to have any graven images before you.’ The Lord was reminding the people again of their obligation to Him since He has established a new Covenant with them, and brought them to that place, the holy mountain, Mount Sinai to make that Covenant, which He had just established not long before the moment when the Israelites rebelled against the Lord. Unfortunately, they slid down into that rebellion, and disobeyed the Lord in the worst way possible.

God was just and right in His justification to punish the people who had rebelled against Him, in betraying Him for the pagan idol, the golden calf. He could indeed have crushed and destroyed all of them who have betrayed and abandoned Him, at the mere whim of His will, but that would not be according to what He wanted. While God is good and just, and does not tolerate any sin, but at the same time He is also full of love and compassion towards us, His beloved children and people, those whom He loved from the very beginning and created as the pinnacle of His creation in this world and universe.

If God wanted to crush and destroy us, He could have done that immediately right after we have sinned against Him first in the days of our very first ancestors, Adam and Eve, when they first disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But God, although He punished mankind to wander and suffer in the world as a consequence for their sins, at the same time, He also prepared the path for the eventual redemption of all of the same people, to whom He promised the coming of His deliverance, which all came true through Jesus Christ, the Saviour born into the world, God Himself incarnate in the flesh.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples and to the people using several parables to explain the love that God has for each and every one of us, and how fortunate we are to have been beloved in such a manner by our loving Father and Creator. Through the parable of the lost sheep and the lost silver coin, the Lord Himself highlighted just how precious all of us who have been lost to our loving God and Father, that just as a shepherd would do all he could to go, find and gather his lost sheep, or for someone to go and find the lost silver coin, hence the Lord would go all out to find us all and to return us back to Himself.

And that was exactly what He had done as He reached out to us through Jesus Christ, His own beloved and begotten Son, Who came into this world in the flesh, to show us all the ever-enduring and ever-wonderful love that God has always had for us. Through Christ, God’s love had been made real, tangible and manifest, and we can see His love in Christ, Who did not just show how dear and beloved we are through these parables, but He also showed this love through His most loving sacrifice on the Cross, as a very tangible and real manifestation of His love. It is a love so great that as He Himself said that there is no love greater than for one to give his or her life for a friend.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, that is just how great God’s love for each one of us is. He has always generously loved us all, and desired for all of us to come back to Him with repentance and sincere desire to be reunited with Him. Just as highlighted in another parable that the Lord mentioned in our Gospel today, the well-known parable of the prodigal son, we can hear how the Lord is represented to us all in the person of the father in the parable, who had two sons, one of whom, the elder one, was more responsible and dutiful, obeying his father and remaining close to him, representing those who have always kept their faith in God.

On the other hand, the prodigal younger son, who wanted to take his share of inheritance and then went off to a far-off land, squandering his money and possessions in the process, represent all those who have become wayward and become lost from the Lord, and that is essentially all of us, just as how all of us have sinned and fallen into sin, been tempted and fell into disobedience against God, much as how the people of Israel had disobeyed the Lord, betrayed and abandoned Him for an idol made from gold by human hands, the golden calf idol. The Lord reminded the people through this story of the prodigal son, how He still loved us all nonetheless, despite our sins and wickedness, our disobedience and evils.

However, as we recall again the story of the prodigal son, we have to remind ourselves an important fact that is often missed out by those who listened to this story, and even among those who are familiar with this story. The prodigal son, by his own volition and willpower, chose to commit himself to return to his father, swallowing his pride and ego, humbling himself and admitting his own weaknesses, mistakes and faults. He must have had such great struggle within himself, especially when he realised that he had the choice to remain in that far-off place as a beggar, or to retun to his father, though in shame. He had decided to take his portion of the inheritance, and yet, he squandered it all off. For those who are concerned about their image and ‘face’, it must be tough to decide to return to his father.

Yet, that was what the prodigal son committed to do, and he returned to his father with great and sincere contrition, repentance and the desire to right the wrongs he had done and committed. That is the attitude that all of us sinners have to take heed of and adopt as well. Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because one of the greatest and most common reason why people failed to return to the Lord and remained in the state of sin is because they were too proud and could not let go of their pride and ego, and they chose to hide away from the Lord, keeping themselves distant from God, the only One Who can help them and free them from the bondage and slavery to those sins and evils.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we willing and able to follow the path of the prodigal son, in turning away from his pride and ego, from his attachments to sin and to learn humility and obedience once again, in repenting from his sins, faults and mistakes, and in admitting them before his own father? The Lord has provided the channel for us to do so through His Church through the Sacraments, particularly that of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And this serves as a good reminder for us, to ask ourselves, when was the last time we went for the Sacrament of Reconciliation? When was the last time we went to confess our sins to a priest?

We are also called to be more attuned to the state of our souls, and how sinful we are. We are reminded that God’s mercy, love and compassion are boundless, but we need to come to Him and make the commitment to leave behind that wretched state, our sinful existence. The Lord has provided us with means and ways to come back to Him, and it is now then up to us to embrace His loving mercy and compassion, as He is always ever ready to welcome us back to Himself, like how the father in the parable of the prodigal son welcomed back his prodigal son with open arms, and restored him to a state of grace and honour, forgiving him fully of his mistakes and faults.

Let us all therefore do our part, brothers and sisters, to entrust ourselves more to the Lord in our daily living. Let us abandon all sorts of wicked and unworthy attitudes which had always become stumbling blocks in our path and journey towards the Lord. Let us all abandon all the idols present all around us, not just those idols of false gods, but even more importantly, the idols of our pride and ego, the idols of our greed, attachments to the world, of jealousy and wrath, and of worldly desires, among many others. Let us return to our most loving God and Father with a heart full of love for Him and genuine contrition for our many sins, and with the hope that God’s love will cleanse us from all those sins and wickedness.

May the Lord, our loving God and Creator, be with us always, and may He continue to strengthen and encourage us all to persevere through the many trials and challenges of life. May He continue to bless our every endeavours and good deeds, all for His greater glory. Let us all Christians glorify the Lord and proclaim His truth and Good News among all the peoples, through our own worthy lives, now and always, forevermore. Amen.