Weekday Homily

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Saturday, 25 December 2021 : Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Christmas Mass at Dawn (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this morning as we gather together to celebrate this Christmas Mass at Dawn, all of us are called to reflect on the coming of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour as the bearer of God’s great light and hope, in His glorious coming and appearance in this world, born in Bethlehem of Judea over two millennia ago. As we heard in our Scripture passages today, the Lord proclaimed His most generous and wonderful love to us through the Nativity or the birth of His Son, Our Saviour.

In our first reading today, we heard of the passage from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, in which we heard the proclamation of God’s saving grace and His salvation to His people, how He would rescue them and deliver them from their troubles. God has always loved all of His people, that is all of us without any exception. All of us who are sinners are beloved by God and He wants us to be redeemed and be forgiven from our many sins, and that is why He gave us so great a deliverance by sending to us His Son, to free us from the tyranny of sin.

As St. Paul made it clear to St. Titus in our second reading today, God sent us His salvation through Jesus Christ His Son, through Whom His grace, blessings and forgiveness has come down upon us. Incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother, by the power of the Holy Spirit, He has become for us the source of Hope and the fount of God’s most generous mercy. God’s compassion and love has been extended to us, and He has given us this most wonderful means to reach out to Him, that we are no longer going to be separated from Him anymore.

He came as the Child born in that stable, placed in a manger, a small Baby, the Son of Mary. He is the fulfilment of God’s promise of salvation and the long awaited Saviour of all. Yet, unlike what most people at that time would have imagined, He came not as a glorious conqueror or a mighty King, but rather as a small Child, weak and vulnerable, Who had no place to lay His head but on a dirty manger suitable only for animals there in the stable. He came into this world in a very simple and humble way, and although He is a King, but He was born not in a palace, but in a most unworthy of places.

If we remember the story of the Nativity of the Lord, we should remember how St. Joseph and Mary, who was then about to give birth to Jesus, were struggling as they reached Bethlehem after they travelled a long way from Nazareth in Galilee for the census ordered by the Roman Emperor. All the inns and lodgings were full and they were rejected at every places and at every turns. It was probably thanks to a kind person who helped and guided them to a stable located just outside the town of Bethlehem, the place where the Saviour of the world was to be born.

And it was there, amongst animals, sheep, cows, horses, goats and others that the Lord, the King of Kings was born. He was laid in the manger and revealed before the shepherds and others who witnessed His birth. Thus at that time, the coming of the Lord into this world was marked not by great celebrations and throngs of joy on Earth, but in quiet silence and in the presence of shepherds, with only Angels attending to the King, proclaiming His glory with the words, ‘Gloria in Excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the Highest heavens!’

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord has come into the world, to be in our midst and among us, so that He may deliver us from our sins. Much as how God has sent Moses to His people, the Israelites to deliver them from the hands of the Egyptians and their Pharaoh, from their enslavement and humiliation, from their suffering and hard life there, the same He has done for us all through Christ. The Lord Jesus, by His coming into the world, He has delivered us all from the tyranny of sin, from our enslavement to those sins, and receive from Him the freedom and assurance of liberation from eternal death.

We are truly fortunate that the Lord has done such marvellous things for us, even when we are still sinners and delinquents, rebels who are often testing the limits of His patience. Any other men would have consigned us to destruction and abandon us to our fate. But that was not what the Lord had done, as His love for us remained even after all that we had done to Him, in abandoning Him and in disobeying Him. He still did all that He could to reach out to us and patiently caring for us, and by giving us Christ, His Son, He has given the most generous gift of all.

As we enter into this season of Christmas and as we are going to celebrate the festivities of Christmas, therefore let us all spend the time to reflect on what Christmas is all about, brothers and sisters in Christ. Is Christmas to us just like any other holiday, festivities and celebrations? Is it just about all the parties, the glamour and all the merrymaking, about the gifts and the goodies that we are going to receive and exchange with each other? Is it just another time for us to look forward to good food and good pleasures, happiness and joy of this world?

Or is it a time for us to remember once again just how fortunate for us to have been beloved so generously and wonderfully by God, so much so that He has given us His only begotten Son as Our Lord and Saviour? This is unfortunately not what many of us are doing, as many of us in our celebrations of Christmas do not even have Christ at the centre and as the focus of our celebrations and joy. Instead, what we have done is placing ourselves, our greed and ego, and our selfish desires instead as the focus of our Christmas celebrations. To do so is for us to rejoice without understanding the true meaning and significance of Christmas.

Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, all of us who should have been consigned to annihilation and eternal destruction have received new hope and lease of life through His love and grace, by His most generous love in coming to us and in reaching out to us, in looking for us sinners. He is our Good Shepherd Who has come to us, the lost sheep and gathered all of us, calling on all of us to follow Him and be lost from Him no more. He came to us and showed His love to us, only for many of us to shut Him out and ignore Him. Is that something that we should be doing, brothers and sisters?

That is why today as we begin our Christmas joy and celebrations, let us all return to the true roots of the meaning of Christmas. Let us all remember once again why we even rejoice this Christmas, and that is because Christ and His presence in our lives, even today. We rejoice because of the love we have received from Him, and as Christians, all of us are called to share this love with one another. Of course we have to love God first and foremost of all, but we also must not forget to love all those others whom God had placed all around us in our lives.

Let us all share the love of God and the joy we have received this Christmas, and be generous in giving and sharing especially to those who have little or none to celebrate with this Christmas. And instead of excessive revelry and merrymaking, let us all share in the true joy of Christ by reaching out to one another with the genuine faith in Our Lord and His salvation, and share His love and blessings in our everyday lives with those who need them the most. May God, Our Lord Jesus Christ, born and celebrated on this Christmas day, be with us all and may He continue to bless us and watch over us throughout our joyous Christmas celebrations. Wishing all of us a most blessed Christmas! Amen.

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Saturday, 25 December 2021 : Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Christmas Midnight Mass (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all rejoice together as after the long wait and expectation during the Advent season, we finally mark the beginning of the Christmas season, the time for us to celebrate in the glorious coming of Our Lord in the flesh, the Divine Word Incarnate, Son of God born into this world as the Son of Man through His mother, the Blessed ever Virgin Mary. He was born in Bethlehem in Judea, in the city of David, as the fulfilment of the long awaited promise and assurance of God, Who has come to dwell among His people and to deliver them from their enslavement by the evil one and from the tyranny of sin and death.

In our first reading today, the Lord through His prophet Isaiah has spoken to the people, revealing how He would send them a Child, to be born of Man to them, in a great prophecy proclaiming the coming of God’s Saviour or Messiah. In that prophecy, God spoke of the coming of the time of salvation and liberation for His people, the Israelites, as He would gather them from among the nations and break the yoke of their oppressors and all of their enemies. He would send them a Child, the One prophesied to come, and His Name as proclaimed, would be Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

While the people of God back then could not have foreseen or known what these things truly meant, but to them it must have been strange for the words of the prophet Isaiah to have mentioned a Child born into this world and named such as Mighty God and Everlasting Father, for these were the titles that ought to be reserved to God alone. How could God descend and come down into this world as a Child, born of Man no less? How can the Almighty and Infinite God of the entire Universe and existence be contained in the Child or Son of Man?

Such is indeed the mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation, as He willingly came down to us, being Incarnate in His Aspect as the Son and the Word of God, incarnate in the flesh, willing into existence by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ the Son of Man, the Child born two millennia ago in Bethlehem of Judea, Who was truly Man, but also truly God at the same time, the Eternal God and King of us all. That Child born in Bethlehem is the King of all the whole entire Universe, Who has entered this world by His own will and by His enduring and amazing love for each and every one of us.

As St. Paul mentioned in our second reading today, in his Epistle to St. Titus, the Lord has given us all His grace and love through Jesus Christ, His Son born to us and which we celebrate this night at Christmas. He has entered our world, sharing with us our human nature and experiencing what we ourselves have experienced, so that we may be reconciled and reunited with Him, and this is all that the Lord had intended to do from the very beginning. Just as if we remember from the Book of Genesis, God said to Satan, the deceiver, that while he may have dominion over the sons and daughters of man, but through Woman, a reference to Mary, he would be conquered and defeated.

The Lord wants us to be reconciled to Him, but this will not happen unless we have been forgiven and cleansed from our sins. Sin is caused by our disobedience against God, and it sundered us off from Him, and as a result, we should have ended up falling into eternal damnation and suffering in hell. The Lord could very well have destroyed us from the very beginning, as creatures that had been defiled and corrupted by sin. But that was never His intention. His love for us is greater than His disgust for our sins and wickedness. To that extent, He committed Himself to us, by coming down to us, to be with us and to save all of us.

He Who is the Almighty Lord and King over all things willingly embraced our human nature to show us the way out of the darkness, reminding all of us of our true nature of being holy and perfect in God’s grace. This had been interrupted by the appearance of sin in our lives, and by the temptations that we face daily, and how we fell again and again to those temptations and ended up sinning against God. But God made Himself to be like us, to unite Himself to us and to act as a Bridge spanning the once uncrossable chasm that existed between us and God due to sin.

Christ is that Bridge, the One Who bears the Light of God’s grace and salvation into our midst. His coming into this world revealed to all of us just how beloved we are to the Lord, so much so that He was willing to make Himself small, to be born an Infant, a small little Child in Bethlehem just as we heard in the account of our Gospel passage today. He made Himself that little Child in Bethlehem, to show us what is meant for us to be beloved by God, and at the same time, also His desire to be loved by us. This Christmas is a great celebration of God’s most generous love for us, a love that overcomes sin and death.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we gather together in this celebration of the Christmas Midnight Mass, we are all called to reflect on the true nature of Christmas and why we rejoice so greatly and wonderfully not just tonight but also this entire Christmas season. The Lord has entered into the world and revealed to us His love in the tangible form of the little Baby Jesus in the manger, to be our Lord and King, gathering all of us to Himself. And in time, that same Child would also come to bear His Cross with the weight of our innumerable sins, which by His perfect obedience to His Father’s will and by His infinite love for us, He offered on our behalf the worthy sacrifice for the atonement of our sins.

That is why, it is sad that we have seen so many occasions in our Christmas preparations and celebrations, when Christ Himself has been sidelined and even forgotten as we have become accustomed to the more secularised way that Christmas has been celebrated. If we see all around us, in all the Christmas rejoicing and festivities, we rarely even see the Lord being part of any of the celebrations. Instead of the Child Jesus, we saw figures like Santa Claus, the elves and many other secular characters depicted throughout our Christmas parties and revelries.

It is like the birthday boy has been excluded and forgotten from his own birthday celebration, as Christmas rightfully is the celebration of our Lord’s Nativity or birth into this world. As we all know that in any birthdays, the most prominent person must be the person whose birthday we are celebrating, then the same should apply to Christmas as well. Have we prepared and celebrated our Christmas celebrations with Christ as the focus and the centre of our efforts? Have we placed Him at the heart of our merrymaking and rejoicing?

Or instead have we allowed the excesses of worldly pleasures, desires for satisfaction and even ego and pride to guide us in our Christmas celebrations? If we have done all these, then we really need to ask ourselves, what is Christmas and its meaning to all of us. We cannot treat Christmas just like any other holidays or festivities, and certainly it is not just a time for us to be merry and happy without knowing its true importance and reason. We rejoice especially because God has loved us so much, that as I mentioned earlier, He manifested His love to us in the Child Jesus.

God’s love made all of our rejoicing possible and we can rejoice because we know that through Christ, we have been assured the salvation and eternal life, and have been freed from the bondage and power of sin. Through our baptism we have been made sons and daughters of God Himself, through adoption by exactly Christ’s birth and incarnation in our human nature, as we all share with Him our humanity, and since He is the Son of God, we too therefore share with Him in becoming the adopted children of God, as members of His one Church, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if we have lapsed and failed to prepare ourselves to understand the true nature and meaning of Christmas, and if we have not prepared ourselves to celebrate Christmas worthily, then it is still not too late for us to do so. This night’s Scripture readings serve as important reminders for all of us that we have to make our Christmas celebrations and joy a truly meaningful one. Let us all not waste this opportunity and instead do whatever we can in order to bring the light of Christ into this world, and be the witnesses of His love present in our midst.

Let us share the joy we have and all the blessings and wonders that we have received from God, especially with our fellow brothers and sisters who are unable to celebrate Christmas, as well as to those who are encountering hardships and sorrow in life. Let us bear the true light and hope of Christmas to them, and share with them the wonders of God’s love. May God bless us always and may His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, born and celebrated this Christmas day, guide us to the glory of everlasting life and grace. Wishing all of us here and everyone a most blessed Christmas! Amen.

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Friday, 24 December 2021 : Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Christmas Eve (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, after a long time of preparation and expectation we have experienced and journeyed through in the season of Advent, we have finally arrived at the beginning of the Christmas season with this Christmas Vigil Mass. This night we gather together as one community and one Church in celebrating the moment of the great appearance of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the whole world, as He was born of His Mother Mary in Bethlehem, the city of David over two millennia ago.

This night we remember that most beautiful and wonderful night when light and hope are restored to all of us who have lived in a world filled with darkness and sin. That was the night when God’s long awaited salvation has finally come, the moment when God revealed before the people the extent of His most magnificent and enduring love, as He showed His love to us manifested in the flesh, in Christ Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God alike, the Divine Word Incarnate, fully God and fully Man. Through Him, the love of God has been made concrete and manifest, and He became tangible, approachable and reachable to us.

The Lord reassured all of His people in our first reading tonight taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, as He told them of the coming of the time of renewal for Jerusalem and for the nation of God’s people. They would be renewed and enlightened, redeemed and made whole once again. These were significant words of hope, encouragement and love for a people who at that time had been troubled with the continuing downwards fortunes of their nation. For by the time of the prophet Isaiah, the old glory of Israel under King David and King Solomon were long gone, their kingdom divided and the northern half of which had been destroyed earlier on by the Assyrians.

For a people who were then beset with many troubles and worries, persecuted and oppressed by their neighbours, and for the faithful who remained true to their faith in God despite the evils and wickedness of even many among the people of God themselves who chose to abandon the Lord for the various pagan idols, those words spoken by the Lord must have been a great consolation and encouragement, a gift of new hope and light that God has always been with His people, and He will send to them His salvation, as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah, who also mentioned how the Saviour would be born of a Virgin, and the mention of the Builder marrying the metaphorical Jerusalem, representing the people of God.

It means that God would indeed come to dwell among His people, and He would come to deliver them from their troubles and sufferings. He would reveal to them the path to follow towards eternal life and true happiness through Him. All these happened as foretold as Mary, the one whom God had prepared to be the Mother of God and Saviour, wedded St. Joseph, the heir of King David. She also bore within her womb, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Son of God Most High. As such, the Saviour that was born that day in Bethlehem was truly the Heir of David, as prophesied by the prophets.

For St. Paul himself in our second reading, in the Acts of the Apostles, spoke of how God guided His people and how He had promised King David, His faithful servants that the Saviour of all would come from among His descendants. Thus, on that day in Bethlehem two millennia ago, what so many people had awaited for a very long time, awaiting for the salvation of God, had come to fruition at last. A people who had long laboured and waited in the darkness have seen a great light, the Light of God’s salvation and truth.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we enter into this Christmas season and begin our joyous Christmas celebrations, let us all continue to constantly ask ourselves, what is Christmas and its meaning to all of us? What is the significance of Christmas and how we are going to celebrate Christmas joyfully and with proper understanding and appreciation of what it is all about. Otherwise, it will be very easy for us to lose focus and end up celebrating Christmas with a lot of festivities and merrymaking, and yet, all those joy and celebrations were superficial and meaningless.

We all know how commercialised Christmas has become in the recent years and decades. Christmas has become so commercialised and secularised that many had mostly ignored its true meaning and purpose, and instead of celebrating Christ and His coming into our world, the Love of God made Man, we are celebrating our own vain desires and wishes for pleasures, comforts and worldly joy. Instead of remembering how much beloved we are by God and all that He has done for our sake and our salvation, we end up being distracted by the many temptations of worldly grandeur and pleasures.

What is Christmas, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is the time for us to celebrate and remember the most wonderful love of God, given to us so generously and unconditionally. And having received that great and amazing love, it is then just right and proper for us to show the same love for our fellow brothers and sisters, to pass on the love that God has given us and to remind ourselves that we are truly fortunate to be so beloved by God and also by one another. This is how we should celebrate Christmas, with genuine love for God and for our fellow men, and not for our own vainglory.

Let us also remember that there are many of our brothers and sisters out there who may not be able to celebrate Christmas in the way we do. There are many out there who are unable to celebrate Christmas because they are not even free to express themselves and their Christian faith, and are persecuted daily for their faith. And there are also others who are too poor and marginalised to be able to celebrate Christmas in the manner that many of us are familiar with. Many of these brothers and sisters of ours are even struggling to make ends meet each day, and struggle to have enough food to sustain themselves everyday.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all make our Christmas celebration tonight and beyond a more meaningful one by refocusing our celebrations on Christ and not on ourselves. Let us all moderate our festivities and merrymaking and not forgetting all others who may not be so fortunate as us in being able to celebrate the Lord’s coming. And if we are able to, let us share our joy and love with those who have little or none, and bear to them, our own brethren, the light of God’s hope and the warmth of His love, that they all too may share in the true joy of Christmas together with us.

May the Lord, our God and Saviour, born and celebrated this Christmas day, be with us always and bless our Christmas celebrations, that they may be fruitful and wholesome. May God empower each and every one of us with His love and with the Hope that He has brought into our midst, that we may become the beacons of His light and hope in our daily lives and always. May all of us have a most blessed Christmas season ahead, Merry Christmas and God bless! Amen.

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Friday, 24 December 2021 : 4th Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the last day of the Advent season, marking the end of our almost month-long preparation for the coming of Christmas, and we are reminded of the coming of the long-awaited salvation of the world through what we have heard in our Scripture passages today. The Lord has always held His promise and kept His part in the Covenant He has made with each and every one of us.

The Lord has revealed His plans for us, from the beginning, as He revealed from the very moment that mankind fell into sin, how He would send His Saviour through the Woman who would bear a Son, and through that Woman, the power and dominion that Satan, the evil one, had over us would be totally crushed and destroyed. He would send His salvation through the descendants of Man, through Abraham His servant and the House of David, the one He had chosen to be King over all of His people.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Samuel of the account of what transpired at the time when King David had been secure in his reign and power over the land of Israel and beyond, and had settled in his kingdom and dominion, and wanting to build a house for the Lord, just as he has already built and established his palace in the city of Jerusalem. The King spoke with the prophet Nathan who then relayed God’s message and words to him afterwards.

God told David that it was not him who would build a great House for His sake, and instead, it would be his own son that would build that House, the great Temple that would be built in Jerusalem, by the hands of King Solomon, David’s son, as God Himself had spoken and promised to David himself. God reassured David that his kingdom and house would be forever secure and firm, and this was firstly a reference to the succession of his own Solomon to rule after him, at the zenith of the power and majesty of the old kingdom of Israel.

However, it was also an indirect reference and revelation to David and also to the rest of the people of God, that He would send His Saviour, the Messiah, to be born into the House of David, as His rightful Heir and Son, to gather back the people of God once again, and to rebuild the glorious kingdom of God, with all of God’s people reconciled and reunited to their Lord and Creator. Little did the people know then that, it was the Lord Himself Who endeavoured to come to us.

He willingly embraced us and by His incarnation in the flesh, as the Son of Man and Son of God alike, in the person of Jesus Christ, He has fulfilled all the promises that He had made to all of us His beloved ones, from the very beginning of time. Christ has come into this world to restore His people and to reunite all of them, not just the Israelites but also including all the rest of the children of Adam, all of mankind who have been sundered from God through sin.

Zechariah in our Gospel passage today, in his famous Canticle of Zechariah, full of the Holy Spirit, singing a great hymn of thanksgiving and praise, for all that God had done for him and for all mankind. He has become a father after a long wait for a son, and God gave him a son, and not only that, but that son was the one to be the Herald of the Saviour of the whole world. St. John the Baptist, the Herald of the Messiah was the one to proclaim the coming of Christ, and Zechariah, seeing all of these glimpses of the glory of God to come, sang in great glory praising God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore spend some time to reflect today, as we prepare for the great celebration of Christmas beginning this very night. Let us remind ourselves again why we are celebrating Christmas, and what Christmas truly means to each and every one of us. Is Christmas merely just yet another holiday and celebration? Is it merely another time for feasting and merrymaking, but forgetting about Christ Our Lord, our Saviour, Whose coming into this world is the reason for all of our joy and celebrations?

Let us all therefore seek the Lord anew, with a new faith and love for Him, and let us all enter into the season of Christmas and celebrate it with full understanding and appreciation of God’s love, which has been manifested in Our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of us all. Let us all bear the Light and Joy of the true Christmas spirit, and proclaim the truth and salvation of God to all the nations. May God bless us all, and may He bless our wonderful Christmas celebrations to come. Amen.

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Thursday, 23 December 2021 : 4th Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of Kanty, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we are almost at the end of the Advent season and the start of the Christmas celebrations, through what we have heard from the readings of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all called to reflect on the life, work and faith of St. John the Baptist, whom the Lord had sent into this world just before His coming and revelation to the world, to prepare His way and to proclaim His coming to everyone, so that all may know of the Lord’s salvation.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Malachi, we heard the words of the Lord revealing to His people that He would send His messenger ahead of Him to prepare the way for His own coming. This was a prophecy of the coming of God’s Messiah, the Saviour Whom He has promised to all of His people for a very long time. And the coming of this Messiah would be preceded by a Herald, the one sent to prepare the way for the coming of the Saviour. This Herald is none other than St. John the Baptist.

St. John the Baptist came into this world to prepare the way for the Lord, which happened through the miraculous pregnancy of Elizabeth, who was Mary’s relative, and that happened despite Elizabeth having been in an advanced age and had been barren, unable to bear a child at all. The Angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah, his father in the Temple and proclaimed to him the Good News, that the son he would soon bear through his wife Elizabeth would be the one prophesied to proclaim the coming of the salvation of God.

He was born into this world and was dedicated to God from his infancy and youth, to be the servant of God Most High, and became the instrument through whom God prepared the revelation of His great plan of salvation to all of us. God sent St. John the Baptist into the midst of His people to call them all to repentance, to call them to remember their sins and wickedness, and resolve to overcome all those evil and wicked deeds that they had committed. The Lord called on all of them to embrace His mercy and love, and through his baptism, St. John the Baptist prepared the hearts and minds of many to welcome the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having been reminded in the same manner, as we are all now about to celebrate Christmas, have we prepared ourselves well in order to be ready to welcome the Lord, the One Whom we are celebrating this Christmas for, into our hearts and minds? Or have we instead been too busy and distracted by the many concerns, the many busy commitments and tight schedules we have, our work and preoccupations that we ended up forgetting God, ignoring and sidelining Him in our busy lives and shutting Him out from ourselves.

Then, many of us have also been too distracted with the many distractions and temptations of the secular Christmas, and how it has been celebrated all around us. Many people have forgotten the true reason and meaning of Christmas, and this sadly include many of those who have called themselves as Christians. We do not have to look far, brothers and sisters in Christ. For example, let us all just look at ourselves and our attitudes towards the Lord and our faith in Him. How many of us can confidently say that we have truly devoted ourselves to Him?

Today, all of us should spend some time to reflect on how we can be better disciples and followers of our Lord, in living our faith in a more genuine and committed manner in our lives. Let us all also look for inspiration from the saint whose feast we celebrate today, namely that of St. John of Kanty, also known as St. John Cantius, who was a Polish priest and theologian renowned for his great piety and dedication to the Lord. He was involved in theological teachings and many other works among the people of God.

But what is most remembered from his actions were his compassionate nature and the efforts he put in reaching out to the poor and the people suffering all around him in his community. He also helped to support the students in the university he was teaching in, providing support and assistance whenever and wherever he could, while at the same time doing his best to do many other good works for the Lord and His Church. St. John Cantius devoted his life to follow the Lord and to live out the Christian faith in his daily living.

Are we able to do the same too, brothers and sisters in Christ? Let us all reflect on this, and spend the remaining time on these last two days of the Advent season to reorientate our lives if we have not yet done so thus far, so that we may once again focus our attention and our lives towards the Lord. May God be with us all too, and may He strengthen us in our resolve and faith to live our lives ever more faithfully in the service of His greater glory. Amen.

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Wednesday, 22 December 2021 : 4th Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord in the Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the great love and providence by which God had generously and marvellously cared for us since the very beginning. God has never looked away from us or ignored us when we are in our hour of great distress. Through various ways, He has always reached out to us and wanted to bring us all back to His embrace, to be reunited with us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Samuel in which the mother of Samuel, Hannah, was about to dedicate her firstborn son to the Lord as she herself had promised. At that time, Hannah was one of the wives of Elkanah, who also had another wife named Penninah. Hannah had not been able to have any son or child with Elkanah while Penninah had borne many sons and children to Elkanah. Children back then were highly regarded as symbols of fertility and prestige for the women, and the apparent barrenness of Hannah was often seen as as sign of someone being cursed or unworthy, and Hannah experienced exactly just that.

Penninah also often bullied Hannah and took pride at the fact that she had borne many children for her husband, while Hannah had none. Although Elkanah did love Hannah more than Penninah, but the fact that she did not have a child and could not bear one still weighed very heavily on her mind. It was at that occasion then that Hannah came seeking the Lord at the House of God, in the presence of the Judge Eli, praying before God and seeking His help and providence. She begged the Lord for His assistance and for her to be rescued from her predicament.

The Lord heard Hannah’s prayer and answered her, and she miraculously bore a child, whom she had promised to the Lord if she were ever to bore one. Her firstborn son was named as Samuel, and was offered to God to be His servant forever. Hannah was very grateful to the Lord for all that He had done for her, praising Him and thanking Him for all that He had blessed her with. Through Him, her shame and predicament had been overcome, a light and hope had returned back to her face and heart once again.

The Lord had done the same to all of us through Mary, as we heard in our Gospel passage today. The Psalm today is Hannah’s song of rejoicing and thanksgiving, for all that the Lord had done for her in removing from her the stain of humiliation and suffering due to her earlier barrenness. And after having offered and entrusted Samuel to the Lord, she was blessed with more children with her husband Elkanah. And in the Gospel passage, we heard Mary, great song of rejoicing that is similar to Hannah’s great song of rejoicing, the Magnificat.

In the Magnificat, Mary, full of the Holy Spirit sang a great song of praise, thanking God for all the wonders He had done for His beloved people, ever since the very beginning of time. God has always ever been faithful to His people and He has always showed His kindness to them, and to all those who have devoted themselves to Him, He has brought them His grace and blessings, as He had done to Abraham and David, fulfilling His promises to them, and bringing into this world its salvation, through none other than Christ, Who was then in Mary’s womb.

As we listened to those words and recalled God’s great and amazing deeds done for our behalf, and as we progress ever closer to Christmas in just a few days’ time, all of us are encouraged to spend the time to deepen our relationship with God, to remember His love and all the blessings He has given us all these while throughout our lives. We are also called to rediscover the love which we should have for the Lord, and to be thankful for everything that He had done for our sake, and foremost of all, for His coming into this world which we celebrate this Christmas.

As the famous words in the Gospel of St. John mentioned, God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son, to be born into the world, the Divine Word Incarnate, to be born of His mother Mary and revealed to the whole world, to all of us, so that through Him, all of us who have lived in darkness may come to see the great light and hope that God alone can bring to our midst. Through Him, the world has the reason to rejoice again, and all of us can finally see hope at the end of our earthly journey, to look up to the hope of everlasting joy and peace in God’s presence.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore focus our attention on the Lord, and do our best to make our upcoming Christmas celebrations a more wholesome and meaningful one. Let us make this Christmas a time of renewal of our faith in God and a rejuvenation of our love for Him. May God be with us all and may His light and hope rekindle in our hearts to continue to desire to seek Him in each and every moments of our lives. Amen.

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Tuesday, 21 December 2021 : 4th Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Peter Canisius, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures and as we come ever closer to the celebration of Christmas in just a few more days, all of us are reminded that God loves us all, and we are all precious and cherished by Him. We should be grateful and feeling very fortunate to have been treasured in such a way by our loving God, and to have experienced His most wonderful love and grace. God has always ever been patient in loving us despite our many transgressions and mistakes, as He wants us to return to Him and rediscover the love that we all should have for Him.

The Lord has promised us all His salvation, and has always proved His love for us from the very beginning, never abandoning us even in the moments of our greatest distress. He has always put us all first and foremost in His thoughts, and He always endeavoured to reach out to us, trying to find us and to redeem us so that we may not be forever lost to Him. And that was why He came down into our midst, through His most Blessed Mother Mary, the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mother of God, who went to visit Elizabeth, her cousin in our Gospel passage today.

Elizabeth recognised Mary and the One inside her womb, the Saviour of the whole world and the Lord Himself, the Divine Word Incarnate, Who has taken up the human existence and form in the flesh, to bring His salvation into our midst. The Lord has revealed Himself to us, the fullness of His love, through His incarnation and then His birth into this world. The world that was once in the darkness and in the shadows of evil and wickedness has finally seen the truth, love and salvation from God.

That is the true essence of Christmas, which often sadly had been forgotten by the world, by many of us, even we who called ourselves as Christians. We have forgotten what the Lord had done for us and sidelined Him because we have little faith in Him. We are easily distracted by the many temptations and worldly desires present in this world. These had misled us down the wrong path and caused us to be separated further and further away from God.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to these words of the Scriptures, we are therefore reminded of the need for us to respond to God’s love and to answer His call. He has called all of us to follow Him and to entrust ourselves completely to His care and to believe in His hope and light, in His truth and way. But in order to do so, first of all, we need to reject firmly the temptations of our worldly concerns and desires.

Today, all of us are celebrating the feast of a great saint whose life, works and devotion to God and His Blessed Mother Mary can be great source of inspiration and strength for all of us. St. Peter Canisius was a renowned Jesuit priest and teacher of the faith, who dedicated his life in serving God. Born as Peter Kanis in what is today the Netherlands, the future saint would come to join the Society of Jesus together with other famous saints like St. Francis Xavier and its founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola.

St. Peter Canisius dedicated himself in the many efforts of Counter Reformation in what is today Germany, seeking to undo and repair the damages caused to the Church and the communities of the faithful by the false teachings of the heresy of Protestantism back then. He laboured hard among the people, teaching the faith and revealing the truth about Church teachings and tenets, in a way that is both understandable, respectful and conciliatory.

He once remarked that the right manner and attitude must be used in persuading the lapsed ones to return to the Holy Mother Church, saying that if a forceful method is used, then it may end up preventing the healing of the division within the Church of God. To that extent, he continued to work hard to bridge the divisions among the people of God, and managed throughout his efforts to convert and convince many to abandon their rebellion and return to the true Church of God.

St. Peter Canisius was also well known for his Catechism, which was widely published and reproduced, which resulted in the great rejuvenation of faith among the people and the increase in the number of people who began to appreciate the true teachings of the Church more, and many others deepened their under his guidance and through their understanding and exposure to his works. He was also known for his Mariology and devotion to the Blessed Mother of God, and was credited with the last line in the Hail Mary prayer, ‘Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.’

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all follow in the footsteps of St. Peter Canisius in his faith and dedication to the Lord. Let us all devote ourselves ever more to Him and His Blessed Mother, while reminding ourselves of what we are celebrating this Christmas, of Christ Our Lord, Whose love for us and His generous mercy and compassion has saved us from certain destruction. May God be with us always, and may He continue to love us, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 20 December 2021 : 4th Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as today we listened to the readings from the Sacred Scriptures, we are continually reminded of the truth of what we are going to celebrate in the upcoming Christmas season, as we await the day of the celebration in honour of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Who willingly came down to us in the human flesh and existence, born as the Son of Man, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother, fulfilling the promises that God Himself had made to us through His prophets and messengers.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard of the encounter between Isaiah and king Ahaz of Judah, in which the king refused to ask for a sign from God, which might be seen as a sign of humility, but in truth was more likely a sign of lack in faith in God’s power and providence, considering that Ahaz was one of the kings of Judah who had not obeyed the Lord and His precepts, and instead, misled the people into the path of sin. The prophet Isaiah therefore spoke prophetically of the Lord’s words, of the great Sign that He would reveal before all, showing the truth about His love for all of His people.

As spoken by the prophet, this now famous prophecy was a direct reference to the coming of the Lord through Mary, the Virgin who would bear a Son, and be a sign to all the nations. It is the revelation of God’s plan of salvation for His people and everything that He had willingly done for our sake, out of His ever most generous love for each and every one of us, without exception. He willingly became incarnate in the flesh, to be born as a Man, in Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and Son of God, to offer on our behalf, as our Eternal High Priest, the perfect and worthy offering for the atonement of our sins.

And all of these came to be thanks to the cooperation and the willingness of Mary, who listened to the wonderful Good News revealed by the Archangel Gabriel, revealing before her what she would become, that is to be the Mother of God herself, to be the bearer of the Holy One of God, God’s own only begotten Son. By the power of the Holy Spirit, she would bear the Son of God Himself conceived in her womb in the flesh. Through her, God’s love become manifest, tangible and visible to us, and by her active cooperation in the works of God’s salvation, Mary brought the Saviour Himself into this world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we heard of these words from the Sacred Scriptures, we are yet again reminded that all of our preparations this Advent is a time for us to rediscover the true meaning of Christmas. This is something often forgotten even amongst us Christians, as we are often inundated and overwhelmed by the over commercialisation of Christmas all around us. We have seen so many evidence of how secular Christmas has been distracting us from the true meaning and significance of Christmas.

It is not wrong to celebrate Christmas, and indeed, all of us should celebrate Christmas with great joy and revelry. But at the centre of all those celebrations and revelry, there must be Christ, Our Lord and Saviour present, or else our Christmas celebrations are meaningless and empty, and are merely a celebration of our human greed and desire for pleasures and worldly excesses. Many of us sought to outdo each other in the glamour and the details of our Christmas celebrations, and yet we forgot that Christmas is all about Christ and all that He has done for us, so that through Him we may indeed rejoice and be glad because we have been saved.

As we approach ever closer to Christmas, let us all come ever closer to realise just how important Christ is to all of us, the Love of God made manifest and tangible. By being born in the flesh, He has made us all glimpse the Eternal Light and Joy of heaven, and through Him, we who live in a world of darkness are finally able to see the Light of Hope, and a way out of our predicament and sufferings. All these are thanks to the love that God has generously and patiently showed us all throughout time and history, even to this very moment, and to the unforeseeable future.

Then, what are we going to do about it, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we going to continue to ignore Him and put Him aside in our lives? Are we going to celebrate Christmas with a lot of festivities, but Himself as the One Whom we ought to be celebrating being sidelined and forgotten? Remember how He had loved us and did everything for us, even to stripping Himself of all dignity and glory, of power and majesty, to suffer and die for us on the Cross, so that by His sacrifice and death, all of us may have life through Him. May the Lord be with us all, and may He strengthen us all in each and every moments of our lives, that we may always remain ever faithful to Him, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 19 December 2021 : Fourth Sunday of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday is the last Sunday in the season of Advent, and on this Sunday we focus our attention to the last of the four Advent themes. After going through the theme of Hope, Peace and Joy in the previous three Sundays of Advent, today finally we focus on the theme of Love. As we prepare ourselves for the great celebration of Christmas in just a few days’ time, we are all called to remember why Christmas is there in the first place. That reason is because of God’s love for each and every one of us.

Christmas is not just about having festivities and celebrations, and not just about parties, merrymaking and all the paraphernalia often associated with it. Instead, as Christians all of us should fully know and realise that first and foremost, Christmas is a celebration of love, of the love that is always enduring and pure, that has been given to us from God, from His heavenly abode. God loves us all so much that He has given us His only beloved Son, the Divine Word Incarnate, Whose coming and appearance into this world is what we celebrate at Christmas.

Why love, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because God Himself is Love, and by His incarnation, in taking up the humble existence of our human flesh and by lowering Himself to be born into this world, He has shown us what true love is all about. His love is what made Him to create all of us, because He wanted to share with all of us, with all of creation, the perfect love that He Himself has, in the perfect love of the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That overflowing love has always been intended for us, to be filled with every grace and blessings.

However, it was because of our disobedience and the weakness of our flesh that our ancestors chose to listen to the devil instead of holding on to the truth of God and keeping their faith in Him. They chose to listen to his lies, and allowed themselves to be persuaded and convinced to disobey God’s direct commandments. As a result, we have been found guilty and corrupted by sin. We were made perfect, blameless and without fault, and should have shared in the everlasting joy and true happiness in God’s presence. Unfortunately, our sins and the corruptions in us sundered us from His grace and love.

But God did not give up on us, and His love for us yet endured. He has devised for so great a plan and prepared everything for us, waiting for the time this plan would be revealed to all of us. He has given assurances and glimpses of this truth and the Good News through His prophets and messengers, and eventually, as we heard in our first reading taken from the Book of the prophet Micah, God revealed how He would come to His people, through the small town of Bethlehem Ephrata, the small town of David, where the great king of Israel hailed from, from his humble origins as a shepherd, the youngest son of Jesse of Judah.

God sent His Saviour, His own Son, born into this world in that town, on that day which we celebrate as Christmas, which therefore is the full and perfect manifestation of His love in the flesh. God’s love has become tangible and accessible to us, since no longer that God is One that we cannot see and perceive. Having shown Himself through His Son, God has shown us just how much He loves us and just how amazing His commitment has been to the Covenant that He has established with us.

He came into this world through Mary His mother, dwelling in her hallowed womb for nine whole months before being born into this world. And as we heard in our Gospel passage today, even the mother of St. John the Baptist, Elizabeth, who was Mary’s relative, recognised the Lord present in Mary’s womb, and both of them praised God for everything that God had done for them. The miraculous nature of the pregnancy for Elizabeth, which happened in her advanced age, and for Mary, whose pregnancy happened before she consummated her marriage with St. Joseph her husband were proof of God’s intervention and the fulfilment for the plan of His salvation for all of us.

But even more than that, the Lord through that action of becoming Incarnate in the flesh, to be born as a Man, was an act of supreme love and compassion, which He generously showed towards all of us sinners. And why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because the Lord came to us in the human form and existence in order to share with us our humanity, to be the New Adam that would overturn the past sins and mistakes committee by the first Adam which led us all into sin.

And in the most important action He did for our salvation, done out of His ever generous and enduring love for us, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, willingly took upon Himself the punishments and the consequences of our sins. He took up His Cross and endured the most humiliating conditions and punishments, suffering for us on our behalf, in perfectly obeying the will of His Father, showing us what God’s love is all about, and how we ought to love God as well. As we heard in our second reading today, from the Epistle to the Hebrews, that is all that God wants from us as well.

He does not require from us offerings and sacrifices, referring to the ritual sacrifices done up to that time according to the Mosaic Law. It truly means that He does not require from us mere formality of faith and worship, and neither did He desire lip service from us His people. Instead, what He wants is a total commitment made with love and real genuine love we have for Him, as Christ Himself, in bearing His Cross has shown us. In that supreme act of self-sacrifice and selflessness, God Himself, the Son of God and Son of Man, the Divine Word Incarnate in the flesh, the One born on Christmas Day, showed His love for us, and His love for His heavenly Father, as part of the Holy Trinity of perfect Love with the Holy Spirit.

And that is what we ought to recall today, brothers and sisters in Christ, remembering the great love and the ever enduring patient love and compassion that God has always ever lavished on us, all these while. That is why this Sunday, we focus our attention on the what is arguably the most important of all the four Advent themes, that is Love. For without love, the love that God has for us, then we could never have been saved, and there could have been no hope for us at all. It was God’s Love for us that made all these possible.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, having come to realise God’s most amazing love for us, are we going to show Him the same kind of genuine love? Or are we going to continue to be stubborn in shutting Him out from our lives and in ignoring His loving presence in our midst? And most importantly, are we going to continue sidelining and forgetting about Him in our festivities and celebrations in and throughout the entire season of Christmas? We have to reflect and remember on what Christmas is truly all about.

Today, as we recall God’s loving presence in our midst, let us all strive to do our best to love the Lord with new hearts full of devotion and dedication to Him. If we have once ignored and abandoned Him for other idols and distractions in the world, let us now seek Him again with ever greater zeal and commitment. Let us all rediscover that love that each and every one of us ought to have for the Lord. And may the Lord, our ever loving God continue to love us and bless us, and may His love continue to be poured upon us, most generously, that we may also grow in our love for Him.

May all of us strive to celebrate Christmas worthily and remind one another what Christmas is truly all about, of a celebration of God’s most amazing love for His beloved ones, all of us, His children and His people, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 18 December 2021 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are reminded as we get ever closer to Christmas, of how the Lord has fulfilled His promises to us and gave us the perfect love that He manifested in the flesh, in our midst, in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God Most High and the Son of Man, born of Mary, His mother and part of the family of St. Joseph, His foster-father and becoming the Heir and Son of David, King of Israel.

As we heard from our first reading today from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, God promised His people that He would come to bring them liberation and salvation from their many troubles. And as God has revealed to them all throughout the past history, through many prophets and messengers, He would send His deliverer, the Saviour to come as the Heir of David, sending His only begotten Son to be the One to lead all of His beloved ones out of the darkness and into the Light of His salvation and truth.

God did not give up on us all, His beloved ones and He did everything He could to gather us all in, scattered throughout this darkened world full of sin and evil. He has always reached out to us, calling on us all to return to Him and to find our way to His presence. He wants to forgive us all our sins, and that is why, He gave us so great a deliverance and a Deliverer through Christ, Who came to us by the power of the Holy Spirit, indwelling in Mary, His mother, as told by the Angel of the Lord to St. Joseph, Mary’s legal husband and foster-father of the Lord.

By this action, God Himself has descended into the world, to live in our midst, Emmanuel, God is with us, a reminder that all of us are truly precious to God and greatly beloved by Him. God so loved the world that He has given us all His only Son, that through Him all will have life and be saved. That is the truth about the Good News that God has brought to us and revealed before all of us. And this is what we have to remind one another as we continue to progress through this season of Advent, to prepare ourselves so that we may celebrate Christmas worthily and appreciating the true significance and meaning of Christmas.

Let us spend some time to look at how we usually look at Christmas, how we perceive it and treat it year after year. Doubtless to say, many among us treat is as a festive and joyous occasion, but too often we are distracted by the many temptations of worldly excesses, as surely we know how we are often inundated by the commercialised perception and marketing of the secular Christmas. These are distracting us from the true essence and meaning of Christmas, as the One Whom we should be focusing on and celebrating about has often been sidelined and forgotten.

Instead, we treat Christmas as a time of feasting, merrymaking and celebrations to entertain ourselves, our ego and our desires. We seek to outdo one another in the grandness of our celebration and in the expenses we spent to celebrate, as well as desiring for many good things to please ourselves, whether in the celebrations themselves, in the company of people whom we celebrate with, and in the presents we exchange and receive, desiring and hoping to get better things for ourselves, or to revel in all the festive mood and all.

But we forget entirely why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. We forget why we, as Christians, are called to focus above all, Christ and His saving work, His kindness and compassionate mercy, the wonderful love by which He made fully manifest God’s enduring love and providence for all of us His people, through His ministry and work, His revelation of God’s truth, and finally, through His own volition, embracing a most painful suffering and death for our sake, by taking up His Cross. He suffered and died so that through those, we may all be saved.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the remaining time we have in this season of Advent, as we are coming ever closer to Christmas, let us all spend some time to reflect on how we perceive and plan to celebrate this Christmas. It is indeed right and proper for us to celebrate in Christmas as we should. However, we have to celebrate it with proper understanding and appreciation of God’s love for us made evident and clear in the flesh, through Christ His Son, that our celebrations are centred on the One Whom we ought to be rejoicing about.

Let us all therefore do our best to inspire one another to renew our Advent journey and reflection, so that we may come ever closer to greater appreciation and understanding of God’s work of salvation and love for us, in all that He had done for our sake. Let us all turn towards Him with genuine love and devotion, and do what we can to live a good and faithful Christian life, so that in whatever we say and do, we will always strive to be worthy of God, in all things, and worthy to welcome Him into our hearts and our lives, as we should do, this Christmas. May God bless us all and be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.