Weekday Homily

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Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are presented with the sad and unfortunate reality of how the people rejected those whom the Lord had sent to them, and refused to believe in them and in the message of truth and revelation which God has given them through those servants. This is all because of our stubbornness and our lack of faith and trust in the Lord, as we often trust more in our own abilities and we discriminate others based on our prejudices and biases.

In our first reading today we heard about the Lord sending Ezekiel to the people of Israel in exile in Babylon, to be His prophet and messenger among them. At that time, the people of Israel had been scattered in faraway lands, as the northern kingdom of Israel, composed of most of ten of the twelve tribes of Israel had been crushed and conquered by the Assyrians over a century before the time of Ezekiel, and most of the people had been brought to exile. Then, the Babylonians in turn subjugated the southern kingdom of Judah and brought many of its people into exile as well.

Thus, it was to this people that the Lord had sent Ezekiel to be His mouthpiece among them, to be the one to bring His message of truth to them and to call them to repentance and to turn away from their sinful and wicked ways. It was because of their many sins and refusals to obey the Lord that they had fallen from grace, and the glory of the old kingdom of David and Solomon had faded and gone from them. In a short time after God sent Ezekiel to the exiles in Babylon, the rest of Judah and the city of Jerusalem itself would be destroyed, and the remaining people brought to exile as well.

The sins of the people separated them from God, and without God, as they stood alone on their own, they faltered and failed, fell and became disgrace among the nations. Yet, we can see that the Lord still cared for them and did not forget about them. He could have destroyed and annihilated them easily, or abandoned them forever and chose other people to be His own people, but He still patiently sought them out, called them and sent prophets one after another to them, through the days of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and up to that time, the prophet Ezekiel.

Many of those prophets were rejected and ridiculed, and not few among them were made to suffer and even were killed for their works and faith in the Lord. The prophets laboured hard for the sake of the Lord and His people, and many gave their all to glorify the Lord and to bring His people to salvation. They endured all sorts of trials and troubles, sacrificing their time and many other things in following God’s call. But the people often still hardened their hearts against the Lord and refused to believe in Him.

The same thing happened to the Lord as we heard in our Gospel passage today, as we heard how He was rejected in Nazareth, in His own village and hometown. The people of Nazareth publicly doubted and questioned the Lord and His authority and authenticity when He came to His own town, teaching and preaching among them. This despite Nazareth itself being not far from the region around the Lake of Galilee where the Lord had performed many miracles and works.

Why did the people of Nazareth reject the Lord? That is because many of them were prejudiced against Him, thinking that they knew better than Him and they saw Him as an unworthy upstart, as the mere Son of the village carpenter, St. Joseph, His foster-father. No one in Nazareth beyond His immediate family knew the Lord’s true identity, and this is why everyone thought of the Lord as a fraud, and someone who was just the Son of a carpenter could not have gained such wisdom or taught with such authority. It was simply impossible in their minds.

That was why they refused to acknowledge the Lord and His truth, and they questioned and doubted Him, looking down on Him despite everything that they had heard and seen. They refused to open their hearts and minds to welcome Him inside, and kept Him out of their minds. And before we ourselves look down on them, let us remind ourselves that we have often done the same in our own lives, in each and every moments of our existence.

We should ask ourselves how often is it that the Lord had called us to follow Him and yet we hesitated and refused to listen to Him. And even though He has patiently reached out to us via various means, we still continued to harden our hearts and minds, and are stubborn in adhering to our old ways and paths, in opposition to God, in how we have been selfish and mean to others, in loving ourselves more than we love God and our fellow brothers and sisters, in indulging our various pleasures and pursuits in life, among others.

Therefore, as we listened and are reminded by this Sunday’s Scripture readings, we are all called as Christians to be humble and to be willing to open our hearts and minds to the Lord. And we can do this best by spending more quality time with the Lord, especially through prayer. Unfortunately, this is where many of us are falling short, as we do not regularly pray to the Lord, or when we pray, we do not pray in the right way. Prayer is not the same as asking God to do things on our behalf or to fulfil our desires and whatever we wanted. It is not about asking God to miraculously solve our problems and other things that we often did in our prayers.

Instead, we should be willing to listen to the Lord and learn to listen to Him more. We should open our hearts and minds, and allow Him to speak to us in the depth of our souls, that we may know His will more and be more attuned to Him in our lives and actions. This is what we are all challenged to do as Christians, to be ever more genuine in the way we live our lives with faith in God, and to devote our time and effort to glorify the Lord at all times. We should allow the Lord to lead us and guide our path in life.

And lastly, may all of us also be the beacons of God’s light and truth in this darkened world today. Like the prophets and the servants of the Lord whom He had sent into our midst, we should also follow in their footsteps and be inspired by their faith and dedication, as well as by their enduring love for God. Are we willing and able to do so, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we willing to love the Lord more and to put our trust in Him, that we will always follow Him and obey His Law and precepts, in each and every moments? May God be with us all and may He bless us always in our every good efforts and endeavours. Amen.

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Saturday, 3 July 2021 : Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast day of one of Our Lord’s Twelve Apostles, namely St. Thomas the Apostle, also known as Thomas Didymus or the Twin, and as we may have known quite well, that he was one who often doubted the Lord and even publicly questioned His decisions and actions. Yet, later on he would become one of the Lord’s most fervent evangelisers and workers of faith, dying as a martyr in a distant land and glorifying the Lord.

St. Thomas was always the most skeptical among the Lord’s disciples, as he did not appear to fully trust in the Lord, and was pessimistic when the Lord wanted to go to Jerusalem to fulfil His mission, despite the advice against doing so by His disciples. St. Thomas publicly said before all of them that, in a rather sarcastic way, they should all follow the Lord so that they could also suffer with Him and die along with Him.

When the Lord was risen from the dead, St. Thomas happened to be not among the other disciples, and did not witness the Lord appearing for the first time in His Risen glory before all the other disciples. And we heard from our Gospel passage today, how St. Thomas again refused to believe and even then publicly declared before the other disciples how he would not believe unless he could prove that the Risen Lord is truly the same One crucified, by touching His wounds and putting his hand into the Lord’s pierced side.

And the Lord then appeared again before all the disciples and St. Thomas included, and asked him directly to do as he said he would do to prove that the Lord had indeed risen from the dead. From what we have heard in the Gospel passage, we can clearly see how dumbfounded and surprised St. Thomas was, as his doubt was proven to be wrong, and the Lord Himself appeared in the flesh before him. He humbled himself utterly and proclaimed before all, ‘My Lord and my God.’

These are the same words that we utter whenever the Lord’s Most Precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist are elevated and raised in the most solemn occasion, as the celebrant uttered the words of consecration, proclaiming the presence of the Lord before all the faithful, truly present in the bread and wine which the priest, by the power and authority of the Lord, had transformed completely into the matter, essence and reality of the Lord’s own Holy Body and Blood.

Then, do we all recall the Lord’s words after St. Thomas uttered those words? He said, ‘Happy are those who believe because they have seen, but even happier and more blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believed.’ This is truly significant for us because, while we have not seen the Lord in the human form as the disciples like St. Thomas had seen, but we still believe that the Eucharist is the Lord Himself, in the flesh, the Real Presence of Our Lord.

Yet, there are also still so many of us who doubted this truth, and many of us who refused to believe in the Real Presence, especially among some of our separated brethren in faith. And within the Church, there are sadly still many of those who outwardly profess to believe in the Real Presence of God in the Eucharist, but behaved in the manner that is contradictory to that belief, in how they treated the Eucharist, by receiving the Eucharist in an unworthy state, or treating it as no more than just mere bread and wine, without proper decorum, respect and honour, less still worship and adoration.

Then in that manner, we are also no better than how St. Thomas was before he turned wholeheartedly to the Lord at the moment when he fully acknowledged Him as his Lord and Master. And now, we are called to reflect on our own attitudes in life, and also our perception and attitude towards the Lord in the Eucharist. Have we been truly faithful to the Lord? Or have we allowed our doubts and lack of faith and understanding of this faith to mislead us and make us to doubt the Lord and His truth and love for us?

Many of us often do not realise that we are doing exactly what St. Thomas had been doing in doubting the Lord earlier in his life, by our own lack of reverence and adoration for the Holy Eucharist, as well as our own sinful and wayward lifestyle, in contrast with the righteousness of God. We are often stubborn in walking down the path of sin rather than the path of righteousness. This is why, we should then be like St. Thomas, who turned away from his doubts and embraced the Lord wholeheartedly.

He would go on to preach the Christian faith in many places, most famously and significantly in what is now the southern regions of India, where he established the firm foundations of Christian communities there, which lasted till this very day, often known as the ‘St. Thomas Christians’. He brought God’s truth to all these people, and revealed Him to them so that through this, more and more people can be saved from their sins and wicked ways. St. Thomas would suffer and die a martyr’s death in the end of his missionary journey, obedient and faithful to the very end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us also therefore cast off the shade and veil of doubt from our eyes and from our minds, and from our hearts. Let us entrust ourselves fully from now on to the Lord, and commit ourselves, each and every moments of our lives, that we may always walk in the path of His light and truth, and we may always be faithful and righteous in all things, that everyone who see us and witness our works and actions, will know that we belong to the Lord and that God lives within us.

May God bless us always and may He remain with us in our journey of faith and life. May He strengthen each one of us with courage and hope, to endure and persevere through the challenges and trials we are facing daily, for His sake, and for the greater glory of His Name. Amen.

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Friday, 2 July 2021 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are reminded that the Lord remembers all of us and loves each and every one of us without exception, from saints to sinners, and all whether they are rich or poor, powerful or weak, be it whether they belong to that race or having any particular backgrounds. He loves each and every one of us equally, and all of us have a share in His love and grace, provided that we first allow Him to touch our lives and love us.

In our first reading today we heard of the story of the passing of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, our father in faith. Sarah passed away in her old age and was buried in peace by Abraham, who had been blessed with a son, Isaac, the one whom God had promised to him, to be the one to bear his name and to be the father of many descendants who would thereafter call Abraham as their forefather. And God blessed Isaac in the same way that He has blessed Abraham, as we heard how Isaac managed to get a wife from among his own relatives.

We heard how God gave Rebekah to be Isaac’s own wife, to be the one to console Isaac after the loss of his own mother Sarah. Through this, we can see yet again how God had always put each and every one of us foremost in His mind and His care. He sought to console us and help us, whenever He could. He is always concerned about us and wants nothing else but our happiness. Yet, it is often we ourselves who refused Him and distanced ourselves from Him. This is what kept us away from Him and prevented us from being fully reconciled to Him.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord calling on a tax collector, who was later to be known as Matthew. Matthew would become the Lord’s follower and one of His chosen Twelve, a dramatic turn from once being a tax collector into a most faithful and devoted servant of God. Matthew abandoned everything and followed the Lord, and not just that, but as he was about to follow the Lord, he invited the Lord to have dinner with him and his other fellow tax collectors, who were very eager to meet the Lord and listen to Him.

The tax collectors back then were very hated and reviled by most of the community, especially by the elites such as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. They were seen as traitors and sinners simply because of the nature of their work, as the ones who collected the taxes on behalf of the Roman overlords who ruled over the Jewish peoples. They were hated as a group simply because of the hate that many of the Jews had against the Romans, and their hatred on the tax imposed on them. As a result, they were often ostracised and rejected by the general community.

Yet, the Lord showed what was most unconventional and surprising to all who had witnessed His actions, by not only calling one of these tax collectors to be His own disciple, but to even have a meal in the house of the tax collectors, in the company of the other tax collectors. To the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, this was an act of ultimate defilement, as none of them would even want to come near to the tax collectors, deemed as sinners and unclean, less still to have a meal in their house and dwelling place.

Through this occasion, the Lord wants to remind us all yet again that we are all beloved and precious to Him, without exception. Not even those whom others considered to be great sinners could be far away from God and His love. On the contrary, even if we are separated from God, but if we are willing to seek God and His mercy, and are humble enough to admit our sinfulness and wicked lives, and willing to embrace His mercy and love, we shall be blessed and strengthened, and we shall be forgiven from our sins.

May the Lord continue to love each and every one of us as He has always loved us all these while, and may He awaken in us the love which we ourselves should have for Him. May He bring us all ever closer to Him, and encourage us all to live as faithful Christians, now and always, in all occasions. Let us also never be judgmental or be prejudiced against our fellow brethren, and instead, learn to love one another just as the Lord has loved us, and help each other on the path towards God’s grace and salvation. Amen.

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Thursday, 1 July 2021 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are called to remember the love of God by which He has reached out to us and called us into His loving embrace. In return, all of us should also love the Lord wholeheartedly, and let us all commit ourselves to the Covenant which He has established with each and every one of us.

In our first reading today we heard of how the Lord called His servant Abraham, our father in faith and asked him to bring his beloved son Isaac, the son whom God had promised to Abraham, to Mount Moriah to be offered to the Lord as a sacrificial offering. Such a command by the Lord, especially what he was to do with Isaac, his own beloved and long awaited son must have come as a great shock to Abraham and must have saddened him greatly, considering just how long and how much he has expected the coming of Isaac.

Nonetheless, Abraham obeyed without question, and faithfully and dutifully performed everything as the Lord had commanded him to do. He brought Isaac to Mount Moriah just as the Lord asked for, and he brought him up the mountain, with full faith and entrusting everything to the Lord. We can see clearly here the great faith which Abraham had in the Lord, and how he entrusted himself so completely to the Lord. This is something that all of us as Christians should be inspired from. Many of us have not been as faithful as Abraham had been in the way he dedicated himself.

Abraham gave everything to the Lord, even his most precious one, Isaac. And the Lord blessed Abraham for his faith and obedience, as He saw how Abraham gave everything, even his most beloved one and did not spare Isaac. Of course God did not actually wish to have Isaac offered as a sacrifice, and hence, He stopped Abraham and showed him a ram that He sent as the replacement offering instead of Isaac. He reaffirmed His Covenant with Abraham and his descendants, and showed His faithfulness to all of us this way.

And then, linking to this story of Abraham and Isaac at Mount Moriah, we then come to the Lord Jesus, in our Gospel reading today, as He healed a paralysed man who was brought to Him on a stretcher. He showed the love of God expressed through none other than the same Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the whole world, born into this world to be the Saviour of all. He forgave the sins of the paralysed man and healed him from his afflictions, allowing him to move and walk freely once again.

The Lord said that to the paralysed man, despite the protests of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were there among the assembled people and refused to believe that the Lord Jesus could have forgiven the man from his sins. Yet, they had seen all that happened, and saw how the man was healed from all of his troubles, and became whole once again. Through this, the Lord Jesus in fact also revealed the Lord’s true intentions, that is to offer His own Son, the Lord Jesus, to be the sacrificial Victim for the salvation of the world, for the forgiveness of all sins.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, the sacrifice of Our Lord at Calvary mirrored closely the sacrifice of Mount Moriah, with Mount Moriah itself having often been identified as the site of the Crucifixion outside of Jerusalem, and just as the Lord obeyed His Father’s will so completely just as Isaac obeyed his father, Abraham and as Abraham himself obeyed his Lord and Master. The Lord Jesus willingly took up the wood of the Cross and bore it up the hill of Calvary, so that by His Passion, His suffering and death, and having shouldered upon Himself the multitudes of the burdens of our sins and transgressions, He may deliver us all from the fate of destruction due to our sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we still not convinced of God’s love and compassion for us? God has given us His only Begotten Son, His most beloved One to suffer and die for our sake. If He has always loved us and has always been faithful to the Covenant which He had made with us, then we should also love Him and commit ourselves to Him in the same way, following the examples of Abraham, our father in faith. Let us all turn towards the Lord and dedicate ourselves to Him, each and every moments of our lives. May God be with us all, and may He empower us all to live ever more faithfully in His presence, with each and every passing moments in life. Amen.

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Wednesday, 30 June 2021 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture readings remind us that all of us are beloved and precious to God, and we should not be afraid to seek Him for help, and trust in Him. For God alone can be trusted and depended on, and when other worldly and human ways and methods fail, we often will have only the Lord and nothing else left. This is a reminder for us to turn towards God and to be ever faithful to the Covenant which He has made with each and every one of us.

In our first reading today, we heard of the story of Abraham and his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael from the Book of Genesis. While Ishmael was born of a slave woman named Hagar, the slave of Abraham’s wife Sarah, Isaac was the lawful and legal son and heir of Abraham, as the long awaited son of his wife Sarah. God has promised Abraham that he would have countless descendants and that they would be blessed just as God had blessed Abraham.

However, Abraham slipped in his trust in the Lord and he listened to the suggestion of his wife Sarah to take the slave Hagar as the one to bear a child for him. In the custom of the time, the child born to a slave owned by a man’s wife was considered to be the child between the man and his wife, and not of the slave, as the slave belonged to the wife. And that was how Ishmael was therefore conceived and born, before Isaac, the promised child and son was born later as God fulfilled His wondrous promise to Abraham.

And this created friction between Ishmael and Isaac, as while Ishmael was older and the supposed heir before Isaac was born, he had been superseded by Isaac, the true heir. Hence, in our reading today we heard how Abraham sent both Hagar and her son Ishmael away after providing them with some food and water. They both wandered in the desert and in places without food and sustenance, and Hagar cried out to the Lord for mercy and compassion, which the Lord heard and He sent His Angels to help Hagar and Ishmael.

We can see therefore God’s love for His people here, for Abraham, Sarah and Isaac, as He has promised them, and even for Hagar and Ishmael, although the latter’s conception and birth had been against the will of God. He was still the child of Abraham nonetheless, and God took care of Ishmael and blessed him too, and he would go on to become the father of many nations just as his half-brother Isaac would. God fulfilled His promises and showed His love and compassion to His beloved ones.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord and His action in Gadara as He met two men tormented and possessed by the evil spirits, from whom many others had fled in fear, and those men had been ostracised and sent off to live in the wilderness away from the rest of the society. But the Lord showed His love and compassionate mercy, and just how precious and beloved they were, by commanding the evil spirits that dwelled in them to get out and by His power and authority, He sent those evil spirits instead to the flock of pigs nearby.

Again, through this example and story, all of us are reminded how God had cared for each and every one of us, and how He has loved us so wonderfully since the very beginning without cease. The Lord has always had us in His mind, and He will always seek us and wait on us to return to Him. Such is the love and the patience with which God has lovingly cared for us, that He gave everything for our sake, even to suffer and to die in His Passion, suffering and death on the Cross.

Today, we recall the memory of those who have devoted themselves to the Lord and placed their trust in Him, the very first martyrs of the Holy Roman Church, celebrated this day on the day following the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul, Holy Apostles. These were our fellow brothers and sisters in faith, who had endured bitter and intense persecution from the Roman authorities as part of the great persecution by the Roman Emperor Nero, who falsely accused the Christians in Rome for the Great Fire of Rome.

The Emperor Nero was likely to be the one who started the fire himself, in order to clear the lands for his grandiose projects. This is a fact which had been corroborated by historical and archaeological evidences by experts. Yet, the Emperor conveniently assigned the blame on the Christian population in Rome in order to shift the blame and to dissuade the people from focusing on his increasingly unpopular reign and actions. Many Christians were put to death and numerous others suffered during this first great wave of persecutions.

Yet, they remained firm and resolute in faith, staying committed and dedicated as Christians, no matter what threats and sufferings that they had to go through. They entrusted themselves in the Lord and did not let fear to rule over them. And this is why we should make them our sources of inspiration, in how we ourselves should live our lives, seeking the Lord and always entrusting ourselves to Him, no matter what happens. Let us all seek the Lord from now on, and let us devote ourselves to the greater glory of the Lord from now on.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen each and every one of us with faith, that we may always live ever more faithfully in His path. May God bless each and every one of us, in every one of our good works, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 29 June 2021 : Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the great Solemnity of the two Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, the two Apostles of Rome and the pillars of the Universal Church, representing the unity of the Church in St. Peter and his successors, the Popes as the Lord’s very own Vicars on earth, and the evangelical outreach and missionary efforts of the Church as shown by St. Paul and his numerous efforts and journeys to spread the words of God especially to the Gentiles, or the non-Jewish people.

That is why St. Peter was known as the Vicar of Christ and the Prince of the Apostles, to signify his leadership and central role among all the Apostles, as the cornerstone on which the Lord has established His Church, as the firm bedrock of faith, a strong foundation on which He built His Church, the Body of Christ, the union of all the faithful people of God. He is truly Peter, the Rock, the symbolic meaning of the name which the Lord Himself has granted on him.

And St. Paul was known as the Apostle to the Gentiles, as the one who had sown the seeds of faith in so many communities all around the Mediterranean and other parts of the world, marking the beginning of the rapid growth of the Church despite the various persecutions and the many trials and challenges that it encountered. St. Paul through his many missionary journeys and the numerous Epistles or letters that he wrote, had a crucial role in the establishment of the various communities of the faithful.

Today, we celebrate their most wonderful life and memory, united together in martyrdom in the Holy City of Rome, the very heart of all Christendom, as both St. Peter and St. Paul by Apostolic traditions, were martyred in that city, the then capital of the great Roman Empire, during the first round of vicious persecutions of Christians. St. Paul was martyred in the immediate aftermath of the Great Fire of Rome by the Roman Emperor Nero, while St. Peter was martyred not very long afterwards during the same reign of the Emperor Nero.

Today we celebrate this great Solemnity in their honour, as the great celebration of the entire Universal Church in union with the Church of Rome, of which St. Peter and St. Paul are both patrons of, by virtue of their martyrdom there, and especially for St. Peter as the first Bishop of Rome, through which all the Popes are their successors. Therefore, we celebrate together united as one Church, all in union with our Pope Francis, as the successor of the great Apostle, St. Peter, the first Pope and Vicar of Christ, as well as the great missionary, St. Paul the Apostle.

Today as we celebrate this great Solemnity, we are reminded that the Lord called and chose His Apostles not from among those who considered themselves good and worthy, but He had called and chosen instead those whom He had determined to be worthy in their hearts and minds, for He knows all things in everyone. Take for example, St. Peter the Apostle, who was known as Simon, son of John, Simon bar Jonah, who was a mere fisherman of the lake of Galilee, illiterate, brash and at times, cowardly and unreliable.

How so? St. Peter was the one who suggested to the Lord that he would be ready to die for the sake of the Lord, and had the sword ready by himself, which he used to cut the ears of one of the Temple guards, Malchus, when the Lord was arrested at the Gardens of Gethsemane. Yet, very soon afterwards, he would deny knowing the Lord before those who asked him, not just once but three times. One may indeed wonder why the Lord chose such a person to be His Apostle, and less so still, why He made him to be His Vicar and the leader of the entire Universal Church.

That is because God knows the heart, and He knows the faith and love that St. Peter had for Him since the very beginning. He regretted very much his denial of the Lord and wept bitterly after having committed such an action, and did not give in to despair like Judas Iscariot, who killed himself after betraying the Lord. Instead, when the Lord was risen, he was one of the first to go forth and look out for Him, and he was the first to recognise the Lord at Galilee, when He appeared before them on the shore as the disciples were fishing.

When the Lord Jesus asked St. Peter after that occasion, whether he loved Him, St. Peter responded in all the three times that the Lord asked him, that he loved Him and how the Lord also knew that he loved Him from deep within his heart. This symbolised the Lord’s forgiveness of St. Peter for his three times denial at the moment of His arrest and Passion. The Lord reaffirmed His love for St. Peter just as the Apostle also reaffirmed his love for the Lord, and confirmed his dedication and desire to follow Him to the very end.

That was how St. Peter responded to his calling, and he went on leading the Church together with the other Apostles, resolving conflicts between the different factions within the Church and establishing communities of the faithful in various places, becoming the first Bishop of Antioch, where there was the first stable community of believers. He went on to Rome eventually, and as the persecution of Christians occurred, he was arrested, put in chains and eventually was crucified. Not wanting to die in the same way as his Lord and Master, he humbly asked to be crucified upside-down, and died a martyr at the place where the great Papal Basilica of St. Peter now stands.

St. Paul meanwhile was also the most unlikely of Apostles and servant of God. He was once Saul, the greatest enemy of Christians in the very earliest days of the Church. He was a young and zealous Pharisee who wanted nothing less than the destruction of the Church and the punishment for all those who followed Christ and His way. He went around from places to places, arresting and persecuting many Christians, and through him many ended up suffering and in prison, from this brutal first persecution of Christians in Jerusalem and Judea.

But he encountered the Lord on his way to persecute Christians in Damascus, and the Lord called him to follow Him. Saul therefore repented from his previous actions and decided to be baptised a Christian himself, and from then on, he became a most ardent and courageous defender of the Christian faith. In St. Paul therefore we see the example of one who has also embraced God’s call wholeheartedly and followed Him.

St. Paul went from a persecutor and enemy of Christians to be the Lord’s most ardent defender, himself often being in danger for his life, and was persecuted many times, enduring prison and sufferings for the sake of the Lord. From someone who had a bright future among the Pharisees, respected and with prestige, St. Paul chose to follow the Lord instead and abandon worldly comfort for the truth of God, which he proclaimed courageously before all.

He also defended the rights of the Gentiles, especially those who had chosen to turn towards the Lord and became Christians. Against all those who wanted to impose the strict Pharisaical Judaic laws on the Gentile Christians, St. Paul stood his ground and managed to confirm that such imposition was unwarranted and unnecessary, and hence, laid the foundation for an even more rapid acceptance of the faith by many more among the Gentiles.

He was also martyred in Rome, at the end of his many missionary journeys, as he chose to appeal to the Emperor over the false accusations by the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, when he stood there in trial. By that, he went to the capital of the Empire, and began to minister to the people there. He was martyred in the aftermath of the Great Fire of Rome which was likely orchestrated by the Emperor Nero himself but was blamed on Christians, who henceforth were persecuted and killed as martyrs. St. Paul was beheaded at that same time.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate the Solemnity in honour of St. Peter and St. Paul today, let us all therefore remember the great faith and love these two Apostles had for the Lord, as well as the courage and dedication by which they committed themselves to the Lord. Let us all realise that we should also follow in their footsteps and walk in the path that the Lord has called us to follow through, and be faithful and dedicated as the two Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul had been faithful. This is our Christian calling, brothers and sisters, what we need to do as those whom God has called and chosen.

Today, on this special day for the Church, let us all pray together for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the successor of St. Peter and the current Vicar of Christ. Let us pray for his intentions and seek the Lord’s guidance that He may always bless and guide His Church, and that He will always be with us all through the many trials and challenges we may encounter in life. May He strengthen us in our faith and give us the courage to remain faithful to Him, and to walk in His path at all times. May all of us be ever closer to the Lord and be united as always in the union we share, under the leadership of our Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ, as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Amen.

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Monday, 28 June 2021 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about the love and mercy of God, as well as what it truly means to be a follower and believer of God, to be genuine Christians in all things. We have to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and with all of our strength, and we have to put our trust in Him always, no matter what challenges and trials may come our way.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the story of the Book of Genesis in our first reading today, we heard the interesting exchange between God and Abraham with regards to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God revealed to Abraham that He was about to lay waste to Sodom and Gomorrah, and destroy both cities for the great sins and wickedness that they had committed. Yet at the same time, Lot, the cousin and relative of Abraham was living in that place with his family.

Therefore, Abraham, knowing how the Lord’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah might harm his relative, he tried to reason with the Lord and dissuade Him from such a plan, as destroying the whole entire two cities might indeed bring death even to the righteous who were perhaps still living in them, including that of Lot and his own family members. It was likely that Abraham believed in Lot and his family, and trusted that they were still faithful and righteous even when living amongst the wicked.

Abraham tried to reason with the Lord and tried to persuade Him not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, but in the end, although he might have genuinely hoped that there were just a few of the righteous in the two cities, be it just fifty, forty-five, thirty, twenty or even just ten of them in the cities, that the Lord would spare the entire two cities for their sake. Yet, in truth there were not even ten who could have been saved. It seemed that only Lot and his immediate family alone were righteous and good.

But God still cared for them, and He sent two of His Angels to warn and lead Lot and his family out of harm’s way before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was to happen. Except for Lot’s wife, who hesitated and looked back when the Angels had told them explicitly not to do so, the whole family of Lot was saved, when the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were wiped out of the face of the whole world.

Then we heard in our Gospel passage today, of the Lord’s words and encounter with one of the teachers of the Law, who wanted to follow the Lord and believed in Him, and the Lord told him frankly that He did not even have any place to stay or lay His head in, when the teacher of the Law asked to see His place, and He also told another disciple, who wanted to turn back and bury his family members first, metaphorically, that those who did so, did not have their hearts and minds fully focused on the Lord.

Linking what we have heard in our Scripture passages today and how the story of Lot’s wife and the disciple who wanted to go back to bury his dead family, and the Lord saying to the teacher of the Law that He had no place to even lay His head, we are all reminded that to be Christians, more often than not we have to make great sacrifices and abandon various desires we have, and resist the many worldly temptations present all around us.

Are we able to do so, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we able to walk righteously in the path of the Lord, Who loves us and cherishes us, and reminding ourselves that while the Lord’s love for us is ever great and wonderful, but the effects and consequences for our unrepented sins, wickedness and evils prevent us from truly receiving the fullness of His love and grace? What we heard today from the Scripture passages remind us that as Christians, we are all called to a new life and existence in faith.

Today, we all celebrate the feast of one of the renowned saints of antiquity, namely that of St. Irenaeus, holy bishop and servant of God, and martyr of the Church. He was remembered well for his great piety and many important works on theology and various other aspects of the faith, and especially his efforts in countering and opposing the corrupting influence of heresies such as gnosticism. He dedicated himself to his flock as the bishop of Lyons, in defending the faithful from heresies and in caring for their spiritual needs.

St. Irenaeus defended the true faith, Apostolic tradition and Church teachings from those who sought to undermine and destroy them, and also from those who wished to subvert and alter those faithful traditions and truths for their own selfish and misguided purposes and ambitions. At the same time he also protected and helped to lead his flock through a difficult time of oppression and persecution from the Roman authorities.

He remained firm and faithful to the end, as he was most likely persecuted and put to death as part of one of the persecutions of Christians in the region by the Roman authorities. Nonetheless, the courage, faith and the many good works that St. Irenaeus had done for the sake of all of God’s faithful people had indeed inspired countless others to follow in his footsteps.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how about us then? Have we been inspired by St. Irenaeus and our other holy predecessors by their action and faith? Let us all turn towards the Lord therefore with a new heart and with a new faith, and let us commit ourselves anew to Him, not turning back anymore and resist the temptations that distract us from our sole focus on Him. May God be with us all in this journey of faith, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 27 June 2021 : Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we listened to the words of the Lord speaking to each and every one of us and reminding us that we are all God’s beloved ones, and we have been intended for greater and more marvellous things by the Lord, because by His love, freely given to us, we have been so fortunate, for God to be so patient with us, so loving and so kind, despite all of our stubbornness and disobedience.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Wisdom, the truth that God never intended for any one of us to endure suffering in any of its forms or to experience death. All of us were meant to share fully in the love of God, in all of its fullness, the overflowing love from the perfect love of the Most Holy Trinity, by which He intended us all to exist with Him in perfect bliss and harmony, to enjoy forever the happiness and joy that can be found together with Him alone.

When God created the world and the whole universe, as we heard in the Book of Genesis, everything was good, and all things have no flaw or evil in them. It was the same with us mankind as well, as when God created Adam and Eve to dwell in the Gardens of Eden, they were meant to live there and share the bliss of perfection and goodness with God, not to suffer in any way or to endure death. But our ancestors allowed themselves to be swayed by desire, by the falsehoods of the devil.

That was why, they ended up disobeying the Lord and eating the forbidden fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The devil was able to convince them that they would be alright in disobeying God and that they would be able to gain immensely from such an action, by knowing all things good and evil, and therefore becoming like God Himself. It was pride and hubris, our human desires and greed therefore that led us astray and into our downfall.

Yet, despite all of that, God Who knew the sins and wickedness we committed, He did not crush or destroy us all, those whom He had made from His own image and as the most beloved of all of His creations. He gave them all a chance and even promised them all the salvation that would eventually come to them, through the Woman, as written in the Book of Genesis, and which would then come to fruition in Mary and her Son, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the whole world.

God could have crushed us there and then, to destroy sin and evil at its infancy, so that no more evil could exist in His presence. We must not forget that God is all good and perfect, and no sin can exist in His presence. When in the Old Testament, it was mentioned that man cannot survive in the presence of God or in seeing God, that is because, our sins and evil would destroy us first, as we cannot stand the perfect goodness of God.

It is our sins and evils that will judge us and bring us into damnation, and unless we remove these from ourselves, then we are bound towards the path of suffering and death. All of us perish because of our sins, as death is the punishment for sin, and sin came about because of our disobedience against God. As long as we have sin in us, we shall always remain sundered and separated from God, and in the end, left with nothing but eternal regret and suffering.

Yet, as mentioned, we are all indeed so fortunate because the Lord Himself did not want any of these to happen to us. He loved us all dearly and He created us all in the first place because of this love, and as such, He has always patiently waited on us to return to Him, sought for us and sent messengers, prophets, and servants, one after another to call us, to help us and lead us on the way to return to Him, that we may be fully reconciled with Him.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the story of the Lord’s two wondrous miracles, which He performed before many, as the sign of God’s salvation and love for His people, for each and every one of us, as well as to be the undeniable proof that the Lord alone has the power to save us, to heal us and to free us from our troubles and challenges, from the chains of slavery under sin and the tyranny of death that we are all suffering from.

When the woman suffering for many years from the haemorrhage or bleeding problem came to the Lord with faith, seeking for healing from Him, the Lord healed her and restored her to good health, because of her faith in Him. The Lord indeed could have healed her and any of other worldly problems, issues and troubles, but it was her faith which allowed her to be healed, not just physically, but also in fact, spiritually as well. She had faith in the Lord and did all she could to reach out to Him, and this is something that we should take note of.

It was the same with the synagogue official, Jairus, who came seeking the Lord for help, for Him to heal his ailing daughter, who had faith in the Lord and believed that He could heal her and make her whole. And when later on, the people told him and the Lord that Jairus’ daughter had passed away from her illness, he still kept faith in the Lord and believed in the Lord, even when others who were there and weeped for the daughter laughed at the Lord for suggesting that Jairus’ daughter was just sleeping.

They kept faith in the Lord and trusted in the Lord, and God showed them and everyone, that they are to trust in Him and put their faith in Him, and not on other things. For He has healed something that was considered incurable, in how He healed the haemorrhage in the woman with bleeding, and then He did something that was considered impossible, in resurrecting a dead girl back into life, showing that He is truly the Lord and Master of all, Lord over life and death.

This means that not even sin and death can keep us away from God. As St. Paul said in his Epistle to the Romans, ‘Who can separate us from the love of God?’, a reminder that God’s love is even more powerful than sin and death. And by His love and grace, we can be forgiven, healed and reconciled with Him, and through Him we shall gain the promise of eternal life. Yet, more often than not, it is we who refused to accept the Lord, His love and mercy.

We are often stubborn and we often hardened our hearts and minds, refusing to embrace the Lord’s most generous compassion and forgiveness. This is why we ended up falling deeper into sin, and eventually into eternal damnation. If we have no faith in the Lord and refused to accept Him, then there is no hope for us, and we will remain outside of His love and grace. And yet, still, the Lord tries His best to reach out to us and calls us to return to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are therefore called to the love that God has for us, and realise just how fortunate we are to have been beloved in such a way. We must never take God’s love for granted, and we have to appreciate the patience that God has for us all these while. Let us all turn ourselves wholeheartedly towards the Lord, and let us seek Him with renewed commitment and conviction. May God be with us always, and may He strengthen each and every one of us, that we may be ever faithful to Him and the Covenant which He has established with all of us. Amen.

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Saturday, 26 June 2021 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are of the Lord’s steadfast love for all of us, His people, the love that He has shown us all the time, as He faithfully kept to the Covenant that He has established with each and every one of us as He made it with our forefather, Abraham. God fulfilled His promise to Abraham and all of us, to be His beloved ones, blessed and protected by His love and care.

In our first reading today we heard about Abraham and how God came by to visit him at his tent, at the moment when He was about to fulfil the promise of a son to Abraham, and Abraham immediately recognised the Lord coming towards his place, welcoming Him and listening to whatever He was about to say to him. The Lord reaffirmed His promises to Abraham and told him that Sarah, his wife would bear a son as foretold, the son through whom God’s blessings would be given, to be the progenitor of many nations.

Sarah who was hidden in the tent wondered if such a thing was possible, considering that she had been barren for so many years and had by then been quite old in age, and contextually, that had also been around more than twenty years since Abraham began to journey from his ancestral lands to Canaan. Since the day of the promised son had not yet come, Sarah perhaps began to wonder if she would ever have any son at all. But the Lord knew what was in her heart and mind, and told her through Abraham, that everything is possible for God. In the end, everything happened as intended by the Lord.

Then in our Gospel passage today we heard about the moment when an army centurion approached the Lord asking Him to heal one of his servants, a most famous encounter which is in fact immortalised within every celebration of the Holy Mass. The army centurion or captain, who was most likely a Roman given the situation at the time, believed in the Lord and had faith in Him that He could save His servant from the brink of death, and sought Him to ask Him for the grace of healing.

And not only that he personally sought the Lord, showing great humility, as being a Roman, he was considered as superior and a man of his rank should not have directly sought the Lord. It was proven that he was a man of great power when later on he himself said that all those who were under him obeyed all of his commands. And yet, he humbled himself before the Lord, and asked Him for the command of healing, effectively putting him at the subordinate position, acknowledging the Lord Jesus as his true Lord and Master.

He also humbly refused to allow the Lord to come into his house, as contextually we need to understand that at that time, to enter the house of a Gentile or non-Jew, a pagan, would be deemed as improper and taboo, and would have made one unclean before the Law. In fact, many would have even stayed away from foreigners and Gentiles altogether. But the Lord reached out to the army centurion and even wanted to go to his place to heal the servant. The army centurion must have been aware of the cultural sensitivities and the issues that would have been created by the visit of the increasingly famous Jesus at that time.

Hence, he humbly asked the Lord to command him and acknowledging His power and authority, put his whole trust in His ability to cure and make his servant whole once again. The Lord was indeed impressed by this faith and made the centurion as an example of one who was often looked down and being prejudiced against by the Jewish people, and yet, showed more faith in the Lord than the supposed children and descendants of Abraham. Contrast the faith of the army centurion with the lack of faith that Sarah had, and we can see how first of all, we need to believe in the Lord and put our faith in Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all be reminded by what we have heard in our Scripture passages, through the words of the Lord and His reassuring promises, that we all need to trust in Him and put our faith in Him. Let us not be worried or be fearful anymore. Instead, let us all seek the Lord with renewed faith and commitment, knowing that He loves each and every one of us, without exception. Just as He has reached out even to the army centurion, He shall also reach out to all of us as well, as His love is universal. But are we humble enough like the centurion to realise just how sinful and wicked we have been?

Let us all remember whenever we are about to receive the Lord in the Eucharist, of the army centurion’s words, ‘Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed’. Let these words be truly meant by our lips and our tongue, and not merely left as words alone. Instead, let us all be sincere in seeking the Lord’s love, mercy and forgiveness, and draw ever closer to Him and His grace. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 25 June 2021 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard of the moments when God revealed to His people just how beloved they are, and how faithful He is to His Covenant with us, as we heard in the first reading today from the Book of Genesis how He reaffirmed Abraham of His promises, that He would give him the son that He has promised to be born of Sarah, his wife. Through that son, Isaac, God would make Abraham the father of many nations, just as He promised, and everything did come true eventually.

At that time, Abraham had also managed to sire a child with Sarah’s slave Hagar, upon the instruction made by Sarah herself, as any child born of the wife’s slave would and could be considered as the legal child of the wife. Sarah as well as Abraham were worried that they would not have a child in the end, and hence resorted to such a way to conceive a child, not waiting for the Lord’s promise wholeheartedly.

Yet, despite this, the child born of Abraham and Hagar, named Ishmael, while not the child promised or sanctioned by God, was still blessed by God as we heard in our reading today, still being a child of Abraham, and would eventually become a father of many nations himself. In the end, God fulfilled the promises He had made to His faithful servant, Abraham, above and beyond what He could and should have done.

In our Gospel passage today, then we heard of the Lord at the moment when a leper came to seek Him to be healed, and asked Him to cure him of his predicament. The Lord cured the man and healed him of his leprosy and told him to follow what Moses had commanded to the Israelites on the matter of leprosy and being healed from it. At that time, the Lord did not yet want to reveal Himself and yet, He has pity and love for the leper.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all realise through all that we had heard today, just how beloved we are and how fortunate we are that God wants to love us and make His Covenant with us. It is not only just that but God had also deemed us to be His own beloved children. While we fell into sin and disobeyed Him again and again, He still loved us and while punishing and chastising us, He still helped us and guided us down to the right path, and patiently helped us along the way.

Yet, many of us are still unaware of this fact and many of us still ignore the Lord and refuse to follow the Lord despite all that He had done for us. Many of us Christians ourselves despite what we profess to believe, we have not genuinely and sincerely loved Him in the way we should have. Instead, like Sarah and Abraham, we resorted to other means besides entrusting ourselves fully to the Lord, preferring to do things our own way instead of remembering His promises and reassurances.

This is not what we should be doing, brothers and sisters in Christ. As God’s chosen people, and those whom He has considered as His own people, and blessed all these while, we should begin to appreciate everything that He had done for us. God has loved us all since the very beginning and we have to remember how fortunate we are. God could have destroyed us and crushed us for our insolence, our disobedience and wicked sins, but He is still patient with us, no matter what.

Let us all therefore turn towards the Lord from now on with a renewed heart and love for Him, and let us be ever closer to Him, seeking Him wholeheartedly and dedicating ourselves ever more to Him with each and every passing moments. May the Lord be with us always, and may He bless us in our every good works and endeavours, always, now and forevermore. Amen.