Weekday Homily

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Sunday, 28 June 2020 : Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday each and every one of us are yet again reminded of what it means for us to be called as Christians, that is as people who are truly believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, Divine Word Incarnate, by Whose deeds and sacrifice on the Cross all of us have been saved and redeemed from certain death. To all of us who have kept our faith in Him, the Lord has given us the reassurance of eternal life and true glory in Him.

Unfortunately, this is what many of us have forgotten in the midst of the hectic life we have in this world, all the experiences we have encountered in life among others. Many of us have forgotten God and ignored Him, and instead of trusting Him and having faith in Him, we worry and focus on the many distractions present in this world. We placed our trust in our own strength and power, and we are therefore bound to fall unless we are able to trust in God.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Second Book of Kings, about the prophet Elisha who came by the city of Shunem, and a rich woman and her family sheltered him and took good care of him during his stay. First of all, the rich woman recognised Elisha as a holy man of God and treated him nicely, giving him as good as an accommodation possible. At the time when being a follower of God and prophet was truly tough, as many among the people and the king worshipped pagan idols and disobeyed God, such a treatment for the prophet Elisha must have been really rare indeed.

And the Lord knew well what has been done to His faithful servant, and the woman did it without having certain ulterior motive or desire for her own selfish wants or purposes. Not knowing much more from the Scriptural sources, it can safely be assumed that the woman was simply a God-fearing woman and someone who believed in God enough that she respected His prophet Elisha very much, and treated him well. And the result of this was that, as the rich woman and her husband did not have a child of their own, God, through His prophet Elisha, granted them the child of their loving union.

This is related well to what we have heard in our Gospel passage today from the Gospel of St. Matthew, in which the Lord Jesus spoke of the matter of following God and becoming His disciples. In the first part, the Lord mentioned how being His followers would require them to give their all, to commit themselves body and soul, and dedicate themselves wholeheartedly, taking up and carrying their crosses together with the Lord, which means that they would face sufferings and difficulties, rejection and challenges just as the Lord Himself had faced these from the world.

But then, in the second part of the Gospel, the Lord said what had been recounted in the first reading, as He spoke of those who welcome the disciples and followers as having welcomed the Lord as well, and those who listened to them and treated them well as having listened and treated the Lord well too. This was clearly related to what had happened to the rich woman who welcomed the prophet Elisha to her home and treated him well, and God blessed her and her whole household because of that.

What then, is the significance of all these passages from the Scriptures today, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is that we must first of all be willing to follow God, and to trust ourselves in His providence and care, not worrying about what will happen to us or what we have to endure during the journey. Whether we will have an easy or difficult time in living up to our Christian calling is not something that we can predict or compare between us. Some of us may have to suffer a lot while others may suffer less or little, but nonetheless, what is important is that we serve God all the same.

Why I mention this is that, there are many of us who are afraid or unsure of following God and His path, and we always tend to delay, postpone and push aside God’s calling for us, and we tend to keep away from those responsibilities and duties we have been called to do as Christians and members of the Church. We are often worried about ourselves and our state in this world, our livelihood and all the things we have. We worry that if we follow the Lord, then we have to abandon whatever we have possessed and whatever we are comfortable with.

But, let us all not forget that, this is first of all, our responsibilities given to us as part of our Christian baptism, which in our second reading today, St. Paul highlighted that through baptism, we share in the death of Christ, that by plunging through the sacred waters of baptism, we go through that passage from death into life, recalling the journey of the ancient Israelites from their slavery in Egypt to their freedom through the Red Sea, and unite us all to the sufferings of Christ, Who took upon Himself all of our sins and the punishments due for those sins.

Through baptism, all of us have been made the members of the Church, and God has made us all His own beloved children, that all of us have become adopted sons and daughters of His, as we share in the death of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and by the common humanity we share with Him. But then, we must not forget, that as we share in the death of Christ, as St. Paul told us, we also share in the new life He has brought us into through His glorious resurrection.

And that is what we need to take note of, as we heard from the closing part of our second reading today, ‘So you, too, must consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God, in Christ Jesus.’ That is exactly why we have to abandon our old fears and uncertainties, and embrace the Lord’s calling for us all with enthusiasm and desire to commit our lives in the service for His greater glory. God has called us all to various purposes in life, and we have received various talents, capabilities, skills and abilities to be used for this purpose.

There is no single calling that is better than the other in the Church and among us the faithful people of God. Some of us might have the misconception and wrong idea thinking that the ordained ministry, priesthood and religious life are better and higher compared to the lay ministry. Some of us glorify the holy orders and those in consecrated life as those who are better and holier than us, and that they are the ones doing all the work and the ministry, and some even misunderstood thinking that we then can be the content, receiving end of all the benefits without contributing much.

But we must forget that the lay ministry is equally as important, and we must dispel from our thoughts any preconceived notion that the lay ministry is anywhere less important. In fact, without active participation from the laity in proclaiming the Gospel in our daily living, then those in the holy orders, and those in religious and consecrated lives will also be affected badly in how they conduct their efforts. They cannot do what they are supposed to do, unless the laity and all work together to achieve the greater aims of the Church in obeying God’s will.

Each and every members of the Church are indivisibly part of the whole Body of Christ, that is the Church, and just as how all the organs need to work together to achieve the same purpose of sustaining the body, thus, all of us the faithful people of God must also do our part for the same purpose. Then, at the same time, each and every members of the Church also have their own respective and specific functions, and each can do best in their area of responsibilities, not competing but rather supporting each other.

Just as each organ are best in doing whatever they were designed to work as, thus, each and every one of us in the Church are also bound to do our best in whatever we have been called to, in our respective calling, to be holy priests, deacons and bishops, to be holy religious brothers and sisters, to be good missionaries and friars, prayerful monastics and all dedicating themselves to ascetic lifestyle, and of course to be good as laypeople, as singles or as married couples, as fathers and mothers, as sons and daughters, as members of good Christian families.

As the Lord Himself said, that ‘And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, because he is My disciple, I assure you, he will not go unrewarded.’, this means that if all of us support one another, and do what we can to serve God in our respective capacities, abilities, talents and opportunities, then just as the rich woman and her husband in our first reading today were blessed by God, then we too will enjoy the wonders of God’s providence and blessings. But we must not desire them or focus ourselves on them, lest we be distracted and fall into sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all renew our faith and conviction to serve God at all times, with all of our strength and with all of our efforts. Let us all be the sources of strength and inspiration for one another, especially all the more important during these days when our world is facing so many troubles and great tragedies. Almost half a million people had lost their lives to the current coronavirus pandemic, and there had been so many acts of violence and divisions in our communities in the past few months alone, and it is our calling as Christians, to do whatever we can, be it as those in holy orders or the laypeople, to show the love and truth of God to all mankind.

Let us all be the light in the darkness for others, and let our words, actions and deeds bring hope and strength, encouragement and renewal for those who have been downtrodden, sorrowful and in despair. May the Lord continue to do His most amazing and wonderful works through our actions in life. May God bless us all in our good endeavours in fulfilling our Christian calling through our baptism, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Saturday, 27 June 2020 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us are reminded of the need for all of us to seek God’s mercy, forgiveness, kindness and compassion. We are all reminded just how we are all truly sinners and unworthy of God and yet, all of us have been so fortunate and blessed to enjoy the graces of God and to be given many opportunities, yet again and again just that we may be reconciled with God.

Continuing from the previous few days’ discourse from the Old Testament in which we heard of the final days of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and how both kingdoms were destroyed because of the disobedience and sins of the people who chose to trust in their worldly designs and other worldly supports and matters rather than trusting in God, today, all of us heard in our first reading the part from the Book of Lamentations, which as the title holds, is filled with sorrow and regret for the sins that people have committed before God.

In that passage we heard of the destructions that had ravaged through the land, the destruction of Jerusalem and the entire kingdom of Judah and Israel centred in Samaria, which have been this week’s topic. And we heard how the Lord had laid the people humbled and low, shamed for their actions, disobedience and all. But at the same time, the author of the Book of Lamentations also called on the people to seek to return to God, to cry out for His mercy and forgiveness, to beg for His compassion and love to allow them to be reconciled with Him.

Then, we remember what we have then heard in our Gospel passage today, as the Lord encountered an army captain, whose servant had fallen sick and perhaps was on the verge of death. And being an army captain or centurion at that time, it was likely that this army captain was a member of the Roman army, and could very well have been a Roman himself. At that time, it was also quite common for the Jewish people to look down on the pagans and people whom they deemed to be unworthy of God’s kingdom, like the Samaritans as well as the Greeks and the Romans.

That was the context behind what the Lord then uttered when the army captain humbly sought the help of the Lord to heal his sick servant. And when the Lord wanted to go to his house, the army captain politely declined, and instead, spoke in a very interesting if not intriguing manner, saying that since in his position as an army captain, a mere word of his would be translated into direct order to be completed without fail, thus, if the Lord were to just speak the words, then the army captain believed that his servant would immediately be well.

First of all, visiting the house of a Gentile or a non-Jew especially if the Gentile is a pagan was truly a sensitive matter at the time, and many considered interacting with the Gentiles would make them unclean, going to the house of a Gentile made it even more unclean for them, and thus, was frowned upon by the society. The army captain might have been aware of this and wanted to avoid the Lord getting into controversy by visiting his house to heal his servant.

And then, what the army centurion said to the Lord also underlined his great and genuine faith in God, as contrasted to those who have seen the Lord’s works, heard His words and teachings, and yet, continued to doubt Him and demanded to see more signs and miracles, the army captain did not need to see the sign or witness for himself whatever the Lord was going to do. Instead, he believed that by the will of God alone, such a feat was possible and would be accomplished.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is exactly the kind of faith that all of us must have as well. The faith that leads us to seek God wholeheartedly, to be humble before Him and to love Him above all else, and not to allow the pride, ego, hubris and our desires from intervening and swaying us into disobedience and sin against God. In the past it was all these things that had brought the ancestors of the people of God into their downfall through sin and disobedience.

Are we able and willing to commit ourselves to God with new strength and hope, with new courage and desire to love God even more? That is why today we should also take courage and inspiration from one of our holy predecessors, namely St. Cyril of Alexandria, a great Church father and leader of the Church in Alexandria, and as its Patriarch, is one of the members of the Pentarchy, the five most senior leaders of the Church at time, and he was busy dealing with many issues facing the Church at that time.

St. Cyril of Alexandria was a courageous defender of the true Christian faith against the errors and the heresy of Nestorianism, which at that time was endangering the unity of the Church, with the false ideas being promoted by the then Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople, the Imperial Capital of the Roman Empire. Nestorius claimed that the humanity and divinity of Christ were separated and not united together, creating a dual personality that were distinct, in contrast to the true teachings of the Church.

As Nestorius had his support from yet another powerful leader, the then Patriarch of Antioch, he had great sway over the Church and the faithful, and being the leader of the See of Constantinople, he had great influence over the secular Empire and its leadership as well. But this did not deter St. Cyril from trying his best to oppose the efforts of the heretics from gaining influence and further ground in the Church and among the faithful. He had to endure much suffering and opposition for his efforts.

But in the end, the efforts of St. Cyril of Alexandria bore fruits, as he managed to gain the support of the Church and many among those who remained true to the Orthodox faith, that the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus was convoked and in that Council, the true nature of Christ, his two natures, divine and human jointly united though distinct in the person of Jesus Christ, Lord and Saviour, was affirmed and the heresy of Nestorianism was condemned.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having seen and heard what St. Cyril of Alexandria had done, all that he had done for the greater good of the Church, let us all devote ourselves, our time and attention, our faith and commitment to God from now on, that we may truly be able to follow God wholeheartedly from now on, following the good examples set before us by the army captain who professed his faith publicly before the Lord, as well as St. Cyril of Alexandria, the faithful servant of God.

May the Lord continue to guide us all through life, and may He strengthen us in faith and in the resolve to continue living our lives with faith from now on. May God bless us all and all of our good endeavours, at all times, now, always and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 26 June 2020 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us heard of the story of the destruction of Jerusalem, the downfall of the final kingdom of the Israelites, as the northern kingdom centred in Samaria had been destroyed and conquered by the Assyrians almost a hundred and fifty years earlier on. Then, the city of Jerusalem, its Temple and the southern kingdom of Judah were conquered and destroyed by the Babylonians, most of its population brought into long exile in Babylon and Mesopotamia.

All of these happened because the people and their king consistently and continuously disobeyed God, rejected His mercy and forgiveness, spurned and turned away from His love, worshipping pagan gods and idols, and entrusting themselves in the hands of mortal beings rather than to trust in God. The last king of Judah, Zedekiah, chose to rebel against the Babylonians who at that time was the overlord of Judah, because he counted on the support of allies such as the Egyptians, who in the previous occasions had not intervened in Judah’s sake.

But again and again, the people would not listen to reason and they continued to be stubborn, sinning and sinning, again and again, and all of them have sinned and therefore suffered the consequences of their sins. The whole city of Jerusalem destroyed, the Temple built by king Solomon destroyed and ransacked, its holy vessels used for profane purposes by the Babylonians, and the entire population enslaved and brought into faraway lands. Yet, despite all these, God did not forget about His people.

On the contrary, God has always been patient and He has always remembered the love which He has for His people, and despite their stubborn and persistent disobedience and betrayal, His love for each and every one of them still remained, and that was why, He still yet sent prophets after prophets to remind them, to help them, to guide them and to call them back to Him, and in time, having suffered and realised their mistakes, the people of God were to return to their land once again, and Jerusalem and its Temple were rebuilt by the prophet Ezra and Nehemiah.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the healing of a leper by the Lord, as the leper came to see the Lord and said to Him, ‘Lord, if You want to, You can make me clean.’ Through these words, and linking with what we have heard earlier on in our reading from the Old Testament, we can see just how great and wonderful the power of God’s love and forgiveness are for us. Leprosy had always been feared and even hated by the Israelites, as the disease was considered to be dangerous and contagious, and hideous to the appearance.

That was why people who suffered from leprosy were shunned by the rest of the community, and by Law had to spend their lives away from the community, rejected and left to fend for their own in the wilderness. Was this not just like the Israelites who disobeyed God and sinned, and thereafter had to endure their exile and suffer in the foreign lands for quite some time? This was what they had endured, and yet, God rescued them and brought them back to their homeland in the end, just as the leper was healed by the Lord Jesus.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what is really important for us to take note here is how we can be forgiven from our sins, and how forgiveness itself works. Forgiveness requires us to make the commitment to change ourselves, to turn back towards God once again with all of our hearts and with all of our strength, just as the leper came to the Lord with faith, and knowing with faith that the Lord could heal him and make him better. This is what all of us must have as well, a strong and genuine faith.

Are we able and willing to dedicate ourselves to God and seek Him with a new faith and desire to follow Him? Let us all go and find the path to forgiveness from all of our sins and wickedness, and let us all be wholly committed to follow God with all sincerity and with the genuine desire to be loved by God and to love Him equally in the same way. For God so loved the whole world that He gave us His own only Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ to be our Saviour.

May the Lord continue to help us to walk faithfully in our path in life, and may He guide us that we will not fall again into the temptations to sin and the allure of worldly desires. May the Lord strengthen us and may He bless us in all of our good endeavours. Amen.

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Thursday, 25 June 2020 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us are reminded by the words of the Scripture that we must have firm faith in the Lord, and place all of our trust and hopes in Him, that we will then have a firm foundation upon which to lay our lives upon. Without this secure and firm foundation, it is likely that we will falter and fail in life, and suffer the consequences of our own choice, our own unwillingness to put our trust in God.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples on the matter of those who would enter into the kingdom of God and therefore receive the fullness of grace, as those who have built for themselves a firm foundation, which the Lord likened with a parable to a house built on the firm foundation of rock-solid stone, and those who have little faith and no genuine love for God as those who have built their houses on the foundation of sand.

By using those examples in the form of a parable, the Lord wanted to show that the Lord is the sure refuge and firm foundation of our lives, a firm foundation that surpasses any other foundations we may have in life. There is no greater assurance or source of hope or strength we may have besides that of the hope and strength we will find in God and gain through Him. Those whom the Lord said as those crying out ‘Lord! Lord!’ were also subtle rebuke against the ones who have acted pious and good outwardly, and yet, in their hearts and minds, God was not found in them.

Linking what we have heard in our Gospel passage to our first reading today, we have the narrative from the Second Book of Kings telling us about what happened during the last years of the southern kingdom of Judah, first under its penultimate king, king Jehoiachin, and then ended with the last king, Zedekiah. For some background of this narrative, king Jehoiachin ruled a much diminished kingdom of Judah that had become the vassal and under the influence of the neighbouring Egypt and the growing power of Babylonian Kingdom at that time.

Jehoiachin revolted against the Babylonian king, likely thinking that he could win his independence by depending on the backing from Egypt or from other additional allies. But he was very wrong, as none of his expected help came about and the king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem with a mighty army, and king Jehoiachin surrendered. Together with much of the population of Judah, the king and important people were deported to exile in Babylon.

And later on, his uncle king Zedekiah, who replaced Jehoiachin as king, would also revolt with the same reason, definitely not learning the futility of trusting in earthly powers and means rather than the power of God. That time, the king of Babylon destroyed the Temple, the city of Jerusalem itself and Judah, blinded Zedekiah, killed his sons and brought most of the population that remained into exile in Babylon, an exile that was to last for many decades.

This was exactly what building a house on the foundation of sand meant, as experienced by the sons and daughters of Israel themselves, as those wicked and sinful kings disobeyed God and worshipped pagan idols, choosing to trust in the power of foreign kings and earthly powers than to trust in God. The support of earthly powers, means and resources are unreliable and cannot be fully trusted, as they could change with the change of human desires and other factors often beyond control.

But if we trust in God, we will not be disappointed, as God will always be faithful to the Covenant He has established with us, and we need only to trust in Him to lead us down the right path. Surely, the path going forward will not be an easy one, but if we trust in God and place ourselves faithfully in His hands, we will be preserved and strengthened, and in the end, we will be triumphant together with Him.

Let us all from now on, deepen our faith in God and commit ourselves anew to Him, striving to spend more quality time with Him, through prayer and other actions glorifying His Name. Let us all put God at the centre of our lives and make Him our firm foundation. May the Lord give us His strength and the courage to be ever faithful, with each and every moments of our lives. Amen.

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Wednesday, 24 June 2020 : Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the great Solemnity and celebration of the Nativity or the birth of St. John the Baptist, the only other person besides that of the Blessed Mother of God herself, Mary, who have their birthdays or nativities celebrated in the Church. And this highlighted the very important role which St. John the Baptist had in the history of the salvation of all mankind.

It was St. John the Baptist who was prophesied by the prophets to be the last among the prophets, for his role was to finally proclaim the coming of the salvation from God, the fulfilment of God’s long awaited plan of salvation, which would come through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who happened to be also a relative of St. John the Baptist himself, as his mother Elizabeth was a relative of Mary, the Mother of the Lord. St. John the Baptist was the one prophesied by the prophet Isaiah to be the one who would be prepared and called from the womb of his mother to proclaim God’s salvation.

And this is linked to the equally amazing circumstances of St. John the Baptist’s birth, in which the old couple Zechariah and Elizabeth, way past childbearing age, received words from the Angel of God through Zechariah himself, at the Temple, saying that the Lord’s prophet would be born to Elizabeth. And when Zechariah doubted this, he became mute until the time when St. John was born, and when Zechariah wrote his name as spoken by the Angel of God, his tongue was loosened miraculously.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the birth of St. John the Baptist was therefore indeed truly miraculous and as a clear show of God’s wonders and power, and a reminder of what God Himself had once done, when He made another elderly couple to be able to bear a child, namely the forefather of all the Israelites and many nations, that is Abraham and Sarah. Through his son Isaac, many nations were to be descended from Abraham as fulfilment of God’s promise to him. In the same way therefore, the birth of St. John the Baptist is the fulfilment of God’s promises through the prophets.

St. John the Baptist was the one entrusted with the difficult task of preparing the way for the coming of the Lord. He was to make straight the path for the Lord, and this was why, his renowned epithet of ‘the Baptist’ was not just to distinguish him from St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, but also to highlight his very important role in baptising the people as part of their call to repentance and turning again towards God.

St. John the Baptist was the one referred as the voice crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the path for the Lord!’ and he also called the people to repent because the kingdom of God is at hand and already near, for the Messiah was about to come. And he laboured hard, baptising many people, at least in the thousands in all probabilities if not a lot more. Many people heeded his words and call, and many among them would then go on to follow the Lord and became Christians eventually.

Yet, St. John the Baptist also encountered many challenges and obstacles in his ministry and dedication to the Lord. Just as the many prophets who came before him and as what the Lord Jesus Himself was to suffer, St. John the Baptist encountered stubborn opposition and rejection from those who refused to listen to him and believe in his words, such as many among the Pharisees who doubted him and challenged him, and questioned under what authority he had performed his baptism and works.

St. John the Baptist fearlessly struck at the Pharisees by calling them the wicked ‘brood of vipers’, those hypocrites who claimed to be faithful and looked down on others they deemed less pious and worse than them, and yet, their attitudes and actions were wicked all the same. And yet, those people refused to listen to St. John and turn back against sin and walk towards God with repentance. And with the same zeal and courage he also chastised king Herod for his immoral and illegal relations with his brother’s wife, which eventually led to his arrest, imprisonment, and finally martyrdom.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all celebrate the birth of this great saint and servant of God, let us all remember the great faith, commitment and the great zeal and courage with which St. John the Baptist had worked for the greater glory of God. Let us all discern then, what we ourselves can do in our own communities and in our own respective areas, in our own competencies and capabilities, to follow in the footsteps of St. John the Baptist.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have been blessed to live at an era and time when the Messiah and salvation of God have been revealed to us in Christ, and by faith which we have received through the Church. Now, the Lord has also commanded us all His disciples to go forth to the nations and spread the Good News and the truth of God to all peoples and all nations. How do we then do that? That is by making sure that in our every words, deeds and actions, we shall be exemplary in all things.

Let us all be good role models of faith, just as how St. John the Baptist and all the other saints, holy men and women of God had lived their lives with faith, so that by our good examples, we may indeed show the path to our fellow brothers and sisters to the Lord. May the Lord help us and strengthen us in our faith, and help us to live ever more like our holy predecessors in all things. May God bless us all, now and always. And may St. John the Baptist, great Herald of the Lord’s coming, always pray for us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 23 June 2020 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard how king Sennacherib of Assyria came up to Jerusalem with all of his mighty army and besieged it, seeking to destroy the entire city and conquer the whole kingdom of Judah just as at that time Assyria had been conquering many smaller states to create a large and powerful empire. And the might of the Assyrian army was such that king Sennacherib became proud and vain, thinking that nothing on earth and even in heaven could have stand up against him and his empire’s might.

And that was how king Sennacherib blasphemed against God before the walls of Jerusalem, as he mocked the sons and daughters of Israel with their God, calling their continued resistance and clinging unto hope in God as being useless and meaningless. And in his pride and hubris, thinking that he had all the power in the world and thinking that he had nothing and no one to account to by himself, he sinned against God through his words and deeds.

This was then when the Lord reassured His people, from king Hezekiah of Judah and the entire people in Jerusalem and Judah through His prophet Isaiah, whom He sent with His words saying that despite all of his might and the vast armies he possessed, king Sennacherib of Assyria would never conquer Jerusalem and he would never achieve whatever he had desired for, and that his armies would be crushed by the hands and the power of God, and the king himself would meet his just end for all the sins that he had committed against God and men alike.

Thus God also sent His Angels, destroying the entire armies of the Assyrians during the night, and a total of no less than a hundred and eighty-five thousand mighty warriors of the Assyrians perished, certainly a great humiliation for the king who had to abandon the siege and return to his homeland in great shame, his pride and hubris crushed by the righteousness and justice of God, and it was told then he was murdered by two of his own sons who probably desired his power and kingdom.

This is what the Lord spoke to His disciples about in our Gospel passage today, when He spoke to them on the matter of how difficult it is and will be to enter the kingdom of God, like passing through a narrow gate. Many people had attempted it and failed, and many more will try to go through and not be able to make it through. And the main reasons of these failures have been covered just earlier on. The pride, ego, hubris, ambitions and the desires of our hearts are the ones responsible for keeping us away from God.

As long as we allow our lives, our words and actions, our paths to be swayed and controlled by these things, we will not be able to progress further in this path towards salvation in God. For worldly desires, pride and greed in us keep us away from God, making us selfish and inward looking, thinking only about ourselves and our carnal desires and wishes, and failing to do what we need to do in order to attain the worthy entry into the eternal kingdom of God, and earn the grace of eternal life and true joy.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard of what had happened to king Sennacherib of Assyria, his hubris and pride that led to his downfall, his greed and sins that brought him to infamy and probably damnation, let us all reflect on our own lives and actions. Have we been faithful to the Lord as we should have all these while? Have we been dedicating ourselves and our actions for the glory of God, or have we instead been so engrossed with our own selfish desires, indulging our ego and pride, our greed and worldly concerns and wants?

Let us all therefore turn towards God with all of our hearts from now on, and let us all be ever filled with love for Him, and instead of allowing pride, hubris, greed and desire to lead us astray and down the wrong path, we should remove from our hearts all these pride and unhealthy desires and attachments, so that we may be able to come closer to God and grow stronger in faith. Let us not meet our downfall and end like king Sennacherib and like so many others who have fallen into sin and even damnation because they could not resist the temptation of the flesh and worldly glory and ambition.

May the Lord help each and every one of us, that we can all be more humble and be more attuned with Him in faith, that instead of living for our own selfish desires and wants, our ambitions and pride, we can from now on live faithfully and be ever closer to God, and be exemplary in humility, in piety and devotion, that everyone who see us and witness our words and actions may truly believe in God through us, and by our righteousness, virtues and faith, may we be worthy of God’s eternal kingdom and glory. Amen.

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Monday, 22 June 2020 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paulinus of Nola, Bishop, and St. John Fisher, Bishop and Martyr, and St. Thomas More, Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops) or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the words of the Lord through the Scriptures speaking to us on the matter of judging of one another, and how we should not judge each other as we ourselves shall be judged by our own actions and for our own failures. In fact, it is often that when we judge others, we ourselves are doing what we are judging or being prejudiced against others for, and as saying goes, it is the fact that our insecurities due to our shortcomings that lead us to be judgmental on others.

Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because we are people often controlled by our ego and pride, our human ambitions and desires, and we do not like it when we are wrong or are not in control over our actions and path in life. And that is why, in our Gospel today, the Lord Jesus spoke of this matter referring to the improper and prideful attitudes of many of the Pharisees, the scribes and teachers of the Law and many among the priestly clans and caste.

Those people often criticised and opposed the Lord Jesus and His works, quickly being judgmental and prejudiced against Him, firstly because He was a Galilean, from the very corners and fringes of the Jewish community and sphere of influence at the time, of His humble birth and origin, born into the family of a poor carpenter in the poor and relatively unknown village of Nazareth in Galilee.

And that His followers were also mostly poor, uneducated like poor fishermen of the lake of Galilee among others, and people belonging to the fringes of society like the members of the Zealots and tax collectors, added even more to the prejudice and the judgmental attitude levied against them. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law despised how the Lord often walked alongside those whom they looked down upon, those condemned as sinners and unworthy, the tax collectors, prostitutes, those who were sick and diseased, among others.

But little they realised that in their hubris and pride, they had failed to realise that they themselves had erred and sinned against God, and their sins in fact were equally as bad and serious as those who they have condemned as sinners and unworthy of God. They had been too engrossed in maintaining their prestige, status and privileged conditions, shoring up their ego and desires that they ended up forgetting their important responsibilities and obligations to bring God’s lost people back to Him. Instead, they shut the path of salvation to the lost ones, and turned their backs on those who were seeking God.

In what they had done, not just that they had done sins of deeds, but also the sins of omission by their failure to reach out to those who need God’s love and help. And this was no different from their ancestors, the Israelites who had neglected their obligation to serve and follow God, to be faithful to their Covenant with Him. Instead, they chose to worship foreign idols and pagan gods and sought all sorts of worldly glory and pleasures, and they criticised the prophets and messengers God had sent to their midst, again not realising that they themselves were in need of forgiveness and healing.

And we knew how it all ended, as the northern kingdom of Israel were swallowed by the forces of the Assyrians who came and conquered their whole lands and destroyed the capital of Samaria, bringing many among the people into exile in faraway lands. Their brethren in the southern kingdom of Judah would also come to suffer the same fate in the later time, as the Babylonians came to conquer and destroy Judah and Jerusalem.

All of these are reminders not that God is an angry and wrathful God as what some of us might have thought of Him. Rather, it was our own willing and conscious rejection of God’s love, mercy and compassion, our constant refusal to abandon our sinful ways and our wickedness that had led us into sin, and therefore, from there, into damnation, because of our rejection of God’s most generous offers of mercy. We have to remember that while God is ever merciful and forgiving, but He is also a just God, and no sin can exist before Him, without repentance and forgiveness.

Today all of us are reminded of all these that each and every one of us may truly live up to our Christian calling to live a most faithful and dedicated life filled with genuine devotion to God, following Him faithfully each and every moments of our lives. We are all called to glorify God through our every little actions and words, our deeds and interactions in life. But in order to do this, then we must first be willing to accept the fact and truth that we are vulnerable, weak and easily tempted, sinful and unworthy people.

Instead of pointing out what is lacking in others, we must look into ourselves, and find ways how we can make good use of the opportunities that God had given us in order to return to Him and to rend our hearts and cleanse all the impurities within, to discard all the sins and wickedness and replace them with faith and genuine love for the Lord, with a newfound zeal and commitment, to walk in God’s path from now on.

Today, we should draw inspiration from our holy predecessors, whose lives can be great examples for us to follow, whose faith have been great and can show us the way in following God. First of all, St. Paulinus of Nola was once a great and influential Roman governor of the region of Campania in what is today Italy, who converted to the Christian faith under the influence of his wife, and who eventually left his office behind and chose to dedicate himself to God, eventually becoming the Bishop of Nola.

St. Paulinus of Nola was a great and committed shepherd, who cared greatly for his faithful flock, always ever seeking to bring them closer to God. Despite St. Paulinus of Nola’s privileged birth and previous powerful position in the world, that did not lead him to be swayed and engulfed in his personal desires, ego and whatever temptations the world might have brought him, and as a result, through his ministry and commitment, St. Paulinus of Nola is a great example for all of us.

Then, the two holy martyrs and saints of the English ‘Reformation’ namely St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, were truly courageous and great examples of faith for each and every one of us, for their brave and fearless opposition to the faithlessness and immorality of the then king of England, Henry VIII, whose unbridled desire to secure for himself a son and heir for his kingdom and house, had led to the separation of the Church in England from the Universal Church, a terrible deed and injury to the unity of the faithful that last until this very day.

At that time, St. Thomas More was the powerful Chancellor of the kingdom, the right hand man of the king, well trusted by the king. Meanwhile, St. John Fisher was the pious and faithful Bishop of Rochester and also Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, who also enjoyed the strong favour and support from king Henry VIII. Unfortunately, the king, who was once faithful and remembered for his defence of the true faith against the heresy of Protestantism in his famous Treatise of the Defence of the Seven Sacraments, turned against the Church when his desire to annul his marriage to his lawfully married wife, was rejected by the Church.

As the king showed his strong hand in severing the Church in England from the Universal Church and the true authority of the Vicar of Christ, the Pope, St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher stood out among other bishops, priests and laypeople who chose to remain loyal to the true Church. Although it must have been difficult for these two men to go against the king who had favoured them so much and also allowed them both to rise greatly in power, but they did not allow worldly desires and temptations to turn them away from their faith in God.

St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher opposed the king and his continued efforts to become the Supreme Head of the Church in England, and when things and situation continued to worsen, St. Thomas More chose to resign his position and together with St. John Fisher continued to resist the king’s unfaithful and wicked actions, which eventually led them to be arrested and suffered greatly, but these did not dampen their faith and desire to return England to the true faith and the true Church. Eventually they were killed in martyrdom, and their faith continued to inspire people to this very day.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard of the great inspirations showed to us by St. Paulinus of Nola, as well as by the courageous St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, let us all then live our lives from now on with renewed desire to seek God and to be faithful to Him, to be good in life and rather than focusing on the lack and faults in others, wondering who among us are more faithful and good, let us instead be exemplary in our own lives, and lead one another to God through our own dedication and actions in faith. Let us all glorify the Lord, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 21 June 2020 : Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday as we listened to the words of the Scripture, all of us are reminded yet again and again to put our complete trust and faith in God, and give our best to serve Him for if we are truly faithful to Him, then we have nothing to fear in this world, and we have no need to be worried about. God has always been with us and He will never abandon us to the darkness.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, the part in which he lamented about the treatment he received from many of those who rejected him and refused to listen to him. The prophet Jeremiah laboured hard for many years in the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem, and yet, for all those years as he spoke to the people of God’s words and warned them of their upcoming doom if they continued to disobey God, his words went unheeded and many opposed him and his works.

And they treated him so badly that Jeremiah almost lost his life on few occasions. When his enemies plotted against him and threw him into a drainage sewer to die, it was only by the help of his few friends and the cooperation of the king that prevented him from being killed. There were indeed so many occasions in which Jeremiah had to suffer and endure all sorts of trials and indignities, humiliation and discomfort. Yet, Jeremiah trusted in the Lord and committed himself wholeheartedly in Him, and God protected him and was with him throughout the mission and journey.

In the end, the Lord’s faithful will triumph against the wicked, their enemies and all those who persecuted them. This is what the Lord Himself has said and reassured us as we have heard in our Gospel passage today when He spoke of us needing not to fear those who can destroy the body, but rather fear the One Who can destroy both body and soul. And God assured us all that every single one of us are precious to Him, and each and every one of us will be well taken care of.

That was why, God has sent us His own beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Saviour and to be the source of all hope and strength for each and every one of us. We must not lose sight of this hope and light that we have received from God, and we must trust that God will always protect us and provide us no matter what, and no matter how difficult and challenging the situation may be for us. And St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, our second reading today reassured us in just the same manner. Though sin may have once reigned over us and made us to fear, but through Christ, we have received the path out and liberation from this tyranny of sin and death.

By His most loving, selfless and perfect sacrifice on the Cross, our Lord Jesus Christ has delivered us from certain destruction due to our sins. As mentioned, the disobedience of Adam brought sin into the world, as disobedience against God led to sin, and sin brought about our sundering and separation from God, and separation from God led us to death. Yet, the Lord loved each and every one of us so much that He has given us His Son, to suffer for us and to die for us that by His suffering and death, we may live.

What does this mean for us, brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that reflecting on our own current situation and our world condition today, just as we know how challenging and difficult things are for so many of us these days, we must remain positive and hopeful. We have to be the source of hope and beacons of light in the darkness for one another, and we must not give in to despair, just as even the prophet Jeremiah did not give up despite all that he had to suffer and endure, all the years of trials and persecutions.

We have definitely suffered in one way or another during this difficult and uncertain time, and we must also have known those who have lost their jobs, their sources of income, and worse still, having lost their loved ones, our own loved ones and those who are known to us due to the terrible impact of this still ongoing and raging coronavirus pandemic. Many among us then also worry or fear for our own future when we see our once seemingly secure and stable income collapsed and disappeared without much notice.

And we have seen how all these challenges and trials led to many among us acting and reacting irrationally, irresponsibly and selfishly, with each one of us trying to secure our own security, safety, means of living among other things. We have heard and seen how people hoarded essential goods and even fought over those important commodities and goods, how we become intolerant and easily agitated by what is happening all around us. We see all the instances of civil disturbances, rise in racism and prejudices among us in our communities.

All of these were caused by our own insecurities and desires, our wishes to secure for ourselves the good living we used to enjoy before these difficult days and times. But when we allow ourselves to be swayed and tempted by these, and controlled by our desires, by our fears and insecurities, then it is what will bring us into our downfall, just as Adam fell into the devil’s temptations and sinned against God through disobedience. It was the same traps that the evil one and all the forces of evil have placed and arrayed against us all.

That is why during these difficult and challenging times, all the more that we all need to refocus our attention on God and put Him at the very centre of our lives and existence. Unless we put God at the centre of our lives, it will be easy for us to lose our way, to be swayed and tempted, to be turned into slaves of our own desire and our own fears and insecurities, as the events unfolding in the past few weeks and months had shown us. As Christians therefore we are challenged to be bringers of God’s hope and light into the midst of our communities, to our families and among all those whom we know and encounter in life.

Are we able to commit ourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we able to live our lives ever more faithfully from now on, and leading a life and existence blessed by God? Let us all embrace our Christian calling, to follow the examples of the Apostles, the prophets and saints, our holy predecessors, all those who have entrusted themselves to God, and those who did not let fear or insecurities, worldly concerns, matters and desires to lead them astray. Let us all be inspiration for one another, learning from the very same inspiration of our holy predecessors in faith, in living our lives centred on God.

May the Lord continue to guide us and strengthen us in faith, and may He give us the courage and the ability to persevere through whatever challenges and trials we may encounter in life, knowing first and foremost that He is always ever present by our side and that no matter what, He will always be ever faithful to the Covenant that He has established with each and every one of us, His beloved ones. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 20 June 2020 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, the day after the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we celebrate then the feast of the Immaculate Heart of His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. This day, just as we have recalled the great love which God has poured out from His most loving Heart, we also recall the tender, compassionate and motherly love shown by Mary to her Son, her beloved One, from her Immaculate Heart.

We recall Mary’s great love for God, her faith and piety, her commitment to serve the Lord wholeheartedly, and how she loved her Son dearly from the moment before He was born, and even up to the way of the Cross, when Mary followed her Son faithfully as He picked up His Cross and bore that burden of the Cross with Him to Calvary. It must indeed have pained her a lot to see her Son treated in such a way, and suffered in such a terrible manner.

And this was what the man of God Simeon spoke of at the Temple when the Lord Jesus was presented there after His birth. Simeon told Mary, the mother of the Lord that her Son was a Sign that would be the cause for the rising and downfall of many, and then, prophesied that ‘a sword will pierce your own heart’. It was at that moment of great anguish and sorrow, seeing her own Son’s suffering and journey towards His death that the ‘sword’ pierced Mary’s Immaculate Heart.

This was a heart that beats with love and filled with genuine faith in God, a heart blameless and immaculate because Mary herself had been conceived without sin, and pure from any taints of evil and wickedness. Yet, this loving and gentle Immaculate Heart has to endure such bitter wound and hurt. But all these did not stop her from loving, and instead, she loved with even greater sincerity and effort. And the same love which she has shown to her Son, she has also showed to all of us.

The Lord has entrusted us all to the loving care of His own mother when from the Cross, at the moment of His suffering and death, symbolically entrusted St. John to Mary’s care, and also vice versa, Mary to the care of St. John. Ever since then, all of us have been truly blessed to have Mary, not just as a great saint and role model, but also as our own adopted mother, and we have all been placed under her loving care and embrace.

That was why we have had many moments when the Blessed Virgin Mary, our loving mother appeared to us in different occasions, most famous of which occurred in Guadalupe, in La Salette, in Lourdes, in Fatima among others. And in all occurrences, Mary, the loving Mother of God and our mother always emphasised on repentance and for all mankind to turn once again towards God, towards her Son and to be forgiven from all of our sins and be reconciled.

Having seen the pain and suffering, the sorrow and troubles her Son endured on the Cross, it is not surprising that first of all, Mary as a loving Mother would not have wanted her Son’s sacrifice for our sake to be wasted on account of our stubbornness and refusal to turn towards God and remain in sin. And of course, then as a loving mother to all of us, she also certainly does not want any one of us to be lost from her due to our sinful ways.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must really consider ourselves truly fortunate, to have received such abundant love, care and compassion not just from the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, but even also from the Immaculate Heart of His own mother Mary, who is also our loving mother. Do we not want to listen to our mother’s loving words calling upon us to turn to her and from her towards Jesus Christ, her Son, Our Lord and Saviour?

Let us all therefore turn towards God with renewed faith, and devote ourselves from now on with greater zeal. Let us all commit ourselves to the path shown to us by our mother, Mary, through her loving Immaculate Heart, and follow this path faithfully to our complete reconciliation and forgiveness in God. O Blessed Mother Mary, help us all to be more like you in faith, and to share the love overflowing from your Immaculate Heart. Pray for us all sinners, and bring us ever closer to Christ, your Son, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

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Friday, 19 June 2020 : Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, World Day of Prayer for the Sanctity of Priestly Life (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the great Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrating the love of God pouring forth out from His most loving Heart, as He has revealed to His servants, namely St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, and earlier on through influences on mystic saints such as St. Gertrude the Great. Ultimately, the long development of the revelations led to the Devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus as we are familiar with today.

The Lord appeared in visions to early visionaries such as St. Gertrude the Great, St. Lutgarde and St. Mechtilde, speaking of the love from His loving Heart for mankind, and calling on all to love Him more and to dedicate themselves to His loving Heart, which He dedicated to all peoples as a show of His love, the Heart filled with great love for each and every one of us, a Heart that is so loving and gentle towards us, as a symbol of His eternal and enduring love for us all.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received the most significant series of visions of the Lord and His Most Sacred Heart, as He told the devout servant about the Devotion to His Most Sacred Heart, by the dedication of the first Fridays of every month to the reception of the Holy Eucharist and devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and then also Eucharistic Adoration and Holy Hours dedicated to the Sacred Heart. Through these visions, gradually, the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus which had begun earlier in the past centuries rapidly gained popularity and adoption by many in the Church.

The Lord in His appearances to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque also showed His heart and the anguish and sorrow which He had for the sins and disobedience which we had shown to Him despite the vastness of love, compassion and mercy that He has lavished upon us. The Lord said that, “Behold the Heart that has loved so many men, and yet, instead of gratitude, all I received were ingratitude…” and asking in particular that the Friday after the week in which the Solemnity of Corpus Christi is celebrated be dedicated to Him as the Feast of Reparation to the Most Sacred Heart.

That is why today we celebrate this great Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, continuing a long standing tradition and practice of the Church celebrating the mystery of the Sacred Heart since the fourteenth century. And as the devotion spread rapidly, eventually, the Blessed Pope Pius IX extended and placed this great Feast and Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in its current form and honour. And the Lord also promised to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque that all those who devoted themselves to His Most Sacred Heart with faith will be protected and receive the graces of God.

Now then, as we dedicate ourselves anew to the Lord in His Most Sacred Heart today, let us all then spend some time to reflect on just how fortunate we have been to be beloved by God, and just how wonderful is His love for each and every one of us, keeping in mind what He Himself had said when He appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, that though He has loved us all so dearly, yet what He received was not gratitude, but rather immense ingratitude and lack of faith from so many of us.

This is what we all need to focus on today, and look through our lives, our actions in life thus far and see where we may have fallen short of what we ought to have done, that is to love the same God Who has loved us so much with the same love, with the same energy and enthusiasm, with the same strength and commitment. In our first reading today taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, all of us heard of the Covenant that God had established with His people after He brought them out by mighty deeds from the land of Egypt, and how He has cared for them and provided for them, as a people consecrated to Him in holiness.

And yet, those people who have been so blessed to be chosen by God did not appreciate or be grateful at how fortunate they had been to have been such blessed by God. Instead, they chose to disobey Him, committing all sorts of evil, even right from the moment when He had just established His Covenant with them, as they erected a golden calf and made it god over them in opposition to God. And there were many other occasions throughout the history of the Israelites that they had certainly brought the Lord to much sorrow, grief and anger at their disobedience and stubbornness.

And yet, the Lord still chose to love them and to give them opportunities, one after another, sending many prophets again and again to them to help them and to lead them to Himself, that they might repent from their sins and turn away from their disobedience. Last of all, as the fulfilment of what He has revealed through His prophets, He sent His very own Begotten Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, to be the Saviour of all His people. How did He do that? By offering Himself as the perfect sacrificial offering on the Cross, that by sharing in His own shed Body and outpoured Blood, all of us who shared in Him, we have the promise of everlasting life with us.

That is why we celebrate this great Solemnity just within the week after the Solemnity of the Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord, as instructed by the Lord Himself, clearly as an important reminder that we have the loving Heart of our Lord, filled with His love that is so great and wonderful, so great a love that He has willingly offered Himself and sacrificed His own life, Body and shed His own Blood, suffering the most bitter of sufferings and persecutions for our sake.

It was for the great love of God that we have been blessed to know this love through Christ, as highlighted by St. John in his Epistle which is our second reading today. God has manifested His love for us through His Son, and by His actions and most loving and perfectly selfless sacrifice, He has showed us that He is Love Himself, and that all of us who are His people and adopted children, must also therefore be filled with the same love. We are all called to look at the Lord and remember His love, and be loving just as He has loved us.

Are we capable of doing that, brothers and sisters in Christ? Certainly we are capable of showing love just as the Lord has shown His love towards us. In each and every one of us, God has shown the potential to love, and sown the seeds of love within us, by the Holy Spirit Whom all of us have received through baptism, and which has been strengthened through the Sacrament of Confirmation. All of us are creatures of love, and the question is not whether we are capable of showing love, but rather if we want to show this love, to God and to our fellow brethren.

Today we also mark the occasion of the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctity of Priestly Life, keeping in mind all those who have been called to model themselves after the Lord’s examples, especially His love for each and every one of us. To those who have given themselves to the ministry of the ordained priesthood, we pray for them all, that they truly may model themselves and their own hearts after that of the Lord’s own Most Sacred Heart, filled with love for all mankind.

We need to recognise that to be priests is a very difficult undertaking for those who have chosen to answer the Lord’s call and dedicate their lives. They are also humans just like us, with their flaws and imperfections, but they are at the same time held up to a much higher expectation and standard, being those who have been entrusted with the care and guardianship over the people of God. But then they also faced a lot of difficulties and challenges, as well as daily temptations and pressures from various origins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why all of us need to support our priests and all those who have dedicated themselves to this holy and sacred calling in life. And we can do that by living with faith ourselves and devoting ourselves to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, showing the same love that He has shown us, in our actions and interactions with one another. Let us all model ourselves after the Lord’s heart, that our own heart be filled with love, and love graciously and tenderly as the Lord Himself has shown us.

May the Lord continue to be our guide, strengthen us in faith and love us all the time, that we may draw ever closer to the love of God made evident to us through His Most Sacred Heart. O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we entrust ourselves to You, and we beseech You to show Your ever enduring love and compassion, mercifully forgiving us our sins and reconciling us to Yourself, that we may indeed have our rest in You, we who are weary and heavily burdened, that through You, we may truly be free. Amen.