Weekday Homily

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Friday, 14 February 2020 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the continuation of the story from the Book of Kings on the kingdom of Israel after the time of king Solomon. At that time, after king Solomon has passed away, the kingdom passed to his heir Rehoboam, who followed in the sins of his father’s last years of reign and disregarded God’s will and wisdom, reigning tyrannically and ended up causing the division of Israel as God had foretold His people.

Jeroboam was given the command and kingship over the northern portion of the kingdom of Israel, consisting of the ten tribes of the Israelites who went up in rebellion against king Rehoboam and the house of David. This division happened because of the disobedience that Solomon and then his son Rehoboam had shown before God. And unfortunately, Jeroboam himself also fell into sin and disobeyed the Lord, and as a result, his family’s rule too eventually did not last, and other kings took over the throne of the northern kingdom.

All of these accounts of the downfall of the glorious days of the ancient united kingdom of Israel highlighted to us how in God we can have reassurance and true happiness, while away from Him there can only be division, misery and darkness. Many of the kings of Israel and Judah were unfaithful to God and led the people further and further into sin, embroiling them into bitter conflicts and wars that eventually led to the downfall and conquest of both kingdoms by the Assyrians and the Babylonians respectively.

Then we have our Gospel passage today, in which the Lord Jesus healed a man who was deaf and mute, by touching His ears and tongue, saying the word, ‘Ephphata!’ that means ‘Be opened!’ which caused the man to be immediately healed from his afflictions and was able to speak and hear again. Through the Lord’s hands and power, the man was cured and made whole again, and everyone who saw the miracle believed in Jesus.

And this is the fulfilment of the prophecy which the Lord gave to His people through His prophets, that His salvation would come to them through His Messiah, the Saviour Whom He promised to them all. And Our Lord Jesus Christ is the promised Saviour, Who came bearing God’s truth and His salvation, touching those who were sick and troubled, and calling many to repent from their sins and to turn towards righteousness in God.

The essence of our Scripture passages today is therefore a reminder that while we may have fallen into sin and become afflicted, struck with divisions and troubles because of those sins and disobedience, but God is the One Who is able and indeed the only One Who can truly heal us from our afflictions and deliver us from our troubles and issues. And what we must all realise is just how much God loves each and every one of us, and how He wants us to be reconciled to Him.

And that is why He gave us His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ to be our Saviour and Redeemer, to loosen the tongues of those who are mute, open the ears of the deaf, make the blind see, allow those who are paralysed to move and work again, and even raise the dead back into life. Through Him, we mankind are restored and made whole, to be reconciled with God the Father, through His singular act of supreme and ultimate love, that is His sacrifice on the Cross.

But do we appreciate what God has done for us? More often than not we ignore His love and generous offer for forgiveness and mercy. We turn a blind eye and brush aside His compassionate care for us. We prefer to carry on living in sin, and allow ourselves to be tempted again and again by the devil rather than to walk in His path, just as how the people of Israel and Judah once lived, rebelling constantly against God, eventually leading to their own downfall and exile.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we need to embrace a new way of life, that is the way of Christ. Let us all now take a look at the lives and inspiring examples of two saints who have been made the Patron Saints of Europe for their wonderful many contributions to evangelisation and the conversion of many souls. They are St. Cyril and St. Methodius, who were two brothers highly credited with bringing the Christian faith to the Slavic peoples in Eastern Europe and for codifying the Cyrilic alphabets, named after St. Cyril himself, now widely used in that region.

St. Cyril and St. Methodius were born in Greece and later on were sent on missions to different areas and territories across Eastern Europe and Western Asia, spreading the Christian faith and conducting diplomacy with the foreign powers in the regions they visited. They were then sent to the Slavic areas upon invitation from one of the kings who requested missionaries to evangelise the people who were mostly still pagan then.

St. Cyril and St. Methodius dedicated themselves to the mission they have been entrusted with, and did even more than what they have been called to do, in helping not just the conversion of the people but even as mentioned, the ordering of the Slavic alphabets and language, as well as codification of laws and customs modelled on the laws of the Roman Empire and the laws of the Church at that time. They truly showed what it means for us to be Christians, in serving God with all of their heart and might.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to follow in the footsteps of St. Cyril and St. Methodius? Are we willing to commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and devote our lives from now on with greater love and fidelity to God? Let us all seek to be ever more faithful, each and every days of our lives, making good use of all the opportunities that God has given us in this world. May God be with us always and may He bless us with faith and strength to live our lives according to His will, and heal us from our afflictions. Amen.

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Thursday, 13 February 2020 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the message of the word of God speaking to us through the Scriptures about the fall of Solomon into sin, when he at his old age began to be swayed by his many wives and concubines who continued to practice their pagan worship of idols and gods, and eventually led to the king himself and many of the people succumbing to the pagan idolatry themselves, offering sacrifices to those false idols and gods.

God was angered at the faithlessness of Solomon and his sins, which led the people of Israel deeper into sin against Him. And as a result, eventually the kingdom of Israel was divided into two halves, one of which was the kingdom of Judah led by the descendants of Solomon from the house of David, while the northern kingdom of Israel composed of the ten tribes in opposition to the house of David had their own kings. Many of the subsequent kings did not have faith in God and acted wickedly, allowing pagan worship and idolatry to run rampant.

From what we have just heard and discussed, we can see how there was a prejudice against the pagan neighbouring people of the Israelites. Beginning with the account of how king Solomon was seduced and persuaded by his many foreign wives and concubines, these neighbours of the Israelites were often considered as pagans, wicked and unworthy of God. This went along with the notion that the Israelites were the chosen race and a people whom God Himself had chosen to be His own.

As a result, the people of Israel often looked down on the Gentiles or the people who were non-Jewish in origin or in faith, and they considered them as being unworthy, dirty and sundered from God’s love and grace. Yet, what we have also then heard from our Gospel passage today serve as an important reminder that God’s love for His people transcends the boundaries of race, and unlike what the people then believed, God did not just choose to keep one people for His own, but in fact, made all of the children of man, His own beloved children.

In that Gospel passage we heard of the encounter between Jesus and a Syro-Phoenician woman who came seeking His help to heal her very sick daughter, having heard that the Lord had healed many of the sick who were brought to Him. Syro-Phoenicia was a region located just north of the region of Galilee where Jesus often ministered among the people with His disciples, a region that has always been outside the original land of the Israelites, and therefore the woman was likely a non-Jew or Gentile. In another account, the woman was also known as a Canaanite woman, and Canaanites referred to the people of Canaan who lived in the land before the coming of the Israelites.

What the Lord Jesus said to the Syro-Phoenician woman might seem to be quite rude if we do not understand the intent behind the Lord’s utterance of His words to the woman. The Lord responded to her request for help for her daughter with the harsh words, ‘that one ought not to give the food to the dogs’ which implied a very demeaning and condescending attitude. But the woman responded in kind, that ‘even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of the house master’, which showed not just her incredible faith but also humility.

The Lord did not in fact intend to be rude to her or to embarrass her. In truth, what He uttered was meant to highlight the ugly reality behind the way the Israelites had been behaving up to that time, especially the attitudes of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were highly influential and respected within the community. Many of them looked highly on themselves and treated their faith with pride and even jealousy, seeking praise and recognition for their piety and devotion to God.

And yet, in their hearts and minds, God was not present or that He was relegated to much less important position. That was why, although they were supposed to be the ones leading the people of Israel towards God, when He Himself appeared in their midst, they were the ones who opposed and rejected Him, harassing Him and criticising Him and His disciples at every possible opportunities. This was contrary to the action of the Syro-Phoenician woman, who humbled herself and had complete faith in God.

The Syro-Phoenician woman, a foreigner and a woman, a pagan and a nobody that everyone looked down on, was in fact the one who had faith in God greater than everyone else. That was why, by the words He uttered, the Lord Jesus wanted to make an example of the Syro-Phoenician faith to the people, how they ought to get rid of any prejudices they once had, and believe that ultimately, everyone is beloved by God, and that even those who were deemed as sinners could be saved, while those who proudly thought of themselves as righteous, fell along with their sin of pride, as what had happened to king Solomon and many among the Pharisees.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are therefore called to reflect on our lives and how we are to act in these lives and opportunities we have been given in this world. As Christians we are called to put God as the centre and the focus of our entire lives, and everything we say and do, should be in accordance to God’s will, and for the sake of His greater glory. Let us all get rid of pride and ego from our hearts and minds, purge away greed and desires from our beings that we may truly follow the example of the Syro-Phoenician woman in having such a strong faith in the Lord.

Let us do our best in whatever opportunities that God has granted us, that we may truly live our lives with genuine faith from now on, growing deeper in our relationship with God and in our faith and trust in Him, going forward in our lives. May the Lord continue to guide us and be with us, through each and every moments, through challenges and trials we may face in each of our journeys of life. Amen.

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Wednesday, 12 February 2020 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of God in the Scripture that speak to us of the importance of our external and even more so, internal orientation towards God in our respective lives. If our internal orientation towards God is not proper and we are instead distracted and scattered by the many temptations in this world, we will likely fall into sin and away from God’s grace.

In our first reading today, we begin with the story of the greatness of Solomon, Israel’s greatest king and son of David, who together with his father ushered the golden age of the old kingdom of Israel. Solomon’s glory, wealth and power were legendary and everyone honoured and praised him for his great wisdom and might, that as we heard in today’s passage, even the Queen of the distant country of Sheba troubled herself to go all the way to Jerusalem just to meet with Solomon.

God had granted Solomon his great wisdom, his wealth, power and glory because earlier on at the start of his reign, when Solomon was still young and new to the throne, inexperienced and weak, he prayed to God asking for wisdom to help him in ruling over the kingdom of his great father David. God blessed Solomon because of his great humility and also his uprightness, his desire not for worldly power but instead for wisdom and guidance.

However, in time, as Solomon grew increasingly older, as the Scriptures would show us, he became more and more influenced by his many wives and concubines, who still kept their pagan ways and practices. Solomon was probably consumed by his pride and greed, and he allowed all those things to cloud his judgment and led him and the Israelites into sin during the last years of his reign as king over Israel. And comparison was made between David and Solomon, how the latter did not remain faithful to God while David did, despite also having sinned against God a few times.

That is because David truly loved God with all of his heart, and his heart was aligned with God, and he maintained that love and devotion throughout his life to the very end. Although he, as a man, was also tempted to sin and fell on a few occasions, David has always put the Lord as his priority and sincerely repented from his sins and shortcomings. As a result, he remained firmly in God’s grace, and his reign remained good and strong by God’s providence.

Let us all compare this to what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, in which Our Lord Jesus had just had an exchange with the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who criticised Him and His disciples for not following and adhering to the commandments of the Law of Moses, on the matter of ritual cleansing and purification. At that time, according to the Law, everyone were to clean themselves before they ate food, and the Pharisees observed that the Lord’s disciples did not do so.

The Lord rebuked the Pharisees by being critical over their obsession on the wrong aspect of the Law, their focus on the trivial details and the way of the observance of the Law which they prescribed to, in being overly critical of those who did not adhere to their way of observing the Law. And Jesus also rebuked many of those Pharisees for their lack of genuine faith and for being hypocrites because they showed off their piety and actions to be praised by others rather than because they truly loved God with all their hearts.

This is related to what we have heard in the case of king Solomon, because it is likely that all of his glory and greatness eventually affected and influenced him, and as a result, he neglected his interior disposition and orientation towards God, allowing the devil to enter into his heart and mind, sowing the seeds of rebellion and sin, just as what had been done to the Pharisees. The latter’s insecurities and fear of losing their influence over the people made them vulnerable to the temptation of pride and desire which made them stubborn in opposing the Lord and His many good works.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the lesson that each and every one of us as Christians must take is that we are all called to be vigilant in our lives that we must make sure that our faith in God is truly genuine and sincere, that God must be at the centre of our lives, as the reason and purpose of our every words and actions. We must not do things just because we want to be seen as better than others or to be praised, for our faith is not for ourselves to boast about, but rather for us to grow in our relationship with God.

If we allow pride and desire to interfere with our faith, as king Solomon and many of the Pharisees had done, it showed that we do not love God as much as we should have, and despite our apparent and external show of faith, in truth, we love ourselves more than we love God. And in time, this attitude will lead us to walk further and further away from God and from His righteousness. Let us all ponder about this and discern carefully how we will carry on living our lives with faith from now on. May God be with us all, and may He bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 11 February 2020 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, celebrating one of the most famous apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes in southern part of France. At that time, Mary appeared to a young girl named Bernadette Soubirous in a grotto within the forest nearby the small village town of Lourdes. The Blessed Virgin revealed herself to be the Lady of the Immaculate Conception. But before that revelation, she appeared as a figure of a woman dressed in white and bedazzled with light.

Bernadette Soubirous, later on to be known as St. Bernadette Soubirous was an uneducated peasant young girl, whose words no one initially took seriously, including the local parish priest to whom St. Bernadette had reported her vision of the apparition. Initially the priest was skeptical as was others, who thought that the young St. Bernadette must have been hallucinating. Yet, more and more apparition came through and the Blessed Virgin continued to make herself visible to St. Bernadette and some others who came to visit the grotto with her.

In one occasion, St. Bernadette was asked to show a sign by the people, and the Blessed Virgin guided her by asking her to dig the ground at a spot that she showed her. As St. Bernadette dug the ground, the ground felt damp and wet, and immediately a gush of spring water came out of the ground. This would eventually become the origin of the now famous Lourdes holy springs of water that had healed many people who came to Lourdes seeking to be healed by the grace of God through His mother Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes.

When the local priest and others still doubted the authenticity of the apparition, St. Bernadette asked the apparition of her name, and the Lady responded with ‘I am the Immaculate Conception’ as I mentioned earlier. St. Bernadette brought this response to the priest who was completely taken by surprise at what he had heard. For at that time, in the year 1858, the year of the apparition, it was just four years after the declaration of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Blessed Pope Pius IX.

As such, due to the constraints of technology and communication at that time, as well as the obvious fact that St. Bernadette was just an illiterate, poor, uneducated young peasant girl, there could have been no way that St. Bernadette could have known of that fact beforehand if not for the fact that the apparition was indeed of the Blessed Virgin Mary herself. And since then, the priest would become a great champion for the cause of the apparition to be made officially approved and recognised by the Church, with the cooperation with the local bishop.

In the meanwhile, the crowds of people coming to the site continued to grow especially as several miracles were attributed to the spring water of Lourdes. Several people were healed of their illnesses and became perfectly well again. And eventually when doctors and psychologists came to investigate the miraculous occasion, the apparition and St. Bernadette herself, they could not explain all that happened there except with the eyes of the faith.

It would be several more years before the Church officially recognised the apparitions at Lourdes by the Blessed Virgin Mary, but ever since then, Lourdes have always been popular with numerous pilgrims from all over the world, especially the sick and the dying who were seeking God’s help through the intercession of His blessed Mother, Mary, who had made this recourse available for us mankind. And all of these indeed have its roots in what we have heard in our Scripture readings today.

In today’s Gospel text, we heard the famous account of the Wedding at Cana, the moment when Our Lord performed His very first miracle, turning water into wine for the sake of the couple who were married that day. As mentioned, the couple ran out of wine, and we have to understand that in the Jewish tradition, for a wedding to run out of wine while the celebration was still ongoing, it would be a terrible shame and embarrassment for the couple.

That was why the couple was having such a predicament, and Mary noticed their trouble, and she went to her Son Jesus, asking if He could do something to help the couple out of their trouble. The Lord responded that it was not yet His time, but nonetheless, Mary still went out of her way and told the servants to listen to whatever Jesus would be saying to them. Most likely moved by His mother’s compassion and concern for the couple, her plea for Him to help, Jesus moved and told the servants to follow His instructions, and as we all know, the water in the jars turned miraculously into the finest wines.

From what we have heard in this account from the Wedding at Cana and also what we have just talked about, the story of the apparition of Mary at Lourdes, we can clearly see how Mary, God’s own Mother, has always been concerned for us, and she has always tried to show us compassion and getting her Son, Our Lord, to help us from our troubles and predicaments. Just as the wedding couple faced potential shame and embarrassment from having not enough wine in their wedding, we too are beset by many troubles, including sickness and sufferings from many diseases.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all remember that at the moment of His crucifixion and as He was about to die, the Lord Jesus entrusted His own mother Mary to St. John, His Apostle, and in doing so, He symbolically entrusted her to all of us His disciples and His Church. And at the same time, we have all also been entrusted to her as her own adopted children as well. That is why our Blessed Mother always looks upon us with loving and tender care, seeking our happiness and true joy in God, her Son.

And because Mary is the mother of God, by our faith we believe that she sits even now by the side of her Son’s throne in heaven. Historically, the mother of the king has always held great influence in the court and the king has also often listened to his mother’s counsel and words. In the same way therefore, Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, is always interceding and praying for us, and her Son, Our Lord and King, will listen to His own mother’s words and prayers.

That was how so many people who had faith in God and in the intercession of His mother, Our Lady of Lourdes, were healed from their many afflictions and sicknesses. Let us therefore today, which is also designed as the World Day of the Sick, focus our prayer and intentions on all our sick ones, for all those who are suffering from all sorts of physical, mental and spiritual sicknesses of all kinds. Let us also pray especially for this moment, those who are currently suffering from the terrible effects of the current novel Coronavirus, 2019-nCov, that all those who suffer may, by the grace of God and through the intercession of Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, be healed from all of their sufferings, pains and troubles.

May the Lord continue to watch over us, and may His blessed mother, Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes continue to look after us, that each and every one of us who are suffering from sickness one way or another, may be healed and made whole, and having been made good and whole again, may we all be brought together in God’s love and embrace, forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 10 February 2020 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Lord speaking to us through the Sacred Scriptures, in which we began with the accounts from the Book of Kings on the completion and the Dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem built by king Solomon for God. In that account, we heard how the king and the whole people rejoiced as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the Temple of God, and placed at its centre, the Holy of Holies where God Himself would dwell.

The Ark of the Covenant has been the centre of the whole community of Israel since the time of the Exodus from Egypt, as its name was linked to its role as the container of the actual Covenant which God has made with His people and written on the two slabs of stone, which together with the manna gathered from the time when God had fed His people and the staff of Aaron with which God had performed many wonders and miracles before the people of Israel, symbolise the very presence of God among His people.

And that moment when the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the Temple signified the moment when the Covenant of God was renewed, which king Solomon celebrated with the large offering of sacrifices to God as described in the account of the Book of Kings, numbering in the tens and thousands and more. The whole people of Israel rejoiced because God has willingly dwelled among His people and blessed the Temple that King Solomon has built in Jerusalem.

What we have heard in our first reading on the dedication of the Temple and the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant is a prefigurement of what would then come at the moment when God renewed His Covenant with His people, one final time, and this time with a new Covenant that He would seal with His people with a new sacrifice, and this one is the sacrifice which Our Lord Jesus would make on the Altar of His Cross at Calvary. For Christ is indeed the Mediator and Bearer of God’s New Covenant.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the works of the Lord Jesus and His disciples who were then at Galilee, ministering to the people and caring for many people who came to Jesus seeking to listen to Him and His teachings, or to be healed from their various illnesses, diseases, afflictions and troubles. People kept on bringing their sick ones to Him and many were healed by His touch and works, and the people who had faith in Him were healed by merely touching His cloak.

In the Lord Jesus, we ourselves have seen the Lord coming to dwell among us, and this time, not just in the intangible form of the slabs of stone of the Commandments and the Law, or the manna or the staff of Aaron or the container which is the Ark of the Covenant mentioned earlier. Here is the One Who is the Lord Himself Incarnate in the flesh, the Divine Word and Son of God, Who took upon Himself the nature and appearance of Man, that He is able to dwell in our midst in the flesh, in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour.

He came into our midst and dwell among us as He promised because He loves each and every one of us very dearly. After all, He created us all out of love and He wants nothing less than happiness and joy for us, which has been barred for us because of our sins and disobedience against God. Our sins have made us to be separated from God and His fullness of grace and love, which is precisely why He sent us His own Son, Jesus Christ.

When the Lord Jesus came into our world and touched us His people, and then ultimately fulfilled His mission by taking up His Cross and suffered for our sake, becoming the very sacrificial Lamb on the Altar for our sake, and being sacrificed for us, renewing forever the Eternal Covenant of Love that God has made with us, affirming with this act of supreme love of the desire that God has in being reconciled with us. By the forgiveness of our sins, we can be reunited with God once again.

Today, all of us are therefore reminded of just how fortunate each and every one of us that God has always loved us all despite all of our infidelities and lack of faith, for all of our rebelliousness and our failures to obey His will. God still loves us all and wants to forgive us all, and He has done so by sending us His Son to be Our Lord and Saviour, suffering and dying a most painful death on the Cross for our sake.

How do we then appreciate God’s love and love Him back, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is by opening ourselves to His love and allow His grace and forgiveness to touch us and our lives, that we may be healed by His compassionate love. Just as those people who came seeking Him to be healed from their various sickness and diseases, we are all also called to seek Him to heal us from the disease within us, within our heart, mind and soul, that is our sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, perhaps we should be inspired by the good examples led by one of our holy predecessor who had lived her life with great faith in God, that we too may know how to live our own lives with faith from now on. St. Scholastica, a renowned saint and holy woman, also the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia, is a great role model for us in faith as she led a devout life and inspired many others to follow her example mirroring what her brother had also done in establishing what would eventually become the Benedictines.

St. Scholastica lived a virtuous and prayerful life, dedicated wholly to God and committed herself to live an upright life of piety and charity, inspiring others in her community to be more dedicated and faithful to God. St. Scholastica showed us all what it truly means for us to be Christians, as those who believe in Christ and in His love, and because of that, we have to really show our love for Him by our action, our commitment to love Him and serve Him each and every days of our lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all seek to renew our faith in God and grow stronger in our love and devotion towards Him. Let us all be more Christian-like in our way of life from now on, and let us seek to glorify God at all times through our words, actions and deeds for His such great love for us that He has done with us everything He has done through His Cross. May God be with us always, and may He bless us all in our every endeavours. Amen.

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Sunday, 9 February 2020 : Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday all of us heard the message from the Sacred Scripture, in which the core message is that of each and every one of us as disciples and followers of the Lord must be ready to do what He has taught and commanded us to do. If we call ourselves as Christians and yet we are incapable, unwilling or fail to do what we have been called to do, how can we be Christians then? Are we not like the hypocrites who believe in one thing and yet act in a different manner?

In our Gospel passage today we heard from the Lord Jesus His famous parable of the salt of the earth and the light of the world. He was using them as a tool of comparison with all of those whom He had called and taught, reminding them of all the blessings and talents that God has given to each and every one of them, and thus all of us too. All of us have been blessed with wonderful talents and abilities unique to our own, but many of us have not realised this and many of us are not using those talents and abilities for the right purpose or simply misused them.

Today, let us all first look into the two things which the Lord used to represent His teachings and thoughts. The first one is salt, an essential flavouring agent and also a preservative used from many millennia ago in many cultures and civilisations around the world. And the second one is light, something that is naturally available to us through the sun and the distant stars and its reflections from the moon. And we also have artificial forms of light source, historically using candle flames and then later on electricity-powered lighting.

In our world today we may not fully understand the significance of these two very important commodities and why the Lord chose them to represent what He wanted to deliver to the people listening to Him. And that is because we live in a world where salt and light, as well as many other things that used to be very difficult to be gained or maintained, are now abundant and plenty. Salt and light are so plenty all around us that we often do not appreciate their significance to our lives.

Salt was very important as mentioned earlier, as a flavouring for food that would otherwise be bland and tasteless. And even more importantly, salt is usually the most common form of preservation of food, by using it to kill the microorganisms present in the food and also to slow down the growth of any other microorganism by dehydrating the food due to its properties. Salt are readily available from the seas and oceans, as there are plenty of saltwater in our world, making up the vast majority of the water we have.

However, because salt is so important and necessary for many uses in life, its production, which is time and labour consuming using the traditional method of evaporating seawater, salt has always been prized and treasured by many people, especially by those who live far away from the shores of the sea. As transportation systems in the past were not as advanced as it is now, it may be difficult for many people to have a steady and sufficient access to salt.

If salt no longer has its saltiness and presumably, its useful properties, then it really becomes useless as the Lord Himself said. Without its properties, salt is useless and meaningless, and has no value at all other than to be discarded, ignored and thrown away. And by using this, God wants His people to understand that our talents and abilities that He has given us are just like the saltiness and the preservative properties of salt.

And then, on the matter of light, light is also a very important commodity for us all, as we all know that without light, we cannot see any objects around us. Our vision of the objects and our surroundings can happen because light is reflected on the object’s surface and gets into our eyes. Without light, there will then be darkness, for darkness is indeed the absence of light. With light, darkness disappears and everything become bright and visible again.

Similar with salt, we live in a world where light is so abundant and available at any time of the day that we may no longer appreciate its significance. But in the ages past, especially before the discovery of electricity and the use of electricity in providing light sources for us, people feared the dark very much as they could not see, and harm could easily occur to those who were exposed in the open, such as wild beasts and predators, and other harms like obstacles and dangers lurking all around not visible to man because of the lack of light.

During the period when light was absent such as during nighttime, candles were used, and they were so precious that if we notice, traditional candlesticks where the candles were usually placed have a flared surface that was meant to capture all the melted wax during the burn. While not all the substance of the candle can be reclaimed this way, but with that, as much melted wax as possible could be reclaimed and then reused again for either lighting or other purposes.

And we all also know that light also produces heat, and in a world where nighttime can be cold and dark, especially during winter times, light was indeed very, very important as not just a source of hope but also a source of comfort and protection. And this is why the Lord make use of light as His example, and mentioned how useless and illogical it would be for anyone to hide a light source underneath a cover that the light could not be used to enlighten the darkened places.

Such an attitude would not make sense at all considering just how precious light as a resource was, especially at the time when Jesus conducted His ministry two millennia ago, way long before electricity and any forms of readily accessible lighting were available to us mankind. In the same way as how salt was described therefore, light was used as an important comparison of how God has given us talents, abilities and gifts, and blessed us with the opportunities to be used, and we should make use of them for the greater glory of God.

But more often than not, we do not or fail to recognise these gifts and blessings from God. Or we misuse them for our own selfish desires and benefits rather than using them as how God had intended for them to be used. We seek personal happiness and pleasure, and we want to satisfy our various inner desires. This is where we are all reminded that if we do all these, essentially we are doing what the Lord had said about being senseless, by hiding the light that God has placed within us and by losing that saltiness of ours as the salt of the earth.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all the light of the world and the salt of the earth because we have in us the light of God, Who is the True Light of the world. We reflect His light and glory and become beacons of His light in our darkened world today. He has also given us the gifts to bless others with our distinct personalities and talents, like salt that gives flavour to the food that we eat. And if we act in ways contrary to what the Lord had taught and shown us, we are hiding this light and not making use of what God has bestowed on us.

How do we then live our lives so that we may truly reflect God’s light and become bright beacons of His light and be true and meaningful salt of the earth? It is by heeding what we have heard in our first reading today taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah. The prophet mentioned how we all should share our joy, happiness and blessings with others, to live humbly and without excess that we may spare our joy with others who need help. We ought to reach out to the needy, those who are homeless and have none to care for them.

Essentially, we are all called to be selfless and to be willing to love one another sincerely, and we are called to live a genuine and virtuous Christian life each, so that by our lives and actions, the light of Christ will shine forth through us as the prophet Isaiah said, and be the guiding light for others who are still in the darkness of the world. Are we able to make the commitment to live our lives in an utmost Christian manner from now on?

It will not be easy for us to do so, as temptations are always aplenty trying to make us to live our lives for ourselves instead, causing harm and even hurt to others when we seek to satisfy our own selfish desires and demands. And if we do this, we are hiding the light of Christ and making ourselves useless as the salt of the earth. Our challenge is how do we keep our courage and strength to walk down the path that God has shown us, to bear witness to His truth and to share our joy in Christ with all those whom we encounter in life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let our lives be examples and demonstration of God’s love, and let our every words, actions and deeds speak of the glory of God, putting Him first and foremost above our own petty desires. Let us all reach out to our fellow brethren and show God’s love, and do our best within our own capacity, utilising our own talents and capabilities to touch others through our sincere and genuine show of love, care and concern, that we may bring light to illuminate the path of others who are still enshrouded by the darkness of uncertainty and sin, and bring happiness and joy to the life of others.

Let us all truly be light of the world and salt of the earth as our Lord Himself has called us to be, and let us dedicate ourselves, our time, energy and effort to serve Him ever more faithfully from now on. May the Lord bless us all and may He strengthen each and every one of us that we may always be faithful to carry out the missions which He has entrusted to us. May God bless us all and our many good works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 8 February 2020 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani, and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints, Holy Virgins or Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of God in the Scriptures which first of all told us of the prayer of the king of Israel, Solomon, son of David, who prayed to God at the beginning of his reign asking for wisdom and good judgment, that God would bless him and help him to make up what he lacked in experience and ability. God blessed Solomon and praised his humility that he has not asked for worldly glory, wealth and power which were things commonly desired by those who were in power, like kings and lords.

God blessed Solomon for his steadfastness, honesty and sincerity, as Solomon readily admitted his youth and inexperience before Him, and also looked up to his father David as a great example he admired and aspired to follow in the actions he had taken in leading a righteous and just reign. God blessed Solomon with more than what he has earlier asked for, not just for wisdom and guidance, but even all those things which he had not asked for earlier on.

Solomon had a heavy responsibility and burden on his shoulders as king, especially as he succeeded his father David who had been very successful as king. David reunited the people of Israel once divided in civil war after the death of Saul, the previous king, and he also expanded the borders of the kingdom and brought great prestige and honour to the people of Israel. David provided a steady foundation that allowed Israel to enter into a great golden age, which continued and peaked under Solomon’s reign that God had blessed as He promised earlier on.

Solomon carried on his duties responsibly and reigned with great wisdom and justice over all of Israel, ruling Israel at the height of its glory and power. He also built the famous Temple of God, also known under its namesake the Temple of Solomon, upon the foundation and preparation that his father David had gathered beforehand. He was faithful to God for much of his reign, but unfortunately, if we read on more through the account of his reign from the Book of Kings, we will find it unfortunate that at his old age, Solomon began to be swayed by his many wives and concubines, many of whom continued to practice their pagan worship and customs.

Many of the successors of Solomon as kings in Israel and in Judah after the division of the kingdom were unfaithful to God and they led the people into sin, as they were the ones entrusted with the guidance over the people of God, and yet, they themselves were in error and led the people, the flock of God further away from their God and deeper into sin. And this is when we ought to look again into our Gospel passage today, when we heard about the Lord Jesus and His actions during His ministry with His disciples.

It was told that the Lord and His disciples were tired and exhausted after continuous work and encounter with many of the people who constantly brought their sick ones over for the Lord to heal them. And when they wanted to take a break, the Lord saw how many people were still coming to Him and seeking His help, even finding the way to discover where He and His disciples were despite their best effort to slip away. The Lord then continued to teach them and work, seeing how the people were like flock of sheep without a shepherd to guide them.

The Lord Jesus was the one and true King of Israel, Who as the Heir of David was the One promised by God to be the King that would sit on the throne of David and perpetuate his house. And yet, as the Lord Jesus Himself showed, His kingship was different from the many other kings of Israel who had not been faithful to God and led the people to the wrong paths. We can see how Jesus placed the needs of His people, His flock, above that of Himself, caring for their needs and loving them, even when He was tired and in need of rest.

Through all of these, God wants all of us to know that to be His followers and servants, to obey His will and commandments and to be the ones whom He had called and chosen, is something that will not be easy and straightforward for us. Those kings of Israel were chosen by God and had the obligation of being God’s vicars in taking care of God’s own people, the Israelites, but many of them fell to the many temptations present in our world, the temptations of money and wealth, of fame and glory, of lust and pleasures of the flesh among others.

As long as we allow our desires, pride, ego, ambition and all those temptations to mislead us, we will likely end up getting more and more distant from God and be like those who have not been faithful to their calling. The Lord Himself showed us what it means for us to work for the sake of the greater glory of God, which often requires sacrifices of time and energy, effort and resources. And today perhaps we should also look upon the good examples set by the two servants of God whose feasts we are celebrating.

St. Josephine Bakhita and St. Jerome Emiliani are two saints whose lives are truly extraordinary and they show us what being true and faithful disciples of the Lord is indeed about. They dedicated their lives in service to God, through prayers and work, that each and every one of us can also be inspired to follow in their footsteps too. If we are able to walk in their footsteps to follow the Lord, then we are heading in the right direction in life.

Let us begin first with St. Josephine Bakhita. She had a difficult early years of her life, being abducted from her family and community at a young age by slavers who made her into a slave and forced her to convert to a faith that was not her own. St. Josephine Bakhita had to endure much suffering as a slave and endured all sorts of humiliation and difficulties when she was treated less than a proper human being, sold from one place to another, until eventually she met her last employers, the Italian Vice Consul in Khartoum, Sudan who treated her well and eventually passed her on to another Italian family, who then gave St. Josephine Bakhita to encounter Christ for the first time through the Canossian Sisters when circumstances put her under their care.

Through the help of many people, St. Josephine Bakhita eventually was freed from her slavery with the support of the court and the authorities, and she became a Christian, and in time, joined the Canossian sisters into religious life. Her past, painful and difficult experiences in life did not make her to be bitter in life. On the contrary, she worked devoutly and always remembered the suffering of her people in Africa throughout her many years living as part of the Canossians, leading her to be well-respected by everyone for her faith and dedication to God.

She also forgave her abductors, persecutors and all those who had given her a terrible life during her first and early years. She would even thank and bless them, as she said that were it not for them, she would not have become a Christian and to be where she was then. It was God who called her out of slavery, much as how He liberated His people out of Egypt, and gave her a new life, to be a testimony of His glory and wonderful works among His people, and St. Josephine Bakhita’s life is indeed a powerful testimony of her faith.

Meanwhile, St. Jerome Emiliani was a man who ran away from his family during his teenage years to join the military, and then became official in the government. He encountered God through miraculous survival from a siege, which he attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Mother of God, which gradually began to touch his life, and in his later years, St. Jerome Emiliani dedicated himself to the care of the poor and orphans, those who are sick, opening houses and places to be where they can be taken care of and treated.

St. Jerome Emiliani was thus known for his extensive labours of charity, opening hospitals and orphanages, as well as dormitories for former prostitutes, caring for many and touching the lives of countless thousands. Together with some priests who supported his efforts, eventually St. Jerome Emiliani laid the foundations for the Congregation of Regular Clerics, composed of all those who share the same ideals and charity of St. Jerome Emiliani, in reaching out to the people of God, especially the less fortunate and weaker ones among them.

St. Jerome Emiliani embodied what the Lord Jesus Himself had done as described in our Gospel passage today, in caring for the needs of the poor and the needy, consoling orphans and all those who seek God for help. Together with St. Josephine Bakhita, they truly show us what true Christian virtues and charity are all about, and how each and every one of us are also able to follow in their footsteps to serve God in our own capacities and with our own abilities and talents.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how about us then? Are we willing and able to follow in our predecessors’ footsteps? Are we capable to making the commitment to serve God as we should? Let us all ponder on this and reflect on how we can probably be better Christians and disciples of Christ from now on through our lives and through our commitment to live up to our calling as those whom the Lord has called to be His followers and disciples. May the Lord be our guide and may He strengthen us all in faith, at all times. Amen.

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Friday, 7 February 2020 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture comparing two kings, namely David and Herod, in how they acted in their reign and life. One was faithful to God and committed himself to serve his Lord and Master, although he did fall at times and faltered but he remained true to his commitment and was righteous and just as a king. On the other hand, the other one was unfaithful, placed himself and his interests above that of his own people and did not follow God’s laws and commandments.

King David was the epitome of a faithful servant, who although a powerful and mighty, successful king, but he did not allow himself to be swayed by the temptations of his pride and desires. It was only rare occasions that he did fall into those temptations, but in all those occasions, David knew that he was at fault and repented deeply for his sins. God was always foremost in his mind and he devoted much of his reign in leading the people of Israel to be closer to God.

On the other hand, we have king Herod who succumbed to the many temptations he had, especially that of power and lust. First of all, as mentioned in our Gospel passage today, king Herod took his own brother’s wife, Herodias to be his own wife. This happened when Philip, Herod’s brother was still in fact well and alive, and then, Herodias and Philip already had a daughter from that earlier marriage, who was likely the daughter of Herodias mentioned in our Gospel passage today.

In that manner, the action of Herod constituted a serious adultery, as Herod embraced a relationship that was not approved or sanctioned by the Law of God. And in his position as king over the people of Judea, to embrace such an action so blatantly and publicly would equate to a terrible role model for the people he was king over. His actions brought scandal and wickedness, and St. John the Baptist rightly rebuked him before the people for his refusal to obey God and live righteously as he should have.

Then, we heard an even greater mistake that king Herod had done in our same Gospel passage today, when he allowed himself to be tempted even more by his desire and lust, when he was tempted even by his own stepdaughter, the one that Herodias had with Philip, Herod’s daughter. When Herod was immersed in the party he conducted and became enamoured with desire even for his own stepdaughter, Herod showed us how dangerous it is for us to allow the devil to tempt us and to twist us with all those wicked thoughts and desires.

In the end, because of that, king Herod caused the death of St. John the Baptist, God’s faithful servant, although he did not intend to do it. Herodias took the opportunity to strike a revenge at St. John the Baptist for having insulted her with his rebuke of the adulterous relations between her and Herod. All these happened ultimately because Herod and all the parties involved allowed themselves to be swayed by their desires and the temptations to sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us are called to reflect on these matters and consider how each and every one of us should be careful in living our lives that we do not end up like Herod who gave in to the temptations in life and sinned against God by his actions and deeds. Instead, we should look upon the good examples set by king David, just as Solomon, his son looked up to him for example and thanked God for all that his father had done in righteously serving God all his life.

It will not be easy for us to serve the Lord as there will indeed be plenty of temptations in life, and there will be lots of challenges we may have to face along the way. Are we able to resist those temptations and desires that are making us go astray from God and His path? Are we willing to commit ourselves to the Lord with faith from now on, knowing that as Christians this is our obligation and calling in life? Let us all be inspired to live as how God’s faithful servants had lived, like king David and many other saints and holy men and women, whose lives are readily available for us to emulate and follow.

May the Lord be with us and may He guide us all to live courageously with faith from now on. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 6 February 2020 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today through the words of the Scripture we are all reminded of the dedication with which God’s servants had served Him in the calling and in the mission that God has entrusted to them. They have been called to follow God and to serve Him, making sacrifices to walk faithfully in His path and devoting themselves to the service of the Lord. In today’s readings we heard of the responsibilities that come with the position of being God’s chosen ones.

In our first reading today from the Book of Kings we heard of the moment when king David of Israel was dying, and he spoke to his son Solomon, whom David had made to be his successor, on what it meant for him to be a king over the Israelites, the people of God. David reminded Solomon how even as king, he had to obey the Lord’s commandments and will above all else, and in fact should be exemplary in that faith as his role as king was to lead and guide the people of God as God’s vicar and representative.

And David then also reminded Solomon of God’s promises to him, that as long as Solomon and his descendants remained faithful to God and did what David had instructed him to do, God would bless them and make their reigns secure forever. Eventually, many of David’s descendants did not remain faithful to God, including Solomon himself during his old age, when they served themselves and their desires rather than serving to bring glory to God. Many of them led the people down the wrong path and sinned against God.

It is with this background that we then listened to the Lord sending out His disciples as described in our Gospel passage today. The Lord sent out His disciples with clear instruction and guide that they must not trust in all sorts of worldly means but rather bring only what they absolutely needed, the barest minimum without even spares to compensate for their journey. In this manner, God reminded His disciples what it means to follow Him, and that is to be ready to face the many challenges that will come in our way.

There will be plenty of challenges and trials, as the Lord has highlighted it to His disciples. Just as there are many who would be open to listen and to accept the truth of God, there would also be many more who would not listen and reject the truth of God, preferring to trust in themselves and believe in whatever they wanted. And our predecessors had experienced all these throughout their many years in serving the Lord and being faithful to Him.

For example, today we have the memory of the faithful Holy Martyrs of Japan, especially the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Nagasaki, St. Paul Miki and Companions, who were martyred for remaining true to their faith despite coercions and pressures to abandon their faith. At that time, Japan was experiencing a great boom and expansion of the Christian faith as many people turned to Christianity and became believers, and even many among the nobles and lords were also converted.

The authorities, at that time under the rule of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Regent of Japan, was initially welcoming of Christians and their missionaries. However, changing political landscape and situations caused a rather abrupt turn in the treatment of Christians, as official persecution and opposition against Christians, missionaries and laity alike began in earnest. And under Hideyoshi Toyotomi, this peaked with the well-known trial and execution of the twenty-six Christians consisting of several missionaries as well as the members of the laity, including St. Paul Miki who was among the first Japanese Christians.

The persecuted Christians were brought to Kyoto where the Regent resided, and after having been condemned to their punishment of death, they were forced to march the very long journey from Kyoto all the way to the place of their martyrdom in Nishizaka Hill in Nagasaki, a distance of over six hundred miles. Yet, despite knowing their fate and the suffering that they had to endure, St. Paul Miki and his companions sang the glorious hymn of the ‘Te Deum’ praising and glorifying God throughout the entire journey.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have thus heard of how these courageous and faithful servants of God lived their faith and devoted themselves to the very end, going through even challenges and troubles even in the face of certain death and suffering. Through their undying dedication and commitment, St. Paul Miki and his companions showed us what it truly means to be faithful as Christians in living our faith. Are we able to commit ourselves as these predecessors of ours had done?

Let us all reflect on these matters, and think how we live our lives from now on in responding to God’s call for each and every one of us. He has called on us to follow Him, and how will we respond to that calling? Let us all seek the Lord with a new focus, commitment and desire to love Him, inspired by the courageous faith of St. Paul Miki and his companions who braved suffering and death for God’s greater glory, putting aside our pride and desire for worldly temptations. O Holy Martyrs of Nagasaki, pray for us all! And may God be with us always! Amen.

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Wednesday, 5 February 2020 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are told first of all, of another occurrence when king David of Israel sinned against God besides his adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of his captain Uriah. King David wanted to know the might of his power and the glory of his kingdom and thus, he asked Joab his commander to conduct a great census over all of Israel and Judah, which was abhorred by God because it implied that David had fallen into pride.

And David only realised his folly later on, when the Lord rebuked and reminded him of how futile his pursuits had been. For even if God were to grant him more people to rule over and even a greater kingdom to rule over, it was by the grace of God that David has enjoyed all the wonders and glory, and not by his own strength and power. At that moment, David gave in to his momentary weakness and allowed the devil to tempt him with the temptation of grandeur and worldly glory.

How is this then related to what we heard in our Gospel passage today? In that Gospel passage today we heard of how the Lord Jesus went to His own hometown, that is Nazareth, and began teaching and performing His works among His own townspeople, many of whom had known Him since He was still very young. Almost immediately they doubted and judged Him, wondering how the Son of a simple village carpenter could have spoken so well and performed so many wonders and miracles.

They questioned the Lord in that manner, and because of their lack of faith, the Lord could not do much work and progress in that area, a fact that He Himself lamented and He also mentioned how the prophets of old also devoted their time and efforts to bring God’s truth and guide the people into the right paths, and yet it was the same people who rejected the prophets and persecuted them. The people of Israel and Judah to whom the prophets belonged to refused to listen to them, although those prophets were known to them.

It was the people considered as pagans and idolaters that listened to the prophets, like the widow of Zarephath in Sidon who gave the prophet Elijah a lodging and food during his time away from the land of Israel. It was also Rahab the prostitute in Jericho who helped the scouts of the Israelites to hide from those who wanted to look for them. It was the Samaritans who welcomed the Lord Jesus when He was rejected by His own countrymen and even those from His own village.

All of these show us that when we mankind become proud and allow ourselves to be swayed by the temptations of the devil, we will end up falling into his trap and we may be like those Israelites who failed to welcome and accept the truth of God through the prophets because they were too engrossed with themselves and their pursuits for worldly happiness and glory. The devil knows this very well and he will do whatever he can to prevent us from opening ourselves to God and allowing Him to touch our lives.

Are we willing and able to welcome the Lord into our hearts and open them for Him to enter? His own townspeople and countrymen rejected Him out of their pride and existing prejudices, their reluctance to listen and change according to what the Lord has revealed to them. But we can be better than them, and we are called to follow the Lord and be attuned to His truth and love. Today, we have a great example in St. Agatha, a great holy woman and martyr of the faith, who can inspire us through her life and faith how we should live our lives with faith.

St. Agatha, also known as St. Agatha of Sicily was one of the most highly venerated and famous saint of the early Church for her great courage in defending her faith. She was born into a noble family and encountered great trouble when a Roman prefect made advances on her and she rejected it because she dedicated herself in a holy vow of virginity to God. The Roman prefect, angered by her rejection, brought St. Agatha to be arrested and persecuted under the then vicious persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Decius.

Despite all the persecution and suffering that she had to face, St. Agatha refused to renounce her faith in God and she also was remembered for her prayer for courage before Lord, asking Him to guide and protect her as she was led like a lamb into the midst of wolves. She suffered all sorts of terrible torture and assault, humiliation and actions that would have made any other people to give up, but St. Agatha remained firm in her faith until she died in martyrdom eventually in prison. She remained true to her faith in God till the very end, and her example inspired many others through the centuries and more afterwards.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Agatha has shown us what it means to truly have faith in God and to be faithful to Him, with a living and genuine faith that allow God to enter into our lives so that our lives and actions may be transformed by His grace and love. Are we able to devote ourselves to God in this manner? Are we able to spend our time and commit ourselves to God as St. Agatha and many other of our holy predecessors had done? Let us not allow the devil from penetrating into our hearts and minds, and definitely we must not allow him to tempt us into sin.

Let us all discern carefully the path that we will take in life so that we may truly serve God with all of our hearts and minds from now on with faith, as St. Agatha and innumerable other saints and holy men and women of God had done. May the Lord help and guide us through this journey, and help us to resist the temptations of pride and desire, and love Him with ever greater devotion and sincerity from now on. Amen.