Weekday Homily

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Thursday, 28 November 2019 : 34th 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 reminding us of the coming of the Lord’s salvation to His people, of the coming of God’s providence and liberation to His faithful ones. In our first reading we have heard about the moment when the prophet Daniel was delivered from the hands of his enemies while in the Gospel passage we heard of the Lord’s own ominous warning to the people and the city of Jerusalem.

In our first reading today, we heard of the predicament of the prophet Daniel who was forced to be thrown into the lions’ den by the machinations and plots of his enemies, who resented him for his courageous opposition to pagan worship and the pagan idols of Bel, the chief god of the Babylonians and the dragon of Bel. Daniel managed to prove that the priests of Bel were frauds and the dragon he defeated by the power and wisdom of God.

As a result, the enemies of Daniel among the nobles and the courtiers ganged up and plotted against him. Daniel was forced to endure the lions’ den, which the enemies of his hoped that the hungry lions, purposefully kept hungry and unfed that they would devour Daniel. But the Lord was with Daniel and protected him from his enemies and from the lion. In the end, the prophet Daniel was freed by the king and all of his enemies who slandered him were thrown instead to the lions and were immediately devoured.

Meanwhile, in the Gospel passage today, we heard of the prophetic and ominous warning that the Lord Jesus shared with His disciples and followers, of the coming of the destruction of Jerusalem, the city and its Temple, and how everything would be overturned and their world would be shattered. This was a revelation of what was to come, and eventually would come true with the downfall of Jerusalem just a few decades after the Lord’s death and resurrection.

Yet, amidst all the challenges and difficulties that the faithful people of God would have to face, all the bitter struggles and sufferings that they had to go through, the humiliations and betrayals that they had to endure, God reassured them again and again that He would be with them, and that despite all the trials and tribulations, in the end, the faithful ones will be triumphant together with God.

This is the kind of faith that all of us must have, brothers and sisters in Christ, the kind of faith that has allowed so many of the holy martyrs and saints of the Church to persevere through even the most brutal and terrible persecutions and oppressions of their faith and the Church. They all trusted in God and placed their faith in Him, and as a result, they remained firm and resolute even when faced with most severe of troubles, just as how the prophet Daniel remained firm in his conviction and faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we are all called to reflect on our own lives and whether we have been truly faithful to God in all of our actions and deeds thus far. If we have not yet lived our lives thus far with faith, then now is perhaps the good time for us to recollect ourselves and redirect our lives, our efforts and our attention towards the Lord, and take the necessary steps to make ourselves closer to God and to be more loving and faithful towards Him.

Let us all grow to trust more in God, and let us put ourselves in His loving embrace from now on, knowing that even when our lives are terrible, our trials are difficult and are seemingly insurmountable, God will never stop loving us and as a result, we should also devote ourselves in the same manner. Let us no longer worry or be too concerned with our own well-being, but learn to put our trust more in God.

May the Lord our God be with us always, and may He continue to love us all, each and every days and moments of our lives. May He bless all of our good works and endeavours, that we all may always work for the greater good and the glory of God. Amen.

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Wednesday, 27 November 2019 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the messages from the Scriptures reminding us all of the reality that being a follower of the Lord will often mean that we will encounter challenges, trials, upset, humiliation and persecution while we walk in the path of God, and we will likely face pressures and temptations to abandon our path and to walk away from the way of the Lord.

Yet, through what we have heard in our Scripture passages today, we heard of the Lord reassurance that He would be with those who are ever faithful to Him. He will not abandon them to the darkness and neither will He allow us to face destruction. Yes, there will be challenges in our path and throughout our journey, but as long as we remain true to our faith and persevere strongly in our commitment to God, He will be faithful to us and to the Covenant He has made with us all.

In our Gospel passage today, we are reminded of the fact that God will always be by our side even though things may be difficult for us. God has always provided for us in everything that we need, giving us strength and encouragement in our most difficult moments, as He promised us the strength and wisdom of the Holy Spirit as He reiterated in our Gospel passage today, that His disciples do not need to worry about what they were to say or do, as the Lord Himself will guide them.

Ultimately, all these are reminders to us all that God will always triumph in the end, no matter what we the faithful had to endure in part of our daily struggles in life, as being faithful disciples of the Lord. If we keep up our hope in the Lord and remain true to Him, we will certainly not be disappointed as God Himself will be by our side, vouching for us and keeping for us the inheritance that He has kept for us.

In our first reading today, we heard yet another occasion of how God remained true to His promises and care for His faithful ones, as we heard from the Book of the prophet Daniel the story of how God eventually delivered His people Israel from the hands of their oppressors, as the last Babylonian king, Belshazzar met his end and the end of his kingdom. King Belshazzar was being very disrespectful to God, as he and his nobles made use of the sacred vessels seized from the Temple of God as drinking vessels as a mockery to God.

At that very occasion, the Lord showed a great sign that would usher in the end of the great and proud kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, as God’s own hands traced the words on the wall of the palace in plain view of the king and all of his nobles, proclaiming the end of Babylon and its imminent takeover by the Persians under king Cyrus who would be the one to emancipate and free the exiles of Israel in Babylon and allowed them to return to their homeland.

And what God said through the prophet Daniel came true that very night as the Persians overthrew the rule of Belshazzar and crushed forever the ones who insulted the honour and glory of God by their wicked acts. And God was faithful to His people having atoned for their sins, remembering them at all times and brought them back to the lands which once belonged to them and their forefathers.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all therefore reminded that as Christians all of us must not be afraid to follow the Lord and to commit ourselves to Him because ultimately, God is forever faithful to the Covenant which He has established with us. He will not forget about us, but He will reward us all who remain truly faithful to Him, enduring and persevering through various trials and challenges in our journey towards Him.

Now, we are all challenged to remain truly faithful to the Lord, to take up our crosses in life and follow the Lord. Are we able to dedicate ourselves with zeal and be committed to serve the Lord’s greater glory from now on? Are we willing and able to stand up for our faith when the situation demands of it? Are we able to live our lives from now on with genuine love for God and to be witnesses of His truth at every moments of our lives?

These are the questions that we should have with us, to remind us and to strengthen us in our resolve to be faithful Christians from now on. May God be with us always and may He strengthen us and empower us in our journey, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 26 November 2019 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard from the Scripture readings a rather apocalyptic warning of what is to come in the future, as towards the end of this current liturgical year we are constantly reminded of the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour and King which is certain to come at the end of time just as He has promised to us all. That is why today’s readings are focused on signs of times and premonitions to remind us of this fact.

In our first reading today, we heard of the story of how Daniel the prophet interpreted the dream of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, who was perturbed by the strange dream that he had received in his sleep. The king saw a great statue made up of many parts and then suddenly a great rock came to destroy the entire great statue and demolished the whole statue until nothing was left behind.

As Daniel explained it to the king, the great statue represented the great realms and kingdoms of the world, including that of the Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors. They would come one after another, as the Persian Empire, Alexander’s Empire and its successors, and the Roman Empire would show us over the thousand years and more after the time when Daniel explained the dream to the king.

But what is constant is the fact that each of those great and powerful realms of the world did not last, but eventually were overthrown and destroyed, replaced and overcame, but the reign of God in truth cannot be overcome. And it is what was represented by the great big rock that came to destroy all of the great statue, that actually represents the kingdom of God in this world that is none other than His very own Church.

Do we all remember that the Church was established by the Lord on the foundation of Rock, the Rock of St. Peter? The Lord Himself bestowed a new name to Simon, His principal and leader of all the Apostles, the name Peter which is the Greek equivalent of the original Aramaic, ‘Kephas’ which is truly symbolic and related to what we have just heard in the story of king Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, of the great Rock of the Church that overcomes all the kingdoms and powers of the world.

This is related to what the Lord Jesus has told His disciples in our Gospel passage today, as we all heard of the warning which the Lord Jesus spoke of, as He spoke of the coming of difficult and challenging times, of the time when the Temple and city of Jerusalem would be destroyed and overturned, a premonition of what was to come just about four decades after when the city of Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed after the failed insurrection of the Jews.

He also spoke of the coming of difficult times, of persecutions and troubles that the Church and the faithful would have to endure plenty of sufferings and pains, oppositions and obstacles even from those who were close and dear to them. They would have to bear and persevere through those times, facing false guides and leaders who would try to lead them astray to the wrong paths, amidst the pressures of the world to conform to the ways of sins among many others.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, yet despite all these trials and challenges that the faithful would have to face and endure, but as we have just discussed earlier, linking to what we have talked about the vision of king Nebuchadnezzar and the prophet Daniel’s explanations, we can see how the Church of God has been built and affirmed by God Himself on firm and strong foundation in Him and in the faith of the Apostles.

Therefore, we should not worry or be afraid, for none of those challenges will ever be great or difficult enough to overcome the Church. The Church has persevered through many trials and persecutions and it will certainly be able to bear through many more in the years to come. We must not lose faith but instead be ever hopeful and put our trust in the Lord at all times. For God will surely always be with us and He will continue to love us all the time.

Let us all put our complete faith and trust in God, devoting ourselves at all times in the service of God and loving Him with all of our hearts from now on. Let us all dedicate ourselves to the greater glory of God by our words, actions and deeds at all times. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 25 November 2019 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture beginning the narrative from the Book of the prophet Daniel, a prophet who was brought into exile in Babylon during his youth in the ending days of the kingdom of Judah just before the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple of God. Daniel and his companions were brought to the faraway land, uprooted from their homes and families, and made to serve the King of Babylon and his ministers.

Such was the humiliation and suffering that they all had to suffer, humiliated of having lost their homeland and later on to hear how the city of God, Jerusalem and its Temple were razed and destroyed by the Babylonians, its treasures and riches carried off to the Babylonian kingdom, all the sacred vessels once used to worship God became instead the profane drinking cups of the kings and their nobles as described in the latter part of the Book of Daniel.

Amidst such a situation, it must have been difficult for Daniel and his companions, another three Israelites named Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, also known by their Babylonian names of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, to remain faithful to God and not to bend their knees to the pressures and demands of the Babylonians and their kings. Yet, that was exactly what they did, in remaining true to their faith even in such difficult conditions.

They gave their all to God, and in doing their best in whatever that God has led them into, in serving the king of Babylon and his ministers, in doing their best as the servants, and by the grace of God, they became the favoured servants of the king, and especially Daniel was honoured for his great wisdom and ability to interpret the king’s dreams while none other could do so. But, they would not budge when the king demanded that everyone, including them to bow down their knees to worship a golden statue that king Nebuchadnezzar built in his own likeness.

They had nothing on them, no wealth and no pride, no more than memory of the humiliation of their country and people, the destruction of their holy city and Temple, and yet, they gave their love and faith to God. In our Psalm today, we heard part of the song which Azariah the other two companions of Daniel sang when they were thrown into the blazing furnace by the order of the king when they openly defied the king’s demands to worship his golden statue.

They praised God Who had been with them all those while and reiterated their faith and love for Him. They sang of His glorious majesty in the presence of the king and all gathered from within the flame, apparently unharmed and an Angel of God by their side, as seen by the king and all. The king and everyone were astonished, and because of what happened, the king decided to destroy the golden statue that he had just built, and restored the three companions of Daniel to their previous honoured positions.

We see how God was always with His faithful ones, and for those who truly trust in Him and gave their all, they did not fear because they knew that God would be always by their side even amidst sufferings and challenges, even through martyrdoms and painful deaths. That is the same sentiment and example that the Lord Jesus highlighted in our Gospel passage today, as we heard another well-known story of the widow’s mite.

In that occasion, a poor widow came to the Temple bearing two small copper coins as offerings to God, while many rich men came to offer plentiful of offerings that were far greater than the poor widow’s offering. Yet, she offered and gave from her own shortage and limitations, and as a result, she gave from the deepest love in her heart. She is the epitome of what true Christian discipleship is, and like the prophet Daniel and his companions, she had given her all to God.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what each and every one of us need to do as well. We need to do our best to serve the Lord with all of our strength, and to give the best for Him from the depths of our hearts. And today we have yet another example to look up to, in the person of St. Catherine of Alexandria, a holy woman and saint whose feast we celebrate today. St. Catherine of Alexandria was a faithful disciple of the Lord who went through a particularly brutal persecution under the pagan Roman Emperor Maxentius.

St. Catherine defended her fellow faithful when that Emperor persecuted Christians throughout his realm, rebuking him for his actions and stood up for the Lord. The Emperor tried to oppose her with the best pagan philosophers and thinkers of the time, but none of them were able to outshine her wisdom, and the Emperor in his anger made this faithful woman to undergo bitter suffering and torture. When the Emperor’s own wife and other women came to see St. Catherine in her suffering, it was told that even they converted and were martyred along as well.

St. Catherine of Alexandria gave everything for the Lord’s sake, even her own life, not holding back even when the pagan Emperor in desperation tried to get her by trying to woo her in marriage, as beautiful as St. Catherine was even after she was tortured. She remained firm in her dedication and committed herself and her virginity before God and the Emperor, by which then she was martyred after a long time of suffering, and became a great inspiration for many Christians after her time.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all called to follow in the footsteps of St. Catherine of Alexandria, to imitate the love of the widow who gave her all to God, and also the dedication of Daniel and his fellow companions who remained true to their faith in God amidst all the challenges they had to face. Let us all thus strive to be true Christian disciples and do our very best to serve the Lord with all of our hearts and to give Him everything that we are, and committing ourselves to Him from now on. May He continue to bless us all and guide us in this journey, that we may draw ever closer to Him. Amen.

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Sunday, 24 November 2019 : Thirty-Fourth and Last Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, the thirty-fourth and the last in our current liturgical year cycle, we celebrate the great Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ as the King of Kings, King of all Universe, rejoicing together in our one and only True Lord and King. On this day we honour and adore our Lord and King, the One to Whom all glory and honour are due. All the other kings and rulers of this world derive and receive their authority and power from God, our King.

And His kingship is truly a very unique and wonderful one, which is different from the ways of the kings of this world. For this is not a king who uses his power and authority for his own gain and benefit, and neither did He make use of the authority to show His glory and might before His people as the kings and rulers of this world often did. Instead, if one were to look at the whole life and ministry of the Lord, one would not be able to recognise that He is a King if we make use of the standards of this world.

That was what the Pharisees and the enemies of the Lord took issue against Him for, as they could not recognise how He was truly the Messiah of God, the One Whom God had promised from the beginning of time, to be the perfect fulfilment of all those promises and all the words of God to us. The people thought of the Messiah as the mighty and conquering King like that of David and Solomon, and that the Messiah would come as a mighty King that will restore the kingdom of Israel as how it was during its glorious days.

Yet, Christ is truly a King, and King of all kings and Lord of all lords. His coming into this world precisely showed us all what His true purpose and mission, as well as the true nature of His kingship. His kingship and leadership is not one of pride and tyranny, but instead is one of service and of generous giving, in leading by example and in reaching out to every single one of His people without bias or prejudice, without fear, full of compassion, mercy and love.

Through Him, and by what we have heard today in the Scripture passages, we are reminded of the love which God has for each and every one of us, that He, our King, was willing to do everything He could for our sake. He came into this world to gather us all in to Himself, to be reconciled because of all of our sins and wickedness. And He has willingly bore the Cross for our sake and to suffer because through all that, all of us may live and not be destroyed because of those sins.

Here therefore, we have a great and wonderful King, One Who truly knows us all by heart, and Who is always ever concerned for our well-being. He has always sought our welfare and we are always foremost in His mind all these while. Yet, for all and everything that He has done for us, we mankind, His beloved people have not treated Him in the manner that we should have treated Him. We ignored Him, abandoned Him, betrayed Him and chose other things that we prefer more than Him.

Although the Lord is truly the King of our lives, but we acted as if our king and lord is something else, be it our own pride and ego, or our attachments to worldly possessions, to money and all the likes. We put our trust and hopes in these much more than we have placed our trust and hope in the Lord. And essentially, in our many pursuits of worldly glory, power, honour and all the sorts, we have forgotten about God, ignored Him and abandoned His ways.

Though we call God our King, but the way we behaved and the actions we take in life, the words that we uttered and spoke, the attitudes we adopted in this life all spoke of a different thing, as it is often quite evident that we have other kings in our lives other than God. And it is the sad reality that we even honour all these false ‘kings’ more than how we honoured and treated God. This is sad and truly ironic considering all the things that God, our King had done for our sake.

On this day, as we celebrate this Solemnity of Christ the King, we are therefore called to discern carefully on our lives, our every actions and deeds, our words and interactions with one another. Let us ask ourselves if we have truly regarded Christ as our Lord and King in our lives, or whether we have instead turned our back against Him and put other ‘kings’ that we deem to be more important than Him, by putting the idols of worldly glory and achievements, human praise and power, money and possessions in our hearts and minds?

Today we are all called to reflect on what we are to do if we truly love God as our Lord and King, and we are all called to action, if we sincerely and truly believe in that faithfully. For if we truly honour God as our King, then we need to begin to show it through our every day lives and actions. Otherwise, we will end up scandalising Him and our faith in Him, if we call Him our King and yet our actions and words show otherwise as what often happened in our lives today.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how do we then honour Our Lord Jesus Christ as King? First of all, let us all embrace the wonderful love and compassion which He, Our King has shown us, accept His generous offer of love and mercy, opening our hearts and minds to welcome Him and enthrone Him therefore in our hearts. And then, having welcomed Him into our hearts, there can be only place for one King in us, and that is why we need to remove from us all the other false ‘kings’ that we have filled our hearts with.

And from now on, let us truly behave as one of God’s people, following Him as King. It means that we have to live our lives with faith, genuinely devoting ourselves to the path which God has taught and shown us. We have to show that God truly is our King, and all who see us will know that we belong to Him, and to Him alone. It will not be an easy path for us to take, as we all know how the Lord was rejected and despised by many, how He was persecuted and condemned to die when He came into this world bringing and revealing His truth to us all.

Yet, Christ willingly stood up for our sake, speaking the truth even though it meant His suffering and crucifixion. He willingly embraced the worst sufferings out of love for us, truly a King Who loves us all His people, worthy of all praise, glory and honour. And since God loves us all so much, to endure all these for us, then should we not love Him in the same manner, even if it means that we have to bear our own crosses in doing so?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, from now on therefore, let us all cease treating God less than that of the one and only true King of our hearts, and let us steadfastly proclaim Him as our King and Master, not through mere words alone, but through real and concrete actions of faith, by being exemplary Christians in all things, becoming genuine witnesses of the Lord’s truth by our lives. Let us all truly make Jesus our King, not just in name alone, but in reality and all truth, in all things.

Let us obey Him and follow Him and His truth in everything we say and do from now on, and glorifying Him by our lives. Let us bear our crosses patiently with Him, and follow Him to the end of our earthly lives so that when He comes again in the fullness of His glory at the end of time, He may gather us all and find us all worthy of the glory of His eternal kingdom, and bless us with graces everlasting and true joy and happiness with Him forevermore.

May the Lord Jesus Christ, Our King, and the King of all the Universe reign gloriously ever, and reign gloriously in our hearts and minds, that every inch of our being and existence may be filled with our love, devotion and dedication for Him, that we will no longer allow any false ‘kings’ or idols to occupy our hearts and minds, from now on. Let us all adore Our Majestic King and glorify Him always by our lives. Christus Vincit, Christus Regnat, Christus Imperat! Amen.

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Saturday, 23 November 2019 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr, and St. Columban, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are all reminded by God through His words in the Scriptures not to put our trust in any worldly things or dependencies, but instead put our whole trust in the Lord our God alone. If we place our trust in the world, all the glories, power and wealth it can give us, then in the end, what we will face is just disappointment and regret as our Scripture passages today should remind us of the truth.

In our first reading today, we heard the story of the Greek Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes in continuation of the narrative of this week from the Book of the Maccabees. King Antiochus IV was the same king who ordered all the people in his whole Empire including the descendants of Israel in Judea to abandon their laws and customs, their faith and worship of God for the pagan worship of the Greek gods, and enforced Greek customs and ways on them.

And for that purpose and end, the king persecuted many of those who remained faithful to their dedication and faith in God, and those who refused to abandon their faith were put to great suffering and many even met death in martyrdom. That was the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt in which the Maccabees, the sons of Mattathias, one of the faithful Jew, rose up against the king in revolt, seeking to free themselves from his tyranny.

In today’s first reading then, we heard of the great campaign carried out by king Antiochus IV as he went to the land of Persia and Media to reclaim parts of the kingdom which once belonged to his predecessors but had been lost in the past decades. We can see from all these that king Antiochus IV was a stubborn and ambitious man, who sought above all the glory of the world, power and majesty above everything else that he was willing to go against God.

Yet, as we have heard and witnessed from history, for all of his pursuits and aims for greatness, king Antiochus IV failed in all of his efforts, as not only that his religious policies and oppressions led to rebellions particularly in the lands of the Jewish people, but he also failed terribly in his efforts to reclaim the lost lands of his predecessors and his plans to gain the wealth and taxes from those lands. And he ended up dying and meeting his end in regret and sorrow.

This is then related to what we have also heard from the Gospels today, in which we heard of the exchange and debate between the Lord Jesus and the group called the Sadducees. The Sadducees were one of the major and very influential groups at the time of Jesus, in contrast to the Pharisees. While the Pharisees were those who were very spiritual and particular of the commandments and the Law of God, the Sadducees on the other hand were like the ‘secular’ party, who did not believe in many of the tenets of the Law.

The Sadducees did not believe in Angels and spiritual things, and neither did they believe in the resurrection from the dead. To them, the life in this world as they enjoyed was the ideal and death was nothing more or less than the end of all the joy and happiness. This fits the personality of the Sadducees perfectly as they were men of this world, those with positions of power and close connections to the king and members of the ruling class.

As they debated and asked the Lord with regards to whether the woman who had seven brothers as husbands had any one of them as her husband in the afterlife, they were in fact thinking in a worldly manner, thinking and wondering if they could retain the possessions, wealth and things in this world as how they have enjoyed it even to the afterlife. They could not bear to part with all of that they have gained and enjoyed in life, just as how king Antiochus IV himself also behaved.

But all of these had led many among us mankind into our downfall as they made us to be greedy and obsessed with all the worldly concerns and things that often distract us, mislead us and bring us further and further away from the path towards God and His salvation. And many of us also failed to realise until it was too late, that none of these things will last forever, and the joy and happiness they provided were merely temporary and not true joy, unlike what God can give to all of us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all instead as Christians seek for the true joy and happiness in God, by learning from the examples of our holy predecessors in faith, the two saints whose feasts we are celebrating on this very day, namely that of Pope St. Clement I and St. Columban the Abbot. Both of them had led holy and wonderful lives committed to God, which we ourselves can imitate and follow in our own lives. All of us should look up to the examples of these two holy men for inspiration.

Pope St. Clement I was one of the earliest successors of St. Peter as the Vicar of Christ and the Pope of the Church, remembered for his great zeal and faith, for his tireless dedication to build and maintain the Church through difficult years of persecution and struggles. He was known for his many letters and Epistles to the various parts of the Church through which he reminded the faithful to keep their faith strongly in God and to persevere through the challenges and trials that they had to face.

And like the other early Church fathers and the Apostles, Pope St. Clement I had to suffer persecution as well, as it was told that he was arrested and put into exile, and he was also put into hard labour as part of his imprisonment and suffering. In the end, Pope St. Clement I was martyred, but he met his death with joy, unlike king Antiochus IV who met it with regret and the Sadducees who feared it, because Pope St. Clement I knew that God was with him, and he would receive the gift of eternal life and glory from Him.

Meanwhile, St. Columban the Abbot was a famous and pious Irish missionary who was a great missionary and abbot, who helped to strengthen the foundations of the Church and also monastic practices of the Church of his time, as he helped in the establishment of many monasteries and places that eventually attracted many monks and people who wanted to serve the Lord through prayer. St. Columban was remembered for his great dedication to God, his enduring love and faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all look upon the examples which these two holy men had set for us. Let us all follow in their footsteps and grow in our own faith and love for God. May the Lord continue to guide us through life, and may He help us to remain faithful to Him and to love Him with ever greater devotion from now on so that we may look beyond earthly things and desires, and seek only His eternal kingdom and glory. May God bless us all and our good works for His sake, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 22 November 2019 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture passages by which we are reminded of the duty and responsibility that each and every one of us have to keep as all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, as true Christian disciples and as the followers of God’s will and commandments. All of us are called to be full of faith and love for God in all things.

In our first reading today, we heard of the story of the victory and triumph of the rebellion of Judas Maccabeus, one of the Maccabean brothers who revolted against the kings of the Greek Seleucid Empire because of their oppression of the faithful people of God and their attempts to destroy the Law of God and outlawing the worship of God and by forcing the Greek pagan worship to the Jewish people.

The city of Jerusalem was taken over by the pagans and the citadel built there kept the entire populace under the power of the kings, while the Temple of Jerusalem was desecrated and made to be a mockery of the faith, where pagan idols and pagan worship took place at the altar once reserved only for the worship of the One and only True God. As such, the House of God was defiled and could not be used for the purpose of divine worship.

That is how it was until the time when Judas Maccabeus and his forces managed to score victories against the king in rebellion and eventually came to occupy the Temple of Jerusalem once again, and as described in our first reading passage today, the abominations, pagan idols and corruptions in the Temple were cleared out and the old altar torn down to make way for a new altar dedicated to God.

There is then a clear parallel between that event and how just over a century later, the Lord Jesus cleared the same Temple from the corruptions of merchants and sinners as described in our Gospel passage today. At that time, the Temple courtyard just outside the main Temple building itself was filled with numerous merchants and people peddling their wares and goods to the visitors and worshippers of the Temple.

Yet, many if not most of those merchants and peddlers cheated their customers to gain more profits for themselves. They bought their goods at a low price while raising their sale prices to be as high as possible to profit from all the people visiting the Temple for various purposes. As many of the worshippers came from faraway places, they would have no choice but to accept the prices imposed by the merchants even at a great loss.

Such wicked and sinful practices should not have been allowed at the Temple, and yet the Temple authorities tolerated them all and even became angry at the Lord Jesus when He cleared them and chased those merchants out of the Temple grounds. Why was that so? That is because the presence and the activities of the merchants were mutually beneficial to both the merchants themselves and the Temple priests and elders.

When the Lord Jesus chased those merchants outside the Temple, the Temple authorities, the elders and the chief priests became angry because while the Lord stated the right thing but those Temple authorities were more concerned about their own worldly concerns and attachments, their desire to retain power and authority, and saw the Lord Jesus as a dangerous threat to their own worldly power.

But the Lord wants us all to know through these that if we are too attached and distracted by the many temptations of life present in this world, we will end up forgetting what our true focus in life should be. And we will end up walking down the same path of wickedness and sin that have been mentioned in our Scripture passages today. We heard of the defilements of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, twice, first by the Greeks and then secondly by the wicked merchants with the tacit approval of the elders and the priests.

But more importantly for us all today is to take note that each and every one of us are also in fact God’s Temple, the Houses of His holy Presence. Why is this so? That is because firstly, through our Holy Communion and by sharing in the wonderful gift of the Eucharist, we have partaken in the Lord Himself, being fully present in the Eucharist in Body and Blood. And not only that, but the Lord Himself has given us His Holy Spirit through our Baptism and which He reaffirmed and strengthened in us through the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Therefore, if we are God’s Holy Temples and are His dwelling place, then if we act in manners that are wicked and sinful, we are in fact corrupting and defiling the holiness of this Temple that is our body, our heart, our mind and our soul. We are no better than the Greek kings, those wicked merchants and all those who have defiled God’s Temple. And we saw how God’s anger became manifested against all those who had done that.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore today all of us are reminded of this fact and are called to live upright and virtuous lives, turning away from sin and from all sorts of temptations that can cause us to fall and to defile the sanctity of these Holy Temples of ours. And today perhaps we should look upon the examples set by one of our holy predecessors, St. Cecilia for inspiration and strength.

St. Cecilia, whose feast day we celebrate today, is a well-known patron for musicians and choirs. Yet, she was also a dedicated servant of God, who remained true to her faith in God despite the challenges that she had to encounter because of her faith, that she had to suffer and eventually die for the sake of her faith. St. Cecilia dedicated herself to God through a vow of virginity, and although she was forced to marry a pagan noble by her parents, she remained a holy virgin and persuaded her husband, who was touched by the miracle he had seen and became a Christian as well.

St. Cecilia met her martyrdom with faith, as she was executed following her husband and her brother-in-law, both having become Christians through her. She remained adamant and strong in her faith, and no amount of suffering could have convinced or pressured her to abandon her faith in God. Truly, her dedication and commitment to God is an inspiration to all of us who are still struggling in this world in our own journeys of faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all seek to be virtuous and righteous, maintaining our purity from sin as St. Cecilia herself had done in her way. We do not have to follow her in her vow of chastity and virginity, but rather, we should imitate her love for God, and as a result, keep ourselves away and free from sin as best as we can that the Temple of God’s Holy Presence, our bodies and our whole beings may remain pure and worthy of Him. Let us all be true disciples of the Lord in all things and devote our whole lives to Him from now on. May God bless us all, our good works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 21 November 2019 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate together the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. On this occasion we recall the moment when Mary as she was presented to God at the Temple of God in Jerusalem at the time of her birth. On this day we commemorate that moment when Joachim and Anna, Mary’s parents brought her before God and dedicated her to the Lord.

And on this day therefore, we remember how at that time, the Lord has chosen Mary to be the instrument of His salvation and work in delivering all of His people from their fated destruction. The Lord has made her to be special, the Immaculate Conception, free by the grace and will of God from all the taints and bonds of original sin, so that she would be worthy of becoming the Vessel of God’s Messiah, the Saviour of the world.

On that day, Mary was presented to the Lord, offered to Him and dedicated to Him, to the holy and yet challenging life that she would have to endure and go through. That was the beginning of the mission which Mary was to take up, as eventually the Archangel Gabriel came to her and revealed to her the Good News of God’s salvation. And it was then that Mary accepted her role fully and obeyed God’s will perfectly.

By what Mary had done, through her dedication and commitment to the Lord, her thorough obedience to the will of God even if that meant suffering and pain for her, especially when she had to see her own Son, Our Lord and Saviour being rejected, humiliated and condemned to die by the leaders and elders of her own people, we can see what being a true Christian is all about, in giving her all for the sake of the Lord.

That was what the Lord Jesus Himself had said in our Gospel passage today, when He spoke of how those who obey the will of God and followed His commandments faithfully are those whom He considered to be His mother, His brothers and His sisters, essentially to be part of His own beloved family. And He made this remark not out of disrespect of His mother, unlike what some would have misunderstood, but rather, in fact, He highlighted His mother’s own virtues and good examples.

It is what each and every one of us are therefore called to do today as we recall the memory of the Presentation of Mary, the Blessed Mother of our Lord and God. The Lord is calling on us to follow His mother’s own good examples, her purity and her faith, her commitment to the Lord’s wishes and her total obedience and surrender in allowing herself to be the instrument through which God made evident and real His salvation.

Mary is indeed our perfect role model, the one whom we should look up to in how we should live up to our lives. She is the bright star of faith that we should be following as the saying goes indeed, ‘to the Lord Jesus through Mary, His mother’. By following Mary, all of us can find our path towards the Lord better, even amidst the many challenges, obstacles and trials that we may have to face in this journey of faith.

Let us all, brothers and sisters in Christ, dedicate and present ourselves before the Lord, and let us all grow ever stronger in our faith in Him, in the love which we all should have for Him and in the hope that we should always put in Him. Let us all be ever more courageous in living our lives with genuine faith and may God continue to bless us all, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Wednesday, 20 November 2019 : 33rd 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 through which we are called to reflect on what is our true calling in life as Christians, and how we should proceed in life in being obedient to God and in following His will and obeying His commandments. And today we heard two main readings, first of all from the Book of Maccabees on the persecution of a mother and her seven sons, and from the Gospel passage on the Lord’s parable of the silver talents.

In that passage from the Book of the Maccabees we are presented with the grim story of the great persecution of the faithful Jewish people by the king of the Seleucid Empire, King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who wanted the entire people of his whole empire to embrace the same customs and practices, that is of the Greeks, speaking the same language, doing the same customs and worshipping the same pagan idols and gods, abandoning their old ways.

To this extent, the people were forced to abandon the ways of their ancestors, including the Jewish people, the descendants of the Israelites in Judah who were forced to abandon circumcision and to consume food that are considered unclean according to the laws of Moses. This law of the king was enforced under the pain of great suffering, torture and death. The suffering and painful death of the mother and her seven sons were one among the many sorrowful stories of those who chose to remain faithful in the Lord.

The seven brothers remained resolute, courageous and strong even in the midst of the greatest persecutions, in the real and fearsome reality of death, as they saw how one by one, they were tortured and made to suffer before being martyred for their faith. Most painful was indeed for the mother to have seen all of her seven sons to be martyred before she herself was martyred, and yet, even she remained strong in her faith despite all she had had to endure.

This can be related to what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, in which we heard of the famous parable of the silver talents, where three servants were given different amounts of silver by their master who was about to go on a journey. In that occasion, two of the servants made good use of the silver and invested them. As a result, they gained double the original amount they received from their master by the time he returned and asked them about the silver entrusted to them.

Yet one of the servants hid the silver out of fear of his master and refused to do anything with it, and as a result, he did not gain anything from the silver that he should have made use of or invested in. The master was furious at the lazy and irresponsible servant and cast him out to be punished. And all these are reminders for each and every one of us, that just as the master truly is a representation of the Lord, our God, then we are all like the servants of that master.

For God has entrusted to us many gifts, each and every one of us having unique set of abilities, talents and powers, and also the opportunities to make use of these. God has given us all the free will to choose how we are to use these blessings that He has bestowed us with, whether we want to use them for the good purposes and for the glory of God, or to misuse them for wicked purposes or to ignore them and keep them unused and hidden.

The mother with her seven sons in our first reading today have the gift of faith, hope and love, and through the story of their courageous defence of their faith and readiness to face suffering and martyrdom, we have seen how they made good use of what God has given them, sowing the good examples and becoming inspirations for one another, that all of them could remain true to their faith and resist the temptations to give up and to sin.

Now, we do not have to follow them exactly in how they have suffered and died for their faith, and we may not have to do it in their manner as circumstances for us will likely be different, for better or for worse. Nonetheless, all of us as Christians are called to be faithful and to be committed to God, our Lord and Master just as how those seven brothers and their mother had been faithful and true to their faith.

Let us all therefore renew our faith and conviction to live our lives from now on, no longer ignoring or misusing what God has given to us, in the faith we have in us, in the talents and abilities He has given us, in the seeds of hope and love He has sown in our hearts. Let us all be true disciples of the Lord, spreading His love through our own actions, and be the bearers of His truth by our words and deeds.

May the Lord’s truth and salvation come upon many more of His beloved children through us all, His servants, to whom He has entrusted many things for the sake of His greater glory. May our every words, deeds and actions glorify God, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 19 November 2019 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are called to listen to what the readings have spoken of today, especially with regards to the matter of sin and the judgment of our souls. As we quickly approach the end of the current liturgical year and soon to begin a new liturgical year cycle with the season of Advent, this is a good time for us all to take stock of the past year.

In our first reading passage today, taken from the second book of the Maccabees, we heard of the sorrowful tale of the suffering, death and martyrdom of Eleazar, one of the elders of the people of Judah, who was forced by the king to disobey the Law of God and follow the way of the pagans. Eleazar refused to obey and remained steadfast in his faith in God and in the obedience to His Laws.

In fact, as mentioned in the passage, even when the king’s enforcers tried to make a compromise that Eleazar could pretend to eat the meat forbidden by the Law but in fact was eating a meat that was allowed by the Law, Eleazar refused to comply, as he knew that by doing so, while he might save his life and be spared of the sufferings and painful death he would have to suffer from and the martyrdom he would have to go through, but he would scandalise his faith and become a bad role model and example.

Eleazar showed us true and genuine faith in God, faith that was not shaken even by the threat of suffering and pain, or distracted by the temptations of worldly pleasures and satisfactions, or defeated by the pressure to conform and to obey the will of those who are against God’s will and laws. Eleazar stayed true to his faith and dedicated himself wholly to God to the very end, knowing that while he suffered, but God will surely remember him and his faith.

Then, in our Gospel passage today we encountered Zaccheus, the tax collector who was short in posture, and who wanted very badly to see the Lord Jesus that he went through the dense crowd and climbed a sycamore tree just to see Him. And even more, when the Lord knew that Zaccheus was up on the tree and called him down, and as the Pharisees were kind of rebuking and judging Zaccheus for being a sinner, he made a public profession of faith before all those who were gathered.

Zaccheus proclaimed with great faith that he would right all the wrongs he had once done, and if necessary paying back all those whom he had cheated or treated unfairly many times more than what they had suffered or been cheated from. It is definitely a true declaration of faith and love for God, as it would have been incredibly difficult for anyone to make such a declaration and humiliating oneself before many people.

Yet again, in this case, we can see clearly the faith that Zaccheus had in the Lord, as contrasted to the lack of faith among many of the people especially the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, many of whom in fact opposed the Lord and His works. Just like Eleazar we have mentioned and talked about earlier on, Zaccheus is also a great example of a person who have faith in God and love Him with all of his heart.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, how about us then? Have we been faithful in our lives, in our actions, words and deeds before God and people alike? Have we been exemplary in how we lived our lives thus far that all those who see us, hear us and witness us know that we truly belong to God? Or have we instead lived our lives in opposition to God and in ignorance or even defiance against His will?

God has given us all free will to choose the path that we want to take as we move forward in our respective lives, and the decision is ours to make, if we want to follow God or whether we prefer and want to follow our own path, away from God. Let us all then also remember that all those who remain faithful to God, God will also bless them and protect them, and their rewards in the end will be wonderful.

For God Who loves us all will restore to us the true joy and glory that had been lost from us because of sin, and that is the promise which Eleazar looked forward to even as he waited for the suffering and the pains he would have to suffer for his consistent and adamant faith, and which Zaccheus, the repentant sinner also rejoiced for, because he knew that God is a loving and forgiving God Who wants each and every one of us to be reconciled with Him.

May the Lord guide us all through the right paths in life, and may He strengthen us all to live ever more faithfully, and with greater love and devotion towards Him. May He inspire us all to walk in the footsteps of Eleazar the courageous and Zaccheus the repentant sinner. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.