Weekday Homily

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Sunday, 5 August 2018 : Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday of the Lord, we listened from the Scriptures, through which we heard about the Lord Who fed His people with food, to sustain them through life, beginning from the time of the Exodus from Egypt, when the Israelites traversed the desert for forty years in order to reach the Promised Land. They took so long on the journey because they disobeyed the Lord and refused to believe in Him. They made complaints after complaints, that the Lord punished them for their disobedience.

But God never intended for them to be destroyed, and He never wanted to punish them unless it was necessary for Him to do so. When He punished them, He was like a father who disciplines his children, wanting them to be developing well and not be spoilt by their own lack of discipline and understanding of what it means to grow up into a good and obedient child. God was doing what was necessary to ensure that His children would not end up falling further into sin.

The Israelites were swayed by the ways of their neighbours and those they have encountered during their journey, including that of their Egyptian former slave-masters. Although their ancestors and they themselves worshipped the one and only True God Who has brought them out of slavery, but the love of gold and worldly pleasures tempted them into sin, as they could not resist the temptation of gold and the wealth of the world, when they carried off many golden vessels and items given to them by the Egyptians.

They ended up making the golden image of a calf, likely modelled after the pagan gods of the Egyptians, and claimed it to be their god. They would rather worship an empty, human-made idol made by human hands rather than the One Who created all of them and the entire universe, the One Who had also shown His might and power before them, by His ten plagues and the many miracles which He had performed in their midst.

And that is the story behind what happened to the people of Israel, and why they constantly sinned against God, grumbling and complaining, because they sought worldly pleasures and they wanted to satisfy their body’s desires. They felt the urge of their bodies to satisfy themselves with food and sustenance of this world, and when they could not get what they wanted, they rebelled against God Who has loved them so much.

But against these people, these unfaithful and ever ungrateful children, God was ever patient and loving, and He provided them with food, food from heaven itself, the bread called the manna, as well as large flock of birds that flew into the encampment of the people of Israel. They had enough food to eat, for not just a short moment of time, but for the entire forty years period of their journey. They were well taken care of, and when they were thirsty in the middle of the desert, God gave them crystal clear water to drink.

Last Sunday, we also heard about God Who fed His people, especially the Lord Jesus Who fed the multitudes of the five thousand men and countless more women and children. He blessed and broke the bread that miraculously were able to feed all of them, despite there was being only five loaves present, and with twelve baskets of leftovers. God loved His people, and He knew of their hunger, and that was why He fed them with food, to make sure that they did not suffer from the hunger.

However, today, it is reminded to each and every one of us, that we have received an infinitely greater gift of sustenance from God, one that does not merely satisfy just the hunger of our physical bodies. On the contrary, this perfect gift from God satisfies all of our needs, fulfilling our hearts, minds, souls and indeed, our entire being. This gift is none other than His own Most Precious Body and Blood, the Most Holy Eucharist.

Today, all of us are reminded that Christ Our Lord is the Bread of Life, as He Himself mentioned in the Gospel passage we have today. And this life is not just the earthly life and existence which we have now, but true life, that is everlasting, our eternal existence with God. Just as we need to eat food in order to sustain ourselves bodily and physically, and how those who lack food will eventually die, without the Bread of Life, we will perish eternally and suffer an eternity of true death.

Now, brothers and sisters, do we all realise just how beloved and fortunate each and every one of us have been? We are truly very fortunate and blessed to have God, Our loving Father, Who devoted Himself to our care and to our whole well-being. Just as He had taken care of the people of Israel every single day for forty years in the desert, He has also taken care of every single one of us.

First of all, He gave us life, so that we can live in this world. He gave us opportunities, one after another, to find our way and path to Him. And then, He gave us the promise of eternal life through His Passion, suffering and death on the cross. He gave us nothing less than His own life, so that we can live. And not just any life, but life of eternity, and an eternity of loving existence with God, through the sharing in His Body and Blood.

The Holy Mass is as we know it, the sacrifice of the Lord on Calvary which is happening at every moment the priest offers up the bread and the wine, and relating what happened at the Last Supper, when the Lord Jesus said, “Take this all of you and eat of it, for this is My Body…” and also “Take this all of you and drink of it, for this is the chalice of My Blood…” It is the same sacrifice of Our Lord that we participate in, and the same Body and Blood which He has given to His disciples at the Last Supper.

It is the essence and reality of bread and wine that has been completely transformed by the priest, in persona Christi, by His power and through the Holy Spirit, into the Lord’s own Body and Blood, which we receive as the sign of our reception of the Lord into ourselves and our Communion with the whole body of the Universal Church. The Lord Himself has come into us, in flesh and blood, and we took Him into our own body, which has then become God’s Holy Temple.

Unfortunately, there are still quite a few of us who do not realise this truth, or that they chose to ignore this fact. Many of us do not show the proper reverence to the Lord’s Real Presence in the Eucharist, treating it nothing more than receiving and consuming a piece of bread. And many of us treat the Eucharist lightly and even with contempt, by the way that we receive the Lord.

What do I mean by that, brothers and sisters in Christ? We all know that the Lord is truly present in the Eucharist, but yet, some of us come to receive Him when we are not in a proper state to receive Him, meaning that we are not in a state of grace. We committed all sorts of mortal and serious sins, and yet, we come to receive the Lord with our sins without repentance and without regret for them.

Now, this is a serious sin against God and a scandal for our Church and our faith. St. Paul reminded us all through his Epistle to the Corinthians that each and every one of us is a Temple of the Holy Spirit, the dwelling place of God Himself. And it is therefore right and just for us to make sure that we keep this Temple holy and clean from defilement. Yet, many of us have defiled God’s holy Temple by our own sins and by our own refusal to repent.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore let us all reflect on our own lives. Let us all look again at all the things we have done in life thus far, both good and evil, and think of whether we have done what we should have done as the followers of Christ, or whether we have wandered off far away from God’s path. Let us all seek to rediscover the true purpose of our lives, that is to serve God and to glorify Him.

Let us all distance ourselves from the many idols and distractions present in our lives, so that we will no longer fall into the same predicament as that of the Israelites. Let us all distance ourselves from all these distractions and temptations, and do our very best to love the Lord from now on. God has loved each and every one of us so much that we could not have existed and lived without Him. We must repent from our sins and truly regret all the wicked things we have done in His presence.

Are we thankful to God Who has loved us and given us what we need in life? Have we taken His love for granted, and even betrayed Him or else abandoned Him for something we deemed to be better than Him, when He has done everything He could to provide for us and to give us His love, that He gave us nothing less than His life, bearing His cross and die for us? Should we not love Him with the same generosity and conviction in love?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are called to turn to the Lord, Our God, with a renewed sense of purpose and with a new commitment, to love Him with all of our hearts, with all of our minds and with all of our might. He, the Bread of Life, has given us so much, for our sake, that now, we have to also love Him in the same way, devoting ourselves to Him, from now onwards.

May the Lord, Who gave us life and Who loves us dearly, continue to bless us and to be with us, every single day of our lives, that we may continue to draw ever closer to Him, and to love Him with ever greater passion, through our every actions, words and deeds. Let us all have the Lord as the centre and focus of our lives, that we may no longer be separated with Him, but growing ever more intimate in our relationship with Him, day after day.

O Lord, Bread of Life, be with us always, and dwell within our hearts that we may be sanctified by Your presence. May all of us be holy just as You are holy, in our every words, in our every dealings with others, and in how we show the same love You have shown us from the beginning of time, to one another, our fellow brothers and sisters in You, Our loving Father. Amen.

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Saturday, 4 August 2018 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Vianney, Priest and Patron of All Priests (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture telling us about the trouble and opposition which the prophet Jeremiah had to face during his ministry in the kingdom of Judah, during the years just prior to the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The prophet Jeremiah warned the remaining people of God in Judah about the coming destruction, but they refused to listen to the Lord speaking through His prophet.

The king and his advisers, the nobles and the elites, the priests and most likely, most of the people hardened their hearts and minds, and closed their ears off from listening to the word of God. They persecuted Jeremiah and cast him out, and he had to suffer many rejections and troubles throughout the years of his ministry, just as the many other prophets and messengers of God had also suffered. The people of God had turned a deaf ear to their God.

Then, in the Gospel passage today, we heard about the story of St. John the Baptist, God’s herald and messenger, the last of the prophets who was sent to proclaim the coming and arrival of the Messiah into the world, that is Our Lord Jesus Christ. St. John the Baptist himself also encountered many oppositions, especially from the priests and the Pharisees, much as Jeremiah had once suffered.

St. John the Baptist has spoken the truth to the people, telling them of their sins and wickedness, of all their vile works and all the things that have kept them out of the grace and love of God. He was much reviled for this, and his enemies were aplenty, just as many people came to him to seek repentance and baptism in the Jordan. Yet, St. John the Baptist did not mince his words and continued to preach the truth.

And in the end, when he spoke up against the king, Herod, who had committed adultery with his own brother’s wife, Herodias, he was imprisoned and put to much suffering. Herod refused to kill the holy man of God outright, but Herodias, who was likely very angry at St. John the Baptist for his outspoken attitude towards her irregular and wicked relationship with Herod, plotted to kill him.

Although it was not exactly specified in the Scriptures, but it was likely because by being taken up as Herod’s wife, she would have real power, earthly glory, wealth and privileges that being the wife of a deceased former king, Herod’s brother, could not have given her. Thus, pride and worldly greed had likely caused that woman to fall into such a great sin, as described in the Gospel passage today.

Herodias had her daughter to dance seductively before Herod to get him to agree to the conditions she would prepare beforehand. Herod made promises and vows in his stupor, promising to give everything the daughter of Herodias asked for, even half of his own kingdom. In that state, Herodias managed to trick Herod into killing St. John the Baptist by asking for his head on a platter.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we also celebrate the feast of another famous holy servant of God, namely St. John Vianney, the patron saint of all priests. He was a French priest of a small parish in the town called Ars. As such he was affectionately called as the Cure of Ars. He was remembered for his great humility, his piety and devotion to God, his commitment to the flock entrusted under his care, as he ministered to them and listening to their confessions.

He became so popular and renowned throughout France and even beyond, that thousands came to him, seeking to have their sins confessed to him, or to have evil spirits cast out from them through exorcism. Yet despite his apparent popularity and charm, St. John Vianney remained humble, and in fact, with his popularity and apparent success, there were many trials and difficulties which many may not have realised, that all of them happened to this holy saint of God.

He had many opponents and naysayers who refused to believe in him, doubted him, persecuted him and made his life difficult, saying perjuries and lies about him, and slandering him before others. But St. John Vianney continued to carry out his priestly duties as best as he could, and he remained humble and obedient to God and to the will of his superiors in the Church. Nonetheless, the impact of his examples and actions reached out far and wide.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in all of the readings of this day and from the lives of the holy servants of God, we should come to realise that to be a faithful disciple and follower of Our God is not something that will be easy for us. Instead, there will be undoubtedly plenty of challenges, obstacles, difficulties, trials and all sorts of things that will cause us to want to give up the faith and abandon the Lord.

This is when we should be inspired by the examples and the courage of the prophets, such as Jeremiah and many other servants of God who suffered and yet did their best to show their faith to others, calling many others to righteousness in their footsteps. Let us all seek to follow the good examples and the dedication shown by St. John Vianney, that through our own exemplary and good faith, we may show many others how we should love God and dedicate ourselves to Him with all of our hearts. May God be with us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 3 August 2018 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the word of God in the Scriptures, speaking to us about the difficulties which the prophet Jeremiah encountered during his ministry among the people in the kingdom of Judah. He spoke to all of them about the coming of the time of trials and challenges for the people of God, of when the city of God, Jerusalem and its Temple would be razed to the ground and destroyed by the Babylonians.

Jeremiah spoke with the power and authority from God, and yet, the people refused to believe in him. They labelled him as a naysayer and a prophet of doom, dismissing his words as false and insulting to their ears. Some of them, especially those among the powerful ones in the society even condemned him as a blasphemer for having spoken such harsh words against God’s city, Temple and its people.

They claimed to speak for the Lord and for His people, but yet, all the priests, the elites of the society and all those who opposed Jeremiah, all of them failed to reflect on their own fallen and wicked state of life, and they overlook their own sins and disobedience against God before they cast judgment against Jeremiah. This was the same judgmental and self-righteous attitude shown against the Lord Jesus, as we have heard in our Gospel passage today.

At that time, the Lord Jesus went to His home village of Nazareth in Galilee, speaking to the people in the local synagogue, proclaiming the word of God in the Scriptures and the fulfilment of the prophecies of the prophet Isaiah regarding Himself. And He said so not just with words, but His actions and deeds have preceded Himself, in all the miraculous deeds and powers He had performed throughout the region of Galilee.

But the people chose to ignore this fact, and instead, they were being judgmental by comparing Him with what they thought they knew about His background and upbringing, as the apparent Son of a poor family of the carpenter, St. Joseph, His foster-father. They assumed that because He was merely the Son of a carpenter, that He could not have performed all of the wonders that others had claimed that He had done.

In doing so they have done exactly the same as their ancestors had done towards the prophet Jeremiah. They doubted the Lord’s good works and intention for His people, and they hardened their hearts and minds, closing their ears and the doors of their hearts from the Lord Who had tried very hard to reach out to them. And the very reason for these unfortunate and unbecoming attitudes is none other than the pride that is within each and every one of us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, each and every one of us have pride in our hearts and minds, and this pride and ego cause us to fall into temptation, the temptation of worldly power, prestige and the desire for what is great in the world. And we end up being self-centred and egoistic, thinking that we are better than others. It is why many of us have this tendency to be judgmental upon others and to look down on them.

Yet, is this what we should be doing as Christians? No, certainly not. The Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lord and God Himself has been prejudiced against, betrayed and struck upon, rejected and humiliated. How can we act in the same manner as those who have persecuted and rejected Him and His prophets? Instead, all of us should imitate the examples of Christ Himself, in how He reached out to all with love, with humility and without prejudice.

First of all, the Lord reached out to the most destitute and despicable ones in the society, as He sought the sinners and the most unworthy among all of God’s children, the prostitutes and tax collectors, and many others who had sinned against God. He was not prejudiced against them, and instead, showed them all the same love which He has given to each and every one of us, the sons and daughters of man.

And then, He called them to repent from their sins, and to be open to God’s love and mercy working their effects in their hearts, minds and existence. That is why all of us are also called to be role models in our respective lives, that through our following of the examples of Christ, each and every one of us may be brought to a renewed existence in God’s grace and love. Let us all be humble as Christ was, and in how much He has loved His people, even though His own had rejected Him.

May the Lord be with us in this journey of life, and may He strengthen the faith in our hearts, that each and every one of us will grow ever more faithful, day after day, and that we will be able to give our best to serve Him and to love Him ever more, from now onwards. May God bless us all and our every endeavours. Amen.

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Thursday, 2 August 2018 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops or Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the word of God in the Scriptures, beginning with the passage from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, where God told the people through the prophet, what His intentions are for us all, His beloved ones, those whom He had created. God had created each and every one of us, and He gave us the life that we now have.

He compared Himself to a potter, who created, moulded and reshaped the earthwork according to his own desires. Each potter has a vision of how the potter wants the earthwork and ceramic to end up like, be it the shape or the function. It is entirely in the hands of the potter that the fate of the earthwork is decided. Thus, God was saying that, He alone has the power over all of us mankind, as He is the Potter of us all, His masterpieces.

And in the Gospel passage today, all of us have heard about the Lord Jesus speaking to the people and to His disciples about a parable likening the kingdom of God to a large fishing net spread to capture many fishes in the sea. Many of the fishes are gathered and then later on sorted, with the good ones being kept while the bad quality ones are thrown away and discarded.

The Lord Himself explained briefly the meaning of this parable as He said of the coming of the end of times when all the souls of man will be judged, with those who are deemed to be good and worthy to be brought into eternal life and glory with God, sorted out by the Angels whom the Lord sent to gather His faithful people from among the wicked. Meanwhile the wicked will be cast out to utter darkness and eternal suffering.

But God did not intend for the wicked to perish or die, as ultimately every single one of us, be it good or wicked at this moment, are beloved to Him. Remember that God is always ever faithful despite the disobedience that we showed to Him. He will never abandon us even though we have abandoned Him. He will continue to give us opportunity after opportunity, chance after chance to change our ways and to repent from our sins.

The Lord therefore wants to mould us and change us in accordance with His will and desire. He wants each and every one of us to be transformed in body, mind, heart and soul into people of the light. All of us who have lived in the darkness, we are called to this new existence, that is existence in the light of God. We have to abandon our past darkness, the sinfulness that have kept us away from God.

That is why today, the second day of August is also known in the Church as the day of the Portiuncula Indulgence, when the Lord revealed to St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscans of the special grace and mercy which He offers freely to all those who devoutly visit the House of God, confessing their sins and being part of the celebration of the Holy Mass, along with the intention of repentance and turning away from God.

But are we willing to allow ourselves to be forgiven our sins? God indeed freely offers Himself His mercy, but are we open to welcome Him to come into our hearts and to heal us from all the sickness and corruption caused by our sins? We need to allow God to enter into our lives and perform His wonders in our midst, and the way is for us to cooperate with God and not to harden our hearts.

Again comparing to a potter and his pottery works, if a piece of pottery is to harden before its shape is completed, then the pottery is very likely to break and shatter into pieces when the potter exerts force in order to change its shape. That is why normally potters will work on the pottery pieces while they are still soft and mouldable. Therefore, in a similar way, if we harden our hearts and minds, and are not receptive to God’s works in our midst, it is likely that we will end up harming only ourselves.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we should instead look upon the examples set by the holy saints of God, particularly those of St. Eusebius of Vercelli and St. Peter Julian Eymard, the two saints whose feast we are celebrating today. St. Eusebius of Vercelli was a devout and committed servant of God, who as the bishop and one of the leaders of the early Church, strove courageously against the dangerous threat of heresies, especially that of the Arian heresy.

St. Eusebius was among the many defenders of the true orthodox faith, against all those who tried to subvert it and against all those who sought to turn the faithful people of God into false paths. He was persecuted, had his life threatened, and faced all sorts of insults and even troubles, to the point of being imprisoned under the authority of those who were sympathetic to the cause of the heretics and the pagans. Yet, St. Eusebius remained true to his faith in God and to his cause, and eventually, the true faith triumphed.

Meanwhile, St. Peter Julian Eymard was a devout priest who was the initiator and founder of congregation of religious and the faithful dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament, the Real and True Presence of the Lord amidst us all in this world. He was renowned for his great faith and for his immense commitment and piety, which inspired many others to also follow in his footsteps and to strive to have the same faith in God.

Through the examples of these two holy and devout saints, all of us can see how each and every one of us as Christians can also be like them, in how we live our lives as faithful and dedicated servants of God. The Lord has called us all to Him, to be reconciled with Him, and to be transformed completely, from beings engulfed and corrupted by sin, into people truly worthy of God as His beloved children. Let us allow ourselves to be moulded into worthy vessels of His presence in our lives.

May the Lord be with us all, and may He continue to guide us and watch over us in our journey. May He continue to bless us and to keep us in His providence, that in all the things, the challenges and difficulties, the trials and tribulations we encounter in life, we will always strive to be ever more faithful to the Lord, our God. May the Lord bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Wednesday, 1 August 2018 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the prophet Jeremiah, who made his grievances known to the Lord. The context of this passage was that, at that moment, the prophet Jeremiah was assailed by his many enemies, who opposed him and refused to believe in his words. Prophet Jeremiah had difficulties and challenges which he had to endure while he performed his mission among the people.

It was therefore only natural that he would feel so distressed and displeased with his situation at that time. But the Lord reassured him and told Jeremiah that He would always be with him and He will guide him in all of his ways, despite the challenges he might encounter. And He proclaimed to him all the good things that He would do to His people if they turned themselves to Him and repented from all of their sins.

Essentially, He would bless them bountifully once again, and He would love them completely once again without the barrier of disobedience and sin which had caused separation between them and their God. Through this redemption, they would be healed and they would be made whole once again, that while once they were cast away and humiliated because of their disobedience, they would once again become God’s beloved and chosen people.

This was the same promise which God kept on reiterating to His people through the many prophets and messengers that He sent to them. He called them all to embrace the forgiveness that He has given to all of them freely. According to St. Alphonsus Liguori, whose feast we celebrate today, in God there is plentiful redemption. And it is this belief in God’s great saving grace and the redemption He freely gives us all, that encouraged St. Alphonsus to establish the religious order known as the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer or the Redemptorists.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord speaking to the people what the kingdom of God is like. He compared it to a pearl of great value and a rich treasure found hidden in a field. In this parable, the Lord wanted us to know that looking for God’s mercy and love is truly something that we should look up for in life. To be with God and to be reconciled with Him is something that all of us should aspire to.

But the Lord in the same parable also wanted us all to know that, attaining the kingdom of God, that is to be reconciled with Him and to live in His grace is something that does not come easily for us without our commitment and effort. Indeed, God has given us and offered to us His bountiful and infinite mercy, but this mercy will only come into its full and complete fruition in us, if we endeavour to commit ourselves to be forgiven, that is through sincere and complete repentance from our sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us are therefore called to reflect on our own lives, on whether we have allowed God’s mercy and love to enter into our lives. Have we been so preoccupied in life that we end up forgetting what is it that we are living for in this world? We do not live and we indeed should not live for the worldly things that many of us often desires, as those things are temporary and superficial at most.

Instead, we should seek for the true and everlasting treasure that is in God alone. It is God’s love that all of us should be seeking for, as we cannot live and survive without God’s love. God is the giver of our lives and it was because of Him that we exist today. If God withdrew from us His favour, grace and spirit, and by His will, should He have willed our destruction, every single one of us would have perished.

But God has always been loving and merciful to all of us, that even to the greatest sinners who repented and truly regretted having sinned before God, He would give salvation and liberation from their sins if the sinner truly, genuinely and sincerely showed the love which he or she had for God, and the total rejection of sin. It is ultimately our sins and wickedness that God despises and not our own self as human beings. We are, after all, God’s most beloved creations.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, let us all strive from now on to look for God’s redemption, by following the examples set by St. Alphonsus Liguori and the many other holy predecessors of our faith. St. Alphonsus Liguori was renowned for his great piety and devotion to the Lord, as well as to the Blessed Mother of God, Mary, who is the best example for us on how to live faithfully in the way of the Lord.

He dedicated his whole life to God, to the service of God’s people and to the poor. He has given his all to bring God’s redemption to all the people, including to the least privileged, the poor and the greatest of sinners in the community. St. Alphonsus’ examples inspired many others, who joined the Redemptorists and became agents of God’s continuing work of mercy and love among His people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, let us all do our very best to turn ourselves to God, to make Him the very centre and focus of our lives, remembering that He Himself has loved us first from the very beginning. He has given us so much in life, that it is only right and just that we should love Him with the same intensity and devotion. And let us all also be exemplary in faith and in our lives, so that in everything we say and do, we will always glorify God and help more and more people to be inspired to return to the Lord.

May God be with us all, and may He continue to guide us all our lives, giving us the strength and conviction to live our lives for His greater glory, and to bring ourselves ever closer to His merciful heart. St. Alphonsus Liguori, patron and founder of the Redemptorists, pray for us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 31 July 2018 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard from the prophet Jeremiah in the first reading passage, in which he beseeched and asked God to be merciful to His people, for they have been assailed by their enemies, beaten up and in danger of being destroyed and annihilated. At that time, during the ministry of the prophet Jeremiah, the kingdom of Judah was on its last days of existence, as it was threatened by the power of the mighty Babylonians.

Yet, the people of Judah still refused to listen to the prophet’s warnings and they in fact persecuted him and made life very difficult to him. They arrested him and put him into prison, all because they would rather believe in the false prophets and guides, and in continuing to live in the state of sin, disobeying the Lord’s laws and commandments, profaning His Temple and House.

It was in this context that the prophet Jeremiah made his plea and prayer before God, for the sins of the people were very great indeed. If they continued to live as they were, their punishment and the consequences for their sins would be very great. Nothing would have been left of the people which God had led into the Promised Land of Canaan, and just as their northern neighbours, they would face destruction and annihilation unless they repented from their sins.

In the end, the people of Judah lost their kingdom, and they lost their Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians together with Jerusalem, which was sacked at the end of the kingdom of Judah. Most of the inhabitants, God’s people, were brought into exile in the faraway lands of Babylon, and what the prophets had prophesied and foretold for a long time became a stark reality. But eventually the people repented and turned back to God.

They realised the suffering and humiliation they endured, caused by the disobedience of their ancestors, and led by the prophets Ezra and Nehemiah, they would return to their homeland many decades later, to rebuild their cities, as well as the Temple of God in Jerusalem. They repented their sinful ways and cast aside many of the wicked acts and corruptions that had led their ancestors to sin.

And all of these showed us God’s true and enduring love for us all, His people. He despised our sins and wickedness, but in the end, He still loves each one of us. Every one of us that has been lost to Him because of sin, unrepented in stubbornness, are painful wounds in His heart. He does not desire the destruction of sinners, but rather their repentance, forgiveness and redemption, that all of them may be reconciled with Him.

That is why in the Gospel passage today, the parable of the wheat and weed, we heard about a sower of good seeds, representing God, who went against the enemy who tried to sabotage the field by sowing weeds among the good seeds. The devil is always trying to spread his lies and tempt us to sin, to disobey and rebel against God’s will. That is why the wheat grows up intertwined with the weeds, as there are both good and evil within us.

But God did not outright destroy us for our sins. Indeed, our sins are despicable in His sight, but He allowed us the opportunity to seek forgiveness and to be reconciled with Him, so that, in the end, we will be made worthy and clean again, free from the chains of our sins. Therefore, we will be truly worthy to be called God’s children and as God’s beloved people.

Today, together with the whole Church, all of us celebrate together the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, also better known as the Jesuits, the largest religious order present in the Church today. St. Ignatius of Loyola was once a soldier, born from a noble and rich family in what is today known as Spain, but had a moment of conversion and revelation, in which, he changed his life completely, and devoted himself to a new existence with a new purpose in God.

St. Ignatius of Loyola initially desired for worldly glory, honour and power, as how he was conditioned in within his family environment and noble upbringing. Hence, he joined the military, fighting in the army in order to gain for himself valour, power, fame, recognition and honour, all the things that the world treasured at that time. But he did not find true fulfilment and consolation in them.

When he was grievously injured and imprisoned by his enemies during one particular siege, St. Ignatius of Loyola went through a spiritual conversion in which he was convinced to follow the religious life, called by God to turn away from worldly glory, and instead seek to bring greater glory of God. This would later on become the motto of the Jesuits, Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam – For the greater glory of God.

St. Ignatius of Loyola continued to study more about the faith and eventually was ordained as a priest. Gathering likeminded men of his time, filled with zeal and fervour for the faith, as well as missionary zeal, St. Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, which very quickly became the epicentre of the efforts of Counter-Reformation against the false Protestant heresies spreading in many parts of Christendom at that time.

St. Ignatius of Loyola and many of his fellow Jesuits established schools and seminaries, through which the efforts of Counter-Reformation were done, as the spearheads of the Church’s work to call many of those who have fallen into heresy to return to the Mother Church. Many people and many souls were saved because of the works of the Jesuits, and many of them had to suffer persecution for their faith.

The example of St. Ignatius of Loyola shows us all that while all of us are sinners and are unworthy of God because of our sins, but through sincere and genuine repentance, we can truly make a difference in our lives. As the conversion of St. Ignatius of Loyola has shown us, that God Who has called us to be reconciled with Him can make us into such great instruments of mercy and forgiveness for many others, and many more can be saved, through us, who have been saved first.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we all strive to turn away from our own sinful lives, and from all the wickedness we have committed thus far, which made us all unworthy to be truly called children of God? Let us all be inspired by the fervour and the courage which St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits showed, in the midst of difficulties and even persecution, to do the work of God, and to gain greater glory, not for ourselves, but for the greater glory of God.

May the Lord be glorified through our works, and may He be glorified by the strong and living faith present in each and every one of us. May He continue to bless us and all of our works, that we may truly walk the path to the eternal glory and true joy that God alone can give, and not the world. May the Lord be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 30 July 2018 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Chrysologus, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the word of God in the Scriptures, first beginning with the anger which God had shown His people, those living in the kingdom of Judah, for their refusal to listen to Him and their hardened hearts and minds, which could not allow them to love their God. They had instead persecuted the prophets and killed them, and continued to live in their sinful state.

God was angry with His people because despite all the good things and love He had done to them, they had turned away from Him, abandoned Him and forgot about Him, and threw away all of His laws and commandments. And despite all the miraculous deeds and powers He had shown them, they had instead chosen to put their trust in idols made from wood, stone and gold.

But the Lord did not give up on His people, for He still loved them dearly, each and every one of them. And that is why He sent us all Jesus, His own beloved Son, to be the One through Whom He would bring about salvation to all of His people. And in the Gospel today, all of us heard Him speaking to the people and to His disciples, about the kingdom of heaven, which has come into this world.

The Lord used the parable of the mustard seed to teach the people about the coming of God’s kingdom, telling them what they need to do in order to be faithful and to be committed to God’s ways. He used the mustard seed to show them the example of what the coming of the kingdom of God means to the people who are willing to embrace God and His kingdom.

The mustard seed is a very small seed, one that is insignificant and often overlooked. However, as the Lord mentioned and as those who have grown mustard greens before, we will realise just how wrong our perception can be, as mustard seed when grown into a full-fledged plant, is a large and bountiful tree filled with many branches and leaves. It is a wonderful and often overlooked transformation that accompanied a mustard seed’s growth.

Then the Lord Jesus also told the story of a person who placed three measures of flour and mixed them together with some yeast. The yeast is a crucial component in this process, as without yeast, the flour and mixture will just remain as it is. But with the yeast, as all those who have used them to make bread should know, the flour and mixture will rise as the yeast use the flour material and produce gases as it ferments the bread mixture.

And that is how the ordinary flour and yeast mixture are transformed into wonderful, delicious and nourishing leavened bread. Without yeast and the right conditions, this would never have happened. And the same applies to the mustard seed, as without proper care and the right conditions, the mustard seed as with other plants, would never have grown healthy and strong into a full-fledged plant.

What is the significance of these things to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? If we look back at the despicable and shameful deeds of the people of God in the first reading passage today, and comparing that to the time of the Lord Jesus, when many of the people listened to Him and became His followers, experiencing profound and even total change in their respective lives, therefore, we can see how the same applies to us as well.

This means that each and every one of us must take in and make the word of God, the revelations of God’s truth, all of His laws, commandments and teachings as preserved and taught to us through the Church, as the centre of our lives. And that is how we can grow in our faith and in our dedication to God. Our lives will surely experience change and transformation by God performing His work in us and through us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we also celebrate the feast of St. Peter Chrysologus, a renowned orator and teacher of the faith, who was also a great bishop and committed servant of God. St. Peter Chrysologus was known as such, as ‘Chrysologus’, the Golden-Worded due to his great charism in his homilies, through which he explained in great clarity and detail the meaning and importance of the Word of God to the people.

Many people at that time adhered to various versions of the teachings of faith, even those which were deemed as heresies and improper. But St. Peter Chrysologus patiently and devoutly taught the true teachings of the faith through his carefully and wisely worded homilies and preachings, by which many of the people came to repentance because they listened to him and came to regret their sinful lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if this has happened before to our predecessors, surely we can also do the same with our own lives. We must not wait any longer, for if we continue to wait and continue to disobey God through sin, we may end up finding that it is too late for us, and we may end up in eternal damnation and suffering in hell. What is at stake for us, is nothing less than the fate of our eternal soul.

Therefore, let us all, from now on, put God as the priority and the focus of our life and our existence, and do our very best to serve Him, resisting the temptation to sin and always listening to His will. Let us all deepen our spirituality and prayerful relationship with God, that each and every one of us may draw ever closer to God, our loving Father. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 29 July 2018 : Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, we listened to the word of God in the Scriptures, from the Old and New Testament, and from the Gospel passage, all forming a common theme of God feeding His people through wondrous deeds, by which He, through the prophets and His own Son, gave them food to eat, and then, how this sharing of meal and food are very symbolic to all of us as Christians.

In the first reading today, we heard from the Book of Kings of the moment when a man brought a food offering to the man of God, Elisha, the prophet God had appointed over His people. Elisha told the man to give the bread to the people, of which there were more than a hundred of them gathered. Evidently, there were not enough bread for the man immediately said that he could not have given the bread to all the people gathered there.

But the prophet Elisha told the man to trust in the word of God, and follow what He had asked him to do through the prophet. For God would indeed provide for His people, and true enough, all of the people had enough to eat from the few pieces of bread, and sharing the bread, they had even leftovers to be gathered. This miraculous event would happen again during the time of Jesus, the famous feeding of the five thousand men mentioned in our Gospel passage today.

At that time, there were five thousand men and many more uncounted women and children who were gathered at the plain where the Lord was teaching and preaching the truth of God. They had been following Him for several days, coming from nearby and even farther away towns and cities, not carrying much if any provisions or food with them. Naturally, they would also go hungry and the Lord had pity on them.

Thus, the Lord called for food to be distributed among the people, but there were only five loaves of bread and two fishes were present, brought by a young boy. The disciples doubted, and St. Andrew asked, just as the man in the story of the prophet Elisha, if there was enough bread and food to feed the huge multitudes of the people. But the Lord reassured them, and told them to do as He said. He made them all to sit down to be ready to feed from the bread and the fishes given from His hands.

The Lord blessed the bread and the fishes, and took the bread, and broke them, and giving them to His disciples, to be distributed to the people. From there, all of the people ate until they were all fully satisfied, and yet, still twelve full baskets of bread could be gathered in the end. This was indeed another seemingly impossible feat, similar to what the prophet Elisha had performed. But God’s grace was truly with His people, and God Himself, through His Son, Jesus, performed that before the people.

Then, if we read on to our second reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city of Ephesus, what we have heard from the story of the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the food that was blessed by God, all of us can see a new significance and importance to what we have just heard. In fact, this is part of the central tenet of our faith and what it means for us to be Christians, as members of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

In that Epistle, St. Paul wrote about the faithful being part of one Body and having faith in one God. This is what it means for all of us Christians to belong to the Church of God, as St. Paul further elaborated in his Epistle to the Corinthians, mentioning that ‘you are Christ’s Body, and you are individually members of this Body.’ He was referring to the Church, the united body of the faithful, which together forms the Body of Christ, with Christ Himself as the Head.

All of us are united in this same Body, the Church of God, having received the same Spirit, and united by our common identity, that is the sharing of the Most Precious and Holy Body, and Blood of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in the Eucharist. The word Holy Communion itself refers to this sharing of the same Body and Blood of Christ, which we receive at the celebration of the Holy Mass. Only those who have been baptised as faithful and devout members of the Church can receive Holy Communion.

This is not a statement of exclusivity, but rather a reiteration of the fact that all of us who have received Holy Communion and are in the good standing of faith and in a state of grace, worthy of continuing to receive the Eucharist, are united with each other, as members of God’s Holy Church, sharing in the broken Body of Christ. And in order to fully appreciate the significance of this fact, we must link what we have heard from our first reading and Gospel passages today, with the institution of the Eucharist itself.

At the Last Supper, the Lord broke the bread and shared the bread with His disciples, and did the same with the wine, which He passed to His disciples to drink. And He said that the bread is His Body, and the wine is His Blood. At that time, the disciples have yet to understand the full meaning of these words that Christ said to them. But after the events that transpired the next day, which we celebrate every year on Good Friday, the crucifixion itself, the whole truth of the Eucharist has been made available to all of us.

For the Lord crucified on Calvary, on His cross, is the fulfilment of the breaking of the bread and the institution of the Eucharist which He had done at the Last Supper. By laying down His life and being lifted up on the cross, He offered Himself, in His Body and Blood, the bread and wine offered, both at the Last Supper and at every celebration of the Holy Mass, to God the Father, Who accepted the perfect offering of His Son, and all of us who receive this same Body and Blood of Our Lord, now becomes one Body in Him.

By partaking the Body and Blood of Our Lord, we take the Lord into ourselves, and we become united in body and spirit with Him. And it is through this union that we have united ourselves as one Church through Christ, with all of our fellow brothers and sisters in faith. And now, if we have not taken this union, that is this Holy Communion we have as good and righteous members of the Church seriously, perhaps, this is the time that we begin to do so.

What does this mean? It means that whenever we commit a grave sin, we have sundered ourselves from this union with God, and hence the Church has ruled that based on Scriptural truth and tradition of the Apostles and the Church fathers, we have to go to confession before we are to receive the Eucharist, or else, we commit an even greater sin, of ignorance of the true nature of the Eucharist, that is Our Lord Himself, present in Body and Blood.

And if the Lord Himself has come to us and is willing to enter into our lives, then should we not take our faith much more seriously from now on? Shall we not turn ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord, Who has loved us so much, that He feeds us with not just bread as He had done with the people of Elisha’s time and the people of the time of Jesus? But with the Bread of Life Himself, the Lord Who nourishes us by His own sacrifice on the cross?

Shall we turn to Him with regret for our sins and wickedness in life, if we have done Him injustice and wrong, disobeyed His laws and precepts, and committed sins that were grave enough to separate us from this Communion which we have with our fellow brethren in the one Church of God? Shall we from now on, truly believe in all of our hearts, minds and in all of our whole beings, that we shall have complete and absolute faith in God and in His Real Presence in the Eucharist?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all seek to preserve this unity, this sanctity present in the Church. And how do we do so? It is by living our faith with genuine dedication and commitment, every single days of our life. If we see any of our brethren falling away from the way of faith, let us all help and pray for them, that they may return to the true faith, and we ourselves have to be exemplary in our lives, or else, how can we convince others to be faithful to God?

Let us all renew our commitment to God, and let us all live our lives with greater realisation of our existence as members of God’s holy Church, united with Him and with one another, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. May the Lord be our strength, and may He continue to guide us and empower us, daily, that despite the challenges and the temptations to sin, we will always strive to be ever worthy of God, and of this holiness we are called to be as members of God’s one Body, one Church. Amen.

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Saturday, 28 July 2018 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Lord in the Scriptures speaking to us about the call which God made to His people through His prophet Jeremiah, in our first reading today. At that time, the people of the kingdom of Judah lived wickedly and were not faithful to the commandments and laws which God had given them. They have profaned themselves and made a mockery of God’s holy Temple, through the idols they have built in the holy place of God and other wicked deeds.

Nonetheless, in what He spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, although God despised the wicked deeds and acts which the people had performed and all of their unfaithfulness, but in the end, He is still a loving Father and God to all of them. For He had chosen them as His people, and He surely loved each and every one of them without exception. But the Lord was not happy with the fact that despite all the reminders and promptings which He had given them, they still stubbornly continued to live in sin.

In the Gospel passage today, we listened to a different but related story, of a parable which the Lord Jesus told to the people, about a sower of seeds, who sowed good seeds in a field, only for an enemy to come in the middle of the night, spreading weeds among the wheat. As a result, the weeds became intermingled with the wheat, and it was impossible to separate the two, as their roots had grown around each other. Killing one plant would have killed the other in that scenario.

As such, the sower who is also the master of the field told his servants that they should not pull out the weeds and let them to grow with the wheat until the day when the harvest comes. It is at the time of the harvest that all the wheat would be gathered into the barn of the owner, and the weeds separated from them, and cast into the fire that will destroy all of them. This parable truly has a deep and symbolic meaning to each and every one of us living in this world.

First of all, the sower represents the Lord, while the enemy represents the devil, the great enemy of all of us. The Lord spreads to all of us His good seeds, that is love, hope, faith and all the good Christian virtues and values. Meanwhile, the devil, Satan spreads out the seeds of evil, that are the weeds mentioned in the Gospel parable, representing hatred, wickedness, all sorts of vices and vile things, pride, greed and arrogance.

And thus, all of us are like wheat entangled with weeds, as those who live our lives and existence in this world, filled with God’s love and grace, but also tainted by the corruption of sin and wickedness, caused by the temptations of Satan and by the lure of sin. But God did not want us all to be destroyed right away, just as the owner did not ask his servants to pluck out the weeds right away, as the wheat would then also be destroyed.

Instead, the Lord gave us all opportunities, chances, one after another, to give us the time to realise how sinful we are and how we are all in need of God’s mercy, healing and forgiveness. The wheat and the weeds are also given the time to grow into full term until the time of the harvest in the Gospel parable, and this represents the many opportunities God has patiently given us, because although He despises our sins, but He still loves us all, His children and His people.

But, brothers and sisters in Christ, we must also be aware that there is indeed a time of reckoning, the time when all will end, the moment of truth, when the Lord will declare His great harvest time, and gather all the wheat to Himself. What does this mean, brethren? All those who are faithful to God and follows His commandments and laws, they will receive their just rewards when God comes again to gather them to His side.

Those who refused to follow the Lord and disobey Him, all of them will suffer because of their conscious rejection of the One Who has loved us. They are to be the weeds that will be thrown into the fire, to suffer eternal anguish, destruction and the ultimate pain of being separated from God. Without God, we cannot live or survive, and without His love, we will end up with nothing.

The choice has been given to us, by the virtue of the free will that God has given us. Do we want to be the wheat or the weed? The choice is ours, and our actions will determine if we are truly made to be wheat or to be weed. Now as Christians, our faith calls us all to be like the wheat, to be filled with God’s love, and to strive to be ever faithful and dedicated to Him. Shall we do our best from now on, dedicating ourselves to God with all of our hearts and with all of our might?

May the Lord continue to guide us in our journey of life, and let us all grow stronger in this faith we have, that we truly can be good Christians, as those who follow the Lord, Our God and Saviour, and fill ourselves with every grace and blessings. May God lead us all into the eternal glory He promised to all who have been true to Him, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 27 July 2018 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard of God calling back His people through His prophet Jeremiah, a people who have been lost and separated to Him, that they may be gathered again after they had been scattered due to their rebelliousness and sin. He has called them all to repent from their sins, and therefore, to turn their back to the unfaithfulness they had done before.

To this extent, He gave us all a Saviour, to be the One Who can deliver us out of our predicament, and from the current state of sin that we suffer from, in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and the Son of God. Through the giving of His own beloved Son, God wants each and every one of us to be reconciled to Himself. And indeed, He had done that, by His ultimate sacrifice and perfect love on the cross.

He offered us all salvation and liberation from our sins, bringing the truth about our need for salvation and repentance to us. He is the Word of God, through Whom His will has been revealed to us and made known, that we may know how we should live our lives in this world, in order for us to be receptive to His saving grace, mercy and forgiveness. And the Lord Jesus presented it well through the parable which He said in our Gospel passage today.

In today’s parable, well known as the parable of the sower, we heard about a sower who sowed seeds in a certain place, but the seeds fell on different types of environments. They landed in all sorts of places, from the most unfavourable to the most favourable, with some landing on the roadside, while others landed on rocky ground, or among thistles and brambles, while some others fell on rich and fertile soil.

None of the seeds grew on those places where the conditions were unfavourable for growth, as in the case of the ones that fell on the roadside, they were eaten up by the birds. Those that fell on rocky ground were unable to find firm ground to establish their roots and they perished in the hot sun. And those that fell among thistles and brambles were surrounded and suffocated by those same thistles and brambles, and thus all perished, save for those which fell on rich and fertile soil.

What does this mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? And how is this relevant to us all as the people of God? The Lord explained to His disciples, that the seeds are the Word of God, freely given to all of us, just as the sower spread the seeds in all directions. God does not discriminate in giving His love, mercy and forgiveness for our sins, no matter our background and our origin. He gives to all of us, from the smallest to the greatest of sinners, His love and generous offer of mercy.

That is the seeds of faith which He sowed in us, and which He had hoped that those seeds will eventually grow in each and every one of us who believe in Him. However, as we ourselves have heard, not all the seeds were able to grow, because they fell in greatly differing conditions, which in fact, represent our varying responses to the Lord’s call and offer of love and mercy. If we are not receptive of God’s call and love, how can we then expect to grow in faith in Him?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why today, all of us as Christians are called to rediscover our faith and we are called to let our faith grow strong in a fertile ‘soil’ which is our hearts, our minds, our bodies and indeed, our whole being. And how do we make ourselves fertile? It is by enriching our spiritual life through sincere and devout prayer life, regularly communicating with God and seeking to know His will by listening to Him speaking in our hearts.

If we are able to do so, then just as the Gospel passage mentioned how the seeds grew thirtyfold, sixtyfold and hundredfold in produce, therefore, we too shall gain immeasurably from the richness of our spiritual life, in which our faith in God can grow and prosper. This is what we are called to do, and which we should aspire to be in our Christian life and discipleship.

Let us all therefore, from now on, strive to be ever better and more committed disciples of Christ, no longer closing our hearts and minds from God, but instead, willingly opening ourselves to Him and finding ways through which we can grow ever more devoted to the Lord, Our God and Saviour. May God be our guide and be our strength, that in all the things we do in life, we will always seek His greater glory, and desire to love Him ever more, with each passing day. Amen.