Weekday Homily

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Saturday, 26 August 2017 : 20th 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 Word of God in the Scriptures telling us all about the importance of humility and obedience to God, as we heard firstly of how the woman Ruth met Boaz, who would then become the grandparents of the famous king of Israel, David. And then we heard in the Gospel, how Jesus our Lord rebuked the Pharisees and their proud attitude, and their lack of genuine faith to God.

In the first reading today, continuing from what we have heard in the Scriptures, we heard how the woman Ruth, a foreigner, who decided to follow her mother-in-law, Naomi to the land of Israel, met up with Boaz, with whom she would eventually be married to, and had a son. Ruth and her mother-in-law were faithful to God, and they placed their trust in Him, despite the difficulties and the challenges they had to encounter.

They had no possessions of their own, Naomi and her husband having left behind the land of Israel, and when her husband and two sons died in the land of Moab, Naomi was left with just Ruth and her other daughter-in-law whom she told to return to her homeland. Ruth refused to leave, but instead vowed to follow Naomi wherever she went, and took the Lord, the God of Naomi and her people, as her own God and Master.

In this manner, even though they were without family and possessions, but they had great favour in the sight of God, Who saw their faith and were glad at their dedication. That was why He blessed Ruth and Naomi, and Ruth became one of the members of the history of salvation, as through her and Boaz came the king David, and eventually through David, to Jesus Christ, Who was born into the house of David.

Then linking it to the Gospel passage we heard today, the Lord Jesus spoke about the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were often seen in the public places showing their piety through their prayer bands and shawls, their long prayers and public show of faith, their public fasting and observances of the Law. He rebuked them for all of these because, despite all that they had done, they did not do those things for God but instead for themselves and for their own selfish desires.

God did not have a place in their hearts, as their hearts were full of ego and pride, with their worldly desires and greed. They have not been humble before God but instead thinking that their way is the best and the right way. In that same spirit therefore they have conducted their lives, acting with arrogance and pride, and looking down on all those whom they deemed to be inferior to themselves. But they did not realise that God despised their selfishness and arrogance.

In today’s readings, God reminded us all His followers that as Christians all of us are called to be humble and to be open to His will. We are called to listen to Him and to allow His works to be fulfilled through us. But this is something that is not easily done, and challenges will surely be in our path as we walk in God’s path. There will be those times when we will be tempted to succumb to the allures of the pleasures of the flesh, and tempted to satisfy our greed and our ego.

However, if we do not actively resist these temptations, we may end up becoming like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, whose faith has been found wanting, and whose love and commitment to the Lord was found to be lacking. Is this what we want from ourselves? Is this what the Lord had taught us to do? As Christians, in fact, all of us should seek to listen to the Lord Who told us in the Gospel today, that we must be humble in all things, and the greater we are, the humbler we should be.

At the centre of all these is the fact that as Christians we must be men for others, and we should not put ourselves and our own wants and desires ahead of the need of others. We must be selfless and ever be ready to think of others first, and be concerned with them. This is what all of us Christians must do, and which many of us may not have done in our faith life. Let us all therefore have that commitment to live faithfully in accordance with God’s will, knowing that it is He alone Who can guide us to the right path.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all strive to walk in the path shown to us by the Lord, by doing what He has commanded us to do, by not succumbing to our ego and desires, and by cultivating in us the spirit of love and compassion for our fellow men. Let us all be faithful to God and be humble in all things we say and do. Let God enter into our hearts and do not close our hearts to Him because of our ego and arrogance, our greed and our desires.

May the Lord bless us all, just as He has blessed those who are faithful to Him, and all those who walk humbly in His presence. May He empower us all so that we will always be ever faithful to Him. Amen.

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Friday, 25 August 2017 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Louis and St. Joseph Calasanz, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints and Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us are reminded by what we have heard from the Book of Ruth, our first reading today, of the faith that Ruth, a woman hailing from the country of Moab, a foreigner, had in the Lord. Ruth stayed on at the side of Naomi, her mother-in-law despite the fact that her husband and all her other immediate family had passed away. She remained faithful to the Lord and followed her mother-in-law back to the land of Israel.

And eventually she was blessed by God for her faith, and she met her future husband, Boaz as she was working in his field. She bore a son whom she called Obed, who was the father of Jesse, and who in turn was the father of David, the famous king of Israel. All of these would not have been possible without the faith which Ruth had shown to God, her dedication and commitment to her newfound faith in Him.

In this we also see how God calls the people of all the nations to come to Him and worship Him, as even among the ancestors of the king of Israel existed the faithful foreigners and pagans who turned away from the path of their own ancestors and chose to follow God’s path instead. In this we see how God loves us all, and how each and every one of us also need to love God in the same manner. That is what God intended for us, that through His Laws, we may love Him just as He had loved us first.

That is what the Lord Jesus spoke of in the Gospel passage today, when the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law confronted Him and tried to argue with Him, presumably trying to trap Him in His own words, by asking Him which law is the most important one in the whole Laws and Commandments which Moses had received from God. But those people did not truly understand what God intended to do with His Law, and neither did they practice the Law in the manner He wanted them to do.

They did not understand that God’s laws are truly about love, loving God first and foremost before anything else, and then loving one another, loving our fellow men, our parents, our friends and all those whom we encounter in our lives in the same manner as we have loved God and just as how we love ourselves. Instead, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law became too preoccupied with the formalities and the less important aspects of the Law, focusing on the wrong things and mistaking the true purpose of those Laws.

They reinforced the strict commandment and observances of the Law, but all these were done to advance their own self-interests, that they might be praised for their supposed piety and obedience to the Law. They looked down on tax collectors and prostitutes, and closed the door of salvation to them, thinking that those people were sinners and were unworthy of God. Yet, the Lord Jesus rebuked them and showed them just how genuine and true is the love that those supposed sinners had shown to God.

Just like Ruth, those tax collectors, prostitutes and all those deemed as foreigners, pagans and sinners were able to show greater love, commitment and devotion to the Lord. In that, they have obeyed the Law of God to a far greater degree than what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done. They have loved God, and desired the love of God, and as a result, God welcomed them, and forgave them their sins when they sincerely sought Him looking to be forgiven and committed to the change in their lives and actions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to do the same as well? Are we able to change our lives in the same way? Are we able to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord, and love Him sincerely from our hearts? This is what we have been called to do, and what we have been reminded by the Word of God which we have heard in the Scripture passages today.

Let us all look at the examples of the holy saints, St. Louis, the holy King of France, and St. Joseph Calasanz, a holy priest and servant of God, whose feasts we celebrate today. Let us all look at the examples of these holy men who had gone before us, and see how they have dedicated their own lives to God, so that we too may be able to follow their footsteps and walk in the same path.

St. Louis, also known as King Louis IX of France, was a very famous and renowned King of France, known as a paragon of virtue and piety, devoted wholeheartedly to the service of God and to his people, being a model king and ruler, who cared greatly for the well-being of his people, both physically and spiritually. Unlike many other rulers of his time, before and after, he used his power with justice and righteousness, and did not succumb to the temptations of power to abuse that authority which God had granted him.

Instead, St. Louis devoted himself to the improvement of the lives of his subjects and people, building churches and helping to establish the institutions of the Church to bring his people closer to God, and seeking to make peace between the feuding factions among his people, to end the bitter rivalries and conflicts among them, that they might overcome their sinful past filled with wickedness, and turn wholeheartedly towards God.

In the same manner, St. Joseph Calasanz had also shown us how to become a better follower of God as St. Louis had done. St. Joseph Calasanz was remembered for his great works of charity among the poor, even establishing a congregation of the servants of God dedicated to help the poor and ministering to them in their needs. He showed his great devotion and charity to the people who were in need, and in that way, he also dedicated himself wholeheartedly to God.

He helped to establish institutions to care for homeless and neglected children, and offered places for the poor and the homeless to stay in. He helped them to get by with their worldly needs, and helped to provide jobs and work through which they were able to sustain themselves in their needs. He was also credited with bringing peace to feuding factions in the Church, just as St. Louis had done among his people.

In all these examples shown by these two holy saints, all of us, brothers and sisters in Christ, are reminded that there are many things that each and every one of us can do as Christians to be good servants and followers of the Lord. We should follow their examples, and also the faith and dedication of Ruth and all those who have given themselves entirely to love and to serve the Lord.

Are we able to commit ourselves in this manner? Are we able to do more in order to serve Him? The one who decide this will be ourselves. We need to decide if we can give more to serve the Lord, to love Him with ever greater devotion and to have an ever greater and living faith in Him. Let us all therefore renew our commitment to Him, and renew our commitment to show the same love we show Him to our fellow men as well. May God bless all our endeavours. Amen.

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Thursday, 24 August 2017 : Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast day of one of the Holy Apostles, one of the Twelve Apostles of our Lord, namely St. Bartholomew the Apostle, also known as Nathanael, which we heard in the Gospel today being called by God to follow Him and to be His Apostle. And therefore, as we celebrate the feast of one of our Lord’s principal disciple, let us all recall what the Apostles had done for the sake of the Church.

The Apostles were called from diverse backgrounds and origins. Some of them were fishermen, while others were tax collectors and sinners, even some were zealots or fighters and thieves. The Apostles were called by the Lord Jesus Who called all of them and made them to become the twelve principal members of His disciples, recalling the twelve sons and tribes of the people of Israel. And they were the ones through whom God made His works in this world evident and true.

The Apostles followed the Lord Jesus and helped Him in His ministry, going ahead of the Lord to establish His presence and to prepare the people and the community for His coming. They prepared the path for the Lord and therefore they are indeed considered the pillars of the Church of God, as the invaluable foundation and key personnel involved in the establishment of God’s Church in this world. If not for their hard work and sacrifices, there would not have been the Church as we know it today.

And after the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven, for St. Bartholomew, as was for the other Apostles, he went to various countries and places to spread the words of the Gospel and introduce the Lord to all those who had not yet heard about His salvation. He went to India to preach the faith there and many souls were saved because of his works. And from India, he went on to evangelise in the kingdom of Armenia where he met his death in martyrdom.

It was told that he managed to convince many people to embrace the Christian faith, and in fact St. Bartholomew even managed to convert the king of Armenia by his teachings and efforts. It was then that St. Bartholomew met his martyrdom when the king’s brother led the enemies of the faith and took over the saints and put them to death. By his efforts he had established the foundations of the Church in many communities, and many had been saved.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how are all these things relevant to us? What is it that the Apostles like St. Bartholomew are able to show us? They showed us the strong devotion and commitment to the Lord, one that is often leading to the moments when they had to choose between safeguarding their own interests and serving God’s will. And they indeed chose to obey the Lord even though they knew that by doing so they had placed themselves at great risk.

All of us are called to walk in the footsteps of the Apostles, as because each of the Apostles have dedicated their whole lives to God. And all of us are the successors of the Apostles, the ones who have been passed the baton which we ought to take up in order to continue the good works of the Apostles. We are called to follow the examples of the Apostles in all that they have done, in their faith and dedication, and in everything they have given up for the sake of the Lord.

There are still a lot of work that the Church has to do, brothers and sisters in Christ. There are still plenty of opportunities in which we can contribute as members of the Church. There are still many out there who are still living in the darkness and in ignorance of God’s truth and ways. And it is by our efforts that the Church will be able to bring these brethren of ours that they will be able to find their way to the Lord and therefore together we will be worthy of Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all today renew our commitment to the Lord through our actions, words and deeds. Let us rediscover that zeal which we ought to have for the Lord, that we will be able to devote ourselves in the giving of our time, our efforts and works for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of His people. Let us follow the footsteps of the Holy Apostles, St. Bartholomew and his fellow Apostles that we may advance the good cause of the Lord and bring ever more souls to the salvation in God.

St. Bartholomew, all the holy Apostles and saints of the Lord, all those who have lived worthily in God, pray for us all sinners, all of us who are still struggling daily in this world. May God be with us always and may He strengthen our faith in us, that we will always be close to Him, and may He bless us always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 23 August 2017 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scriptures, speaking to us about the need to follow the will of God, and to do His works, for all of us have been called by God to be His workers in the plentiful and rich field of this world. This is the essence of what we have heard particularly in today’s Gospel passage, when Jesus spoke to His disciples and the people on the parable of the workers in a vineyard.

In that parable, we heard Jesus speaking about how a master of a vineyard needed workers to work in his vineyard, and therefore he went about, seeking for workers in the marketplaces and the other public places, calling the people to work in his place. In that parable, the master of the vineyard is the Lord our God, and the field or the vineyard is this world where we live in, and where the Lord is also constantly at work.

And all of the workers represent none other than each and every one of us whom God has called to be His followers and servants, to become the workers of the faith. All of us have been called to serve the Lord and to work in the rich harvest of this world, just as He Himself said on another occasion, that while the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.

Why is that so? That is because while there are indeed lots of opportunities for the works of God through His Church to be fulfilled, and then there are also many souls out there who are still trapped in the darkness of sin and in the temptations and in the preoccupations of this world, but there are not many in the Church who are willing to take up the Lord’s challenge and do what we can in order to help His good works.

Many of us are lukewarm, and many of us are not enthusiastic in living our faith life actively and with devotion. And this is not what we should be doing as Christians. As true Christians, all those who have devoted themselves to the Lord, we should be active in reaching out to others who are in need of the salvation of God and also in need for our care, compassion and love.

And at the same time, many of us have become proud with ourselves, to the point of being dismissive or even looking down on others who are in need of salvation. We become like Abimelech, the son of Gideon the Judge, who was proclaimed king of the people of Israel, after having murdered all the other sons of his father in order to secure power, glory and fame all for himself. Jotham, the only surviving son of Gideon from the massacre thus denounced him in the first reading we heard today from the Book of Judges.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not how we should conduct ourselves. We should be humble and accept the will of God and what He has planned for us. Indeed, as the Gospel passage showed us today, those workers who were called to work earlier complained against the master when they found out that those who were called to work at the last hour received the same pay as what they had received. They thought it was unfair for the master to have done so.

But the master was not being unfair, just as the Lord has called each one of us according to His plan and time, at the time of His own choosing, and all of us share the same reward, be it that we have been called to God’s salvation earlier or later. We have received the assurance and promise of life everlasting, true joy and happiness which we can find in the Lord alone.

Let us all not be proud, or be afflicted by greed in our life. Let us instead follow the example of the holy woman, St. Rose of Lima, whose feast we celebrate on this day. St. Rose of Lima is the first saint of the New World, the Americas, and was a devout lay member of the Dominican religious order. St. Rose of Lima devoted herself completely and thoroughly to the Lord, rejecting the pursuits of the world and all the temptations it offered to her.

St. Rose of Lima lived a very virtuous life filled with prayer and commitment to God, and wanted to become a nun, if not for her father’s stern opposition. St. Rose of Lima therefore devoted her whole life, until her death, as a layman member of the Dominican order, spending her time in prayer, and it was told that she even wore a crown of thorns as a reminder of the suffering and the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us all commit ourselves to God in the same manner as St. Rose of Lima had done in her life. Let us thoroughly devote ourselves to God through actions, words and deeds, so that in everything we do, we will always be the workers of God’s vineyard and remain faithful to Him in all things. May St. Rose of Lima and her intercession help us on this journey towards the eternal life in God. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 22 August 2017 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is exactly one week after the great Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into heaven, and is a reaffirmation of the special status which Mary has in the history of salvation and in the history of this world and mankind.

For there is no greater human being than Mary, as although she remained a mere human being, but because of her great piety and her great humility, and ultimately because she has allowed herself to become the vessel of God’s salvation, obediently allowing God to perform His great works through her, she has become the mother of our God and Saviour.

As I have mentioned during the Solemnity of the Assumption, Mary was granted the singular honour amongst all other men and women, for she was lifted up bodily and soul into the glory of heaven, for she has borne the Saviour of the world, Who saved all mankind from sin and death, and therefore, it is only right that He would also save her as well.

And we all believe that Mary is now in the glory of heaven, seated at the side of her Son, the King and ruler of Heaven and all the universe. And if in the history long past, the mother of a king is considered a queen, by the virtue of the kingship of her son, even if she herself was not a royalty or noble by birth, then the same should have also applied for the case of Mary.

If she is the mother of the King of Heaven and all the Universe, then by that virtue also, she has been made a queen. And therefore rightly she had been granted the following titles by the Church, that of the Queen of Heaven, the Queen of Angels, the Queen of All Saints and the Queen of Peace, amongst many others. We honour her because of her Son, our Lord and King, and certainly just as when a king’s mother is honoured, the king is also honoured, then it is the same case with Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

And to us, Mary has a special place in our faith, because she is the greatest and first among all the saints, the holy men and women of God. She is the one closest to her Son in heaven, and as she has proven from time to time, in her various apparitions, she is always constantly thinking about each and every one of us, mankind, as she is our mother who cares for us, just as she cared for her Son, Jesus. Jesus our Lord Himself has entrusted us to her from the cross, as He laid there dying to fulfil the salvation He promised to us mankind.

Mary is our greatest intercessor, and she is always pleading for our sake, that God may have mercy on us. She has shown us all the examples of how to be faithful and obedient to the will of God, and by following her examples, we will be able to draw closer to her Son, and thus will be worthy to receive His salvation and eternal glory. And through her various apparitions, Mary always reminded us mankind to seek her Son and to repent from our sinful ways.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as today we rejoice in Mary, our mother and Queen, let us all ask for her intercession, that she will continue to pray for our sake, and implore her Son to forgive us our trespasses, that through her words and intercession, God may be moved to guide us to the path towards righteousness. And then, let us also strive to do our best to imitate the examples of Mary in faith, that we may learn to give ourselves completely and dedicate our whole being to the Lord.

May the Lord bless us always, and remain with us, and may through the intercession of His blessed mother Mary, Queen of Heaven, Queen of All Saints, Queen of Angels, Queen of Peace, and through the intercession of all the other holy saints and martyrs, all of us may be brought ever closer to God’s love and grace, and be forgiven from our sins when we repent with sincerity and commitment to live a new life filled with faith. Amen.

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Monday, 21 August 2017 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Pius X, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how God was with His people throughout their time in the land granted to them by God. But the people of Israel had not always been faithful, and they lapsed again and again into sin, disobeying God and His commandments. They worshipped the pagan gods and idols of their neighbours, Baal and Ashtaroth, and they abandoned the God Who had brought them out of slavery in Egypt and cared for them with His love.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, why is that so? The people of Israel had settled down in the land of Canaan, after the long journey of the Exodus, staying at a land blessed by God, rich and overflowing with milk and honey, where each of the agricultural products and crops the people grew produced rich harvests. They lived in a state of grace and joy, and they enjoyed the many good fruits of the world. But that led them to become decadent and then made them to drift away from the path of the Lord.

The Israelites had with them the laws and the commandments of God, and yet, they eventually failed to remain faithful to those laws and commandments. Why was that so? They had those laws, and they had the leaders, the priests and the elders to guide them to the path of God through the interpretation and obedience to those laws. But those laws would be of no use if the Lord was not truly in the hearts and minds of the people.

That is because if the people did obey the laws and the commandments, but if they did not truly live in accordance to those commandments and believe in them in their hearts wholeheartedly, that was why they easily fell into the temptations of the devil. They were easily swayed by worldly things, and the allures of pagan worship that included revelry and worldly pleasures thus attracted them. They found it too difficult for them to obey the strict commandments of God.

That is what the Gospel passage today has also told us, as it showed us the moment when a young man met and asked the Lord Jesus, about what he ought to be doing in order to receive eternal life. He has obeyed all the laws and commandments of God, as prescribed through the laws of Moses, and further explained and enforced by the Pharisees and by the teachers of the Law.

However, it is indeed possible for someone to obey the Law and at the same time, not truly having a strong commitment and devotion to God. When the Lord Jesus told him that he ought to let go of all the things he had and possessed, and gave them for the sake of the poor before following Him, the young man became very sad and dejected, and he walked away in sorrow. Why is that so? Because to him, his material possessions and wealth worth to him so greatly, that he was not able to be separated from them, even just the thought of it sorrowed him so.

How many of us are like him, brothers and sisters? How many of us are incapable of separating ourselves from our worldly possessions and concerns, ending up in us sacrificing our relationship with God. We end up being so preoccupied with our work, with our pursuit for worldly glory, fame, money and all those things, that they ended up becoming the new idols in our life, like that of Baal and Ashtaroth that deceived and swayed the Israelites to the path of sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have to turn away from all these temptations and false idols of our life. We may think that as Christians we believe in God and worship Him. Yet, if we spend so much of our time trying to accumulate these worldly possessions, and adore them so much, is it not that we have made them to be idols that we worship besides God?

It is important for us all to learn to put aside all these distractions, and we can perhaps learn from the examples of the holy saint whose feast we celebrate today, that of Pope St. Pius X, the holy Pope and saint, known also as the Pope of the Holy Eucharist, for his great dedication to the Lord and for his attempts to bring the Lord in the Eucharist closer to the people, by allowing people at a younger age to receive Him.

But Pope St. Pius X was also remembered for his dedication to the people, as well as his dedication to his family. He was a dedicated parish priest for many years, and he helped many people to overcome their problems and brought them back to the Lord. And as a bishop and later as the Patriarch of Venice, he continued to devote himself to the people, caring for them and remaining humble in all things.

Despite his privileges and position, he never tried to accumulate power, glory and fame upon himself, but instead, he continued the devote himself to do the works of God, and continue to bring glory to God. And he did not forget the kindness of those who were dear to him, especially to his mother, whom he cared for even unto the day of her passing.

Pope St. Pius X encouraged the faithful to have a strong faith and devotion to the Lord, encouraging them to seek for personal holiness in their lives. He encouraged and promoted the traditions of the faith and ensured that the people of God would be able to grow closer to their Lord by returning to the true teachings of the Church, which he ensured by the reformulation of the laws of the Church and the establishment of the first ever Canon Law of the Church, to weed out the excesses of the Church and the faith, and to return to the true faith of their forefathers.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Pope St. Pius X and the other holy saints and martyrs of God have lived their lives in commitment to the Lord, devoting all of their efforts and works to bring glory to God. There will indeed be lots of opposition, challenges and temptations when we do so, as we walk in the path of God. There will be plenty of moments when we will be pulled to the left and right, even by those who are dear and close to us, tempting us and even pressuring us to abandon our journey towards the Lord.

Our holy and devoted predecessors have experienced all of these, and so we are likely to experience them as well. Shall we now heed these examples, the piety and devotion which the holy saints, especially Pope St. Pius X had shown? Let us all walk in their footsteps, and throw away from our lives, the false idols of human greed, money, possessions, worldly fame and glory, and let us all reorientate ourselves and turn wholeheartedly to the Lord. Pope St. Pius X, pray for us, that all of us will be forgiven by God and be brought into His ever loving embrace. Amen.

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Sunday, 20 August 2017 : Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures speaking to us a very important message which all of us should heed, that we as Christians will be better able to appreciate our faith and understand it. It is about God calling all of His people to His salvation, to receive the mercy, forgiveness and love from His own hands, through their repentance and coming to Him.

This is the theme of this Sunday’s Scripture passages, that God as the Lord of all the nations and all the peoples are calling us to follow Him, that no matter what race belong to, what background or nationality we have, and no matter whether we are rich or poor, powerful or weak, famous or unknown, all these do not matter at all before the Lord. What matters is that, all of us mankind are considered by God to be His children, His beloved ones, and He wants us all to be reconciled to Him.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard of the interaction between the Lord Jesus and a Canaanite woman, or a Syro-Phoenician woman, as that woman came not from the land of Judea, where the Jewish people live, and neither did she belong to the nation of the Jews, not counted among the direct descendants of Jacob or Israel. And as the woman begged the Lord Jesus to heal her daughter who had been tormented by a demon, it must have seemed very strange indeed that the Lord Jesus would refuse her request.

And even more so, He also seemingly denigrated her and mocked her by saying the words such as, ‘It is not right to take the bread from the children, and throw it to the puppies, or dogs.’ Did Jesus just compare the woman to a mere animal as opposed to a human being? Were we right in what we have just listened to? Was there a mistake in the writing of the Scriptures and the Gospels?

No, brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not the case. In fact, this is where we should take note of the real intention of the Lord as He said those words to the Canaanite woman, in front of His disciples and the people. As the Lord Who knows everything in the minds and in the hearts of His people, Jesus clearly know what it is that the woman believed in, and how she would respond to His words. And Jesus wanted to show His disciples and the people, how foolish it is for them to believe in what they were believing in at that time.

For you see, that the Jewish people at that time believed that they were the ones whom God had chosen just as their ancestors have been God’s chosen people, from the time of Abraham to his descendants, and then to the time of the Exodus from Egypt and finally to the time of the kingdom of Israel and Judah. They were the descendants of the Israelites and the people of Judah, and therefore, they were very proud of their heritage and history.

However, over time they ended up becoming proud and egoistic about their special privileges and status, and they looked down on the other peoples, those pagan peoples living around them, treating them as inferior to themselves, and even as those who are not worthy of the love and grace of God. They considered those people to be hopeless and without any opportunity to be saved by God. They became exclusivist in their faith and closed the doors of the faith from others.

That was why they showed that attitude, the haughtiness and the lack of respect for others, which the Lord Jesus wanted to point out to the people, through His interaction with the Canaanite woman. What Jesus showed the people through His own words was that they often thought that they alone were worthy of God’s goodness and salvation, and that they treated others literally like that of dogs, or less than humans, as Jesus showcased it perfectly through His interaction with the woman.

At that time, for someone of Jewish origin to sit together or be around a Gentile, or a non-Jew was considered to be inappropriate. The Jews did not want to have anything to do with the Gentiles, and rejected them and dismissed the faith that they actually had in the Lord. The Jews were not even allowed to enter into the house of the Gentiles and also to the house of those considered as sinners.

That was why the army centurion, likely to be a Gentile or non-Jew, kindly requested the Lord to just say the word to heal his servant, as he considered himself unworthy to have a Jew like Jesus to enter his house, considered taboo at that time among the Jewish society. And in the same manner, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law criticised Jesus severely when He went to eat in the house of tax collectors and prostitutes.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, yet, those people forgot that God is not just God over the people of Israel, but in fact, He is God over all of mankind, over the entire race of man. He is the Lord and Master of all, and He created all of us out of love, without exception. Otherwise, why would He create us in the first place if He does not love us or have concern about us?

God loves each and every one of us, and wants everyone to love Him with equal intensity and zeal. In fact, as the Gospel showed us, the love and faith which the supposedly pagan and non-Jewish Canaanite woman was greater than the faith which many of the Israelites had shown towards Jesus. While many of the Jews were skeptical and some were even downright hostile in opposition against Jesus, His teachings and His truths, the woman put herself completely in the hands of God, trusting that Jesus would hear her and heal her daughter. This shows that what matters is faith, and not one’s origins or backgrounds.

The same applied to the army centurion, and many other cases of the Gentiles and the pagans who came to love and be faithful towards God, even exceeding beyond what the Jewish people themselves had done. In this manner, God wanted to show them, and also all of us, that He does not favour anyone by the manner of their racial background, by their appearances, status, or by their worldly standings, or by their connections, but rather, by the faith which the people have in Him, and by the righteousness that they have shown in life.

God wants to remind each and every one of us, that we must not be shortsighted in life, that we become prejudiced against others just because we think that we are better than so and so because of our wealth, riches, power, privileges and all the other things that led us to be biased and be prejudiced against our brethren. This is what we must not do, brothers and sisters in Christ, because as Christians all of us are called to love one another equally as fellow brothers and sisters, children of the same God.

This is important as in our world today, as it had been in the past, mankind have caused great grievances and sufferings because of their prejudice and hatred, bias and anger against each other. We have seen how people used race and background as an excuse to oppress others, to impose one’s will on another, and to exploit and manipulate those who are weak, less fortunate and less powerful. We have seen just how the NAZIs and the many other wicked organisations in our history had committed blatant and great injustice against all humanity, in their genocidal pursuits, destroying the livelihood of others in the name of their prejudices.

And we have certainly heard of what had just happened very recently in the city of Charlottesville in the United States of America, where violent riot had arisen because of the actions of those who championed prejudice and injustice in order to advance their own selfish and irresponsible desires. We heard about those who used racism, prejudice and hatred against people of different backgrounds and beliefs, even those who do not shy away from violence while doing so.

And what should we do then, brothers and sisters in Christ? Perhaps the Scripture readings we heard today and the recent events are reminders sent to us by God, in order to tell us that as Christians it is our duty and obligation to stand up against all these attitudes and wickedness, against all those who have shown prejudices, biases and racist or divisive acts in their lives. We cannot be silent or be ignorant against all these people, and we cannot remain quiet in the face of those who cause suffering on others because of their wicked and distorted way of life.

At the same time, we should also inspect our own lives and recall our actions and deeds in life. Have we been prejudiced against others because we thought that we are better than them? Have we ever been angry against others as we saw them receive things we did not have, because we thought they did not deserve it and we deserved it better than them? If we have done all these, then perhaps it is time for us to move on and turn away from all those jealousies, prejudices and hatred, and instead embrace each other in love, peace and harmony.

Let us all from now on be bearers of God’s love into this world, reminding ourselves always that God loves each and every one of us without exception, and all of us are created and considered equal before Him. Let us all not be filled with our ego, our pride and haughtiness, thinking that we are in any way superior to others, but instead let us be loving and be compassionate to others, especially those who are struggling in their faith. Let us stand up to be different from those who advocated hatred and prejudice, and pray for them, that God may change their darkened hearts into new hearts filled with love. May God bless us all and bring us to grow ever stronger in our faith in Him. Amen.

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Saturday, 19 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Eudes, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard of the pact which the people of Israel swore before Joshua, the leader appointed by God to lead Israel, on his deathbed, that they would be faithful to the Lord, their God, and they would reject the worship of the pagan gods and idols. They vowed before God Himself that they and their descendants would continue to worship YHVH, their God, forever and would not turn away from Him.

Yet, as history would have proven, the people of Israel did not keep their promise and broke their vow, which they made before God Himself, as they were tempted by worldly pleasures and false promises, the temptations made by the devil to lure them away from the path of salvation towards the Lord. They turned away from God and instead worshipped the pagan idols, and abandoning His laws, they turned to debauchery and wickedness.

We may be wondering what it is that made them to do all those things, turning away from the goodness of God. They blatantly and openly rebelled against God Who had provided for them all their needs, and Who had defended them from their enemies and gave them fertile lands and riches of the land promised to them. God Himself made a Covenant with them, and promised that prosperity, peace and harmony would be their lot forever.

It was their greed, their human and worldly desires that had led them astray from God. The devil manipulated those wicked desires and the greed in their hearts, the ego that he found there, to turn them away from God, by the sweet lies and false promises of power, worldly glory, fame, influence, wealth and more. They were too engrossed in worldly concerns that led them to fall into sin and into rebellion against God.

Then, we come to the Gospel passage which we heard today, when the Lord Jesus rebuked His disciples who prevented the people who wanted to bring their children to Him. He wanted the children to come to Him, to be with Him and to listen to Him, and He even praised those children and asked that His disciples follow their examples, having the same faith as the children had shown to the Lord.

Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because the faith of a child is pure and genuine, without the taints and corruptions of our human greed and desires, without the corruptions of our ego and emotions. If we have seen a child before, when the child believe in something, he or she will have pure belief in his or her innocence, before he or she is corrupted by the desires of the world, the desire for worldly goods and pleasures.

Thus, in this manner, God is calling all of us to imitate the faith of the children, who came to Jesus to love Him and to seek Him. He called us to love Him unconditionally and wholeheartedly as the children has loved Him, and not burdened by the desires and the temptations of the world. Otherwise, we might end up like the Israelites who were tempted and swayed to abandon the Lord their God because of those temptations.

Perhaps we should also heed the examples of the life of St. John Eudes, a holy priest and servant of God whose feast day we celebrate today. St. John Eudes was a French priest who was renowned for his preaching and works among the people of God, especially among sinners and prostitutes. He helped to establish the religious congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Refuge to provide for those prostitutes and sinners who desired to be reconciled with God.

In addition, he also established another religious congregation, the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, which would be named after him, as the Eudists, who helped to build up the formation of faith amongst the priests and the seminarians, and through which works, he encouraged the strong devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, together with contemporaries such as St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.

The devotion which those holy saints had to the Lord and His blessed mother Mary should be an inspiration to all of us, that we should also show the same kind of devotion and love, that in all the things we say and do, we will always seek to love God and devote ourselves to Him, rejecting the temptations of worldly power, wealth, fame, glory and all the other things that Satan has placed on our path towards God to make us fall down and falter.

Let us all therefore commit ourselves anew to Him, and seek to love Him with greater zeal and devotion from now on, and let our love be like that of the love which the faithful children have given to the Lord Jesus, that we too may be worthy to be called, the children of God. May God be with us all, always, and may St. John Eudes and the holy saints of God intercede for us always. Amen.

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Friday, 18 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the Lord reminds us through the Scripture passages we heard, of the love that God had shown to His people throughout the time when He showed forth His might to care for them and their ancestors, freeing them from the Egyptians, and in how He led them through the desert towards the lands promised to them, destroying their enemies before them and guarding them with love.

Through Joshua, His servant, God reminded His people of His love, and all that He had done for them. He reminded them of the Covenant which He had created with them and their ancestors. Yet, as we know throughout the time of the Exodus people of God had not always been faithful to Him, and have been wayward in multiple occasions, worshipping pagan gods and idols, and disobedient against God. They have indulged in worldly pleasures and forgotten His laws and commandments.

They have hardened their hearts against Him, and refused to listen to Him, preferring to follow their own paths rather than to walk in the path shown to them by God, including in the matter of marriage and family. Ever since the beginning of time, when God first created man, He had created them man and woman, and decreed that man should join with woman, and become therefore united and blessed in a union blessed by God.

But the Israelites could not resist the temptations of worldly pleasures and the flesh, and they succumbed to their desires. That was why they committed acts of adultery and wickedness, of sexual impropriety and aberrations, disregarding the sanctity of the holy marriage in which their families have been bound in and blessed by God. As a result, they have sinned against God, and God wanted to remind them through Joshua what He had done for them, and thus want them to live in accordance with His will, to be righteous and upright in their actions and deeds.

How is this relevant to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? In our world today we are inundated with the temptations of pleasures and worldly allures through which we are swayed and pressured to abandon our faith in God, and instead indulging in the desires of our flesh and bodies. We live at a time when the sanctity of marriage is no longer respected or preserved. And many among us Christians have lost our faith in God and fell into the corruption of sin and worldliness.

All of us are called as Christians to stand up for our faith, and for all that we believe in, including the need to live righteously in accordance with the laws of God. When the world demands that we conform to its ways and customs, we must be ready and willing to be different, to be beacons of light to those who are living in the darkness, so that by our actions and deeds, we will be able to lead others onto the path towards God’s salvation.

And today, we have also heard in the Gospel, that God called some among us to be chosen by Him, to be His servants, abandoning the prospects of marriage, as they chose to follow the Lord and become His priests, the members of the holy order of priests and bishops, all those who have dedicated themselves wholeheartedly to serve the Lord and His people. Their challenges are even greater than ours, the trials and temptations are even more difficult to endure than ours.

Yet, they are the ones whom God had called to be the ones through whom He would work His wonders among His people. They are the ones who have been called and chosen, and while the pains, sorrows and difficulties are aplenty, but their works and labours lay the foundation for the salvation of many souls. Without the hard work and the sacrifices made by our priests, by all those who have dedicated themselves to service to God, there would have been many more souls lost to the damnation in hell.

Let us all therefore pray for our priests, that the Lord will keep them holy and devoted to their missions, and then for we ourselves, we also have the need to live an upright and righteous life, committed to obey the Lord and His will. It is by our working together and commitment to help the good works together as one Church of God, that we will be drawing closer to the Lord, and therefore be worthy of the grace and the blessings which He will bestow on all those who are faithful to Him.

May God bless us all, and may He empower each and every one of us to live in accordance with His will, reminding all of us of the time when He has blessed us generously in this life, and how He has loved us and showed us His mercy and compassion whenever we have fallen into sin and disgrace, that by His persistence, He has endeavoured to make us to turn away from our sins, and to repent from our wickedness, that we may eventually be reunited with Him, to enjoy forever the eternal joy in His presence. Amen.

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Thursday, 17 August 2017 : 19th 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 speaking to us, in the Gospel passage today, about the parable of the servant who was forgiven his debts and yet refused to forgive others their debts to him. This is a reminder for all of us Christians that we must be ever generous and rich with mercy, forgiveness and compassion in all of our actions, in how we interact and relate with one another in our daily lives.

God is ever merciful, and in the Gospel passage today, the Lord Jesus compared Him with the lord of the servants, who forgave his servant who owed him a great debt, when the servant begged to be forgiven and given more time to pay off his debts. The lord had pity on his servant despite the debt being one that was substantial in size, and erased the entirety of the debt from him.

That was what the Lord had done with His people Israel, whose story we listened to in our first reading taken from the Book of Joshua. The people of Israel, led by Joshua, finally reached the Promised Land and crossed through the River Jordan to enter into the land promised to them and to their ancestors. But they did not reach that stage in their journey without much pain and suffering, as the disobedience of their parents' generation had led to the forty years journey through the desert, as the people of God received a just punishment for their lack of faith in God.

Yet, God still loved them and cared for them, or otherwise He could just have destroyed them without mercy, as He created all of them, and just as easily as He had made them, He could have also unmade them and destroyed them with the mere thoughts of His will. That was not however what the Lord had chosen to do with Israel, and certainly not what He had also chosen to do with all of us mankind, all of us sinners who have disobeyed Him from the time when Adam and Eve first sinned against God.

For all of us are like the servant whose debts had been forgiven by the master and lord of the servant. We have sinned against God, and sin is the debt which all of us have owed the Lord our God. With the debts of sin which we have, we have been sundered from the grace of God and made unworthy, and those debts of sin demanded our payment, and the punishment of the debt of sin is death. But God is merciful and loving towards us, forgiving us our sins through none other than by the loving sacrifice of Jesus our Lord on the cross.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if God has forgiven us so great as sins as what we have committed before Him, just as the lord of the servant who have erased the huge debt of the wicked servant, then all of us should also forgive the same debt which others owe unto us. We must not walk in the footsteps of the wicked servant, who had been forgiven from his huge debts but refused to forgive another who owed him a much smaller debt.

Brethren, I invite each and every one of us to look deep into our hearts and remember in our minds, of each of the moments and times when we were angry at others around us, at our fellow brothers or sisters, when we fail to forgive each other, because of the grudges that we keep in our hearts and the hatred that we preserve in our minds. We easily become angry at each other and hate our brethren over simple and trivial matters, over worldly possessions and goods.

This is why many of us Christians cannot move forward in our journey of faith, simply because we are like the wicked servant who cannot learn to forgive and to let go the slights and the inconveniences which others have caused us. We have not followed the examples of the Lord Who have forgiven us our many trespasses and faults, and therefore, we end up failing in our faith life like that of the wicked servant.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, so what is it that we need to do in order to overcome this issue? All of us need to learn to forgive just as the Lord had forgiven us, and learn to show mercy and compassion as the Lord had first shown us His mercy and compassion. We have to mean it when we pray the Lord's Prayer, as we say the words, 'Forgive us our trespasses just as we forgive those who trespassed against us.'

Therefore, brethren, let us all draw closer to the Lord and imitate ever more closely His love and mercy in our words, actions and deeds, so that in everything we say and do, we will always do what the Lord had taught us to do, and be true Christians in all things. May the Lord bless us all in our endeavours and bring us to righteousness and eternal glory with Him. Amen.