Weekday Homily

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Monday, 14 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Callixtus I, Pope and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all heard from the readings of the Sacred Scriptures, we are called to heed the words of the Lord calling on each and every one of us to put our faith and trust in the Lord, keeping ourselves away from the temptations of worldly desires and pleasures, all of which had kept us away from truly being able to follow the Lord faithfully and wholeheartedly. We should always strive to resist those temptations, pressures and coercions, all the things that have often become difficult and challenging stumbling blocks for many of us because they had played upon our desires and ambitions, touching upon the greed and ego in us, and threatening to keep us away from the Lord and His salvation, if we are not vigilant against them.

In our first reading today, we heard from the beginning of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Ephesus, one of the great cities of Antiquity and an important early centre of Christian missions and evangelisation. There in that Epistle, St. Paul spoke of the story of Abraham and his two sons, which were born to him through two different women to highlight what he wanted to convey to them regarding the Christian faith which they had received and come to believe in. First was Ishmael, the son born to Abraham through Hagar, the slave owned by his wife, Sarah, which according to the rules and customs of his time, any children born to the slave of a woman, was considered to belong to the woman and was legally a son of Abraham. Then there was also Isaac, born from Sarah herself, who was at the time was already very old and long past childbearing age.

This story from the Book of Genesis highlighted to us the importance of trusting in God and obeying His will and commandments, and not to believe or trust in worldly ways and methods. It was Sarah who suggested to Abraham that he should lay with her slave Hagar, that she would bear a son for him, despite the Lord having assured and then repeatedly reassured Abraham that he would be the father and progenitor of many nations and people through his wife Sarah. The impatience of Sarah and the lack of faith that happened at the time eventually led to the complications that came about because of the presence of both Ishmael and Isaac, both according to rules and customs, were legally sons and heirs of Abraham. Nonetheless, God told Abraham that He would still bless Ishmael as he was Abraham’s son, but reiterated that His blessings and grace would fully be with Isaac and his descendants, the ones whom God had intended them for.

St. Paul spoke of how the sons and descendants of Ishmael were born out of slavery and hence were bound to the enslavement and were not free, while the sons and descendants of Isaac were born of their free woman, Sarah, and thus was not subject to enslavement anymore, and they were truly free. St. Paul was in fact not comparing about the status of whether the descendants of Ishmael or Isaac were free or enslaved, as the Israelites, the descendants of Isaac, were themselves enslaved in Egypt for some period of time. Rather, the Apostle was using the comparison to highlight, as mentioned, the difference between obeying the old, human-based and flawed laws and rules, customs and practices of the Jewish people as especially carried out and enforced by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, associated with this ‘enslavement’ to the worldly rules and ways, versus the true Law of God as revealed to them and all of us through Christ and His Church.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist in which the Lord spoke to all the people and all those gathered including His disciples, many of whom were asking for Him to show them a sign, and how He told them that they had seen many things and wonders, which they themselves had witnessed all throughout the Lord’s journeys and ministry, and yet they did not believe. He was rebuking them for their lack of faith and trust in God, and in the One Whom God had sent into their midst, Christ Himself, Who has shown the fulfilment of everything that the Lord has promised and proclaimed through His many prophets. Those who failed to believe likely belonged to the group of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who saw and considered themselves to be spiritually superior and better because of their adherence and obedience to God through their interpretation of the Law.

The Lord also spoke of how the only sign that they would see would be the sign of Jonah, which was in fact a veiled revelation of what He would Himself face at the time of His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross, and also His Resurrection from the dead. This is because of the prophet Jonah having been swallowed by a great whale and stayed in the belly of that whale for three days before he was then cast back out to the land. This was a prefigurement of the Lord’s suffering and death, as He Himself would spend a period of three days in the ‘belly’ of the earth after His death, being buried in the tomb, and then on the third day rose in glory, triumphant against all the powers of sin, evil and darkness, as a great Sign for all of us.

All these again pointed out to us the need to distance ourselves from the many temptations often present in our lives and around us, for us to be truly faithful and committed to God, trusting in Him and obeying His words instead of trusting and putting our faith in our own flawed judgments and abilities alone. We must always live our lives and carry out our daily actions and living in tandem with God’s guidance and providence, allowing Him to help and lead us all down the righteous and correct path, away from the path of darkness and sin, all of which can bring us to our downfall and destruction. We should always trust in God to help us to discern the right path, and we must always strive to move forward in life with the help and guidance of God at all times.

Today the Church also celebrates the Feast of Pope St. Callixtus I, one of the early Church and fathers and as Pope, was one of the successors of St. Peter the Apostle as the leader of the whole Universal Church. His examples and faith should serve as good example and inspiration for all of us to follow in our own lives, doing whatever we can so that we may truly follow the Lord faithfully and wholeheartedly and do not end up following the false path in life. Pope St. Callixtus I according to tradition was once a slave in his youth during the height of the power of the Roman Empire, and he had a rather difficult life working in the Sardinian mines before he was released and afterwards came to the service of the Church as a deacon ordained by Pope St. Zephyrinus.

Pope St. Zephyrinus was then succeeded by Pope St. Callixtus I himself, who reached out to all those who have come from various sects and schismatic Christian bodies, and also allowed the absolution of more serious sins such as murder for those who were genuinely repentant and regretful over their sins and mistakes. This was opposed by a group of the faithful and the clergy who disagreed with the Pope’s approach, preferring a strict exclusion of those who were deemed to be unworthy of God’s salvation because of their sinful ways and them having fallen into the path of sin. Those people elected a popular priest, later known and venerated as St. Hippolytus of Rome, as an Antipope or rival Pope to Pope St. Callixtus I. But regardless of this division and difficulties faced by the faithful, Pope St. Callixtus I continued to labour hard for the people of God, until he himself was arrested and martyred during the severe persecution of Christians, and eventually his successor, Pope St. Pontian managed to be reconciled with St. Hippolytus and returned unity back to the Church.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, as we have listened from the examples of Pope St. Callixtus I, and inspired by the examples and lives of the other holy saints, holy men and women of God, let us all continue to put our faith and trust in the Lord rather than in the human wisdom and intellect, or be enslaved and be narrow-minded because of our attachments to the rules, regulations and customs of the world. May the Lord continue to help and guide us in our journey of faith, so that in everything that we do in each and every moments of our lives, we will continue to commit ourselves wholly and focus our every attention and efforts to walk in God’s path rather than to follow the whim of our own desires and ambitions in life. Let us all not harden our hearts and minds, and turn away from the darkness of this world, and instead, embrace wholeheartedly God’s path and ways, following in the examples of our holy predecessors, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 13 October 2024 : Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded constantly as we have always been on the virtue of entrusting ourselves to the Wisdom of God and to follow Him in all things and in all circumstances in our lives so that we may not end up falling away from the path towards righteousness and justification in Him. All of us should continue to entrust ourselves to the Lord and walk ever more faithfully in His Presence and being guided with Him, and we should not easily be tempted by all sorts of worldly temptations and evils all around us, so that by our dedication and commitment to God, the Lord will make us worthy and truly blessed and strengthened by His love and wisdom, blessed by the grace of His compassionate care and attention to us.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of Wisdom, also known as the Wisdom of Solomon, which is a compilation on the many works regarding the central theme of Wisdom, especially referring to the Wisdom of God, the Divine Wisdom which has come to dwell in our midst and which had come upon us to bestow upon us the virtues and the guidance for all of us to follow in our journey throughout our lives. The author of the Book of Wisdom spoke of the Wisdom of God and how this Wisdom is far greater than anything of value in this world, and how incomparable God’s Wisdom and ways are compared to whatever good and wonderful things this world can offer us, and how we ought to seek this Wisdom above all else so that we may be able to find our way in this journey we all have towards the Lord, our God and Saviour.

Then in our second reading, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews we heard of the reminder from the author of this Epistle to all of us about the power of the Word of God, that had come from God Himself and coming upon all the whole people of God, penetrating through all things and having power and dominion over all. It is a reminder to us of the great power and infinite nature of the Wisdom of God that transcended over all other things, and how mighty the Lord is compared to our own human limitations and shortcomings. We are reminded that we must always have faith and trust in the Lord, and we must continue to obey His Law and commandments, doing whatever we can to listen to His words and walk in His path rather than following the whim of our own desires.

Our Gospel passage this Sunday then reminds us all about the matter of how we ought to follow the Lord and commit ourselves to His cause, to resist the temptations of worldly pleasures and glory, and all the things which often separated us from the love and grace of God. All of us have often faced the difficult choice between truly embracing God and His ways genuinely against following the trends and whim of this world, and we are reminded that as Christians, we have to do our part in living lives that are truly holy and worthy of God, distancing ourselves from all the temptations and attachments found all around us in this world which can easily distract and lead us away from the path towards God and His salvation. We should not allow all of those things to be stumbling blocks keeping us away from God.

In that same passage we heard how a rich man came to the Lord asking how he could gain access into the kingdom of God after he had obeyed all the Law, the commandments, precepts and rules of that Law according to how the people of God lived them at the time, which was responded by the Lord with the call for him to sell everything that he had and then follow the Lord wholeheartedly, which was then met with a sad disappointment and a kind of tacit disagreement from the rich man, who then left the Lord in sorrow, as he was a man of truly great wealth, and it was likely that he could not bear to be parted from all of his great amount of wealth and possessions, and he could not commit himself in the manner that the Lord had told him to do.

When we read this Gospel passage and account of this event, we must understand that the Lord was not against the rich and all those who have great wealth, as wealth and possessions themselves are not inherently evil and wicked. Those things can indeed be used for great and noble uses and causes, and many people who were rich had been great philantrophists, generous donors and patrons of many organisations and causes that had helped many people who were poor, less privileged and suffering in all parts of the world throughout all history. What the Lord was in fact reminding and warning us against is our own desires and attachments for those worldly wealth, matter and possessions, which can blind us to the true path that He has shown us.

Many of our predecessors had been undone by their inability to resist the temptations of those worldly attachments and desires, which had led them into the slippery slope and downfall into sin and darkness. Their great wealth and possessions, and their insatiable desire and attachments to those things were exactly the obstacles and barriers preventing them from coming closer towards the Lord and His salvation. They put their faith and trust more in what they possess, in all the worldly wealth and glory that they had, rather than trusting in the Wisdom of God, and in this, echoing what we had earlier in the other parts of the Scriptures today, we are hence reminded to stay away from those temptations and resist those desires so that we will not end up falling ever deeper into the wrong path in life.

May the Lord, our ever loving and merciful God continue to help and guide us all through His infinite Wisdom, giving us the strength and courage to live our lives henceforth with great commitment and fidelity, focusing ever always on His truth and Good News, His teachings, love and Wisdom, and distancing ourselves from all the temptations and worldly pleasures, all the desires and ambitions that can easily lead us into our downfall. May God be with us all, in all of our journey through this life, that through His Wisdom, we may draw ever closer to Him and His grace. Amen.

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Saturday, 12 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the constant need for each and every one of us to remember that we are all God’s people, all equally beloved and precious before Him and in His eyes. None of us can claim that we are better or more preferred simply because of our background, our circumstances, or by whatever other parameters that we usually tend to divide or categorise ourselves into. When we are called to follow Him as Christians, to be God’s beloved and holy people, each and every one of us are called to reflect His light and truth, and whatever He had taught us in our lives, so that our every words, actions and deeds truly show that we are His holy and blessed people.

In our first reading today, we heard from the continuation of this week’s discourse and passage from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful people of God in Galatia in what is now part of modern day Turkey, where the Apostle continued to elaborate about the matter of obeying the old and outdated ways of the Law of Moses, of the manner how those laws, commandments and rules, rituals and regulations were observed and enforced by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, those who were considered as the religious and intellectual elites of the community in charge of the maintenance and enforcement of the Law of God. Those people were also rather rigid and inflexible in their understanding and application of the Law of God, enforcing them very strictly and harshly, forcing the faithful people of God to follow all of the numerous rules, regulations and precepts.

And in their pride, ego, ambition and greed they had ended up misusing the Law of God to serve their own selfish interests, desires and ambitions. They sought to be praised and acclaimed because of their great piety and supposed obedience and adherence to the fullness of the Law of God, and they judged others who did not follow or obey the Law of God in the manner that they had done it. It is this boundary and limits which man had established which St. Paul was quite adamantly against, and for which he had criticised those who still continued to insist that everyone ought to follow and obey those man-made boundaries and obligations that were not truly in accordance with God’s will and what He desired from His people.

Then, in our short Gospel passage today from the Gospel of St. Luke, the words of the Lord to His disciples and all the people who were listening to Him were very clear indeed in their intention and meaning. The Lord wanted to tell each and every one of us that what He wants from us is obedience to the will of God and for all of us to do what God has taught us through His Son, the Lord Jesus Himself, and everything that He has brought unto us in this world today. It is not by association or connection to Him that one would be blessed or favoured by God, as He pointed it out Himself that just because someone belongs to the relatives or family of the Lord, but it did not mean that they would be favoured solely by that connection.

This was unlike what was common in the world at that time, where people usually favoured those who were connected and of the same family or group as themselves. This same attitude is also shown by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law mentioned earlier as they commonly favoured those who were in their own group and shared the same thoughts and beliefs as they were, and they despised and were judgmental against all those whom they disagreed or differed in views with. That was why despite the Lord having performed many of His good and wonderful works before their own eyes and spoke of His great wisdom and teachings before them, they would not believe and continued to reject the truth and the revelations of the Lord’s Good News, despite the irrefutable truth it has brought them.

This kind of favouritism and bias exist even right up to this day, and is something that all of us as Christians are reminded to be ever vigilant against. As Christians, we must not allow ourselves to be easily swayed and tempted by the various worldly temptations, distractions and pressures all around us, and not to be easily persuaded by false directions and falsehoods in our midst. The Lord showed us all that to be truly faithful to Him we have to be ready and willing to listen to Him, embracing His truth and love, doing whatever we can so that by our commitment to Him, we will continue to live our lives worthily and doing whatever we can to glorify Him by our every words, actions and deeds throughout each and every moments of our lives, which we should always offer to God and strive to proclaim His truth and love to all.

And as the Lord mentioned all that before His disciples, lest we may think that He was being disrespectful to His family members and relatives, particularly to His mother, Mary, we must realise that He was in fact praising His own mother’s great examples and her being a great role model and inspiration for each and every one of us to follow in our own lives as Christians. Mary through her life and dedication to God has always lived her life with full of commitment and love for God, and being in a state full of grace, she obeyed the Lord perfectly and completely, following Him and His commandments, doing His will and living the life of the exemplary and model Christian by her complete obedience and trust in God, which we all should follow as well. The Lord has pointed the path to Himself through His mother, and we all should follow this path.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore ponder carefully how we are to continue living our lives from now on, doing our best so that we may continue to glorify the Lord by our lives and by doing His will, and to remain humble at all times. And as the examples of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law ought to have reminded us, we should not allow ourselves to be swayed by the temptations of worldly glory and ambitions, or by our pride and ego so that we will not end up falling ever deeper into the path of sin towards destruction and damnation. Let us all instead follow the Lord’s call and through the help of His loving Mother Mary and His many saints, holy men and women, our wonderful holy predecessors, we may continue to progress well in our journey towards Him. Amen.

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Friday, 11 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures we have received, we are all reminded that as Christians, as God’s holy and chosen people, we have been called and entrusted with His grace and blessings, the assurance of His love and salvation that He has provided to everyone regardless of their background and origins, reaching out to every one of us, children of mankind, showing His ever patient love and kindness, His desire to be reunited and reconciled with us, His wayward children scattered throughout the world. No one can truly separate us from the love of God unless it is we ourselves who willingly distance ourselves from Him and keep rejecting His ever generous offer of love and kindness.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful people of God in Galatia in which the Apostle exhorted the people of God there to believe truly and wholeheartedly in God and not be confined by the bounds of the Law, which was in fact referring to the Law of God that has been revealed to Moses and passed to the Israelites many centuries earlier.  St. Paul wanted to tell the people of God that the Law as practiced and observed at his time did not bind anymore as it has been made complete and the fullness of its purpose, reality and meaning had been revealed to us through God’s Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Who had taught us what the Law has truly been intended for, that is to teach us all how to love and how to direct ourselves back towards the Lord, our ever loving God.

For the context, this reference to the Law and its observances at the time was meant to refer to the way and manner how the Jewish authorities and influential elites, such as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in particular enforced the Law of God and how they all interpreted these laws, rules and commandments of the Lord. They usually took a very literal, legalistic and strict interpretation of the Law, without fully understanding the context and purpose of those laws and rules in the first place, or why Moses made them in that manner. Not only that, but even worse still, those laws ended up dividing the people and making many of those same Pharisees and teachers of the Law to feel superior and better than the others, proud and judgmental, thinking that they were more worthy of God and His salvation.

And linking to what we have just discussed about the Law as mentioned by St. Paul in our first reading today, it was a reference to how the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law having demanded the people to follow them in the manner how they practiced and lived the Law, containing no less than six hundred and thirteen rules and precepts, many of which were additions, interpretations and expansions accumulated throughout the many centuries that the Law had been passed down and interpreted, then re-interpreted again and again by different people, with different agenda and understanding of the purpose and meaning of the Law of God, that they ended up forgetting why the Law of God was given to the people in the first place by the Lord. What was meant to help bring the people towards the Lord ended up being exclusive, to the point that the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law alleged that those who did not obey the whole Law in the manner they did, would not be saved, a fact which St. Paul was critical against.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the reading from the Gospel of St. Luke in which the Lord Jesus was accused by some among the people, likely to be Pharisees and teachers of the Law according to the similar account in the other Gospels, that He had performed His miracles and signs, works and wonders by the collusion and collaboration with the prince of demons, Beelzebul. They accused Him of having committed this as well as blaspheming against God in His words, teachings and miracle works. And the Lord patiently responded to all of them, pointing out the folly of their accusation and arguments, which did not make sense at all, as on the contrary to their claims, the devil and all of his fellow forces of darkness, evil and wickedness, all of them are always united in their efforts to strike at us.

The Lord pointed out that if the evil ones were divided against one another and attacked each other, then they would have quickly faltered and failed in their efforts to attack us, as they would have warred with each other instead of focusing their efforts and works against us. That was why to suggest that the devil and the other princes of demons would go and compete with each other, colluding with the Lord was truly nonsense, and all those allegations and accusations came about because the jealousy that they were having against the Lord, seeing how there were so many of the people who flocked to Him and listened to Him instead of following and praising the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law as they had usually done. In fact, the devil and his forces were busy there at work precisely to divide and confuse the people of God by all those baseless attacks and accusations.

It is a reminder for all of us as Christians not to be easily swayed by these worldly temptations and all the distractions present all around us which can easily sway and distract us from the true path towards God. We must always be vigilant lest the devil and all those who desire our destruction and damnation are striking at us whenever we are at our most vulnerable, and when we are divided one against another, when we are lacking compassion and love for our fellow brothers and sisters around us. We must always keep strong in our faith and help one another to remain committed as well to the Lord, doing whatever we can so that we may be ever stronger in our love and relationship with the Lord, and that we may truly understand His Law, His commandments and come to know His will, and not be distracted and swayed by our pride, but continue to remain humble and dedicated to Him instead, at all times.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of a great recent saint and man of God, one of the recent successors of St. Peter the Apostle as the Pope and the Vicar of Christ, the leader of the whole Universal Church. Pope St. John XXIII, born as Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was a figure of great importance in the recent history of the Church and Christianity in general especially for his initiatives and decisions in bringing the Church into discussion and reorientation of its role and works in the context of the modern world through the Second Vatican Council that happened about six decades ago. However, many of us might not know that Pope St. John XXIII’s life and exemplary deeds are more than just what is commonly known about him, and we should delve somewhat deeper into these details that we ourselves may be inspired to follow the Lord in the manner that he had done throughout his life.

The young Angelo Roncalli was born to a poor family and he had the help of his uncle who helped to finance his early education, which eventually led to him joining the seminary and felt the calling to follow the Lord and to be a priest. Then later on, after he had been ordained a priest, he experienced a period of encounter as his mentor, Bishop Radini Tedeschi, was confronted by the workers who were striking in demanding their rights and the protection of their beings against those who exploited them. The bishop helped his flock and showed his care for them, standing by the side of those workers and other people who were poor and suffering, and this experience helped to shape the opinions, experiences of the future Pope St. John XXIII.

He was involved in the Great War, later known as the First World War, as a military chaplain, and then the Pope, who has come to know of the qualities and efforts of this young priest, appointed him to be the Apostolic Delegate to Bulgaria, ordaining him as a bishop. During his time in Bulgaria, then Archbishop Roncalli was involved in many good works and outreach especially towards the separated brethren from among the Eastern Orthodox churches and others. He helped to bridge through the divisions that had divided the different Christian churches for centuries, and by the time he left for the next post as Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and Greece, many people were appreciative of his efforts and loved him. In his next post, he would continue to do many great works, including saving Jews who were trying to escape from the Holocaust and genocide attempted by the NAZI regime in Germany throughout Europe.

In his contribution afterwards as the Apostolic Nuncio to France, Archbishop Roncalli also helped to do a similar effort in bridging the gap between the mostly secular French state and the Church, gaining much goodwill and progress in redefining the relationship between the state and the Church, and as Patriarch of Venice afterwards, Patriarch Roncalli continued to do his best in reaching out to more and more people, as a truly good and loving shepherd to his flock, and continued to do so even after he was elected as the Pope, the Successor of St. Peter the Apostle as the Vicar of Christ. He helped to reform the Church and as mentioned, convoked the Second Vatican Council, to bring the Church into the modern era and to help the process of dialogue with the various people and communities in the world, for greater efforts of evangelisation and reconciliation among Christian believers. He was also known for his peacemaking efforts during the Cold War, culminating in his Papal Encyclical, ‘Pacem in Terris’, released at the time of great tensions between the superpowers in the Cold War.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard ourselves from the summary of the life and examples shown to us by the great and faithful Pope St. John XXIII, let us all live our lives henceforth as faithful and genuine Christians, showing true love, care and concern for our fellow brothers and sisters just as Pope St. John XXIII had done. Let us all truly understand the true meaning and purpose of God’s Law, that is the Law of love, so that we may truly learn to love the Lord our God, and also our fellow brothers and sisters, with all of our hearts, with all of our strength and might, at all times and in all circumstances in our every day lives. May the Lord, our most loving God and Father, through the examples of His holy saints like Pope St. John XXIII and many others continue to inspire us to live our lives ever more worthily in His Holy Presence from now on. Amen.

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Thursday, 10 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the love of God that has been presented and made manifest to us through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Each and every one of us as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people have all received the assurance of the Lord for His kindness, compassion and generosity. Each and every one of us as God’s beloved people have the privilege of being called as God’s own beloved children, as those whom He has chosen to be His own and to receive the wonders of His blessings and graces. We should be thankful and appreciative of everything that we had been blessed with by the Lord and strive to live our lives worthily of Him, while asking Him for help and guidance whenever we have need of them.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in Galatia in part of what is now present day Turkey where the Apostle continued to speak to the people regarding the matters of how they ought to be truly be faithful and obedient to God, not by following the false leads and guidance from those who did not follow the Lord in the right manner, referring indirectly to the ways, beliefs and practices of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who often enforced a very rigid and legalistic way of observing and practicing the Law of God. But those people spent a lot of time, focus and emphasis on how the details and the various fine procedures on how the Law was to be practiced, yet, they failed to truly understand and appreciate the true meaning, intention and purpose of the Law.

Therefore, St. Paul was reminding the people of God that to be truly faithful to the Lord, they must always remember to truly understand the Lord’s Law, commandments, His will and teaching, the spirit of the Law rather than just the letter of the Law. Many of the people like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law focused so much on the letter of the Law, on external appearances and details that they had neglected what was truly important in following God, that is obedience and the willingness to listen to the Lord, Who has shown them the way and revealed to them the truth through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But those people refused to believe in the truth and persisted in their erroneous and incorrect ways because they were too full of pride and ego, ambition and desires in life, that they could not detach themselves from those temptations and fell ever deeper into the path of disobedience against God.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Luke in which the Lord told His disciples about how people will help another or a friend when this friend or someone has a need, and if the person seeks for help. Using that same analogy, the Lord therefore highlighted just how much more God will also help all those who seek His help, confide in His Presence and love, and entrust themselves to His care. God Who is our loving Father and Creator, our Lord and Master will not abandon us to the darkness, or ignore our cries and pleas for help. As long as we come to Him and open our hearts and minds to listen to Him, calling upon Him as our loving Father, He will respond to us and answer our pleas. While what we receive may not be what we desired and wanted, but God will respond to us in the manner according to His will.

This is why we must heed the message of this Gospel today, which was meant to remind us all not to easily lose faith and trust in the Lord, something which had happened to so many people all around the world. Many people no longer have truly genuine faith and trust in the Lord, and they did not live their lives with the Lord at the centre of their lives and existence anymore. Many of them even no longer regularly participate in the proper and genuine living and practice of their Christian faith, as we can easily count how many people still actually attend the weekly Sunday Masses and other practices and devotions of our faith, while so many others have simply stopped practicing their faith, and instead they put their efforts, commitment and trust in various other worldly means and methods, thinking that those things are better than God or what God can give them.

As Christians, each and every one of us are reminded to continue to have true and genuine faith in the Lord, and to be obedient and humble before Him, making ourselves to be truly attuned to God’s will, to what He wants us to do in each and every moments of our lives. All of us are invited to reorientate and refocus our lives once again upon the Lord if we have allowed ourselves to be swayed away from His path and grace. We should always keep in mind that how we live our lives is truly important because ultimately each and every one of us as disciples and children of God are seen by everyone around us and we may either lead others closer or further away from the Lord through our lives, our actions, words, deeds and interactions with one another.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore do our best in our everyday life and at each and every moments and opportunities provided to us so that we may continue to be good role models and inspiration for everyone around us and that our lives and actions may truly reflect who we are as Christians, as God’s holy and worthy people, those whom He had called and chosen to be His own. Let us all continue to devote our time, effort and attention to do what God has asked us to do, and at the same time, we ourselves should continue to deepen our relationship with God, to get to know Him better and to be more prayerful in our lives. Let every moment of our lives be attuned closely to God by our efforts to constantly communicate with the Lord our God, so that we may truly know what He wants us to do, and how we should go forward and reach Him.

May the Lord, our ever loving God and compassionate Master continue to love us all most generously, and may He continue to strengthen and empower us all in our respective journey in life. May He bless our every works, efforts and endeavours, our every good attempts and all the things we say and do, in our interactions with one another, so that through these exemplary and inspirational deeds, we may lead ever more and more people towards the Lord and His salvation. May we grow ever more faithful and courageous in proclaiming the Good News of God in all of every moments of our lives, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 9 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people, each and every one of us are parts of the one Church of God and we all share together the mission of the Lord in reaching out to more and more people all throughout the whole world. All of us should continue to follow the Lord’s calling and embrace whatever missions that He had entrusted to us. Each one of us have the shared responsibility to proclaim the Gospel, the Good News of God to more and more people so that they may come to know of the Lord and that they may be inspired to follow Him and be saved together with all of us. All of us are called to continue remembering what the Lord has taught us and to follow Him in all of that. 

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in Galatia in what is now part of Turkey, we heard of the continuation of the story which the Apostle had told to the people of Galatia regarding his past experiences and journeys, on how he was sent to proclaim the Word of God to the people of various places together with other Apostles and disciples like that of St. Barnabas, and how he had various encounters and experiences with all those people whom he had met. He also recounted his experiences in meeting the other Apostles of the Lord in Jerusalem and Judea where many of them were based in, and how there were tensions within the early Church and Christian community because of the disagreements among those who sided with the view of St. Paul and the majority of the disciples and those who came from the strict Jewish background on the matter of whether the Jews and non-Jewish people among the faithful should mingle together or not.

Those who came from the strict Jewish background such as from among the members of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law held very exclusivist view of the faith, and demanded that the Jewish customs and practices ought to be followed. On the other hand, St. Paul the Apostle championed the view that in order to reach out to the Gentiles or the non-Jewish people, the Church could not demand such unreasonable things from the non-Jewish people and in fact the faithful as a whole because the extent in which the Law of God was observed and practiced by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were very excessive, superfluous and extremely demanding, especially for the non-Jewish people to adapt, and hence St. Paul lightly rebuked St. Peter who was afraid offending those converts from the Jewish people and hence appeared to follow their ways.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke in which the Lord told His disciples how to pray when they asked Him about it, and He taught them to pray the prayer we all well know as the Lord’s Prayer or the Pater Noster. Through this prayer, the Lord wanted to remind His disciples and hence all of us to continue to remain connected and attuned to the Lord, by constantly communicating with Him through prayers and other means, and growing ever stronger in our love and devotion to God. How we pray is also important, as the Lord has also criticised the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law for having made long prayers and saying litany of self-praise and glorification, and yet, they did not truly focus their attention and hearts towards the Lord.

This is why, as we all listened to these words from the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all reminded that we should always put our faith in the Lord as the focus and emphasis of our lives, and we must be careful that we do not allow ourselves to be misguided by our pride, ego, desires and ambitions around us which may lead us into our downfall and destruction. We should not easily be tempted to follow our own ideals and ideologies, but learning instead to trust in the Lord and in everything that He has taught, provided and revealed to us. We should continue to grow in our relationship and connection to God, spending good and quality time with Him, listening to Him speaking in the depth of our hearts, our minds and our beings, humbly obeying Him and His will.

Today, the Church also celebrate the Feast of great and holy men and women, holy saints and people dedicated to God whose lives and actions can be inspiration for each and every one of us to follow in how we ourselves ought to live our lives with faith and devotion to God. First of all is St. Denis, Bishop of Paris and his companions in martyrdom during the late Roman Empire. At that time, Christians throughout the Empire were under intense persecutions from the state during the reign of the Roman Emperors who were often violent in their attempt to destroy the Church and eradicate Christianity. St. Denis was the Bishop of Parisiorum, what is now Paris, the capital of France. He faithfully and courageously ministered to the faithful during those difficult moments, during the harshest persecutions.

Eventually, the persecutions under the Roman Emperor Decius and his successors caused many of the local Christians to be martyred and lost their lives. The authorities also arrested St. Denis and his companions in martyrdom, and after a long period in incarceration in prison, he and the other Christians were eventually led to the highest hill in Paris, a place now called Montmartre, which literally meant ‘Mountain of Martyrs’ in memory of their courageous defence of their faith and martyrdom. It was told that after he was beheaded, St. Denis did not die immediately and miraculously he continued on preaching, taking up his beheaded head and walking from the place of his martyrdom to the place where now stands the Basilica of St. Denis, the place where he was buried.

Meanwhile, the other saint celebrated today is that of St. John Leonardi, an Italian saint who was the founder of the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca. He was the youngest of seven children and has always been devoted to the Lord since his youth, ever seeking consolation and refuge in God through prayer and meditation. Eventually he was ordained a priest and together with several other priests, he ministered to the people and reached out to many to strengthen their faith in God, especially during the time of confusion, division and hardships in the Church, being part of the Counter-Reformation efforts against the various heresies and the corruptions facing the Church and Christian faithful at the time. He propagated strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and also the popular Forty Hours Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, which he continued on after he had established his congregation, inspiring many to follow in his examples and efforts as well.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have all discussed through the messages of the Scriptures and from the life and examples of God’s holy saints, namely that of St. Denis and his companions in martyrdom, as well as St. John Leonardi, all of us are reminded that we have been called to share in the journey and faith of our holy predecessors, those who had also encountered lots of difficulties, challenges and obstacles in their own lives. Yet, we must remain strong in faith and we must not allow ourselves to be easily swayed by the temptations and pressures all around us, that we may continue to embody our faith in the Lord ever more worthily by our dedication and commitment to Him. We must be missionary and evangelising in each and every moments of our lives, and even in the smallest and seemingly least significant actions that we do.

May the Lord our ever loving and compassionate God continue to guide us in our respective journey in life, so that we may always continue to be faithful and committed to Him. May He continue to bless us in our every good efforts and endeavours to follow Him and to obey His Law and commandments, and to do what is right and just in accordance with His will. May God bless us all in our every efforts and endeavours, and continue to encourage and strengthen us in all the struggles and in persevering through the hardships and difficulties in our journey towards Him. Amen.

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Tuesday, 8 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded that we are all called to follow the Lord and to put our focus and attention towards Him, and we should not allow ourselves to be easily tempted and swayed by the many temptations present all around us, be it things that may tempt us through worldly glory, fame, pleasures and all the attachments to worldly matters and comforts, as well as our own pride, ego, desires and all the other obstacles that may manifest themselves in the path that we are all taking in our journey towards the Lord our God and His salvation. All of us as Christians are reminded of this fact as we continue to live our lives faithfully in the Lord’s Presence in each and every days of our lives.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful people of God in the region of Galatia in what is now part of Turkey, where the Apostle spoke of the history of how he was called by God to be His Apostle, his experiences and journey of faith as one of the missionaries and disciples of the Lord. St. Paul spoke openly to the faithful in Galatia about his calling by the Lord, on how earlier on he was a notable and rather infamous enemy of the Lord and the Church because of his misguided zeal and efforts as a young Pharisee to oppose the Lord and His works, persecuting and oppressing the early Christians at that time.

St. Paul shared that to the faithful in Galatia to warn them against being swayed by the false guidance and leads in life, to focus themselves and their attention towards the Lord and to His teachings and words as delivered to them by the Apostles and disciples of the Lord, and not to be tempted by the many falsehoods and false guidance in life, or be swayed by the worldly ambitions, desires and all the false paths that the evil ones have always been tempting us with, trying to lead us into our downfall and destruction. They kept on tempting and swaying us through the many methods and means by trying to cause us to lose our focus and attention on the Lord, and instead we end up falling into the slippery slope towards sin and darkness.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke in which the story of the Lord’s visit to the house of His friends, Mary and Martha, who were the brothers of Lazarus. The Lord was welcomed by both of the sisters in different manner. Mary was attending to the Lord and was listening intently to Him speaking to her and teaching her with His wisdom and words while Martha was busy with the preparations and the works to welcome the Lord, which was presumably including things like preparing meals for the Lord and also cleaning the place and the house, which preoccupied her throughout the time when her sister was attending to the Lord and listening to Him. And as we heard, Martha got fed up and told the Lord to ask her sister to help her in her chores and work.

The Lord then as we heard reminded Martha that what Mary had done was right, that while Martha’s intentions might have been good and she wanted genuinely to welcome and impress the Lord with her hospitality, but in her great efforts and preoccupation with trying to impress the Lord, she had become distracted and tempted away from her right focus on the Lord upon her activities and works instead. In a sense this was also similar with what St. Paul had done earlier in his life as Saul when he persecuted the Church and the early Christians, in his misguided zeal as mentioned earlier on. St. Paul might have good intentions, but he got swayed by the false fanaticism and overzealous attitude with the wrong guidance and path, ending up with him committing great atrocities against the Lord and His people instead.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have been reminded that we must always focus our lives and direct our attention towards the Lord, our God and Saviour. Otherwise, if we allow ourselves to be distracted and swayed through the many temptations and pressures all around us, we may end up falling into the trap of the evil ones who are always ever ready in trying to lead astray from our path towards God and His salvation. God has reminded us to stay vigilant against all those who sought to bring us into the path of sin and disobedience against God, to be careful lest we allow ourselves to be misguided by those who claim to represent the truth and way of the Lord. We must always remain firm in our faith and trust in Him so that in everything that we say and do, we will always proclaim the Lord and His Good News at all times.

As Christians we must always keep in mind that the focus of our lives and existence should always be in the Lord our God, and we should always strive to live our lives worthily of Him, and at the same time cultivating good and genuine relationship with Him so that we may continue to walk ever more faithfully and courageously in His Presence, embracing His love and kindness, His generosity and mercy, as He has called on each one of us to come back to Him and to listen to Him speaking to us once again, just as He has taught and spoken to Mary. How we are to respond to His call and His words being spoken to us is entirely up to us. Are we going to be like Martha who was so busy and preoccupied with her activities and preparations she ended up neglecting her time and relationship with God? Or are we going to be like Mary and strive to centre our lives and activities upon the Lord at all times?

Let us all therefore carefully ponder on all these and consider how we all can live our lives as better Christians from now on, so that as better and more committed people of God, as His beloved ones and holy people, we may continue to grow ever more in faith and love for His ways, for His teachings, His Law and commandments, while resisting the many temptations and all the worldly attachments and desires around us which may distract us from being able to truly commit ourselves to His cause and following Him with all of our hearts and might. May the Lord continue to strengthen our faith in Him and may He continue to empower each and every one of us so that by our exemplary faith we may inspire many others to follow in our footsteps and draw ever closer to the Lord, and distancing ourselves from all the temptations and obstacles that had prevented us from coming close to Him. May God bless us always in everything we do, in our every good endeavours and works, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 7 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates together the occasion of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, remembering Mary, the Holy Mother of God, who has kindly shown and given to us the gift of the Holy Rosary, the means of prayer and devotion which has been meant to help us in our journey towards the Lord through the guidance and help of His loving Mother, who is also our own mother as well. Mary, the Lady and Queen of the Holy Rosary, has always shown us all her love and kindness, her concern and compassionate care, desiring and hoping as always that each and every one of us as her children, we can find our way back to the Lord and to His salvation, through the genuine and interior conversion of our hearts, minds, souls and indeed, of our whole entire being, that our lives truly are worthy of the Lord.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles the account of the time when it was shortly after the Risen Lord Jesus had ascended into Heaven in glory, and the disciples who witnessed it were returning to Jerusalem just as the Lord had instructed them to do, to await for the coming of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit from God that would come upon all of them to strengthen and to guide them all. The Lord gave them all His Holy Spirit so that they might be empowered and encouraged throughout their ministry and to remain strong and firm in faith despite the challenges and trials that they might have to face in life. And most prominently, we heard in that same passage, that Mary, the Mother of God was also present among them as well, praying with them together and strengthening one another.

This is important because it highlighted the prominence of Mary in our faith and the Church, as we must all remember that the Lord had entrusted to her all of us, to be our mother, guide and role model, and at the same time she has also been entrusted to us as our own mother. Mary has been the loving mother that has always shown us her care and concern, ever watching over us and praying for us, interceding for us from the side of her Son’s Throne in Heaven. The rosary is one of her many gifts to us, together with her many Apparitions throughout history, as part of her loving efforts to reach out to us and to help us in our journey to reach the Lord and His salvation. She certainly does not want any one of us to be lost to her and her Son because of our sins and the darkness all around us.

Then in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke, the account of what happened at the moment of the Annunciation, that is the moment when the Archangel Gabriel came to Mary in Nazareth to announce to her the Good News that all of us mankind had been awaiting for a very long time, that is the coming of God’s salvation. And the Archangel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she was to become the Mother of the Son of God Most High, and because the Son is indeed also the same God as the Father and the Holy Spirit, thus, Mary is also indeed the Mother of God. Mary accepted her role with great faith and committed herself wholeheartedly to the Lord with the words, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me as you have said.’, showing us the kind of faith that all of us as Christians should also have in the Lord.

This passage further highlighted to us why we all revere and honour Mary as truly someone special and the greatest of all the saints, our great role model and inspiration in life, for us to follow in our own journey towards the Lord. For Mary is not revered just because she is the Mother of God, but also because of her own exemplary faith and life, which she has shown us great examples and faithfulness in all that she had done throughout her whole life. Her great faith in the Lord and her trust in Him, her dedication and her commitment to the mission which had been entrusted to her is among the many reasons why we honour her greatly and why so many of us have the devotion to her, our beloved and loving Mother, who has always loved us all and who has been very devoted to us all as well.

This Feast of our Lady of the Rosary itself has been instituted from the origin of the great victory of the forces of Christendom, the Church and God’s faithful people against the forces of those who sought the destruction of the Church and the Christian faith, and those who sought to dominate the world and oppress the ones who believe in the true path of the Lord, our God and Saviour. At that time, approximately four hundred and fifty years ago, the mighty and growing Ottoman Empire had been swallowing many Christian states and dominions, and has set its eyes to attack more of Christendom, threatening many Christian nations and even the city of Rome itself. Hence, the combined forces of Christendom was assembled by the Pope together with the cooperation of several Christian states in a great Holy League.

The mighty forces of the Ottoman Empire did not discourage the combined forces of Christendom from various countries and states then assembled at the site of Lepanto in what is today part of Greece. At that place, a great battle therefore took place, which forever changed the balance of power and marked a major turning point in the then constant warfare and struggle between the Ottomans and the forces of Christendom. According to eyewitness accounts of the battle, there were those who saw a great heavenly vision of Mary appearing on the skies, together with mighty host of Angels, fighting together with the forces of Christendom against the forces of the unbelievers, crushing them and destroying the mighty fleet of the Ottomans.

The great victory and triumph was celebrated by the whole Christendom, and the Pope ordered that all the church bells ought to toil and ring for the celebration of this great triumph, and he also instituted the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, on this very date, which was the date of the Battle of Lepanto, and eventually this Feast of Our Lady of Victory is celebrated as the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, reminding us all of the constant intercession and help that Mary, our loving Mother has always provided for us, and also the power of the rosary and our prayers in our constant and daily struggles with sin and evil, with darkness and all the forces of the evil ones. Let us all not forget to spend the time to pray to the Lord, with the company of His loving Mother, Mary, Our Lady of the Rosary, who is also our mother, and all the saints.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all continue to grow ever stronger in our faith in the Lord, doing our very best so that in everything that we say and do, in our every moments in our lives, we will always continue to do what is right and just in the sight of the Lord and His people, to be good examples and inspirations for one another in faith just as Mary, our loving Mother has been great example and inspiration for all of us. Through the holy rosary, let us deepen our relationship with the Lord through His loving Mother, so that we may continue to grow ever stronger in this relationship and be ever more worthy of God’s loving grace and Presence, now and always, in each and every moments of our lives. Amen.

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Sunday, 6 October 2024 : Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of everything that God had done for us, in His creation of us mankind, whom He has created lovingly in His own image, meant to share the fullness of His glory and majesty, His joy and happiness through all that He had made in this world. He has always desired that we live together in harmony and happiness, joy and satisfaction, to enjoy forever the fullness of His love and grace, and to be truly blessed and wonderful in all things. However, our disobedience against Him and our surrender to the many temptations and allures of worldly pleasures all around us had led us down into this path of darkness and downfall, which led us to wander in this world and suffer the consequences of our disobedience and lack of faith.

In our first reading this Sunday from the Book of Genesis, we heard of the account of the moment after the time when God created the first Man, Adam, in His own image, and saw that it is not good for man to be alone, just as the Lord Himself was not alone, but existing as always in the perfect unity of Three Divine Persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the belief that we have in the Holy Trinity, of the Oneness of God Who exists in the Three Divine Persons, sharing perfectly the indivisible unity of love because God is indeed Love, with the love that is shared by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit overflows to all of us mankind and to all of His Creation. He has no need for any one of us or for Creation, and yet, He created us all because He desired to share this love with us all.

That was why He created us in the first place, and in order to share in this unity, He also therefore created us man and woman, so that we may have one another and may share in the union between us, a union of love through which we may procreate and form new life, through the sacred union between man and woman that God had decreed, and He had also made woman from the parts of man, in order to show that through the union of man and woman, therefore we are made whole by this sacred union, which we describe as marriage, or holy matrimony. This sacred union is one that is blessed by God and mandated by Him for all of us to procreate and to inherit the whole world, all that God had created for each and every one of us. And ideally, through this loving union with one another, and with God Himself, all of us should have existed in harmony and peace. But, because we disobeyed God, we fell into sin and were removed from the state of grace, hence, suffering in this world.

In our second reading this Sunday, we then heard from the Epistle to the Hebrews in which author of this Epistle shared with all of us that despite this fate we are facing, our sufferings due to our rebellions and sins, God still loved us all nonetheless, and from the very beginning, He had wanted to redeem us all and bring us to His loving Presence once again, and He did all these by sending unto us His messengers and prophets, proclaiming His salvation which He would indeed fulfil through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Through Christ, all of us have seen the Lord’s love manifested in the flesh, as He assumed our own human existence, our flesh and human nature, becoming tangible, real and approachable for us to come towards and touch, and through His loving Presence, all of us are reminded of how beloved we all have been by God, at all times.

As the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews shared with us that the Lord Jesus came to us to share with us His love, the love of God that is ever generous and compassionate, reaching out to us all, even to the most marginalised and to everyone who had been separated from Him and kept apart from His love by our sins. By His most loving and selfless sacrifice on the Cross, Our Lord Himself has opened for us the gates of Heaven and showed us the path to eternal life, true happiness and fullness of glory with Him, to regain for ourselves what we have always been intended to experience, that is not the sufferings due to our sins, but the pure bliss and happiness, the sharing in the fullness of God’s love and grace as He has always intended for us before we fell into sin and darkness.

Then, in the Gospel this Sunday from the Gospel according to St. Mark, we heard about the Lord Jesus and how He was confronted by some of the Pharisees who came to question Him regarding matters of the Law, and this time it was about the matter of whether one is allowed to divorce his spouse or not. As mentioned by the Lord Himself, the Law of Moses as interpreted and practiced at that time, ever since the days of Moses allowed a person to divorce his wife or for the wife to divorce the husband providing that the necessary paperworks and formalities were settled. He pointed out to those Pharisees, whose very strict and legalistic interpretation of the Law often got in their way of understanding and appreciating God’s true intentions and ways, that Moses allowed such an arrangement because of just how stubborn the people of Israel were at his time. It was meant to be a compromise but it was not what God truly intended and wanted from us to do.

Instead, as we have heard from the very beginning, from the Book of Genesis on the account of the creation of Man, God had always intended us to share in this sacred union, and this union is something that God Himself had blessed and made into a holy union, and the Lord said that, whatever God had made sacred and blessed, and united as one, no man should ever divide and dissolve. Essentially the Lord is reminding each and every one of us that the sacred bond of marriage, which we also call as the Sacrament of the Holy Matrimony, as one of the Seven Sacraments of the Church is truly a very important and crucial one for all of us, and for those among us all called to this sacred union, we must prepare ourselves thoroughly and appropriately so that we may truly understand its significance and importance, and that we may commit ourselves to this holy union, and not desecrate it by breaking it up.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in this Sunday’s Scripture passages, let us all therefore remind ourselves first of all of God’s most generous love and kindness, His compassionate love and mercy, and all that He has reassured and promised us all. And as part of God’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, as His beloved and holy people, let us always uphold the sacred institution of marriage, the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, the foundation of our holy and devout families, which themselves are the foundations and pillars of support for the Church of God. As long as our families are united in God and blessed by Him, and as long as each one of us as members of God’s holy and devout families continue to worship the Lord together and put Him as the centre and focus of our families, the Church will always be strong against all the attacks from the evil ones.

May the Lord, our ever loving God, Father and Creator continue to be with us all and bless each and every one of us in our journey of faith. May He continue to strengthen us all in faith, and allow us all to follow Him ever more faithfully and worthily in each and every moments of our lives, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Saturday, 5 October 2024 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded ever always of God’s providence and love, especially in moments when we are suffering and enduring challenges, trials and difficulties in life. There may be many moments when the world may be very difficult for us to live in, and when everything seems to be terrible for us, when it may seem impossible for us to carry on in life. However, we must not forget that the Lord our God will always be by our side, protecting and providing for us even when we do not realise it. He is always there guiding us and helping us to walk down the right path, encouraging us and strengthening us by His Presence and through the Holy Spirit, and we should not forget this fact or ignore His Presence and existence in our journey.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Job, we heard the conclusion of the story of Job, the faithful man of God who suffered from the attacks of the evil one, Satan, who tried to prove to God that Job would fall into sin if he was to lose all the blessings and the good things which he had received from God. Job lost almost everything in the events that happened, his great wealth, his family and loved ones and even his health and body was affected. But Job did not lose faith in the Lord and continued to be faithful to Him throughout all of His ordeals and difficulties. He did not let all those challenges and trials to dissuade and tempt him away from the path that God has led him through. Job continued to hold fast and strongly in the faith that he has always had in the Lord. Despite all the attacks he also faced from his friends, who accused him of wrongdoings to have merited such a suffering, he remained steadfast.

Job did face a lot of struggles and also moments of despair, which he had to endure throughout his path of suffering as he did experience all the pain and sorrows associated with what he had to persevere through at that time. He had his doubts and uncertainties, but he never let his fears to tempt him away from God. But God did rebuke Job for his despair and for having questioned himself and his faith because of his sufferings and the opposition he faced from his peers. He should not have doubted himself and his self-value, and he should have continued to trust in the Lord wholeheartedly, and indeed, the Lord rewarded His faithful one, Job, most wonderfully, double than everything that he had once received and been blessed with, showing that God indeed is the source of everything that is good, and if we have trust and faith in Him, then truly we shall not be disappointed.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard about the account from the Gospel of St. Luke in which the Lord Jesus had His disciples that He sent out earlier returning to Him with great joy because of all the wonders, signs and works that they had performed among the people through the power and authority which the Lord Himself has granted to them all. They had healed many of the sick brought to them and showed power and authority against the evil spirits and demons, casting them out from those who had been possessed. Never before had this power and works had been shown among the people of God, and they all received this great grace of God from none other than the Saviour of the world Himself, the Divine Son of God Incarnate, Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Through Him we have received the assurance of God’s love and providence, and the assurance of His salvation. We heard the Lord proclaiming the downfall and destruction of Satan, because it was indeed what was happening to the order of the world, to the power and dominion of Satan, the evil one, who had ruled and held dominion for so long over all of us through sin. By His power and authority, and by the great love and kindness, compassion and generosity which He has always had for us, God Himself has rescued us from the destruction and damnation that threatened because of our sins and wickedness. God would not let us all to be lost from Him, and He did whatever He could so that through His providence and help, through His Son, our Lord and Saviour, we are shown the path to eternal life.

The Lord also proclaimed before His disciples everything that God had done through Him, the manifested and incarnate Son of God, fulfilling every promises and reassurances which He has promised to each and every one of us and our predecessors. God has manifested Himself in His Son, making Himself approachable to us and allowing us all to share in this generous love. And through Him, the revelation of God’s truth and love had been made to us, showing to us just how faithful and loving God has always been towards us, from the very beginning. He reassured us all with His love, showing us that He has always desired to be reunited and reconciled with us. God showed us all His power and majesty, overcoming even the mighty power of Satan and the forces of this world, to rescue us and to bring us all back to His Presence, much as He had done for Job earlier on.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the significance of this to all of us is that we must always continue to trust in the Lord our God, in all things and at all circumstances of our journey in life. We may encounter lots of trials, challenges, obstacles and difficulties in our path, but we should not allow all these to distract us from the Lord and from dissuading and coercing us to abandon the Lord and instead to seek other sources of desire, hope and satisfaction. We must always continue to stand by the Lord and uphold our faith in Him, obey and follow His Law and commandments, resisting the challenges, difficulties, trials and temptations, all of which had threatened to lead us away from the Lord and His path. All of us should continue to trust in the Lord at all times and be the examples and inspirations for one another in faith.

May the Lord continue to help, guide and inspire us all with His strength, love and compassion, and grant us all the Holy Spirit and the power to persevere through the various challenges in life, and may He continue to love us all generously as He has always done. May the Lord be with us all and may He bless our lives and works, our every efforts and endeavours in all things, now and always, forevermore. Amen.