7th February 2020

Paul uses antithetical language to highlight the powerful core values that empower his ministry. He speaks of the hardships that he faces – flogging, imprisonment, being mobbed, labour, starvation and lack of sleep. These he counters with purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness, a love free of attachment, with truthful speech, the power of God and righteousness … all of which are the “Fruit of the Spirit”(Gal 5:22-26). What Paul stresses is that a life led by the Holy Spirit enables us to die to ourselves and empowers us to face every trial in ministry.

What Paul states from experience is precisely what Jesus teaches in the Gospel… “Unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it bears a rich harvest.”

In the Gospel, The man is “the soul that is expressed in the body” and “body enlivened by an immortal spirit”

Today, the life of John the Baptist, a spokesperson for the truth about the marriage ends with the mixture of superstition (spiritual) and frivolous (body) of Herod. The correct relationship between man and woman is rooted in the essence of the human being: what is man? And this question leads to the question: who is God?

The “Bible” answers that man is created in the image of God, and God himself is love. Thus, man is like God as he loves. From this derives the indissoluble connection between spirit and body: man is “the soul that is expressed in the body” and “body enlivened by an immortal spirit.” That is, the body of man and woman has a “theological character.” Consequently, human sexuality is not an “extra”, it belongs to “being someone”: it makes perfect sense as an expression of “personal being” rather than a “something” of the person.

—In this “man as a whole” the freedom of “yes” must mean “forever”.

6th February 2020

David has played a most important role in the history of Israel by uniting the Twelve Tribes as One Nation. Now on his deathbed, David advises Solomon to “Be strong” and to “Be faithful to God’s mandate”. To be strong means to be fearless because God is our strength. To be faithful means to walk according to or to be in communion with God’s will. In other words, Solomon is to rule only in God’s name.

Jesus sends The Twelve out in His name. They, too, are to be fearless for they have been given “authority over unclean spirits”. They are to carry nothing for the journey – a sign of total dependency on God – and “shake the dust from their feet” if they are not made welcome – a sign of complete faithfulness to ‘mission’ with total detachment from the results of the mission.

God’s will invites us to focus on the mission rather than the results.

Getting frustrated in mission? Perhaps it’s time to ‘refocus’!

St Paul Miki (1564/6 – 1597)

He was born in Japan between 1564 and 1566. He joined the Society of Jesus and preached the gospel to the Japanese people with great success. When a persecution of the Catholics arose he was arrested together with twenty-five others. Mocked and tortured, they were eventually taken to Nagasaki on 5 February 1597, bound to crosses and speared.

5th February 2020

Success, popularity, over-confidence often diminish our recognition of the presence of God in our lives till, eventually, we fall into the trap of believing that we are self-sufficient. David betrayed such an attitude when he ordered a census of the people. His motive: to gauge his military might and determine his political security. To religious Jews, such a census reflected insufficient trust in God. It showed a reliance on human resources for security, rather than on God. In all that David had begun to do, there was no recognition of the need for God.

In the Gospel, the people of Jesus’ hometown saw in Him an ordinary man. They expressed disbelief that God could raise a Messiah from a carpenter’s family.

Our lack of faith, our impatience with God’s working, our blindness to His presence, distance us from Him and gradually lead us to believe, erroneously, that we do not need Him!

Forgive us Lord, for the times we turn away from you.

4th February 2020

St John de Britto

The first reading brings us to the final conflict between David and his son, Absalom. The disloyal Absalom sows dissension against David, who flees with the support of his loyal soldiers. Then Absalom gets trapped by his hair in the branches of a tree, and is killed by one of David’s men. David’s entourage expects a victory celebration, but instead witnesses a father’s grief. No matter what, David still loves his son.

David’s response reflects the way God relates to us. Even when we rebel against Him with our sinfulness, God responds with love, mercy and forgiveness.

In the Gospel, we see the courage and faith of the sick woman and Jairus. Neither were followers of Jesus, but they still sought His help. Jesus’ perceptive love acknowledges the faith of the woman, and He reassures Jairus, who must surely know that death is final. These transforming moments – the healing and raising from the dead – are intended to reassure us too. When we put aside fear and doubt, and truly believe, we will experience peace of mind and the love of God. That is the real miracle.

‘Do not be afraid: only believe.’

A Portuguese missionary to India, St. John de Britto adapted to the culture, food, habits and dress of the local populace in order to be one with them. He preached the Good News through his life as well as his words; an attitude that won him great success but also the ire of the king. When given a choice to leave the place or be beheaded, he willingly chose the latter, and in doing so preached the greatest sermon of all.

3rd February 2020

St Blaise

God chooses unlikely candidates to show His power and mercy: in today’s Gospel, it is a man possessed whom everyone shunned and feared. He is an outcast and because he is violent, he is chained and fettered. Then, a Jesus encounter results in his liberation and transformation.

At times, we too are entrapped and controlled by what possesses us (ego, pride, sin) and this often provokes us to anger and violence rather than love and forgiveness.

In the first reading, David encounters Shimei, from the clan of Saul, who curses David repeatedly and stones him. Though David has the power to eliminate Shimei, he chooses to overlook the incident. In fact, it is through silence that David renders his antagonist powerless!

At times, we get unnerved, upset and demoralised by harsh or abusive words and cutting remarks. Reacting only provokes continued antagonism, leaving us none the happier. Listening calmly, instead, could teach us a lot about others as well as ourselves and, surprisingly, even leave us feeling victorious!

If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate much about your size? – Sydney J Harris

Today is the feast of St. Blaise. Legend has it that he saved the life of a child who had a fishbone stuck in this throat. He is known universally as the Patron of throat illnesses and people make it a point to have their throats blessed on this day.

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

February 2, 2020

Readings: Mal 3:1–4 • Ps 24:7–10 • Heb 2:14–18 • Lk 2:22–40 (or 2:22–32)

A Light for the Nations

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. This feast is inspired by the Lucan account of Mary and Joseph bringing the infant Jesus to the temple in order to fulfill their obligations under the law of Moses. However, the feast has received three different names over the centuries related to different aspects of the Gospel account.

In honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the feast was celebrated in many countries as the Feast of the Purification. Mary, an immaculate virgin and unstained by original sin, was not strictly bound to make an offering for her purification. Yet, in humility she complied with the ritual purification required of new mothers on the fortieth day after delivering a son. Also, St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph offered “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,” the offering required of those too poor to purchase a lamb for sacrifice, reminding us of the poverty of the holy family.

In honor of the infant Jesus, the feast is officially called the Feast of the Presentation. Tradition has seen the presentation of Jesus in the temple as a fulfilment of the words of the prophet Malachi, “suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire” (Mal 3:1). The prayerful believers, Simeon and Anna, represent all the faithful Jewish people who longed to see the messiah and the redemption of Israel.

The specific requirement of the law of Moses was that a firstborn son, the “male that opened the womb,” be presented to a priest and ransomed by the payment of five shekels (Num 18:16). St. John Paul II, in his encyclical on the virtues of St. Joseph, remarked that, along with his responsibility to see to the circumcision and naming of the child, the ransoming of Jesus further affirmed Joseph’s legal guardianship.

St. John Paul II wrote:
“The ransoming of the first-born is another obligation of the father, and it is fulfilled by Joseph. “

“Represented in the first-born is the people of the covenant, ransomed from slavery in order to belong to God. Here too, Jesus — who is the true “price” of ransom — not only “fulfills” the Old Testament rite, but at the same time transcends it, since he is not a subject to be redeemed, but the very author of redemption. “
(Redemptoris Custos, 12)

Lastly, the feast is called Candlemas due to the liturgical custom of blessing and processing with candles proper to this day. That tradition grew out of the declaration by Simeon that the infant Jesus would be a “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.” Thus, the feast became an occasion for celebration with candlelit processions to symbolize the light of Christ entering the temple.

The blessing and procession with candles on Candlemas, still included as an option in the Roman missal, has become less common with the advent of electricity. We now take for granted that we can fill our homes and churches with light at the flick of a switch. However, in the middle ages Candlemas was among the most splendid celebrations of the year. Those candles, crafted laboriously from yellow beeswax bleached white in the sun became symbols of resistance against the darkness of sin and death.

The thirteenth-century Dominican Friar Jacob Voragine, a contemporary of Thomas Aquinas, offered a beautiful reflection on the symbolism of candles in his homily for today’s celebration.

On this feast day we too make a procession, carrying in our hands a lighted candle, which signifies Jesus, and bearing it into the churches. In the candle there are three things — the wick, the wax, and the fire. These three signify three things about Christ: the wax is a sign of his body, which was born of the Virgin Mary without corruption of the flesh . . . ; the wick signifies his most pure soul, hidden in his body; the fire or the light stands for his divinity because our God is a consuming fire. (The Golden Legend, “On the Feast of the Purification of Mary”)

Thus, in the candles we use in liturgy, whether the altar candles, votive candles, processional candles, baptismal candles, or the pascal candle, we see a symbol of Christ himself.
The use of candles can raise our thoughts to the mystery of God made flesh, the true light of salvation.

Today, we pray that the light of Christ may shine through each of us. May the fire of the Holy Spirit enkindle our hearts and allow us to dispel the darkness of sin and sorrow from our lives.

Fr. Imo

1st February 2020

You have despised Me David.

“I have sinned against the Lord.” (2 Samuel 12: 13).

Saturday 1st February 2020 in the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time.

The confession of our hero, the man after God’s heart whom the Father calls a champion is pithy and full of sorrow. First, let us consider what is sin from God’s point of view:

1 “You have despised me.” (2 Samuel 12: 9). Sin is showing contempt to God, despising the Lord. A pretty strong language. If you report that someone has despised you, one may wonder whether a shameless racist or sexist language was used.

2 “You have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed [sin”] (2 Samuel 12: 14).

The dictionary defines SPURN as “Reject with disdain or contempt.”
Did David decide in his heart to disdain God? Of course not. He wanted some fun. But God sees sin as disloyalty, unfaithfulness and outrage. God sees sin too as ingratitude. Consider all that He does for us as His adopted children. (Psalm 103: 1-5). Do not listen to the false teachers on television who tells us that sin doesn’t matter. God loves you just as you are. Look rather to the Cross for 15 seconds and you will understand sin.

But in sin and repentance, David shows himself a true hero, a champion and the man after God’s heart.

“A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me. Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me… .” (Responsorial Psalm 51).

The repentance of David is immortalized in Psalm 51. The Church prays the entire Psalm every Friday. Kings and queens, Popes and Bishops, soldiers and common man have used this penitential Psalm given to us by David down the centuries.

In the Gospel, we see the disciples, gripped by sheer panic, waking Jesus to calm the storm that threatened to swamp their boat.

The two readings reflect the two different approaches we employ in times when we are ‘lost’. In the Gospel, the terrified ‘disciples approach’ Jesus for help. And in the first reading, when David was slipping further into evil, ‘God comes to him’ through Nathan. Together, the readings assure us that God never abandons us.

“Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to His love, and the future to His providence.” – St Augustine.

31st January 2020

John Bosco

The first reading tells us of David’s sin. Beginning with lust, it transforms into adultery then to hypocrisy and irresponsibility that finally ends up in murder. Whilst David sinned grievously in doing all this, it is what he does later that counts as a blessing. The psalm records the pouring out of David’s heart in repentance before the Lord.

The Gospel gives us two parables of God’s grace at work in us. The first is that of the seed growing secretly. God often works in ways we cannot understand and yet when we do see the fruit of that working, we rejoice. The second parable –the mustard seed- points to a deliberate action of sowing the seed with the full knowledge of its potential.

These are the two ways in which God leads us closer to Him – an active and a passive, mysterious way. While every devotee hears the parable, it’s only the disciple who really ‘gets’ the explanation.

Are you ready to transform from devotee to disciple?

St John Bosco (1815 – 1888)

He was born in Piedmont of a peasant family, and he was brought up by his widowed mother. He became a priest, and his particular concern was for the young. He settled in Turin, where, as in so many cities in the 19th century, the industrial revolution was bringing enormous movements of population and consequent social problems, especially for the young men who came there to work. John Bosco devoted himself to the care of the young, first of all by means of evening classes, to which hundreds came, and then by setting up a boarding-house for apprentices, and then workshops for their training and education. Despite many difficulties, caused both by the anti-clerical civil authorities and by the opposition of some senior people within the Church, his enterprise grew, and by 1868 over 800 boys and young men were under his care. To ensure the continuation of his work, he founded a congregation, which he named after St Francis de Sales (a saint for whom he had great admiration), and today the Salesians continue his work all over the world.

29th January 2020

Today’s Gospel passage gives us the only parable that Jesus explains in the Gospels. The point is simple – God works with the little to create the abundance.

The parable portrays three-fourths of the seed being wasted. Yet the one-fourth produces grain in far greater abundance than what is lost.

The pattern of God’s actions is already seen in David whom the Lord took “from the pasture” and promised to make “great”. God also promises that a Davidic descendant, one who has “sprung from his loins” will always sit on the throne since his “house and kingdom will dwell forever.”

In refusing a house for Himself, God gives David – and us – an insight into Himself. His covenant with us is not dependant on a material foundation but on a personal one between God and us. The Temple God seeks is our heart.

Do you feel small? Well, the Lord has Great plans for you!

Tuesday 28 January 2020

Doctor of the Church, St Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274),

Dominican Priest and one of the greatest theologian in the history of the Church. But the Church sees his title to fame as Thomas’ holiness and faith. His master work is the Summa Theologica. The Eucharistic hymns he wrote is still in use by the Church.

St. Thomas Aquinas:
The Existence of God can be proved in five ways.
Argument Analysis of the Five Ways

The First Way: Argument from Motion

-Our senses prove that some things are in motion.
-Things move when potential motion becomes actual motion.
-Only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual motion.
-Nothing can be at once in both actuality and potentiality in the same respect (i.e., if both actual and potential, it is actual in one respect and potential in another).
-Therefore nothing can move itself.
-Therefore each thing in motion is moved by something else.
-The sequence of motion cannot extend ad infinitum.

Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.

The Second Way: Argument from Efficient Causes

-We perceive a series of efficient causes of things in the world.
-Nothing exists prior to itself.
-Therefore nothing [in the world of things we perceive] is the efficient cause of itself.
-If a previous efficient cause does not exist, neither does the thing that results (the effect).
-Therefore if the first thing in a series does not exist, nothing in the series exists.
-If the series of efficient causes extends ad infinitum into the past, for then there would be no things existing now.
-That is plainly false (i.e., there are things existing now that came about through efficient causes).
-Therefore efficient causes do not extend ad infinitum into the past.
-Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God.

The Third Way: Argument from Possibility and Necessity (Reductio argument)

-We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, that come into being and go out of being i.e., contingent beings.
-Assume that every being is a contingent being.
-For each contingent being, there is a time it does not exist.
-Therefore it is impossible for these always to exist.
-Therefore there could have been a time when no things existed.
-Therefore at that time there would have been nothing to bring the currently existing contingent beings into existence.
-Therefore, nothing would be in existence now.
-We have reached an absurd result from assuming that every being is a contingent being.
-Therefore not every being is a contingent being.
-Therefore some being exists of its own necessity, and does not receive its existence from another being, but rather causes them. This all men speak of as God.

The Fourth Way: Argument from Gradation of Being

-There is a gradation to be found in things: some are better or worse than others.
-Predications of degree require reference to the “uttermost” case (e.g., a thing is said to be hotter according as it more nearly resembles that which is hottest).
-The maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus.
-Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.

The Fifth Way: Argument from Design

-We see that natural bodies work toward some goal, and do not do so by chance.
-Most natural things lack knowledge.
-But as an arrow reaches its target because it is directed by an archer, what lacks intelligence achieves goals by being directed by something intelligence.
-Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.