Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9 / Matthew 5:1-19 (2020)
Not many of us remember the Japanese Occupation which was from 1942 to 1945. Those three years have changed the lives of those who survived it, and some of them are still around.
So we may not have gone through the Japanese Occupation but we have read about it and we may have heard of the eye-witness accounts of the atrocities committed during that time.
But we have also read of how that dark part of history was deleted from the Japanese history book or given another interpretation which justified the military cause.
So much so that the later generations do not know anything about the invasions and the war-crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army and its commanders.
It may sound strange, and even disgusting, that this can happen at a national level.
But what happens at the national level is only an amplification of what happens at the personal level.
Because when it comes to laws and rules and regulations, we choose what we are comfortable with, and we quietly disregard what we dislike and what we disagree with.
Things like doing penance and practicing abstinence. Things like going for Confession before receiving Holy Communion at Mass if one has committed a grave sin.
If these simple and basic religious practices are not taught and observed and practised, then our spiritual discipline will become too lax and after a while we would have deleted so much of our faith that there will be nothing much to believe in.
Let us keep and practise the demands of our faith and teach it first to our children and to our children's children.
Then we will not forget why we believe in God and the purpose of our mission as Church.