4th Week of Easter, Wednesday, 24-04-2024

Acts 12:24 - 13:5 / John 12:44-50

The Church has many aspects that reveals something of its essence.

The Church can be seen as a hierarchy, as an institution, as an organization, as a community, etc.

But the essence of the Church is founded in the mystery of God.

God is the very essence of the Church, and God has revealed Himself to the Church and yet it is also an on-going revelation.

In the 1st reading, the Word of God continued to spread and to gain followers.

That is certainly not by human effort but by the power of God.

And it is in worship and prayer and fasting that God revealed through the Holy Spirit the mission He has for Barnabas and Saul.

And it is in the communion of prayer that the early Church sent Barnabas and Saul into the mission that God has shown them.

May we, as the Church, always understand the fundamental importance of prayer.

It is in the communion of prayer that God will reveal to us His plans for us.

God’s plan is for all peoples to be saved. Let us pray for God’s blessings that we will carry out the mission of salvation.

4th Week of Easter, Tuesday, 23-04-2024

Acts 11:19-26 / John 10:22-30   

When we think about what appeals to people, then it boils down to what people are attracted to.

People like to be entertained. People like the spectacular and the sensational.

It is also amazing how people would idolize some individuals like pop singers and movie stars.

Their fan club membership can even go to five figures, or more, depending on the popularity.

When tracing the beginnings of Christianity, the disciples went around preaching the simple message of the Good News.

As the 1st reading puts it: The Lord helped them, and a great number believed and were converted to the Lord.

And when Barnabas was sent to the church in Antioch, he could see for himself that God had given grace.

Christianity and its early missionary preachers did not try to appeal to peoples' desires or tried to attract people with anything spectacular or sensational.

It was by the grace of God that people believed and were won over to the Lord.

It is the Lord who calls us to be His disciples and we are sent to do the work of God by witnessing to the Good News of salvation.

Let us keep focused on the Lord as we carry out His work.

Let us also remember that the results are by the grace of God and not by our abilities.

4th Week of Easter, Monday, 22-04-2024

Acts 11:1-18 / John 10:1-10  

When reading the book of the Acts of the Apostles, there is one thought that might come to our minds.

The experience of God in the early Church seems to be so profound and it almost seems like a regular occurrence.

There was the vision of Peter which was accepted without question.

There was the vision of an angel standing in the man’s house, and the angel had a message for the man.

And then the Holy Spirit came down upon the group in the same way as it was at Pentecost.

So, in that passage of the 1st reading, the visions and signs of the spiritual seem to be like a normal and regular occurrence.

That make us wonder what happened to those visions and signs in today’s Church.

But a deeper question to reflect upon is how do we sense the promptings of God.

In the gospel, Jesus says that the shepherd calls out, one by one, to his own sheep and he leads them out.

As much as we want to hear the voice of our Good Shepherd, the world has too many loud and distracting voices and noises.

Hence, we need to get back to the silence of prayer and be still before the Lord.

Only then can we listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd and understand the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Then we will be able to see the signs and wonders that God is showing us.

4th Sunday of Easter, Year B, 21.04.2024

Acts 4:8-12 / 1 John 3:1-2 / John 10:11-18 

Between God and human beings, there is one great and fundamental difference.

Basically and essentially, it is this: God is divine and we are only human. 

Reflecting further on this, it is God who created us and the rest of creation. We humans did not create anything at all. 

A human being cannot become God. Those who wanted to, or tried to become God, embarked on a quest for immortality, eternal youth, everlasting power, strength and might. 

But the history of humanity is splattered with such cases, and they are cases of futility. 

That is the truth, and it is an eternal and irrevocable truth. 

And we Christians bear witness to that truth by our faith. 

As we profess in the Creed, God is the Almighty Creator, and He is also our Father. 

And next comes the astounding truth, and that is God became man in Jesus Christ. 

That truth is a deep mystery that needs to be reflected and meditated upon, and it can only be done with the enlightening love from God. 

Jesus Christ is our Lord and God, He is our Saviour, and in today's gospel, He tells us that He is our Good Shepherd. 

That image of the Good Shepherd and the sheep will certainly help us to understand the loving relationship between Jesus and us. 

A Good Shepherd protects and takes care of His sheep. 

He will even lay down His life for His sheep when there is harm and danger. 

That is how much God loves us, even to the extent of dying for us in order to save us. 

And Jesus calls us to be His sheep and to follow Him. 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who calls us to be His good sheep. 

And a good sheep listens to the voice of the Good Shepherd. 

This Sunday is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday, and the emphasis is on vocations to the priesthood, as well as to the religious life. 

A good sheep listens to the voice of the Good Shepherd. 

And a good sheep may also listen to a deeper call in the voice of the Good Shepherd. 

Jesus will not leave His Church without priests, priests who will listen to His voice. 

Because Jesus calls priests to lead the People of God in worship and prayer, and preach the Word of life and love. 

Priests are called by Jesus to celebrate the Eucharist, and to offer the sacrifice in memory of Him. 

The voice of the Good Shepherd is echoed in the voice of the priest, so that the People of God, the flock that belongs to the Good Shepherd, will walk in the way of salvation. 

So, Jesus has called those He has chosen to be His priests, and also those to the religious life. 

Jesus calls and He waits for their response. 

As for us, the People of God, let us also echo the call of a Good Shepherd to those He is calling. 

But whether the call is to be a priest, or a religious, the call is always to be a good sheep. 

And whether it is a priest, or a religious, or a sheep that belongs to the flock of Jesus, we are called to be like the Good Shepherd. 

The Good Shepherd laid down His life for us. 

Let us also lay down our lives to love and to serve others, and to help them listen to the voice of Jesus our Good Shepherd.

3rd Week of Easter, Saturday, 20-04-2024

Acts 9:31-42 / John 6:60-69  

To run a marathon for the first time would certainly require intense preparation.

Whatever it is, the objective is to finish that 42 km within a reasonable time.

But what if a person were to run a marathon without much preparation or know how long the distance is.

No doubt, it would seem rather futile to carry on especially when fatigue sets in, and the hope of finishing the marathon fades away with each stride.

For the disciples in the gospel, they had to decide whether to follow Jesus after hearing the teaching about Jesus as the “bread of life”.

Some couldn’t accept it and found it pointless to carry on following Jesus, and so they left.

For the Twelve, they too may have found it challenging to accept the teachings of Jesus.

But as Peter said: Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe and we know that you are the Holy One of God.

Whether it is unquestionable faithfulness or blind perseverance, the Twelve made their choice.

We too have to make our choice when faced with the difficult and challenging teachings of Jesus.

But if we believe that Jesus has the message of eternal life, then let us be faithful and persevere, and keep walking on.

God will reward us for believing, and for being faithful and persevering.

3rd Week of Easter, Friday, 19-04-2024

Acts 9:1-20 / John 6:52-59   

Angry people want to show how powerful they are.

So they will resort to hostile and violent means to threaten and make others submit to them.

They would even ask for authorization letters to justify what they are doing.

Such was the case of Saul in the 1st reading.

He was so bent on killing and slaughtering the Lord’s disciples, and he even got letters from those in authority to show that he was doing the right thing.

Human anger, hostility and violence cannot be stopped by human means.

But where human ability is limited, God will not let evil be unstoppable.

Saul was not only stopped by the power of God; it was also revealed to him that he was persecuting Jesus.

It was love that stopped Saul, and it was also love that spared and saved Saul.

And it is also with love that Jesus gives us His Body to save us and to give us life.

Sin, wickedness and evil can never prevail against the power of God’s love.

In receiving the Body of Christ, we also receive Jesus into our hearts, and we also receive the power of God’s love.

May the power of God’s love in us lead us to do what is good, what is right and what is loving.

3rd Week of Easter, Thursday, 18-04-2024

Acts 8:26-40 / John 6:44-51

There are many things in life that we don’t quite understand, or know what it is all about.

The laws and wonders of nature are certainly quite beyond our reasoning.

The complexity of human relationships are also a mystery to us.

And of course, God is a mystery that is beyond our comprehension.

In the 1st reading, the Ethiopian eunuch may have read that passage of scripture a couple of times.

He couldn’t quite understand the meaning until Philip came along and explained it to him.

He was so enlightened that he requested for baptism.

In the gospel, Jesus said that it is written in the prophets, that to hear the teaching of God and learn from it is to come to Him.

When there are aspects of the faith, or the Church, or our lives that we don’t understand, let us not get frustrated or flustered.

In God’s time and in God’s way, we will learn and be enlightened.

And then, we will come to Jesus with rejoicing hearts.