Mary, Mother of God

Mary, Mother of God                                                                                       01-01-2025

Numbers 6:22-27 / Galatians 4:4-7 / Luke 2:16-21

On this first day of the new year, it is certainly good to come to church to pray. 

After all, it would be a good start for a year. 

But in truth, on this first day of the new year, we need to come to church, we must come to church. 

We need to come to church to pray and to ask for God's blessings and protection. 

Yes, we ask for God's blessings because we know that we cannot do anything well without God's help. 

And with His help, God will also give us His protection and guidance, so that we won't be distracted or discouraged. 

So, we come to church on this first day of the new year to pray for all that. 

But the first day of the new year is also the eighth day of the Christmas Octave for the Church. 

On this eighth day of the Christmas Octave, we hear in the gospel that Mary and Joseph named the child Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before His conception.

The name Jesus is a profound name. It means God saves, or, God is salvation. 

And on this day, the Church also honours Mary under the title of “Mother of God”. 

That also proclaims that Jesus is God. 

And that also reminds us of what Jesus said when He was on the Cross: This is your mother. 

So, on this first day of the new year, we turn to Jesus, our God and our Saviour. 

We present to Him our needs, our intentions and our petitions. 

And together with the intercession of Mary our Mother, we can be assured of this:

That Jesus will hear and answer our prayers, and He will also protect and guide us. 

That is what we really need to begin the new year with. 

And with the intercession of Mary our Mother, may the Lord bless us and keep us, may He shine His face on us and be gracious to us, and may the Lord grant us peace as we begin the new year.

Seventh Day Within The Octave of Christmas, Tuesday, 31-12-2024

1 John 2:18-21 / John 1:1-18  

Coming to the last day of the year, we would like to spend the last few hours of the year to think about how it has been.

Of course, what has been is history and we cannot change whatever has happened in the past.

Nonetheless we learn from what has happened so that we will become wiser with the experience.

And whatever decisions we have made throughout the year, we know that time will tell us whether those were wise or not.

In the 1st reading, it also talks about the last days.

But those last days reveal who really belonged to Christ, and who never belonged.

And for those who belonged to Christ, then they would believe who Christ really is.

The gospel brings us back to the beginning when there was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God.

So, as we come to the end of the year, we also go back to the beginning.

We go back to the beginnings of our faith when we first heard the Word and came to believe.

And as we look back, let us give thanks to God for giving us the faith to believe that Jesus was the Word made flesh and dwells among us.

And may we continue to believe that Jesus will always be with us, from the beginning to the end.

Sixth Day Within Octave of Christmas, Monday, 30-12-2024

1 John 2:12-17 / Luke 2:36-40 

We came into this world with nothing.

But along the way, we begin to possess things and call them our own.

As we go on in life, we own some more things, but we also lose other things.

There will come a time in life when we may come to the realization that we don’t need that much in life.

The gospel tells of Anna, the prophetess, who was 84 years old.

Anna didn’t have much in life and she also didn’t need much at the point in life.

But God gave her what she looked forward to, and that is to see the fulfillment of the promise of God in the infant Jesus.

The 1st reading urges us not to love this passing world or anything in this world.

The world, with all it craves for, is coming to an end, but the one who does the will of God will remain forever.

When we keep our focus on doing the will of God, then God will give us what we need.

Then like Anna, the prophetess, we will see the promise of God coming true in this life and also in the life hereafter.

Holy Family, Year C, 29.12.2024

Ecclesiasticus 3:2-6, 12-14 / Colossians 3:12-21 / Luke 2:41-52

No matter where we go to, or how far we go, at the end of the day, we will always go back to where we came from. 

This place where we will always go back to is where we call home. 

We may go overseas for holiday, and we are impressed by how nice and good that place is. 

But our hearts will still think of home, and long to go back home. 

Yes, home is where the heart is, home is where the family is, home is where there is love. 

So, at home, and in the family, there should be love, there must be love. 

But as it is, no home is perfect, and no family is perfect. 

But despite the imperfections and even dysfunctions, we still go back home and back to our family. 

Because we believe that there can be love, and that there will be love. 

And that is the hope for our home, that is the hope for our family, and it is with that hope that we keep going back. 

Today's Gospel passage recalls that occasion when there was tension in the Holy Family. 

Jesus went with Mary and Joseph to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. 

After the feast, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without His parents knowing it. 

Mary and Joseph searched for Jesus for three days, and they finally found Him in the Temple. 

Mary expressed the tension of the situation when she said: My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been looking for you. 

And they did not understand what Jesus meant by being busy with His Father's affairs. 

So, even for the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, love is not a given, and they too faced trials and tensions. 

But they believed that there can be love, and that there will be love. 

And that is also what the Holy Family is telling us about our family. 

That in our family trials and tensions, there can be love and there will be love, and it is love that will keep our family together. 

There is a story of a particular cold and hard winter, and a family of porcupines came together to keep warm. 

But as they huddled together, their spikes poked at each other. 

After some painful contact, they decided to stay away from each other. 

But because the winter was cold and hard, they had to come back together to keep warm. 

They accepted that they have to bear with the painful moments in order to keep warm and alive. 

Yes, it is the warmth of love that keeps our family together, and that love will overcome the trials and the tensions of family life. 

God wants to bless our families just as He blessed the Holy Family. 

And just as Jesus lived under the authority of Mary and Joseph, parents have a spiritual authority over their children. 

And parents express that authority by blessing their children with Holy Water, to invoke God's protection and guidance for their children. 

And we the Church, the family of God, must also invoke God's blessings on this feast of the Holy Family. 

May Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for us and our families, that there will be love, and that parents and children will be God’s blessing for one another.

And may we, the family of God, also be a blessing for the world.

Holy Innocents, Martyrs, Saturday, 28-12-2024

1 John 1:5 -2:2 / Matthew 2:13-18  

Human pride and ego are the causes of many problems in life and in relationships.

And human pride and ego becomes a big problem especially when it is boosted by power and might.

And when pride and ego get out of control, there will be tragedy and disaster.

As it was in the case of king Herod. 

His pride and ego, his fears and insecurity, spun out of control when he realized that he had been outwitted by the wise men.

He was so furious that he did the inhumane thing, and that is to order the killing of the male children under two years old.

Not only innocent blood was shed, the victims were little children who were defenseless and helpless.

Their blood cries out throughout history as they are remembered in this feast of the Holy Innocents.

May we also hear their cries and realise that our pride and ego can cause tragedy and disaster.

Let us also be humble and simple so that we can be more humane and caring especially to little children.

St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, Friday, 27-12-2024

1 John 1:1-4 / John 20:2-8  

All the apostles went though persecution and martyrdom when they went forth to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.

St. John too had his share of sufferings and it was said that he was thrown into a pot of boiling oil but was unharmed.

Then he was exiled on the island of Patmos and tradition has it that he lived to a ripe old age and died a natural death.

The gospel and the letters are accredited to him, and there are two recurring themes.

One is that Jesus Christ is divine as well as human.

And the other is God is love and that Jesus Christ is the love of God made flesh.

That is the essential message of St. John’s gospel and the letters.

As we celebrate the feast of St. John, let us reflect and meditate on the Good News that he proclaimed.

May the Good News be made flesh in us and may our lives be the Good News that others will see and may them come to know and love Jesus.

St. Stephen, the First Martyr, Thursday, 26-12-2024

Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59 / Matthew 10:17-22  

It may sound rather morbid to think or talk about death.

But we know it is the final reality that we have to face.

And we certainly wish we would have a peaceful and happy death.

No one would ever want to think about or be prepared for a violent and unprepared death.

St. Stephen would also like to have a peaceful and happy death.

And he certainly wasn’t prepared for the violence he faced with when he proclaimed Jesus.

And neither would he have thought that his life would come to an end under a pile of stones.

Although his violent death was something St. Stephen was not prepared for, he died a peaceful and happy death.

He forgave his enemies and he put his life into the hands of his Lord and Saviour Jesus.

To think about death just a day after Christmas seems so jarring and out of place.

But birth and death are like the cycles of life. 

In preparing for death, we are also preparing for life in eternity.

We do this preparation by forgiving those who wronged us, and also by praying like St. Stephen – Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.