Reconciliation is not the work of man - it is the work of God. God always reaches out to us. Saint Paul was well aware of this when he said: "It was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation." As we are reconciled and loved unconditionally by God, can we extend the same reconciliation and love to those who have hurt us?

All that God wants of us is sincerity of heart. Sacrifice and holocausts might be good to demonstrate our love for God but they could also be used as an attempt to hide our lack of love for God and give the impression to others that we are sorry for our sins and that we love God. What the Lord asks of us is perfect love. When we are sincere in love and perfect in love, then we will do all things with love and for love. Our external worship and the actions we do come from a heart of love. We...

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice simply because He does God's will. He took upon the human body and emptied Himself of His divinity, in order to show us what it means to do the will of God. Let us keep in mind that the only holocaust we can truly offer is ourselves.

When we do not get what we want, we think that God does not care for us. We want God to do our bidding and pander to our whims and fancies. So when we have to go through suffering, we blame God. And if God does not restore our fortunes, we turn away from Him. Why do we lose faith in God? It is forgetfulness. The second reason why people harden their hearts is because of sin. When sin accumulates, we harden our hearts to goodness and truth. Thirdly, people harden their hearts because of pride....

Jesus perfected the laws by carrying them out in a spirit of love. It is love that should helps us carry out and implement the Law. The law of perfect love is what is required.

We must be prepared and ready at all times. The day of reckoning will come. Let us continue to persevere in holiness, and not receive the grace of God in vain. Instead, let us nurture our faith with the Word of God and the grace of the Sacraments.

Joseph was a just man not only because he acted justly, that is, in accordance with the laws of God, but his justice was rooted in his faith in God. It was not only legal justice or human justice. He acted justly because he believed in God and that the laws given by God through Moses were good and therefore must be respected and obeyed. Joseph did not simply trust God but carried out what the Lord asked of him. Indeed, God who is faithful to us requires us to be just by trusting in Him. It...

We all have our dreams. They give us hope of finding fulfilment. They push us to go beyond ourselves. They make us creative and resourceful. They give us something to work towards. No great things can be achieved, no great inventions could have happened, if we are without dreams. But what kind of dreams do we have? Often in life, instead of allowing the dreams of God to be fulfilled in us, according to His plans, our human imperfections complicate the plan of God for us. Hence, it is...

We have plenty of prophets in our days too, appealing to us to trust in God, to turn back to Him and to exercise mercy and compassion for the suffering and those in want.  Yet, we still do not listen or are moved. Indeed, what we need is humility to listen to God’s word.  This explains why Abraham said, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”  What we need is humility and faith, otherwise even the...

The price of sharing in Christ’s glory is that we become a ransom and a vicarious sacrifice for all. The true honour of a leader is measured by how much he has given himself to society, the poor and all humanity. They are remembered by how much they serve others.

There are many types of love. We have love for our loved ones and family members, the love of friends, love that springs from our passion, and the highest form of love, agape, which is unconditional love. It is a love that is directed towards others, who could even include our enemies. It is the perfection of love. Such a love is truly the love of God. This is what our Lord meant when He said, “You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect." No one in this sense can be...

We need to consider carefully the choices we make for ourselves, our children and our society. There is no escaping the fact that even personal choices will have an impact on others. One cannot say that this is my personal decision and it has nothing to do with others. For better or for worse our personal decisions will bear on others. This is why those in leadership and in government must consider seriously not just the immediate benefits of the decisions and policies they make, but they...

We must seek to know our Father more and more so that our confidence in His love and wisdom will not be compromised even when things do not work out the way we think is good for us. Instead, may we accept His holy will since His divine plan for us is what truly brings us real happiness.

The Church cannot be renewed unless we are open to a constant self-renewal born of fidelity to Jesus Christ. Today, let us take heed of the call to conversion and repentance. We pray for humility of heart so that we can hear the gospel anew, listening with attentive ears and a docile heart, so that once again, we are moved to repentance and begin the journey to holiness of life in Christ.

It is in the paschal mystery that we understand the depth of the Father’s mercy and love for us in Christ Jesus. It is at the Paschal Mystery that salvation is won for us and we are reconciled with God because He has paid the price for our sins. It is at the Paschal Mystery that the Holy Spirit, the love of God is poured into our hearts. Are we ready to affirm our identity as sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of our Lord in the world today?

The best way to give up our sins is to do good. This is what the prophet Isaiah means when he writes: "Your light will rise in the darkness, and your shadows become like noon." In this season of Lent, let us go beyond abstaining from sin and doing penance, by reaching out to others, feeling with and caring for them.

How should we observe the Lenten fast?  We must fast with integrity. This means the objectives must be clear. Truly, fasting in the right spirit should make us humble, more conscious of our sins, sincerely repentant for the injury we have caused to others, especially our loved ones, more earnest in wanting to correct our faults, and greater compassion to reach out to those who are suffering.  By healing and tending to the wounds of others, we heal our own wounds, by filling the lives of the...

We are called to be rich in the eyes of God: rich in love, generosity, goodness, kindness, patience, self-control. We will be robbed of our happiness and peace in life if we are instead filled with anger, competition, envy, greed, jealousy, and revenge.

Our conversion is a grateful response to the grace of God given to us in Christ. It is Christ who reveals to us His Father’s mercy for us through His vicarious death for our salvation. Jesus the Son of God became man to assume our human nature and to share in our human weakness. He too faced the same temptations, and even more intensely than anyone of us.  He offered Himself as the sacrificial victim, a blameless holocaust, for the atonement of our sins to render the justice of God before...

Christianity is about transformation of life. It is not how long we have been Catholics, but the quality of our Christian life that matters. It is important for us to examine ourselves - our words, deeds and judgement; how have we been transformed to become more like Christ?

The treasury of the Church, whilst referring primarily to the infinite value of Christ’s saving death on the cross, also includes the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints who have united themselves with the Lord by living holy lives. So the treasury of the Church must be seen as our participation in Christ’s saving death.

The laws are meant to help us to strengthen the marriage; to persevere, especially when the going gets tough; not to give up so easily. But the law of indissolubility presupposes that we have faith in God. If we have faith in God and we revere God, then we will try; we will pray for wisdom and patience, helping each other to be purified in love. Without faith, without prayer and patience, it will be too challenging to manage marriage life today.

A truly rich person is someone who is contented, and makes use of his resources to bless others. It is in service, charity and sharing that we find great joy within, and that friendships are established and renewed.

Many of us are overly confident of ourselves to the extent that we become arrogant, smug and complacent. We can also be arrogant in our confidence in God. An over-confidence in God who supplies everything can lead to irresponsibility by refusing to do any work or planning of any sort. Knowing God’s will is not enough, but one must also carry out the will of God. There is also another form of arrogance, which is in attitude and behaviour, thinking that what we have is through our own merit and...