Fr. Ken's Pastoral Care

The Sacrifice of Christ Readings: Genesis 22:1-2.9.10-13,15-18; Psalm 116; Romans 8:31-34 and Mark 9:2-10.  WHY DO WE REFLECT ON CHRIST’S TRANSFIGURATION EVERY SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT? The liturgy of today reveals to us the identity of Christ as it centers on his transfiguration on Mount Tabor and the call to listen to him.   The transfiguration gives us a glimpse of the reward that comes after every cross and it gives us courage to forge ahead, despite the difficulties and challenges of life. The transfiguration provides us answers to innumerable questions about our faith in Christ, gives us a clue of eschatology , that is, what we shall become later, it confirms the reality of heaven and the reward for the just, in the sense that all our fasting, prayers, penance, almsgiving and self-denial during this period of lent shall never go unrewarded.   Before the transfiguration event, we remember the Evangelist Mark has his style of writing. Mark presents Christ as a teac...

Flood of the days Noah and Baptism of Baptism  Readings: Genesis 9:8-15; Psalm 25; 1 Peter 3:18-22 and Mark 1:12-15.  THE RICH SPIRITUALITY OF THE SEASON OF LENT   Today the church celebrates the first Sunday of lent, a new liturgical season that began with Ash Wednesday. Lent commemorates the forty days Christ spent in the desert immediately after his baptism. It is a great moment of retreat for the Church as a whole and as individuals. In view of this, today’s liturgy presents to us the rich spirituality of the season of lent. First, it presents the covenant of God with man in the Old Testament (OT), God’s covenant not to destroy man by water anymore. Second, is the realization of this covenant to save man through the water of baptism as seen in the second reading and lastly is the triumph of good over evil in the person of Christ, after his forty days of fasting in the wilderness.   In God’s plan to save humanity from evil in the world, he entered into cov...

Exclusion Readings: Leviticus 13:1-2.44-46; Psalm 32; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45.  HAVE YOU EVER SUFFERED STIGMATIZATION AND EXCLUSION?    On Thursday, February 11, we celebrated world day of the sick. A day we remember and pray for all that are sick and suffering from stigmatization. Today’s liturgy takes our minds back to deadly diseases/virus such as Ebola of 2014 and the present pandemic in the world among others. The readings question our relationship with the sick. Being in the midst of friends recently and seeing how one was accused passionately for spreading the coronavirus among this group of friends, draws my attention to stigmatization and exclusion among loved ones. If we do this to others, does it make us free from the disease/virus? What then is our conception to illness? This is what today’s liturgy calls us to reflect on.   The book of Leviticus chapter 11-15 deals with the laws of purity and impurity. Put differently, the clean an...

Readings: Job 7:1-4.6-7; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 9:16-19.22-23 and Mark 1:29-39.  WHERE IS GOD IN THE MIDST OF EVIL?   What is our conception of suffering? Are we the type of Christians that don’t want to hear the word “suffer” or are we among those that endlessly ask: “How can we explain or justify the sufferings of man”? Why does God who is almighty and all-powerful not prevent suffering in this world? There is a mystery behind it, which the liturgy of today invites us to reflect on.   In the first reading, Job saw his present suffering like a futile and discouraging work of a servant or a hired man. He felt there was no hope anymore when he said, “ Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hireling who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and night of misery are apportioned to me .” Job described his physical condition in painful terms. His sufferings seems unending, which made him ask, “ When shall I arise? The night is long, and...