It is 19th October 2018. We celebrate the memorials of saints John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues and companions, martyrs and Saint Paul of the Cross, priest. The readings are from Ephesians 1:11-14; and the Gospel from Luke 12:1-7. To believe God who loves us still is indeed grace. We are all so blessed to have encountered and experienced God in God’s Only Beloved Son Jesus through abiding and loving presence of the Holy Spirit. God has embraced us and adopted us once and for all through the sacrifice of Jesus as God’s own children. We are so blessed with every spiritual blessing through the faith we have in Jesus. We are indeed marked by the Holy Spirit to worship God to follow Jesus all through our life. To participate and experience in this divine relationship with God is a free gift offered to all who believe and accept Jesus as the Saviour. What we need to do is to deal with sin that separates and alienates us from our loving God. Only then do we enjoy the freedom that is guaranteed in the Holy Spirit. St. Paul teaches us in the first reading that we are guaranteed of God’s blessings in Jesus through the seal of the promise by the Holy Spirit. Our love for Christ and the knowledge of Christ would penetrate our sinful areas and cleanse from all sins. Otherwise, we will be fooling ourselves with a life of hypocrisy. Our inheritance and salvation come from Jesus no matter however hard Satan tries to put us in hostility with God. The responsorial Psalm praises, “Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.” (Ps.32:12). The Gospel warns us all about the life of hypocrisy. With power, money, influence, and position in the society, people engage in evil activities without realising that all the fame will disappear one day and eventually all would be visible and exposed. When we begin to live a life of awareness of God’s presence, we are free from all kinds of fear in the world. It is the selfish and evil intentions of an individual is the yeast in the society that corrupts the souls of the others. Power hungry and money lovers have this yeast of hypocrisy in their life. Intentionally and wilfully spreading fear is on the increase for their selfish motives to be achieved. Let us learn to have a reverential fear for God not any human. Let not our love for a person, a group or an institution blindfold the commitment for Christ. When we live in the power of the Holy Spirit, we have nothing and have no one to fear. On the contrary, when our life is full of hypocrisy, we inflict the pain on others one way or the other. Let us work hard to stop the spreading of the selfish and sinful yeast of the powerful. Let us not trade our dignity and esteem for the sake of enjoyment and pleasures of this world. When we are capable of being saints, why are we living sinful and selfish lives still? “Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Lk.12:7). May you have day free of fear of any kind? May God bless you all.