Four Absolutes In Life

Can you define forgiveness fully for me? None of us are able to do so. For every single one of us perceives love in their own unique way. And it is only a drop of the entire perfection of that love.

To some of us love is when someone remembers my birthday. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen. Our beloved fathers, deacons, nuns, and all of you, our faithful and beloved people of Christ and the Church.

We thank the Lord Jesus always for giving us this priceless gift in being in his holy presence in this holy church. This is a gift from the Lord Jesus for us, yet we are not worthy of it. But it was the grace of God that made someone like me, the greatest sinners of all, to be standing in this holy altar and in this holy church and celebrate the Holy Mass with all of us.

I pray that you are always in good health and in good spirit. Those who are watching us through live streaming, may the Lord Jesus bless you, may the Lord Jesus guide you, may the Lord Jesus protect you always. The Holy Gospel of today is from St. Matthew, chapter 16.

The Lord Jesus was walking with his twelve apostles and he brought them deliberately to a place called Caesarea of Philippi. He brought them there deliberately. The epistle of St. Paul is a small portion from 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, and then chapter 13 in its entirety, which is 13 verses.

1 Corinthians 13, 1 to 13. But the church fathers have chosen the epistle of St. Paul that talks about love. But prior to chapter 13, the end of chapter 12, St. Paul talks about some great things faithfuls could have done in Jesus' mighty name.

One of them, speaking in tongues, where it is misunderstood totally by some group of people and they think that speaking in tongues is when you speak in gibberish. That is totally non-biblical. St. Paul is talking about speaking in tongues and doing wonders, but at the end of chapter 12 he says, come, let me show you something much more excellent than all of these.

So what is more excellent than all of these, St. Paul? He speaks about love. He says, if I can speak the language of the angels and if I can give all of my wealth to the poor and I throw or cast myself into the fire to be burned and I have no love, then I am nothing. He's talking about this love that surpasses any language, that surpasses any miracle doings, that surpasses everything else.

And St. Paul is talking about the true divine love that was fully illustrated, fully defined on the Holy Cross, on Calvary. There are four absolutes in life. Well, there are more than four absolutes, but I will give you the most important four absolutes in life.

One, love. Two, justice. Three, evil.

Four, forgiveness. If I ask anyone of us, can you define love for me? Can you define justice for me fully? Can you define evil for me fully? Can you define forgiveness fully for me? None of us are able to do so. For every single one of us perceives love in their own unique way.

And it is only a drop of the entire perfection of that love. To some of us, love is when someone remembers my birthday. To someone, love is when someone visits me when I'm sick in hospital.

To someone, love is when you surprise me with an airline ticket going to Hawaii and then I'll come and I'll kill you. Don't go to Hawaii, no good for you. Everyone defines love differently.

But what is love in its totality in the perfect picture? No one can, you know why? Because love is an absolute. What is an absolute? No beginning, no end. What is justice? No beginning, no end.

What is evil? No beginning, no end. What is forgiveness? No beginning, no end. It's an absolute.

But guess what? All these four absolutes were fully defined, fully illustrated, fully revealed and they were all brought together and converged into one place called Calvary, the cross. The Lord Jesus defined them all perfectly and illustrated them all perfectly on the cross. From heaven, God the Father cried out and said, from the very beginning I loved you, that's why I created you.

It was on the basis of my love, true divine love, that made me make you. And the day that came you broke my word, you broke my heart and my justice cried out to be fulfilled. The wage of sin is death.

My justice is asking and seeking death from every soul that broke God's word. And all of us have broken God's word. So the Father says, my love made you and when you broke my word, I sent you my beloved son, Jesus Christ and died on the cross based on this love.

To pay the price of my justice, the wage of sin is death. Jesus died on our behalf to justify God's justice. And he shed his blood, his precious blood on Calvary, on the cross and through the blood, Jesus washed away the evilness of the world.

And when he washed the evilness of the world, the Lord Jesus from the cross cried out to his Abba, Father, said, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they're doing. Love, justice, evil forgiveness were fully defined and illustrated on Calvary, on the cross. This is the love that 1 Corinthians 13 is talking about.

Saint Paul is amazing when he speaks very deep, theologically very deep. When you read the epistle of Saint Paul, I encourage you not to stop at the surface level assuming you've understood what he says because you're not. The sanctification of the church, the perfect bride of Christ without a blemish, without a stain.

And the epistle talks about true love, true divine love. And the Lord Jesus brings the 12 apostles to a place called Caesarea of Philippi. Wow.

What happened prior to the coming of the Messiah in the very same spot? Caesar came and brought his four sons. Their names are mentioned in the Gospels. In the Gospels, read them.

He came and brought his four sons. He said, I'm almost there to leave this world. Before I leave, I want to make sure my sons are okay.

For Caesar, the father, was worried if he had left and doing nothing about his kingdom in relation to his sons who will take over from him, he thought they're going to end up in court or might kill one another for the position, for the throne. So to play it safe, he brought his four sons in Caesarea Philippi and divided his kingdom into four portions. Each son receives a portion of his kingdom.

He divided it equally to the four of his children. This way, he said, I'll make sure they will not fight over the throne. How often parents depart from this world and the children end up in court fighting for the property and the money.

Prior to that, they were all good with one another. They were all family members. Brothers and sisters, parents depart.

When it comes to money and property and wealth, we forget that we are brothers. We forget. Fame, greed, selfishness can kill my own brother.

The Lord brought his 12 apostles to Caesarea Philippi and he said, in this very spot, Caesar's kingdom was divided. He was a king, but I, Jesus Christ, am the king of all kings. And my kingdom can never be divided.

So my disciples, open your ears very well and listen to me. You are all equal. No one is greater than the other one.

You are all brothers in Christ. You are all equal in my sight, in my eyes. Don't ever fight over the throne once Jesus goes up into heaven.

Peter, Andrew, Philip, Artholomew, James, all of you, remember, when I leave and go up and sit at the right hand of my father, you're going to remain here. This is my kingdom established on earth through my precious blood. Don't ever seek positions.

Don't ever seek thrones. Don't ever seek fame and places and wealth for yourselves. Because the day you do, you will divide my church.

You will split it. You will destroy it. My beloveds, what divided the church, the main reason, I'm going to be fair and not say the only reason, but the greatest reason of all that divided the church of Christ was the chair, the throne, nothing else.

Somebody comes and says to you, they fought because of the true faith. Please get a life. The main reason for the division was my throne is greater than yours, my dear brother.

I am Peter. I am the head. You, Andrew, you go and be the tail.

Jesus never said that. What divided the church and until this day is the throne. The problem of the church is not we are seeking the true faith and we are protectors of the true faith.

This is an excuse. Deep down, it is my throne. My throne.

Cardinals against cardinals. Bishops against bishops. Popes against popes.

Each one wants to have his empire to be the greatest. My goodness. Wow.

You know, when the church seeks materialistic things, when the church seeks worldly things, Satan will shut the mouth of the church. And the Lord will allow it. Because when the church seeks worldly things, Jesus says, I don't know who you are anymore.

I, Jesus Christ, speak only the language of love. And wherever there is love, there is unity. Wherever there is love, there is peace.

Wherever there is love, there is humility. Wherever there is love, there is kindness. Wherever there is love, there is meekness.

Wherever there is love, there is forgiveness. Wherever there is love, there is sacrifice from the heart. Wherever there is love, there is construction.

And when love is missing, there is only one thing, destruction. Today, the church has become so weak because the church became rich in materialism, poor in spirituality. That is the truth.

That is the painful, honest truth. Very painful. The church is weak because we seek worldly things over heavenly divine things.

That's why God of the 21st century is mammon, wealth. Today, the church is measured in relation to her success of how much money, properties, and possessions the church has, not how many faithfuls the church has. So sad.

Maybe a street beggar will enter the church and in the eyes of Christ, this street beggar is the greatest saint. I wonder how the church will look at this street beggar. And how the church will look at someone comes in dressed up in linen and gold.

I just wonder, the church, who are you sitting with? Who are you dealing with? Who are you associating with? Are you associating with Caesar? With this world? Are you seeking Caesar's favoritism? Because Caesar can help us? Get us this grant and get us this deal over the line? Because we need to build. We need to do this and we need to do that. And unless we are in the right books of Caesar, we cannot achieve these things.

You forgot that Jesus is God? Have you? Who is Caesar? Nothing. Who is the Prime Minister? Nothing. Who is the President? Nothing.

Who is the King of this world? Absolutely nothing, a piece of dust. It is Jesus Christ who holds everything in the palm of His hand. We have forgotten Him.

The Lord reminds us, I brought you to this spot where division took place. Don't you ever be divided, my disciples. Why was the division made? Because each son wanted a throne.

You see, there were four sons. If one of them got the entire empire, they would have killed him. They would have hated him.

The relationship would have been broken forever. The father realized the brothers will not sustain themselves and control themselves if one of them took the whole lot. He was forced to divide the kingdom.

And when he divided the kingdom, the kingdom became weak. But the Lord says, My disciples, you are supposed to be one, united. Not divided.

The church needs to be one. One, my beloved. What makes the church one? Love.

Love. True love. Now let's come to our daily routine life.

How can I implement this kind of love which St. Paul talks about? If I give all of my wealth to the poor and cast myself into the fire and I have no love in me, then I am nothing. To all the husbands and the wives that are here present, who is married here? I feel very happy for you. Just kidding.

Marriage is beautiful because it's from God. That's why it's beautiful. My dear son, when you chose your partner, your wife, in marriage, you chose her in the name of Jesus Christ because you got married in the name of Jesus Christ, who is all love.

Therefore, if your wife is giving you an absolute hard time, you need to endure. She can be a pain in the neck. You'll need to endure.

Until she kicks you out, obviously, then I'll find you a room somewhere and you bring your luggages with you. Nowadays, people are not able to tolerate one another very much so. Easily we get offended.

Easily we get disheartened. And easily we give up. And the worst of all, we fight over materialistic things.

Materialistic things. I've seen couples almost divorcing because he doesn't buy me things, he doesn't take me on holidays, he doesn't buy me a Toyota four-wheel drive. You can't even order one now.

You have to wait for months till it arrives. But over materialistic things, we would fight and argue. We need to be tolerant.

I'll leave you with this. Some of you have become familiar with this bishop when he says, I'll leave you with this. That means you'll never hear the end of it.

You know why we don't tolerate one another anymore or it's very hard to tolerate. Very hard nowadays. Like maybe I'll tolerate you once, twice, three times, ten times, a hundred times.

After a thousand and one, I'll chop you in pieces. No more Miss Nice Person, no more Mr. Nice Guy. I've had enough of you.

Jesus, our Lord, he's tolerating us after 2,021 years gone by. He's still tolerating our ignorance, our foolishness, our evilness. He's still tolerating it.

There are three kinds of cultures, no more, no less. There is what they call the Theonomous Culture, the Hedronomous Culture, and the Autonomous Culture. These are all Greek names.

Theos, God. Nomos, law. Theonomous Culture, God's law culture.

Hedros means another. Nomos, law. Another one, law culture.

Otos, self. That's where the word comes, automobile. Otos, self.

Nomos, law. Self, law culture. If I were to ask all of us, the 21st century, which culture is it out of the three? Definitely the Autonomous Culture.

Self, law, culture. Why? Because even the little baby says, it's either my way or you hit the highway. Even the baby.

You come and talk to this little child? No, no. The husband talks to the wife? No. You either listen, it's gotta be done this way, or it is not.

This color is not blue, it is red. Okay? So you can bash your head on all the walls, it is still gonna remain red, it is never gonna be blue. I will never admit it's blue.

And the husband the same. Why we don't tolerate one another? Because when it is a self-control, a law culture, then I am unique. There is no one else the same as me.

God created me uniquely with my own identity. My fingerprint out of the almost 8 billion people that live on the face of this earth as we speak, there is no one out of the almost 8 billion people that has the same fingerprint as mine and as yours. No one.

Yours, it is yours only. And then someone comes and says, all of this was made because there was a big bang. I'll big bang you in a minute.

This is a foolish statement. Big bang. What caused the big bang? Science is still searching.

Good luck. Good luck. Your uncle the gorilla will die and you will never come to this conclusion.

There is no one like me. Therefore, no one is gonna think the same as me. So imagine it's an autonomous culture.

My law. Who am I gonna listen to? No one. Who am I gonna agree with? No one.

We need to bring God back and make it theos, nomos culture. God, law culture. Where it is God's way, not my way.

And when we bring God into the equation, the husband and wife are all of a sudden living in harmony. Once God leaves the equation, you will never find happiness. You will never find peace.

You will never find unity. It is God that makes it possible. Because the mind of God unites every contradictive mind.

So we need to bring God in our lives. And the church needs to bring Christ back. God revealed in the flesh.

See, when we bring Jesus back to the church, he will unite his church. It is not our job. It is the Lord's.

Popes can meet till kingdom comes. They will never unite. They're human beings.

Each one is different to the other. But what needs to happen? True love and true humility needs to come back. So no more thrones.

You're the greatest. Your throne is the greatest. Forget about it.

Leave it alone. Come down. Embrace your other brothers as brothers.

Catholic, Orthodox, come back and embrace one another in the love of Christ. Forget about thrones. Forget about supremacy.

Look what's happening in the world. Our children are going astray and we are fighting over whose throne is the greatest. Absolute ignorance.

Selfishness. Selfishness. The enemy is devouring the flock and we are still fighting over materialistic things.

We need to be humble. We need to come back to Christ to make us humble. Jesus is the answer to every question.

The medication to every illness. I thank the Lord for all of you that are present in the church and those who are watching us through live streaming. I pray that the Lord always protect you.

Always guide you. Always enlighten your path. Show you the way.

Show you the way, my beloved. To the young men. Get up, mate.

Let's go, bro. What's up? Get down, bro. Let's put the prawns on the barbie, will you? And to my beautiful girls and my beautiful handsome men, young men.

Out there is very tempting and I must say it's very tempting. Downtown, very tempting. Clubbing, very tempting.

The subwoofer, Habibi, in the backseat and going wah-wah-duv-duv. Very tempting. The fingernails, very tempting.

The eyebrows and the mascara-pascara and the Botox, very tempting. The dresses and the brands, very tempting. Shopping.

Let me be jabbed. I just want to go overseas. Doesn't matter.

Jab me, brother, as much as you want. I miss going overseas, man. Qantas, here we come.

Who cares about Qantas? Well, I only care about the kangaroo because that's iconic of this great country. But they're not the administration of Qantas. I couldn't care less.

Uh-oh, they won't let me fly again. My beloveds, the world is tempting. Social media, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Wikwok, Pikpok, and I don't know, so many new names are lost count.

You know, like that father that was looking so miserably, had three sons. First son came and he put his hand up and he said, I have an iPhone. The other son came and he said, I have an iPad.

The other son came and said, I have an iPod. And the father so miserably put up his hand and said, and I paid. I have an iPhone, iPad, iPod, and I paid.

So we have too many things out there to pay for and to play with. That's so dangerous. Friends, outings, having fun, nights in the city, coming late, going wherever, free country, I can do whatever I want.

No one can stop me except Corona. But my beloved, at the end, at the end I need to think of one thing. Where am I heading and what am I doing with my life? There is a precious pearl inside me called the spirit.

Don't play with it. Don't bargain with it. Because if you lose it, you can't bring it back again.

You need Christ. I beg you, my beautiful sons and daughters, your teenagers, in your 20s, 30s, 40s, you're still young. Even if you're 70, you're still young.

Or above 70. It's not the outer appearance, it's the heart. That counts.

But especially to those young in their teens and their 20s. I beg you, do not be tempted by so-called friends. Do not be led to places where the Lord does not approve of.

He wants you to be with Him. The Lord is very happy when He sees young men and women in His holy church. He's very happy.

And you have no idea how much He is blessing you this very moment. You have no idea. Just by being here, the Lord has already delivered you from so many trials that were going to come your way, but He stopped them.

Believe me, that's the truth. Believe me, that's the truth. The Lord has stopped them from coming your way because you chose to come here today.

You have no idea what happens in the spiritual realm. You have no idea. The angels are always fighting the enemy.

There is a battle. The angels come to our rescue always without revealing themselves. But they are here.

And one thing, when the priest offers the body and the blood of Christ, when it's broken on the altar, the entire heaven comes to a full halt, absolute silence, in awe and in trembling before their Creator, Jesus Christ. Yet, we're sitting here, we're eating His body, drinking His blood, without knowing what a privilege, what a blessing, what a priceless gift God is giving us all. We're not realizing it.

Angels, they envy us in a holy way. They are jealous of us in a holy way. They say, we wish we could do the same as these humans who are a piece of dust.

But angels are servants. You are the children of God. The greatest rank in the angelic order, Archangel Michael, Gabriel, they stand in the presence of the Lord.

We sit. Because the Lord to them is their master. The Lord to us is our daddy.

I don't need to stand when my dad walks in. He's my dad. I'm cool and I'm relaxed.

G'day, dad. Hey, goin', mate. Thank the Lord.

Thank the Lord. Let us bow our heads and ask Lord Jesus for forgiveness to make us worthy to come forth and receive him in the Holy Eucharist, the body in the truth and the blood in the truth. Amen.

Our good God and full of mercy, our good God and full of mercy, whose grace and mercy is poured upon all, pour, my Lord, the compassion of the delightfulness of your love upon your servants and again transform them in the hope of renewal to the life of repentance. Renew in them your Holy Spirit by whom they are sealed for the day of salvation. Purify them by your compassion from all flesh and spiritual blemishes and assure the hope of their faith by the aid of your grace and instill the walks of their behavior and the paths of righteousness.

Please them along with the saints in your kingdom by the assurance of the hope of their faith and the adoption as your children and in the joy of your absolving mysteries. Empower them by the aid of your mercies to observe your commandments and fulfill your will to confess, worship and praise your Holy Name, the Lord of all, Father and Son, and Holy Spirit forever. Amen.

We thank the Lord Jesus always, my beloved. I love you. I love you.

I love you. I love you very much. But Jesus loves you the most.

Always remember this. Don't ever lose track of it. Maybe you'll have a kingdom on earth.

Maybe you'll have wealth on earth.