William Cardinal Goh The Shepherd's Voice

Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. This feast focuses on the Eucharist as the greatest gift our Lord bequeathed to the Church before His death. Unfortunately, many of us lack appreciation and understanding of the Eucharist. Whilst the Church professes our faith in the real presence of our Lord in the Eucharist and celebrates the Eucharist daily in our churches, and most...

Our mission is to bring unity among all men and women. But this unity is only possible if man is reconciled with God. Our mission is one of communion, and if the mission is to be accomplished, it must be accomplished in communion.  The Holy Spirit has bestowed on us different gifts, talents and charisms. Each of these charisms is important for the growth of the community and for the service o...

Today, as a consequence of a relativistic, individualistic and materialistic world, it is hard to know exactly how we can respond to the challenging trends that are happening today. Many of us are confused as to what direction we should take. And we cannot agree on moral principles, moral values. The Holy Father in his recent World Communications Sunday message urged us to “Listen with the Heart”....

On the feast of Pentecost, we are given the power of the Spirit to live out our new life. For us to remain in communion with God, we need to put sin to death in our lives, and express our obedience to Him out of mutual love.

Communication is a two-way process. Speaking and listening. But the one who speaks often is not given adequate listening. Most of our conversations are monologues. We are more interested in being heard, to have our ideas accepted, and our demands fulfilled. We tend to be more on the defensive. Instead of listening, we are preparing our defences, finding fault with the other party’s proposition. Th...

Even with challenges and difficulties, we can have peace if we are in union with God in love and truth. It is our union with the Father, in the Son, and through the Spirit that gives us true peace.

Like Jesus and his community of 12 apostles, we need to build and be part of faith-loving communities centred in Christ. Such communities help us to persevere and grow our faith, as well as find fellowship and love.

A beautiful hymn in the Divine Office contains the following lyrics: "Paschal triumph, Paschal joy, only sin can this destroy." Indeed, only sin can take away our Easter joy. So if we want to live in Easter, then let us keep dying to our selfishness, sin and fears, and instead walk in His light.

When Jesus was on the cross, He was carrying upon Himself the sins of the world and, most of all, the rejection of man towards God.  He bore the silence of God, which is what atheists experience, without God! Only when Christ was hanging on the cross and said, “into your hands I commend my Spirit” did the Holy Spirit take over the mission of our Lord and complete it through the ages.  Th...

In His perfect love and mercy, Jesus forgave the sins of the apostles even before they betrayed Him. Following in His example, may we forgive those who hurt us. This is the greatest act of "washing" another's feet.

As members of the royal priesthood, we are the frontliners of witnessing in the world. We are called to live out the message of the Gospel, and to proclaim Jesus wherever we are. Meanwhile, the ordained ministry is to support the members of the royal priesthood - to nurture, strengthen and heal with the Sacraments.

Jesus came as the King of Peace into Jerusalem. Even Pilate recognized this. Jesus came to bring peace, seating on a humble donkey. The people recognized His symbolic gesture and so proclaimed Him as the One who would bring peace to the nation. He came to make us all kings by submitting to God. Jesus lived out what He taught at the Sermon on the Mount. His teaching was not just words but rooted in...

God is always faithful to His covenant, even when we are not faithful to Him. If the Lord abandoned the people for a while, it was to bring them back to realization and repentance. But God was ever ready to bring them back when they returned to Him. Such is God’s faithful love for His people. God had prepared a lasting covenant beyond even what Isaiah prophesied. It is none other than the Lord Jes...

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 w...

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,...

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...

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, accordi...

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 convinc...

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, “Yo...

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 conside...