William Cardinal Goh The Shepherd's Voice

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...

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.&...

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 sacri...

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...

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 arrog...

If we want to truly be sons and daughters of the Most High, we need to share in the life of God and in His nature of loving. It is about loving even our enemies and those who have hurt us. After all, Christ died on the cross not for his friends, but for all, including his enemies.

When we use the tongue in a destructive manner, we can tear people down and discourage them from doing good. It is not just what we say but how we say it that can hurt people deeply. What we must do is to use our tongue in a constructive manner. We can use words to heal or to divide, to destroy or to build. How, then, can we tame our tongue?

An authentic faith is not merely living a life of charity and integrity, it means a decisive following of Christ. This is what the gospel is asking of us.  Anyone who believes in Christ must not just follow His teaching and example but seeing life and living it from His perspective. This is the litmus test of faith.  Earlier on, St Peter confessed his faith in Christ as the Son...

Today, the Lord is inviting us to put on a new mind. In His passion prophecy, He indicated that the way to life is through suffering and death. God wants to surprise us and help us to evaluate what truly can bring us happiness in life. It is when we live as brothers and sisters in the Lord, caring for each other in the community, each one bringing his or her talents and resources to the community...

If we want to earnestly engage in dialogue, we need to grow in self-awareness, so as to be conscious of the motives that drive us. Are our motives based on truth or our own vested interests?

Today, we are reminded that we have a personal responsibility to grow the Church of Christ. Each one of us, according to the grace God has given to us, must take part and play our role in the building not just of the physical church but the community. In this work, it presupposes that we will build upon our faith in Christ. We need to ask ourselves if our people are growing in the faith. How can w...

For us believers, Christ in the gospel offers us a blessed life. It is not a life of riches and pleasures, but one of God and the kingdom, filled with compassion, love and truth. It is about making our limited time on earth count, knowing a greater, more complete life awaits us for eternity.

At the end of today's gospel, Jesus commanded His disciples to announce the gospel to all the nations. Hence, the Christian Faith can be expressed in different cultures but the faith is the same. Christian Faith is to influence society to adopt the gospel values and ultimately to accept Christ as their Saviour and Lord. It is ironical that countries that are or were predominantly Christian are fig...

Let us pray for humility and grace when we transmit the Good News to others, so that they too might be able to listen to Him and find His Word healing and enlightening.

What is important with regard to our doctrinal and moral response to new situations, is that we must maintain the fundamental principles of our faith in God and our central beliefs in our Jesus and His Church, and the basic moral laws. It is also critical that we do not just observe the laws slavishly but to ask ourselves how we are keeping the intent and the spirit of the fundamental laws given b...

Jesus in today's Gospel said: “It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.   For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.” Again, wisdom is defined in terms of justice and righteousne...

A leader without humility will become a dictator, a tyrant and divisive. When leaders think too highly of themselves, they listen to no one. They tend to be overconfident of themselves and hardly pray to God! Often, they become proud and egoistic. They forget that they were chosen by God’s grace, and tend to emphasize on what they do, how much they have achieved, and how hard they worked. They ten...

To be a good shepherd like our Lord, one needs to have a discerning and intuitive heart. This will allow one to act in faith which goes beyond logic. With a discerning heart, one will know when to say yes and when to say no to requests, and be disciplined yet not rigid in spiritual practices.