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Tuesday, 28 July 2026 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Lord speaking to us through the passages of the Sacred Scriptures, regarding the matter of God’s love for each one of us, and how each one of us are also called to lead a life that is both holy and worthy of God. We are constantly being reminded to turn towards God with faith, sin no more and to do no more what is wicked and unbecoming of our status as Christians. We are all called to be holy just as our Lord and God is holy, and to be righteous and just in the way that He has shown and taught us, so that our lives will truly reflect genuinely what we believe in and we are not merely paying lip service in our faith in God.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, of the prayer which the prophet Jeremiah made on behalf of the people of God in Judah, which began with the Lord’s words mentioning how the Lord was sorrowful of the sufferings and the plight endured by His people in Jerusalem and Judah. They had endured a lot of trials and tribulations because of their own mistakes and disobedience against God, in turning towards the pagan gods and idols instead of the Lord, following the wicked ways of the world rather than turning back towards the Law and the commandments of God, as many among our ancestors and predecessors had done.

The Lord has sent His prophets again and again to help set His people on the right path and to remind them of what they had to do as His disciples and followers, as His flock and His people. However, the people had often hardened their hearts and minds, closed themselves off from the Lord and disobeyed Him time and again, and they often persecuted those prophets and messengers who had been sent to remind and guide them in the right paths. Yet, God was still ever patient in reaching out to them, because ultimately should they remain in sin, they would be lost to Him forever, and that is not something that God wants to happen to us, His beloved ones.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the continuation of the parable which the Lord told His disciples, the parable of the wheat and the weeds, in which an enemy had spread weeds among the wheat crops in a field. The weeds cannot be removed from the wheat without killing the wheat crops themselves, and they also compete with the wheat crops for nutrients, water, space and more. The owner of the field, who represents the Lord our God, let both to grow together until the day of the harvest, when all the wheat were collected into the barns while the weeds are finally removed, burnt and destroyed.

This is a reminder to all of us, God’s beloved people that if we continue to live our lives in the manner of the wicked and if we remain in the state of sin, then we are like weeds growing in the field of the Lord, that is this world. On the other hand, if we are faithful to the Lord, then we are like the wheat growing wonderfully and fruitfully in the field of the Lord. And we have that choice whether we want to be like the wheat or to be like the weeds. God has given us all plenty of time and opportunities, the choices and the means for us to embrace Him, His love, His truth and His path. If only that we have the courage and the willingness to commit ourselves to that path towards His salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all reminded that while we still have the time and opportunity to do so, we should do our best to turn towards the Lord with contrite hearts and minds, seeking Him with all our hearts and with all our might and strength, and we should do our best to glorify God by our lives and actions from now on. We are all called to be exemplary in faith and to be role models for one another so that we can be true disciples of the Lord and truly are the healthy and fruitful wheat of the Lord’s field. That is our calling as Christians today, and we should do better by looking upon the examples of the great saints, our holy predecessors.

That is why we are all reminded that we are the ones whom the Lord had called and chosen to be His own, to be truly loved by Him and that we are all indeed precious in His sight. Each and every one of us as God’s holy and beloved people ought to nurture within us the strong desire to follow the good examples of the Lord, all that He Himself has shown and taught us, and inspired us to do through His Church. We are the ones who ought to make manifest the light of Christ’s truth and love in our world today, just as our world today is filled with so much darkness and evil. Our faithful living of our lives will be our greatest witnesses we can possibly give to the Lord, in fulfilling what He has shown and entrusted to us to do.

May the Lord, our ever loving, kind and compassionate God continue to help us in being ever more faithful, committed and dedicated to Him, in each and every moments of our lives so that we may indeed be the worthy bearers of His Good News and truth, His love and Presence in this world today. We are all called to be truly fruitful in everything that we do, in our every moments in life. May all of us bear forth this faith wonderfully as best as we can, in living as exemplary Christians at all times, in leading more and more people towards God and the eternal life in Him. Amen.

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Tuesday, 28 July 2026 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 13 : 36-43

At that time, Jesus sent the crowds away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” Jesus answered them, “The One Who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed are the people of the kingdom; the weeds are those who follow the evil one. The enemy who sows the weeds is the devil; the harvest is the end of time, and the workers are the Angels.”

“Just as the weeds are pulled up and burnt in the fire, so will it be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send His Angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom all that is scandalous and all who do evil. And these will be thrown into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the just will shine, like the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. If you have ears, then hear.”

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Tuesday, 28 July 2026 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 78 : 8, 9, 11, 13

Do not remember against us the sins of our fathers. Let Your compassion hurry to us, for we have been brought very low.

Help us, God, our Saviour, for the glory of Your Name; forgive us for the sake of Your Name.

Listen to the groans of the prisoners; by the strength of Your arm, deliver those doomed to die.

Then we, Your people, the flock of Your pasture, will thank You forever. We will recount Your praise from generation to generation.

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Tuesday, 28 July 2026 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Jeremiah 14 : 17-22

This you will say to them : Let My eyes shed tears night and day without ceasing! For a great wound has the virgin daughter of My people been wounded, a most grievous wound. If I go into the country, I see those slain by the sword. If I enter the city I see the ravages of famine. For the prophet and the priest did not understand what was happening in the land.

Have You then rejected Judah forever? Do You abhor Zion? Why have You wounded us and left us with no hope of recovery? We hoped for salvation but received nothing good; we waited for healing, but terror came! YHVH, we know our wickedness and that of our ancestors, and the times we have sinned against You.

For Your Name’s sake do not despise us; do not dishonour the throne of Your glory. Remember us. Do not break Your Covenant with us! Among the worthless idols of the nations, are there any who can bring rain, or make the skies send showers? Only in You, YHVH our God, do we hope, for it is You Who do all this.

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Monday, 27 July 2026 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us heard the readings from the Scriptures in which we heard the manifestation of God’s anger at His people’s disobedience and lack of faith as they constantly and consistently refused to listen to Him and continued to follow the path of sin instead of the path of the truth. Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord wanted to make it clear to His people that it was by their stubbornness and refusal to believe in Him that they would face ruin and destruction, their constant and continued disobedience against everything that God Himself has shown and taught them throughout their history.

And the destruction did come upon the people of God, of both Israel and Judah, crushed by their enemies and exiled from their lands, as a result of them putting their trust in their own might and power, in worldly power and alliances, in their pagan idols and gods rather than to trust in God. God had sent so many prophets and messengers to them, showed them signs and revelations and yet they still would not believe, and kept on following the path of rebellion and disobedience, hardening their minds and hearts against God and His servants, refusing to accept the fact that they could have erred and made mistakes in their paths and choices in life. 

In our Gospel passage today, we heard something similar to this as the Lord spoke to His people in parables, teaching them about the kingdom of heaven and its meaning. And the Lord highlighted to His disciples that He always taught in parables and spoke in cryptic terms so as to both reveal the meaning of the truth He brought to those who are willing to listen to them, and to hide them from those who have hardened their hearts and refused to listen to Him. It was not that God purposefully wanted to make it difficult for the people to understand Him, but for those who have hardened their hearts and minds against Him, not even the clearest and easiest things to be understood can be accepted.

This brings us then into the realisation that unless we are willing to embrace the Lord and His ways, then we will not be able to appreciate fully His truth and love, and we will not be able to embrace Him fully as we should have. Our hardened hearts and minds would have been closed to the Lord nonetheless, and still, we have to realise just how great God’s love for us has been, that He is still always ever willing to reach out to us all with His ever generous love and kindness. And this is also shown through the parable that the Lord used in explaining the kingdom of heaven, the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast and three measures of flour. 

In all these parables, the Lord brought forth the fact of how those little things like mustard seed and yeast, mustard seed being one of the smallest among the seeds and yeast being very small and microscopic in size, were able to grow into immense proportions beyond imagination. The mustard seed grow into a relatively large tree with many branches while the yeast allow the dough to rise quite significantly in size. Similarly that yeast can make the dough to rise to much greater proportions. It is something that many people would not have expected, that some of those things, so small and seemingly so insignificant can be the harbingers of things so magnificent, great and amazing in the end of the day.

The significance of this is such that subtly, the Lord is telling us that we need to make ourselves small and insignificant before God, minuscule and tiny, if we want to grow and be truly great before Him. It is by discarding all sorts of pride and greed, ego and ambition, selfishness and hubris, and instead embracing humility and meekness that we will be able to grow in faith. Unless we humble ourselves, we will be too full of ourselves to be able to nurture ourselves with the love of God, and there will be no space for the Lord within our hearts, within our minds and within our lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, then, similarly, for the mustard seeds to grow and for the yeast to be able to make the dough to rise, they require specific conditions that if not fulfilled, then those things will not be able to happen. The mustard seeds need water, the right temperature and oxygen in the air to germinate, and later on will also need nutrients from the soil and sunlight to grow well into a great tree. Similarly, yeast also need the absence of oxygen and warm conditions for them to be able to function and make the dough rise. If the conditions are not fulfilled for either of them, then nothing good would have come out of them.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to live faithfully in God’s presence so as to provide the best condition for ourselves to grow in the sight of God, to grow like the mustard seed and to rise like the dough with yeast? We are all called to be good and fruitful Christians in life, and we should indeed do what we can to serve God and to dedicate ourselves to Him and to His ways, to be righteous and to be exemplary in how we act in our everyday living that by our faith, we become God’s shining examples, in living up to our Christian faith most sincerely and with great dedication so that we may inspire and help lead many others towards God and the salvation in Him.

Let us all therefore not harden our hearts and minds as what the people of God had once done, and instead, allow God to enter into our hearts and minds by making ourselves small before Him, humbling ourselves and dedicating ourselves to Him with all of our heart and with all of our strength. May the Lord be with us always and may He strengthen us all each and every moments of our lives that we may truly grow well in the faith and bear wonderful, bountiful fruits, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 27 July 2026 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 13 : 31-35

At that time, Jesus offered His disciples another parable : “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is smaller than all other seeds, but once it is fully grown, it is bigger than any garden plant; like a tree, the birds come and rest in its branches.”

He told them another parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast than a woman took, and hid in three measures of flour, until the whole mass of dough began to rise.” Jesus taught all these things to the crowds by means of parables; He did not say anything to them without using a parable. This fulfilled what was spoken by the Prophet : ‘I will speak in parables. I will proclaim things kept secret since the beginning of the world.’

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Monday, 27 July 2026 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Deuteronomy 32 : 18-19, 20, 21

They have disowned the Rock Who fathered them; they have forgotten the God Who gave them birth. The Lord saw this, and in His anger rejected His sons and daughters.

He said, “I will hide My face from them and see what will become of them. They are so perverse, so unfaithful!”

“They made Me jealous with their false gods and angered Me with their idols. I will, therefore, make them envious of a foolish people, I will provoke them to anger with an empty-headed nation.”

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Monday, 27 July 2026 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Jeremiah 13 : 1-11

This is what YHVH said to me : “Go! Buy yourself a linen belt and put it around your waist; do not put it in water.” So I bought the belt as YHVH ordered and put it around my waist. The word of YHVH came to me a second time, “Take the belt you bought, the one you put around your waist, and go to the torrent Perah; hide it there in a hole in the rock.”

I went and hid it as YHVH instructed me. After many days YHVH said to me, “Go to the torrent Perah and get the belt I ordered you to hide there.” I went to the torrent and dug up the belt but it was ruined and good for nothing; and YHVH said to me, “In this way I will destroy the pride and great glory of Judah, this wicked people who refuse to heed what I say, this stubborn people who go after other gods to serve and worship them. And they shall become like this belt which is now good for nothing.”

“For just as a belt is to be bound around a man’s waist so was the people of Israel and Judah bound to Me – it is YHVH Who speaks – to be My people, My glory and My honour; but they would not listen.”

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Sunday, 26 July 2026 : Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded by the passages of the Sacred Scriptures for us all to seek the true treasures of our lives that can be found in the Lord our God alone. Each and every one of us are reminded that as Christians, all of us have been called and chosen by the Lord to be His own beloved people, and we have also responded to this call through our baptism and initiation into the Church of God. All of us are brought into the presence of God, and have been blessed with the many gifts and blessings, rich graces and wonders, through the Wisdom that He has bestowed upon us, in the Holy Spirit that has come to dwell upon each one of us, as the members of His Church. The Wisdom of God has come to dwell in our midst, granting us the knowledge and understanding of truth, much as how God has blessed King Solomon with great wisdom and understanding unparalleled in his time.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Kings of Israel and Judah, the account of the moment from the youth and early days of the reign of King Solomon of Israel, just shortly he ascended to the throne following the death and passing of his father, King David of Israel. Both King David and King Solomon are remembered for their great and righteous rule, as great and noble kings, who ruled over great and golden era of the Kingdom of Israel, as righteous and just rulers over the people of God. King Solomon in particular was renowned for his great wisdom, his great riches and glorious rule over a vast kingdom, which were presented unto him by God, as we heard in that passage today. Solomon was initially still young and inexperienced, unsure about his rulership and uncertain about the challenges and other obstacles that he might have to face, and hence, he sought for God’s help, praying and asking Him for the gift of wisdom to help him in being a good and worthy ruler over God’s people.

And as we heard, that it was because of this request that God has blessed Solomon even more wonderfully and greatly, because he did not ask for any kind of worldly glory, greatness or material wealth, and all sorts of things that people may often be asking for. Instead, Solomon asked for the grace and the guidance to know what is right and just, the discerning and intuitive mind to do what is right and appropriate, the wisdom and intellect to do God’s will and to ability to govern the people of God well and with responsibility. Therefore, as Solomon was not asking for a selfish desire and want, and he was selflessly asking for a gift that was meant for the good of others, God granted him his wishes, and blessed him even far more than what he has ever asked. God blessed Solomon with such great wisdom and wealth, power and glory, that his name became famous throughout the world.

King Solomon was filled with God’s wisdom and grace, and his kingdom was great because of that. However, this does not mean that he was impervious to faults and mistakes, and he was neither perfect nor infallible. While mostly having reigned with great justice, wisdom and faith in the Lord, building up the great Temple dedicated to God in Jerusalem and leading God’s people and kingdom to its magnificent days, but later on in his life, King Solomon allowed himself to be swayed by the temptations and the attachments of worldly corruptions and pleasures. He had a large number of wives and concubines according to the later part of the Book of Kings, many hundreds of them, with many of them coming from the various peoples living in the lands surrounding the kingdom of Israel, and who brought pagan practices and wickedness into the king’s court.

Thus, while Solomon was guided by the Wisdom of God in the early and middle part of his reign, but later on, he allowed worldly glory, pride, wealth and all of his greatness to cloud his judgment and wisdom, and mislead him and the people into the wrong path, the path of evil and sin. That is why, linking to what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, in the Lord’s words to His disciples, speaking to them regarding what it means to come and seek the kingdom of God, to seek the true treasures that can be gained and found in the Lord alone. We should not allow ourselves to be deluded and tricked by the many false treasures present all around us, which offered us temporary and ultimately disappointing results and outcome, and which pleasure and joy do not truly lead to true satisfaction and happiness, unlike what is found in God.

For example, King Solomon himself, in his pursuit of power and glory, likely sought to gain alliances and worldly renown, as well as great prestige and fame from having so many marriages and concubines, as part of the customs of the world at that time. But instead of solidifying his rule and dominion, it led to the fracturing of his united kingdom shortly after his death, as the ten tribes of the Israelites broke free to form the northern kingdom of Israel, leaving just the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the southern kingdom of Judah for the House of David, to Solomon’s descendants. And despite of his massive armies and huge armada of chariots according to the Scriptures, all of these came to naught, and the kingdoms after Solomon would fall apart due to civil wars, conflicts and would eventually be crushed and conquered by their enemies.

Through all of those examples and many other historical evidences in our world history, the Lord has shown us time and again how those who seek Him should commit themselves wholeheartedly to Him, and place Him at the centre and as the main focus of their lives. All of us are reminded of the limitations of our human power, abilities and intellect, all of which pale in comparison with the power and wisdom of God. The value and worth of following the Lord and His path, knowing and appreciating His truth and love are far beyond any treasures that this world can offer us, as while the treasures of this world can only offer us temporary joy in this world, and in accordance with what the Lord Himself told His disciples, that those could perish and be destroyed by fire and by the other forces of the world, there is nothing that can destroy or affect the true treasures that we can find in God alone.

Now, just as we all have heard it from the Gospel passage today where the Lord Himself used the parable of the precious pearl to highlight the true treasure that is in the kingdom of God, and the other comparisons which highlighted how the followers of the Lord ought to seek this true treasure, let us all ask ourselves what is our treasures in life and what it is that we are seeking for in our lives. Are these treasures referring to any kind of worldly glory, fame, wealth and other material goods and pleasures of this world? Are we looking for and being obsessed with all those desires and temptations being present all around us? Or do we rather seek the treasures of the Lord, the righteousness, justice and virtues in God?

Do we rather seek the certainty and guarantee of God’s love and compassion, in everything that God has always been faithful and committed in providing to us, as He has proven yet again and again, in fulfilling the Covenant which He had made with each one of us. St. Paul in our second reading today, in his Epistle to the Romans also reassured us by reminding us of the ultimate gift of love from God, the gift of His own Firstborn Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Saviour and King, delivering us from the tyranny of sin and death, and into eternal life. That is what each and every one of us should be aspiring towards, what we should be focusing our attention towards in our daily living.

And nothing can truly separate us from the love of God, as not even sin and death can do that, less so even those worldly forces that can destroy any other false treasures of this world, but can never bring us apart from the Lord, Who willingly sought us out and did His best to reconcile us to Himself, by the most selfless sacrifice that His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, offered on the Altar of His Cross. All of us have been truly blessed to be beloved by the Lord in such a manner, and we have to be thankful for all that He has given and blessed us with, all these while. That is why we should strive from now on to live our lives no longer under the sway of any worldly temptations and desires, or influenced by the corrupt forces being present all around us. Let us all as Christians be exemplary in all of our actions, our way of life and our deeds that we may truly be worthy of the Lord and everything that He has assured and promised us all through His Son.

Let us all reject the path of sin and evil, and embrace anew the path of God’s righteousness and virtue, and entrusting ourselves anew to the Lord, like King Solomon of old, that God’s Wisdom may guide us and keep us firm in faith, and guard us against any forms of worldly excesses and wickedness that had brought about the downfall of many among our predecessors. May God be with us always and may He continue to show us His Wisdom, so that we may always be His most worthy and wise disciples and followers, whose actions and works, efforts and endeavours are for His greater glory alone. Amen.

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Sunday, 26 July 2026 : Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 13 : 44-52

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field. The one who finds it, buries it again; and so happy is he, that he goes and sells everything he has, in order to buy that field.”

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a trader, who is looking for fine pearls. Once he has found a pearl of exceptional quality, he goes away, sells everything he has and buys it.”

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a big fishing net, let down into the sea, in which every kind of fish has been caught. When the net is full, it is dragged ashore. Then they sit down and gather the good fish into buckets, but throw the bad away.”

“That is how it will be at the end of time; the Angels will go out to separate the wicked from the just, and to throw the wicked into the blazing furnace, where they will weep and gnash their teeth.”

Jesus asked, “Have you understood all these things?” “Yes,” they answered. So He said to them, “Therefore, every teacher of the Law, who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven, is like a householder, who can produce from his store things both new and old.”

Alternative reading (shorter version)

Matthew 13 : 44-46

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field. The one who finds it, buries it again; and so happy is he, that he goes and sells everything he has, in order to buy that field.”

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a trader, who is looking for fine pearls. Once he has found a pearl of exceptional quality, he goes away, sells everything he has and buys it.”