Day: August 10, 2013

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Sunday, 11 August 2013 : 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we are urged through the readings we listened to, that we must be ever ready, ever ready for the coming of Christ our Lord, who will come at the end of time, to judge all things living and dead, in the final judgment, when those who are upright and do the will of God, will be rewarded, and those who are wicked, will meet their due punishment.

Our Lord Jesus who has ascended into heaven at the end of His ministry on earth, will come again at the end of time, as a victorious and conquering King of all Kings, and He will judge all creation, all mankind, for our virtues, our goodness, our faults, and our sins. He had promised us through His disciples, that He will come again and bring us back into His kingdom, to be with Him for eternity, in eternal happiness and true joy.

Yes, as He had promised Abraham and his descendants, He had also promised all of us, who shared Abraham as our father in faith, that He will give His grace and blessings upon all of us. To us had been granted much, and therefore much is also expected from us. That is because, the Lord had made His covenant with all of us, to renew the covenant He had made with Abraham, through the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus on the cross, with which He made a new covenant sealed with His Most Precious Blood.

Our Lord remains ever faithful, ever loving, and ever forgiving in His dealings with all of us, who are His most beloved children. He had sent His Son Jesus to be our Saviour, to break us free from the chains of sin and its slavery. He had redeemed us from Satan with the price of His own Blood. But a covenant requires all of us to also play our part, that is to contribute to the covenant we had made with God through Christ His Son.

How do we then take part in this holy covenant of God? It is not easy, brothers and sisters, because He requires our ultimate obedience and dedication to Him and His laws, His precepts, and all of His love. To put it in simple words, we need to obey the Lord and follow Christ, through whom God had made clear to us His intentions, the plan He had for us and this world. In following Christ, we have to carry our crosses and walk with Him, enduring much opposition, suffering, and persecution, especially from the forces of evil, who do not wish to see us redeemed and steered away from destruction.

To follow Christ means to love one another, to love everyone around us, our brothers and sisters, without exception, and to pour onto them our care and compassion, giving to them our unconditional love, as Christ had once done to us, through His death on the cross. And of course, we must also love the Lord our God, with all our hearts and with all of our strength, that we offer Him our full devotion, our full attention, and our wholesome love, without exception, to put Him first before every other things.

As I had mentioned, much had been given to us, and therefore much is also expected from us in return. God our Lord had entrusted this world and all in it to us when He created our ancestors. He gave us this world that we may be its steward, care for it, and be responsible for it. He had given us gifts and blessings in ourselves, and through the Holy Spirit, we have been strengthened with the fruits of His love. These gifts are within each one of us, our talents, our skills, and our uniqueness, which may be used for myriad purposes and different intentions.

We have to cultivate these gifts and nurture them, that the talents and the skills God had given us will grow, and be made manifest in this world, by our service and dedication to our fellow men, our fellow brothers and sisters, children of the same God, giving to them, to one another, the love, the hope, and the faith we have inside of us. If we share our love, faith, and hope, they will only grow and blossom. We have to practice our faith, brothers and sisters in Christ, and our good works for the sake of our brethren, that our faith may be alive.

Yes, the faith we have in God must be a living and vibrant faith, one nurtured with love, one filled with action based on the teachings of our Lord. If we have this living faith within us, like the faith had by our father Abraham, who followed the Lord with zeal and full trust in His providence, we will be rewarded just as our father Abraham was rewarded for his strong and undimmed faith, for his real, living, and vibrant faith.

Do not be caught unawares, brothers and sisters, when Christ comes again in all His glory, in His Second Coming at the end of time. We do not know when this will happen, and indeed, He will come at the time when we are at our most unprepared state, when we did not expect Him to come at all. He will come silently like a thief and He will then judge us, all of us, whether we have been faithful to Him and His commandments or whether we have turned away from Him and His path.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us heed the call that Christ had made to all of us, to follow Him and remain in His love, by showing Him a constant and vibrant faith, and our wholehearted dedication and devotion, our undivided love and attention for Him, and for all His children, our fellow brethren in God. Be prepared at all times for Him, that we will always be ready when He comes again, and not be found wanting for our faith.

Let us from today, dedicate ourselves and renew our commitment to Him, and to our fellow brothers and sisters, helping one another in our journey towards the Lord our God. We hope that everyone will be able to reach the end of our journeys successfully and that the Lord our God will welcome us and congratulate us for our dedication and our faith in Him, granting us the reward He had promised us through Jesus Christ, His Son. Let us not be the ones rejected by the Lord, because they did not bother to lift a finger, to help those in need, and to give themselves in love to their brethren in need. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 11 August 2013 : 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 12 : 32-48

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, and an inexhaustible treasure in the heavens, where no thief comes and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Be ready, dressed for service, and keep your lamps lit, like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding. As soon as he comes and knocks, they will open the door to him. Happy are those servants whom the master finds wide-awake when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will put on an apron, and have them sit at table, and he will wait on them. Happy are those servants, if he finds them awake when he comes at midnight or daybreak!

Pay attention to this : If the master of the house had known at what time the thief would come, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.

Peter said, “Lord, did You tell this parable only for us, or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Imagine, then, the wise and faithful steward, whom the master sets over his other servants to give them wheat at the proper time. Fortunate is this servant if his master on coming home, finds him doing his work. Truly, I say to you, the master will put him in charge of all his property.”

“But it may be that the steward thinks, ‘My Lord delays in coming,’ and he begins to abuse the male servants and the servant girls, eating and drinking and getting drunk. Then the master will come on a day he does not expect, and at an hour he does not know. He will cut him off, and send him to the same fate as the unfaithful.”

“The servant who knew his master’s will, but did not prepare and do what his master wanted, will be soundly beaten; but the one who does unconsciously what deserves punishment, shall receive fewer blows. Much will be required of the one who has been given much, and more will be asked of the one who has been entrusted with more.”

 

Alternative reading (Shorter version)
Luke 12 : 35-40

Be ready, dressed for service, and keep your lamps lit, like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding. As soon as he comes and knocks, they will open the door to him. Happy are those servants whom the master finds wide-awake when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will put on an apron, and have them sit at table, and he will wait on them. Happy are those servants, if he finds them awake when he comes at midnight or daybreak!

Pay attention to this : If the master of the house had known at what time the thief would come, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.

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Sunday, 11 August 2013 : 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Hebrews 11 : 1-2, 8-19

Faith is the assurance of what we hope for, being certain of what we cannot see. Because of their faith our ancestors were approved.

It was by faith that Abraham, called by God, set out for a country that would be given to him as an inheritance; for he parted without knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as a stranger in that promised land. There he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, beneficiaries of the same promise. Indeed, he looked forward to that city of solid foundation of which God is the architect and builder.

By faith Sarah herself received power to become a mother, in spite of her advanced age; since she believed that he who had made the promise would be faithful. Therefore, from an almost impotent man were born descendants as numerous as the stars of heavens, as many as the grains of sand on the seashore.

Death found all these people strong in their faith. They had not received what was promised, but they had looked ahead and had rejoiced in it from afar, saying that they were foreigners and travellers on earth. Those who speak in this way prove that they are looking for their own country. For if they had longed for the land they had left, it would have been easy for them to return, but no, they aspired to a better city, that is, a supernatural one; so God, who prepared the city for them is not ashamed of being called their God.

By faith Abraham went to offer Isaac when God tested him. And so he who had received the promise of God offered his only son although God had told him : Isaac’s descendants will bear your name. Abraham reasoned that God is capable even of raising the dead, and he received back his son, which has a figurative meaning.

 

Alternative reading (Shorter version)

 

Hebrews 11 : 1-2, 8-12

Faith is the assurance of what we hope for, being certain of what we cannot see. Because of their faith our ancestors were approved.

It was by faith that Abraham, called by God, set out for a country that would be given to him as an inheritance; for he parted without knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as a stranger in that promised land. There he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, beneficiaries of the same promise. Indeed, he looked forward to that city of solid foundation of which God is the architect and builder.

By faith Sarah herself received power to become a mother, in spite of her advanced age; since she believed that he who had made the promise would be faithful. Therefore, from an almost impotent man were born descendants as numerous as the stars of heavens, as many as the grains of sand on the seashore.

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Sunday, 11 August 2013 : 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 32 : 1 and 12, 18-19, 20 and 22

Rejoice in the Lord, you who are just, praise is fitting for the upright. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance.

But the Lord’s eyes are upon those who fear Him, upon those who trust in His loving-kindness, to deliver them from death and preserve them from famine.

In hope we wait for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield. O Lord, let Your love rest upon us, even as our hope rests in You.

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Sunday, 11 August 2013 : 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Wisdom 18 : 6-9

That night had been foretold to our ancestors, and knowing in what promise they trusted, they could rejoice in all surety.

Your people waited for both the salvation of the just and the downfall of their enemies, for the very punishment of our enemies brought glory to the people You have called – that is, to us.

The holy race secretly offered the Passover sacrifice and really agreed on this worthy pact : that they would share alike both blessings and dangers. And forthwith they began to sing the hymns of their fathers.

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Saturday, 10 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we are urged by none other than our Lord, that we should invest and go to work, in order to make use the gifts that God had given us through the Holy Spirit that He had planted in each one of us the faithful ones in God. He had given us much gifts, abilities, and power, through the Spirit, which if we utilise them, we will truly be able to make a great difference in ourselves, in our neighbours, our fellow men, and in our society, through those gifts given to us.

Yes, brothers and sisters, within us all is the Spirit that God had given us when we were baptised, and when we were confirmed in our faith, given with the Holy Spirit that strengthens and nurtures. We have been given with the seeds of faith, hope, and love, as well as compassion, kindness, care, patience, and devotion, that all of us ought to utilise and nurture in our hearts, as well as in our own communities, that they will not remain just a seed, but will germinate and grow to become healthy and fruitful.

The love that is in us will never grow if we just keep it within ourselves, and the other gifts of the Spirit will also just languish in us and be wasted, if we keep them unused and sealed within our hearts. In order to let them grow and prosper, effort is required, and not just any effort, but strong, dedicated and purposeful effort, with strong contribution from our side, and a significant investment of our attention and our sweat. We do not gain anything from slacking up or resting.

Just like farmers, brothers and sisters, the farmers who worked hard day and night, ploughing the land, planting the seeds, and putting manure or fertilisers on the land, that the seeds will be provided with enough nutrients and therefore can grow to healthy and strong plants, that will in the future bear much fruits. The farmers cared for their plants with love, and give them their full attention, that they grow big and laden with much flowers and therefore, much fruits.

The fruits that are juicy and sweet cannot be born, if the plants are not taken care of carefully and with great dedication, and neither can they be produced, if the farmers have slackened off in their works, and let the plants to their own in growing up. They carefully removed the weeds and the pests, preventing them from eating up the fruits and threatening the health and survival of the plants. In the end, they reaped much fruits, an abundant and bountiful harvest, the sweet products of harvest, which bring them happiness and joy.

That is how, brothers and sisters in Christ, we should also do for the seeds of faith, love, and hope planted by the Lord, the Sower, in each of us, within our hearts. These seeds need our attention, our dedication, and our great effort, in order to grow, bloom, and prosper. As I have mentioned, the seeds need good soil and manure or fertiliser, to ensure that they have the right nutrients and sufficient ones in order to grow properly into healthy and vibrant plants. So, how do we then ensure this to what the Spirit had planted in us? That is faith, hope, and love?

It is by our actions, our deeds, and our words, that we contribute to the growth of the gifts of the Lord within us. How we act and what we say, the words that we utter, determine the growth, the health, and the survival of the ‘plants’ in us, that is what God had given all of us, the gifts, the talents, and skills we have been endowed with in our lives. Each of us do have our own unique skills and talents, but none of these will be useful nor beneficial if we do not practice them and use them.

We give the nutrients and fertilisers to these gifts, by our actions and our words that reflect the goodness that is the Lord, or in short, by following the Lord and His laws, all of His commandments, just as Christ had told His disciples in the Gospel reading today. We have to made evident the commandments of the Lord in our own lives, through our acts of love, words that promote love, and our loving embrace for one another, for our brothers and sisters especially those who are rejected and without love.

It will not be easy, and our path will be littered with dangers and threats, but our God will walk with us through all these obstacles, and if we remain strong in our faith and in our bond and dedication to Him, we will make it through, and at the end, lies the reward, the eternal reward of everlasting life in the glory of heaven, which God had reserved for His holy saints, the people who had persevered through fire and through the test of life, and had been found worthy of God’s Kingdom.

Today, brethren, we celebrate the feast of a great saint, that is St. Lawrence, a deacon of the early Church and a martyr of the faith. He was also known as St. Lawrence of Rome because he was one of the seven deacons serving the Diocese of Rome under the other great saint Pope St. Xystus II (Sixtus II) whose feast day we had just celebrated a few days ago. He met his martyrdom almost at the same time with the saintly Pope during the height of the persecution of Christians under Emperor Valerian in the mid-third century after the birth of Christ.

St. Lawrence was the disciple of Pope St. Xystus II and helped him in the governance of the Church in the times of difficulty, with extreme persecution and hunts against the Christians by the pagan Roman Emperor and the entire Roman military at the time. He helped to manage the Church and the Diocese of Rome in the midst of that difficult times, and he bravely defended the faith and the Church after the death of its leader the Pope in martyrdom, by standing up to the Roman authorities and proclaiming the sanctity of the Church and the greatness of God.

St. Lawrence was asked by the prefects of Rome after the martyrdom of Pope St. Xystus II to gather the wealth of the church, because of a law that required all Christians and others to surrender their wealth to the church if convicted of any act of treason to the state, which was exactly the situation given to St. Lawrence, in that he was to gather the riches of the Church to be confiscated by the state. He gathered the poor people of God, and bravely proclaimed to the prefects, that those are the wealth of the Church, its true wealth, and in all its glory, the Church is even richer than the Emperor himself.

In such courage of defending his faith, his Church, and his God, St. Lawrence brought upon him the wrath of the Emperor and he was martyred. But as we all know, brothers and sisters in Christ, to all of us who believe in Christ and become a part of the Church, accepting our Lord and God and our Saviour, death has no power over us, and indeed, St. Lawrence was raised in glory to the heavenly kingdom of our God, as one of the holy men and women who along with the angels praise the Lord and intercede for our sake on earth.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us follow in the footsteps of St. Lawrence, the great deacon and martyr, and in all the holy saints and martyrs of the Lord, that we will make use of the gifts and talents God had given to all of us, that we will nurture it through love and love in our actions and our words, that the love in us will grow and grow to encompass everyone, every one of God’s children, our brothers and sisters. In doing that, we follow Christ, His laws and commandments, and at the end of time, He will raise us up, and be given our reward of eternal life with Him in heaven. May God bless us always and remain us at all times. Amen.

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Saturday, 10 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 12 : 24-26

Truly, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

Those who love their life destroy it, and those who despise their life in this world keep it for everlasting life.

Whoever wants to serve Me, let him follow Me; and wherever I am, there shall My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honour him.

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Saturday, 10 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 111 : 1-2, 5-6, 7-8, 9

Alleluia! Blessed is the one who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commands. His children will be powerful on earth; the upright’s offspring will be blessed.

It will be well with him who lends freely, who leads a life of justice and honesty. For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered and loved forever.

He has no fear of evil news, for his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is confident, he needs not fear, he shall prevail over his foes at the end.

He gives generously to the poor, his merits will last forever and his head will be raised in honour.

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Saturday, 10 August 2013 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

2 Corinthians 9 : 6-10

Remember : the one who sows meagerly will reap meagerly, and there shall be generous harvests for the one who sows generously. Each of you should give as you decided personally, and not reluctantly as if obliged. God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to fill you with every good thing, so that you have enough of everything at all times, and may give abundantly for any good work.

Scripture says : ‘He distributed, He gave to the poor, His good works last forever.’ God who provides the sower with seed will also provide him with the bread he eats. He will multiply the seed for you and also increase the interests of your good works.