Liturgical Colour : White
Galatians 4 : 4-7
But when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son. He came born of woman and subject to the Law, that we might receive adoption as children of God. And because you are children, God has sent into your hearts the Spirit of His Son which cries out : ‘Abba!’ that is, ‘Father!’
You yourselves are no longer a slave but a son or daughter, and yours is the inheritance by God’s grace.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 66 : 2-3, 5, 6 and 8
May God be gracious and bless us; may He let His face shine upon us, that Your way be known on earth and Your salvation among the nations.
May the countries be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with justice and guide the nations of the world.
May the peoples praise You, o God, may all the peoples praise You! May God bless us and be revered, to the very ends of the earth.
Liturgical Colour : White
Numbers 6 : 22-27
Then YHVH spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons and say to them : This is how you shall bless the people of Israel; you shall say :
‘May YHVH bless you and keep you!’
‘May YHVH let His face shine on you, and be gracious to you!’
‘May YHVH look kindly on you, and give you His peace!’
In that way shall they put My Name on the people of Israel and I will bless them.”
Liturgical Colour : White
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and this Word was made flesh, that it came into the world and dwell among us. Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Gospel proclaimed to us the truth about Christ and His coming into the world, and what the truth is about the Messiah and His ways.
For, as St. John the Evangelist warned us, in his first letter, that there are antichrist and false prophets who came into this world to mislead us and distract us from the true teachings and the way of the Lord, revealed in Jesus His Son. There are those who taught that Jesus is not God, and that even He is not the Holy One of God, or even that He worked with the power of the evil spirit, and many other.
And there were also those who proclaimed themselves as the Messiah and misled the people of God, both before and after the coming of the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh. That is the truth as proclaimed by the Holy Apostles and martyrs who risked their lived to keep true the revelations as we heard today in the Gospel.
The truth about Jesus is that He is God, and therefore He is Love for God is Love. That was why He came down upon us, incarnate into flesh. He was the Word of God, and of the same essence as God. He was one third of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He was there before time and before all ages, not created, perfect and one in unity, in perfect unity and love as One and only True God with three characteristics.
God the Creator, God the Word, and God the Spirit. These are the persona unified perfectly in God. If you all read the first chapter of the very first book in the Holy Bible, that is the Book of Genesis, you will understand it easily. It was written that once there was nothing and the Spirit of God floats in that nothingness. Then God who was there from the very beginning, and who exists outside of time, spoke and with His Word, made things to be created into existence.
All of those involved are one and the same God, the Creator who is the Father, the Word who is the Son, whom we later know as Jesus, and the Spirit of God, which is the Holy Spirit. That is the reality of our faith, that we believe in One and only One God, but God who in Him exists three distinct yet unified persona, in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All three of them cannot be separated from each other and they are One in God. Through His own Word, He decreed the universe and all creations into existence. Thus, through that Word of God, we and all the things around us were created. And because He created us, and because His nature is love, He cannot deny us the love He has for us. We have sinned when our ancestors chose to listen to Satan instead of the Lord, and therefore we should have deserves damnation and destruction as our fate.
We have been made unworthy of God because of our rebelliousness, and we who have been tainted by sin should have had no place in the kingdom of God. But God being God, and loving us deeply, gave us a new chance, that is the only way out of the predicament that we were in. That way is in Jesus, who came into this world, the Word who was God and was with God, but emptied Himself of all His glory and descend into this world as one of us.
This is the truth about the Lord, our Christ, the Saviour, the Messiah of the world. Satan certainly did not stay quiet or idle during the works of Christ, but he worked hard to undermine the works of the Lord, and as a result, sent many deceivers to deceive and distract the people of God from the true salvation in Jesus Christ.
Today we celebrate a saint whose feast is the last we have on the year. Pope St. Silvester I or Sylvester I was the leader of the Universal Church as the Bishop of Rome at the time of the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine during the late Roman Empire period. He succeeded the Pope Miltiades, during whose reign as Pope the Edict of Milan was signed by the Emperor, which ended the state persecution against Christians.
Pope St. Silvester I worked hard to strengthen the Church and rebuilt the faith after centuries and past decades of persecution against Christians. He oversaw the period of great revival of the fortunes of the faith, from one that is constantly persecuted and chased by the state authorities and the pagans, into one that is eventually becoming the state faith of the Empire.
His piety and hard work to consolidate the position of the faith as the guiding beacon for many people, and for helping the pious Emperor Constantine to build up the foundations for the Universal Church in converting millions and more to the cause of the Lord made him a great saint of the Church. Yet, as we celebrate what he had achieved, we must remain wary of the devices and works of the devil aimed at disturbing the good works that Pope St. Silvester I and the other saints had initiated.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we end this year of our Lord 2013, let us look forward to the new year with a new and rejuvenated faith, that we will continue to remain faithful to the Lord and His ways, and not be swayed by the temptations of evil, no matter how attractive they are. Reject the devil as firmly as Jesus had rejected him and cast him away from His side. Reject any false prophet bearing the lies and falsehoods of Satan.
May the Lord strengthen our faith and empower us, to be better able to resist Satan and his temptations on us. That we will remain ever faithful in Jesus, our Lord, the true, one and only Saviour of the world. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 1 : 1-18
In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God; He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing came to be. Whatever has come to be, found life in Him; life, which for human beings, was also light, light that shines in darkness, light that darkness could not overcome.
A man came, sent by God; his name was John. He came to bear witness, as a witness to introduce the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but a witness to introduce the Light; for the Light was coming into the world, the true Light that enlightens everyone.
He was in the world, and through Him the world was made, the very world that did not know Him. He came to His own, yet His own people did not receive Him; but to all who received Him, He empowers to become children of God, for they believe in His Name. These are born, but not by seed, or carnal desire, nor by the will of man : they are born of God.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us; and we have seen His glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father : fullness of truth and loving-kindness. John bore witness to Him openly, saying, “This is the One who comes after me, but He is already ahead of me, for He was before me.”
From His fullness we have all received, favour upon favour. For God had given us the Law through Moses, but Truth and Loving-kindness came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God, but God-the-only-Son made Him known : the One, who is in and with the Father.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 95 : 1-2, 11-12, 13
Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His Name; proclaim His salvation day after day.
Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them; let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy.
Let them sing before the Lord who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 2 : 18-21
My dear children, it is the last hour. You were told that an antichrist would come; but several antichrists have already come, by which we know that it is now the last hour.
They went out from us though they did not really belong to us. Had they belonged to us, they would have remained with us. So it became clear that not all of us were really ours. But you have the anointing from the Holy One, so that all of you have true wisdom.
I write to you, not because you lack knowledge of the truth, but because you already know it, and lies have nothing in common with the truth.
Liturgical Colour : White
Brethren in Christ, as we continue to celebrate this season of Christmas, we continue to honour our Lord who was born unto us as one among us. The seer and prophetess Anna rejoiced because in her old age, she had been given the opportunity to see the Saviour of the world with her own eyes. Together with Simeon, they recognised the Messiah when they saw Him and were glad.
They know the Lord because they were given the foresight and the knowledge of the Messiah and His coming by the Lord. Thus they believe and rejoice even though naturally they should not have known Him, for He was still just a baby then. What about us then? Do we recognise Christ our Lord, or do we pretend to ignore Him or are we indeed ignorant of the presence of the Lord in our world?
We should have known the Lord even more, and it should be indeed easier for us to do so. Why? That is because we have so much testimony from the prophets and the saints, the Apostles themselves who gave their life in testimony and defense of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Scripture itself is a testimony of Christ, brethren! In it, we can see what the Lord Jesus had done, and what He had revealed about Himself, and what the prophets and His disciples had written about Him.
So, as we rejoice and make merry in this Christmas season, in all the partying and the festivities, do we profess Christ to be at the centre of our lives, and at the centre of what we celebrate? Christmas was, is, and will always belong to Christ. Christmas is not just any other event or celebration, and it is not just any other shopping opportunity because of the discounts and goods it offer. Christ is about the One, who emptied Himself of His divinity, that He might be born as a lowly man like us, to be our Saviour, the Saviour of the world.
We should be ashamed if we look at what Simeon and Anna had done, when they saw Jesus that day in the Temple of God, when Jesus was offered as per the custom, as the firstborn Son. Simeon and Anna rejoiced to see the Lord, and praised God for the opportunity given to them, even though they did not know who the Lord was, until he saw that baby of Mary and Joseph.
We who have more knowledge of the Lord often do not recognise Him, either because we are simply too busy with our preoccupations in the world, or because we are afraid or feeling shameful of recognising Him in the midst of our friends, families, and relatives who may not approve. We pretend that we do not know Him and continued on with our own respective matter and businesses.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Christmas offer us a big opportunity, to find out more about the Lord and after that, to rejoice in Him, and to profess our faith to Him. Not many people read the Holy Scripture on regular basis, even though what we need to know about the Lord is ever present around us. We profess our faith in words to Him, but yet we often do not practice what we believe, and we do not practice what we preached.
Therefore, brethren, it is most recommended for all of us to know more about the Lord, through the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and by listening and understanding of the teachings passed down through the Church. In our modern and digital world, they are very much available to us, free and easy. But how many of us actually spend the time to know the Lord and to know of His way?
Brethren, let us therefore use this time, and this opportunity to renew our faith and zeal for the Lord, opening to Him the gates of our hearts and mind. That we may seek to find out more about Him and to know more about Him, that we may truly walk blamelessly on His path. So that, we can truly rejoice in Christmas, because we know what it is celebrating, instead of making parties to enjoy the decadence of this world.
May the Lord guide us, that we may rejoice in His Son, through proper knowledge of His Son, and the knowledge of His ways, that we may always remain ever faithful to Him without straying to the left or right. God bless us all and be with us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 2 : 36-40
There was also a prophetess named Anna, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. After leaving her father’s home, she had been seven years with her husband, and since then she had been continually about the Temple, serving God as a widow night and day in fasting and prayer.
She was now eighty-four. Coming up at that time, she gave praise to God, and spoke of the Child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.
When the parents had fulfilled all that was required by the law of the Lord, they returned to their town, Nazareth in Galilee. There the child grew in stature and strength, and was filled with wisdom : the grace of God was upon Him.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 95 : 7-8a, 8b-9, 10
Give to the Lord, you families of nations, give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His Name.
Bring gifts and enter His courts. Worship the Lord with holy celebrations; stand in awe of Him, all the earth.
Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” He will judge the peoples with justice.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 