Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listen yet again to the news of our Lord’s resurrection and triumphant glory, the triumph against death and all the forces of evil. He is risen, and that is why we can be happy and truly be joyful, and revel in His glory, for He has conquered death, and we know that we have hope because of that.

And that is the message that He also wants us all to propagate to all of the world, so that all who hear of them may be turned in their hearts and be turned into righteousness and be saved as well. This is the mission and commandment which He had given us all, that we as one Church put all of our effort into this and work together in order to achieve that goal of salvation.

But as we heard in today’s readings as well, that there were those who were adamantly opposed to Christ and His teachings, and they commanded the Apostles to keep their mouth shut and not speak about the Lord and His truth. All these is because they feared that if the truth is to be known, then that would spell the end of their privileged status in the society, and the end of their worldly ambitions and power.

But as we heard, no amount of coercion, threats or challenges would deter the Apostles from speaking up about their faith and about the Risen Lord. Had they succumbed and obeyed the chief priests at that time, then none of us would have known about the Lord, and thus, none of us, and also countless others, millions upon billions and more would have been saved.

Our Church is not a Church of passive people, who remain inactive and just wait patiently for the day of the Lord’s salvation. Instead, it is a living Church, a Church filled with saints, martyrs, and also sinners. We all are part of that Church, and it is living and thriving amidst the difficulties of the world, precisely because its members dared to stand up for their faith and speak up as witnesses in this world.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Stanislaus, yet another of this brave man of God, whose life and even in death is an inspiration to all of us, on how we should live up to our faith in God. St. Stanislaus or St. Stanislaw is a very well known and famous Polish saint and martyr, who lived during the Middle Ages, at a time of turmoil and difficulty.

St. Stanislaus was the Bishop of the venerable city of Krakow, then capital of Poland, who was a vocal critic of the king, who lived in sin and wickedness, and whose actions did not bring about the glory of God, but sought for only his own glory. St. Stanislaus did not fear to speak up, because it was for the good of his flock, that they might not be misguided into sin and evil.

The king was very unpleased with this holy man and dedicated servant of God, and he plotted to kill St. Stanislaus and get rid of him. Thus, St. Stanislaus was martyred when he was celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, killed by the king’s own hand himself. In defending the faith and the souls of God’s faithful, the holy man of God was raised to the Altar in glory, while his murderer was forced to go into exile and died in great ignominy and shame.

What St. Stanislaus showed us is that there are so many things that all of us as members of the Church can do in order to help out, by helping all those who have yet to be touched by the light of the Lord. This is what we should do, that by our actions and deeds, we show to the whole world, what our faith is about, and let us testify to the Risen Christ, our Lord, that His light may dispel all the darkness in the world. God bless us all. Amen.