Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 116 : 1, 2
Alleluia! Praise the Lord, all you nations; all you peoples, praise Him.
How great is His love for us! His faithfulness lasts forever.
Day: April 16, 2016
Friday, 15 April 2016 : Third Week of Easter (First Reading)
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 9 : 1-20
Meanwhile Saul considered nothing but violence and death for the disciples of the Lord. He went to the High Priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus that would authorise him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, belonging to the Way.
As he travelled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute Me?” And he asked, “Who are You, Lord?”
The voice replied, “I am Jesus Whom you persecute. Now get up and go into the city; there you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were travelling with him stood there speechless : they had heard the sound, but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground and, opening his eyes, he could not see. They took him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. He was blind and he did not eat or drink for three days.
There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, to whom the Lord called in a vision, “Ananias!” He answered, “Here I am, Lord!” Then the Lord said to him, “Go at once to Straight Street and ask, at the house of Judas, for a man of Tarsus named Saul. You will find him praying, for he has just seen in a vision that a man named Ananias has come in and placed his hands upon him, to restore his sight.”
Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem, and now he is here with authority from the High Priest to arrest all who call upon Your Name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go! This man is My chosen instrument to bring My Name to the pagan nations and their kings, and the people of Israel as well. I Myself will show him how much he will have to suffer for My Name.”
So Ananias left and went to the house. He laid his hands upon Saul and said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord Jesus, Who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me to you so that you may receive your sight and be filled with Holy Spirit.” Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see; he got up and was baptised. Then he took food and was strengthened.
For several days Saul stayed with the disciples at Damascus, and he soon began to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God.
Thursday, 14 April 2016 : Third Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the well-known story of how the Apostle St. Philip taught and spoke with the official of the Ethiopian kingdom about the Lord Jesus, and how he convinced him to believe in the truth of God, and to receive the holy sacrament of baptism at the hands of St. Philip himself. In this we see how the word of God’s salvation and truth is brought to more and more people all over the world.
Through the Apostles God had continued the good works which He had begun, calling all mankind to repentance and salvation that can be found only in Him and through Him. Jesus had brought hope into the world, the hope and the light for all the nations, the light that illuminated the path of many souls who were once lost in the darkness, and had now been found and put on the path to eternal life.
He made it very clear in the Gospel today, that in Him alone lies the salvation for many, for those who received His message of truth and then do something in order to bring that salvation upon themselves. Jesus made it very clear that those who want to seek God’s grace and salvation must first believe in Him, for those who refused to believe in Him, also therefore did not believe in God.
That is Who Jesus was indeed, for He is indeed God incarnate, the Bread of Life Who gave Himself for the salvation of the whole world. Through Him, He revealed the truth about God and His love for us, and by His hands, He lifted up all those who have fallen on the way, and gather them all to enter His everlasting inheritance for us.
We have all heard the message of the Lord’s truth, and we have believed in Him. And that is why we call ourselves as Christians. If we have not believed in Him, then we should not call ourselves as Christians, for a Christian is one who is willing to give his or her all, all of their efforts to God, and commit themselves to the cause of the Lord, by words and by actions.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to live a genuine and dedicated Christian life, by devoting ourselves wholly to God and to the message of truth which He had spoken to all of us. And each and every one of us Christians also have that very important mission in which all of us should spread the truth of God and convince all those who are yet to believe in God, and in order that we too may believe.
And thus, we should follow in the footsteps of St. Philip and the other Apostles in bringing many more souls and people to God, but in the first place, our own faith must itself be strong, or else, how can we convince others to believe in God, if we ourselves do not fully believe in Him with full faith and conviction? We have to practice what we believe in or else we are hypocrites.
Let us all renew our faith in God, and allow God to perform His wonderful works through us. Let us all be filled with the Holy Spirit, and through our hands, may we lay down the foundations for God’s good works, that we may bring salvation and goodness to many people, and together we may be saved and receive the eternal life from God as He had promised all of His faithful ones. God bless us all. Amen.
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