Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the message from the Scripture about firstly how God rewards the just and punishes the wicked ones. He gives His blessings and grace to all those who devoted themselves to Him and His ways, while bringing down His wrath and curses on all those who have disobeyed Him.
And one example given was that of king Joash, the descendant of king David, the faithful servant of God. Continuing the narrative from yesterday’s passage, when we heard how God restored Joash to his throne as the rightful king after his grandmother queen Athaliah usurped the throne from the house of David. By the virtue of the great faith and devotion of king David, king Joash’s ancestor, God restored him to the throne of David.
Joash did remain faithful for a time, that is as long as his mentor, Jehoiada the High Priest lived. But after Jehoiada passed away, Joash began slipping into the way of wickedness and doing things that are against the laws and the will of God. And thus, despite having been warned of such wrong actions by Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, Joash did not listen and continued down his path of sin and disobedience, and even plotted for the death of Zechariah.
As a result, God punished Joash by causing him to suffer the same death he has caused Zechariah. And that was indeed the reward for the wicked, that they would be cast out of God’s grace and be bereft of God’s love, and life will have no place in them. Meanwhile, He shall bless the righteous and the just, and He shall put His life into them.
In the Gospel today, Jesus our Lord spoke about the problem which is often faced by all of us, that is the division and dilemma which we mankind often have with regards to whom we should serve, be it God, or be it our possessions. It is also a dilemma, whether we should serve the Lord or serve the devil who opposes God. And many of us are often not aware that whenever we do something, we often have to make conscious decisions to choose one decision over the others.
It comes to the point of knowing that the worries and the concerns of the world are what have kept us away from the Lord and His ways. That is also the essence of what Jesus our Lord was telling His disciples on that day. We are often so concerned about ourselves, about what we are to eat, about what we are to wear, and about what we are to have and to receive, to the point that we completely forgot about the Lord and about our brethren around us.
And it is also what made we mankind to be selfish, concerned about ourselves and not about others who are around us. In our desire and attempt to gain more things for ourselves, we often even trample on the rights of others, causing harm, hurt and pain on them. And that was why we have sinned before God and before men, for we have not stopped to consider the needs of others, but instead concerned only with ourselves.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on these, even as we continue to live our lives today in these world. Let us all put our trust more in the Lord our God, and less in ourselves and in the things of this world. And as Jesus our Lord has said, we should not worry about what we are to eat or what we are to have for ourselves. God will provide for us all that we need.
When we worry, it is when we shall start to drift away from God and into the hands of the devil. We cannot serve both God and the devil, and if we want to be truly faithful to our God, then we must do our best in order to be upright and be righteous in all our deeds, and we should try our best to resist those temptations in our hearts, that we may not fall into the trap of sin, and remain true and worthy to our God.
May the Lord help us and bless us, and may He strengthen us in our faith, and renew our lives so that we may be always filled with faith, hope and love, both for our God and for our fellow brethren. God bless us all. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 