Day: July 23, 2016

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Wednesday, 27 July 2016 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the readings from the Scripture tell us about turning away from our evil and wicked ways, and then seek the Lord with all of our hearts. From the first reading taken from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, we heard about the Lord Who promised His people that He would forgive them and welcome them back if they had a change of heart and were willing to leave behind their sinful ways and regret their past mistakes.

In this, we see God in His merciful love, which He is offering to all of us mankind. To the people of the kingdom of Judah, He had also offered the same mercy and forgiveness. Yet, as they refused to repent and continued in their sins, worshipping pagan gods and idols and brought profanation upon the holy altar of God. They refused to bend their knees and to obey the Lord, and for that, they suffered the consequences of their disobedience.

They have placed their bet in the world and in their own power, and they got what they had dealt with. But the Lord is always trying to give us a chance, and trying all the time to bring as many of us as possible back to His loving embrace. And that was why He gave us His own Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to bring to us the full revelation of truth about Him, His love and what we all should do to be saved.

And all of this is revealed in the Gospel today, as Jesus spoke of the parable of the treasure and the kingdom of God. In that parable, Jesus likened the kingdom of God with the treasure, which all of us should aspire for and should look for. The kingdom of God is likened to a pearl of great and unsurpassable quality, a pearl of such excellence and price that all who see it should hearken to it and get it.

And this is the problem which many of us have, brothers and sisters in Christ. It is often that we do not know what is the true treasure of our life. Instead, we end up looking for the wrong treasures in this life, either because of ignorance, or because of the temptations and persuasions we faced, from the community, from the norms of our world and all the other things that pushed us to seek all the worldly things instead of finding our way to the Lord.

Let us ask ourselves, what is the worth of all the money and possessions that we gathered? What is the worth of all the fame and the praise we heaped upon ourselves? All of these will not be of good use to us at the time when we leave this world behind to our judgment. Yes, we should know that we are not going to carry our wealth or all the human fame and praises with us. It is only our deeds and actions that will be our sole proof to be shown to God.

Thus, we should heed what our Lord Jesus said on another occasion, asking us not to put our trust or gather treasures for ourselves that can be destroyed by fire, or by water, or by rust or by moth and other worldly forces. Rather, build for ourselves the true treasures of the kingdom of heaven, the incomparable pearl of great quality, by doing what God has asked us to do, by obeying His laws and commandments, loving Him and our fellow brethren.

May God help us on our journey, and may He strengthen our faith that we may not stumble along the way and be tempted into sin again. But let us renew our commitment to live faithfully with our God, and strive to be ever faithful and be ever righteous in His presence. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 27 July 2016 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 13 : 44-46

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples and to the people, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. The one who finds it buries it again; and so happy is he, that he goes and sells everything he has, in order to buy that field.”

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a trader who is looking for fine pearls. Once he has found a pearl of exceptional quality, he goes away, sells everything he has and buys it.”

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Wednesday, 27 July 2016 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 58 : 2-3, 4-5a, 10-11, 17, 18

Deliver me from my enemies, o God, from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from evildoers; rescue me from the bloodthirsty.

Look, they lie in wait for my life; the mighty conspiring against me, for no fault of mine, o Lord. I have done them no wrong, yet they prepare to attack me.

O my Strength, I look up to You, for You, o God, are my Fortress. My loving God will come to help me and let me see my enemies fall.

But I will sing of Your might; in the morning I will sing of Your love. For You have been a fortress to me, a refuge in time of distress.

O my Strength, I will sing praises to You, for You, o God, are my stronghold; You are a loving God.

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Wednesday, 27 July 2016 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Jeremiah 15 : 10, 16-21

Woe is me, Mother, why did you bring me to the light? A man of dissension throughout the land! I owe them nothing, neither do they owe me, yet they all curse me!

I devoured Your words when they came. They were my happiness and I felt full of joy when You made Your Name rest on me. Never did I associate with worldly people, amusing myself with scoffers! When Your hand was upon me I stood apart and You filled me with Your anger.

Why is there no end to my sorrow or healing for my wound? Why do You deceive me, and why does my spring suddenly dry up? Then YHVH spoke to me, “If you return I will take you back and you will serve Me again. Draw the gold from the dross and you will be as My own mouth. You must draw them to you and not go over to them.”

“I will make you a fortress and a wall of bronze facing them; if they fight against you they will not overcome you; I am with you to free you and save you. I will redeem you from the wicked and free you from the hands of tyrants.”

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Tuesday, 26 July 2016 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s first reading taken from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, we heard about the lamentation about the kingdom of Judah, how that kingdom has been overrun and has been abandoned by the favour of God, awaiting its final days and downfall. It was far from what it was like during the glorious days of kings David and Solomon.

And all of that was caused by the disobedience of the people of God, who have grown to trust their wealth and power more than they trust in God. And as a result, they have also wandered off away from the path that God had set for them. They have disobeyed His precepts, tortured and rejected His prophets and messengers, and they have lived in debauchery and wicked life, led by many of their kings who were unfaithful.

And thus God has abandoned His people to their enemies, allowing them to tear at them and made them suffer, as the just punishment and consequences for their lack of faith in Him. But it does not mean that He entirely despised them or did not care for them, as we have to understand that what God despises is the sins that we have committed, the wicked things that tainted us all in the body, heart and soul.

God loves all of us His children. We are the most beloved and precious of His creations. Yet, it pained Him to see that His beloved children abandoned Him and chose rather to be with the false gods and idols which they deemed to be their gods instead of their only one and only true God. He loves us all in person, and He cares for each and every one of us, but it is the sins that we have committed which separated us from Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why in the Gospel passage today, we heard about the Lord Jesus Who spoke to His disciples about the parable of the wheat and the weed. The Lord is the sower, Who sowed good seeds in our hearts, as we are all the fertile lands and grounds upon which God had given His grace and blessings. But the devil sowed the seeds of division and confusion, hoping that these would strangle the faith inside of us and trap us with the snares of sin.

If we allow these seeds to grow and develop, then I am afraid that over time it will grow to ensnare us and make it difficult for us to be faithful and loyal disciple of our Lord and God. Temptations and falsehoods of the devil are plentiful, and these are the things that will help those wicked seeds to grow, while preventing the growth or suffocating the growth of the seeds of faith inside each and every one of us.

And thus, perhaps it is good for us to take note of the examples of the two great and venerable saints whose feast we are celebrating today. They are none other than the parents of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, making them to be the grandparents of our Lord and Saviour. St. Joachim and St. Anne were the parents of Mary, the Mother of our Lord, and through their devout and good life as well as their good care of Mary, they have played a great part in the Lord’s plan of salvation.

Indeed, Mary had been conceived without sin, as the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, a centre tenet of our faith has told us, but it is equally important that she was brought up in a good family with a devout and faithful upbringing, which certainly St. Joachim and St. Anne had done for their daughter. This then highlights to us the importance of our own Christian families in the strengthening of the faith in each and every one of us.

Many of us do not realise it, but the family is a very important part of the Church, one of the strong pillars that helped to hold it all together. Without a stable and good family structure, and without a family that devote itself to the Lord and actively promote devotions and commitment towards God, then I am afraid that was the very reason why so many Christians had erred and been led into the falsehoods and the temptations of the devil.

Instead, as Christians, especially those of us in the families of Christ, each and every one of us, be it as a father, or as a mother, as a brother or a sister, as sons and daughters, all of us have a role to play in our Christian families. We are the foundations of the Church, as the saying goes that a family who prays together, stays together. If our families are run and kept as how Mary’s family was, and later on, as how the Holy Family was like, then surely there will be no problem.

The confusion and the wickedness spread by the devil can only grow when the situation and condition is ripe for such a growth, namely in situations where parental care is lacking, and where the Christian values that are supposed to be inculcated since young through the family are absent. Certainly, we do not want this to happen.

Therefore, let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord by strengthening our families, filled with faith, and devote ourselves anew. May God bless us all and keep us all in His grace, and may His blessings and graces be upon us always, now and forever. Amen.