Day: February 12, 2017

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Thursday, 16 February 2017 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Mark 8 : 27-33

At that time, Jesus set out with His disciples for the villages around Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He asked them, “Who do people say I am?” And they told Him, “Some say You are John the Baptist; others say You are Elijah or one of the prophets.”

Then Jesus asked them, “But you, who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” And He ordered them not to tell anyone about Him. Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. He would be killed, and after three days rise again.

Jesus said all this quite openly, so that Peter took Him aside and began to protest strongly. But Jesus turning around, and looking at His disciples, rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does, but as people do.”

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Thursday, 16 February 2017 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 101 : 16-18, 19-21, 29 and 22-23

O Lord, the nations will revere Your Name, and the kings of the earth Your glory, when the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in all His splendour. For He will answer the prayer of the needy and will not despise their plea.

Let this be written for future ages, “The Lord will be praised by a people He will form.” From His holy height in heaven, the Lord has looked on the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoners, and free those condemned to death.”

Your servants’ children will dwell secure; their posterity will endure without fail. Then the Name of the Lord will be declared in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem, when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship Him.

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Thursday, 16 February 2017 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Genesis 9 : 1-13

God blessed Noah and his sons and he said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Fear and dread of you will be in all the animals of the earth and in all the birds of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. They are given to you. Everything that moves and lives shall be food for you; as I gave you the green plants, I have now given you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood.”

“But I will also demand a reckoning for your lifeblood. I will demand it from every animal; and from man, too, I will demand a reckoning for the life of his fellow man. He who sheds the blood of man shall have his blood shed by man; for in the image of God has God made man. As for you, be fruitful and increase. Abound on the earth and be master of it.”

God spoke to Noah and his son, “See I am making a covenant with you and with your descendants after you; also with every living animal with you : birds, cattle, that is, with every living creature of the earth that came out of the Ark. I establish My covenant with you. Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I make between Me and you, and every animal living with you for all future generations. I set My bow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.”

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Wednesday, 15 February 2017 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, as we continue the discourse from the Sacred Scriptures, we listened to the tale of Noah and his Ark, which endured the great flood with all of his family and with all of kinds of living animals and plants. Noah was saved from damnation and utter distraction because of his faith, dedication to God and to His ways, there is a new hope that arises within us, because God did not forget His beloved ones, and neither did He want to see us perish.

He had sent the great flood to the earth, wiping out all mankind save for Noah, for they were wicked and they refused to repent, and therefore, they met their fated destruction, because of their inability to change themselves and their ways of life. They died and perished because of their own sins, the result of their disobedience against God and His ways.

Noah alone had remained faithful, and therefore, God extended His protection and grace over him and his whole family, that he would not be counted among the wicked and the unjust, and perish with them. Instead, he was carried away safely in the Ark with his whole family, and from him descended all the sons and daughters of man, all the way down the generations to us today.

We are all around in this world because God has had mercy on our ancestors, on our forefathers. He has showed His love and forgiveness to them, and there were those among them who believed in God, turned away from their sins and followed Him. These were the ones who passed down their faith to their descendants, and from them, and also through the Church, we receive our faith.

And so great was God’s love for us that He gave us help and assistance throughout time, that whenever we fall into sin, He would give us His guides, prophets and messengers to remind us all of the true and right path, so that we would not fall deeper into the darkness and sin. There were many of those who refused to listen and therefore perish, but there were also those who listened to the Lord’s call, believed, and were saved.

Ultimately, He also gave us Himself through Jesus Christ His Son, Who came into the world in order to save us. He has done His many miraculous works, as what we heard in the Gospel today, healing those who were blind, and also those who were deaf, mute, paralysed, and also those who were afflicted and possessed by demons and wicked spirits.

He came into this world to rescue us, that we may not sink into the multitudes of our sins, and all the wickedness that are all around us. To this extent, He has established His Church, through which He gathered all those who believe in Him, and bring them to safety. For often the Church is likened to a boat, a ship sailing through the turbulent waters of this world. It was indeed just as how the Ark of Noah saved him and his family, with many other animals and plants from the destruction by the great flood.

God had given us all so much of His love, and now what we all need to do, is to replicate the same love which He had given us. We should not harden our hearts so much so that we became like those people living at Noah’s time, who must have laughed at Noah and mocked him for obeying the Lord’s command to build a great Ark. It was only when it was too late for them, when the flood took over them, that they realised their folly. But it was way too late for them.

Let us all spend some time to reflect on this matter, and learn to put forth more of our effort to love the Lord, by obeying Him and by listening to His words, following in His laws and commandments, so that in everything we say and do, we will always be found righteous by God, and be worthy to receive the eternal glory God had promised to all those who remain true and faithful to Him.

May the Lord bless us all and may He strengthen in us our faith, so that we may continue to serve Him with all our heart, and draw closer to Him with each and every passing day. God be with us all. Amen.