Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 147 : 12-13, 14-15, 19-20
Exalt the Lord, o Jerusalem; praise your God, o Zion! For He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your children within you.
He grants peace on your borders and feeds you with the finest grain. He sends His command to the earth and swiftly runs His word.
It is He Who tells Jacob His words, His laws and decrees to Israel. This He has not done for other nations, so His laws remain unknown to them. Alleluia!
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 5 : 5-13
Who has overcome the world? The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus Christ was acknowledged through water, but also through Blood. Not only water but water and Blood. And the Spirit, too, witnesses to Him for the Spirit is truth.
There are then three testimonies : the Spirit, the water and the Blood, and these three witnesses agree. If we accept human testimony, with greater reason must we accept that of God, given in favour of His Son. If you believe in the Son of God, you have God’s testimony in you.
But those who do not believe make God a liar, since they do not believe His words when He witnesses to His Son. What has God said? That He has granted us eternal life and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life, the one who do not have the Son of God do not have life.
I write you, then, all these things that you may know that you have eternal life, all you who believe in the Name of the Son of God.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we continued the discourse of the Scriptures, with a similar theme to yesterday’s Scripture readings, that is on faithful discipleship and servanthood to God. In today’s Gospel passage, all of us heard about the calling of the Apostle Nathanael, also known as St. Bartholomew, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Lord, who was once a learned scholar and a wise man of Israel.
In the Gospel passage, Nathanael met the Lord and initially he had his reservations about believing in Jesus, as he was well versed in the Scriptures, and he knew that the Messiah was not supposed to come from Nazareth in Galilee, but from Bethlehem in Judea, not knowing that Jesus was indeed born in the town of Bethlehem when Mary and St. Joseph went there for the Imperial census.
But the Lord revealed His truth to Nathanael, and he came to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and Lord of all, the One Who was promised to us mankind, because he recognised Him in his innermost being, in the depth of his heart and mind, that Jesus is the Messiah and Saviour of the world because He is the proof and living reality of God’s great love for us all, His beloved children.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, in our first reading today, from the Epistle of St. John, we heard again of this love which God has given us, and all of us are called to imitate the love that God has shown to each one of us. If we say that we belong to the Lord, and are indeed His children, then it is just natural that we have to walk in the same way as Our Father, and obey His laws and commandments.
Unfortunately, many of us are still not doing what we should be doing. We prefer to follow the devil and commit sins and wicked things heinous and evil in the sight of God Our Father, as if Satan is our father instead of God. That is the sad truth and reality of world today, where more people, even Christians, lived in accordance with the ways of the devil rather than following God’s commandments and laws.
This is where all of us as Christians should give examples to our brethren, that we live our lives to the best of our abilities, trying to practice whatever it is that we believe in, first of all by our capacity and ability to love, since love is the most important aspect of our faith in God, Who is love and Who has shown us perfect and complete love. First of all, we should love God with all of our strength, placing Him at the centre of our loves.
What does this mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that we should do everything with God first and foremost in our minds. We should not do everything with the focus on our own selves and our own personal ambitions and desires. Then, after we have done so, we should also love our fellow brothers and sisters, our fellow men in the same manner, and not be selfish, concerned only with ourselves.
Let us all seek to be ever more faithful to the Lord, Our Loving God and Father. Let us all devote more of our time, effort and attention to be ever closer to Him, so that we may draw ever closer to Him and eventually find our way to receive the fullness of the eternal glory He has promised each one of us, His beloved children, who believe in Him and walk in His ways. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 1 : 43-51
The next day, Jesus decided to set off for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the One that Moses wrote about in the Law, and the prophets as well; He is Jesus, Son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, He said of him, “Here comes an Israelite, a true one; there is nothing false in him.” Nathanael asked Him, “How do You know me?” And Jesus said to him, “Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree, and I saw you.”
Nathanael answered, “Master, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” But Jesus replied, “You believe because I said, ‘I saw you under the fig tree.’ But you will see greater things than that. Truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 99 : 2, 3, 4, 5
Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God; He created us and we are His people, the sheep of His fold.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His Name.
For the Lord is good; His love lasts forever and His faithfulness through all generations.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 3 : 11-21
For this is the message taught to you from the beginning : we must love one another. Do not imitate Cain who killed his brother, for he belonged to the Evil One. Why did he kill him? Because he himself did evil and his brother did good.
So, be not surprised, brothers if the world hates us; we love our brothers and sisters, and with this we know that we have passed from death to life. The one who does not love remains in death. The one who hates his brother is a murderer, and, as you know, eternal life does not remain in the murderer.
This is how we have known what is love is : He gave His life for us. We, too, ought to give our life for our brothers and sisters. If anyone enjoys the riches of this world, but closes his heart when he sees his brother or sister in need, how will the love of God remain in him? My dear children, let us love not only with words and with our lips, but in truth and in deed.
Then we shall know that we are of the truth and we may calm our conscience in His presence. Every time it reproaches us, let us say : God is greater than our conscience, and He knows everything. When our conscience does not condemn us, dear friends, we may have complete confidence in God.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture readings have a very clear message to all of us. We are all called by the Lord to follow Him and to walk in His path, just as He has called His Apostles at that time. In the Gospel today, we heard the story of how Jesus called His first Apostles, at the shores of the river Jordan, calling simple fishermen who were there catching the fishes in the river.
All of those fishermen, the four of them had no idea that they were called to an entirely new life, a new existence and reality, in which they were transformed wholly from their humble origins, once doing a job that no one really wanted, fishers of fish and equally the same for the other Apostles, who were once thief, tax collector, or rebel, and many more. They became fishers of men, after accepting the Lord’s call.
They left behind their past lives and careers in order to become fully committed to the missions and the works God entrusted to them. They served the Lord faithfully in the missions they went through, declaring the glory of God and preaching His truth to the many nations. They had a great change in mind and attitude, as they allowed the Lord to inflame their hearts through the Holy Spirit He gave them.
Once, they were doubtful, not strong in their faith and afraid to do what the Lord had entrusted them to do. They hesitated and doubted, but the Lord strengthened them, and eventually, they were transformed into courageous and hardworking servants of God, who went about preaching the Good News tirelessly, and secured for countless souls they have touched, the promise of eternal life by their salvation in God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is time now for us to realise the significance and meaning of the Scripture passage which we have read in today’s first reading, taken from the Epistle of St. John. In that Scripture passage, we are reminded that each and every one of us have been made the children of God, as the adopted sons and daughters of God, Our Father in heaven. And therefore, as God’s own children, all of us should be walking in His path, as He has shown us, through none other than His Son, Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, many of us mankind acted in ways akin to being prodigal sons and daughters, preferring to walk in our own path and disobeying the Lord and His commandments. We gave in to our pride and hubris, and we did many things for our own personal gain and worldly glory, rather than to serve the Lord and to live faithfully in accordance with God’s ways.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, God Himself has bestowed upon us the great gift of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who came into this world and dwelled among us, uniting our humanity to Himself, that we all become God’s own children through Him. If God has loved us so much and gave us so many opportunities and goodness, then should we not do the same to Him? Should we not devote ourselves out of pure love for Him?
Let us all seek to be better disciples of the Lord, imitating the courageous examples of the Holy Apostles. Let us all renew our faith and commitment to Him, that in all of our actions and deeds, we will draw ever closer to God, and be able to live faithfully all the days of our lives, and in the end, be justified by God and found worthy to receive the fullness of His eternal glory and inheritance He promised us all. May God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 1 : 35-42
On the following day John was standing there again with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and said, “There is the Lamb of God.” On hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. He turned and saw them following, and He said to them, “What are you looking for?”
They answered, “Rabbi (which means Master), where are You staying?” Jesus said, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where He stayed, and spent the rest of that day with Him. It was about four o’ clock in the afternoon.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard what John had said, and followed Jesus. Early the next morning he found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means the Christ), and he brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, son of John, but you shall be called Cephas” (which means Rock).
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 97 : 1, 7-8, 9
Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.
Let the sea resound and everything in it, the world and all its peoples. Let rivers clap their hands, hills and mountains sing with joy before the Lord.
For He comes to rule the earth. He will judge the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 3 : 7-10
My little children, do not be led astray; those who do what is right are upright, just as Jesus Christ is upright. But those who sin belong to the devil, for the devil sins from the beginning.
This is why the Son of God was shown to us, He was to undo the works of the devil. Those born of God do not sin, for the seed of God remains in them; they cannot sin because they are born of God. What is the way to recognise the children of God and those of the devil? The one who does not do what is right is not of God; so, too, the one who does not love his brother or sister.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 