Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 80 : 10-11ab, 12-13, 14-15
There shall be no strange god among you, you shall not worship any alien god, for I, YHVH, am your God.
But My people did not listen; Israel did not obey. So I gave them over to their stubbornness and they followed their own counsels.
If only My people would listen, if only Israel would walk in My ways, I would quickly subdue their adversaries and turn My hand against their enemies.
Liturgical Colour : Green
1 Kings 11 : 29-32 and 1 Kings 12 : 19
Once, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh found him on the road. The two of them were alone in the open country when Ahijah, who had a new garment on, clutched and tore it into twelve pieces.
He then said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself for this is the word of YHVH, the God of Israel : ‘I am about to tear the kingdom from Solomon’s hands to give you ten tribes. Only one tribe shall be left to him for the sake of My servant David and Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.’”
So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to the present time.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints and Virgins)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we began our Scripture reflections with the story from the Book of Kings, telling us about how Solomon, the mighty and great king of Israel and son of king David, another famous king of Israel, fell from grace and fell into sin, due to his weakness and submission to the many demands of his wives and concubines, giving in to the temptations of the flesh, as well as the temptations of human pride and worldly greed.
He turned away from God and became enslaved to sin, and therefore, God withdrew from Solomon and from his descendants, the promise of glory and well-being which He has promised them. That is because they had not been faithful to their part of the Covenant which they made with God Himself. Rather than putting their trust in God, they had allowed Satan to enslave them and to rule over them through sin.
In the Gospel passage today, we heard of a different story, about a woman who came to Jesus begging for Him to heal her daughter who was beset by demons and evil spirits. The woman’s daughter suffered terribly under the enslavement of the evil spirits, and as such, the mother also suffered greatly as well. Knowing and indeed, believing that the Lord Jesus alone was able to help her and her daughter, the woman came to Him.
But the Lord was reluctant to help her, telling her that it was not right for Him to throw the bread intended for the children to eat, to the dogs to be eaten by them. What did He mean by this? It means that as at that time, the common belief was that the Messiah came only to save the people of Israel, then Jesus Who is the Messiah should not have dealt with non-Jewish people, including the woman who was a Syro-Phoenician woman.
Yet the woman persevered in her faith and commitment to see her daughter healed from her condition, and humbled herself such before God that she did not mind to accept what the Lord said to her, even though it might have sounded very insulting and demeaning to her. But in truth, the Lord did not mean to disrespect her, rather to show to all the people, having known what she would say to Him, that even among the non-Jewish people there was such a great faith.
We can see the contrast here, firstly of the famous king of Israel, Solomon, who willingly embraced the devil and his temptations to sin, going from a free state of being a son of God in good graces, into a state of slavery, because sin is indeed the enslavement of our souls under the forces of sin and evil. Then we see the contrast between that and the faith of the Syro-Phoenician woman, whose daughter was enslaved and wanted her to be freed from such slavery, and thus, begged the Lord to do so.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to reflect on ourselves and our lives as we internalise what we have heard from the Scripture passages today. We mankind have fallen into sin because of our failure to obey the Lord and His commandments, and we preferred to follow the rebellious ways of the devil, who thus enslaved us through sin and death ruled over us because of those sins.
Yet, throughout history, many of us have ended up like Solomon, failing to resist the temptations and the urges to sin, which are the stumbling blocks put in place by the devil, meant to be our downfall. We voluntarily enslave ourselves once again to sin, even though as we know, the Lord has liberated us all from sin, by His death on the cross. I am sure we can see just how ironic our actions sound like, when we come to think of it.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to be free, and indeed, desire strongly to be free, for unless our souls and our whole being are free from sin, we will still be enslaved to sin, and thus, in danger of eternal damnation. We need to take the concrete steps and make the conscious efforts to actively seek the Lord, just as the Syro-Phoenician woman had done, and beg the Lord to heal us and save us from our predicament.
Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, whose life and story truly fits into our narrative and theme today on humanity’s enslavement to sin and the need for liberation. St. Josephine Bakhita herself was a longtime slave during the early years of her life, living in the area now known as Sudan. From her young age, she had experienced slavery firsthand, having been snatched and abducted by slavers, sold as slave to the highest bidder in the slave market.
St. Josephine Bakhita went from master to master, and she suffered great indignities during her years of slavery, suffering and pain were her daily cup. Eventually, she came to be under the patronage of an Italian, who brought her away from the land of her suffering into Italy, where she eventually managed to obtain her freedom and she also came to accept the Catholic faith through faithful instruction, and eventually became a religious nun renowned for her great faith and piety.
St. Josephine Bakhita and her amazing story of conversion and liberation, not just from physical slavery of the body but also spiritual and mental slavery of sin is truly a very real and relevant example for us, as we reflect on what we have heard in today’s Scripture passage. Her experiences, together with that of the other saint we celebrate today, St. Jerome Emiliani, the patron saint of orphans renowned for his commitment to alleviating the sufferings of the poor and those who were orphaned, serve as reminders for us Christians.
All of us should first of all strive to be free from our enslavement to sin, by actively practicing our faith and shunning all that is wicked and evil from our own respective lives. And then, we should also help one another, especially when we see that some among us are in the danger of falling and slipping away into sin, that we should encourage one another to live faithfully and remind ourselves that we should resist the falsehoods and lies done by Satan to trap us.
Let us all pray, brothers and sisters, that all of us Christians may be truly free, free from all the chains and bonds of sin, which have prevented us from being able to be with God in all of our hearts, minds, souls and our whole beings. May the Lord be with us always, and through the intercession of the holy saints, particularly St. Josephine Bakhita and St. Jerome Emiliani, may we as sinners, come to seek the Lord’s most abundant mercy and receive His forgiveness. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints and Virgins)
Mark 7 : 24-30
At that time, when Jesus went to the border of the Tyrian country. There, He entered a house, and did not want anyone to know He was there; but He could not remain hidden. A woman, whose small daughter had an evil spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell at His feet.
Now this woman was a pagan, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she begged Him to drive the demon out of her daughter. Jesus told her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the puppies.”
But she replied, “Sir, even the puppies under the table eat the crumbs from the children’s bread.” Then Jesus said to her, “You may go your way; because of such a response, the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
And when the woman went home, she found her child lying in bed, and the demon gone.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints and Virgins)
Psalm 105 : 3-4, 35-36, 37 and 40
Blessed are they who always do just and right. Remember me, o YHVH, when You show favour to Your people; rescue me when You deliver them.
They mingled with these nations and learnt to do as they did. In serving the idols of the pagans, they were trapped.
Into sacrificing children to demons. The anger of YHVH grew intense and He abhorred His inheritance.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints and Virgins)
1 Kings 11 : 4-13
In Solomon’s old age, his wives led him astray to serve other gods and, unlike his father David, his heart was no longer wholly given to YHVH his God. For he served Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites.
He did what displeased YHVH and, unlike his father David, was unfaithful to Him. Solomon even built a high place for Chemosh, the idol of Moab, on the mountain east of Jerusalem and also for Molech, the idol of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives who burnt incense and sacrificed to their gods.
YHVH became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from YHVH, the God of Israel. YHVH appeared to him twice and commanded him not to follow other gods. But he did not obey YHVH’s command. Therefore, YHVH said to Solomon, “Since this has been your choice and you have kept neither My Covenant nor the statutes I commanded you, I will take the kingdom from you and give it to your servant.”
“Nevertheless, I will not do this during your lifetime for the sake of your father David; I will take it from your son. But I will not take it all; I will reserve one tribe for your son for the sake of David My servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we listened today to the words from the Scripture telling us about the moment when the Queen of Sheba from the land of Ethiopia travelled to Jerusalem to see for herself all the glory that was told about Solomon, God’s chosen king and leader for His people, Israel. Solomon was widely known at his time because of his great wisdom, his great wealth and power.
Solomon showed her all of his glory, his wisdom and all that God had granted him, and the Queen was amazed at all that she had seen, which surpassed all the rumours and news she had heard from her homeland. Solomon had great number of wives and concubines, and great amount of wealth, and he had a strong army and rich stores of grains and goods, all that the people of this world would have ever wanted.
However, those riches and his wives and concubines corrupted Solomon, who fell into pride and hubris, disobedience against God and lack of faith, as he gave in to the demands and allures of his wives to allow pagan worship in accordance with the customs of their respective people, leading Israel back into sin, as they turned away from the Lord their God. His great wealth and power made him proud of his achievements, and God was no longer the centre of his life.
But, did those wealth, riches and the wives cause the corruption in Solomon? And do all these things lead him to sin by themselves? If we remember what we have also just heard from the Gospel today, and heed what the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees, then we will realise that it was not the case. The Lord Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because of their extreme dedication to the external observances of the Law.
The Pharisees were very strict with the observances of the rules and regulations of the Law, particularly in the matter of cleansing and purification, as they grumbled upon seeing Jesus and His disciples not performing the ritual purification as described by the Jewish customs at the time. According to them, the washing of the hands before meals should be done in a particular way, from the tip of the fingers right down the whole arms all the way to the elbow.
And they were also very particular with regards of the food prohibitions, on food that was considered to be unclean in accordance with the Jewish law, that no one could touch the unclean food, and in fact, they could not even come in contact with people considered to be unclean, such as those deemed to be sinners like the prostitutes, tax collectors, criminals, and all those who were deemed to be unworthy.
But in their insistence and enforcement on all to obey the rules and regulations right down to the smallest details, being afraid that external defilements might make them unclean and impure, ended up becoming irrational and made them to lose their focus and purpose in fulfilling those laws and commandments. Instead of bringing them closer to the Lord, as what the Lord intended when He gave those laws to His people, it ended up leading the people away from God.
Sin and disobedience, all the defilements and wickedness came about not from the outside but from the inside. This is what the Lord Jesus wanted to point out to the people. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law might be outwardly pious and obedient to the Law, but their hearts have no God in them. Instead of God being at the centre of their lives, it was their ego that takes the most prominent place.
They sinned not because of all their external actions, which were probably good, but because of their insincerity and lack of faith, because of their hubris and ambition, because of their greed and inability to resist their human desires and wishes. It was all of these negative emotions and feeling coming up from inside of them, which led them to sin against God. On the other hand, people who were deemed sinners were saved, because they sincerely desired to be forgiven from their sins.
It was the same with king Solomon as well, as king Solomon’s wealth, all of his kingdom’s might, power and glory are all just means to be used, and they are by no means good or evil. Money can be used as much for good purpose such as charity and good deeds, as they can be used for wicked purposes, to cause suffering and pain for others. Rather, his sin and disobedience came about because of his pride and the growing greed inside his heart and mind.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of these are reminders to us all, that as Christians, we have to strive to live faithfully to God, not just for the sake of appearances or for the sake of fulfilling our obligations, but instead, we must truly love God through everything we say and do. Otherwise, our faith will be empty and meaningless, and we will easily fall into temptation, the temptation of pride and greed, the temptation of worldly pleasures and power, as king Solomon and the Pharisees had succumbed to.
Let us all renew our faith with a new zeal, so that in all that we do, we will always do them for the glorification of God, and for our great love and dedication towards Him. After all, He has blessed us and loved us all, just as He has blessed Solomon greatly. But let us not be swayed and tempted by the blessings we have, and instead, let us learn to share the blessings we have, loving our brethren in need, so that we may be true Christians, sharing God’s love with one another, particularly to those who need it most.
May God be with us always, and may He continue to bless all of our endeavours, so that in everything we do, we will be filled with joy, knowing that God is with us along the way, and He will be with us and we will share in His eternal glory, reserved for all those who are loyal and faithful to Him. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Mark 7 : 14-23
At that time, Jesus then called the people to Him again and said to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and try to understand. Nothing that enters a person from the outside can make that person unclean. It is what comes from within that makes a person unclean. Let everyone who has ears listen.”
When Jesus got home and was away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him about this saying, and He replied, “So even you are dull? Do you not see that whatever comes from outside cannot make a person unclean, since it enters not the heart but the stomach, and is finally passed out?”
Thus Jesus declared that all foods are clean. And He went on, “What comes our of a person is what defiles him, for evil designs come out of the heart : theft, murder, adultery, jealousy, greed, maliciousness, deceit, indecency, slander, pride and folly. All these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 36 : 5-6, 30-31, 39-40
Commit your way to YHVH; put your trust in Him and let Him act. Then will your revenge come, beautiful as the dawn, and the justification of your cause, bright as the noonday sun.
The mouth of the virtuous utters wisdom and his tongue speaks of what is right. His steps have never faltered, for the Law of God is in his heart.
YHVH is the salvation of the righteous; in time of distress, He is their refuge. YHVH helps them, and rescues them from the oppressor; He saves them, for they sought shelter in Him.
Liturgical Colour : Green
1 Kings 10 : 1-10
The queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s fame, and came to test him with difficult questions. She arrived in Jerusalem with a vast retinue and with camels loaded with spices and an abundance of gold and precious stones.
When she came to Solomon, she told him all that she had on her mind and Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing that the king could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the palace he had built, the food on his table, the residence of his officials, the attendance of his servants and their clothing, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings which he offered at YHVH’s House, it left her breathless.
Then she said to the king, “All that I heard in my own land concerning you and your wisdom was true. But I did not believe the reports until I came and saw with my own eyes. And what did I see! I was told only half the story; for your wisdom and wealth surpass the report I heard.”
“Fortunate are your wives! Fortunate are your servants who are ever in your presence and hear your wisdom! Blessed be YHVH your God, Who has looked kindly on you and has put you on the throne of Israel! Because of YHVH’s eternal love for Israel, He has made you king so that you may dispense justice and righteousness.”
Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in abundance, and precious stones. Such an abundance of spices as those which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon was never again seen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 