Month: August 2018

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Saturday, 1 September 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the message of the Sacred Scriptures speaking to us how each and every one of us have been called and chosen by God, and entrusted with a special responsibility, unique for each and every one of us, that for each one of us, we may do our part in taking care of what God has entrusted to us, as His servants and stewards of creation.

Today marks the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which was instituted by our Pope, Francis just in the recent years. This day is a reminder for us, that each and every one of us are God’s stewards and caretakers of what He has created in this world, for our sake. From the Book of Genesis, God has created everything in the universe, and last of all, creating us man in His own image, and entrusted all of creation to our care.

But unfortunately, our first ancestors chose to disobey God instead of obeying what He has commanded them to do. Instead of listening to God and following His ways, and thus, receiving from Him the fullness of the love and grace He intended to give us, we received only suffering and pain, death and destruction as the just punishment and consequences for our disobedience and sins.

And all of these were caused by our greed, our insatiable desires for worldly things. The desires that Adam and Eve had for the knowledge over good and evil, the knowledge that the devil tempted them with, saying that they would be like God, made them to disobey God and to exercise their stewardship with uttermost irresponsibility and lack of proper judgment.

In the Gospel passage today, this is what the Lord spoke of to the people, using the parable of the silver talents to show them what it means to be a true disciple of God, entrusted by Him with the many gifts, and with those gifts, equally many responsibilities according to what gifts and talents that He has given to us, to each and every one of us in our own uniqueness.

In that parable, we heard of a master of servant who gave different amount of silver talents to three of his servants, to one he gave five talents, while to another he gave two talents, and to the last one, he gave one talent of silver. A talent is a large unit of mass used to measure the amount of silver or any other precious metals used at that time. And it is a large amount indeed.

But in how the servants made use of the talent, we can notice a great difference between those who put the silver talent into good use, investing them and gaining returns from them, with the one who hid the silver talent and did nothing with it. The master was pleased with those who made good use of the silver talent and rewarded them with even more of what he owned, to be entrusted to them.

But the one who failed to make good use of the silver talent was punished and suffered because of his refusal to obey the will of his master, and for his failure to make use of what have been given to him. He has been given with something that he could have used for a good use and gained immeasurably more from it, and yet, he consciously and willingly chose not to act on it.

Now, the same fate awaits us, should we fail to use whatever talents and gifts that God has given us, or even abuse it for the wrong purposes. We will be held accountable should we misuse all that God has entrusted to us, in our care of the world around us, as well as in how we interact with one another. Sadly, this is what we mankind have often done in our lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us reflect on every moments when we have failed the Lord, by treating our brethren without fairness, and ignoring the plight of the needy and the poor in our midst, when we could have extended a helping hand, and caring for them in whatever way we can, even in small things. How many of us have done this in our own lives?

Let us all from now on make good use of what God has given us, and no longer be filled with greed and desire for ourselves that we end up abusing or making the wrong use of what we have been given and been blessed with in life. Let us all learn to be selfless and loving, in all the things we do, that rather than hiding what God has given us in love and blessings, we share them with others who have little or none of these.

This is our calling as Christians, to be loving and compassionate, to show mercy and love towards our fellow men, as well as care and concern towards our world and all that lives in it, as responsible caretakers and stewards of God’s creations. May the Lord be with us and may He continue to strengthen in us, the love which we ought to have for each other. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 1 September 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Matthew 25 : 14-30

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Imagine someone who, before going abroad, summoned his servants to entrust his property to them. He gave five talents of silver to one servant, two talents to another servant, and one talent to a third, to each, according to his ability; and he went away.”

“He who received five talents went at once to do business with the talents, and gained another five. The one who received two talents did the same, and gained another two. But the one who received one talent dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.”

“After a long time, the master of those servants returned and asked for a reckoning. The one who had received five talents came with another five talents, saying, ‘Lord, you entrusted me with five talents, but see, I have gained five more.’ The master answered, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, since you have been faithful in a few things, I will entrust you in charge of many things. Come and share the joy of your master.'”

“Then the one who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you entrusted me with two talents; with them I have gained two more.’ The master said, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, since you have been faithful in little things, I will entrust you in charge of many things. Come and share the joy of your master.'”

“Finally, the one who had received one talent came and said, ‘Master, I know that you are a hard man. You reap what you have not sown, and gather what you have not scattered. I was afraid, so I hid your money in the ground. Here, take what is yours!’ But his master replied, ‘Wicked and worthless servant, you know that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered. You should have deposited my money in the bank, and given it back to me with interest on my return.'”

“Therefore, take the talent from him, and give it to the one who has ten. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who are unproductive, even what they have will be taken from them. As for that useless servant, thrown him out into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

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Saturday, 1 September 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Psalm 32 : 12-13, 18-19, 20-21

Blessed is the nation whose God is YHVH – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. YHVH looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.

But YHVH’s eyes are upon those who fear Him, upon those who trust in His loving-kindness; to deliver them from death and preserve them from famine.

In hope, we wait for YHVH, for He is our help and our shield. Our hearts rejoice in Him, for we trust in His holy Name.

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Saturday, 1 September 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

1 Corinthians 1 : 26-31

Brothers and sisters, look and see whom God has called. Few among you can be said to be cultured or wealthy, and few belong to noble families. Yet God has chosen what the world considers foolish, to shame the wise; He has chosen what the world considers weak to shame the strong.

God has chosen common and unimportant people, making use of what is nothing to nullify the things that are, so that no mortal may boast before God. But, by God’s grace you are in Christ Jesus, Who has become our wisdom from God, and Who makes us just and holy and free. Scripture says : Let the one who boasts boast of the Lord.

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Friday, 31 August 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the readings of the Scriptures again reminding us the importance for us to listen to God and to trust in His will and obey His commandments, for His ways and wisdom are far greater than the very greatest of our wisdom and intellect, and no human achievement is indeed possible without God’s blessings.

In the first reading today taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth, we heard of St. Paul speaking of the truth which the Lord had brought to His people, His wisdom which has been revealed to the whole world. And he pointed out how there were those who refused to listen to the Lord or shutting themselves off from the truth simply because they could not get rid of their pride and arrogance.

And this is related to what we heard in today’s Gospel passage, where we heard the Lord Jesus teaching His disciples by the means of a parable. He spoke to them about the parable of the five wise women and the five foolish women, comparing them to the comparison between the wisdom of men and the wisdom of God. The five foolish women represented those who put their trust in human wisdom and refused to obey God’s truth and wisdom.

Meanwhile the five wise women represented all those who trusted in the Lord and obeyed Him. Those who were wise were prepared for the coming of the bridegroom who was delayed in coming, while the ones who were foolish were caught unprepared by the delay and were not ready when the bridegroom suddenly came in the middle of the night. This is actually a reminder of how fleeting and impermanent our human existence is.

How is that so? First of all, many of us live our lives in this world with the intention to satisfy our own desires and wants. We live our lives seeking for things that make us happy such as having more money, more material goods, more prestige, fame, glory and other parameters of ‘success’ as defined by the world.

And quite a few among us were obsessed with attaining more and more of those indicators of worldly success and to satisfy our ever growing desire. We must know, brethren, that we mankind are very difficult to satisfy with any sorts of worldly goodness and temptations, for the more that we have and gained, the more it is that we desire, for even more of what we have gained.

We must remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that it does not matter how much money we accumulate, or how much prestige and fame we gather in the community and the society, or how many possessions and things we have with us, but none of these will matter when we are called to face the day of reckoning, when we encounter the moment of our death as the Lord willed it.

All of us spend much of our time trying to enrich ourselves in various ways, and to gather for ourselves as many worldly satisfactions as we could gather. But in the end, none of these could give us the chance to live even a moment longer than the time given to us by the Lord. And in the end of it all, many of us would come to regret that we have not done what we should have done, and instead, falling into temptation, we sinned against God and disobeyed Him.

As a result, many have fallen into damnation out of our inability to resist the many temptations the devil has prepared against us, and out of our own lack of commitment to the Lord, as well as our lack of preparation, that we are caught unprepared when the time comes for each one of us to give an account of what we have done and what we have failed to do in our respective lives.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard our Scripture passages today, let us all spend some time to reflect on each and every one of our lives today. Let us all think of how we can improve our lives by living them more closely attuned with the Lord, and by devoting ourselves ever more to the Lord, Our God. Let us all seek to be more faithful, from now on, by truly living up to our faith in each and every action we do.

May the Lord strengthen us in our faith and affirm us in our commitment to live each and every day of our lives with us all being ever ready and ever prepared whenever it is the Lord wants to call us to Himself. We are called to be holy just as Our Lord is holy. Therefore, let us from now on be true Christians, filled with God’s love and faith. Let us all put our complete trust in Him and not in our worldly strengths. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 31 August 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 25 : 1-13

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “This story throws light on what will happen in the kingdom of heaven : Ten bridesmaids went out with their lamps to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were sensible. The careless bridesmaids took their lamps as they were, and did not take extra oil. But those who were sensible, took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom delayed, they all grew drowsy and fell asleep.”

“But at midnight, a cry rang out, ‘The bridegroom is here, come on and meet him!’ All the maidens woke up at once, and trimmed their lamps. Then the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, ‘Give us some oil, for our lamps are going out.’ The sensible ones answered, ‘There may not be enough for us and for you. You had better go to those who sell, and buy some for yourselves.'”

“When the bridegroom came, the foolish maidens were out buying oil, but those who were ready went with him into the wedding feast, and the doors were shut. Later the other bridesmaids arrived and called out, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered, ‘Truly I do not know you.'”

“So stay awake, for you do not know the day nor the hour.”

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Friday, 31 August 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 32 : 1-2, 4-5, 10-11

Rejoice in the Lord, you who are just, praise is fitting for the upright. Give thanks to Him on the harp and lyre, making melody and chanting praises.

For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.

The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and brings to nothing the peoples’ designs. But His plan stands forever, and His heart’s design through all generations.

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Friday, 31 August 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Corinthians 1 : 17-25

For Christ did not send me to baptise, but to proclaim His Gospel. And not with beautiful words! That would be like getting rid of the cross of Christ. The language of the cross remains nonsense for those who are lost. Yet for us who are saved, it is the power of God, as Scripture says : I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and make fail the foresight of the foresighted. Masters of human wisdom, educated people, philosophers, you have no reply! And the wisdom of this world? God let it fail.

At first, God spoke the language of wisdom, and the world did not know God through wisdom. Then God thought of saving the believers, through the foolishness that we preach. The Jews ask for miracles and the Greeks for a higher knowledge, while we proclaim a crucified Messiah. For the Jews, what a great scandal! And for the Greeks, what nonsense! But He is Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, for those called by God among both Jews and Greeks.

In reality, the “foolishness” of God is wiser than humans, and the “weakness” of God is stronger than humans.

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Thursday, 30 August 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are all reminded of our obligations as Christians to be true to our faith, and to be worthy and ready at all times for the Lord, Our God. Each and every one of us, as St. Paul mentioned in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth, have been sanctified and made worthy by the Lord Jesus Himself, Who has given His own Body and Blood in the Eucharist, and sent us the Holy Spirit.

He has given us the rich and wonderful inheritance of His grace and many blessings, and all these He has given us because of His love for us all. All of us have been entrusted by God with the stewardship of our own lives in this world, entrusted with the many things we have possessed in this life, as His stewards and caretakers of this world. And this is related to what we have heard in our Gospel passage today.

In the Gospel today, we heard about the parable of the faithful and unfaithful steward, in which the contrast was placed before those who heard the Lord, between a prudent and good servant of a master, who obeyed the master’s commands and desires, and did all that he was supposed to do, and then, with a wicked and unfaithful servant, who did not obey the commands of his master, but delayed in doing what he was supposed to do.

The good steward and servant did not delay in doing the will of his master, putting his master’s will and expectations above that of his own ones. But the bad and wicked servant enjoyed life and abused his authority and position, and put his own desires and wishes first above that of his master’s. And he even took pride in thinking that he was safe, as he thought that his master would be delayed in returning.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in what we have heard and learnt from the Gospel passage, all of us are reminded not to be like the bad, wicked and lazy servant, who only thought about himself and his own needs. In his selfishness and pride, he has led himself into his own downfall. The master caught the lazy servant unprepared, and sent him to his own doom.

Now, this is a reminder for us all, that we must be ever prepared and ever ready for the reckoning of our lives, as we must realise just how fragile our human life and existence is. All of us will one day, sooner or later experience death, that is the ending of our mortal and earthly existence. And at that moment, we will be judged on our actions and deeds in life, our obedience and disobedience against God, our fulfilment or failure to fulfil God’s will.

Now, do we want the fate like that of the wicked and lazy servant, who was caught unprepared by his master when he suddenly returned? The same fate will be ours should we ignore God’s reminders and calling for us, to repent and turn away from our sinful ways. If we do not actively resist the temptations of life and all sorts of pleasures and distractions that the devil placed on our path, then we will end up falling badly in our journey of faith.

Let us all remember this, brothers and sisters in Christ, the suffering of those who have rejected and disobeyed God, and refused to listen to Him. Let us all seek the Lord from now on with all of our hearts and with all of our strength. May God be with us all, and may He continue to watch over us and strengthen us, that we will always walk faithfully in His path, and not fall into the temptation of human pride and greed. Amen.

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Thursday, 30 August 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 24 : 42-51

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Stay awake then, for you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Obviously, if the owner of the house knew at what time the thief was coming, he would certainly stay up and not allow his house to be broken into. So be alert, for the Son of Man will come at the hour you least expect.”

“Imagine a faithful and prudent servant, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give them food at the proper time. Fortunate, indeed, is that servant, whom his master will find at work when he comes. Truly I say to you, his lord will entrust him with everything he has.”

“Not so with the bad servant, who thinks, ‘My master is delayed.’ And he begins to ill-treat his fellow servants, while eating and drinking with drunkards. But his master will come on the day he does not know, and at the hour he least expects. He will punish that servant severely; and place him with the hypocrites. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”