Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 33 : 2-3, 16-17, 18-19
I will praise YHVH all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. My soul makes its boast in YHVH; let the lowly hear and rejoice.
The eyes of YHVH are fixed on the righteous; His ears are inclined to their cries. But His face is set against the wicked, to destroy their memory from the earth.
YHVH hears the cry of the righteous and rescues them from all their troubles. YHVH is close to the brokenhearted and saves the distraught.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Wisdom 2 : 23 – Wisdom 3 : 9
Indeed God created man to be immortal in the likeness of His own nature, but the envy of the devil brought death to the world, and those who take his side shall experience death.
The souls of the just are in the hands of God and no torment shall touch them. In the eyes of the unwise they appear to be dead. Their going is held as a disaster; it seems that they lose everything by departing from us, but they are in peace.
Though seemingly they have been punished, immortality was the soul of their hope. After slight affliction will come great blessings, for God has tried them and found them worthy to be with Him; after testing them as gold in the furnace, He has accepted them as a holocaust.
At the time of His coming they will shine like sparks that run in the stubble. They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will be their King forever. Those who trust in Him will penetrate the truth, those who are faithful will live with Him in love, for His grace and mercy are for His chosen ones.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture reminding us all about the importance of keeping ourselves open to the Wisdom of God through His Holy Spirit, by which His presence and truth enter into us and transform us in the manner that is perhaps incomprehensible to the world and to the norms of the society where we are living in. Yet, it is something that is necessary for us as we grow in our faith.
And it is also an important reminder to each and every one of us that all of us living in this world have been entrusted with the responsibility and the duty of being witnesses of Christ in our daily living with faith, as we are all visible to each other through our actions and our deeds. If we do not live our lives with faith, essentially we are turning ourselves away from God and from His truth and wisdom.
Unfortunately, many of us often succumbed to the temptations of this world, the temptation of power, of fame, of worldly material goods and prosperity, of glory and human praise and adulation. Many of us chose therefore to trust in our own strength and wisdom, and ended up falling into the trap that the devil and our tempters have put in place to make us stumble in our journey of faith.
And the devil knows how to manipulate and trick us well, and the greater the power and responsibility we have, the more that we will be tempted to stray away from the path of the Lord. Power indeed corrupts, as the people says, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is in our human nature, our predisposition and desire for power, for pleasures and happiness in life, for joy of this world that made us vulnerable to the temptations to sin.
That was why the Lord Jesus rebuked His opponents, likely referring to the Pharisees and the elders and the chief priests as He spoke out against those who have misled the children of God into the wrong path. And all of that was caused by their preoccupation with maintaining their prestige, power, influence and authority in the society that led them to their haughty and misled attitudes.
Therefore, after having discerned about what we have just discussed, we can see how that all of us are called to serve the Lord and follow Him in His way of truth. However, following God requires us to be open to His truth and wisdom as I mentioned, and we have to be humble and lay down our pride, or else it will be difficult for us to resist the temptations to follow instead the path of the devil, that is the path of worldliness.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, perhaps we can get some inspirations from the saint of today, a renowned saint whose life is truly exemplary before God. St. Martin of Tours was one of the early bishops of Tours in what is now southern France, at the years of the waning of the Roman Empire in the west, about a century after the toleration of Christians through the Edict of Milan. St. Martin of Tours came from a noble background and was an officer in the Roman army before he had a change in life and became eventually the Bishop of Tours.
It was told that on one occasion, on a cold night, as St. Martin rode along on his horse, he saw an old beggar by the roadside suffering and without anything to cover himself from the cold temperature. St. Martin, moved by what he saw, took his sword and cut part of his centurion’s cloak, and gave the cloak to the old beggar to be a comforter and protector in the midst of the cold condition.
That very night, the Lord appeared to St. Martin and revealed that the old beggar was none other than God Himself, and showed him how he had done a truly blessed action by his humility and generosity for the least and the poorest, which reminds us of what the Lord Jesus said, that whatever we do to the least of our brothers, we are doing it for the Lord Himself. Through that and all other experiences, St. Martin of Tours eventually decided to leave the military and deepen his spiritual life instead, becoming the Bishop of Tours by the support of his flock.
St. Martin of Tours was truly dedicated in his service as the shepherd of his flock, dedicating his time and efforts to take care of the needs of his flock, in particular their spiritual needs. He was a champion of the true faith amidst several heresies that were rampant at that time, protecting his flock from the false teachings and helped to guide them down the right path, leading by example through his own virtuous life.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to follow the good examples set by St. Martin of Tours? We ourselves can follow in his footsteps and do what he had once done in our own respective lives. What we need is the humility and the desire to resist the many temptations present all around us, and also the desire to love God with all of our heart. Let us ask for the intercession of St. Martin of Tours, that God will strengthen our faith through his prayers. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 17 : 1-6
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Scandals will necessarily come and cause people to fall; but woe to the one who brings them about. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone around his neck. Truly, this would be better for that person, than to cause one of these little ones to fall.”
“Listen carefully : if your brother offends you, tell him, and if he is sorry, forgive him. And if he offends you seven times in one day, but seven times he says to you, ‘I am sorry,’ forgive him.”
The Apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” And the Lord said, “If you have faith, even the size of a mustard seed, you may say to this tree, ‘Be uprooted, and plant yourself in the sea!’ and it will obey you.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 138 : 1-3, 4-6, 7-8, 9-10
O YHVH, You know me : You have scrutinised me. You know when I sit and when I rise; beforehand, You discern my thoughts. You observe my activities and times of rest; You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is formed in my mouth, You know what it is all about, o YHVH. From front to back You hedge me round, shielding me with Your protecting hand. Your knowledge leaves me astounded, it is too high for me to reach.
Where else could I go from Your Spirit? Where could I flee from Your presence? You are there, if I ascend the heavens; You are there, if I descend to the depths.
If I ride on the wings of the dawn, and settle on the far side of the sea, even there, Your hand shall guide me, and Your right hand shall hold me safely.
Liturgical Colour : White
Wisdom 1 : 1-7
Love justice, you who rule over the world! Think rightly of God, seek Him with simplicity of heart, for He reveals Himself to those who do not challenge Him and is found by those who do not distrust Him. Crooked thinking distances you from God; and His Omnipotence, put to the test, confounds the foolish.
Wisdom does not enter the wicked nor remain in a body that is enslaved to sin. The Holy Spirit Who instructs us shuns deceit; it keeps aloof from foolishness and is ill at ease when injustice is done. Wisdom is a spirit, a friend to man, and will not leave the blasphemous unpunished, because God knows his innermost feelings, truly sees his thoughts and hears what he says.
For God’s Spirit has filled the whole world; and He Who holds together all things, knows each word that is spoken.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday as we get closer to the end of the current liturgical year, we heard about the readings focusing on the theme of the resurrection into new life, as we began today with the first reading from the Second Book of the Maccabees on seven brothers and their mother who were persecuted by the Seleucid Greeks under king Antiochus and then in the Gospel we heard of the encounter and exchange between the Lord Jesus and a group of Sadducees.
Let us all first understand the context of the readings today, in which we heard of the persecution of the faithful Jews by the Seleucid king Antiochus who wanted to impose Greek customs and religious traditions on the whole of his Empire. At that time, the tyranny and heavy-handedness of the king made many of the population to rise up in revolt, led by the priest Mattathias and his family, who would be known as the Maccabeans.
As we can see, the persecution of the Jews who remained faithful to the laws and commandments of God was truly terrible, as exemplified by the persecution of the seven brothers and their mother. They were tortured, made to suffer and then executed one by one, beginning from the eldest son to the youngest son because they all refused to abandon their faith in God and embrace the king’s order to embrace the pagan Greek practices.
All of them defended their faith and stood by their dedication to God without hesitation, right up to the last and the youngest son who was persuaded by the king to abandon his faith for the sake of being considered the friend of the king and receiving many worldly privileges of power, wealth and glory that were abounding through the king and his influence. But none of those were able to move the heart of the youngest son who remained even more adamant on his faith.
We can see very clearly how courageous all of them, the seven sons and their mother in their readiness to face bitter suffering and painful death in the defence of their faith. They would not have had such courage when faced with all the forces of the world levelled against them, had they not have faith in God and in His promises of an everlasting of true joy, happiness and wonders in Him despite all the trials and challenges that they had to face in life.
They turned away from the comforts and the false happiness of the world, and chose to focus on the Lord and follow the path He has shown them. Their perseverance and their enduring faith in the Lord’s providence and the Covenant which He had made with them allowed them to endure all the terrible persecutions and trials. They sought the promise of the world that is to come and not put their focus on the happiness in the world that they were in at present.
And this is where our story from the first reading is connected and is parallel to the story from our Gospel today, as the Sadducees confronted the Lord and asked Him regarding the resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees were a powerful group at the time of the Lord Jesus, as one of the two main influence groups alongside the Pharisees. Unlike the Pharisees who were concerned and focused on the matters of spirituality, religion and the Law to a great excess, the Sadducees were their polar opposites.
The Sadducees were kind of the secular and worldly party of the Jewish people, all those who were influential and powerful in the community and with ties to the government, with probably many of them also belonging to the supporters of king Herod and his descendants, the rulers of Judea and Galilee. The Sadducees were those who looked at the world in a secular and non-religious manner, in opposition to the Pharisees and also to Jesus and His disciples, as the Lord spoke often in favour of leaving behind material goods of the world in the seeking of the divine.
The Sadducees used a story to test the Lord with regards to the matter of the resurrection because they did not believe in either the resurrection or the afterlife. They neither believed in the Angels or in any spiritual matters, as they were focused on purely materialistic and worldly matters in their sight and understanding of the world. They wanted to test and even discredit the Lord using the story of a woman who had seven husbands and asking Him whose wife she was in the afterlife.
Understanding the context of the Jewish law, if a man who was married to a woman died without having a child, one of his brothers had to take the woman to be his own wife, and a son born of the union between the deceased man’s brother and his wife would be legally considered as the son of the deceased for the matter of inheritance and preserving the deceased man’s memory and legacy. It was this part of the Law which the Sadducees made use of in trying to test the Lord.
But the Lord chided and rebuked the Sadducees for failing to understand the Law properly and for their worldly view and perspective of things by which they focused on such trivialities and misunderstood what the most important things in life are. When they asked the Lord whose wife the woman was among all the seven brothers who all married her, they failed to understand that marriage is not about something human only but even more importantly is a union blessed by the divine in imitation of God’s love.
In the case of the Sadducees, they thought of the woman being a wife as a commodity and possession, in the manner that was common in the world at that time. During that time, the status of women in the society was quite low, and they were often considered as the possessions of their family, parents or husbands. In that context, the Sadducees took am understanding of matter with a purely worldly mentality and sentiment, worrying more about who the woman would belong to rather than the matter of the resurrection itself.
And why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because the Sadducees were too afraid to leave the life as they knew it. They were too attached to the world that they refused to think of what would come after the end of their earthly existence. That was why they focused on living their lives at the moment to the fullest, seeking worldly pleasures and satisfactions, and in doing so, they ended up falling into the temptations that brought them further and further away from God.
Essentially, what we heard about the seven brothers in our first reading today is contrary to what we have heard from the attitudes of the Sadducees. The seven brothers put their faith in God first and foremost before anything else, willing to suffer and even die for the sake of defending their faith and in remaining committed to Him. They would not betray their faith and their God for the sake of worldly happiness and status. On the other hand, the Sadducees acted and believed in a manner diametrically opposite, as they focused on the world and perhaps had no God in their heart at all.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of these then come to us, as we all can follow the path that either of these two groups of people showed us. God has given us the freedom to choose the path of our lives, and so, do we want to follow the path of the Sadducees, focusing on the world, enjoying everything and forgetting about God, just as what the Greek king tried to persuade the seven brothers to do, or do we want to be faithful like the seven brothers in the Book of Maccabees?
And as we can already see from what those seven brothers endured and suffered from, to be true disciples and followers of the Lord, as our Lord Himself said, we must be ready to carry our crosses in life with Him, to suffer with Him and from time to time, to be ridiculed, mocked, humiliated, rejected and even persecuted for what we believe. That is part of the commitment that we ought to have as those who truly believe in God and want to walk in His ways.
Let us all therefore truly be faithful to God at all times and in everything we say and do in our lives. Let us all draw ever closer to Him and let us all dedicate ourselves with ever greater zeal and love for God, through every actions and efforts we take in this life we have in this world. Let us all be courageous in loving God, and resist the many temptations of false pleasures and joys of this world so that our lives may truly be Christian-like and inspirational that through us and our good examples of faith may bring ever more souls to redemption and salvation in God.
May the Lord inflame in us the strong and living flame of passion and love for Him and His ways, that we may truly desire to seek our true treasure and inheritance in God, and not ended up being distracted by the many comforts in life that may seem to be satisfactory and pleasurable, and yet does not last forever. May God guide us all to Him, and embrace us all with the fullness of His love. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 20 : 27-38
At that time, some Sadducees arrived. These people claim that there is no resurrection, and they asked Jesus this question, “Master, in the Law Moses told us, ‘If anyone dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife, and any child born to them will be regarded as the child of the deceased.'”
“Now, there were seven brothers; the first married a wife, but he died without children; and the second and the third took the wife; in fact, all seven died leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be a wife? For all seven had her as a wife.”
And Jesus replied, “Taking a husband or a wife is proper to people of this world, but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come, and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Besides, they cannot die, for they are like the Angels. They are sons and daughters of God, because they are born of the resurrection.”
“Yes, the dead will be raised, as Moses revealed at the burning bush, when He called the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For God is God of the living, and not of the dead, for to Him everyone is alive.”
Alternative reading (shorter version)
Luke 20 : 27, 34-38
At that time, some Sadducees arrived. These people claim that there is no resurrection.
And Jesus replied, “Taking a husband or a wife is proper to people of this world, but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come, and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Besides, they cannot die, for they are like the Angels. They are sons and daughters of God, because they are born of the resurrection.”
“Yes, the dead will be raised, as Moses revealed at the burning bush, when He called the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For God is God of the living, and not of the dead, for to Him everyone is alive.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Thessalonians 2 : 16 – 2 Thessalonians 3 : 5
May Christ Jesus our Lord Who has loved us, may God our Father, Who in His mercy gives us everlasting comfort and true hope, strengthens you. May He encourage your hearts and make you steadfast in every good work and word.
Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the Word of God may spread rapidly and be glorified everywhere as it was with you. May God guard us from wicked and evil people, since not everyone has faith. The Lord is faithful; He will strengthen you and keep you safe from the Evil One.
Besides, we have in the Lord this confidence that you are doing and will continue to do what we order you. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 16 : 1, 5-6, 8 and 15
Hear a just cause, o Lord, listen to my complaint. Give heed to my prayer for there is no deceit on my lips.
Hold firm my steps upon Your path, that my feet may not stumble. I call on You, You will answer me, o God; incline Your ear and hear my word.
Under the shadow of Your wings hide me. As for me, righteous in Your sight, I shall see Your face and, awakening, gaze my fill on Your likeness.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 