Year: 2019

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Thursday, 10 October 2019 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the man who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the Law of YHVH and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For YHVH knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.

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Thursday, 10 October 2019 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Malachi 3 : 13-20a

You say very harsh things about Me, says YHVH, and yet, you say : “What harsh things did we say against You?” You say : “It is useless to serve God. There is no benefit in observing His commandments or in leading an austere life for His sake. Happy are the shameless! Those who do evil succeed in everything; though they provoke God, they remain unharmed.”

Those were the very words of those who fear YHVH. YHVH listened and heard what they said. He ordered at once, that the names of those who respect Him and reverence His Name be written in a record. And He declared, “They will be Mine on the day I have already set. Then I shall care for them, as a father cares for his obedient son. And you will see the different fates of the good and the bad, those who obey God and those who disobey Him.”

The day already comes, flaming as a furnace. On that day, all the proud and evildoers will be burnt, like straw in the fire. They will be left without branches or roots. On the other hand, the sun of justice will shine upon you who respect My Name and bring health in is rays.

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Wednesday, 9 October 2019 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the words of the Scripture which we heard of God’s abundant love and mercy for us all His people, as He is truly our loving Creator and Father, just as the Lord Jesus called Him Father, by virtue of Him being the Son of God. Through the sharing we have in the humanity of Christ, we all, who are His brothers and sisters, share in the same fatherhood we have in God.

Through our first reading today, which is a continuation of yesterday’s account on the mission of the prophet Jonah, who had been tasked to deliver the message and warning from God to the people of the city of Nineveh of their impending destruction, when God saw just how repentant the people of Nineveh were, and how all of them from their king to the slaves humbled themselves and mourned, He spared them all from their fated destruction.

But in our passage today we heard then how the prophet Jonah became angry with God because He spared the whole city of Nineveh from destruction. The context of this is that Jonah must have been angry and frustrated because first of all, there was a prejudice that the Assyrians who inhabited Nineveh were sinful people, wicked and godless, pagan worshippers and idolaters who did not deserve God’s love and mercy.

And then, secondly, on a more personal level, Jonah had been called by God for this particular mission, he fled from God and refused to accept the task, fleeing by a ship to a faraway place hoping to hide away from God. Yet, God made a great storm to strike at the sailing ship and Jonah had no choice but submit to God’s will and asked to be thrown into the sea. A great whale swallowed Jonah for three days and nights before he was sent ashore to continue His mission.

Jonah’s story is in fact a representation of Christ, Who would go on to bear the burden of the Cross, suffered and died, and went down into hell for three days just as Jonah spent three days in the belly of the whale. The Lord sent His Son into this world with a mission to deliver His people from death and eternal damnation by delivering them from their sins, just as much as Jonah was sent to the people of Nineveh to bring to them the news of their upcoming doom.

The difference is such that while Jonah was angry when the Lord forgave the people of Nineveh their sins and wickedness when they sincerely repented from those sins and humbled themselves before Him, the Lord truly wanted His people, whoever they are and whatever they have done, to be saved, even the worst of sinners, as long as they are willing to make the effort to reject sin and embrace Him and His loving mercy.

God has always been willing to welcome us back because He truly loves each and every one of us, and no one is truly far away from the reach of God’s love and mercy, and as long as we are willing to open our hearts and minds to welcome God into our lives, we can be transformed, redeemed and forgiven just like what happened to the people of Nineveh. And that is why, today we are all called to seek God with a new commitment.

And one very good way for us to do it is through prayer, just as Our Lord Himself has shown His disciples in our Gospel passage today. For prayer is an intimate communication between us and God, and it can be either personal, communal or even both. Essentially, prayer opens the channel and link between us and God, allowing us to have a meaningful communication with God. But we must be careful and not end up making prayer into a channel of seeking things from God as what many of us often did wrongly with our prayer habits.

Many of us mistook prayer as a means for us to gain something quickly through God, and we mistook God as someone that can be at the whim of our desires. No, brothers and sisters in Christ, for the true essence and meaning of prayer is for us to be more attuned to God and be more understanding and knowing what God, Our loving Father has willed for us and wanted us to do with our respective lives.

That is why today perhaps we should look at the examples shown to us by the saints whose feast day we celebrate today. St. Denis, holy martyr and bishop and the Patron Saint of France, as well as St. John Leonardi, a holy priest of God. St. Denis was martyred during his mission as bishop at the time of great persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire, while St. John Leonardi was remembered for his establishment of the religious order known as the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God.

St. Denis worked hard in ministering to the people of God, the small yet growing community of Christians in the region now known as Paris, the capital of France. He was persecuted, arrested and condemned to death during the reign of the Roman Emperor Decius, who carried out a brutal persecution of Christians. He was sentenced to death by decapitation or beheading.

Yet, miraculously, St. Denis continued on preaching after he was beheaded, picking up his head and walking for many kilometres while preaching before he eventually died and was buried. Many people and pagans who witnessed such a miraculous occasion believed in God and became Christians. The faith and commitment of St. Denis in loving God should be an inspiration for all of us to follow.

Meanwhile, St. John Leonardi was remembered for his great love for God and pious devotion, his courage and dedication in serving God even when he was faced with great odds and opposition from the local secular authorities who disliked his works in establishing the religious congregation among others. Yet, all these obstacles did not stop this courageous saint from continuing his ministry and works.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on what we have just discussed earlier, and let us all discover in our hearts that deep and strong, genuine love that each and every one of us should have for God, just as He has loved us all so much and so great a compassion that He is willing to forgive us our many sins if we repent wholeheartedly. Let us all thus turn towards the Lord with renewed faith, hope and love from now on. Amen.

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Wednesday, 9 October 2019 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priests)

Luke 11 : 1-4

At that time, Jesus was praying in a certain place; and when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught His disciples.”

And Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this : Father, may Your Name be held holy, may Your kingdom come; give us, each day, the kind of bread we need, and forgive us our sins; for we also forgive all who do us wrong; and do not bring us to the test.”

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Wednesday, 9 October 2019 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priests)

Psalm 85 : 3-4, 5-6, 9-10

Have mercy on me, o YHVH, for I cry to You all day. Bring joy to the soul of Your servant; for You, o YHVH, I lift up my soul.

You are good and forgiving, o YHVH, caring for those who call on You. Listen, o YHVH, to my prayer, hear the voice of my pleading.

All the nations You have made will come; they will worship before You, o YHVH, and bring glory to Your Name. For You are great, and wonderful are Your deeds; You alone, are God.

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Wednesday, 9 October 2019 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priests)

Jonah 4 : 1-11

But Jonah was greatly displeased at this, and he was indignant. He prayed to YHVH and said, “O YHVH, is this not what I said when I was yet in my own country? This is why I fled to Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and full of love, and You relent from imposing terrible punishment. I beseech You now, YHVH, to take my life, for now it is better for me to die than to live.”

But YHVH replied, “What right have you to be angry?” Jonah then left the city. He went to a place east of it, built himself a shelter and sat under its shade to wait and see what would happen to Nineveh. Then YHVH God provided a castor-oil plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade over his head and to ease his discomfort. Jonah was very happy about the plant.

But the next day, at dawn, God sent a worm which attacked the plant and made it wither. When the sun rose, God sent a scorching east wind; the sun blazed down upon Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. His death wish returned and he said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

Then God asked Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the castor-oil plant?” Jonah answered, “I am right to be angry enough to wish to die.” YHVH said, “You are concerned about a plant which cost you no labour to make it grow. Overnight it sprang up, and overnight it perished. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish right from left and they have many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned for such a great city?”

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Tuesday, 8 October 2019 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the word of God from the Scripture passages speaking to us about the matter of getting what is right in our lives, namely the right focus and the right direction in life following what the Lord our God has shown us as He guides us through this journey of life. It is often that we will be reminded of making the right choices of action and to find our way to the Lord.

Today, in our first reading, taken from the Book of the prophet Jonah, we heard the mission of Jonah who was sent by God to the great city of Nineveh. Nineveh was known as the capital city of a great empire, the Assyrian Empire which for many years was the superpower in the region. Nineveh was therefore a very great city and the centrepoint of not just power, but also wealth, influence and also wickedness and corruption.

The Assyrians were known to be sinful and filled with power hungry people as they rampaged across many nations and conquered them, including that of the northern kingdom state of Israel, which they conquered and the ten tribes of the Israelites were exiled by the actions of the Assyrians. Naturally, the presentation of Nineveh in the Book of Jonah was meant to symbolise the depiction of the ultimate, great evil in the eyes of many of the faithful.

But what came to be a surprise was how the people of Nineveh reacted to what the prophet Jonah told them when he said that Nineveh would be destroyed for their sins and wickedness. They could have just dismissed what the prophet Jonah had said and went on with their lives, or they could even persecute and kill the prophet Jonah for bringing into their midst such an ill omen. Yet, they listened and believed.

Ironically this happened when the Israelites themselves refused to believe in God and in His prophets, and instead, persecuted and killed those prophets and messengers sent to them by God. It was a pagan nation and city who actually in the end believed in God’s words, sincerely and truly repentant of their sinful ways and humbling themselves before God, and that was how Nineveh was spared from destruction.

Linking this to what we have also heard in our Gospel passage today, on the encounter between the Lord Jesus and the sisters Mary and Martha, we can see that each and every one of us have been granted free will by God, with the wisdom, understanding and intelligence to make conscious choices in our respective lives on how we are going to live them so that we can find our way towards the Lord and His salvation.

Martha was very busy preparing everything, all the chores and necessary things to make the Lord’s stay comfortable and good. She certainly had a good intention in doing so, but she ended up being too preoccupied by what she had been doing and became distracted instead, forgetting that she should have remembered what the most important focus for her should have been, that is Christ Himself, as what her sister Mary did.

Mary chose the wise course of action and so did the king and the people of Nineveh. Martha had good intentions but the course of actions she chose was not right, and then for the Israelites I mentioned earlier on in contrast to the people of Nineveh, their hearts and minds were not even filled with the right intention as they had no love for God. Now, the choice is ours, brothers and sisters in Christ. Do we want to continue to walk down this path of sin and wickedness? Or do we rather walk the path shown by Christ?

On this day therefore, we are called to reflect and discern our path in life from now on. Can we choose wisely by considering the outcomes of our conscious choices in life? Can we turn away from the path of sin and disobedience against God, and follow from now on the path of redemption and reconciliation in God? Can we dedicate ourselves with a new spirit and courage to love God from now on with all of our strength?

May God continue to guide our paths and may He help us to remain focused on Him despite the many temptations and challenges we may have to face in the future. May God bless us all and our every actions and endeavours for His greater glory. Amen.

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Tuesday, 8 October 2019 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 10 : 38-42

At that time, as Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He entered a village, and a woman called Martha welcomed Him to her house. She had a sister named Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet to listen to His words. Martha, meanwhile, was busy with all the serving, and finally she said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the work? Tell her to help me!”

But the Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you worry and are troubled about many things, whereas only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her.”

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Tuesday, 8 October 2019 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 129 : 1-2, 3-4, 7bc-8

Out of the depths I cry to You, o YHVH, o YHVH, hear my voice! Let Your ears pay attention to the voice of my supplication.

If You should mark our evil, o YHVH, who could stand? But with You, is forgiveness, and for that, You are revered.

For with Him, is unfailing love and with Him full deliverance. He will deliver Israel from all its sins.

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Tuesday, 8 October 2019 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Jonah 3 : 1-10

The word of YHVH came to Jonah a second time : “Go to Nineveh, the great city, and announce to them the message I give you.”

In obedience to the word of YHVH, Jonah went to Nineveh. It was a very large city, and it took three days just to cross it. So Jonah walked a single day’s journey and began proclaiming, “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

The people of the city believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. Upon hearing the news, the king of Nineveh got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. He issued a proclamation throughout Nineveh :

“By the decree of the king and his nobles, no people or beasts, herd or flock, will taste anything; neither will they eat nor drink. But let people and beasts be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call aloud to God, turn from his evil ways and violence. Who knows? God may yet relent, turn from His fierce anger and spare us.”

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not carry out the destruction He had threatened upon them.