Month: June 2020

by

Friday, 3 July 2020 : Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 20 : 24-29

At that time, Thomas, the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with the other Eleven when Jesus came. The other disciples told Him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he replied, “Until I have seen in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in His side, I will not believe.”

Eight days later, the disciples were again inside the house and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see My hands; stretch out your hand, and put it into My side. Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe!”

Thomas said, “You are my Lord and my God.” Jesus replied, “You believe because you see Me, do you not? Happy are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

by

Friday, 3 July 2020 : Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 116 : 1, 2

Alleluia! Praise YHVH, all you nations; all you peoples, praise Him.

How great is His love for us! His faithfulness lasts forever.

by

Friday, 3 July 2020 : Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Ephesians 2 : 19-22

Now, you are no longer strangers or guests, but fellow citizens of the holy people : you are of the household of God. You are the house, whose foundations are the Apostles and prophets, and whose cornerstone is Christ Jesus. In Him, the whole structure is joined together, and rises, to be a holy Temple, in the Lord.

In Him, you, too, are being built, to become the spiritual Sanctuary of God.

by

Thursday, 2 July 2020 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us are reminded of God’s love and generous compassion, His ever wonderful compassion and mercy that He extends to all of His people, to all of us who have disobeyed against Him and sinned. All of us are privileged to have the opportunity to receive this most wonderful grace from God, and we should heed His call for us to return to Him and be forgiven.

Yet, unfortunately, it is very often that we shut Him off and turned away from Him, refusing to listen to Him and His patient calls for us, despite all the efforts He had shown in trying to be reconciled with us. And the reason for this is because we are too proud or that we trust too much in our own power and capabilities, and we feel that we cannot be wrong, and in our ego and pride, we end up falling deeper and deeper into sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is what we heard in our first reading today, as the prophet Amos went face to face against the false priest Amaziah, the priest of Bethel in the northern kingdom of Israel. That time, the northern kingdom was just recently established under the reign of king Jeroboam, who ruled over the ten tribes of Israel in rebellion from the House of David. King Jeroboam feared that the Israelites would turn from him and return to David’s descendants as they continued to go to Jerusalem to worship God, and hence, he established a rival centre of worship in Bethel and Dan in the two corners of his new kingdom.

But in doing so, Jeroboam led the people to sin against God, as he erected golden idols in those places and chose priests not from among the Levites as required by the Law, and therefore, led the people away from the true worship of God. God sent the prophet Amos to bring His words and warnings, to remind the king and the people of their sins and to return to the true way of the Lord, but the king and his people refused to listen.

And one of the priests of Bethel, named Amaziah as described in our first reading today, harassed Amos and went against him as he saw Amos as a rival and a threat to his own influence, and that was also why Amaziah went up to king Jeroboam complaining about Amos earlier before that. Amaziah wanted Amos to get out of Israel and return to the land of Judah, and perform his works in Israel and Bethel no more, although in truth, Amos was doing the work of God while Amaziah and king Jeroboam sinned against Him.

As the false priest of Bethel hardened his heart, likely driven by his ego and personal desires, he shut himself off from God, and Amos brought the word of the Lord’s warning, how the disobedience and sins committed would eventually lead to reckoning and grave repercussions. These same attitudes would unfortunately be adopted by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law during the Lord Jesus’ time, as they refused to believe in Him, doubted Him and did many things in trying to put obstacles in His work.

In what we heard in our Gospel today, the Lord was met with a man suffering from paralysis, and He extended His mercy and compassion to the suffering man, healing him and saying to him, that his sins have been forgiven. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were angered by this and alleged that the Lord Jesus was a blasphemer and sinner simply because they consider that only God alone could forgive sins, and they refused to believe and to listen to the truth that Jesus Himself, is God Incarnate.

Similar to the case of the priest Amaziah, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were too engrossed by their pride and desire to maintain their prestige, status and power in the community, that they saw the Lord as their rival, and therefore tried all they could to try to undermine His works and authority. But the Lord rebuked them all, showing them that He is truly Who He has said He was, the Messiah of the world, the Son of God, and One with authority over life and death, over everything and anything.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we look upon the examples presented before us today, let us all reflect on them and look deep within our own lives. Have we also been like the priest Amaziah and the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, refusing to listen to God and follow Him just because we are so full of ego and pride, and so easily tempted by our worldly desires and concerns? This is what happens if we allow ourselves to be controlled by those desires and other things that lead us away from God.

How do we then do our part to overcome these? It is by resisting the temptation of pride and desire, by being more humble and be filled with more generosity of heart and love for God and for our fellow men in our every words, actions and deeds. We have to learn to die to our ego, to our greed and personal ambitions, and instead of putting ourselves and our egoistic self in the forefront, we should put God as the centre and focus of our whole existence.

God has always been kind and merciful, compassionate and loving, and He is loving towards each and every one of us. God has been patient with us, sending help and assistance one after another to guide us down the right path. But are we willing to accept God’s help? Are we willing to commit ourselves to the Lord’s path? Let us all therefore pray for the humility and grace to accept God’s assistance and help, His strength and encouragement.

May the Lord guide us all, and may He empower us all to be good and faithful Christians, as witnesses of His truth and Resurrection, through our daily actions and deeds, at all times. May God bless us all in our every good endeavours, now and always. Amen.

by

Thursday, 2 July 2020 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 9 : 1-8

At that time, Jesus got back into the boat, crossed the lake again, and came to His hometown. Here, they brought to Him a paralysed man, lying on a bed. Jesus saw their faith and said to the paralytic, “Courage, My son! Your sins are forgiven.”

Some teachers of the Law said within themselves, “This Man insults God.” Jesus was aware of what they were thinking; and said, “Why have you such evil thoughts? Which is easier to say : ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? But that you may know, that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins,” He said to the paralysed man, “Stand up! Take your stretcher and go home!”

The man got up, and went home. When the crowds saw this, they were filled with awe, and praised God for giving such power to human beings.

by

Thursday, 2 July 2020 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 18 : 8, 9, 10, 11

The Law of the Lord is perfect : it gives life to the soul. The word of the Lord is trustworthy : it gives wisdom to the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right : they give joy to the heart. The commandments of the Lord are clear : they enlighten the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, it endures forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, all of them just and right.

They are more precious than gold – pure gold of a jeweller; they are much sweeter than honey which drops from the honeycomb.

by

Thursday, 2 July 2020 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Amos 7 : 10-17

Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, then sent word to king Jeroboam of Israel, “Amos is conspiring against you in the very centre of Israel; what he says goes too far. These are his very words : Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel shall be exiled from its land.”

Amaziah then said to Amos, “Off with you, seer, go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there by prophesying. But never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is a king’s sanctuary and a national shrine.”

Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet or one of the fellow prophets. I am a breeder of sheep and a dresser of sycamore trees. But YHVH took me from shepherding the flock and said to me : Go, prophesy to My people Israel. Now hear the word of YHVH, you who say : No more prophesy against Israel, no more insults against the family of Isaac!”

“This is what YHVH says : Your wife shall be made a harlot in the city, your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, your land shall be divided up and given to others, and you, yourself, shall die in a foreign land, for Israel shall be driven far from its land.”

by

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded by the words of the Sacred Scripture to reject all sorts of evil and wicked behaviours, all sorts of things that can lead us into sin. In our first reading today, the prophet Amos urged the people to turn away from evil and sin, and to seek God’s forgiveness and mercy, while in the Gospel passage today, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus performed exorcism on two possessed men in the region of Gadara.

In our first reading today, the prophet Amos delivered the message of God to the people of Israel who had long been disobedient against God and abandoned His precepts and laws, preferring instead the wicked ways of their neighbours, adopting pagan practices and worshipping idols instead of worshipping the one and only true God as they should have. Their sins and their wickedness led them to suffer and unless they repented from their sins, they would be destroyed by those same sins they had committed.

This is where the prophet Amos then reminded the people to turn once again towards God and to have genuine faith once again in Him. The Lord spoke to the people through Amos that what He cared about was not the offerings and sacrifices, but rather the sincerity of faith and the genuineness of the love that each and every one of His people ought to have for Him, just as He has loved them all dearly first.

This means that the laws of God, the offerings of sacrifices and obedience to the law must come with genuine desire to love God and the love for God which leads to this obedience, and not empty and meaningless obedience for the sake of merely fulfilling the law and the words of the law. That was why, the Lord Jesus later on would often be very critical on the actions of the Pharisees, who have pushed for the blind obedience of the law, obeying the tenets and the detailed customs of the law, and yet, failing to understand its true meaning and purpose.

Linking what we have heard to the Gospel passage today, the Lord came by the region of Gadara beyond the Jordan, in the wilderness where He encountered two men possessed by the evil spirits, who lived in that wilderness away from civilisation and from the community, shunned and feared by the other people. The Lord commanded the evil spirits to leave the two men, and the spirits begged to be let to go into the herd of pigs that were in the area.

This healing of the two possessed men was symbolic of the healing of God’s people, the same people who had sinned and disobeyed God, and because of those sins, as warned by the prophet Amos, led to the destruction of their kingdom, their subjugation by their enemies, and enduring shameful long period of exile far away from their homeland, just as the two possessed men had to live in the wilderness away from the community.

Through the Lord’s action, each and every one of us are reminded that no matter how great our sins are, by which we have been separated from God and cast away from His presence and grace, God alone has the power to heal us and to bring us back into His embrace. But at the same time, we must also be willing to welcome the Lord, and to allow Him to heal us, and get rid from ourselves all these taints and corruptions of sin.

The Lord spoke through the prophet Amos highlighting that He wanted His people to be righteous and good, in all of their actions. He wanted all of them to be good and to follow His path, to be good just as He is good. But are we willing and able to commit to Him in this way, brothers and sisters in Christ? We are often tempted and swayed by the many desires we have in life, and as a result, we end up failing to recognise our sinfulness and just how much we need God’s healing and mercy.

Let us all therefore turn wholeheartedly towards God and let us all seek the Lord once again with all of our hearts, with all of our might and strength. May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen each and every one of us that we may ever more faithfully walk in the path He has set before us. May God bless us all, and may He guide us to eternal life in Him. Amen.

by

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 8 : 28-34

At that time, when Jesus reached Gadara, on the other side, He was met by two men, possessed by devils, who came out from the tombs. They were so fierce that no one dared to pass that way. They cried out, “Son of God, leave us alone! Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

Some distance away there was a large herd of pigs feeding. So the demons begged Him, “If You drive us out, send us into that herd of pigs.” Jesus ordered them, “Go!” So the demons left the men and went into the pigs. The whole herd rushed down the cliff into the lake and was drowned.

The men in charge of the pigs ran off to the town, where they told the whole story; and also what had happened to the men possessed with the demons. The whole town went out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their region.

by

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 49 : 7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 16bc-17

“Hear, o My people, for I am speaking. I will accuse you, o Israel, I am God, your God!”

“Not for your sacrifices do I reprove you, for your burnt offerings are ever before Me. I need no bull from your stalls, nor he-goat from your pens.”

“For I own all the beasts of the forest and the animals of My thousand hills. All the birds of the air I know; all that move in the fields are Mine.”

“I need not tell you if I were hungry, for Mine is the world and all that it contains. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?”

“What right have you to mouth My Laws, or to talk about My Covenant? You hate My commands and cast My words behind you.”