Liturgical Colour : Red
Jeremiah 1 : 17-19
But you, get ready for action; stand up and say to them all that I command you. Be not scared of them or I will scare you in their presence! See, I will make you a fortified city, a pillar of iron with walls of bronze, against all the nations, against the kings and princes of Judah, against the priests and the people of the land.
They will fight against you but shall not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue you – it is YHVH Who speaks.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for all of us as Christians, as God’s people to be full of humility and virtues, and not to be prideful and arrogant. We are all called to open our hearts and minds to the Lord and allow Him to guide our path. We should not allow our ego and pride to mislead us down the wrong path. We must always remind ourselves that we exist by the grace of God and everything we do, are ultimately to glorify God and to serve Him.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Sirach, on the matter of humility before God and how the faithful should act and behave in this world, with humility and obedience to God, and not to be filled with ambition or self-aggrandising attitudes. As Christians, all of us are challenged to put aside the temptations of greed and pride, of the many allures of worldly pleasures, power, glory, fame and human praises. This is of course easier said than done, as temptations will always be abound in trying to steer us away from the path of God’s righteousness and into the path of selfishness and wickedness.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord speaking to His disciples and the guests regarding how some of the Pharisees were seeking the most important places on the dinner table, as with other events and gatherings. The Lord highlighted that we should not do such things, and should not seek the pride of honour, desire renown and compete for prestige and honour with each other, or indulge on our status, our privileges and other things which can lead us down the slippery path into sin and damnation. That is because pride and ego, desire and greed can easily lead us into doing things for our own selfish aims and purposes.
Contextually, we should understand that the Pharisees and the other respected members of the community were at the apex of the Jewish society, together with the king and his nobles. The Pharisees were greatly respected as well as feared because of their great intellectual abilities, being those among the few who were educated and had the knowledge and understanding of the Torah or the Hebrew Scriptures. They were also the ones who were entrusted with the maintenance and preservation of the Law of God as passed down from the time of Moses through the generations, adopting an especially strict interpretation of the Law.
The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law often made a show of their piety and faith by praying openly and loudly in the public places, wearing their wide prayer shawls and showing their obedience to the Law, while at the same time also shunning and criticising those whom they deemed to be less than worthy than they were, which in this case was essentially everyone else besides them, and in particular, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the people who were possessed with evil spirits and who suffered from illnesses and sickness, from various conditions and maladies. Those people were viewed with disdain and even open hostility from the same Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.
While not all of the Pharisees were living their lives in that manner, but quite a number of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had the same attitude towards their faith. They focused more on appearances and external applications of the Law, and misused their privileged positions among the community in order to advance their own egoistic aims and ambitions. They thought that their righteousness and their piety made them to deserve the grace and salvation, honour and praise from God and man alike, but they had forgotten that everyone is equal before God, and their attitude, their boastfulness and their hardline attitude in fact turned people away from the faith and made it difficult for some to come back towards the Lord.
In our second reading today, from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we heard of the words of the author of this Epistle that all of us the faithful have been called to come into the presence of God Most High, Who through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, have formed a New Covenant with us mankind, with Christ as the Mediator of this New Covenant. It is by God’s grace that we have received His pardon, His mercy, His compassionate love and care. It is through the works of His Son, that by His suffering and death on the Cross, by which we mankind have been made partakers of the New Covenant He has established with us, that will last forever.
What this highlights is that, while all of us have to be active in living our lives with concrete actions, with efforts based on our faith, but we do not justify ourselves based on those works and deeds alone. It is God working through us, as we carry out His will and as we do our actions in this life that allow us to come to the grace of God and become worthy of Him. Without God, and without His love and providence, and without faith, then all of our actions are empty and meaningless. Like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, while they were outwardly pious and faithful, but as the Lord Himself pointed out, that their hearts were not filled with the love for God, but with love for themselves and their pride and ego.
That is why, on this Sunday, all of us are reminded through all these passages from the Sacred Scriptures, that we should always be vigilant and be careful with the temptations of our desires, our pride and ego, all of which can mislead us down the wrong path, in causing us to do things that are contrary to the will of God. Each one of us should always strive to remain focused on the Lord and remind ourselves of what we have been called to do as God’s followers and disciples. We have to restrain the temptations of our flesh, the desire for pleasures and for false happiness and other temptations that are aplenty all around us.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us always strive to be humble and to do God’s will in each and every one of our actions, making good use of whatever opportunities that He has given each one of us so that we will not end up falling into temptation, or falter in our journey towards Him because we end up doing things to satisfy our selfish wants and desires first instead of doing what God wants us to do. And the more responsibilities we have, the greater the position we have in life, in whatever achievement we gained, in whatever honour we receive, let us not allow our pride and ego to overcome us as they had done to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.
Instead, as the Lord had reminded us through the Scriptures, the greater we are, the humbler we should become, and there is no greater example for that than the Lord Himself, the Mediator of the New Covenant, Who although is the Almighty, All-Powerful God, willingly humbled and emptied Himself of His infinite glory, to be stripped and to be scourged, punished and broken for our sake, as He laid suffering and dying on the Cross. The Lord’s most loving sacrifice on the Cross is truly a reminder for us, of the virtue of Christian humility which the Lord Himself had shown us. At the Last Supper, the Lord has also washed His disciples’ feet, and told them to do the same as He had done, reminding us that as Christians, as God’s followers, we have to put God and others ahead of ourselves.
Let us all therefore do our best to live our lives with Christian virtues, particularly that of humility, so that we may draw ever closer to God and also be inspiration for one another, in striving to live our lives more worthily for God and His glory. May all of us distance ourselves from the dangerous temptations of pride and greed, excise from us that pride and greed, that ego and ambition, and instead, serve the Lord humbly at all times, and do our best to glorify God by our lives at each and every opportunities. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 14 : 1, 7-14
At that time, one Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and He was carefully watched.
Jesus then told a parable to the guests, for He had noticed how they tried to take the places of honour. And He said, “When you are invited to a wedding party, do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more important than you had been invited; and your host, who invited both of you, will come and say to you, ‘Please give this person your place.’ What shame is yours when you take the lowest seat!”
“Whenever you are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you, ‘Friend, you must come up higher.’ And this will be a great honour for you in the presence of all the other guests. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised.”
Jesus also addressed the man who had invited Him, and said, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends, or your brothers and relatives, or your wealthy neighbours. For surely they will also invite you in return, and you will be repaid.”
“When you give a feast, invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Fortunate are you then, because they cannot repay you; you will be repaid at the resurrection of the upright.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Hebrews 12 : 18-19, 22-24a
What you have come to, is nothing known to the senses : nor heat of a blazing fire, darkness and gloom and storms, blasts of trumpet or such a voice that the people pleaded, that no further word be spoken.
But you came near to Mount Zion, to the City of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, with its innumerable Angels. You have come to the solemn feast, the assembly of the firstborn of God, whose names are written in heaven.
There is God, Judge of all, with the spirits of the upright, brought to perfection. There is Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, with the sprinkled Blood that cries out more effectively than Abel’s.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 67 : 4-5ac, 6-7ab, 10-11
But let the righteous be glad and exult before God; let them sing to God and shout for joy. Sing to God, sing praises to His Name; YHVH is His Name. Rejoice in His presence.
Father of orphans and Protector of widows – such is our God in His holy dwelling. He gives shelter to the homeless, sets the prisoners free.
Then You gave a rain of blessings, to comfort Your weary children. Your people found a dwelling, and, in Your mercy, o God, You provided for the needy.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Sirach 3 : 19-21, 30-31
The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself and thus you will find favour with God. For great is the power of the Lord and it is the humble who give Him glory. Do not seek what is beyond your powers nor search into what is beyond your ability.
As water extinguishes the burning flames, almsgiving obtains pardon for sins. The man who responds by doing good prepares for the future, at the moment of his downfall he will find support.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Offertory
Exodus 32 : 11, 13, 14
Precatus est Moyses in conspectu Domini, Dei sui, et dixit : Quare, Domine, irasceris in populo Tuo? Parce irae animae Tuae : memento Abraham, Isaac et Jacob, quibus jurasti dare terram fluentem lac et mel. Et placatus factus est Dominus de malignitate, quam dixit facere populo suo.
English translation
Moses prayed in the sight of the Lord his God, and said, “Why, o Lord, is Your indignation enkindled against Your people? Let the anger of Your mind cease, remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom You had sworn to give a land flowing with milk and honey.” And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil, which He had spoken of doing against the people.
Secret Prayer of the Priest
Hostias, quaesumus, Domine, propitius intende, quas sacris altaribus exhibemus : ut, nobis indulgentiam largiendo, Tuo Nomini dent honorem. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
Graciously behold, we pray to You, o Lord, the sacrifices which we lay upon Your sacred altars, that, in bringing us plentiful forgiveness, they may give honour to Your Name. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
Communion
Psalm 103 : 13, 14-15
De fructu operum Tuorum, Domine, satiabitur terra : ut educas panem de terra, et vinum laetificet cor hominis : ut exhilaret faciem in oleo, et panis cor hominis confirmet.
English translation
The earth shall be filled with the fruit of Your works, o Lord, that You may bring bread out of the earth, and that wine may cheer the heart of man, that he may make the face cheerful with oil, and that bread may strengthen man’s heart.
Post-Communion Prayer
Vivificet nos, quaesumus, Domine, hujus participatio sancta mysterii : et pariter nobis expiationem tribuat et munimen. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
May the holy partaking of this mystery, we pray to You, o Lord, vivify us, bringing us at once forgiveness and strengthening. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Sequentia Sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam – Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke
Luke 10 : 23-37
In illo tempore : Dixit Jesus discipulis Suis : Beati oculi, qui vident quae vos videtis. Dico enim vobis, quod multi prophetae et reges voluerunt videre quae vos videtis, et non viderunt : et audire quae auditis, et non audierunt. Et ecce, quidam legisperitus surrexit, tentans illum, et dicens : Magister, quid faciendo vitam aeternam possidebo?
At ille dixit ad eum : In lege quid scriptum est? Quomodo legis? Ille respondens, dixit : Diliges Dominum, Deum tuum, ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex omnibus viribus tuis; et ex omni mente tua : et proximum tuum sicut teipsum.
Dixitque illi : Recte respondisti : hoc fac, et vives. Ille autem volens justificare seipsum, dixit ad Jesum : Et quis est meus proximus? Suscipiens autem Jesus, dixit : Homo quidam descendebat ab Jerusalem in Jericho, et incidit in latrones, qui etiam despoliaverunt eum : et plagis impositis abierunt, semivivo relicto.
Accidit autem, ut sacerdos quidam descenderet eadam via : et viso illo praeterivut. Similiter et levita, cum esset secus locum et videret eum, pertransiit. Samaritanus autem quidam iter faciens, venit secus eum : et videns eum, misericordia motus est. Et appropians, alligavit vulnera ejus, infundens oleum et vinum : et imponens illum in jumentum suum, duxit in stabulum, et curam ejus egit.
Et altera die protulit duos denarios et dedit stabulario, et ait : Curam illius habe : et quodcumque supererogaveris, ego cum rediero, reddam tibi. Quis horum trium videtur tibi proximus fuisse illi, qui incidit in latrones? At ille dixit : Qui fecit misericordiam in illum. Et ait illi Jesus : Vade, et tu fac similiter.
English translation
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see. For I say to you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things that you hear, and have not heard them.” And behold a certain lawyer stood up, tempting Him, and saying, “Master, what must I do to possess eternal life?”
But He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” He answering, said, “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.”
And He said to him, “You have answered rightly, do this and you shall live.” But he, willing to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” And Jesus answering, said, “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who also stripped him, and having wounded him, went away, leaving him half dead.”
“And it happened that a certain priest went down the same way, and seeing him, passed him by. In similar manner also a Levite, when he was near the place and saw him, he passed him by. But a certain Samaritan being on his journey, came near him, and seeing him, was moved with compassion, and going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”
“And the next day he took out two pence, and gave to the host, and said, ‘Take care of him, and whatsoever you shall spend over and above, I, at my return, shall repay you. Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbour to him who fell among robbers?” But he said, “He who showed mercy to him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go, and do it in similar manner.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 33 : 2-3 and Psalm 87 : 2
Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore : semper laus ejus in ore meo.
Response : In Domino laudabitur anima mea : audiant mansueti, et laetentur.
Alleluja, Alleluja.
Response : Domine, Deus salutis meae, in die clamavi et nocte coram Te. Alleluja.
English translation
I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Response : In the Lord shall my soul be praised. Let the meek hear and rejoice.
Alleluia, Alleluia.
Response : O Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried in the day, and in the night, before You, Alleluia.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Lectio Epistolae Beati Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians
2 Corinthians 3 : 4-9
Fratres : Fiduciam talem habemus per Christum ad Deum : non quod sufficientes simus cogitare aliquod a nobis, quasi ex nobis : sed sufficientia nostra ex Deo est : qui et idoneos nos fecit ministros novi testamenti : non littera, sed spiritu : littera enim occidit, spiritus autem vivificat.
Quod si ministratio mortis, litteris deformata in lapidibus, fuit in gloria; ita ut non possent intendere filii Israel in faciem Moysi, propter gloriam vultus ejus, quae evacuatur : quomodo non magis ministratio Spiritus erit in gloria? Nam si ministratio damnationis gloria est, multo magis abundat ministerium justitiae in gloria.
English translation
Brethren, such confidence we have through Christ towards God. Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God. He Who also had made us fit ministers of the New Testament, not in the letter, but in the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit quickens.
Now if the ministration of death, engraven with letters upon stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of His countenance; which is made void. How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather in glory? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more ministration of justice abounds in glory.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 