Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are called to keep on doing what the Lord has asked and entrusted to all of us to do in our own respective lives, and each one of us who have been given the Wisdom and the blessings of God, His grace and love, we have the obligation and duty to proclaim the truth and Good News of God according to what we have received through His Wisdom and the through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which He has strengthened us in faith and knowledge, in courage and strength. As Christians, called to love the Lord and serve Him, and doing the same to our fellow brothers and sisters, each and every one of us should make good use of these gifts God has given us so that our lives may truly be worthy and good for Him and His cause.

In our first reading today, the prophet Sirach in his Book mentioned how as Christians and therefore, the followers and disciples of the Lord, all of us should live our lives and how we should all behave in each and every moments of our lives. All of us should live our lives faithfully and dedicate ourselves thoroughly to the Lord despite the hardships and challenges that we all may have to face. Each and every one of us should always trust in the Lord and allow Him to guide us down the path of righteousness and truth, never wavering even amidst the many challenges and hardships that we may have to endure for being faithful Christians, followers and disciples of the Lord. We may be questioned and challenged by others who disagreed with us, but if we firmly hang on to the truth, we will never falter and not even the greatest trials can overcome our faith in God.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the moment after the Lord had cleared the Temple from the wicked and cheating merchants and money changers, who were profiting greatly from overcharging the worshippers and others visitors to the Temple of God in Jerusalem. Thus, the Lord Jesus angrily chased them all out of the Temple and scolded them all for their wicked actions, in turning the Holy House of God into a den of robbers, causing corruption, evil and sin to taint the sanctity of the Place where God Himself was present in this world. The Lord Jesus came to purify the faith, to proclaim to all that what their leaders practiced and all of their rituals and other excesses were distractions that actually caused us to be separated from God and His love and grace.

And as we heard, the Lord immediately faced challenges and opposition, which happened because the Temple authorities, the chief priests and others were concerned with what the Lord had done. They questioned the Lord on the actions He had done, and the authority by which He had done so. But the Lord answered them with great courage and challenged them back on what they said about the baptism of St. John the Baptist and all of his other works. As a context, the same group of Temple authorities, the elders and the Pharisees were also against the works of St. John the Baptist, and questioned the latter exactly in the same manner that they had also questioned the Lord. But they did not dare to publicly challenge the Lord and the works of St. John the Baptist, as these two were very popular among the people, and it would have caused a great uproar should the Temple authorities chose to do so.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of these highlighted to us the kind of hardships and challenges that we as Christians may have to face in the midst of us living our Christian lives faithfully and obediently, just as the Lord Jesus and St. John the Baptist have carried out their respective ministries, and faced often bitter and persistent opposition and challenges from those who refused to believe in them, and in God’s truth and Good News. Instead, they chose to persist in their error and disobedience, thinking that as the custodians of the Law and the leaders of the people of God, they were above the Law and the truth itself, and that they could never go wrong. Their pride, which intermingled with their greed and desires, and fear that their influence and power would wane, should the worshippers and those merchants were to avoid the Temple by the Lord’s actions, made them to oppose the Lord.

We must not give up despite all these challenges and oppositions, and we should persevere and be strong amidst all these obstacles we may have to face, being inspired by the many great examples of our holy predecessors, the great saints and other holy men and women in the past who had laboured well and dedicated their whole lives to the Lord. Each one of us are reminded that we are never walking this journey and all of us are always guided by the Lord through His Wisdom and the Holy Spirit. However, it is often that we become complacent and slack in how we live our lives, taking the easy way out and preferring to conform to the ways of the world, especially to the path of evil, wickedness and sin. This is not the path which we should be taking, as we are reminded that if we follow those path, we will easily drift away from God and His truth, as the chief priests and the Pharisees had done.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Charles Lwanga and his holy companions in martyrdom, collectively known as the Holy Ugandan Martyrs. They all dedicated themselves to the Lord, missionaries, local priests and faithful laymen and laywomen alike, who were persecuted for their faith in God, and remained firmly resolute and committed in their faith in God to the very end, despite the temptations, coercions and threats that they were facing. Back then, St. Charles Lwanga himself was the chief page and an important servant of the King of the Kingdom of Buganda in what is today Uganda. He encountered the Christian faith through the missionaries who proclaimed the Lord and His Good News among the people there in that region. Back then, the King was a great pedophile who preyed on the young pages of the kingdom, and the opposition from Christian missionaries against such practices caused the king to conduct massacres against them.

St. Charles Lwanga himself was convinced of the truth that the Lord had delivered through the Catholic missionaries, the White Fathers who were there, and St. Charles Lwanga along with many others among Buganda’s court members and servants were also baptised together as Christians. St. Charles Lwanga also protected the pages, the young boys under his care from the king’s perverted and wicked actions. It was then that the king and those among his courtiers that had become Christians came to a point of contention, as the former condemned some of them to death, which led to St. Charles Lwanga and the other servants to stand up for their faith publicly, and they were therefore led to be martyred by being burnt alive. At the site where he and others were martyred now stands the great Basilica of the Holy Ugandan Martyrs at Namugongo, where the relics of those faithful martyrs are enshrined. Their fidelity and commitment to God served as great examples and inspirations to all of us Christians in how we ourselves should live up to our Christian calling and mission in our lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore reflect on these words of the Scriptures that we have heard and received, and also on the lives of our holy predecessors, particularly those of the Holy Martyrs of Uganda, in their most courageous defence of their faith and commitment to the Lord’s truth and righteousness. Are we willing and able to commit ourselves in the same way as well, brethren? Are we willing and able to carry our own crosses in life, in following the Lord ever more faithfully in each and every passing moments? Let us all discern our path forward well and carefully so that we may continue to inspire many others to walk in God’s Presence and to be steadfast in our obedience and commitment to Him, despite the many challenges and trials that we may have to face. Let us remember that even our Lord Himself has been rejected and opposed throughout His life and ministry. May the Lord continue to strengthen and bless us in our every works and endeavours, in all the things we do for His greater glory, now and always, forevermore. Amen.