Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that we must always live our lives well and worthily as God’s holy and chosen people, as Christians, those whom God had blessed and embraced to be His own adopted children. This is because all of us are ourselves expected to be good and worthy role models for everyone around us, through our exemplary lives, actions and deeds. We must be always genuine in our every actions, words and deeds, living our whole existence to glorify the Lord and to proclaim His truth and love at all times. We must strive to be full of God’s love and truth, to abandon all sorts of wickedness and evils in our hearts and minds, so that we may truly serve Him wholeheartedly as His disciples and followers in our world today.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles about the moment when St. Paul the Apostle was saying his farewell to the Church elders and the other members of the faithful in the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor, in what is today part of Turkey. At that time, St. Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, as he was about to embark on his last missionary journey. The Lord had called upon St. Paul to follow Him and to do His will, as He was sending him to go to Rome, the then capital of the mighty Roman Empire that ruled over much of the Mediterranean region including the whole area of the Holy Land. St. Paul the Apostle definitely had the choice of not continuing with his mission or take refuge in one of the more stable Christian communities in the region, where friendly local Christian population might have made the rest of his mission and works relatively comfortable.

Yet, he chose to obey the Lord, follow Him and strengthen those elders and leaders of the faithful with his own example, obedience and commitment to God. Those elders had been entrusted with the leadership and guardianship over the people of God, and it was their good and worthy leadership which could lead to a great difference between the salvation or damnation of many of the souls of the people. St. Paul told those elders to remain firmly rooted and connected to God, to shepherd the flock of the Lord’s faithful worthily and according to what He had asked them all to do, and not to give in to the temptations of worldly glory and ambitions, or any sorts of attachment to our ego, desires and the attachment to the pleasures of this world.

St. Paul also warned the elders of how some might arise and lead the faithful into disarray and confusion as they did not work for the Lord but for the evil one and for their own selfish desires and ambitions. This warning would indeed come true and was truly prophetic given just how quickly after the Church had been established, even during the time of great persecutions, there quickly sprung many false teachers and leaders who did not profess the same faith and teachings as those that the Apostles had preserved in the Church as the deposit of the faith. Those false leaders and guides caused a lot of confusion and trouble in the Church, misleading the people of God and bringing about divisions that break the unity of the Body of Christ in schisms and heresies.

This reminder by St. Paul to the faithful and their leaders before he departed for his final mission still rings true even to this day. It is an important reminder and not just only to our Christian leaders and community figures but in fact also to each and every one of us as disciples and followers of Christ. This means that all of us must always strive to live our lives wholly committed and focused on the Lord, and we should always be ever vigilant not to allow ourselves to be tempted and swayed into the wrong and wicked paths because we allowed the evil one and the temptations of power, glory, ambition and desire present all around us to mislead us down the path of wickedness away from the Lord, His grace and salvation. Each and every one of us by our lives are also called and expected to show genuine and worthy Christian living and way of life, and not just those of our leaders only.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the continuation of the Lord Jesus’ prayer to His heavenly Father for His disciples and followers, which He made shortly before He were to begin His Passion, His suffering and death. He asked His Father to bless, guide and protect those whom He had called and chosen from the world so that they may be strengthened and empowered, that they may remain united and strong amidst all the challenges and trials, all the temptations, pressures and coercions which might exist all around them. He asked His Father to consecrate all of the disciples in the truth, to guide and help them with the wisdom and the strength, the knowledge and understanding needed for them to fully appreciate their Christian faith and truth, which He would bestow upon them through the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect upon these words from the Sacred Scriptures, let us all continue to strive to keep the focus of our lives and existence in the Lord, to put Him at the very heart and the forefront of our daily living and actions, in all of the words and deeds we commit, and in every interactions we made so that by our exemplary living and our good and worthy actions, words and deeds, we will be good and shining role models of our Christian life and faith for everyone around us. Each and every one of us must always bear witness to the Lord and to His truth, teachings and love, or else, we may in fact even scandalise Him and His Holy Name if in case our actions, words and deeds are contrary to what we believe in and what the Lord Himself had taught us. Then in that case, we will be held fully accountable for our actions, just as those heretics and false leaders likely had faced their just consequences from God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all henceforth renew our commitment to live our lives ever more faithfully to the Lord, to listen to Him and to obey His will at all times, and to become ever closer and more connected to Him through our prayerful life and through our greater love, commitment and devotion to Him. Let us all continue to glorify Him by our exemplary lives and be the good and worthy role models and inspirations for one another, both for our fellow Christians and also for all those others who have not yet known the Lord and His salvation, His truth and love, that through us, they may come to know Him and believe in Him as well. May the Lord bless us all in our every good efforts and endeavours, now and forevermore. Amen.