Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today through the readings from the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that we have been so fortunate to have been called and chosen by God, to be so beloved by Him that we receive such great graces and love that He had made manifest to us through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. Through Him we have all received the assurance of God’s salvation and grace, the light of His hope and truth, which He has revealed to us all. All of us as the holy people of God are called and expected to live a life that is truly righteous, full of virtue and worthy of the Lord, so that we are not merely just believers in the name only but also in our every words, actions and deeds, in our whole lives and in our way of interacting with one another.

In our first reading today we heard the continuation of the exhortations of St. Peter the Apostle in his Epistle to the faithful people of God in which he reminded each and every one of them that they are all God’s holy and chosen people, and therefore, every one of them ought to live their lives worthily in accordance with the way and path of the Lord, because He has given us all His beloved Son, to be our Saviour, to deliver us all from the destruction because of our sins and evils, but at the same time, He has also called us all into a greater existence and life in Him, revealing to us all that we truly belong to the Lord, as His holy people, consecrated and dedicated to Him. Through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, we have been reconciled with God our loving Father and Creator, and through this, we have been called and chosen to be His flock and people.

Because of this, as we have all been made to be God’s people, His possessions and belongings, therefore, we must truly be holy just as He is all holy and perfect. Once we have been sundered and separated from God because of our sins, born of our disobedience and disregard for God’s Law and His ways, as we followed instead the whims and the temptations of our desires, and the pleasures of the world. This was why we have been lost to God and had to suffer and wander in this world because of our rebelliousness and stubborn disobedience. But God has always loved us and He wanted us all to follow Him regardless, reaching out to us with His ever patient and enduring love. He wants us all to be healed and fully reconciled with Him, to be holy and worthy once again, to be worthy in His Presence once again. We must always endeavour and put the effort to resist the temptations of sin and evil, and to do what is right and just in all things.

The Gospel passage today from the Gospel of St. Mark highlighted to us the moment when a blind beggar named Bartimaeus encountered the Lord Jesus and begged Him to heal him and to make him to be able to see once again. Bartimaeus kept on crying out to the Lord, asking Him for His mercy and love, calling out to Him, recognising Him as the ‘Son of David’ which essentially recognised Him as the Messiah or the Saviour that God had promised to His people. At that time, it was widely known that according to the prophets, God would send His salvation and deliverance through the One Who was to be born into the House of David, as the Son and Heir of David, to restore the Kingdom of Israel as how it was during the reigns of King David and King Solomon.

The Lord listened to the cries and calls of the blind man Bartimaeus, who had great faith in Him and never gave up seeking for healing in Him despite him being ridiculed and told to be quiet by everyone else. The Lord healed Bartimaeus, restoring his eyesight because of the great faith the man had in Him, and because He truly loved him and wanted him to be whole again. This is in parallel to what we all have experienced ourselves from God, receiving healing and assurances of salvation from the Lord through His Son, the blindness of the man is like that of our own sins, the sins which have corrupted us and prevented us from seeing and experiencing the fullness of God’s love and grace, separating and sundering us from His Presence.

This is why through what we heard in our first reading and the Gospel passage today, we ought to remember first of all that each and every one of us have been afflicted by the corruptions of sin, through the many temptations of worldly pleasures and glory, which corrupted us and turned us away from the path of God and His salvation. We walked down our own rebellious paths, preferring to listen to the falsehoods and lies of Satan instead of listening to God and His reassurances. Sin is the result of our disobedience against God, and we disobey God because we allow ourselves to be tempted by the falsehoods and the sweet words of the evil one, tempting us to follow the path of rebellion towards our downfall and destruction.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore as Christians, as God’s holy, chosen and beloved people continue to follow the Lord and His path, doing whatever we can in each and every moments so that our whole lives may truly be righteous, just and worthy of the Lord. Each and every one of us should always continue to strive for the kingdom of God, in doing what we can for the greater glory of God. We should not be idle in the living of our faith, but we must instead commit ourselves ever more, each day, to do what God has called us to do, to be ever more faithful in all things, to be holy just as He is all holy and perfect, and to rid ourselves of the sins and wickedness of our past.

May the Lord continue to watch over us all in our respective journeys and paths in life, so that in everything that we say and do, we will continue to focus ourselves and our attention on the Lord, and that we will always do whatever we can so that we may be good role models and examples, inspiration and strength for each other. May God bless us all in our every endeavours, our efforts and works, in each and every moments of our lives. Amen.