Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we all reminded clearly by the Lord that as Christians each and every one of us must not allow ourselves to be tempted and swayed by the various worldly desires, ambitions and temptations which can lead one astray in the journey towards the Lord. All of us must instead continue to focus ourselves upon the Lord, our God and Saviour, and upon all the love, attention, care and compassion which He has always lavished on us. We must always hold strongly to this assurance of the Lord’s promises and all that He had reminded us through His Son, in how He has made His love and compassion tangible for us, making Himself approachable and accessible to us, so that we may come to seek His ever patient love and mercy, and be truly reconciled with Him.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the passage taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the prophet spoke about the prophecy of the Suffering Servant or Suffering Messiah, which was a premonition of what the Messiah or Saviour sent by God to His people would have to endure. This revelation of what the Lord would be doing through His Messiah or Saviour is a reminder for us that each one of us as Christians are not immune to sufferings, hardships and difficulties. If the Lord, our God Himself has suffered great challenges, been rejected, humiliated and persecuted greatly for speaking and delivering the truth that He Himself has brought into our midst, then who among us can say that we may not face the same challenges and difficulties as well?

We are reminded that sufferings, trials, persecutions, obstacles and difficulties are all parts of our ministry and journey as Christians. We may encounter moments when we may end up being in difficult position and we may have to struggle in deciding how to progress forward in life, and whether we want to continue to follow the Lord or not, or whether we follow the path of the world and what is comfortable for us instead. And this is where we need to make a strong and firm stand of our faith, to continue to hold strongly to our faith and commitment to God, despite all the various difficulties and obstacles we may encounter in our path. The Lord has always been with us, by our side, no matter what, and He has always guided us throughout all of our journey.

Then, from the second reading passage today, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we heard about the role of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the whole world as the High Priest of all mankind and all of creation, by all that He had done in offering Himself as the perfect and most worthy sacrifice for the atonement and forgiveness of our many sins and wickedness, all the things that had prevented us from coming closer to God and His salvation. The author of that Epistle also highlighted how this same High Priest, Who has offered Himself as the perfect and worthy sacrifice, also knew our sufferings and trials, Himself having been subjected to the same temptations and coercions we ourselves faced, but He did not give in to those temptations.

And in solidarity with us, by sharing in our humanity and our nature, He has united each one of us to Himself, and helping us all to realise what God has wanted from us, that is for us to embrace the salvation and love that He has shown to us so generously through His Son, that by following the example and having faith in the same Son of God, our one and true High Priest, Jesus Christ, all of us may receive and attain the fullness of God’s promise and assurance of eternal life, of true joy and happiness which He has always intended for us from the very beginning. We might have been separated from Him because of our disobedience and sins, but God’s love is far greater than any of those obstacles, temptations, pressures and all the other distractions and things that we may encounter in our path towards our salvation in God.

From the Gospel passage this Sunday, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the time when the Lord was confronted with two of His disciples, the sons of Zebedee, namely St. James and St. John, who came with their mother to Him, asking for special favours and position from Him, to sit on His right and left. If we do not understand the significance of this request, we should know that it is a great honour to sit by the side of the King, and those two disciples sought to be honoured above the rest through such a request. Indeed, the Lord did show His favour to the two of them as He usually often brought the two sons of Zebedee, St. James and St. John together with St. Peter on the several important occasions throughout His ministry, but this did not mean that they should seek personal glory and ambition in their ministry as the disciples and followers of Christ.

The Lord told the two disciples that there are sufferings, challenges and sufferings that they would have to endure, and they would have to drink from the same cup of suffering which He Himself had to drink. What He wanted to tell them is that, following Him as a disciple is not about seeking the glory and satisfaction of the world but about service, to serve God wholeheartedly and to follow Him ever more faithfully and courageously despite the many challenges and trials we may encounter in life. All of us must not think that we will be rewarded with status, power and glory as many of us might have thought that we deserve for having followed the Lord and obeyed Him. Many of the disciples had the ambition and desires in their heart for all those things, and that was why they were unhappy at the actions of the two sons of Zebedee, and why they often bickered and quarrelled with one another over this matter.

As we have heard from the readings of the Sacred Scriptures and discerned from the earlier discussions and discourses we had, all of us are reminded that as Christians we must not allow ourselves to be easily swayed by the temptations and pressures of the world around us, and by the allure of desire and worldly glory. We are all called to be more humble and focused on the Lord, to distance ourselves from the trap of ambition, hubris and pride, all the things which can lead us astray and distracted in life, to walk down the path of disobedience and rebellion against God because we may be swayed by those temptations and desires, and all the falsehoods of the evil one, who would likely tempt us to think that we cannot be wrong in our ways and ideals, and end up getting further and more distant from the true path towards God. We should instead follow the examples of the Lord Himself, Who has humbled Himself, to be offered as a worthy sacrifice and offering for our salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore remind one another that as Christians, as the disciples and followers of our Lord and God, we must always strive to be humble in all things, and to be ready and willing to listen to the Lord speaking to us, reminding and helping us to remain truly faithful to Him, and to restrain ourselves from all the pride, ego, ambition, hubris, greed, desires and all the things which may bring us away from the Lord and His grace. May the Lord, our most loving and compassionate God continue to help us to stay true to our faith and commitment in Him, and may He encourage and strengthen us to remain firm in our faith and devotion despite all the challenges that we may have to face in our journey and life, now and always. Amen.