Month: December 2024

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Saturday, 28 December 2024 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Innocents, those young children and infants, mostly below the age of two years old, who in the Scriptures were mentioned as the victims of the greed and ego of mankind, being slaughtered mercilessly by the forces of King Herod the Great, the King of Judea at that time. This was done because King Herod was afraid of the threat that the newborn ‘King of the Jews’ prophesied by the prophets and messengers of God presented against him and his rule, and this made him to try to find ways to prevent this King from overcoming his and his family’s rule, and when things did not work out, he desperately launched that massacre against his own people.

For the context, we must first understand that historically, the rule of King Herod was far from secure in the beginning of his reign, and while after decades of rule he had managed to secure the kingdom that he had established and been patronised for by the Romans, who was the overlord of the region, King Herod would always be seen as a usurper to the rightful rulers of the land, firstly as he rose to power on the coattails of the Romans who came and conquered the region, and through manipulations and trickery, and political plays, he managed to gain the throne and kingship over the land. He was also not a member of the House of David, which historically had held the Kingship over Israel, and lastly, he was an Idumaean, hailing from a people neighbouring the Israelites, and hence, was not considered by some as true legitimate King.

That was part of the reason why King Herod the Great was often seen as insecure in his reign and way of ruling, and in his megalomania and often overly ambitious projects, which he made in order to secure that legitimacy over the ruling of the land of Israel and the people of God. He built the great Temple in Jerusalem, greatly expanding the previous Second Temple there likely to win over the support from the Jewish community and from their chief priests and elders. He built the great city of Caesarea, a great port city and trading centre, and naming it after Caesar, the Emperor Augustus in Rome, as an obvious effort to try to win and maintain the support of the Romans, without which he could not have secured his rule and the rule for his family and dynasty. He had many other projects and works designed to show his greatness to the people.

And all of these likely led to King Herod the Great being increasingly insecure, paranoid and ambitious, as the more we depend on worldly means, powers and all those means in order to achieve our objectives and goals, the more it is that we may become dependent on them. And that was what happened to King Herod the Great, as well as many other worldly rulers and all those who have allowed their desires, ambitions, pride and ego to mislead them down the path of ruin. To King Herod, he was certainly unwilling to let go everything that he had spent his whole life building up, all the great things that he had supposedly achieved, and hence, this led him to the desperate actions and wicked things such as the slaughter of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem just as we all heard in our Gospel passage today.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. John the Apostle, we heard of the Apostle writing to the people of God regarding the matter of sin, and how the faithful ought to respond and act with regards to the sins which they had all committed. And we heard of the power of God in healing us all from our many sins and wickedness, and how He has sent us all His Son to be the One to intercede for us and deliver us the salvation of God. St. John also spoke about the need for the people of God not to be deluded to think that they had no sin or shortcomings, or have no need for God’s help and forgiveness. For this is the problem which many of the people of the time of St. John in the early Church had faced, as we still face the same issue even to our present day.

There are people who claim to be righteous, just and worthy of God, and took great pride in that status, like for examples the chief priests and the Pharisees among the Jewish people, and also others in the Christian community who considered themselves to be righteous and better spiritually and in the path towards God’s salvation than others. They underestimated the dangers of sin and even became desensitised to it. This is what we cannot let to happen to us as well, and we must first of all realise that we are sinners, in need of God’s help, and as we have seen from the examples of the past life and actions of King Herod and many other historical figures, we can easily be distracted and tempted by the many desires and pressures, expectations and ambitions that we have in our hearts.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, some of us may be wondering why is it that God permitted such atrocities to happen such as what happened in the massacre of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem, as well as in many other dark moments in our human history. Some of us certainly would have criticised the Lord, thinking that God could have intervened and stopped all those atrocities and evils from happening. But this is where we have to understand and realise that God has given us the free will and the freedom to choose our course of action in life. The many sufferings that we often suffer from and encounter in this world, they all came from our abuse of our privileges, freedom and choices, as instead of choosing the better and righteous path, we often chose the path of pleasure and corruption, allowing sin and the temptations for it to mislead us down this path of destruction and ruin.

That is why, while all of us commemorate this Feast of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem, we are reminded that we must continue to be vigilant so that we do not easily end up falling into the temptations to sin and to give in to our fears, our desires and ambitions, our pursuits for worldly glory and renown, just as King Herod had experienced. For all the efforts that he had done, ultimately Herod’s legacy was a failure, with the grand Temple he built being destroyed merely decades later, and other great monuments abandoned and destroyed, while his family’s rule over the lands of his kingdom did not last very long, and what remained for him is the everlasting reminder of this great atrocity that he ordered at Bethlehem. This is a reminder for us not to allow ourselves to walk in the same path he traversed.

Let us all as Christians instead be the courageous bearers of our faith before all, standing up firmly for the sake of the poor, the less privileged and the weak, striving not for our own selfish desires and ambitions, but rather for the common good of all. We must be good role models and inspirations for one another in upholding the truth and justice of God. May the Lord continue to help us to remain firmly focused on Him, and to be truly committed to a life of virtue and compassionate care for others as we continue to progress through this joyful season of Christmas, and share our Christmas joy to everyone around us, resisting the temptations of pleasure and hedonism, and striving instead to seek the true heavenly treasure that can be found in God alone. Amen.

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Saturday, 28 December 2024 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 2 : 13-18

After the wise men had left, an Angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon be looking for the Child in order to kill Him.”

Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and left that night for Egypt, where He stayed until the death of Herod. In this way, what the Lord had said through the prophet was fulfilled : I called My Son out of Egypt.

When Herod found out that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighbourhood who were two years old or under. This was done in line with what he had learnt from the wise men about the time when the star appeared.

In this way, what the prophet Jeremiah had said was fulfilled : A cry is heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation : Rachel weeps for her children. She refuses to be comforted, for they are no more.

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Saturday, 28 December 2024 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 123 : 2-3, 4-5, 7cd-8

Had not the Lord been on our side, when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive; such was their anger against us.

A bit more and the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away.

The snare was broken and we were freed. Our help is in the Name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

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Saturday, 28 December 2024 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 John 1 : 5 – 1 John 2 : 2

We heard His message from Him and announce it to you : God is light and there is no darkness in Him. If we say we are in fellowship with Him, while we walk in darkness, we lie instead of being in truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we are in fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus, the Son of God, purifies us from all sin.

If we say, “We have no sin,” we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He Who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from our wickedness. If we say that we do not sin, we make God a liar, His word is not in us.

My little children, I write to you that you may not sin. But if anyone sins, we have an Intercessor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Just One. He is the sacrificial Victim for our sins and the sins of the whole world.

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Friday, 27 December 2024 : Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we continue to progress through the Christmas season, two days after Christmas Day, we celebrate the occasion of the Feast of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. St. John the Apostle was the beloved disciple of the Lord and was one of the Twelve Apostles, being one of the earliest ones to enter into the service of the Lord. He was once a fisherman at the Lake of Galilee together with his brother, St. James the Apostle or St. James the Greater. And what is unique about St. John among all the other Apostles is that he was likely the only one among the Apostles who have not suffered through martyrdom of the blood or the red martyrdom which all the other Apostles had suffered, but died at a very old age after many decades toiling and labouring for the Lord’s sake.

St. John was also one of the four writers of the Holy Gospels, and hence was also known as the Evangelist. He was also credited with the Epistles of St. John, addressed to the faithful people of God and as was in the Gospel that he wrote, he placed a lot of emphasis on the love of God which He has generously shown to all of us. St. John himself had witnessed many of the events that the Lord Jesus carried out and went through as he was among the few select ones to have attended to the Lord and went with Him, such as during the resurrection of the dead daughter of Jairus, the synagogue official, the moment of Transfiguration at Mount Tabor, the moment of the Lord’s Agony at the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper, among others.

Then, after the death and Resurrection of the Lord, and after His Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit, St. John for a while took care of the Lord’s Mother, Mary, who had been entrusted to him by the Lord Himself, and at the same time, like the other Apostles, he was also involved in works of evangelisation and in the governance of the early Church. He went to the region of Judea and Samaria with the other Apostles to proclaim the Lord’s Good News and to establish Christian communities in all those places. He would go on to minister to the people of God and establish more Christian presence and communities in other places, and eventually, as the Lord Himself had predicted, St. John would outlive all the other Apostles, and according to Apostolic tradition, he lived to around the end of the first century, close to or around seven decades after the death of the Lord.

The Lord Jesus did mention in the Gospel that one of His disciples would not perish until the coming or the revelation of the kingdom of God, which later on would indeed come true, with St. John being the one whom the Lord entrusted with the eschatological vision or a vision about the end of times, revealing to him the events that would happen at those times before His Second Coming into this world and the Last Judgment. That happened when St. John was exiled to the island of Patmos in Greece when he was already very old in age, during the reign of the Emperor Domitian of Rome. According to some Church and Apostolic tradition, the Emperor Domitian carried out intense persecution against Christians, and many including St. John himself suffered, with the Apostle being exiled to that aforementioned island.

But it was exactly at those difficult moments, and also considering all the other persecutions and difficulties that the faithful people of God had encountered in the previous decades and which they would still endure for centuries and more afterwards, even including up to our very own present day world, that the Lord reassured us all of His love and providence, and a reassurance that if we all remain true and faithful to Him, then we shall be triumphant with God and that we shall be blessed forever, sharing in the eternal glory and the rich inheritance that He has promised and reassured to us, all these while. St. John saw all those things and recorded them in his Book of Revelations or the Apocalypse of St. John, for the knowledge of all the people of God.

St. John had witnessed many things from the time of the Lord’s ministry, and he witnessed all the moments surrounding the Lord’s Passion and death, and His glorious Resurrection from the dead just as we had heard it from today’s Gospel passage. And although he did not suffer from the same kind of martyrdom as the other Apostles of the Lord, he did indeed suffer a kind of martyrdom also known and recognised by the Church as the ‘white martyrdom’ which refers to the kind of martyrdom suffered by the people of God, who although did not face painful or bloody death, but they did face persecution and sufferings in all of its various forms. From all of these, all of us are reminded that as God’s people, as His followers and disciples, all of us must always remind ourselves to be faithful to the Lord.

We should always strive to put the Lord at the centre and as the focus of our whole lives, our whole existence and in all of the things that we do in life. In our Christmas celebration, festivities and all that we do in this joyful Christmas season, all of us are reminded to be ever always faithful to God and to show our true faith in Him in how we celebrate this Christmas occasion so that in all that we say and do, we will always glorify God by our every words, actions, and deeds, and indeed by our whole lives and examples. We must follow in the footsteps of St. John, Holy Apostle and Evangelist, whose whole life had been thoroughly dedicated to the service of God and His people. We must realise that the works that the Lord had entrusted to His Church and Apostles are far from being done, and it is now up to all of us to continue them.

Let us all therefore renew our commitment and desire to serve the Lord ever more faithfully in each and every moments of our lives, so that by our every moments in life, in everything that we carry out, we will continue to be good examples and the faithful, worthy and shining beacons of God’s Light and Hope in our darkened world today, and the bearers of His Love and compassion to all the people around us. May all of those who encounter us and witness our lives and examples be touched by God and His love, and be called to be His good and worthy followers as well, together with each one of us, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 27 December 2024 : Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 20 : 2-8

At that time, Mary of Magdala ran to Peter, and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and she said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

Peter then set out with the other disciple to go out to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down and saw the linen cloths lying flat, but he did not enter. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and entered the tomb; he, too, saw the linen cloths lying flat.

The napkin, which had been around His head, was not lying flat like the other linen cloths, but lay rolled up in its place. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in; he saw and believed.

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Friday, 27 December 2024 : Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 96 : 1-2, 5-6, 11-12

The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the distant islands be glad. Clouds and darkness surround Him; justice and right are His throne.

The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His justice, all peoples see His glory.

He sheds light upon the upright, and gladness upon the just. Rejoice in the Lord, you who are blameless, and give praise to His holy Name.

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Friday, 27 December 2024 : Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 1 : 1-4

This is what has been from the beginning, and what we have heard and have seen with our own eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, I mean the Word Who is Life…

The Life made Itself known, we have seen Eternal Life and we bear witness, and we are telling you of it. It was with the Father and made Himself known to us. So we tell you what we have seen and heard, that you may be in fellowship with us, and us, with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

And we write this that our joy may be complete.

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Thursday, 26 December 2024 : Feast of St. Stephen, Protomartyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the day after the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, the actual day of Christmas, and it is celebrated in the Church as the Feast of St. Stephen, the Protomartyr of the Church. On this day we may wonder why is it that after the festive celebration of Christmas and the fact that this is still during the joyful Christmas season that we commemorate this feast of the very first martyr or protomartyr of the Church. Indeed, this is in fact a reminder for all of us that our celebration and festivities cannot be separated from the focus we ought to have in Christ, and as Christians, each and every one of us amidst our living as faithful and devoted Christians, we may encounter difficulties, challenges, obstacles, rejection, disapproval, and even persecutions for our faith, for what we believe in, and for our works and efforts.

In our first reading today, we heard of the story of the last ministry of St. Stephen, who would become the first martyr of the Church. Now, St. Stephen was one of the disciples of the Lord, likely to be among those disciples who have followed the Lord during His ministry and when He was still in this world. He was one of the seven original Deacons selected and tasked by the Apostles to be the ones to carry out the ministry of the diaconate and service to the people of God, as at that time, with the rapidly growing number of converts and Christian believers, the expansion of the Church in terms of size, numbers and geographical extent made it increasingly difficult for the Apostles to do everything by themselves in ministering to the Church as well as in governing and leading the faithful.

Not only that, but they also still have their primary mission which has been entrusted to them by the Lord Himself, and that is the ministry of evangelisation. Therefore, the Apostles prayed over the matter and inspired by the Holy Spirit, they resolved to choose seven holy and worthy men to be the first deacons with the primary mission to distribute the goods of the Church and the property needed to support the members of the faithful. There was in fact a strife and division among the members of the community who were divided between the Jewish converts and the Greek converts, and there was unhappiness because apparently those Greek converts had been neglected in the distribution of goods and property, as the earliest Christian communities lived in a communal manner, sharing their goods and property with one another.

Thus, the seven holy men and deacons were selected to be the impartial distributors of those resources and as ministers to the needs of the people of God. St. Stephen was one of those seven men, and was also the most prominent one among them, not less due to his early martyrdom, the tale of which was partly highlighted to us in our first reading passage today. Earlier before this part of the passage, St. Stephen was confronted by his enemies, who made false accusations against him as he was doing his works, and they even employed false witnesses against him, accusing him of having uttered and committed blasphemy against God. And that was how St. Stephen was set up for a confrontation against the whole entire Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Council and their supporters.

Yet, St. Stephen, encouraged and full of the Holy Spirit, courageously stood up before the whole assembly and spoke up about the salvation which God has shown to His people through Jesus Christ, telling them about the story of the people of God and the history of salvation, and how everything which God had promised His people and which He has spoken through His prophets and messengers, all the prophecies and predictions came true in Christ, the same One Whom those chief priests and elders, the members of the Sanhedrin had rejected and persecuted, and given to the Romans to be crucified at Calvary. It must have taken great courage for St. Stephen to speak of those words of great truth and wisdom, and yet, he did so, to the bewilderment and total surprise of everyone who listened to him.

St. Stephen gladly accepted suffering and death when all those who listened to him refused to accept the truth that he has presented to them, and stoned him accusing him of blaspheming against God. He was stoned to death by all the assembled people who were overcome with rage and anger against the words that St. Stephen had spoken to them, refusing to believe him even though he has spoken with such wisdom and convincing truth, as they had hardened their hearts and closed off their minds, allowing their pride, ego and ambitions to mislead them to the wrong path. But St. Stephen did not become angry at them or blamed them for all of that, and in fact, just as the Lord Himself had done at the time of His crucifixion, St. Stephen forgave those who persecuted and killed him, and prayed to God on their behalf.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist the account of the words which the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples exactly about all these things that would come to pass and which would happen to many of them, how they would all face persecutions, struggles and challenges in the midst of their lives as Christians and disciples of the Lord. And yet, they must not be afraid, fearful or doubtful, as the Lord Himself would be with them, encouraging and strengthening them all in their path and in whatever that they would have to endure and go through. That was what St. Stephen himself has experienced, and his examples should serve as a good example and inspiration for all of us as well.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore strive to do our best to follow the faith and the inspiration of St. Stephen, the first or protomartyr of the Church. Let us all remember that as we rejoice in this Christmas season we must always keep in mind that Christ is truly at the centre of all of our festivities, rejoicing and celebration, and we must also put Him as the focus and the centre of our whole lives, in each and every moments. We must be strong and prepared for whatever trials, challenges, difficulties and obstacles that we may have to encounter in our journey, as we continue to go forth and live our lives worthily as Christians, and as we continue to proclaim the Lord and His Good News to more and more people. May the Lord continue to strengthen us all in our faith, and may His holy servant, St. Stephen, Holy Protomartyr, continue to intercede for us all as well. Amen.

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Thursday, 26 December 2024 : Feast of St. Stephen, Protomartyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 10 : 17-22

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Be on your guard with people, for they will hand you over to their courts, and they will flog you in their synagogues. You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings because of Me, so you may witness to them and the pagans.”

“But when you are arrested, do not worry about what you are to say, or how you are to say it; when the hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. For it is not you who will speak, but the Spirit of your Father in you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child; children will turn again parents and have them put to death.”

“Everyone will hate you because of Me, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved.”