Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded of the missions which the Lord had put into our paths and entrusted to each and every one of us, His disciples and followers. Each and every one of us have been put in certain places and given certain opportunities, talents or gifts in order to make good use of them in making it all a blessing for everyone, a grace for all those whom we encounter in life. All of us have been blessed with such great love by the Lord and hence, we should remember to love Him in the same way as well, and love all those who are around us, those who have been entrusted to us, and all those whom we encounter daily.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis in which the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob or Israel, and his brothers were told to us. For the context of the story, in case we forget what happened earlier on before the events depicted in today’s passage, Joseph, one of the youngest sons of Jacob, born from his beloved wife Rachel, was one of his favourite, and was showered with lots of favour from Jacob, to the point that the elder brothers of Joseph became envious of him. There were also occasions when Joseph received dreams from the Lord where in that dream he was given respect and obeisance from his brothers and even his parents. No one knew it then, even Joseph himself, that this was in fact a premonition of things to come, many years and decades later, when everything actually came to happen just as Joseph dreamt of it.

Joseph’s brothers actually plotted to kill him out of jealousy, and they were only prevented from doing so by the eldest brother, Reuben, who wanted to protect Joseph. In the end, they all trapped Joseph and then sold him to a Midianite slaver who brought Joseph to the land of Egypt, where he first ended up as a slave and was even imprisoned, but by God’s grace and help, as He had planned it all from the very beginning, Joseph was rescued from the prison after he helped to interpret the dream of the Pharaoh of Egypt, and made to be the powerful Regent of Egypt, no less than the second most powerful person in the whole kingdom after the Pharaoh himself. And it was this powerful Regent that the brothers of Joseph met him, at that time, when the world was gripped in great famine and sufferings.

It was in fact part of God’s plan for His beloved ones, as through this action and turn of events, which was surely most unexpected for everyone, not only that God turned sufferings into greatness, but in His perfect timing and divine plan, He made everything to be wonderful, reuniting Joseph with his brothers and family in the end, and at the same time, his careful stewardship of Egypt’s resources and food allowed him to help countless people in Egypt and many other places to survive through the great seven years of famine. We can see how God made even wicked things that the brothers of Joseph had done to Joseph into great and wonderful things for so many, all the works of His hands, His wonderful and most loving deeds for us.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the Lord Jesus calling and dedicating His most important and closest collaborators, the disciples known as the Twelve, the members of His innermost circle of disciples. And we heard the Twelve being named for us, including the one that would betray Him in the end, Judas Iscariot. These people had been chosen and called by the Lord, from among those whom He had encountered and called, from different and diverse origins, and to them all He entrusted the power and authority to perform miracles and wonders, and to reach out to more and more of the people that He Himself would minister to, so that many more would come to know the Lord and His salvation, His Good News and love.

This is a reminder for all of us that as Christians, all of us have also been called like the Apostles and the other disciples of the Lord, and we have been given the unique and diverse gifts and opportunities which God had provided to each one of us so that we may make good use of them in whatever it is that He wants us to do in our respective lives, in our respective capacities in whatever we have encountered daily in life, in all those whom we have met, interacted with and spent time with. All of us ought to bear with us all the courageous and genuine witnessing of our Christian faith in all that we say and do, in our every interactions with one another, in our love that we show to those who are dear to us, and in our care for our fellow brothers and sisters, our neighbours around us.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his companions in martyrdom, the Holy Martyrs of China, commemorating all those faithful holy men and women who had courageously stood up for their faith and defended their commitment to God without fear and willing to suffer and die as faithful disciples and followers of Christ, particularly against terrible and harsh repressions and persecutions against them and the Church. St. Augustine Zhao Rong himself was born during the middle of the eighteenth century in China, and was one of the Christian converts during a time when the Imperial Chinese government and state was highly suspicious of Christians and the missionaries, and which carried out sporadic persecutions against them and the faithful.

St. Augustine Zhao Rong wanted to become a priest and he received training to be such, and in such extraordinary circumstances, only five years after his baptism, he was ordained as a priest, becoming one of the first local Chinese to be ordained a priest, and he spent many years in service to the people of God and to the works of mission of the Church in various places. Then, according to the historic tradition, under the Emperor Jiaqing in the early nineteenth century, more persecutions were carried out against Christians, and St. Augustine Zhao Rong was one of those who were arrested, and then tortured and eventually martyred for their faith. There were many other Christian faithful, both the missionaries and the converts who gave up their lives in their faithful commitment and obedience to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be renewed and strengthened in faith, and let us all continue to do our best to live our lives each day with the strong desire to glorify God by our lives, knowing that God is always with us, providing for us at every steps of our journey in life. And through the inspiration provided to us by the courage and faith of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his fellow companions in martyrdom, let us all continue to be faithful in all things and at all times. Amen.