Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures presented to us, we are reminded of the need for all of us as Christians, as those whom God had called and chosen to be His own, to be truly faithful to Him in all things. We should be filled with genuine understanding of the faith and the appreciation of everything that God had shown and presented to us, all the love that He has bestowed on us, lavished on us and given to us time and again. We should not take for granted what God has given to us and we should also not allow any divisions and disagreements to tear us apart, to threaten the unity of the Church, the Body of Christ to which we all belonged to.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire then, where the Apostle spoke to the faithful there that came from diverse origins, from among both the Jewish diaspora in Rome and from among the Gentiles or the non-Jewish people. St. Paul reminded all the faithful there that regardless of their origins, differences and whatever backgrounds they had, God had revealed Himself to all of them and called them all to do their will, to follow the path that He had shown to them, and not to fall into the temptations and the folly of those who have given themselves to the pagan worship of the idols that were commonplace at that time.

Essentially, St. Paul highlighted the foolishness of man in worshipping the created things like the Sun, Moon, the stars, the elements and other aspects of nature, which were the origins of many of the pagan idols and gods that they worshipped in their pagan temples. Instead, having learnt and realised the truth behind all things, St. Paul encouraged the faithful in Rome to continue to walk the path of faith, believing in the One and only True God that they ought to worship and believe in, the One Who has created this world and all things, instead of settling for the worship of worldly matters and created beings. It is a reminder for all of us as well as Christians that we need to be firm in our faith and continue to be good inspiration in our faith in God in all things.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist, where the Lord Jesus was presented with a query from a Pharisee who had a meal with Him where He was questioned why He did not wash His hands according to the rules that were prescribed among the Jews, especially the particularly rigid and unbending version championed and promoted by the Pharisees. According to this application and observance of the Law of Moses, the Jews ought to observe many rituals and many practices that were superfluous and superficial in nature, and the Pharisees among all were the ones most absorbed into this way of practicing the faith. These rules and rituals developed from the manner how the Lord had prescribed to them through Moses while they were in their Exodus from Egypt towards the Promised Land.

There were indeed reason and importance behind such rules, and in this regard, the rule regarding the need to wash one’s hands before a meal was rooted in the importance of hygiene and in preventing the outbreak of epidemics and diseases that could easily happen during the period of Exodus in close quarters within the tents of the Israelites. However, by the time the Pharisees practiced these rituals and ways, they had made them so extensive and difficult to observe and follow that they also ended up focusing so much on the details, such as having to wash the hands and arms up to the elbows or else the Law would not have been observed properly, to the point that they forgot and overlooked why the Law was given by God to His people in the first place.

The Lord therefore rebuked the Pharisee and the others for their overly obsessed attitude in their way of believing and practicing their faith, how they valued appearances and external piety over true understanding of what the Lord had truly taught them and wanted them all to do in their lives. He does not want any of us, His faithful flock and people to follow in the same misguided and deluded way, to practice our faith in such a superficial way and focusing only on the externals. Instead, the people of God, that is all of us should have a strong, genuine, organic and living faith, one that is based on true appreciation of what the Lord has taught and revealed to us. Each and every one of us ought to be genuine and committed disciples of the Lord, not merely in appearances only, but also in every moments of our lives.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of one of the holy saints, whose faith and devotion to God, and whose commitment and actions should inspire us all in our own lives, in how we ourselves can become good and committed disciples of the Lord, in all of our actions and works. Pope St. Callistus I was the Pope and leader of the Universal Church, as the Bishop of Rome and Vicar of Christ, successor of St. ‘Peter the Apostle, during a difficult time in the Church’s history, as at that time, persecutions were rampant against the Church and Christians throughout the Roman Empire. Oppression and sufferings were often part of life for many of the Lord’s faithful people, who had to endure those sufferings simply because of their faith in God.

Amidst all of these, Pope St. Callistus I, who was a deacon and assistant to the Pope St. Zephyrinus, in managing the catacombs of the city of Rome, serving the needs of the people of God in the Diocese of Rome, and then eventually becoming the successor of the same Pope St. Zephyrinus, he had involved himself with many of the works and the service for the sake of God’s people, caring for both of their physical and spiritual needs. The Lord has called Pope St. Callistus I to be His Vicar, and he carried out his duties most diligently, in embracing all of the people of God, including those who have lapsed from the faith and fallen into sin. At that time, this matter of welcoming and allowing lapsed Christians who have given in to the pressure to worship pagan gods and idols, either by choice or not, had caused great divisions and disagreements in the Church.

This division and disagreement had led to one of the first schisms in the Church, as St. Hippolytus, a popular priest and preacher who disagreed with the practice of readmitting lapsed Christians without proper penance and consequences, was elected as a rival Pope to Pope St. Callistus I, becoming the first antipope. Pope St. Callistus I was determined to bridge the differences and worked hard to lead the people of God amidst the turbulent times, beset from all directions, both from outside and within, in the many persecutions and challenges that the faithful people of God were facing daily, and in the disagreements that turned fellow Christians against each other. Pope St. Callistus I patiently led the Church throughout all of that, and remained firm in his faith and conviction in dedicating himself and the Church to God. In the end, he was martyred for his faith, during one of those persecutions, but his efforts helped the Church to remain strong throughout the challenging years.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard from the great examples of the faith shown by Pope St. Callistus I, a holy man of God and martyr of the Faith, most courageous in his desire to bring unity and reconciliation to the feuding factions of the Church, and which is our good role model and inspiration in how we should lead lives that are truly attuned to the Lord as well. Each and every one of us are reminded to walk faithfully in God’s Presence as Pope St. Callistus I and the many other saints and martyrs had done, and may we continue to glorify the Lord by each and every actions we carry out in life, now and always. Amen.