Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded once again that we should always put our faith and trust in the Lord, and not in the things and ambitions of this world, all of which can seriously lead us away and astray from the right paths in our lives, just as our predecessors themselves had shown us. Those who allowed themselves to be swayed by those worldly temptations and ambitions would end up falling further and further away from the path towards God, and that is not what we should be doing in our lives. Instead we should put our trust, faith and hope ever deeper in the Lord, and remind us all of His constant love and compassion.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Kings of Israel and Judah, we heard of the story of the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel, the same Jeroboam who had been instructed by the Lord through His prophet Ahijah to take ten of the twelve tribes of Israel and rebel against Solomon and the House of David, all because of the sins and wickedness of Solomon, whom while he had been faithful in the earlier years of his reign like that of his father David, but in his later years, he had resorted to worldly ambitions, means and desires to fulfil his ever growing ambtiions and pursuits. All of those things ended up drawing him further and further away from the path of righteousness.

However, Jeroboam himself did not do any better than Solomon. After he had secured the kingship and rule over the ten northern tribes and broke the kingdom of God’s people in two, he became afraid and fearful that the people and kingdom that he had secured would end up falling back to the hands of the House of David when they all flocked to the Temple that King Solomon built for the Lord in Jerusalem, then the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah. That was why as we heard in our first reading today, he decided to built two shrines in Bethel and Dan, at the northern and southern parts of his dominion, to serve as rival temples and national shrines of the northern kingdom. Further still, he even made golden calf idols in each places to serve as the ‘gods’ that the people ought to worship.

And all of those things were directly contrary to what the Lord has taught and shown His people, and was not what God intended for Jeroboam to do. Jeroboam led the people into sin by leading them astray with worship of idols in those shrines he established, and in not following the Law and commandments that God had placed before all of them to follow and obey. All of these happened because of the same insecurities, worldly desires and ambitions which afflicted Solomon beforehand, and which also afflicted Jeroboam as well, that led them astray down the wrong paths. Therefore, it is an important reminder to all of us as well as Christians, that we should be vigilant and careful that we do not end up walking down the same path.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the well-known miracle of the multiplication of the loaves of bread for at least four thousand people if not more, and there were only seven loaves of bread available to feed all of them. Like the similar miracle of the multiplication of the five loaves of bread and two fishes for the five thousand in another occasion, in this time, the Lord miraculously multiplied those bread loaves after praying and blessing over the bread, showing the power of God’s Providence and Love for all those people who had come to seek Him, for His guidance, healing and miracles. God did not abandon His people in need, and He showed it all through His Son.

This is the wonderful manifestation of God’s ever generous love and compassion towards all of us. He has shown us the perfect manifestation of that love through Christ, His Son, the Saviour Whom He has promised and sent into our midst. Despite our sins and wickedness, and all that we have done against Him, the Lord has always been merciful, compassionate and kind towards us all. That feeding of the four thousand was yet another example of just how loving and kind God has been towards us, and we should never take it for granted. We should always remember that we should love the Lord in the same manner as well, and love our brethren in the similar manner too. That is what we are all called to do as Christians at all times.

Today we can also look upon the great examples set by two of our holy and faithful predecessors, namely that of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, the two great servants of God and missionaries of faith, who are also the Patron Saints and Protector of the heart of Christendom in Europe. They were remembered for their dedication and great works in bringing the Christian faith to the people in Central and Eastern parts of Europe, the areas inhabited by the Slavic peoples, which by the efforts of St. Cyril and St. Methodius became Christians, which remain so until the present day. These two saints had travelled through many parts of the then still pagan Slavic lands, calling on many people to come to believe in the Lord.

St. Cyril and St. Methodius dedicated themselves to the Lord and to the mission entrusted to them, and they both spent their lives to minister to the people among whom they had been sent to proclaim the truth of God, and they were also remembered for their role in translating the texts of the Sacred Scriptures into the local Slavic language and in the development of the Cyrillic alphabet which are still in use until this day, helping many people not only in the matter of the faith but also in the development of their statecraft and nationhood. Their contributions and hard work were truly inspirational and all of us Christians can do well to follow in their footsteps and heed their examples, to be truly good and worthy disciples and followers of the Lord in all things.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore heed the examples of the saints, particularly those of St. Cyril and St. Methodius in everything that they had done, and also from whatever we have just discussed about earlier in the Scripture passages we received, so that we may truly realise how we can truly be obedient to the Lord faithfully at all times and not merely paying lip service to Him, and be ever more genuine at all times in everything we say and do, so that we may lead more and more people towards God and be the good role models and inspirations that we are supposed to be as Christians. May the Lord bless our every good endeavours and efforts, now and always. Amen.