Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the words of the Lord telling all of us to remain faithful and true to Him. We must not allow the wickedness and evils of this world from coming into our midst and corrupt us. If we let those things to mislead and distract us from the path that the Lord has shown us, then many of us will unfortunately likely end up falling down the slippery slope towards damnation. We must remember that as Christians, each and every one of us are called to be righteous, good and full of Christian virtues, that in all the things we say and do, we always bring greater glory to God. All of us are also reminded that God is always ever kind and forgiving towards us, and we should always seek His mercy, kindness and love.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Ephesus regarding the Apostle’s reminder to the people of God there on how them being the people and children of God, they were all called to a greater new life, full of genuine faith and actions as Christians, and how they should not follow their past ways and wicked path anymore. They were called to a greater new existence, one that was no longer based on the ways of their predecessors and ancestors. Instead, they were all called to follow in the path that God has set before them, and which He Himself had shown to them through His Apostles and His Church. As Christians, all of us are called and reminded to look upon these examples to guide us in how we ourselves ought to live our lives.

St. Paul reminded the people of God in Ephesus how the Lord has called on all of them to be holy just as He is holy, and He called on all of them to be virtuous and good in their path, and not to bring scandal to the Lord’s Holy Name and to His Church. As Christians, they were all expected to make a stand against the wickedness of the world, to abandon the temptations of the world and to side with the Lord wholeheartedly. The Lord told them and also to all of us, that we cannot be servants of both God and Money, and that is, we cannot be servant of both the Lord and of the world. If we allow ourselves to indulge in the temptations of worldly glory and power, sooner or later we may end up falling deeper and deeper into the path of sin.

Instead, we are all reminded of what He Himself had done, all the teachings He has given us and all the truth that He has revealed to us, so that through all of those, we may know how we can proceed ahead as Christians in our way of life, in our actions and deeds, in whatever path we follow. That is what we ought to reflect as we recall the message of the Word of God contained within the Sacred Scriptures we have heard today. We heard from the Gospel passage today regarding the confrontation between the Lord and the leader of the synagogue simply because the Lord healed a crippled woman on a Sabbath day. For the context, the Sabbath day refers to the day prescribed by the Law of God since the days of Moses as the day dedicated to rest and meant to focus the people’s attention on God instead on their worldly affairs.

The Lord had wanted to heal the woman who had been crippled and kept bent and enslaved by the evil spirits for a long period of eighteen years, and He highlighted to His opponents and naysayers, just how ridiculous it was that the woman would have to wait any moment longer just because it was the day of the Sabbath, which according to the Jewish laws and customs back then, was a day when no work was allowed at any circumstances. Meanwhile, the Pharisees and the leader of the synagogue, who likely held the same belief, were most particularly strict and extensive in their efforts to preserve this custom and practice, in enforcing these rules on the people.

However, in doing so they had become elitist and wicked in their ways, as they became self-righteous and prejudiced against all those whom they deemed to be inferior to themselves, which were essentially everyone else, and especially those who were afflicted with diseases like that of the crippled woman herself. Yet, the Lord courageously challenged this action and view of the Pharisees and the synagogue elders, and healed the woman, showing all the people of God what God truly wants from all of us, to be loving and forgiving just as God Himself has shown us His love and compassion, His forgiveness and mercy. This is the true essence of what it truly means to believe in the Lord, to put ourselves in the acts of love and kindness towards one another just as the Lord Himself has shown us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded through all of these readings from the Sacred Scriptures that we must never be full of pride, ego and vile thoughts in our hearts and minds, thinking that we are better and superior than others, and thinking that we alone have the right ideas and judgments, without the willingness to listen to the wisdom of God shown to us through the others around us, just as the Lord had done as He confronted the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law criticising Him on His healing work on the woman who had been crippled for such a long time. We are reminded that first of all, God is Love, and His ways and commandments are all about love, the love that He has always had for us, and the love therefore that we ought to have for Him also, and the same love that we ought to show one another as well.

May the Lord, our most loving God and Creator, continue to show us all His most generous and wonderful love, in each and every moment of our lives. May through His examples in loving us all unconditionally and most generously, all of us also learn to be kind and compassionate to everyone around us, that in each and every moments, we will always strive to come ever closer to God and His ways, and become truly genuine believers and members of His Body, the Church. May more and more people also come to believe in the Lord through us and our good examples, and may He continue to bless us in our good endeavours. Amen.