Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 32 : 10-11, 12-13, 14-15
The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and brings to nothing the peoples’ designs. But His plan stands forever, and His heart’s design through all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.
From where He sits He watches all those who dwell on the earth – He Who fashions every heart observes all their deeds.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Genesis 11 : 1-9
The whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved from east, they found a plain in the country of Shinar where they settled. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them in fire.” They used brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. They said also, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top reaching heaven; so that we may become a great people and not be scattered over the face of the earth!”
YHVH came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of man were building, and YHVH said, “They are one people and they have one language. If they carry this through, nothing they decide to do from now on will be impossible. Come! Let Us go down and confuse their language so that they will no longer understand each other.”
So YHVH scattered them over all the earth and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there YHVH confused the language of the whole earth and from there YHVH scattered them over the whole face of the earth.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the need for all of us to continue living our lives faithfully as Christians at all times, in carrying out the will of God and in doing what we can to proclaim His truth and Good News in all possible opportunities that God has provided to us, following the good examples that the Apostles and many other saints and holy people of God, our holy predecessors had done. Each one of us have been called and sent to do whatever the Lord has willed for us to do, in our respective various areas of responsibility, and in whichever places and communities that God has desired us to be, all according to His will. We are called to love everyone around us just as how God has loved us, especially those dearest and most beloved to us.
In our first reading today, we heard of the ministry of St. Paul the Apostle who had come to Rome at the end of his long travel from Jerusalem and after enduring a shipwreck that brought him to the island of Malta and gave him the opportunity to evangelise to the people there. St. Paul went to Rome upon answering God’s call, as He told St. Paul of everything that he would do for His glory, in fulfilling His wishes, that St. Paul ought to proclaim the Good News to the faithful at the very heart and centre of the Roman Empire. The Lord has sent St. Paul to perform His good works among His people, and through the Apostle, He laid the firm foundation of His Church, strengthened by the faith and the dedication of His Apostles like St. Paul, St. Peter and others.
As we heard in our Gospel passage today, we listened to the conversation between the Lord Jesus and His disciples, in which St. Peter asked the Lord about the saying that one of them, the youngest among them, St. John the Apostle, to whom the Lord had entrusted His own mother Mary, would not die till the day the Lord comes again. The Lord then told St. Peter that if He wanted St. John or anyone to live till the day He comes, that is His decision and His prerogative alone, and everything will indeed happen as He desires it to be. In a way, this would be fulfilled as St. John was the one to whom the Lord showed the heavenly and otherworldly vision of the end of time, which he recorded and wrote in the Book of Revelations. Through his works, we have been strengthened and encouraged, being reminded that God is always there for us.
Thus, in a way, St. John indeed did not die before he saw the coming of the Lord, as in his visions, St. John did indeed see the triumphant Second Coming of the Lord, and wrote about it in his Book so that all of us, the faithful people of God may remain firm in our faith and know what is coming ahead for us. All of us are reminded that each and every one of us as God’s followers are called to carry on with our mission, in our respective areas of responsibility and calling, in our own communities and in wherever the Lord has called and sent us to, just like how He has called and sent His Apostles. Each and every one of us are members and parts of the same Church of God, and hence, we are part of the ever growing efforts and works of the Church to reach out to more and more souls out there.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, at the penultimate day of the season of Easter, with the Solemnity of the Pentecost Sunday happening just tomorrow, all of us are therefore reminded that we are all part of the Church’s important evangelising mission and works, in reaching out to all those who are still not yet aware of the Lord, His truth and Good News, and everything that He has done for us. All of us are parts of this missionary work, the same mission which He Himself has entrusted and commanded to His disciples, that is to go forth to all the people of all the nations, and to baptise them all in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Through this mission and work entrusted to each one of us, we can do so much more to expand further the reach of the Church and the salvation for many.
All of us are strengthened and encouraged with the hope that the Lord has given us, and through the Holy Spirit that He has bestowed upon us, His Church. Through the guidance and strength that we have been provided with, we have gone truly very far in our journey of faith and work, and we have already grown ever stronger in our efforts and works to glorify Him and in doing whatever it is that the Lord has taught us to do. And each of our actions and contributions do matter, and we should not be disheartened if we think that we have not done a lot for the Lord. After all, each and every one of our actions are part of the greater works of the Church, and we must realise that no one can do all those great works all by themselves. All of us have to help and assist each other, and help one another in fulfilling what the Lord has called us all to do, and strengthen one another that we may always be firm in our faith and dedication.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all hence renew our commitment and desire to serve and follow the Lord, to do His will and to proclaim His Good News just as the Apostles and our other holy predecessors had done in the past. All of us have been given the various talents, abilities and gifts in order to do God’s will and to carry out our missions in life. Each and every one of us should do whatever we can so that we may inspire more and more souls to come closer towards God and His grace and love. We must also realise that eachh one of us are capable of doing just so many great and wonderful things if we put our heart into our efforts, and do whatever we can to obey the Lord and His commandments, and to do what we can to serve the Lord at all times.
May the Lord through His Holy Spirit continue to guide and strengthen us in our journey, empowering and walking with us throughout all the way. May He continue to give us the inspiration to keep going on in our respective efforts and works, in glorifying the Lord by our lives and examples as always. And let us all pray for the strength and perseverance so that we may always be faithful in this journey, altogether towards God. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 21 : 20-25
At that time, Peter looked back and saw that the disciple Jesus loved was following as well, the one who had reclined close to Jesus at the supper, and had asked Him, “Lord, who is to betray You?”
On seeing him, Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain until I come, does that concern you? Follow Me!” Because of this the rumour spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus had not said to Peter, “He will not die,” but, “Suppose I want him to remain until I come.”
It is this disciple who testifies about the things he has written here, and we know that his testimony is true. But Jesus did many other things; if all were written down, I think the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 10 : 4, 5 and 7
The Lord is in His holy place – our God Whose throne is in heaven. He looks down to earth to observe the race of Adam.
The Lord searches both righteous and wicked. He hates those who delight in violence, for the Lord is righteous; He loves justice. The upright will see His face.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 28 : 16-20, 30-31
Upon our arrival in Rome, the captain turned the prisoners over to the military governor but permitted Paul to lodge in a private house with the soldier who guarded him. After three days, Paul called together the leaders of the Jews.
When they had gathered, he said to them : “Brothers, though I have not done anything against our people or against the traditions of our fathers, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. They examined me and wanted to set me free, for they saw nothing in my case that deserved death.”
“But the Jews objected, so I was forced to appeal to Caesar without the least intention of bringing any case against my own people. Therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I bear these chains.”
Paul stayed for two whole years in a house he himself rented, where he received without any hindrance all those who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught the truth about Jesus Christ, the Lord, quite openly and without any hindrance.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord in the Scriptures, all of us are reminded that each one of us have been called by the Lord to follow Him and to do His will, to wherever that He will lead us to, just as He had done with the Apostles, the many saints and martyrs of the Church, our holy predecessors. Each and every one of us as Christians are expected to live our lives worthily of the Lord and to continue carrying out our activities in accordance with God’s will, doing whatever we can to serve Him and glorify Him at every possible opportunities. We should heed the Lord’s call and love Him as much as we should, just as how He Himself has loved us so much first, that He gave Himself for us that through His loving sacrifice for us, we may all be saved.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles regarding a conversation between Festus, the Governor and Procurator of Judea with King Agrippa, the Herodian ruler of the region, about St. Paul the Apostle, his works and ministry and how the Jewish authorities, members of the Sanhedrin had been accusing him of wrongdoing, and how St. Paul appealed to the Emperor for his case. Through what we have heard here, we are reminded of how God moved things and spared St. Paul from the hands of his enemies in Jerusalem, who no doubt would have wanted him destroyed. Instead, as the Lord Himself had told St. Paul earlier on, that He was sending him to Rome, to the last stop of his long missionary works, where he would evangelise and proclaim the Good News of God at the very heart and centre of the Roman Empire itself.
St. Paul could have chosen to stay away from trouble and from all the hardships facing him, just as the past few weekdays’ Scripture passages from the Acts of the Apostles could show us. St. Paul willingly embraced God’s calling and mission, embarking on this last missionary journey through Jerusalem, and then on to Rome, in which St. Paul would go on to do more great works at evangelisation, stopping by the island of Malta along the way where he laid the foundation of the faith there, and many more. Through the hard work of St. Paul and other early Christian missionaries, the Church grew rapidly amidst the many challenges and hardships that it had to face, persecutions and oppressions that many among the Christian faithful had to endure. Their faith remained strong and firm as the Lord guided and strengthened them, and empowered them through the Holy Spirit.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the calling of St. Peter the Apostle, and the mission which God entrusted to him as He reaffirmed him as the leader and shepherd of His entire flock, the Church. That happened at the shores of the Lake of Galilee, where after the Lord’s Resurrection, He went and met with His disciples just as He has promised them. And in this private moment mentioned in the Gospel passage today, the Lord asked St. Peter, not once but three times, ‘Peter, do you love Me?’, which St. Peter replied fervently and lovingly with, ‘Lord, You know that I love You.’ And the Lord told St. Peter to take care of His sheep, the flock of His beloved people, to feed them and to take good care of them, as a reminder of the mission which He had entrusted to him earlier as His Vicar, as the leader of the whole entire Church.
And why the Lord asked St. Peter three times? It is symbolic as a response to what St. Peter had done earlier on at the beginning of the Lord’s Passion, where as we all know that St. Peter denied knowing the Lord and denied Him a total of not just once but three times. St. Peter was likely driven by fear, the fear for suffering and for being persecuted and hence, in his moment of folly, he abandoned and denied the Lord back then. But the Lord, through this threefold questioning of St. Peter was showing that He loved him, forgave him from his past mistakes and lack of faith, and entrusted to him anew what He has entrusted to him, the guardianship and leadership over His whole entire Church. St. Peter was also told of the kind of suffering and martyrdom that he would have to endure for the sake of the Lord, and to the very end, St. Peter would remain firmly faithful to his calling and mission.
Today all of us are reminded that as Christians all of us are called from the world, from among the ordinary people to become extraordinary in the Lord. Often we are reluctant to follow the Lord or to do as He has commanded us to do because we thought that we are incapable of doing all the things like our predecessors had done. But as we all have seen and discussed, the Lord’s own disciples are those who have come from ordinary background, and were people who were imperfect and even weak in their faith at first. St. Paul himself was a great persecutor and enemy of the earliest Christians, and had a part in the sufferings and martyrdom of many among the faithful. St. Peter as we knew, abandoned and denied the Lord three times. Yet, all of them had a change of heart and mind, and committed themselves thoroughly to the Lord for the rest of their lives.
Today, all of us should also then be inspired by the examples of St. Rita of Cascia whose feast we are celebrating today. St. Rita of Cascia was an Italian saint and Augustinian nun, a holy and devout religious sister who had dedicated her life to the service and the glory of God. She was married at a very young age by her family and despite her desires to enter a convent even from an early age, she remained as a good and faithful wife to her husband, who was quick-tempered and immoral in nature. She was remembered for her efforts in trying to change her husband’s ways, in the marriage that lasted for eighteen years until her husband and sons passed away. It was known that her husband’s family was involved in the then bitter interfamilial struggles and conflicts, and when her husband was murdered, St. Rita of Cascia tried to dissuade her sons from seeking revenge for their father’s death. She also forgave her husband’s murderers and enemies.
And when the sons of St. Rita of Cascia were in danger of committing sins in the pursuit of vengeance, she voluntarily asked the Lord to take them away so that they would not fall into the path of sin and damnation. Miraculously, God listened to her prayers, and her sons were taken away from her, as they passed away from dysentery, before they could commit murder and mortal sins that could harm and endanger their eternal souls. Afterwards, St. Rita of Cascia entered the monastery of St. Mary Magdalene in Cascia, in which she devoted the rest of her life to a work of prayer and piety, and managed to bring the two feuding families together in fulfilling the conditions that were imposed to her before she was to join the monastery community, devoting her life henceforth only to the glorification of God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all hence be inspired by the examples and the role models showed to us by St. Rita of Cascia in her virtues and righteousness, patience and love, and many others of our holy predecessors, like that of St. Peter the Apostle whose faith and undying love for the Lord was proclaimed earlier, and also those of the other Apostles, saints and holy martyrs of the Church. Let us be inspired by their good examples so that all of us may turn towards the Lord once again and commit ourselves to His path, doing whatever we can to do His will and to love Him at all times. May the Risen Lord, Our Saviour Jesus Christ continue to be with us and guide us all, and bless us all in our every good works, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 21 : 15-19
At that time, after Jesus and His disciples had finished breakfast, He said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” And Jesus said, “Feed My lambs.”
A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” And Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Look after My sheep.” And a third time He said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
Peter was saddened because Jesus asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” and he said, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You.” Jesus then said, “Feed My sheep! Truly, I say to you, when you were young, you put on your belt and walked where you liked. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will put a belt around you, and lead you where you do not wish to go.”
Jesus said this to make known the kind of death by which Peter was to glorify God. And He added, “Follow Me.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 102 : 1-2, 11-12, 19-20ab
Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless His holy Name! Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.
As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove from us our sins.
The Lord has set His throne in heaven; He rules, He has power everywhere. Praise the Lord, all you His Angels.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 25 : 13b-21
As King Agrippa and his sister Berenice were to stay in Caesarea several days, Festus told him about Paul’s case and said to him, “We have here a man whom Felix left as a prisoner. When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews accused him and asked me to sentence him.”
“I told them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over a man without giving him an opportunity to defend himself in front of his accusers. So they came and I took my seat without delay on the tribunal and sent for the man. When the accusers had the floor, they did not accuse him of any of the crimes that I was led to think he had committed; instead they quarrelled with him about religion and about a certain Jesus Who has died but whom Paul asserted to be alive.”
“I did not know what to do about this case, so I asked Paul if he wanted to go to Jerusalem to be tried there. But Paul appealed to be judged by the Emperor. So I ordered that he be kept in custody until I send him to Caesar.”
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 