Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded that in God alone we have hope and salvation, and as His people, we must always have this strong faith and trust in Him, believing that it is in Him that we shall always have the assurance of true happiness and eternal glory, all of which shall be ours if we remain steadfast in our dedication and commitment to God. We need to have faith and trust in the Lord even when we are encountering difficulties, challenges, trials and tribulations, as it is during all those period of challenges that we often lose our faith in God and ended up veering off into the path towards destruction and damnation. This is why we are all reminded this Sunday that we must always stay steadfast to this faith that we have in the Lord.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Job in which the Lord spoke to His servant Job, who had been afflicted greatly by many misfortunes affecting his property, family and personal health due to the attacks from the evil one, Satan, who wanted to test Job’s faith and trust in God. Job suffered greatly, but earlier on in the Book of Job, he did not waver in his faith and remained steadfast in trusting the Lord, not allowing all those misfortunes from tempting and misleading him down the path of rebellion and disobedience against God. He did not give in to despair, and while he struggled amidst the trials and challenges that he had faced, he continued to follow the Lord faithfully and blamed himself more for the misfortunes that he had faced.
This was where God reminded Job of the vastness of His mysteries and all the things that were hidden from human understanding and perception, as something that is beyond our capacity and ability to know and understand. God told Job that He has the power and dominion over all things, and everything in this world happened because of what He has willed to be, and nothing is ever beyond His reach and ability. This is why through these words and reminders, we are also called to heed the fact that we must always put our faith and trust in the Lord, and we must never lose hope and the focus on Him, as it is in Him alone that we can find lasting and true peace that endures and saves.
In our second reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth, the Apostle spoke of the salvation which everyone has received from the Lord through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, the Son of God, through Whom God had revealed His salvation to everyone, so that through His Son, all of us mankind, who have once been separated from Him, may find the sure path to be reunited once again with Him. It was indeed a great mystery of God’s salvation and saving works among His people that He has sent none other than His own Beloved and begotten Son to be Our Saviour, and through the amazing manner by which He had done so, in lovingly bearing for our sake, our many burdens and the punishments for our sins and wickedness.
Again, we are all reminded that our hope is in the Lord, which He has made clear through His Son, through Christ’s Light and Hope, which has illuminated our path in the darkness surrounding us, all the evils and wickedness, the power of sin and corruption that have surrounded and dominated us all these while. Despite all these things arrayed against us and all the challenges and trials that we have to face in our path and journey, but God reminds us all that in Him alone that there is truly the path to eternal life and true happiness. Separated from God, we truly have nothing and we cannot persist amidst all the challenges and trials facing us, and without Him as the anchor of our lives, we will easily be swept away by the destructive forces and waves of sin, evil and wickedness around us.
This is precisely what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, in which the famous story of how the Lord Jesus calmed and dissipated a great storm was told to us. We heard how at that time the Lord and His disciples were struck by a great storm which battered their boat and threatened them with all the winds and the waves, all of which were greatly dangerous, and the disciples were all panicking, thinking that they would drown in that place with all that went against them. When they awakened the Lord, He rebuked them for their lack of faith in Him, their lack of trust in God’s power and providence, and then went on to calm the waves and the storm with the mere power of His words and will.
This occasion is a reminder for us all, that God is always with His Church, represented and symbolised by that boat that was floating and battered by the great waves and the wind. The disciples were representing all of us, all the holy people of God, the members and parts of God’s Church. Those winds and great waves represent the great obstacles, trials and challenges which were facing us all in the Church, all the oppositions, persecutions and hardships that many among the faithful had to face. All those challenges and obstacles may indeed seem to be very daunting and terrible, scary and seemingly insurmountable, but we must never lose faith in the Lord, and remain firmly faithful in Him. We must not lose heart and give in to the temptations and challenges, or else, we may end up losing everything.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded that we must always establish our lives and our livelihood, our actions and everything in our lives upon the firm foundation that God alone can provide us. It has certainly been too often that we have been disappointed again and again by the many worldly means and provisions which had been our staple and our means of survival, and yet, none of those could truly provide us with true and lasting satisfaction and happiness besides that of the Lord and His loving providence. That is why we are reminded again and again this day that we should always strive to put God at the centre and as the focus of our whole lives and existence.
May the Lord continue to be with us all, His beloved people and His Church, and may He empower each and every one of us so that by our whole lives, our actions and by our examples, we may always be good role models in leading and inspiring more and more people to be ever more faithful to the Lord, to commit themselves to Him and to do His will, as we have all been called to do. May God bless our every efforts and endeavours, and may He be with His Church, and grant us all His strength and grace, now and always. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 