Ordinary Time 2023

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Tuesday, 17 January 2023 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words from the Sacred Scriptures, we are all presented with the reminder of the faithfulness which God has shown to each one of us by the Covenant that He has established and constantly renewed with all of us. God has always ever been faithful to all the promises and oaths, vows and words that He has spoken to us, fulfilling and completing them as He had done, in His own time, and He has always reached out to us with ever patient and enduring love that despite our many stubborn actions and attitudes, and refusal to listen to Him, God has always been ready to welcome us back and to forgive us our sins when we come to Him seeking His mercy.

In our first reading today, from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we heard of the words of the author of the Epistle regarding the extent of the things that the Lord had done for us, even when He was not obliged to do so. He, the Almighty and All-Powerful Lord and Master of all Creation, is not bound to show His love for us all, or to be bound by any promises for us, and less still, to bind Himself in a Covenant with us, especially after we have disobeyed against Him and rebelled against Him, choosing to listen to the falsehoods of the devil instead of the path of God’s righteousness, virtues and justice. God has chosen to continue reaching out to us and patiently guiding us towards Himself despite all these, and established a Holy Covenant with us, binding Himself into this sacred vow, oath and arrangement, all because of His love for us.

God has always loved us all from the very beginning, and while He despised our sins and wickedness, what He hates was truly those sins and evils that we have committed, and not ourselves personally. After all, the very reason why He created this whole world and Universe is because of His love and He created us in His very own image, as He desired to share with us His overflowing love, to love us all most generously and sincerely, and to bring us all into His most Holy and loving Presence. We were never intended to suffer and to die, as we were created all good and perfect. We should have enjoyed an eternity of bliss and true happiness with God, if not for the failures of our ancestors and all of us in resisting and rejecting the temptations and allures of sin and evil. It was because of sin that we have been sundered and separated from God.

Yet, the Lord still persisted patiently and gave us opportunities, help and assistance, time and again so that we all may find our way to Him, to return to His path and to be reconciled with Him. He has always reached out to us, His lost sheep and scattered flock, that as our Good Shepherd, He went all the way, to the wilderness and to the peripheries, in searching out for us, finding us and returning us to the flock that He had gathered, all because He truly loved each and every one of us equally, and most dearly. It is through Christ Himself that we have seen, witnessed and experienced the Love of God firsthand, manifested and made real and tangible in our midst. And by Christ’s suffering, His Passion, His death on the Cross, He has shown us just how perfect and selfless God’s love for us has been, is, and will always ever be.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord courageously spoke out against the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who criticised Him and His disciples, because of the latters’ actions in picking up the grains of the wheat from the field when they were all very hungry. Back then, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were truly notorious for their particularly hardline and rigid attitude in preserving and observing the Law of God, and the many customs and practices of the Jewish people. They were very strict in imposing their no-tolerance adherence and observance of the Law of God, the numerous laws, regulations and rules pertaining to the Jewish customs and practices, especially the one regarding the Sabbath day, the day of rest stipulated in the Law.

However, in their misguided zeal and fanaticism, those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had overlooked the fact and forgotten that the Sabbath as it was originally revealed by God and intended by Him, was a day to remind all the faithful to turn back towards the Lord, and to take a break from their often overly possessive attachments to worldly matters and ambitions, their preoccupations and works, their desires and wants in life, among other things, which prevented them from loving God and serving Him as they should have done. The Sabbath was a day meant to help the people of God to return to Him after long periods of being distracted by worldly matters and all the troubles, problems and trials that they had in this world.

Unfortunately, those same Pharisees and teachers of the Law, were the very ones who made it difficult for many to come to embrace the Lord, because of their excessive focus and attention on themselves and their own attachments to pride, ego and ambition, to human praise and worldly glory among other things. They had made it difficult for many, especially those who in fact were in the greatest need for God’s mercy and forgiveness. Not only that, but the Pharisees and the teachers themselves forgot that they themselves were also in need of healing and God’s mercy, and by closing the gates of Heaven to many, that made their sins to multiply and became greater, not less. Their neglect of their role as stewards and guides for God’s people, to help them to return to the Lord, was their undoing.

The Lord Jesus hence reminded them and also all of us that the Law of God was meant to help us to find our way back to the Lord, and not to lay unnecessary burdens and hardships on us. The Law of God is love and is about God’s ever enduring and strong love for each one of us, so that He was willing to go through all those obstacles for us, on our behalf and to love us still even after we have disobeyed and refused to listen to Him so many times. Nonetheless, God continued to reach out to us, and through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, all of us have been gathered from being scattered all throughout the world, and through Him and His love, we have been saved from our predicament and fate of eternal damnation. And it is only right therefore that we also dedicate ourselves to the Lord in the same way.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord has laid out His path and His graces upon us, and the choice is now ours whether we want to embrace Him and journey together with Him, or else, if we rather choose the comforts of the world and the temptations of glory and power. And we can also imitate and follow upon the good examples and works set by one famous saint and Church father, St. Anthony the Abbot, also known as the St. Anthony the Great, who was one of the earliest monastics of the Church, and living in the land rampant with bitter persecutions and hardships by the Roman authorities. St. Anthony devoted himself wholeheartedly to the Lord, spending his every living moments and breaths to glorify God by their work. He had to face a lot of struggles, but St. Anthony remained faithful and patient. He resisted the temptations of worldly glory and strived his best to lead a life of holy asceticism, focused solely on God, and gathered like minded people who followed his example, which was credited with the rise of the monastic practices in the Church.

For example, it was well known that the devil and other demons often came to torment St. Anthony, lifting him up and tempting him with all sorts of false and empty promises. He was under constant attacks from the evil one, and had to contend with the sufferings of this world as well as the pressures for us to conform and follow the ways of the world. Nonetheless, St. Anthony remained firm and strong in his faith, ministering to the needs of his community and other people who desired to seek the Lord and His forgiveness and grace, within his monastic communities as well as to the greater community, to his many visitors and contemporaries. Through his inspirational works, he has become our great model in how we should live our own lives, in being faithful and committed to God, and his writings inspired generations of good and holy priests, and holy people of God. The question is that, are we willing to spend the time and effort for us to change our ways for the better? The choice is ours alone.

May the Lord our most loving God and Creator continue to love us and care for us, and that may He continue to be patient with us, as we are progressing through our own respective lives. We should not take our faith, its many rules and precepts for granted anymore. That is why it is important that we have to grow to understand more about what our faith is all about, and how we should seek and strive to be humble before God, so that we may not be swallowed by our many worldly attachments and pride, and that we will always ever be patient in following God, and that we may always give Him thanks and praise for all the good things that He had done for us. May God bless us always, now and forevermore, in all the things we say and do. Amen.

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Tuesday, 17 January 2023 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 2 : 23-28

At that time, one Sabbath Jesus was walking through grainfields. As His disciples walked along with Him, they began to pick the heads of grain and crush them in their hands. Then the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look! They are doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath!”

And He said to them, “Have you never read what David did in his time of need, when he and his men were very hungry? He went into the house of God, when Abiathar was High Priest, and ate the bread of offering, which only the priests are allowed to eat, and he also gave some to the men who were with him.”

Then Jesus said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Master even of the Sabbath.”

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Tuesday, 17 January 2023 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 110 : 1-2, 4-5, 9 and 10c

Alleluia! I thank the Lord with all my heart in the council of the just, in the assembly. The works of the Lord are great and pondered by all who delight in them.

He lets us remember His wondrous deeds; the Lord is merciful and kind. Always mindful of His covenant, He provides food for those who fear Him.

He has sent His people deliverances and made with them a covenant forever. His holy Name is to be revered! To Him belongs everlasting praise.

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Tuesday, 17 January 2023 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Hebrews 6 : 10-20

God is not unjust and will not forget everything you have done for love of His Name; you have helped and still help the believers. We desire each of you to have, until the end, the same zeal for reaching what you have hoped for. Do not grow careless but imitate those who, by their faith and determination, inherit the promise.

Remember God’s promise to Abraham, God wanted to confirm it with an oath and, as no one is higher than God, He swore by Himself : I shall bless you and give you many descendants. By just patiently waiting, Abraham obtained the promise.

People are used to swearing by someone higher than themselves and their oath affirms everything that could be denied. So God committed Himself with an oath in order to convince those who were to wait for His promise that He would never change His mind.

Thus we have two certainties in which it is impossible that God be proved false : promise and oath. That is enough to encourage us strongly when we leave everything to hold to the hope set before us. This hope is like a steadfast anchor of the soul, secure and firm, thrust beyond the curtain of the Temple into the sanctuary itself, where Jesus has entered ahead of us – Jesus, High Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

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Monday, 16 January 2023 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the actions of the Lord, Our Saviour and King, our High Priest, in how He has offered Himself out of perfect love and compassion for us, so that each and every one of us may be forgiven from our many sins, and be reconciled fully with our most loving God, our Heavenly Father. And just as we have been redeemed from the darkness of sin, all of us as Christians, as those whom God has called and chosen from this world to be His disciples and followers, we are all expected to live our lives worthily of Him, by following Him and His examples, and by dedicating our lives and works, our efforts and more for His greater glory, in each and every moments available to us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle to the Hebrews, which was written and addressed firstly to the Christian converts hailing from the Jewish community, also known as the Jewish Christians, but also addressed in fact to the larger Jewish community as a whole. Hence, there was quite a few mention of themes and matters which pertained to the Jewish customs and laws, and which they would have been rather familiar with. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews wrote about the identity of the High Priest and why the Lord Jesus, the One known as the Messiah, or the Saviour, is the one true and Eternal High Priest for all mankind. By linking to this High Priesthood, and how God chose His High Priests back then from among the people, and what they did on behalf of the people, the author sought to explain and make clear what the Lord Jesus’ actions and all the events that happened back then, so that hopefully more among the Jewish people may come to believe in the Lord Jesus and accept Him as their Lord and Saviour.

Back then, High Priests offered the sacrifices on behalf of the whole people, and entered through the Temple of Jerusalem, the House of God, to the Holy of Holies where the Holy Presence of God resides, in one special occasion each year, to intercede on behalf of the people of God. However, as contrasted to the other High Priests, who were sinners and needed to purify themselves and offer offerings and sacrifices for their own sins first before they offered the sacrifice on behalf of the people, the Lord Jesus, Who is without sin and perfect in all things, offered for us all His own Body and Blood, to be broken and shared by us, as our High Priest, for the absolution of our sins. Only Christ’s offering and sacrifice alone is worthy enough for us, that He did this once and for all, from His Cross at Calvary.

He became a Man like us, so that by His sharing in our humanity, He might show us the example of perfect obedience and faith, in entrusting Himself so completely to the Father’s will, and by uniting us all to Himself, He brought and led us to the purification from our many sins, by His offering of Himself, as the Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, the only one worthy to erase all of our sins and all of our mistakes, an offering acceptable to God our most loving Father, made because of His great love for us, that He willingly chose to suffer and die for our sake. As highlighted as well in our Gospel passage today, that the Son of Man must suffer and die, and would be taken away from His beloved people, to die on the Cross, hence, everything happened so that we may be saved.

By His loving actions and care for us, Christ has shown us a new path in life, one that is leading away from the darkness of sin and evil surrounding us, towards the light of God’s grace and salvation, the true joy and happiness that we can only find in God alone. However, this has to be accompanied by our acceptance of the path that He has led us towards, and the acceptance and our embracing of the path of virtue and righteousness, by our faith in Him. God has also given us all the free will to choose the path that we are going to take in life, where we are going towards and what we are going to do with our lives. We can choose to embrace the path that God has shown us, and change our way of life, or to continue living our lives the way this world had taught us instead.

That is why the Lord’s brief parable in our Gospel passage today serves as an important reminder for us as Christians on what we should do in our lives going forward from now. In that parable, the Lord mentioned how no one would put a new wine into old wineskin, or a new cloth piece to patch an old cloth, or vice versa, as that would cause the wineskin or the cloth to tear because the two parts are incompatible with each other. By that parable, the Lord wanted to highlight that the way of the Lord and the way of the world are distinct and incompatible with each other, with the path of God’s virtues and righteousness being incompatible with the sinful ways and attitudes that many of us living in the worldly way of life have often exhibited. As Christians, in order for us to be able to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and completely, we must change our way of life and conform to what He has shown and taught us to do.

Hence, we are reminded that in this time of the Ordinary Time and season of the year, we must never be idle in life and we cannot be ignorant of our calling and mission, in doing the will of God and in living our lives faithfully as best as we are able to. If we continue to ignore our calling and not living our lives the way that the Lord has shown us, then we are no better than hypocrites and unbelievers, as our faith is dead, meaningless and empty, and will not avail us on the Day of Judgment. In fact, those who have not yet believed in God, and yet did what is good and righteous in the eyes of the Lord, may be closer to salvation than we are. That is why we are reminded that as the followers and disciples of the Lord, we must adopt a new way of life, as represented by the parable of the wineskin and the cloth. New wine has to be accompanied with new wineskin, and hence, our faith in the Lord must also be accompanied with a new way of life based on that faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore remind ourselves and one another to live our lives ever more faithfully in each and every possible opportunities. Let us all commit ourselves anew each day and at every moments to make good use of our talents and abilities so that we may truly be good and faithful people of God, who reflect the goodness and the virtues of our Lord, and that by our actions, works, deeds, words and interactions, more and more may come to know God and His truth and love through us, and come to believe in Him as well, because they witness in us and our lives, the great examples of what it means to be a holy people of God, loved and blessed by Him, and what it means for us to be called to holiness and a new life in accordance with God’s will.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He, our Eternal High Priest, continue to guide us all, reminding us of all the things that He had done for us, the love He has shown us from His Cross, and His continued guidance and ever enduring love and patience that He has always shown us. Let us all draw ever closer to Him, and do whatever we can to serve Him faithfully and glorify Him by our lives, at each and every possible opportunities. May God bless us always, and bless our every good works, efforts and endeavours, and inspire us to do more good things in our lives in this world. Amen.

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Monday, 16 January 2023 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 2 : 18-22

At that time, one day, when the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting, some people asked Jesus, “Why is it that both the Pharisees and the disciples of John fast, but Yours do not?”

Jesus answered, “How can the wedding guests fast while the Bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the Bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the day will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.”

“No one sews a piece of new cloth on an old coat, because the new patch will shrink and tear away from the old cloth, making a worse tear. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the wine would burst the skins, and then both the wine and the skins would be lost. But new wine, new skins!”

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Monday, 16 January 2023 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 109 : 1, 2, 3, 4

The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand till I make Your foes Your footstool.”

From Zion the Lord will extend Your mighty sceptre and You will rule in the midst of Your enemies.

Yours is royal dignity from the day You were born in holy majesty. Like dew from the womb of the dawn, I have begotten You.

The Lord has sworn, and He will not take back His word : “You are a Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

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Monday, 16 January 2023 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Hebrews 5 : 1-10

Every High Priest is taken from among mortals and appointed to be their representative before God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. He is able to understand the ignorant and erring for he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he is bound to offer sacrifices for his sins as well as for the sins of the people.

Besides, one does not presume to take this dignity, but takes it only when called by God, as Aaron was. Nor did Christ become High Priest in taking upon Himself this dignity, but it was given to Him by the One Who says : You are My Son, I have begotten You today. And in another place : You are a Priest forever in the priestly order of Melchizedek.

Christ, in the days of His mortal life, offered His sacrifice with tears and cries. He prayed to Him Who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His humble submission. Although He was Son, He learnt through suffering what obedience was, and once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for those who obey Him. This is how God proclaimed Him Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

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Sunday, 15 January 2023 : Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday is the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, as we have progressed from the season of Christmas into this time and season of the Ordinary Time. As we recall the words that we have just heard from our Scripture passages today, we are reminded that all of us are Christians because we believe in the salvation that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Saviour of all the whole world had brought upon us into our midst. He, the Divine Word of God Who has willingly embraced our humanity and descended down into our midst, to be with us as Emmanuel, God Who is with us, and He has shown us the Love of God manifested in the flesh, approachable and reachable by each one of us. This Sunday we are reminded of our faith in Him and then also what each one of us as Christians ought to do with our lives.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the Lord spoke to Isaiah regarding the servant of God that God would send to His people in order to proclaim to them His salvation, gathering them from the nations, calling them back to His loving embrace once again. This can be interpreted as referring to the prophet Isaiah himself, whom God had sent into the people of Judah to help remind them to walk down the right path, turning away from their sinful past. But, this was also in fact a premonition and prediction of the coming of the One Whom God had proclaimed to His people throughout history, a promise renewed yet again and again through His many prophets, of the Messiah or Saviour Who will be the Shepherd and Guide of all of God’s beloved people.

The prophet Isaiah often spoke about the coming of the Messiah, and made many prophecies regarding Him as recorded throughout the Book of Isaiah, and hence, this would be yet another one of God’s renewed promises that He would send into the midst of His people the Deliverer, the Saviour of all, Who as the one and true Good Shepherd, would reassemble the body of the faithful people of God, gathering all the lost sheep of the Lord and bringing them all once again into the most loving embrace of God’s love. Through Christ, each and every one of us have been brought closer to the Lord, our Heavenly Father, as He offered on our behalf the perfect offering of love, the offering of Himself as the Lamb of God, the Paschal Lamb of Sacrifice, as well as being the High Priest Himself, and all these were highlighted in our Scripture passages today to remind us of this fact and truth.

As we heard in our Gospel passage today, St. John the Baptist proclaimed before his own disciples how the one Jesus of Nazareth Who had come to him at the River Jordan, and asked to be baptised was indeed the Messiah, the One Whom everyone had been long waiting for. St. John the Baptist also said that, there was the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, the One Whom St. John the Baptist had been labouring and working to prepare the coming for. He spoke also of what happened when the Lord Jesus was baptised, of how the Holy Spirit descended upon Him as a Dove coming down from Heaven, and the Father’s voice being heard, proclaiming that Jesus is truly His Son, the Son of God manifested in this world, as the proof of God’s ever enduring Love for each and every one of us.

And as mentioned earlier, what St. John the Baptist spoke of, as the Herald of the Messiah, was in fact also a foreshadowing and premonition of what the Lord Jesus would do for our sake, as the Lamb of God Who would be sacrificed on the Altar of His Cross, with His Most Precious Body broken and His Most Precious Blood spilt and poured down upon us, for the atonement of all of our sins, and for our redemption. The Lord Jesus would gather us all to His heavenly Father’s presence, by giving Himself, bearing upon His own shoulders the whole burden, punishments and consequences due for our many and innumerable sins. He manifested therefore God’s most generous and selfless Love, by His own actions, as He reached out to all of us, even to the most marginalised and those ostracised and rejected by the society, and calling on us to turn away from our sins, and once again embracing God’s Love and grace to the fullest.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to these words of the Scriptures reminding us of the salvation which the Lord has brought into our midst through Jesus Christ, His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, we are all therefore presented with the need for us all to focus our lives and efforts to follow the Lord, Our Saviour and King, our Good Shepherd and Guide, Who has shown us the way to the Father, to eternal life and true joy through Him. As Christians we cannot be idle or ignorant of what we are all expected to do in our respective lives, in the many opportunities and moments that the Lord has presented and provided to us. Each and every one of us have been blessed and granted various unique gifts and talents, so that we may make good use of them to do good and to follow in the footsteps and examples of Christ Himself, in how He has reached out to us and loved even the least amongst us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we progress through this Ordinary Time and season, we are constantly being reminded again and again, that we cannot be ‘ordinary’ in our living and we should not let the time and moments pass us by just like that, without us doing anything of merit and worthy of the Lord. Instead this ordinary here ought to refer to the fact that this is the time for us to settle down and get to work, that is for us to do what the Lord has told us to do, to do our responsibilities and parts, in proclaiming the truth and love of God in the midst of our various communities, and in being exemplary and good role models in how we live our lives so that everyone who witness our works and actions, heard our words and interactions, witnessed our lives and more may truly believe in God through us, because our lives and actions have become beacons of God’s Light and source of the same truth that Christ has brought into this world.

The question is, are we willing and able to commit ourselves to follow the Lord wholeheartedly, if we have not done so yet, in our daily living and in our every interactions and works? Are we able to commit ourselves to a life of virtue and Christian values, as we have been called and reminded to do, by the Church and by the Lord Himself? These are things that we should really spend time to ponder upon, while also reflecting and discerning on what we can do better going forward in our respective lives as Christians, all those whom God had called and chosen, and have chosen in our own ways, to respond to His call. Let us not let our faith be an empty and dead one, but let us seek to be always ever courageous in how we live our faith through our actions, words, deeds, interactions and more that we may inspire even more people to follow our path as well.

May the Lord, our most loving God and Father continue to guide us in our lives, and help us to persevere through the many challenges and trials that we may have to face and endure in life. May He strengthen and empower us all in our everyday moments, so that we may always be firm in our faith and that we may resist the temptations to disobey and sin against Him. May God bless our every actions, our every works and efforts, our every good endeavours, all for His greater glory, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 15 January 2023 : Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

John 1 : 29-34

At that time, the next day John saw Jesus coming towards him, and said, “There is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world! It is He of Whom I said : A Man comes after me, Who is already ahead of me, for He was before me. I myself did not know Him, but I came baptising to prepare for Him, so that He might be revealed in Israel.”

And John also gave this testimony, “I saw the Spirit coming down on Him like a dove from heaven, and resting on Him. I myself did not know Him, but God, Who sent me to baptise, told me, “You will see the Spirit coming down, and resting, on the One Who baptises with the Holy Spirit.’ Yes, I have seen! And I declare that this is the Chosen One of God!”