Ordinary Time

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Friday, 21 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that each and every one of us should not allow the temptations of the world, the temptations of our pride, desire and any other obstacles from preventing us to reach the Lord and His salvation. The reality is such that many of us are often distracted by the temptations of our worldly ambitions, desires and by the many attachments we have to the things around us in this world. This is why we suffer from the consequences of our disobedience, our immersion in the actions that have led us into the path of sin. And unless we repent from those sins, then we may end up losing everything in eternal damnation in Hell.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis of the story of the Tower of Babel, that well-known story of how God confused the language of mankind, resulting in the numerous languages that we have today. In the past, all mankind spoke a common language, which made sense as we all came from the same origin, but our hubris, ambition, pride and greed all had led to us thinking that we can surpass God and have the ambition to reach up to Heaven itself, by building that great Tower of Babel. As such, God punished us and our hubris, ambition and pride by confusing the unity of our language, that gift of unity and understanding which He had given us all through His Holy Spirit, and which, once withdrawn, therefore, we are no longer united in our wicked purpose to attain what is not ours.

Through this incident, God wants us all to know that there is nothing that we do that can be possible without God being part of the equation, and without God, we are truly nothing. It is because of God that we have the power, ability and the means to achieve whatever it is we have accomplished throughout history and throughout our human existence and all the civilisation we have all around us. But this punishment is not something that is meant to last forever, as God showed how He can reverse this as He did in sending His Holy Spirit upon His disciples at the event of Pentecost Sunday, fifty years after the Lord’s Resurrection. And as we all know from the Pentecost, the exact reverse of what happened at the Tower of Babel occurred, with the disciples being given the gift of tongues, able to perceive, understand and speak various languages even when many of them were uneducated and illiterate prior to this.

Then, in our Gospel passage taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard the Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples and indirectly also to all of us as His disciples and followers, reminding us that if we want to truly follow Him and commit ourselves to His path, then all of us must make the effort to abandon our worldly attachments, desires and all the other ambitions, desires for pleasures, fame and glory, all the things of the world which can distract and prevent us from truly being able to commit ourselves to God. After all, if we are divided in our focus and attention, between the Lord and our worldly ambitions and desires, how can we truly follow and obey the Lord faithfully as we all should have done?

That is why the Lord reminded each and every one of us that we have to make a choice and stand in our faith, to be committed wholeheartedly to Him, and not to allow any kinds of worldly temptations to pull us away from the path of righteousness. It is easy for us to fall into the wrong path otherwise, and the Lord succinctly put it with His words, ‘What good is it to gain the whole world, while destroying your soul?’ reminding us through His disciples at that time that we should always be ready to deny ourselves and our ambitions and desires while making the effort to follow Him, and the fact that no earthly treasures, glory or riches can match the true treasures that we will find only in the Lord alone. There is nothing in this world that can truly satisfy us, or which will last us forever.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Peter Damian, a renowned servant of God who has lived his life in great dedication to God and who has contributed immensely to the Church and to the benefit of the faithful and holy people of God. Although he was born into a noble family, but his family was poor and he initially had a rather terrible life in his younger years because his relatives mistreated him. Eventually, the young St. Peter Damian managed to be sponsored for his education and he advanced rapidly in his academics, that according to history, he already became a famous canon lawyer and teacher in his early twenties. He then devoted himself to religious life, becoming a Benedictine monk and priest, committing himself thoroughly to God and His Church.

St. Peter Damian would then go on to serve the Church firstly as an exemplary religious and then as a dedicated reformer, helping the Church in the process of its reforms especially against the corrupt practices and influences that had crept in and affected many, both the clergy and the laity alike at the time. He was closely involved in the process of reforms, encouraging the Pope and the other church leaders to take action against those who brought scandal to the Church so that they would no longer bring about confusion and division in the Church and among the faithful. He was made a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church by Pope Stephen IX, and as Papal envoy and legate, was actively involved in some of those reform processes. Through his commitment and works which lasted to the end of his life, many decades of faithful service to God, St. Peter Damian truly showed us all how we should follow the Lord wholeheartedly as His disciples and followers.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard from our Scripture readings today and from the life and inspiration of St. Peter Damian, our holy predecessor, we are all reminded to be focused on the Lord at all times, distancing ourselves from worldly ambitions, temptations and all the things that can lead us astray into the wrong path in life. Let us all learn to be humble as our predecessors, especially that of St. Peter Damian and how he had shown this through his life and examples, and be truly committed to the Lord, in doing whatever we can to contribute to the good works of the Church in everything we do. Let us all always be active in contributing our time and effort as always, and do our part to glorify the Lord by our lives. Amen.

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Friday, 21 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Mark 8 : 34 – Mark 9 : 1

At that time, Jesus called the people and His disciples, and said, “If you want to follow Me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me. For if you choose to save your life, you will lose it; and if you lose your life for My sake and for the sake of the Gospel, you will save it.”

“What good is it to gain the whole world, while destroying your soul? There is nothing more precious than your soul. I tell you : If anyone is ashamed of Me and of My words among this adulterous and sinful people, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the Glory of His Father with the holy Angels.”

And He went on to say, “Truly I tell you, there are some here who will not die before they see the kingdom of God coming with power.”

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Friday, 21 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

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.

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Friday, 21 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

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.

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Thursday, 20 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for us to actively live the part of the Covenant which God has lovingly made with each and every one of us, His beloved children and people, and we have to be courageous in standing up for our faith, in resisting the temptations of the evil one who has always been ever active in trying to lead us all into our downfall and destruction by tempting us with all sorts of falsehoods and lies, all sorts of worldly pleasures, desires and glory, all the things which had prevented so many of us and our predecessors from coming close towards the Lord, towards His love and the eternal life that He has promised to all of us.

In our first reading passage today, taken from the continuation of the Book of Genesis on the account of the Great Flood during the time of Noah and its aftermath, we heard of the moment when the Lord made a Covenant with Noah and his descendants, that is all of us living today in this world. This is because the Great Flood had wiped out all of mankind in the whole world and many other living things save those that took refuge in Noah’s Ark, the great ship that God had commanded Noah to build. Noah and his family were in that ship, as well as two each of the different kinds of animals, and all of them were spared the destruction of the Great Flood by God’s grace and mercy. God therefore made a new Covenant with the people whom He loved and had created, establishing with them that firm link and connection through that same Covenant.

A Covenant is a solemn pact between two parties and in such a pact, both of those who are involved are expected to fulfil their obligations and duties to the Covenant that had been established between them. And since God had made this Covenant between Himself and all of us mankind, we heard in that passage from the Book of Genesis today of exactly what these obligations, details and other things about this Covenant are. The Lord entrusted this world and all of the things He had created to us, and He will also continue to bless us all and guide us all, giving us all the means to carry out our lives and to enjoy the wonderful graces and blessings that He had granted us, which He has always intended for all of us. After all, God created us all not to suffer hardships or trials in this world but to enjoy the bounty and the fruits of His labours.

However, as a Covenant is a two-way process and commitment, we are required to commit ourselves to follow the Law and commandments which God had provided to us, and which God mentioned to Noah as a precursor to this Law that He would later reveal to his descendants. He reminded from Noah and his family, and all of their descendants the respect for the rules and laws He had set, and to obey the manners which He had provided and taught them, respecting the lives of one’s fellow mankind, and how to keep themselves free from corruption, sin and evil. This is important as it was the sins of mankind that had led to the destruction by the Great Flood in the first place, and it was God’s love and mercy that had made Him to spare the righteous ones amongst them.

Unfortunately, due to our refusal to obey the words of the Lord, our stubbornness and obstinate behaviour in rejecting God’s most generous love and kindness, His compassion and mercy, love and all the things He has provided us with freely, we have often fallen away from the path of righteousness and ended up in the path of sin again and again. We have not done what is right and proper according to what the Lord had commanded us to do. We frequently kept allowing the temptations of this world, the temptations of worldly pleasures and desires to lead us all astray, embracing our greed and desires, and all the attachments that we may have to the pleasures and comforts of life around us. And that may prevent us from fulfilling our part of the Covenant with God.

Now, in our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the interactions between the Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples, as He asked them all about His identity and what they all believed about Him. We heard about all the manners of things which people at that time often believed about Him, that they considered the Lord as the Prophet or the Man of God, promised to bring salvation to the people, or that of Elijah or any other earlier prophets returning back. But St. Peter, the leader of the Apostles, spoke courageously and firmly that he and the others believed that the Lord was truly the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, the One Whom all the prophets and many others had spoken about.

This was then immediately followed by a curious exchange between the Lord and the same St. Peter, who protested when the Lord revealed to him and the other disciples that He would face lots of hardships and persecutions from the Jewish leaders and authorities, stating how He would face sufferings and eventually even to die because of the rejection by all those leaders. St. Peter likely gave in to fear and doubt, and hence, allowed Satan to make use of him to try to dissuade the Lord from doing what He had said He would be doing. But the Lord Jesus would not allow this to happen, and He rebuked Satan acting through St. Peter, and through this, He showed all of us an important reminder that we must always have strong faith in Him, not allowing the evil one to manipulate and mislead us down the wrong path. And it was by obeying His Father’s will, that our Lord had renewed the Covenant between us and God into one new and eternal Covenant.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore remind ourselves today that we should strive to live our lives in each and every moments with faith and trust in the Lord, and following His Law, obeying all His commandments and all the things that He had taught and shown us, fulfilling the part of the responsibilities and obligations required in the Covenant which God had made, established and renewed constantly with us. God has always been faithful to this Covenant that He made with us, and He has always loved us patiently despite our rebelliousness and disobedience. Let us all therefore not take this love and generosity for granted, and instead, appreciate all the opportunities which we have been given. May the Lord continue to help and strengthen us in our journey towards Him, and may He bless us all in our every good works, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 20 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 8 : 27-33

At that time, Jesus set out with His disciples for the villages around Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He asked them, “Who do people say I am?” And they told Him, “Some say You are John the Baptist; others say You are Elijah or one of the prophets.”

Then Jesus asked them, “But you, who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” And He ordered them not to tell anyone about Him. Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. He would be killed, and after three days rise again.

Jesus said all this quite openly, so that Peter took Him aside and began to protest strongly. But Jesus turning around, and looking at His disciples, rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does, but as people do.”

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Thursday, 20 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 101 : 16-18, 19-21, 29 and 22-23

O Lord, the nations will revere Your Name, and the kings of the earth Your glory, when the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in all His splendour. For He will answer the prayer of the needy and will not despise their plea.

Let this be written for future ages, “The Lord will be praised by a people He will form.” From His holy height in heaven, the Lord has looked on the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoners, and free those condemned to death.”

Your servants’ children will dwell secure; their posterity will endure without fail. Then the Name of the Lord will be declared in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem, when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship Him.

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Thursday, 20 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Genesis 9 : 1-13

God blessed Noah and his sons and he said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Fear and dread of you will be in all the animals of the earth and in all the birds of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. They are given to you. Everything that moves and lives shall be food for you; as I gave you the green plants, I have now given you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood.”

“But I will also demand a reckoning for your lifeblood. I will demand it from every animal; and from man, too, I will demand a reckoning for the life of his fellow man. He who sheds the blood of man shall have his blood shed by man; for in the image of God has God made man. As for you, be fruitful and increase. Abound on the earth and be master of it.”

God spoke to Noah and his son, “See I am making a covenant with you and with your descendants after you; also with every living animal with you : birds, cattle, that is, with every living creature of the earth that came out of the Ark. I establish My covenant with you. Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I make between Me and you, and every animal living with you for all future generations. I set My bow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.”

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Wednesday, 19 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all called to remember the love and kindness, the grace and mercy which God has generously given to us all throughout history, by saving us from certain death and sparing the righteous ones amongst us from destruction. He also provided us all with the means to seek Him and His forgiveness, His mercy and compassion above all else. That He has done all these for our sake proved to us beyond any doubt that we are truly beloved and precious to God, and if we come to seek Him and His mercy, God will surely welcome us all most joyfully, leading us away from the precipice of darkness and destruction into a new life filled with His love and grace.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis in which the Lord ended the Great Flood that He had sent into the world at the time of Noah, allowing him and his family, and all the animals taking shelter in his Ark to gain reprieve from the Flood. Noah obeyed God’s commands and built the Ark over a period of many decades, providing the means by which to survive the great catastrophe sent by the Lord to cleanse the whole world from all the wickedness due to the sins which had come about from the children of Cain and other mankind, who had been totally bereft of good conduct and moral, and which had led to the corruption of the whole world. God truly loved all of His people, as He had created us all out of love, and yet, at the same time, He also despised the sins and the corruption of evil that we have allowed ourselves to be corrupted with.

And that was why the Great Flood happened at that time, because in all the whole world, there was no longer any good or virtue among all of mankind, save that which was found in Noah and his family. That was why God chose Noah and his family to save them all from the cleansing Flood that He would send into the world. He did not wish for the righteous to share in the fate of the wicked, those who have consistently and constantly refused to listen to Him and follow His path. He guided and protected them through that storm and flood, which lasted for a whole period of over a year, including the period of rain and when the flood covered the whole world. And we heard in today’s first reading of the account of the time when the Flood finally receded and all the occupants of the Ark could finally walk on the dry land safely once again.

After the Flood, as we heard from the Book of Genesis, Noah made an offering to God on the Altar at Mount Ararat where the Ark landed at, making a Covenant with God between Him and his descendants. God made a solemn vow and promise not to destroy mankind again with the Great Flood, after that Flood had cleansed away the whole world and wiped out all those who were wicked and evil, sparing only Noah and his immediate family. The rainbow, which usually appears after the rain as mentioned, is a reminder of God’s promise to man, that He would remember not to send another world destroying Flood again, a reminder that ultimately, we are all beloved and dear, precious and important to God. Nonetheless, this does not mean that we can then act and live with impunity, disobeying God’s commandments and Law, as it was our wickedness and sins that led to the Great Flood in the first place.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist in which the Lord Jesus performed a miracle at the town of Bethsaida where a blind man was, and we heard how the Lord made the blind man to be able to see again. He healed the man from his affliction, and showed the love that God has always had for each and every one of us, His desire to be reconciled and reunited with all of us. At the same time, He also showed His power and might, His authority over all things, over life and death, diseases and all, in opening the eyes of the blind, something that no one even up to today can truly do, as even there is something that our medicine and technology can do, showing the limit of our human intelligence or power, which were ultimately derived from the power of God.

No one for example could bring anyone back from death into life, as this is something that the Lord alone can do, and He Himself has shown this on several occasions, with the dead daughter of the synagogue official Jairus, with the dead son of the widow of Nain, and with His own deceased good friend Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. With the Great Flood and the Covenant that God had made with Noah afterwards, the Lord wanted to show and remind us all that He alone is the Lord and Master over all things, over life and death, and over our whole lives, our fates and existence. Therefore, it is important that we remind ourselves of how small, insignificant and weak we are, despite our many achievements, glory, fame and all the other things that we often boasted about in our lives.

At the same time, we are reminded of how fortunate we are that God, Who is our Lord and Master, great beyond our imagination, is also our loving Father, Who is always ever concerned about us, seeking to be reconciled and reunited with us, ever being patient in leading and guiding us all towards His eternal Kingdom and the salvation which He has repeatedly promised and reassured us. He has given us so many opportunities and paths for us to reach Him, and it is indeed sad to see how many people spurned these opportunities and chances that the Lord has generously provided to them, preferring instead to remain in the state of corruption, in wickedness, darkness and sin. Many among us had fallen into the temptations of worldly pleasures and desires, all of which had distracted us from God and His love, and from everything that He had done for us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore continue to do our best in living our lives in each and every moments most faithfully and strive to be righteous, worthy and good in our every words, actions and deeds so that we may truly be worthy to be called as Christians, as God’s own beloved and holy people. May the Lord bless us in our every good works and endeavours, in our every efforts so that by His blessings and guidance, we may continue to grow ever stronger in our love, faith and dedication to God, and be ever closer to the eternal kingdom of glory, everlasting life and true happiness that God Himself has promised us, distancing ourselves from the taint and corruption of sin that can lead us astray into our downfall and destruction. May God be with us always in our respective journeys. Amen.

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Wednesday, 19 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 8 : 22-26

At that time, when Jesus and His disciples came to Bethsaida, He was asked to touch a blind man who was brought to Him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When He had put spittle on his eyes and laid His hands upon him, He asked, “Can you see anything?”

The man, who was beginning to see, replied, “I see people! They look like trees, but they move around.” Then Jesus laid His hands on his eyes again and the man could see perfectly. His sight was restored and he could see everything clearly. Then Jesus sent him home, saying, “Do not return to the village.”