Popes

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Tuesday, 22 October 2024 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Luke 12 : 35-38

At that time, Jesus said to the people, “Be ready, dressed for service, and keep your lamps lit, like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding. As soon as he comes and knocks, they will open the door to him. Happy are those servants whom the master finds wide-awake when he comes.”

“Truly, I tell you, he will put an apron, and have them sit at table, and he will wait on them. Happy are those servants, if he finds them awake when he comes at midnight or daybreak!”

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Tuesday, 22 October 2024 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Psalm 84 : 9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14

Would, that I hear God’s proclamation, that He promise peace to His people, His saints. Yet, His salvation is near to those who fear Him, and His glory will dwell in our land.

Love and faithfulness have met; righteousness and peace have embraced. Faithfulness will reach up from the earth while justice bends down from heaven.

YHVH will give what is good, and our land will yield its fruit. Justice will go before Him, and peace will follow along His path.

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Tuesday, 22 October 2024 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Ephesians 2 : 12-22

At that time, you were without Christ, you did not belong to the community of Israel; the Covenants of God, and His promises, were not for you; you had no hope, and were without God in this world.

But now, in Christ Jesus, and by His Blood, you, who were once far off, have come near. For Christ is our peace; He, Who has made the two people, one; destroying, in His own flesh, the wall – the hatred – which separated us. He abolished the Law, with its commandments and precepts. He made peace, in uniting the two people, in Him; creating, out of the two, one New Man.

He destroyed hatred and reconciled us both to God, through the cross, making the two, one body. He came to proclaim peace; peace to you who were far off, peace to the Jews who were near. Through Him, we – the two people – approach the Father, in one Spirit.

Now, you are no longer strangers or guests, but fellow citizens of the holy people : you are of the household of God. You are the house, whose foundations are the Apostles and prophets, and whose cornerstone is Christ Jesus.

In Him, the whole structure is joined together, and rises, to be a holy Temple, in the Lord. In Him, you, too, are being built, to become the spiritual Sanctuary of God.

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Monday, 14 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Callixtus I, Pope and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all heard from the readings of the Sacred Scriptures, we are called to heed the words of the Lord calling on each and every one of us to put our faith and trust in the Lord, keeping ourselves away from the temptations of worldly desires and pleasures, all of which had kept us away from truly being able to follow the Lord faithfully and wholeheartedly. We should always strive to resist those temptations, pressures and coercions, all the things that have often become difficult and challenging stumbling blocks for many of us because they had played upon our desires and ambitions, touching upon the greed and ego in us, and threatening to keep us away from the Lord and His salvation, if we are not vigilant against them.

In our first reading today, we heard from the beginning of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Ephesus, one of the great cities of Antiquity and an important early centre of Christian missions and evangelisation. There in that Epistle, St. Paul spoke of the story of Abraham and his two sons, which were born to him through two different women to highlight what he wanted to convey to them regarding the Christian faith which they had received and come to believe in. First was Ishmael, the son born to Abraham through Hagar, the slave owned by his wife, Sarah, which according to the rules and customs of his time, any children born to the slave of a woman, was considered to belong to the woman and was legally a son of Abraham. Then there was also Isaac, born from Sarah herself, who was at the time was already very old and long past childbearing age.

This story from the Book of Genesis highlighted to us the importance of trusting in God and obeying His will and commandments, and not to believe or trust in worldly ways and methods. It was Sarah who suggested to Abraham that he should lay with her slave Hagar, that she would bear a son for him, despite the Lord having assured and then repeatedly reassured Abraham that he would be the father and progenitor of many nations and people through his wife Sarah. The impatience of Sarah and the lack of faith that happened at the time eventually led to the complications that came about because of the presence of both Ishmael and Isaac, both according to rules and customs, were legally sons and heirs of Abraham. Nonetheless, God told Abraham that He would still bless Ishmael as he was Abraham’s son, but reiterated that His blessings and grace would fully be with Isaac and his descendants, the ones whom God had intended them for.

St. Paul spoke of how the sons and descendants of Ishmael were born out of slavery and hence were bound to the enslavement and were not free, while the sons and descendants of Isaac were born of their free woman, Sarah, and thus was not subject to enslavement anymore, and they were truly free. St. Paul was in fact not comparing about the status of whether the descendants of Ishmael or Isaac were free or enslaved, as the Israelites, the descendants of Isaac, were themselves enslaved in Egypt for some period of time. Rather, the Apostle was using the comparison to highlight, as mentioned, the difference between obeying the old, human-based and flawed laws and rules, customs and practices of the Jewish people as especially carried out and enforced by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, associated with this ‘enslavement’ to the worldly rules and ways, versus the true Law of God as revealed to them and all of us through Christ and His Church.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist in which the Lord spoke to all the people and all those gathered including His disciples, many of whom were asking for Him to show them a sign, and how He told them that they had seen many things and wonders, which they themselves had witnessed all throughout the Lord’s journeys and ministry, and yet they did not believe. He was rebuking them for their lack of faith and trust in God, and in the One Whom God had sent into their midst, Christ Himself, Who has shown the fulfilment of everything that the Lord has promised and proclaimed through His many prophets. Those who failed to believe likely belonged to the group of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who saw and considered themselves to be spiritually superior and better because of their adherence and obedience to God through their interpretation of the Law.

The Lord also spoke of how the only sign that they would see would be the sign of Jonah, which was in fact a veiled revelation of what He would Himself face at the time of His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross, and also His Resurrection from the dead. This is because of the prophet Jonah having been swallowed by a great whale and stayed in the belly of that whale for three days before he was then cast back out to the land. This was a prefigurement of the Lord’s suffering and death, as He Himself would spend a period of three days in the ‘belly’ of the earth after His death, being buried in the tomb, and then on the third day rose in glory, triumphant against all the powers of sin, evil and darkness, as a great Sign for all of us.

All these again pointed out to us the need to distance ourselves from the many temptations often present in our lives and around us, for us to be truly faithful and committed to God, trusting in Him and obeying His words instead of trusting and putting our faith in our own flawed judgments and abilities alone. We must always live our lives and carry out our daily actions and living in tandem with God’s guidance and providence, allowing Him to help and lead us all down the righteous and correct path, away from the path of darkness and sin, all of which can bring us to our downfall and destruction. We should always trust in God to help us to discern the right path, and we must always strive to move forward in life with the help and guidance of God at all times.

Today the Church also celebrates the Feast of Pope St. Callixtus I, one of the early Church and fathers and as Pope, was one of the successors of St. Peter the Apostle as the leader of the whole Universal Church. His examples and faith should serve as good example and inspiration for all of us to follow in our own lives, doing whatever we can so that we may truly follow the Lord faithfully and wholeheartedly and do not end up following the false path in life. Pope St. Callixtus I according to tradition was once a slave in his youth during the height of the power of the Roman Empire, and he had a rather difficult life working in the Sardinian mines before he was released and afterwards came to the service of the Church as a deacon ordained by Pope St. Zephyrinus.

Pope St. Zephyrinus was then succeeded by Pope St. Callixtus I himself, who reached out to all those who have come from various sects and schismatic Christian bodies, and also allowed the absolution of more serious sins such as murder for those who were genuinely repentant and regretful over their sins and mistakes. This was opposed by a group of the faithful and the clergy who disagreed with the Pope’s approach, preferring a strict exclusion of those who were deemed to be unworthy of God’s salvation because of their sinful ways and them having fallen into the path of sin. Those people elected a popular priest, later known and venerated as St. Hippolytus of Rome, as an Antipope or rival Pope to Pope St. Callixtus I. But regardless of this division and difficulties faced by the faithful, Pope St. Callixtus I continued to labour hard for the people of God, until he himself was arrested and martyred during the severe persecution of Christians, and eventually his successor, Pope St. Pontian managed to be reconciled with St. Hippolytus and returned unity back to the Church.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, as we have listened from the examples of Pope St. Callixtus I, and inspired by the examples and lives of the other holy saints, holy men and women of God, let us all continue to put our faith and trust in the Lord rather than in the human wisdom and intellect, or be enslaved and be narrow-minded because of our attachments to the rules, regulations and customs of the world. May the Lord continue to help and guide us in our journey of faith, so that in everything that we do in each and every moments of our lives, we will continue to commit ourselves wholly and focus our every attention and efforts to walk in God’s path rather than to follow the whim of our own desires and ambitions in life. Let us all not harden our hearts and minds, and turn away from the darkness of this world, and instead, embrace wholeheartedly God’s path and ways, following in the examples of our holy predecessors, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 14 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Callixtus I, Pope and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Luke 11 : 29-32

At that time, as the crowd increased, Jesus spoke the following words : “People of the present time are troubled people. They ask for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah. As Jonah became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a sign for this generation.”

“The Queen of the South will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and here, there is greater than Solomon. The people of Nineveh will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for Jonah’s preaching made them turn from their sins, and here, there is greater than Jonah.”

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Monday, 14 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Callixtus I, Pope and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 112 : 1-2, 3-4, 5a and 6-7

Alleluia! Praise, o servants of YHVH, praise the Name of YHVH! Blessed be the Name of YHVH now and forever!

From eastern lands to the western islands, may the Name of YHVH be praised! YHVH is exalted over the nations; His glory above the heavens.

Who is like YHVH our God, Who also bends down to see on earth as in heaven? He lifts up the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap.

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Monday, 14 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Callixtus I, Pope and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Galatians 4 : 22-24, 26-27, 31 – Galatians 5 : 1

It says, that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman, the other by the free woman, his wife. The son of the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but the son of the free woman was born in fulfilment of God’s promise.

Here we have an allegory and the figures of two Covenants. The first is the one from Mount Sinai, represented through Hagar : her children have slavery for their lot. But the Jerusalem above, who is our mother, is free. And Scripture says of her : Rejoice, barren woman without children, break forth in shouts of joy, you who do not know the pains of childbirth, for many shall be the children of the forsaken mother, more than of the married woman.

Brethren, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. Christ freed us, to make us really free. So remain firm, and do not submit, again, to the yoke of slavery.

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Friday, 11 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures we have received, we are all reminded that as Christians, as God’s holy and chosen people, we have been called and entrusted with His grace and blessings, the assurance of His love and salvation that He has provided to everyone regardless of their background and origins, reaching out to every one of us, children of mankind, showing His ever patient love and kindness, His desire to be reunited and reconciled with us, His wayward children scattered throughout the world. No one can truly separate us from the love of God unless it is we ourselves who willingly distance ourselves from Him and keep rejecting His ever generous offer of love and kindness.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful people of God in Galatia in which the Apostle exhorted the people of God there to believe truly and wholeheartedly in God and not be confined by the bounds of the Law, which was in fact referring to the Law of God that has been revealed to Moses and passed to the Israelites many centuries earlier.  St. Paul wanted to tell the people of God that the Law as practiced and observed at his time did not bind anymore as it has been made complete and the fullness of its purpose, reality and meaning had been revealed to us through God’s Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Who had taught us what the Law has truly been intended for, that is to teach us all how to love and how to direct ourselves back towards the Lord, our ever loving God.

For the context, this reference to the Law and its observances at the time was meant to refer to the way and manner how the Jewish authorities and influential elites, such as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in particular enforced the Law of God and how they all interpreted these laws, rules and commandments of the Lord. They usually took a very literal, legalistic and strict interpretation of the Law, without fully understanding the context and purpose of those laws and rules in the first place, or why Moses made them in that manner. Not only that, but even worse still, those laws ended up dividing the people and making many of those same Pharisees and teachers of the Law to feel superior and better than the others, proud and judgmental, thinking that they were more worthy of God and His salvation.

And linking to what we have just discussed about the Law as mentioned by St. Paul in our first reading today, it was a reference to how the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law having demanded the people to follow them in the manner how they practiced and lived the Law, containing no less than six hundred and thirteen rules and precepts, many of which were additions, interpretations and expansions accumulated throughout the many centuries that the Law had been passed down and interpreted, then re-interpreted again and again by different people, with different agenda and understanding of the purpose and meaning of the Law of God, that they ended up forgetting why the Law of God was given to the people in the first place by the Lord. What was meant to help bring the people towards the Lord ended up being exclusive, to the point that the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law alleged that those who did not obey the whole Law in the manner they did, would not be saved, a fact which St. Paul was critical against.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the reading from the Gospel of St. Luke in which the Lord Jesus was accused by some among the people, likely to be Pharisees and teachers of the Law according to the similar account in the other Gospels, that He had performed His miracles and signs, works and wonders by the collusion and collaboration with the prince of demons, Beelzebul. They accused Him of having committed this as well as blaspheming against God in His words, teachings and miracle works. And the Lord patiently responded to all of them, pointing out the folly of their accusation and arguments, which did not make sense at all, as on the contrary to their claims, the devil and all of his fellow forces of darkness, evil and wickedness, all of them are always united in their efforts to strike at us.

The Lord pointed out that if the evil ones were divided against one another and attacked each other, then they would have quickly faltered and failed in their efforts to attack us, as they would have warred with each other instead of focusing their efforts and works against us. That was why to suggest that the devil and the other princes of demons would go and compete with each other, colluding with the Lord was truly nonsense, and all those allegations and accusations came about because the jealousy that they were having against the Lord, seeing how there were so many of the people who flocked to Him and listened to Him instead of following and praising the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law as they had usually done. In fact, the devil and his forces were busy there at work precisely to divide and confuse the people of God by all those baseless attacks and accusations.

It is a reminder for all of us as Christians not to be easily swayed by these worldly temptations and all the distractions present all around us which can easily sway and distract us from the true path towards God. We must always be vigilant lest the devil and all those who desire our destruction and damnation are striking at us whenever we are at our most vulnerable, and when we are divided one against another, when we are lacking compassion and love for our fellow brothers and sisters around us. We must always keep strong in our faith and help one another to remain committed as well to the Lord, doing whatever we can so that we may be ever stronger in our love and relationship with the Lord, and that we may truly understand His Law, His commandments and come to know His will, and not be distracted and swayed by our pride, but continue to remain humble and dedicated to Him instead, at all times.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of a great recent saint and man of God, one of the recent successors of St. Peter the Apostle as the Pope and the Vicar of Christ, the leader of the whole Universal Church. Pope St. John XXIII, born as Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was a figure of great importance in the recent history of the Church and Christianity in general especially for his initiatives and decisions in bringing the Church into discussion and reorientation of its role and works in the context of the modern world through the Second Vatican Council that happened about six decades ago. However, many of us might not know that Pope St. John XXIII’s life and exemplary deeds are more than just what is commonly known about him, and we should delve somewhat deeper into these details that we ourselves may be inspired to follow the Lord in the manner that he had done throughout his life.

The young Angelo Roncalli was born to a poor family and he had the help of his uncle who helped to finance his early education, which eventually led to him joining the seminary and felt the calling to follow the Lord and to be a priest. Then later on, after he had been ordained a priest, he experienced a period of encounter as his mentor, Bishop Radini Tedeschi, was confronted by the workers who were striking in demanding their rights and the protection of their beings against those who exploited them. The bishop helped his flock and showed his care for them, standing by the side of those workers and other people who were poor and suffering, and this experience helped to shape the opinions, experiences of the future Pope St. John XXIII.

He was involved in the Great War, later known as the First World War, as a military chaplain, and then the Pope, who has come to know of the qualities and efforts of this young priest, appointed him to be the Apostolic Delegate to Bulgaria, ordaining him as a bishop. During his time in Bulgaria, then Archbishop Roncalli was involved in many good works and outreach especially towards the separated brethren from among the Eastern Orthodox churches and others. He helped to bridge through the divisions that had divided the different Christian churches for centuries, and by the time he left for the next post as Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and Greece, many people were appreciative of his efforts and loved him. In his next post, he would continue to do many great works, including saving Jews who were trying to escape from the Holocaust and genocide attempted by the NAZI regime in Germany throughout Europe.

In his contribution afterwards as the Apostolic Nuncio to France, Archbishop Roncalli also helped to do a similar effort in bridging the gap between the mostly secular French state and the Church, gaining much goodwill and progress in redefining the relationship between the state and the Church, and as Patriarch of Venice afterwards, Patriarch Roncalli continued to do his best in reaching out to more and more people, as a truly good and loving shepherd to his flock, and continued to do so even after he was elected as the Pope, the Successor of St. Peter the Apostle as the Vicar of Christ. He helped to reform the Church and as mentioned, convoked the Second Vatican Council, to bring the Church into the modern era and to help the process of dialogue with the various people and communities in the world, for greater efforts of evangelisation and reconciliation among Christian believers. He was also known for his peacemaking efforts during the Cold War, culminating in his Papal Encyclical, ‘Pacem in Terris’, released at the time of great tensions between the superpowers in the Cold War.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard ourselves from the summary of the life and examples shown to us by the great and faithful Pope St. John XXIII, let us all live our lives henceforth as faithful and genuine Christians, showing true love, care and concern for our fellow brothers and sisters just as Pope St. John XXIII had done. Let us all truly understand the true meaning and purpose of God’s Law, that is the Law of love, so that we may truly learn to love the Lord our God, and also our fellow brothers and sisters, with all of our hearts, with all of our strength and might, at all times and in all circumstances in our every day lives. May the Lord, our most loving God and Father, through the examples of His holy saints like Pope St. John XXIII and many others continue to inspire us to live our lives ever more worthily in His Holy Presence from now on. Amen.

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Friday, 11 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Luke 11 : 15-26

At that time, some of the people said, “Jesus drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of the demons.” Others wanted to put Him to the test, by asking Him for a heavenly sign.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, “Every nation divided by civil war is on the road to ruin, and will fall. If Satan also is divided, his empire is coming to an end. How can you say that I drive out demons by calling upon Beelzebul? If I drive them out by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive out demons? They will be your judges, then.”

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God; would not this mean that the kingdom of God has come upon you? As long as a man, strong and well armed, guards his house, his goods are safe. But when a stronger man attacks and overcomes him, the challenger takes away all the weapons he relied on, and disposes of his spoils.”

“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me, scatters. When the evil spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through dry lands, looking for a resting place; and finding none, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds the house swept and everything in order. Then it goes to fetch seven other spirits, even worse than itself. They move in and settle there, so that the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

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Friday, 11 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, Pope (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Psalm 110 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

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

Glorious and majestic are His deeds, His righteousness endures forever. He lets us remember His wondrous deeds; YHVH is merciful and kind.

Always mindful of His Covenant, He provides food for those who fear Him. He shows His people the power of His arm by giving them the lands of other nations.