Liturgical Colour : White
Numbers 6 : 22-27
Then YHVH spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons and say to them : This is how you shall bless the people of Israel; you shall say : May YHVH bless you and keep you! May YHVH let His face shine on you, and be gracious to you! May YHVH look kindly on you, and give you His peace!”
“In that way they put My Name on the people of Israel and I will bless them.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, on this very last day of the current Gregorian Solar Calendar of this Year of Our Lord 2025, we are all reminded of the need for each one of us to contemplate and reflect on the year that has just passed us by. This year has also been a most monumental, happening and memorable year with it being the Ordinary Jubilee Year of Hope that happens only every twenty-five years. And at the same time we should also spend some time to consider our options going forward to the next, new year in 2026. We have to spend some time at the end of this year to see how we can make the next and new year better for all of us, in terms of our lives as Christians and as members of our various, diverse communities and peoples, as well as in terms of our mission and calling to serve the communities we are living in.
In our first reading today, we heard from the words of St. John the Apostle in his Epistle to the faithful people of God in which he spoke of the imminent coming of the end times, and also the rise of the antichrists, who were the false prophets and teachers, that misled the people of God to the wrong paths. Back then, there were quite a few of these false leaders and teachers who distorted the teachings of the Lord and His Church for their own benefits and purposes. Those false leaders endangered the unity of the Church and the faithful, causing schisms and heresies to happen, even in the days of the Apostles as St. John himself experienced. In the next few hundred years, more of those heresies and divisions would appear, as people of God chose to embrace falsehoods and lies instead of the truth of God. St. John and the other Apostles were hard at work in trying to bring many of those who have been swayed by those false teachings back to the Church.
This is when as we heard from our Gospel passage today, by the same St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, we are reminded in the midst of this joyful Christmas season of Who it is that we are celebrating about. St. John reminded all of us that it is the Word of God Himself, the Son of God, Incarnate in the flesh that we are all celebrating for, for His coming into this world, appearing before all of us as the Son of Man, the Saviour of all. By His incarnation in the flesh, and by being born of His mother Mary, He has shown us the love of God made manifest and tangible to us. While once mankind can only see and feel the greatness of God from afar, now through Christ, everything had been made real and approachable to us. Through Christ, we have come into the realisation of God’s love made Man, approachable and touchable to us. Therefore, we ought to continue to firmly hold onto the truth that He has shown and taught to us through His Church.
It is this truth which those false leaders and prophets, messengers and heretics all tried to subvert and change for their own selfish purposes and desires. Some of them rejecting the Divinity of Christ while others rejected the Humanity of Christ, and others still reject the figure of Christ altogether and instead conflating the Christian faith with other syncretic pagan practices among others. These were what St. John warned the faithful all about, that they should not succumb to the temptations to sin, or to evil, falsehoods and wickedness in any sorts. St. John told all of us that we have to keep adhering to the truth of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, the manifestation of God’s love Whom we celebrate this Christmas season. As His disciple and follower we have to commit ourselves wholeheartedly to Him.
Today, we celebrate the feast of a saint and servant of God whose life and devotion to God hopefully can become a great source of inspiration to follow, as we embark on our own journey of faith in this life. Pope St. Silvester I was one of the early Church fathers and leaders, who reigned during the moment of great change for the Church and the world. He succeeded Pope St. Miltiades whose reign coincided with the Edict of Milan, the Edict of toleration of all Christians and their faith as proclaimed by the Roman Emperors Constantine the Great and Licinius. That declaration and Edict marked the momentous time when Christians were no longer persecuted for their faith as they had been in the past three centuries, with the latest being the particularly vicious persecution under the Emperor Diocletian and his fellow Emperors.
Pope St. Silvester I succeeded Pope St. Miltiades and would go on to reign for a long over twenty years period, ushering a time of great renewal for the Church. He led the Church through both a turbulent and great period, characterised by great many conversions and growth of the Church, but at the same time also plenty of divisions within the Church. He led the Church through a time of great building of churches and institutions, but also a time when many heresies and divisions arose in the Church, and the faithful became increasingly more and more divided by their different priorities and ideals, and especially back then, the heresy of Arianism and Donatism, and also Gnosticism threatened the unity of the Church. To combat these divisions and restore unity of the Church, Pope St. Silvester I together with his brother bishops and with the support of the Emperor Constantine convened the first ever Ecumenical Council of the Church in Nicaea.
Pope St. Silvester I did not attend the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea himself, but sent his delegation with his full authority to the Council, which condemned the various heresies particularly that of Arianism, and upheld the true Christian faith as preserved and handed down from the days of the Apostles and the beginning of the Church. Eventually, the true Christian faith prevailed and the Church continued to flourish despite the many challenges and trials that it faced, also thanks to the firm and faithful leadership of Pope St. Silvester I, who became a source of inspiration to all the bishops all throughout Christendom and facing all sorts of pressures and hardships. And as we discern the life and works of Pope St. Silvester I, whose Pontificate was at the end and boundary between the old order of persecutions and hardships for the Church and a new beginning and renewal through freedom, we too should reflect upon our past year and what we are going to do this upcoming new year.
May the Lord continue to guide and strengthen us in our journey, and may He continue to help us to persevere through the challenges in life and also help us to direct our path to the right way as we continue to proceed to the new year with new hope and new expectations. Let us all look forward to the new year with hope and strive to be ever better Christians, in the spirit of Pope St. Silvester I, whose life is an inspiration to all of us. May God bless us always in all of our efforts and deeds, for His greater glory, and may He bless our year ahead with His most wonderful blessings and grace. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 1 : 1-18
In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God; He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing came to be. Whatever has come to be, found life in Him; life, which for human beings, was also light, light that shines in darkness, light that darkness could not overcome.
A man came, sent by God; his name was John. He came to bear witness, as a witness to introduce the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but a witness to introduce the Light; for the Light was coming into the world, the true Light that enlightens everyone. He was in the world, and through Him the world was made, the very world that did not know Him.
He came to His own, yet His own people did not receive Him; but to all who received Him, He empowers to become children of God, for they believe in His Name. These are born, but not by seed, or carnal desire, nor by the will of man : they are born of God.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us; and we have seen His glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father : fullness of truth and loving-kindness. John bore witness to Him openly, saying, “This is the One Who comes after me, but He is already ahead of me, for He was before me.”
From His fullness we have all received, favour upon favour. For God had given us the Law through Moses, but Truth and Loving-kindness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God-the-only-Son made Him known : the One, Who is in and with the Father.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 95 : 1-2, 11-12a, 12b-13
Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His Name. Proclaim His salvation day after day.
Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them; let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy. Let them sing before the Lord.
He Who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 2 : 18-21
My dear children, it is the last hour. You were told that an antichrist would come; but several antichrists have already come, by which we know that it is now the last hour.
They went out from us though they did not really belong to us. Had they belonged to us, they would have remained with us. So it became clear that not all of us were really ours. But you have the anointing from the Holy One, so that all of you have true wisdom.
I write to you, not because you lack knowledge of the truth, but because you already know it, and lies have nothing in common with the truth.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we continue to progress through this joyful season of Christmas, we are all reminded through the Scripture passages we have heard today that we must always be true to our faith, fulfilling all the Law and commandments that God had told us to do, the teachings and the path which He has revealed to us through His Church. This means that we should not be merely paying lip service to the Lord, but we must be truly committed to the Lord in all things, doing whatever we can so that we may always be good examples and inspirations to our fellow brothers and sisters, in showing what it truly means for us to be good and devoted Christians, the followers of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We should always be good examples of our faith to everyone around us.
In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. John the Apostle, the Apostle reminded the faithful of the commandments of the Lord which He has brought into our midst, and which all of us should always follow and embody in our every actions and parts of life. We cannot profess to be Christians and yet, in our way of life, we act in ways that are contrary to the teachings of Christ. The Lord Himself has revealed His commandments to us, showing us that the Law which He has given us, is all about Love, the love which He Himself has shown us mankind, and which we are therefore expected to show to Him as well, and then, the love which we all should show our fellow brothers and sisters all around us, a true, genuine and selfless Christian love. This is the hallmark of our Christian faith and unless we do so, then we cannot truly call ourselves as Christians.
This is why St. John reminded all the faithful that they cannot still behave in a manner that is still not attuned to the path of Christ. The love of God has indeed been generously poured down on us, and in this season and time of Christmas, we commemorate the incarnation of the Love of God, Who has become Man, appearing before all of us in the Person of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Saviour of all. Therefore, if we all believe in Christ, it is imperative that we must really show our faith in Him and not merely just treating our faith as just a formality. In our every actions, words and deeds, in all of our whole lives, we must always radiate and show the genuine and authentic Christian living so that by our lives, God may indeed be glorified. This is what we have been called and reminded to do in each and every one of our lives.
In the Gospel passage today, this is reiterated for us, as we heard of the account of the moment when the Lord Jesus was presented at the Temple of Jerusalem as per the Law and its requirements, and how this led miraculously to the Lord Jesus being welcomed by two elderly figures who had both long awaited the coming of the Messiah, and whom the Lord had told that they would not pass on from this world before they saw and behold the Messiah Who was coming into the world, with their very own eyes and hands. Thus, the prophet and man of God Simeon, as well as the prophetess Anna, in the related passage, both thanked the Lord for having shown the Salvation of the world to them, and foretold everything that this Child was to do for all of us, the Love and Word of God Incarnate in the flesh, the Son of God Most High made Man.
Again, this means that all of us really have to commit ourselves anew to the Lord and we have to centre and focus our attention and lives on Him, reminding ourselves that Christ is our Lord and Master, our Saviour and King. All of us should always strive to live our lives worthily, doing whatever we can so that we may ever always walk in the path of Christ, and be the bearers of the light of Christ to everyone. Each and every one of us should always strive to be the great and inspirational role models in all things, and we should always be like our holy predecessors, the many saints and martyrs, all the holy men and women who have gone before us, and whose lives are great examples for us all to follow in our own lives.
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Thomas Becket, who was remembered for his actions as the Archbishop of Canterbury and hence as the leader and primate of the Church in all of medieval England then, as well as for his resistance and opposition against the irreverent and worldly actions of the then king of England, Henry II. St. Thomas Becket was actually a good friend of the king, whom the king appointed first as his Chancellor, to assist him in the governance of his realm. He was the right hand man of the king, and in the king’s effort to tighten his control over the often independent and troublesome English Church hierarchy and clergy, he thus appointed St. Thomas Becket as the Archbishop of Canterbury, who in that position became the most senior figure amongst all of the Church hierarchy. St. Thomas Becket became the Archbishop of Canterbury and then resigned his chancellorship soon after.
However, if the king’s intention was to subjugate the English church and its members, this backfired greatly as St. Thomas Becket had a moment of conversion and change as he took up the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and when he was ordained as priest and bishop before he was officially installed as the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was as if St. Thomas Becket received a calling from the Lord, which made him to refuse to obey the king’s orders regarding the English Church anymore. St. Thomas Becket stood firm his ground against the king and his nobles in all of their efforts to encroach into the domains of the Church, and he even excommunicated a nobleman close to the king who had caused trouble in the Church. This led to furious remarks and anger from the king, who greatly resented his once trusted man’s opposition to his policies and way of ruling.
All these struggles and conflicts eventually led to the exile of St. Thomas Becket, who continued to resist and champion the rights of the Church even during his time away from his See and from England. He persisted in doing what he could to glorify God and to defend the faith from those who sought to corrupt it, and eventually, when he returned back to England and his See, the matter came to a point that the king, furious and frustrated at all the inconveniences and troubles that St. Thomas Becket had caused him, in a drunken stupor, asked of anyone who could help him to rid this troublesome man of God. This was responded by four of the nobles and knights of the king, who went to seek St. Thomas Becket as he was celebrating Mass, and in his own Cathedral, those four men murdered the holy Archbishop and shed his blood.
As we all heard, St. Thomas Becket was faithful right to the very end, committing his whole life to the Lord, not minding even sufferings and hardships, and he led by example in living his life worthily of the Lord. Therefore, all of us as Christians should always remember that the centre and focus of our lives should not be all the various sorts of worldly desires, ambitions and attachments, but rather to be truly worthy of God in all things, and to put Him, not our own ego and pride, desires and greed, at the centre of our whole lives and existence. May God be with us all and may He grant us the courage to remain always faithful to Him. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 2 : 22-35
When the day came for the purification according to the law of Moses, they brought the Baby up to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord : Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to God. And they offered a sacrifice, as ordered in the law of the Lord : a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
There lived in Jerusalem at this time a very upright and devout man named Simeon; the Holy Spirit was in him. He looked forward to the time when the Lord would comfort Israel, and he had been assured, by the Holy Spirit, that he would not die before seeing the Messiah of the Lord. So he was led into the Temple by the Holy Spirit at the time the parents brought the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the Law.
Simeon took the Child in his arms, and blessed God, saying, “Now, o Lord, You can dismiss Your servant in peace, for You have fulfilled Your word and my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You display for all the people to see. Here is the Light You will reveal to the nations, and the glory of Your people Israel.”
His father and mother wondered at what was said about the Child. Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, His mother, “Know this : your Son is a Sign, a Sign established for the falling and rising of many in Israel, a Sign of contradiction; and a sword will pierce your own soul, so that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 95 : 1-2a, 2b-3, 5b-6
Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His Name.
Proclaim His salvation day after day. Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds.
YHVH is the One Who made the heavens. Splendour and majesty go before Him; power and glory fill His sanctuary.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 2 : 3-11
How can we know that we know Him? If we fulfil His commands. If you say, “I know Him,” but do not fulfil His commands, you are a liar and the truth is not in you. But if you keep His word, God’s love is made complete in you. This is how we know that we are in Him : he who claims to live in Him must live as He lived.
My dear friends, I am not writing you a new commandment, but reminding you of an old one, one you had from the beginning. This old commandment is the word you have heard. But, in a way, I give it as a new commandment that is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and true light already shines.
If you claim to be in the light but hate your brother, you are still in darkness. If you love your brothers and sisters, you remain in the light and nothing in you will make you fall. But if you hate your brother you are in the dark and walk in darkness without knowing where you go, for the darkness has blinded you.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we gather together as a Church, we honour the memory of one of the great servants of God, His beloved Apostle, one of the Twelve, namely that of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, the one who lived the longest among the Apostles and according to tradition was both the youngest among them during the Lord’s ministry as well as the only one who did not die in martyrdom, but still suffered greatly nonetheless for his faith and good works in God. St. John the Apostle and Evangelist lived to a long old life, even as he endured arrest, prison and exile in the island of Patmos, where he received the vision from God regarding the end times, as written in the Book of Revelations of St. John.
This Apostle was the younger brother of St. James the Greater, another one of the Twelve Apostles. Both of them were often referred to as the sons of Zebedee, and were fishermen at the lake of Galilee together with St. Peter and St. Andrew. All the four of them were among the first that the Lord had called to become His disciples, and St. John together with his brother, St. James and also St. Peter were often present in many of the important events throughout the ministry of the Lord Jesus such as the Transfiguration, the resurrection of the sick daughter of the synagogue official Jairus, as well as the moments of the Passion of the Lord like the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. All the three of them including St. John were present at those important events, and hence he truly must have had a great knowledge of what had happened during the Lord’s work and ministry.
In the Gospel passage we heard today, we heard of the story from the Gospel written by St. John himself of the moment when the Lord was risen from the dead. At that occasion, it was told that when St. Mary Magdalene came bearing the information that the Lord has risen and disappeared from the tomb, St. John was among the first of the Apostles, together with St. Peter, who went to check the truth of what they have just heard. St. John believed in what he had seen and heard, and had faith in God, which had kept him going throughout all those years afterwards when he had to endure a lot of trials and hardships as a missionary and a worker of the Lord, carrying out His will in faraway places and lands, and facing both successes and challenges throughout all those occasions and years.
In our first reading today, the Epistle that St. John himself had written, to all the faithful people of God, we heard St. John yet again testifying about the Lord, highlighting how the Love of God has manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Whose every works and good deeds, wonders and miracles, wisdom and teachings he had witnessed and heard. St. John hence shared of what he had experienced and believed in, and placed particular emphasis on the Incarnation of the Word, the Divine Word of God, the Son, in the flesh, to come down into our midst as the Saviour of all. Like that of another of very popular quote from his Gospel, St. John wrote of the exchanges between the Lord Jesus and the Pharisee, Nicodemus in which Jesus said that, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave us all His only beloved Son, so that all those who believed in Him may not perish but have eternal life.’
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we heard from these Scripture passages today, as written and recorded by St. John himself, we are reminded that each and every one of us are also witnesses and bearers of this same truth which St. John had himself received from the Lord, and just like St. John who had to labour and faced a lot of trials over the many years that he had spent in his ministry and calling as an Apostle and also an Evangelist, all of us as God’s holy people, the members of His same Church and part of that same one flock should therefore also carry out the respective missions, vocations and callings that each one of us have received as disciples and followers of the Lord. We cannot be ignorant of the responsibilities that each one of us as Christians have in being good bearers of the truth of God and as the beacons of His light and hope.
Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we rejoice together and celebrate the memory of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, remembering all the great deeds he had done for the sake of the Lord and His people, all of us are reminded that the works that the Lord had begun and entrusted to His Church through His Apostles like St. John are far from being completed. On the contrary, there are always many more opportunities and occasions where there may be a lot of chance for us to be the bearers of God’s truth and love in our communities today, or within our own families and circles of friends, with acquaintances and even strangers we encounter daily in life. And this Christmas season is one of those occasions in which we can reach out to our fellow brethren with pure and genuine Christian love.
That is why it is important that each one of us understand the true meaning and importance of Christmas, knowing that Christmas is truly the manifestation of God’s Love, just as St. John had stated in various occasions, of the Divine Word and Son of God incarnate, taking up upon Himself our humble human nature and existence, so that by this action, He might accomplish everything that had been planned and prophesied for us, our salvation and liberation from the bondage of sin, evil and death. The question is whether we understand and appreciate this truth, and even more importantly, whether we show it in our way of celebrating Christmas, by putting Christ at the centre of all of our rejoicing, celebrations and festivities, or whether we have allowed the excesses of the secular form of Christmas, all the worldly merrymaking and parties to distract us from the true meaning of Christmas.
That is why we should reflect well on this, and if we have not done so, we should change our emphasis and focus in the way we celebrate Christmas. Christmas should no longer be about ourselves or be about our pleasures and happiness, while forgetting about others and those who are suffering around us. Instead of a selfish celebration and excessive merrymaking and feasting, we should be ever more committed as the followers and disciples of the Lord, in showing one another what true Christian love is all about, sharing the same love that Christ our Lord had come bearing with Him into this world, by reaching out to the less fortunate and all those who are not able to celebrate Christmas the way we do. Let us also seek reconciliation and forgiveness from one another for all the past faults we have made as well. We should not continue to hold grudges but be sincere and generous in our loving to one another.
May the Lord through the examples and life of His faithful servant and Apostle, St. John, continue to strengthen and inspire us to be ever more dedicated and faithful in all things. May He help us to appreciate and understand better what He had Himself done for us so that we too may become good witnesses and bearers of His love, His truth and His ways. We should always be the faithful and courageous bearers of God’s Light and Hope, continuing to love Him and our fellow brothers and sisters, doing whatever we can so that by our actions, words and deeds, we may lead more and more people towards God and His salvation. May God bless our every efforts and endeavours, our every actions and good works at all times, now and forevermore. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 