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Monday, 5 July 2021 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are called to trust in the Lord and His words and promises to us, as He gave us all His reassurances, as He has given to His servants and people, such as what He has told Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, as He watched over him and guided him in his journey, and as He has done to the woman who was suffering from haemorrhages and the official synagogue whose daughter has passed away.

In our first reading today, we heard of the story of Jacob, the younger son of Isaac, son of Abraham, who was at Bethel in the midst of fleeing from the wrath of his elder brother Esau. At that time, Esau who was the elder brother of Jacob was supposed to be the one to inherit Isaac’s blessings and grace as the heir of Abraham, but Jacob took those blessings and inheritance from Esau. Jacob flee away from Esau, fearing his wrath, but God was with Jacob, and He showed this reassurance as he lay sleeping in Bethel.

As we heard in our first reading today, Jacob received a vision of heaven as he lay sleeping, and God spoke to him, reassuring him that He would be with him and also with his descendants, remembering the same Covenant and promise which He had made with Abraham and Isaac. Jacob promised God that if He would guide him and help him to return to the land one day, he would raise a great altar in His honour and stay faithful to Him, he and his descendants altogether. And God did guide Jacob and eventually He brought Jacob and his family back to the land promised to him and his descendants.

In our Gospel passage today we heard of the moment when the Lord healed two people from their troubles. There was a woman who had been suffering from bleeding and haemorrhages, and had sought for treatments without any success. She sought the Lord as she believed that the Lord would be able to to help her from her troubles. She touched the Lord’s cloak and was instantly healed. The Lord also reassured the woman for her faith, and strengthened her, reassuring her that she has been healed and made whole by her trust in Him.

Then, the Lord also raised the dead daughter of the synagogue official, who initially sought Him to heal her from her sickness. When she had passed on while the Lord was delayed on the way, the Lord reassured her father, the official, that he had nothing to worry about, and despite the ridicule and laughter from all others there who laughed at the Lord’s suggestion that the girl was only sleeping. The Lord raised the girl from the dead and restored her to life, showing to all the power and love of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard these things, are we still doubting the Lord and all that He can do for our sake, on our behalf? Are we still not sure of the things that we shall receive from Him, and all that we shall gain by putting our trust and faith in Him? We are all called to reflect on this, as we ought to consider what we can do in order to commit ourselves as good and faithful Christians in life. We should not just pay Him a lip service and live in manner that is against His laws and commandments.

Today therefore, we should follow the examples set by St. Anthony Zaccaria, a holy priest and dedicated servant of God, known as one of the leaders of the Counter-Reformation efforts and as the founder of the Barnabites order, who was remembered for his commitment and service to the people, especially to those who are poor and needy in the community, devoting much of his time and effort to serve the community of the faithful and encouraging devotions to the Lord such as the increasingly popular Forty Hours Devotion, among others.

St. Anthony Zaccaria did not live long as he passed away relatively young from the ravages of a disease, but he was credited with the foundation of several religious orders, through which his works and passion were continued on by all those who shared the same calling and missionary zeal. This is why we should also follow the examples and be inspired by the faith and dedication of St. Anthony Zaccaria, in how he spent his time and effort to serve the Lord, and to glorify the Name of the Lord among His people. After all, He has loved us so very much and given so much for our sake.

Let us all therefore do our very best and commit ourselves, to serve the people of God, to be inspiration to our fellow brothers and sisters, by entrusting ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord from now on. Let us all turn towards Him and be the bearers of His light and truth in our community today, that through us, many more people may come to believe in the Lord as well. May God be with us and bless us all in our every efforts and good endeavours. Amen.

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Monday, 5 July 2021 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Matthew 9 : 18-26

At that time, while Jesus was speaking to the disciples of John and the Pharisees, an official of the synagogue came up to Him, bowed before Him and said, “My daughter has just died, but come and place Your hands on her, and she will live.”

Jesus stood up and followed him with His disciples. Then a woman, who had suffered from a severe bleeding for twelve years, came up from behind and touched the edge of His cloak; for she thought, “If I only touch His cloak, I will be healed.”

Jesus turned, saw her and said, “Courage, my daughter, your faith has saved you.” And from that moment, the woman was cured. When Jesus arrived at the official’s house and saw the flute players and the excited crowd, He said, “Get out of here! The girl is not dead. She is only sleeping!” And they laughed at Him.

But once the crowd had been turned out, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up. The news of this spread through the whole area.

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Monday, 5 July 2021 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Psalm 90 : 1-2, 3-4, 14-15ab

You, who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who rest in the shadow of the Almighty, say to YHVH, “My Stronghold, my Refuge, my God in Whom I trust!”

He will rescue you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions and give you refuge under His wings.

“Because they cling to Me, I will rescue them,” says YHVH. “I will protect those who know My Name. When they call to Me, I will answer; in time of trouble, I will be with them.”

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Monday, 5 July 2021 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Genesis 28 : 10-22a

Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place the sun had set and he spent the night there. He took one of the stones that were there and using it as a pillow, he lay down to sleep.

While Jacob was sleeping, he had a dream in which a ladder stood on the earth with its top reaching to heaven and on it were Angels of God going up and coming down. And YHVH was standing there near him and said, “I am YHVH, the God of your father, Abraham, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you sleep, I give to you and your descendants.”

“Your descendants will be numerous like the specks of dust of the earth and you will spread out to the west and the east, to the north and the south. Through you and your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed. See, I am with you and I will keep you safe wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land and not leave you until I have done what I promised.”

Jacob woke from his dream and said, “Truly YHVH was in this place and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How full of awe is this place! It is nothing less than a house of God; it is the Gate to Heaven!” Then Jacob rose early and took the stone he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He named that place Bethel although before that it was called Luz.

Then Jacob made a vow, “If YHVH will be with me and keep me safe during this journey I am making, if He gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and if I return in peace to my father’s house, then YHVH will be my God. This stone which I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house.”

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Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are presented with the sad and unfortunate reality of how the people rejected those whom the Lord had sent to them, and refused to believe in them and in the message of truth and revelation which God has given them through those servants. This is all because of our stubbornness and our lack of faith and trust in the Lord, as we often trust more in our own abilities and we discriminate others based on our prejudices and biases.

In our first reading today we heard about the Lord sending Ezekiel to the people of Israel in exile in Babylon, to be His prophet and messenger among them. At that time, the people of Israel had been scattered in faraway lands, as the northern kingdom of Israel, composed of most of ten of the twelve tribes of Israel had been crushed and conquered by the Assyrians over a century before the time of Ezekiel, and most of the people had been brought to exile. Then, the Babylonians in turn subjugated the southern kingdom of Judah and brought many of its people into exile as well.

Thus, it was to this people that the Lord had sent Ezekiel to be His mouthpiece among them, to be the one to bring His message of truth to them and to call them to repentance and to turn away from their sinful and wicked ways. It was because of their many sins and refusals to obey the Lord that they had fallen from grace, and the glory of the old kingdom of David and Solomon had faded and gone from them. In a short time after God sent Ezekiel to the exiles in Babylon, the rest of Judah and the city of Jerusalem itself would be destroyed, and the remaining people brought to exile as well.

The sins of the people separated them from God, and without God, as they stood alone on their own, they faltered and failed, fell and became disgrace among the nations. Yet, we can see that the Lord still cared for them and did not forget about them. He could have destroyed and annihilated them easily, or abandoned them forever and chose other people to be His own people, but He still patiently sought them out, called them and sent prophets one after another to them, through the days of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and up to that time, the prophet Ezekiel.

Many of those prophets were rejected and ridiculed, and not few among them were made to suffer and even were killed for their works and faith in the Lord. The prophets laboured hard for the sake of the Lord and His people, and many gave their all to glorify the Lord and to bring His people to salvation. They endured all sorts of trials and troubles, sacrificing their time and many other things in following God’s call. But the people often still hardened their hearts against the Lord and refused to believe in Him.

The same thing happened to the Lord as we heard in our Gospel passage today, as we heard how He was rejected in Nazareth, in His own village and hometown. The people of Nazareth publicly doubted and questioned the Lord and His authority and authenticity when He came to His own town, teaching and preaching among them. This despite Nazareth itself being not far from the region around the Lake of Galilee where the Lord had performed many miracles and works.

Why did the people of Nazareth reject the Lord? That is because many of them were prejudiced against Him, thinking that they knew better than Him and they saw Him as an unworthy upstart, as the mere Son of the village carpenter, St. Joseph, His foster-father. No one in Nazareth beyond His immediate family knew the Lord’s true identity, and this is why everyone thought of the Lord as a fraud, and someone who was just the Son of a carpenter could not have gained such wisdom or taught with such authority. It was simply impossible in their minds.

That was why they refused to acknowledge the Lord and His truth, and they questioned and doubted Him, looking down on Him despite everything that they had heard and seen. They refused to open their hearts and minds to welcome Him inside, and kept Him out of their minds. And before we ourselves look down on them, let us remind ourselves that we have often done the same in our own lives, in each and every moments of our existence.

We should ask ourselves how often is it that the Lord had called us to follow Him and yet we hesitated and refused to listen to Him. And even though He has patiently reached out to us via various means, we still continued to harden our hearts and minds, and are stubborn in adhering to our old ways and paths, in opposition to God, in how we have been selfish and mean to others, in loving ourselves more than we love God and our fellow brothers and sisters, in indulging our various pleasures and pursuits in life, among others.

Therefore, as we listened and are reminded by this Sunday’s Scripture readings, we are all called as Christians to be humble and to be willing to open our hearts and minds to the Lord. And we can do this best by spending more quality time with the Lord, especially through prayer. Unfortunately, this is where many of us are falling short, as we do not regularly pray to the Lord, or when we pray, we do not pray in the right way. Prayer is not the same as asking God to do things on our behalf or to fulfil our desires and whatever we wanted. It is not about asking God to miraculously solve our problems and other things that we often did in our prayers.

Instead, we should be willing to listen to the Lord and learn to listen to Him more. We should open our hearts and minds, and allow Him to speak to us in the depth of our souls, that we may know His will more and be more attuned to Him in our lives and actions. This is what we are all challenged to do as Christians, to be ever more genuine in the way we live our lives with faith in God, and to devote our time and effort to glorify the Lord at all times. We should allow the Lord to lead us and guide our path in life.

And lastly, may all of us also be the beacons of God’s light and truth in this darkened world today. Like the prophets and the servants of the Lord whom He had sent into our midst, we should also follow in their footsteps and be inspired by their faith and dedication, as well as by their enduring love for God. Are we willing and able to do so, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we willing to love the Lord more and to put our trust in Him, that we will always follow Him and obey His Law and precepts, in each and every moments? May God be with us all and may He bless us always in our every good efforts and endeavours. Amen.

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Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 6 : 1-6

At that time, leaving the place where He raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead, Jesus returned to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and most of those who heard Him were astonished.

But they said, “How did this come to Him? What kind of wisdom has been given to Him, that He also performs such miracles? Who is He but the Carpenter, the Son of Mary, and the Brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here among us?” So they took offence at Him.

And Jesus said to them, “Prophets are despised only in their own country, among their relatives, and in their own family.” And He could work no miracles there, but only healed a few sick people, by laying His hands on them. Jesus Himself was astounded at their unbelief. Jesus then went around the villages, teaching.”

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Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

2 Corinthians 12 : 7-10

However, I better give up, lest somebody think more of me than what is seen in me, or heard from me. Lest I become proud, after so many and extraordinary revelations; I was given a thorn in my flesh, a true messenger of Satan, to slap me in the face. Three times, I prayed to the Lord, that it leave me, but He answered, “My grace is enough for you; My great strength is revealed in weakness.”

Gladly, then, will I boast of my weakness, that the strength of Christ may be mine. So I rejoice, when I suffer infirmities, humiliations, want, persecutions : all for Christ! For when I am weak, then I am strong.

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Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 122 : 1-2a, 2bcd, 3-4

To You, I lift up my eyes; to You, Whose throne is in heaven. As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master.

As the eyes of maids look to the hand of their mistress, so our eyes look to YHVH our God, till He shows us His mercy.

Have mercy on us, o YHVH, have mercy on us; for we have our fill of contempt. Too long have our souls been filled with the scorn of the arrogant, with the ridicule of the insolent.

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Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ezekiel 2 : 2-5

A Spirit came upon me as He spoke and kept me standing; and then I heard him speak, “Son of Man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have sinned against Me to this day. Now I am sending you to these defiant and stubborn people to tell them ‘this is the Lord YHVH’s word.’”

“So, whether they listen or not, this set of rebels will know there is a prophet among them.”

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(Usus Antiquior) Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Offertory, Secret Prayer of the Priest, Communion and Post-Communion Prayer

Liturgical Colour : Green

Offertory

Psalm 16 : 5, 6-7

Perfice gressus meos in semitis Tuis, ut non moveantur vestigia mea : inclina aurem Tuam, et exaudi verba mea : mirifica misericordias Tuas, qui salvos facis sperantes in Te, Domine.

English translation

May You perfect my goings in Your paths, that my footsteps may not be moved. Incline Your ear, and hear my words. Show forth Your wonderful mercies, You who saved those who trust in You, o Lord.

Secret Prayer of the Priest

Propitiare, Domine, supplicationibus nostris, et has populi Tui oblationes benignus assume : et, ut nullius sit irritum votum, nullius vacua postulatio, praesta; ut, quod fideliter petimus, efficaciter consequamur. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English translation

Be propitious to our supplications, o Lord, and graciously accept these offerings of Your people, and that the prayer of none may be without effect, the petition of none that is vain, grant that what we ask in faith we may effectually obtain. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Communion

Psalm 26 : 6

Circuibo et immolabo in tabernaculo ejus hostiam jubilationis : cantabo et psalmum dicam Domino.

English translation

I will go round, and offer up in His tabernacle a sacrifice of jubilation; I will sing and recite a psalm to the Lord.

Post-Communion Prayer

Repleti sumus, Domine, muneribus Tuis : tribue, quaesumus; ut eorum et mundemur effectu et muniamur auxilio. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English translation

We have been filled with Your gifts, o Lord, grant we beseech You, that by their effect we may be both cleansed and fortified. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.