Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 65 : 1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a
Shout with joy to God, all you on earth; sing to the glory of His Name; proclaim His glorious praise. Say to God, “How great are Your deeds!”
All the earth bows down to You, making music, in praise of You, singing in honour of Your Name. Come, and see God’s wonders; His deeds, awesome for humans.
He has turned the sea into dry land, and the river was crossed on foot. Let us, therefore, rejoice in Him. He rules by His might forever.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 8 : 1b-8
This was the beginning of a great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem. All, except the Apostles, were scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria. Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church. He entered house after house and dragged off men and women, and had them put in jail.
At the same time, those who were scattered went about, preaching the word. Philip went down to a town of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. All the people paid close attention to what Philip said as they listened to him, and saw the miraculous signs that he did. For, in cases of possession, the unclean spirits came out shrieking loudly. Many people who were paralysed or crippled, were healed. So there was great joy in the town.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in our Scripture passages today, as we all continue to progress through this joyful and glorious season of Easter, we are all reminded of our Christian calling to be the faithful and committed disciples and missionaries of our faith in the Lord, in our belief in the Lord Who has manifested Himself in the flesh before us, embracing our human nature and becoming for all of us the source of our eternal life and salvation. And yes, as we listen to the Gospel passage later today, we will begin to hear from today and for the next few days, the discourse of the Bread of Life from the Lord, reminding all of us that through Jesus and everything that He had done for us, we have been given access to this most wonderful gift of the Bread of Life, by which we have been assured of the promise of eternal life and true happiness with God if we all remain truly faithful to Him.
In our first reading today, we heard of the continuation of the account of the martyrdom of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, as we have heard since yesterday. In that occasion, St. Stephen, one of the seven original Deacons appointed by the Church with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Council, before the High Priests and other priests, and members of the Sadducees and the Pharisees, many of whom were hostile against the Lord and His disciples, and when they all brought false accusations and witnesses against St. Stephen in trying to silence and discredit him in his works and efforts at evangelisation among the people, St. Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, courageously stood up for his faith before all of his opponents, and with great wisdom, spoke of the truth about the works of Christ and everything that He had done, and how He had been persecuted because of the stubbornness of those same people who were persecuting him.
St. Stephen courageously spoke such words because the Sanhedrin had been quite persistent in trying to silence the truth about the Lord’s Resurrection, even to the point of bribing the guards at the Lord’s Tomb to spread lies about how the disciples had stolen the Body of the Lord and claiming that He had risen from the dead. That was why St. Stephen, likely having witnessed the Resurrection himself as one of the earliest disciples and followers of the Lord, or at least having received the faith through the Apostles and the Holy Spirit, chose to remain steadfast and courageously proclaimed the truth as the Light that pierced through the darkness of the lies and falsehoods that the members of the Jewish High Council and their supporters had been spreading in the community. In doing so, he welcomed the sufferings and the martyrdom that he eventually experienced.
Then in our Gospel passage today, as I had just mentioned earlier, we heard of the beginning of the discourse of the Bread of Life by the Lord Jesus, Who told all the people who had come to follow Him after He had miraculously fed them with the multitudes of bread, that He is truly the Bread of Life, the Living Bread from Heaven that had come into our midst, descending upon this world to show the love of God manifested perfectly through His Son, Who has come into our midst, walking among us and becoming for us the source of our salvation. Through His own willing sacrifice on the Cross, Christ has opened for us the path to eternal life, in sharing His own Most Precious Body and Blood for us all to partake and share.
He gave us all freely His own Body and Blood for our salvation, which He has made available for us through His gift of the Eucharist to us, which He has instituted at the Last Supper, at the moment when He gave us all this perfect gift of love, breaking His Body and outpouring His Blood, a sacrifice accomplished and completed perfectly on the Cross, on the Altar of Calvary, offering Himself as the Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, by Whose Body and Blood we have been healed, strengthened and empowered, delivered from the power of darkness and the shackles of sin. And all of us who have received this grace from God should indeed appreciate just how greatly all of us have been beloved by our Lord and loving Father. We should not allow this wonderful gift from God to be neglected and ignored, but we should instead make great use of what we have been given.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be truly faithful to God in all things and strive to do our best so that we may always centre our lives upon the Lord and His teachings and ways just as St. Stephen and our many other holy predecessors had done before us. Each and every one of us are called to be the disciples and followers of the Lord, in our every moments in life. We have been given such great love by the Lord, Who gave us all the gift of His own Body and Blood, so that He may be present with us and within us, in journeying together through this challenging and difficult journey in life. We must not easily give in to the temptations of evil and worldly ambitions and desires, but strive instead to live lives that are truly centred on God at all times, loving one another just as God has loved us.
That is what each and every one of us are called to do as Christians, to be truly loving and committed to each other and towards God, showing our faith by our examples and inspirations in life to one another. As Christians we should always be filled with genuine and generous love for God and for our fellow brothers and sisters around us, so that everyone may come to know God through us and our examples in life. Let us all be truly worthy as God’s disciples and followers, in our commitment to Him and in our righteousness and virtues, by which we may continue to serve Him faithfully through our every words, actions and deeds, through our every interactions with everyone around us, like what our holy predecessors had done before us.
May our loving God and Father, our Risen Lord and Saviour continue to guide us in our journey of faith and life. May He strengthen us all with the gift of His Body and Blood, He Who is the Bread and Source of all Life, so that we may always remain firmly faithful in Him, and not be distracted with any kind of temptations and pressures in life all around us. May all of us continue to be ever faithful and devoted to the Lord, and may all of us be blessed in our every good works, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 6 : 30-35
At that time, the Jews said to Jesus, “Show us miraculous signs, that we may see and believe You. What sign do You perform? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert; as Scripture says : They were given bread from heaven to eat.”
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true Bread from heaven. The Bread God gives is the One Who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.” And they said to Him, “Give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in Me shall never be thirsty.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 30 : 3cd-4, 6ab and 7b-8a, 17 and 21ab
Be a Rock of refuge for me, a Fortress for my safety. For You are my Rock and my Stronghold, lead me for Your Name’s sake.
Into Your hands I commend my spirit; but I put all my trust in the Lord. I will rejoice and be glad in Your love, for You have seen my affliction.
Make Your face shine upon Your servant; save me in Your love. In the shelter of Your presence You hide them from human wiles; You keep them in Your dwelling.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 7 : 51 – Acts 8 : 1a
Stephen said to the Council, “But you are a stubborn people, you hardened your hearts and closed your ears. You have always resisted the Holy Spirit just as your fathers did. Was there a prophet whom your ancestors did not persecute? They killed those who announced the coming of the Just One Whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the Law through the Angels but did not fulfil it.”
When the Council heard the reproach Stephen made against them, they were enraged and they gnashed their teeth against him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, fixed his eyes on heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus at God’s right hand, so he declared : “I see the heavens open and the Son of Man at the right hand of God.”
But they shouted and covered their ears with their hands and rushed together upon him. They brought him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed saying : “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Then he knelt down and said in a loud voice : “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he died. Saul was there, approving his murder. This was the beginning of a great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we all listened to words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded of the nature of our faith as Christians, and the reality of how we may have to face challenges, difficulties, trials and obstacles in our paths as we continue moving forward in life as disciples and followers of God. It is inevitable that we will encounter and may have to suffer from all those things, but we must always remember that God is always by our side, providing for us and journeying with us, and by His grace and strength, we can persevere and remain strong despite those many trials and challenges, and we must not easily lose faith and sight on what is truly important in our lives, that is to continue to remain faithful to God and to be good role models and inspirations for everyone around us by our own commitment to live our lives with genuine love for God.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles in which we heard of the ministry of St. Stephen, who was one of the seven original holy deacons of the Church selected through the guidance of the Holy Spirit to minister to the faithful people of God. St. Stephen was preaching about the Lord and did wonderful deeds among the people of God through the power of God and the Holy Spirit that had filled Him. And this brought about opposition from the members of the Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Council. That was why they arrested St. Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin and their supporters, with false witnesses and accusations meant to bring him down and accusing him of blasphemy before all the assembly.
However as we heard, St. Stephen, full of power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, responded with great wisdom and intellect, and none of those false witnesses and accusations could be levied against him. No matter what happened, St. Stephen remained firm in his commitment to the Lord and in his courageous defence of his faith. He was standing up against the whole might of the Sanhedrin, filled with many people who were against him and his beliefs in the Lord, and who were angry and hostile against him and what he had preached and presented to them. But St. Stephen trusted fully in the Lord and allowed Him to guide him in his actions and words, that he would not abandon his faith in the Lord or proclaim falsehoods against Him just so that he could evade trouble and persecution.
This was eventually followed by the martyrdom of St. Stephen, who was stoned to death by the angry members of the Sanhedrin and the mob that was gathered there. But St. Stephen in his great faith to the very end trusted in the Lord, and he even prayed to the Lord to forgive all those who have brought those sufferings and martyrdom upon him, much as the Lord Jesus Himself had done from His Cross. He showed all of us the great example of faith and inspiration, in what we ourselves should do in order to follow the Lord as His faithful and worthy disciples and followers. As Christians, all of us should always be filled with the courage to proclaim our faith in the Lord and be ready to dedicate ourselves to Him even amidst the many challenges and hardships in life.
Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the story of the moment when the Lord was followed by many people who came to seek Him after He had performed the wondrous miracle of the feeding of the five thousand people and more with merely just five loaves of bread and two fishes. And the Lord told them that they were looking for Him because of the food and the wondrous things that He had provided them, and this must be understood as our natural desire to seek something that pleases us like food, pleasures of the world and other forms of satisfaction. Thus, what the Lord was telling the people was that their faith in Him was still being mostly superficial in nature, as if those incentives and good things were to disappear, then they would likely abandon and leave Him behind.
Instead the Lord was calling on all of them to seek not the food and satisfaction of the world, but lasting sustenance and true joy that can only be found in the Lord alone. The Lord wanted all of them to listen to Him and to find the path to true satisfaction and joy in God, which they can find through true obedience and commitment to God, by genuine faith and trust in Him. The Lord wanted them all to grow in true faith and desire to seek God and not just seeking superficial pleasures in food and sustenance, good things and other forms of comforts of the world. This is what will lead the people to the true path towards salvation and liberation from all of their shackles of sin and evil. The Lord showed them all the love of God manifested before them, and calling on all of them to be faithful and loving towards God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore we are called and reminded to put our complete faith and trust in the Lord, to come towards Him with great commitment and dedication. We are reminded that when we face hardships and challenges in life because of our faith or due to other reasons, like St. Stephen and the many other saints and martyrs have shown us, we must remain firm in our resolve to follow the Lord and to keep our faith in Him. We should not allow ourselves to be easily swayed by the temptations of comfort and worldly desires, and be pressured by the coercions and threats levied by those who seek to make us conform to the ways of the world and to abandon our faith in God. Let our faith and perseverance be good examples and inspirations to all around us.
May our Risen Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Our Lord continue to strengthen and inspire us all to live our lives each day and in every moments full of confidence and trust in Him. May He grant us the courage to continue becoming good role models, examples and inspirations to our fellow brothers and sisters around us. May God be with us always and may He bless our every good efforts and endeavours, works and all other things that we do for His greater glory. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 6 : 22-29
At that time, the next day after Jesus fed the five thousand men, the people, who had stayed on the other side, realised that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with His disciples; but rather, the disciples had gone away alone.
Bigger boats from Tiberias came near the place where all these people had eaten the bread. When they saw that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, “Master, when did You come here?”
Jesus answered, “Truly, I say to you, you look for Me, not because of the signs which you have seen, but because you ate bread and were satisfied. Work then, not for perishable food, but for the lasting food which gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give it to you, for He is the One on Whom the Father has put His mark.”
Then the Jews asked Him, “What shall we do? What are the works that God wants us to do?” And Jesus answered them, “The work God wants is this : that you believe in the One Whom God has sent.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 118 : 23-24, 26-27, 29-30
Although princes conspire against me, Your servant will observe Your decrees. Your laws are my delight, my counsellors who uphold me.
When I explained my ways, You responded; instruct me then in Your precepts. Explain to me all Your ordinances, and I will meditate on Your wondrous deeds.
Keep me away from deceitful paths; be gracious and teach me Your law. I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart upon Your laws.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 6 : 8-15
Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Some persons then came forward, who belonged to the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia. They argued with Stephen but they could not match the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke.
As they were unable to face the truth, they bribed some men to say, ‘We heard him speak against Moses and against God.’ So they stirred up the people, the elders and the teachers of the Law; they took him by surprise, seized him and brought him before the Council.
Then they produced false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against our Holy Place and the Law. We even heard him say that Jesus the Nazarean will destroy our Holy Place and change the customs which Moses handed down to us.” And all who sat in the Council fixed their eyes on him, and his face appeared to them like the face of an Angel.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 