Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all listened from the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all reminded of the need for us to put our complete trust and faith in the Lord, and we should have genuine and true faith in Him, a faith that is not easily shaken by the many temptations, troubles, trials and challenges that we may have to face in our lives today. We must always keep in mind that the Lord is always faithful to the Covenant which He has made with each and every one of us, and He is always by our side, guiding and strengthening us in our journey throughout life, in everything that we say and do, in our every moments in life. We must not be easily frightened or threatened by the obstacles that we experience because if we remain true to the Lord, we will share in His triumph and victory.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle to the Hebrews in which the author of this Epistle spoke to the Jewish community and believers about their well-known forefather, Abraham, the father of all the Israelites and many other nations, the one whom God had called from the land of Ur in Mesopotamia to follow Him and to go to the land that He would grant to him and his descendants. God called this rich but old man, Abram, from the land of his forefathers, together with his wife, then named Sarai, who by then had also been very old and beyond childbearing age, after having failed to conceive and bear a child even after many years with her husband. God called this family to follow Him and made them to be the ones with whom He established His Covenant. And everything happened as the Lord has promised it, all because Abram, who changed his name to be Abraham after the Covenant, and Sarah, his wife, believed in the Lord and His Covenant.

We heard the parts of the story of Abraham, who followed the Lord faithfully and committed himself to Him even if he himself was unable to witness everything that God had told him and promised him. He was told that he would become the father of many nations, through the son that the Lord had promised him, the son that his wife Sarah would bear to him, namely Isaac, who was mentioned in that reading passage today. When God called on Abraham to offer his beloved son Isaac as a sacrifice at Mount Moriah, Abraham committed himself to the Lord without hesitation, trusting in God wholeheartedly and surrendered his own beloved son Isaac to be offered to God. God was just testing Abraham to see if he was truly faithful to the Covenant that God has established with him, and for this great and genuine faith, God blessed Abraham all the more.

In fact, this event of the offering of Isaac, the beloved son of Abraham was a prefigurement of what the Lord Himself would do for us mankind, as He sent us all His own only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God to be incarnate and to be born as a Man like us, taking up our own human nature and existence, becoming the means through Whom God would save all of us, His beloved people, by the selfless and most perfect and worthy sacrifice which He offered on the Cross, breaking His own Most Precious Body and pouring out His own Most Precious Blood to bring forth the salvation which He has assured us all from the very beginning. And by this singular action, God has brought unto us what He has promised, and established with us a New and Eternal Covenant.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist in which we heard of the miraculous occasion in which the Lord Jesus calmed down the wind and waves in a storm as He was travelling together with His disciples in a boat. The disciples were all spooked and horrified when they encountered a great storm with large waves and strong wind as they were travelling in the lake, likely the Lake of Galilee where the Lord often ministered at, and in the meantime, Jesus Himself was sleeping in the boat. The disciples begged Him to do something, and He rebuked them for their little faith, and then proceeded on to calm the storm which immediately came to an end, showing the great power of God over all things, even over the forces of nature.

In that story from the Gospel we can see clearly the manifestation and representation of the Church of God and all of us the faithful people of God, represented by the Lord’s disciples, and the Lord Himself Who is at the helm of the Church journeying together through the turbulent and dangerous storms, waves and the many uncertainties surrounding us all in this life we have in this world. The waves and the storm represent all the challenges, hardships and difficulties which we all may have to endure amidst our journey in life. The boat represents the Church of God, which is often represented as an Ark, also alluding to the historical Noah’s Ark. As long as we remain united in the Church and anchored firmly in our faith in the Lord, we will be truly triumphant in the end with the Lord.

But if we allow our fears, doubts and uncertainties, and also all the temptations and evils around us to distract us from the Lord, and lead us down the path of ruin and destruction, then like those who may choose to jump from the boat to save themselves, they are likely going to be swallowed by the waves and drown. This is why no matter what sufferings and hardships that we may have to encounter in this life, we have to remember that we are not suffering from them alone, and first of all, the Lord Himself is always by our side, providing for us and guiding us throughout, and we are also surrounded by our fellow brothers and sisters, our fellow Christians all around us, as we are all part of this one Church of God, one Body of Christ and one flock of God’s faithful, who will always be remembered and loved by God, our loving and Good Shepherd.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be reminded of the great faith of Abraham and our other forefathers, the saints, the holy men and women who had dedicated themselves to God, and who have lived their lives worthily as God’s holy and beloved people, as inspirations and great role models to others, even when they were facing great trials, challenges, and sufferings, in which many of them suffered martyrdom and destruction, but all those things they endured faithfully and willingly for the Lord. Let us also be reminded as mentioned earlier, of the great love that God has shown us all, in establishing and affirming His Covenant with us through His only Begotten Son, Who has willingly taken up and embraced all of our sins, and Who suffered and died for us so that we all may live and share in the everlasting life that He has assured us all of.

May the Lord, our most loving God and Father continue to be with us in all things, and may He continue to empower each and every one of us so that we may continue to grow ever stronger in faith, and that we may always uphold a strong faith truly anchored in Him. Let us all be good inspirations and role models ourselves in how we live our lives so that we may help lead many others to the Lord as well. May God bless our every good works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.