Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of what we all need to do as those whom God had called and chosen to be His own people, to be those whom He has considered to be His children. Each and every one of us should continue to do what the Lord Himself has taught and shown us through His Church, and all the teachings and ways passed down upon us, so that by our every actions, our every words and works, our interactions with one another, all of us will continue to live ever more faithfully in the Lord, and be exemplary in all things.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah, we heard about the moment when the Lord called His servant, the prophet Elijah from the kingdom of Israel, as he was sent to minister to the people of the northern kingdom of Israel. At that time, the king of the northern kingdom was king Ahab, who was very infamous for his wickedness and all that he had done in disobeying the Lord and in refusing to follow the path of God. In fact, king Ahab brought the people ever further from the Lord by introducing more pagan worship and practices, through the support of his wife, the wicked queen Jezebel.

The prophet Elijah had a really difficult time in trying to do his mission among the Israelites, and this is because many of them were stubborn in their refusal to listen to the Lord and His prophets, including Elijah himself, and many of those prophets and messengers of God had been persecuted and even killed. Elijah himself had to evade persecutions and sufferings, and in this latest episode of his work, he told king Ahab that there would be great years of famine and drought throughout the land of Israel as a consequence and punishment for the sins and wickedness of the Israelites and their king. Elijah had to flee to the wilderness as God guided him to escape from the king and anyone who might have sought to blame and destroy him for his role in the famine and drought.

But Elijah obeyed the Lord faithfully and committed him to the missions that had been entrusted to him by the Lord. He allowed the Lord to guide him to wherever he was sent to, and he continued to devote himself thoroughly to the Lord despite the challenges and hardships that he had to encounter and endure throughout his missions. The prophet Elijah followed the Lord and went on to do many great things, despite having to move from places to places, suffering many things, but he did so gladly because he had faith and trust in the Lord. He showed us all the great examples and inspiration so that we all may also follow in his footsteps in how we should also follow the Lord.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the moment when the Lord taught the people and all of His disciples with the famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’. In that occasion, the Lord Jesus presented those who listened to Him with the series of eight blessings, also known as the ‘Eight Beatitudes’, marking all those who have been truly blessed by the Lord because of their way of life and attitudes in life. These Eight Beatitudes are essentially a guide of how we all as Christians should be living our lives so that in everything that we do, in our every moments and way of life, we will truly obey the Lord and be able to commit ourselves to His cause.

In everything that the Lord had said, the blessings He pronounced to all those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are gentle, those who hunger and thirst for justice, those who are merciful and those with a pure heart, those are working for peace and are peacemakers, and then those who have been persecuted because of the Lord and for their faith in Him, all these essentially characterised what we all as Christians should be like. Each and every one of us are called to be God’s faithful and beloved people, to live worthily in accordance with His Law and commandments, to do whatever we can so that we may proclaim Him in our world today through our own respective lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore strive to renew our faith in the Lord and to commit ourselves ever more thoroughly to His cause from now on. Let us all continue to do what the Lord has entrusted to us in the various missions and things which He had given to us, so that by our every actions, works and efforts we may continue to be committed to the Lord in all the things that we say and do. Hopefully our lives and actions, our every interactions and commitments will truly be good examples and we may be good inspirations for everyone around us, for our fellow brothers and sisters in the Church of God, inspiring others to follow in our footsteps just as the prophet Elijah and many others have inspired us to follow them in their examples.

Let us all be reminded of the Eight Beatitudes and everything that we are all encouraged to do as Christians so that by our good and exemplary lives, we may indeed be blessed by God, and by our examples, we may bring forth this blessings to everyone around us as well. May our lives always be the inspiration for others and may we all continue to devote ourselves and our whole way of life, our every moments to glorify God at all times. May He continue to empower and strengthen us in our daily struggles in life, now and forevermore. Amen.