10th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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Monday, 11 June 2018 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Acts 11 : 21b-26 and Acts 13 : 1-3

A great number believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the manifest signs of God’s favour, he rejoiced and urged them all to remain firmly faithful to the Lord; for he, himself, was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith. Thus large crowds came to know the Lord.

Then Barnabas went off to Tarsus, to look for Saul; and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year, they had meetings with the Church and instructed many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

There were at Antioch – in the Church which was there – prophets and teachers : Barnabas, Symeon known as Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod, and Saul. On one occasion, while they were celebrating the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said to them, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul to do the work for which I have called them.”

So, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

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Sunday, 10 June 2018 : Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the account of mankind’s fall in the Scriptures, when Adam and Eve, our ancestors were tempted by Satan, in the form of a serpent, to disobey God’s commands, and ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Due to that disobedience, we have sinned against God, and the punishment for our sins, was exile from Eden, where we should have lived an eternity of joy with God.

And yet, God did not seek to destroy us. If He had wanted to destroy us because of His anger against us, He could have done so from the very beginning. After all, He Who has created us, could definitely also unmake us by His will alone. But, God loves each and every one of us, without exception, and therefore, as a result, God’s great love for us made our salvation possible.

Indeed, God is angry with us because of our sins, as sins are abhorrent and wicked in His sight. However, He did not hate us, as people as who we are, because He Himself has created us, out of love, and God desires to love each and every one of us, and share the love that He had within Himself. And love was why, God sent us His salvation, through none other than Jesus Christ, Our Lord, His own beloved Son.

Why do we need to be saved? That is because sin is truly a wicked thing, which corrupts everything it touches. Sin was born out of disobedience against God, and therefore, sin is caused by our pride, our ego, our desire that go against the Lord’s wish and will. And sin corrupts the body, the mind, the heart and the soul. Essentially, it makes us unworthy of God, just like our ancestors Adam and Eve.

When we sin, we cannot stand before God and we cannot be with Him, as God is all good, and sin is evil and wicked. Our sins will destroy us and crush us before God, and we will be judged for those sins. Sin separates us from God, and hell should have been our due, as hell is the complete absence of any hope of salvation and a state of total separation from God’s love.

But God desired otherwise, and He gave us Jesus, to be the One through Whom we all have a new hope in our lives. Through Jesus, a bridge has been established, spanning the gap between us and God, Our Lord and Father. He is the Mediator of a new Covenant that has been made between God and us mankind. He has shown us the perfect and selfless love that God has for each and every one of us.

Yet, many of us behaved like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who obstinately refused to believe in the Lord and opposed Him at every possible opportunity. They doubted and questioned Him, and this made the Lord very angry, especially when they doubted the work of God made through the Holy Spirit, when clearly God was at work. Instead, they alleged that the Lord had made His works through the power of Beelzebul, a prince of demons.

What we must realise here, brothers and sisters in Christ, is that God’s mercy and forgiveness is vast and great, and as long as we are willing to repent and to believe in Him, we shall be forgiven from our sins, and we will be reconciled with Him. Yet, if we constantly refused to repent and believe, and even reject the good works of God and considering them as falsehood and wicked, that is what the Lord mentioned as the sin against the Holy Spirit, which will not be forgiven.

God does not throw us mankind into hell, but rather, it is we ourselves who warrant ourselves hell for eternity, because of our pride, ego, greed, desire and all the things that prevented us from finding our way to the Lord, and from being forgiven of our sins. We falter in our ways, and we fell into sin, but it is up to us to accept God’s rich offer of mercy, turn ourselves to Him and be forgiven.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to love us despite our many trespasses against Him. Let us all renew the commitment to live worthily and to be devoted to Him, each and every moments of our lives. May God bless us all and our every endeavours, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 10 June 2018 : Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 3 : 20-35

At that time, Jesus and His disciples went home. The crowd began to gather again and they could not even have a meal. Knowing what was happening, His relatives came to take charge of Him, “He is out of His mind,” they said.

Meanwhile, the teachers of the Law, who had come from Jerusalem, said, “He is in the power of Beelzebul : the chief of the demons helps Him to drive out demons.”

Jesus called them to Him, and began teaching them by means of stories, or parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a nation is divided by civil war, that nation cannot stand. If a family divides itself into groups, that family will not survive. In the same way, if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he will not stand; he is finished.”

“No one can break into the house of a strong man in order to plunder his goods, unless he first ties up the strong man. Then indeed, he can plunder his house. Truly, I say to you, every sin will be forgiven humankind, even insults to God, however numerous. But whoever slanders the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He carries the guilt of his sin forever.”

This was their sin when they said, “He has an unclean spirit in Him.”

Then the mother and brothers of Jesus came. As they stood outside, they sent someone to call Him. The crowd sitting around Jesus told Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are outside asking for You.” He replied, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”

And looking around at those who sat there, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to Me.”

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Sunday, 10 June 2018 : Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

2 Corinthians 4 : 13 – 2 Corinthians 5 : 1

We have received the same spirit of faith referred to in Scripture, that says : I believed and so I spoke. We know that He, Who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us, with Jesus, and bring us, with you, into His presence. Finally, everything is for your good, so that grace will come more abundantly upon you, and great will be the thanksgiving for the glory of God.

Therefore, we are not discouraged. On the contrary, while our outer being wastes away, the inner self is renewed, from day to day. The slight affliction, that quickly passes away, prepares us for an eternal wealth of glory, so great, and beyond all comparison. So, we no longer pay attention to the things that are seen, but to those that are unseen, for the things that we see last for a moment, but that which cannot be seen is eternal.

We know that, when our earthly dwelling, or, rather, our tent, is destroyed, we may count on a building from God, a heavenly dwelling, not built by human hands, that lasts forever.

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Sunday, 10 June 2018 : Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 129 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-7a, 7bc-8

Out of the depths I cry to You, o Lord, o Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears pay attention to the voice of my supplication.

If You should mark our evil, o Lord, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness.

For that You are revered. I waited for the Lord, my soul waits, and I put my hope in His word. My soul expects the Lord more than watchmen the dawn.

O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with Him is unfailing love and with Him full deliverance. He will deliver Israel from all its sins.

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Sunday, 10 June 2018 : Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Genesis 3 : 9-15

YHVH God called the man saying to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard Your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree I ordered you not to eat?”

The man answered, “The woman You put with me gave me fruit from the tree and I ate it.” God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”

YHVH God said to the serpent, “Since you have done that, be cursed among all the cattle and wild beasts! You will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I will make you enemies, you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”

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Saturday, 17 June 2017 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, speaking to us about how we have been saved by the Lord, Who had reconciled us to Himself. And all of us as Christians are called to live our lives henceforth for the sake of the Lord, and to bring glory to the Lord, and no longer seeking glory for ourselves.

All of us have been called to serve the Lord with faith, zeal and real commitment, and this is what all of us Christians must do, that we are truly worthy of being called Christians. The essence of what we heard in the Gospel passage today is the same. When the Lord said to the people and to His disciples, that they should not swear by the heavens or the earth, or by Jerusalem, or by God Himself, He was not prohibiting them from making oaths or swearing, but rather, what He wanted to say is, that all Christians must really mean what they say and show it through real action.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us ask ourselves, how many of us made promises upon each other, with many words and persuasions, only to renege on those promises later on? It cannot be the case for our faith, for in reality, there are many Christians who have made their baptismal vows and promises during their baptism, and which are renewed every year at Easter, who then committed what is evil and wicked before the Lord.

And this is because the lack of faith among those who have not obeyed the Lord in His ways and commandments. If we have a strong and genuine faith, certainly then we will try our best to fulfil what the Lord has required us all to do in our respective lives. But when our faith is not solid, when it is shaky and we easily stumble on temptations and persuasions to do what is evil, then we end up failing in fulfilling what we have promised to do before the Lord. And thus we commit sin.

The Lord is calling all of us to live our faith with sincerity and zeal. We can no longer be complacent or be ignorant of what our faith requires from us. We can no longer treat our faith as if it is merely just a formality and nothing else. Nothing good can come from having Christian listed as our identity or religion, if we then do nothing at all about it in our lives, or worse still, doing what is contrary to our Christian faith.

In all of this, we may think that we need to do a lot of things in our life. But in reality, it is indeed just our commitment and desire to do what the Lord wants us to do is required. If we cannot even give our heart’s commitment in small matters, how then can we give it for matters that are complicated and difficult? We have to begin from ourselves, by reexamining the way we have lived our lives.

Have we given our time daily for the Lord and spending that time with Him? Many of us have forgotten to pray to Him. And if you think that prayer is a matter of saying sets of pre-crafted prayers, then that is not good enough. Our prayers must be sincere and genuine communication with God, in which we ought to open our hearts and let the Lord to speak in the depths of our hearts, and we can then have a good conversation with Him, knowing what it is that He wants us to do.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we therefore from now on renew our commitment to the Lord? Shall we seek to love Him with ever greater zeal and desire to love Him with all of our hearts, minds, bodies and souls? Let us all be true Christians who have genuine faith in God, and not just as mere formality or showing a fake and empty faith.

Let us all devote ourselves through our every words, actions and deeds, that all of them will declare the glory of God, and therefore, all of us will be worthy before the Lord, Who will bless us all, His faithful ones, forevermore. Amen.

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Saturday, 17 June 2017 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Matthew 5 : 33-37

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “You have also heard that people were told in the past : Do not break your oath; an oath sworn to the Lord must be kept. But I tell you this : do not take oaths. Do not swear by the heavens, for they are God’s throne; nor by the earth, because it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King.”

“Do not even swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white of black. Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything else you say comes from the evil one.”

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Saturday, 17 June 2017 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 8-9, 11-12

Praise YHVH, my soul; all my being, praise His Holy Name! Praise YHVH, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.

He forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; He redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion.

YHVH is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger; He will not always scold nor will He be angry forever.

As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove from us our sins.

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Saturday, 17 June 2017 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
2 Corinthians 5 : 14-21

Indeed, the love of Christ holds us, and we realise, that, if He died for all, all have died. He died for all, so, that, those who live, may live no longer for themselves, but for Him, Who died, and rose again for them. And so, from now on, we do not regard anyone from a human point of view; and even if we once knew Christ personally, we should now regard Him in another way.

For that same reason, the one who is in Christ is a new creature. For Him, the old things have passed away; a new world has come. All this is the work of God, Who, in Christ, reconciled us to Himself, and Who entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation. Because, in Christ, God reconciled the world with Himself, no longer taking into account their trespasses, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

So we present ourselves as ambassadors, in the Name of Christ, as in God, Himself, makes an appeal to you, through us. Let God reconcile you; this, we ask you, in the Name of Christ. He had no sin, but God made Him bear our sin, so, that, in Him, we might share the holiness of God.