Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded that we should continue to be faithful to the Lord as we have been reminded these past few weekdays, with reassurances and reminders that God is always faithful and committed to the Covenant that He has made with each and every one of us, His beloved people. He will not abandon any of us to the darkness and destruction, and we are all always precious to Him and beloved by Him in all things and at all circumstances. We have to put our faith and trust in the Lord and be good examples of faith and commitment to Him, our Lord and Master, so that many more people may also come to believe in Him as well.

In our first reading today, we heard of the conclusion of the exhortation and reminders which Moses gave in a speech to the people of Israel, as some sorts of a farewell speech towards the end of the Israelites’ forty years of journey through the desert towards their Promised Land of Canaan. Moses had already spent those forty years guiding, leading and shepherding the people of God and including the time that he spent earlier on in Egypt in liberating God’s people from the hands of the Egyptians and their Pharaoh. And throughout all those challenging years, Moses had to face a lot of hardships and grievances, from all the stubborn attitudes of the Israelites and their constant rebelliousness and disobedience against God, their constant complaints and refusals to obey God’s Law, and even to personal betrayals such as those by his own siblings, Aaron and Miriam, who openly contested the leadership of the Israelites with him before God.

Moses had remained firm in his conviction and commitment to lead the people of God, and even though he himself also committed mistakes that prevented him from entering the Promised Land of Canaan, but he lived to see the moment when the people of God finally was about to enter to the lands promised to them. And it was at that very time and moment that Moses made this speech before the whole assembly of the Israelites, telling and reminding them to keep in mind everything that God had done for their sake, with all of His love and kindness, compassion and mercy, and all that God had done in protecting them from their enemies and providing them with all their needs. That is what we heard being mentioned by Moses in our first reading passage today.

God had cleared the path for His beloved ones, and prepared everything just as He has planned it, and the people of Israel should indeed appreciate and be thankful of the great blessings and graces which they had indeed received from God, and which they had often taken for granted. Like the Israelites, who had been instructed to pass on their knowledge of God and everything that God had done for them to their next generations, so that even with the passage of time, God’s works and deeds might still be known, hence, this is also something which we ourselves ought to be doing in our own lives today. We should be good role models and inspirations for everyone around us so that in everything that we say and do, we will inspire many more to believe in God as well.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, we heard of the story from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist reminding each and every one of us that we should be truly faithful to the Lord and be truly committed to His paths and ways in each and every things that we do in life. All of us as Christians have been called to have a genuine faith and strong relationship with God beyond what is superficial and mere formality. This is highlighted by the Lord when He first mentioned how all of His disciples and followers ought to be like the little children in their faith and trust in Him, and this is significant because if we truly understand what the Lord meant, it means that He was calling on all of them to have a faith that is truly genuine and heartfelt, and not one that is conditional and burdened by our many desires and temptations.

The faith of a child is truly pure, brothers and sisters in Christ. When a child believes in something, he or she truly believes from all of his or her heart. This is exactly what the Lord wants us all to do, that we ought to have genuine faith and true, enduring love for God, with all of our strength, with all of our hearts and with all of our might, or else our faith is one that is merely superficial and meaningless. Therefore, unless we have this strong, enduring and vibrant faith in God, it will be difficult for us to continue to follow the Lord faithfully and in a genuine manner. Unfortunately for many of us, our faith are often intermingled with all sorts of veiled interests and desires, as we have allowed these worldly corruptions to affect us and distort our faith in the Lord.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, who was born in France in the late sixteenth century, and eventually married Baron de Chantal, from whom she got her surname, becoming a dedicated wife and mother of the household, caring for her husband and for her father-in-law, while at the same time also spent a lot of time and effort in caring for her neighbours and those who were needy in her community and surroundings. When her husband was killed in a hunting incident almost a decade after their marriage, St. Jane Frances de Chantal continued to dedicate herself to her family and caring for her children. Eventually, she felt the calling to religious life, and despite rejections and discouraging remarks due to her widow status and age, she kept on persevering.

Eventually, she founded the Congregation of the Visitation, gathering together women of similar conditions as hers, those who have been rejected by the other religious orders on grounds of health and age. They all were unlike most other religious orders for women that tended to remain sequestered in cloisters and monasteries, but they openly went out to the public spaces and the community to minister to the people of God, which is their charism and calling. The great generosity and sanctity shown by St. Jane Frances de Chantal inspired many people both from within her congregation and from outside, showing the kind of faith, love and dedication that each and every one of us as Christians ought to have for the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard of the life examples of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, and having also discerned what we have just discussed from today’s Scripture readings, let us therefore develop a strong, genuine and vibrant faith in the Lord, doing all that we can so that in everything that we say and do, we will always be ready to proclaim the Lord and His Good News to all, through even the smallest things that we do daily in our lives. May our actions, words and deeds truly show our Christian faith, and that we may always be genuine in our belief in the Lord, in all circumstances and in all things. May God bless our every good works, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.