13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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Saturday, 5 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the Lord’s providence for His people, His love and care for all those whom He loves, and all those whom He has called and chosen to be His own. And we also have to put our trust in what He has provided for us, and taught us all to do, even if things may not go the way that we commonly think or expect, as we must also remember that God’s ways are truly above and beyond our ways, and often times we may not be aware of this fact especially if we assume that what we know of is what the Lord wants from us. Rather, the Lord inspires us and tells us through His revelations, through what He has brought us via His Son, and the Holy Spirit, of what He truly wants from us, the path that He wants us to follow Him through.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Genesis, we heard of the moment when Isaac, the son of Abraham was already ageing, and his two sons, the elder Esau and the younger Jacob, were vying for their father’s attention and blessing, the blessing which they coveted as whoever that Isaac blessed would become the one to inherit the blessing of God, which had been given to Abraham, and then to Isaac, and then to whoever it is that Isaac blessed, as the one whom God would choose and make to be a great nation. Isaac was favouring Esau the elder son, while Rebekah, Isaac’s wife was favouring their younger son, Jacob. There was also another context of what was not explicitly mentioned in the Scriptures, that Esau was also involved in relationship with Canaanite woman, while the preference of Abraham and his family was that they ought to take a wife from their own people, which Jacob eventually did.

Therefore, through the events that we heard today, while it might seem to be strange why God was party to this trickery which Jacob employed with the support of his mother, Rebekah, in tricking Isaac into thinking that he was his elder brother and therefore received the blessings which his father had intended to give to Esau, we must understand the bigger picture, knowing that what God desires and seeks may not be what is customary and usual, and also unlike what we may expect and desire ourselves. And that was how God in His mysterious will and design chose Jacob, the younger son over Esau, the older son, as it is also in accordance to His greater schemes and designs. This is also understood in the manner how Jacob was more interested in the spiritual blessings from Jacob, while Esau was looking for a more earthly and physical blessings, in the manner of possessions rather than true blessing that matters.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the Lord Jesus telling the disciples of St. John the Baptist who came to Him asking Him about why He and His disciples did not fast in the manner that they themselves and the Pharisees had been fasting, which was following the customs and practices of the Jews at the time in their interpretation of the Law of God as revealed through Moses. Contextually we must also understand and appreciate the fact that the way how the Law of God had been interpreted by those same Pharisees and the people of God had been gradually veering away from what the Lord had intended for His Law and ways to be used by them.

For example, the Pharisees in particular were so engrossed in the manner how the Law ought to be practiced that they often ended up forgetting and overlooking why the Law was given and entrusted to us in the first place, which is to help us to orientate ourselves in this world and to show us all how we can love God and love one another, and that is why He gave the Law and taught His people through Moses that they all might know how they could live in a manner that was more pleasing and worthy of God. But over the centuries since the Law was revealed to them, the people passing down the Law, the rules and regulations began to change and alter them to suit their desires and wants, and began to make amendments and having different interpretations on those laws and rules.

As a result, many among those Pharisees were practicing their faith in the wrong manner and with the wrong intentions. Many among them, as the Lord Jesus Himself criticised them for, paraded their faith and pious actions before everyone, and such as the matter of fasting, they made sure that everyone knew that they fasted, in their practices and in wearing of sackcloths. Such a public show of faith and piety, while not necessarily wrong, but with the improper focus and attention led to them being engrossed with their own self-importance and self-righteousness, and with their ego, pride and desire, in fact distanced them further from the Lord instead of making them truly righteous and worthy of Him.

That is why the Lord told those disciples of St. John the Baptist that His ways are greater and better than the ways which the Pharisees and those disciples of St. John the Baptist themselves had followed. He used the parable of the new and old cloth, and also the old and new wine and wineskins to highlight this, showing how the incompatibility between the new and old cloth, and also the new wineskin with old wine, and vice versa, are just like the incompatibility of what the Lord truly wanted from His people with what those same people, like the Pharisees and the disciples of St. John the Baptist had done. Therefore, in order to be truly faithful to the Lord, one ought to listen to the Lord and follow Him in everything which He had told them all to do in their lives, instead of opposing Him and refusing to follow Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Anthony Zaccaria, a holy man of God and priest whose faith and dedication to the Lord should be an inspiration for all of us to follow in our own lives as well. St. Anthony Zaccaria was born in Italy during the Renaissance era, and he was inspired and called to the priesthood after studying to be a physician, eventually continuing to explore his calling in tending to the poor and the sick in his community. He eventually founded the congregation known as the Barnabites, and was also known for his popularisation of the forty-hours devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, through which he helped to deepen the faith and spirituality among many of the people of his time. Through his tireless efforts and works, St. Anthony Zaccaria had indeed done many wonderful deeds for the good of the Lord, and showed us what it truly means for us to be a follower of Christ, in doing His will and not in following the ways of the world.

May the Lord continue to inspire and strengthen us all in our resolve to live our lives faithfully as Christians from now, especially inspired by the examples of the great saints, particularly that of St. Anthony Zaccaria whose memory we venerate today, and may He nudge us all to commit to a good and worthy life in Him if we have not done so yet. May He give us the strength and courage to carry out our Christian faith most faithfully and genuinely in our every actions, in our every interactions with one another, in our every single contributions, even in the smallest and seemingly least important actions and works. May He bless our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 5 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Gospel Reading)

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

Matthew 9 : 14-17

At that time, the disciples of John came to Jesus with the question, “How is it, that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not Your disciples?”

Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The time will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then, they will fast.”

“No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for the patch will shrink and tear an even bigger hole in the coat. In the same way, you do not put new wine into old wine skins. If you do, the wine skins will burst and the wine will be spilt. No, you put new wine into fresh skins; then both are preserved.”

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Saturday, 5 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Psalm)

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

Psalm 134 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Alleluia! Praise the Name of YHVH. O servants of YHVH, praise Him, you, who serve in the house of YHVH, in the courts of the house of our God.

Praise YHVH, for He is good; praise His Name, for it is beautiful; for YHVH has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His possession.

I know that YHVH is great, that our YHVH is above all gods. Whatever YHVH pleases, He does – in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in their depths.

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Saturday, 5 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (First Reading)

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

Genesis 27 : 1-5, 15-29

When Isaac was old and his eyes so weak that he could no longer see, he called Esau, his older son, and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” he answered. Isaac continued, “You see I am old and I do not know when I shall die; so take your weapons, your bow and arrow, go out into the country and hunt some game for me. Then prepare some of the savoury food I like and bring it to me so that I may eat and give you my blessing before I die.”

Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau went into the country to hunt game and bring it back, she took the best clothes of her elder son Esau that she had in the house and put them on Jacob, her younger son. With the goatskin she covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck, and she handed to him the bread and food she had prepared.

He went to his father and said, “Father!” He answered, “Yes, my son, who is it?” And Jacob said to his father, “It is Esau, your firstborn; I have done what you told me to do. Come, sit up and eat my game so that you may give me your blessing.” Isaac said, “How quick you have been my son!” Jacob said, “YHVH, your God, guided me.”

Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near and let me feel you, my son, and know that it is you, Esau my son, or not.” When Jacob drew near to Isaac, his father felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He did not recognise him, for his hands were hairy like the hands of Esau his brother and so he blessed him.

He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” And Jacob answered, “I am.” Isaac said, “Bring me some of your game, my son, so that I may eat and give you my blessing.” So Jacob brought it to him and he ate. And he brought him wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” So Jacob came near and kissed him.

Isaac then caught the smell of his clothes and blessed him, saying, “The smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. May God give you the dew of heaven; and of the richness of the earth; and abundance of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you and nations bow down before you. Be lord over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone that curses you and blessed be everyone that blesses you!”

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Friday, 4 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to the words of the Lord contained within the Sacred Scriptures today, we are reminded that God has always kept us in His mind, caring for us and showing us all His most generous love at all times, reaching out to us and providing for us everything that we need in our lives, and we need to trust in Him and follow Him when He calls upon us to follow Him, in whatever paths that He has led us into. We should always put our trust and faith in the Lord, not worrying about what we will receive in life, but trusting instead that He will always provide for us. Like what He has done to those whom He had called, and those who willingly embraced Him and followed Him, we should allow the Lord to transform us and our lives so that we may truly be worthy of Him at all times.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Genesis, we heard of the time when Sarah, the wife of Abraham died in the Promised Land. She had followed Abraham in his journey to the land that God had called him to, and miraculously gave birth to Isaac, the son that was promised by God and which yet seemed to be impossible at that time, as Sarah was already way past childbearing age, and she was already waiting for ages to try to have a child with Abraham without avail. And yet, God fulfilled her dreams beyond her imaginations, and gave her the son that she had wanted for so long. Isaac, that promised son, grew great in stature and wisdom, and God was with him, and when Sarah passed away, both Abraham and Isaac grieved greatly for their loss.

But the Lord also continued to provide, giving Isaac a bride from among his own people, by Abraham sending Isaac back to his homeland, in asking for the hand of Rebekah, from among his own relatives, to be the one to accompany Isaac. And we heard how Isaac made the journey and eventually encountered Rebekah, and they came together, were married and became the continuation of the fulfilment of God’s promises to His people, His promise that Abraham would become the father of many nations. Through Isaac would be born Esau and Jacob, the forefather of the Edomites and the Israelites respectively. And it was through the younger son Jacob, whose descendants were chosen as God’s holy and beloved people, the first ones He called, that God accomplished everything that He had promised.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus called one of His Twelve principal disciples, namely that of St. Matthew himself, the author of today’s Gospel reading. Back then, St. Matthew was known as Levi, a tax collector, and tax collector at that time had a rather bad image among the people of God. They were seen as being greedy and wicked, overcharging the people for their own benefits, and some also saw and considered them as traitors to the people due to the nature of their work in collecting taxes on behalf of the Romans or the Herodians, or both, which often brought great hardships on the people who were struggling to make ends meet.

As such, they were often considered, especially by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law as sinners, defiled and corrupted, and unworthy therefore of God’s love and grace. To interact with a tax collector is considered to be taboo because by the standards of the time, that would have caused those who interacted with them to be defiled as well, something which was shared by the others deemed to be sinners and unclean, like the prostitutes, those who were afflicted with diseases and possessed by evil spirits. And yet, the Lord Jesus reached out to the tax collectors and was kind and compassionate towards them, and He called Levi to follow Him, to be His disciple and follower, because He knew that in his heart, he had the desire and the potential to be a great servant of God.

And Levi did respond to the Lord’s call, and he answered in the most wholehearted manner, welcoming the Lord into his own household and gathering his fellow tax collectors to come and listen to the Lord. He also left behind everything, all of his work and possessions, and committed himself thoroughly to the Lord henceforth, becoming one of His closest and most faithful disciples. He changed his name to Matthew, just as Abraham was once known as Abram and Sarah was known as Sarai, symbolising that great change and conversion in life which all of them had experienced. And thanks to this, many great things happened because of what St. Matthew had dedicated himself towards the works of evangelisation, as well as in his authorship of the Gospel that we heard from today.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Elizabeth of Portugal, who was the Queen of Portugal for more than four decades as the wife of the King of Portugal then, King Denis. She was born as a princess of the Kingdom of Aragon in Spain, and she had been brought up in a very pious manner from her early youth. She was married to the King of Portugal at the age of eleven, and had a great married life with the King. She continued to be pious and devoted in all of her actions and works, committing herself as Queen to the care of the poor and the sick throughout the kingdom. She was also known for her role as a peacemaker, making peace between the warring kingdoms of Castile and Aragon in what is today part of Spain. And after her husband, the King of Portugal passed away, she retired to a monastery, while continuing with her charitable efforts and even in her peacemaking works.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired and strengthened by the words of assurances that we have heard from our Scripture readings today and from the life of St. Elizabeth of Portugal. Let us all be reminded that we are always beloved by God, and we will always be blessed and guided by Him, given the providence and protection that we need in our paths and journeys in life. We just have to trust fully and wholeheartedly in God’s guidance, doing our very best to glorify Him by every actions and good works that we do in our daily lives. May our lives be truly fruitful in the Lord, be blessed and empowered by God’s Presence in our lives. May He bless our every good works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 4 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Matthew 9 : 9-13

At that time, as Jesus moved on from where He healed the paralytic man, He saw a man named Matthew, at his seat in the custom-house; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And Matthew got up and followed Him.

Now it happened, while Jesus was at table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is it, that your Master eats with sinners and tax collectors?”

When Jesus heard this, He said, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. Go, and find out what this means : What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

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Friday, 4 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Psalm 105 : 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5

Alleluia! Give thanks to YHVH, for He is good, for His love endures forever. Who can count YHVH’s mighty deeds, or declare all His praises?

Blessed are they who always do just and right. Remember me, o YHVH, when You show favour to Your people.

Rescue me when You deliver them; let me see the triumph of Your faithful; let me share the joy of Your nation; and join Your people in praising You.

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Friday, 4 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Genesis 23 : 1-4, 19 and Genesis 24 : 1-8, 62-67

Sarah lived a hundred and twenty-seven years. She died at Kiriatharba – that is Hebron – in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to weep and mourn for Sarah. Abraham left his dead one and spoke to the Hittites, “I am only a stranger among you; give me a burial place among you, so that I may bury my dead.”

After this Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of Machpelah. Abraham was now old and well on in years, and YHVH had blessed him in every way. Abraham said to his senior servant, who was his steward, “Put your hand under my thigh and you will swear to me by YHVH, God of heaven and earth, that you will not choose a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom we live; rather it is to my country and my kinsfolk that you will go to choose a wife for my son, Isaac.”

The servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman will not want to follow me to this country. In that case should I take your son to the country you came from?” Abraham said to him, “In no way will you take my son back. For YHVH, God of heaven and God of earth, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, spoke to me and swore to me that He would give this country to my race.”

“He will send His Angel before you, that you may find a wife for my son. But if the woman is unwilling to follow you, you will be free of this oath. In any case you are not to take my son down there.”

Now Isaac had come from the well of Lahai-roi, for he was living in the Negeb. As Isaac went out in the early evening to meditate in the field, he looked up and saw camels coming. Rebekah also looked up and when she saw Isaac she alighted from her camel and said to the servant, “Who is this man in the field coming to meet us?”

He replied, “It is my master!” She then covered her face with her veil. The servant related to Isaac all that he had done, and Isaac brought Rebekah into the tent of Sarah, his mother. He made her his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

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Thursday, 3 July 2025 : Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, one of the members of the Twelve Apostles, the innermost circle of the Lord’s disciples and followers. St. Thomas was particularly known as one who often doubted the Lord, and was known as St. Thomas Didymus or the Twin, probably because he might have had a twin brother, and he was always the skeptical one amongst the disciples of the Lord, as if we read through the other parts of the Gospels, we can see how he was always first to question the Lord and His decisions, and this continued on even after the Lord had risen from the dead, just as we have heard from our Gospel passage today.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Ephesus, the Apostle speaking about how each and every one of us as God’s holy and beloved people have been made to be the Holy Temple of God, the Temple and House of His Holy Presence, and we have become parts of the Church, the stones and foundations of the Church of God together with the Apostles and the other disciples of the Lord, the saints, the martyrs and all the other holy people of God, past and present. Through this reading we are all reminded that each and every one of us share in the same mission which the Lord has entrusted to His Apostles, in proclaiming the Word of God, the Good News of salvation and in calling all the people of all the nations to God.

We are reminded that just as we celebrate the memory of the great Apostle St. Thomas, celebrating the great faith and dedication by which he had committed himself to the missions entrusted to him, we should be inspired by those same examples and actions, all the love and commitment which St. Thomas and the other Apostles, and the many other holy saints, holy men and women of God have shown us. We must realise that they all did not do their great works alone on their own, but working together with one another in achieving their goals, in supporting one another in the good efforts and endeavours that we are carrying out for the greater glory of God. We have to be active in carrying out our own ministry and works in our respective communities of the faithful, at all times.

Then from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the moment when St. Thomas himself, who at first doubted the Resurrection of the Lord, encountered the Risen Lord in person. He was not there in the room together with the other Apostles and disciples when the Lord first appeared to them in His Risen glory, and he refused to believe when the other Apostles and disciples tried to convince him that the Lord had indeed risen from the dead. St. Thomas, ever the doubter, refused to believe even when everyone else had believed, and challenged the Lord to appear before him and showing him the signs of His Resurrection and how He was indeed truly the One Who had been crucified and then rose from the dead as the others had claimed.

But the Risen Lord appeared before him and the others, and asked St. Thomas to do everything as he has asked and demanded of Him, and that was when St. Thomas, humbled and amazed by the truth, finally broke free from his unbelief and doubt, from his stubbornness and disobedience, and in a powerful public expression of faith, he declared before everyone, ‘My Lord and my God’, and these words if we remember and realise, each one of us also speak of at every moment when the bread and wine, which have been offered at the Holy Mass, have been consecrated and turned into the very Essence and reality of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord Himself, and which we therefore believe without a doubt, as a core and most central tenet of our faith even when we cannot see Him truly as how the Apostles had seen Him.

According to Apostolic tradition, after the Lord’s Ascension into Heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit, St. Thomas was actively involved in the works of evangelisation and the spreading of the Christian faith and the Good News of God. St. Thomas was commonly associated with the evangelisation efforts in India, where the community of Christians that originated all the way from the time of St. Thomas’ ministry remains till this very day, also known as ‘St. Thomas Christians’, in the maritime regions of southern India where St. Thomas had apparently visited and ministered in. St. Thomas spent many years proclaiming the Good News of God to those people who have not yet known Him, patiently reaching out to those who have not been willing to listen to the words of the truth.

And thanks to his great works, many were turned towards the Lord and became believers, no longer walking in the darkness and ignorance of God’s truth, but receiving through the words, actions and works of St. Thomas, the grace of everlasting life and true happiness with God. He endured many trials and struggles just as he encountered many successes, difficulties and challenges just as he has earned many great conversions to the one true faith in God. Eventually, like most of the other Apostles and many of the Lord’s other disciples, St. Thomas also faced persecution and martyrdom, giving up his life in great suffering after he has proven his faith to the very end, from someone who have always doubted the Lord to someone who was willing to die for his faith in Him. His examples and dedication, his change of heart should indeed inspire all of us in our own faith and lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by the great examples which St. Thomas the Apostle has shown us, all the dedication, commitment and love which he has done throughout his life, in devoting his time and effort to spread the Good News, the Gospel of Christ, His salvation and assurance to more and more people. May all of us be strengthened in our own faith and devotion, doing our best to follow the examples of the Apostles and the saints, particularly that of St. Thomas the Apostle, in serving the Lord at all times, as best as we can. May God be with us always and bless our every good endeavours. Amen.

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Thursday, 3 July 2025 : Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 20 : 24-29

At that time, Thomas, the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with the other Eleven when Jesus came. The other disciples told Him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he replied, “Until I have seen in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in His side, I will not believe.”

Eight days later, the disciples were again inside the house and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see My hands; stretch out your hand, and put it into My side. Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe!”

Thomas said, “You are my Lord and my God.” Jesus replied, “You believe because you see Me, do you not? Happy are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”