14th Week of Ordinary Time

by

Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are presented with the sad and unfortunate reality of how the people rejected those whom the Lord had sent to them, and refused to believe in them and in the message of truth and revelation which God has given them through those servants. This is all because of our stubbornness and our lack of faith and trust in the Lord, as we often trust more in our own abilities and we discriminate others based on our prejudices and biases.

In our first reading today we heard about the Lord sending Ezekiel to the people of Israel in exile in Babylon, to be His prophet and messenger among them. At that time, the people of Israel had been scattered in faraway lands, as the northern kingdom of Israel, composed of most of ten of the twelve tribes of Israel had been crushed and conquered by the Assyrians over a century before the time of Ezekiel, and most of the people had been brought to exile. Then, the Babylonians in turn subjugated the southern kingdom of Judah and brought many of its people into exile as well.

Thus, it was to this people that the Lord had sent Ezekiel to be His mouthpiece among them, to be the one to bring His message of truth to them and to call them to repentance and to turn away from their sinful and wicked ways. It was because of their many sins and refusals to obey the Lord that they had fallen from grace, and the glory of the old kingdom of David and Solomon had faded and gone from them. In a short time after God sent Ezekiel to the exiles in Babylon, the rest of Judah and the city of Jerusalem itself would be destroyed, and the remaining people brought to exile as well.

The sins of the people separated them from God, and without God, as they stood alone on their own, they faltered and failed, fell and became disgrace among the nations. Yet, we can see that the Lord still cared for them and did not forget about them. He could have destroyed and annihilated them easily, or abandoned them forever and chose other people to be His own people, but He still patiently sought them out, called them and sent prophets one after another to them, through the days of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and up to that time, the prophet Ezekiel.

Many of those prophets were rejected and ridiculed, and not few among them were made to suffer and even were killed for their works and faith in the Lord. The prophets laboured hard for the sake of the Lord and His people, and many gave their all to glorify the Lord and to bring His people to salvation. They endured all sorts of trials and troubles, sacrificing their time and many other things in following God’s call. But the people often still hardened their hearts against the Lord and refused to believe in Him.

The same thing happened to the Lord as we heard in our Gospel passage today, as we heard how He was rejected in Nazareth, in His own village and hometown. The people of Nazareth publicly doubted and questioned the Lord and His authority and authenticity when He came to His own town, teaching and preaching among them. This despite Nazareth itself being not far from the region around the Lake of Galilee where the Lord had performed many miracles and works.

Why did the people of Nazareth reject the Lord? That is because many of them were prejudiced against Him, thinking that they knew better than Him and they saw Him as an unworthy upstart, as the mere Son of the village carpenter, St. Joseph, His foster-father. No one in Nazareth beyond His immediate family knew the Lord’s true identity, and this is why everyone thought of the Lord as a fraud, and someone who was just the Son of a carpenter could not have gained such wisdom or taught with such authority. It was simply impossible in their minds.

That was why they refused to acknowledge the Lord and His truth, and they questioned and doubted Him, looking down on Him despite everything that they had heard and seen. They refused to open their hearts and minds to welcome Him inside, and kept Him out of their minds. And before we ourselves look down on them, let us remind ourselves that we have often done the same in our own lives, in each and every moments of our existence.

We should ask ourselves how often is it that the Lord had called us to follow Him and yet we hesitated and refused to listen to Him. And even though He has patiently reached out to us via various means, we still continued to harden our hearts and minds, and are stubborn in adhering to our old ways and paths, in opposition to God, in how we have been selfish and mean to others, in loving ourselves more than we love God and our fellow brothers and sisters, in indulging our various pleasures and pursuits in life, among others.

Therefore, as we listened and are reminded by this Sunday’s Scripture readings, we are all called as Christians to be humble and to be willing to open our hearts and minds to the Lord. And we can do this best by spending more quality time with the Lord, especially through prayer. Unfortunately, this is where many of us are falling short, as we do not regularly pray to the Lord, or when we pray, we do not pray in the right way. Prayer is not the same as asking God to do things on our behalf or to fulfil our desires and whatever we wanted. It is not about asking God to miraculously solve our problems and other things that we often did in our prayers.

Instead, we should be willing to listen to the Lord and learn to listen to Him more. We should open our hearts and minds, and allow Him to speak to us in the depth of our souls, that we may know His will more and be more attuned to Him in our lives and actions. This is what we are all challenged to do as Christians, to be ever more genuine in the way we live our lives with faith in God, and to devote our time and effort to glorify the Lord at all times. We should allow the Lord to lead us and guide our path in life.

And lastly, may all of us also be the beacons of God’s light and truth in this darkened world today. Like the prophets and the servants of the Lord whom He had sent into our midst, we should also follow in their footsteps and be inspired by their faith and dedication, as well as by their enduring love for God. Are we willing and able to do so, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we willing to love the Lord more and to put our trust in Him, that we will always follow Him and obey His Law and precepts, in each and every moments? May God be with us all and may He bless us always in our every good efforts and endeavours. Amen.

by

Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 6 : 1-6

At that time, leaving the place where He raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead, Jesus returned to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and most of those who heard Him were astonished.

But they said, “How did this come to Him? What kind of wisdom has been given to Him, that He also performs such miracles? Who is He but the Carpenter, the Son of Mary, and the Brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here among us?” So they took offence at Him.

And Jesus said to them, “Prophets are despised only in their own country, among their relatives, and in their own family.” And He could work no miracles there, but only healed a few sick people, by laying His hands on them. Jesus Himself was astounded at their unbelief. Jesus then went around the villages, teaching.”

by

Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

2 Corinthians 12 : 7-10

However, I better give up, lest somebody think more of me than what is seen in me, or heard from me. Lest I become proud, after so many and extraordinary revelations; I was given a thorn in my flesh, a true messenger of Satan, to slap me in the face. Three times, I prayed to the Lord, that it leave me, but He answered, “My grace is enough for you; My great strength is revealed in weakness.”

Gladly, then, will I boast of my weakness, that the strength of Christ may be mine. So I rejoice, when I suffer infirmities, humiliations, want, persecutions : all for Christ! For when I am weak, then I am strong.

by

Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 122 : 1-2a, 2bcd, 3-4

To You, I lift up my eyes; to You, Whose throne is in heaven. As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master.

As the eyes of maids look to the hand of their mistress, so our eyes look to YHVH our God, till He shows us His mercy.

Have mercy on us, o YHVH, have mercy on us; for we have our fill of contempt. Too long have our souls been filled with the scorn of the arrogant, with the ridicule of the insolent.

by

Sunday, 4 July 2021 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ezekiel 2 : 2-5

A Spirit came upon me as He spoke and kept me standing; and then I heard him speak, “Son of Man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have sinned against Me to this day. Now I am sending you to these defiant and stubborn people to tell them ‘this is the Lord YHVH’s word.’”

“So, whether they listen or not, this set of rebels will know there is a prophet among them.”

by

Saturday, 11 July 2020 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us heard first of all from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, the description of a great vision that Isaiah received, as he saw the marvellous glory of God, the magnificent Throne of God and His divine majesty, enthroned among the Seraphim and Cherubim, the greatest among the Angels of God. The Lord showed Isaiah that vision to strengthen him and to make him know how He has chosen him to bear His words to the people and to proclaim His truth and prophesy in His Name.

And therefore, from then on, Isaiah after he enthusiastically answered God’s call with, ‘Here I am! Send me!’, went on to serve the people, speaking God’s words among them, encouraging them as shown at the moment when king Sennacherib of Assyria came up to besiege Jerusalem with a mighty army and mocked both God and the king, Isaiah reassured both the king of Judah and the people, that God would be with them and that for all the boasts and hubris of the Assyrian king, he was nothing compared to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Sure enough, no sooner that the Assyrian king had made his boast, blaspheming against God, that the Lord sent His Angels against the king’s mighty army, and wiped them all out with a great disaster and plague, that when morning broke, hundreds of thousands were dead and the Assyrian king Sennacherib had to abandon his siege and retreat back to his lands in shame. Through this, God showed that He is truly the One in charge, and the Master over all things.

And through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord has also promised His people that He would bring them salvation and liberation, as He renewed His promise of the coming of the Messiah or Saviour, Who was extensively spoken about in many of Isaiah’s prophecies. Through all these assurances, the Lord again wanted His people to have faith in Him and to keep their trust in Him, that despite everything that they might have suffered and endured because of their sins, their wickedness and disobedience, but God was always ready to welcome them back and be reconciled with them.

This reconciliation came about and was fulfilled through Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, the One Whom the prophet Isaiah had been prophesying about. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, the whole world has seen the salvation of God, and the world that was once filled with darkness and uncertainty, have seen the light and hope of God, finally revealed to all. And Christ reiterated again and again, including in what we have heard in our Gospel today, how we are truly fortunate to have God Who loves us all dearly and considers us precious.

In today’s Gospel, the Lord spoke of the trust that we ought to have in God because of just how precious we are in the sight of God, how beloved we are and how fortunate we are because every single one of us are blessed and important to God, no matter how small or insignificant we may think we are. The Lord has shown again from time to time, throughout history, how He has protected His faithful ones and provided for them in their time of need. And even at the darkest and the most vulnerable moments, when we mankind have no where else and nothing and no one else to turn to, the Lord is and will always be there for us.

But are we willing to accept Him? Are we even aware that He is always there for us, providing for us and granting us what we need? The Lord has shown us His ever present love and attention, but many of us have abandoned Him, left Him for other things, for worldly comforts and desires, for all sorts of temptations that made us more and more distant, and became more and more separated from God. That is why today we are reminded through these Scripture passages, to turn once again towards God if we have forgotten about Him or abandoned Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us have to remember how we are truly beloved by God and precious to Him, and then, even more importantly, we are called by God to do His will, to follow in the footsteps of the prophet Isaiah and help others to find their way back to God, and to remind them all of how great and loving God has been towards us. All of us have been called and share in this calling through our baptism, that we all are charged with spreading the word of God, to lead others to Him.

St. Benedict, holy Abbot and great father of Christian monasticism in the Western Christendom can be our great source of inspiration, as we celebrate his feast day today. St. Benedict, also known as St. Benedict of Nursia, was a great and holy servant of God, renowned for his piety and commitment to live a life of purity and prayer dedicated to God. He was born in a Roman noble family and had a good upbringing and life, but as he continued his education in Rome, the immorality and wickedness he witnessed made him to want to seek God.

As a result, he and his sister, St. Scholastica, began to seek God through prayerful life and retreat away from the world. Through his efforts and example, the foundations for Christian monastic practices in the Western Christendom were established, as he inspired many others to follow him in a life of asceticism and prayer dedicated to God, living in a close-knit community, and wrote the rule which would be remembered for many centuries and generations since, the Rule of St. Benedict, which would also inspire the rules in the many other monastic orders.

Through his life, St. Benedict inspired many people to turn once again towards the Lord, some of whom decided to follow his way of life and become an ascetic and monk, while others endeavoured to lead a better life more connected to God, through greater charity, life more attuned to God and more righteous and just in all of their dealings. Are we able to inspire others just as St. Benedict had done? That is why we need to follow God wholeheartedly and make our lives a great reflection of our Christian faith.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He make us all great instruments of His presence in this world. May He grant us the strength and courage to be ever faithful, dedicated to Him as how the prophet Isaiah and the many other prophets, and as St. Benedict of Nursia and the many other holy saints, holy men and women of God had done before us. May all of us be ever faithful, and be great and committed disciples of the Lord, in words, deeds and actions, now and always. Amen.

by

Saturday, 11 July 2020 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 10 : 24-33

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “A student is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. A student should be content to become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If the head of the household has been called Beelzebul, how much more, those of his household! So, do not be afraid of them!”

“There is nothing covered that will not be uncovered. There is nothing hidden that will not be made known. What I am telling you in the dark, you must speak in the light. What you hear in private, proclaim from the housetops. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but have no power to kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of Him Who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”

“For a few cents you can buy two sparrows. Yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father knowing. As for you, every hair of your head has been counted. Do not be afraid : you are worth more than many sparrows! Whoever acknowledges Me before others, I will acknowledge before My Father in heaven. Whoever rejects Me before others, I will reject before My Father in heaven.”

by

Saturday, 11 July 2020 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 92 : 1ab, 1c-2, 5

YHVH reigns, robed in majesty; YHVH is girded with strength.

The world now, is firm; it cannot be moved. Your throne stands from long ago, o YHVH; from all eternity You are.

Your decrees can be trusted; holiness dwells in Your House, day after day, without end, o YHVH.

by

Saturday, 11 July 2020 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Isaiah 6 : 1-8

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted; the train of His robe filled the Temple. Above Him were Seraphs, each with six wings : two to cover the face, two to cover the feet, and two to fly with. They were calling to one another : “Holy, Holy, Holy is YHVH Sabaoth. All the earth is filled with His glory!”

At the sound of their voices the foundations of the threshold shook and the Temple was filled with smoke. I said, “Poor me! I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips, and yet I have seen the King, YHVH Sabaoth.”

Then one of the Seraphs flew to me; in his hands was a live coal which he had taken with tongs from the Altar. He touched my mouth with it and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for Us?”

I answered, “Here I am. Send me!”

by

Friday, 10 July 2020 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the assurance of love and mercy from God, the assurance that no matter what, God will always be by our side regardless of whatever that had happened or will happen to us, and we can be sure of the Lord’s guidance and protection. That is because, if all else fail and all else fall apart, the Lord alone can be fully trusted and depended upon. His everlasting and enduring love for us is the reason for all these.

In our first reading today, as we heard from the Book of the prophet Hosea, after many days listening to God’s anger at His people’s constant disobedience and sins, their lack of faith and stubbornness in worshipping idols and performing what were wicked in the sight of God, today we heard that despite all of these, the Lord still truly loved His people, and called on all of them to return to Him, to repent from their sins, turning away from their wickedness and once again embrace God’s righteousness.

The Lord wanted all of them to throw away the shackles of their sins, to put their trust once again in Him instead of all the idols and other worldly powers that they had entrusted themselves to at that time, as many of the people turned instead to Baal, Ashtaroth, and other pagan gods for direction and guidance, instead of turning to God, and they trusted more in politics and worldly connections rather than to trust in God.

As mentioned in the passage today, what was spoken was truly prophetic, as Assyria mentioned in that passage as one of those to whom the Israelites had turned to for support, would in short time, ended up becoming the very one that would destroy the kingdom, its capital Samaria and brought its people into exile. All those who had sought to seek Assyria’s help and support, particularly in the context of the ever-bitter rivalry between the northern kingdom and the neighbouring country of Aram-Damascus would eventually be disappointed as both kingdoms were crushed by the rising Empire.

The Lord through His prophet Hosea was reminding His people that He alone has the power to guide them all to the true happiness and joy, and save them from their predicament and trouble. For He is truly the One with the power and authority to rule over all things, and there is no other things in this world that we can rely on or trust besides the Lord. Unfortunately, we are often too busy or preoccupied, distracted and ignorant to realise just how fortunate we have been, to have been so beloved by God, Who has always been ever so patient towards us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in our Gospel passage today, the Lord spoke of this same reassurance to His disciples, as He encouraged them and strengthened them, in saying that they should not fear of worry about themselves, should they encounter trials and challenges during their ministry and faithful commitment to His cause. He said all these to strengthen them and prepare them for what they were to experience. Many among the Apostles and disciples would endure prison, torture and suffering, and even death. Many others would endure trials and persecution, rejection and opposition.

The Lord reassured them that He would be with them, standing by them even through their most difficult moments. They would never be alone, or face their oppressors and challengers on their own accord. If they trust in the Lord, the Lord would be their strength and consolation, their guide and protector, and His Spirit would be with them, giving them wisdom and courage, brilliance and perseverance, just as most prominently we can see in St. Stephen’s martyrdom.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this past year alone, and especially this year, we have seen, witnessed and likely experienced for ourselves, how our usual trust and dependance on worldly matters and things have been shaken and our trust in them destroyed. We see how our society and respective communities were affected badly by all the negative implications of the current pandemic, troubles and conflicts affecting our whole world. When what we have thought all these while to be stable are gone and can no longer be trusted, who or what then can we turn our attention to?

Of course it is the Lord, He Who is ever constant and faithful, Whose love for us is ever present and enduring, even amidst all of our infidelities and lack of faith. God has shown us yet again and again, how He is ever patient, in calling us to return to Him and to be reconciled to Him. Yet, at the same time, we also have to realise that He is calling us to repent and turn away from our sins and wickedness, for if we constantly being stubborn and refuse His mercy, then it is by those sins that we will be condemned and judged.

Let us all turn towards God with a renewed love and dedication, that from now on we will draw ever closer to God, and be filled with deeper and more genuine faith in Him from now on. May the Lord be with us always, and may He be our inspiration, strength, guide and protector as we continue to journey through life with faith. May God bless us always, in all of our good works, now and forevermore. Amen.