14th Week of Ordinary Time

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Thursday, 13 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard how Joseph, the son of Jacob, then the Regent of all Egypt, was reunited with his brothers, who came to Egypt in order to buy grains and food for their family. They have once plotted against Joseph due to their jealousy and anger, and threw him into a well, before selling him off to the slavers who brought him to Egypt.

However, Joseph did not feel angry or resentful towards his brothers. Neither did he seek vengeance against them for what they had done. Instead, he returned their actions with love, revealing himself to them as their long lost brother, to their utter disbelief and shock. Thus was God’s will done, and the whole family of Jacob, the people of Israel were brought to Egypt and lived there in prosperity for a while, while Joseph was Regent over Egypt.

How is this related and relevant to what we heard in the Gospel passage today? We heard about how Jesus our Lord commissioned His disciples, sending them all to many places ahead of Him, to preach the Good News and to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. They were reminded not to bring anything in excess of what they actually needed, which was truly basic needs such as clothing and sandals.

The disciples of the Lord were called to serve the Lord wholeheartedly, fulfilling what He had promised His people, their redemption, liberation and forgiveness from all the faults and mistakes which they have committed in the past, beginning with the first mankind, Adam and Eve, right down through the ages, through their descendants to all of us living in this world today.

This is what we have heard, which was in common between our Gospel and first reading passages today. The forgiveness and mercy which was shown to those who have committed mistakes and faults. Joseph showed his mercy, forgiveness, love and compassion on those who have wronged him, and similarly, our Lord has also shown His mercy and forgiveness to all of us who have disobeyed Him and desire to be reconciled with Him.

This is the message which He has sent His disciples out there for, sending them from towns to towns and from villages to villages in order to preach the Good News of God’s salvation, to invoke His mercy and compassion among His people. He called them all to be His representatives and workers, to bring many more souls to be saved in God. This is what the Lord has endeavoured to do, and what we all need to take note of.

Why is that so? That is because all of us are called to walk in the footsteps of the Apostles, to be the ones who continue the good works begun by the Apostles and disciples of the Lord, who have toiled and laboured to bring the Gospel to the people and calling them to repentance. And in our world today, there are still many souls who are in need of salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, perhaps we should be inspired by the good examples of the holy saint, St. Henry, also known as Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor and a mighty ruler of Christendom who was however also known for his great magnanimity, compassion and care for the poor, the weak and the sick throughout his realms and domains.

St. Henry worked hard as a just and upright ruler, who placed his duties to his people ahead of his own personal desires and needs. And he was also a very active contributor to the Church by his many contributions to strengthening the Church throughout his realms. St. Henry established many churches and parishes, helping to build up a stable and strong foundation of the Church.

Now, let us ask ourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ. If someone like Henry II, holy Emperor and Saint can do such good deeds with what God had blessed them with, despite what must have been tempting for him to use the power and glory for his own personal purposes, but he instead used them to glorify God and for the benefit of his fellow men, those who have been placed under his care.

Are we able to make the same commitment? Are we able to walk in the footsteps of our holy predecessors? This we can do for the good of ourselves and our fellow brethren, all those who are still wandering in the darkness and separated from God’s love and mercy. This is the time for us to ask ourselves, what it is that we can do as Christians to be part of God’s plan for our salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore commit ourselves anew to the Lord, focusing our efforts to help out in God’s mission of love and mercy, calling mankind to a new life, blessed by God and worthy of Him. May the Lord bless us all and our endeavours, and may He remain with us always. Amen.

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Thursday, 13 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)
Matthew 10 : 7-15

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Go, and proclaim this message : The kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, cleanse the lepers, and drive out demons. Freely have you received, freely give. Do not carry any gold or silver or money in your purses. Do not take a travelling bag, or an extra shirt, or sandals, or a walking stick : workers deserve to be compensated.”

“When you come to a town or a village, look for a worthy person, and stay there until you leave. When you enter the house, wish it peace. If the people are worthy people, your peace will rest on them; if they are not worthy people, your blessing will come back to you.”

“And if you are not welcomed, and your words are not listened to, leave that house or that town, and shake the dust off your feet. I assure you, it will go easier for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment, than it will for the people of that town.”

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Thursday, 13 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)
Psalm 104 : 16-17, 18-19, 20-21

Then YHVH sent a famine and ruined the crop that sustained the land; He sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

His feet in shackles, his neck in irons; till what he foretold came to pass, and YHVH’s word proved him true.

The king sent for him; set him free; the ruler of the peoples released him. He put him in charge of his household and made him ruler of all his possessions.

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Thursday, 13 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)
Genesis 44 : 18-21, 23b-29 and Genesis 45 : 1-5

Judah then went forward and said, “My lord, allow your servant to speak. Do not be angry with your servant, although you are equal to Pharaoh himself. The last time you questioned your servants saying : ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ We said to my lord : ‘We have an aged father who had a child in his old age. His brother is dead and he is the only one left of his mother’s children. And his father loves him.'”

“Then you said to us : ‘Bring him down so that I can see him for myself, if your youngest brother did not come with you, you would not be admitted to my presence.’ All this we said to our father on returning there. So when he told us to come back and buy a little food, we said : ‘We cannot go down again unless our youngest brother is with us. We shall not be admitted to the lord’s presence unless our brother is with us.'”

“Then my father said : ‘You know that my wife had two children. One went away from me and has surely been torn to pieces since I have not seen him anymore. If you take this one from me and something happens to him you will bring my gray hair in sorrow to the grave.'”

Now Joseph could no longer control his feelings in the presence of all those standing by and he called out, “Leave my presence, everyone!” And only his brothers were with him when Joseph made himself known to them. He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard and the news spread through Pharaoh’s house.

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” And his brothers could not answer because they were terrified at seeing him. Joseph said, “Come closer,” and they drew nearer. “I am Joseph your brother, yes, it is me, the one you sold to the Egyptians. Now do not grieve or reproach yourselves for selling me, because God has sent me before you to save your lives.”

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Wednesday, 12 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us heard the story in the first reading which was taken from the Book of Genesis. In that passage, we heard about the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob known also as Israel, and Joseph was one of the twelve sons he had. The twelve sons of Israel would eventually become the twelve tribes of Israel, the people of God, whom later on He would call out of Egypt and bring to His Promised Land.

But today, we heard about the time long before all those events occurred, at the time when Joseph incurred the wrath and jealousy of his brothers because of his dreams and the preference shown unto him by his father, who lavished many gifts on him and his brother Benjamin, because they were born from his favourite and beloved wife in his old age. Thus, they plotted against him, threw him into a well, and sold him off to the Midianites who brought him to Egypt.

Joseph ended up in the land of Egypt as a slave, and he was wrongfully accused of sexual impropriety when the daughter of his master seduced him and Joseph refused her advances. But God did not forget about Joseph, the son of Israel, and instead, all of these has been in His plans and as part of His will all along. Joseph was sent before his brothers and his family to Egypt, because a great famine was coming into the world, and he was sent there to prepare the way for them and to ensure their survival and well-being in the years to come.

And thus, we came to what we heard in today’s passage, when the brothers of Joseph came to Egypt in order to buy food for themselves and their family, meeting Joseph whom God had made to be the great Regent of the entire Egypt, the second in command after the Pharaoh or King of Egypt himself. They did not recognise him at first and gave him homage in the manner as Joseph’s dreams had foretold it.

But Joseph did not return the malice and the evil deeds shown unto him during his youth by his brothers with vengeance and wrath. Instead, he still loved them and deeply cared for them all, even though it must indeed have been painful for him to suffer separation from his family and to endure the sufferings in slavery. He took good care of them and treated them well, even though he feigned to test them at the start, so that he might be able to see his brother Benjamin.

Eventually, the whole family of Joseph would be reunited, and Joseph would reunite with his father Jacob or Israel. The entire people of God would relocate to Egypt, until the time when the Lord rescued them and brought them out of slavery into the Promised Land. This is what we have heard in the passage today, and what we believed had happened with our forefathers in faith.

Then, in today’s Gospel, we heard about how Jesus our Lord called His twelve Apostles, the principal disciples whom He called to be those upon whom He entrusted His missions and good works among His people. The choosing of the number twelve among the disciples was symbolic, as the number twelve also represents the number of the sons of Israel, the tribes of Israel of which there are also twelve in number.

Through the Apostles, God showed His love and mercy for us all mankind, just as He had shown His mercy to His people, through the rejected son, Joseph, whom his brothers had betrayed and sold off to the slavers. Joseph had been ill-treated, and he has been rejected, and yet, through him, God made his people prosper in Egypt, and they were saved from their predicaments.

In the similar manner, Jesus the Son of God and Son of Man, has also been rejected by mankind, His brothers and sisters, as God made it so when He assumed the flesh of man and chose to be born of the Virgin, Blessed Mary His mother. He has become the rejected cornerstone, or keystone, cast away by the builders, as the Scriptures said. Yet, it was through Him that God had saved us all mankind, by the outpouring of His love through the cross.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, what we have heard through all the readings, are the stories of how God brought salvation to His people, through His everlasting love for us. What all of us Christians need to do, is first for us to realise that we are the successors of the Apostles and to all that God had commanded them to do. Let us all therefore, now, do our best as Christians, in order to fulfil that obligation, that is for us to bring the Good News of God, the truth of His salvation and love to our brethren.

Let us all rededicate ourselves to the Lord, and renew our faith in Him with ever greater fervour and commitment, filled with zeal and hope, that in all we do, in all that we say and act, we will always bring glory to God and His Name. May the Lord, Who have shown us His love through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and by His loving sacrifice on the cross, bless us always with His love. Amen.

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Wednesday, 12 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Matthew 10 : 1-7

At that time, Jesus called His Twelve disciples to Him, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out, and to heal every disease and sickness.

These are the names of the Twelve Apostles : first Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, the man who would betray Him.

Jesus sent these Twelve on mission, with the instruction : “Do not visit pagan territory and do not enter a Samaritan town. Go, instead, to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. Go, and proclaim this message : The kingdom of Heaven is near.”

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Wednesday, 12 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 32 : 2-3, 10-11, 18-19

Give thanks to YHVH on the harp and lyre, making melody and chanting praises. Amid loud shouts of joy, sing to Him a new song and play the ten-stringed harp.

YHVH frustrates the plans of the nations and brings to nothing the peoples’ designs. But His plan stands forever, and His heart’s design, through all generations.

But YHVH’s eyes are upon those who fear Him, upon those who trust in His loving kindness; to deliver them from death and preserve them from famine.

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Wednesday, 12 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Genesis 41 : 55-57 and Genesis 42 : 5-7a, 17-24a

When the land of Egypt began to suffer from the famine, the people came to Pharaoh for bread. But Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph and do as he tells you.” When the famine had spread throughout the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians for the famine was indeed severe over the land.

As the famine had worsened throughout the whole world, people came from other countries to buy grain from Joseph. So the sons of Israel were among those going to buy grain, for there was famine in Canaan. It was Joseph, as governor of the land, who sold the grain to all the people. When his brothers arrived they bowed before him, with their faces to the ground.

Joseph recognised his brothers but did not make himself known and so he put them in prison for three days. On the third day Joseph said to them, “I will help you save yourselves, for I am a man who fears God. If you are sincere, let one of your brothers remain prisoner in the house of the guard where you now are, and the rest of you take the grain to save your families from famine. Then you will bring back your youngest brother; so the truth of what you say will be proved and your lives spared.”

They did as they were ordered and said among themselves, “Alas! We are guilty because of the way we treated our brother when he pleaded with us for mercy, but we did not listen. That is why this trouble has come upon us.” Reuben answered them, “Did I tell you not to sin against the boy. But you did not listen and now we are brought to account for his blood.”

Now they did not know that Joseph understood them as there was an interpreter between them. As for Joseph, he withdrew and wept.

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Tuesday, 11 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us heard about the story of how Jacob struggled with God on his journey back towards the land of Canaan, after he had ended his exile in the land of his ancestors in Mesopotamia. And as he approached the land of Canaan, he heard how his brother Esau came towards him with many men and other people, and he was scared. That was why he sent his family and his servants in a separate group, fearing that his brother Esau was going to seek retribution against him.

What we heard in today’s story from the Book of Genesis is a continuation of what we have heard in the past few days on the story of Jacob and his family, the descendants of Abraham, the faithful servant of God. Jacob tricked Esau his elder brother, into surrendering his inheritance and seized his blessings from him. And thus, he was driven into a self-imposed exile, fleeing from the wrath of Esau for a while. God was with Jacob, and He guided him along the way.

But Jacob doubted, and in his fear, he fell into his own human frailties. That was when God came unto him, and struggled with him. Through that struggle, God reminded Jacob that with Him, nothing can go wrong, and with Him as his source of strength, he would have no need to fear. He is the source of all our hope and our strength. And still, we often doubted Him and did not believe Him.

This was shown in the Gospel passage which we heard today. The Gospel spoke of how Jesus our Lord was slandered by the Pharisees who accused Him of wrongdoing, spreading lies and untruths, charging that He cast out demons by the power of the prince of demons. And yet, despite all of these charges and lies they had made about Jesus, all of them did not deter Him from continuing His work and ministry among the people, caring for the sick and healing them, and bringing joy to God’s people.

The Pharisees did all that they had done because they were jealous of the Lord’s popularity and ability to teach with true authority. They refused to believe in Him because they were too confident and proud to acknowledge that their ways and thoughts had been mistaken, and that the Lord Jesus was right and delivering the truth to them. They have enjoyed many privileges due to their position in the society, and they saw Jesus as a threat to all that they had enjoyed thus while.

Thus they hardened their hearts, and trusted in their own human intellect and strength, refusing to listen to the word of God speaking to them, through what they have heard and witnessed. Even though they had seen all the miracles that Jesus had done in their midst, they still did not believe and continued to resist Him and working against Him and His disciples.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what can happen to us all as well. When we are in the moments of difficulty, it is often that we fear, just as Jacob had had fear in his heart and mind. And when we fear, because our faith and commitment to the Lord is not strong, we end up turning to alternative sources of comfort, that is putting our trust instead in our own human abilities and strengths, preferring to trust our own plans, desires and thoughts instead of discerning what it is that God wants from us.

Yet, we have to realise that God is always with us, no matter how difficult the situation can be. He is always ever faithful and He will not abandon us, for He is always guiding us through various means, even when we do not realise it. We need to learn to put our trust in God, no matter what happens. We should not be quick to abandon the Lord when we are so concerned about ourselves and our own safety, for if it is He Who created us, it is also therefore He Who reigns over us and no lasting harm will come to us.

Perhaps all of us should heed the example of the holy and renowned saint, whose feast day we celebrate on this day. St. Benedict the Abbot, also known as St. Benedict of Nursia is also known better as the founder of the Benedictine Order, one of the largest religious congregations in the world today, and also as the one who came up with the strict regulations of the Rule of St. Benedict, a standard by which many of the religious brothers and sisters lived their lives.

St. Benedict of Nursia was renowned for his deep devotion and piety to the Lord, by his many good works among the people of God, calling them to serve the Lord and to devote themselves with sincere dedication and commitment. St. Benedict of Nursia through his Rule of St. Benedict encouraged all, especially those who have chosen to dedicate themselves in a religious life, on how to live their lives in accordance with the will of God.

St. Benedict of Nursia emphasised before anything else, the importance of obedience and humility in one’s actions, and indeed it is these two virtues which are often lacking among us mankind these days. He emphasised the importance of doing good works and prayer in tandem with each other, in one of his golden rules, Ora et Labora, prayer and work hand in hand, as what all the faithful people of God should do.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Benedict of Nursia and today’s Scripture readings reminded us that all of us as Christians are called to be faithful to the Lord, to put our trust in the Lord our God. And we can do this by deepening our relationship with Him, through constant prayer and communication with God, remembering Him in everything we do, in every moment we have in life and indeed, in every breath that we take.

Let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and let us seek to serve the Lord with ever greater zeal and love. May the Lord bless us with an ever greater faith and devotion, so that we will draw ever closer to Him and thus be worthy to receive His everlasting grace and love. St. Benedict of Nursia, pray for us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 11 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 9 : 32-38

At that time, as the two blind men were going away, some people brought to Jesus a man who was dumb, because he was possessed by a demon. When the demon was driven out, the dumb man began to speak. The crowds were astonished and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

But the Pharisees said, “He drives away demons with the help of the prince of demons.”

Jesus went around all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom; and He cured every sickness and disease. When He saw the crowds, He was moved with pity; for they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are only few. Ask the Master of the harvest to send workers to gather His harvest.”