16 February 2017

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Thursday, 16 February 2017 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, from what we heard in the Scripture passages today, we can see how God loves each and every one of us mankind, whom He had created out of love, the concern and care He has shown for us. We heard how He saved Noah from the great flood that engulfed the whole world and consumed all the others who were wicked and filled with evil. He made a covenant with him, promising that He would no longer wipe out mankind for their transgressions.

God is so full of mercy and patience, that even when we mankind had disobeyed Him and walked away from His path, but He was always willing to forgive and to allow us to return to His grace. And He gave us all every help that He could give, including sending upon us many helpers, and His messengers and prophets to call us back to repentance and to turn away from our sins.

But many of us refused to listen to Him, and refused to believe in the truth which He had preached into the world, and even when He sent us all His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, many refused to listen to Him, and turn their back against the Saviour of the world. There were those who believed in Him, the Apostles and disciples of Jesus, who believed in the Lord despite of the challenges and difficulties facing them.

This then brings us to the reality of our world, where those who walk in the ways of the truth are always going to face difficulties, opposition and challenges, just as the world had risen up against the Lord Jesus before. There are a lot of resistance from man to remain as they are in their current state of sin and wickedness. Yet, the Lord never gave up on us, so much so that He was willing to endure the persecution and suffering at the hands of the Pharisees, the elders and the chief priests.

That was what we all well know as what truly happened during the time when our Lord Jesus faced His Passion in this world. He loved us all so dearly that He was willing to endure the weight of the cross and the burdens of the sins of all mankind. He suffered lashes and whips, torture and pain of thorns and the pain of the nails of the crucifixion, all for the aim that we mankind may have hope to be redeemed from our sins.

Yet, many of us are not yet appreciative of what we have been given, all the blessings that we have received, all the things that we have enjoyed in this life. Many of us lived in the same manner as the people living wickedly during the time of Noah. And we all know how they all met their end. No one who remains wicked and unjust can enter into the kingdom of God, and all will perish in the darkness and suffering unless one turns wholeheartedly towards the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians we are all called to be true servants of our Lord, following and imitating the Lord in all that He had shown us and revealed to us. As Christians we should open ourselves to receive the love of Christ, remembering the great love which He had shown to us. We should resist the temptations for us to sin, for the devil is always at work trying to pull us away from the path to salvation.

Let us all help one another, brethren, that we may resist the temptations and persuasions of the devil, for us to abandon the way of the Lord just because it seems to be too difficult for us. This is what he had done, when he tried to put obstacles before the path of Jesus our Lord, but Jesus was not intimidated at all, and rebuked Satan and his works.

Let us all understand that following God may often mean that we have to endure rejection, opposition and even persecution from the world, because the way of the Lord is not compatible with the ways of this world. But we must never give up, for to give up means for us to submit to the attempts of the devil trying to drag us into damnation and darkness with him.

Let us work together, as brothers and sisters in Christ, imitating the love which God had shown us, and practice it in our own lives. May we be merciful towards each other, showing care, concern and compassion to all those who need them. Let us do our best to make sure that the wickedness of Satan and all sorts of sin have no place in our hearts, which are instead filled with the love of God. May the Lord be with us all, bless us and keep us in His grace forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 16 February 2017 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Mark 8 : 27-33

At that time, Jesus set out with His disciples for the villages around Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He asked them, “Who do people say I am?” And they told Him, “Some say You are John the Baptist; others say You are Elijah or one of the prophets.”

Then Jesus asked them, “But you, who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” And He ordered them not to tell anyone about Him. Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. He would be killed, and after three days rise again.

Jesus said all this quite openly, so that Peter took Him aside and began to protest strongly. But Jesus turning around, and looking at His disciples, rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does, but as people do.”

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Thursday, 16 February 2017 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 101 : 16-18, 19-21, 29 and 22-23

O Lord, the nations will revere Your Name, and the kings of the earth Your glory, when the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in all His splendour. For He will answer the prayer of the needy and will not despise their plea.

Let this be written for future ages, “The Lord will be praised by a people He will form.” From His holy height in heaven, the Lord has looked on the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoners, and free those condemned to death.”

Your servants’ children will dwell secure; their posterity will endure without fail. Then the Name of the Lord will be declared in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem, when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship Him.

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Thursday, 16 February 2017 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Genesis 9 : 1-13

God blessed Noah and his sons and he said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Fear and dread of you will be in all the animals of the earth and in all the birds of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. They are given to you. Everything that moves and lives shall be food for you; as I gave you the green plants, I have now given you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood.”

“But I will also demand a reckoning for your lifeblood. I will demand it from every animal; and from man, too, I will demand a reckoning for the life of his fellow man. He who sheds the blood of man shall have his blood shed by man; for in the image of God has God made man. As for you, be fruitful and increase. Abound on the earth and be master of it.”

God spoke to Noah and his son, “See I am making a covenant with you and with your descendants after you; also with every living animal with you : birds, cattle, that is, with every living creature of the earth that came out of the Ark. I establish My covenant with you. Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I make between Me and you, and every animal living with you for all future generations. I set My bow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.”