Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the coming of the time of reckoning for all of us in the end of time, when God will judge all the living and the dead, over all of Creation. He is our Lord and Master, the Master over all the whole Universe. Everything that is present all around us in this Universe, in our world are merely the wonderful things that God had created to be part of His Creation. However, we must always keep in mind that it is Him Who is the One we ought to worship and focus our attention towards. Unfortunately, more often than not, we got distracted by the temptations present all around us, and by the marvels and wonders of what God had created, which unfortunately led us to focus our attention on them instead on the Lord, as we should have done.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Wisdom in which the author highlighted the foolishness of all those people who disregarded the one and only True God, and instead sought to worship the things that God had created, such as the Sun, the Moon, the stars, the sky and the sea, and any other objects in this universe, and even men themselves, instead of the One Who had made and created all of them. They worshipped the things that were inferior to the One Who is supreme over all, and far exceeding those things that mankind had worshipped throughout time instead of God, because of their limited understanding and lack of Wisdom and knowledge of the truth of God. They instead depended on their own intellect, power, wisdom and understanding, and in their lack of ability to appreciate God’s truth, they instead focused their attentions on the wrong ones.

This was why so many of our predecessors, from many different parts of the world, in their incomplete and flawed understanding of how the world works, and the lack of knowledge of the Lord, Who is in fact behind everything and is the reason why everything is present, this is why so many of them chose to worship pagan gods and idols, worshipping inanimate objects and living things alike, especially those that were beyond our comprehension. God reminded all of us that this is not how we should live our lives, and this is not the correct path that we are to follow. Instead, we should return our attention and focus on the Lord, and commit ourselves wholeheartedly to His cause, entrusting ourselves to His Wisdom and Providence at all times.

In today’s Gospel passage, we heard of the reminders of the Lord to all of His disciples that everything will come to a moment of reckoning as mentioned earlier, when the time comes for the Lord to return and restore everything to perfect order and when He would gather all of us once again into His Presence. And this will come at a time most unexpected for everyone, and no one but God Himself knows when this moment exactly will happen. Again, this is an important reminder for all of us that we must not be ignorant of the truth of God and everything that He had revealed to us. Too many people, as highlighted in that Gospel passage today, were swayed by various worldly temptations that they failed to realise their sinfulness and wicked state of life, and thus fell into damnation.

We must always be wary lest we may be tempted by the same kind of temptations, the temptations that could bring us into our downfall if we are not careful. If we allow ourselves to be swayed by those desires and pleasures of the world, the comforts of life and all the wonders of this earthly existence, while ignoring and forgetting God’s presence in all of them, then we may end up being like so many of our predecessors, who have fallen into the path of sin, disobeying God and His Law, His will and commandments. And as Christians, who follow the Lord and believe in Him, we must always put Him first and foremost at the very centre of our life and as the focus and emphasis of our very existence in this world. We should not allow any other things to become distractions, keeping us away from God.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, a great and holy woman, a faithful servant of God, whose life and devotion, commitment and worthy life should be source of inspiration for all of us to follow, in how we should be truly faithful in our whole lives as Christians. St. Elizabeth of Hungary was a princess of Hungary who was married to a noble landowner and ruler of Thuringia in Germany. She had to marry at a young age and raise a family. But at the same time, she also lived a life of piety and virtue, inspired by the examples and reforms carried out by her contemporary, St. Francis of Assisi. St. Elizabeth of Hungary was renowned for her great charitable actions and care for the poor and the sick throughout her husband’s lands, which was approved by her husband, the ruler of the land. Her action also influenced him greatly, as her husband Louis often stood by the Church and the efforts the Church did.

Later on, when St. Elizabeth of Hungary was widowed quite early on, just a few years after her marriage, she made a vow of chastity akin to that of those who have joined the religious orders, and resisted any efforts by her family and others to have her remarry because of her still relatively young age. She continued to do plenty of works of charity, caring for the needy and those who were suffering, as much as she could do. Her great charity and love for others were even shown in miracles such as the famous ‘miracle of the roses’ attributed to her. In that miracle account, St. Elizabeth of Hungary was caught by her husband in one of her times sneaking out to give alms and food for the poor, with her cloak containing food from her husband’s mansion. When she was confronted and asked of the cloak’s contents, the contents were miraculously transformed into that of roses.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired and encouraged by the faithful examples of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, in doing what we can so that we may always be ever faithful to God in all things. We should not allow temptations of this world and our wicked desires and ambitions, attachments and other things from leading us into our downfall through sin. Let us instead inspire one another to be ever righteous, virtuous and worthy in all of our works and dealings in life, now and forevermore. Amen.