17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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Saturday, 5 August 2023 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)

Psalm 66 : 2-3, 5, 7-8

May God be gracious and bless us; may He let His face shine upon us; that Your way be known on earth and Your salvation, among the nations.

May the countries be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with justice; and guide the nations of the world.

The land has given its harvest; God, our God, has blessed us. May God bless us and be revered, to the very ends of the earth.

Alternative reading (Mass for Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)

Judith 13 : 18bcde, 19

My daughter, may the Most High God bless you more than all women on earth. And blessed be the Lord God, the Creator of heaven and earth, Who has led you to behead the leader of our enemies.

Never will people forget the confidence you have shown; they will always remember the power of God.

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Saturday, 5 August 2023 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)

Leviticus 25 : 1, 8-17

YHVH spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai : “When seven Sabbaths of years have passed, that is, seven times seven years, there shall be the time of the seven weeks of years, that is forty-nine years. Then on the tenth day of the seventh month sound the trumpet loudly. On this Day of Atonement sound the trumpet all through the land.”

“Keep holy the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom for all the inhabitants of the land. It shall be a jubilation year for you when each one shall recover his property and go back to his family. In this fiftieth year, your year of Jubilee, you shall neither sow nor reap the aftergrowth, nor gather the grapes from the uncultivated vines. This Jubilee year shall be holy for you, and you shall eat what the field yields of itself without cultivation.”

“In this year of Jubilee each of you shall recover his own property. When you sell something to your neighbour or buy something from him, do not wrong one another. According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall buy it from your neighbour and according to the number of years left for harvesting crops he shall sell to you.”

“When the years are many the price shall be greater and when the years are few the price shall be less, for it is the number of crops that he is selling to you. So you shall not wrong one another but you shall fear your God, for I am YHVH, your God.”

Alternative reading (Mass for Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)

Revelations 21 : 1-5a

Then, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and no longer was there any sea. I saw the new Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God, out of heaven, adorned as a bride prepared for her husband.

A loud voice came from the throne, “Here is the dwelling of God among mortals : He will pitch His tent among them, and they will be His people; He will be God-with-them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death or mourning, crying out or pain, for the world that was, has passed away.”

The One seated on the throne said, “See, I make all things new.”

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Friday, 4 August 2023 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Vianney, Priest and Patron of All Priests (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded and called to remember the Lord, obey His Law and commandments, celebrate the feasts and festivals that He had appointed and placed before us, and which His Church had stipulated for us to commemorate. We should remain active in the living of our faith and participate as much as possible in the life of the Church and in Christian actions and commitments. Those are our calling and our responsibilities as the ones whom God had called and chosen, as Christians, as the holy people of God. We cannot ignore these responsibilities and we cannot be idle and ignorant, in disregarding what we are expected and what we have been shown to do by the Lord Himself. As long as we remain idle in our faith and close ourselves against the truth of God, His words and love, then we will likely remain distant and away from Him and His grace.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Leviticus, we heard of the Lord speaking to His servant Moses, in which He told him to tell the people how they should celebrate their various events and celebrations of faith, and all those celebrations were meant to keep so that they would always put the Lord and His precepts and laws at the very centre and as the focus of the whole entire community. Those were not just merely celebrations and spectacles, but in truth, they helped to keep the Lord present in the hearts and minds of the people, who were often rebellious and delinquent in their activities and lives. They have often disobeyed the Lord and abandoned Him for pagan gods and false idols, and hence, that was why the Lord gave them His Law and commandments, and all those celebrations to remind them of the path that they all should follow, and the way that they should obey in their lives.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the time when the Lord Jesus was in His hometown of Nazareth in Galilee. He was not well-received over there as many among the people doubted Him and ridiculed Him when they heard Him teaching before them, proclaiming the Good News and truth of God. The Lord has proclaimed the fulfilment of the prophecies and the words that the prophets had spoken, particularly that of the prophet Isaiah regarding the coming of the Messiah, the Saviour that God has promised to all of His beloved ones. That was because they presumed and thought that they knew Him better and that He could not have been the Messiah simply by Him being the mere Son of the village carpenter, St. Joseph, His forefather. The people thought that it was impossible for the Lord Jesus to be the Saviour and doubted and could not reconcile how His supposedly humble origins and background led to such great Wisdom and Authority.

Why was that so? It was because they did not have a strong and enduring faith in the Lord. They also did not see things through the eyes of faith, and instead, they saw things from the worldly perspectives, with their biases and prejudices. They thought that a carpenter, being then a job that no one wanted to do, and as a lowly profession could not have possibly been great and glorious, or educated and intellectual, and hence, they looked down on the Lord because of that, especially since many of them had seen and witnessed Him growing up in His youth as the Son of the local carpenter, and they refused to let their prejudices and biases to go away, and despite the great wisdom that the Lord had shown, and the news of all the miracles, wonders and signs that He had performed in the areas of Galilee, they refused to believe in Him.

That is why there is a need for all of us as Christians to turn away from our many worldly attachments and prejudices, and we should purify ourselves and keep ourselves free from the corrupting influences of the world. Otherwise we may end up falling deeper and deeper into the wrong path, the path of sin and evil, the path of disobedience and rebellion, lacking in faith just as our predecessors have shown in their actions, in how they rejected and abandoned the Lord, even after they had seen His wonders, His love and faithfulness to the Covenant that He had made and established with all of them. This is also why we should dedicate ourselves and our time and effort, our every actions, words and deeds to Him, following in the footsteps and examples of our holy predecessors, the holy men and women, saints of God.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of St. John Vianney, also known as John Maria Vianney, a simple parish priest from the village or town of Ars in southern part of what is today France. St. John Vianney was born into a simple, devout and faithful family where he grew up in faith and dedication to God, and grew to love the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, which gradually made him to come to realisation of the calling to be a priest. Hence, he began his education with the intention of becoming a priest and answering his calling. He did not have an easy time with all the preparations as he struggled with all the academic requirements and especially with the learning of the Latin language, the official and liturgical language of the Church. While he failed that again and again, it was his determination and desire to serve the Lord as a priest which kept him going and he eventually succeeded in doing so after facing many challenges, including the disruptions due to the Napoleonic wars that happened at the time.

St. John Vianney was assigned to a small parish church in the small town of Ars, far from the great churches and parishes, the large religious institutions where the ambitious among the clergy tried to get into those days. However, St. John Vianney was in the priesthood not for the glory or achievement, ambition or worldly fame. Instead, it was his very intense love for the Lord and his love for his fellow brothers and sisters, who have been entrusted to his care that led him to a very deep and committed life as a parish priest, which soon began to earn him the fame of being a truly holy and devout man of God. He spent many hours in the confessional, waiting for many people, which crowd kept on growing, to confess their sins and to ask him for guidance in life, just as he patiently helped to guide the people back to the Lord, in his patient, compassionate and yet firm and persistent preaching and homilies, which were meant to help the people to resist the indifference to the Church and the faith.

More and more people came to know of this holy man and priest of Ars, and thousands came to flock upon the small town as pilgrims and as sinners seeking God’s forgiveness and mercy. Miraculous tales, stories and events came in droves as many recounted how they received great graces from God through the words and actions of St. John Vianney, and how in one case, it was told that St. John Vianney could even communicate with the suffering souls in purgatory, and asking the living to pray for them. Throughout his life, St. John Vianney had done many great and wonderful works, by which he had brought countless souls back towards the Lord and to His salvation. He has inspired many generations priests and other faithful alike, in their renewed commitment to serve and follow the Lord in their lives and works. St. John Vianney might have been born to a simple family and had a simple, unassuming life and work, but in his love for God and in his commitment, his great efforts and dedication, he has been a great inspiration and role model to many others.

Now, the question is, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we willing and able to follow the great examples showed by St. John Vianney and the many other holy men and women who had gone before us, and who have shown us how we should all live our lives before the Lord? Are we able to turn away from the corruptions of worldly attachments and greed, desires and glory, and return our focus and attention back to the Lord? Are we capable of committing ourselves more wholeheartedly to the Lord and develop an ever better relationship with Him? May the Lord continue to help and strengthen us in our path, and may He empower and ever encourage us always so that we can continue to strive to live our lives as faithful and devout Christians, as God’s beloved and holy people. Amen.

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Friday, 4 August 2023 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Vianney, Priest and Patron of All Priests (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 13 : 54-58

At that time, Jesus went to His hometown and taught the people in their synagogue. They were amazed and said, “Where did He get this wisdom and these special powers? Is He not the carpenter’s Son? Is Mary not His mother and are James, Joseph, Simon and Judas not His brothers? Are not all His sisters living here? Where did He get all these things?” And so they took offence at Him.

Jesus said to them, “The only place where prophets are not welcome is his hometown and in his own family.” And He did not perform many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

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Friday, 4 August 2023 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Vianney, Priest and Patron of All Priests (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 80 : 3-4, 5-6ab, 10-11ab

Start the music, strike the timbrel, play melodies on the harp and lyre. Sound the trumpet at the new moon, on our feast day, when the new moon is full.

This is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob, a statute He wrote for Joseph when he went out of Egypt.

There shall be no strange god among you, you shall not worship any alien god, for I, YHVH, am your God.

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Friday, 4 August 2023 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Vianney, Priest and Patron of All Priests (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Leviticus 23 : 1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37

YHVH spoke to Moses, “Then there are appointed feasts of YHVH at the times fixed for them, when you are to proclaim holy assemblies. At twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month is YHVH’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of this month it is YHVH’s feast of Unleavened Bread.”

For seven days you shall eat bread without leaven. On the first day there will be a sacred assembly and no work of a worker shall be done. For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to YHVH and on the seventh day you shall hold a sacred assembly and do no work of a worker.”

YHVH spoke to Moses and said, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them : When you enter the land that I will give you and you reap its harvest, you will bring to the priest a sheaf, the first fruits of your harvest and he shall wave the sheaf before YHVH for you to be accepted; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.”

“From the day after the Sabbath, on which you bring the sheaf of offering, you are to count seven full weeks. The day after the seventh Sabbath will be the fiftieth day and then you are to offer YHVH a new offering. The tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. You are to hold a sacred assembly. You must fast, and you must offer a burnt offering to YHVH.”

“The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of Tents for YHVH, lasting seven days. The first day you shall hold an assembly; you must do no work of a worker. For seven days you must offer a burnt offering to YHVH. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and you must offer a burnt offering to YHVH. It is a day of solemn assembly in which you shall do no work of a worker.”

“These are the appointed feasts of YHVH in which you are to proclaim holy assemblies for the purpose of offering offerings by fire, burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings to YHVH, according to the ritual of each day.”

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Thursday, 3 August 2023 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this day as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are reminded yet again of God’s ever encompassing presence, love and kindness, by which He gathered each and every one of us, His beloved ones, from being scattered all over the whole world. He came into our midst, dwelling among us, showing us all how much He has loved us all these while. And He came into our midst bearing His truth and love, His Law and commandments, His path and salvation. He established His Kingdom and dominion over all of us, delivering us all from the tyranny and power of sin and evil, which have had power and control over all of us, for a really long time, just like how God has come and rescued His people, the Israelites, from the tyranny and dominion of the Egyptians and their king, the Pharaoh.

In our first reading today, all of us heard from the final chapter of the Book of Exodus in which the details about the building and establishment of the Holy Tent or the Tent of Meeting, the centrepiece and focus of the whole community of the people of Israel where the Lord’s very own Holy Presence resided among His people, enthroned upon the cherubim statues on the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant itself contained the two slabs of stone with the Ten Commandments of the Lord, the Staff of Aaron and the manna, the bread of heaven by which God gave the people of Israel sustenance throughout their journey in the desert. Then, we may also not realise it at first, but the Ark of the Covenant and all the things contained within were actually a prefigurement of the New Covenant that God would bring unto this world.

How is that so? That is because Mary, the Mother of God, according to the teachings and traditions of the Church, is the New Ark of the New Covenant, by bearing within her the Lord and Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And because through His Son, our Saviour, God established with us a New and Eternal Covenant, thus reconciling us all to Himself and establishing with us that enduring and lasting connection by which God willed us all to come to Him and to be reunited to Him. If the Holy Tent of Meeting represented the love and the willingness of God to be with His people, even while He was still intangible in His Holy Presence upon the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies of the Tent and later on the Temple of God in Jerusalem, then by the incarnation of the Son and Word of God Himself in the flesh, becoming the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, God has revealed unto all of us His love manifested perfectly in the flesh, before all of us.

Yes, it means not only that His love has been made manifested even more clearly to us, but His love and truth, His glory and Presence have been made tangible and approachable to us. The Lord Himself came into our midst, walking in our sight and dwelling place, and coming to touch us and to bring healing upon us all. And in our Gospel passage today, the same Christ, Son of God, our Saviour, revealed more of the Lord’s intentions in leading us all to salvation and eternal life in Him and through Him. God does not abandon us all and He has always patiently guided us to Himself. However, at the same time we must also realise that we cannot take God’s love and patient care for us for granted, just as the Gospel passage today highlighted how the kingdom of heaven, which reach is truly great, gathering all the faithful people of God, but those who remain out of its reach to the end shall be crushed and destroyed.

We are all therefore reminded each and every moment that we are the disciples of the Lord, His followers and beloved people, and all of us have been given so many opportunities and chances to seek the Lord, His forgiveness and grace. Each and every one of us have been called to seek the Lord, to find Him and to gain His forgiveness. If we are truly God’s people, then we should not have disobeyed against Him and sinned against Him, and we should not allow the temptations of worldly glory, fame and desires to lead us astray. The Lord has extended to us many chances and opportunities for us to seek Him, again and again, as He reached out to us with love, and He sent unto us His most generous forgiveness, promised unto us through Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. And it is now truly up to us to embrace His love and forgiveness that He has given us most freely and most generously.

Many of us and our predecessors had remained in the path of sin and evil because we did not open our hearts and minds to the Lord, and we did not let Him to enter into our beings, to transform us from the creatures and people of darkness into the people and creature of light. All of us have the capacity and the potential to do what is good, right and just in the presence of God, or to do what is evil and wicked in the sight of the Lord. It is our free will and choice to do what we can, be it good or bad, just or evil, and we have been given the wisdom and the ability to embrace this choice, and it is really up to us to choose our path in life. Are we going to continue to follow the false way of worldly temptations and evils, the allures of worldly attachments and glories, or are we going to embrace the Lord more wholeheartedly and dedicate ourselves henceforth with our whole heart and mind, in following God at all and every moments of our lives?

Let us all therefore discern carefully our path going forward in this life, and let us all turn once again towards God’s ever generous love and mercy. Let us all no longer be ignorant of this love and compassionate mercy that God has given us, ever since the very beginning, be thankful and be grateful for all that He had done for us. Let us no longer be wayward and rebellious in our path and way of life. Let our every actions, words and deeds, our every moments and our every interactions be filled with God’s grace and love, and be truly exemplary and faithful to Him, so that by our role model and great examples we may inspire many others who see and witness our works and lives, and all those whom we encounter and interact with, may all of us be the guiding beacons of God’s light and truth. It is through each and every one of us, that the kingdom of God becomes manifest in this world, through our every actions and exemplary deeds.

May the Lord our God, our Saviour and King continue to be with us and may He guide and empower each and every one of us in our journey and faith in life. May He bless our every actions and endeavours, our every good efforts so that in everything that we do, we will always commit ourselves to the cause and the path that the Lord has shown us, the path of His righteousness and justice. May God be with us always, and bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 3 August 2023 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 13 : 47-53

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a big fishing net, let down into the sea, in which every kind of fish has been caught. When the net is full, it is dragged ashore. Then they sit down and gather the good fish into buckets, but throw the bad away. That is how it will be at the end of time; the Angels will go out to separate the wicked from the just, and to throw the wicked into the blazing furnace, where they will weep and gnash their teeth.”

Jesus asked, “Have you understood all these things?” “Yes,” they answered. So He said to them, “Therefore, every teacher of the Law who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven, is like a householder, who can produce from his store things both new and old.”

When Jesus had finished these parables, He left that place.

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Thursday, 3 August 2023 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 83 : 3, 4, 5-6a and 8a, 11

My soul yearns; pines, for the courts of YHVH. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young, at Your altars, o YHVH of hosts, my King and my God!

Happy are those who live in Your house, continually singing Your praise! Happy, the pilgrims whom You strengthen, they go from strength to strength.

One day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be left at the threshold in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

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Thursday, 3 August 2023 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Exodus 40 : 16-21, 34-38

Moses did this; he did exactly as YHVH had commanded him. The Holy Tent was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year. Moses set up the Holy Tent. He fixed the bases for it, put up its frames, put its crossbars in position, set up its posts. He spread the tent over the Holy Tent and on top of this the covering for the Tent, as YHVH had commanded Moses.

He took the Covenant and placed it inside the Ark. He set the poles to the Ark in place and put the mercy seat on it. He brought the Ark into the Holy Tent and put the screening veil in place; thus he screened the Ark of YHVH, as YHVH had commanded Moses.

Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting and the Glory of YHVH filled the Holy Tent. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because of the Glory of YHVH that filled the Holy Tent. At every stage of their journey, whenever the cloud rose from the Holy Tent, the people of Israel would continue their march. If the cloud did not rise, they waited and would not move their camp until it did.

For the cloud rested on the Holy Tent by day, and a fire shone within the cloud by night for all the house of Israel to see. And so it was for every stage of their journey.