19th Week of Ordinary Time

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Tuesday, 9 August 2022 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, listening to the words of God, all of us are called to listen to the Lord calling on each one of us to follow and obey Him, to do His will and to embrace His calling and also the mission He has entrusted to us. Each one of us as Christians have been given the opportunities as well as the responsibilities to be examples for one another, to lead more and more people towards God and His truth, and to bring ourselves ever closer to Him and His salvation. All of us should also humble ourselves and be willing to embrace God wholeheartedly, and be willing to listen to Him.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel in which God spoke to Ezekiel regarding what He was sending him to do among the Israelites in exile in the land of Babylon. The Lord gave Ezekiel a scroll in the vision, and the prophet ate it, symbolising his willingness to walk in the path of God, and how he was willing to let God guide him in what he was called to do. As God’s prophet, Ezekiel would go on to do great deeds among the people, and he continued to labour hard among the Israelites in exile, calling on them to abandon their sinful way of life, which had led to their downfall in the first place.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples, telling them that unless they become like little children, with regards to their faith, they cannot truly enter into the kingdom of Heaven, and they will not be able to truly appreciate what it really means to be a disciple of the Lord. And He calls on them to welcome young children, as otherwise, if they do not do so, then they are not welcoming Him into their presence either. Through this, the Lord wanted to highlight that in order for Him to lead us down the right path, often we need to open our hearts and minds, to be humble and to be willing to let God guide us in our path.

That is because for us to be welcoming to children in our midst, we have to first learn to listen and to communicate, understanding them and their needs. Otherwise, we will find that it is very difficult for us to engage with the children meaningfully and successfully. One must be humble and be willing to communicate sincerely, and not to impose a judgmental and superior attitude vis-a-vis the children, which in fact is one of the reasons why people fail to connect with the younger generation. Many of us are often burdened with the burden of pride and arrogance, thinking that we know it better and hence, we cannot engage in truly meaningful interaction and conversation with others.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through today’s readings, all of us are reminded that as Christians, each and every one of us are called to be witnesses of our Lord’s salvation, His truth and Good News. All of us ought to do our very best in whatever capacity and opportunities that we are in, so that we may help to lead others to God and so that they may find their way back to Him. In the same Gospel passage, the Lord also mentioned how He loves us all and how He would go all the way to rescue His lost sheep, through His story of a shepherd who had one lost sheep among the flock of his hundred sheep.

Just as the shepherd went out all his way just to find that lost sheep, so the Lord Himself has also done the same for our sake, reaching out to us and calling on us to return to Him. He patiently called on us, waited for us to change our hearts and minds, giving reminders after reminders, and assistance along the way so that we may find our way to Him. All of us who have known the Lord and received the promise of His salvation therefore are called to be the witnesses of this truth and promise, and do our very best to evangelise and to do what we can in glorifying God by our lives, and by living a humble, virtuous and good Christian way of life.

Today, we all can and should seek the inspiration from one of our holy predecessors, namely that of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also better known by her name of St. Edith Stein. St. Edith Stein was a Jewish convert to the Christian faith in the early twentieth century, who was drawn by the Catholic faith and decided to be baptised, and was also eventually desiring to be a religious nun, joining the Discalced Carmelite community. She led a devout and virtuous life as a member of the Discalced Carmelites, in the midst of the great hardships which the Church and also the people of Jewish descent faced back then during the intense persecution by the Nazi German regime.

Her faith grew even deeper through the hardships and challenges, and she entrusted herself to her Lord and Saviour. Through the bitterness and hardships of war, St. Edith Stein and many other of the faithful and the martyrs continued to show inspiration and strength for others who were also suffering back then, and for those who lived after her time, and gained inspiration from her patient faith and commitment to God. She was eventually martyred for her faith and commitment to God, when the NAZI regime persecuted and murdered her for the opposition that the Church took against the wicked actions that it had done in Germany and other places.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore strive to follow the path that our holy predecessors had set before us. Let us all humble ourselves before the Lord and do whatever we can to live our lives ever more faithfully in God’s presence, defending His truth and committing ourselves to be witnesses of His truth and love to more and more of our fellow brothers and sisters, and all those whom we encounter in our lives and missions. May God be with us all and may He continue to strengthen us with the resolve to live our lives ever with the commitment as good and devout Christians, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 9 August 2022 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Matthew 18 : 1-5, 10, 12-14

At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the midst of the disciples, and said, “I assure you, that, unless you change, and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble, like this child, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child, in My Name, receives Me.”

“See that you do not despise any of these little ones; for I tell you, their Angels in heaven continually see the face of My heavenly Father. What do you think of this? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside, and go to look for the stray one? And I tell you, when he finally finds it, he is more pleased about it, than about the ninety-nine that did not go astray.”

“It is the same with your Father in heaven. Your Father in heaven does not want even one of these little ones to perish.”

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Tuesday, 9 August 2022 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 118 : 14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131

I delight in following Your laws, more so than in all riches.

Your laws are my delight, my counsellors who uphold me.

Your law is more precious to me than heaps of silver and gold.

How sweet are Your promises to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Your statutes are my heritage forever, they are the joy of my heart.

I gasp in ardent yearning for Your commandments that I love.

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Tuesday, 9 August 2022 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Ezekiel 2 : 8 – Ezekiel 3 : 4

God said to Ezekiel, “Listen then, son of man, to what I say, and do not be a rebel among rebels. Open your mouth and take in what I am about to say.”

I looked and saw a hand stretched out in front of me holding a scroll. He unrolled it before me; on both sides were written lamentations, groaning and woes. He said to me, “Son of man, eat what is given to you. Eat this scroll and then go; speak to the people of Israel.”

I opened my mouth and He made me eat the scroll; and then He said to me, “Eat and fill yourself with this scroll that I am giving you.” I ate it; and it tasted as sweet as honey. He said, “Son of man, go to the Israelites; speak to them with My words.”

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Monday, 8 August 2022 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Dominic, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord through the Scriptures, each one of us are called and reminded of the obligations that each and every one of us have as Christians, as the followers of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to do His will and to obey His commandments. We are all called to do what we can in living our lives with faith, committing ourselves to His cause and doing all that we can to live good and virtuous Christian lives while at the same time also fulfilling our obligations to the secular world and states, wherever we are living in.

In our first reading today from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, we heard of the story of the calling of the prophet Ezekiel, who received a glorious vision of God on His Heavenly Throne, surrounded by Angels, the Seraphim and the Cherubim in all of His glory. He saw all the wonders of God, the might of the Lord surrounded by His mighty servants, the glorious Seraphim, the wonderful Cherubim and the steadfast Thrones. To him, having seen such a vision, Ezekiel must have indeed been terrified and amazed at the same time, and this vision is told to us all so that we may know, just as Ezekiel had experienced it, that the Lord our God, is truly Almighty and Lord of all the Universe.

This is the truth about the Lord Whom we believe in and serve all the days of our lives. Our very existence in this world are all due to God’s will and works, and we are all His people. Each and every one of us are God’s people and servants, and we ought to know Who it is that we believe in and Who it is that we are serving. How can we know the way to follow and serve the Lord faithfully if we do not even know Who our Lord is? That is something that each one of us ought to ponder in our hearts and minds. We may know about it and yet at the same time, we do not appreciate its significance or importance.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the words of the Lord speaking to us through His own words in speaking to His disciples regarding how He was to be handed over to His enemies, and would suffer grievously for the sake of many people, offering Himself as the perfect and worthy sacrifice, for the salvation of all mankind and the whole world. The Lord revealed and had in fact repeatedly mentioned this to His disciples, again and again, but many of them up to then still failed to understand the significance of those words that the Lord spoke about. They only fully realised and understood their meaning after everything had happened as the Lord said it would be.

That is Who our Lord is, the same Almighty and glorious God Whom Ezekiel saw in his vision in Babylon. The same God Who loves us all mankind from the very beginning and Who loves us so much that He gave us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, to be born of Mary, His most blessed Mother and entering into this world so that through Him and all that He had done for us, by His most loving sacrifice on the Cross and by His revelation of God’s truths, all of us have been called and brought into the promise of eternal glory and true happiness with Him.

Then, in addition, within our Gospel passage today, we also heard the Lord speaking with regards to the matter of paying taxes, through which the temple tax collectors and the Lord’s opponents certainly would have wanted to test Him and see what He would say with regards to paying taxes to the Roman authorities and to the Temple as were required of the people at the time. If the Lord had answered that He and His disciples should not pay for either the temple tax or the Romans, it would have been dangerous for Him, as they could have easily accused Him of not obeying the Law and commandments of God as revealed by Moses, or of being a traitor to the Romans.

But the Lord wisely and aptly told His disciples and those tax collectors that they all ought to give their due to the powers of the world, although technically as children of God, they were not truly bound to their authority or obliged to fulfil the bonds given to them. What the Lord told His disciples to do was essentially telling them that they should obey the laws of the land wherever possible, as long as those laws do not contradict Divine law of God. One ought to obey God first and foremost, but at the same time, he or she should also be good citizens and people of this world as much as they can.

Doing otherwise would likely result in difficulties for them as they will face even more persecutions and hardships in the effort to evangelise and in spreading the truth of God. Hence, each and every one of us as Christians, as God’s disciples and followers should do whatever we can to obey both God’s Law and commandments as well as the laws and rules of the land, of whichever states and authorities that had dominion over us in this world. All of us should be role models in living our lives virtuously so that in all things we may always be filled with righteousness and be exemplary in our deeds so as to inspire others to follow our good examples, and more importantly, so that through us, God may be glorified and known by many more people.

Today all of us have the great example of the famous St. Dominic as an inspiration to follow, as we celebrate and rejoice together on his Feast day. St. Dominic, also known as St. Dominic de Guzman was the founder of the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominican Order. He was a Spanish priest who had been known for his great faith and charitable acts since his early youth, and he did a lot of work especially in the area of conversion and missionary works, as he was involved in the preaching work and ministry against the heretical teachings, particularly the Cathars in the southern regions of what is now France.

St. Dominic established the foundation of his new religious order, dedicating himself and all others to a new way of life, focusing on God and leading a more ascetic and holy way of living, distancing themselves from worldly temptations and desires, and spending the time and effort to get ever closer to God. And through his extensive travels and missionary works, St. Dominic inspired many people to turn back towards the Lord in faith and many people were also inspired to join his religious order. He showed great example of faith and became a great inspiration for many down the centuries, and his devotion to Our Lady, the Blessed Mother of God and one of the earliest use of the rosary also brought many great graces for the Church and the people of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today therefore let us all do our very best to renew our commitment to God, knowing that He is truly our Lord, Master and King, the same Almighty One surrounded by His mighty Angels as seen by the prophet Ezekiel. Let us all do our best so that in our actions, words and deeds we may inspire others in the manner that the saints, especially that of St. Dominic, to follow the Lord and to believe in Him as well. May God be with us always and may He bless us all in our every endeavours and good works. Amen.

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Monday, 8 August 2022 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Dominic, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 17 : 22-27

At that time, when Jesus was in Galilee with the Twelve, He said to them, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. But He will rise on the third day.” The Twelve were deeply grieved.

When they returned to Capernaum, the temple tax collectors came to Peter and asked him, “Does your Master pay the temple tax?” He answered, “Yes.” Peter then entered the house; and immediately, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Simon? Who pay taxes or tribute to the kings of the earth : their sons or strangers and aliens?”

Peter replied, “Strangers and aliens.” And Jesus told him, “The sons, then, are tax-free. But, so as not to offend these people, go to the sea, throw in a hook, and open the mouth of the first fish you catch. You will find a coin in it. Take the coin and give it to them for you and for Me.”

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Monday, 8 August 2022 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Dominic, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 148 : 1-2, 11-12, 13, 14

Alleluia! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heavenly heights. Praise Him, all His Angels; praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.

Kings of the earth and nations, princes and all rulers of the world, young men and maidens, old and young together.

Let them praise the Name of the Lord. For His Name alone is exalted; His majesty is above earth and heaven.

He has given His people glory; He has a praise to His faithful, to Israel, the people close to Him. Alleluia.

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Monday, 8 August 2022 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Dominic, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Ezekiel 1 : 2-5, 24-28c

On the fifth of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of king Jehoiachin) the word of YHVH came to Ezekiel, son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans by the banks of the Kebar. There the hand of YHVH was upon me.

I looked : a windstorm came from the north bringing a great cloud. A fiery light inside it lit up all around it, while at the centre there was something like a glowing metal. In the centre were what appeared to be four creatures with the same form.

I heard the noise of their wings when they moved, similar to the roar of many waters, similar to the voice of the Most High, the noise of a multitude or of a camp. When they were not moving they lowered their wings. I heard a noise above the platform over their heads. Above it was a Throne resembling a sapphire; and high on this Throne was a Figure similar to that of a Man.”

“Then I saw a light as of a glowing bronze, as if fire enveloped Him from His waist upwards. And from His waist downwards it was as if fire give radiance around Him. The surrounding light was like a rainbow in the clouds after a day of rain. This vision was the likeness of YHVH’s glory. On seeing it I fell on my face.

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Sunday, 7 August 2022 : Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are called to remember the faithfulness of God to His Covenant and promises which He had made with us and our forefathers. We are reminded of the love that God has for each one of us, and how fortunate we truly are for having received such wonderful blessings and graces from God. All of us are also reminded that at the same time we have the responsibilities and obligations entrusted to us, as servants and stewards of God’s creations, this world and all within it.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Wisdom, we heard the author speaking about regarding the historic moment of the first Passover which happened in the land of Egypt, before the Lord freed and delivered His people out from slavery into freedom, and before He led them to the Promised Land. The people of God back then had seen nine of the Lord’s ten great plagues which He sent to the land of Egypt to punish the Egyptians and their Pharaoh for enslaving the Israelites, and for the Pharaoh’s stubborn refusal to let the Israelites go free. The Lord had sent Moses to deliver His words and to bring forth the plagues on Egypt, so that the Egyptians would finally let the people of God go free.

The people believed in the Lord and obeyed His instructions for the first Passover, slaughtering the unblemished young lambs and painting the doorposts of their houses with the blood of the lambs, and having the Passover meal together as families and a community, a mark of sanctification and also a symbol of how God had chosen and kept apart His people, as a chosen race and people called to holiness with God and in God’s path. They were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and therefore were the inheritors of the Covenant which God had established with their forefathers.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, from which our second reading was taken from today, spoke of the faith of those same predecessors who had followed the Lord and dedicated themselves to the Lord. The author mentioned Abraham and Sarah, who have followed the Lord from the land of their ancestors, with Abraham entrusting himself completely to the Lord, knowing that the Lord would provide and that He was always faithful to the promises He had made. Abraham and Sarah followed the Lord into a foreign, distant land, and although Abraham was then childless and already relatively old, but he believed in the Lord when He said that Abraham would be the father of many nations.

God made a Covenant with Abraham and his descendants, and He blessed him and all of those descendants, saying that they would be all His people while He would be their God. And He fulfilled that promise to Abraham when He gave him Isaac, the son that He had promised to Abraham and Sarah. And then, earlier on as mentioned, when the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites were suffering in Egypt, they were remembered by God and God sent Moses to guide them out of Egypt, showing His might and power before the Egyptians, and saving them all, as they ate of the Passover, keeping them from harm while the Angels of God were killing the firstborn of the Egyptians, and later on, He also opened the sea before them all, allowing them to escape and also crushing the army and chariots of the Egyptians sent to chase them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have seen throughout history, as shown in the Scriptures and other traditions of our faith, how God has always been faithful to His Covenant with His beloved people, and He renewed that same Covenant again and again, culminating in the New Covenant which He had made with all of us mankind, all the children and descendants of Adam. He made the New Covenant through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, that through Him and the loving sacrifice He had made on His Cross at Calvary, all of us received the sure guarantee of the Lord’s salvation and grace.

In the old and original Covenant, God renewed His promises through the Passover meal, while the people ate of the unblemished Passover lamb, while in the New Covenant, the Lord gave us all the fulfilment of His promises and gave us all His own Precious Body and Blood, in the Eucharist to partake, the Paschal Lamb, our Lord Himself, His Body broken and His Blood poured out for us and for our salvation, delivering us from our enslavement to sin and death just as the Israelites were delivered from their slavery in Egypt. The Lord has again shown us His enduring and powerful love, which He has always given to us freely and generously, and the Covenant that He had made with us always endures.

Now, brothers and sisters, having heard the love that God has shown us, His faithfulness to the Covenant that He had made with us, all of us are then called to remember that a Covenant is a solemn agreement and pact made between two parties, and in this case, it is a Covenant between God and us mankind. God promised Abraham and his descendants of His blessings and providence, which He had fulfilled all the time, but at the same time, much had also been expected of us as partakers of that same Covenant. Each and every one of us have been entrusted by the Lord to be the stewards and caretakers of this world and this life we are living in.

That is why we also heard from our Gospel passage today, the very appropriate parable for today’s theme, that is the parable of the diligent and lazy stewards. The Lord Jesus told His disciples and the people who were listening to Him about this parable in order to show all of them that as God’s followers, one cannot be idle or inactive, ignorant of our mission and calling, as each one of us must embrace the mission and the calling which our Lord had given us. All of us have been given the gifts, talents, opportunities and many more things to help us in our journey, and we all should embrace all these wholeheartedly.

Like what the parable had mentioned earlier on, the stewards were entrusted with care of the properties of the master, who went away for some time, and while the diligent steward did everything as he was told to do, fulfilling his duties and obligations, and perhaps doing even more than what he had been tasked to do, the lazy steward delayed in doing the work and engaged in merrymaking and even abusing his authority and office, and when the master returned suddenly, the diligent and good steward was rewarded wonderfully while the lazy steward faced his just punishment and condemnation.

Through the Covenant God had made with us, God expects us to be active and committed party to His Covenant, and this involves us doing whatever we can to be the good stewards of this world, of our community and of God’s creation. That is why He had taught us all His Law and commandments, telling, teaching and guiding us on how we ought to be living our lives, so that we can be good role models and sources of inspiration for all those who are around us. Each and every one of us are called to show this faith we have, the love that we have for God in concrete ways through how we live our lives, in each and every one of our words and actions.

Otherwise, brothers and sisters in Christ, imagine if we profess to believe in God and yet we act in a manner that is totally contrary to God and His ways? That would have scandalised our faith and the Lord Himself for all those who have witnessed and experienced our actions and interactions with them. God has loved us so much and He had done so much for our sake, and yet more often than not, it is we mankind who had disobeyed Him, distanced ourselves from Him, not listening to His words and advice, ignoring His calling and abandoning the missions which He had entrusted to us.

Today therefore, as we reflect on the messages of the Sacred Scriptures that had been presented to us, and also what we had discussed just earlier, let us all discern carefully what each and every one of us as Christians are expected to do in our lives, so that we may truly live up to the expectations and the commitment that we ought to make as part of the Covenant that God had so kindly formed with us. In Him, we will find assurance and certainty of true joy, happiness and satisfaction as God has always been faithful to us, to the Covenant of love that He made with us. Hence, we are all called to commit ourselves as well, dedicating our time, effort and attention to Him.

May the Lord, our most loving God and Creator, Who has kindly looked upon us, His beloved children, though sinners and disobedient, help us all to find our way back to Him. May all of us rediscover once again the joy in serving and loving the Lord our God, and may we draw ever closer to Him, in each and every moments of our lives. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 7 August 2022 : Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 12 : 32-48

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, and an inexhaustible treasure in the heavens, where no thief comes and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

“Be ready, dressed for service, and keep your lamps lit, like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding. As soon as he comes and knocks, they will open the door to him. Happy are those servants whom the master finds wide-awake when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will put on an apron, and have them sit at table, and he will wait on them. Happy are those servants, if he finds them awake when he comes at midnight or daybreak!”

“Pay attention to this : If the master of the house had known at what time the thief would come, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.”

Peter said, “Lord, did You tell this parable only for us, or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Imagine, then, the wise and faithful steward, whom the master sets over his other servants, to give them wheat at the proper time. Fortunate is this servant if his master, on coming home, finds him doing his work. Truly, I say to you, the master will put him in charge of all his property.”

“But it may be that the steward thinks, ‘My lord delays in coming,’ and he begins to abuse the male servants and the servant girls, eating and drinking and getting drunk. Then the master will come on a day he does not expect, and at an hour he does not know. He will cut him off, and send him to the same fate as the unfaithful.”

“The servant who knew his master’s will, but did not prepare and do what his master wanted, will be soundly beaten; but the one who does unconsciously what deserves punishment, shall receive fewer blows. Much will be required of the one who has been given much, and more will be asked of the one who has been entrusted with more.”

Alternative reading (shorter version)

Luke 12 : 35-40

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Be ready, dressed for service, and keep your lamps lit, like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding. As soon as he comes and knocks, they will open the door to him. Happy are those servants whom the master finds wide-awake when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will put on an apron, and have them sit at table, and he will wait on them. Happy are those servants, if he finds them awake when he comes at midnight or daybreak!”

“Pay attention to this : If the master of the house had known at what time the thief would come, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.”