Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 77 : 3 and 4bc, 6c-7, 8
Mysteries which we have heard and known, which our ancestors have told us. We will announce them to the coming generation : the glorious deeds of the Lord, His might and the wonders He has done.
They would teach their own children. They would then put their trust in God, and not forget His deeds and His commands.
And not be like their ancestors, stubborn and rebellious people, a people of inconstant heart whose spirit was fickle.
Liturgical Colour : White
Hebrews 4 : 1-5, 11
Therefore let us fear while we are invited to enter the rest of God, lest any of you be left behind. We received the Gospel exactly as they did, but hearing the message did them no good, because they did not share the faith of those who did listen. We are now to enter this rest because we believed, as it was said : I was angry and made a solemn vow : they will never enter My rest – that is the rest of God after He created the world.
In another part it was said about the seventh day : And God rested on the seventh day from all His works. But now it is said : They will not enter My rest. Let us strive, then, to enter the rest and not to share the misfortune of those who disobeyed.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today through the Scripture readings that we have heard, we are all reminded that we must always be vigilant against sin and all of its wicked snares, so that we do not fall into temptation and be separated ever further from God because of our sins. Instead, we should seek to be healed by Him, the only One Who can forgive us all from our many and innumerable sins, provided that we truly show the sincere desire and effort to seek Him and also desire to be forgiven and healed by Him. If we continue to be stubborn in our rebelliousness and refusal to walk in the path that God has shown us, preferring to do things our own way and living in sin, then we shall be judged by that conscious choice which we have made.
In our first reading today, we heard the continuation of the discourse from the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in which he further elaborated about the importance of embracing the salvation of God to the audience this Epistle was intended to, that is the Jewish community at that time in the early days of the Church, both those who have believed in God and those who have not yet believed in Him. This is because at that time, quite a few among the Jewish community still refused to believe in the Lord, hardening their hearts and minds against Him, despite having seen, heard and witnessed firsthand everything that He had done in their midst, all of His miracles and wonders, and all of His Wisdom and words He had spoken to them.
That was why the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews exhorted the Jewish community not to follow in the examples of their predecessors, that of the Israelites during the days of their Exodus from Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land of Canaan, when they frequently disobeyed the Lord, refusing to follow the words and instructions that Moses, God’s servant and their leader had given to them, worshipping pagan idols like the golden calf they had built and made to be their god, and also the gods and idols of the people they encountered in their way like the Midians and the other Canaanites. All of these blatant disobedience and refusals to obey the Lord led them to face the wrath of God, and many of them perished for their disobedience and sins.
This is therefore also an important reminder for all of us just as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews intended to make this known to the Jewish people of his time, that while God is truly full of compassion, love and mercy, ever ready and willing to welcome us back to His Presence, ceaselessly trying to lead us all back to Himself and showing His compassion and grace known to all of us in so many occasions, but we must not take His love, compassion and mercy for granted, as if we continue to be stubborn in refusing His kindness and His generous mercy, then in the end, we shall be judged by those sins which we have committed, as well as by our stubborn attitudes and our refusals against God’s generous love and mercy.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the occasion from the Gospel of St. Mark the Evangelist in which the moment when the Lord Jesus healed a leper was told to us. The man suffering from leprosy begged the Lord sincerely to heal him and the Lord granted his wish, healing him from his leprosy and made him wholly well again. Back then leprosy was a very great problem for anyone afflicted by it, as this leprosy usually refers to a diverse kind of skin infections and diseases that are highly contagious, and hence, according to the Law of God revealed through Moses, those who suffered from leprosy had to live outside of the community, which is understandable considering the context of the time of the Exodus when this Law was given to the Israelites.
At the time of the Exodus, the Israelites lived in close proximity to each other as they travelled through the desert, and hence, if anyone contracted a contagious skin disease, it would be disastrous for the rest of the people who could also suffer from the same malady as well. But over time, the rationale and purpose of this law and rule became forgotten, and ended up being interpreted in a way that prejudiced and being unfair against those suffering from those diseases, many of whom did not become sick because of their own fault. The Lord healed the leper and then told him to follow the prescribed rules, to show himself to a priest and not to speak of what he had experienced, the miraculous healing and all.
But as we heard, the man disobeyed the Lord, perhaps partly due to his enthusiasm to let everyone know what had happened to him. Unfortunately, that disobedience came at a price because it likely made known to everyone of the interaction which the Lord Jesus had made with the leper, which was a very taboo thing to do at the time. That was why the Lord could no longer go openly to any towns and places, and had to remain in the wilderness Himself. This of course did not stop many people from continuing to bring their sick ones to the Lord, wanting Him to heal their sick ones or their own problems and sickness. The Lord showed His love towards everyone and healed all of them.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to these words from the Scriptures, we are once again reminded that obedience is truly something that is very important, and we should not persist in our disobedience especially against God, against His will and commandments. Instead, we should commit ourselves to follow His path and to do His will, and humble ourselves before Him, realising that we are all sinners who are in need of His healing and mercy. For the main reason why many people, including those Israelites during the time of the Exodus and afterwards, and the Jewish leaders during the time of Jesus, were stubborn and refused to listen to the Lord was because of their pride and ego, as well as their attachment to the worldly desires and ambitions, to all the temptations present all around us.
Let us all therefore strive to live our lives ever more faithfully and worthily of God from now on, doing our best so that by our every moments in life, in everything that we say and do, in all the actions we take in life and in whatever we do, our interactions towards one another and in our whole lives, we will continue to grow in faith and humility, and continue to focus our lives and existence on the Lord, to continue to do His will and to obey Him wholeheartedly in all things, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Mark 1 : 40-45
At that time, a leper came to Jesus and begged Him, “If You want to, You can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I do want to; be clean.”
The leprosy left the man at once and he was made clean. As Jesus sent the man away, He sternly warned him, “Do not tell anyone about this, but go and show yourself to the priest, and for the cleansing bring the offering ordered by Moses; in this way you will give to them your testimony.”
However, as soon as the man went out, he began spreading the news everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter any town. But even though He stayed in the rural areas, people came to Him from everywhere.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 94 : 6-7, 8-9, 10-11
Come and worship; let us bow down, kneel before the Lord, our Maker. He is our God, and we His people; the flock He leads and pastures. Would that today you heard His voice!
Do not be stubborn, as at Meribah, in the desert, on that day at Massah, when your ancestors challenged Me, and they put Me to the test.
For forty years they wearied Me and I said, “They are a people of inconsistent heart; they have not known My ways.” So I declared an oath in My anger, “Never shall they enter My rest.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Hebrews 3 : 7-14
Listen to what the Holy Spirit says : If only you would hear God’s voice today! Do not be stubborn, as they were in the place called Rebellion, when your ancestors challenged Me in the desert, although they had seen My deeds for forty years. That is why I was angry with those people and said : Their hearts are always going astray and they do not understand My ways. I was angry and made a solemn vow : They will never enter My rest.
So, brothers, be careful lest some of you come to have an evil and unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. Encourage one another, day by day, as long as it is called today. Let no one become hardened in the deceitful way of sin. We are associated with Christ provided we hold steadfastly to our initial hope until the end.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded once again of the salvation which we have generously received from the hands of the Lord Himself, Who has come into our midst, to reveal His love and mercy, His power and compassion so that by this act of supreme and most perfect, selfless and ever enduring love, God has made available to us the most wonderful grace of His love, reaching out to us through His Son, opening for us all the gates of Heaven. That is why we have to appreciate everything that He has done for us and realise what we have been entrusted with as Christians, in the need for all of us to love Him sincerely and genuinely from our hearts, and to carry out the missions He has given to us.
In our first reading today, we heard of the words mentioned by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who is likely St. Luke the Evangelist based on historical evidence, in which the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into this world has become the means by which He has destroyed the chains of sin and death that have dominated over us and kept us ensnared and trapped in the path towards our destruction and damnation. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews explained how the Messiah, the Saviour of all had embraced our human nature for the specific reason of saving each and every one of us from the destruction because of our sins which have corrupted us all and our human nature. This justified the appearance of God in the form of Man, as Christ our Lord has revealed to us.
We must first understand that from the very beginning of time, we have been corrupted and made imperfect because of our disobedience against God and our choice of obeying and trusting the words of the evil one, Satan, the Deceiver rather than to put our faith and trust in God. We allowed ourselves to be swayed by the temptations of worldly desires, ambitions, greed and more such that we defiled our pure and perfect origin, as it had been crafted and designed by God, and we allowed sin to corrupt our nature through disobedience against God, His will, Law and commandments. And hence, in order to undo this corruption of our nature and to remove the darkness that has covered all of us, separating us from the fullness of God’s grace and love, hence God sent unto us His deliverance through His Son.
For this Son of God has been incarnate in the flesh, and become one just like us all, assuming our human nature and existence just as mentioned by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. And by His total and perfect obedience to the will of His Heavenly Father, He has become the archetype and example of the perfect Man, that had once been lost to us through sin and death. He has indeed become the New Adam, the New Man, breaking us all free from the dominion of sin, which He did by offering Himself as our High Priest, making the perfect supplication and offer on our behalf by the means of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, broken and outpoured for our sake on the Altar of His Cross at Calvary.
He can do this because while He has assumed our human flesh, existence and nature, but His humanity is distinct from His Divinity, and yet, both are indivisible and inseparable from each other. That is why, what He is offering is offering of Humanity which is made perfect by His Divinity and by His freedom from any taint of sin. Through Him and all of His works, His most perfect and wonderful sacrifice, in His ever enduring and powerful love for us, Christ has opened the doors of salvation to us, which in our Gospel passage today we have also heard and witnessed His great desire to bring us all back to the light of God’s grace, healing and strengthening us all amidst all the hardships and challenges that we have to face in life.
In that account from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard how the Lord healed the very sick mother-in-law of His disciple Simon, later to be known as St. Peter the Apostle. That occasion made many people to come and bring their sick ones to Him, so that He might heal them all as well. The Lord could very well have stayed and remained there, as He was very popular thanks to His miracles and healing, but as we heard, He chose to quietly leave the place behind, so that He could fulfil the missions and works that had been entrusted to Him. In this we have seen yet another example of the obedience and faithfulness which Christ has shown in His life, as opposed to the disobedience which we have shown against God.
It is a reminder that all of us as Christians must always strive to be obedient to God and to listen to Him at all times. We should not allow ourselves to be swayed by our desires, by the many temptations and evils all around us, which may attempt to lead us astray by pandering to our desires and our ego, our ambitions and attachments to worldly matters and pursuits. This is where we have to make the strong and firm stand for our faith in the Lord, committing ourselves wholeheartedly to His cause and to obey Him just as Jesus our Lord has shown us all the perfect example for all of us to follow. As Christians it is important that we should always show good examples and be good role models in our faith to everyone around us.
Today, the Church traditionally celebrates the Feast of St. Paul the Hermit, an ascetic whose great faith, commitment and obedience to God can truly inspire us all in how we all should live our own faith. He was a longtime ascetic after he escaped from the intense persecution of Christian during his youth by the Roman Emperor Decius, when he was just in his early twenties. According to tradition and hagiographic evidence, he would spend the next nine decades living as a hermit in the desert, dedicating himself to prayerful life in solitude, which eventually inspired many other people like the other famous ascetic, St. Anthony of Egypt, also known as St. Anthony the Great. His great holiness and dedication to a life pleasing to God is indeed an inspiration to us all as Christians, a life detached from all the worldly glory and temptations that often distract and mislead us down the wrong paths in life.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore follow in the examples shown to us by the Lord Himself and also His saints, like St. Paul the Hermit among others. Let us all strive to be ever more faithful and committed to the cause of the Lord from now on, doing whatever we can so that our every words, actions and deeds, our every interactions and good works, efforts and in all things, we will inspire many more people to live lives that are truly and wholeheartedly committed to God, as faithful and good Christians, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)
Mark 1 : 29-39
At that time, on leaving the synagogue, Jesus went to the home of Simon and Andrew with James and John. As Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with fever, they immediately told Him about her. Jesus went to her and, taking her by the hand, raised her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
That evening at sundown, people brought to Jesus all the sick and those who had evil spirits : the whole town was pressing around the door. Jesus healed many who had various diseases, and drove out many demons; but He did not let them speak, for they knew Who He was.
Very early in the morning, before daylight, Jesus went off to a lonely place where He prayed. Simon and the others went out also, searching for Him; and when they found Him, they said, “Everyone is looking for You.” Then Jesus answered, “Let us go to the nearby villages so that I may preach there too; for that is why I came.”
So Jesus set out to preach in all the synagogues throughout Galilee; He also cast out demons.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)
Psalm 104 : 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9
Give thanks to the Lord, call on His Name; make known His works among the nations. Sing to Him, sing His praise, proclaim all His wondrous deeds.
Glory in His holy Name; let those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and be strong; seek His face always.
You descendants of His servant Abraham, you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgments reach the whole world.
He remembers His covenant forever, His promise to a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the promise He swore to Isaac.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)
Hebrews 2 : 14-18
And because all those children share one same nature of flesh and blood, Jesus, likewise, had to share this nature. This is why His death destroyed the one holding the power of death, that is the devil, and freed those who remained in bondage all their lifetime, because of the fear of death.
Jesus came, to take by the hand, not the Angels but the human race. So, He had to be like His brothers and sisters, in every respect, in order to be the High Priest, faithful to God and merciful to them, a Priest, able to ask pardon, and atone for their sins. Having been tested through suffering, He is able to help those who are tested.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 