1st Week of Ordinary Time

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Saturday, 18 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Lord speaking to us through the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that through the great love, kindness and grace that God has given to each one of us, we have received this great promise and assurance of salvation and eternal life, all because of our Lord having come into this world in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, through Whom God made that Bridge connecting all of us back to Him, renewing and making a new and eternal Covenant with all of us through His perfect and most selfless sacrifice on the Cross. And we should realise just how fortunate all of us are, having received this great love and grace from God.

In our first reading today, from the continuation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author of this Epistle spoke about the power of the Word of God which had been made flesh, incarnate in our midst, and Whose power has penetrated through our every beings, our bodies, hearts and minds, revealing unto us the truth about the Lord, His love and great desire to save us all from certain destruction and eternal damnation. He has given is all this way of salvation through His Son, the Incarnate Word of God, in the person of Jesus Christ, Who has become one like us, assuming our human nature and existence, and yet without the taint and corruption of sin. By that, as mentioned by the author of the Epistle, He has become our one True and Eternal High Priest, offering on our behalf the sacrifice worthy of redeeming us from our sins.

This is what we are constantly being reminded of, the love of God that has been manifested in His Son, and this Son, our High Priest has willingly embraced our human existence, having gone through all the temptations, challenges and difficulties, all the trials that He had to face throughout His life, ministry, and ultimately His Passion and death on the Cross. He did not hesitate to go through all of these ultimately because of His ever enduring and present love for each one of us. He has obeyed so perfectly that by His total obedience and love for His heavenly Father, He, as the New Man, might become for all of us the perfect role model and inspiration to follow, in becoming the perfect Man, the perfect Lamb to be offered for us, and the perfect High Priest to offer this generous and most selfless offering for the sake of our redemption.

Essentially, through Christ, we have received the assurance of forgiveness from our sins and the path to eternal life and true happiness with Him, because He is truly God Himself in the raiment of our human nature, and by His power and the grace that He has freely offered us, He has the power to forgive us from our many sins, calling on each and every one of us to come to Him and to embrace His rich forgiveness and grace, reminding us that there is no sinner without a future, as long as we trust in the Lord and believe in His compassion and rich mercy, and cooperate with Him in His desire to reunite us all with Him, leading to us all being freed from the bondage of sin, walking down the path of repentance and turning away from the darkness, walking towards the light and salvation in God.

Then in our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus called Levi, a tax collector to be one of His disciples. And in this Gospel we heard the example of what the Lord had desired to do with His coming into this world to heal us all from our afflictions and forgive us all from our many sins. This is because the tax collectors during the time of the Lord were often reviled, despised and hated by many of the people because of the prejudice they experienced based on their line of work and what they did, which were disliked by the people. Their job was to collect taxes on behalf of the rulers, be it the Herodian rulers, the descendants of Herod the Great, or the Romans, who were the true rulers and overlords of the land that time.

No one would love to allow their hard earned money, wealth or possessions to be taxed, and the various taxes they had to endure not only make the livelihood the people were having to be more difficult and challenging, but the common perception was that the tax collectors were enriching themselves with the taxes and the money that most of the people had toiled and laboured hard to earn. Therefore, there was a strong prejudice against those tax collectors, who were deemed as great sinners and wicked people, unworthy of God and His grace, and many among the people, especially the self-righteous Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, would have nothing to do with those tax collectors, as according to their teachings, interacting with those tax collectors would defile and corrupt the person who did so.

That was what the Lord set to break and set right as He went directly to call on Levi the tax collector to follow Him. And we heard how Levi left everything behind and decided to follow the Lord. Levi must have had a good and comfortable life, and his nature of work meant that he must be quite well educated. He could have done other jobs in the administration if not being a tax collector, and yet, he chose to put his trust in the Lord and follow Him wholeheartedly, becoming the disciple of the Lord henceforth and committed himself to a lifetime of service, eventually dying as a martyr many years later in the midst of his work of evangelisation. But before all that, we heard how Levi, the future St. Matthew the Apostle, called on all the other tax collectors who all wanted to listen to the Lord and all of them came to have dinner at Levi’s house with the Lord.

Now, as mentioned earlier, this was something taboo for the Jewish people and the Pharisees, and some of those Pharisees who were present there immediately criticised the Lord for His choice of action, of coming to eat in the house of a sinner, according to the interpretation of the Pharisees. Yet, the Lord told those Pharisees off and rebuked them for their prejudice and also lack of faith in Him, because while many of those Pharisees had refused to believe in Him and His words, questioned and doubted His authority and works, those tax collectors, who were supposedly wicked and great sinners, were all flocking to come and seek the Lord, wanting to listen to Him and to atone for their mistakes and faults. And this is what the Lord desires from us, that willingness from each one of us to come and seek Him, His forgiveness and mercy so that we may all receive from Him pardon and healing for all of our sins, and be redeemed and reunited with Him, worthy to enter into the eternal kingdom prepared for all of us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore remind ourselves and one another of God’s great love and mercy, striving to follow the example of Levi and the tax collectors, fully realising that we are all sinners, wicked and unworthy of God’s forgiveness and grace. And yet, the Lord has generously provided us all with the means to come back towards Him and to embrace His love and mercy. Let us all not take this great love, grace and mercy for granted, and commit ourselves henceforth from now on to walk ever more faithfully in God’s Holy Presence, and love Him with ever more dedication, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 18 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Mark 2 : 13-17

At that time, when Jesus went out again beside the lake, a crowd came to Him, and He taught them. As He walked along, He saw a tax collector sitting in his office. This was Levi, the son of Alpheus. Jesus said to him, “Follow Me!” And Levi got up and followed Him.

And it so happened that when Jesus was eating in Levi’s house, tax collectors and sinners sat with Him and His disciples; there were a lot of them, and they used to follow Jesus. But Pharisees, men educated in the Law, when they saw Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to His disciples, “Why does your Master eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus heard them, and answered, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

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Saturday, 18 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Psalm 18 : 8, 9, 10, 15

The Law of the Lord is perfect : it gives life to the soul. The word of the Lord is trustworthy : it gives wisdom to the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right : they give joy to the heart. The commandments  of the Lord are clear : they enlighten the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, it endures forever; the judgements of the Lord are true, all of them just and right.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart find favour in Your sight, o Lord – my Redeemer, my Rock!

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Saturday, 18 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Hebrews 4 : 12-16

For the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and judges the intentions and thoughts of the heart. All creation is transparent to Him; everything is uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him to Whom we render account.

We have a great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God, Who has entered heaven. Let us, then, hold fast to the faith we profess. Our High Priest is not indifferent to our weaknesses, for He was tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sinning. Let us, then, with confidence approach the throne of grace; we will obtain mercy and, through His favour, help in due time.

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Friday, 17 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded to remain firm in our faith in the Lord and to obey Him, and not to harden our hearts and minds against Him and His truth, for the Lord has brought unto us His salvation and grace, revealing His love manifested perfectly in the flesh through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour. There were those who believed in Him and embraced His truth, but there were many others who hardened their hearts and refusing to follow Him, or believe in His words and teachings, questioning His authority and legitimacy, just as what we had heard from the action of the teachers of the Law in our Gospel passage today.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author of this Epistle continued to speak of the matter of believing and trusting in the Messiah Whom God had sent into this world, the same Jesus Christ, the One Who had been betrayed by many among His own people, and handed over to the Romans to be crucified, but Whose Resurrection and truth cannot be contained and henceforth, continued to propagate among the Jewish people and many more others among the non-Jews, which became the beginning and foundation of the Church of God. After hearing for the past few days the various things that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews spoke about regarding the Lord and all that He had done to save us all, in order to convince those in the Jewish community who had not yet believed then, we too should be convinced of the truth that we have received as well.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in today’s passage again exhorted the people and hence, all of us to continue to keep our faith and trust in the Lord because all those who have stood by their faith in God and remained firmly faithful will indeed be rewarded by God, while all those who refused to listen to the Lord and believe in Him shall be judged and condemned by their own stubborn attitudes and conscious refusal of God’s merciful love and compassion towards all of His beloved ones. We must not take God’s love and mercy for granted as we must not forget that while He is truly a loving and merciful God, but He is also a just and Holy God, in Whose Presence sin and evil cannot stand and survive.

This is why as Christians it is important that we should always strive to hold fast to this faith which we have in the Lord, and not to be easily swayed by false ideas and teachings that run contrary to our faith in God. We should also not be swayed easily by our ego and pride, our ambitions and desires, some of which were the reasons why those who have rejected the Lord and refused to believe in Him and His truth had done so. It was the belief in their abilities, intellect and power, as well as pride in their sense of superiority which made many among the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the elders of the Jewish community to reject the Lord and harden their hearts and minds against His truth and works in their midst.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist in which the famous story of how the Lord Jesus healed a paralytic man was told to us. As we heard, four people brought the paralysed man through the roof of the building that Jesus was teaching in, as there were so many people gathered there to listen to Him. And when the Lord told the paralysed man that his sins had been forgiven, those teachers of the Law in the crowd grumbled and made complaints against the Lord, saying that He has insulted and blasphemed against God for only God has the power and authority to forgive us from our sins. Indeed, they were right on this, as God alone can forgive us our sins, but they refused to acknowledge that God Himself has come into their midst in the flesh.

Those teachers of the Law in fact were knowledgeable about the Law and the prophets of God and as such, of all people they should have been the ones who knew well that the prophets of God were all speaking of the coming of the Saviour of God, and they all, especially the prophet Isaiah attributed Divine identity to this Saviour, after all, how can Isaiah mentioned the name of the Saviour as Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. How can this Saviour be another god that is not the one and only True God of all, unless He truly comes into this world to dwell among us, as the prophet Isaiah also prophesied about Emmanuel, God Who dwells with His people?

That is why the stubbornness among the people of God, their ego and pride, their refusal to listen to the Lord and embrace His truth, all of those things had become great obstacles in preventing them from accepting the reality that the Lord Himself has brought into their midst. God has come into our midst to heal us all from our afflictions that is our maladies, sickness and all of our shortcomings, but most importantly our sins as mentioned earlier that no one can forgive us all our sins save that of the Lord. And He has given us all His Son to reach out to us, forgiving our sins and offering the most generous and wonderful love of God manifested before us. What else can we possibly want, brothers and sisters?

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Anthony, also known as St. Anthony the Abbot, or St. Anthony the Great or St. Anthony of Egypt. He was a truly renowned ascetic who lived many years in the wilderness in the desert during the early years of the Church. St. Anthony was a contemporary of another great hermit and ascetic, namely St. Paul the Hermit, whose feast we had just celebrated two days earlier. St. Anthony was born in a wealthy family in Egypt and lost both of his parents when he was just about twenty years old. He then chose to abandon worldly glory and pursuits, living in the wilderness and desert like St. Paul the Hermit, devoting many decades of his life in seclusion and contemplative prayer.

It was told that St. Anthony was often visited and attacked by the evil one who attempted to tempt and coerce him to abandon his holy and devout life for the pleasures of the world, but the Devil was unable to shake St. Anthony’s firm faith and conviction to follow the Lord wholeheartedly. He resisted those temptations and became great role models and inspirations for many others who would follow in his footsteps as an ascetic, known as the ‘Father of Monasticism’ who would inspire the other monks like St. Benedict of Nursia, St. Bede the Venerable among many others. While St. Anthony was not the first ascetic, preceded by St. Paul the Hermit and others, but he was the first to popularise the way of ascetic lifestyle, conscious withdrawal from the world and prayerful commitment to God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all continue to do our part in glorifying God by our lives, and let us all continue to put our faith in Him, our trust and belief that in Him alone lies our hope, the hope for liberation and redemption from the dominion and bondage to sin. Each and every one of us should continue to live our lives worthily as Christians, dedicating ourselves, our time and efforts to direct more and more people towards the Lord, sharing our faith and showing it towards everyone whom we encounter daily in life. May God be with us all and may He continue to strengthen us all, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 17 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 2 : 1-12

At that time, after some days, Jesus returned to Capernaum. As the news spread that He was in the house, so many people gathered, that there was no longer room even outside the door. While Jesus was preaching the Word to them, some people brought a paralysed man to Him.

The four men who carried him could not get near Jesus because of the crowd, so they opened the roof above the room where Jesus was and, through the hole, lowered the man on his mat. When Jesus saw the faith of these people, He said to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

Now some teachers of the Law, who were sitting there, wondered within themselves, “How can He speak like this, insulting God? Who can forgive sins except God?”

At once Jesus knew in His Spirit what they were thinking, and asked, “Why do you wonder? Is it easier to say to this paralysed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Rise, take up your mat and walk?’ But now you shall know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”

And He said to the paralytic, “Stand up, take up your mat and go home.” The man rose and, in the sight of all those people, he took up his mat and went out. All of them were astonished and praised God, saying, “Never have we seen anything like this!”

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Friday, 17 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot (Psalm)

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.

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Friday, 17 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot (First Reading)

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.

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Thursday, 16 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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.

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Thursday, 16 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

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.