Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded that we must have faith in God, trust and believe in Him, and not be doubtful about His Providence, as well as His commitment to make things work for us. We have to listen to Him and to do our best to follow His will, to do whatever it is that He has commanded us to do. We should not let our many preoccupations, the many temptations and distractions present all around us to keep us away from God and from doing His will. God has always provided us His guidance, help and strength whenever we need it, and He would never abandon us in our time and hour of need. But often we allow ourselves to be distracted and pulled away by fear and doubt, and we seek instead other means to satisfy our needs and desires, that lead us away from God.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Judges, we continue to hear the story of what happened to the people of God, the Israelites during the time of the intervening years between the time of the Exodus from Egypt and the days of the Kings of Israel. And after several episodes of the rule of the Judges whom God appointed and called to be the one guiding and leading His people, the Israelites, this time, it was the call that He made to one known as Jephthah, in order to lead the Israelites into freedom from the power and the subjugation under their Ammonite neighbours. And we heard in our first reading passage today, Jephthah vowing before the Lord that if He would make him victorious, then He would offer anything or anyone that came out from his house to the Lord as a burnt offering.

The words of Jephthah would come back to haunt him later on after the Lord had led him to a great victory against the Ammonites, breaking their domination over the Israelites and chasing them back to their own lands. His own daughter came out of the house, and Jephthah regretted of making such a foolish vow before the Lord, and he had to fulfil it even if it meant offering his own daughter to the Lord. And the lesson from this passage for us all is that we should never doubt the Lord’s Providence, guidance and power, and we should always trust in Him, having hope and faith that He will always provide for everything that we need. He would never abandon us all to the darkness and to destruction, and instead of doubting Him, we should remember how He has always rescued us from our predicaments and brought us into the light.t

Then, from our Gospel passage today, we are reminded from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist of the parable which the Lord Jesus used to speak to the people gathered to listen to Him, the parable of the wedding banquet, detailing about a king who was holding a wedding banquet for his son, and how those guests that had been invited to the wedding banquet refused to come to his banquet. Those people who had been invited had many reasons and excuses, and many of them chose to attend to their own matters and worldly desires and pursuits instead of coming to the banquet. This wedding banquet is a representation of what God had prepared for all of us, His beloved people, and the king himself is a representation of God.

Those who are invited, are all of us, and those who have not responded to the banquet’s invitation are those who refused to follow the Lord. They refused to listen to the king’s invitation and reminders, and when the king sent his servants and messengers to them, they ignored those sent to them, and in some cases even persecuted and killed them, and this is a representation of how the wicked people to whom the Lord had sent His messengers, the prophets and servants to help and remind them, had treated those messengers badly. And this was followed by the king crushing, punishing and destroying those who have refused to come to his banquet and still stubbornly persecuted his messengers and servants, showing how those who rejected God’s ways would suffer and be punished for their sins.

Then as we heard from the parable, the king patiently sought others to attend his banquet instead, and this is just as how the Lord patiently reached out to all of us, calling on us to come to His Presence, and to enjoy the fullness of His blessings and love. And at the same time, we then heard of how those new guests that the king invited came to the banquet venue, and one of them was not wearing a wedding garment, essentially was not properly attired for the event. We heard how the king confronted the man and then ordered him to be thrown out because he was not attired properly for the banquet. We may think and misunderstand the Lord’s intentions with this, wondering why the king was so cruel in doing so, but this is in fact a reminder for all of us that if we truly want to follow the Lord, then we need to abandon our current sinfulness and embrace wholeheartedly our faith in the Lord, to be holy as the Lord is holy, that we may be worthy to come and be part of His eternal, heavenly banquet.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of one the recently well-known Popes, that is Pope St. Pius X, also known as the Pope of the Holy Eucharist for his role in allowing younger children to access the Holy Eucharist by lowering the age requirement for the reception of the First Holy Communion to the age of reason. Pope St. Pius X, born as Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was born in born into a poor Italian family as Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, the second of ten children. His parents, while poor, was very devout to the Lord and valued education and formation for their family, ensuring that the young Giuseppe was properly educated despite their poverty and situation. Eventually, Giuseppe Sarto continued to do well in his education and eventually received a scholarship to continue with his priestly formation in a seminary, eventually ordained as a priest.

During his priestly ministry, he was well-known for his great holiness and care for his flock, and was very dedicated in his ministry as the Archpriest of Salzano, where he helped to restore the church that had been run down at the time and building expansion to the local hospital, which he managed to support from his efforts, including even begging and other things that he had done for his flock. He also showed great compassion and concern for his flock in an epidemic of cholera that struck the area. Eventually this gained the attention of the diocese, and he was trusted as a canon of the Cathedral and then as the Chancellor for the Diocese of Treviso in northern Italy. He continued to do his best to care for the needs of the people entrusted to him, placing a lot of emphasis on the youth, on their education and upbringing, which he would continue as the Pope many years later.

Subsequently, the future Pope St. Pius X was appointed and ordained as the Bishop of Mantua, where he still carried on with his many earlier good works and efforts. He was made a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and then soon after the Patriarch of Venice, entrusted with the care of one of the largest and the most prominent dioceses in the Church at the time. He continued to labour hard for the sake of his beloved flock, being a very pastoral shepherd to his people, reaching out to them and being concerned about their needs, both physical and spiritual. After the passing of Pope Leo XIII, Cardinal Sarto was eventually elected as Pope, taking the name of Pius, in the Year of Our Lord 1903, during whose Pontificate, he was truly well known as mentioned, for his championing of the cause of earlier age for the reception of the First Holy Communion by the young children as long as they have reached the age of reason and received proper catechesis and preparation.

He was also renowned for his hard work against the dangers of modernism that was then harming the Church and the Christian community. He continued to work hard to the very end, dying heartbroken over the terrible wars that began in Europe, which would become the First World War. To that very end, Pope St. Pius X showed us that he was truly a great and loving shepherd to all of God’s flock and people, whom he has always been concerned about, thinking about them at each and every moments, worrying about their well-being and salvation at all times. The courageous and faithful life, work and dedication of Pope St. Pius X, holy man of God should indeed be great inspirations for all of us to follow in our own lives.

Brothers and sisters, through what we have discussed and discerned from the messages of the Sacred Scriptures, and also from the inspiring life and examples shown by Pope St. Pius X, the Pope of the Eucharist, let us all hence do our very best to trust in the Lord and to be ever more faithful to Him, doing our part in proclaiming the Good News and truth of God to everyone, in standing up courageously and staying true to our faith, believing wholeheartedly in Him and not doubting Him, always being firm in our faith in everything that we do. As long as we continue to do so, we will be steadfast and strengthened by God, and in the end, we shall indeed share in the glory of God, just as He has promised for us, to partake in the eternal banquet in Heaven. May God be with us all and bless each one of us, now and always. Amen.