22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

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Saturday, 7 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

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

Luke 6 : 1-5

At that time, one Sabbath Jesus was going through a field of grain, and His disciples began to pick heads of grain, crushing them in their hands for food. Some of the Pharisees asked them, “Why do you do what is forbidden on the Sabbath?”

Then Jesus spoke up and asked them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his men were hungry? He entered the house of God, took and ate the bread of the offering, and even gave some to his men, though only priests are allowed to eat that bread.”

And Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord and rules over the Sabbath.”

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Saturday, 7 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

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

Psalm 144 : 17-18, 19-20, 21

Righteous is YHVH in all His ways, His mercy shows in all His deeds. He is near those who call on Him, who call trustfully upon His Name.

He fulfils the wish of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them. For those who love Him, YHVH has compassion; but the wicked, He will destroy.

Let my mouth speak in praise of YHVH, let every creature praise His holy Name, forever and ever.

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Saturday, 7 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

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

1 Corinthians 4 : 6b-15

Learn by this example, not to believe yourselves superior by siding with one against the other. How, then, are you more than the others? What have you that you have not received? And if you received it, why are you proud, as if you did not receive it?

So, then, you are already rich and satisfied, and feel like kings, without us! I wish you really were kings, so that we might enjoy the kingship with you! It seems to me, that God has placed us, the Apostles, in the last place, as if condemned to death, and as spectacles for the whole world, for the Angels as well as for mortals.

We are fools for Christ, while you show forth the wisdom of Christ. We are weak, you are strong. You are honoured, while we are despised. Until now we hunger and thirst, we are poorly clothed and badly treated, while moving from place to place. We labour, working with our hands. People insult us and we bless them, they persecute us and we endure everything; they speak evil against us, and ours are works of peace. We have become like the scum of the earth, like the garbage of humankind until now.

I do not write this to shame you, but to warn you, as very dear children. Because, even though you may have ten thousand guardians in the Christian life, you have only one Father; and it was I who gave you life in Christ through the Gospel.

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Friday, 6 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, each and every one of us who have accepted Him as our Lord and Saviour, as Christian believers, and as those whom God had called and chosen, we have to commit ourselves to the teachings and to the path that the Lord has shown us, that each and every one of us adhere to the truth which the Lord our God has been showing us, that we are all truly His disciples and followers in all things and at all circumstances. We must not be merely obeying the Lord outwardly and as formalities, paying lip service to Him while our hearts and minds are not focused or aligned to Him and His ways.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Corinth in what is today part of Greece, in which the Apostle exhorted the people of God there to live their lives faithfully as the disciples and followers of the Lord in all things, because each and every one of them had been entrusted as stewards of this world and all that God had created. And as the stewards of the Lord’s creation and this world, all of us should do our best to be exemplary in how we carry out ourselves and our actions, words and deeds at every possible moments and opportunities so that in each and every things that we do, we will proclaim the Lord our God faithfully and worthily through even the smallest things that we say and do.

We are all reminded that as Christians, we cannot and should not be idle in how we live our lives with faith and with the conviction as well as desire to love and serve the Lord, and also His beloved people, our fellow brothers and sisters in our midst and in our community. We should always be committed to have a good and worthy faith in the Lord, to be righteous and just in each and every actions and deeds, in our every words and interactions with one another. As Christians we must be truly the beacons of God’s light and grace, be illuminated with His truth and filled with His generous and compassionate love. We should be inspiration, strength and examples for our fellow brethren so that we can help each other to remain true and firmly faithful to the path that the Lord has shown and led us through in life. We cannot conform to the ways of the world or live in manner or ways that contradict our beliefs in God.

Then in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the parable which the Lord Jesus used to teach His disciples and followers about the compatibility between His Law and commandments, His teachings and ways to the way and interpretations that were done before His revelation of truth. In that parable we heard how the Lord spoke about the incompatibility of old wineskin and new wine, as well as new wineskin and old wine, adding on the examples of new patch of cloth being used to fix a hole or damage on an old cloth, and vice versa. All of these incompatible combinations eventually would lead to friction and problems, and which the Lord highlighted through the parable to make the people understand that following His path and ways would often mean that they might have to abandon the ways and paths commonly known or acceptable to the world.

It was a subtle rebuke made by the Lord against the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, as well as the chief priests and the Sadducees, all those people who had not truly obeyed the Lord in the right way, and who had chosen to believe in the Lord according to their own flawed and incomplete interpretations and understanding. The Lord told the people and all those who followed Him that to be His disciples and followers, they cannot remain faithful and obedient to God in the manner that the Pharisees and those teachers of the Law, the chief priests and the Sadducees had obeyed the Law. They had to listen to Him and what He had revealed and spoken before them so that they could truly be faithful to the Lord in the right manner, or else, that would lead to conflict and obstacles in their path.

This is also a reminder for us all as Christians that being a follower of Christ often requires us to commit ourselves beyond just the externals and appearances. To be true Christians, we may often be required to commit ourselves in making the changes and realignments needed so that our lives may truly be centred in the Lord, and no longer be against or in opposition against His path and ways. Each and every one of us as Christians are called and expected to resist the temptations of the world to sin and to disobey the Lord. With the revelation of God’s truth which we have received from His own Son, and which He has told and passed down to us through His Church, we are all called to adopt His new path and embrace wholeheartedly this way, rejecting the old ways of sin and worldliness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is why we are challenged and reminded that as the followers and disciples of the Lord, we cannot remain idle or forget our calling to be missionary and evangelising, to be truly active in walking down the path of righteousness, obeying Him and entrusting to Him all of our actions and efforts, in each and every moments of our lives.  As Christians, we should continue to strive to embrace God’s ways and be ever more committed to live our lives worthily and inspire one another, fellow brothers and sisters in doing the same as well. We should keep up our efforts to glorify the Lord by each and every one of our lives’ moments and actions.

May the Lord continue to guide each and every one of us, strengthening and empowering all of us so that in our every efforts and endeavours, in each and every moments of our lives, we will always strive to do what God has taught and shown us to do. May He continue to encourage us all to embrace His love and compassion, His patient guidance and help, so that we will be good and faithful stewards of His creation, to be exemplary in all things at all times. May God bless us all in our every good works, efforts and endeavours, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 6 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 5 : 33-39

At that time, some people asked Jesus, “The disciples of John fast often and say long prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why is it, that Your disciples eat and drink?”

Then Jesus said to them, “You cannot make wedding guests fast while the Bridegroom is with them. But later, the Bridegroom will be taken from them; and they will fast in those days.”

Jesus also told them this parable : “No one tears a piece from a new coat to put it on an old one; otherwise the new coat will be torn, and the piece taken from the new coat will not match the old coat. No one puts new wine into old wine skins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and be spilt, and the skins will be destroyed as well.”

“But new wine must be put into fresh skins. Yet, no one who has tasted old wine is eager to drink new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.’”

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Friday, 6 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 36 : 3-4, 5-6, 27-28, 39-40

Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and live on it. Make the Lord your delight, and He will grant your heart’s desire.

Commit your way to the Lord; put your trust in Him and let Him act. Then will Your revenge come, beautiful as the dawn, and the justification of your cause, bright as the noonday sun.

Do good and shun evil, so that you will live secure forever. For YHVH loves justice and right, and never forsakes His faithful ones. The wicked, instead, will perish, and their bread will be cut off.

The Lord is the Salvation of the righteous; in time of distress, He is their refuge. The Lord helps them, and rescues them from the oppressor; He saves them for they sought shelter in Him.

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Friday, 6 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Corinthians 4 : 1-5

Let everyone then see us as the servants of Christ and stewards of the secret works of God. Being stewards, faithfulness shall be demanded of us; but I do not mind if you or any human court judges me. I do not even judge myself; my conscience indeed does not accuse me of anything, but that is not enough for me to be set right with God : the Lord is the One Who judges me.

Therefore, do not judge before the time, until the coming of the Lord. He will bring to light whatever was hidden in darkness and will disclose the secret intentions of the hearts. Then each one will receive praise from God.

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Thursday, 5 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Kolkata, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that we should not put our trust only in human power and abilities, only in our own wisdom and intellect, as there would be a time and opportunity when those things may eventually fail us, while if we put our faith and trust in the Lord, we will be strengthened and while our paths and journeys may still be difficult and challenging, but in the end, it is with the Lord alone that we shall be able to gain true satisfaction, joy and happiness, glory and liberation from all of our troubles and difficulties. If we follow the Lord, then He will guide us all to His Presence, and we have to commit ourselves to walk in this path He has shown and led us through.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in the city and region of Corinth, we heard how the Apostle was speaking about the matter of human and worldly wisdom, and how those who are members of the faithful and holy people, the Church of God ought to be always seek to be filled with God’s Wisdom and grace, to be filled with His love and kindness, and not be swayed by the foolish paths taken by those who depended and walked in the path shown by their worldly wisdom and understanding alone. Those who sought worldliness and its satisfaction will be brought low while those who sought the Lord to be with them, all of them would be protected and reassured in their lives and existence before God and man alike.

As Christians, it is important that all of us must embody our faith and beliefs in each and every one of our actions, words and deeds, or else we are no better than hypocrites and unbelievers. Worse still, we may even scandalise our faith and the Lord’s good and holy Name if we allow ourselves and our actions to be swayed by the falsehoods and evils of this world around us. We should not allow our pride, ego and ambition, our greatness, abilities and other things from leading us astray from the Lord and His righteousness. Many people, our predecessors and our fellow brothers and sisters have fallen into this same trap as they allowed the temptations of pride and desire to mislead them and to tempt them away from the path and wisdom of God.

In our Gospel passage today, we are all reminded through the Gospel according to St. Luke in which we heard the account of the moment when the Lord was with His disciples at the Lake of Galilee or Gennesaret, where some of His disciples who were fishermen, were in the water, seeking for fish while their Master was on the land, teaching all the people who had come to Him to listen to Him. And we heard how the Lord then asked Simon Peter, one of His disciples to put out his boat and net into the deep waters, so that they could get fishes for themselves. Simon Peter, who was a fisherman and was an experienced one in his area of expertise immediately told the Lord that he and the other fishermen had worked hard all night long and they did not manage to get any fish.

But at the same time, we then heard of how Simon Peter obeyed the Lord’s commands, and he did just exactly as the Lord had told him to do, putting out his boat into the deep waters and lowering his net, which almost immediately and miraculously led to a huge and vast number of fishes being caught in the net, causing the boats that the disciples were in to be almost capsized by the huge haul. This miracle and event showed that the power and wisdom of God, His power and might are truly far greater than anything that the world can provide or give us. And this is why by entrusting himself to the Lord and by obeying Him, St. Peter and the other disciples could gain such a great catch, at which moment the Lord then told them to follow Him and that He would make them ‘fishers of men’.

This is a reminder how each and every one of us as the members of the Church and as part of the efforts and missions to reach out to our fellow brothers and sisters all around us in this world. All of us are like those fishermen, St. Peter and the other disciples of the Lord, who were labouring for the Lord, gathering and reaching out to more and more of those who have not yet seen the Lord’s truth and wonders. We are all parts of God’s Church and we all share the same mission, calling and responsibility to reach out to everyone of all the nations, to all those to whom we have been sent to, proclaiming the Good News of God and His salvation to them, and it is by our obedience to God and by the path that God has shown us that we will have great success in this endeavour, and not by our own power and might.

Today, the Church also celebrates the feast of the famous St. Teresa of Kolkata, also known as St. Teresa of Calcutta, or as Mother Teresa, renowned for her great charitable works and efforts through the congregation of Missionaries of Charity that she founded, in caring for the needy and the poor, the sick and the dying, and especially in giving dignified treatment for those who were suffering and dying, showing them the love of God manifested and shown through the actions of St. Teresa of Kolkata and her fellow sisters and other collaborators in the Missionaries of Charity. She was born in Albania as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu to a Catholic Albanian family in the year 1910, and since young she has been fascinated and inspired to be a missionary in distant lands. This eventually led to her joining the Sisters of Loreto congregation and went to India to continue her formation.

St. Teresa of Kolkata became involved in the education of young children in Kolkata, India during her many years in the congreagtion of the Sisters of Loreto, and eventually becoming the headmistress of the mission school there. However, she was continually disturbed by the great and abject poverty which many of the people in Kolkata and other parts of India suffered from. Through this calling that she embraced wholeheartedly, she eventually decided to leave her profession as a Sister of Loreto and role in the school, founding a new congregation, the Missionaries of Charity dedicated to the care and attention towards the poor, the needy and those who were sick and dying. She gathered many other like-minded women who sought to serve the needs of the people, giving care and compassionate love for those who needed them.

She gave dignity to those who have been abandoned, neglected and ostracised, caring for them in the poorest and most despicable conditions, in the slums and in the streets. She was well-known for her outreach to everyone who were poor and suffering regardless of their religious beliefs and background. She opened and operated hospices and houses like the famous Nirmala Hriday of Kolkata, where the poor and the dying can be cared with love and given the dignity due to them as human beings. Throughout the rest of her life, St. Teresa of Kolkata continued to do her best to serve the Lord and His people, following Him to whichever path that He wanted her to go, and famously mentioning at the time when she was given the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts, that she was just ‘an instrument in the hands of the Lord.’

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be inspired by the great examples of St. Teresa of Kolkata and the many other saints, holy men and women of God, so that our lives and efforts will truly be centred on God and that we will not be swayed by the temptations of worldly ambitions, power and glory. Instead, let us all humbly seek the Lord and strive to be always guided by Him and His Wisdom in all things. Let us all be the instruments of the Lord’s works, and be the ones through whom God would bring His many good works to fruition. May the Lord bless each and every one of us, in our every good effort, works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 5 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Kolkata, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Luke 5 : 1-11

At that time, one day, as Jesus stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, with a crowd gathered around Him listening to the word of God, He caught sight of two boats, left at the water’s edge by fishermen, now washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to pull out a little from the shore. There He sat, and continued to teach the crowd.

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon replied, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if You say so, I will lower the nets.” This they did, and caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. They signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came, and they filled both almost to the point of sinking.

Upon seeing this, Simon Peter fell at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and his companions were amazed at the catch they had made, and so were Simon’s partners, James and John, Zebedee’s sons. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. You will catch people from now on.” So they brought their boats to land and followed Him, leaving everything.

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Thursday, 5 September 2024 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Kolkata, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Psalm 23 : 1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6

The earth and its fullness belong to YHVH, the world and all that dwell in it. He has founded it upon the ocean and set it firmly upon the waters.

Who will ascend the mountain of YHVH? Who will stand in His holy place? Those with clean hands and pure heart, who desire not what is vain.

They will receive blessings from YHVH, a reward from God, their Saviour. Such are the people who seek Him, who seek the face of Jacob’s God.