27th Week

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Saturday, 12 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are ever reminded of the love and kindness that God has shown us all these while. We are also reminded of the love and dedication that God has for us, by sending a deliverance to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. We are then finally reminded of the promise of salvation and eternal joy that He had made with us, through the covenant, the new covenant sealed by the Blood of His Son Jesus on the cross.

That everlasting joy, the happiness that never ends will be ours, if we remain faithful to the Lord, and if we are consistent in our commitment to the Lord and His cause. If we do so, we will receive rich rewards in the end, while those who diverge from the path of righteousness and turned their backs to the Lord, they will be damned to eternal suffering in hell.

However, brothers and sisters in Christ, we must not be focused too much on the rewards and punishments that await us at the end of our lives. Our love for the Lord must not be because of our fear of punishment or indeed because we desire rewards from the Lord. In that manner, our love and devotion to the Lord must be really genuine and pure, without any hidden desires or purposes.

The Lord rewards the just and all those who keep His commandments, staying true to His laws and words, tempted not by the worldly pleasures and evils. He loves us dearly and wants us to remain in His grace. He is loving and forgiving, caring for all of us. But if we divert from the path of the Lord, and walk in the land of the wicked, His anger will be upon us.

But the Lord is angry at us not because He does not love us, but precisely because He cares for all of us with all of His heart. He sent us prophets and helpers along time, and all these times, He had given much of His attention to us, that we can be saved, and be worthy of Him, and not fall into eternal suffering of death.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is often that we spurned God’s eternal love for us. It is often that we turned away from His loving embrace, from His light, as we prefer darkness to the light of God. In the darkness of the pleasures of this world, we find the false guide and the false light, and we spurned God’s love and God’s care for all of us.

Therefore, brethren, let us renew our commitment to the Lord, to be loving children of God, loving one another and loving He who is our Father, promising that we will keep true to His words and His proclamations, casting away all that is evil from our lives and doing good at all times, giving love to our fellow men. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 12 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 27-28

As Jesus was speaking, a woman spoke from the crowd and said to Him, “Blessed is the one who gave you birth and nursed you!” Jesus replied, “Truly blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it as well.”

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Saturday, 12 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 96 : 1-2, 5-6, 11-12

The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the distant islands be glad. Clouds and darkness surround Him; justice and right are His throne.

The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His justice, all peoples see His glory.

He sheds light upon the upright, and gladness upon the just. Rejoice in the Lord, you who are blameless, and give praise to His holy Name.

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Saturday, 12 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Joel 4 : 12-21

Rise up, o peoples, and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, nations. Bring a sickle for the harvest is ripe; come and tread for the winepress is full and the vats overflow, so great is their wickedness!

Multitudes and more multitudes in the Valley of Verdict! The day of YHVH is near in the Valley of Verdict! The sun and the moon become dark, the stars lose their radiance. YHVH roars from Zion and raises His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth are shaken. Indeed YHVH is a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the Israelites.

You will know that I am YHVH, your God, dwelling on Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be a holy place, and foreigners will never pass through there again. On that day the mountains shall drip wine and the hills flow with milk; all the streams of Judah will run with water and a fountain will spring from the House of YHVH, and water the valley of Shittim.

On the other hand, Egypt will be devastated and Edom will become a deserted wasteland because they committed violence against Judah, and shed innocent blood in their country. But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem through all generations. And I shall avenge their blood and not leave it unpunished, for YHVH dwells in Zion.

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Friday, 11 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are urged to be vigilant and ever trusting in God our Lord and Saviour. That we will remain faithful to Him and uphold ever strongly His commandments and laws within our hearts, anchoring ourselves within His love, so that the power of Satan will no longer prevail over us.

Christ had come into the world to save mankind from the hands of evil, and through His own death on the cross and His glorious resurrection, He had snatched us away from the hands of the enemy, and cast away the evil spirits and the demons that resided within each one of us, the spirits of temptation, lust, desire, greed, pride, sloth, and the spirits of other sinfulness. These Christ had cast out of us who believe in Him and who had been baptised and accepted into His Church.

But this does not mean that forever we will be out of danger, and that by the faith we had in Christ when we were saved is enough for us, and we need not do anything anymore. Some may argue that did Christ not say that we are saved by our faith, or citing the example of those who had been saved by faith? Then why do we need to do something even after we are saved?

That is because, brethren, our faith in God is not a dead faith and neither it is constant. A faith that is not supported with concrete actions of love, compassion, kindness, and dedication to God and fellow men is just as good as dead, or at least a dying faith. This kind of faith is not what the Lord wants from each one of us. What He wants from us is that faith which is living and dynamic, which is shown through our love, in our actions, that shows to the Lord our God, that our faith in Him is genuine and enduring, and not just mere words and promises!

After all, brothers and sisters in Christ, as unfaithful and rebellious we and our ancestors were, God did not turn away from His love towards us, and He constantly looked upon us with utmost mercy and compassion. And He who is ever faithful did not lie or offer false promises when He promised salvation, an eternal salvation and freedom from the powers of death and evil to our ancestors.

He made it truly a concrete and undeniable promise, through the coming of Himself, through Jesus His Son, the Word of God made flesh, into this world. That He was willing to come down upon us, to be one like us, to be the teacher of faith and love to us, and finally to die on the cross for our sake, were proof enough of His everlasting faith and love for us. If He had done so, we whom He had chosen to be His children, should also then do the same.

Satan, our former jailer and slave master, is not happy with us being released from our bondage to him and to sin. That is precisely what the death and resurrection of Christ had done for us. The evil one, ever mischievous and evil, does not give up on us, but instead intensified his attacks on us, sending evil spirits and temptations along our way, to turn us from the Lord, and make us betray the covenant we have made and renewed with God.

When we were baptised and accepted into the Church, we had been made clean, from our former dirty state. The waters of baptism cleanses us from the filth of sin within us, and God came to reside within each one of us saved in the Lord. However, as Christ Himself mentioned, that the evil spirit who left someone and then return, finding a clean room inside us, will be bound to come with more vicious evil spirits to destroy us, and to make us even worse than before.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, from today on, we ought to heed the warnings God had given us through Jesus our Lord, that we will not be swayed by the forces and temptations of Satan, and that we will keep strong the fortress of faith that is our heart and our body, that we will never again allow the spirits of wickedness, that is the evil spirits, to ever come again into us and reside within us.

Instead, let us affirm our love and dedication for the Lord our God, through whom we had been made clean and worthy of the eternal glory of heaven. Let Jesus Christ our Lord be the Master of our house, that is our body, heart, and soul, and not Satan the deceiver. Cast him out of our house and welcome instead the loving and compassionate Lord our God. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 11 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 15-26

Yet some of them said, “He drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of the demons.” Others wanted to put Him to the test, by asking Him for a heavenly sign.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, “Every nation divided by civil war is on the road to ruin, and will fall. If Satan also is divided, his empire is coming to an end. How can you say that I drive out demons by calling upon Beelzebul? If I drive them out by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive out demons? They will be your judges, then.”

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God; would not this mean that the kingdom of God, has come upon you? As long as a man, strong and well armed, guard his house, his goods are safe. But when a stronger man attacks and overcomes him, the challenger takes away all the weapons he relied on, and disposes of his spoils.”

“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me, scatters. When the evil spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through dry lands, looking for a resting place; and finding none, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.'”

“When it comes, it finds the house swept and everything in order. Then it goes to fetch seven other spirits, even worse than itself. They move in and settle there, so that the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

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Friday, 11 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 9 : 2-3, 6 and 16, 8-9

Let my heart give thanks to the Lord, I yearn to proclaim Your marvellous deeds, and rejoice and exult in You, and sing praise to Your Name, o Most High.

You have turned back the nations; You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their names forever. The pagans have sunk into the pit they have dug, their own feet ensnared by the trap they laid.

But the Lord reigns forever, having set up His throne for judgment. He will judge the nations with justice and govern the peoples in righteousness.

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Friday, 11 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Joel 1 : 13-15 and Joel 2 : 1-2

Gird yourselves, o priests, and weep; mourn, o ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, o ministers of my God! For the house of your God is deprived of grain and drink offering.

Proclaim a fast, call an assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land into the house of your God, and cry out to YHVH, “What a dreadful day – the day of YHVH that draws near and comes as ruin from the Almighty!

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on My holy mountain! Let all dwellers in the land tremble, for the day of YHVH is coming. Yes, the day is fast approaching – a day of gloom and darkness, a day of clouds and blackness. A vast and mighty army comes, like dawn spreading over the mountain, such as has never occurred before nor will happen again in the future.

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Thursday, 10 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

The Lord is love, and He cares for us like a father cares for his children. That is no mere love, but unconditional love, a form of pure love between individuals that is corrupted neither by worldly desires nor by our personal desires. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that, in essence, is what the love and dedication the Lord our God has for us, as our Father and Creator, and as our friend and caretaker.

Much blessings and graces He had prepared for us, and He had prepared His angels to come and serve to our needs. It does not mean that ever since we have sinned against God, then we are forever cut out of His loving embrace. In fact, He brings us even closer towards Himself and tries His best to return us to the path of the righteous that we will live in glory and not die in condemnation.

All these He had generously prepared for us, and everything is ready to be unleashed upon us, awaiting only for our call to Him. Just like a father and his children, that if the children call out for the father in need of something, that father will rush immediately to his children’s side, leaving everything that he is currently doing, and ready to deliver to his children, his help and his undying love.

Such is the nature of God’s love for us, and we are truly special to Him, each and every one of us. The Lord needs us only to call out to Him. Yes, we only need to ask and knock at His doors, and He will certainly answer us. What we need is simply to come and approach Him with an open heart, open for His love and care for us. If we do not knock, or if we are afraid to approach Him because of our fear for His anger, then we will never gain access to the Lord’s unfailing help.

The Lord also does not punish us or rebuke us without a clear reason, and neither did He punish us because He took pleasure in seeing our suffering and pain. On the contrary, what He truly wished from us is our liberation from sin, and the chains of slavery which had bounded us to sin from the beginning of time.

He admonishes us and punishes us like a father punishing his child, driven not by hatred or anger, but by love, genuine love he has for his child. Therefore, in the same way, God who is our Father also loves us so dearly that, in order to prevent us from falling again into sin and therefore risk losing us for eternity to damnation in hell, He makes Himself available for us, to seek, to knock at His door, and to seek for His love and mercy.

We have to remember the fundamental thing that, we belong to the Lord, and therefore, it is natural that He wants us to behave exactly like what He expects of us, that is to be good and loving just as He is good and loving. He, as our eternal Father certainly will not let harm or evil come to us. He will use all within His power to deliver us from the hands of Satan, and He will make sure that we remain in the light.

That is why, brethren, let us, from now on, commit ourselves to love the Lord our God and Father ever more, and no longer walk in the path of sin and darkness, but instead walk in the light with God. May the Lord who loves us with all of His heart, continue to love us and empower us with His love, that we too may love Him in the same way, as well as loving our fellow brothers and sisters, the same children of God.

For too long we have belonged in the darkness, and it is time for us to rise up and walk towards God’s love. Let us wait no longer and instead accept the offer of the Lord’s salvation, He who extended His hands for us all, that we may walk in His path and be saved, in eternal life of bliss and joy in heaven. May God Almighty and ever-loving Lord continue to strengthen us with His love, protecting us and caring for us, admonishing us whenever we err in our path, but at the same time, giving us hope for eternal salvation in Him.

God be with us all and may He open His door, the door of His love to us, just as we open the doors of our heart to His loving presence. Amen.

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Thursday, 10 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 5-13

Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to his house in the middle of the night and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine who is travelling has just arrived, and I have nothing to offer him.’ Maybe your friend will answer from inside, ‘Do not bother me now; the door is locked, and my children and I are in bed, so I cannot get up and give you anything.'”

“But I tell you, even though he will not get up and attend to you because you are a friend, yet he will get up because you are a bother to him, and he will give you all you need.”

“And so I say to you, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.”

“If your child asks for a fish, will you give him a snake instead? And if your child asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.”