28th Week of Ordinary Time

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Wednesday, 14 October 2020 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Callixtus I, Pope and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Galatians 5 : 18-25

But when you are led by the Spirit you are not under the Law. You know what comes from the flesh : fornication, impurity and shamelessness, idol worship and sorcery, hatred, jealousy and violence, anger, ambition, division, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I again say to you what I have already said : those who do these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy and peace, patience, understanding of others, kindness and fidelity, gentleness and self-control. For such things there is no Law or punishment. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its vices and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us live in a spiritual way.

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Tuesday, 13 October 2020 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are presented with the matter of the adherence of the Law of God through Moses, all that the Pharisees and teachers of the Law enforced among the people, and how this blind obedience followed by lack of genuine understanding of the faith often hurt the faithful and in fact prevent them from finding their path towards the Lord.

That is why we are all reminded to keep faithful to the teachings of the Lord, to break free from the trap of the adherence of the Law as the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and all others had kept, which reduced the faith into a mere exercise of formality, regularity and piety, where people thought that their actions alone were sufficient to guarantee themselves salvation.

When St. Paul mentioned how those who were circumcised were enslaved and subjected to the Law, he was referring in fact contextually to those who forced and demanded that every members of the Christian faithful embraced all the tenets, rules and regulations of the Law of Moses.

And this is a reminder that our salvation is due to our faith in God and not due to the Law or the obedience to the Law. Obeying God’s will, following His laws and commandments are all part of our faith, and it is by our faith that we have been saved. We do not save ourselves through our actions, separated from our faith. For without faith, all of our good actions, obedience and all the observances of the Law are empty and meaningless, just as faith without actions and obedience is dead.

The Pharisees were were too preoccupied with the appearances and the ‘letters’ of the Law, that they had overlooked and ignored the ‘spirit’ of the Law. And this is what the Lord was displeased at the Pharisees for, as He pointed out in our Gospel passage today, saying how although outwardly they appeared to be good and pious, but in reality, in their hearts were wickedness and sin.

What the Lord wants to remind all of us is that faith needs to be genuine and living, and we need to devote our time and effort, to follow the Lord, dedicating our whole lives to be inspirations for each other, to be virtuous and to be truthful in our everyday actions and living. We must always be Christ-centric in everything we say and do, and we must always be the beacons of hope and light for the community, for each other.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, by our faith in Christ, by our dedication and love for God, we are saved. And it is through our obedience of the Law, made through genuine and sincere love for God that we are brought into God’s grace and salvation. And to be Christians, genuine and living, we need to be fully committed and be transformed in our lives and walk faithfully in the Lord’s grace. We need to be thoroughly faithful, inside and outside, our whole heart, mind, body and whole being attuned to God.

Are we able and are we willing to commit our lives to the Lord, spending time and effort to glorify God at all times? Are we willing to follow Him with all of our hearts? This is our calling as Christians, and being reminded today of our obligations, let us all embrace our faith and commit ourselves from now on. May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen us and empower us with the courage to carry on living our lives as good Christians from now on. May God bless us all, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 13 October 2020 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 37-41

At that time, as Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked Him to have a meal with him. So He went and sat at table. The Pharisee then wondered why Jesus did not wash His hands before the dinner.

But the Lord said to him, “So then, you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside yourselves you are full of greed and evil. Fools! He Who made the outside, also made the inside. But according to you, by the mere giving of alms everything is made clean.”

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Tuesday, 13 October 2020 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 118 : 41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48

Give me Your unfailing love, o YHVH; Your salvation, as You have promised.

Take not the word of truth from my mouth, for I would also lose my hope in Your word.

May I always keep Your word, for ever and ever.

I shall walk in freedom, having sought out Your laws.

For I delight in Your word, which I fear.

I will lift up my hands to You, and meditate on Your commandments.

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Tuesday, 13 October 2020 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Galatians 5 : 1-6

Christ freed us, to make us really free. So remain firm, and do not submit, again, to the yoke of slavery. I, Paul, say this to you : if you receive circumcision, Christ can no longer help you. Once more, I say, to whoever receives circumcision : you are now bound to keep the whole Law. All you, who pretend to become righteous through the observance of the Law, have separated yourselves from Christ, and have fallen away from grace.

As for us, through the Spirit and faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. In Christ Jesus, it is irrelevant, whether we be circumcised or not; what matters is, faith, working through love.

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Monday, 12 October 2020 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are called to be faithful to the Lord, to embrace Lord with all of our strength because we are truly God’s chosen ones, and we have been brought out from the darkness into the light. We are reminded that we are no longer bound by the power of sin, through the saving power of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians, in our first reading today alluded to this as the comparison between the two sons of Abraham, the one born earlier to the slave Hagar, namely Ishmael, and the one born of his wife, Sarah, the promised son, Isaac, born as promised by God. While the first one was conceived by lack of faith and by worldly counsel, the true son of Abraham, Isaac had been conceived through God’s providence.

This highlights the contrast between the two states and existences of our lives, namely our past, sinful and worldly selves, and our renewed and reborn selves, reborn and rejuvenated through our Christian baptism and initiation, as we enter into the grace of God through Christ and by the loving sacrifice on the Cross, in which He has liberated us from the tyranny of sin.

Unfortunately, as highlighted in our Gospel passage today, despite this, there are still so many lacking in real and genuine faith. In that occasion mentioned in the Gospel, the Lord referred to the people’s lack of faith and their constant asking for signs and miracles, especially by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who often criticised Him and shadowed Him all throughout His ministry, refusing to believe in Him despite everything they had witnessed and heard.

That was why the Lord compared them to the people of Nineveh in the case of their repentance and humility, their faith and belief in God when the prophet Jonah came to them and declared that the city of Nineveh would be destroyed and annihilated. They believed in the words of Jonah and humbled themselves even when they had not seen any miracles or deeds of the Lord.

And this is all the more remarkable because Nineveh was the capital of the great Assyrian Empire, which was pagan and worshipped pagan idols and false gods. Yet, the whole city, the king and its people, all humbled themselves before God and repented from their sinful ways, begging for God to forgive them. And all these happened even though they did not even see a single miraculous deeds of God. In this, their faith and ways were better than those at the time of the Lord Jesus, who saw, witnessed and heard every wonders of the Lord, and did not believe or repent.

This is where we are all reminded of the dangers of sin and its temptations in our hearts. Pride in particular is the most dangerous of all, and can bring many to their downfall. Pride was what brought down Satan through his pride and vanity, in rebelling against God and in desiring to claim the throne of God. And through pride, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who thought that their intellectual superiority, understanding of the Law and piousness in obeying the Law could not be challenged by anyone.

That was why they looked down on the Lord, doubted Him and His works, and continued to make His ministry difficult and opposed Him in many opportunities along the way. In this way, they were those whom the Lord said to be those who were further away from God even from the people of Nineveh and from the Queen of the South, who came all the way to Jerusalem just to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Those people had faith in the Lord and believed in Him, even when they were once pagans and unbelievers.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is a reminder for us all not to be overcome or swallowed by pride, and we must not allow those to mislead us down the wrong path. We must remain firm in our faith, be humble and recognise just how we have sinned against God and just how fortunate we are to have been beloved by God. Let us commit ourselves therefore to a new way of life, one that is aligned with God, centred on God and be truly dedicated to our Christian faith, in deeds and actions, living up to what we believe with all of our strength.

May God bless us all, and may He guide us always in our journey of faith, that we will draw ever closer to the Lord and help to inspire even more people to walk faithfully in His way. Let us embrace our Christian calling at baptism fully, and be firm in our resolution not to give in to sin and also to pride and other temptations by which many had fallen again and again into sin. Amen.

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Monday, 12 October 2020 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 29-32

At that time, as the crowd increased, Jesus spoke the following words : “People of the present time are troubled people. They ask for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah. As Jonah became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a sign for this generation.”

“The Queen of the South will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and here, there is greater than Solomon. The people of Nineveh will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for Jonah’s preaching made them turn from their sins, and here, there is greater than Jonah.”

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Monday, 12 October 2020 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 112 : 1-2, 3-4, 5a and 6-7

Alleluia! Praise, o servants of YHVH, praise the Name of YHVH! Blessed be the Name of YHVH now and forever!

From eastern lands to the western islands, may the Name of YHVH be praised! YHVH is exalted over the nations; His glory above the heavens.

Who is like YHVH our God, Who also bends down to see on earth as in heaven? He lifts up the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap.

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Monday, 12 October 2020 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Galatians 4 : 22-24, 26-27, 31 – Galatians 5 : 1

It says, that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman, the other by the free woman, his wife. The son of the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but the son of the free woman was born in fulfilment of God’s promise.

Here we have an allegory and the figures of two Covenants. The first is the one from Mount Sinai, represented through Hagar : her children have slavery for their lot. But the Jerusalem above, who is our mother, is free. And Scripture says of her : Rejoice, barren woman without children, break forth in shouts of joy, you who do not know the pains of childbirth, for many shall be the children of the forsaken mother, more than of the married woman.

Brethren, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. Christ freed us, to make us really free. So remain firm, and do not submit, again, to the yoke of slavery.

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Sunday, 11 October 2020 : Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we listened to the readings of the Scripture, we are presented with the Lord’s loving intentions for His people, how He desired for each and every one of us to enjoy the fullness of His love, the rich inheritance that will be ours and which He has promised to all of us as long as we are faithful and committed to Him. However, we often do not realise just how blessed and fortunate we are to have been promised and assured of such good fate, and we often spurned and rejected God’s generous offer of love.

In our first reading today, we listened the prophecy from the prophet Isaiah speaking to us about the vision of the coming of the time of bliss and happiness with God, as the Lord revealed to His people through Isaiah what will happen to them, His faithfulness and His care for each one of them, preparing rich food and bountiful things for them, that they will lack nothing and have no need to anything, as God will take care of everything that they need, a message that is echoed in our other Scripture passages today as well.

In our second reading, from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians, in which St. Paul showed how the Lord would strengthen and provide for His people, and that through the Lord, all of us will know true joy and satisfaction, and in sharing his own life and experiences, St. Paul highlighted how God had been with him, provided for him and protected him from harm, and gave him all that he needed, and the strength to endure the challenges he faced throughout his ministry.

And in the Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord Jesus teaching His disciples with the parable of the wedding banquet, in which we heard about a king who had invited many guests to partake and enjoy in the banquet prepared for them. Yet, those who were invited to the banquet refused to heed the invitation and ignored it, and some even treated the servants of the king harshly and killed them. This is how they treated the kindness of the Lord Who had loved them and provided well for them.

This is because the meaning of this parable is such that the king is the representation of the Lord, our God, and all those invited to the wedding banquet are all of us mankind, God’s beloved people. And it also refers to how God had called from among us, the people of Israel to be His first called and chosen ones. Yet, unfortunately, just like those guests who ignored and rejected the king’s generous offer and invitation to the banquet, the Israelites often rebelled and disobeyed God, refusing to listen to Him or follow Him.

When God sent His messengers and servants to the people to remind them and to call them to Him, the same people rejected the prophets and messengers sent to them, ignored them, and worse still, persecuted many of them and killed them. This was alluded well in the Lord’s parable of the wedding banquet. And yet the Lord still patiently sent His prophets and messengers again and again to the people even as they continued to be rebellious and rejected Him.

In the end, those who persisted in their disobedience were crushed and punished for their own faults and sins, and it was by their own choice that they had separated themselves from God’s love and rejected His Law and commandments. God has been very generous in His love for each one of them, and yet they foolishly rejected it, and chose to settle for lesser things.

In another, similar parable about the wedding banquet, the reasons given by those invited guests to refuse the invitation were that they were busy or that they had no interest in attending the banquet, likely because they had other, more interesting things in mind. As a result, they ignored and rejected the generosity of the king, symbolising God’s love and care for His people.

As the king then called many others to be the guests in his wedding banquet, thus, the Lord has called on many others to come to His kingdom, highlighting that while He had indeed called the Israelites first and made them to be His chosen race, this does not mean that His love was exclusive and other people were unworthy or rejected by God. Rather, God wants that through the Israelites, then all others would also come to know Him and embrace Him. God calls on us all, His beloved ones from all the nations to follow Him.

Then, we should take note how the those who were called and invited to the banquet came well-suited and wearing proper garment for the occasion. At that time, even among the poor people, if they came to attend a celebration or banquet, then they still did try their best to wear their best garment or clothing, and in fact, at the time, it was the responsibility of the one who made the invitation to take good care of their invited guests, even to the point of making sure that all of the guests have appropriate garment and were ready for the celebration.

The fact that one of the man who were invited did not wear a proper garment to the wedding and how he was thrown out of the wedding banquet to suffer in the outer darkness is in truth yet another allusion to how all of us are called to the Lord’s banquet, His promised inheritance and the glory He has called us to enter into. But, we need to also take note that in order for us to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and to give our best as Christians, then we need to have a profound change in our way of life.

That wedding garment or appropriate garment for the celebration symbolises the change of heart, mind and our entire life as we enter into the Lord’s kingdom, and as we respond to His call. This means that as we respond to God’s call to be Christians, as His followers, it is not enough for us to just follow Him superficially. Our Christian faith requires us to follow the Lord and commit our whole selves to Him, leaving behind our old garment of sin and wickedness, evil and disobedience, and instead, embracing a new life of faith.

That is why, we should not just wear a white garment for baptism or for our First Holy Communion as young children and keep it at that. That white garment has much deeper meaning for us, as it symbolically links us to this conversion of heart, of mind and of our whole entire being, that while once we belonged to the darkness and were subjected to the power of sin and evil, now we are no longer bound by those sinister forces, and have freed ourselves through our faith in God, our Lord and Saviour.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture readings therefore is a call from the Lord to each and every one of us, to be ever more faithful and to embrace His way completely, to have a profound change in mindset and in our actions and way of life. But sadly, the reality is that many of us treat our Christian faith as merely a formality, as nothing more than just fulfilling our Sunday obligations, or just merely saying some prayers and attending the Holy Mass. And even for these, we can see how many do it out of obligation rather than genuine faith. For example, how many of us actually grumbled that the Mass took too long and we could not wait for it to end so that we could continue our routines?

This is exactly the attitude of the man who came to the wedding banquet without being properly suited up. And according to the parable, did that man gain admittance to the celebration? No! In fact, he was kicked out and removed from the celebration, and forced to endure the most bitter of suffering and darkness, an indirect reference of hell and its eternal suffering that awaits all those who reject God. This means that even for us Christians, if we do not live our Christian faith as how the Lord had taught us, and remain lukewarm or even ignorant and stubborn in refusing to live up to His call, then we are no better than pagans.

How do we then live up to our Christian faith? It is by following Christ faithfully in His examples and teachings, by reaching out to our fellow brothers and sisters, loving those who are in need of help, of care and attention. And especially, at this time, when so many people are facing trials and challenges, suffering and are in need of help, as Christians, all of us are called to make good use of our blessings and talents, to reach out to those who are most suffering and in need.

That is how all of us should live our lives, to be beacons of hope and to be witnesses of God’s love by our actions, that others may also come to believe in God through us. There are many people out there who are in need of our support, help and care. Even if we just show them a glimmer of hope or make them able to smile again even just a little more, we may not realise just how much that may mean to those who are suffering and are in need of our help.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, amidst our world now suffering from the pandemic, from communal violence and disunity, from economic troubles and from so many people out there losing their means of income and employment, and those others who are sick and dying, let us all be the true bearers of our Christian faith in our society, and be committed to transform ourselves that we may indeed be worthy of God, and remember His ever generous love, by which He has called us to share in His divine banquet. May God be with us always, and may He bless us all in all of our efforts and in our faithful witnessing of His love in our world. Amen.