Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 109 : 1, 2, 3, 4
The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand till I make Your foes Your footstool.”
From Zion the Lord will extend Your mighty sceptre and You will rule in the midst of Your enemies.
Yours is royal dignity from the day You were born in holy majesty. Like dew from the womb of the dawn, I have begotten You.
The Lord has sworn, and He will not take back His word : “You are a Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Hebrews 5 : 1-10
Every High Priest is taken from among mortals and appointed to be their representative before God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. He is able to understand the ignorant and erring for he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he is bound to offer sacrifices for his sins as well as for the sins of the people.
Besides, one does not presume to take this dignity, but takes it only when called by God, as Aaron was. Nor did Christ become High Priest in taking upon Himself this dignity, but it was given to Him by the One Who says : You are My Son, I have begotten You today. And in another place : You are a Priest forever in the priestly order of Melchizedek.
Christ, in the days of His mortal life, offered His sacrifice with tears and cries. He prayed to Him Who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His humble submission. Although He was Son, He learnt through suffering what obedience was, and once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for those who obey Him. This is how God proclaimed Him Priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this holy day of the Lord, all of us are gathered together to hear about the Lord our God, His love for us, and His resolve to gather us all who have been estranged from Him and from His love, that all of us may find salvation in Him and through Him. For it is the love of God which had been made manifest through Jesus Christ, His Son, which had become the source of our salvation and grace.
Since the days of the prophet Isaiah, in our first reading today, God had promised His people His upcoming salvation, when He would gather them back into His embrace, and reunite them with Himself, after they had been scattered among the nations because of their sins. This has to be understood in the context of the era, as during the time of the prophet Isaiah, the long sundered northern kingdom of Israel had finally been destroyed by the Assyrians, and many of the northern ten tribes of the Israelites were forced to go into exile in the foreign lands.
It was the rebellion and disobedience of the people of God that led to such a fate, as they worshipped the pagan gods and idols, turning away from the Lord their God. They committed all forms of wicked acts and sins, fornicating themselves in adultery and in acts unworthy of those whom God had chosen to be His own people, to be His own children. They made others and their own descendants to sin against God.
The people of the kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom, would themselves be brought into exile by the Babylonians, as they were also disobedient, refusing to turn away from sin, and even though God had sent prophets after prophets, messengers after messengers, they refused to believe in His message, and rejected His offer of mercy and forgiveness. They and their kings continued to trust on themselves and in the comforts of worldliness.
Through this we can see that, those who do not put their trust in God, and prefer instead to walk on their own will be scattered, and they will lose their way. They will not be able to stand against the forces of this world. And the only result out of sin and disobedience will be sorrow, pain and suffering, for it is only in God that we shall find true and everlasting peace, as well as rest and succour from all of our worldly troubles.
But ultimately, we have to remember the simple fact that while we are often unfaithful, wayward and defiant in our ways, God is always faithful to us, to the covenant which He had made with our forefathers, and which He had renewed with them many times, and last of all, which He renewed with all of us through none other than Jesus Christ, His only Son. For Jesus is the Mediator of the New and everlasting Covenant, through which God wants to make all of us as the recipients of His love and grace.
God is always willing and ready to forgive us, but are we willing to be forgiven by God? Rather, are we willing to approach Him and to ask Him for His generous mercy? Or are we instead too proud and arrogant, to think that we have been mistaken and are in need of forgiveness? If God has allowed Himself to become Man and to suffer for our sake, so that He may forgive us our sins and heal us from our afflictions, then should we not make the effort to allow His grace and forgiveness to enter our lives and transform us?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all as Christians be role model for all of our brethren. We should be the ones to show others the way to the Lord, through our humble supplication and submission before God, through our devotion and commitment to Him and to His ways. We should show others how we ought to follow the Lord, and obey His laws, by practicing them through our own actions and deeds.
After all, no one will believe in us if we ask them to believe in God, and yet in our actions we are no different from all those who have disobeyed the Lord and abandoned Him those years ago, the people of Israel and Judah. We must lead by example, and show to each other the living proof of the love of Christ our Lord. We are the bearers of His love, and the witnesses of His truth, so it is imperative that each and every one of us must walk the talk, as Christians, to commit ourselves to acts of love fitting for those who call themselves children of our Lord, Whose great love for us enabled Him to forgive us our many sins.
May the Lord continue to love us and bless us, and may He, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be the Light of our lives, showing us the way forward, that we will always remain in the path towards righteousness and justice. May He bless us and keep us all in His grace, that we will be found ever worthy and good when He comes again as He has promised, and He will then bless us with the gift of everlasting life and glory in His presence. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
John 1 : 29-34
At that time, the next day John saw Jesus coming towards him, and said, “There is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world! It is He of Whom I said : A Man comes after me, Who is already ahead of me, for He was before me. I myself did not know Him, but I came baptising to prepare for Him, so that He might be revealed in Israel.”
And John also gave this testimony, “I saw the Spirit coming down on Him like a dove from heaven, and resting on Him. I myself did not know Him, but God, Who sent me to baptise, told me, “You will see the Spirit coming down, and resting, on the One Who baptises with the Holy Spirit.’ Yes, I have seen! And I declare that this is the Chosen One of God!”
Liturgical Colour : Green
1 Corinthians 1 : 1-3
From Paul, called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and from Sosthenes, our brother, to God’s Church which is in Corinth; to you whom God has sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with those who everywhere call upon the Name of our Lord Christ Jesus, their Lord and ours.
Receive grace and peace from God our Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 39 : 2 and 4ab, 7-8a, 8b-9, 10
With resolve I waited for the Lord; He listened and heard me beg. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of prayer to our God.
Sacrifice and oblation You did not desire; this You had me understand. Burnt offering and sin offering You do not require. Then I said, “Here I come!”
“As the scroll says of me. To do Your will is my delight, o God, for Your law is within my heart.”
In the great assembly I have proclaimed Your saving help. My lips, o Lord, I did not seal – You know that very well.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Isaiah 49 : 3, 5-6
YHVH said to me, “You are Israel, My servant. Through you I will be known.”
And now YHVH has spoken, He Who formed me in the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, to gather Israel to Him. He said : “It is not enough that you be My servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the remnant of Israel. I will make you the light of the nations, that My salvation will reach to the ends of the earth.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the calling of Samuel, who had been called by God in his youth, when he was still under the tutelage of Eli, the judge over Israel. He was called to be the servant of God, and to be the one who would lead the people of Israel back to the Lord, as the messenger of His will and desire for His people.
And in the Gospel we heard about the parallel story of how the Apostles, that is the chief disciples of the Lord, were called. They were called from their respective lives to be the bearers of the Good News of the Lord. And therefore, just like Samuel, they brought much goodness to the people of God. They were after all called to be the bearers of God’s great Light to a people who lived in a great darkness, to dispel that darkness and bring them all back to the true Light.
Why was Samuel called by the Lord? And why was the Apostles and the disciples of Christ called by Jesus to follow Him and to do His will? That is because there is indeed much wickedness in this world, so much so that it disgusts our Lord to see such great darkness and wickedness existing among us His people. Thus, He called His servants and all those whom He had chosen to be the bearers of His will to His people, to call them to repentance.
The people at the time of Samuel was led by the judges whom God had appointed over His people. But they were only faithful as long as the judges were alive. As soon as they passed away, they returned to their old way of sin and wickedness, following the customs and practices of their Canaanite neighbours. Therefore, God was angry with them and they suffered greatly at the hands of their persecutors.
Similarly, the people at the time of Jesus lived at a time when they were adrift among the false practices of the people around them. Just a century or so before the birth of Christ, if we read the Book of the Maccabees, then we should know how many of the people of God readily submitted to the pagan ways and rejected the way of the Lord, and they sinned greatly before God.
Nevertheless, it does not mean that God did not love His people. It is neither that He desired their destruction and annihilation. In fact, God loves all of them, and He desires only for their salvation. And that is why, He called Samuel to bring His warnings and His truth to the people, that they might repent and follow Him again. And in the same way, He called His Apostles through whom He made clear His truth and teachings, and from them, the same truth is passed down to all of us.
In the second reading, St. Paul in his letter to the Church in Corinth reminded the faithful that they must avoid all forms of sins and fornications, of the flesh and of the spirit. He reminded the people that they are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, that is the very Temple and House of God where God Himself resides. If they committed sin and fornications, then they would have defiled the very House and Presence of God Himself, and they committed grave sin that threatened condemnation on them.
Therefore it will be the same for all of us if we choose to live wickedly and be filled with sin. All of us who have believed in Christ and accept Him into ourselves through the Most Holy Eucharist have been made into the dwelling and the house where God Himself resides. Thus, we are all the Temples of the Lord’s Holy Presence and we have to maintain the purity and sanctity of this Temple, that is our body, our mind, our heart and our spirit, so that no taint of sin or wickedness may come and harm our purity.
How is the reading today relevant to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is because all of us have been called to be the disciples and followers of Christ, and we all have been baptised in His Name, and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have been granted such great grace to have the Lord Himself dwelling in us. Thus first, we have to maintain ourselves in a state of purity and avoiding the taints of sin as best as we can.
But we cannot just stop there, brethren, as the gifts and graces which we have received are the same gifts which God had given to Samuel, and also the same gifts as He had granted the Apostles and disciples in the ages past. Therefore, we too have the same obligation and duty as that which had been given to the prophets and the Apostles, that is to bring the revelations of God’s truth to mankind and to call mankind back to the Lord, abandoning their sins and embracing fully the way of the Lord.
Are we able to be like Samuel and say courageously to the Lord, “Lord, speak, for Your servant is listening!”? It is very difficult for many if not most of us to listen and to allow God to speak in us, within our heart. He speaks to us in a subtle way, and if we allow ourselves to be distracted by the many things in the world, the many pleasures and evils in it, then I would say that, we would be deaf to the Lord calling for us, to repent and to follow Him with all of our heart. Let us change our ways therefore, that we may truly be faithful and active disciples of our Lord.
And again therefore, it is related once again to how we live our lives. No one will believe in what we preach should we not live according to what our faith tells us. No one will follow us if we do not do as what we have preached to them. Thus, our faith in God must be truly a living faith, and in living our faith, we too can preserve the sanctity of our Temple, the Temple of God that is our body, our mind, our heart, and our soul.
Today we mark the World Day of Prayer for Migrants and Refugees. We ought to pray for all those who have been displaced by various causes, either by war, injustice, oppression or any other reasons, which cause them difficulties and sufferings. If we are truly the Temples of God, the dwelling place of our Lord, then by nature all of us should act according to what our Lord would have done, that is to love those who are least, weakest, the ostracised and the rejected ones in our society. Migrants and refugees are often among these, and if we do not love them, then who will?
Let us share some of our love and our joy, our blessing and our grace with them, the migrants, those who have travelled far from their homeland, as well as refugees who have been displaced from their lands. After all, was not Abraham a migrant too? He travelled far following the will of God, and he obediently followed His commandments, and his descendants Israel also have to move from place to place, suffering difficulties along the way. Thus, let us all share a thought for this, and give them the best we can do. Do not shun them, or ostracise them or reject them, but let us welcome them all with love.
Today we also mark the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, where we pray for the eventual reunion of all the faithful and all those who profess faith in Christ, under the orthodox and true teachings of the Faith, according to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church under the sovereignty and leadership of the one and only Vicar of Christ, the Pope of Rome, whom God had appointed to be His sole representative on this world.
Thus as we begin this solemn week of prayer, let us all commit ourselves to keep ourselves pure and righteous, following the Law of God and be obedient to His teachings, so that all others who see us, will believe and repent from their sins. Let us pray sincerely for the conversion of heretics and schismatics who have separated themselves from the true faith in particular, that they may have their eyes opened and their senses awakened, so they may know what the true Faith is like and abandon all forms of lies and falsehoods which Satan had planted in them to divide the Church of God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be true to our mission in life, that is to keep ourselves faithful and at the same time, bring our brethren who are still in darkness and all those who have gone wayward, to return them to the path towards the Lord. Hence, now we pray, we act and we do things that will show the faith we have in our Lord, our loving God, and He who sees it all and knows it all, will reward us richly forevermore. God bless us all. Amen.
First Reading :
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Second Reading :
Gospel Reading :
Liturgical Colour : Green
John 1 : 35-42
At that time, on the following day John was standing there again with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, John looked at Him and said, “There is the Lamb of God.” On hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. He turned and saw them following, and He said to them, “What are you looking for?”
They answered, “Rabbi (which means Master), where are You staying?” Jesus said, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where He stayed, and spent the rest of that day with Him. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard what John had said, and followed Jesus. Early the next morning he found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah (which means the Christ),” and he brought Simon to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, son of John, but you shall be called Cephas (which means Rock).”
Homily and Reflection :
Liturgical Colour : Green
1 Corinthians 6 : 13c-15a, 17-20
Yet the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body. And God who raised the Lord, will also raise us with His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
On the contrary, anyone united to the Lord becomes one Spirit in Him. Avoid unlawful sex entirely. Any other sin a person commits is outside the body but those who commit sexual immorality sin against their own body.
Do you not know that your body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit within you, given by God? You belong no longer to yourselves. Remember at what price you have been bought and make your body serve the glory of God.
Homily and Reflection :
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