Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 8 and 10
Praise YHVH, my soul; all my being, praise His holy Name! Praise YHVH, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.
He forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; He redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion.
YHVH is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger. He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does He punish us as we deserve.
Liturgical Colour : White
Isaiah 40 : 25-31
To whom, then, will you liken Me or make Me equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and see : who has created all this? He has ordered them as a starry host and called them each by name. So mighty is His power, so great His strength, that not one of them is missing.
How can you say, o Jacob, how can you complain, o Israel, that your destiny is hidden from Me, that your rights are ignored by YHVH? Have you not known, have you not heard that YHVH is an everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth? He does not grow tired or weary, His knowledge is without limit.
He gives strength to the enfeebled, He gives vigour to the wearied. Youth may grow tired and faint, young men will stumble and fall, but those who hope in YHVH will renew their strength. They will soar as with eagle’s wings; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and never tire.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all presented with the reminder yet again for us to look up to the Lord our God, our Shepherd and Guide, our Hope and our Light, the One Who has promised us His salvation and grace, and Who has willingly extended upon us His love and kindness, ever enduring and strong despite our constant disobedience and refusal to believe in Him and His love and truth. He has always loved us all despite our delinquent attitude and our hardened hearts and minds, and as our loving Father and Shepherd, He looked out for us, searched for us and did not give up on us, till the very end, seeking for us, His lost sheep and lost children, all of whom are in need of His help and guidance.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah of the call for the people of God to return to the loving embrace of their God, their Master, their Shepherd and King. The people of God had indeed been wayward in their ways, and they had been erroneous in their actions, but they were truly lucky and blessed to have the Lord by their side all throughout despite all the wickedness and the vile things that they had committed through life. The Lord loved them all, His beloved ones, whom He had loved since the very beginning, all those whom He had called from among the nations to be the first of those whom He loved and made to be His own flock, His own people. Through His promises and Covenant made and renewed through His servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and then Moses, King David and many more of the others among the people, God has made a flock and people for Himself, gathering them from the darkness of this world to His light.
But the people of God had not always been faithful to Him, and they had often chosen to walk away from Him, rejecting His love and kindness, worshipping pagan idols and gods, defiling the House and Temple of God in Jerusalem, its Altar and throwing down the Lord’s worship in His Holy of Holies. They had indeed behaved like the lost sheep, who have chosen to trod the rebellious path, running away from the flock and from their Shepherd, following the false illusions of worldly glory and desires, which ended up causing many of those lost sheep of the Lord to be scattered all around the world in the darkness of sin and evil. The Lord however never gave up on all of His lost sheep, calling on all of them to return to Him, sending His messengers and servants, the many prophets and all others who have borne the word of God’s truth and grace.
And although those same people persecuted the prophets and messengers of God, rejecting them and refusing to listen to the message which they had brought to the midst of the people of God, God still sent more of them regardless, and promised them His salvation and deliverance, and the words of hope with which He promised the Saviour and deliverance to come, which was therefore fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, into the world. Through Him, God sent us all the perfect manifestation of His love, as the Divine Word of God incarnate in the flesh, born into this world through Mary His mother and become the personification of God’s enduring love made tangible and approachable to us. He also proclaimed the coming of God’s salvation as it has been promised, and referred to Himself specifically as the Good Shepherd. The one and only true Good Shepherd of all, the one flock of God’s people.
And as the Good Shepherd, He shower His love and care for each one of us, seeking the last, the lost and the least among us who were still lost to Him, breaking barriers and seeking those who were distant from Him. Those like the crippled and paralysed, those who were sick and dying, those who were afflicted by demons and evil spirits, and all those who were wicked in their deeds, those who were cast aside because they were considered sinners and unworthy of God and His grace. He reached out to all of them, prostitutes, tax collectors, those who were afflicted with diseases and possessed by evil spirits, showing them all the love and grace of God. He showed them that all of them truly had their worth and called on all of them to follow Him, not excluding them and casting them out like what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done to them.
That is exactly what we heard in our Gospel passage today, as the Lord told the people of the parable of the lost sheep, where the shepherd went out of his way, trying his best to look for the lost sheep. The Lord Himself is the Shepherd, going out of His way to try to find us all, His beloved ones who have been lost and separated from Him. Having seen the great love that God has for us, all of us should therefore embrace Him and seek Him with all of our hearts and might. Each one of us should return to Him and listen to His call, as He calls on us with the great call of His voice in our hearts and minds. We must not harden our hearts against Him any longer, but be willing to open the doors for Him to enter and for Him to find us and bring us back to His flock, that we too may have a share in His eternal glory.
Today, all of us ought to reflect upon the great examples set by one holy servant of God, our predecessor in faith, whose name may well be known by many of us, namely that of St. Nicholas of Myra. He is probably better known all around the world in a more secular occasion as Santa Claus, the ubiquitous figure always ever present during this time of the year, when we saw this bearded old man carrying plenty of gifts for children from his large and heavy bag, dressed all in red and white. Brothers and sisters, that is the fictional Santa Claus, who does not actually exist and who is actually a character inspired by the real St. Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra, one of the early Church fathers and a truly devoted servant of God, as well as a faithful and loving shepherd to the flock entrusted to him by the Chief Shepherd, the Lord Himself.
St. Nicholas of Myra was remembered for his great care, dedication and love for his flock, the people of God under his care as shepherd, and he was known for his habit of coming to children and giving them gifts, which eventually over time gave raise to the legend of Santa Claus as mentioned earlier. St. Nicholas of Myra spent a lot of time visiting his people and parishes, and was a great role model of faith, spending a lot of time in prayer and in guiding the people under his care in finding their way back to the Lord, their Chief Shepherd, their Master, Lord and King. St. Nicholas of Myra was also known for his great devotion to God and to the true faith, opposing heresies and false teachings with all of his might. In an apocryphal story and tale, which may or may not be true, during the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, when the faithful bishops gathered and condemned the false teachings of the preacher Arius that had led to the terrible Arian heresy, St. Nicholas of Myra hit the arch-heretic in the face for his contempt of the Lord and for misleading God’s people as he spoke his words of falsehoods and blasphemies before the assembly of God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard the life and works of St. Nicholas of Myra, let us all therefore do our best to be inspired to follow his good examples, dedication and hard work in our own lives and works. Let us all do our best to love the Lord, our most loving God and Good Shepherd, and strive to follow Him and be fully reconciled with Him, embracing His most generous mercy and love. Let us all turn our hearts and minds back towards Him, and dedicate ourselves with renewed strength and vigour from now on that we may celebrate the upcoming joyful Christmas with true understanding and appreciation, and not indulge in the excesses of merrymaking and festivities. May God bless us all, in our every good works, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)
Matthew 18 : 12-14
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “What do you think of this? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside, and go to look for the stray one? And I tell you, when he finally finds it, he is more pleased about it, than about the ninety-nine that did not go astray.”
“It is the same with your Father in heaven. Your Father in heaven does not want even one of these little ones to perish.”
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)
Psalm 95 : 1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12a, 12b-13
Sing to YHVH a new song, sing to YHVH, all the earth! Sing to YHVH, praise His Name; proclaim His salvation, day after day.
Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds. Say among the nations, “He will judge the peoples with justice.”
Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them.
Let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy. Let them sing before YHVH Who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice, and the peoples, with fairness.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)
Isaiah 40 : 1-11
Be comforted, My people, be strengthened, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, proclaim to her that her time of bondage is at an end, that her guilt has been paid for, that from the hand of YHVH she has received double punishment for all her iniquity.
A voice cries, “In the wilderness prepare the way for YHVH. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley will be raised up; every mountain and hill will be laid low. The stumbling blocks shall become level and the rugged places smooth. The glory of YHVH will be revealed, and all mortals together will see it; for the mouth of YHVH has spoken.”
A voice says, “Cry.” and I say, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of YHVH blows upon it. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will forever stand.”
Go up onto the high mountain, messenger of Good News to Zion, lift up your voice with strength, fear not to cry aloud when you tell Jerusalem and announce to the cities of Judah : Here is your God! Here comes YHVH Sabaoth with might; His strong arm rules for Him; His reward is with Him, and here before Him is His booty. Like a shepherd He tends His flock : He gathers the lambs in His arms, He carries them in His bosom, gently leading those that are with young.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are reminded of the coming of God’s great hope and light, the promise of happiness and joy that will come through Him, as He comes into this world bearing that Light dispelling the dominion that darkness and sin, evil and others had over us all. We are reminded that in God alone there is Hope and the path towards everlasting peace and happiness, and we can truly trust in Him because He has been ever faithful to the Covenant He had made and renewed with all of us. Through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, we have seen the fulfilment and the proof of God’s ever enduring love, and the power of His saving grace, which during this Advent we should really reflect upon as we prepare ourselves for the upcoming celebration at Christmas.
In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, as it had been for the past one week or so, we continue to hear the words of the Lord’s pronouncements for His people, made through Isaiah, of the days of joy and salvation that will come upon them. We have to understand that from the perspective of those people who heard those words of comfort and encouragement, it was really a relief from the hardships, struggles and challenges that they had faced. Back then, as I have discussed earlier in last week’s discourses, the people of God in Judah, where Isaiah performed his ministry, had fallen under hard times, having had to witness the downfall of their northern neighbour, the northern kingdom of Israel, composed of their own relatives and brethren, the ten tribes that rebelled against the House of David, to the forces of the Assyrians.
The same Assyrians conquered and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, exiled its people and then brought their forces also against Judah and Jerusalem, which only escaped destruction and defeat, and the same fate as their northern neighbours thanks to God’s timely intervention. God crushed the forces of the Assyrians and sent their king back home in disgrace, saving the people of Judah from harm and safeguarded them, because of the faith that still remained in them and their faithful kings. The Lord showed them His power and might, as He rescued them from harm just in the same manner as He had rescued their ancestors, from their enslavement in the land of Egypt much earlier on. And just as back then He had led them all to the Promised Land, freed from their bondage in Egypt, so He would also lead them all back to their land, which was fulfilled later on when God restored His people to their land once again, after they had been exiled from their homeland of Israel and Judah.
How is this then relevant to us? Similarly, all of us here present in this world, the children of mankind, descendants of Adam and Eve, have been placed under the bondage of sin and evil, death and destruction after our disobedience against God and refusal to listen to His commands and obey His Law. The Lord has reassured and promised us since the very beginning that He will bring us His deliverance and salvation through His Messiah or Saviour, the One Whom He promised will be born of the Woman, Who will rule and judge over all people, past, present, future, all throughout time. And in Jesus Christ, this promise of salvation, renewed again and again by the Lord throughout history, had been fulfilled, as He was born into this world manifesting God’s love and compassionate mercy, making God and His love tangible and approachable by us.
As we heard in our Gospel passage today, that is exactly one of the manifestation of that love, as we listened to the well-known story of the Lord Jesus healing a paralysed man, who was brought to Him through the roof of the building that He was preaching and teaching in. The Lord had pity in the paralysed man and was touched by the dedication and faith shown by the man and his fellow helpers, who brought him up all the way to the roof and helped to bring him right to the Lord for healing. Yet, just as the Lord healed the paralysed man, those hypocritical Pharisees and teachers of the Law who were there with the Lord, criticised Him and argued with Him regarding what He was doing, especially because they regarded the Lord Jesus’ forgiveness of the paralysed man’s sins as a blasphemy against God, and hence, took great offence at that.
The Lord was dismayed at the stubbornness of those Pharisees and teachers of the Law who had repeatedly failed to see the truth and love of God personified and manifested in Him. Many of those Pharisees and teachers of the Law had seen and heard everything that the Lord had done, His wisdom and truth, the authority and justice in His teachings and words, and all the miracles and wonders that He had done before their very own eyes. And those people, being the most knowledgeable and educated among the people of God, and well-versed in the words and the prophecies of the prophets, ought to be the ones who first acknowledged and welcomed the Lord Jesus, the Messiah and Holy One of God. Instead, they took pride at their own supposedly superior knowledge, understanding and skills, and refused to listen to the Lord and His truth.
Nevertheless, the Lord healed the paralysed man, showing all of us that He has come into this world to heal us from our predicaments and maladies, as the foreshadowing of the ultimate act of His love, which He performed on the Cross. The Lord Jesus obeyed His heavenly Father perfectly, and willingly took upon Himself all the combined weight and burdens of our sins, and offered Himself through His suffering and death, the perfect and most worthy offering for the atonement of our innumerable sins and evils. Through Christ, God has brought us close once again to Himself, bridging the once infinite chasm separating us from Him due to sin. Christ has reconciled us to God, through His Cross, His death and Resurrection, and by that same Resurrection, He showed us all that there is life and existence beyond this world.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, in our world today, and especially now that as we prepare ourselves in this season of Advent in the preparation for Christmas and its joyful celebration, let us all therefore spend the time to reflect and focus ourselves on God and His love, upon everything that He has promised us all and all that He has shown us, through Jesus Christ, His Son, Our Lord and Saviour. Let us all refocus our attention towards Him, and be no longer ignorant of God’s most amazing love and kindness, His compassion and mercy that He has constantly shown us all these while. Let us all make great use of this time and season of Advent to make ourselves ever closer to God and reorientate our lives so that we are truly focused on Him as the centre and the pinnacles of our lives and existence.
May the Lord continue to guide us through this season of Advent and through life, that we may grow ever stronger in faith, and devote ourselves ever more, in time and attention to Him. May God bless our every good endeavours and hard works, for the greater glory of His Name. May He empower us all to become the worthy bearers of His truth and love in our world today, and may He help us to remain humble, open-minded and willing to listen to Him, and not harden our hearts and minds the way the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done. May God bless us always, now and evermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Luke 5 : 17-26
At that time, Jesus was teaching and many Pharisees and teachers of the Law had come from every part of Galilee and Judea, and even from Jerusalem. They were sitting there, while the power of the Lord was at work to heal the sick. Then some men brought a paralysed man who lay on his mat.
They tried to enter the house to place him before Jesus, but they could not find a way through the crowd. So they went up on the roof, and removing the tiles, they lowered him on his mat into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven.”
At once the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to wonder, “This Man insults God! Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” But Jesus knew their thoughts and asked them, “Why are you reacting like this? Which is easier to say : ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up and walk’? Now you shall know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”
And Jesus said to the paralysed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” At once the man stood before them. He took up the mat he had been lying on, and went home praising God. Amazement seized the people and they praised God. They were filled with a holy fear, and said, “What wonderful things we have seen today!”
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 84 : 9ab-10, 11-12, 13-14
Would that I hear God’s proclamation, that He promise peace to His people, His saints. Yet His salvation is near to those who fear Him, and His Glory will dwell in our land.
Love and faithfulness have met; righteousness and peace have embraced. Faithfulness will reach up from the earth while justice bends down from heaven.
The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its fruit. Justice will go before Him, and peace will follow along His path.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Isaiah 35 : 1-10
Let the wilderness and the arid land rejoice, the desert be glad and blossom. Covered with flowers, it sings and shouts with joy, adorned with the splendour of Lebanon, the magnificence of Carmel and Sharon. They, my people, see the glory of YHVH, the majesty of our God.
Give vigour to weary hands and strength to enfeebled knees. Say to those who are afraid : “Have courage, do not fear. See, your God comes, demanding justice. He is the God Who rewards, the God Who comes to save you.”
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unsealed. Then will the lame leap as a hart and the tongue of the dumb sing and shout. For water will break out in the wilderness and streams gush forth from the desert. The thirsty ground will become a pool, the arid land springs of water. In the haunts where once reptiles lay, grass will grow with reeds and rushes.
There will be a highway which will be called The Way of Holiness; no one unclean will pass over it nor any wicked fool stray there. No lion will be found there nor any beast of prey. Only the redeemed will walk there. For the ransomed of YHVH will return : with everlasting joy upon their heads, they will come to Zion singing, gladness and joy marching with them, while sorrow and sighing flee away.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 