Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 147 : 12-13, 14-15, 19-20
Exalt YHVH, o Jerusalem; praise your God, o Zion! For He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your children within you.
He grants peace on your borders and feeds you with the finest grain. He sends His command to the earth and swiftly runs His word.
It is He, Who tells Jacob His words; His laws and decrees, to Israel. This, He has not done for other nations, so His laws remain unknown to them. Alleluia!
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 5 : 5-13
Who has overcome the world? The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus Christ was acknowledged through water, but also through Blood. Not only water but water and Blood. And the Spirit, too, witnesses to Him for the Spirit is truth.
There are then three testimonies : the Spirit, the water and the Blood, and these three witnesses agree. If we accept human testimony, with greater reason must we accept that of God, given in favour of His Son. If you believe in the Son of God, you have God’s testimony in you.
But those who do not believe make God a liar, since they do not believe His words when He witnesses to His Son. What has God said? That He has granted us eternal life and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life, the one who do not have the Son of God do not have life.
I write you, then, all these things that you may know that you have eternal life, all you who believe in the Name of the Son of God.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are called to keep in mind that as the followers and disciples of the Lord, we must always be righteous and just, loving and compassionate just as Our Lord Himself has shown and taught us all how we ought to love, loving both God and one another with genuine and tender love. We have to be filled with love because to be Christians is indeed to love, both of God and one another, just as much as we love ourselves. Without love we cannot truly call ourselves as Christians, or as disciples and followers of the Lord, because the Lord’s actions, everything that He has done for us, all of them were done because of His ever enduring and great love for each one of us.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. John the Apostle to the faithful people of God in which the Apostle exhorted and reminded all the people of God of their obligation to love and to practice love in their lives, so that they can indeed show that they belong to Christ, and are worthy to call themselves as Christians. If Christians do not practice love and instead cause hurt and harm to each other, then they are no better than hypocrites and unbelievers. St. John told the people of God not to follow the example of Cain who killed his brother out of jealousy, as a reminder that as Christians, all of us are brothers and sisters to one another, and we cannot look upon others with hatred or mischief in our hearts and minds, or else, we cannot call ourselves as Christians or followers and disciples of Christ.
Why is that so? That is because the Lord Himself has shown us the perfect and pure love that He has always had for us. By His coming into this world He has shown us the love of God manifested through Himself, His actions and works in our midst. He touched us and healed us, as He has shown us by His healing of all those who were sick and brought to Him, and even those who died, He had raised from the dead. Through the most generous and enduring love of God, Christ has also shown us the most perfect and ultimate love as He bore His Cross, taking up all of our sins and wickedness, our faults and troubles, all upon His own shoulders, and bore it all up to Calvary. He chose to suffer and die for us to show us that we are truly beloved by God, from the very beginning, and that love endures even through our many sins and wickedness.
Through His obedience to His heavenly Father, Christ showed all of us how we can and should love our God, with all of our hearts and might, with all of our capacities and strength. And then by His love for each one of us that He has shown from His Cross, the perfect love which surpasses even the power of sin and death. He has shown us just how love can conquer the separation caused by our disobedience, and the Incarnation of the Lord made all of these possible, as He offered Himself as the perfect offering and sacrifice of love, to administer upon us God’s healing and grace, His forgiveness and love, in atonement for our many and innumerable sins. Through His obedience and love for His people, all of us, God had delivered unto us this perfect gift of love, as examples for us to follow.
As Christians, we have to believe in the Lord and all that He has shown and taught us, much as how in the Gospel passage today we heard the Lord convincing Nathanael, one of his Apostles whom He called from among the people. Nathanael was also often known as Bartholomew, one of the Twelve, who was a learned man and an intellectual, who knew the Prophets and the Law well. Initially he was skeptical about the Lord, as he thought that the Messiah could not have come from Nazareth, but he was convinced by the Lord, His wisdom, sincerity and love, to follow Him and become one of His devoted disciples. How about us then, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we going to follow the Lord in the same way as well? Or are we going to continue walking down the path of ignorance and separation from the Lord?
If we want to walk faithfully in the path that the Lord has provided for us, then we have to follow His good examples, and also all those who have walked in His path, like that of the Apostles, the innumerable saints and martyrs of the Church. All of them share the same trait that each one of them loved the Lord and placed Him at the centre and as the focus of their lives and existence. Hence we too should put the Lord first and foremost in our lives and strive to fill ourselves with the same love that God has given us, in both loving Him and loving our fellow brothers and sisters all around us in this world. That is what the Lord has told us to do, that is to love one another just as we love ourselves, and to show that genuine love and care, even for those who do not love us back.
Are we able to do this, brothers and sisters in Christ? Can we carry out our lives with love and do whatever we can to love God and to love our neighbours, our fellow men and women with great sincerity and generosity? Let us all discern our path forward in life with the attention to love and to immerse ourselves in the path of God’s love and grace from now on. Let us distance ourselves from all sorts of things and temptations that often mislead us down the wrong path in life, and strive to resist those temptations, and all the pressures for us to love ourselves and be selfish over our calling to love God first and foremost in our lives, and also to love our fellow brothers and sisters, at all possible opportunities.
May the Lord our God continue to guide us with His love and kindness, and keep on blessing us and helping us to get ever closer to Him, with each and every passing days. May He continue to love us and to strengthen us in our journey of life, that we may persevere and grow ever more resilient and more courageous in standing up for our faith in our every moments of life. May God bless our every efforts and endeavours, now and always, forevermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 1 : 43-51
The next day, Jesus decided to set off for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the One that Moses wrote about in the Law, and the prophets as well; He is Jesus, Son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, He said of him, “Here comes an Israelite, a true one; there is nothing false in him.” Nathanael asked Him, “How do You know me?” And Jesus said to him, “Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree, and I saw you.”
Nathanael answered, “Master, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” But Jesus replied, “You believe because I said, ‘I saw you under the fig tree.’ But you will see greater things than that. Truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 99 : 2, 3, 4, 5
Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God; He created us and we are His people, the sheep of His fold.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His Name.
For the Lord is good; His love lasts forever and His faithfulness through all generations.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 3 : 11-21
For this is the message taught to you from the beginning : we must love one another. Do not imitate Cain who killed his brother, for he belonged to the Evil One. Why did he kill him? Because he himself did evil and his brother did good.
So, be not surprised, brothers if the world hates us; we love our brothers and sisters, and with this we know that we have passed from death to life. The one who does not love remains in death. The one who hates his brother is a murderer, and, as you know, eternal life does not remain in the murderer.
This is how we have known what is love is : He gave His life for us. We, too, ought to give our life for our brothers and sisters. If anyone enjoys the riches of this world, but closes his heart when he sees his brother or sister in need, how will the love of God remain in him? My dear children, let us love not only with words and with our lips, but in truth and in deed.
Then we shall know that we are of the truth and we may calm our conscience in His presence. Every time it reproaches us, let us say : God is greater than our conscience, and He knows everything. When our conscience does not condemn us, dear friends, we may have complete confidence in God.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the calling which all of us have received as Christians to be faithful followers of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in all things and at all times. We are all reminded that as Christians we are all God’s called and chosen people, and we have received from Him the assurance of joy and eternal life that will be ours if we keep our faith in Him, our Lord and Saviour. He shall never abandon us, and everything will be fine for us if we continue to walk in the path that He has shown to us. We are all reminded that the very reason why we celebrate Christmas season that we are still very well within, is indeed Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. Without Christ, there can be no Christmas, and our Christmas celebrations would have been meaningless and without purpose.
In our first reading today, we heard of the words from the Apostle St. John in his Epistle to the faithful people of God regarding the reminder that all the faithful must always hold on to the faith which they have in the Son of God, the Saviour born unto us through Mary, His blessed Mother. For even at the time of the Apostles, of St. John and the other earliest leaders of the Church, there had been significant troubles and divisions affecting the Church and the faithful due to those selfish, wicked and unscrupulous people seeking to mislead and misguide the people of God down the wrong paths. Even since the earliest days of the Church there had been those who subverted and changed the teachings of the Lord to suit their own desires and wishes, their own ambitions and purposes.
As such, the Apostles and the other leaders of the Church, and then their successors, the Popes and bishops all throughout the past two millennia of the history of the Church has to contend and oppose all those who seek to divide and mislead the flock of the Lord’s faithful. Everyone has always ever been reminded of their obligation and faith in the One and only True God, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all, Who has shown unto us the Love of God manifested in the flesh, appearing before us that we all may know that whatever we are believing in is not just a bluff or myth, unlike the many other beliefs and faiths in the pagan idols and gods. Our faith in God, in the one and only True God, is the foundation of our lives and existence in this world. It is very important therefore that we all take our faith in God seriously.
In our Gospel passage today we heard of the calling of the very first disciples of the Lord, which happened just right after He embarked on His ministry, with His baptism at the Jordan and temptations at the desert. The two disciples of St. John the Baptist who decided to follow the Lord when St. John himself told them that the One he had just baptised was the Lamb of God, the Holy One of God, came to the Lord Jesus in Galilee, enquiring about Him and stating their desires to follow Him. According to the Church traditions, one of those two disciples of St. John the Baptist was St. Andrew the Apostle, the brother of St. Peter the Apostle, which was why he was also often known as St. Andrew the First-Called. It was therefore likely that St. Andrew introduced the Lord to his fellow fishermen there at Galilee.
That was how the Lord called His first disciples, St. Andrew the Apostle and his brother, St. Peter the Apostle, as well as the two brothers, the sons of Zebedee, St. James the Apostle and St. John the Apostle. Those four fishermen of the Lake of Galilee then chose to follow the Lord, abandoning their fishing boats and nets, so that in the words of the Lord, they might become the ‘fishers of men’. They devoted their whole entire lives to the Lord and followed Him throughout His ministry and beyond, together with the many other disciples the Lord had also called, to bring forth His Good News and truth to the whole entire world. Through the efforts and hard works of the Apostles and all those holy men and women who had devoted themselves to the Lord and to the works of evangelisation, the love and truth of God has been delivered to many more people, who have been saved through Christ as well.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect upon these words from the Sacred Scriptures, let us all reflect upon what our calling in life as Christians are. Each and every one of us have been called to a specific mission in life by the Lord, Who has bestowed upon us myriads of His various gifts, graces, blessings, talents and abilities. The Lord has called each and every one of us to follow Him as well, and we ought to follow Him faithfully, not easily swayed by the falsehoods of the world and by the temptations of worldly desires, ego, pride and greed. As Christians, we have to hold onto the Lord closely and remain faithful to Him in the manner how the Apostles and the many other disciples of the Lord had given their all, and even their whole lives in service to the Lord.
Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we are still in the midst of the Christmas season and time, we can see how the world has mostly returned to its usual busy life and schedule. While even at Christmas celebrations and joy, Christ has often been forgotten and ignored at the celebration of His birth and coming into this world, what happens now, just barely more than a week after Christmas Day, is even more telling of how many in the world, even amongst us Christians, have forgotten about Christ, and all that He had done for our sake, in bringing that new Hope and the assurance of eternal life to us. How about us, brothers and sisters? Have we done the same as well? Have we sidelined the Lord and ignored Him in our lives, and only remembering Him when we have need for Him?
Let us all therefore commit ourselves to a new life and existence in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, putting Him back at the centre and as the main focus of our lives. Let us all remember the faith that the Lord’s Apostles, His countless saints and martyrs, who had given their all in following and serving the Lord. Let us all walk in their footsteps and be inspired to continue carrying out whatever missions and vocations that the Lord had called us to do, in our own respective lives. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 1 : 35-42
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).
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 97 : 1, 7-8, 9
Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.
Let the sea resound and everything in it, the world and all its peoples. Let rivers clap their hands, hills and mountains sing with joy before the Lord.
For He comes to rule the earth. He will judge the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 3 : 7-10
My little children, do not be led astray; those who do what is right are upright, just as Jesus Christ is upright. But those who sin belong to the devil, for the devil sins from the beginning.
This is why the Son of God was shown to us, He was to undo the works of the devil. Those born of God do not sin, for the seed of God remains in them; they cannot sin because they are born of God. What is the way to recognise the children of God and those of the devil? The one who does not do what is right is not of God; so, too, the one who does not love his brother or sister.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 