Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 105 : 19-20, 21-22, 23
They made a calf at Horeb and worshipped the molten image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of a bull that eats grass.
They forgot their Saviour God, who had done great things in Egypt, wonderful works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Sea of Reeds.
So He spoke of destroying them, but Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach before Him to shield them from destruction.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Exodus 32 : 7-14
Then YHVH said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a molten calf; they have bowed down before it and sacrificed to it and said : “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.”
And YHVH said to Moses, “I see that these people are a stiff-necked people. Now just leave Me that My anger may blaze against them. I will destroy them, but of you I will make a great nation.”
But Moses calmed the anger of YHVH, his God, and said, “Why, o YHVH, should Your anger burst against Your people whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with a mighty hand? Let not the Egyptians say : ‘YHVH brought them out with evil intent, for He wanted to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth.'”
“Turn away from the heat of Your anger and do not bring disaster on Your people. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the promise You Yourself swore : I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land I spoke about I will give to them as an everlasting inheritance.”
YHVH then changed His mind and would not yet harm His people.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear about how everything that Jesus did, He did them in accordance with the will of God the Father, and thus, He did them out of the love He has for all of us without exception. That was the very purpose of why Jesus, the Son of God Most High was sent into this world, that He who was divine and with the Father, was willing to come down and to be born as one of us, as Man.
He came in accordance with the will of God, that He wanted all of us who had been separated from Him due to our disobedience and that of our ancestors’ disobedience, so that we may be brought back to Him, and be forgiven in new life sanctified in God. That was why the Lord who loves us so much, sent us His only beloved Son, to be our Saviour.
How fortunate we are indeed, that our Lord Himself had lowered Himself to come upon us and show us what new hope and salvation are truly about. Jesus is the hope for all mankind, the light which pierces through the darkness, both within us and which surround all our beings in this world. In Jesus is our compass, the north reference point, to which all of us should look towards and go to.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus came to us as our shepherd, to guide us on our way towards the Lord, that we may not be lost, but gain eternal glory and rewards at the end of time. We are the lost sheep of the Lord, who had been spread across the land, and covered in the darkness of this world. The Lord is our light, and He enlightens our path, and with His staff and rod, He guides us to the eternal rest He had prepared for us.
But as all shepherds do, He calls upon us, and He knows each of us, by name. He truly knows all that we do in secret, as He is the Lord of all, omniscient and all-knowing. There is nothing that he did not know of. He calls us, but we as the lost sheep, have all the choice and free will to either heed His call or to ignore and reject Him.
God offered us His guidance and help through Jesus His Son. Like a loving shepherd He guides each and every one of His sheep that they may find their way, our way, to reach towards salvation. Yet we may choose to follow Him or follow the false shepherd, that is the devil. The devil also calls upon us, pretending to be the true shepherd, tricking us to follow him instead of the Lord, the true and good shepherd.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is why we have to discern things carefully, in what we do, and in what we follow, that we will not fall into committing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord and fall into condemnation and destruction that awaits Satan and his followers, the fallen sheep, at the end of time. We have to discern on our lives and our actions, that we will walk in the light and not darkness.
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Paola, a hermit who lived in Italy during the era of the Renaissance. St. Francis of Paola was a very devout and upright individual even since his early youth, and he modelled himself much after his patron, St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan religious order. St. Francis of Paola modelled his life after his namesake and patron, and founded a religious order with similar kind of dedication to the Lord.
Yes, brethren, St. Francis of Paola gave all of his life in dedication to the Lord his shepherd. He did not veer left or right in his ways, and remained true to the Lord until the end of his life. St. Francis of Paola is the example of how a sheep who desires to find his shepherd, and his Lord, that he gave it his all, in total and complete dedication to the will of God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we can learn many things from the holiness and greatness of St. Francis of Paola. He was great not because he was powerful or mighty in the eyes of men, but because he did not budge even against the forces of this world, and neither did he fear any worldly oppressions or repercussions, that he even challenged kings of the world and rebuked them for their wickedness and transgressions despite themselves professing as Christians.
We too should follow in his footsteps, that we may dedicate ourselves more and more to the Lord, and at the same time also learn to follow His ways and make our lives a reflection of the Lord’s will and teachings, that just like St. Francis of Paola, we may be holy and justified, and the Lord will keep us always in His favour and grace.
St. Francis of Paola, pray for us sinners, that we may overcome our fear of the Lord and come seek Him like sheep looking for their shepherd, that together with you, we may praise the Lord and serve Him for eternity. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
John 5 : 17-30
Jesus replied, “My Father goes on working and so do I.” And the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him, for Jesus not only broke the Sabbath observance, but also made Himself equal with God, calling God His own Father.
Jesus said to them, “Truly, I assure you, the Son cannot do anything by Himself, but only what He sees the Father do. And whatever He does, the Son also does. The Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He does; and He will show Him even greater things than these, so that you will be amazed.”
“As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whom He wills. In the same way the Father judges no one, for He has entrusted all judgment to the Son, and He wants all to honour the Son as they honour the Father. Whoever ignores the Son, ignores as well the Father who sent Him.”
“Truly, I say to you, anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life; and there is no judgment for him, because he has passed from death to life.”
“Truly, the hour is coming and has indeed come, when the dead will hear the voice of God and, on hearing it, will live. For the Father has life in Himself, and He has given to the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has empowered Him as well to carry out Judgment, for He is Son of Man.”
“Do not be surprised at this : the hour is coming when all those lying in tombs will hear My voice and come out; those who have done good shall rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”
“I can do nothing of Myself, and I need to hear Another One to judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 144 : 8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18
Compassionate and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and abounding in love. The Lord is good to everyone; His mercy embraces all His creation.
The Lord is true to His promises and lets His mercy show in all He does. The Lord lifts up those who are falling and raises those who are beaten down.
Righteous is the Lord in all His ways, His mercy shows in all His deeds. He is near those who call on Him, who call trustfully upon His Name.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Isaiah 49 : 8-15
This is what YHVH says : “At a favourable time I have answered you, on the day of salvation I have been your help; I have formed you and made you to be My covenant with the people. You will restore the land, and allot its abandoned farms. You will say to the captives : Come out; and to those in darkness : Show yourselves.”
They will feed along the road; they will find pasture on barren hills. They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the scorching wind or the sun beat upon them; for He who has mercy on them will guide them and lead them to springs of water. I will turn all My mountains into roads and raise up My highways.
See, they come from afar, some from the north and west, others from the land of Sinim. Sing, o heavens, and rejoice, o earth; break forth into song, o mountains : for YHVH has comforted His people and taken pity on those who are afflicted. But Zion said : “YHVH has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.”
Can a woman forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child of her womb? Yet though she forget, I will never forget you.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Brothers and sisters in Christ, out of the Temple of the Lord comes water, gushing forth in great torrents, as seen by the prophet Ezekiel. This water is a symbol of many things, but one symbol that it represents is healing and cure, which is again represented in the Gospel today, in the healing of the sick and paralysed man in the pool of Bethzatha.
Thus from the Lord, out of His will and His love for us, came healing for all of us, the healing of our sickness and our worrying state, both of the body and the soul. That was the reason why the Lord came to us, seeking us and wanting us to come back to Him, so that we may be healed of our afflictions, the afflictions of our souls, which is sin.
Yes, we are all, despite our healthy appearances, are always sick, and prone to this dangerous illness, that is sin, which eats away at the very core of ourselves and corrupt us, to cripple us and make us destroyed. But God is willing to accept us and our broken beings, the brokenness of our hearts, providing that we ourselves too are willing to accept Him.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus will ask us, just as He had asked the paralysed man, “Do you want to be healed?” This was the proof of His love and care for us, and He wants us all to be healed. But it all depends on us, whether we accept His offer for healing, and whether we say yes or no to that offer. We have to take the initiative to accept Him in our lives.
It is often that we either fear God and His punishment for our wickedness that we do not want to seek Him out even when we are in the great depth of darkness and sin. We are either ashamed of our sinfulness or are ignorant of it. That is why we do not seek the healing of the Lord and dwelled on instead in our wickedness and in our debauched way of life.
And indeed, we should follow what Jesus had told the sick man, that is to take up his mat and walk away from the place he had remained at for many decades of his life. Not to say that we have to literally pick up a mat and walk, but what I mean is that, we have to take initiative in our actions, that we may get out of our idleness and to be freed from the trap of darkness, with which the devil had managed to keep us held captive in the corruption of this world.
We must learn to be courageous to say no, no to the devil and to his temptations and approaches. We must learn to reject his offers of goodness and pleasure, knowing that these are temporary, and will lead to eternal damnation and suffering later on. And that is why we also at the same time must learn to be courageous to say yes to God.
Get rid of our fear, of our pride and our reluctance. Open our hearts and let God come in and dwell within them. Let God transform our beings that we may be truly children of God, who lives in the grace and favour of the Lord, no longer bound by the paralysis of the soul, that is the worldly pleasures and temptations that kept us affixed to our place on the ground like that of the sick and paralysed man healed by Jesus.
Let us all, brothers and sisters in Christ, seek healing in God, and ask Him for His forgiveness and mercy. Let the healing of Christ enter our soul, that we may be made pure again, free of sin and bonds that keep us from salvation in God. Say no to the devil, but say yes to the Lord! God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
John 5 : 1-16
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, by the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, there is a pool (called Bethzatha in Hebrew) surrounded by five galleries. In these galleries lay a multitude of sick people : blind, lame and paralysed.
(All were waiting for the water to move, for at times an angel of the Lord would descend into the pool and stir up the water; and the first person to enter the pool, after this movement of the water, would be healed of whatever disease that he had.)
There was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw him, and because He knew how long this man had been lying there, He said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” And the sick man answered, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; so while I am still on my way, another steps down before me.”
Jesus then said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk!” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his mat and walked. Now that day happened to be the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had just been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and the Law does not allow you to carry your mat.”
He answered them, “The One who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk!'” They asked him, “Who is the One who said to you : Take up your mat and walk?” But the sick man had no idea who it was who had cured him, for Jesus had slipped away among the crowd that filled the place.
Afterwards Jesus met him in the Temple court and told him, “Now you are well; do not sin again, lest something worse happen to you.” And the man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. So the Jews persecuted Jesus because He performed healings like that on the Sabbath.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 45 : 2-3, 5-6, 8-9
God is our strength and protection, an ever-present help in affliction. We will not fear, therefore, though the earth be shaken and the mountains plunge into the seas.
There is a river whose streams bring joy to the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within, the city cannot quake, for God’s help is upon it at the break of day.
For with us is the Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob, our refuge. Come, see the works of the Lord – the marvellous things He has done in the world.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Ezekiel 47 : 1-9, 12
The man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple and I saw water coming out from the threshold of the Temple and flowing eastwards. The Temple faced the east and the water flowed from the south side of the Temple, from the south side of the altar.
He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing the east and there I saw the stream coming from the south side. The Man had a measuring cord in His hand. As He went towards the east He measured off a thousand cubits and led me across the water which was up to my ankles.
He measured off another thousand cubits and made me cross the water which came to my knees. He measured off another thousand cubits and we crossed the water which was up to my waist. When He had again measured a thousand cubits, I could not cross the torrent for it had swollen to a depth which was impossible to cross without swimming.
The Man then said to me, “Son of man, did you see?” He led me on further and then brought me back to the bank of the river. There I saw a number of trees on both sides of the river. He said to me, “This water goes to the east, down to the Arabah, and when it flows into the sea of foul-smelling water, the water will become wholesome.
Wherever the river flows, swarms of creatures will live in it; fish will be plentiful and the sea water will become fresh. Wherever it flows, life will abound. Near the river on both banks there will be all kinds of fruit trees with foliage that will not wither and fruit that will never fail; each month they will bear a fresh crop because the water comes from the Temple. The fruit will be good to eat and the leaves will be used for healing.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 