Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the Lord, Who reminded us that all of us as Christians need to be dedicated and committed to God, giving our everything to Him. Our faith in Him cannot be just mere formality or it will be meaningless. Faith cannot be just merely on paper alone, that we end up becoming Christians just by name only.

In the Gospel today, all of us also heard how Jesus mentioned with parables, mentioning how no one built a house without considering its costs and what would entail to build up the entire house, or else it could not be completed, and the builder would be humiliated for starting such a meaningless and incomplete project. Similarly, He also spoke about how kings would have planned well whether he could win against an opponent before deciding to go to war, or else, he would have been defeated.

What do all these parables show us, brothers and sisters in Christ? They show us that all of us Christians cannot be blind to our future, and we all have been surely well versed in what we will end up if we do not keep our faith in God. There are three last things according to our faith, first which is heaven, and second is Purgatory, while the third and last one is hell.

These are the last things, because eventually one of these three places will be where we end up after we die, and when we have to face the Lord and give an account for our lives. The Lord Himself will judge us based on our actions, words and deeds. And He knows everything that is in our hearts, our minds and our whole beings, nothing can be hidden from Him. And if our faith is lacking and found wanting, there will be no heaven or even Purgatory for us. There will only be hell be waiting for us.

In our lives, we cannot therefore be complacent or be ignorant of our faith, as we really have to be active in our faith, looking ahead in what we will end up in, should we fail to do what the Lord had commanded us to do. This is what each and every one of us should do, to be truly faithful in all things, to be loving as the Lord has loved us dearly and tenderly.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the first reading today, we heard about the Law of God, as what the Lord had revealed to His people through Moses, the Ten Commandments, and which Jesus had unveiled in its true meaning, that is the Law of love. Love is the most important part of our faith, and we cannot be truly faithful without love, especially, first and foremost all of us must love the Lord our God, with all of our hearts, our minds, our bodies, and all of our whole beings.

We have to give our time, our effort and our entire life to God, and we cannot do this, without loving our brothers and sisters, our fellow men, with true and genuine love. What does this mean? It means that each and every one of us as Christians, we must love our brothers and sisters, and give ourselves, in love, to those who are in need of our love, care and attention, especially to the poor, the sick and the lonely.

Let us all, brothers and sisters, be true and living Christians, with living and genuine faith in God, through our acts and commitments, so that not only that we will be worthy of the Lord through our living faith, filled with actions of love towards our neighbours and ultimately towards God Himself. Let us draw ever closer to God and be more like Him through our love and dedication. May the Lord bless us always, and all of our good works and endeavours for our faith. Amen.