Apostles of Jesus Christ

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Tuesday, 28 June 2016 : Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles, Great Feast of the Church of Rome and the Universal Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Acts 3 : 1-10

Once when Peter and John were going up to the Temple at three in the afternoon, the hour for prayer, a man crippled from birth was being carried in. Every day they would bring him and put him at the Temple gate called “Beautiful”; there he begged from those who entered the Temple.

When he saw Peter and John on their way into the Temple, he asked for alms. Then Peter with John at his side looked straight at him and said, “Look at us.” So he looked at them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you : In the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, walk!”

Then he took the beggar by his right hand and helped him up. At once his feet and ankles became firm, and jumping up he stood on his feet and began to walk. And he went with them into the Temple walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God; they recognised him as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were all astonished and amazed at what had happened to him.

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Sunday, 5 June 2016 : 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Galatians 1 : 11-19

Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, that the Gospel we preached to you is not a human message, nor did I receive it from anyone, I was not taught of it but it came to me as a revelation from Christ Jesus. You have heard of my previous activity in the Jewish community; I furiously persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. For I was more devoted to the Jewish religion than many fellow Jews of my age, and I defended the traditions of my ancestors more fanatically.

But one day God called me out of His great love, He Who had chosen me from my mother’s womb; and He was pleased to reveal in me His Son, that I might make Him known among the pagan nations. Then I did not seek human advice nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me. I immediately went to Arabia, and from there I returned again to Damascus.

Later, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. But I did not see any other Apostle except James, the Lord’s brother.

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Saturday, 28 May 2016 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Jude 17, 20b-25

But, most beloved, remember what the Apostles of Christ Jesus, our Lord, announced to you. Build your life on the foundation of your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Remain firm in the love of God, welcoming the mercy of Jesus Christ, our Lord, which leads to eternal life.

Try to convince those who doubt; others you will save, snatching them from condemnation. Treat the others with compassion but also with prudence, shunning even the clothes that touched their body.

To the one God Who is able to keep you from all sin and bring you happy and without blemish before His own Glory, to the one God Who saves us through Jesus Christ, our Lord, to Him be glory, honour, might and power, from past ages, now and forever. Amen.

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Saturday, 14 May 2016 : Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we commemorate together the feast of one of the Twelve Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, namely St. Matthias, who was not counted among the original Twelve Apostles. However, after the betrayal of Judas, who not only betrayed the Lord Jesus to the Pharisees and the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver, but also took his own life in guilt and regret, the Twelve Apostles became incomplete.

And as prophesied in the Scriptures, this had been foretold in the ages past, that someone else more worthy would take up the place vacated by the unworthy betrayer. And that worthy disciple is St. Matthias, who had followed Jesus as the other Eleven Apostles had, and therefore were admitted into their number. The Apostles were the chief and principal disciples of our Lord, through whom the Church were built upon.

And they have been sent by the Lord with the mission, to evangelise the Gospel to the people in the pagan nations who still have yet to hear the Good News of God, and to bring the light of Christ to all of them. And they passed on this mission to the other disciples, who helped them and helped in establishing the Church of God in many places, saving many souls in the process.

It was told that St. Matthias went to many places to preach the Gospel and gained many people for the Lord. Many were baptised and received the Lord as their Master and Saviour. His hard work and efforts contributed to the thriving communities of Christians in several places, including places as far as Ethiopia and Georgia, and helped to establish future works of evangelisation.

It was told that he was martyred in Judea and Jerusalem, where the Jewish authorities had been oppressive against the early Christians. Or another tell mentioned that he met his death in the faraway Ethiopia where he went to evangelise. In the end, he fulfilled the duty and the charge given to him as the Apostle of Jesus Christ, gaining the eternal glory promised to him by our Lord Himself.

St. Matthias was not originally counted among the Twelve Apostles, and yet, because Judas Iscariot was unworthy, he was cast out from their number and damned to perdition, while St. Matthias took the place of glory reserved to the faithful servants of our Lord, and he proved it through his faith and his many works in fulfilling the call of the Lord.

All these are lessons for us, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we all have to always work hard and seek to be righteous in all of our actions. It does not mean that we as Christians are guaranteed salvation, as even though Judas Iscariot was chosen among the members of the Twelve, but he betrayed the Lord and failed to do what he was supposed to do, and as a result what he got was instead eternal damnation.

And it is also a reminder for us that God calls us and He wants to make us worthy. He has chosen us all from among the world, and He has shown us His truth by revealing Himself to us through our priests and bishops, who themselves received the same truth from the Apostles, and who therefore received it from the Lord Jesus Himself. We are part of this great mission to save all mankind, and we too have an important role to play in this.

Shall we all also continue the works of the Apostles in delivering the light of Christ into the world? All of us Christians have to really be Christ-like in our words, deeds and actions, that is by loving one another, showing mercy and compassion, and caring for all those who are unloved. We should heed the examples of Christ and practice these in our own lives.

If others see and witness all the things which we have done, surely they will also follow in our footsteps. Who will believe us and follow us if we ourselves did not do what the Lord had asked us to do? We have to lead by example as the Apostles themselves had once done, as St. Matthias showed us through his hard work, labour, hardships and the tribulations he faced.

May God help us on our path, and may He give us courage to walk in the footsteps of His Apostles and saints, that as St. Matthias had done before us, we too may be important tools and instruments of God’s love and mercy in this world. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 14 May 2016 : Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 15 : 9-17

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper, “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Remain in My love! You will remain in My love if you keep My commandments, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.”

“I have told you all this, that My own joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. This is My commandment : Love one another as I have loved you! There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for one’s friends; and you are My friends, if you do what I command you.”

“I shall not call you servants anymore, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learnt from My Father.”

“You did not choose Me; it was I who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And everything you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you. This is My command, that you love one another.”

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Saturday, 14 May 2016 : Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 112 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

Alleluia! Praise, o servants of the Lord, praise the Name of the Lord! Blessed be the Name of the Lord now and forever!

From eastern lands to the western islands, may the Name of the Lord be praised! The Lord is exalted over the nations, His glory above the heavens.

Who is like the Lord our God, Who sits enthroned on high, but also bends down to see on earth as in heaven?

He lifts up the poor from the dust, and the needy from the ash heap. He makes them sit with princes, with rulers of His people.

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Saturday, 14 May 2016 : Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Acts 1 : 15-17, 20-26

It was during this time that Peter stood up in the midst of the community – about one hundred and twenty in all – and he said, “Brothers, it was necessary that the Scriptures referring to Judas be fulfilled. The Holy Spirit had spoken through David about the one who would lead the crowd coming to arrest Jesus. He was one of our number and had been called to share our common ministry.”

“In the book of Psalms it is written : Let his house become deserted and may no one live in it. But it is also written : May another take his office. Therefore we must choose someone from among those who were with us during all the time that the Lord Jesus moved about with us, beginning with John’s baptism until the day when Jesus was taken away from us. One of these has to become, with us, a witness to His resurrection.”

Then they proposed two : Joseph, called Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and Matthias. They prayed : “You know, Lord, whakt is in the hearts of all. Show us, therefore, which of the two You have chosen to replace Judas in this Apostolic ministry which he deserted to go to the place he deserved.”

Then they drew lots between the two and the choice fell on Matthias who was added to the eleven Apostles.

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Friday, 13 May 2016 : Seventh Week of Easter, Memorial of our Lady of Fatima (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 25 : 13b-21

As king Agrippa and his sister Berenice were to stay in Caesarea several days, Festus told the king about Paul’s case and said to him, “We have here a man whom Felix left as a prisoner. When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews accused him and asked me to sentence him. I told them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over a man without giving him an opportunity to defend himself in front of his accusers.”

“So they came and I took my seat without delay on the tribunal and sent for the man. When the accusers had the floor, they did not accuse him of any of the crimes that I was led to think he had committed; instead they quarrelled with him about religion and about a certain Jesus Who has died but Whom Paul asserted to be alive.”

“I did not know what to do about this case, so I asked Paul if he wanted to go to Jerusalem to be tried there. But Paul appealed to be judged by the emperor. So I ordered that he be kept in custody until I send him to Caesar.”

Alternative reading (Mass of our Lady of Fatima)

Isaiah 61 : 9-11

Their descendants shall be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a race YHVH has blessed.

I rejoice greatly in YHVH, my soul exults for joy in my God, for He has clothed me in the garments of His salvation, He has covered me with the robe of His righteousness, like a bridegroom wearing a garland, like a bride adorned with jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its growth, and as a garden makes seeds spring up, so will the Lord YHVH make justice and praise spring up in the sight of all nations.

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Thursday, 5 May 2016 : Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 1 : 1-11

In the first part of my work, Theophilus, I wrote of all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when He ascended to heaven. But first He had instructed through the Holy Spirit the Apostles He had chosen. After His passion, He presented Himself to them, giving many signs that He was alive; over a period of forty days He appeared to them and taught them concerning the kingdom of God.

Once when He had been eating with them, He told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the fulfilment of the Father’s promise about which I have spoken to you : John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit within a few days.”

When they had come together, they asked Him, “Is it now that You will restore the Kingdom of Israel?” And He answered, “It is not for you to know the time and the steps that the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth.”

After Jesus said this, He was taken up before their eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight. While they were still looking up to heaven where He went, suddenly, two men dressed in white stood beside them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up at the sky? This Jesus Who has been taken from you into heaven, will return in the same way as you have seen Him go there.”

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is indeed a great day, the day when we celebrate the feast of not just one, but two of Christ’s Twelve Apostles, His principal and the greatest of His disciples. We celebrate on this day the feast of the Apostles St. Philip and St. James. Both of them worked hard for the sake of the people of God, and as the other Apostles had done, they spread the Good News to many during their missions.

St. Philip was also known as Nathanael, a learnt and wise man of Israel, who was told to be fluent in Greek, and thus eventually he went on to preach the Lord and His truth in the regions of Greece and Roman Asia at the time, going from cities to cities, preaching to the masses and gaining for the Church many new converts and members. He went about the Greek communities and gaining many new faithful from among them.

In the end, in one account, St. Philip even managed to convert the wife of the proconsul of a region where he ministered in through his miracles and preaching. The proconsul was enraged and ordered St. Philip to be arrested, and he together with the other Apostle, St. Bartholomew, and other disciples were crucified upside down by the order of the proconsul. And it was told how St. Philip preached to the crowd gathering there from the cross, such that they wanted to release him, but this was not allowed by St. Philip himself.

Meanwhile, St. James the Greater was the brother of St. John the Apostle, once a fisherman along the Lake of Galilee, whom Jesus called together with His other Apostles, St. Peter, St. Andrew and St. John his brother. St. James the Greater played an important role during the early Church, spreading the Good News of God’s salvation after Christ’s resurrection and ascension into heaven.

It was told that St. James went to preach the Good News to the faraway regions such as the province of Iberia in what is today Spain, spreading the Gospel to the people there and helped to establish the Church in faraway regions from its origins in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. And he was therefore today renowned especially in the region known as Santiago de Compostela, where his body lay buried, because it was there where he apparently did his works of evangelisation.

And it was told that, as written in the Acts of the Apostles, how king Herod arrested St. James when he returned to the Holy Land, and in order to please the Jewish authorities, the Pharisees and the chief priests, he executed him. Thus, St. James was among the first of the Apostles to meet his end in martyrdom, but certainly, his works and legacies could still be felt even many years after his death.

Through his tireless works and commitment to the cause of the salvation of mankind, St. James and St. Philip the two Apostles of our Lord, they might have gone ahead of us to the glory of heaven. However, the impact of their actions can still be felt clearly even today. In this regard, we indeed need more and more people who are willing to commit themselves to the Lord and walk in His path as these two Apostles had one.

Truly, it will not be an easy one for us, as there would opposition against all those who are faithful and kept their faith. But Jesus reminded us yet again in the Gospel today, that we who have believed in Him, has seen the Lord Himself through Jesus, and by our faith in Him, we have been justified. And because we know the Lord, we will also do what He has asked us to do, and through these therefore, we would be blessed and saved.

During this season of Easter, which is coming to an end soon, let us therefore reflect on our own lives, and on how we have acted in our life so far. Have we been committed to our Lord, and have we been faithful to Him, through all of our words and actions? Can we call ourselves true Christians, as those who do not just believe in the Lord through mere words, but also through real action?

The examples of the Apostles St. Philip and St. James show us that there are still many things that we can do as the followers of Christ in order to fulfil the commands which our Lord had placed in the shoulders of the Apostles. Both the Apostles took the charge with zeal and vigour, and despite the challenges and the difficulties that faced them, all these did not prevent them from carrying out the missions which the Lord entrusted to them.

Let us all therefore look forward, and as we are about to celebrate the Solemnity of the Pentecost Sunday soon, let us all recommit ourselves, and rediscover the gifts of the Holy Spirit which had been given to us, and make use of them all in order to help those who are still in darkness, by showing them the love of God manifested through each and every one of us the faithful ones of our Lord, that more and more souls may see the light of God and be saved. God bless us all. Amen.