Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 17 : 31, 47 and 50, 51
This God – His way is perfect; the word of YHVH can stand fire. He is a shield for those who seek refuge in Him.
YHVH lives! Praised be my Rock! Exalted be my Saviour God. For this I extol You, o YHVH, among the nations; I will sing praise to Your Name.
He has given victories to His king; He has shown His love to His anointed ones, to David, and to his descendants forever.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Sirach 47 : 2-13
As fat is selected from the peace offering, so David was chosen from among the Israelites. He played with lions and bears as if they were lambs or young goats. He was still young when he slew a giant, to restore the honour of his people; with a sling he aimed a stone that killed the arrogant Goliath.
He invoked the Lord Most High, who gave him strength to slay a mighty warrior, and so exalt the power of his people. So they glorified him for his ten thousands and praised him as a blessing from the Lord when he was chosen king. For he wiped out his enemies on all sides and annihilated his adversaries, the Philistines, crushing their power forever.
In all that he did, he gave thanks to the Most High, and showed his love for his Maker by singing with all his heart. He placed singers accompanied by harps before the Altar to make beautiful music; he gave splendour to feasts and even greater magnificence to the more solemn occasions, exalting the Holy Name of the Lord and having the Sanctuary ring with His praises from early morning.
The Lord forgave David’s sins and established his power forever; He made a Covenant with him for the benefit of the kings and gave him a glorious throne in Israel. A wise son succeeded him and fared well because of him. Solomon reigned during times of peace, and God gave him rest from war to enable him to build a house for His Name, a Sanctuary that would stand forever.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded that as Christians, all of us as those whom God had called and chosen to be His own beloved people, we have the calling and mission in the various ways that God had intended for us, so that we may be the ones to bear witness to His truth, His Good News, love and ways in our world today, in our respective families and communities. Each and every one of us are entrusted by the Lord with the unique talents, abilities and opportunities for us to make good use of in our various areas of responsibility so that we may be the ones to show the Lord to many more people and lead them all towards God and His salvation.
In our first reading passage today, we heard of the account from the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah detailing to us what happened at the time when King David of Israel, the famous King who led Israel to great triumph and victory of its many enemies, and brought Israel to its golden age, finally came to the end of his earthly life after a period of forty years reigning over Judah and the whole of Israel. And as David was going to the Lord and knew that his time was coming, we heard how he advised his son and heir, Solomon, the one whom God had revealed to David himself as the one to succeed him, in how Solomon ought to continue obeying the Lord, worshipping Him alone and leading the people righteously as their King as David himself had once done.
Through what we have heard in the first reading today and the accounts of the previous weekdays of the life and exploits of David as man and servant of God, and then as King of Israel, in all of his virtues and imperfections, we are reminded that we ourselves as God’s holy and beloved people, having been called to follow Him as well as His servants and disciples, each and every one of us should be inspired by the examples of David and his faithfulness to God, in how he has always strived to love God and his fellow men and women, in his conscious examination of his own actions, flaws and mistakes, and how he has always tried his best to be good and worthy of the Lord in all things. We too should therefore do the same in our own lives.
Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus sent out His disciples, two by two, centred upon His Twelve principal disciples, the ones later known as the Apostles, and the many other disciples whom He sent to carry out and extend His missions and works to more people and places. We heard how the Lord instructed them on what they ought to be doing in their mission, putting trust in the Lord instead of in their own resources, power and abilities. The Lord also told them all of the realities of what they may have to face in the midst of their missions, both the potential successes as well as the rejections and hardships that they may have to endure.
This is therefore a reminder to all of us as Christians that we should always strive to follow the Lord in what He has entrusted to each one of us to do in life. It does not mean that we must do exactly as what those disciples had done in the past, but rather we are called to do what the Lord had entrusted to us in our own unique circumstances, in the gifts, talents, abilities and opportunities that He had provided to us. We should do our best in our respective areas and places of responsibility, in whatever vocations that the Lord has called us to do, so that by our every words, actions and deeds, by our every efforts and endeavours, we may truly bear faithful witness to the Lord and glorify His Name at all times.
Today, all of us are called to be like David, the King of Israel, in humbling ourselves before the Lord and asking for His guidance and wisdom at all times, in living our lives virtuously and righteously, in embracing the Lord and His love wholeheartedly at all times. And today, we also have another role model to follow in our own lives as Christians, based on the examples set by one of our holy predecessors, whose feast we celebrate today. St. Agatha of Sicily, a renowned martyr and saint from the time of the Great Persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperors can indeed inspire us to be better Christians in true deeds and actions.
St. Agatha was born into a noble Roman family and she made a vow of holy and perpetual virginity, which she offered to God freely and wholeheartedly. Her great beauty was noted by a pagan Roman prefect named Quintianus, who did all he could to try to persuade and coax her to marry him. But despite his best efforts, his pressure and even threats, all those could not sway St. Agatha from abandoning her vow of virginity and her faith in the Lord. She remained resolute in her conviction and desire to follow the Lord, even when pressures and threats were piled up against her to conform to what the society demanded of her.
As that time coincided with the intense persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Decius, which was a particularly brutal period of intense persecution against Christians, the displeased and disappointed prefect reported St. Agatha to the authorities, and as the prefect Quintianus himself presided over the trial, he hoped that the threat of suffering and death would make St. Agatha to give up her stubborn resistance and refusal to abandon her faith in God. Instead, St. Agatha remained even more ardent in her faith and refused to give up, entrusting her fate completely to the Lord, not fearing the harsh persecutions and sufferings that would surely be hers for having stood up for her faith.
She prayed to the Lord saying, “Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, You know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am Your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil.” And despite the efforts the prefect tried to incarcerate, torture and make her life difficult, St. Agatha would not be swayed and she remained faithful to the very end. She was tortured with all sorts of punishments, and had her breasts cut, surviving a burning at the stake before eventually dying in prison, remaining faithful to the very end. Her great courage and faith, her enduring trust and love for the Lord even in the face of greatest hardships should indeed inspire us all to live our own Christian faith with greater sincerity and courage at all times.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard from our Scripture passages today and from the life examples and inspirations from the life of St. Agatha of Sicily, holy woman and devout servant of God, let us all continue to commit ourselves with greater devotion and strength, and do our very best at every circumstances and opportunities so that we may indeed be truly faithful, zealous and worthy disciples of the Lord, in leading many more souls to the salvation in God. May God therefore bless us all and guide us all with His strength and wisdom at all times, that we may truly always be fruitful in our every efforts and endeavours for His greater glory. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Mark 6 : 7-13
At that time, Jesus called the Twelve to Him, and began to send them out two by two, giving them authority over evil spirits, and He ordered them to take nothing for the journey, except a staff : no food, no bag, no money on their belts. They were to wear sandals and were not to take an extra tunic.
And He added, “In whatever house you are welcomed, stay there until you leave the place. If any place does not receive you, and the people refuse to listen to you, leave after shaking the dust off your feet. It will be a testimony against them.”
So they set out to proclaim that this was the time to repent. They drove out many demons and healed many sick people by anointing them.
Liturgical Colour : Red
1 Chronicles 29 : 10bc, 11abc, 11d-12a, 12bcd
May You be praised, YHVH God of Israel our ancestor, forever and ever!
Yours, YHVH, is the greatness, the power, splendour, length of days, glory; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is Yours.
Yours is the sovereignty forever, o YHVH; You are supreme Ruler over all. Riches and honour go before You.
You are Ruler of all; in Your hand lie strength and power. You are the One Who gives greatness and strength to all.
Liturgical Colour : Red
1 Kings 2 : 1-4, 10-12
When David was about to die, he gave his son Solomon this instruction, “I am about to go the way of all creatures. Be strong and show yourself a man. Keep the commandments of YHVH your God and walk in His ways. Keep His statutes, His commands, His ordinances and declarations written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in whatever you do and wherever you go.”
If you do so, YHVH will fulfil the promise He made to me : If your sons take care to walk before Me faithfully with their whole heart and their whole soul, you shall always have one of your descendants on the throne of Israel.”
Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David. David reigned over Israel for forty years : seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. So Solomon sat on the throne of David his father and his reign was firmly established.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, let us all look through them carefully and see how God has wanted us all to remember that worldly desires and ambitions can easily lead us down the path to ruin, and that is why we have to always be careful in not allowing those things to bring us down because we cannot restrain ourselves and falling ever deeper as a result into the path of ruin and damnation. Instead, as Christians, as the faithful disciples and followers of the Lord, we should always strive to live our lives focusing our attention on the Lord and living virtuously and righteously in the manner that God Himself has shown and taught us.
In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Samuel, we heard of the moment when King David, the famous king and ruler of Israel, at the later years of his reign, ordered a great census of all the whole land of his dominion, which then led to a rebuke from his commander Joab who sarcastically remarked about David’s command, which was in fact probably God speaking to David for his choice of actions. It was not that having a census was a wrong thing to do, as a census can be very important for good governance and administration of the kingdom, and therefore for the provision of better welfare for the people of God.
However, the reason why David erred in his choice and decision to carry out the census was because he made that decision out of pride and moment of arrogance because he has been secure in his rule and reign, and his dominion has become very extensive and ruling over a growing population of the Israelites. Just like someone counting his or her money and wealth so that he or she can revel and rejoice in all those, and feeling proud with every cents counted, having that exhilaration and desire fulfilled, thus, David’s actions could be seen from this same angle, in him feeling good when he knew the breadth of his lands and dominion, and the numbers of the people who lived in his kingdom, how many people under arms and his soldiers, as a measure of greatness and blessings that surpassed that of many other countries at that time.
That was why David’s action was considered as being disobedient to God and as unbecoming of him as a virtuous and righteous ruler. And we heard how David immediately regretted his actions and realised the gravity of his mistakes and errors, but the deed had been done, and as a result, retribution came from God against Israel for the faults that David had committed, as a reminder for not just him but also all of us today of the dangers and consequences of our actions when done in contrary to what the Lord has shown and taught us all. We have to resist the temptations of pride and ego, ambition, jealousy and desire, all the desires and wants for the pleasures and glory of the world that can lead us astray in life.
And linking this to our Gospel passage today from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we can see how it is worldly glory, ambitions, pride and all those things, like ego and arrogance which had caused a lot of hardships, difficulties and becoming significant obstacle in the path of the Lord’s works and ministry, just as it had happened at the very own hometown where the Lord grew up in as mentioned in the Gospel, that is in Nazareth. As we heard in the Gospel today, the people of Nazareth refused to listen to the truth that the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, and they doubted Him and His miraculous works, which had been told to them and which they definitely had heard about, as the Lord’s miracles and works were happening in the surrounding regions of Galilee.
The people of Nazareth hardened their hearts and minds, especially because they thought that they knew the Lord better, Who He was, His identity and everything, as they had seen Him for many years since He was very young. To the people of Nazareth, the Lord Jesus was no more than the Son of a local carpenter, St. Joseph, who was the foster father of Jesus. As St. Joseph was legally married to Mary, the Mother of the Lord, therefore, most if not all of the people of Nazareth would have assumed and thought that this Man, Jesus before them, was just a carpenter’s Son, and while carpenter was a noble and important profession, nonetheless, at that time, as it is still today, it is a rather low-regarded profession, a position without much prestige or honour.
That was why, in a community which was quite well stratified at that time, with the religious and intellectual elites at the top, like the Pharisees and the Sadducees at the pinnacle of the community, to have a Man coming to them at the synagogue proclaiming that God’s prophecies and words were being fulfilled through Him would be tantamount to blasphemy and making a wild claim. That was why the Lord’s words and attempts to convince His own townspeople were met with apathy and lack of belief. This was mainly because they proudly and arrogantly thought that because He was just merely the Son of the local carpenter, of a relatively small and poor town in Galilee, in the periphery of the Jewish world at the time, then He could not have been true in whatever He was saying and working on.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in our Scripture readings today, we are reminded therefore of the harm and danger of allowing our pride, ego, ambition, arrogance, our human frailty and all the worldly things and pursuits which can prevent us from coming towards the Lord with genuine faith and devotion, and we may end up distracting ourselves with our own worldly pursuits that we fail to notice the Lord’s guidance and presence in our lives around us. We should indeed remind ourselves that we should always be ready to allow the Lord to guide us in each and every moments of our lives, and we must not let worldly temptations, desires and ambitions from leading us astray. As Christians, let us all show good examples for our fellow brethren, in how we live our lives with humility and willingness to walk with the Lord at all times. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Mark 6 : 1-6
At that time, leaving the place where He raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead, Jesus returned to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and most of those who heard Him were astonished.
But they said, “How did this come to Him? What kind of wisdom has been given to Him, that He also performs such miracles? Who is He but the Carpenter, the Son of Mary, and the Brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here among us?” So they took offence at Him.
And Jesus said to them, “Prophets are despised only in their own country, among their relatives, and in their own family.” And He could work no miracles there, but only healed a few sick people, by laying His hands on them. Jesus Himself was astounded at their unbelief. Jesus then went around the villages, teaching.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 31 : 1-2, 5, 6, 7
Blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven, whose iniquity is wiped away. Blessed are those in whom YHVH sees no guilt and in whose spirit is found no deceit.
Then I made known to You my sin and uncovered before You my fault, saying to myself, “To YHVH I will now confess my wrong.” And You, You forgave my sin; You removed my guilt.
So let the faithful ones pray to You in time of distress; the overflowing waters will not reach them.
You are my Refuge; You protect me from distress and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Samuel 24 : 2, 9-17
The king said to Joab and the commanders of the army who were with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and count the people that I may know how many they are.”
Joab gave the total count of the people to the king : eight hundred thousand warriors in Israel and five hundred thousand men in Judah. But after he had the people counted, David felt remorse and said to YHVH, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done, but now, o YHVH, I ask You to forgive my sin for I have acted foolishly.”
The following day, before David awoke, YHVH’s word had come to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, “Go, and give David this message : I offer you three things and I will let one of them befall you according to your own choice.”
So Gad went to David and asked him, “Do you want three years of famine in your land? Or do you want to be pursued for three months by your foes while you flee from them? Or do you want three days’ pestilence in your land? Now, think and decide what answer I shall give Him Who sent me.”
David answered Gad, “I am greatly troubled. Let me fall into the hands of YHVH Whose mercy is abundant; but let me not fall into human hands.” So YHVH sent a pestilence on Israel from morning until the appointed time, causing the death of seventy thousand men from Dan to Beersheba. When the Angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, YHVH would punish no more and said to the Angel who was causing destruction among the people, “It is enough, hold back your hand.”
The Angel of YHVH was already at the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite. When David saw the Angel striking the people, he spoke to YHVH and said, “I have sinned and acted wickedly, but these are only the sheep; what have they done? Let Your hand strike me and my father’s family.”
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 