Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 147 : 12-13, 15-16, 19-20
Exalt the Lord, o Jerusalem; praise your God, o Zion! For He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your children within you.
He sends His command to the earth and swiftly runs His word. He spreads snow like wool; He scatters frost like ashes.
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 : Purple/Violet
Deuteronomy 4 : 1, 5-9
And now, Israel, listen to the norms and laws which I teach that you may put them into practice. And you will live and enter and take possession of the land which YHVH, the God of your fathers, gives you.
See, as YHVH, my God, ordered me. I am teaching you the norms and the laws that you may put them into practice in the land you are going to enter and have as your own. If you observe and practice them, other peoples will regard you as wise and intelligent. When they come to know of all these laws, they will say, “There is no people as wise and as intelligent as this great nation.”
For in truth, is there a nation as great as ours, whose gods are as near to it as YHVH, our God, is to us whenever we call upon Him? And is there a nation as great as ours whose norms and laws are as just as this Law which I give you today?
But be careful and be on your guard. Do not forget these things which your own eyes have seen nor let them depart from your heart as long as you live. But on the contrary, teach them to your children and to your children’s children.
Liturgical Colour : White
Hebrews 10 : 4-10
Never will the blood of bulls and goats take away these sins. This is why on entering the world, Christ says : ‘You did not desire sacrifice and offering; You were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings. Then I said : Here I am. It was written of me in the scroll. I will do Your will, o God.’
‘First He says : Sacrifice, offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire nor were You pleased with them’ – although they were required by the Law. Then He says : ‘Here I am to do Your will.’
This is enough to nullify the first will and establish the new. Now, by this will of God, we are sanctified once and for all by the sacrifice of the Body of Christ Jesus.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 39 : 7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 11
Sacrifice and oblation You did not desire; this You had me understand. Burnt offering and sin offering You do not require. Then I said, “Here I come!”
As the scroll says of me, to do Your will is my delight, o God, for Your Law is within my heart.”
In the great assembly I have proclaimed Your saving help. My lips, o Lord, I did not seal – You know that very well.
I have not locked up in my heart Your saving help, but have spoken about it – Your deliverance and Your faithfulness. I have made no secret of Your truth and of Your kindness in the great assembly.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the key message of today’s readings is that we have to be humble, and cast aside all of our prejudices and judgmental attitudes, and not be stubborn but instead put our trust in God and in His wisdom. That is what we need to know.
Why so, brethren? Why this message for us today? That is rightly so because Jesus and His prophets, shown through the example of Elisha, had been rejected in their own land and were cast aside by their own people. And Jesus pointed out to them, that prophets are not welcome in their own land, in their own hometown, and they were not honoured there.
All is because of the sin of human presumption and assumption. We like to judge and have our opinion on anything and everything around us. And the closer we are related to each other, the more we are likely to form our judgments and opinions on others.
And that was what the people of Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth thought about Him, when He came and proclaimed to them the truth about Himself, and about the Good News that He had come to proclaim. The people of Nazareth hardened their hearts and shut off their ears from listening to the words of salvation offered by Jesus, because to them, He can be no more than just a carpenter, and a carpenter’s son.
And in their minds, surely they will think that, who is this Jesus think He is? How dare He proclaims Himself as the One mentioned in the Scriptures? He thinks that He is a prophet is it? He is only a humble and good-for-nothing carpenter’s son! Is He and His father Joseph not the ones who repaired our wooden furnitures all these while? How can He then be the Prophet! Preposterous!
Yes, brethren, these are likely the thoughts that run inside of the people’s minds as they listened to Jesus, and that was why they were indignant and refused to listen to Him, and they were deep in their prejudice against Jesus and therefore they did not try to understand what Jesus was telling them, to the point of even open and blatant hostility against Him.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we be like them? We have the benefit of knowing who Jesus Christ our Lord is, through the teachings of the Church which was passed down to us from the Apostles of Jesus themselves. Nevertheless, that does not mean that we may always be faithful to God and listen to Him and His words.
We too can be wayward and walk down the wrong path if we are not careful, and if we do not cultivate and strengthen our faith in the Lord. And this also certainly taught us not to be judgmental or be prejudiced against others, our own brothers and sisters in the faith, or think in any way that we are more righteous or worthy of salvation than others because of who we are.
Let us instead help one another, and help indeed, so that all of us will be able to go as one people and reach out together towards the Lord, that at the end of our journey, we may glorify the Lord our God together as one! God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12
Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless His holy Name! Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.
He forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; He redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion.
He will not always scold nor will He be angry forever. He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does He punish us as we deserve.
As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove from us our sins.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Micah 7 : 14-15, 18-20
Shepherd you people with your staff, shepherd the flock of your inheritance that dwells alone in the scrub, in the midst of a fertile land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old, in the days when You went out of Egypt. Show us Your wonders.
Who is a God like You, who takes away guilt and pardons crime for the remnant of His inheritance? Who is like You whose anger does not last? For You delight in merciful forgiveness. Once again You will show us Your loving kindness and trample on our wrongs, casting all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Show faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as You have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are introduced today to an important catechesis of the faith, that is on the fate of our soul, when we go to the afterlife after our life in this world ends. And it was made clear to us by the story of Lazarus and the rich man, to show the contrast between the two fates that are possible for all of us.
Nevertheless, I would like to warn all of you first to be very careful in reading and understanding this part of the Gospels, as it is easy to be misunderstood and misrepresented, as if Jesus is advocating a sort of class war or conflict between the poor and the rich. And neither should we equate poverty with salvation and riches with damnation. Not all poor will end up in eternal joy, and many rich ones will also be saved.
In order to truly understand the meaning behind the passage, we have to understand the context behind Jesus’ teaching of the parables to His students. At the time of Jesus, and as it is similar in our world today, the divide and gap in the society in terms of wealth and affluence was very pronounced, and the rich ones were very rich with great excess, while the poor was very poor, having almost nothing on themselves.
Thus, it is easier for Jesus to teach the people, if He said them in a manner which can be easily understandable to the people, and hence His choice of characters and the story, to highlight the disparity between the two. Lazarus the poor man had nothing, and sat down in front of the rich man’s mansion hoping that the rich man would spare him some food from his table.
The rich man spared him nothing, and continued to live in splendour and great excess, partying day after day without any concern for those who were less fortunate than him. So that is why, after he died, the Lord gave him his due that is hopelessness, and eternal suffering in hell, to suffer with the devil and his fellow fallen angels.
Meanwhile Lazarus was welcomed into heaven, to enjoy forever the fruits of God’s love, to enjoy the food of everlasting life and he will no longer experience hunger, unlike what he had to go through in life. This is certainly what we all want as well. After all, who will choose hell over heaven? Nobody wants suffering, because we all want happiness.
This certainly should have taught us a good lesson, that if we forget to do what is expected from us by God, then we will be judged and deemed unworthy of heaven. Remember, brethren, that the wealth and possessions that we have is a gift for us, and it is not evil. There is nothing wrong in fact with people having more wealth than others.
However, wealth itself is neutral, but it can be used for either good or bad purposes. Like the rich man, who ignored the plight of Lazarus, he failed to utilise his abundance for a good purpose, and thus he was judged against. He failed to love another mankind, and therefore this ignorance spoke out against him when he is judged by the Judge of all life.
What is of concern to us is regarding the culture of waste and excess that often permeates in our society, and we often do not think about those who do not even have enough. We often consume more than what we need, even to the point of gluttony. We forget that the excesses can be given to those who have little and none that they may have enough.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on the story of Lazarus and the rich man, that we may from now on consider our own lifestyle, whether we have been charitable to those who have little or none, giving up our excesses to them, so they too can enjoy together with us. Being rich is fine, brothers and sisters, but just make sure that we keep our less fortunate brethren in mind! God bless. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6
Blessed is the one who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the law of the Lord and meditates day and night on His commandments.
He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.
But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Jeremiah 17 : 5-10
This is what YHVH says, “Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings and depends on a mortal for his life, while his heart is drawn away from YHVH! He is like a bunch of thistles in dry land, in parched desert places, in a salt land where no one lives and who never finds happiness.”
“Blessed is the man who puts his trust in YHVH and whose confidence is in Him! He is like a tree planted by the water, sending out its roots towards the stream. He has no fear when the heat comes, his leaves are always green; the year of drought is no problem and he can always bear fruit.”
“Most deceitful is the heart. What is there within man, who can understand him? I, YHVH, search the heart and penetrate the mind. I reward each one according to his ways and the fruit of his deeds.”
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 