Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 71 : 2, 14 and 15bc, 17
God, endow the King with Your justice, the Royal Son with Your righteousness. May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.
He rescues them from oppression and strife, for their life is precious to Him. May people always pray for Him, and blessings be invoked for Him all day.
May His Name endure forever; may His Name be as lasting as the sun. All the races will boast about Him; and He will be praised by all nations.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 4 : 19 – 1 John 5 : 4
So let us love one another, since God loved us first. If you say, “I love God,” while you hate your brother or sister, you are a liar. How can you love God, Whom you do not see, if you do not love your brother, whom you see? We received from Him, this commandment : let those who love God also love their brothers.
All those, who believe that Jesus is the Anointed, are born of God; whoever loves the Father, loves the Son. How may we know, that we love the children of God? If we love God and fulfil His commands, for God’s love requires us to keep His commands. In fact, His commandments are not a burden because all those born of God overcome the world. And the victory, which overcomes the world, is our faith.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day through what we have heard in the Scripture passage and as we are still in the Christmas season, we are all reminded yet again of the wonderful love of God that He has made evident and presented to us through Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, Our Lord and Saviour. We heard from St. John in our first reading today taken from his Epistle, how God the Father sent His Son into our world out of His love for us.
And He did all these because He wanted us to be freed from our bondage to sin, from our predicament and fate of destruction because of the many sins we have committed in life through our disobedience against Him. Then we heard how the Lord came to His disciples in the middle of the lake, walking miraculously on the water as we heard in our Gospel passage today. This was how God showed His love and His ever present readiness to forgive us and His desire to be reconciled with us.
The disciples had fear in their hearts when they saw the Lord, and it is likely they could not believe what they had just seen. They thought that they had probably seen a ghost, but the Lord reassured them immediately and told them that it was indeed He Himself that they had seen walking on the water. In a more elaborate account from another Gospel passage not mentioned in today’s reading, St. Peter then walked towards the Lord, but when he saw the waves and the wind, he became fearful and began to sink.
This was caused by the same fear and the lack of trust in God, which made both St. Peter and the other Apostles to be afraid and unsure of what they had witnessed. But it is exactly how the devil struck at us, as he tried to manipulate our fears and insecurities when he put in doubts and things to tempt us away from the assurance of salvation in God. The devil knows very well that as long as our faith in God is firm and strong, he has no chance at all against us.
There are many ways how the devil often tries his chances against us. He would try to make us feel guilty and unworthy of God, by trying to persuade us that our sins and wickedness made us to be unworthy of God, and how God will punish us for the sins and all of our disobedient acts. The devil knows that by driving a wedge between us and God, we will be vulnerable when we are separated or in conflict with God.
And the devil likely will also try to tempt us with many things to distract our attention away from God. As long as our faith in God is not firm and God is not at the centre of our lives and existence, it will be easy for the devil to try and separate us from Him and therefore stir trouble for us and lead us further down the slippery path towards damnation. He is working very hard all the time for this outcome and we should realise this well.
How do we then proceed from now on knowing all these things? This is where we need to renew our connection with God, to rediscover that faith and trust which each and every one of us ought to have for Him. And we can do this by striving to put God back at the centre of our lives and always do everything, our every actions with God as the reason for them, and endeavour to do things with the purpose of glorifying God rather than ourselves.
And let us learn to trust God and know just how much He has loved us all the while. Our lives, our every breaths, all of our opportunities and blessings are caused by the Lord and all that He has done for us, and we ought to be thankful for these. We must realise that it is only in God that we can truly have complete and unconditional trust as ultimately, God’s love for us, for each and every one of us is also perfect and unconditional.
May the Lord continue to show His love to us, protect us and strengthen us in our courage and dedication to love Him and to serve Him despite the attacks from the devil and all those who seek our destruction and ruination. Let us all put our complete trust and faith in the Lord, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Mark 6 : 45-52
At that time, immediately, Jesus obliged His disciples to get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, toward Bethsaida, while He Himself sent the crowd away. And having sent the people off, He went by Himself to the hillside to pray.
When evening came, the boat was far out on the lake, while He was alone on the land. Jesus saw His disciples straining at the oars, for the wind was against them; and before daybreak He came to them, walking on the lake, and He was going to pass them by. When they saw Him walking on the lake, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified.
But, at once, He called to them, “Courage! It is I; do not be afraid!” Then Jesus got into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely astonished, for they had not really grasped the fact of the loaves; their minds were dull.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 71 : 2, 10-11, 12-13
God, endow the King with Your justice, the Royal Son with Your righteousness. May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.
The kings of Tarshish and the islands render Him tribute, the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts, all kings bow down to Him, and all nations serve Him.
He delivers the needy who call on Him, the afflicted, with no one to help them. His mercy is upon the weak and the poor; He saves the lives of the poor.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 4 : 11-18
Dear friends, if such has been the love of God, we, too, must love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and His love comes to its perfection in us. How may we know that we live in God and He in us? Because God has given us His Spirit.
We ourselves have seen, and declare, that the Father sent His Son to save the world. Those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in them, and they in God. We have known the love of God and have believed in it. God is love. The one who lives in love, lives in God, and God in him.
When do we know, that we have reached a perfect love? When, in this world, we are like Him, in everything, and expect, with confidence, the Day of Judgment. There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives away fear, for fear has to do with punishment; those who fear do not know perfect love.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture starting from the Gospel passage that told us about the wonderful work that the Lord had performed among His people as highlighted in His miraculous feeding of the five thousand men and more people, as the women and children accompanying the men were not included in the count. He provided for them and gave them all food to eat.
And then, we also heard from the Epistle of St. John in our first reading today that spoke about God’s love for us mankind and how that love has manifested perfectly in the person of Jesus, the beloved Son of God, Who was sent into the world to redeem us, to help us, to show us just how much God loves each and every one of us, that each and every one of us may not perish because of our sins but have eternal life. The Lord Jesus Himself said this, and St. John reaffirmed it in his Epistle.
We are reminded therefore how each and every one of us as Christians are God’s own beloved sons and daughters, and we are made into such a privileged position because of none other than the Lord Jesus Whose birth we celebrate during this Christmas season. His birth and arrival into this world marked the beginning of the reconciliation between God and mankind, once separated by the wickedness of our sins and disobedience.
Christ has entered into this world as a unique Being, both a Divine being, because He is the Word of God and the Son of the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and also a Human being, because He was conceived in the womb of a woman, Mary, His mother, taking the fullness of our human existence and qualities. He has two natures, Divine and Human, both united in His one single person though the two natures remained distinct, but inseparable. This is why through Christ, we have been adopted as God’s children.
Because if Christ is the Son of God, then all of us mankind who share in His humanity is also the sons and daughters of God, by this adoption through Christ. All of us who believe in Him and become members of the Church are adopted as children of God. And we are all truly privileged to have been granted this honour and opportunity, that we really should not waste it. We should appreciate just how God still loves us so dearly even when we have erred against Him and should have been exterminated instead of being forgiven.
Today, all of us are called to reflect on our lives and how we have lived them with faith. We are called to think of whether we have reciprocated God’s generous offer of love and mercy, and how we can draw close to Him, entrusting ourselves to this love, which He has shown us through His Son, Who fed the multitudes of five thousand men and more, and even more so, gave us all spiritual sustenance through His truth.
Have we been faithful and loving towards Him, brothers and sisters in Christ? Or have we been too preoccupied and busy with ourselves that we end up distancing ourselves from Him and getting trapped deeper and deeper into the path of sin? This is where perhaps we should look upon the good examples set by our holy predecessor, St. Raymond of Penyafort, whose feast day we celebrate today, who was a Spanish Dominican friar living in the twelfth and thirteenth century.
St. Raymond of Penyafort was renowned for his lifelong dedication to God, and although he was remembered more for his important contributions in the compilation of the canon laws of the Church, which eventually became the version of the Canon Law used for many centuries, but actually St. Raymond of Penyafort was also known for his steadfastness in faith and dedication, in how he persistently opposed the King of Aragon in today’s Spain because of his immoral behaviour with a supposed mistress.
St. Raymond of Penyafort was punished and put under arrest and watch by the king for his criticism and opposition to his immoral and wicked attitude, but the saint remained steadfast in faith and in his opposition. In a well remembered miracle, it was told that St. Raymond sailed away from his island exile on a cloak and this miracle, witnessed by many caused the king to renounce his wicked behaviours and turn back towards God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have heard how St. Raymond of Penyafort loved God and had great faith in Him to the point that he was willing to oppose a king in doing so, and to do what he has done in his many contributions to the Church for so many years. Are we able to follow in his footsteps? It is something that we should perhaps think about as we continue living our lives with faith from now on. May the Lord be with us always, and may He bless us all in everything we do, and help us that we may grow ever stronger in our faith, love and devotion towards Him. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Mark 6 : 34-44
At that time, as Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He had compassion on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things. It was now getting late, so His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a lonely place and it is now late. You should send the people away and let them go to the farms and villages around here, to buy themselves something to eat.”
Jesus replied, “You, yourselves, give them something to eat.” They answered, “If we are to feed them, we need two hundred silver coins to go and buy enough bread.” But Jesus said, “You have some loaves; how many? Go and see.” The disciples found out and said, “There are five loaves and two fish.”
Then He told them to have the people sit down, together in groups, on the green grass. This they did, in groups of hundreds and fifties. And Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish and, raising His eyes to heaven, He pronounced a blessing, broke the loaves, and handed them to His disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them.
They all ate and everyone had enough. The disciples gathered up what was left, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces of bread and fish. Five thousand men had eaten there.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 71 : 2, 3-4ab, 7-8
O God, endow the King with Your justice, the Royal Son with Your righteousness. May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.
Let the mountains bring peace to the people, and the hills justice. He will defend the cause of the poor, deliver the children of the needy.
Justice will flower in His days, and peace abound till the moon be no more. For He reigns from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 4 : 7-10
My dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves, is born of God and knows God. Those who do not love have not known God, for God is love.
How did the love of God appear among us? God sent His only Son into this world, that we might have life, through Him. This is love : not that we loved God, but that, He first loved us and sent His Son, as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 