Church and the environment

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Saturday, 1 September 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the message of the Sacred Scriptures speaking to us how each and every one of us have been called and chosen by God, and entrusted with a special responsibility, unique for each and every one of us, that for each one of us, we may do our part in taking care of what God has entrusted to us, as His servants and stewards of creation.

Today marks the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which was instituted by our Pope, Francis just in the recent years. This day is a reminder for us, that each and every one of us are God’s stewards and caretakers of what He has created in this world, for our sake. From the Book of Genesis, God has created everything in the universe, and last of all, creating us man in His own image, and entrusted all of creation to our care.

But unfortunately, our first ancestors chose to disobey God instead of obeying what He has commanded them to do. Instead of listening to God and following His ways, and thus, receiving from Him the fullness of the love and grace He intended to give us, we received only suffering and pain, death and destruction as the just punishment and consequences for our disobedience and sins.

And all of these were caused by our greed, our insatiable desires for worldly things. The desires that Adam and Eve had for the knowledge over good and evil, the knowledge that the devil tempted them with, saying that they would be like God, made them to disobey God and to exercise their stewardship with uttermost irresponsibility and lack of proper judgment.

In the Gospel passage today, this is what the Lord spoke of to the people, using the parable of the silver talents to show them what it means to be a true disciple of God, entrusted by Him with the many gifts, and with those gifts, equally many responsibilities according to what gifts and talents that He has given to us, to each and every one of us in our own uniqueness.

In that parable, we heard of a master of servant who gave different amount of silver talents to three of his servants, to one he gave five talents, while to another he gave two talents, and to the last one, he gave one talent of silver. A talent is a large unit of mass used to measure the amount of silver or any other precious metals used at that time. And it is a large amount indeed.

But in how the servants made use of the talent, we can notice a great difference between those who put the silver talent into good use, investing them and gaining returns from them, with the one who hid the silver talent and did nothing with it. The master was pleased with those who made good use of the silver talent and rewarded them with even more of what he owned, to be entrusted to them.

But the one who failed to make good use of the silver talent was punished and suffered because of his refusal to obey the will of his master, and for his failure to make use of what have been given to him. He has been given with something that he could have used for a good use and gained immeasurably more from it, and yet, he consciously and willingly chose not to act on it.

Now, the same fate awaits us, should we fail to use whatever talents and gifts that God has given us, or even abuse it for the wrong purposes. We will be held accountable should we misuse all that God has entrusted to us, in our care of the world around us, as well as in how we interact with one another. Sadly, this is what we mankind have often done in our lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us reflect on every moments when we have failed the Lord, by treating our brethren without fairness, and ignoring the plight of the needy and the poor in our midst, when we could have extended a helping hand, and caring for them in whatever way we can, even in small things. How many of us have done this in our own lives?

Let us all from now on make good use of what God has given us, and no longer be filled with greed and desire for ourselves that we end up abusing or making the wrong use of what we have been given and been blessed with in life. Let us all learn to be selfless and loving, in all the things we do, that rather than hiding what God has given us in love and blessings, we share them with others who have little or none of these.

This is our calling as Christians, to be loving and compassionate, to show mercy and love towards our fellow men, as well as care and concern towards our world and all that lives in it, as responsible caretakers and stewards of God’s creations. May the Lord be with us and may He continue to strengthen in us, the love which we ought to have for each other. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 1 September 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Gospel Reading)

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

Matthew 25 : 14-30

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Imagine someone who, before going abroad, summoned his servants to entrust his property to them. He gave five talents of silver to one servant, two talents to another servant, and one talent to a third, to each, according to his ability; and he went away.”

“He who received five talents went at once to do business with the talents, and gained another five. The one who received two talents did the same, and gained another two. But the one who received one talent dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.”

“After a long time, the master of those servants returned and asked for a reckoning. The one who had received five talents came with another five talents, saying, ‘Lord, you entrusted me with five talents, but see, I have gained five more.’ The master answered, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, since you have been faithful in a few things, I will entrust you in charge of many things. Come and share the joy of your master.'”

“Then the one who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you entrusted me with two talents; with them I have gained two more.’ The master said, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, since you have been faithful in little things, I will entrust you in charge of many things. Come and share the joy of your master.'”

“Finally, the one who had received one talent came and said, ‘Master, I know that you are a hard man. You reap what you have not sown, and gather what you have not scattered. I was afraid, so I hid your money in the ground. Here, take what is yours!’ But his master replied, ‘Wicked and worthless servant, you know that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered. You should have deposited my money in the bank, and given it back to me with interest on my return.'”

“Therefore, take the talent from him, and give it to the one who has ten. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who are unproductive, even what they have will be taken from them. As for that useless servant, thrown him out into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

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Saturday, 1 September 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Psalm)

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

Psalm 32 : 12-13, 18-19, 20-21

Blessed is the nation whose God is YHVH – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. YHVH looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.

But YHVH’s eyes are upon those who fear Him, upon those who trust in His loving-kindness; to deliver them from death and preserve them from famine.

In hope, we wait for YHVH, for He is our help and our shield. Our hearts rejoice in Him, for we trust in His holy Name.

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Saturday, 1 September 2018 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (First Reading)

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

1 Corinthians 1 : 26-31

Brothers and sisters, look and see whom God has called. Few among you can be said to be cultured or wealthy, and few belong to noble families. Yet God has chosen what the world considers foolish, to shame the wise; He has chosen what the world considers weak to shame the strong.

God has chosen common and unimportant people, making use of what is nothing to nullify the things that are, so that no mortal may boast before God. But, by God’s grace you are in Christ Jesus, Who has become our wisdom from God, and Who makes us just and holy and free. Scripture says : Let the one who boasts boast of the Lord.

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Thursday, 1 September 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green


Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the theme of today’s Scripture readings tie in very nicely with the special event we are currently celebrating on this same day, that is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, during which we offer our solemn prayers together as the whole Church, that we as the stewards whom God had entrusted with the care of this world, may exercise our responsibilities and duties with genuine commitment and effort for the maintenance and the care for this world.

And we have to remember, lest we be distracted by what this world thinks about the environment, we as Christians have duties to take care of the living and the non-living world, caring for all the wonderful animals and plants, all the creatures that God had created to be in this world with us. We are the stewards of all the things God had created, and as such, we have that very great responsibility to care for what God had made with His hands.

But that does not mean that we focus our attention so much on those things living around us, the animals, plants and the environment, that we forget our most important mission and responsibility, that is to care for one another, for our fellow men alike. After all, God had appointed us to lead and guide one another on our way to reach out to Him, that we may receive the salvation and life promised to us by our loving God.

The Gospel today spoke of the moment when Jesus was calling His first disciples, the ones whom He had chosen to be His Apostles. And He called them from various places, and not the least of which was from the shores of lake Galilee, from simple fishermen paddling their daily lives and livelihoods catching fishes from the lake to be sold at the market.

These fishermen were simple men, uneducated and without great intelligence, power or influence. They were mere ordinary people of their time, without special talents and skills, without experience in governance and privilege, without much wealth and possessions, and yet, God chose them to be His principal agents and workers to spread His salvation and light to the nations.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what Jesus spoke today is what He expected from us to do, as His disciples and all those who follow Him. We are made to be the fishers of men, as what Jesus called those simple fishermen for, that they would no longer catch the fishes of the lake and the sea, but instead, spread their nets and catch for the Lord, the whole race of mankind, people of various kinds and from various origins, that they may be found by the Lord their God.

And that is the task entrusted to the Church by our God, and therefore becomes our mission and duty as well. And therefore, we are not just the stewards of creation, but also caretaker for one another as well, especially with regards to guarding our brethren against falling into corruption and sin, and liberating them from the darkness and bringing them into the light.

We have to be responsible with our words, actions and deeds, that they will not be misunderstood or even worse, mislead our brethren into the darkness instead of the light. We have to be responsible in our actions towards one another, towards other living creatures of God, that we show care, concern and the effort to preserve and make beautiful what God had created in His wonders.

Let us all therefore today renew our commitment to God, and seek to do our best in order to commit ourselves to the Lord and His ways. Let us learn to be more like Him in all of our ways and in all that we do, so that in everything that we do, we will proclaim Him to the whole world, for all others to see, that they too may believe and thus by believing, we all together will be brought to the eternal inheritance and life God promised us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 1 September 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green


Luke 5 : 1-11

At that time, one day, as Jesus stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, with a crowd gathered around Him listening to the word of God, He caught sight of two boats, left at the water’s edge by fishermen, now washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to pull out a little from the shore. There He sat and continued to teach the crowd.

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon replied, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if You say so, I will lower the nets.” This they did, and caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. They signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came, and they filled both boats almost to the point of sinking.

Upon seeing this, Simon Peter fell at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and his companions were amazed at the catch they had made, and so were Simon’s partners, James and John, Zebedee’s sons. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. You will catch people from now on.”

So they brought their boats to land and followed Him, leaving everything.

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Thursday, 1 September 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green


Psalm 23 : 1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6

The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord, the world and all that dwell in it. He has founded it upon the ocean and set it firmly upon the waters.

Who will ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who will stand in His holy place? Those with clean hands and pure heart, who desire not what is vain.

They will receive blessings from the Lord, a reward from God, their Saviour. Such are the people who seek Him, who seek the face of Jacob’s God.

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Thursday, 1 September 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green


1 Corinthians 3 : 18-23

Do not deceive yourselves. If anyone of you considers himself wise in the ways of the world, let him become a fool, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s eyes. To this, Scripture says : God catches the wise in their own wisdom. It also says : The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is useless.

Because of this, let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you, Paul, Apollos, Cephas – life, death the present and the future. Everything is yours, and you, you belong to Christ, and Christ is of God.