Liturgical Colour : White
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.
Liturgical Colour : White
Revelations 7 : 2-4, 9-14
I saw another Angel ascending from the sunrise, carrying the seal of the living God, and he cried out with a loud voice to the four Angels empowered to harm the earth and the sea, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.”
Then I heard the number of those marked with the seal : a hundred and forty-four thousand from all the tribes of the people of Israel. After this I saw a great crowd, impossible to count, from every nation, race, people and tongue, standing before the throne and the Lamb, clothed in white, with palm branches in their hands, and they cried out with a loud voice, “Who saves but our God who sits on the throne and the Lamb?”
All the Angels were around the throne, the Elders and the four living creatures; they then bowed before the throne with their faces to the ground to worship God. They said, “Amen. Praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honour, power and strength to our God forever and ever. Amen!”
At that moment, one of the Elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these people clothed in white, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, it is you who know this.” The Elder replied, “They are those who have come out of the great persecution; they have washed and made their clothes white in the Blood of the Lamb.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the message of today’s Scripture readings is very clear indeed. They spoke about the importance for us all to stay rooted in the Lord, in Whom lies the source of our only salvation and hope to escape from the ever growing trap of sin. They spoke of the importance for us to put our trust in the Lord Who has given us His all in order to save us.
And very importantly, it was pointed out that we have to be open and be able to listen to the Lord, understanding His wish and desires, and not be swallowed by our own pride and haughtiness. It is indeed in our own human nature that we want to defend our human pride, and we often look for ways to further and enhance our own power and glory, even at the expense of others around us.
We just have to look at our own history, the history of mankind, and see how often it was indeed for mankind to struggle and fight against each other just so that they can get that position of honour and glory, or to get the most of something, be it money, food, possessions, pleasures of the flesh, and many other things that enticed us and tempted us, and moved our greed.
So what the Lord Jesus intended for us, when He spoke about that parable about the seat at a feast or a wedding, is to remind us that power, glory, achievements, fame and all worldly parameters of greatness truly mean nothing, and these are always temporary and do not satisfy the true desires of our souls. And He made it clear using the example of those who strive to seek the best places in parties and events, sitting at the places of greatest honour.
Is it not the same with all of us? We also would often struggle and contest with each other for the best places, the best positions, the most prominent places, the most praiseworthy and honourable places. And what purpose do they serve? They served only to further feed our desires and ego, our pride and our greed within us. That is all, and nothing more. It was from all these wicked things inside us that we succumbed to the temptations of the devil, and thus instead of doing what God wanted us to do, we went our own path and became lost.
Can we all take some time to take a step back and reflect on our own lives? Have we been so focused and engrossed with the pleasures, wealth and the things of this world? If we do so, then we should realise the truth in what Jesus is telling us. Jesus told us how those who sought the front seat, when another of greater persona, power and influence than theirs came, the host would ask them to relent and give up their spaces for those more influential and greater than they are, and in shame they would retreat.
What does this mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? This is a reminder that we mankind are often very difficult to satisfy, and when we have something, we will always seek to have even more of what we have already had with us. And thus, it is truly futile to seek worldly glory, human praise and all things that will perish with the end of time. There will never be enough for us, and we stand only to be disappointed of having been superseded by another who have more than us, and in our jealousy, we fall ever deeper into sin.
Let us all take note of this and understand what we need to do in order to attain true satisfaction and joy in our lives. It is not by accumulating worldly and physical wealth, possessions and good things that we gain greatness and true happiness, but through perseverance and genuine commitment in loving one another, and loving our Lord and God in the same manner just as we love and care for ourselves.
It is time for us all to take the opportunity given to us by God, and make use of the time we have in this world to begin to build up for ourselves the heavenly treasures of divine love, and not to pursue senseless and useless pursuits of worldly wealth and desires. Let us all help each other to realise our own potential of so much good things to be done, for our own good, helping each other rather than contending with each other for fame, possessions and other worldly things.
May Almighty God be with us all, and may He keep us in His grace at all times. May He find us righteous and just all the days of our life, and may He bring us into the eternal life He had promised to all of His faithful ones. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)
Luke 14 : 1, 7-11
At that time, on one Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and He was carefully watched. Jesus then told a parable to the guests, for He had noticed how they tried to take the places of honour.
And He said, “When you are invited to a wedding party, do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more important than you had been invited; and your host, who invited both of you, will come and say to you, ‘Please give this person your place.’ What shame is yours when you take the lowest seat!”
“Whenever you are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you, ‘Friend, you must come up higher.’ And this will be a great honour for you in the presence of all the other guests. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)
Psalm 93 : 12-13a, 14-15, 17-18
Fortunate the one You correct, o Lord, the one You teach Your Law; You give them relief from distress while a pit is dug for the wicked.
The Lord will not reject His people nor will He forsake His heritage. Justice will return to the just, and the upright will follow in its wake.
Had the Lord not helped me, I would have fallen into the silence of death. No sooner did I say, “My foot is slipping,” Your kindness, o Lord, held me up.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)
Romans 11 : 1-2a, 11-12, 25-29
And so I ask : Has God rejected His people? Of course not. I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. No, God has not rejected the people He knew beforehand.
Again I ask : Did they stumble so as to fall? Of course not. Their stumbling allowed salvation to come to the pagan nations and this, in turn, will stir up the jealousy of Israel. If Israel’s shortcoming made the world rich, if the pagan nations grew rich with what they lost, what will happen when Israel is restored?
I want you to understand the mysterious decree of God, lest you be too confident : a part of Israel will remain hardened until the majority of pagans have entered. Then the whole of Israel will be saved, as Scripture says : From Zion will come the Liberator Who will purify the descendants of Jacob from all sin. And this is the covenant I will make with them : I will take away from them their sins.
Regarding the Gospel, the Jews are opponents, but it is for your benefit. Regarding election, they are beloved because of their ancestors; because the call of God and His gifts cannot be nullified.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard yet again about the Lord who criticised the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law on their unbending and unreasonable attitude on the observances of the laws of Moses and the Jewish tradition, to the point that not only that they imposed on the people a heavy burden to bear, but they also prevented others from doing good deeds based on such limitations and imposition.
If we ask a Pharisee or a teacher of the Law to explain the rationale behind why they imposed strict observance of such laws, then most likely what they would answer is that because the laws so and so said so, and so they must obey. But this is a very superficial and incomplete understanding of the Law of God, for the laws were not given to us in order to purposefully oppress us or to make our lives difficult.
On the other hand, God gave us His laws so that we may find our way to Him more easily and readily, and it is a way for us to discipline ourselves and keep our lives straightened so that we will not fall into the way of wickedness and into eternal damnation in hell. But it is meant as a reminder and a constant encouragement for us to lead an upright life at all times, with the intention of enhancing and making greater the love which we have for the Lord.
And the Law is meant to teach us about love, and thus about caring for others who are in need, and about sharing what good we have with all those who have little or none, and Jesus made this point when He asked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law the question of what would they do if one of their donkeys or animals happened to fall into a pit on a Sabbath day.
There is clearly a choice here, on whether the person ought to obey the law strictly without bending, meaning word by word of the law itself, taking and understanding it literally, and therefore letting the animal to die in agony in the pit, while the owner looks on it until the next day when he can finally help. The other option is for the owner to immediately go down and help the animal or the donkey to get out from the pit, and therefore saving it.
Then again, let us look then into another time in the Gospel, when we heard about how Jesus spoke of the time of the Last Judgment, when on the last day God would separate those whom He had judged to be righteous and those whom He had judged to be wanting in their faith and wicked in their ways. And remember what each of the two groups said to the Lord Jesus, the Judge?
The ones on the right side of the Lord, the righteous ones, asked when they did all the good things that the Lord congratulated them for, when He praised them for having been good to the weak and the sick, the unloved and the suffering ones. And what did the Lord say to them? He said that they did all these, while they showed love and care, concern and dedication to all the least of their brothers and sisters around them.
And those who are on the left side of the Lord are those who have been rejected by the Lord, and they are condemned because of all their inability and refusal to do whatever is good and beneficial to those who are less fortunate and weak around them. Indeed, committing evil is not just about doing what is bad and evil in the sight of God, or what we often know as the sin of action.
Truly, there is the kind of evil, that is the sin of omission, that is committed when we fail to do what is good or what is expected from us to aid our brethren in need, when we are truly capable of doing so. And this is just what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had committed as they obstructed people from doing good deeds on the Sabbath just because they enforced that no one can do anything on that sacred day.
What God wanted to let them know is that, yes, indeed, for all the vices that we have committed in this world on daily basis, then at least we must spare a single day of honour, to do what is good and sanctify that day for the ever greater glory of God. In this we have to keep in mind the commandment of God, that is keep holy the Day of the Lord, and thus, this is what we ought to do.
And keeping the day holy is not just by abstaining from doing anything at all, since doing so will mean that we do not commit anything evil, but at the same time, we also close the door of opportunity for us to commit good things too. In this, if we fail to do what is good in the name of preserving literally what the laws of God had taught us, then what good or holiness will be there?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all on this day recommit ourselves to a new life in God, one that is filled with true and genuine love for Him, and let us devote ourselves to walk faithfully in His path, that in all of our words, deeds and actions, we may always proclaim His glory and truth, and reveal Him for all the nations to see. God bless us all in our endeavours, and may He keep our faith strong forever. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 14 : 1-6
At that time, on one Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and He was carefully watched. In front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy; so Jesus asked the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”
But no one answered. Jesus then took the man, healed him, and sent him away. And He said to them, “If your lamb or your ox falls into a well on a Sabbath day, who among you does not hurry to pull it out?” And they could not answer.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 147 : 12-13, 14-15, 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 grants peace on your borders and feeds you with the finest grain. He sends His command to the earth and swiftly runs His word.
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 : Green
Romans 9 : 1-5
I tell you sincerely in Christ, and my conscience assures me in the Holy Spirit that I am not lying : I have great sadness and constant anguish for the Jews. I would even desire that I myself suffer the curse of being cut off from Christ, instead of my brethren : I mean my own people, my kin.
They are Israelites whom God adopted, and on them rests His Glory. Theirs are the covenants, the Law, the worship and the promises of God. They are descendants of the Patriarchs and from their race Christ was born, He Who as God is above all distinctions. Blessed be He forever and ever : Amen!
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 