Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Isaiah 55 : 10-11
As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return till they have watered the earth, making it yield seed for the sower and food for others to eat, so is My Word that goes forth out of My mouth : It will not return to Me idle, but It shall accomplish My will, the purpose for which It has been sent.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Matthew 9 : 14-15
Then the disciples of John came to him with the question, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not Your disciples?”
Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The time will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 16 : 13-19
After that, Jesus came to Caesarea Philippi. He asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They said, “For some of them You are John the Baptist, for others Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
Jesus asked them, “But you, who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “It is well for you, Simon Bar-jona (son of Jonah), for it is not flesh or blood that has revealed this to you, but My Father in heaven.”
“And now I say to you : You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church; and never will the powers of death overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven : whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you unbind on earth shall be unbound in heaven.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Marian feast)
Psalm 83 : 3, 4, 5 and 10, 11
My soul yearns, pines, for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young, at your altars, o Lord of hosts, my King and my God!
Happy are those who live in Your House, continually singing Your praise! Look upon our shield, o God; look upon the face of Your Anointed!
One day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be left at the threshold in the House of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.
Alternative Reading (Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes)
Judith 13 : 18bcde, 19
My daughter, may the Most High God bless you more than all women on earth. And blessed be the Lord God, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has led you to behead the leader of our enemies.
Never will people forget the confidence you have shown; they will always remember the power of God.
Liturgical Colour : White (Virgins)
Psalm 131 : 6-7, 8-10
The Ark is in Ephrathah, we found it in the fields of Jaar. Let us go to where He dwells and worship at His footstool!
Arise, o Lord, and come to Your rest, You and the Ark of Your might. May Your priests be arrayed in glorious mantle; may Your faithful ones shout in gladness. For the sake of Your servant David, do not turn away the face of Your Anointed.
Liturgical Colour : White
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today is a great feast day which marks the official end of the Christmas season, forty days after Christmas, when we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, when Jesus Christ our Lord was presented according to the custom of the laws of Moses, at the Temple, as the firstborn of His family, the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
This feast of the Presentation of the Lord has deep symbolic and real meaning in our faith, because Jesus Christ was indeed special in all things, as the Lord divine incarnate into the flesh as Man. As the One who became one of us and dwell among us, He was destined to become the High Priest of all creation, over all of us mankind.
Yes, as the High Priest He was to be the One in between us and our Lord, Our Father and Creator. The high priests of Israel offered the offering of mankind, the people of God to the Lord, as the mediator and intermediate, that the sins of mankind may be absolved and forgiven. The same too therefore happened with Jesus Christ, who was the High Priest, the One and only High Priest, who offered nothing else but Himself as a perfect offering for the absolution of mankind.
And if the high priests and priests of Israel continued to offer animal sacrifices, in the blood of lambs and goats for the temporal absolution of the people’s sins, Christ as the High Priest offered Himself as the only worthy Lamb of sacrifice, to once and for all liberate mankind from the sins of their ancestors, that through Him mankind may have hope once again in salvation and eternal life.
As the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind for all times and ages, therefore Jesus and His death on the cross marked our liberation from the power and tyranny of sin. Never again would death have unchecked power over us, as we have been given a new hope of life through Jesus. His death and sacrifice justified us and we who accept His sacrifice and recognise Him through baptism receive eternal life and redemption.
Then you may ask, if He was to be the Saviour of the world and the High Priest of all, why then He was presented to the Lord at the Temple? Why was Jesus presented to the Lord as the firstborn Son of Mary? That is because Jesus indeed came to this world not to destroy the Law revealed through Moses, but to make it perfect through God’s love.
As all the people of God offered their firstborn son and consecrated them to YHVH, their Lord and God, so was Jesus offered, both as the firstborn Son of Mary, the Son of Man, and as the Son of God, the Word of God incarnate into flesh. The Presentation event that we are celebrating today showed to the world, in a revelation, who Jesus was, and what He was going to bring into this world, that is salvation.
Simeon the seer had been waiting for long, expecting for the coming of the Messiah in Jesus, and he was indeed fortunate among many prophets and servants of God, that he was given the opportunity to see the salvation of the world even a small, little Baby. Many longed to see the Messiah and His coming, and did not see Him, and Simeon as well as Anna was fortunate among them, not only because they were able to witness the coming of the Messiah, but both of them also became the heralds of the Lord’s coming by revealing Him to the people of God.
They told the people that the Baby being offered to God at the Temple, as frail and fragile and weak He was, Jesus was destined to be the One who was to bring liberation to a world immersed in darkness. He was offered as the unblemished and perfect sacrifice, that would free mankind from their slavery to sin and evil.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is imperative for all of us to take note of this occasion and rejoice for the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God our Father had given us all as the gift for our salvation. He offered Himself to redeem us from our sins, and despite our constant rebellion and disobedience, He wants equally constantly for us to be reunited with Him in faith and love.
Today we also commemorate, fittingly, the Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, that is we pray for the sake of all those who had dedicated and consecrated themselves to the Lord, be it as priests, religious, or consecrated people, who forsook the world and all its goodness, to be with God, and to serve Him and His people.
Just as Jesus had been dedicated to the Lord, to be the Saviour of the world, and the liberator of mankind, therefore, the priests and the religious also dedicated themselves to God their Lord and Master, professing solemnly their faith and dedication to Him, till the end of their lives. They become our intermediary with the Lord, much in the same way as how Jesus, as our High Priest, is the mediator between God and all of us.
The works of our consecrated priests and the other servants of the Lord are heavy and burdensome. They have many challenges and trials to go through daily, especially opposition to their works and rejections to their teachings. Many also do not appreciate their works, and even put themselves in the way of their ministries.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore today, as we recall the Presentation of our Lord Jesus, let us also pray for our priests and religious brothers and sisters, that they may stay faithful and dedicated to the flock and the works they have been entrusted with. May they persevere despite the increasing opposition against their works and persecutions against the faithful in general.
And we too, brothers and sisters in Christ, also have our own roles to play. We are also called by the Lord in baptism, to be the messengers of His Good News. Even though we do not dedicate ourselves as closely as that of our priests and religious, we can also take part in the Lord’s work aimed at the salvation of all mankind. In order to do that, we need to love and love tenderly.
Yes, through our actions and deeds, we can show God’s love to everyone, and make them to understand God’s love for them and so that they may believe in Jesus, in the love He had shown to all of us that He did not even mind to doe a humiliating and painful death on the cross for our lives and salvation. He turned that cross of shame into a triumphant cross of victory.
May the Lord Jesus deepen the faith within our hearts, that we too may commit ourselves, our lives and all our actions, for the sake of our Lord, and out of love for our brothers and sisters who are still separated from God’s love. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 22 : 3-16
Paul said, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up here in this city when I was educated in the school of Gamaliel, according to the strict observance of our Law. And I was dedicated to God’s service, as are all of you today. As for this way, I persecuted it to the point of death and arrested its followers, both men and women, throwing them into prison.”
“The High Priest and the whole Council of elders can bear witness to this. From them I received letters for the Jewish brothers in Damascus and I set out to arrest those who were there and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment. But as I was travelling along, nearing Damascus, at about noon a great light from the sky suddenly flashed about me.”
“I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me : ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?’ I answered : ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me : ‘I am Jesus the Nazarean whom you persecute.'”
“The men who were with me saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me. I asked : ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord replied : ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told all that you are destined to do.’ Yet the brightness of that light had blinded me and so I was led by the hand into Damascus by my companions.”
“There a certain Ananias came to me. He was a devout observer of the Law and well spoken of by all the Jews who were living there. As he stood by me, he said : ‘Brother Saul, recover your sight.’ At that moment I could see and I looked at him. He then said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know His will, to see the Just One and to hear the words from His mouth.'”
“‘From now on you shall be His witness before all the pagan peoples and tell them all that you have seen and heard. And now, why delay? Get up and be baptised and have your sins washed away by calling upon His Name.'”
Alternative Reading
Acts 9 : 1-22
Meanwhile Saul considered nothing but violence and death for the disciples of the Lord. He went to the High Priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus that would authorise him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, belonging to the Way.
As he travelled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute Me?”
And he asked, “Who are You, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus whom you persecute. Now get up and go into the city; there you will be told what you are to do.”
The men who were travelling with him stood there speechless : they had heard the sound, but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground and, opening his eyes, he could not see. They took him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. He was blind and he did not eat or drink for three days.
There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, to whom the Lord called in a vision, “Ananias!” He answered, “Here I am, Lord!” Then the Lord said to him, “Go at once to Straight Street and ask, at the house of Judas, for a man of Tarsus named Saul. You will find him praying, for he has just seen in a vision that a man named Ananias has come in and placed his hands upon him, to restore his sight.”
Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem, and now he is here with authority from the High Priest to arrest all who call upon Your Name.”
But the Lord said to him, “Go! This man is My chosen instrument to bring My Name to the pagan nations and their kings, and the people of Israel as well. I Myself will show him how much he will have to suffer for My Name.”
So Ananias left and went to the house. He laid his hands upon Saul and said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me to you so that you may receive your sight and be filled with Holy Spirit.” Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see; he got up and was baptised. Then he took food and was strengthened.
For several days Saul stayed with the disciples at Damascus, and he soon began to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God. All who heard were astonished and said, “Is this not the one who cast out in Jerusalem all those calling upon this Name? Did he not come here to bring them bound before the chief priests?”
But Saul grew more and more powerful, and he confounded the Jews living in Damascus when he proved that Jesus was the Messiah.
Liturgical Colour : White
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus called His disciples in the Gospel today, the ones He had chosen to be the messengers of His Good News, to be the ones who would continue His works in this world after His departure. They were called to be the servants of God’s people, in the same way that Christ Himself had made Himself a servant of God’s people.
They were called to be the examples of God’s message to mankind. God revealed Himself to the world in Jesus, and He taught the people the revelation of God’s true purpose for mankind, and to His Apostles, the Twelve called and chosen, He revealed even greater amount of the truth of the Lord.
And today in particular, we should focus on the values of mercy and love. Today’s first reading is about the story of David and Saul, when David was in run from the king and his forces, who sought to kill him and remove the threat David posed to the kingship of Saul. It was what David did, which showed us a lot about the true nature of our faith, and the nature of mercy and love.
Continuing from the same theme of the previous days’ topic on obedience and human fragility, we see how David was surely tempted by the attraction of power and glory. Indeed, David had been chosen by God to be the next king of His people Israel. He was the anointed one, who had been chosen to be the king, and there in the cave, the opportunity to gain the rightful position he had been chosen for! David had the opportunity handed to him on a golden platter.
He was the chosen king, and God had withdrawn His favour from Saul. David could just strike at Saul and claim His rightful throne at that time, but he did not do so, and he turned away from that golden chance. He had been given great favour by the Lord, but David did not boast of his favoured status and remained humble and even loyal. After all, Saul was still the king of Israel, and also anointed one of God.
David also expressed great regret after having decided to cut a piece of cloth from the sleeves of Saul, and even revealed the truth about the temptations that faced him to Saul, who considered him his mortal enemy. He was honest, upright, and merciful, as well as forgiving. He loved his enemies, even when his enemies wanted to kill and destroy him.
That was what Christ had taught His disciples and the people who heard His teachings. It is all familiar to us, is it not? Love your enemies and pray for those who persecuted you, and love one another just as the Lord has loved you. Brothers and sisters in Christ, God called not just David and the Apostles, the Twelve, to be His servants and disciples. He also called all of us, that we too may walk in the same way as they did.
God calls us to be like His servant David, to be upright in all our ways, and to love God with all our hearts, as well as to give our love to those who hated us and who persecuted us, to be rich in forgiveness and mercy, like what David had done to Saul, despite what Saul was trying to do with him.
It is not easy to do so, but we need to make the first step, or otherwise, we will never proceed on the way. Let us be ever better servants of the Lord with each passing day, giving thanks to the Lord for all the love and grace that He had shown us.
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Francis de Sales, a renowned saint who lived during a time of great tragedy and division in the Church, at the time when the Church was fighting back the tide of heresy that had befallen the Church due to the heretical Protestants and their so-called reformation. St. Francis de Sales was a God-fearing man, who trembled at first in his youth, against the wrath of God, with St. Francis de Sales having come to the full realisation of his sinfulness.
But later on, St. Francis de Sales would learn of the Lord’s infinite mercy and love, and therefore came to terms with his fear of the Lord, and from then on, he tried his best to share that fact, through his works and actions with the people of God. He promoted virtuous living and loving conversion of the heretics back to the true faith, not through violence, but through love and gentleness.
Yes, for even though the Protestant heretics deserved condemnation and destruction for their sins of having disobeyed the authority of the Lord in the Church and causing a split in the One united Body of Christ, God wanted them to repent their sins and return to the true faith, and it was St. Francis de Sales who became God’s tool of delivering this message of love and mercy to them.
St. Francis de Sales showed us that we too have the capacity to do as what he had done, that is to spread the love of God to others, and to bring back to the light a people who had fallen into the darkness. We are called to be the disciples of the Lord, and to follow in the footsteps of those that God had chosen, including the Twelve Apostles, as well as that of St. Francis de Sales, and we are encouraged to imitate what they had done. For God truly loves us, very much.
May He give to us the same blessing as He had given to David His servant, that we too, like the Twelve Apostles, may be His beloved and chosen people called to greatness. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
John 1 : 29-34
The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him, and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! It is He of whom I said : A Man comes after me, who is already ahead of Me, for He was before me. I myself did not know Him, but I came baptising to prepare for Him, so that He might be revealed in Israel.”
And John also gave this testimony, “I saw the Spirit coming down on Him like a dove from heaven, and resting on Him. I myself did not know Him, but God, who sent me to baptise, told me, ‘You will see the Spirit coming down, and resting, on the One who baptises with the Holy Spirit.'”
“Yes, I have seen! And I declare that this is the Chosen One of God!”
Liturgical Colour : White
John 3 : 22-30
After this, Jesus went into the territory of Judea with His disciples. He stayed there with them and baptised. John was also baptising in Aenon, near Salim, where water was plentiful; people came to him and were baptised. This happened before John was put in prison.
Now John’s disciples had been questioned by a Jew about spiritual cleansing, so they came to John and said, “Rabbi, the One who was with you across the Jordan, and about whom you spoke favourably, is now baptising, and all are going to Him.”
John answered, “No one can receive anything, except what has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.’ Only the bridegroom has the bride; but the friend of the bridegroom stands by and listens, and rejoices to hear the bridegroom’s voice. My joy is now full.”
“It is necessary that He increase but that I decrease.”
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 