Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 3 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7
O Lord, how great in number are my foes! How numerous are they who rise against me! How many are they who say of my soul : “There is no help for him in God!”
But You are my shield, o Lord, my glory, You lift up my head. Aloud I cry to the Lord, and from His holy hill He answers me.
If I lie down to sleep, again I awake, for the Lord supports me; no fear of the thousands standing against me.
Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Maccabees 6 : 18-31
Eleazar, one of the prominent teachers of the Law, already old and of noble appearance, was forced to open his mouth to eat the flesh of a pig. But he preferred to die honourably than to live in disgrace, and voluntarily came to the place where they beat him to death.
He spit out bravely the piece of meat, as should be done by those who do not want to do things prohibited by the Law, even to save their life.
Those in charge of this impious banquet took him aside, since they had known him for a long time, and tried to convince him to pretend to be eating the meat, but in reality, to eat something allowed by the Law and prepared by himself. In this way, he could escape death, and be treated with humanity for the sake of their long-time friendship.
But he preferred to make a noble decision worthy of his age, of his noble years, of his shining white hair, and of the irreproachable life he had led from childhood. Above all, showing respect for the holy laws established by God, he answered that he would rather be sent to the place of the dead.
And he added, “It would be unworthy to pretend at our age, and to lead many young people to suppose that I, at ninety years, have gone over to the pagan customs. If I led them astray for the sake of this short life I would bring disgrace to my old age. Even if I could now be saved from mortals, I cannot – whether living or dead – escape from the hands of the Almighty.”
“I prefer to bravely sacrifice my life now, as befits my old age. So I shall leave an excellent example to the young, dying voluntarily and valiantly for the sacred and holy laws.” Having said this, he gave himself over to death. Those who escorted him considered his words foolishness, so their previous gentleness turned into harshness.
When he was almost at the point of death, he said groaning, “The Holy Lord, who sees all, knows that though I could have saved myself from death, I now endure terrible sufferings in my body. But in my soul, I suffer gladly because of the respect I have for Him.”
In his death, he left a noble example and a memorial of virtue and strength, not only to the young but to the whole nation.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Dedication of Basilica)
Psalm 118 : 53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158
I feel indignant at the wicked who have forsaken Your law.
The wicked have me trapped in their snares, but I have not forgotten Your laws.
Rescue me from human oppression, and help me keep Your precepts.
My persecutors close in with evil intent; they are far from Your Law.
Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek Your statutes.
I look upon the faithless with loathing, because they do not obey Your ruling.
Alternate Reading (Mass for Dedication of the Basilicas)
Psalm 97 : 1, 2-3ab, 3c-4, 5-6
Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.
The Lord has shown His salvation, revealing His justice to the nations. He has not forgotten His love nor His faithfulness to Israel.
The farthest ends of the earth all have seen God’s saving power. All you lands, make a joyful noise to the Lord, break into song and sing praise.
With melody of the lyre and with music of the harp. With trumpet blast and sound of the horn, rejoice before the King, the Lord!
Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 21 : 5-19
While some people were talking about the Temple, remarking that it was adorned with fine stonework and rich gifts, Jesus said to them, “The days will come when there shall not be left one stone upon another of all that you now admire; all will be torn down.”
And they asked Him, “Master, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” Jesus then said, “Take care not to be deceived, for many will come claiming My title and saying, ‘I am He, the Messiah; the time is at hand!’ Do not follow them.”
“When you hear of wars and troubled times, do not be frightened; for all these things must happen first, even though the end is not so soon.”
And Jesus said, “Nations will fight each other and kingdom will oppose kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues; in many places strange and terrifying signs from heaven will be seen. Before all these things happen, people will lay their hands on you and persecute you; you will be delivered to the synagogues and put in prison, and for My sake you will be brought before kings and governors. This will be your opportunity to bear witness.
So keep this in mind : do not worry in advance about what to say, for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends, and some of you will be out to death. But even though, because of My Name, you will be hated by everyone, not a hair of your head will perish. By your patient endurance you will save your souls.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins and Mass of our Lady)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listen about how our Lord is a great and just judge. That He is the judge of all creations, just as He is the One who created all of them, including all of us. He is just as He is loving, and He listens and pays attention to all that He loves, which includes all of us, His most beloved ones. He will not leave us behind in quagmire or in trouble, for He will always care and love for us, His children.
And as Jesus had mentioned, the Lord is just and He upholds His laws that is love. And as He mentioned how even the evil and proud judge was bound to fulfill the wishes of the widow who kept pestering him to help her. That is how the Lord will be even more loving and caring towards us, giving us what we need just if we ask Him and sincerely approach Him with humility.
He knows all our needs and all our wishes, without the need for us to even utter a single word. For is He not our Lord and Creator, who knows all things, and who has power and authority over all things, be it in heaven or on earth. We need to just ask and beseech Him for Him to come and grant us what He wants out of us. Remember that Jesus invited us to come to Him, that is to knock at His door, that is to reach out to Him, and to respond to His call.
He has shown His power over time and throughout history, showing His might and power to His people, Israel. They have been brought to the Promised Land by the power of His hands, who smote those who enslaved them hard, that they let His people go. God has shown His deep love to them, opening the doors of His heart, and pouring to His people the fullness of His love.
How not so, when He guided them as they proceeded out of the land of their slavery, and persevered with them despite their constant disobedience. He provided them with good and nourishing food, even with bread from heaven, and sweet, crystal-clear water to drink. He cared for them like a father cares for his children, protecting them from harm and guiding them towards the right path.
That is why, brethren, we should not fear the Lord. For indeed, the Lord welcomes us to return to His embrace through His most wonderful love and mercy. All we need is for us to actively and proactively seek Him, and open ourselves, making ourselves available to accept His love. We should begin from now, to redirect our focus back towards the Lord.
Today, we celebrate the feast of two saints, namely St. Margaret of Scotland and St. Gertrude. Both are great saints, and when they were alive, they were good and exemplary women, beloved daughters of the Lord. St. Margaret was the princess of England, and who was married to be the Queen of Scotland, while St. Gertrude was a young religious who received revelations and visions from the Lord and His saints, on the nature of the love of God, and whose works helped many to gain deeper insight on their faith.
St. Margaret of Scotland was a very pious woman, who went on doing her work to ensure that the faith was upheld true and pure, without any heretical teachings across her country of Scotland. She was truly exemplary in her faith, piously devoting herself to God. She made her faith truly alive by showing her love to the poor, and to the last ones in the society.
St. Margaret served the poor and cared those rejected by the society. She championed the faith during her reign as Queen and helped her husband the King of Scotland to keep him on track in the faith, since he was a person who was not particularly interested in the faith and committed sinful acts during his reign. St. Margaret therefore kept a nation strong in their faith, anchored in the Lord.
St. Gertrude was a pious and holy woman, whose life was entirely dedicated to the service of the Lord. She received mystical visions from the Lord, which showed the Lord and His love for mankind, and the undying love He wants to show to all of us, the sorrow that He had for our sinfulness and rebelliousness. We have caused great pain to the Lord, for we have rejected and spurned His love, which He had offered freely for us, especially through the sacrifice and death of Jesus His Son.
St. Gertrude was also well known for her many works and writings, many of which had been lost to time. Her writings focused on the Lord and His great love, and dedication He has for all of us. She was one of the early devotee of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, a popular devotion nowadays. She gave her all to God, and so deep was her love and dedication that she considered herself as a bride of the Lord.
Following the examples of these two great women, and great saints, we ought to be more like them, and love God more and more. We must love our Lord just as He had loved us so much, that He was willing to give up Himself in death, that through His own suffering, death, and finally, resurrection, we can be made whole, worthy, and saved in Him.
May the Lord continue to bless us, watch over us, love us and give us His merciful love. Through the intercession and examples of St. Margaret of Scotland and St. Gertrude, may we grow to love our Lord more, and seek Him in faith and humility, seeking His mercy and throwing ourselves at His feet, that He may once again spark in us the love for Him. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all servants of the Lord Most High, our God. We are the ones subservient to that great Lord the Creator of all of us, and all the universe. Yet, at the same time, He calls us sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters, as the ones whom He loved so dearly, that He gave us Himself through Jesus His Son, so that we can be saved, and be lifted up from our fate that is death, into a new life with Him, eternal in heaven.
For we were created by the Lord not to suffer nor to experience death and eternal suffering that is our fate. This is in fact because of the fall of our ancestors, who disobeyed God, that we too are made susceptible to the power of death. They obeyed their own desires and wishes instead of the will of God, and fell they did, succumbing to the allures and lies of the evil one, Satan the deceiver.
Satan was once Lucifer, the greatest and the mightiest one among all the angels of God. Beautiful and radiant, he was the most brilliant of all creations, and yet, he sowed evil in his hearts. He became proud and arrogant of his own beauty, might, and power. In the perfection and beauty he had been created, he craved greater power, that is to set his place above that of God Himself. Thus he rebelled against heaven and against God, and was felled and thrown down away from the glories he had once commanded.
Satan was certainly displeased at this, and therefore he seduced our ancestors, leading them away from God with false and empty promises of greatness, that they were cast out of heaven and the eternal glory set out for us. That is how we deserve death and destruction, because we have been tainted by sin and by rebelliousness. But God did not let us to just perish and be destroyed, because in Jesus, He gave us a new hope.
Mankind cried out aloud to the Lord for the sufferings and injustice they had suffered, for we all, and our ancestors all had suffered greatly under the yoke of evil, that is sin. For sin, even though outwardly often look good and enticing, but in reality, it distorts us and bring pain to us, that is the pain and suffering of severance from the love of God and from God’s grace.
For although the Lord loves us and cares for us very much, but He is at the same time also a just and a righteous God, who cannot stand the presence of sin and disobedience against Him and His laws. Those who had committed sin, had rebelled and been disobedient against Him. And the punishment for such disobedience and rebelliousness is none other than death. And death that leads to hell, that is the total separation from God.
It is for this fate that we cry out to God, for mercy and for forgiveness, that we do not have to suffer this grievous fate. And out of His love, God sent us Jesus, to be our Redeemer, to make righteous again the whole assembly of the people of God, that everyone may not suffer death and eternal suffering, but be raised in glory with Christ, to reclaim the glories in life that we had lost in our rebelliousness.
Today, brethren, we celebrate the feast of St. Josaphat, also known as St. Josaphat Kuntsevych, a monk and later a great bishop of the Eastern Catholics. St. Josaphat lived a few hundred years ago, in what is now northern part of Ukraine. He lived at a time of great upheavals of the faith, which cost the faithful dearly and brought about many bitter emotions and feelings even to now, the present day.
Ever since the Universal Church’s unity was undermined by the series of heresies and breakups, there rose splinter groups claiming to hold the true faith in God. Many of these divisions eventually disappeared and the unity of the Universal Church was restored. But when the Eastern churches broke away from Rome over political and other petty issues over a thousand years ago, a great wound was created in the universal Church.
This is the reality of what faced St. Josaphat Kuntsevych, who grew up in an area of clashing ideologies. In the area where he lived, the population was divided between the believers of the true Apostolic faith, and those who follow the churches that broke away from the Apostolic authority of the Church. St. Josaphat, upon his ministry and later on as a bishop of the Eastern Catholic community, had hard work laid out in front of him.
The people had mixed opinions about the faith in the Church, as they were in a way forced to comply with the decision of the state. Many of them belong to the Eastern Orthodox churches that broke away from the Universal Church over petty political and personal squabbles. The Union of Brest declared the reunion of all Christians in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth into the Universal Church of God. Thus the task of St. Josaphat was made very difficult, with the people even openly rebelling against the religious authorities.
St. Josaphat persevered through all of those tribulations and faithfully served the people entrusted to him, even though they were openly against him and his obedience to the Apostolic See, to the Church of God, one and true. He served faithfully and dutifully even unto his death at the hands of the people of whom he was the shepherd. St. Josaphat was murdered by an angry mob just outside of a church and his body was thrown into the river.
In sweet and holy martyrdom therefore, St. Josaphat was welcomed into the glory of heaven. Following the footsteps of Jesus who died for His people, St. Josaphat too chose to die to himself and bring glory to God, that salvation may draw closer to His people. We too can do the same. Let us all draw closer to the Lord our Master and the source of our salvation. May He forgive us from our sins and welcome us back into His loving embrace. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Wisdom 2 : 23 – Wisdom 3 : 9
Indeed God created man to be immortal in the likeness of His own nature, but the envy of the devil brought death to the world, and those who take his side shall experience death.
The souls of the just are in the hands of God and no torment shall touch them. In the eyes of the unwise they appear to be dead. Their going is held as a disaster; it seems that they lose everything by departing from us, but they are in peace.
Though seemingly they have been punished, immortality was the soul of their hope. After slight affliction will come great blessings, for God has tried them and found them worthy to be with Him; after testing them as gold in the furnace, He has accepted them as a holocaust.
At the time of His coming they will shine like sparks that run in the stubble. They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will be their king forever. Those who trust in Him will penetrate the truth, those who are faithful will live with Him in love, for His grace and mercy are for His chosen ones.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 138 : 1-3, 4-6, 7-8, 9-10
O Lord, You know me : You have scrutinised me. You know when I sit and when I rise; beforehand You discern my thoughts. You observe my activities and times of rest; You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is formed in my mouth, You know what it is all about, o Lord. From front to back You hedge me round, shielding me with Your protecting hand. Your knowledge leaves me astounded, it is too high for me to reach.
Where else could I go from Your Spirit? Where could I flee from Your presence? You are there if I ascend the heavens; You are there if I descend to the depths.
If I ride on the wings of the dawn and settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand shall guide me and Your right hand shall hold me safely.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Brethren in Christ! Today we revisit and reiterate again a centre component of our faith, that is the faith in the resurrection of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, who died for our sake and rose up on the third day after His death. This concept of thr resurrection is so crucial and central for all of us, firstly because without the resurrection of Christ, we have no hope for salvation, and death will claim us all, as our eternal fate and punishment.
Then, secondly, without resurrection, we will also have no hope. Why so? This is because, to all of us, Christ has promised all who believe in Him, and those who accept Him as their Lord and Saviour and profess His death and resurrection from the dead. This is why the belief and faith in the resurrection is essential to all of us, for if we do not believe in it, we can never have a part in God and in His salvation.
The Sadducees in today’s Gospel reading was a group of highly educated people in the Jewish society, who were adamantly against any notion or idea of resurrection. They believed that resurrection is a myth, and resurrection is impossible, in their highly ‘educated’ and logical mind. That was why they, besides the Pharisees, were one of the two major opponents against Jesus.
The Sadducees used the example of seven brothers to highlight the issue of resurrection, and how for them it does not make sense, and even linked it to the Law of God itself, given through Moses. They did not believe in anything spiritual and otherworldly, and they prefer to believe what they can see and what they can reason or use their logic in. They did not believe in angels, spirits, and the resurrection itself. It was a very nihilistic viewpoint and a belief where human existence is nothingness.
The Lord rebuked them hard, by pointing to them the nature of salvation and the promised eternal life He had promised to all those who believe in Him. The world of the afterlife is not a world of pleasure and worldly desires. We will receive and experience eternal joy and happiness in heaven, but this joy is not expressed in the physical terms, and neither will we have joy as in our human and worldly understanding.
In the afterlife, in our eternal bliss and happiness, we are happy and we rejoice because the Lord is with us, and we are with the Lord. The barrier that once had separated us from His love and presence had been completely removed. Upon our resurrection, we are reunited with God in perfection. No more shall sin have any power over us. The Lord is in us and we are in God.
Nowadays, we too see the same phenomenon happening around us. How our society has gradually been transformed, from one that is truly faithful and devoted in God, into one that is increasingly skeptical and unbelieving in God. Mankind prefer to trust what they see and observe more than the faith that is in their hearts. And over time, they grow to even doubt the existence of God Himself, who has loved us all these while.
Many people would like to try to contradict the faith in God and things like science and knowledge, making it as if faith in God is exclusive of wisdom, knowledge, and science itself. They try to make it as if, if you are to believe in God, that you are backwards, that you are against the betterment of mankind through science, and so on and so forth.
Yet, they got it all wrong, just as the Sadducees had in the past, during the time of Jesus. They who preferred reason and sense over faith failed to realise that their very wisdom, their very ability to deduce and sense things around them, came from God Himself, as gifts to all of us. It is the Lord who is the font of all wisdom and truth, and by believing in Him, we are taken away from all falsehoods and remain in the truth.
There are things in this world that is beyond, and indeed far beyond our comprehension, and our ability to understand them. That is why we need faith in us. We cannot always depend on our thinking ability to deduce things around us. Our human ability is limited, and we cannot always think that we are always right, if we think that something is so and so. Worse still is that many of us, just because we lack faith, and we based our judgments on flawed human observations, dismiss the greatness of our God wholesale, refusing to believe in our Lord, much like the Sadducees of old.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord has chosen to come down to us in human form, in Jesus Christ. He did that so that through His own death and resurrection, He can bring mankind out of the chasm they have led themselves into. It is because of sin that mankind has fallen and were distanced from eternal glory and the life destined for us.
Resurrection, my dear friends, is a powerful statement against sin and death. Just as Adam’s sin had brought mankind from eternity into a life conquered by death, and where the devil and sin had authority over us once, with the coming, the death, and the resurrection of Christ as the new Adam, He showed all creation that death does not have the final say. Definitely not the final say over us.
If we do not believe in the resurrection, then what is our life about? We have no hope beyond death, since to us, death is the end to all things. That is why, many of us today fear death so much, and tried our best to avoid it, through various means, seeking to avoid death as best as possible. We fear death, but in the end the irony is that for those who fear death, death will claim them ever more.
We should not fear death, because death is not the end of all things. Many of us fear death, because we are too happy with what we have in this world now, in our material possessions and our exposure to worldly pleasures. We do not realise that true joy and happiness can only lie in the glory of the resurrection, and the promised new and eternal life with God.
This is what the seven brothers martyred for their faith, in the Book of the Maccabees fought for. They sought not the glory of this world, which they could have easily gained from the king if they abandoned their faith. Instead, they persevered and suffered, and fought for the everlasting gift of heaven.
Hence, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all not be doubtful as the Sadducees and many of us today had done. Let us deepen our faith in God and do not fear to proclaim Him as our Lord and rejoice in His resurrection, just as we are made worthy and promised resurrection for ourselves. God be with us all, watch over us, till the day when He calls us back to Him, raising us up from this world, body and soul, in glorious resurrection. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 Corinthians 3 : 9b-11, 16-17
You are God’s field and building. I, as a good architect, according to the capacity given to me, I laid the foundation, and another is to build upon it. Each one must be careful how to build upon it. No one can lay a foundation other than the one which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit abides within you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. God’s temple is holy, and you are this temple.
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