Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 33 : 8-9, 10-11, 12-13
YHVH’s Angel encamps and patrols, to keep safe those who fear Him. Oh, see and taste the goodness of YHVH! Blessed is the one who finds shelter in Him!
Revere YHVH, all you, His saints, for those who fear Him do not live in want. The mighty may be hungry and in need; but those who seek YHVH lack nothing.
Come, listen to Me, My children; I will show you how to fear YHVH. If you desire long life; if you want to enjoy prosperity.
Liturgical Colour : White
2 Corinthians 12 : 1-10
It is useless to boast; but if I have to, I will go on, to some visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a certain Christian : fourteen years ago he was taken up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. But I know that this man, whether in the body or out of the body – I do not know, God knows – was taken up to Paradise, where he heard words that cannot be told : things which humans cannot express.
Of that man I can indeed boast, but of myself I will not boast except of my weaknesses. If I wanted to boast, it would not be foolish of me, for I would speak the truth. However, I better give up, lest somebody think more of me than what is seen in me, or heard from me. Lest I become proud, after so many and extraordinary revelations; I was given a thorn in my flesh, a true messenger of Satan, to slap me in the face. Three times, I prayed to the Lord, that it leave me, but He answered, “My grace is enough for you; My great strength is revealed in weakness.”
Gladly, then, will I boast of my weakness, that the strength of Christ may be mine. So I rejoice, when I suffer infirmities, humiliations, want, persecutions : all for Christ! For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded of the need for all of us to seek the true treasure that can be found in the Lord alone, and strive our best to live our lives with God’s guidance and help, as with the Lord we can truly do wonderful things far beyond what we can do in Him alone. The Lord our God has given us the strength and wisdom through His guidance, help and encouragement, allowing us to endure all the challenges and hardships in this life and world, so that we can find our path to Him, and as long as we remain truly faithful in Him, trusting wholeheartedly in Him and His providence, we will truly be able to find our true happiness and treasure in God.
In our first reading today, we heard of how St. Paul aired his frustrations to the faithful people of God in Corinth, the ones whom he had been ministering to, as some of those whom St. Paul encountered during his ministry likely compared him with the other Apostles, especially those of the Twelve, or with other famous and charismatic preachers, such as one Apollos who was very charismatic among others. And as inspired and strengthened he was by the Holy Spirit and by God’s guidance, he could certainly still face temptations and difficulties in the exercise of his ministry, and he was still facing emotions and other things that we mankind also face daily in our lives, as he was just as human and as ordinary servants of God as we all are.
But St. Paul turned all these weaknesses into praise of the Lord and everything that he had done in glorifying God through all these weakness and vulnerabilities, and making a testimony of his great and enduring faith in God, Who has strengthened and empowered him to carry out his ministry and good works with the constant protection and providence from God, Who has always been with him, guiding him at every steps of his journey, even when he was facing a lot of hardships and difficulties in his ministry and journey. St. Paul detailed to the faithful in Corinth all the obstacles, hardships and plenty of harm that he had faced in the midst of carrying out his works, how he faced physical assaults, hard labours, prison and many other trials, and yet, he was able to overcome all these because of the Lord.
When St. Paul mentioned all these to the people of God in Corinth, he was not boasting about his own greatness and power, as he was in fact telling all of them that if not for God and His providence, in having done so many great wonders each day through him, he would not have been able to do all those great things despite the many persecutions he faced. In his testimony of faith, St. Paul wanted to encourage the faithful in Corinth to continue to trust in the Lord, and to encourage them all to continue the good works of mission and testifying of the Lord’s goodness, because it is through God alone that they all can truly persevere and be truly successful in their works and good efforts, and not by their work and efforts, or by their power and greatness alone.
Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the Lord Jesus telling His disciples and followers that they all should not store up for themselves the treasures of the world that do not last forever, all those things which we mankind often crave for and desire, and yet do not provide us with true and lasting happiness, satisfaction and fulfilment. This reminder from the Lord is a timely one to call us to turn away from all sorts of worldly pursuits and ambitions, all the attachments and preoccupations with all kinds of material possessions and desires that can distract us from truly being able to follow the Lord our God most wholeheartedly and worthily.
That is why we are all being reminded that we should not be distracted by all those things, and we should be the ones leading by our own good examples and efforts in living a life that is truly blessed and in attunement to God’s will. And this requires us all to be willing to listen to the Lord guiding and leading us all in our lives, in our every paths and journeys, in each and every moments when He speaks to us, calling on all of us to walk in the path that He has put us into. Each and every one of us are called and reminded that we all should always be faithful to the path that He has led us through, to be committed and true to what He has entrusted to us, living our lives courageously in the manner that He has shown us.
And this should be done by our love for God in all the things that we do in our daily living, and at the same time, we should also show love to all those whom the Lord has entrusted to us, to show our genuine and wholehearted attention to, in being as loving as the Lord has been towards us all. By following the example and inspiration of God’s love, hopefully each one of us may truly be generous in loving one another and be true disciples and followers of Christ in all things. This is what we are all called to do as Christians, in putting our love for God and for one another above our own selfish desires, ambitions and pursuits, in realising that our true treasures and happiness are not in what we gain from this world, but in being faithful to God and truly loving to each other.
May the Lord continue to strengthen each and every one of us, in our resolve and determination to live our lives, in each and every moments to be truly faithful in all things, in our every interactions and good works with one another. May He continue to empower each and every one of us with the strength and courage to live our every moments with grace and faith, and allow us all to be good role models and inspirations to our brethren all around us. May He bless all of our actions and good works, now and always, evermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Matthew 6 : 19-23
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples and to the people, “Do not store up treasures for yourself here, on earth, where moth and rust destroy it; and where thieves can steal it. Store up treasures for yourself with God, where no moth or rust can destroy it, nor thief come and steal it.
For where your treasures are, there, also, will your heart be. The lamp of the body is the eye; if your eyes are sound, your whole body will be full of light. If your eyes are diseased, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 33 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7
I will bless the Lord all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the lowly hear and rejoice.
Oh, let us magnify the Lord, together let us glorify His Name! I sought the Lord, and He answered me; from all my fears He delivered me.
They who look to Him are radiant with joy, their faces never clouded with shame. When the poor cry out, the Lord hears and saves them from distress.
Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Corinthians 11 : 18, 21b-30
As some people boast of human advantages, I will do the same. But if others are so bold, I shall also dare, although I may speak like a fool. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I begin to talk like a madman) I am better than they.
Better than they, with my numerous labours. Better than they, with the time spent in prison. The beatings I received are beyond comparison. How many times have I found myself in danger of death! Five times, the Jews sentenced me to thirty-nine lashes. Three times, I was beaten with a rod. Once I was stoned. Three times, I was shipwrecked; and once, I spent a night and a day, adrift on the high seas.
I have been continually in hazards of travelling; because of rivers, because of bandits, because of my fellow Jews, or because of the pagans; in danger, in the city, in the open country, at sea; in danger from false brothers. I have worked, and often laboured without sleep, I have been hungry and thirsty and starving, cold, and without shelter. Besides these, and other things, there was my daily concern for all the churches. Who is weak, that I do not feel weak as well? Whoever stumbles, am I not on hot bricks?
If it is necessary to boast, let me proclaim the occasions on which I was found weak.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate a very great occasion, a core tenet of our Christian faith, that is the belief in the Real Presence of Our Lord Himself in the Eucharist, in the bread and wine used during the Holy Mass, transformed by the will of the Father and the incarnation of the Son, and by the power and descent of the Holy Spirit, into the very substance and essence of Our Lord Himself, truly present in Body, Heart, Mind, Soul and Divinity before us all. This is the Dogma of the Transubstantiation, our firm belief that the bread and wine has been transformed completely into the Lord’s own Presence and Body and Blood, although in terms of appearance they may seem to still have the appearance, feel and taste of bread and wine.
On this day, we remember the same Sacrifice that the Lord Jesus had done at the Cross at Calvary, which is being celebrated at every celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, at every Masses celebrated everywhere in the world, from the time of the Apostles, throughout history and up to the present day, and which will continue to be in the future until the end of time. This Holy Sacrifice that the Lord Himself has offered constituted Him as the Eternal High Priest of all, the One True High Priest Who offered on our behalf the only perfect and worthy offering for the atonement of our sins, as it is only by the breaking of the Most Precious Body and the shedding of the Most Precious Blood of the Lamb of God, Our Paschal Lamb, that we can be saved.
In our first reading today, we heard of the passage from the Book of Genesis in which the story of the interaction between Abraham and Melchizedek, the King of Salem was highlighted to us. This happened as Abraham came to settle in the Promised Land of Canaan after he had followed the Lord Who called him to go to the land that He would show him and entrusted to him and his descendants. Abraham trusted in the Lord even though he was childless even until he was close to a hundred years old, and he followed the Lord to where He led him, and in the occasion mentioned in today’s reading, he was just triumphant in a battle against the Canaanite kings in a mission to protect and recover Lot, his cousin that had been captured by those kings.
This figure of Melchizedek, the King of Salem was indeed a mysterious one, as he was described as a high priest of the Lord Most High, and it was told that no one knew his origins or that he was even without a father. In this sense therefore, many saw Melchizedek as a prefigurement of Christ Himself, Our Lord and Saviour, Who would indeed eventually come into this world, to do exactly the same thing that Melchizedek had done in offering the sacrifices to God as the High Priest of all creation. Melchizedek received Abraham’s offerings which the latter made in thanksgiving to God, and offered it on his behalf to the Lord, and this city of Salem that Melchizedek was king of, was indeed likely to be the one and the same as the city of Jerusalem, the city and place where the Lord would accomplish His mission in His Passion, suffering and death on the Cross.
Then, from our second reading today, we heard from the account made by St. Paul the Apostle in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful people of God in the region of Corinth regarding the events that happened at the moment when the Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist, this perfect gift from God, the Most Holy Sacrament, the manifestation of His Real Presence in the bread and wine which the priests and the other celebrants of the Mass offer to the Lord on our behalf, much like Melchizedek had done for Abraham, and this is done ‘in persona Christi’, as the priests celebrate the Mass in representing Christ Himself, our One and True Eternal High Priest. They do not offer the Mass on their own accord and their own strength, but representing the Lord Who has given us all most generously His own Most Precious Body and Blood for us.
When the Lord told the disciples at the moment of the Last Supper which St. Paul recounted to us, He truly meant every single words that He said, and He truly meant it when He said that the bread He had broken, blessed and shared with the disciples was indeed His Body, and the wine that He has also blessed and passed to be shared with the disciples was indeed His Blood. The Lord did not say that those were merely symbolic or representative, or a memorial or any of those sorts, replicating or resembling His Body and Blood. What He said, as affirmed further by St. Paul the Apostle and by the teaching of the early Church fathers, is that the bread and wine truly became the very Real Presence of the Lord, and are indeed the Most Holy and Precious Body and Blood of the Lord, through the actions of the priest, in invoking the power of God to enact this.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard then of the Lord feeding all of the multitudes of the five thousand people in the famous miracle that I am sure we are all well familiar with. Through this miracle we can see how the Lord is so loving and compassionate towards us, realising our physical needs just as much as we have our spiritual needs as well. He blessed the five loaves of bread and the two fishes that were presented to Him, breaking them and sharing them, and we heard how miraculously those small amount of food was enough to feed the whole multitude of five thousand people, with plenty of leftovers collected, amounting to twelve whole full baskets worth of food. Many people were happy and satisfied, fully filled by their experience with this miracle.
And after this event, chronologically in the events of the Lord’s ministry, many people came seeking Him and wanting Him to be their King, and the Lord told them that they desired this because they were happy to get the food from all those miraculous multiplication of the loaves of bread and fish, the food that satisfied the physical self and the body. However, the Lord told them then that what is more important is the food that lasts forever, and the true and real Food which He would share to them which would bring them all to the promise of eternal life and true happiness with Him. This was highlighted in the discourse on the Bread of Life in the Gospel of St. John the Apostle, where the Lord Jesus clearly stated to all those who followed Him that He is that Bread of Life which has come down from Heaven.
The Lord also stated, just as He had done in the Last Supper, that His Body is real Food and His Blood is real Drink, and they were to be given to everyone to partake and share, so that all those who partake in the Body and Blood of the Son of God and Son of Man would have eternal life in them. Again, all these highlighted the undeniable and clear fact that what the Lord Himself has instituted at the Last Supper was truly His Most Precious Body and Blood manifested in the bread and wine which He had transformed into the very Essence and Reality of His Body and Blood, His own Presence with them, which we therefore partake and therefore God Himself dwell within us all. And should we wonder if this is possible, we do not have to look far but the miracle that He Himself performed in feeding the five thousand people. What seems impossible for us mankind, is possible for God, as there is nothing impossible for God.
Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all consider carefully how we have believed in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist. The sad truth and reality facing our Church today is the ever dwindling faith that many Catholics are exhibiting towards the Real Presence in many parts around the world, especially in the places in Europe and the Americas where the Christian faith used to be predominant and strongly embraced by the people. This is then also linked to the ever rapidly dwindling attendance and participation in the Masses and other liturgical events and activities of the Church. If we start losing our faith and belief in the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist, then sooner or later, we will also grow detached and be easily distracted by the many temptations and pressures around us in this world.
And in the manner of how we treat the Lord in His Real Presence in the Eucharist is also alarming, as many of us no longer have that faith in this important and core tenet of our faith, in the manner how we act nonchalantly in receiving the Holy Eucharist and even in how we are usually so impatient and cannot wait for the Holy Mass to end so that we can continue with our activities and other busy way of living in the world outside there. This is something that we are constantly being reminded of, especially on this Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, that there is a need for all of us as Christians to return once again to the root of our faith in the Holy Eucharist, a faith that is truly centred on the Lord truly present in our midst, with sure hope in His Providence and with a heart full of love for Him and for our fellow brothers and sisters around us.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore seek to renew our commitment to the Lord our God, our most loving Saviour and King, He Who has made Himself available to us all through the Eucharist, His perfect gift of love to all of us, ever tied and linked to the ultimate and most loving Sacrifice that He has performed at the Cross at Calvary. Therefore, every time we come and participate at the Holy Mass, let us all renew our faith and commitment to the Lord in what He has shown and given us through the Most Holy Eucharist from now on, and be the worthy bearers of His truth and love by living our lives in the manner that He has taught us to do, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 9 : 11b-17
At that time, Jesus welcomed the people of Bethsaida, and began speaking about the kingdom of God, curing those who needed healing. The day was drawing to a close, and the Twelve drew near to tell Him, “Send the crowd away, and let them go into the villages and farms around, to find lodging and food, for we are here in a lonely place.”
But Jesus replied, “You yourselves, give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves and two fish. Do You want us to go and buy food for all this crowd?” for there were about five thousand men. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.”
So they made all of them sit down. Jesus then took the five loaves and two fish, and, raising His eyes to heaven, pronounced a blessing over them; He broke them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the crowd. They ate and everyone had enough; and when they gathered up what was left, twelve baskets were filled with broken pieces.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 Corinthians 11 : 23-26
This is the tradition of the Lord that I received and that in my turn I have handed on to you; the Lord Jesus, on the night that He was delivered up, took bread and, after giving thanks, broke it, saying, “This is My Body which is broken for you; do this in memory of Me.”
In the same manner, taking the cup after the supper, He said, “This cup is the new Covenant in My Blood. Whenever you drink it, do it in memory of Me.” So, then, whenever you eat of this bread and drink from this cup, you are proclaiming the death of the Lord until He comes.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 109 : 1, 2, 3, 4
The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand till I make Your foes Your footstool.”
From Zion the Lord will extend Your mighty sceptre and You will rule in the midst of Your enemies.
Yours is royal dignity from the day You were born in holy majesty. Like dew from the womb of the dawn, I have begotten You.
The Lord has sworn, and He will not take back His word : “You are a Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 