Liturgical Colour : Green
Sirach 3 : 19-21, 30-31
The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself and thus you will find favour with God. For great is the power of the Lord and it is the humble who give Him glory. Do not seek what is beyond your powers nor search into what is beyond your ability.
As water extinguishes the burning flames, almsgiving obtains pardon for sins. The man who responds by doing good prepares for the future, at the moment of his downfall he will find support.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6
Blessed is the one who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the Law of the Lord and meditates day and night on His commandments.
He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.
But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 17 : 7-10
At that time, Jesus said, “Who among you would say to your servant, coming in from the fields after plowing or tending sheep, ‘Go ahead and have your dinner?’ No, you tell him, ‘Prepare my dinner. Put on your apron, and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink afterwards.'”
“Do you thank this servant for doing what you told him to do? I do not think so. And therefore, when you have done all that you have been told to do, you should say, ‘We are no more than servants; we have only done our duty.'”
Homily and Reflection :
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests or Saturday Mass of our Lady)
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listen to comforting words of the readings from the Holy Scriptures and in particular the Holy Gospels how the Lord is with us, and He is on our side at all times, and through Him salvation of all mankind, that is all of us, will come to us. He will succour and save us from our fate that was death and bring us into life. This He promised us and made full through Jesus His Son.
For we are all the Church of God, that is part of His Body. Remember that Jesus mentioned, that we are the Body of Christ the Church, and He is the Head of that Body? Therefore all of us who had been baptised in the Name of Jesus Christ and the Most Holy Trinity, and became part of the Church are indeed united intimately and very closely to Christ, who is also the Bridegroom of the Church.
The Gospel today highlighted how the disciples ought not to be sorrowful or to fast in agony because the Lord is with them. Yes, and that is what we should also do, brothers and sisters. We ought to be joyful and rejoice because God is with us and He will not leave us, even if we are to abandon Him, because He is always faithful. But if we choose to ignore and abandon Him, then we will have no part in Him when He comes again in glory.
We are often like unfaithful wives, who abandoned our husbands when things did not go our way, and we seek other sources of pleasures and comforts, which corrupts us and turn us away from God. We abandon God for the idols of this world, the idol of money, of possessions, of worldly glory and passions, and the pull of power and pride which darkens our heart and keep it away from the light of Christ.
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Anthony Zaccaria, a priest and a zealous fighter of the faith, fully and completely faithful to the Lord, and in total dedication to His cause. He was part of the early Counter Reformation efforts of the Church in fighting against the heresy of the Protestant ‘reformation’, when mankind were misled by their human desires and pride, to break away from the unity of the Body of Christ and instead seek human glory and praise.
St. Anthony Zaccaria was truly devoted to the Lord and to his fellow men, giving himself totally in service to them in love and genuine faith. He preached the Good News of the Lord to many and reached out to them to bring them out into the dignity and glory of the light of God. He preached and fought for the purity of the faith, and introduced to the people strict and close devotions to the Lord through prayers and penitence.
He also founded three different religious orders, through which many people ended up following the Lord as he had once done, and which took part in defending the faith and the Church against the heresies of the Protestant rebels of the false reformation. He was truly committed to return the unity to the Body of Christ in the Church, casting away all the iniquities and sins of the people of God, and returning faithfully to the embrace of our loving God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we too today in this world must continue the hard and good works of St. Anthony Zaccaria, in defending our faith and the Church of God and all of God’s holy and beloved people. We cannot be idle and be ignorant in this age filled with danger and evil, where Satan lurked within the hearts of the faithful, waiting for the right moment to lure and drag many souls into hellfire with him.
Let us all be vigilant and strong, and with the intercession of St. Anthony Zaccaria, let us make this world a better place and a place for all the faithful to truly love God and devote themselves to Him with all of their hearts, that united as one, they may together glorify the Lord, the Bridegroom of the Church and. Lord of all the faithful. God bless us all, and be with us always till the end of time. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 