Feast of St. Agnes

by

Monday, 21 January 2019 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded by the Scriptures of the path and the way which the Lord, our God has shown us, calling upon us to follow Him, and to walk in His footsteps. As St. Paul mentioned in his Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus is our Eternal and True High Priest, the One Who has offered the perfect offering beyond any other offerings, that is His own Most Precious Body and Blood, for the sake of our salvation.

He has come upon this world, willingly in the form and in the full body of Man, that He could accomplish what He Himself has promised to us all through His many prophets, that He would save us all, His beloved ones, from the consequences of our sins and our unfaithfulness, that should have landed us into eternal damnation and eternal death in hell. God did not want this to happen to us, as He still loves us after all, and He wants us to have the chance to be saved.

But salvation cannot come just very easily, as the obstacles presented by none other than sin, are truly very, very great indeed. It is not just the obstacles presented by sin itself, but also the temptations that are ever present around us that keep pulling us into sinning even more and more, causing us to fall even deeper into the trap which the devil and his forces have prepared for us. Unless we make the conscious effort to resist those temptations, we will easily be dragged again and again into sin.

And this is where the Lord came into this world bearing His truth and the revelation about His saving grace. He explained to us in detail through His disciples, by means of parables which He later explained and by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, of what each and every one of us will need to do as a member of God’s Church. He presented the stark reality before us, that many of us may have to suffer persecution and difficulties just because we are siding with the Lord and walking in His path.

That is, in essence the meaning of what He had mentioned in the Gospel passage today, by the means of the parable of the new and old cloth, and the new and old wineskins with the new and old wine. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law criticised the Lord and His disciples because they did not practice fasting as often done at that time according to the Jewish customs and traditions of the laws of Moses. But the Lord, using the two parables explained why His disciples did not do so.

The reason is because of the incompatibility of the old ways of the world and the new ways of the Lord, which was represented by the incompatible pairing between the old wineskin with the new wine, or vice versa between new wineskin and the old wine, or the old cloth that is incompatible with new cloth that is patched onto it when there is a tear on the old cloth. This incompatibility comes about because of the misunderstanding of the intentions and meanings of the Law of God.

God’s people had forgotten what it means to love God, and in many of their customs and practices, their faith had become empty, meaningless and nominal only, as they did not have God at the centre and as the focus of their lives. God had been sidelined for many worldly temptations, of the sins of pride, ambition, greed, gluttony and many others, where even many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law became hypocrites, professing to believe in God and yet not doing what they had to do, that is to love God with all of their hearts and strength.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord brought with Him a new way, one that is leading us directly towards the salvation in Him. This is the only way by which we can be saved, and that is through the true obedience and adherence to the Law of God. This is done by turning away completely from sin, by humbling oneself and focusing our whole lives on God, Who then becomes the centre of our lives and the focus of everything that we say and do in our respective lives.

But at the same time, we must also be aware that following this path that Christ has shown us will be filled with obstacles and challenges, not least from the same temptations that we have to face each and every days of our life, but also even opposition from the world and even from those who are close and dear to us. And this is what St. Agnes the holy virgin and martyr had shown us, whose feast is celebrated on this day every year.

St. Agnes was a young woman and virgin, who dedicated her life to God and also her virginity. She was born into a noble and wealthy family during the years of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. She had many suitors who tried to get her to marry them, but she refused their advances, because she wanted to keep herself chaste and pure, especially as many of those who sought her were pagans. But her Christian faith got the attention of the authorities, who at that time under the Emperor’s orders, carried out a particularly brutal persecution of the faithful.

St. Agnes was tortured and had to endure great sufferings throughout her period in incarceration and prison, and yet she did not give up her faith and remained strong in her conviction to love and serve the Lord through her life. When those who opposed her tried to have people to defile her, it was told that God protected her and all who wanted to defile her virginity were immediately struck blind.

Eventually, St. Agnes was martyred by the sword when she was not even harmed by the flames as her opponents tried to burn her on the stake. But her courageous faith and commitment to the Lord remained as a great inspiration to the faithful for many ages afterwards. She showed us how although there will indeed be likely many challenges that we have to face as faithful followers of Christ, but it is possible for us to commit ourselves to Him and remain upright despite those challenges.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore imitate the examples of St. Agnes and the many other holy men and women of God, from now on in our own lives. May the Lord be with us always, and may He give us the strength to follow Him and to commit ourselves to Him, each and every days of our life, following Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

by

Monday, 21 January 2019 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 2 : 18-22

At that time, one day, when the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting, some people asked Jesus, “Why is it that both the Pharisees and the disciples of John fast, but Yours do not?”

Jesus answered, “How can the wedding guests fast while the Bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the Bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the day will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.”

“No one sews a piece of new cloth on an old coat, because the new patch will shrink and tear away from the old cloth, making a worse tear. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the wine would burst the skins, and then both the wine and the skins would be lost. But new wine, new skins!”

by

Monday, 21 January 2019 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

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.”

by

Monday, 21 January 2019 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Hebrews 5 : 1-10

Every High Priest is taken from among mortals and appointed to be their representative before God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. He is able to understand the ignorant and erring for he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he is bound to offer sacrifices for his sins as well as for the sins of the people.

Besides, one does not presume to take this dignity, but takes it only when called by God, as Aaron was. Nor did Christ become High Priest in taking upon Himself this dignity, but it was given to Him by the One Who says : You are My Son, I have begotten You today. And in another place : You are a Priest forever in the priestly order of Melchizedek.

Christ, in the days of His mortal life, offered His sacrifice with tears and cries. He prayed to Him Who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His humble submission. Although He was Son, He learnt through suffering what obedience was, and once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for those who obey Him. This is how God proclaimed Him Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

by

Saturday, 21 January 2017 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the sacrifice of Christ our Lord, our High Priest, which He had made for our sake. He is the Lamb of God, the Lamb of sacrifice, Who had offered none other than His own Blood, His own Flesh for our sake. In order to understand this fully, the whole significance of it, we need to understand what is the meaning of sacrifice which is offered for the sake of someone’s sins.

In the Sacred Scriptures, ever since the beginning of time, the people of God, mankind had offered sacrifices to God, from the offerings of Abel and Cain, to thw offering of Noah after the Great Flood, to the offering of Abraham our father in faith, to the offering of Melchizedek, the King of Salem, to the offering of the prophets from the days of Moses to the days of the kings of Israel and Judah. All of these sacrifices are meant to honour and glorify the Lord, to offer Him worship and praise, and at the same time also for the forgiveness of one’s sins.

In the days of old, the priests were instructed by the laws which God passed down to Moses, to sprinkle some of the blood of the sacrificial lamb on the people. The blood therefore represents cleansing, the purification of one from his or her sins, and at the same time, also a renewal of the covenant which they had made with the Lord their God. The sacrifice to God is the sign of the formalisation of the covenant between God and His people, as what Abraham had done when God made the covenant with him, and which Moses then renewed as he led the people of Israel out of Egypt.

But as mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the power of the blood of goats, lambs and heifers, the offering of worldly and earthly sacrifices are limited. Such was the great extent, weight and consequences of our sins, the whole sum of the sins of all mankind, both past, present and the future, that no amount of animal sacrifices and offerings can replace them, save that of the worthy Lamb of God.

Nothing is more perfect than God, and therefore since God Himself had descended into this world as a Man, Jesus Christ, He has Himself become the Lamb of sacrifice and the High Priest at the same time, as the One Who purifies the people of God, not by other blood or sacrifices, but by His very own Blood, the perfect offering of Himself. It was the ultimate and selfless sacrifice, which overcome the sins caused by the selfishness and greed of our ancestors.

It was God’s love that made all of them possible. Otherwise, what God had done would have been incomprehensible to us. But indeed, God’s ways are not like our ways, and while we think that something is impossible for us to do, for God nothing is impossible. All things are possible for Him, including our salvation, our liberation and freedom from our sinfulness.

And yet, despite this great love shown to us by our God, there are still those who have not accepted that love, and even rejected Him, those who refused to open their hearts to welcome the Lord. Even Jesus was rejected by His own disciples and His own relatives, as we witnessed in the Gospel passage today, when His own relatives said that He was out of His mind because of what He was doing with the people.

The same therefore will happen to us, even as Jesus Himself had prophesied on how everything will turn out to be for us, all those who follow Him and walk in His ways. The world will reject that love which God had poured on it, and there will be many people who do not walk in His ways. But how do we then react to this? How do we face the challenges that will come our way? Then we really should look up the example of St. Agnes the Great, the holy martyr of the faith, whose feast we are celebrating today.

St. Agnes lived during the time of great difficulty for the Christian faith, where the Church and the faithful came under constant attacks from the Roman authorities, who were decidedly against the faith, and who persecuted many of those who profess their faith to God. It was during the reign of one of the most hostile Emperors that St. Agnes lived in, during the time of the Emperor Diocletian, infamous for his brutal persecution of Christians.

St. Agnes was born into a Roman noble family, and because of her family’s background, had had many suitors since her very young age. But she would not give in to their pursuits and evaded them, determined to maintain her virginity and purity, which she offered and dedicated to the Lord. But those men who wanted to have her were not happy being rejected, and therefore, they accused her before the authorities and reported that she was a Christian.

Later on she was persecuted, tortured and made to endure many humiliations at the hands of those who hated and rejected her. But St. Agnes did not give up and neither did she fight back, instead putting her complete trust in the Lord through prayer, she gave up her life, knowing that by doing so, she was doing the will of God, and also at the same time showing many others the inspiration and the way forward in their faith towards God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we look upon the examples of St. Agnes the holy martyr, let us all from now on devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord in the same manner as she had done in the past. Let us be genuine in our faith, and be ready to defend it against the opposition and challenges from the world, which will surely come our way in the future, if not already happening at the present.

May the Lord help us all to remain committed to Him, and may He empower each and every one of us to live in faith, and to give ourselves to Him, that in all the things we say, we do and we act, we will always bring glory to Him and be found worthy of Him. Let us appreciate what the Lord had done for us, because He has loved us, and by that love, He has saved us by His own death on the cross. May God bless us all. Amen.

by

Saturday, 21 January 2017 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Mark 3 : 20-21

At that time, Jesus and His disciples went home. The crowd began to gather again and they could not even have a meal. Knowing what was happening, His relatives came to take charge of Him, “He is out of His mind,” they said.

by

Saturday, 21 January 2017 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 46 : 2-3, 6-7, 8-9

Clap your hands, all you peoples; acclaim God with shouts of joy. For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared; He is a great King all over the earth.

God ascends amid joyful shouts, the Lord amid trumpet blasts. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
God is King of all the earth; sing to Him a hymn of praise. For God now rules over the nations. God reigns from His holy throne.

by

Saturday, 21 January 2017 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Hebrews 9 : 2-3, 11-14

A first tent was prepared with the lampstand, the table and the bread of the Presence, this is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain, there is a second sanctuary called the Most Holy Place.

But now Christ has appeared as the High Priest with regard to the good things of these new times. He passed through a sanctuary more noble and perfect, not made by hands, that is, not created. He did not take with Himself the blood of goats and bulls but His own Blood, when He entered once and for all into the sanctuary after obtaining definitive redemption.

If the sprinkling of people defiled by sin with the blood of goats and bulls or with the ashes of a heifer provided them with exterior cleanliness and holiness, how much more will it be with the Blood of Christ? He, moved by the eternal Spirit, offered Himself as an unblemished victim to God and His Blood cleanses us from dead works, so that we may serve the living God.

by

Thursday, 21 January 2016 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast day of a great saint and martyr of the Church, namely St. Agnes the martyr, a holy virgin whose faith and dedication to the Lord made her to be steadfast and adamant against the pressure from those who sought to have her abandon her faith in the Lord and her chastity, and until the end, she persevered in her faith and remained committed to the Lord in all things.

St. Agnes was a young and devout woman who lived through the last years of the great persecution of the Church and the faithful under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who pursued Christians far and wide in a futile attempt to destroy the Church and the Christian faith once and for all. St. Agnes was born in Rome in a Christian family, and her beauty was so great that there were many of those who attempted to suit her and hoping to get her attention.

But St. Agnes refused all of those men’s advances, and she remained true to her vow of chastity and purity, resisting all the desires of the flesh and the desires for pleasure that all of them had sought. But the actions of St. Agnes brought her ti the attention of those who desired her and yet had been rejected. Eventually it was found that St. Agnes was a Christian, who were therefore bound to be condemned to death as per the Emperor’s decree.

And thus she was tortured and was made to endure grievous sufferings as she adamantly and resolutely stood by her faith in God, refusing to reject the Lord and to recant her faith in exchange for her safety and comfort in this world. None of those torture forms could dissuade her or made her to change her mind. And thus, as she endured painful death in the Name of the Lord, she was brought up in glory to heaven, to enjoy forever the eternal fruits of life in God.

In all these, we see how the faithful will be rewarded, if we are able to detach ourselves from the attachments to the world and to all forms of sins, just as St. Agnes had once done. In the first reading today, we witnessed how the first king of Israel, Saul, became jealous of David, who would be the one to succeed him as king over all of the people of God, because David was becoming greater in the favours of God and men alike.

And then, in the Gospel reading, we heard about how Jesus our Lord Who taught the people of God on the truth and the salvation that He brought into the world by His coming onto the earth. We saw our Lord’s love for His people, that is all of us mankind, as He blessed them, fed them and healed them from their afflictions and from the possession by demons and evil spirits.

What does all these mean to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? How are they relevant to us and our lives in this world? By looking at the examples of St. Agnes the great martyr, and also the lives of the many other holy men and women of God, and in how king David once acted before he became king over Israel, remaining humble and unassuming, totally devoted to the Lord even though he was essentially the rival of the reigning king, Saul, all of us should realise that to become great disciples and followers of our Lord, we must all resist the temptations of our flesh, and welcome in us all, the spirit of God’s love.

Let us all therefore heed those good examples, and let us all die to our pride, our desire, our haughtiness, the arrogance and the negativities that have kept us all wicked and unworthy of God’s grace all these while. Let us sharpen the edge of our humility and of our devotion to the Lord, that we may ever give more and more of ourselves to the Lord, and thus receive from Him the pledge of enduring love and eternal life.

May God bless us all in our endeavours, and may He enlighten us with His grace, and may His blessings strengthen us in all of the things we say and do with the full faith in Him, so that in all that we say and do, we may bring greater glory to His Name, and bring salvation closer to one another. God be with us all. Amen.

by

Thursday, 21 January 2016 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 3 : 7-12

At that time, Jesus and His disciples withdrew to the lakeside, and a large crowd from Galilee followed Him. A great number of people also came from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Transjordan, and from the region of Tyre and Sidon, for they had heard of all that He was doing.

Because of the crowd, Jesus told His disciples to have a boat ready for Him, to prevent the people from crushing Him. He healed so many, that all who had diseases kept pressing towards Him to touch Him. Even the people who had evil spirits, whenever they saw Him, they would fall down before Him and cry out, “You are the Son of God.” But He warned them sternly not to tell anyone Who He was.