Fifth Sunday after Easter

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Saturday, 16 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings told us about how Apollos, the faithful servant of God and preacher of the faith told the truth about Christ to many people of many nations among the Gentiles or the non-Jews, and how many were converted because of his works.

But he himself was not perfect, as he did not have the full revelation of truth which only the Holy Spirit could give, and he received it once he was baptised in the Spirit by the Apostles, and the fullness of the truth of God was revealed to him through the means of fellow disciples who explained the truth to him in greater detail.

And in the Gospel Jesus spoke about how He taught in parables and stories, veiling from the people the fullness of the truth, and while they understood the meaning of the stories, but the real meaning behind all of them were not revealed until the time when the Lord deemed it right to reveal them so. And a very important truth He revealed that day, that all of us should ask when we need something, and because we want to know the truth, then we all should ask about the truth.

That means, as we live this life and live our faith, we cannot be passive or complacent or lazy. Otherwise, our faith will be empty and meaningless, and then, it is easy for Satan, the evil one, to plant all of his seeds of lies and discord within us. And this is how so many people fell into heresy and sin against God, because they did not know the truth or lacking the knowledge of the truth, and yet they took matter into their own hands and in their pride, they ended up subverting and changing the truth to serve their own purposes.

We are all prone to this, and it is easy for us to the many temptations to deviate from the truth. Sometimes, we are too proud to admit that we do not know about something, and therefore, we remain in our error and in the state of lacking knowledge. And sometimes we are too proud to ask because we do not want to lower ourselves and thus lose our prestige and ego.

Thus, let us all today reflect on this, on how we all should really open up ourselves to the Lord. All of us must be proactive in our faith, that if we know that we lack something that God’s grace can give, then we must really throw far, far away our ego and pride, and open ourselves to receive God’s grace and blessings, that is the truth which He wants to show us but we are often unable to grasp because of that same ego.

Let us all learn to be more humble in all things, especially before the Lord our God, and let us realise that firstly we are all sinners and then we are also lacking in the knowledge of the truth necessary to liberate us from the depredations of evil and sin. We often presume to know many things while the truth is that we know none. Let us ask the Lord to allow us to know more about how wicked we were, and indeed, how wicked we are now in our ways, and how we can change for the better.

May Almighty God bless us all, forgive us our sins and empower us with strength, courage and humility, so that we may grow ever deeper in our faith and stronger in our humility, realising our sinful ways and be truly converted to the Lord our God and walk humbly always in His ways. Amen.

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Saturday, 16 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 16 : 23b-28

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you. So far you have not asked in My Name; ask, and receive, that your joy may be full.”

“I taught you all this in veiled language, but the time is coming when I shall no longer speak in veiled language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. When that day comes, you will ask in My Name; and it will not be for Me to ask the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and you believe that I came from the Father.”

“As I came from the Father, and have come into the world, so I am leaving the world, and going to the Father.”

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Saturday, 16 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 46 : 2-3, 8-9, 10

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 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.

The leaders of the nations rally together with the people of the God of Abraham. For in His hands are the great of the earth, God reigns far above.

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Saturday, 16 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 18 : 23-28

After spending some time in Antioch, Paul left and travelled from place to place through Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the disciples. A certain Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, arrived at Ephesus. He was an eloquent speaker and an authority on the Scriptures, and he had some knowledge of the way of the Lord.

With great enthusiasm he preached and taught correctly about Jesus, although he knew only of John’s baptism. As he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, Priscilla and Aquila heard him; so they took him home with them and explained to him the way more accurately.

As Apollos wished to go to Achaia, the believers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly strengthened those who, by God’s grace, had become believers, for he vigorously refuted the Jews, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.

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Friday, 15 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about joy, that is the true joy we are to find in the Lord, knowing that He is with us and that He cares for us very greatly and deeply. And it is this knowledge which can sustain us to go on in living this life filled with faith, amid the ever increasing challenges of the world. We know that the Lord is with us and never abandoning us even at the darkest moments, and this is why we can persevere with our faith.

In the first reading, we read how St. Paul encountered great difficulty during his works at the region of Achaia in Greece. He was opposed by a group of stubborn and unrepentant Jews who refused to believe in God and on top of that, they were also jealous of the influence that St. Paul had among the populace, who even converted many of the Gentiles or the non-Jews to the one true faith in God.

But despite the opposition and the persecution he faced, he remained resolute in his mission and in the convictions to carry out the works which he had been entrusted with. St. Paul and all the other Apostles were guided and protected in their missions by the Lord, who we witnessed today in the Acts of the Apostles as having been protected, albeit indirectly, by the Roman governor of Achaia, who refused to judge and condemn him for the supposed faults that he had been accused with by the Jews.

Indeed, at the end, the Apostles and the disciples of Christ faced rejection and martyrdom at the hands of those who were opposed to the Lord and His ways, but this is because by the very act of such brave death and fearless devotion to God, they proclaimed by the shedding of their blood and by their suffering, a true faith that endured even the challenges and the temptations of the world.

Remember, brethren, that despite the intense persecutions of the Church and the faithful, the Church continued to grow and prosper, and many people continued to heed the call of the Lord’s word, as the saying goes, that the blood of the holy martyrs is the seed of Christians. This is to show us that, the courage of all the holy disciples of our Lord have brought us all to salvation. For if they had been afraid to preach the truth of Christ, then none of us would have heard of it and thus have a chance for salvation.

Just yesterday, we celebrated the great solemnity of the Ascension when we commemorate the great ascension of Jesus our Lord into the glory of heaven. And before He went to heaven, He placed a charge and commandment to all of His disciples, which remain true even unto this day. This is so that all of them would go forth into the world and boldly preach the Gospel and the Good News of salvation to all the peoples, so that everyone from every corners of the world may hear them and be saved.

Therefore, we are all truly called to continue the missionary and evangelising works of the holy Apostles and disciples of our Lord who had predeceased us, and yet their works remained clearly represented by what we have today in the Church of God. If we have received God’s salvation through the Church and the words which had been passed down to us, then we ought to also pass on the same faith to all those who have yet to hear them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all renew our commitment and devotion to the Lord. Let us all not be distracted and deterred by the challenges and the problems that will face us if we are to walk faithfully in the way of our Lord. Instead, let us think about the fate of our brethren around us if we had not lift a finger and put in the effort to help them escape the depredations of the evil one and darkness.

May Almighty God bless us and strengthen us in our faith, so that we may be ever more devoted to Him, and may He awaken in us the sense of care and love for our fellow brethren, so that we may follow suit in the footsteps of the holy Apostles in guiding each other to the Lord, through devoted actions and deeds rooted in the true faith. God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Friday, 15 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 16 : 20-23a

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. A woman in childbirth is in distress because her time is at hand. But after the child is born, she no longer remembers her suffering because of such great joy : a human being is born into the world.”

“You feel sorrowful now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice; and no one will take your joy from you. When that day comes you will not ask Me anything.”

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Friday, 15 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 46 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7

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.

He brings peoples under our dominion and puts nations under our feet. He chose our inheritance for us – the pride of Jacob whom He loves!

God ascends amid joyful shouts, the Lord amid trumpet blasts. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!

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Friday, 15 May 2015 : 6th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 18 : 9-18

One night, in a vision, the Lord said to Paul, “Do not be afraid, but continue speaking and do not be silent, for many people in this city are Mine. I am with you, so no one will harm you.” So Paul stayed a year and a half in that place, teaching the word of God among them.

When Gallio was governor of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the court. And they accused him, “This man tries to persuade us to worship God in ways that are against the Law.”

Paul was about to speak in his own defense when Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of misdeed or vicious crime, I would have to consider your complaint. But since this is a quarrel about teachings and divine names that are proper to your own law, see to it yourselves : I refuse to judge such matters.” And he sent them out of the court.

Then the people seized Sosthenes, a leading man of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal; but Gallio paid no attention to it. Paul stayed on with the disciples in Corinth for many days; he then left them and sailed off with Priscilla and Aquila for Syria. And as he was no longer under a vow he had taken, he shaved his head before sailing from Cenchreae.

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Thursday, 14 May 2015 : Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord and Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the great solemnity of our Lord’s Ascension to the heavenly glory, to claim His seat at the right hand of God, the end of His earthly ministry, by which He had liberated us all mankind from the depredations of evil and the tyranny of sin. The Ascension is the final act in God’s glorious works to liberate all of us and make us whole again, and the final proof that indeed Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah, God and Man who had come upon us to free us.

Just as the Resurrection provides us hope of a new life, then the Ascension is a foretelling of our own fate if we remain faithful to the Lord and it shows us what will happen to us as well, at the end of days. We know that since ages past, that there had been several individuals who did not suffer death, because of their faith and righteousness. The Patriarch Enoch, one of the first sons of man was lifted up from this world and walked in it no more, because he was righteous before God.

And Elijah the prophet also was taken up in flaming chariots in the sight of his successor Elisha, as a clear sign of God’s favour for all of his hard work and dedications in his many years of preaching God’s word and calling for the repentance of sinners. And the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ is even greater than all those mentioned, for He rose up to heaven on His own power and might.

The Ascension has many meanings, of which first it shows us the triumph of the forces of good, the Lord and all the faithful against all evil, for this decadent and darkened world cannot hold against us, for our Lord had shown us the path to break free from that darkness. As such, it is a proof that we have triumphed against evil and sin, as exemplified by the Resurrection and the Ascension confirms it. The Lord ascended in great triumph and glory, and so shall be our glory and triumph when it is our time to ascend in glory because of our faithful life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Ascension also affirms that our Lord Jesus Christ is both Man and God at the same time. There were detractors and unfaithful ones, even unto this day, who believed that Jesus is mere man and nothing more, or that He is God and Divine only, and not a man. All these were inadequate and false beliefs that did not do justice to the truth about Christ our Lord.

If Jesus is just mere man, then what He had done for us would be for nothing. For the death of a mere man would not be sufficient to atone for the combined sins of all mankind, whose wickedness had built up to such a great extent, that only the One and only God, whom through Jesus, was incarnated into Man, and as both God and Man, He went through the sufferings and the pains, which are supposed to be our punishment, for all of our sins, so that, by bearing our sins, He brought us free from all the burdens of those sins.

And the Ascension proves this, just as the Transfiguration before the suffering and death of Christ showed a brief glimpse into this reality and truth. While it was only Peter, James and John who were at the mountain with Jesus at the time of His Transfiguration, more disciples, if not all of them were at the place and moment when Jesus ascended into His glory in heaven. This proves beyond doubt, that not only that He has conquered death by His resurrection, but that He truly came down from heaven and was returning to the place where He came from.

And how is this important and relevant for us all? That is because before He ascended into heaven, Jesus reminded the disciples of the one very, very important mission which He had entrusted to them and to the whole Church of God. This mission is that His word, the revelations of truth that He had brought into the world, the way to salvation, may be preached and taught to all peoples, to all mankind throughout the world.

All of us Christians who belong to the Church of God and who had been baptised in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit must go forth to the nations to preach to them the message which Christ had brought into this world, and which His herald, St. John the Baptist had also delivered, that is repentance of sinners, that men may abandon their sinful ways and embrace fully the ways that Christ had taught them, and which we now keep in faith through the Church.

Thus, as we celebrate the occasion of today’s glorious Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven, let us all remember that all of us also will enjoy the same experience, if we are all faithful to the Lord and obey Him in all of His commands. The glory of heaven and true joy are ours, if we follow the Lord and do all of the things that He had commanded us to do, and this is that we ought to call on the others who have yet to hear the word of God, so that they may be saved too.

Remember that just earlier I mentioned some of the righteous ones whom God had saved from death and brought into the heavenly glory? This is to show us that, although indeed we will all as mortals still suffer the effects of physical death, but that death for all the faithful will be nothing more than a passing moment and a transition between the imperfect world and life that we have now, with the world that is to come.

Do we all realise that it has been too long for us to stay hidden in this darkness and how long we have been suppressed by the sins and the wickedness that we have committed thus far in life? Let us therefore throw away these shackles of sin and unworthiness, which prevent us from truly realising the great potential that lie within each and every one of us. We have a duty and a responsibility, brethren, and it is indeed time now for us to act.

Let us all go forth and practice what we believe in, so that our faith will no longer remain just as a mere belief, but also brought completely into concrete and real action, so that all who sees us will know that we believe in God, and therefore, they too may believe by what we have done. And because we have done what is righteous before God, and bring others to Him as well, then the glory of our Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension will also be ours, and eternal life and the glory of heaven will be our just reward.

May Almighty God, the Ascended Christ, who went forth to prepare the places for His righteous ones, continue to guide us and bless us, so that we truly can merit to be counted among those whom He chose out of the nations, to be reunited with Him in the glories and wonders of eternal life in heaven, filled with true joy and happiness. God be with us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 14 May 2015 : Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord and Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 16 : 15-20

At that time, Jesus told His disciples, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation. The one who believes and is baptised will be saved; the one who refuses to believe will be condemned.”

“Signs like these will accompany those who have believed : in My Name they will cast out demons and speak new languages; they will pick up snakes, and if they drink anything poisonous, they will be unharmed; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”

So then, after speaking to them, the Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven and took His place at the right hand of God. The Eleven went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.