Fifth Sunday of Easter

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Friday, 19 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 15 : 22-31

Then the Apostles and elders together with the whole Church decided to choose representatives from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. These were Judas, known as Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers. They took with them the following letter :

“Greetings from the Apostles and elders, your brothers, to the believers of non-Jewish birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We have heard that some persons from among us have worried you with their discussions and troubled your peace of mind. They were not appointed by us.”

“But now, it has seemed right to us in an assembly, to choose representatives and to send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have dedicated their lives to the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. We send you then Judas and Silas who themselves will give you these instructions by word of mouth.”

“We, with the Holy Spirit, have decided not to put any other burden on you except what is necessary : You are to abstain from blood from the meat of strangled animals and from prohibited marriages. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

After saying goodbye, the messengers went to Antioch, where they assembled the community and handed them the letter. When they read the news, all were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.

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Thursday, 18 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded yet again that as Christians, our principal and main responsibility lies in the need to love and serve the Lord with all of our heart, mind, body and soul. This is the essence of us being Christians, not in all other things, which all truly have their roots in the love which we ought to show the Lord our God.

And why is this so? That is because, without love, we are not Christians, and without the love which we ought to serve the Lord with, then we truly have not known love. Because if we have remembered and known just how much God has loved us, then we should also show the same love for Him, first of all, and then show the same love to our fellow brethren.

Yet, many of us mankind have forgotten this fact, and we have rejected God and His love, for the love of other things, all the distractions out there which have turned us and our attentions away from God. We have become detached from Him, and ended up being concerned only about ourselves, only about our needs and desires, and not about what truly matters, that is serving the Lord with all of our heart.

This was what happened, at the time of the early Church, as recounted to us through our first reading today taken from the Acts of the Apostles. At that time, the tension between the two factions in the Church had reached a breaking point, between the faction of the Pharisees and the faction of the Hellenists. The Pharisees were those who were similar with the Pharisees at the time of Jesus, being composed of the Pharisees who came to believe in Jesus, who wanted to keep the purity of the Jewish faith and traditions, wishing to impose on all the believers the rigour of the entire Jewish laws according to the laws of Moses.

Meanwhile, the Hellenists were those who favoured relaxing and bypassing the requirements of the Jewish laws and customs, in order to make the faith more practical and favourable to the non-Jewish people, the Greeks and the Romans, all of whom found that certain practices of the Jewish tradition such as circumcision and food prohibition to be repulsive and difficult to be followed, as these came into direct conflict with their own customs and cultural traditions.

As such, such a division in the Church was truly a tragic event, at the time when the Church should have been united against all those who sought to destroy it in its infancy. But the Church fathers and the Apostles ruled against those who would distract the Church from its primary mission, that is the salvation of souls and the repentance of all sinners.

To that extent, they agreed and ruled that all Christians should henceforth be freed from the obligation to obey the entirety of the Jewish laws and customs, most of which were in fact human creation and not originating from God, as means and historical practices meant to preserve the Jewish customs and culture. And they ruled that as long as all the Christians lived in accordance to what the Lord Jesus had taught them, that should be sufficient.

That is because as Christians, all of us truly have to remember that our primary and indeed sole obligation is to love the Lord our God, with all of our might, and with all of our strength. And when we love Him and obey Him, we will definitely also love our brethren, just as we have been loved by God and loving Him back. We will show the same love that we showed Him to our fellow men.

We should follow the example of our holy predecessors, the holy saints and martyrs, in how they devoted their whole lives to the Lord and to their fellow men. Pope St. John I, the holy Bishop of Rome and leader of the Universal Church during its early years is one of such examples. He was a devoted man, a pious and holy servant of God, dedicated to his calling and vocation as the leader of the Church.

He lived during a difficult time, as political and worldly conflict threatened the Church in Rome, due to the conflict between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogothic Kingdom, who then ruled over Rome. The Ostrogoths were Arians, heretical followers of Christianity, while the Empire was following the Orthodox and true Christian faith. Pope St. John I lived and reigned through the turbulent times, and tried his best to bridge the differences between the two powers.

However, he was caught in the entanglement of the conflict, and was imprisoned by the Ostrogoths, under the false charges of sedition and supposed plotting with the enemy against the king. He was arrested, incarcerated and made to suffer, but yet he never gave up the faith. He continued to persevere through the challenges, and even unto martyrdom, as he met his end in prison, he kept the faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all from now on strive to serve the Lord with greater zeal and conviction, and devote ourselves to Him ever more willingly. Let us all love one another as well, just as we have been loved by God, and just as we have loved Him with all of our hearts. Let us all be true Christians inspired by the examples of our brethren who have preceded us. Pope St. John I, holy Pope and martyr, pray for us sinners. Amen.

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Thursday, 18 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
John 15 : 9-11

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Remain in My love! You will remain in My love if you keep My commandments, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.

I have told you all this, that My own joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.”

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Thursday, 18 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
Psalm 95 : 1-2a, 2b-3, 10

Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His Name.

Proclaim His salvation day after day. Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds.

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” He will judge the peoples with justice.

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Thursday, 18 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
Acts 15 : 7-21

As the discussions became heated, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that from the beginning God chose me among you so that non-Jews could hear the Good News from me and believe. God, Who can read hearts, put Himself on their side by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them and cleansed their hearts through faith.”

“So why do you want to put God to the test? Why do you lay on the disciples a burden that neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry? We believe, indeed, that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.”

The whole assembly kept silent as they listened to Paul and Barnabas tell of all the miraculous signs and wonders that God had done through them among the non-Jews. After they had finished, James spoke up, “Listen to me, brothers. Symeon has just explained how God first showed His care by taking a people for Himself from non-Jewish nations.”

“And the words of the prophets agree with this, for Scripture says, ‘After this I will return and rebuild the booth of David which has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again. Then the rest of humanity will look for the Lord, and all the nations will be consecrated to My Name. So says the Lord, Who does today what He decided from the beginning.'”

“Because of this, I think that we should not make difficulties for those non-Jews who are turning to God. Let us just tell them not to eat food that is unclean from having been offered to idols; to keep themselves from prohibited marriages; and not to eat the flesh of animals that have been strangled, or any blood. For from the earliest times Moses has been taught in every place, and every Sabbath his laws are recalled.”

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Wednesday, 17 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we have heard the words from the Sacred Scriptures, telling us about the conflict that arose during the earliest days of the Church, between those who continued to keep strictly the commandments and laws of Moses, namely those who belonged to the Pharisees who came to believe in Jesus, and those who advocated the relaxing of certain laws and customs that are not truly essential for one to become a Christian.

In order to understand this, we have to understand the context of the difficulty and the dilemma facing the Church fathers and the Apostles at that time. The Jewish people at the time living in Judea and the other parts of the Roman Empire had a distinct custom among the people they lived with, most distinctive of all being the practice of circumcision, which the Gentiles, the Romans and the Greeks included found to be repulsive and disgusting.

Not withholding the ancient practice of strict food laws and prohibitions, which made the Jewish people and their faith to be a relatively exclusive one, as it was difficult for people, if not almost impossible for anyone to adopt the customs and the practices of the Jews, as the laws of Moses prescribed. However, the early Church fathers found the wisdom to overcome this issue, by seeking to relax the strict requirements of the Jewish customs on the early Christian communities.

How do all these link to the Gospel passage which we have heard? In the Gospel today, we heard Jesus our Lord Who spoke of Himself as the True Vine, from which all those who believe in the Lord draw life from, as they are the branches of the True Vine. If they are sundered from the Vine, they shall have no part in Him, and they shall have no life because they have been separated from His love.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is in fact a reminder to all of us Christians, that we cannot be like those Pharisees who chose to be Christians, and tried to impose their human made laws and customs, the laws of Moses, which they held to be sacred and perfect, on the other newly converted Christians, those from among the Gentiles, who find the practices of the Jews to be repulsive and difficult to be followed.

The laws of Moses were originally given from God for His people, at the time when they went out of Egypt, in order to lead them and guide them on their path. But the laws were first of all very harsh because of a very good reason, and that is because the Israelites themselves were very rebellious and were very easily seduced by the sinful ways of the world. As a result, God gave them the set of precepts and laws in order to restrain them.

And over time, the laws that God gave to His people had become twisted and modified beyond the original purpose He gave them for. The laws became set of human laws, customs and practices, which the leaders of the people, the elders and the chief priests constantly modified in order to suit their own needs, purposes and even wishes.

As a result, the Law became increasingly and unnecessarily draconian and harsh in nature. And that became a great obstacle for many people to become Christians, and which the Church fathers later on then decided to rescind, the unnecessary requirements and excesses of the old laws, simply because, as mentioned, all these things are human adjustments and additions, that came not from God but from men.

The people of God gained justification and life from the Lord, and they have received life from Him, the True Vine. It is why the Apostles and the Church fathers argued and successfully managed to allow the Christians and their communities to follow and obey only what the Lord had truly commanded them, as Jesus Himself said, that the Law is really only about two things, that is to love and serve the Lord our God with all of our hearts, with all of our minds, with all of our being, and then to love our fellow brethren just as much as we love God and ourselves.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all remember this even today, as this is still perfectly applicable now and even later in the future. We have to love God with all of our heart, mind and soul, and we have to love our fellow brethren as best as we are able to do so. This is the commandments of the Lord, one that we need to listen to and obey, all of our lives, from now on if we have not done so.

May the Lord bless us all and may He be with us always, at all times, so that in everything we say, in everything we do, we will always show our love for Him, and also for our fellow men, that we will always be forever righteous and just in His presence, and worthy of His everlasting life. Amen.

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Wednesday, 17 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
John 15 : 1-8

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “I am the True Vine and My Father is the Vinegrower. If any of My branches does not bear fruit, He breaks it off; and He prunes every branch that does bear fruit, that it may bear even more fruit.”

“You are already made clean by the word I have spoken to you. Live in Me as I live in you. The branch cannot bear fruit by itself, but has to remain part of the vine; so neither can you, if you do not remain in Me. I am the Vine and you are the branches. As long as you remain in Me and I in you, you bear much fruit; but apart from Me you can do nothing.”

“Whoever does not remain in Me is thrown away, as they do with branches, and they wither. Then they are gathered and thrown into the fire and burnt. If you remain in Me and My words in you, you may ask whatever you want, and it will be given to you. My Father is glorified when you bear much fruit : it is then that you become My disciples.”

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Wednesday, 17 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 121 : 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” And now we have set foot within your gates, o Jerusalem!

Jerusalem, just like a city, where everything falls into place! There the tribes go up.

The tribes of the Lord, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord’s Name. There stand the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.

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Wednesday, 17 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 15 : 1-6

Some persons who had come from Judea to Antioch were teaching the brothers in this way, “Unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Because of this there was trouble, and Paul and Barnabas had fierce arguments with them. For Paul told the people to remain as they were when they became believers. Finally those who had come from Jerusalem suggested that Paul and Barnabas and some others go up to Jerusalem to discuss the matter with the Apostles and elders.

They were sent on their way by the Church. As they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria they reported how the non-Jews had turned to God, and there was great joy among all the brothers and sisters. On their arrival in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the Church, the Apostles and the elders, to whom they told all that God had done through them.

Some believers, however, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees, stood up and said that non-Jewish men must be circumcised and instructed to keep the law of Moses. So the Apostles and elders met together to consider the matter.

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Tuesday, 16 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard the words of the Lord Jesus, reassuring us all that He came bearing unto us His peace. It is not peace as the world knows it, but an everlasting peace, that will be ours when we place our complete trust in the Lord, and follow Him wholeheartedly, as the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord had once done.

The Apostles did not have it easy on their missions around the world at that time, as they encountered many oppositions to their works, challenges from all those who refuse to follow their lead and those who refuse to listen to their call to conversion, namely those who persist in their sinfulness and wickedness, and closed their hearts against God’s words that the Apostles and the disciples had preached.

There was hardly much time for the Apostles and the disciples had to be savoured in peace. They constantly met the opposition from the Jewish leaders, from the local populace who refused to listen to them and abandon their pagan gods, and from the Roman authorities who found the teachings of Christ as a threat to their own authority, and from various other sources.

But the Lord was with them, and He guided them throughout their journey, that even though there were many who wished for their arrest, their demise and destruction of the Church, in reality, the Church and the faithful flourished both in number and in their zeal. The Lord provided for what they needed, and gave them the strength to persevere in the troubled times.

The Lord had revealed it all to them, how they would have to suffer in order to glorify God, by their works of evangelisation and mercy, calling many nations and peoples to repentance and conversion in God. But they found true peace in fulfilling God’s will and in doing whatever He had led them to do. They knew that even though the world was against them, but if they continued their good works and remained faithful, they would gain true peace, as the Lord would reward them with eternal glory and joy with Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on this, and as we remember how many people have faithfully obeyed the Lord, and had to suffer in order to bring the truth of the Gospel and the Good News to all the peoples, including to us, let us all remember that their works have not been completed, as even now, there are still many more people out there who have not yet received or welcomed the truths found in the word of God.

Let us all remember this as we continue to live out our lives today. There are many more people whom we can help, by our good works and efforts, to spread the truths of the Gospel, the message of God’s peace and love. There are still so many anguish, sorrow, anger, hatred and all sorts of negativities in this world, because people cannot find in them God’s love and peace.

Let us all therefore, work together, in order to bring the peace of God to all peoples, to all the nations, as the Lord had commanded us. Let us all place our complete trust in God, knowing that He will give us all true peace, and let us share that peace we have with one another. Let us all bring our brethren out of the darkness of sin, and into the new light of God, into a new life blessed by the peace of God, that all of us may find our way towards that peace we long for.

May all of us endeavour from now on to seek true peace and joy found in the Lord alone, and not be distracted by all the desires and false peace that the world offers us. May the Lord help us on our journey of faith, and help us all to live faithfully in accordance with His will. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.