Four Evangelists

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Tuesday, 25 April 2017 : Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 88 : 2-3, 6-7, 16-17

I will sing forever, o Lord, of Your love and proclaim Your faithfulness from age to age. I will declare how steadfast is Your love, how firm Your faithfulness.

The heavens proclaim Your wonders, o Lord; the assembly of the holy ones recalls Your faithfulness. Who in the skies can compare with the Lord; who of the heaven-born is like Him?

Blessed is the people who know Your praise. They walk in the light of Your face. They celebrate all day Your Name and Your protection lifts them up.

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Tuesday, 25 April 2017 : Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
1 Peter 5 : 5b-14

All of you must clothe yourself with humility in your dealings with one another, because God opposes the proud but gives His grace to the humble. Bow down, then, before the power of God so that He will raise you up at the appointed time. Place all your worries on Him since He takes care of you.

Be sober and alert because your enemy the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Stand your ground, firm in your faith, knowing that our brothers and sisters, scattered throughout the world, are confronting similar sufferings. God, the Giver of all grace, has called you to share in Christ’s eternal Glory and after you have suffered a little He will bring you to perfection : He will confirm, strengthen and establish You forever. Glory be to Him forever and ever. Amen.

I have had these few lines of encouragement written to you by Silvanus, our brother, whom I know to be trustworthy. For I wanted to remind you of the kindness of God really present in all this. Hold on to it. Greetings from the community in Babylon, gathered by God, and from my son, Mark. Greet one another with a friendly embrace. Peace to you all who are in Christ.

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Tuesday, 18 October 2016 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the commemoration of the great feast day in honour of St. Luke, one of the writers of the Four Holy Gospels, the Gospel according to St. Luke, which was known as one of the most detailed among the four Gospels, filled with rich details about the life of Jesus our Lord, His works, His family and His disciples, and all other testimonies of faith that helped us to know what our Lord had taught us through His Church.

In today’s readings, we heard about the works of the Apostles and the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the works of St. Paul the Apostle, who went about to many places, cities, towns and villages throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, crossing back and forth between Greece and the Roman province of Asia, Syria and Judea, he had proclaimed the word of God in many occasions, testifying to the communities in the places he had visited about the Lord and Saviour of the world.

In the Gospel we also heard how Jesus sent His chosen seventy-two disciples who had been appointed to assist the twelve Apostles in the deliverance of the Good News to the people, and these helped the work of the Lord by preparing those people and communities for the coming of the Lord Jesus, that when He came, He would be able to relate better to them and many more of them would listen to Him and be saved.

And as Jesus had foretold, their works and missions were not to be easy, but instead many obstacles and challenges exist on their path. There would be those who welcomed them into their places, and many more would listen to them and be changed in accordance to what the Lord intended for these, but there were also to be many more who would refuse to listen to God’s call, rejecting the call to repentance and mercy.

There would be those who were obstinate and stubborn in following the path of the world, worshipping pagan idols and being devoted to worldly pursuits such as money, power, fame and all other things, and these would come to oppose the Lord and His disciples, and in time, would come to persecute them, to chase them away from their lands, and to torture them, imprison them, and even to make them meet their end in martyrdom.

But without those courageous disciples and Apostles of our Lord, who have given their all to bring the Good News to the people who were still living in ignorance and in the darkness, there would have been no Church, and no salvation and grace for the countless souls who had been saved because of their works. Their blood, the spilling of their blood and the destruction of their mortal bodies served to be the foundation of the Church, as the saying goes, that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.

How is this relevant for us all, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because we all are the current day’s Apostles and disciples, whom the Lord had continued to entrust the same mission which He had given to His Apostles and disciples as mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. We may be thinking that their works had been completed and the mission was over, but in reality, the mission God had entrusted to us is still very much real and ongoing.

We may not have to lay down our lives in the manner of the Apostles and the disciples of our Lord at that time in the early days of the Church, but we have to realise that there are places in this world where being a Christian, and believing in our God may equate to suffering and being persecuted even unto death, when even the enemies of the Lord will not show mercy to the faithful.

And there are also still so many of our brethren who still live in the darkness, lacking knowledge and understanding of our Lord and His salvation. And we can devote ourselves in the many ways available to us in accordance with our talents and abilities, and in terms of what we are willing and what we are able to give to our brethren who are in need of guidance and help.

We can start little from ourselves, be good and faithful disciples of our Lord, who shun all forms of fornications and sins, be it of the flesh, or of the mind and the heart. We can be charitable and be generous with all those whom we meet along the way, who need help with sustenance, with care, love and attention, and also most importantly, those who have not received the message and truth about God’s salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, may the examples of St. Luke and the other saints, Apostles, disciples and holy martyrs be inspirations for all of us to follow in their footsteps, so that by doing what they have done, and by staying devoted and being faithful in all things, and beginning from whatever little and simple things that we can do in our own surroundings, may we all work together to bring the enlightenment to many others and that many more souls may be saved through our work and dedication. May God bless us all and our endeavours. Amen.

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Tuesday, 18 October 2016 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Luke 10 : 1-9

At that time, the Lord appointed seventy-two other disciples, and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place, where He Himself was to go. And He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So you must ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers to His harvest.”

“Courage! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Set off without purse or bag or sandals, and do not stop at the homes of those you know. Whatever house you enter, first bless them, saying, ‘Peace to this house!’ If a friend of peace lives there, the peace shall rest upon that person. But if not, the blessing will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking at their table, for the worker deserves to be paid. Do not move from house to house.”

“When they welcome you to any town, eat what they offer you. Heal the sick who are there, and say to them : ‘The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.'”

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Tuesday, 18 October 2016 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 144 : 10-11, 12-13ab, 17-18

All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o Lord, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your power.

That all may know of Your mighty deeds, Your reign and its glorious splendour. Your reign is from age to age; Your dominion endures from generation to generation.

Righteous is the Lord in all His ways, His mercy shows in all His deeds. He is near those who call on Him, who call trustfully upon His Name.

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Tuesday, 18 October 2016 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
2 Timothy 4 : 10-17b

You must know that Demas has deserted me for the love of this world : he returned to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke remains with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is a useful helper in my work. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

Bring with you the cloak I left at Troas, in Carpos’ house and also the scrolls, especially the parchments. Alexander the metalworker has caused me great harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. Distrust him for he has been very much opposed to our preaching.

At my first hearing in court no one supported me; all deserted me. May the Lord not hold it against them. But the Lord was at my side, giving me strength to proclaim the Word fully, and let all the pagans hear it.

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Wednesday, 21 September 2016 : Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate together the feast day of St. Matthew the Apostle, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ our Lord, His principal disciples, who was also one of the four writers of the Holy Gospels as St. Matthew the Evangelist. Today we glorify the memory of this holy Apostle of God, who have worked hard and contributed so much to the advancement of the cause of the Lord, and through whom many souls have been saved.

But as we all should notice in the Scripture readings and in what we knew of the history of St. Matthew, which he wrote himself in his own Gospel, is that he was once a great sinner and even was rejected by his own people. He was known also as Levi, a tax collector, whose task in those times was to collect the taxes on behalf of the Romans, who have come to rule over the land of Judea and Israel. And many resented him and his fellow tax collectors for this very reason.

The tax collectors were seen as people of greed and money, and they were resented and despised by many because they were seen as collaborators and even traitors to the nation of the Jews, as they served the needs and wishes of the Roman conquerors, and even collected taxes on their behalf. No one certainly like to pay taxes, and not least to those who have been seen as pagan overlords by the Jews who that time had strong desire to be free.

And the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in particular resented them and looked down on them because they saw these tax collectors as sinners beyond the mercy of God. They scorned and treated these tax collectors with contempt, thinking that they alone deserve salvation from God because of their piety and faith in observing all the commandments of God in the laws of Moses.

And yet, God through His Apostle St. Matthew and his other disciples, including St. Mary Magdalene wanted to show these people, that His salvation is extended to all peoples, and all who desire to be forgiven and to be redeemed from their sins have equal chance in gaining the eternal life and grace promised to mankind by God. He wanted to let us know that as long as we are willing to change ourselves, the way will always be open for us.

We have to realise, brothers and sisters in Christ, that even great saints were once great sinners too. There is no man who has been born without sin, save for our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, for He is God ever perfect and good, and His mother Mary, whom the Lord had prepared specially to be the bearer and Ark of the New Covenant in Christ our Lord. All others have sinned in their lives, be it small or major.

What matters is that they, that is all of us as well, have to change our ways, that we sin no more and commit no more abhorrent and wicked things in the sight of God. St. Matthew was once a tax collector named Levi, but once the Lord called him as He passed by his booth, he left everything behind, his workplace, his work, his money, possessions, and even his old name, taking up for himself the greater reward found in the Lord alone.

We too can follow in his footsteps, and in our own way, dedicate ourselves to help the Lord and His cause in His Church. St. Matthew used his great intellect and the gift given to him by the Lord, the guidance of the Holy Spirit in order to write the account of the life and the works of Jesus and His Apostles, which we now know as the Gospel of St. Matthew, through which many have been saved and brought to the justification in God.

We ourselves can devote our time, effort and attention to serve the Lord and His people, evangelising His Good News to the whole world, through our own words, actions and deeds. And in this, it is imperative that all of us take heed that our own actions and deeds matter a lot, since how else would people believe in what we are preaching and teaching to them about the Lord, if we ourselves do not practice and do what the Lord had asked us to do?

Therefore, brethren, as we rejoice in the glory of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, and in all of God’s holy saints and people, let us all follow the Lord with all of our heart and minds, following the example of St. Matthew who left everything in order to follow the Lord his God, giving his all to the new cause to which he has been called.

Let us all renew our faith and commitment to God, and devote ourselves ever more to help the works of the Church, caring for the less fortunate and the needy, loving those who have been ostracised and hated, and showing mercy on our brethren, forgiving those who have brought us pain, misery and suffering. May the Lord help us in these endeavours. Amen.

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Wednesday, 21 September 2016 : Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Matthew 9 : 9-13

At that time, as Jesus moved on from where He cured a paralytic man, He saw a man named Matthew at his seat in the custom house, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And Matthew got up and followed Him.

Now it happened, while Jesus was at table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is it that your Master eats with sinners and tax collectors?”

When Jesus heard this, He said, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. Go and find out what this means : What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

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Wednesday, 21 September 2016 : Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 18 : 2-3, 4-5

The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Day talks it over with day; night hands on the knowledge to night.

No speech, no words, no voice is heard – but the call goes on throughout the universe, the message is felt to the ends of the earth.

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Wednesday, 21 September 2016 : Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Ephesians 4 : 1-7, 11-13

Therefore I, the prisoner of Christ, invite you to live the vocation you have received. Be humble, kind, patient, and bear with one another in love. Make every effort to keep among you the unity of Spirit through bonds of peace. Let there be one body and one spirit, for God, in calling you, gave the same Spirit to all.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God, the Father of all, Who is above all and works through all and is in all. But to each of us divine grace is given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. As for His gifts, to some He gave to be Apostles, to others prophets, or even evangelists, or pastors and teachers.

So He prepared those who belong to Him for the ministry, in order to build up the Body of Christ, until we are all united in the same faith and knowledge of the Son of God. Thus we shall become the perfect Man, upon reaching maturity and sharing the fullness of Christ.