Fourth Sunday of Easter

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Tuesday, 13 May 2014 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial Feast of our Lady of Fatima (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 11 : 19-26

Those who had been scattered because of the persecution over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message, but only to the Jews. But there were some natives of Cyprus and Cyrene among them who, on coming into Antioch, spoke also to the Greeks, giving them the Good News of the Lord Jesus.

The hand of the Lord was with them so that a great number believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the manifest signs of God’s favour, he rejoiced and urged them all to remain firmly faithful to the Lord; for he himself was a good man filled with Holy Spirit and faith. Thus large crowds came to know the Lord.

Then Barnabas went off to Tarsus to look for Saul and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they had meetings with the Church and instructed many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

 

Alternative Reading (Mass of our Lady of Fatima)

 

Isaiah 61 : 9-11

Their descendants shall be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a race YHVH has blessed.

I rejoice greatly in YHVH, my soul exults for joy in my God, for He has clothed me in the garments of His salvation, He has covered me with the robe of His righteousness, like a bridegroom wearing a garland, like a bride adorned with jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its growth, and as a garden makes seeds spring up, so will the Lord YHVH make justice and praise spring up in the sight of all nations.

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Monday, 12 May 2014 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus, Martyrs, and St. Pancras, Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are affirmed with the love of the Lord, who had given us that love through His gift of Jesus, His only beloved Son to us, as a fitting sacrificial victim and the intermediary between us sinners to He who is perfect in heaven. Through Christ all were made worthy of the Lord and were promised the glorious eternal life in heaven.

Yes, and this promise was extended to all mankind, to all the beloved creations of the Lord Most High, and not just to a certain group of people. If we read the Old Testament, it is very easy for us to have the misconception that the people of Israel, or the Jews, are the chosen people of God, whom the Lord chose over all the other nations.

God did choose the descendants of Jacob, and therefore, the descendants of Abraham, to be His first chosen, to be the ones to whom He first revealed Himself to, and the ones to whom He revealed His will and His love. But this does not mean that God excludes all the other nations from His love. He loved them equally just the same, just as we have our breath of life every single moments of our lives.

The shepherd, Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd of all the people of God, did not choose favourites among His people. Indeed, He came first to the Jews, just as His Father had first chosen them to be His people. But this does not mean that His salvation is intended only for them to the exclusion and damnation of all the other nations.

He loves us all, and wishes us all to be saved, and therefore, that is why He commended the disciples to go and spread the Good News to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. That is His intention, and He desires that we all be reunited with God in eternal bliss of splendour and happiness. And thus, He sanctifies all mankind through His death and resurrection.

We must never be haughty and judge ourselves, just like the Jews who thought themselves of being worthy of salvation, because they misunderstood the intentions and actions of the Lord as one of favouritism, particularly the chief priests and the Pharisees. They judged themselves worthy and condemned others who did not share their opinions, to the point of persecuting Jesus and His followers in their ministry.

God showed His mercy to mankind, and He forgave them all, on the account of His love and dedication for them. The Lord is loving to all, and He readily shows His love for us all. He comforts us when we suffer and when we are sad, and He lifts us up when we fall down into despair and hopelessness. He shows His care for us without any discrimination.

Today we celebrate the feast of many saints, namely St. Nereus and Achilles, as well as St. Pancras, all of whom were slaves and servants of the Empress or Augusta of the early era Roman Empire. They were the servants of the wife of the Emperor Domitian or Domitianus, who was infamous for his great persecutions against the faithful and the Church, who carried out the one of the great persecution against the Church.

They were martyred in the defense of their faith, and they refused to recant their devotion and commitment to the Lord. They stayed faithful to the end and received holy martyrdom, and now they are revered by us in the Church as saints of the holy Church, worthy of heaven and interceding for our sake daily before the Lord.

In their example, we see how even the people considered to be unworthy by many in Jesus’ time can become saints and holy martyrs, by their following of the teachings of the Lord and by walking faithfully in His ways. Thus, we too should not be afraid and instead, walk courageously in the footsteps of these holy men to be also faithful disciples of the Lord and be courageous in our works, that we may bring even more souls to salvation.

May the Lord open our minds and hearts today, that we will learn to be inclusive and not to exclude others or be judgmental, and instead be humble in seeking the Lord’s forgiveness and love. May He guide us always that we may approach ever closer to His throne of mercy and to His loving embrace. Amen.

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Monday, 12 May 2014 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus, Martyrs, and St. Pancras, Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 10 : 11-18

I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Not so the hired hand, or any other person who is not the shepherd, and to whom the sheep do not belong. They abandon the sheep as soon as they see the wolf coming; then the wolf snatches and scatters the sheep. This is because the hired hand works for pay and cares nothing for the sheep.

I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. Because of this, I give My life for My sheep. I have other sheep which are not of this fold. These I have to lead as well, and they shall listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock, since there is one Shepherd.

The Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down freely. It is Mine to lay down and to take up again : this mission I received from My Father.

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Monday, 12 May 2014 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus, Martyrs, and St. Pancras, Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 41 : 2-3 and Psalm 42 : 3, 4

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for You, o God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I go and see the face of God?

Send forth Your light and Your truth; let them be my guide, let them take me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You reside.

Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my gladness and delight. I will praise You with the lyre and harp, o God, my God.

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Monday, 12 May 2014 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus, Martyrs, and St. Pancras, Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 11 : 1-18

News came to the Apostles and the brothers and sisters in Judea that even foreigners had received the Word of God. So, when Peter went up to Jerusalem, these Jewish believers began to argue with him, “You went to the home of uncircumcised people and ate with them!”

So Peter began to give them the facts as they had happened, “I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when in a trance, I saw a vision. Something like a large sheet came down from the sky and drew near to me, landing on the ground by its four corners.”

“As I stared at it, I saw four-legged creatures of the earth, wild beasts and reptiles, and birds of the sky. Then I heard a voice saying to me : ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat!’ I replied, ‘Certainly not, Lord! No common or unclean creature has ever entered my mouth.'”

“A second time the voice from the heavens spoke, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.’ This happened three times, and then it was all drawn up into the sky. At that moment three men, who had been sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were staying. The Spirit instructed me to go with them without hesitation; so these six brothers came along with me and we entered into the man’s house.”

“He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and telling him : ‘Send someone to Joppa and fetch Simon, also known as Peter. He will bring you a message by which you and all your household will be saved.'”

“I had begun to address them when suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon them, just as It had come upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said : ‘John baptised with water, but you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’ If, then, God had given them the same gift that He had given us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to resist God?”

When they heard this they set their minds at rest and praised God saying, “Then God has granted life-giving repentance to the pagan nations as well.”

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Sunday, 11 May 2014 : 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday and World Day of Prayer for Vocations (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Fear not, brothers and sisters in Christ! And be confident in Christ, everyone! Indeed, if we put our trust in the Lord, we have no reason to fear, for God is with us and He is on our side. God is the Good Shepherd who knows all of His sheep and who loves every single one of His sheep equally. He is genuinely concerned about each one of us, and He seeks none other than our reconciliation and reunion with Him.

Yes, the Lord will care for us and take care for us, and He will provide us everything we need, just as He had provided us with plentiful graces all these while. He knows each and every one of us, and thus, He also knows of our needs. He is not like Satan, the one who is the robber and the thief, who came pretending to be someone whom we can follow, who pretended to be our shepherd while he is not.

For Satan has in his disposal all the powers of the world, all of the wealth and riches that he can have and marshall at a whim, and to those of us who falls into his temptations, Satan offered mankind much pleasures of the world and things that help us to keep away from the path God had designed for us. But he does not care for us, for he is the false shepherd. In fact, it pleases him to see us stumble and suffer as a consequence of our waywardness by following him.

God is our true shepherd, because He leads by example. He showed us His love not just by mere sweet words or empty promises, as Satan had done and will continue to do, in his attempt to seduce us to follow his false path. God led by example and showed us concrete care and love, through none other than Jesus Christ, His own Son, whom He sent to us to be with us, and to walk among us, as our Shepherd, to guide us from where we err and from where we are lost.

If we follow Jesus, we can be sure that we will not be lost. If we follow Him with all of our hearts, we can only prosper and be happy. God has prepared all that we need before us, and He set out to bring us back into His flock. Yes, we are His lost sheep, lost in the wilderness and the darkness of this world. If we remember the parable of the shepherd and the lost sheep, we know how much effort the shepherd put in, in order to regain the lost one.

Such was therefore, the same effort which the Lord God our Shepherd put in, to find us and return us back into His loving embrace. Yes, to the point of giving Himself to us, dedicating His works which He made through Jesus, and going all the way to Calvary, enduring all the rejection and oppression just so that we may be saved. Such was His love for us, that He was willing to go through all that trouble for us.

The way to Calvary is the pathway of suffering, when our Lord and Shepherd endured for our sake the punishments. Always remember that whenever we look upon the crucifix, the Shepherd who is so dedicated to us, His sheep, that He laid down His life for us. Remember again, brethren! Jesus did not just make any empty promises or words. He truly meant what He said when He mentioned that a good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep.

Jesus gave Himself for us that we may avoid our fate that is death. If this is likened to sheep in a flock, it is like the sheep being threatened by certain death when wolves prey on them. And this is when the shepherd comes in between the sheep and the wolves, shielding them from harm, and while the shepherd is injured to the point of death, he also routed and killed the wolves, so that no more harm will come to the sheep.

But what is different is that for our case, the shepherd who gave his life for us, and who died for our sins, did not remain dead, but rose from the dead in glory, and in doing so, He became the guide who led us out of the darkness and into the light of new life, just as the shepherd leads the sheep into the eternal spring of life-giving and crystal-clear water. In the green pastures the shepherd let the sheep roam free in joy and happiness. Such is the promise of new life that Christ grant unto us.

Today we rejoice in the Lord who is our Good Shepherd, and who has done so much for us, His sheep. But not only just that, in His place, He had appointed many shepherds to care for us in His stead, as His representatives and the extension of His hands’ works in this world. These shepherds are our priests, bishops, the Cardinals, and eventually the Pope, the vicar of Christ and the chief among Christ’s appointed shepherds.

Today we pray for vocations to this office of shepherds. We pray for more young men, to be motivated to heed the call of the Lord for those who had been called and chosen by God to be His helpers and assistants in guiding and leading His people in the path towards righteousness. We pray for more vocations to arise among our young men today, that they be inspired to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles.

Indeed, it is even more urgent these days, and how true is the saying, that the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. This world has much opportunities for us to do the great works of the Lord, but increasingly, there are fewer and fewer workers of the Lord available to take care of His ever growing flock of sheep and wider pastures.

Less and less men are attracted to this vocation, as they are lured and tempted by the sweet offers of the pleasures of this world, through which Satan intends to do harm to us, by attacking the shepherds of the flock. Without the shepherds, the sheep will be scattered and become easy prey to the works of the devil, the waiting, ever-hungry wolves seeking to devour us, the sheep.

May God therefore awaken in the hearts of many people, and including those among us whom He had chosen to be His shepherds, that we may accept His calling with great humility and dedication, for the sake and the good of our brethren, our fellow men. May God bless us all, and strengthen our faith in Him, empowering us to be His faithful followers. Amen.

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Sunday, 11 May 2014 : 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday and World Day of Prayer for Vocations (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 10 : 1-10

Truly, I say to you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. But the shepherd of the sheep enters by the gate. The keeper opens the gate to him and the sheep hear his voice; he calls each of his sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but rather they will run away from him, because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.

Jesus used this comparison, but they did not understand what He was saying to them. So Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, I am the gate of the sheep. All who came were thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not hear them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through Me will be saved; He will go in and out freely and find food.”

“The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life, life in all its fullness.”

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Sunday, 11 May 2014 : 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday and World Day of Prayer for Vocations (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Peter 2 : 20b-25

But if you endure punishment when you have done well, that is a grace before God.

This is your calling : remember Christ who suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you may follow in His way. He did no wrong and there was no deceit in His mouth. He did not return insult for insult and, when suffering, He did not curse but put Himself in the hands of God who judges justly.

He went to the cross bearing our sins on His own body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live an upright life. For by His wounds you have been healed. You were like stray sheep, but you have come back to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

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Sunday, 11 May 2014 : 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday and World Day of Prayer for Vocations (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 22 : 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul.

He guides me through the right paths for His Name’s sake. Although I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are beside me : Your rod and Your staff comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of my foes. You anoint my head with oil; my cup is overflowing.

Goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

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Sunday, 11 May 2014 : 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday and World Day of Prayer for Vocations (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 2 : 14a, 36-41

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, and with a loud voice, addressed them, “Let Israel then know for sure that God has made Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified.”

When they heard this, they were deeply troubled. And they asked Peter and the other Apostles, “What shall we do, brothers?”

Peter answered, “Each of you must repent and and be baptised in the Name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise of God was made to you and your children, and to all those from afar whom our God may call.”

With many other words Peter gave the message and appealed to them saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who accepted his word were baptised; some three thousand persons were added to their number that day.