Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard of the moments when God revealed to His people just how beloved they are, and how faithful He is to His Covenant with us, as we heard in the first reading today from the Book of Genesis how He reaffirmed Abraham of His promises, that He would give him the son that He has promised to be born of Sarah, his wife. Through that son, Isaac, God would make Abraham the father of many nations, just as He promised, and everything did come true eventually.

At that time, Abraham had also managed to sire a child with Sarah’s slave Hagar, upon the instruction made by Sarah herself, as any child born of the wife’s slave would and could be considered as the legal child of the wife. Sarah as well as Abraham were worried that they would not have a child in the end, and hence resorted to such a way to conceive a child, not waiting for the Lord’s promise wholeheartedly.

Yet, despite this, the child born of Abraham and Hagar, named Ishmael, while not the child promised or sanctioned by God, was still blessed by God as we heard in our reading today, still being a child of Abraham, and would eventually become a father of many nations himself. In the end, God fulfilled the promises He had made to His faithful servant, Abraham, above and beyond what He could and should have done.

In our Gospel passage today, then we heard of the Lord at the moment when a leper came to seek Him to be healed, and asked Him to cure him of his predicament. The Lord cured the man and healed him of his leprosy and told him to follow what Moses had commanded to the Israelites on the matter of leprosy and being healed from it. At that time, the Lord did not yet want to reveal Himself and yet, He has pity and love for the leper.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all realise through all that we had heard today, just how beloved we are and how fortunate we are that God wants to love us and make His Covenant with us. It is not only just that but God had also deemed us to be His own beloved children. While we fell into sin and disobeyed Him again and again, He still loved us and while punishing and chastising us, He still helped us and guided us down to the right path, and patiently helped us along the way.

Yet, many of us are still unaware of this fact and many of us still ignore the Lord and refuse to follow the Lord despite all that He had done for us. Many of us Christians ourselves despite what we profess to believe, we have not genuinely and sincerely loved Him in the way we should have. Instead, like Sarah and Abraham, we resorted to other means besides entrusting ourselves fully to the Lord, preferring to do things our own way instead of remembering His promises and reassurances.

This is not what we should be doing, brothers and sisters in Christ. As God’s chosen people, and those whom He has considered as His own people, and blessed all these while, we should begin to appreciate everything that He had done for us. God has loved us all since the very beginning and we have to remember how fortunate we are. God could have destroyed us and crushed us for our insolence, our disobedience and wicked sins, but He is still patient with us, no matter what.

Let us all therefore turn towards the Lord from now on with a renewed heart and love for Him, and let us be ever closer to Him, seeking Him wholeheartedly and dedicating ourselves ever more to Him with each and every passing moments. May the Lord be with us always, and may He bless us in our every good works and endeavours, always, now and forevermore. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are all called to remind ourselves just how much we ought to treasure this faith we have received, the truth that we have been granted with, and all that we have been blessed by God, all these while. We have been so fortunate to be blessed in such a way, and yet many of us are still unaware of this fact, and many of us are ignorant, and instead, we take it all for granted.

In our first reading today, we heard the words of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth, speaking about his experiences and all that he had gone through in order to proclaim the truth of God, all of his labours for the greater glory of God among other things. He shared all the trials, difficulties and challenges that he had to suffer as he went around the Mediterranean, going from places to places preaching the word of God and spreading the truth of His salvation.

He endured all the ridicule, sufferings and torment, all these because he truly loved God and knew that in the Lord alone true joy and hope can come from. St. Paul himself was a famous young Pharisee, who since his youth had firmly believed in the ways of the Pharisees up to the moment of his conversion. As Saul, the young Pharisee, he could have been famous and powerful, influential and respected, as a prospective member of the Sanhedrin no less. And yet, he abandoned all that as he listened to the Lord’s call and walked in His path instead.

This is related to what we have then heard from our Gospel passage today, as we heard the Lord speaking to His disciples with regards to the matter of the treasures that one should seek in life. The Lord told all of them not to seek the treasures of the earth, all the things that can be destroyed by earthly means, by fire and moth and others, and which is not permanent and not the true treasures and joy that we should be seeking for. He told them to seek instead the true treasure that can be found in the Lord alone, and as such, all of those who believe in Him should strive to seek this true treasure of faith.

St. Paul abandoned the false treasures of worldly pride and desires, of worldly fame and glory, of human ambition and greed, which had often misled so many men throughout history, including many of the members of the Pharisees who were swayed by their desire of worldly power and influence, and ended up opposing the Lord and His good works. St. Paul made a conscious and firm decision, entrusting himself in the Lord’s providence and care, and hence, became one of His most ardent and faithful defenders, His champion in the face of the world’s opposition.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, now that we have heard all of these, each and every one of us have been called to reflect on our own way of life. Have we really been truly faithful to the Lord and have we truly entrusted ourselves to Him? Or have we instead allowed the temptations of worldly concerns and desires to dissuade us, distract us and prevent us from reaching the Lord and His salvation? The Lord has called us to follow Him, and yet, there are many obstacles in our journey towards Him, and by remembering what He and His disciple, St. Paul had said, we ought to keep in mind that we should always focus ourselves on the Lord and not be easily dissuaded by those temptations.

Let us all not be easily swayed by our desires or misled by our pride and ambitions, and we should also deepen our relationship with God, that we may be Christians who are truly in communion and united with God, and not just merely Christians in name or formality only. We should answer the Lord’s call with commitment and faith, as St. Paul and the other Apostles once did, and as so many other holy men and women, our holy saints and martyrs who had gone before us, had also done. They all had shown us the way forward as faithful Christians, as those whom God had called and chosen.

Are we all able and willing to follow the Lord wholeheartedly, brothers and sisters in Christ? Let us respond to His call with faith, and let us all seek Him with all of our might, that in all things, we may prioritise Him and seek in Him the true joy, the true treasure of our lives, and not be easily swayed or distracted by the false treasures of worldly temptations and pleasures, the temptations and lies of the devil, among many others. May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen each and every one of us in faith. Amen.