Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us listened from the readings of the Sacred Scriptures in which we are reminded of the need for all of us to centre our lives on the Lord, to put our whole activities and everything that we do in Him, so that we will always continue to journey together with Him, doing everything that we can to glorify Him through each and every moments of our lives. We should allow the Lord to lead us in our paths in life and not to be distracted by all sorts of worldly ambitions and desires that may lead us astray through selfishness and sin. Each and every one of us as Christians should always be good role models and examples for one another, to be faithful and worthy bearers of our Christian faith at all times.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Leviticus, we heard of the instructions from the Lord to His people through Moses in which He detailed the various Festivals and celebrations that the people should partake in throughout the whole year. There were the Festival of the Unleavened Bread, marking the time of the original Passover in Egypt and its aftermath, when the people of Israel brought unleavened bread with them as they hurried on their way out of Egypt, with no time to wait for the bread to set and to rise with the addition of yeast or leaven. There were also the Festival of the Tents, also known as the Sukkot, which in tradition marked the memorial of the time when the Israelites were travelling in the desert, under the open skies and staying in tents, and how these celebrations ought to be celebrated each year according to the tradition and Law of the Lord.

We heard how the Lord detailed the various rules and expectations on how each of the Festivals were to be celebrated. In general each festivals required the people to put their focus and attention on celebrating the events covered in the Festival and taking a break from their usual daily routines and works, much like the Sabbath that is observed on each week. This observation of those Festivals serve as a reminder for all the people of God that their lives and activities should always be done in God’s Presence and that God should always be at the very heart of all things, being reminded to everyone in each and every one of those celebrations, done periodically so that all may know that God is truly present in their midst, and it is also therefore a reminder for all of us to keep God in our lives and our communities as well.

In our own way of life as Christians, we should also remind ourselves of the important Feasts and celebrations of our faith, which are also partly modelled and inspired from the Jewish feasts and festivals. We should keep in mind that as we continue to progress through the liturgical year, marking important events and celebrations that the Church had placed throughout the year, all of us should continue to focus our attention on the Lord as we live our lives and do our actions and activities. We should not allow ourselves to be so preoccupied by our many busy details, pursuits and ambitions in life so that our daily activities and business ended up distancing us and keeping us away from God. And this is why it is important that we should regularly participate in the daily Mass and taking part in the Sacraments.

Then from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus was in Nazareth in Galilee, in His hometown. At that time, the Lord was teaching in the synagogue and spoke with great wisdom and eloquence. But the people of Nazareth, many of whom had known the Lord since He was very young, doubted Him and refused to believe in Him simply because they took offense at the fact that He was merely the Son of the town or village carpenter, a profession that was indeed noble but was very lowly considered at that time, and they thought that a mere carpenter’s Son could not have gained such Wisdom and performed such miraculous wonders and works just as they must have heard from their surrounding regions where the Lord performed His works.

This is where we are reminded that our own human prejudices and arrogance can often come in between us and our faith in the Lord. The people of Nazareth thought that they knew it better because they used their own human judgments and ideas instead of trusting and believing in God. And that was why they failed to believe in Him, just as how many others across Galilee and Judea also refused to believe in the Lord Jesus, like those Pharisees and teachers of the Law, as they allowed themselves to be tempted and swayed by their own ego, pride and ambition, refusing to believe that the Lord could have manifested Himself in a mere carpenter’s Son, the Saviour of the whole world, the prophesied King of Kings and Son of David. And yet, the Lord showed them all that this was indeed the truth, and not their prejudices and false ideas.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori, the famous founder of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer, also known as the Redemptorists. St. Alphonsus Liguori was born in the southern region of Italy, near the city of Naples as the eldest of the seven children of a naval officer. As his health condition prevented him from joining the military like his father, he was prepared for a career as a lawyer, and then he excelled in his education, gaining doctorates in civil and canon law at the mere age of sixteen. He carried out his legal profession for more than a decade but after having experienced a moment of distress when he lost an important case, he felt the calling to leave behind the law profession and then serving the Lord.

That was how he then joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri and desiring to become a priest. He managed to gain his father’s permission despite the latter’s initial opposition, but he did not join the congregation of the Oratory as a compromise, and instead, spent time to serve the poor and the marginalised in his home area of Naples. He became a very popular priest due to his simple and yet touching sermons, which were frequented by many people. He was credited with the foundation of the ‘Evening Chapels’, places like chapels where the faithful gathered for prayers and activities, and also other social and communal activities related to the faith, and where more and more people flocked towards as St. Alphonsus continued to do more wonderful works, and many were turned towards God through his homilies and preaching.

Eventually, as he would later be famous for, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, a religious congregation that was dedicated to the service of the poor and the marginalised, focusing on the work of preaching and teaching in the slums, countryside and in other places where the last, the lost and the least were gathered in. His foundation of this Order of the Redemptorists were also rooted in the then rampant heresy of Jansenism which focused on excessive moral rigorism and blame on the human nature as sinners. Through his efforts and the Redemptorist missionaries, the faithful were reminded of the great love and mercy of God, the Redeemer of all, Who had indeed died for all of our sins, and calling on all those who had been separated and away from the Church to return to the Lord, their Redeemer.

St. Alphonsus Liguori continued to serve the Lord faithfully in various capacities, as the founder and the leader of the Redemptorists first and foremost, and then later on in his ministry as a bishop when he was appointed by the Pope as the Bishop of Sant’ Agata de Goti in the southern part of Italy. He was a humble man, who tried to refuse the appointment by citing his age and health problems, but eventually obeyed and faithfully dedicated himself to the missions which had been entrusted to him. He reformed the local church, its seminary and formation of the faithful, addressing various abuses of the clergy and the lack of discipline among those priests, while devoting himself to the care of the poor and the needy in his diocese. He also faced hardships and persecution even from his fellow priests, being dismissed from the very Redemptorist congregation he had founded, but he remained firmly faithful to the very end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by the good life and examples which St. Alphonsus Liguori had shown us all, and as we have been reminded by the readings of the Sacred Scriptures earlier on, let us all strive to put the Lord our God at the very centre of our lives and existence. Let us all be the faithful and worthy bearers of God’s truth and Good News to everyone, and the best way that we can do this is indeed by living our lives most worthily as Christians, in doing everything in accordance to what the Lord Himself had taught and shown us. Let our whole lives bear witness of our great and courageous faith in the Lord, and may God continue to bless us always in everything we do, now and forevermore. Amen.