Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 46 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7
Clap your hands, all you peoples; acclaim God with shouts of joy. For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared; He is a great King all over the earth.
He brings peoples under our dominion and puts nations under our feet. He chose our inheritance for us – the pride of Jacob whom He loves!
God ascends amid joyful shouts, the Lord amid trumpet blasts. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 18 : 9-18
One night, in a vision, the Lord said to Paul, “Do not be afraid, but continue speaking and do not be silent, for many people in this city are Mine. I am with you, so no one will harm you.” So Paul stayed a year and a half in that place, teaching the word of God among them.
When Gallio was governor of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the court. And they accused him, “This man tries to persuade us to worship God in ways that are against the Law.”
Paul was about to speak in his own defence when Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of misdeed or vicious crime, I would have to consider your complaint. But since this is a quarrel about teachings and divine names that are proper to your own law, see to it yourselves : I refuse to judge such matters.”
Then the people seized Sosthenes, a leading man of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal; but Gallio paid no attention to it. Paul stayed on with the disciples in Corinth for many days; he then left them and sailed off with Priscilla and Aquila for Syria. And as he was no longer under a vow he had taken, he shaved his head before sailing from Cenchreae.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard more about the commandments of love from God. We continue to be reminded of the care and compassion which God has showered us all the while. He has done so much for us, giving us everything that we need, and He has shown us all these wonderful love so that we too may know what it truly means to love. And this is why He commanded us all to also love in the same way that He has loved us, to follow His examples in love, and practice these in our own lives that we may inspire one another.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles, the accounts of the first Council of Jerusalem, probably the very first gathering and discussion between the elders and the leaders of the Church in its history, which discussed especially the matters of the treatment of the Gentiles who converted to the Christian faith and how they all ought to be living their faith from then on. At that time, the early Church was in fact bitterly divided between several factions.
There were quite a few of those who wanted all the Christian faithful to adopt wholesale the entirety of the very strict observance and interpretation of the Jewish laws, customs and practices, a list of injunctions, rules and regulations that numbered six hundred and thirteen in some accounts. This was especially pushed for by the hardliner Pharisees and the Jewish converts among the early Christian communities. They wanted to preserve their way of faith as how it was before they converted.
On the other hand, there were those who argued and supported for the relaxation of the rules for the Christian faithful, which ought to apply not just for the Gentiles or the non-Jewish people, but also including the Jewish converts themselves, that they ought to abandon the excesses and the irrational faith and piety of their predecessors, and return to the true faith and dedication to God. These were espoused by St. Paul, St. Barnabas and some among the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord who had worked extensively among the Gentiles.
In the end, the dispute was brought before the Apostles and all the assembly of the faithful in Jerusalem, and by the guidance and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, as well as through the leadership of St. Peter the Apostle as the Lord’s Vicar and leader of the entire Church, the whole Council and Assembly of the faithful agreed to adapt a compromise position that favoured the Gentiles among the Christian converts and population. The decision of the Council put to rest the controversy and conflict among the faithful and agreed that all Christians were to observe the most fundamental aspects of the Law of God, but not the numerous excesses and additions that were irrelevant and oppressive.
All of these echo what the Lord Jesus Himself had told His disciples and also mirrored how He had struggled against the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in their numerous encounters and disagreements. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law pursued a very strict and intolerant version of the Law that made it difficult even for the Jews and the Pharisees themselves to carry out and to fulfil the entirety of the commandments and rules of the Law. And if they had managed to impose these to the Gentiles, it would have brought even greater consequences.
Why is that so? That is because some of the practices of the Jews were seen as uncivilised, barbaric and undesirable by the Gentiles, who saw their practices such as circumcision and the dietary restriction laws as being undesirable and uncivilised if not abhorred and disliked. To enforce the full extent of the Jewish customs and practices would be unacceptable for most of the Gentiles and would have made the already difficult and precarious position and situation of the early Christian Gentiles to be far worse.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all reminded therefore that the Lord wants us to love Him just as He has loved us all, and He has given us all His laws and commandments so that we may know of how we ought to proceed forward in life, as a guide to shine light on our path that we may find our way in the darkness of this world. Instead, we misunderstood His intentions and desire, and we end up causing difficulties and troubles for all those who wanted genuinely to love Him and follow Him, like how the excesses of the old Jewish laws and customs almost made it difficult for any non-Jewish people to follow Christ and devote themselves to Him.
How about us, brothers and sisters in Christ? Have we ourselves loved God sincerely and with devotion so far? Or have we instead allowed our ego and our attachments to worldly desires, or our stubbornness to be stumbling blocks in our path towards God? This is why today we are called yet again to remember our calling to be filled with love and to love our fellow brothers and sisters, to be loving and to be genuine with our actions and love towards one another, that we do not just think about ourselves and our own selfish desires and wants, but we must also consider of the needs of our fellow brethren, especially those who are in need.
God has loved us so much, and He has been willing to reach out to us, to touch our lives and to help bring us out of our predicament, sending no less than His own Son to be our Saviour and to deliver us from the scourge of sin and death. His love is precious for us, and by His love, His most willing and painful sacrifice on the Cross, He showed us what it means by true, selfless and divine love, and He wants each and every one of us to learn more of that same love, that we may love God Himself and also one another, to exist once again in the fullness of His grace as He has intended for us.
Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, how about all of us? Are we willing to go the extra mile to show the love of God to our fellow men and to share His love and joy that more and more people may come to realise of His love and compassion, and therefore come to believe also in God? We have our calling and responsibility as Christians to respond to this call with love and to show love and compassion in our every words, actions and deeds. Let us all do this, brothers and sisters in Christ, especially in our world these days, with so much darkness and despair all around us.
Let us bear the light and love of Christ, His salvation and the hope in His grace to all people, and let us reach out to our fellow brethren with genuine love, that we may truly be recognised as God’s beloved children and people. May God bless each and every one of us, and may He strengthen us in our resolve to live our lives with faith, now and forevermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 15 : 12-17
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “This is My commandment : Love one another as I have loved you! There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for one’s friends; and you are My friends, if you do what I command you.”
“I shall not call You servants any more, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learnt from My Father.”
“You did not choose Me; it was I Who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And everything you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you. This is My command, that you love one another.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 56 : 8-9, 10-12
My heart is steadfast, o God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make music. Awake, my soul, awake, o harp and lyre! I will wake the dawn.
I will give thanks to You, o Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praise to You among the nations. For Your love reaches to the heavens, and Your faithfulness, to the clouds.
Be exalted, o God, above the heavens! Let Your Glory be over all the earth!
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day from the words of the Sacred Scriptures, all of us heard the message of truth and hope, the message of God’s salvation that He has revealed to us through Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. In what we have heard today, we heard the reassurances from God that He will always be faithful to the Covenant which He had made with us and He will always provide for us and what we need, and He will not abandon us to destruction.
In our first reading we continue to hear the story of the encouragements that St. Paul spoke to the Jewish community in Antioch in Pisidia, telling them of bow although the people in Jerusalem had treated Jesus, the Messiah and Lord badly, rejecting Him and condemning Him to death, a most painful and humiliating death on the Cross, but God has turned all of that into joy and salvation, as everything had indeed been part of His plan of saving us mankind.
God has loved us so much and provided us with so much all these while, brothers and sisters in Christ, and we have to understand and appreciate all of these. But God has been always so patient with us despite all of our disobedience and lack of faith. He has given us reassurances again and again, as He said to His disciples in our Gospel passage today, to trust Him and to put their faith in Him despite the doubts they might have had. St. Thomas, one of the Apostles, ever the doubter and last one to believe expectantly asked the Lord if they should trust in Him.
And the Lord said that He is indeed the Way, the Truth and the Life. It means that the Lord is the only Way for us to go forward, and He is the Truth that all of us should be following, and the Life that we have all been looking for. The Lord is the heart of our existence and everything we have, have come from Him. It is just that many of us have been ignorant of this truth, and we prefer to follow our own path and way rather than to trust in God and obey Him.
That is why on these days, when the world is indeed filled with so much darkness, uncertainty and fears all abound, when everyone are so frightened and worried over so many things, we must be the bearers of the Good News of the Lord’s hope, truth and salvation. We must be the beacons of God’s light in the midst of all these darkness, at we may shine God’s light on all who have been afflicted by the darkness, that everyone may have hope again, and hope that lasts because this hope comes from God.
There are many people out there who are in despair and low on hope, low on love and care, and it may be up to us to show them the way out of their despair, and to bring God’s love, compassion and encouragement to them. This is why we should really have that strong and genuine faith in each one of us that we may truly proclaim God’s glory through our every day lives and actions. As Christians we have been called to bring hope to our fellow men in their moments of distress and to help others to know God and to find Him when they are in need.
Let us therefore put our complete trust in God from now on, knowing that in Him alone we can find true way and path out of the predicaments and trials we are facing now. We must believe that God will help and guide us in our journey, and if we trust in Him we shall not be disappointed. We must ourselves be patient, because everything will happen as God wills it, and God wants only the best for us. Let us all keep up our hope in Him and trust in Him no matter how difficult our lives and conditions may be at the moment.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all bring the hope of Christ into our lives, by living our lives to the fullest, showing care and concern for the least, the last and the lonely among us. Let us touch the lives of others around us, through our own faith and inspiring examples. Let us fear no more and follow the Lord in the path that He is showing us. Let us trust in Him, our Way, our Truth and our Life from now on.
May God be with us always and may He guide us in this journey of faith and in our lives. May He bless us all, now and always in our every good works and endeavours, and may He help us all to bring His hope and light to our fellow brothers and sisters that the Light He has brought unto us may triumph over the darkness of our lives. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 14 : 1-6
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Do not be troubled! Trust in God and trust in Me! In My Father’s house there are many rooms; otherwise, I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. After I have gone and prepared a place for you, I shall come again and take you to Me, so that where I am, you also may be. Yet you know the way where I am going.”
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 2 : 6-7, 8-9, 10-11
“Behold the King I have installed, in Zion, upon My holy hill!” I will proclaim the decree of the Lord. He said to Me : “You are My Son. This day I have begotten You.”
“Ask of Me and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall rule them with iron sceptre and shatter them as a potter’s vase.”
Now therefore, learn wisdom, o kings; be warned, o rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and fall at His feet; lest He be angry and you perish when His anger suddenly flares. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 13 : 26-33
Paul said to the Jews in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia, “Brothers, children and descendants of Abraham, and you also who fear God, it is to you that this message of salvation has been sent. It is a fact that the inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognise Jesus.”
“Yet in condemning Him, they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath but not understood. Even though they found no charge against Him that deserved death, they asked Pilate to have Him executed. And after they have carried out all that had been written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.”
But God raised Him from the dead, and for many days thereafter He showed Himself to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They have now become His witnesses before the people. We ourselves announce to you this Good News : All that God promised our ancestors, He has fulfilled for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus, according to what is written in the second psalm : You are My Son, this day I have begotten You.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, the first day of the month of May, which is celebrated all across the world as the Labour Day and May Day, the Church celebrates the great feast of the Patron of all workers, namely that of St. Joseph the Worker, a great saint and one of the most important figures in the Church as the Foster-Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. St. Joseph the Worker was also upright, virtuous and good in all the things he had done, a hardworking servant of God in all things.
St. Joseph is the Protector of the Universal Church for the important roles he had taken up in his life, in his tireless efforts to protect his family, the young Baby Jesus and His mother Mary. St. Joseph was the one who brought the Holy Family safely first to Bethlehem, when Mary gave birth to the Lord Jesus in a stable, and then later on, St. Joseph brought them to Egypt on the run from king Herod the Great and his agents trying to have the Lord Jesus murdered. It was also him who then brought them all back to Nazareth, where St. Joseph and Mary raised up Jesus well.
St. Joseph was just a mere carpenter, an occupation that did not earn a lot of money, then as well as even today. Even today, carpenters are often forgotten and easily overlooked, and they are even looked down upon and disrespected by many segments of the community. St. Joseph was a poor carpenter of a small village of Nazareth, a backwater area in the whole Jewish world and even more so in the greater world. Galilee, where Nazareth was, was at the periphery of the Jewish lands, and many of the people in Judea and Jerusalem looked down on the Galileans because of that, and all the more for a poor, unknown carpenter like St. Joseph.
Yet, St. Joseph was full of virtues and faith, and he dedicated his life to the service of God, raising the Lord Himself as his own foster Son, with great dedication and hardwork, not minding his reputation and anything else. He did his work for the greater glory of God and not for his own personal ambitions, glory or desires. Normally these are what most people would have sought for and desired over, such things like glory, wealth, reputation, fame among others, but not so for St. Joseph.
That is why we all look up at St. Joseph, the Worker, as the Patron saint of all workers and everyone in the workforce and in various employments. He is our great role model in how he lived his life, in how he devoted himself and his work to God, and in his tireless pursuit of the glorification of God rather than his own glory, vanity and power. That is why today, we celebrate the great virtues by which St. Joseph had lived his life and carried out his missions and efforts dutifully throughout his life.
Today, therefore, as we commemorate this Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, let us first of all remember all workers all around the world, in various occupations, particularly all those who are struggling with their work and all those who are about to lose their employment or rice bowl of income. We know of just how devastating the current terrible coronavirus pandemic had been to many workers in various sectors of employment and the society, how many businesses and companies had folded and closed down because of this pandemic as well as other issues.
Let us remember them in our prayers and ask St. Joseph the Worker to intercede for their sake, that the Lord will be with them all and guide them through these difficult times, that hopefully they will be able to find their good way out of their current predicament. And therefore, we also must not forget all those who are now working tirelessly to sustain themselves and their families, all those who are employed in the essential services and also all those who are trying their best to sustain their families in this great and needy moments.
We should also ask St. Joseph the Worker to intercede for all of our frontline workers, all those healthcare workers and all the personnel involved in the frontline of the battle against the pandemic, as well as others involved in the planning and the efforts to maintain the whole communities of people under these most difficult and challenging of times. Let us ask for the intercession of St. Joseph the Worker that through him, the Lord may be moved to show His mercy, compassion and love to all of us suffering now.
And lastly, let us all ourselves be inspired by the great examples set by St. Joseph the Worker in his life, his virtues and his dedication to the Lord. Let us all be shining examples of virtue and good work ourselves, by living our lives following the good examples of St. Joseph, by being faithful in all things, upright and virtuous in our actions and dealings, in how we interact with one another, and more. Let us all strive to be ever more faithful with each and every passing moments of our lives.
May the Lord continue to guide us and bless us in our works and efforts, and may He show us His mercy and love, particularly during these most difficult and challenging moments we are encountering at the moment. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 