Friday

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Friday, 10 May 2019 : 3rd Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we begin the discourse on the conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, who was once Saul, a great enemy and persecutor of the faithful, who is truly the unlikeliest of all people to become a champion of the faithful. Yet, that was what God willed for Saul, as he was called to leave behind his former life and existence, and to embrace a new life and purpose as God’s chosen servant.

Saul persecuted the Church and the early Christians so greatly that people feared even the mere utterance of his name and it was initially very difficult for the faithful to accept the fact that suddenly this great enemy of Christ and His Church has become the follower of Christ. But that was what God had done for His people, and what might seem to be impossible to them, is perfectly possible for Him.

Saul encountered the Lord on his way to Damascus, filled with anger, hatred and jealousy against all Christians, in his blind obedience to the Law and the way the Law was observed by his Pharisee fellows, and as a result, he acted in rash action against the followers of the Lord, with the desire to bring to justice all those who believed in God. But God touched his heart and opened his mind, making a profound change in the direction of his life forever.

That was how Saul, after the life-changing experience and conversion, went through a moment of reckoning and change, finally accepting the Lord Jesus as his Lord, Master and Saviour, being baptised into the Church and receiving the power of the Holy Spirit. And in all these we surely are able to see how God brought about such a transformation, allowing His grace to work wonders in St. Paul, and the same can also happen to us.

This must be understood together with what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, when the Lord Jesus spoke to the people regarding Himself as the Bread of Life, and the offering of His own flesh and His own Blood, to be the real food and drink for the people that all those who partake in this food, His own Most Precious Body and in His own Most Precious Blood, will share in the new life that He has offered them.

All of us received the Eucharist through the hands of the priest, who offered it in the persona Christi during the consecration at the Holy Mass, through which the bread and wine are changed, transformed and converted completely into the essence and reality of the very Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus spoke to the people that all those who receive the Bread of Life, that is Christ Himself, will receive a new life and not perish, essentially referring to all of us who share in the wonders of His Eucharist.

And this has an even deeper meaning and significance for each and every one of us, as we have to compare what had happened to St. Paul, his conversion and change in life, to that of our own. St. Paul, as Saul, received the Lord and encountered Him in His Presence, and accepted His calling to be His disciple, embracing wholeheartedly a new life that transformed him so completely as we just discussed earlier, so much so that no one could have recognised him, be it his friends or his former targets, the early Christians.

Therefore, all of us are challenged in our own lives, to make the same change and transformation to happen to our own lives, so that, by accepting the Lord and embracing Him fully with love, each and every one of us may be renewed and reconciled with Him, and transformed to be His true disciples, as all those who truly believe in God and love Him with all of our hearts and with all of our might.

Let us all turn to the Lord from now on, dedicating ourselves completely to Him, and let us all show our love towards Him with a new strength and zeal, following in the footsteps of St. Paul, who followed and dedicated himself to God, all of the days of his life. May God be glorified through us, and may He continue to guide us and bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 10 May 2019 : 3rd Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 6 : 52-59

At that time, the Jews were arguing among themselves, “How can this Man give us flesh to eat?” So Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you. The one who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood lives eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

“My Flesh is really food, and My Blood is truly drink. Those who eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, lives in Me, and I in them. Just as the Father, Who is life, sent Me, and I have life from the Father, so whoever eats Me will have life from Me. This is the Bread which came from heaven; not like that of your ancestors, who ate and later died. Those who eat this Bread will live forever.”

Jesus spoke in this way in Capernaum when He taught them in the synagogue.

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Friday, 10 May 2019 : 3rd Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 116 : 1, 2

Alleluia! Praise the Lord, all you nations; all you peoples, praise Him.

How great is His love for us! His faithfulness lasts forever.

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Friday, 10 May 2019 : 3rd Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 9 : 1-20

Meanwhile Saul considered nothing but violence and death for the disciples of the Lord. He went to the High Priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus that would authorise him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, belonging to the Way.

As he travelled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?” And he asked, “Who are You, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus Whom you persecute. Now get up and go into the city; there you will be told what you are to do.”

The men who were travelling with him stood there speechless : they had heard the sound, but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground and, opening his eyes, he could not see. They took him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. He was blind and he did not eat or drink for three days.

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, to whom the Lord called in a vision, “Ananias!” He answered, “Here I am, Lord!” Then the Lord said to him, “Go at once to Straight Street and ask, at the house of Judas, for a man of Tarsus named Saul. You will find him praying, for he has just seen in a vision that a man named Ananias has come in and placed his hands upon him, to restore his sight.”

Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem, and now he is here with authority from the High Priest to arrest all who call upon Your Name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go! This man is My chosen instrument to bring My Name to the pagan nations and their kings, and the people of Israel as well. I Myself will show him how much he will have to suffer for My Name.”

So Ananias left and went to the house. He laid his hands upon Saul and said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord Jesus, Who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me to you so that you may receive your sight and be filled with Holy Spirit.” Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see; he got up and was baptised. Then he took food and was strengthened.

For several days Saul stayed with the disciples at Damascus, and he soon began to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God.

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Friday, 3 May 2019 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of not just one Apostles of Our Lord Jesus, but two of the Twelve Apostles, namely that of St. Philip and St. James the Greater. It is the same St. Philip and St. James mentioned in the Scripture passages today, which reminded us of the calling to which those Apostles have been called to do, that is to become the bearers of God’s truth and salvation to the people.

St. Philip and St. James were among those whom God first called to be His followers and His disciples, to be the witnesses of all the things that He has done before them, and the truth which He has taught and revealed to all the people of God. They were called to be the pillars of His Church, which He founded on the Apostles, as the rock of faith of Peter and his fellow Apostles, who became important pillars of support of the then young and growing Church.

St. Philip was remembered for his missionary activity in Samaria, the lands north of Judea, where he preached to the Samaritans to whom the Lord has also taught, and it was recorded in the Acts of the Apostles that he encountered the official of the queen of the Ethiopians, and he convinced the official so well that the official asked to be baptised and brought the faith with him back to his homeland, thus marking the beginning of the Church in the then distant land of Ethiopia.

St. Philip also went to various other places, spreading the faith, performing miracles and calling on the people to become believers of God. He went to many parts of Syria, Asia Minor and also Greece, before he suffered martyrdom in the Greco-Roman city of Hierapolis, where his tomb supposedly was today. St. Philip according to Apostolic tradition preached so well that he converted even the governor’s wife, enraging the governor, who ordered the saint and his fellow companions, including St. Bartholomew, another Apostle, to be tortured and crucified upside down.

Even then, St. Philip did not stop to testify the faith and preach from the cross, converting many of those who have heard him preaching even at the door of death. And although they wanted to release him, St. Philip insisted that he remained on the cross, and thus, he entered into heavenly glory as a martyr, and by whose dedication and commitment, many had been saved, and many more were inspired by his faith and examples.

Meanwhile, St. James went to various places, preaching the faith, and it was told that he went even as far as Hispania, in what is presently Spain and Portugal, preaching the faith and the truth of God, sowing the seeds of Christianity in those faraway lands, and when he returned to Jerusalem, he was among the first of the Apostles to be martyred, as recorded also in the Acts of the Apostles, how king Herod imprisoned St. James and beheaded him in order to please the Sanhedrin and the Jewish opponents of the Lord.

Both St. Philip and St. James had dedicated their whole lives in commitment to God, giving their whole lives in service to the Lord, fulfilling the mission which God has entrusted to them. But their works were not yet completed, and they merely laid the foundation and the beginning from which many Christians throughout the centuries have been called to follow in their footsteps, in serving God and in committing themselves faithfully to God’s commandments.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us as Christians today are called to be followers of Christ in the model established by the Apostles, and we remember especially the memory of St. Philip and St. James, whose dedication and faith have become inspiration to many of us, to follow the Lord and to serve Him as they have once done, in their courageous and tireless efforts to bring God’s truth and salvation to His people.

Let us all therefore do the same in our own respective lives, brothers and sisters in Christ that each and every one of us will continue to serve the Lord faithfully, and commit ourselves wholeheartedly from now on, loving God and loving our fellow men, and becoming the beacons of God’s light and truth among the people of this world, so that all of us who are Christians may lead even many more of others to the Lord, to His truth and salvation.

Holy Apostles, St. Philip and St. James, pray for us all, that each and every one of us may be courageous and may be moved by your examples, that we may make good use of the talents and abilities God has given us in being bearers of His truth, that many more will come to believe in God and in His salvation, with the same conviction and courage, love and dedication as both of you had once shown. Amen.

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Friday, 3 May 2019 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 14 : 6-14

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you know Me, you will know the Father also; indeed you know Him, and you have seen Him.”

Philip asked Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough.” Jesus said to him, “What! I have been with you so long and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever sees Me sees the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?”

“All that I say to you, I do not say of Myself. The Father Who dwells in Me is doing His own work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do. Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in Me will do the same works that I do; and he will even do greater than these, for I am going to the Father.”

“Everything you ask in My Name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Indeed, anything you ask, calling upon My Name, I will do.”

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Friday, 3 May 2019 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (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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Friday, 3 May 2019 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Corinthians 15 : 1-8

Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, of the Good News that I preached to you and which you received and on which you stand firm. By that Gospel you are saved, provided that you hold to it as I preached it. Otherwise, you will have believed in vain.

In the first place, I have passed on to you what I myself received that Christ died for our sins, as Scripture says; that He was buried; that He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures; that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. Afterwards He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters together; most of them are still alive, although some have already gone to rest.

Then He appeared to James and after that to all the Apostles. And last of all, He appeared to the most despicable of them, this is to me.

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Friday, 26 April 2019 : Friday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the call of the Lord, reminding us of our calling as Christians, to bear witness to Christ’s glorious resurrection and His truth before all the people. The Lord had called all of us just in the same manner as He has called His Apostles and disciples, and we have been called to continue the mission which He has entrusted to them, namely the evangelisation of the whole world.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus appeared to His disciples at the lake of Galilee, where He had told them to go before He was crucified and died. He appeared before them after they have spent a whole night out in the lake and did not manage to catch anything. Then He asked them to cast out their nets onto the right side of the boat, even though they have not caught anything all night long.

And when they followed the Lord’s commands, they caught so many fishes that the whole boat almost could not contain them all. And St. Peter immediately recognised the Lord for Who He was. And thus, the Lord was reunited with His disciples, and that occasion marked a very symbolic event for the Church, in reminding all of us of what we need to do as Christians who have been called to be witnesses to our faith.

The Apostles who were in the boat represented the Church of God, which also contained all of us, God’s faithful people. And the Church itself is often depicted as a boat, just as our church buildings are built with specification of a ship, with the centre part named as nave, which came from the word navy, that is used in association with ships. And this is also symbolically linked to another occasion in the Gospels, where the disciples in the boat were afraid when their boat was battered by strong winds and waves, and their boat was about to sink.

And the Lord calling on His Apostles to reach out and cast their nets to catch the fish represent His calling and the mission that He entrusted to the Apostles, for them to ‘catch’ the people for whom they have been called to serve as the ‘fishers of men’. And they led the Church in this effort, to bring the people, represented by the many fishes of various types and sizes, into the boat, that is into God’s salvation in His Church.

First of all, all these are reminders for us that, each and every one of us have been called to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles, to continue the good works that they had begun and which they had performed with faith, as well as the good works of their successors in calling many more and more souls to the salvation in God through the Church. It is through God alone that justification and salvation can be gained, and it is our responsibility as Christians, as those who have heard and accepted God’s offer of salvation, to bear witness to it and to bring it forth to our fellow brethren.

That was what St. Peter and St. John had to do in our first reading today, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, as they went up against the whole of the Sanhedrin, or the Jewish high council. St. Peter and St. John testified not only with words, as they preached the truth of Christ and stood up for their faith in God against those who refused to believe in them, but they also showed God’s might and power, as they healed a man born crippled, and showed before all, that they were truly sent by God.

But the Apostles as we can clearly see from what had happened to them, and if we read on through the rest of the Acts of the Apostles and the traditions of the Church, with the story of countless martyrs and all those who have suffered for the Lord’s sake showed us, each and every one of us as Christians must also be aware that for us to follow the Lord faithfully and devoutly may mean that we will end up in conflict against those who did not believe in Him.

Yet, this does not mean that we should give up our faith, or for us to be lukewarm and indifferent to our faith. For those who are indifferent and lukewarm in their faith will not receive justification in God, as they did not follow what the Apostles had done, in courageously living up to their faith in their daily living, and in bringing forth God’s truth by their own exemplary lives and examples. Rather, all of us are called to imitate their good examples, their faithful lives and commitment in our own respective lives.

May the Lord, our loving God, continue to guide us through our own lives’ journey, that each and every one of us will be more faithful and be more courageous like the Apostles, in their exemplary lives and in their commitment to serve the Lord and to be the bearers of His truth. Let us all be the source of light and salvation, by the works that God had done through us, to our fellow brethren, all those especially, who are still living in the darkness of sin. May God bless us all and our endeavours. Amen.

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Friday, 26 April 2019 : Friday within Easter Octave (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 21 : 1-14

At that time, after Jesus appeared to Thomas and His disciples, He revealed Himself to them by the lake of Tiberias. He appeared to them in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas who was called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples were together; and Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They replied, “We will come with you.” And they went out and got into the boat, but they caught nothing that night.

When day had already broken, Jesus was standing on the shore, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus called them, “Friends, have you anything to eat?” They answered, “Nothing.” Then He said to them, “Throw the net on the right side of the boat and you will find something.” When they had lowered the net, they were not able to pull it in because of the great number of fish.”

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” At these words, “It is the Lord!” Simon Peter put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and jumped into the water. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish; they were not far from land, about a hundred metres.

When they landed, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed into the boat and pulled the net to shore. It was full of big fish – one hundred and fifty-three – but, in spite of this, the net was not torn.

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” And not one of the disciples dared to ask Him, “Who are You?” for they knew it was the Lord. Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and He did the same with the fish. This was the third time that Jesus revealed Himself to His disciples after rising from the dead.