Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened first to the exhortation from St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city of Galatia, where he mentioned how all those who believe in God, and did what the Lord has asked them to do, are considered as the sons and daughters of Abraham, the one who is widely considered as our father in faith. This must be understood in the context of the attitudes of the Jewish people, even those who lived in the diaspora.

Many of the Jews still upheld the view that they were the chosen people and race of God, who were descended from Abraham, and therefore, were partakers of the Lord’s promise and covenant, and in some ways, superior and better than that of the pagans and the non-Jewish people, or the Gentiles. And some of these people were among those who opposed the works of St. Paul and his fellow disciples of the Lord, in their evangelising mission.

That was why St. Paul rebuked the attitudes and mentioned that despite their thinking that the title of the children of Abraham belonged to them alone, but in reality, Abraham’s true descendants were those who not only descended from him through flesh, but even more importantly, those who follow the same faith and live in the same way as that of Abraham. For, if one profess to be a descendant of Abraham and yet does not do what he has done, then truly, that person has scandalised Abraham’s faith.

The Lord Jesus also faced the same predicament during the time of His earthly ministry, as shown in today’s Gospel passage. The Lord Jesus was opposed by those who refused to believe in Him, slandering Him and saying all sorts of falsehoods against Him, even to the point of equating His actions with that of the prince of demons, Beelzebul. Then, the Lord rebuked them by saying that if the devil is divided in his own kingdom and among his own allies, then his dominion would have collapsed and be destroyed.

What the Lord Jesus meant when He said all of those words? First of all, He wanted to highlight that those people who thought of themselves as so righteous and just, and opposed the works of the Lord, are themselves causing the breaking and the division of the house of God, that is God’s people. At the time when they should all come together to believe in the common faith, instead they allowed the devil to come into their hearts and create divisions in them.

At the same time, the devil and his forces, instead of being divided among themselves, they are in fact, united in their purpose and desire to see us mankind fail and fall away from grace. Although each of them might clash or disagree on other matters, but in their common desire for the ruination of souls, the kingdom of Satan is fully united in this purpose. And that is why we must ever be vigilant, lest we allow our own ego, human desires, ambition and greed to make us fall.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, through what we have heard from the Scriptures, about what happened in the past to the community of the people of God, of the bitter division, disagreement and the refusal of some among them to receive the word and truth of God, and now, unfortunately, that is why even within our Church, there are many divisions and disagreements. Even among us Christians, many of us accuse one another and are often unhappy and angry towards our fellow brothers and sisters.

And this is what is unbecoming and unworthy of us as Christians, to be enemies to one another and to be divided to each other, as what the Lord has said, that a house divided within itself will not be able to stand. Our attitude towards each other is exactly what the devil needs in his efforts to bring down to ruin as many souls as possible, by weakening the Church and the unity of God’s people.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all strive to overcome these divisions and disagreements between us, by placing God once again at the centre and as the main focus of our lives. Let us put aside our differences, by resisting the temptations and the pull of our ego, human desires, greed and all sorts of things that have so far caused us to sin and to be divided against our fellow brethren.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to guide us in our path, and may He bless us all in our journey, that we may persevere throughout our efforts, and do our best to preserve the unity among ourselves, and be united in praising and glorifying Him, now and always. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the Sacred Scriptures speaking to us first of all of the rebuke and reminder which God spoke to Job, continuing on in our discourse on the Book of Job, when Job who suffered from the attacks by Satan as well as from the false accusations against him made by his own friends, went through a long series of conversations with God.

God rebuked Job because he was falling into the temptation to despair and to lose hope, amidst all of the difficulties he had to suffer at that time, and when his own closest friends and confidants accused him wrongly of having sinned before God as the cause of his afflictions. The Lord made it clear to Job that His will shall be done, and He has plans for each and every one of His servants, including Job.

And all that has to be done, is to trust in the Lord and to have faith in His providence, to listen to His will and to follow His footsteps. For in the end, it is God Who should be the focus and the centre of our lives. Yet, many of us tend to be preoccupied with many distractions and temptations of worldly goods and riches. That is why we end up being angry of God at times because we do not get what we want, all the desires and wishes we have.

When we are so stubborn and when we close our hearts and minds to the Lord, that is why we heard in the Gospel passage today, how the Lord was so angry and frustrated at the cities of the lake of Galilee, where He performed many of His miracles and deeds, taught among the people in the synagogues and marketplaces, healing many of their sick and their dying, and guiding them to understand the truth of God.

But the people still refused to believe in Him and even doubted Him, they did not truly have faith in Him and in His teachings. And the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law among them in particular opposed the Lord and made His life difficult, as they continued to accuse Him and hound Him throughout all the works He had done among the people, refusing to acknowledge Him and His teachings as the truth of God.

That is what the Lord then also told His disciples, the reality that there were just so many in this world who were still unable to accept His truth, and refused to allow Him to speak to them and to reveal to them the truth, because of precisely the obstacle of our pride, greed and human desires. And many of us in the Church, among us Christians are to blame from this attitude.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called to abandon all these un-Christian attitudes and instead, learn to focus on the Lord, and to give our very best in our faith and trust in Him. Indeed, there will be moments and times when we will be tempted to walk on our own path and not to follow the Lord, but let us all remember this, as we recall what the Lord told Job, that He alone is the Master and Lord of all things.

For all the greatness and glory, wealth and power, fame and influence, material goods and all sorts of pleasures that we may attain and even accumulate in abundance in this world, all of these are merely temporary and impermanent. There is nothing that will last forever, and none of our worldly possessions will avail us on the day when the Lord calls on us to give an account of our lives before Him.

Rather than worrying excessively and endlessly about the things that we can neither control nor master, let us instead spend our time and effort to do what God wants us to do with our lives. And this requires us to be attuned more deeply to the Lord, and to be able to find out what it is that He really wants us to do with our respective lives, and most likely, it is to show the love which He has shown us, both to Him and to our fellow men, which is our calling as Christians.

May the Lord help us all to discover our true purpose and vocation in life, and may He continue to inspire us and guide us in our journey, that despite all the challenges we encounter and face in our daily living, we will always strive to be true to our faith in God, and to follow Him every day of our lives. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.