Friday

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Friday, 25 May 2018 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor of the Church, and Pope St. Gregory VII, Pope and St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests or Popes or Virgins)

Mark 10 : 1-12

At that time, Jesus then left that place and went to the province of Judea, beyond the Jordan River. Once more crowds gathered around Him and once more He taught them as He always did. Some (Pharisees came and) put Him to the test with this question, “Is it right for a husband to divorce his wife?”

He replied, “What law did Moses give you?” They answered, “Moses allowed us to write a certificate of dismissal in order to divorce.” Then Jesus said to them, “Moses wrote this law for you, because you are stubborn. But in the beginning of creation God made them male and female, and because of this, man has to leave father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one body. So they are no longer two but one body. Therefore let no one separate what God has joined.”

When they were indoors at home, the disciples again asked Him about this, and He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against his wife, and the woman who divorces her husband and marries another also commits adultery.”

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Friday, 25 May 2018 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor of the Church, and Pope St. Gregory VII, Pope and St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Virgin (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests or Popes or Virgins)

Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 8-9, 11-12

Praise YHVH, my soul; all my being, praise His holy Name! Praise YHVH, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.

He forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; He redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion.

YHVH is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger; He will not always scold nor will He be angry forever.

As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove from us our sins.

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Friday, 25 May 2018 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor of the Church, and Pope St. Gregory VII, Pope and St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Virgin (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests or Popes or Virgins)

James 5 : 9-12

Beloved, do not fight among yourselves and you will not be judged. See, the Judge is already at the door. Take for yourselves, as an example of patience, the suffering of the prophets, who spoke in the Lord’s Name. See how those who were patient are called blessed. You have heard of the patience of Job and know how the Lord dealt with him in the end. For the Lord is merciful and shows compassion.

Above all, my beloved, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or make a habit of swearing. Let your yes be yes and your no be no, lest you become liable for judgment.

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Friday, 18 May 2018 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the Scriptures through which we are reminded that as Christians all of us are ultimately bound to live by the will of God, and we will be led in our lives to where God wants us to be, and it is often that life will not go according to how we want it to be, no matter what we have done and are going to do in order to secure our desire.

In the first reading today, we listened to how St. Paul defended himself before the king of Judea, Agrippa, as well as the Roman governor of Judea, Festus. He spoke with such a wisdom and eloquence that he even almost persuaded them to be Christians. He has appealed to the Emperor, and would go on to Rome, in order to face the judgment as meted by the most powerful man in the world at that time.

In his earlier years, St. Paul was known as Saul, a fanatical and influential young Pharisee, who was renowned and glorified for his intense persecution of all Christians and all those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus. He seemed to be destined for a life of greatness and influence among the people of God, to be among the elites of the society as member of the Pharisees.

However, God did not wish it to end that way, that Saul remained a great enemy of Christ and His faithful ones. God instead called Saul and gave him an entirely new purpose and calling in life. And Saul chose to accept that role given to him, a role through which he would save countless souls, through his direct teaching and efforts, as well as through the many disciples and students he had led through those years of his service.

Then, in the Gospel today, we also heard about another Apostle, St. Peter, the head and appointed leader of the Apostles. The Lord Jesus entrusted His Church to his care, just as He had said before, that He would build His Church upon the foundation of Peter, the Rock. And the Lord Jesus said to St. Peter about the same expectation as I have just mentioned, that at the end of it all, it was God’s will that will prevail.

God said to St. Peter that he would have to suffer for being a disciple of His, and he would be led to places that he would not want to go. That was a foretelling of what he had to encounter, to be brought to Rome, where he would meet his martyrdom just as St. Paul would. He was crucified upside down in the place where the Basilica of St. Peter now stands, while St. Paul was beheaded at around the same place.

Today we also remember the memory of another good servant of God, one of the early successors of St. Peter the Apostle, as the Vicar of Christ and Bishop of Rome. Pope St. John I was a devout servant of God, humble and faithful, elected to become the successor of St. Peter and lead the Church. At that time, the Church in Rome was under the rule of those who followed the false Arian heresy, and Pope St. John I was caught in the great dilemma of having to accommodate between the two sides in argument.

King Theoderic the Great of the Ostrogoths, who was an Arian, demanded that the Pope present his argument before the Roman Emperor in the city of Constantinople, that toleration and concessions must be given to those who believe in the Arian heresy. However, Pope St. John I resolutely supported the position of the Orthodox and true teachings of the faith as espoused in the Ecumenical Councils of the Church, and in the end, he was imprisoned by the king.

Pope St. John I would eventually die a prisoner of the faith, refusing to bend to the demands of the king. He and the Apostles of the Lord had shown us that, even many in the world will oppose us and persecute us, just because we believe in God and walk in His ways. They entrusted themselves to the Lord, and remained true and faithful to Him. And despite having suffered and died in pain, they now enjoy forever the glory of heaven.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, now, as Christians, all of us are also expected to have that same faith and commitment to the Lord, just as shown by our holy and devout predecessors. Let us all henceforth renew our commitment to our faith, and spend more time and effort in our relationship with God. May the Lord be with us all, and may He continue to be with us and bless us, all the days of our lives. Holy Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, and Pope St. John I, holy martyr, pray for us all. Amen.

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Friday, 18 May 2018 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 21 : 15-19

At that time, after Jesus and His disciples had finished breakfast, He said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” And Jesus said, “Feed My lambs.”

A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” And Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Look after My sheep.” And a third time He said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”

Peter was saddened because Jesus asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” and he said, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You.” Jesus then said, “Feed My sheep! Truly, I say to you, when you were young, you put on your belt and walked where you liked. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will put a belt around you, and lead you where you do not wish to go.”

Jesus said this to make known the kind of death by which Peter was to glorify God. And He added, “Follow Me.”

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Friday, 18 May 2018 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 102 : 1-2, 11-12, 19-20ab

Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless His holy Name! Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.

As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove from us our sins.

The Lord has set His throne in heaven; He rules, He has power everywhere. Praise the Lord, all you His Angels.

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Friday, 18 May 2018 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 25 : 13b-21

As King Agrippa and his sister Berenice were to stay in Caesarea several days, Festus told him about Paul’s case and said to him, “We have here a man whom Felix left as a prisoner. When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews accused him and asked me to sentence him.”

“I told them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over a man without giving him an opportunity to defend himself in front of his accusers. So they came and I took my seat without delay on the tribunal and sent for the man. When the accusers had the floor, they did not accuse him of any of the crimes that I was led to think he had committed; instead they quarrelled with him about religion and about a certain Jesus Who has died but whom Paul asserted to be alive.”

“I did not know what to do about this case, so I asked Paul if he wanted to go to Jerusalem to be tried there. But Paul appealed to be judged by the Emperor. So I ordered that he be kept in custody until I send him to Caesar.”

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Friday, 11 May 2018 : 6th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the soothing and reassuring words of the Lord Jesus, Who promised His disciples, that while they might be sorrowful, because their Lord would be taken away from them, first by His death on the cross, and then later on by His Ascension into heaven, He would never leave them alone, and He would not abandon them.

On the contrary, He would always be with them, and He would guide them through times of suffering and difficulties. This was what He told St. Paul the Apostle as he was ministering and preaching to the people in Achaia in Roman Greece among the mostly pagan population. He reassured St. Paul that He would always be with him throughout his journey, through all the difficulties and challenges that would face him.

And indeed, we see how opposition quickly faced St. Paul in his journey, St. Paul faced opposition from the Jews who were against his teachings and preachings. As such, he was brought to the civil authorities and was charged with false charges and all sorts of things that if we have remembered it well, the Lord Himself had also suffered from. But St. Paul faced everything with faith, entrusting himself to God’s love and care.

Despite of all the challenges he had to go through, St. Paul remained calm and continued to stay on focus on what he had to do for God’s sake. He did not even hesitate to lay down his life for the Lord, and continued to preach the Lord’s truth and Good News. Many believed because of him, and because of all the courage and the faith he had shown through his dedication to the mission he was entrusted with.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, now, all of us as Christians must truly realise that each and every one of us have been given the very same mission that the Lord has given to St. Paul and to the other disciples of His. We have been entrusted with the mission, that is to be witnesses of the Lord, and to preach His truth and the Good News He had brought into this world, that others may also come to believe in Him, and therefore, be saved together with us.

However, in reality, many of us did not only fail to do as the Lord had commanded us to do, but in fact, we live our lives in ways contrary to our faith, and if we look at our actions and deeds, we indeed bring embarrassment to our faith and to God. We profess our faith in God and we believe in Him, and yet, how many of us put Him as the priority of our lives? How many of us have an active and meaningful prayer life?

The reality and hard truth is that many of us Christians are too busy with ourselves, with all sorts of our desires and worldly concerns to be truly faithful to God. We have allowed ourselves to be swayed by selfishness and self-centredness encouraged by the world around us, to fill us and satisfy our ego, and stretch us to do even more wicked deeds and actions, unworthy of that of Christians.

This is unfortunately, the sad reality of our faith, among many of us Christians. Many of us are Christians in name and formality only. How can we then expect that people will believe in us, if our actions and words, our deeds and interactions do not show concretely that we truly belong to God? This is where we really need to take action, and heed the examples shown by the Apostles and saints, in their dedication to their faith in God and in how they lived their lives.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be first of all, ashamed at all the sinful deeds that each and every one of us have done! If we are not ashamed at what we have done in our lives, in our wicked and unfaithful actions we have carried out thus far, then I am afraid that Satan has already had us in his clutches. Let us all be courageous and be resolute in rejecting him and all of his falsehoods and empty promises!

May the Lord be with us and may He continue to guide us all in our journey of faith, that each and every one of us Christians may be ever more Christ-like in our actions and deeds, and may we draw ever closer to His truth and love, each and every day of our lives. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 11 May 2018 : 6th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 16 : 20-23a

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. A woman in childbirth is in distress because her time is at hand. But after the child is born, she no longer remembers her suffering because of such great joy : a human being is born into the world.”

“You feel sorrowful now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice; and no one will take your joy from you. When that day comes you will not ask Me anything.”

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Friday, 11 May 2018 : 6th Week of Easter (Psalm)

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!