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
Acts 15 : 22-31
Then the Apostles and elders together with the whole Church decided to choose representatives from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. These were Judas, known as Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers. They took with them the following letter :
“Greetings from the Apostles and elders, your brothers, to the believers of non-Jewish birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We have heard that some persons from among us have worried you with their discussions and troubled your peace of mind. They were not appointed by us.”
“But now, it has seemed right to us in an assembly, to choose representatives and to send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have dedicated their lives to the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. We send you then Judas and Silas who themselves will give you these instructions by word of mouth.”
“We, with the Holy Spirit, have decided not to put any other burden on you except what is necessary : You are to abstain from blood from the meat of strangled animals and from prohibited marriages. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
After saying goodbye, the messengers went to Antioch, where they assembled the community and handed them the letter. When they read the news, all were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.
Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are all reminded that if we follow the Lord our God, even though on our life’s journey we will encounter, and indeed, had encountered many forms of tribulations, sufferings and troubles, all the challenges we have to face, but in the end of it all, God will reward us with His everlasting grace and love.
This is the promise which God Himself had made through His Son Jesus, Who revealed the perfect love of God to all of us. He has revealed that all of those who are faithful to Him, remain faithful and true to Him despite the temptations and the challenges from the world, will be rewarded, and places have been prepared for all of them in the glorious heaven.
This is why we believe that saints and holy martyrs are present, and they are with God, praying for our sake. For it is this belief in the resurrection from the dead, and the hope of a glorious everlasting life with God, in the bliss of heavenly glory and joy, that make us to have faith in God and believe in Him, because of the saints and martyrs that had preceded us, all those who had to even give their lives for the sake of the Gospel of Christ.
If they had not believed in the glory in the life that was to come to them, then it would indeed have been foolish for them to die as they had done, or to suffer as they have suffered. Yet, those faithful people continued to believe in God, and resisted the efforts by those who wanted them to abandon their faith in the Lord Jesus. That is because they believed in the promise of God, which is indeed not just a mere promise, but already a reality in waiting for those who keep their faith in Him.
That is what the holy martyrs whose memory we celebrate today had done in their lives. St. Nereus and St. Achilleus were martyrs of the early Church, among the earliest of the known martyrs, who lived during the years, as told by the tradition of the Church, of the Roman Emperor Domitian, who was known to persecute the Church and the faithful. And at that time, being a Christian meant difficulties, challenges, and they could even be arrested for being known as Christians.
Yet, St. Nereus and St. Achilleus were among those Christians who did not let the difficulties of the time to hamper their zeal and devotion to the Lord, as many other martyrs had also done. And when the other saint, St. Pancras or St. Pancratius, who lived during the years of the great persecution under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, was found out to be a Christian, he did not give up his faith, despite all that the enemies of the faith were trying to do in order to subvert them.
For example, when the Roman Emperor Diocletian tried to persuade St. Pancras to abandon his faith in the Lord, as he was impressed with his wisdom and intellect, St. Pancras refused to do so, even when he was offered good life and safe conduct by the Emperor, in exchange for his abandonment of the Lord and the Church. St. Pancras would rather choose to suffer and to perish rather than to follow what the world wanted him to do, because he had faith in the Lord and His promise.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, now the question comes to us. Do we believe in God and in His teachings? Do we truly believe what He had promised all of us who are faithful to Him? Do we really believe in all that we have come to believe through the Church? If our answers to all of these are yes, then we must remember the examples of our predecessors, the holy saints and martyrs in particular, in how they lived their lives and also in how they encountered persecution and rejection.
Let us all be inspired by their examples, and strive to follow their examples in how we lived in our lives and in how we should be faithful to the Lord. May the Lord also give us strength to live our faith with commitment, and devote ourselves wholeheartedly to Him. May God empower us to become ever more devoted disciples and followers of His will. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
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 or Red (Martyrs)
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 or Red (Martyrs)
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 we heard from the Sacred Scriptures, the passages on the conversion of Saul, once a great enemy of the Church and persecutor of the faithful, who would later on become one of the most faithful and ardent defender of the faith, St. Paul the Apostle. And then we also continue to hear the Lord Jesus speaking of Himself as the Bread of Life, and the giving of His own Body and Blood for the consumption of the faithful.
In all these readings which we have heard and received, we heard how someone who have lived in ignorance and rejection of the truth of the Lord was converted because he came to realise the truth, and in this case it was St. Paul who was touched by the Lord, and came to realise the folly of his past sins and misled zeal, and then came to believe wholeheartedly in the Lord and became His faithful follower.
Jesus revealed Himself to Saul as the One Whom the prophets and the messengers of God had spoken about, the One through Whom God would save all of His people, and this He had done, through none other than by the outpouring of His love, by His act of love on the cross, the greatest singular act of love of all, as He laid down His life for our sake, so that through His death, He might redeem us all mankind from our sins.
He is the Lamb of God, Whose Body had been given for all the faithful, through the bread that He and all of our priests had blessed and transformed into the very essence and reality of His Precious Body, the Lamb of sacrifice that is perfect and unblemished, far greater beyond the lambs that the Israelites ate at their first Passover in Egypt, and beyond the bread of the manna that they ate during their journey in the desert.
The blood of the lambs had been used for the marking of the doorposts of the houses of the Israelites, at the time when God was to send His greatest plague upon Egypt, the plague of death and destruction on all the firstborn sons and children of the Egyptians. All the houses of Israel marked with the blood of the lamb escaped the fated destruction as sent by God throughout the land of Egypt.
And the blood of lambs and bulls were also used to sanctify the people of God, and as a sign of penance and the absolution of sins, as the symbol of the covenant between God and His people. And in the end, God Himself as the true Lamb, shed His own Blood, given to us, through the wine which He Himself had blessed, and which He and all of our priests had transformed into the very essence and reality of His Most Precious Blood.
Through His Most Precious Body and Blood, Christ Himself had come to dwell in each and every one of us who believe in Him, and who place our trust and faith in Him. He has come to redeem us and to free us from our bondage to sin, to open our eyes and allow us to see once again His truth and His light. That was exactly what had happened to Saul as he laid blind for three days in Damascus, unable to see and living in darkness.
That blindness and darkness is a representation of just how wicked and sinful, corrupted and tainted the soul of Saul had been before his conversion. But God did not wish to see him perish in his sins. Instead, the Lord called Saul out of the darkness, and opened his eyes, not just the eyes of his body as Ananias did to him, but also the eyes of his heart and soul.
That was how Saul was transformed completely and thoroughly, being filled anew with a new life blessed by the Holy Spirit, from a creature of darkness and sin, and from a ruthless and terrible enemy of Christ and His Church, into its greatest protector and one of His greatest servants. Such a turnaround is possible because Saul opened himself to God’s love and mercy, and repented from his past sins, and committing himself completely to a new way of life, one that is in accordance with the Lord’s will.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, today as we reflect on today’s Scripture passages, let us all reflect on our own lives, our actions and deeds in life. Let us all think of how we have carried out our lives thus far, and see if we have allowed God to come to us and transform our lives. He Himself had given His own Body and Blood, as real food and real sustenance, that He is living in each one of us, and becoming the source of our strength. Shall we now then do what He wants us to do?
May the Lord bless our works and give us the strength to commit ourselves to a new life filled with grace, hope and love, that we may do everything in life in accordance with what the Lord had taught us and willed us to do. May He strengthen our faith inside us, that we may always strive to be closer to Him and be more like Him in everything. Amen.
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.
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.
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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