Liturgical Colour : Red
Luke 8 : 1-3
At that time, Jesus walked through towns and countryside, preaching and giving the Good News of the kingdom of God. The Twelve followed Him, and also some women, who had been healed of evil spirits and diseases : Mary called Magdalene, who had been freed of seven demons; Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward; Suzanna, and others who provided for them out of their own funds.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 16 : 1, 6-7, 8b and 15
Hear a just cause, o Lord, listen to my complaint. Give heed to my prayer for there is no deceit on my lips.
I call on You, You will answer me, o God; incline Your ear and hear my word. For You do wonders for Your faithful, You save those fleeing from the enemy as they seek refuge at Your right hand.
Under the shadow of Your wings hide me. As for me, righteous in Your sight, I shall see Your face and, awakening, gaze my fill on Your likeness.
Liturgical Colour : Red
1 Corinthians 15 : 12-20
Well, then, if Christ is preached as risen from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is empty and our belief comes to nothing.
And we become false witnesses of God, attesting that He raised Christ, whereas He could not raise Him if indeed the dead are not raised. If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith gives you nothing, and you are still in sin. Also those who fall asleep in Christ are lost.
If it is only for this life that we hope in Christ, we are the most unfortunate of all people. But no, Christ has been raised from the dead and He comes before all those who have fallen asleep.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are called to put our attention into two things, that is firstly, we have to remember the mission which God had entrusted to us all through His Apostles, as St. Paul succinctly placed in what he wrote in his Epistle, that we all are servants and preachers of the Gospel, the Good News of God. We are the evangelisers of this new and current time and age.
We serve the Lord by preaching the Good News which He has brought upon this world, by being witnesses of His death and resurrection. We are God’s servants, and thus we should speak, act and do things in accordance with what He has revealed to us and taught us, or else, others will not come to believe in us if we ourselves do not act in accordance with God’s ways.
And that is in tandem with the second thing that we heard in today’s Gospel, that is about how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law for their hypocrisy and lack of genuine faith, using the well known parable of the plank and the eyes. They were rebuked as those who wanted to remove the sins in others while they themselves committed great sins and yet they turned a blind eye to these.
In order to understand this, we have to understand what it was like at the time of Jesus. The Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and scribes, the elders and the priestly class and caste are among the elites and the highly respected and influential members of the community, and also rightly feared for their influence and oppression of all forms of dissent against their authority.
They considered themselves pious and great in faith, as guardians of God’s laws and commandments. They treasured their customs and traditions, valuing highly their appearances and showy prayers in public as signs of their faith. And yet, in all these, they did not glorify God, and neither did they honour Him as He should have been honoured. They thought only of themselves and their human needs and desires.
And in that, they did not just oppress others around them but they also misled and misguided them to the wrong path. Instead of bringing the people closer to God, they have closed the path off to many, and including themselves as well. That is a reminder for us not to be like them and not to act as they have acted. We must instead be true to our faith and be committed in all things, that whatever we do, we do not for ourselves, but for the greater glory of God.
Perhaps the example of today’s saint, St. Peter Claver can be a source of inspiration and example for us all to follow from today on. St. Peter Claver was a Spanish Jesuit priest who went forth to the New World, what is today called the American continent. He went specifically to the Spanish colony in what is now Latin or South America, ministering to the people there, preaching among those who have yet to accept the Lord as their Saviour.
It was told that many people listened to his sermons and preachings, and as many as three hundred thousand people converted to the Faith and gave themselves to be baptised through his works, and that he baptised them all by himself throughout his forty years of working among them. He was hardworking and dedicated to his mission, that is to save the souls of those who still lived in the darkness and in ignorance of the Lord and His saving works.
St. Peter Claver did not allow himself to succumb to the same temptations facing the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. Despite of his privileged position as a priest and as a Spanish, which accorded to him immense benefits and privileges as both a member of the clergy and as a European versus all the natives and the pagans living in the New World, he lived simply and even when given privileges, he chose to live among the slaves, to whom he had dedicated his life’s works to.
The examples of St. Peter Claver should serve as a reminder to us all, brothers and sisters in Christ, that as the disciples and servants of our Lord, we must live according to what He has commanded us to be, that is to love and to give ourselves in love to one another, just as St. Peter Claver had done. And he also gave himself to the poorest, the weakest, those who were oppressed and who were at a disadvantage.
Let us all therefore vow to make ourselves better disciples of the Lord, by following in the footsteps of our holy predecessors, the saints and servants of God, and not fall into the temptations of this world. May God help us to love each other ever more sincerely with each passing day. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Luke 6 : 39-42
At that time, Jesus offered this example, “Can a blind person lead another blind person? Surely both will fall into a ditch. A disciple is not above the master; but when fully trained, he will be like the master. So why do you pay attention to the speck in your brother’s eye, while you have a log in your eye, and are not conscious of it?”
“How can you say to your neighbour, ‘Friend, let me take this speck out of your eye,’ when you cannot remove the log in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the log from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your neighbour’s eye.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Psalm 83 : 3, 4, 5-6, 12
My soul years, pines, for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young, at Your altars, o Lord of hosts, my King and my God!
Happy are those who live in Your house, continually singing Your praise! Happy the pilgrims whom You strengthen, to make the ascent to You.
For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; He bestows favour and glory. The Lord withholds no good thing from those who walk in uprightness.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
1 Corinthians 9 : 16-19, 22b-27
Because I cannot boast of announcing the Gospel : I am bound to do it. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! If I preached voluntarily, I could expect my reward, but I have been trusted this office against my will. How can I, then, deserve a reward?
In announcing the Gospel, I will do it freely without making use of the rights given to me by the Gospel. So, feeling free with everybody, I have become everybody’s slave in order to gain a greater number.
So I made myself all things to all people in order to save, by all possible means, some of them. This I do for the Gospel, so that I too have a share of it. Have you not learnt anything from the stadium? Many run, but only one gets the prize. Run, therefore, intending to win it, as athletes who impose upon themselves a rigorous discipline. Yet for them the wreath is of laurels which wither, while for us, it does not wither.
So, then, I run knowing where I go. I box but not aimlessly in the air. I punish my body and control it, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be rejected.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings are reminder for us to live in accordance with the ways of our Lord Jesus Christ, as how He had taught us, and not in accordance with the ways of the world. And that was presented clearly through the parable which many of us are probably familiar with, that is the parable of the wineskins and the coat.
The context of the event that happened on that day was such that the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist existed alongside the disciples of Jesus. The Pharisees together with the teachers of the Law deemed as the elites of the society, who were supposed to be guardians and masters of the Law of God, while the disciples of John were those who listened to St. John the Baptist and followed him much like how the people followed Jesus.
But they followed the old path, that is the Old Testament and Covenant between God and mankind. They walked through the Covenant which had been made null not by the action of its Maker, the Lord our God, but rather through the disobedience which their ancestors, the ones with whom God had made His covenant with. Those people have sinned and disobeyed the commands of the Lord and profaned His holy covenant.
Yet, God still wished to remake that Covenant which had been broken, and reestablish it so that through the new Covenant He was bringing to them, His rebellious people may have a chance at redemption if they repent from their sins. And to that extent, He brought about a new Covenant which He made not through the sacrifice of the imperfect and worldly animals and blood, but instead through the perfect offering and sacrifice of the Blood of the Lamb, God made that new Covenant with us.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, that new Covenant was more complete and perfect than the first covenant. This new Covenant revealed to the people what He expected from each and every one of them, that is to show genuine faith and love for Him, and not just to show it through sacrifices and offerings as what the people in the past had done.
Especially for the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, they were so fixated on their rites and traditions, in how they have preserved the observances and the Jewish customs, that they have neglected what they ought to do, that is loving and showing devotion to God. They were too focused on things that are superficial, and in the end, they end up misleading the people of God into the wrong paths.
The New Covenant of God showed forth new norms and ways that ought to be obeyed. And we are all people of the new Covenant. We no longer live under the bonds of the old one, and we are promised the glorious and joyful outcome of the new Covenant so long as we are able to fulfil our commitment to God, showing forth our devotion and love for our God.
And if we are all people of the new Covenant, then can our actions be representative of those who truly belong to it? If we do things that are not in accordance to the Lord and His ways, then we may bring about scandal upon ourselves, and not just to ourselves but also to the Church and to the people of God. Let us all reflect on this, so that in all the things we do, we may always proclaim the greater glory of God.
May the Lord bless us and keep us, and may He protect us all, and guide us, so that we may learn how we ought to seek Him, and approach Him, that through our many works, through our actions, we may find our salvation through being steadfast to the new Covenant God has established with us His people. May God bless us and keep our paths to Him straight and secure. God be with all of us. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 5 : 33-39
At that time, some people asked Jesus, “The disciples of John fast often and say long prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why is it that Your disciples eat and drink?”
Then Jesus said to them, “You cannot make wedding guests fast while the Bridegroom is with them. But later the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and they will fast in those days.”
Jesus also told them this parable : “No one tears a piece from a new coat to put it on an old one; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece taken from the new will not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and be spilt, and the skins will be destroyed as well.”
“But new wine must be put into fresh skins. Yet no one who has tasted old wine is eager to drink new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.'”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 36 : 3-4, 5-6, 27-28, 39-40
Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and live on it. Make the Lord your delight, and He will grant your heart’s desire.
Commit your way to the Lord; put your trust in Him and let Him act. Then will your revenge come, beautiful as the dawn, and the justification of your cause, bright as the noonday sun.
Do good and shun evil, so that you will live secure forever. For the Lord loves justice and right, and never forsakes His faithful ones. The wicked instead will perish and their breed will be cut off.
The Lord is the salvation of the righteous; in time of distress, He is their refuge. The Lord helps them, and rescues them from the oppressor; He saves them for they sought shelter in Him.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 