Friday

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Friday, 25 December 2015 : Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Christmas Midnight Mass (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Isaiah 9 : 1-7

The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light. A light has dawned on those who live in the land of the shadow of death. You have enlarged the nation; You have increased their joy. They rejoice before You, as people rejoice at harvest time, as they rejoice in dividing the spoil.

For the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressors, You have broken it as on the day of Midian. Every warrior’s boot that tramped in war, every cloak rolled in blood, will be thrown out for burning, will serve as fuel for the fire.

For a Child is born to us, a Son is given us; the royal ornament is laid upon His shoulder, and His Name is proclaimed : “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” To the increase of His powerful rule in peace, there will be no end.

Vast will be His dominion, He will reign on David’s throne and over all his kingdom, to establish and uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time onward and forever. The zealous love of YHVH Sabaoth will do this. The Lord has sent a word against Jacob : the sentence fell upon Israel.

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Friday, 18 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we hear from the Sacred Scriptures on the proclamation of the coming of the Messiah, Who is the Heir and Son of David, which the Archangel Gabriel first delivered to Mary, His mother, and then also to Joseph, His foster father. Through this, God made it clear to His people that the salvation which He had promised them is coming true, and He was coming to deliver them from the evil one.

For many years, we mankind have lived in suffering in this world as a result of our sins and disobedience against God, and we are earning the bitter fruits of our ancestors’ inability to resist the temptation of the devil, and we have also been put under the thrall of the wicked one, so that sin weighed us down and became a huge stone hanging on our necks, threatening to bring us down into the abyss of darkness, the eternal fire and suffering.

But God does not wish this fate to be ours, as He created us and loved us more than all the other things and beings that He had created, for we all have been crafted in His own image, and He Himself breathed life into us. He has given us life, and therefore, all of us are intended for life with Him, and not to suffer death and suffering itself, instead enjoying forever the fullness of the richness of God’s grace.

Nevertheless, it was our rebellion and desire to follow our heart’s wants and desires which had sundered us from the fullness of God’s love and grace, and we were doomed into suffering on a hard life on earth, toiling without end, and in the end, to be claimed by death, as our bodies return to the dust from which we came from, and there seemed to be no escape from our punishment and our fate.

But God had another path that He had intended for us, that is the path of atonement and forgiveness, and in this, He promised His people that a deliverance will come upon all those who remain true to Him and to their faith in Him. And over the years, God continued to keep up that promise, and renewed again and again, the covenant which He made with them, as He made His covenant with Abraham, with Moses, with David, and through the prophets, made clear His will to the people.

It was through Jesus our Lord that God had made complete and perfect His promises to us, as through Him, a new Hope was shown to us, and in Him, our hearts that were once filled with despair and darkness, could finally see the Light of our Lord once again. And this is the essence of Christmas, the celebration and the joy we experienced, which is truly because our Lord has come to save His people.

The joy of Christmas is not about all the glamour and the glory associated to all the celebrations, the bright lights and all the commercial goods associated with it. Yes, it is a season of festive giving and happiness, joy and celebrations, but do we even remember Who or what we are celebrating it for? Is it for ourselves? Yes, partially for ourselves indeed, but why? Do we know the reason?

It is the joy we feel because of the hope we have received by the coming of our Saviour that is the true reason for our Christmas joy, for He is the true Joy of the world often forgotten by us all, even as we joyfully celebrate this Christmas. This Advent season, a time to prepare for Christmas, let us all commit ourselves to find the way to celebrate Christmas meaningfully in our families and communities, no longer be bound and consumed by the consumer celebration of Christmas, but celebrate it with full understanding of our faith.

May the Lord bless us and keep us in His grace, and may all of us be able to find the true meaning of Christmas in Jesus our Lord, Whose birth had blessed us with a new hope and the salvation He promised us. Let us all strengthen our faith and follow Him in all of His ways. Amen.

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Friday, 18 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 1 : 18-24

This is how Jesus Christ was born. Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her. While he was pondering over this, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins.”

All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet : The Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means God-with-us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the Angel of the Lord had told him to do, and he took his wife to his home.

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Friday, 18 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 71 : 1-2, 12-13, 18-19

O God, endow the King with Your justice, the Royal Son with Your righteousness. May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.

He delivers the needy who call on Him, the afflicted with no one to help them. His mercy is upon the weak and the poor, He saves the life of the poor.

Praised be the Lord, God of Israel, Who alone works so marvellously. Praised be His glorious Name forever; may the whole earth be filled with His glory! Amen. Amen.

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Friday, 18 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 23 : 5-8

YHVH further says, “The day is coming when I will raise up a King Who is David’s righteous Successor. He will rule wisely and govern with justice and righteousness. That will be a grandiose era when Judah will enjoy peace and Israel will live in safety. He will be called YHVH-Our-Justice!”

“The days are coming,” says YHVH, “when people shall no longer swear by YHVH as the Living God Who freed the people of Israel from the land of Egypt. Rather, they will swear by YHVH as the Living God Who restored the descendants of Israel from the northern empire and from all the lands where He had driven them, to live again in their own land!”

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Friday, 11 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the differences of what God expects, and what men expects. Human expectations and divine expectations often differ in how they clash and in how they are incompatible. The world expects many things, and they are very difficult to please and satisfy, just as the desires of men are great and ever growing.

This was made clear in the Gospel today, in how the prophet and servant of God, John the Baptist came into the world to proclaim the coming of the Messiah, he was seen as a madman whose habits and works resembled those who were uncivilised and barbarous, as he wandered in the desert, eating nothing but wild honey and kept an unkempt appearance.

And then the Lord Jesus when He came into the world, He lived as men were, and He also went to approach the sinners, meeting with them, speaking with them, sitting at a meal with them, eating and drinking together, and through His interactions, He brought the mercy of God upon them. And yet, to the world that is never satisfied, what the Lord Jesus had done was a travesty and horrible to behold.

All these should bring us to the reality that the world is truly hard to please, and will never be pleased at whatever we do as the followers and disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. This world is particularly obsessed with appearances, and they feared those whose actions and appearances do not stand with and do not fall into what they deemed as an appropriate and worthy appearance and behaviour.

This is why, especially in today’s world, a place of ever increasing materialism and commercialism, where greed and desires rule the hearts of men, it is important for us all to stand strong in our faith and not to fall into the trap of sin and the desires and greed of our hearts. We must be careful lest we become subservient to our own desires and become like those who live only to be acceptable to the world.

That was precisely what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done. They lived not for the Lord God or for the people who had been entrusted to them as shepherds to guide, but they lived for themselves, trying to gain the approval of men over the approval of God. Therefore, many of their actions depended on the approval of men, and for the people to look at them and praise their piety, but yet inside their hearts, there is no God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not the path that we all should take. On the contrary, we should heed the examples of Christ our Lord, Who lived not to please the world, but instead to serve the people to whom He had been sent into the world for, to be their Shepherd, their Leader and their King, guiding them to the right paths, and often not worrying about the approval of the world in His actions, but rather serving the truth and seeking the full execution of the truth.

Today we celebrate the feast of a faithful servant of God, Pope St. Damasus I, one of the early Popes, who was a great and pious leader of the faithful, who also did not fear to take certain actions that were unpopular, if these were for the good of the whole Church and for the good of the faithful. He was particularly known for his opposition to heretical teachings such as those espoused by the Arians, and he was also committed to the unity and harmony within the Church.

Pope St. Damasus I helped many segments of the faithful and helped to lay the strong foundation for the Universal Church, fostering active cooperation between the many churches and leaders of the Church, engaging one another actively to help lead the people of God on the way towards their salvation in God. Through his dedication and good works, he had brought about much good for the people of God.

And even though in his position he has the power and great influence over many, but he did not let his ego, human desires or the temptations of Satan to influence his own actions and in how he remained deeply faithful and devoted to the Lord and His ways. He remained humble and all the things that he had done, he did them for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of mankind.

As now we have heard of the examples of Pope St. Damasus I, and in how we also should know how many other saints and faithful servants of our Lord had lived, and heeding the failures and the errors of those who came before us, let us all commit ourselves to renew our faith through action and by our deeds that show our faith in the Lord, by staying true to Him even amidst all the difficult temptations of the world and the persuasions of Satan.

May Almighty God be with us always, and may He always guide our paths, so that we will be able to stay true to our faith, and stand up proudly to defend it and to profess it amidst a world shrouded in darkness. May the light of the Lord, shown through us and our actions, be able to light the path to the salvation in God to one another, and by our works may we bring as many souls as possible to the eternal life in Christ. Amen.

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Friday, 11 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Matthew 11 : 16-19

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples and to the people, “Now, to what can I compare the people of this day? They are like children sitting in the marketplace, about whom their companions complain : ‘We played the flute for you, but you would not dance. We sang a funeral song, but you would not cry!'”

“For John came fasting, and people said, ‘He is possessed.’ Then the Son of Man came, He ate and drank, and people said, ‘Look at this Man! A glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet the outcome will prove Wisdom to be right.”

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Friday, 11 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the one who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the Law of the Lord and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.

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Friday, 11 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Isaiah 48 : 17-19

Thus says YHVH, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel : I, YHVH, your God, teach you what is best for you; I lead you in the way that you must go. Had you paid attention to My commandments, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

Your descendants would have been like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, their names never cut off nor blotted out from My presence.

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Friday, 4 December 2015 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture readings told us about the merits of keeping up faith in the Lord, and the importance of keeping hope in Him Who cares for us and Who blesses us all daily with life and all its goodness. It is a reminder that we do not live alone or suffer in this life alone in this world, but rather we have our Lord Who is constantly with us, guiding us and protecting us.

God never failed His people and He had never, and will never ever break the promises He had made. He had promised to bring us all mankind into His salvation, and that is precisely what He will do. He always fulfil whatever He had promised, and He will always love us all, no matter how sinful and wicked we were. Yet, it was always us mankind who have disappointed Him, rejecting the love which He had shown us, and spurning His care and compassion for us.

Let us just ask ourselves, to look into our own lives and how we have acted in this life. How often is it that we put God aside and forget about Him in the pursuit of our own selfish goals and desires? It is in our nature to be focused only on ourselves and ignore all other things. And we do not remember God until the time when we actually ‘need’ Him.

Yes, do we remember God in our good times? Maybe sometimes we do, but do we give Him thanks for every blessings He had granted us? Or did we just take all of His kindness for granted? This is the tendency that all of us have, that we tend to gloat and be proud of our own achievements, and glorify ourselves in front of others, praising our deeds and greatness, but not giving due thanks to God for all the things which He had blessed us with.

First of all, are we thankful of this life which God had granted us? Have we shown gratitude for every breath we take, the allowance we have been given by the Lord to live in this world and to enjoy all the good things we have and possess? All the graces and blessings of this world have been made available to us, and yet, many of us were not thankful, and instead we demand more, and we even become angry at God for not listening to our wants and wishes.

This is why it is important for us to understand in this season of Advent, the importance of rediscovering our true focus in the Lord. It is important for us to prepare ourselves thoroughly to be able to welcome our Lord’s coming properly and with piety, as we go on to celebrate Christmas in the coming few weeks’ time. Otherwise, our Christmas celebration will become empty and meaningless, and our joy will become illusory and merely satisfying the desires of our flesh rather than truly bringing us true joy in Christ our Lord.

Let us in all this, heed the examples and the life of St. John Damascene, or St. John of Damascus, whose feast we are celebrating today. St. John Damascene was a devoted monk and priest of the Lord in what is now Syria, hailing from Damascus, which would become his appellation in the years to come. He was committed to the Lord and showed his great faith by commissioning numerous writings and works that helped to prevent the faithful from following erroneous teachings and heresies.

St. John of Damascus also stood up for his faith against heretics and all those seeking to destroy the Church, including the infidels which by that time had conquered the lands where St. John lived. More and more persecutions and harsh treatment against the faithful ensued, but St. John Damascene remained as a bright light amidst all the darkness, and his works became an inspiration to many of the faithful, both those who were around him and those further beyond, including us all living today.

Through St. John of Damascus, God showed us that to become one of His disciples and faithful ones, we cannot just live in accordance to our wishes and satisfying our own desires. There will be times when we will be challenged to stand up for our faith and to defend it before others who seek to destroy the Faith and persecute the faithful.

In that case, will we be able to put forth our strength and our commitment to the Lord as St. John Damascene had done? St. John had put his trust in the Lord, and even though he often encountered difficult times, but the strength which he drew from the Lord allowed him to persevere on and to keep on trying to help the cause of the Lord, and show God’s love and truth to more and more people.

Therefore, now the challenge comes to us, as the present day disciples of our Lord. Are we able to commit ourselves to the Lord and to recognise all the good things that God had done for us, His people? God had protected St. John of Damascus, and all of His other faithful ones, and blessed them in various ways. Even though they were in trouble and in difficulties, but God did not leave them alone.

God will bless us and strengthen us at all times, and when challenges come our way, He will help us and protect us. Now we must understand His love and seek to be able to show our gratitude to Him Who had given so much for us. Let us all draw closer to our God, and as we go on through this season of Advent, let us all prepare ourselves mentally, spiritually and physically so that all of our beings may be able to celebrate with true joy the celebration of Christmas. God bless us all. Amen.