Friday

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Friday, 25 September 2015 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Haggai 1 : 15b – Hagai 2 : 9

On the twenty-first day of the seventh month of the second year of the reign of Darius, this word of YHVH was sent through the prophet Haggai, “Give this message to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the high priest, and to all the people :

“Is there left among you one of those who saw this House long ago in the time of its glory? What do they think of what they see now? Is it not a very little thing? But I say to you, Zerubbabel, Joshua and My people : do not be discouraged. Begin to work, for I am with you, says YHVH. Do not be afraid, for My Spirit is in your midst.”

“Thus says YHVH of hosts, within a short while I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the continents. Then I will shake all the nations and bring in the treasures of the whole world. I will fill this House with glory, says YHVH. I will have as much silver and gold as I wish. The renown of this Temple will be greater than before, and in this place I will give peace,” says YHVH of hosts.

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Friday, 18 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about the exploits and the works of Jesus our Lord, who with His disciples and followers went about from place to place, seeking people who were downtrodden, broken, sinful and filled with darkness, so that He might succour them and bring light unto them. This was what He had done, to awaken the people of God from their slumber of sin and darkness, and from all the allures of the world that kept them from becoming righteous in the sight of God.

Many of us are often distracted from our true goal in life because of the various things and obstacles which Satan had put on the way for us, so that we stumble and fall along the way, and fall back into sin and darkness, losing our way and he hoped that we might be condemned because of our failure to stick to the path towards salvation. That is what Satan wishes for us, and certainly, none of us should want him to succeed in what he had worked for us.

Thus we come to the moment when we heard about how St. Paul mentioned to Timothy how we all ought to live our lives in God, abandoning all sorts of worldliness and all temptations of evil. In that letter which St. Paul wrote to Timothy, he mentioned how there were people who took advantage of religiousity and religions to serve their own purposes and satisfy their wants and wishes.

And this is a clear reference to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who used and manipulated the Law of God, the laws of Moses to serve their own needs. They opened the Temple to the money changers and merchants who filled their coffers with unlawful and sinful silver and money, and they even sold their Lord and Saviour for a mere thirty pieces of silver coin to Judas Iscariot.

These people were concerned primarily about their own status and standing in the society, doing everything they could to preserve their own power and dignity, and in the process, their actions became ever more self-serving and deviating from the path that they were supposed to take. They were unable to resist the temptation of their hearts, falling into the trap of pride and ego, as well as into their greed, for more power, human praise and for more wealth.

We must learn to resist these temptations or else they will grow greater and greater, and eventually they will overcome us and swallow us, bringing us into eternal suffering and annihilation that await the wicked and all those who were not able to resist those allures of the devil. Thus, what we need to do is to heed what the Church is teaching us, that is the truth revealed to us by our Lord Jesus Christ and passed down to us through the Apostles.

The truth is that we have to learn to be content with what we have, as after all, all of us have been blessed greatly by our Lord in many things, even if we do not realise it. It is important for us to resist the temptations that will lead us into ruin if we walk in the same path that was taken by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. We have to learn through our faith, how to be rather humble and dedicated to the Lord through love, by loving Him with all of our hearts and then loving our brethren, all those who are around us with the same fervour and love.

This will not be easy, as all of us by our human nature enjoy to be tempted and our flesh is by nature weak against all these corruptions. We have to therefore make the effort to resist and to win over all these things that are obstacles on our way to righteousness and salvation in God. Let us all deepen our faith in the Lord and strengthen our spiritual lives, so that all of us may grow stronger in faith and be more capable to strive for righteousness just as St. Paul had mentioned in his letter that we heard today in our first reading.

May our loving God and Father be with us always in all things, and bless us that we may always remain in His grace, so that in all things, we may always live graciously and righteously in His presence and be worthy to receive His everlasting inheritance. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 18 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

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.

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Friday, 18 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 48 : 6-7, 8-10, 17-18, 19-20

Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers ring me round – those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?

For no ransom avails for one’s life, there is no price one can give to God for it. For redeeming one’s life demands too high a price, and all is lost forever. Who can remain forever alive and never see the grave?

Fear not when someone grows rich, when his power becomes oppressively great, for nothing will he take when he dies; his wealth and pomp he will leave behind.

Though he praised himself in his lifetime, “All will say that I have enjoyed life,” he will join the generation of his forebears, who will never again see the light.

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Friday, 18 September 2015 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Timothy 6 : 2c-12

Teach and stress these things. Whoever teaches in some other way, not following the sound teaching of our Lord Christ Jesus and true religious instruction, is conceited and understands nothing.

This one is crazy about controversies and discussions that result in envy, insults, blows and constant arguments between people of depraved minds and far from the truth. For them, religion is merely for financial gain.

In reality, religion is a treasure if we are content with what we have. We brought nothing into the world and we will leave it with nothing. Let us then be content with having food and clothing. Those who strive to be rich fall into temptations and traps. A lot of foolish and harmful ambitions plunge them into ruin and destruction.

Indeed, the love of money is the root of every evil. Because of this greed, some have wandered away from the faith, bringing on themselves afflictions of every kind. But you, man of God, shun all this. Strive to be holy and godly. Live in faith and love, with endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith and win everlasting life to which you were called when you made the good profession of faith in the presence of so many witnesses.

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Friday, 11 September 2015 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about God who leads us on the way out of sin and darkness, and into the light, who have awakened us from the sleep of sin that we experienced, and brought us back into soberness after the drunkenness of our stupor in sin. This is certainly what St. Paul could relate to, as in the first reading today he exhorted Timothy his disciple and fellow worker in Christ to do and to tell the people of God.

This is because St. Paul himself was a sinner, a great one at that, as he was once a great enemy of the Lord and His faithful, as the merciless and fierce persecutor of many of the faithful in the early days of the Church before his repentance and redemption by the merciful act of God, who called him out of the darkness and into the light, as the events unfolded in the city of Damascus, where Saul the persecutor of the faithful became Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ and defender of the Faith.

When he was younger, St. Paul as Saul was naive and blind to the realities and truth of the Lord, and he blindly followed the faith of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, whom Jesus rebuked frequently and as we heard in the Gospel today, the criticism levelled at them for being blinded to their own sin and faults, and as a result, becoming the blind leading the blind in faith.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were proponents of tough enforcement of the Law of God, the laws of Moses as practiced by the people of Israel throughout the ages, and they enforced on the people the rigid rigour of the numerous laws, rules, prohibitions and commandments that they thought as the way to be rightful and just disciples of the Lord.

Yet, in their fulfilment of the Law and in their way of following the rules, regulations, prohibitions, rites and commandments, they lost their way and instead of understanding what the Lord had given them in the Law, its purpose and the true reason why God had revealed to them such things, they ended up following them blindly, for the sake of following the laws, and even worse, as they thought of themselves as just and righteous because they had done what they had done, and they thought that they were right in condemning others because they had not followed the laws as they had done.

In the same manner therefore, St. Paul as Saul in his youth had been led to believe in such falsehoods, in leading such a false and wicked life as taught to him by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law because of his lack of understanding in what God truly wanted for us all mankind, for all of us His beloved people. And they failed to look upon their own faults and sins, thinking themselves as righteous and condemning others for their faults instead.

In the end, God called Saul out of darkness and into the light, and after having revealed His truth to him, St. Paul became awakened and realised the truth of it all, and he regretted all the things he had done, and from then on, he became a tireless and courageous servant of the Lord God, telling and preaching the truth to all others without fear and without reservations, knowing that he wanted to help them to get out of their ignorance and blindness as well.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, let us all also come to the realisation of our sins and faults, of the imperfections and the wrong things which we have committed in life. Let us not be blinded to the truth, and let us not be prideful in refusing to admit that we are all sinners, and that we have been wrong at times. Let us be humble and admit our mistakes, and seek the forgiveness for our sins, and find the mercy of God, which our Lord generously offers us.

Let us therefore also help one another in finding our way to the Lord, and be inspired by St. Paul and all that he had done in revealing the truth about the Lord to all the people whom he had visited and worked with. Let us walk in his footsteps, and let us all dedicate ourselves all the more, to be true and faithful disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, in all that we say and do in our lives. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 11 September 2015 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

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.”

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Friday, 11 September 2015 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 15 : 1-2a and 5, 7-8, 11

Keep me safe, o God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord. O Lord, my inheritance and my cup, my chosen portion – hold secure my lot.”

I bless the Lord who counsels me; even at night my inmost self instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me; for with Him at my right hand, I will never be shaken.

You will show me the path of life, in Your presence the fullness of joy, at Your right hand happiness forever.

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Friday, 11 September 2015 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Timothy 1 : 1-2, 12-14

From Paul, Apostle of Christ Jesus by a command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope, to Timothy, my true son in the faith. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy and peace.

I give thanks to Christ Jesus, our Lord, who is my strength, who has considered me trustworthy and appointed me to His service, although I had been a blasphemer, a persecutor and a rabid enemy. However He took mercy on me because I did not know what I was doing when I opposed the faith; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, together with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

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Friday, 4 September 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son whom our Lord had sent into this world to be our Saviour, on whose hands had been given the full and complete authority to absolve us all from our sins, and to bring us into salvation. And then in the Gospel we heard about how Jesus spoke of the parable of the new and old wineskins, and about the nature of Himself as the Bridegroom of the Church and the faithful.

We heard how the Lord is the Head of the Church, which is His Body, in which all the faithful and all those who have been gathered by the Lord as His flock made up. All of the faithful are part of the Church, the Body of the Lord, for everyone shares together in the banquet of the Most Precious Body and Blood of our Lord in the Eucharist.

This means that when we commit ourselves to God and to His ways, as the members of His Body, His Church, all of us have been brought from the dominion of this world into a new and everlasting dominion that is in the Lord. This is perfectly described by Jesus, through the parable of the new and old wineskins as well as the new and old coats.

The parable spoke about the incompatibility of the old and new ways of life, with the old wineskins and the old coats representing the older way of life, while the newer patches and pieces and wines refer to the new way of life, corresponding to our past lives filled with sins and wickedness, and the new way of following our Lord and His commandments, loving one another and loving our Lord respectively.

And because the Lord is the Head of the Church, by nature, all of us who belong to Him and are members of His Body, the Church, just like the organs of our body, should be in tune and in tandem with the activities of the Head, just as our brains control everything that happens in our bodies. And this means that in all of our actions, our words and all of our dealings, we must conform to the way of the Lord, and obey Him in all of His decrees and commandments.

We should not say things or act in ways that are contrary to the Lord’s ways or else we are creating scandals for our faith and for the Church. After all if we preach about the Lord to those who are around us, and expect them to believe in us, while we ourselves are not practicing what we preach, and worse that we even commit and do things that are contrary in meaning and spirit to what we preach, then who would believe in us?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is imperative that all of us realise how much more that we can do for the sake of the Lord and for the sake of His people around us, in particular those who are still lost in the darkness of the world. We have to realise how much more we can do to help them and bring them into the light through our own actions and through our own faith.

When people see us as the shining beacons of the faith and as examples of the Lord and all that He had taught us, then they too may be moved in their hearts to follow our footsteps, and then be saved together with us. If we are concerned with them, then surely we will try our best to help them to become part of the Church and to share together the Most Precious gift of our Lord’s Body and Blood with them, by calling them to sincere and real repentance and to receive the mercy and forgiveness of God for their sins, so that all mankind, and as many souls as possible may be saved.

May Almighty God bless us all, and may He, the Head of the Church, help us all the members of His One Body, to remain united and to remain attached to His grace and be always worthy of the salvation which He had promised all of us who remain faithful to Him. God be with us all always. Amen.