Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)
Psalm 95 : 10, 11-12a, 12b-13
Say among the nations, “YHVH reigns!” He will judge the peoples with justice.
Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them.
Let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy. Let them sing before YHVH Who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice, and the peoples, with fairness.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)
1 Peter 4 : 7-13
The end of all things is near; keep your minds calm and sober, for prayer. Above all, let your love for one another be sincere, for love covers a multitude of sins. Welcome one another into your houses without complaining. Serve one another with the gifts each of you received, thus becoming good managers of the varied graces of God.
If you speak, deliver the word of God; if you have a special ministry, let it be seen as God’s power, so that, in everything, God may be glorified, in Jesus Christ. To Him, belong glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
My dear people, do not be surprised at the testing, by fire, which is taking place among you, as though something strange were happening to you. Instead, you should be glad to share in the sufferings of Christ, because, on the day His glory is revealed, you will also fully rejoice.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord in the Scriptures, all of us are reminded that each one of us have been called by the Lord to follow Him and to do His will, to wherever that He will lead us to, just as He had done with the Apostles, the many saints and martyrs of the Church, our holy predecessors. Each and every one of us as Christians are expected to live our lives worthily of the Lord and to continue carrying out our activities in accordance with God’s will, doing whatever we can to serve Him and glorify Him at every possible opportunities. We should heed the Lord’s call and love Him as much as we should, just as how He Himself has loved us so much first, that He gave Himself for us that through His loving sacrifice for us, we may all be saved.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles regarding a conversation between Festus, the Governor and Procurator of Judea with King Agrippa, the Herodian ruler of the region, about St. Paul the Apostle, his works and ministry and how the Jewish authorities, members of the Sanhedrin had been accusing him of wrongdoing, and how St. Paul appealed to the Emperor for his case. Through what we have heard here, we are reminded of how God moved things and spared St. Paul from the hands of his enemies in Jerusalem, who no doubt would have wanted him destroyed. Instead, as the Lord Himself had told St. Paul earlier on, that He was sending him to Rome, to the last stop of his long missionary works, where he would evangelise and proclaim the Good News of God at the very heart and centre of the Roman Empire itself.
St. Paul could have chosen to stay away from trouble and from all the hardships facing him, just as the past few weekdays’ Scripture passages from the Acts of the Apostles could show us. St. Paul willingly embraced God’s calling and mission, embarking on this last missionary journey through Jerusalem, and then on to Rome, in which St. Paul would go on to do more great works at evangelisation, stopping by the island of Malta along the way where he laid the foundation of the faith there, and many more. Through the hard work of St. Paul and other early Christian missionaries, the Church grew rapidly amidst the many challenges and hardships that it had to face, persecutions and oppressions that many among the Christian faithful had to endure. Their faith remained strong and firm as the Lord guided and strengthened them, and empowered them through the Holy Spirit.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the calling of St. Peter the Apostle, and the mission which God entrusted to him as He reaffirmed him as the leader and shepherd of His entire flock, the Church. That happened at the shores of the Lake of Galilee, where after the Lord’s Resurrection, He went and met with His disciples just as He has promised them. And in this private moment mentioned in the Gospel passage today, the Lord asked St. Peter, not once but three times, ‘Peter, do you love Me?’, which St. Peter replied fervently and lovingly with, ‘Lord, You know that I love You.’ And the Lord told St. Peter to take care of His sheep, the flock of His beloved people, to feed them and to take good care of them, as a reminder of the mission which He had entrusted to him earlier as His Vicar, as the leader of the whole entire Church.
And why the Lord asked St. Peter three times? It is symbolic as a response to what St. Peter had done earlier on at the beginning of the Lord’s Passion, where as we all know that St. Peter denied knowing the Lord and denied Him a total of not just once but three times. St. Peter was likely driven by fear, the fear for suffering and for being persecuted and hence, in his moment of folly, he abandoned and denied the Lord back then. But the Lord, through this threefold questioning of St. Peter was showing that He loved him, forgave him from his past mistakes and lack of faith, and entrusted to him anew what He has entrusted to him, the guardianship and leadership over His whole entire Church. St. Peter was also told of the kind of suffering and martyrdom that he would have to endure for the sake of the Lord, and to the very end, St. Peter would remain firmly faithful to his calling and mission.
Today all of us are reminded that as Christians all of us are called from the world, from among the ordinary people to become extraordinary in the Lord. Often we are reluctant to follow the Lord or to do as He has commanded us to do because we thought that we are incapable of doing all the things like our predecessors had done. But as we all have seen and discussed, the Lord’s own disciples are those who have come from ordinary background, and were people who were imperfect and even weak in their faith at first. St. Paul himself was a great persecutor and enemy of the earliest Christians, and had a part in the sufferings and martyrdom of many among the faithful. St. Peter as we knew, abandoned and denied the Lord three times. Yet, all of them had a change of heart and mind, and committed themselves thoroughly to the Lord for the rest of their lives.
Today, all of us should also then be inspired by the examples of St. Rita of Cascia whose feast we are celebrating today. St. Rita of Cascia was an Italian saint and Augustinian nun, a holy and devout religious sister who had dedicated her life to the service and the glory of God. She was married at a very young age by her family and despite her desires to enter a convent even from an early age, she remained as a good and faithful wife to her husband, who was quick-tempered and immoral in nature. She was remembered for her efforts in trying to change her husband’s ways, in the marriage that lasted for eighteen years until her husband and sons passed away. It was known that her husband’s family was involved in the then bitter interfamilial struggles and conflicts, and when her husband was murdered, St. Rita of Cascia tried to dissuade her sons from seeking revenge for their father’s death. She also forgave her husband’s murderers and enemies.
And when the sons of St. Rita of Cascia were in danger of committing sins in the pursuit of vengeance, she voluntarily asked the Lord to take them away so that they would not fall into the path of sin and damnation. Miraculously, God listened to her prayers, and her sons were taken away from her, as they passed away from dysentery, before they could commit murder and mortal sins that could harm and endanger their eternal souls. Afterwards, St. Rita of Cascia entered the monastery of St. Mary Magdalene in Cascia, in which she devoted the rest of her life to a work of prayer and piety, and managed to bring the two feuding families together in fulfilling the conditions that were imposed to her before she was to join the monastery community, devoting her life henceforth only to the glorification of God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all hence be inspired by the examples and the role models showed to us by St. Rita of Cascia in her virtues and righteousness, patience and love, and many others of our holy predecessors, like that of St. Peter the Apostle whose faith and undying love for the Lord was proclaimed earlier, and also those of the other Apostles, saints and holy martyrs of the Church. Let us be inspired by their good examples so that all of us may turn towards the Lord once again and commit ourselves to His path, doing whatever we can to do His will and to love Him at all times. May the Risen Lord, Our Saviour Jesus Christ continue to be with us and guide us all, and bless us all in our every good works, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
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.”
Liturgical Colour : White
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.
Liturgical Colour : White
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.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, each one of us are reminded of the hope and strength which we have in the Lord, our God and Saviour, and all of us are called to remain faithful to Him, not to give in to despair and hopelessness because no matter what challenges and trials we may face or encounter along the way, we will always be with the Lord by our side, providing for us and guiding us throughout the journey of our lives. The Lord has always loved us and cared for us, and He has always blessed and provided us with the assistance in various forms and ways. Through all these the Lord has helped His Church and faithful ones to persevere even amidst the most challenging moments throughout history.
In our first reading today, all of us heard from the Acts of the Apostles about the works that the Lord had done through St. Paul, His Apostle in the region of Achaia, which is in today’s area of Greece. St. Paul faced a lot of hardships and obstacles from the people of the Jewish diaspora living there, who accused St. Paul of all sorts of false accusations and with the attempts to discredit and harm him, as they opposed the Apostle’s efforts in proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel and the truth of Christ in their community and also among the Gentiles in the region. St. Paul spoke courageously before the governor against all those who opposed him and accused him of wrong things, and stood by his faith regardless of all these trials and challenges that he had to face. We heard how those people who opposed his efforts were really stubborn and even went to desperate methods to get St. Paul to be persecuted.
Essentially, like what we have heard from the Lord Jesus Himself in our Gospel passage today, that the life as Christians is truly not an easy journey for any one of us. For some of us like St. Paul himself had experienced, there may be even tangible obstacles, opposition and hardships facing us. But most importantly, we should not let all these deter us from following the Lord. The Lord Jesus Himself said that there will be time of sorrow just as there will be time of joy, using the example and analogy of a woman who was going through childbirth as a comparison, in order to bring His point across to us. Those who have gone through childbirth would know that the birthing process is one that is painful, challenging and difficult just as the whole pregnancy period itself may be hard and challenging for many women. However, the moment the baby is born, usually the joy and relief of seeing one’s own baby surpass even all those pain and sorrow.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are called to remember that being Christians do not mean that we are going to have a smooth and enjoyable journey in life, or to have blessings and good things all throughout our lives. Some of us misunderstood and failed to realise this fact, and failed to see the examples and the precedent of the Apostles and the early Christians, who suffered a lot and faced a lot of hardships and tribulations for their faith. Not only that, but even right up to this day, there are still often rampant and continued persecutions against Christians, lest we think that persecutions and hardships for Christians are merely a thing for the past. The Church and Christians around the world often still have to face challenges and trials, even just for remaining faithful and true to the teachings and truth of the Lord, and some faced even greater challenges and have to practice their faith in secret.
As we are reminded of all these things today, we are called to remain steadfast in faith, dedicating ourselves anew to the Lord, and to dedicate more of our time, effort and attention to Him, especially if we have not yet done so. As Christians, it is not enough for us just to go and call ourselves as Christians and do nothing at all, thinking that our baptism alone is sufficient to save us. For as the Lord and His disciples themselves had said, and as the Church fathers had taught us, that faith without good works and all the things done in living out that faith, is a dead faith, and dead faith is nothing better than faithlessness and hypocrisy, and those things will not avail us at all on the day of judgment. Instead, each and every one of us have to be truly faithful to the Lord in all things, and doing whatever we can in order to fulfil what the Lord had called us to do, and had entrusted for us to do in our own lives.
Now, as we carry on living our lives as Christians these days, are we inspired to follow the examples of our holy predecessors, the saints and martyrs in how courageous they have been, how steadfast they were in defending their faith and in living their lives according to the Christian principles and the teachings of the Church? How willing are we to commit ourselves to follow the Lord and dedicate ourselves each day to serve the Lord ever more faithfully in all things? Each and every one of us as Christians are reminded that we should do our part in becoming inspiration, role model and being good examples for one another and for all those whom we encounter so that our actions, words and deeds, our way of life may inspire others and may help others to know the Lord and to find out about His Good News and truth.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore remain steadfast in faith and commit ourselves ever more wholeheartedly to the Lord, remembering how loving He has been towards us, and how patient He has been in loving us all these while. Let us recall whatever the Lord has called us to do in our lives and in whichever calling we have been called to do, be it as a priest or any other members of the holy orders, as a consecrated men and women in the various religious orders, monasteries and friaries, as members of lay organisations and in our Church ministries, and as members of faithful Christian families, be it as husband and wife, or as parents and children. Each and every one of us have important roles to play in the works of the Church, and we should do our best to fulfil our calling in life as Christians.
May the Risen Lord, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, our most loving God and Good Shepherd, be with us always, be with His Church, and may the Holy Spirit be our inspiration, strength and guide. May the Lord bless our every works and good efforts for His greater glory, and may He help us all to persevere through all the hardships and challenges that we may have to face in this world. May He, the One and only True God, shine the light of His truth and love to the whole of this darkened world. Amen.
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.”
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!
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, each and every one of us are called to follow wholeheartedly the commandments of the Lord, to take it to heart and to believe in God most sincerely in all things. We should not forget this call and duty that each and every one of us as Christians have in living our daily lives with commitment and devotion to God. All of us have the calling and the mission entrusted to us to proclaim the truth and Good News of God to all the people all around us. We should do whatever the Lord has told us to do, and live our lives the way that He has taught us, so that by our examples and way of life, we may inspire others all around us to become more committed to the Lord, and to believe in Him as well.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles, of the conclusion of the First Council of Jerusalem, the very first Council of the Church assembled to discuss and discern the decision regarding how the Christian faithful, the people of God ought to carry out their lives, as there was then the controversy and division among the Christian faithful whether the Christian faithful ought to follow the full range of the extensive and often oppressive Jewish laws and customs espoused and championed by those who belonged to the group of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, and who embraced the Lord as their Saviour. To those people, the faithful had to embrace the fullness of the Jewish customs and laws, with all of their strict regulations and practices, in order for one to be saved and worthy of God.
However, the Apostles and the elders of the Church decided, after a period of gathering and discernment, guided by the Holy Spirit, that what is important is obeying the Law of God in its true spirit and understanding, and focusing on the key aspects of the Law of God just as the Lord Jesus Himself has revealed it, and not requiring the faithful people of God to subject themselves to the numerous tenets and often difficult to enforce rules and laws, which had in fact made it difficult for many of God’s people to come to Him, as those laws hindered them and prevented them from coming closer to God. Not only that, but as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law also often used those same rules and laws to discriminate against those whom they deemed to be less worthy and condemned as sinners, it became stumbling block for the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law themselves, who became enamoured with worldly glory, pride and ambition, and were blinded by their fanatical ideals and pursuits of their agenda.
They spent more time worrying about how to satisfy the many different aspects and tenets of the various rites and practices rather than truly loving and honouring the Lord their God through the faithful and proper appreciation, understanding and application of those laws and commandments. They often spent so much time focusing on the minute details that they had made an idol out of their way of observing and practicing the Law, zealously and even fanatically guarding their way of observing and practicing the Law, and not willing to listen to others who told them otherwise, even the Lord Himself Who had rebuked them and criticised them for their pettiness and their excessive emphasis on the ‘letter’ of the Law while forgetting the ‘spirit’ of the Law. The Lord reminded all of us, just as He had said to His disciples in our Gospel passage today, that each and every one of us should truly commit ourselves to His commandments of Love, that is to love God our most loving Father and Creator above all else, and then to love one another in the same way.
Unless we have the right focus and motivation, it will likely be easy for us to be distracted and pulled down the wrong path, as like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law themselves have shown us, that we may be externally pious, holy and devout, and yet inside us, within our hearts and minds, it is possible for us not to have space for the Lord at all. Therefore in that case and regard, our faith is no more than an empty and dead faith, one that will not benefit us in our path towards the eternal life in God and in His salvation. Each and every one of us are called to be truly faithful to the Lord, to be filled with generous love like that which our Lord Himself has shown us at every moments. All of us are called to do what He has taught us, to be compassionate and kind towards our fellow brothers and sisters, and to resist the temptations of evil, of pride, greed and worldly attachments.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all therefore reminded through what we have received in our Scripture passages today, the call to be truly genuine in our faith in God, that is to be truly filled and steeped in God’s Love above all else, in first loving Him most sincerely and generously in the manner that He has loved us first, and then in showing the same love towards everyone around us, especially all those whom we love the most, who are most precious and dearest to us, and whom God had placed in our lives to care for, while also showing love and care towards those whom we meet and encounter in our paths, who have no one to love and care for them, showing genuine love and compassion just as the Lord Himself has first shown and taught to us how to love like He has loved us.
This is why we are all reminded to show that in how we live our lives, in genuinely caring for others around us instead of behaving in a manner that is elitist and exclusivist like those Pharisees and the early Jewish Christians had behaved, in thinking that they are better and more superior in all things. We should remember that every one of us are beloved by the Lord, and none of us are more or less deserving of His love. And certainly, we should never be prejudiced, biased or selective in our love, choosing only to love or care for those who we think we can benefit from, but causing hurt and harm, or be apathetic against those whom we may disagree with. Worse still, we may even inadvertently cause hurt to those who love and care for us too, if we allow our ego and pride, our ambitions and desires to get the better of us.
May the Lord, our ever loving and compassionate God continue to be with us always, to be with us throughout all the challenges and hardships which we may face and encounter in life, strengthening us at all times with His love and kindness, with His strength and encouragement so that we may always be genuine and true Christians at all times, in each and every one of our actions, way of life and in our every commitments to God and to one another. Let us always be the good role models and inspirations for each other, strengthening one another in our journey of life and to persevere together towards God and His salvation, now and always, with God by our side. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 