Friday

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Friday, 19 July 2024 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Isaiah 38 : 1-6, 21-22, 7-8

In those days Hezekiah fell mortally ill and the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, went to him with a message from YHVH, “Put your house in order for you shall die; you shall not live.”

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to YHVH, “Ah YHVH! Remember how I have walked before You in truth and wholeheartedly, and done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Then the word of YHVH came to Isaiah, “Go and tell Hezekiah what YHVH, the God of his father David, says : I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. See! I am adding fifteen years to your life and I will save you and this city from the power of the king of Assyria. I will defend it for My sake and for the sake of David My servant.”

Isaiah then said, “Bring a fig cake to rub on the ulcer and let Hezekiah be cured!” Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the House of YHVH?” Isaiah answered, “This shall be for you a sign from YHVH, that He will do what He has promised. See! I shall make the shadow descending on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.”

So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had covered on the stairway.

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Friday, 12 July 2024 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, each and every one of us are reminded yet again that we have been truly blessed and beloved by the Lord, our God and Master. He has always given us His wonderful love at all times, helping and guiding us all back to His path whenever we erred and fell away from His path of righteousness and virtues in life. He has showed us His compassion and mercy as a loving Father to His children, that while He chastised and punished us for our many sins, He did all of them with the intention to discipline and help us to find the path back to Him, so that we may not be lost to Him. God has never desired our destruction and He wished for us to find our path towards salvation and eternal life through His guidance and help.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Hosea, we heard of the words of the Lord speaking to His people, the people of Israel in the northern kingdom, also known as Israel, in which He told them all of the call which He presented to them to return to Him, His love and His compassionate care, abandoning their sinfulness and wickedness which had caused them to turn away from God’s path and righteousness in life. The prophet Hosea at that time was sent to the Israelites at the time which was just not long before the destruction of the kingdom by the conquering Assyrians who would subjugate the kingdom of Israel and destroy its cities and towns, bringing many of its people into exile in distant and foreign lands, uprooted from their ancestral lands, the land which they had been given by the Lord from the time of their ancestors.

The Lord had loved His people greatly and showed them all His providence, His guidance and protection, and yet, as highlighted in today’s first reading, we are also reminded of how those people had disobeyed Him, offering sacrifices to the false idols and pagan gods of their neighbours, of how they had profaned the sanctity of His sanctuaries and temples, turning away from the Lord Who has always loved them and cared for them. They instead sold themselves off to the wickedness of their neighbours, to the wicked practices that were abhorrent to God, disobeying and disregarded His Law and commandments. When He sent to them His prophets and messengers to remind them, they persecuted those servants of God and hardened their hearts.

But God showed them all that His love was truly great and He was indeed patient in caring and guiding them, as He had told and revealed to them through the prophet Hosea. He told them that He would eventually liberate them and bring them free from the yoke and the tyranny of those who would persecute and oppress them, just as He had done before against the Egyptians and all the others who had made His beloved people suffer and oppressed throughout their history. He would bring them to dwell once again in His loving Presence, and He would love them all again, blessing and returning them to their glorious days. Through these words, we are in fact also reminded that He also sought the same for all of us as well, all of us who are His children.

How is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because each and every one of us have also rebelled against God by our conscious choice to follow the temptations and the falsehoods of Satan and the other evil ones, in disobeying God and His Law, His commandments and words. We chose to listen to the evil ones, who tempted and persuaded us to give in to our desired and to worldly ambitions and glory, seeking to satisfy us with all these false pleasures and joys. But God is still ever patient in loving us and leading us all to Himself, and He never gave up on us, giving us all the means and help to allow us to find Him, to be forgiven from our sins and to be fully reconciled to Him. He sent us all His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, as the proof of all this love manifested.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard how the Lord Jesus sending out His disciples to carry out His works ahead of Him, sending them in pairs to go forth to the many places that He Himself would be visiting, to prepare His path and to extend the outreach of His love and kindness, to fulfil everything that God had said that He would do to His people. The Lord told His disciples how they would be sent like the sheep among wolves, and there would be challenges and difficulties that they would face along their journey and missions, but they must remain firm in their faith in the Lord and they were reassured of God’s guidance, which He would give them all through the Holy Spirit, strengthening and guiding them in what they ought to do.

Therefore, through what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, we are all reminded that as the followers and disciples of Our Lord, as Christians, each and every one of us are the ones whom God had called, chosen and entrusted with the mission to reach out to all those people whom had been separated from God through sin. Each and every one of us ourselves have sinned, and we have experienced that separation from God, and God had saved and redeemed us all through His love, which He had made manifest in our presence through His beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, each and every one of us are reminded of this ever wonderful love of God and how as His disciples, we should bear this same love and truth of God to all those whom we encounter in our lives so that we may bring them ever closer to God and His path.

Let us all therefore be the worthy, courageous and shining beacons of God’s Light, hope and truth in our world today, so that God’s Light may dispel the darkness around us, and His truth may dispel all the falsehoods and all the distractions present around us, and through His love, may all of us, by our genuine and vibrant lives accentuated by our Christian love and virtues, be the good role models and inspirations for all our fellow brothers and sisters around us. May God bless us always and be with us in all things, so that we will always be strengthened in our every good works, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 12 July 2024 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 10 : 16-23

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Look, I send you out like sheep among wolves. You must be as clever as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard with people, for they will hand you over to their courts, and they will flog you in their synagogues. You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings because of Me, so that you may witness to them and the pagans.”

“But when you are arrested, do not worry about what you are to say, or how you are to say it; when the hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father, speaking through you.”

“Brother will hand over his brother to death, and a father his child; children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of Me, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. I tell you the truth, you will not have passed through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”

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Friday, 12 July 2024 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 50 : 3-4, 8-9, 12-13, 14 and 17

Have mercy on me, o God, in Your love. In Your great compassion blot out my sin. Wash me thoroughly of my guilt; cleanse me of evil.

I know You desire truth in the heart; teach me wisdom in my inmost being. Cleanse me, with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, I shall be whiter than snow.

Create in me, o God, a pure heart; give me a new and steadfast spirit. Do not cast me out of Your presence nor take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Give me again the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. O Lord, open my lips, and I will declare Your praise.

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Friday, 12 July 2024 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Hosea 14 : 2-10

Return to your God YHVH, o Israel! Your sins have caused your downfall. Return to YHVH with humble words. Say to Him, “Oh You Who show compassion to the fatherless forgive our debt, be appeased. Instead of bulls and sacrifices, accept the praise from our lips. Assyria will not save us : no longer shall we look for horses nor ever again shall we say ‘Our gods’ to the work of our hands.”

I will heal their wavering and love them with all My heart for My anger has turned from them. I shall be like dew to Israel like the lily will he blossom. Like a cedar he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow and spread. His splendour will be like an olive tree. His fragrance, like a Lebanon cedar.

They will dwell in My shade again, they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like a vine, and their fame will be like Lebanon wine. What would Ephraim do with idols, when it is I Who hear and make him prosper? I am like an ever-green cypress tree; all your fruitfulness comes from Me.

Who is wise enough to grasp all this? Who is discerning and will understand? Straight are the ways of YHVH : the just walk in them, but the sinners stumble.

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Friday, 5 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all called to abandon our past sinful way of life and embrace from now on, God’s righteousness and virtues in our lives, in each and every one of our actions, words and deeds. We are all reminded that if we continue to walk in the path of sin and disobedience against God, and if we continue to allow the darkness of this world to mislead and bring us down the path to ruin, then in the end, we will regret our choice and path. The Lord reminded us all that we have been called by Him and given the opportunity to embrace His love and generous mercy, but we must also be willing to make the commitment and to embrace wholeheartedly this love and mercy, or else, we will continue to be separated from Him.

In our first reading today, we heard of the continuation of the passage from the Book of the prophet Amos which we have heard in the past one week or so, in which the prophet spoke of the Lord’s words to His people, the Israelites living in the northern kingdom, also known as Israel, who have disobeyed and disregarded His Law and commandments. The prophet Amos was sent to the people of Israel during the last years of the existence of the northern kingdom of Israel to bring about God’s warning and the revelation of the fate that would soon befall all those people who had hardened their hearts and acted wickedly for so many years in refusing to believe in God and persecuting the many prophets and messengers which God had sent them constantly to help and guide them in their path.

God thus spoke through the prophet Amos, chastising those same people of their many sins and wickedness, as we heard in our first reading today, stating how they had behaved inappropriately as God’s holy and beloved people by manipulating and exploiting the weak and the less privileged for their own personal benefits and ambitions, through their self-serving attitudes and actions, all of which had brought about a lot of misery and hardships for others, leading to more and more wicked actions and things that were truly unbecoming of a people whom God had called and chosen to be His own people. And the Lord also told His people that they were to be chastised and punished so that they might see the errors of their ways, and thus, hopefully that they could then turn away from those sins and wickedness before it was too late for them.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the story of the calling of Levi, the tax collector by the Lord Jesus. Levi decided to follow the Lord, leaving behind his post at the tax collector’s office and committing himself to be a disciple of the Lord. He would henceforth be known as Matthew, and as with other people who changed their names in the other parts of the Scriptures, like Abraham, Jacob, Peter and Paul, this name change indicated the new life and path which Levi had committed himself to take, by which he embraced the Lord fully, and becoming Matthew, a committed disciple and servant of God, a member of the Twelve Apostles and later on as one of the Four Evangelists.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were quick to criticise the Lord when He went to have dinner with Levi and the other tax collectors, as at the time, the tax collectors were widely seen as traitors to the nation and the people of God for their role in collecting taxes on behalf of the rulers and the Romans. They were also seen as sinners and people who were unworthy of God’s grace and salvation, and as common at the time, no one especially the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law would associate themselves with those considered as sinners, like the tax collectors, the prostitutes and those afflicted with certain illnesses and diseases, because they could make them to be considered unclean as well.

But the Lord immediately pointed out that His mission and what He wanted to do is to reach out to the marginalised and those who have been lost to Him, those who have been afflicted the most by the affliction of sin. It was sinners and those who are struggling that need the most help, and it is for them that the Lord had made Himself available through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Whom God had sent into our midst to be Our Saviour and Hope. He is the Light and Hope for all the people of all the nations, and He shows us all that God truly loves everyone, all of His beloved children and people, without exception. Even the greatest of sinners and those whom others deem to be unworthy, God still loves and desires to be reunited with Him.

That is why all of us are called to embrace God’s love and mercy, to seek Him and His forgiveness for all of our faults and sins. The Lord wants us all to turn away from all of our rebellious ways and to be like His servant, Levi, who have committed himself thoroughly to God’s cause, and gave Himself to the glorification of God. Each and every one of us have also been called to our own respective missions and vocations in life, to do what is right and just, virtuous and worthy in each and every moments in our lives. All of us should make good use of these many opportunities that the Lord had given to us so that we may come ever closer to Him and be forgiven from our many sins and wickedness. Let us all no longer harden our hearts and minds, but humble ourselves, welcoming the Lord Himself into our midst.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Anthony Zaccaria, a renowned servant of God whose life and commitment to God can serve as a good inspiration for all of us to follow in our own lives. St. Anthony Zaccaria was born into a noble family in what is part of Italy today, and he was brought up by his mother mostly after his father died when he was just two years old. From a young age, the young St. Anthony Zaccaria had been exposed to the sufferings of the poor and the needy through his pious and devout mother, who made him as an almoner, to be the one to reach out and care for the poor in the community. He became a physician for a short while before eventually, he joined the seminary and was trained to become a priest.

St. Anthony Zaccaria continued to minister to the poor and the needy as a priest, working in hospitals and other institutions caring for the needy at the time. He and some other like-minded clerics began living a life of love and ministry to the people who were needy and poor, eventually establishing the congregation of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul, also known as the Barnabites, which members are devoted to the service of God’s people, delivering and encouraging the pious practices of the Forty Hours Devotion and the emphasis on the Passion of the Lord to the greater community. Through their many efforts, they helped and sustained the physical and spiritual needs of many people, bringing them ever closer to the Lord. The dedication and faith shown by St. Anthony Zaccaria and his compatriots should inspire all of us to commit ourselves to the Lord in the same way as well.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore continue to do our part in following the Lord ever more faithfully, in doing His will and obeying His Law and commandments at all times. May the Lord continue to help and guide us in our journey throughout life, to do what He has entrusted to us to do. May He continue to bless us all in out every good efforts, works and endeavours, and help us to be His faithful and committed disciples in all things. Amen.

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Friday, 5 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Matthew 9 : 9-13

At that time, as Jesus moved on from the place where He cured a paralytic man, He saw a man named Matthew, at his seat in the custom house; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And Matthew got up and followed Him.

Now it happened, while Jesus was at table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is it, that your Master eats with sinners and tax collectors?”

When Jesus heard this, He said, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. Go, and find out what this means : What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

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Friday, 5 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Psalm 118 : 2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131

Blessed are they who treasure His word and seek Him with all their heart.

I seek You with my whole heart; let me not stray from Your commands.

My soul is consumed with desire for Your ordinances at all times.

I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart upon Your laws.

Oh, how I long for Your precepts! Renew my life in Your righteousness.

I gasp in ardent yearning, for Your commandments that I love.

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Friday, 5 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Amos 8 : 4-6, 9-12

Hear this, you, who trample on the needy, to do away with the weak of the land. You who say, “When will the new moon or the Sabbath feast be over that we may open the store and sell our grain? Let us lower the measure and raise the price; let us cheat and tamper with the scales, and even sell the refuse with the whole grain. We will buy up the poor for money and the needy for a pair of sandals.”

YHVH says, “On that day, I will make the sun go down at noon; and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your singing into wailing. Everyone will mourn, covered with sackcloth; and every head will be shaved. I will make them mourn, as for an only son, and bring their day to a bitter end.”

YHVH says, “Days are coming when I will send famine upon the land; not hunger for bread or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of YHVH. Men will stagger from sea to sea, wander to and fro, from north to east, searching for the word of YHVH; but they will not find it.”

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Friday, 28 June 2024 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Irenaeus, Bishop, Martyr and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that if we put our trust in the Lord and follow Him, we shall gain assurance, providence and grace, and we shall be triumphant with Him in the end. Meanwhile, if we place our trust in worldly things and means, then we are likely to face disappointments and defeats handed down to us, as nothing in this world can give us the same assurance and providence as the Lord alone can give us. The examples shown in our Scripture passages today should serve as good examples for us of what will happen to us should we decide to follow the Lord and trust in Him versus putting our trust in the world and all the things it can provide us with, and the choice is ours to make on which path we want to choose in our own respective lives.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Kings of Israel and Judah in which the moments of the final defeat, downfall and destruction of the kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem of the ancient Israelites came to fruition after the people of God had disobeyed Him, disregarded and refused to obey His Law and commandments for a long time, after many of the kings of Israel and Judah had led the people down a path of rebellion and sin, by following and worshipping pagan idols and foreign false gods instead of worshipping and obeying the Lord, their one and only True God, the One Who had liberated all of them from the hands of the Egyptians and their Pharaoh, and led them to the Promised Land where they had been dwelling in all those times.

Their disobedience and sins culminated in this tragic destruction of the lands of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the many other cities and towns of the land, echoing what had happened about a century and a half earlier on, when the northern kingdom of Israel, the northern half of the kingdom of God’s people, the Israelites, was conquered and destroyed by the forces of the Assyrians, who also destroyed Samaria, the capital of Israel and the many cities belonging to the Israelites, carrying many of its people into exile. Thus, this same fate eventually befell those in the southern kingdom of Judah as well, with this time the Babylonians who came to crush the kingdom of Judah and its capital Jerusalem, also carrying many of its people to exile in distant lands.

All these as mentioned, happened because of the disobedience and sins which were committed by the people of God, in their refusal to follow the path and the Law which the Lord had provided to them, refusing to listen and to heed the words and reminders, the guidance and the help from the many prophets and messengers that God had sent to them to help them in their path. They also chose to trust in man’s power, in worldly powers and means instead of trusting in the Lord, their God. The prophet Jeremiah had warned the king and the people of Judah of the impending destruction, and not to rebel against the King of Babylon, or else Judah and Jerusalem would be destroyed.

Yet, the false prophets and the nobles all encouraged and forced the king to side with the Egyptians to free themselves from the dominion of the Babylonian kingdom, and this led to the rebellion as we heard in our first reading today, and its aftermath, after the King of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar brought his mighty force to besiege and destroy Jerusalem, and how the city was taken, the Temple and its hallowed halls were destroyed, the Ark of the Covenant disappeared, and the last King of Judah and his sons were captured, the former blinded while the latter were killed. All these things happened because of the lack of faith by those Israelites in God and His Divine providence and protection, choosing instead to trust in the worldly powers and false idols.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Matthew of the account of the moment when the Lord Jesus healed a leper who asked Him to help and heal him from his condition. Leprosy was a condition which was then feared and those who suffered from it were ostracised and cast out from the community, forced to wander off into the desert. This was interestingly the fate of the Israelites after both the kingdoms of Israel and Judah had been conquered and destroyed by Assyria and Babylon respectively, and many of the people of God had to wander off in exile, away in distant lands and cast out from the Promised Land of their ancestors and inheritance.

The Lord healed the leper and made him whole again, and told the leper to follow the customs of the Law, by showing himself to a priest as prescribed so that he could be readmitted once again into the community. Through this and what we have just discussed from our first reading passage today, all of us are reminded that first of all, in God we have the sure hope of salvation and liberation from all the troubles and trials facing us, from the corruption and depredation of sin and evil, represented by the leprosy that afflicted the man. And then, we are also reminded that if we allow worldly temptations and allures, corruptions and distractions to affect us, we will end up suffering like what the people of Israel had suffered in the past. But if we put our faith and trust once again in God, then we can have the sure path out of the darkness and into the light of God’s salvation and grace.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Irenaeus, one of the early Church fathers whose life and works, dedication and commitment to God can help inspire and strengthen us in our own paths in life so that we may continue to live worthily and faithfully in God’s Presence. St. Irenaeus lived during the second century, about a century or so after the time of the Lord’s ministry during the height of the Roman Empire and at a time when the Christian faith began to spread widely throughout the Empire, while facing persecutions from the Roman authorities at certain times. He was a priest in the area of Lyon in today’s southern part of France, and eventually became a bishop there. At that time, there were several heresies facing the faithful which threatened the unity of the Church and the salvation of the souls.

Some of these heresies include Montanism, Gnosticism, among others, which did not correspond or adhere to the true teachings of the Lord and to the deposit of faith handed down through the Church from the Apostles. St. Irenaeus spent a lot of time and effort combatting those heresies among his flock and wrote extensively on the matter, especially in his renowned treatise, Adversus Haereses, which literally meant ‘Against Heresies’, reminding the faithful throughout Christendom of the dangers of heresies and falsehoods which could mislead them into the wrong and sinful paths, and encouraging them to remain true to the Holy Mother Church and the true Christian faith. Eventually St. Irenaeus himself also faced martyrdom like many other early Christians of his time, but his many contributions continued to affect the Church for many centuries to come, even to this day.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard the inspirational examples and commitment of St. Irenaeus in living a holy and worthy life in God, and in devoting himself to oppose all the false teachings and heresies that threatened the unity of the Church and the salvation of souls, therefore, all of us should be reminded that we too should also do the same in our own respective lives, in living a truly holy and worthy life centred on God, putting our faith and trust in Him, and helping to lead others around us by example so that more and more may come to know and recognise God and His truth, His love and salvation through us and our lives. Let us all continue to seek God’s grace, mercy and love, asking Him to strengthen us all in our every good efforts, endeavours and works for His greater glory.

May the Lord continue to inspire and strengthen us each day and at every moments of our lives, to be faithful to Him at all times, much as how His great servant, St. Irenaeus, holy bishop and martyr, great Doctor of the Church, had lived his life and inspired so many people after his lifetime. May God be with us all His beloved people and flock, with His Church, now and always. Amen.