Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 21 : 29-33
At that time, Jesus added this comparison, “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as their buds sprout, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I tell you, this generation will not pass away, until all this has happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Daniel 3 : 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81
Mountains and hills, praise and exalt Him forever.
Everything that sprouts on the earth, praise and exalt Him forever.
Springs of water, praise and exalt Him forever.
Seas and rivers, praise and exalt Him forever.
Whales and fishes, praise and exalt Him forever.
All the birds of heaven, praise and exalt Him forever.
Animals, wild and tame, praise and exalt Him forever.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Daniel 7 : 2-14
Daniel said, “I saw the following in my vision : the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea, and four great beasts, each one different from the other, came out of the sea. The first was like a lion with eagle’s wings. As I looked at it, its wings were torn off. It was lifted up from the ground, stood up on its feet like a man, and was given a human heart.”
“The second was a beast like a bear; it was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told : Go and devour much flesh. I went on looking and saw another beast like a leopard with four wings on its back; it had four heads and dominion was given to it.”
“I continued seeing my visions of the night and saw a terrible fourth beast. It was fearful and extraordinarily strong; it had great iron teeth; it ate, tore into pieces, and crushed underfoot whatever remained. It was different from the previous beasts and had ten horns. I was looking at the horns, when another small horn sprang among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots to make way for the new. It had eyes like human eyes and a mouth that uttered insolent words.”
“I looked and saw the following : Some thrones were set in place and One of Great Age took His seat. His robe was white, as snow, His hair, white as washed wool. His throne was flames of fire with wheels of blazing fire. A river of fire sprang forth and flowed before Him. Thousands upon thousands served Him and a countless multitude stood before Him. Those in the tribunal took their seats and opened the book.”
“But as I remembered the haughty words of the horn with human eyes and mouth, which I had seen before, this animal was killed before my eyes; and its body destroyed and cast into the fire. Dominion was taken from the other animals, though they were allowed to stay alive for a time, until the fixed time.”
“I continued watching the nocturnal vision : One like a Son of Man came on the clouds of heaven. He faced the One of Great Age and was brought into His presence. Dominion, honour and kingship were given Him, and all the peoples and nations of every language served Him. His dominion is eternal and shall never pass away; His kingdom will never be destroyed.”
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for each and every one of us to live our lives in manners that are truly worthy of God, in doing His will and obeying His Law and commandments. We must always keep in mind to keep ourselves pure and blameless, good, virtuous and just in all things before the Lord, as best as we are able to do, so that God may truly be glorified through us and everything that we say and do. Each and every one of us have been called to follow the Lord in all that we do, in the Law and commandments that He has entrusted to us, because if we are His people, and He has come down into our midst, it is imperative that we keep ourselves holy and worthy of Him, or otherwise, our sins and wickedness will lead us into damnation and destruction.
In today’s first reading and Gospel passage, there are both references to the Temple of God in Jerusalem, that in the first reading today was marked as the moment when the forces of the faithful Jewish people, led by Judas Maccabeus, during the Maccabean Revolt, managed to win victories against the forced of the Seleucid Greeks who tried to impose Greek customs and ways on the people. The Seleucids under King Antiochus IV Epiphanes had defiled the Temple of God in Jerusalem, also known as the Second Temple, and established pagan idols and false gods on its Altar, and in that passage we heard today, we heard of the moment when the old Altar and all the defilements and corruptions were torn down and destroyed, and new Altar dedicated to God was established anew.
We heard how everyone rejoiced as the Temple and its Altar was consecrated to God. That was a day of great triumph and rejoicing for a people that had been oppressed and put through a lot of hardships because they had remained faithful to the Lord despite the efforts put in place by those who tried to oppress and eliminate their worship of God and their faith in Him. This joyful moment of the consecration of the new Altar and the purified Temple of God is linked to what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, that is about the Lord Jesus and His actions in clearing the Temple of God in Jerusalem, the same Temple that the Maccabeans had purified. The Lord Jesus cast out all those wicked merchants and money changers who have corrupted the Temple with their wicked attitudes and behaviours.
At that time, contextually, many of the Jewish people were living in various places away far from Jerusalem and Judea. During certain festivals and periods in the year, many of them would come back and travel to Jerusalem, and they might need to buy the animals and offerings for the Temple sacrifices, and they would likely also need to exchange the currencies they used in their places of residence with the Temple silver shekels, as according to Jewish customs and practices at the time, pagan coins and goods should not be used in relation to the Temple and the worship of God. However, those merchants and money changers peddling their wares and services likely overcharged the pilgrims and other visitors greatly, for more profit for themselves. It is this wicked attitude and actions that the Lord detested very much. Thus, He angrily cast them all out of the Temple courtyard, to purify God’s House and restored it to its proper use.
All of those readings presented to us a reminder for all of us that we are all also reminded to keep clean and pure our own Temples of the Lord’s Presence. What am I referring to, brothers and sisters in Christ? I am referring to our very own bodies, hearts, minds and souls. Each and every one of us have been blessed to have received the Lord Himself, Who has come down to us firstly in the flesh, and every one of us who have partaken in the Most Holy Eucharist, that is the Most Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord Himself, God Himself is present in us, physically and spiritually. On top of that, the Holy Spirit has also come down upon us through the Church, which we first receive at Baptism and then strengthened at Confirmation. Essentially, God Himself is present in us, and hence, we are ourselves the Temples of the Lord. This means that we have to keep ourselves pure and worthy of the Lord as well.
Today, the Church celebrates the feast of great saints, holy martyrs of the Faith, whose examples and determination should serve as great inspirations for all of us, in how we ourselves should live our lives with faith. St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions in martyrdom, the Holy Martyrs of Vietnam, are the ones who have devotedly committed themselves to God despite the many oppositions against them, from the state which was then very violently against the Christian faith, and from the community. At that time, Vietnam, which was ruled by an Emperor and his bureaucratic court, saw the burgeoning Christian mission in their country as a threat to themselves, and to their officially Confucian state religion. As such, the state persecuted Christians very severely, both the foreign missionaries and the local converts.
St. Andrew Dung-Lac was a convert to the faith, and became one of the first local priests to be ordained. According to the traditions and missionary accounts, he and many other Christian converts were persecuted and arrested, and having kept close to their faith and refusing to abandon the Lord, or betray their commitment to Him, they were put to death, and hence became great martyrs of the Church. Their examples, courage and devotion to God, despite the many trials, sufferings and challenges that they had to face amidst their ministry should be great sources of strength and encouragement for us, in how we ought to be ever strong and courageous in committing ourselves to the service of God, and in living our lives as genuine Christians in all things.
May the Lord be with us all, and may He encourage and strengthen each and every one of us in how we live our lives, with courage and commitment, and with the passion and the desire to give our best to glorify God by our examples and lives, so that we, as the Temples of the Lord’s Holy Presence, may be worthy, in our bodies, hearts, minds and souls, in our whole entire beings. May God bless our every good efforts, works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Luke 19 : 45-48
At that time, Jesus entered the Temple area and began to drive out the merchants. And He said to them, “God says in the Scriptures, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of robbers!”
Jesus was teaching every day in the Temple. The chief priests and teachers of the Law wanted to kill Him, and the elders of the Jews as well, but they were unable to do anything, for all the people were listening to Him and hanging on His words.
Liturgical Colour : Red
1 Chronicles 29 : 10, 11abc, 11d-12a, 12bcd
May You be praised, YHVH God of Israel our ancestor, forever and ever!
Yours, YHVH, is the greatness, the power, splendour, length of days, glory; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is Yours. Yours is the sovereignty forever, o YHVH.
You are supreme Ruler over all. Riches and honour go before You.
You are Ruler of all; in Your hand lie strength and power. You are the One Who gives greatness and strength to all.
Liturgical Colour : Red
1 Maccabees 4 : 36-37, 52-59
Then Judas and his brothers said : “Our enemies are defeated, so let us go up and purify the Holy Place and consecrate it again.” And all the army assembled and went up to Mount Zion.
On the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight (in the year 164 B.C.) they arose at dawn and offered the sacrifice prescribed by the Law on the new altar of holocausts which they had built. It was precisely at that same time and date that the pagans had profaned it before; but now they consecrated it with songs, accompanied by zithers, harps and cymbals. All the people fell prostrate and blessed Heaven that had given them happiness and success.
They celebrated the consecration of the altar for eight days, joyfully offering holocausts and celebrating sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise. The front of the Temple was adorned with crowns of gold and shields; and the gates and the rooms had been restored and fitted with doors. There was no end to the celebration among the people; and so profanation of the Temple by the pagans was forgotten.
Finally, Judas, his brothers and the whole assembly of Israel agreed to celebrate the anniversary of the consecration of the altar annually for eight days, from the twenty-fifth of the month of Chislev, in high festivity.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the coming of the time of reckoning for all of us in the end of time, when God will judge all the living and the dead, over all of Creation. He is our Lord and Master, the Master over all the whole Universe. Everything that is present all around us in this Universe, in our world are merely the wonderful things that God had created to be part of His Creation. However, we must always keep in mind that it is Him Who is the One we ought to worship and focus our attention towards. Unfortunately, more often than not, we got distracted by the temptations present all around us, and by the marvels and wonders of what God had created, which unfortunately led us to focus our attention on them instead on the Lord, as we should have done.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Wisdom in which the author highlighted the foolishness of all those people who disregarded the one and only True God, and instead sought to worship the things that God had created, such as the Sun, the Moon, the stars, the sky and the sea, and any other objects in this universe, and even men themselves, instead of the One Who had made and created all of them. They worshipped the things that were inferior to the One Who is supreme over all, and far exceeding those things that mankind had worshipped throughout time instead of God, because of their limited understanding and lack of Wisdom and knowledge of the truth of God. They instead depended on their own intellect, power, wisdom and understanding, and in their lack of ability to appreciate God’s truth, they instead focused their attentions on the wrong ones.
This was why so many of our predecessors, from many different parts of the world, in their incomplete and flawed understanding of how the world works, and the lack of knowledge of the Lord, Who is in fact behind everything and is the reason why everything is present, this is why so many of them chose to worship pagan gods and idols, worshipping inanimate objects and living things alike, especially those that were beyond our comprehension. God reminded all of us that this is not how we should live our lives, and this is not the correct path that we are to follow. Instead, we should return our attention and focus on the Lord, and commit ourselves wholeheartedly to His cause, entrusting ourselves to His Wisdom and Providence at all times.
In today’s Gospel passage, we heard of the reminders of the Lord to all of His disciples that everything will come to a moment of reckoning as mentioned earlier, when the time comes for the Lord to return and restore everything to perfect order and when He would gather all of us once again into His Presence. And this will come at a time most unexpected for everyone, and no one but God Himself knows when this moment exactly will happen. Again, this is an important reminder for all of us that we must not be ignorant of the truth of God and everything that He had revealed to us. Too many people, as highlighted in that Gospel passage today, were swayed by various worldly temptations that they failed to realise their sinfulness and wicked state of life, and thus fell into damnation.
We must always be wary lest we may be tempted by the same kind of temptations, the temptations that could bring us into our downfall if we are not careful. If we allow ourselves to be swayed by those desires and pleasures of the world, the comforts of life and all the wonders of this earthly existence, while ignoring and forgetting God’s presence in all of them, then we may end up being like so many of our predecessors, who have fallen into the path of sin, disobeying God and His Law, His will and commandments. And as Christians, who follow the Lord and believe in Him, we must always put Him first and foremost at the very centre of our life and as the focus and emphasis of our very existence in this world. We should not allow any other things to become distractions, keeping us away from God.
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, a great and holy woman, a faithful servant of God, whose life and devotion, commitment and worthy life should be source of inspiration for all of us to follow, in how we should be truly faithful in our whole lives as Christians. St. Elizabeth of Hungary was a princess of Hungary who was married to a noble landowner and ruler of Thuringia in Germany. She had to marry at a young age and raise a family. But at the same time, she also lived a life of piety and virtue, inspired by the examples and reforms carried out by her contemporary, St. Francis of Assisi. St. Elizabeth of Hungary was renowned for her great charitable actions and care for the poor and the sick throughout her husband’s lands, which was approved by her husband, the ruler of the land. Her action also influenced him greatly, as her husband Louis often stood by the Church and the efforts the Church did.
Later on, when St. Elizabeth of Hungary was widowed quite early on, just a few years after her marriage, she made a vow of chastity akin to that of those who have joined the religious orders, and resisted any efforts by her family and others to have her remarry because of her still relatively young age. She continued to do plenty of works of charity, caring for the needy and those who were suffering, as much as she could do. Her great charity and love for others were even shown in miracles such as the famous ‘miracle of the roses’ attributed to her. In that miracle account, St. Elizabeth of Hungary was caught by her husband in one of her times sneaking out to give alms and food for the poor, with her cloak containing food from her husband’s mansion. When she was confronted and asked of the cloak’s contents, the contents were miraculously transformed into that of roses.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired and encouraged by the faithful examples of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, in doing what we can so that we may always be ever faithful to God in all things. We should not allow temptations of this world and our wicked desires and ambitions, attachments and other things from leading us into our downfall through sin. Let us instead inspire one another to be ever righteous, virtuous and worthy in all of our works and dealings in life, now and forevermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 17 : 26-37
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be on the day the Son of Man comes. In those days people ate and drank and got married; but on the day Noah entered the Ark, the flood came and destroyed them all.”
“So it was in the days of Lot : people ate and drank, and bought and sold, and planted and built; but on the day Lot left Sodom, God made fire and sulfur rain down from heaven, which destroyed them all. So will it be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.”
“On that day, if you are on the rooftop, do not go down into the house to get your belongings; and if you happen to be in the fields, do not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to save his life will lose himself, but whoever gives his life will be born again.”
“I tell you, though two men are sharing the same bed, it might happen that one will be taken, and the other left; though two women are grinding corn together, one might be taken and the other left.” Then they asked Jesus, “Where will this take place, Lord?” And He answered, “Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 18 : 2-3, 4-5
The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Day talks it over with day; night hands on the knowledge to night.
No speech, no words, no voice is heard – but the call goes on, throughout the universe, the message is felt to the ends of the earth.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 