Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 67 : 4-5ac, 6-7ab, 10-11
But let the righteous be glad and exult before God; let them sing to God and shout for joy. Sing to God, open the way to Him who rides upon the clouds.
Father of orphans and protector of widows – such is our God in His holy dwelling. He gives shelter to the homeless, sets the prisoners free.
Then You gave a rain of blessings to comfort Your weary children. Your people found a dwelling and in Your mercy, o God, You provided for the needy.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the parable of the talents, the silver talents entrusted by the master of the house to his servants, his properties to be taken care of by them while he was away doing his business away from the house. The hardworking and industrious servants were rewarded, while the lazy and wicked servant was punished, and what he had was taken away from him and given to the trustworthy servant.
Yes, brethren, this parable precisely applies to all of us, to each and every one of us. We also have ‘silver talents’ within us, all gifts from God, in different ways and different colours, each with his and her own gifts. Some do receive more and some received less, but all are being equally gifted by the Lord our God who trusted us with these gifts, not to be left idle, but to be used, for the cause of good.
What are then these ‘silver talents’ we have within each and every one of us? These ‘talents’ are in fact the skills, abilities, and knowledge that we have within us, that makes every one of us special, all special and unique children of the same, one God. Some of us has certain abilities and skills that can be useful if we use them properly and efficiently. These, just like the silver talents in the parable, can ‘grow’ when we utilise them and invest on them.
We are urged to be like the faithful and industrious servants, the ones who made good use of the money and invest them that when the master returned, not only that the original silver talents had remained, but even it had grown and multiplied twofold. Therefore, the master’s investment in his servants had not been wasted, that after all the time, the money made a worthwhile return.
Yet, brethren, many of us tend to be more like the lazy and unproductive servant, who dug a hole and hid the silver talent there in the hole, from the day that the master left it with him to the day when he returned and expected a return from his servant. In the similar way, we tend to remain within our comfort zone and remain idle, and hence, the buried silver talent, just as buried as our talents and skills, the gifts God had given to us to use for our own good, and for the good of people around us.
There are many reasons for such failure to invest the gifts God had granted us, and they are not limited to things such as sheer laziness, fear of failure, and the temptations and allures of the pleasures of the world. We tend to prefer our comfort zone and do nothing, and even if we are to do something, many of us tend to be selfish, and do it for our own good, for our own benefits, often at the expense of others. The last servant’s fear is precisely also caused by this, by his own selfishness, that is fearing for his own safety and therefore succumb to his fear of losing the money if he invested it, and therefore did nothing to the silver talent he had been given with.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us rediscover our true purpose in life, especially if all these while we had not done anything yet to utilise the gifts we have within us, for the good of others, for the good of everyone around us. Let us be proactive in our faith and in our lives, not to fear loss or discomfort for our works and for our actions, and not to be idle and lazy in using the good and the gift God had placed in us, in purposeful ways that will bring happiness, fulfillment, and contentment to all of us.
Be active, brothers and sisters, be loving and show mercy in all our words, actions, and all the things we do, to our fellow men, that we can care for one another, and when the Divine Master comes, what we sow in love, through our actions, we will reap in heaps, in heaps of reward that is eternal life. The Divine Master, that is our Lord Jesus would reward us according to what we had done in our lives, whether we had been like his faithful and hardworking servants, or rather be like the ungrateful and lazy servant.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard the parable of the talents and the servants, let us be reminded of our mission in this life, that is to be true disciples of the Lord, ones that do not merely say, “Lord, Lord!” but do nothing, and instead take concrete actions, no matter how small or large it is, to make a difference for the better, for our fellow brothers and sisters, the children of the same, one God.
May the Lord our Master and our God be our guide, to lead us through the difficulties and challenges of this world, that we may work hand in hand, with one another, embracing one another with care, that all of us will reap together the fruits, the interests, and the benefits of our loving actions in this world. God bless us all forever. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White
Psalm 97 : 1, 7-8, 9
Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.
Let the sea resound and everything in it, the world and all its peoples. Let rivers clap their hands, hills and mountains sing with joy.
Before the Lord they will sing, for He comes to rule the earth. He will judge the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the well-known story, the parable of the five careless and five wise women, of whom the careless ones lose out against those who are wise, by not preparing ahead of their time, that they would be ready when the bridegroom comes. Those women truly represent mankind, brethren, that is all of us, in our daily lives and in our waiting for the great bridegroom, none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.
The wise and sensible women made ample preparations and brought with them backup of fuel that might be necessary for the event, and their hard work earned them with the welcome and entry into the banquet of the bridegroom, while the careless and unwise women did not made ample preparations beforehand, and ran out of oil when the bridegroom came late to the event.
The wise women gained entry to the party when the bridegroom came at midnight, with their lamps lit with the extra oil they had prepared beforehand. The unwise women, the careless women did not have enough oil and as they could not greet the bridegroom without their lamps lit, they had no choice but to go and buy the oil first. When they went away, the bridegroom came, and the unwise women were therefore late to the party.
The unwise women knocked in despair and pleaded to be allowed entry into the party, but the bridegroom rebuked them and rejected them, and that he did not know them, because they were not there when he came to greet him. The end result is that while the wise women enjoyed in happiness inside the party with the bridegroom, the unwise women were left out, outside the party, in bitter cold and suffering.
We can easily draw parallel between this parable and our own experiences in this world, and the things expected from us, as Christ had told us through His parables and through His teachings to His disciples passed down to us through the Church and the Scripture. As mentioned, Jesus is truly that bridegroom, the wise and unwise women waiting for the coming of the bridegroom are all of us, all mankind, all seeking for the coming of Jesus Christ our Lord, in His glorious second coming into this world, indeed, pretty much like that of the coming of the bridegroom in the parable.
This is where it gets very important, and what differentiates who will end up becoming those unwise women and perish, and who will end up being in joy for being the wise women, ever ready and ever prepared. As Jesus had often reiterated to His disciples over and over again, including in this parable, that the coming of the bridegroom, that is His second coming, is totally and completely unpredicted by any power of men. No one is able and will ever be able to discern the precise moment when the Lord will come again in glory at the end of time. Even that end of time moment is undefined, except the warnings that it is indeed close at hand.
Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, to our God there is no such thing as being early, on time, or late. We can never box Him up in such categories, because we certainly will have no knowledge at all about the time of His coming. He had also specifically said that He will come again at the time when everyone is at their most unprepared, at the moment when no one on earth expects that He will come again at that precise timing.
We must indeed be like the wise women, who brought with all of them extra oil for use, that when the bridegroom came very late at night, their lamps would have sufficient oil for the entirety of the long vigil of waiting. Do not be like the unwise women, who came unprepared, and when the time comes, their lamps were without oil.
What is this oil and extra oil that the wise women bring therefore? It is not the physical oil that Christ truly referred to, when He taught us how to prepare for His coming. It is the love that is within us that burns brightly as the fire of love, that Christ will come and find that we are there when He comes, and He will recognise us and welcome us into His kingdom. But love is not meant for us just to be kept within ourselves and remain hidden from the world. Like fire, it requires fuel in the form of oil, and also oxygen to burn. If the fire is placed in enclosed space, it will eventually die out, and without fuel, the fire will also die out.
The fuel that inflames our fires is our own actions, words, and deeds, infused with the love we have within us, the love God had given to each and every one of us. If we open our hearts and let loose the love within us, that every word, every deeds, and every actions of our hands, legs, and others result in love for others, and for God, the love within us will multiply, like a fire brightly lit, well-supplied with fuel, yes, the fuel of love itself. If we keep our hearts closed, that love will grow dim and will die out eventually. Love is something that cannot be measured, but it can only grow when we share that love with one another, and with God.
If we keep ourselves from sharing our love, and if we remain idle and do no good for the sake of others, for the sake of God, we end up being like the unwise women, who will be too late for the coming of Christ, and at His coming, we will all be caught unprepared, and He will cast us out from His presence, because the fire in us has died out, running out of the fuel of love due to our own failure to act, our failure to love.
St. Paul had reminded the Church people in Thessalonica, that they ought to live according to the will and the commandments of God, that is love, in our First Reading today. Indeed, we are urged to love, to love God first and foremost before anything else, before even ourselves. We are ought to give ourselves, our heart, and our entire being to the Lord in complete and total dedication. And then, we also must give ourselves to our fellow mankind, to those who are in need for our love, for our help, for our care, especially the unloved ones, the ostracised, the prejudiced ones.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, having listened to the parable of the talents, and now in full knowing how we can make sure that we become like the wise women instead of the unwise ones, let us thus, from this moment onward, strengthen our acts of love, and commit ourselves more strongly and deeper into the cause of love, by making sure that all our words, our deeds, and our actions are based on love, that the fire of love within each one of us will burn ever brighter, and the Lord who comes unpredicted in His own time, will come and find our faith worthy, and reward us eternal life with Him. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 96 : 1 and 2b, 5-6, 10, 11-12
The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the distant islands be glad. Justice and right are His throne.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His justice, all peoples see His glory.
You who love the Lord, hate evil, for He preserves the lives of His faithful, He delivers them from their foes.
He sheds light upon the upright, and gladness upon the just. Rejoice in the Lord, you who are blameless, and give praise to His Holy Name.
Liturgical Colour : Green
1 Thessalonians 4 : 1-8
For the rest, brothers, we ask you in the Name of Jesus, the Lord, and we urge you to live in a way that pleases God, just as you have learnt from us. This you do, but try to do still more. You know the instructions we gave you on behalf of the Lord Jesus : the will of God for you is to become holy and not to have unlawful sex.
Let each of you behave towards his wife as a holy and respectful husband, rather than being led by lust, as are pagans who do not know God. In this matter, let no one offend or wrong a brother. The Lord will do justice in all these things, as we have warned and shown you.
God has called us to live, not in impurity but in holiness, and those who do not heed this instruction disobey, not a human, but God Himself who gives you His Holy Spirit.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we commemorate a great feast in our faith, that is the Passion of St. John the Baptist, when he died in the prison of King Herod because of his uprightness, his faith, and his courage. St. John the Baptist, as we all know, is a relative to Jesus, the son of Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary, the Mother of our Lord. He was the one to open the way for Christ and straighten His path in this world.
St. John the Baptist was a truly upright man, who followed the Lord faithfully even unto his suffering and death. He was not even afraid of chastising a king, scolding him for having improper relationship with his brother’s wife, Herodias. He suffered prison, but he did not fear. He had also suffered rejection, mockery, and doubt, by the Pharisees and the chief priests, who disliked whatever he was doing when he baptised many people in the Jordan, and even questioned his authority.
He stood up courageously and rebuked them as an evil nest of vipers, just as he had in the same way rebuked Herod and his new wife. He feared not human hatred nor opposition, because to Him, it is the love of God that truly mattered to him. His death is part of the Lord’s plan for salvation, that his work in preparing the way for the Lord was then complete, having initiated our Lord Jesus through His baptism at the Jordan, marking the formal beginning of the Lord’s ministry on earth.
St. John the Baptist took his ministry seriously and dutifully, and he truly loved God and was glad of the part he had done in the Lord’s plan of salvation. When Jesus’ ministry began and many people began to come to Jesus instead of John, he was happy and slowly and quietly drifting away into nothingness, while still doing whatever he could to the people who came to him, and directed them to Christ the Lord. He showed true humility, unlike the Pharisees and the chief priests who viewed both him and Jesus as threats to their teaching authority.
Today we are reminded, and indeed urged to do more good and less of the vices, things abhorred in the eyes of the Lord our God. We are urged to follow the examples of St. John the Baptist while keeping away from the vices of Herod and Herodias, wicked people in the eyes of God. Yet, it is very natural for all of us to follow the path of Herod rather than that of John. Why is it so, brothers and sisters? Precisely because we all are weak, weak to sin, open to sin, and vulnerable to sin.
It is most likely that Herodias, even after she was widowed by Philip, the brother of Herod, remained very attractive and beautiful, and that was what attracted Herod to his own brother’s wife, even though as king, he could have had many women as his partner, he chose to follow his urges and desires and chose Herodias. The same can be said of Herodias, the wife. She certainly craved power and authority and wealth that only a king could muster, and that was why she was complicit in the improper relations between her and Herod, her husband’s brother.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we are reminded today of the unjust death of St. John the Baptist, messenger of God and the one who prepared the way before the Lord, that we too should be upright, just, and truthful in our lives, in all our words, actions, deeds, and dealings with others, and not be led by our human emotions and even less so to fall into the temptations of the devil and embrace them.
We must not let ourselves be swayed like Herod had done, in promising even up to half of his kingdom to the daughter of Herodias, just because he was fascinated by her and her dance. Lust, passion, and desire can indeed bring us to destruction, just as it had done to Herod. Herod killed the messenger of God, John the Baptist, and therefore incurred for certainty, the eternal wrath of God, all because of the vow he made to the daughter of Herodias, words that came out of desire and lust, which later on came back to haunt him.
Let us all, brothers and sisters in Christ, follow the example of John, that we will be ever courageous to stand up for our faith, to stand up for what we believe in, to be faithful defenders of the Lord in our increasingly hostile world. Let us not be afraid of saying the truth and live an upright life just as John had done. Guard our emotions and have a strong and healthy prayer life, that the devil will not be able to enter into our hearts and corrupt them, as he had done to Herod.
John showed his disciples that Christ is the Lamb of God, and therefore, today he too showed us to Christ, as the pathway and the only door to salvation. Let us be faithful to Christ our Lord, and be inspired by John His servant and messenger, and let us also adopt his humility, in not seeking human glory and human praise, but seeking the greater glory and praise in God instead. Let us strive to love God more by acting on His will, and do as He wants us, that is to love Him with all our strength and our being, and to give ourselves in love to our brethren, especially those who are unloved, those who are lonely, and those who are abandoned. May God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Mark 6 : 17-29
For this is what had happened : Herod had ordered John to be arrested, and had had him bound and put in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. Herod had married her, and John had told him, “It is not right for you to live with your brother’s wife.”
So Herodias held a grudge against John; and wanted to kill him, but she could not, because Herod respected John. He knew John to be an upright and holy man, and kept him safe. And he liked listening to him, although he became very disturbed, whenever he heard him.
Herodias had her chance on Herod’s birthday, when he gave a dinner for all the senior government officials, military chiefs, and the leaders of Galilee. On that occasion the daughter of Herodias came in and danced; and she delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want and I will give it to you.” And he went so far as to say with many oaths, “I will give you anything you ask, even half my kingdom.”
She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” The mother replied, “The head of John the Baptist.” The girl hurried to the king and made her request, “I want you to give me the head of John the Baptist, here and now, on a dish.”
The king was very displeased, but he would not refuse in front of his guests because of his oaths. So he sent one of the bodyguards with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded John in prison; then he brought the head on a dish and gave it to the girl. And the girl gave it to her mother.
When John’s disciples heard of this, they came and took his body and buried it.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 70 : 1-2, 3-4a, 5-6ab, 15ab and 17
In You, o Lord, I seek refuge; let me not be disgraced. In Your justice help me and deliver me, turn Your ear to me and save me!
Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to give me safety, for You are my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, o my God, from the hand of the wicked.
For You, o Lord, have been my hope, my trust, o God, from my youth. I have relied on You from birth : from my mother’s womb You brought me forth.
My lips will proclaim Your intervention and tell of Your salvation all day. You have taught me from my youth and until now I proclaim Your marvels.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Jeremiah 1 : 17-19
But you, get ready for action; stand up and say to them all that I command you. Be not scared of them or I will scare you in their presence!
See, I will make you a fortified city, a pillar of iron with walls of bronze, against all the nations, against the kings and princes of Judah, against the priests and the people of the land.
They will fight against you but shall not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue you – it is YHVH who speaks.
