Psalm 104 : 1-2, 3-4, 6-7
Give thanks to the Lord, call on His Name; make known His works among the nations. Sing to Him, sing His praise, proclaim all His wondrous deeds.
Glory in His Holy Name; let those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and be strong; seek His face always.
You descendants of His servant Abraham, you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgments reach the whole world.
Genesis 49 : 29-32 and Genesis 50 : 15-26a
Jacob then gave his sons these instructions : “I am soon to be gathered to my people; bury me near my fathers, in the cave in the field of Ephron, the Hittite; in the cave in the field of Machpelah, to the east of Mamre in Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place. It was there that Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried. There they buried Leah.
When Joseph’s brothers realised that their father was dead they said, “What if Joseph turns against us in hate because of the evil we did him?” So they sent word to Joseph saying, “Before he died your father told us to say this to you : Please forgive the crime and the sin of your brothers in doing evil to you. Forgive the crime of the servants of your father’s God.”
When he was given the message, Joseph wept. His brothers went and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. But Joseph reassured them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? You intended to do me harm, but God intended to turn it to good in order to bring about what is happening today – the survival of many people. So have no fear! I will provide for you and your little ones.” In this way he touched their hearts and consoled them.
Joseph remained in Egypt together with all his father’s family. He lived for a hundred and ten years, long enough to see Ephraim’s great-grandchildren, and also to have the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, placed on his knees after their birth.
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am going to die, but God will surely remember you and take you from this country to the land He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”Joseph then made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “When God comes to bring you out from here, carry my bones with you.” Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today Christ in the Gospel Reading we listened to, told us that He would send us like sheep among wolves, and that we must ever be ready, as this world will hate us just as it has hated the Lord first, and that even those closest to us may betray us to the enemy, because they disagree with the Lord. But it does not mean that we should be apathetic or even hostile to our families and our societies. Rather, it means that we should not put our trust in men, but in God alone. Because the Lord who loves us would take care of us and protect us with His power.
The Lord sent His Holy Spirit to the Apostles, which came down to them on the day of the Pentecost. The Spirit inflamed their hearts and gave them great and unprecedented courage and strength to preach the Good News of the Lord, first to the people of Israel, and then to the whole world. The Apostles gained much good progress in their ministries, but they also faced intense persecution and rejection, from the Jews and the pagans alike. It is often that they have to put their lives on the line, and almost all of them would die of martyrdom, but none of them lose the faith or abandon the Lord. Rather, they placed all their trust in the Lord, and remain faithful all the way to the end.
The Holy Spirit too had been given to us, through the unbroken chains of shepherds in the bishops, from the Apostles themselves. All of us have been given the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit that brings love, hope, and faith within our hearts. This Spirit burns with a fire of love and zeal for the Lord. But ultimately, it is up to us, whether to use the gifts that the Spirit offered, or ignore them altogether, ignoring the Spirit that is within us.
Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, we must be fruitful in the Spirit or the Spirit that has been given to all of us will be useless. We must bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the most important of which, that is love. If we obey the will of God and make our lives truly in reflection of the Spirit that is within us, made evident through our words, deeds, and actions, we will truly be rewarded by the Lord who is loving and faithful.
For our Lord is faithful, and He is true to His covenant. He fulfills His promise in ways that not even mankind can ever understand. He remained true to His covenant while the descendants of Abraham left Him and abandoned Him for other gods, the pagan gods of the people of Canaan. To those who are faithful He gave His grace and blessings, as we heard today from our first reading, on the reunion of Joseph and Jacob, his father.
For Joseph had been lost to his father, ever since his brothers betrayed him to the slave masters, out of their hatred and jealousy to Joseph. The slave masters sold Joseph to the Egyptians, and the brothers would have expected Joseph to disappear forever from their lives, finally rid of the favourite son of their father. But God has other plans, plans that lie beyond the understanding and knowledge of man.
Joseph was made as the instrument of salvation for thousands if not millions, throughout Egypt and the whole world, as the Lord made visible His plans to Joseph through dreams, of the coming famine and hunger that would engulf the world, and would have caused the death of millions, had preventive actions not been taken by Joseph, through the guidance of the Lord.
Eventually, the Lord brings all His people together once more, and reunited Joseph with his father, beginning with the arrival of Joseph’s brothers to purchase grains from Egypt during the years of famine, and ultimately ending with the revelation of the true identity of Joseph, then the Governor and Regent of all Egypt. All these continue to show how wonderful and magnificent the Lord is, the Lord our God.
He has His plans for the good of all mankind, and He cares for all of us without exception. That is why He sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, one with Him in the Holy Trinity, so that we may live, and have hope instead of being doomed to death and separation from the Lord in hell. Today’s readings also told us that we must always put our complete and undivided trust and attention in the Lord our God, and not in man. For although we must indeed respect our families, and love our brothers and sisters, we must trust in the Lord more, for even brothers and sisters can turn against us, like the case that Joseph had shown all of us, that his brothers betrayed him to the slave masters out of their jealousy of him.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called again by the Lord to be the ministers of His Gospel and Good News, and also the ministers of His people, to serve the people of God, that is one another, with love, compassion, and kindness. To show mercy to our enemies, to pray for them and bless them with the Lord’ blessings, that they too may come to see the light and repent. We are also called to bring the light and love of God to our own families, to our own societies, to those who are nearest to all of us. Remember that mission does not just happen in some far away countries, but it must also happen even in our country, in our own homes, because even there, there are still many lost souls awaiting for the Lord to help them, through us.
May God empower us and give us a new hope and strength, to carry out the mission that He had entrusted to all of us, with faith, devotion, and love, that we will never give up despite the challenges that await us, or the oppositions that will face all of us, even from within our own families, from those closest and dearest to us. God bless us all, and may He strengthen us all with His Spirit, that we can be more like Him, and bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Psalm 36 : 3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40
Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and live on it. Make the Lord your delight, and He will grant your heart’s desire.
The Lord watches over the lives of the upright; forever will their inheritance abide. They are not crushed in times of calamity; when famine strikes, they still are satisfied.
Do good and shun evil, so that you will live secure forever. For the Lord loves justice and right, and never forsakes His faithful ones. The wicked instead will perish and their breed will be cut off.
The Lord is the salvation of the righteous; in time of distress, He is their refuge. The Lord helps them, and rescues them from the oppressor; He saves them for they sought shelter in Him.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard from the readings about the mission that Christ had entrusted all of us with. The mission that He had given to the apostles before He left this world, that is to spread the Good News of salvation to all mankind, and to all the world. Each and every Christians baptised in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit must uphold this mission and pledge ourselves to its cause, that is the cause of the Lord.
Christ had called all of us to be His disciples, to bring all the people of God back to His loving embrace, to open their eyes and their hearts to God’s divine and everlasting love. The Lord offers His love and His peace freely to all, without exception, even sinners, and especially sinners, because the Lord did come especially for the sake of sinners, those lost sheep lost in the darkness of evil and sin.
Christ gave up His life in sacrifice, as a worthy offering in atonement for all our sins, all of us, without any exceptions. He died for all mankind, past, present, and future so that all may live, and in this new life, be granted eternal life in glory with Him for eternity, as long as we keep to the covenant that He had made with us, a new covenant sealed by His Blood pouring down from the cross.
Our Lord Jesus loves us, brethren, so much that He is willing to suffer all the blows, lashes, and curses, the pain of the nails that pierced his hands and feet, so that all of us do not have to suffer death eternal in hell. For our sins and iniquities the Lamb of God had been slaughtered and sacrificed, innocent and pure as He is, He was made to bear all the sins of the world.
Sadly, as many as those who would accept His call and His words, and followed Him into a new life of purity and holiness, there are even many more who would prefer to remain in their state of sin and darkened life, and preferred the pleasures of the world and Satan to the Lord who loves them. Many would reject Him and reject His messengers and disciples, including all of us who had been called by the Lord to be His apostles in this modern era.
So if Christ is rejected by many, then we will be rejected too, but this does not mean that we should slacken or abandon the mission that has been given to us. Indeed, there are still those who would accept Christ and His Good News, and even among those who have rejected Him and rejected us, there is always still hope, that they will change and receive the Lord. We must remain strong and courageous, and embrace our mission with zeal, devotion, and most importantly, love.
Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Benedict the abbot, also known widely as St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the religious order of St. Benedict, or the Benedictines. He was also an inspiration for our great Pope Emeritus, the beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in choosing his regnal name as Pope, together with Pope Benedict XV, his predecessor and the Pope of peace.
St. Benedict of Nursia lived in the first millenium in the late Roman Empire, and he was the founder of a great religious order, the Benedictines, who imposed on them what is well-known as the Rule of St. Benedict. The rule placed a great emphasis on the balance between piety and religiosity and the need for service and good works, which the Benedictines practiced through their charitable acts and service, and a pious and holy lifestyle, dedicated to the Lord in humility and obedience. And important to the Benedictines are also the concept of peace, the need to seek peace in this world, and to be peaceful in one’s own acts.
St. Benedict strengthened the Christian monasticism that was growing up at his era, and he laid much foundations for the future missionary works of the Church and religious orders that helped to preserve the Traditions of the Faith through the tumultous era of the ending of the Roman Empire and the advent of the Dark Ages. Through St. Benedict, the monastic communities had been strengthened, and therefore, the Church itself had been strengthened.
Inspired by the example of St. Benedict of Nursia and other great missionary saints of the monastic orders, we embark on this new journey of the faith in this modern era of secularism and consumerism, where God increasingly take a lesser importance in people’s minds and lives. It is our duty then, to continue the work of faith, to bring the Lord closer to many people around the world who have yet to receive the Good News of the Lord, or even those who had rejected the message of salvation outright.
There will be rejection for sure, for the world will reject us just as it had once rejected Christ Himself. But we must never give up and we must be courageous, to defend our faith, to defend the Lord, and to bring salvation to many who still live in the darkness of evil and sin. May St. Benedict of Nursia intercede for us, and pray for our sake, that God will send His helpers to aid us in our mission in this world. May St. Benedict also intercede for the sake of our beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who is fighting for the Church in prayer and solitude. God bless us all, and God bless His Holy Church! Amen.
Psalm 32 : 2-3, 10-11, 18-19
Give thanks to the Lord on the harp and lyre, making melody and chanting praises. Amid loud shouts of joy, sing to Him a new song and play the ten-stringed harp.
The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and brings to nothing the peoples’ designs. But His plan stands forever, and His heart’s design through all generations.
But the Lord’s eyes are upon those who fear Him, upon those who trust in His loving-kindness, to deliver them from death and preserve them from famine.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord is driven to compassion for the sake of all of us, because of our poverty, the poverty of our souls, of our sinfulness, and our lack of leadership. That is because we are all like sheep without a shepherd, going in all directions and getting lost. Christ came into this world, and painstakingly taking all of us into His fold, as the Good Shepherd, seeking the lost ones one by one, until all of us are found once again and reunited.
The Lord our God does not wish us to be lost or forever separated from Him. He came down Himself and suffered for our sake, that eventually we can be reunited with Him for eternity. For there is no other option besides salvation, other than eternal damnation. That is why Christ came to us to offer us the other option that is salvation and eternal life. He became our shepherd, the Good Shepherd, so that we will no longer be lost. He became our guide, our leader, the light of our path, and our God.
Today we celebrate the memorial and feast of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his companions, who are the Catholic martyrs from China, and many of them were martyred during the Boxer Rebellion at the turn of the twentieth century, when a severe persecution against Christians in China occurred. Many Christians, including St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his companions were murdered brutally for their faith, because they refused to renounce their faith and kept holding steadfastly to their faith.
St. Augustine Zhao Rong himself was a Chinese diocesan priest who served in several areas in China before he was arrested, tortured until his death in the defense of his Christian faith. He did not give up on the Lord and remained faithful. The same case had happened for many other martyrs of China, many of whom were repeatedly asked and offered to reject the Lord and reembrace pagan practices, but they refused and were received into heaven with a martyr’s glory.
These martyrs, the local Chinese and the Western missionaries, were joined in death for the sake of their faith in Christ, and they embody to us, the virtues of a faithful life dedicated to the Lord. A life lived with zeal and love for the Lord and His people, and with purpose. Opposition and persecution will naturally come, but they will be able to subvert the faith of the just ones.
Indeed, brothers and sisters in Christ, even today, the Church throughout the world, particularly in China, where St. Augustine Zhao Rong and companions met their martyrdom, where religious freedom, superficial as it is, is very limited and bordering on being non-existent. The Church was forced to serve the atheistic government, who views the Church as a hostile entity, and therefore they tried to destroy it. When the attempts to destroy the Church had not been successful, they resolve to weaken the Church by seizing it out of the Universal Church.
Many people there still suffer today, and Christians in the Church suffer an even greater suffering, being seen as ‘hostile’ by the government, and as a ‘threat’ that needs to be eliminated. Yet, as the saying goes, that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians, persecution and opposition brings fervour and zeal to the people of God, that they may not just persevere through the tough times, but indeed prosper and grow.
But seeds cannot grow without proper care and provision, as we need labourers to constantly care and give all their time into the effort. That is why the Lord said that though the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. We need more labourers to harvest the field of the Lord, and these harvests are simply the people who come to know the Lord, and to be saved. The labourers are none other than our priests, supported by all of us, the laity.
All around the world, including in China, there are increasing shortage of priests to serve the people of God. The number of the people in the Church has grown significantly while the number of priests had been stagnating for quite a long time. This makes it increasingly difficult, especially in the areas where the Church is growing, to project itself through love and service, and also to conduct worship in the Mass, in which priests are badly needed.
It is more and more difficult to gain new priests nowadays, brethren, because the world increasingly shut the Lord out of the minds of the young people, many of whom are called by the Lord. Yes, many are called, but few responded, and among those who responded, even fewer followed his calling through to the end in service of the people of the Lord. It is important that we bring the zeal and devotion, and the love for God back to all of us, especially those whom the Lord had called and entrusted with His flock.
Even priests and religious brothers and sisters must also be growing in faith and love. All of us cannot be complacent otherwise we would be caught unprepared by the devil, whose works are many, and whose deceit and trickery threatened to corrupt many people and turn them away from the Lord their God.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, inspired by the devotion and zeal of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, his companions, the martyrs of China, let us persevere against the opposition and the persecution of the faith in any form that is there in this world, in our society, and even in our families. Let us foster a prayerful and loving atmosphere in our homes, in our communities, in our parishes, that we can allow the faith to grow strong in all of us, especially our youths, some of whom may be future priests and servants of God and His people.
Pray, brethren, and pray hard, for the sake of our Church, for God’s people, and especially a special intention for the Church in China, for our brethren in faith unjustly treated and persecuted for their faith and obedience to the Lord rather than to the secular and Godless authority. May the Lord strengthen them in faith, give them courage, and remain with them through their ordeal, and may He also be with us, at all times. Amen.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard how Jesus healed the woman suffering from a bleeding problem and also resurrected the daughter of the official, all because of their faith in Him and in what He can do. Faith can indeed go a long way, brethren. Our Lord rewards those who are faithful to Him. He wants only our love and our obedience to His will.
Faith is essential for salvation, as without faith, there is no hope at all for us to be saved. For we have been tainted by sin and darkness, of evil and this world, that we were unworthy of the Lord and His perfection. But yet, Jesus Christ came, the very Son of God, who opened the path to salvation by His death and resurrection. Through Him hope came into the world and dwell in us, in the Holy Spirit, that He sent to the Apostles on Pentecost.
We need faith to be the anchor of our lives, and as the centre of our very being, as with faith, we will have a strong anchor in God, and we will not be easily swayed by the temptations of Satan and the evils that are in the world. Without faith, we cannot love God, and consequently we would not be able to embrace Him and the salvation He offered to all of us freely.
To Christ had been granted all the authority on the heaven and the earth, over the living and the dead. That was why, He healed the suffering of the bleeding woman, and resurrected the dead daughter of the official. The readings today showed that Jesus did not just heal anybody and everyone. In fact, He sought those who truly were repentant, and sought God’s mercy, and showed their sincere love, devotion, and most importantly faith in Him, faith in His divinity, that He healed them from their afflictions and sickness.
Yet, faith alone is not sufficient, brothers and sisters in Christ, as the Lord taught us and His disciples, that faith must be in tandem with love and hope, as the three most important values of being a Christian, that is faith, hope, and love. These three virtues embody all that a Christian must be, must become, and must aspire to.
For faith without love is akin to a faith that is dead, and a faith that is empty, because this faith does not generate love and life. Love can simply be expressed as our service and care for our brothers and sisters, that is part of doing good works. This is why we do not believe in salvation through faith alone, but salvation through faith and good works, that is faith made alive through good works and actions that reflect love, and generate hope in others.
For faith lacking in love and hope is also a selfish faith, where we are concerned only in our own salvation and not others. A true Christian desires the salvation of all mankind, himself or herself and all those around him or her. Most especially, a true Christian desires the salvation of those who had caused suffering and pain to the Christian, and those who had wronged the Christian, or in short, the ‘enemy’. That is also in tandem with Christ’s teaching that we should love our enemies and those who persecute us.
Then going back to what we talked about earlier, love can neither exist without faith and hope, for love is intricately linked to faith and hope. It is not possible to truly love someone without first having faith in that person. We certainly will not truly love someone if we cannot even trust the person completely without fear or concern, or otherwise that love will by an empty love, or infatuation in some situations, where relationships are not born out of love but sexual desires and lust.
Then love also must bring hope, because in love, there is hope, hope for a new beginning, and indeed, hope for a new life. If you allow me to digress a little bit, yes, love does bring life and hope, that is children. For marriage as we know it, must be based on love, and as far as possible, should be fruitful and bear children, the gifts of God to man. Children represent this new hope, in a new life, a promising life, that should be nurtured with love and faith. That is also why it is important for us, to always link love with faith and hope, even in our own families, in the development of the spiritual faith of our children.
Then finally, hope itself cannot exist without faith and love, for to have hope in something means that we must at least have faith in that something. Hope itself cannot exist as long as we do not have faith in Christ, because Christ is the source of all hope, because only in Christ exist salvation, and out of Christ, we can have no hope. And hope itself begets love, because when we hope, we also express love, and because we love that someone, we have hope in that one. No better example than our Lord Himself, who loves us so much, that in His hope that we will be reunited with Him, that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer and our Saviour.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, in this excellence experience of the Year of the Faith, let us renew and rejuvenate our faith in God, and dedicate ourselves fully and completely in Him, together with our hope in Him and our offering of the love for Him that is within our hearts. This Year of the Faith is the excellent opportunity for all of us to renew our commitment to our God and commit ourselves to Him and His cause.
Do not be afraid my brothers and sisters, for our Lord will always stand by our side, and supporting us, comforting us, as He had done to Israel of old. He is true to His covenant and promises, as He had once promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What we need to do, is to keep our part of the covenant, and remain faithful, loving, and hopeful, to God and our fellow men. God bless us all. Amen.
Matthew 9 : 18-26
While Jesus was speaking to the people, an official of the synagogue came up to Him, bowed before Him, and said, “My daughter has just died, but come and place Your hands on her, and she will live.” Jesus stood up and followed him with His disciples.
Then a woman, who had suffered from a severe bleeding for twelve years, came up from behind and touched the edge of His cloak; for she thought, “If I only touch His cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned, saw her and said, “Courage, My daughter, your faith has saved you.”And from that moment the woman was cured.
When Jesus arrived at the official’s house and saw the flute players and the excited crowd, He said, “Get out of here! The girl is not dead. She is only sleeping!” And they laughed at Him. But once the crowd had been turned out, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up. The news of this spread through the whole area.
Genesis 28 : 10-22a
Jacob left Beersheba and left out for Haran. When he reached a certain place the sun had set and he spent the night there. He took one of the stones that were there and using it as a pillow, he lay down to sleep.
While Jacob was sleeping, he had a dream in which a ladder stood on the earth with its top reaching to heaven and on it were angels of God going up and coming down. And YHVH was standing there near him and said, “I am YHVH, the God of your father, Abraham, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you sleep, I give to you and your descendants.”
“Your descendants will be numerous like the specks of dust of the earth and you will spread out to the west and the east, to the north and the south. Through you and your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed. See, I am with you and I will keep you safe wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land and not leave you until I have done what I promised.”
Jacob woke from his dream and said, “Truly YHVH was in this place and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How full of awe is this place! It is nothing less than a House of God; it is the Gate to Heaven!”
Then Jacob rose early and took the stone he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He named that place Bethel although before that it was called Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, “If YHVH will be with me and keep me safe during this journey I am making, if He gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and if I return in peace to my father’s house, then YHVH will be my God. This stone which I have set up as a pillar will be God’s House.”
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