Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we listened to the words of the Scripture we are all reminded that each and every one of us as Christians have been entrusted with the mission to reach out to the world, to the people we have been sent to, as missionaries and witnesses of our faith to the other people who have not yet heard the truth or known the Lord.

In our first reading today, we heard the tale of the prophet Amos, who was sent to the northern kingdom of Israel, composed of most of ten tribes out of the twelve tribes of Israel, who have rebelled against the house of David. While initially the first king of Israel, Jeroboam had been faithful to God, the fears of having the people of the northern kingdom going to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices as required by the Law, led to the king instating a rival worship practice and centre at Bethel in the northern kingdom.

This was the same Bethel that the prophet Amos came to as mentioned in our first reading today, as king Amaziah who ruled Israel a few generations after Jeroboam, told Amos to go off back into the land of Judah. Amaziah was likely angered by the works which Amos did in the land of Israel, and in Bethel no less, calling on the people to return to Lord and be reconciled with Him, abandoning their sinful and wicked ways. This included the pagan and unlawful worship carried out at Bethel among others.

Yet, Amos persisted and told the king that it was God Who called on him from his humble origin and background, from his ordinary life to be the shepherd of the people of God, Israel. Amos answered the Lord’s call and dedicated himself wholeheartedly to the mission that has been entrusted to him by the Lord. He encountered challenges and obstacles from those who refused to listen to him or believe in the Lord, but he worked hard nonetheless for the greater glory of God.

In our Gospel passage today, then we heard the Lord sending out His disciples to go before Him to many places, and to minister to the people, two by two, that they might help and cure the people of their sickness, and speak of the truth of God which He has revealed to them. He sent them out to the people to bring the Good News of God’s salvation to all, and those disciples had been entrusted with the care of the various peoples that God has called to be His own. They were tasked to reach out to the separated and lost sons and daughters of mankind, their own brothers and sisters, that more and more may come to know of the Lord and His truth.

They were told not to carry more than the barest essentials, and to wear very simple and minimal dressing as is appropriate and yet unassuming in nature. They were also told to stay in whichever place that accommodated and welcomed them in, and not to stay in the places where they were not welcome to stay or where the people rejected them. Through all of these, the Lord told His disciples to put their trust in Him and not in their own power, devices and strength.

He also told them plainly of the challenges and trials that they would face, all the things that they would have to endure to walk down the path that He has shown them. It would not be easy for one to become a faithful and committed Christian, as a dedicated disciple and servant of the Lord. There would be plenty of obstacles that they all had to overcome, and this is also therefore a reminder to each and every one of us. We shall also face moments when we can even question our faith and commitment to God, due to all the sorrows and sufferings we have to endure.

But the Lord reassured each and every one of us, that we are never alone, and He is always with us, by our side. And ours is a most important mission which the Lord Himself has entrusted to us, that is to be the bearers of the Good News of salvation and the Light of truth to many people who have not yet heard of them or seen the light of God’s truth. This is what our Christian faith is all about, that we do not just keep this faith and truth to ourselves, but rather, we are all required to share this faith and truth with others.

That is why today we heard all of these reminders from the passages of the Scriptures, as reminders for us that each and every one of us as Christians have that very important role to play and the obligation to reveal the truth of Christ to all the people, without exception. We have to entrust ourselves in the Lord and follow Him wholeheartedly in the mission which He has entrusted to each and every one of us in turn. We have to embark on this missionary journey, responding to the call which the Lord has made upon us.

We have been so blessed by God and received the bountiful grace of salvation through Christ, which we have heard in our second reading today, from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians, as St. Paul told the faithful there of the wonderful grace that they have received from the Lord, and revealing to all of them, the desire that the Lord has in saving all mankind, be it Jews or non-Jews alike, and it is because of this that St. Paul himself and the other Apostles and missionaries of the faith had laboured hard, to spread the Good News and truth of God to all the people of all the nations.

St. Paul reiterated the Lord’s call to all of us, that each and every one of us have that responsibility and duty to be the faithful witnesses of our faith in our respective communities, reaching out to all those who are in need of guidance and truth so that by our actions and faithful witness to the truth of Christ, and by our exemplary life and commitment to God, we may be inspiration for many others that they may also follow our good examples and faith, and come to believe in the Lord as well.

Let us all therefore do our very best, and strive to be faithful to God and commit ourselves to the mission which He has entrusted us all, and be faithful and good in each and every moments of our lives that walking in the footsteps of the prophet Amos and the Apostles, we may always glorify the Lord by our lives and works, at all times. May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen us all with the courage and resolve to follow Him and dedicate ourselves to His cause. May God bless our good works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are presented with the sad and unfortunate reality of how the people rejected those whom the Lord had sent to them, and refused to believe in them and in the message of truth and revelation which God has given them through those servants. This is all because of our stubbornness and our lack of faith and trust in the Lord, as we often trust more in our own abilities and we discriminate others based on our prejudices and biases.

In our first reading today we heard about the Lord sending Ezekiel to the people of Israel in exile in Babylon, to be His prophet and messenger among them. At that time, the people of Israel had been scattered in faraway lands, as the northern kingdom of Israel, composed of most of ten of the twelve tribes of Israel had been crushed and conquered by the Assyrians over a century before the time of Ezekiel, and most of the people had been brought to exile. Then, the Babylonians in turn subjugated the southern kingdom of Judah and brought many of its people into exile as well.

Thus, it was to this people that the Lord had sent Ezekiel to be His mouthpiece among them, to be the one to bring His message of truth to them and to call them to repentance and to turn away from their sinful and wicked ways. It was because of their many sins and refusals to obey the Lord that they had fallen from grace, and the glory of the old kingdom of David and Solomon had faded and gone from them. In a short time after God sent Ezekiel to the exiles in Babylon, the rest of Judah and the city of Jerusalem itself would be destroyed, and the remaining people brought to exile as well.

The sins of the people separated them from God, and without God, as they stood alone on their own, they faltered and failed, fell and became disgrace among the nations. Yet, we can see that the Lord still cared for them and did not forget about them. He could have destroyed and annihilated them easily, or abandoned them forever and chose other people to be His own people, but He still patiently sought them out, called them and sent prophets one after another to them, through the days of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and up to that time, the prophet Ezekiel.

Many of those prophets were rejected and ridiculed, and not few among them were made to suffer and even were killed for their works and faith in the Lord. The prophets laboured hard for the sake of the Lord and His people, and many gave their all to glorify the Lord and to bring His people to salvation. They endured all sorts of trials and troubles, sacrificing their time and many other things in following God’s call. But the people often still hardened their hearts against the Lord and refused to believe in Him.

The same thing happened to the Lord as we heard in our Gospel passage today, as we heard how He was rejected in Nazareth, in His own village and hometown. The people of Nazareth publicly doubted and questioned the Lord and His authority and authenticity when He came to His own town, teaching and preaching among them. This despite Nazareth itself being not far from the region around the Lake of Galilee where the Lord had performed many miracles and works.

Why did the people of Nazareth reject the Lord? That is because many of them were prejudiced against Him, thinking that they knew better than Him and they saw Him as an unworthy upstart, as the mere Son of the village carpenter, St. Joseph, His foster-father. No one in Nazareth beyond His immediate family knew the Lord’s true identity, and this is why everyone thought of the Lord as a fraud, and someone who was just the Son of a carpenter could not have gained such wisdom or taught with such authority. It was simply impossible in their minds.

That was why they refused to acknowledge the Lord and His truth, and they questioned and doubted Him, looking down on Him despite everything that they had heard and seen. They refused to open their hearts and minds to welcome Him inside, and kept Him out of their minds. And before we ourselves look down on them, let us remind ourselves that we have often done the same in our own lives, in each and every moments of our existence.

We should ask ourselves how often is it that the Lord had called us to follow Him and yet we hesitated and refused to listen to Him. And even though He has patiently reached out to us via various means, we still continued to harden our hearts and minds, and are stubborn in adhering to our old ways and paths, in opposition to God, in how we have been selfish and mean to others, in loving ourselves more than we love God and our fellow brothers and sisters, in indulging our various pleasures and pursuits in life, among others.

Therefore, as we listened and are reminded by this Sunday’s Scripture readings, we are all called as Christians to be humble and to be willing to open our hearts and minds to the Lord. And we can do this best by spending more quality time with the Lord, especially through prayer. Unfortunately, this is where many of us are falling short, as we do not regularly pray to the Lord, or when we pray, we do not pray in the right way. Prayer is not the same as asking God to do things on our behalf or to fulfil our desires and whatever we wanted. It is not about asking God to miraculously solve our problems and other things that we often did in our prayers.

Instead, we should be willing to listen to the Lord and learn to listen to Him more. We should open our hearts and minds, and allow Him to speak to us in the depth of our souls, that we may know His will more and be more attuned to Him in our lives and actions. This is what we are all challenged to do as Christians, to be ever more genuine in the way we live our lives with faith in God, and to devote our time and effort to glorify the Lord at all times. We should allow the Lord to lead us and guide our path in life.

And lastly, may all of us also be the beacons of God’s light and truth in this darkened world today. Like the prophets and the servants of the Lord whom He had sent into our midst, we should also follow in their footsteps and be inspired by their faith and dedication, as well as by their enduring love for God. Are we willing and able to do so, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we willing to love the Lord more and to put our trust in Him, that we will always follow Him and obey His Law and precepts, in each and every moments? May God be with us all and may He bless us always in our every good efforts and endeavours. Amen.