Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 27 : 2, 7, 8-9
Hear my cry for mercy as I call to You for help, as I lift up my hands toward Your innermost sanctuary.
The Lord is my strength, my shield, my heart was sure of Him, I have been helped and my heart exults, with my song I give Him thanks.
The Lord is the strength of His people, the saving refuge of His anointed. Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance, be their shepherd and carry them forever.
Liturgical Colour : Red
1 Timothy 2 : 1-8
First of all I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for everyone, for rulers of states and all in authority, that we may enjoy a quiet and peaceful life in godliness and respect. This is good and pleases God. For He wants all to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth.
As there is one God, there is one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, Himself human, who gave His life for the redemption of all. This is the testimony, given in its proper time, and of this, God has made me apostle and herald. I am not lying. I am telling the truth : He made me teacher of the nations regarding faith and truth.
I want the men in every place to lift pure hands in prayer to heaven without anger and dissension.
Liturgical Colour : White
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today Christ continued to remind us of the great need to remain humble and loving in our lives, avoiding all sorts of vices, and do only what is in line with the will of God. He cares for us very much, and wants us to be righteous and worthy of Him. He protects and provides for all of us, in the same way that a father cares for his children, and way more than that.
He gave second chances to those who repent, to those who realised the depth of their sins and iniquities as He had done with St. Paul, once the great enemy of the faithful and the Church, and the great persecutor of saints and martyrs, turned into the great champion and defender of the faith, the great missionary of the Lord. Therefore, sinners are great in the eyes of the Lord, because the Lord loves them and cares for them, and wants them to return to Him.
Even saints and holy men and women of God now in heaven were once sinners, great or small. What matters is that they had learnt to manage their human weaknesses and tendency for sin, and overcome the sins they had done, with the help of God and one another, with the love they have in their hearts, and with the faith that they have.
We must therefore not be quick to condemn others or judge on others, especially on their faults or shortcomings, as we have to remember that none of us are perfect or completely filled with good things. All of us have weakness one way or another. We are imperfect, ever since sin has entered mankind’s heart. Yet, some of us would not realise of our own faults, thinking highly of ourselves and our own achievements, and look down on others whom we perceive to be inferior to us.
That was what the Pharisees did, as well as the chief priests and the teachers of the Law did, looking down on others because they thought highly of themselves. They prayed in loud voice and wonderful gestures, and followed the rules of the Law strictly, observing everything to the most minute details, and yet, behind all that, lay a huge problem, a huge fault with them. They have not the Lord in their heart, not even deep within their hearts.
They condemned others and sought faults in others, while they themselves were even more faulty in themselves. That was exactly what Christ condemned them for, their failure to do what the Lord truly asked of them, and even worse that as the leaders of the people, they misled the people and brought them to ruin instead of salvation.
Today, we celebrate the feast of St. John Chrysostom, one of the original four great Doctors of the Church, as one of the most brilliant minds of the Church, the leader of the faithful in Constantinople, St. John Chrysostom was truly an upright man, who lived piously and with deep faith in the Lord their God. He preached often of the need to live in charity and love, that is to show love to one another, especially the ones in need, and he truly practice what he preached.
St. John Chrysostom did not have it easy, as he did face many oppositions, especially from those who followed the heretical teachings, like Arianism, Monophysitism, Nestorianism, and many others. He faced them with firm faith and dedication to God. He was fully aware of his own sins and weaknesses, and therefore he wanted to bring souls to salvation in God, showing his care as a fellow sinner who had been called to guide his lost brethren to the Father in heaven.
St. John Chrysostom did not even shy away or fear of rebuking the Roman Emperor, Arcadius at the time, for the improper behaviour of his wife, the Empress Eudoxia, who resented St. John Chrysostom so much that he was banished from Constantinople and from his post. Immediately God set out to punish those who had conspired against the servant of God, and the Roman capital faced terrible catastrophe. Not even the imperial family was spared, with the Empress dying from childbirth and the Emperor himself a few years later.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we should try to emulate St. John Chrysostom in his actions, in his life, and in his examples, that we should really look into ourselves first before we judge others, and reflect on our lives whether our words and actions had reflected God’s love in them. If we had not done so, then truly now is a good time to do so, while we still have the opportunity in this life. Let us have no fear and keep a steadfast faith like that of St. John Chrysostom, whom in his righteousness rebuked even an emperor and empress who went astray from the Lord.
Let us be always faithful to God, be loving both to Him and our brethren, and finally let us strive to give more of ourselves for the sake of others, the last, the lost, and the lonely, as St. John Chrysostom had done. Pray for us St. John Chrysostom! May God bless us always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 6 : 39-42
And Jesus offered this example, “Can a blind person lead another blind person? Surely both will fall into a ditch. A disciple is not above the master; but when fully trained, he will be like the master.”
“So why do you pay attention to the speck in your brother’s eye, while you have a log in your eye, and are not conscious of it? How can you say to your neighbour, ‘Friend, let me take this speck out of your eye,’ when you cannot remove the log in your own? “
“You hypocrite! First remove the log from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your neighbour’s eye.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 15 : 1-2a and 5, 7-8, 11
Keep me safe, o God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord.” O Lord, my inheritance and my cup, my chosen portion – hold secure my lot.
I bless the Lord who counsels me; even at night my inmost self instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me; for with Him at my right hand, I will never be shaken.
You will show me the path of life, in Your presence the fullness of joy, at Your right hand happiness forever.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 Timothy 1 : 1-2, 12-14
From Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus by a command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope, to Timothy, my true son in the faith. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.
I give thanks to Christ Jesus, our Lord, who is my strength, who has considered me trustworthy and appointed me to His service, although I had been a blasphemer, a persecutor and a rabid enemy.
However He took mercy on me because I did not know what I was doing when I opposed the faith; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, together with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Colossians 3 : 1-11
So then, if you are risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on earthly things. For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, reveals Himself, you also will be revealed with Him in Glory.
Therefore, put to death what is earthly in your life, that is immorality, impurity, inordinate passions, wicked desires and greed which is a way of worshipping idols. These are the things that arouse the wrath of God.
For a time you followed this way and lived in such disorders. Well then, reject all that : anger, evil intentions, malice; and let no abusive words be heard from your lips.
Do not lie to one another. You have been stripped of the old self and its way of thinking to put on the new, which is being renewed and is to reach perfect knowledge and the likeness of its creator. There is no room for distinction between Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, foreigner, slave, or free, but Christ is all and in all.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, indeed, as we heard today, God has His plans for all of us. And that plan is none other than in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. He had prepared that plan for salvation long beforehand, ever since the time of creation, ever since the fall of our forefathers into sin.
God did not abandon us to our fate that is to die because of our wrongdoings, our betrayal against His love, but He wants us to live, an eternal life with Him in heaven. That was why He had given us His love throughout time, sending prophets and messengers one after another, in order to bring mankind back to the Lord their God and Father who loves them.
God’s prophets and messengers existed throughout time, especially ones we know in Israel, the people first chosen by the Lord to be His people. He sent these prophets and messengers to Israel and put in them the understanding and knowledge on His plan for salvation of mankind. The prophets proclaimed the message of the Lord, but many kept their hearts shut tight against the Lord, spurning His eternal love.
But God is not someone who easily gives up. Yes, He did punish those who had wronged and disobeyed His commandments, like what He did to the people of Israel in the desert, where they wandered for forty years to atone for their sins and rebelliousness, but He ultimately did all that, because He loved all of them so greatly, that it truly had caused Him pain to watch them going astray from His ways.
He had given His laws and commandments to His people, through Moses His servant and through the prophets. He gave them all these so that they will stay true to His ways and do not fall back into their past, sinful ways. These laws are to be their guide in their lives, and yet, over time, they had taken it for granted and misused them for their own purposes. They become enslaved to the Law and had forgotten what the true intention and meaning of the Law was.
That is why, He chose to send the deliverer, in Jesus, the long awaited Messiah , the Christ. In Him, the Lord finally revealed the true intent and the plan that He had crafted for our salvation. Through Christ He had revealed the nature of His Law, including that of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made as a special day to honour the Lord, to love God, and not as a punishment for certain.
The Pharisees failed to see that, having had a set mind in their own version of the Law, and always set themselves in the path of Christ, always trying in futility to find fault with Him, particularly on the matter of the observance of the Sabbath Law. Instead of learning the true meaning of the Law, that is love, the love God has for all of us, they withdrew themselves into their sinfulness. This was what Christ had condemned them all for.
Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Peter Claver. He was a great priest and missionary, as a Spanish Jesuit who lived during the height of the Spanish American Empire in what is now known as Latin or South America. He lived at a time of conquest, when many native people of Spanish America were made into slaves of the Spanish conquerors.
St. Peter Claver worked hard as a missionary, and dedicated himself to his work, especially to the slaves, the enslaved natives of his mission work area. He denounced the slavery of fellow mankind, in an era when these slaves and the native people of the Americas in general were considered as less than human beings and were being traded as if they were animals.
He worked so hard that he kind of ‘enslaved himself to his work and ministry, but in this manner, his ‘enslavement’ is a good one. Unlike the Pharisees who enslaved themselves and the people they led on human laws, earning the condemnation of Christ, St. Peter Claver enslaved himself to the cause of love, the care of the least among all, the slaves and the lowest in the society.
Indeed, Christ Himself had done the same for all of us, for the sake of God’s children. He made Himself a slave for us, tortured and suffering, and died the humiliating death of a slave and a criminal on the cross, so that we may live and not die, so that we may not be slave again to sin, but to be free and not just any freedom, but eternal freedom from death and sin.
May the Lord who loves us so much that He is willing to die a slave’s death that we can be free from our enslavement to sin, together with St. Peter Claver and his love for the least among mankind and slaves, empower us, to dare to make a difference in our world today, and to be able to give our love and our entire being to them, in the way similar to what Christ and St. Peter Claver had done, that no one will remain unloved, and no one will remain a slave. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White
Luke 6 : 6-11
On another Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and began teaching. There was a man with a paralyzed right hand, and the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees watched Him : Would Jesus heal the man on the Sabbath? If He did, they could accuse Him.
But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to the man, “Get up, and stand in the middle.” Then He spoke to them, “I want to ask you : What is allowed by the Law on the Sabbath? To do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And Jesus looked around at them all.
Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored, becoming as healthy as the other. But they were furious, and began to discuss with one another how they could deal with Jesus.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White
Psalm 61 : 6-7, 9
Find rest in God alone, o my soul; from Him comes my hope. He alone is my rock and my salvation; with Him as my stronghold, I shall not be overcome.
Trust in Him at all times, my people; pour out your hearts before Him; God is our refuge.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 