Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 46 : 2-3, 8-9, 10
Clap your hands, all you peoples; acclaim God with shouts of joy. For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared; He is a great King all over the earth.
God is King of all the earth; sing to Him a hymn of praise. For God now rules over the nations, God reigns from His holy throne.
The leaders of the nations rally together with the people of the God of Abraham. For in His hands are the great of the earth, God reigns far above.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 18 : 23-28
After spending some time at Antioch, Paul left and travelled from place to place through Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the disciples. A certain Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, arrived at Ephesus. He was an eloquent speaker and an authority on the Scriptures, and he had some knowledge of the way of the Lord.
With great enthusiasm he preached and taught correctly about Jesus, although he knew only of John’s baptism. As he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, Priscilla and Aquila heard him; so they took him home with them and explained to him the way more accurately.
As Apollos wished to go to Achaia, the believers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly strengthened those who, by God’s grace, had become believers, for he vigorously refuted the Jews, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.
Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded yet again that as Christians, our principal and main responsibility lies in the need to love and serve the Lord with all of our heart, mind, body and soul. This is the essence of us being Christians, not in all other things, which all truly have their roots in the love which we ought to show the Lord our God.
And why is this so? That is because, without love, we are not Christians, and without the love which we ought to serve the Lord with, then we truly have not known love. Because if we have remembered and known just how much God has loved us, then we should also show the same love for Him, first of all, and then show the same love to our fellow brethren.
Yet, many of us mankind have forgotten this fact, and we have rejected God and His love, for the love of other things, all the distractions out there which have turned us and our attentions away from God. We have become detached from Him, and ended up being concerned only about ourselves, only about our needs and desires, and not about what truly matters, that is serving the Lord with all of our heart.
This was what happened, at the time of the early Church, as recounted to us through our first reading today taken from the Acts of the Apostles. At that time, the tension between the two factions in the Church had reached a breaking point, between the faction of the Pharisees and the faction of the Hellenists. The Pharisees were those who were similar with the Pharisees at the time of Jesus, being composed of the Pharisees who came to believe in Jesus, who wanted to keep the purity of the Jewish faith and traditions, wishing to impose on all the believers the rigour of the entire Jewish laws according to the laws of Moses.
Meanwhile, the Hellenists were those who favoured relaxing and bypassing the requirements of the Jewish laws and customs, in order to make the faith more practical and favourable to the non-Jewish people, the Greeks and the Romans, all of whom found that certain practices of the Jewish tradition such as circumcision and food prohibition to be repulsive and difficult to be followed, as these came into direct conflict with their own customs and cultural traditions.
As such, such a division in the Church was truly a tragic event, at the time when the Church should have been united against all those who sought to destroy it in its infancy. But the Church fathers and the Apostles ruled against those who would distract the Church from its primary mission, that is the salvation of souls and the repentance of all sinners.
To that extent, they agreed and ruled that all Christians should henceforth be freed from the obligation to obey the entirety of the Jewish laws and customs, most of which were in fact human creation and not originating from God, as means and historical practices meant to preserve the Jewish customs and culture. And they ruled that as long as all the Christians lived in accordance to what the Lord Jesus had taught them, that should be sufficient.
That is because as Christians, all of us truly have to remember that our primary and indeed sole obligation is to love the Lord our God, with all of our might, and with all of our strength. And when we love Him and obey Him, we will definitely also love our brethren, just as we have been loved by God and loving Him back. We will show the same love that we showed Him to our fellow men.
We should follow the example of our holy predecessors, the holy saints and martyrs, in how they devoted their whole lives to the Lord and to their fellow men. Pope St. John I, the holy Bishop of Rome and leader of the Universal Church during its early years is one of such examples. He was a devoted man, a pious and holy servant of God, dedicated to his calling and vocation as the leader of the Church.
He lived during a difficult time, as political and worldly conflict threatened the Church in Rome, due to the conflict between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogothic Kingdom, who then ruled over Rome. The Ostrogoths were Arians, heretical followers of Christianity, while the Empire was following the Orthodox and true Christian faith. Pope St. John I lived and reigned through the turbulent times, and tried his best to bridge the differences between the two powers.
However, he was caught in the entanglement of the conflict, and was imprisoned by the Ostrogoths, under the false charges of sedition and supposed plotting with the enemy against the king. He was arrested, incarcerated and made to suffer, but yet he never gave up the faith. He continued to persevere through the challenges, and even unto martyrdom, as he met his end in prison, he kept the faith.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all from now on strive to serve the Lord with greater zeal and conviction, and devote ourselves to Him ever more willingly. Let us all love one another as well, just as we have been loved by God, and just as we have loved Him with all of our hearts. Let us all be true Christians inspired by the examples of our brethren who have preceded us. Pope St. John I, holy Pope and martyr, pray for us sinners. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
John 15 : 9-11
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Remain in My love! You will remain in My love if you keep My commandments, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.
I have told you all this, that My own joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.”
Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
Psalm 95 : 1-2a, 2b-3, 10
Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His Name.
Proclaim His salvation day after day. Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds.
Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” He will judge the peoples with justice.
Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
Acts 15 : 7-21
As the discussions became heated, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that from the beginning God chose me among you so that non-Jews could hear the Good News from me and believe. God, Who can read hearts, put Himself on their side by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them and cleansed their hearts through faith.”
“So why do you want to put God to the test? Why do you lay on the disciples a burden that neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry? We believe, indeed, that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.”
The whole assembly kept silent as they listened to Paul and Barnabas tell of all the miraculous signs and wonders that God had done through them among the non-Jews. After they had finished, James spoke up, “Listen to me, brothers. Symeon has just explained how God first showed His care by taking a people for Himself from non-Jewish nations.”
“And the words of the prophets agree with this, for Scripture says, ‘After this I will return and rebuild the booth of David which has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again. Then the rest of humanity will look for the Lord, and all the nations will be consecrated to My Name. So says the Lord, Who does today what He decided from the beginning.'”
“Because of this, I think that we should not make difficulties for those non-Jews who are turning to God. Let us just tell them not to eat food that is unclean from having been offered to idols; to keep themselves from prohibited marriages; and not to eat the flesh of animals that have been strangled, or any blood. For from the earliest times Moses has been taught in every place, and every Sabbath his laws are recalled.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day from the Scripture readings all of us have heard about how the Church of God was persecuted by those who oppose it and refused to believe in the truth of Christ. We heard how St. Stephen the Deacon and Protomartyr, the first martyr of the Church, died defending his faith, after standing up for the Lord and proclaiming the fullness of His truth before the Jewish leaders.
The Jewish leaders, the elders and the chief priests refused to listen to the truth, they covered their ears, refusing to listen to the truth, as true and painfully real as it was to them, which St. Stephen had delivered to them. They hardened their hearts and closed the doors of their minds, rejecting the truth to continue living in the denial of the truth. That was why they persecuted the Lord, and then the disciples and followers of the Lord afterwards.
And what was this truth that St. Stephen had so boldly and courageously proclaimed? If we paid close attention to his testimony, it is about the Lord and His great love for each and every one of us, which had been manifested through the coming of the One Who is the Saviour of the whole world and of all mankind, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
In the Gospel today, we heard the Lord Jesus Himself, telling the people who doubted Him and wanted Him to show them a miraculous sign from heaven, that He is the real and true miracle beyond any other miracles, far greater than all the miraculous deeds He had performed before the people in various places, greater than all the healing and the opening of the eyes of the blind, the making of deaf and mute people to be able to hear and speak again, and the healing of the paralytic and lepers.
It was by giving Himself as the Bread of Life for all those who have received Him and accepted His truth that the Lord had revealed Himself wonderfully before all people. He brought forth a new life for those who have accepted Him as their Lord and Saviour, and through the giving of His Body and Blood, He has reunited us all with Himself, reconciling us with the One Who gave us life.
It was for this truth and for this Lord, that St. Stephen had stood up for his faith for, as he refused to remain idle and silent while the chief priests and the elders tried hard to deny the truth of Jesus, and also about His resurrection from the dead. St. Stephen spoke up for the Lord, in front of the people, so that all those who have ears and listened, might be touched in their hearts and be converted to the Lord, even though there were perhaps many others who remained stubborn.
Today, we also celebrate the feast of St. Athanasius, a renowned and holy saint, who lived through a particularly difficult time for the Church. As one of the most prominent of the leaders of the Church at his time, leading the Church in Alexandria in Egypt, he had to deal with the enormous impact of the heresy caused by one Arius, the one who brought about the Arian heresy.
Arius was a popular preacher who swayed many people to follow his false teachings and therefore into heresy. There were many of the faithful, priests and even bishops who believed in Arius’ teachings, claiming that Jesus our Lord, was not God and Man as the Church had taught, but only merely Man, a created Being instead of the Creator. This false teachings had misled many of the faithful into the wrong path.
And St. Athanasius was determined to root out the heresy from among his flock, persevering against opposition and challenges that he had to encounter as he went about preaching the truth against the heresies that Arius had preached. St. Athanasius remained firm in his convictions to guide his flock, the people of God entrusted to his care, into the right path, and therefore, even though there were priests and bishops who opposed him, slandered him and accused him wrongly with false accusations, St. Athanasius never stopped his hard work.
In total, St. Athanasius had to endure five exiles from his See, because of all the oppositions he encountered. And every time, his enemies and all those who refused to listen to the truth St. Athanasius preached came about with new reason to accuse him of wrongdoing, resulting in great difficulties that the holy saint had to endure. Yet, St. Athanasius never gave up, and continued to do great deeds among the people, converting countless souls to the Lord.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we all follow in the footsteps of St. Athanasius? Shall we walk in the path of his faith, his commitment and devotion to serve the Lord? There will indeed be challenges, opposition and difficulties, as once encountered by St. Stephen the Martyr, St. Athanasius himself, and many other holy saints and martyrs of the Church. But they all placed their trust in God, and never gave up, for if they had given up, many souls would have been lost to hell.
Let us all renew therefore our own conviction in faith, our commitment and devotion to the Lord and His ways. May the Lord bless us and strengthen our faith, so that we may continue to grow closer to Him, and remain true and faithful to Him as St. Stephen, St. Athanasius and the other holy men and women of God had done. May God be with us all, in our lives, now and forever. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 6 : 30-35
At that time, the Jews said to Jesus, “Show us miraculous signs, that we may see and believe You. What sign do You perform? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert; as Scripture says : They were given bread from heaven to eat.”
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true Bread from heaven. The Bread God gives is the One Who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.” And they said to Him, “Give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in Me shall never be thirsty.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 30 : 3cd-4, 6ab and 7b and 8a, 17 and 21ab
Be a Rock of refuge for me, a Fortress for my safety. For You are my Rock and my Stronghold, lead me for Your Name’s sake.
Into Your hands I commend my spirit; but I put all my trust in the Lord. I will rejoice and be glad in Your love, for You have seen my affliction.
Make Your face shine upon Your servant; save me in Your love. In the shelter of Your presence You hide them from human wiles; You keep them in Your dwelling.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 7 : 51 – Acts 8 : 1a
Stephen said to the Council, “But you are a stubborn people, you hardened your hearts and closed your ears. You have always resisted the Holy Spirit just as your fathers did. Was there a prophet whom your ancestors did not persecute? They killed those who announced the coming of the Just One Whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the Law through the Angels but did not fulfil it.”
When the Council heard the reproach Stephen made against them, they were enraged and they gnashed their teeth against him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, fixed his eyes on heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus at God’s right hand, so he declared : “I see the heavens open and the Son of Man at the right hand of God.”
But they shouted and covered their ears with their hands and rushed together upon him. They brought him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed saying : “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Then he knelt down and said in a loud voice : “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he died. Saul was there, approving his murder. This was the beginning of a great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem.
