holy martyrdom

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Monday, 22 June 2015 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paulinus of Nola, Bishop and St. John Fisher, Bishop and St. Thomas More, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops) or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 32 : 12-13, 18-19, 20 and 22

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.

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.

In hope we wait for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield. O Lord, let Your love rest upon us, even as our hope rests in You.

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Monday, 22 June 2015 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paulinus of Nola, Bishop and St. John Fisher, Bishop and St. Thomas More, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops) or Red (Martyrs)

Genesis 12 : 1-9

YHVH said to Abram, “Leave your country, your family and your father’s house, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse, and in you all peoples of the earth will be blessed.”

So Abram went as YHVH had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took Sarai, his wife, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set out for the land of Canaan.

They arrived at Canaan. Abram travelled through the country as far as Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. YHVH appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” There he built an altar to YHVH who had appeared to him.

From there he went on to the mountains east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There also he built an altar to YHVH and called on the Name of YHVH. Then Abram set out in the direction of Negeb.

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Friday, 5 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the healing of Tobit, who had long suffered from blindness. The Lord had mercy on him and blessed him through His agent, the Archangel Raphael. He sent Raphael to bring about healing to both Sara who was afflicted by the demon Asmodeus who killed her seven husbands, and to Tobit, to open his eyes so that he might see again.

Just as in the story of Job, the suffering but faithful servant of God, this shows that God is ever faithful and ever loving, and He always cares for us and loves us all tenderly. He will never leave behind all those who are faithful to Him. His gift and grace will be ours if we are able to faithfully cling to Him and devote ourselves to His ways. And He showed this by the promise which He had made to His people and which He fulfilled through Jesus, His Son, whom He sent into the world.

The Gospel reading which we heard today does not mean that Jesus repudiated or rejected the fact that He is the Heir of David and the One whom God had revealed to the world as the promised Messiah. It rather shows that because the people associate the Messiah with merely human terms of power and kingship, that He would rule in the kingdom of His ancestor David, and nothing more.

They thought that He would renew the kingdom of Israel, again in earthly and worldly terms, but the Lord Jesus our Messiah is much more than that, for just as He is Man, the Son of David, Heir to the kingdom which His ancestor had established and made firm, thus He is also the Son of God, the One who was to come into the world in order to save it.

Thus, Jesus would make it clear to the people, that His nature is both Man and Divine. This is what we believe in our faith as well. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Word of God made Flesh, had incarnated Himself as one of us while at the same time retaining His full divinity. This is important to be taken note of, especially considering what our Lord Jesus has done for our sake.

For what Christ had done is by suffering in our place, the suffering which all of us should have suffered from, that is the just punishment for our sins. We should have suffered death for our rebellion and disobedience against God, but through Christ who died for us, we will indeed die as a mortal being, but while once death had been the gateway to eternal darkness and suffering, now death is the new beginning of a new life in God, and it is not something that we should fear any longer.

This is because Jesus our Lord, Son of Man and Son of God, had shown us that He has the key to break free from the hold of death, that by His resurrection after His death, He showed us all how there is life to come after death for the faithful. Thus, all of us who keep our faith in God have nothing to fear, since if we continue to be faithful, God will remember our faith in Him and bless us richly.

If Christ is only Man, then His sacrifice would be in vain since no amount of mortal blood and sacrifice is going to be enough to redeem the fullness of mankind’s sins and faults. It is because of the great Divinity who chose to lay down His life that the whole human race may be healed and forgiven from their sins, since He assumed the very flesh of our beings, that by His death and resurrection, we too may follow in His ways.

Today we also celebrate the feast of St. Boniface, who was a bishop in what is now Germany, renowned for his many works in advancing the faith, preaching it and teaching it to many people. He was also renowned for his enforcement for the true practices of the faith against the evils of the world that had encroached even against the Church and the faithful at the time.

He was involved in many preaching and evangelisation missions, which brought him to many lands still inhabitant by pagan peoples and nations. He preached to all these people and hearkened them to listen to the word of God, repent and change their ways. And even when the people refused to turn their hearts to God, he kept trying and continued to persuade the people by his teachings, until one day when he was ambushed by armed robbers who struck at him and his followers.

Until the end of his life, he remained truly faithful to God, forgiving his assailants and telling his followers not to engage in violence to fight against violence. His example, together with the example of many other saints and holy people of God, highlighted the glory and rewards which God will give all those who have devoted themselves to Him. They are now in the glory of heaven because of their fatihful devotion to the Lord who have loved them first.

Let us all therefore devote ourselves completely to the Lord our God, throwing aside all distractions and distortions of the evil one, inspired by the examples of the holy saints, particularly that of St. Boniface whose examples and memory we celebrate on this day. May God be with us always, and may He bless us and heal us from all of our afflictions. Amen.

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Friday, 5 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 12 : 35-37

At that time, as Jesus was teaching in the Temple, He said, “The teachers of the Law say that the Messiah is the Son of David. How can that be? For David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared : The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies under Your feet!'”

“If David himself calls Him Lord, in what way can He be His Son?” Many people came to Jesus, and listened to Him gladly.

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Friday, 5 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 145 : 1-2, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10

Alleluia! Praise the Lord, my soul! I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to God while I live.

The Lord is forever faithful. He gives justice to the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free.

The Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord straightens the bent. The Lord protects the stranger.

He sustains the widow and the orphan. The Lord loves the virtuous, but He brings to ruin the way of the wicked. The Lord will reign forever, your God, o Zion, from generation to generation. Alleluia!

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Friday, 5 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Tobit 11 : 5-17

Now Anna was sitting there, scanning the road along which her son should return. She saw Tobias and Raphael coming in the distance and said to the father of Tobias, “Your son is coming with the man who accompanied him.”

While Tobias and Raphael were still going along the road, Raphael said to Tobias, “I am sure that your father will regain his sight. Rub his eyes with the fish gall and when he feels his eyes itching, he will rub them and the film will come away like scales from his eyes. He will regain his sight and see the light.”

Anna ran to meet Tobias and threw her arms around his neck saying, “At last I have seen you again, my child. Now I can die!” And both of them began to cry. Tobit also got up and, stumbling, arrived at the door of the courtyard. Tobias ran to him with the fish gall in his hand.

He breathed on his father’s eyes, embraced him and said, “Father, have confidence!” Then he spread the fish gall on Tobit’s eyes. Tobias waited. When his eyes began to itch, Tobit rubbed them and with both hands scaled off the film from the corners of his eyes. When Tobit saw his son he threw his arms around Tobias’s neck and began to weep.

He said, “Blessed be You, o God. Blessed be Your Name forever. Blessed be Your holy angels. You have punished me, but You have taken pity on me, and now I can see my son, Tobias.”

Tobias was very happy. After entering the house he told his father about the important things that had happened in Media. He told his father about the successful outcome of his journey, how he got the money, and how he married Sara, daughter of Ragouel, who just then was approaching the gates of Nineveh.

Tobit, happy and praising God, went out to meet his daughter-in-law at the gates of Nineveh. All those who saw him, walking alone and unaided, were amazed that he could see. Tobit proclaimed to them that God had taken pity on him and cured him. Then he went to Sara and blessed her saying, “Welcome, daughter! May God be blessed for having brought you to us and may your father and mother also be blessed.”

It was a day of great rejoicing for all Tobit’s relatives who lived in Nineveh.

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Wednesday, 3 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how two people in different places, both suffering from the depredations of evil and troubles of the world, namely Tobit and Sara, both were so distressed after having been harassed by others around them, on top of their suffering which they have endured all the while. Tobit and his blindness and the criticisms others placed on his charitable works, and Sara with the problem of her deceased seven husbands because of the vile works of the demon Asmodeus.

The Gospel today spoke about the resistance which Jesus encountered from the Sadducees, one of the two major groups in the society of the people of Israel at the time, one of the two influential parties that were involved in the governance of the people of God. The Sadducees were the ones who were close to the positions of secular power if not the holders of the secular power themselves.

They were a pragmatic group of people, who thought with reason and thinking in terms of facts and proofs, that just like what we know with science today, these people refused to believe in something if they were unable to explain it, or feel it, or witness it directly with their own senses. Thus they did not believe in the angels, or any spirits, or in the resurrection of the dead.

This was the opposite of the other group, the Pharisees, who believed in all of them, and as a matter of fact, was equally extreme in their views as the Sadducees had theirs. The Pharisees were ultra-orthodox in their views on the faith, and they were very strict in their observations of the Law, while if we look at the Sadducees, they were almost atheist in nature. And it was against the Sadducees that Jesus stood up against in the Gospel today.

The Sadducees were too engrossed and attached to worldliness and think in terms of the world to be able to appreciate and understand the true nature of men. They were those people who live only for themselves, filled with selfishness. They could not comprehend life beyond this world, and therefore they also likely feared death, because death means the separation from the goodness of this world, and it is the ultimate uncertainty for them.

But the truth and the fact is that death is merely just the transition in our lives, between the imperfect life we have now in this world, and the life in the world that is to come, the perfect life no longer marred by sin and darkness of the world. Instead of fearing it, we should rather embrace it instead. God always sends reminders after reminders to us, to keep us straight in the path of this life, that we may ever be faithful and true to the end.

And in the first reading, we are shown this by the example of the healing of Tobit from his blindness and the exorcism of Asmodeus who had troubled the household of Sara. The Lord heard their respective prayers and sent the Archangel Raphael to heal them from their afflictions and troubles. This is one proof of the work of God which He had done through His angels, which the Sadducees did not believe in.

God works in mysterious ways, including what He had done with Tobit and Sara, and if we read more thoroughly the Book of Tobit, then we would now how wonderful God’s plans are, which God made real and tangible through the Archangel Raphael. We are reminded that there are many things that we may not understand, but all we need to do is to keep that faith we have in the Lord and God will reveal to us and teach us everything we need to know.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, martyrs of the Faith, who were martyred for their faith in the country now known as Uganda. He was once a servant and confidant of the king of his country, who heard about the teaching of the true Faith by the missionaries, and then when he and others who have converted refused to recant their faith, their deaths were ordered by the king.

The courage and devotion of St. Charles Lwanga and his fellow companions in faith and martyrdom is a clear reminder for us that while the true teachings of the faith is with us now, and while we receive the same faith which the saints have received, but just as Jesus was opposed at every corners by various factions, including the Sadducees as we heard today, then we too will inevitably meet challenges along the way too.

Then in that case, are we going to just give in and conform to the views of others around us? Tobit and Sara were also mocked and humiliated many times for what they have done, and for having kept the faith, and at times they were so distraught and pressured so as to be so desperate, that Sara once even thought of taking her own life, but they persevered on, and they remained faithful.

God cares for all those who remain true to Him and He preserves all those who cling to Him faithfully, as He had shown through what He had done to Tobit and Sara. He blessed them, healed them and gave them far more than what they had lost. The same He had also done to Job, the suffering but faithful servant of God.

Let us all therefore, inspired also by the examples of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, tortured and killed for their faith but raised to the glory of heaven, that we too may do our best to be righteous in the eyes of the Lord and remain true to our faith in Him in all the things we do. Amen.

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Wednesday, 3 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 12 : 18-27

At that time, the Sadducees also came to Jesus. Since they claim that there is no resurrection, they questioned Him in this way, “Master, in the Scriptures Moses gave us this law : If anyone dies and leaves a wife but no children, his brother must take the woman, and with her have a baby, who will be considered as the child of his deceased brother.”

“Now, there were seven brothers. The first married a wife, but he died without leaving any children. The second took the wife, and he also died leaving no children. The same thing happened to the third. In fact, all seven brothers died, leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. Now, in the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife? For all seven brothers had her as wife.”

Jesus replied, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry, but are like the angels in heaven. Now, about the resurrection of the dead, have you never had thoughts about the burning bush in the book of Moses? God said to Moses : I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is the God not of the dead but of the living. You are totally wrong.”

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Wednesday, 3 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 24 : 2-3, 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9

In You my God I trust; let me not be put to shame, let not my enemies exult over me. Those who hope in You will never be humbled; those who turn away from You will suffer disgrace!

Teach me Your ways, o Lord; make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour; I hope in You all day long.

Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.

Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.

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Wednesday, 3 June 2015 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Tobit 3 : 1-11a, 16-17a

Distressed, I wept and prayed and expressing my sorrow, I said, “You are just, o Lord; all Your actions and all Your ways are merciful and just; Your judgments are always true and just. Remember me, Lord, and look on me. Do not punish me for my sins nor for the wrongs I have committed through ignorance. Pardon the sins which my fathers have committed in Your sight, for they disobeyed Your commandments.

“You have allowed us to suffer pillage, captivity and death. You have allowed us to be mocked by all the pagan nations among whom we have been dispersed. Ah well! All Your judgments are just when You choose to punish me for my sins and those of my fathers, because we have not accomplished Your will, nor have we sincerely obeyed Your commands. We have not walked before You in truth.”

“Do with me as You will. Order my life taken from me, and turn me into dust, because I prefer death to life. In this way free me and let me return to dust. It is better for me to die than to live, because these unjust reproaches have caused me great distress. Command that I be now released from trials, and let me enter my eternal dwelling place. Do not turn Your face away from me.”

That same day, at Ecbatana in Media, Sara, the daughter of Ragouel, was insulted in a similar way by her father’s young maidservants. Sara had had seven husbands, but the demon Asmodeus had killed each one of them before the marriage had been consummated.

The maidservants said, “It was you who killed your husbands. You have had seven husbands and you have not enjoyed marital relationship with any of them. Why do you punish us? Since they are dead, go and join them. May we never see a son or daughter of yours!”

That same day Sara was so distressed in mind that she went to the upper room in her father’s house. She wished to hang herself. But she thought better of it and said : “If people ever reproached my father and said to him : ‘You had an only daughter whom you cherished and she hanged herself because she was unhappy,’ I would cause my father in his old age to die of grief. It is better for me not to hang myself but to ask the Lord that I may die and not live to hear any more insults.”

At that moment she stretched forth her hands towards the window and prayed, saying, “You are blessed, o Lord my God, and blessed is Your holy and glorious Name throughout the ages.”

The Lord in His glory heard the prayer of Tobit and Sara and He sent Raphael to heal them both – to give back his sight to Tobit and to give Sara, the daughter of Ragouel, to Tobit’s son Tobias, as his wife.