Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Psalm 84 : 9, 11-12, 13-14
Would, that I hear God’s proclamation, that He promise peace to His people, His saints – lest they come back to their folly.
Love and faithfulness have met; righteousness and peace have embraced. Faithfulness will reach up from the earth while justice bends down from heaven.
YHVH will give what is good, and our land will yield its fruit. Justice will go before Him, and peace will follow along His path.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Judges 6 : 11-24a
The Angel of YHVH came and sat under the sacred tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, of the family of Abiezer. Gideon, the son of Joash, was threshing the wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites.
The Angel of YHVH said to him, “YHVH be with you, valiant warrior.” Gideon answered, “Please, my lord, if YHVH is with us, why is all this happening to us? Where are the wonders which our fathers recounted to us? Did they not say that YHVH led them up from Egypt? Why has He abandoned us now and given us into the hands of the Midianites?”
YHVH then turned to him and said, “Go, and with your courage, save Israel from the Midianites. It is I Who send you.” Gideon answered : “Pardon me, Lord, but how can I save Israel? My family is the lowliest in my tribe and I am the least in the family of my father.”
YHVH said to him, “I will be with you and you shall defeat the people of Midian with one single stroke.” Gideon said to Him, “Please give me a sign that it is indeed You Who speak. Do not leave until I return with an offering and present it to You.” YHVH responded, “I am going to wait for you here.”
Gideon went and prepared a young goat, took a measure of flour and baked unleavened bread. He put the broth in a pot and the meat in a basket, and went to present them to the Angel under the tree. Then the Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the bread; put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.”
Gideon did so. At that moment, the Angel of YHVH extended the staff he was holding and touched the meat and the bread. Suddenly, fire blazed from the rock. The fire consumed the meat and the bread, and the Angel of YHVH disappeared.
Gideon realised that he was the Angel of YHVH and said, “Alas, o Lord YHVH! I have seen the Angel of YHVH face to face.” But YHVH said to him, “Peace be with you. Do not fear for you shall not die.” Gideon built an altar to YHVH in that place and called it YHVH-Peace.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded that as Christians, as those whom God had called and chosen from this world to be His own beloved and holy people, we have been gathered to become this one flock of the Lord’s faithful, to share together His blessings and graces, to enjoy His love and kindness, all that He has assured and given to us. At the same time we are also reminded that if we do not belong to Him and are apart from Him, we shall be judged and condemned to an eternity in darkness and destruction. Hence, this is why it is important that we should always strive to live our lives worthily and commit ourselves to the Lord in each and every moments of our lives.
In our first reading today, taken from the last chapter of the Book of Exodus, we heard of the moment when the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered together during the time of their journey from the land of Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan, at the moment after the Holy Tent of Meeting, or the Tent of God’s Presence had been completed according to the instructions that the Lord had given to them through Moses. At that time, the Lord has been guiding the people day and night on the journey through the desert, but the journey of the Israelites had faced a detour due to their own lack of faith as they doubted the Lord and refused to believe in Him when He led them to the land of Promise, allowing their fears and uncertainties to overcome them and to make them reject God’s assurance and plans for them.
That was why they were forced to wander in the desert for forty years long to atone for their sins. And yet, the Lord still cared for His people and remained with them, no matter what, as He continued to show His Presence among them, by descending upon them at the Holy Tent, the Holy Tent of God’s Presence, enthroned among the Cherubim of the Ark of the Covenant. This was the Holy of Holies within the Holy Tent of God, which would later be replicated when King Solomon built a great Temple for God in Jerusalem. This Holy of Holies is the epicentre and heart of God’s Holy Presence among His people, a tangible reminder of God Who has always been there for His beloved ones, those whom He had called and chosen. And today we are being reminded of this because all of us as Christians, we have been made God’s Holy Temple, the Temple of His Holy Presence.
Each and every one of us have received the Lord Himself in the Flesh, as we received from Him the ultimate gift of His love for us, the gift of the Most Holy Eucharist, His very own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood that He has given to us. And because of this, God Himself has dwelled within us, and we have become parts and members of God’s one Church, His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. And God made us all to be the ones in whom He dwelled, in our hearts and in our whole beings, that we are truly the Temple of His Holy Presence, just like the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant once resided, and where God descended in His Holy Presence, to dwell among His people. He is now enthroned in our hearts, and is truly present in each and every one of us.
Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the Lord Jesus teaching more to His disciples and followers with the parables and stories to highlight and explain what the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven is all about. And He told them all of how the Kingdom of Heaven is truly open to all, using the comparison to a net that is thrown wide, gathering everyone in, highlighting how each and every one of us, God’s beloved people, all of mankind, have been beloved equally by God, from the smallest to the greatest amongst us, and to even the greatest of sinners, to those whom we may consider to be unworthy of God. Each one of us, though sinners, are called to God’s grace, to embrace His love and compassionate mercy.
However, at the same time, we are reminded that we have to be good, worthy and righteous in our lives and deeds so that we may truly be worthy of everything that God has prepared for us. Unless we heed His words and embrace our calling to live lives that are truly attuned to the Lord and in accordance with His will, we may find ourselves being found wanting because we lacked the faith and the commitment to live faithfully in the Lord’s path. And that is why we are reminded of this, that we should not remain idle in our faith and way of life. We must turn away from the path of sin and wickedness, from all the temptations of this world, from all the unhealthy attachments which we have for the ambitions and the desires of this world, for all sins and wickedness around us.
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the famous founder of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. St. Ignatius of Loyola was born as Iñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola in the castle of Loyola, where he got his epithet from, to a family of minor nobles. His early life was rather turbulent with lots of conflicts, a lot of changes and losses, and he grew through his youth thinking that he would become a great warrior, pursuing ambitions of knighthood and chivalry, as he served in the military, fighting wars and battles that were rampant and frequent at that time. He pursued worldly glory, fame and was ambitious, but he felt something was lacking in his life as he kept on fighting battles after battles, wars after wars.
And at one moment when he was injured due to being struck by a cannonball, he had to be put out of action for a while, and while healing from his injuries and recuperating, he was seeking for the tales of chivalry and knighthood to satisfy his boredom. But only books on the lives of the saints were available to him, and his experiences reading through them made St. Ignatius of Loyola to go through a moment of conversion, changing his life and path forever. It was from that moment on, that St. Ignatius of Loyola no longer sought worldly glory and ambitions, and instead, he began a new path, seeking for the conversion of hearts and souls. This eventually led to the establishment of the Society of Jesus, as St. Ignatius of Loyola gathered together others who were also passionate about the salvation of souls as he had been.
That was how St. Ignatius of Loyola spearheaded the effort of the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits in taking part in the Counter-Reformation efforts, at a time of great upheaval for the Church, when the Church and the whole Christendom was under great threat from external threats and from within, as at that time, the Church was wrecked and divided by the then raging Protestant reformation and other divisions, while the rising forces of the Ottoman Turks were rampaging across Christendom, conquering many countries where Christians were living in, and at times even threatened the heart of Christendom in Rome and Central Europe. The Jesuits were at the forefront of the efforts of the Church in combatting the heresies and also reaching to the many people who had not believed in the Lord, as they were also sent out to many missions around the world to spread the Good News.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, inspired by the life and examples of St. Ignatius of Loyola and his fellow Jesuits in doing the will of God and in proclaiming the Good News and truth of God, and reminded of the fact that each and every one of us are the Holy Temples of God’s Holy Presence, let us all therefore seek to live our lives worthily in the manner that the Lord Himself has shown and taught us. Let us all continue to strive and persevere in our faith, doing our best to glorify Him by our faithful and worthy lives. May He continue to bless us all in our every good endeavours and efforts, and may He continue to strengthen us in our journey of faith, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 13 : 47-53
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a big fishing net, let down into the sea, in which every kind of fish has been caught. When the net is full, it is dragged ashore. Then they sit down and gather the good fish into buckets, but throw the bad away. That is how it will be at the end of time; the Angels will go out to separate the wicked from the just, and to throw the wicked into the blazing furnace, where they will weep and gnash their teeth.”
Jesus asked, “Have you understood all these things?” “Yes,” they answered. So He said to them, “Therefore, every teacher of the Law who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven, is like a householder, who can produce from his store things both new and old.”
When Jesus had finished these parables, He left that place.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 83 : 3, 4, 5-6a and 8a, 11
My soul yearns; pines, for the courts of YHVH. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young, at Your altars, o YHVH of hosts, my King and my God!
Happy are those who live in Your house, continually singing Your praise! Happy, the pilgrims whom You strengthen, they go from strength to strength.
One day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be left at the threshold in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.
Liturgical Colour : White
Exodus 40 : 16-21, 34-38
Moses did this; he did exactly as YHVH had commanded him. The Holy Tent was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year. Moses set up the Holy Tent. He fixed the bases for it, put up its frames, put its crossbars in position, set up its posts. He spread the tent over the Holy Tent and on top of this the covering for the Tent, as YHVH had commanded Moses.
He took the Covenant and placed it inside the Ark. He set the poles to the Ark in place and put the mercy seat on it. He brought the Ark into the Holy Tent and put the screening veil in place; thus he screened the Ark of YHVH, as YHVH had commanded Moses.
Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting and the Glory of YHVH filled the Holy Tent. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because of the Glory of YHVH that filled the Holy Tent. At every stage of their journey, whenever the cloud rose from the Holy Tent, the people of Israel would continue their march. If the cloud did not rise, they waited and would not move their camp until it did.
For the cloud rested on the Holy Tent by day, and a fire shone within the cloud by night for all the house of Israel to see. And so it was for every stage of their journey.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all reminded of God’s love and providence, His kindness and compassion for all those who are dear and beloved to Him. God has always remembered us all in our good and bad times, and we are never forgotten or abandoned even when we cannot feel or see His Presence and works immediately. God is always with us regardless of the circumstances because He truly cares for us, and He has shown us His wonders and love again and again throughout history, in what He had done to His first-called people, the Israelites when they suffered in Egypt, and also in giving us all the best and most perfect gift of all, His own Begotten Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
In our first reading today, we heard the continuation of the account from the Book of Exodus in which the moment when Moses was born was told to us. Moses was the one whom God had promised to His people to be the one to lead them all out of their slavery in the land of Egypt. At that time, the new generation of Pharaohs had arisen in Egypt that did not know about the great deeds of Joseph and his exploits, and feared the rapidly growing numbers and prosperity of the Israelites who were dwelling in the region of Goshen somewhere in the Nile River delta region. Therefore as we heard yesterday, the Pharaoh decreed first the enslavement of the Israelites, forced to do hard labour for the Egyptians, and then, in a more desperate effort, the order to throw all the sons born to the Israelites into the Nile River to try to destroy them as a nation.
But God was with His people and despite all these challenges that they faced, they kept on growing in numbers and in one of the babies which had been saved from the water by God’s interventions, it was Moses who was named as such because he had been taken out and rescued from the water by his adoptive mother, the Pharaoh’s daughter. According to tradition, the Pharaoh’s daughter was childless and hence, she took upon herself the Hebrew baby that she found floating on the Nile as her own adopted son, and that was how Moses grew up in the court of Pharaoh as an Egyptian prince. But then we heard how Moses grew up seeing the injustice faced by his people, the Israelites, who were persecuted and oppressed by the Egyptians, and he fled from Egypt after killing one of the Egyptian slavemasters that struck upon a Hebrew, one of his own people.
But God would be with Moses, who fled to the land of the Midianites, and after many years later, he would be called by God and would return back to Egypt with God’s mission and words to the Pharaoh, beginning the fulfilment of His promises to them and their ancestors, where by His power and might, God would rescue all of them, with the Ten Great Plagues that He sent unto Egypt, the Egyptians and their Pharaoh. All of these show us the great might of God and the enduring love and patience which God has always had for those who are dearly beloved to Him. And this is an important reminder for all of us not to take this same love which He has shown all of us for granted. We should always be grateful of God’s love and Providence, everything that He had done for our sake.
Then, in our Gospel passage, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the Lord Jesus and His lamentations on the cities in the region of Galilee such as Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida. Why did the Lord make such denunciations and lamentations? That is because of the lack of faith which many of the people in those places had shown despite having witnessed and seen all the miracles and wonders that the Lord had performed before them all. Some among them, especially from among the Pharisees, doubted and criticised the Lord for His actions and teachings, questioning His authority and authenticity, and even accusing Him of colluding with evil spirits and demons in doing His works.
It is all these lack of faith and trust in the Lord, in all that God had done through His Son, sent into our midst, into this world to bring all of us into His loving embrace and salvation which had led to the lamentations and anguish that the Lord had spoken against those places. This was compared to the faith of those whom the people of God then often deemed to be sinners and unworthy, like those of the Syro-Phoenicians, those living in the region of Tyre and Sidon that the Lord mentioned, as a Syro-Phoenician woman had such great faith in the Lord that she believed in Him so wholeheartedly even against His harsh words towards her. And the Samaritans whom the Jewish people often regarded as heretics and pagans, proved to be more welcoming to the Lord and His words and teachings.
All these showed us that we must not be prejudiced against anyone, and we must realise that God truly loves each one of us, all of us mankind without limits and boundaries. He loves each one of us unconditionally and He has always patiently done so, even when we ourselves had not been faithful to Him, and even when we have taken His love and kindness for granted. Each and every one of us should strive to do what is right and just, in loving, following and obeying the Lord to the best of our abilities, in each and every moments in life so that by our love for Him and in loving one another in the same manner, we may truly be worthy to be called as Christians, as those whom God had called and chosen as His own holy and beloved people.
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Bonaventure, a renowned Franciscan bishop and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church who was remembered for his great many works and writings that eventually also earned him the honour of being one of the Doctors of the Church. St. Bonaventure was born in Italy during the High Middle Ages and while nothing much was known about his childhood and younger years, he eventually joined the Franciscans, and at the same time gaining great experiences and respect as an academic, earning his doctorate in theology which inspired him further in his many writings and works later on. St. Bonaventure was then also elected as the Minister General of the Franciscan Order, the overall head and authority over all the Franciscans.
He was also involved deeply in the works of reform of the Church at that time, before and after he helped the election of Pope Gregory X, who then appointed him as a Cardinal, as the Cardinal Bishop of Albano for his role in his election. St. Bonaventure continued to do great works in his various capacities, and it was well-known that he led the Franciscans in a moderate way, balancing faith and reason, making them very popular and outstanding in the Church. While he passed away not long after his appointment as Cardinal, St. Bonaventure’s legacy and inspiring works in various areas, especially in many matters of the faith and theology continued to touch the lives of many people even long after his lifetime.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore reflect upon the words of the Scriptures that we have received today, remembering the love that He has always shown us, and through the inspiration and examples of St. Bonaventure, who has dedicated his life in the service of God and his fellow brothers and sisters. May the Lord help us all to be ever more faithful and committed to Him, to follow Him ever more wholeheartedly in each and every moments, becoming good role models and examples in faith to one another, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 11 : 20-24
At that time, Jesus began to denounce the cities in which He had performed most of His miracles, because the people there did not change their ways.
“Alas for you Chorazin and Bethsaida! If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I assure you, for Tyre and Sidon; it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.”
“And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? You will be thrown down to the place of the dead! For if the miracles which were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would still be there today! But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 68 : 3, 14, 30-31, 33-34
I am sunk in the miry depths, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, swept and engulfed by the flood.
But I pray to You, o YHVH. At a time most favourable to You, in Your great love, o God, answer me, with Your unfailing help.
But I myself, am humbled and wounded; Your salvation, o God, will lift me up. I will praise the Name of God in song; I will glorify Him with thanksgiving.
Let the lowly witness this, and be glad. You who seek God, may your hearts be revived. For YHVH hears the needy; and does not despise those in captivity.
Liturgical Colour : White
Exodus 2 : 1-15a
Now a man belonging to the clan of Levi married a woman of his own tribe. She gave birth to a boy and, seeing that he was a beautiful child, she kept him hidden for three months. As she could not conceal him any longer, she made a basket out of papyrus leaves and coated it with tar and pitch. She then laid the child in the basket and placed it among the reeds near the bank of the Nile; but the sister of the child kept at a distance to see what would happen to him.
Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile; her attendants meanwhile walked along the bank. When she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to fetch it. She opened the basket and saw the child – a boy, and he was crying! She felt sorry for him, for she thought : “This is one of the Hebrew children.”
Then the sister of the child said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter agreed, and the girl went to call the mother of the child. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take the child and nurse him for me and I will pay you.”
So the woman took the child and nursed him and, when the child had grown, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter who adopted him as her son. And she named him Moses to recall that she had drawn him out of the water. After a fairly long time, Moses, by now a grown man, wanted to meet his fellow Hebrews. He noticed how heavily they were burdened and he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own people.
He looked around and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day he saw two Hebrews quarrelling. Moses said to the man in the wrong, “Why are you striking a fellow countryman?” But he answered, “Who has set you prince and judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”
Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must be known.” When Pharaoh heard about it he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 