Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 68 : 33-35, 36-37
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. Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and whatever moves in them.
For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. His people shall dwell in the land and possess it; the children of His servants shall inherit it, and those who love His Name will dwell in it.
Liturgical Colour : White
Baruch 4 : 5-12, 27-29
Take courage, my people, you who preserve the memory of Israel. You have been sold to the nations but not for your destruction; because you had aroused the anger of God, you were delivered to your enemies. For you displeased your Creator in sacrificing to demons and not to God. You have forgotten the Eternal God, the One Who nourished you.
You have filled Jerusalem with sadness, she who brought you up. For she saw the anger of God fall on you and she said, “Listen, you neighbouring cities of Zion, God has sent me a great sorrow. I have seen the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Eternal One brought on them. I had nurtured them in joy; with tears and sadness I saw them leave. Let no one rejoice on seeing me a widow and abandoned by all. Because of the sins of my children I am now alone, because they have turned away from the Law of God.”
Take courage, my children, cry out to God, for He Who sent you into exile will remember you. Thus, as you distanced yourself from God, return to Him and seek Him ten times more earnestly. For He Who caused these evils to fall on you will bring you salvation and eternal joy.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for us all to continue to put our trust and faith in the Lord. Each and every one of us should always continue to do our best to keep our faith in Him regardless what challenges, trials and obstacles we may be facing in our respective paths in life. We should not allow ourselves to be distracted and persuaded by fear and uncertainties around us, that may lead us down the path which lead us further away from the Lord, because we did not have enough faith and trust in Him and because we think that there are others which we can depend on. It is by staying with the Lord that we can truly receive true happiness and satisfaction in life.
In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Zechariah, we heard the heavenly vision that the prophet of God received seeing the vision of an Angel of God whom he encountered, as the Angel was about to measure the city of Jerusalem, the Holy City of God’s people. The prophet Zechariah himself was sent to the people of God who had returned to their homeland from their exile in Babylon, a few centuries before the coming of Christ. Zechariah ministered during the reign of the Great King of Persia, Darius the Great, at a time when the people of Israel and their descendants were already well settled in their recently reclaimed lands, and as they were building again the Temple of God that had been destroyed many years before.
The Lord reassured His people that He would always be with them, providing them and giving them whatever they needed. He would always guide and strengthen them, and He would bless them once again with His great grace and blessings, restoring joy and happiness to them because He truly cared about them and wanted them all to be truly happy and blessed in all things, and no longer be separated from Him. That is why God reassured them all through the prophet Zechariah that if they were to continue to walk in His path and to do His will, obeying His Law and commandments, then they will all be truly joyful, and will walk ever in God’s favour and strength, and they will no longer face and endure the humiliations that they had once experienced before.
Then, from our Gospel passage today, from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist, we heard of the ominous words from the Lord Jesus to His disciples, highlighting how He would soon be handed over to His enemies, betrayed, rejected and made to suffer the greatest and most terrible sufferings and challenges, all because the world itself refused to accept Him, with many of His enemies and detractors opposing Him because they were unable to accept the fact that they could be wrong or mistaken in their ways, deluding themselves with their pride, ego and arrogance that they knew it better than the Lord Himself. And yet, the Lord showed them all His patient love, the love which has been manifested perfectly in His own Person, the Incarnate Son of God made Man.
And in Christ our Lord, the Lord had made good of His many promises to His people, reminding them all that He has always been faithful to the Covenant that He had made with them, and also the promises that He would always love them and show His mercy and compassion on them. He came into our midst to show us all that His most generous love for us is always pure and genuine, patient and everlasting, and He has always loved us all through our uncertainties and lack of faith, our disobedience and our wayward living. He wants to restore us all to Himself, to be reunited with us and to bring us all together once again, His beloved and blessed flock, to be one and whole in Him, as a holy nation and as those God has gathered to be His own. He went through the worst sufferings through the Cross so that by His suffering and death, we may have eternal life.
Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul, a renowned French missionary and priest who was especially remembered for his great care and dedication to the poor in the society. It was his inspiration that inspired the foundation of the today’s Society of St. Vincent de Paul which lived and strived to carry on the legacy of this great saint’s actions in ministering to the poor and the needy, the neglected and the less fortunate in the community. St. Vincent de Paul was born to a family of peasant farmers in France a few centuries ago, and was eventually sent to the seminary to further his education where he was then ordained as a priest at the young age of nineteen. He furthered his studies and then encountered an event that changed his life forever.
He was abducted by Barbary pirates that were rampant at the time and was enslaved for about two years in the region of Tunisia, and passed on from master to master, before eventually encountering a former priest that had apostasised to gain his own freedom from slavery. Eventually, St. Vincent de Paul and his last master resolved to escape back to France and found a way to secretly leave the place where both of them had been enslaved. After St. Vincent de Paul returned to his homeland, he was committed to a renewed zeal and desire to help others who were less fortunate, those who were poor and oppressed, remembering his own misfortune and hardships in life, which nonetheless did not make him lose his faith in the Lord. He founded the Vincentians and other charitable organisations that eventually led him to be made the patron of all charities, after he was canonised.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, from what we have reflected from the words of the Sacred Scriptures and from the life and works of St. Vincent de Paul, let us all continue to do our best therefore to show our trust and faith in God, in doing our very best to glorify God by our lives. Let us always strive to be good role models and worthy examples of our Christian faith to everyone around us, to each and every one of those whom we encounter in our daily lives. May the Lord continue to bless us in all of our endeavours, in everything that we say and do so that we may always draw ever closer to Him and may He strengthen us all in our conviction to glorify Him by our lives, as always, and evermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 9 : 43b-45
At that time, while all were amazed at everything Jesus did, He said to His disciples, “Listen, and remember what I tell you now : The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men.” But the disciples did not understand this saying; something prevented them from grasping what He meant, and they were afraid to ask Him about it.
Liturgical Colour : White
Jeremiah 31 : 10, 11-12ab, 13
Hear the word of YHVH, o nations, proclaim it on distant coast lands : He Who scattered Israel will gather them and guard them as a shepherd guards his flock.
For YHVH has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of his conqueror. They shall come shouting for joy, while ascending Zion; they will come streaming to YHVH’s blessings.
Maidens will make merry and dance, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness, I will give them comfort and joy for sorrow.
Liturgical Colour : White
Zechariah 2 : 5-9, 14-15a
Raising my eyes again, I saw a man with a measuring line in his hand. I asked, “Where are you going?” He answered, “I am going to measure Jerusalem, to find its width and its length.”
As the Angel who spoke to me came forward, another Angel met him and said, “Run and tell this to that young man : ‘Jerusalem will remain unwalled because of its multitude of people and livestock.’ For this is the word of YHVH : I, Myself, will be around her like a wall of fire, and also within her, in glory.”
“Sing and rejoice, o daughter of Zion, for I am about to come, I shall dwell among you,” says YHVH. “On that day, many nations will join YHVH and be My people.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for all of us as Christians to believe wholeheartedly in the Lord and to live our lives in the manner that is truly worthy and obedient to God and His will. Each and every one of us are reminded that we have been called by the Lord to follow Him and His ways, just as how He has called His Twelve disciples and the other disciples, to live our lives in the manner that is truly worthy of Him, to be good role models and examples for one another in how we act and carry ourselves in our various communities in this world today, in our various respective responsibilities in life, in doing what we must in each and every moments, even in the smallest things that we do.
In our first reading, today we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in Colossae in Asia Minor regarding the need for the faithful to follow faithfully the true teachings of Christ in all of their actions, activities and all their interactions with one another. And because all of them have become the members of the One Church of God, with Christ as the Head of the Church, naturally all of them should follow and obey the commandments and the Law which the Lord had presented to them, doing what the Lord had told them to do through the Church and the Apostles, renewed and strengthened, and exhorted to keep from themselves all sorts of corruptions, evils and sins.
This reminder to the faithful in the city and region of Colossae was an important one because during that time, living amidst a world full of worldliness and wickedness, in the manner of how the pagans and all the other non-Christians were living in, it would have been easy for them to be tempted, swayed and coerced to go against the teachings and truths of the Lord, to return to their past, pagan way of life. It is more difficult for one to follow the path of the Lord rather than the path of worldliness, and this applies for all of us living in our world today too, as we are also faced with many distractions and temptations present all around us each day. And unless we ourselves put our efforts to live to the best of our abilities in being good role models and examples to everyone around us, and to stand up faithfully to our Christian mission and calling, then we cannot truly commit ourselves to the Lord.
Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according St. Luke the Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus chose His Twelve disciples, the ones whom He had chosen to be His closest collaborators and as the ones whom He would entrust His missions and His Church to, as the pillars of support for His Kingdom in this world. He called all of them from various sources and origins, from different backgrounds and having different characters, some educated and some uneducated, some rich and some poor, but all were called to the same purpose and misison to serve the Kingdom of God and the ministry to which Christ has called all the Apostles and the disciples to do, to commit themselves to what He gave to them.
Through His works and efforts, the Lord and His disciples continued to proclaim the Good News that God Himself had promised to His people, showing the signs, miracles and wonders, the healing by which He had delivered to many people who had come to Him, the casting out of evil spirits and other good works which He also delegated to His disciples through the authority that He had granted to them. Such works required a lot of efforts and commitmens, and to those whom the Lord had called and chosen, He had given them the authority as well as the responsibilities to fulfil and accomplish amidst the challenges and trials that they might have to face in their works and respective ministries.
To each and every one of us therefore, in our own various responsibilities and areas in life, God has entrusted to us many things and opportunities for us to make good use of as His missionaries and disciples, in how we live our lives faithfully according to the way that He has shown us. Each and every one of us, be it the members of the clergy or the laity, all of us are called to be active in the fulfilment of the missions entrusted to us, in our respective areas, to be good role models and examples for each other in faith, and to do our best to encourage one another in how we live our lives and in how we carry out our actions, so that by our efforts and good works, we will continue to strengthen everyone around us in faith and helping each other to find our way towards the Lord.
Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of a faithful servant of God, namely St. Peter Claver, who was a renowned Jesuit priest and missionary from Spain, working in his ministry amongst the slaves and African Americans in the New World, as well as among the natives in that region, where his extensive works and contributions across many decades apparently reached out no less than three hundred thousand people whom be personally baptised over all those years. He travelled to many places, personally ministering to the people he was working with, especially among the slaves and the African Americans as mentioned, often on foot, and he patiently worked and championed their cause amidst the rampant abuse and maltreatment of these people, who were often at the lowest strata of the society.
St. Peter Claver tirelessly worked hard amongst the poorest, the least, those ostracised, forgotten and often manipulated by the community. He championed their rights as fellow Christians, highlighting the equality of all mankind before God, even when at that time the community at the place where St. Peter Claver ministered in was very much stratified and were full of racist and prejudiced attitudes, especially against those whom St. Peter Claver had dedicated his life in serving. But St. Peter Claver kept on doing his best and championed the rights of the less privileged and the less fortunate, much as Christ Himself had done and taught His disciples, showing all of us how we ourselves should live our lives as the true followers and disciples of the Lord, by caring for the less fortunate in our midst and by truly embodying our faith in all of our actions.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by the good examples which we have heard and discussed regarding St. Peter Claver, so that we may live our own lives faithfully and courageously as active and devoted Christians, as good and faithful servants of God in all things, in how we interact with one another and in each and every things that we do, even in the smallest things that we do in life. We must not underestimate the impact of our actions, as good and faithful actions can bring so many others towards the Lord, and vice versa, that our scandalous and unfaithful actions can distance and prevent so many from reaching the Lord and His salvation, and on the Day of Judgment, we will have to account for all these before Him.
May the Lord, our most loving and compassionate God continue to strengthen us all in faith and help us to continue to walk ever more faithfully in His Presence at all times, being the worthy bearers of His Good News and truth in our community and societies today. May He bless our every efforts, good works and endeavours, so that we may always be encouraged in our journey of faith and life, in inspiring one another in faith, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Luke 6 : 12-19
At that time, Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God. When day came, He called His disciples to Him, and chose Twelve of them, whom He called ‘Apostles’ : Simon, whom He named Peter, and his brother Andrew; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alpheus and Simon called the Zealot; Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who would be the traitor.
Coming down the hill with them, Jesus stood in an open plain. Many of His disciples were there, and a large crowd of people, who had come from all parts of Judea and Jerusalem, and from the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon. They gathered to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. And the people troubled by unclean spirits were cured.
The entire crowd tried to touch Him, because of the power that went out from Him and healed them all.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Psalm 144 : 1-2, 8-9, 10-11
I will extol You, my God and King; I will praise Your Name forever. I will praise You, day after day; and exalt Your Name forever.
Compassionate and gracious is YHVH, slow to anger and abounding in love. YHVH is good to everyone; His mercy embraces all His creation.
All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o YHVH, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom; and speak of Your power.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Colossians 2 : 6-15
If you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, let Him be your doctrine. Be rooted and built up in Him; let faith be your principle, as you were taught, and your thanksgiving, overflowing.
See that no one deceives you with philosophy or any hollow discourse; these are merely human doctrines, not inspired by Christ, but by the wisdom of this world. For in Him, dwells the fullness of God, in bodily form. He is the Head of all cosmic power and authority, and, in Him, you have everything.
In Christ Jesus, you were given a circumcision, but not by human hands, which removed completely from you the carnal body : I refer to baptism. On receiving it, you were buried with Christ; and you also rose with Him, for having believed in the power of God, Who raised Him from the dead.
You were dead. You were in sin and uncircumcised at the same time. But God gave you life with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He cancelled the record of our debts, those regulations which accused us. He did away with all that, and nailed it to the cross. Victorious through the cross, He stripped the rulers and authorities of their power, humbled them before the eyes of the whole world, and dragged them behind Him, as prisoners.
