Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 10 : 4, 5 and 7
The Lord is in His holy place – our God Whose throne is in heaven. He looks down to earth to observe the race of Adam.
The Lord searches both righteous and wicked. He hates those who delight in violence, for the Lord is righteous; He loves justice. The upright will see His face.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 28 : 16-20, 30-31
Upon our arrival in Rome, the captain turned the prisoners over to the military governor but permitted Paul to lodge in a private house with the soldier who guarded him. After three days, Paul called together the leaders of the Jews.
When they had gathered, he said to them : “Brothers, though I have not done anything against our people or against the traditions of our fathers, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. They examined me and wanted to set me free, for they saw nothing in my case that deserved death.”
“But the Jews objected, so I was forced to appeal to Caesar without the least intention of bringing any case against my own people. Therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I bear these chains.”
Paul stayed for two whole years in a house he himself rented, where he received without any hindrance all those who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught the truth about Jesus Christ, the Lord, quite openly and without any hindrance.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord in the Scriptures, all of us are reminded that each one of us have been called by the Lord to follow Him and to do His will, to wherever that He will lead us to, just as He had done with the Apostles, the many saints and martyrs of the Church, our holy predecessors. Each and every one of us as Christians are expected to live our lives worthily of the Lord and to continue carrying out our activities in accordance with God’s will, doing whatever we can to serve Him and glorify Him at every possible opportunities. We should heed the Lord’s call and love Him as much as we should, just as how He Himself has loved us so much first, that He gave Himself for us that through His loving sacrifice for us, we may all be saved.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles regarding a conversation between Festus, the Governor and Procurator of Judea with King Agrippa, the Herodian ruler of the region, about St. Paul the Apostle, his works and ministry and how the Jewish authorities, members of the Sanhedrin had been accusing him of wrongdoing, and how St. Paul appealed to the Emperor for his case. Through what we have heard here, we are reminded of how God moved things and spared St. Paul from the hands of his enemies in Jerusalem, who no doubt would have wanted him destroyed. Instead, as the Lord Himself had told St. Paul earlier on, that He was sending him to Rome, to the last stop of his long missionary works, where he would evangelise and proclaim the Good News of God at the very heart and centre of the Roman Empire itself.
St. Paul could have chosen to stay away from trouble and from all the hardships facing him, just as the past few weekdays’ Scripture passages from the Acts of the Apostles could show us. St. Paul willingly embraced God’s calling and mission, embarking on this last missionary journey through Jerusalem, and then on to Rome, in which St. Paul would go on to do more great works at evangelisation, stopping by the island of Malta along the way where he laid the foundation of the faith there, and many more. Through the hard work of St. Paul and other early Christian missionaries, the Church grew rapidly amidst the many challenges and hardships that it had to face, persecutions and oppressions that many among the Christian faithful had to endure. Their faith remained strong and firm as the Lord guided and strengthened them, and empowered them through the Holy Spirit.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the calling of St. Peter the Apostle, and the mission which God entrusted to him as He reaffirmed him as the leader and shepherd of His entire flock, the Church. That happened at the shores of the Lake of Galilee, where after the Lord’s Resurrection, He went and met with His disciples just as He has promised them. And in this private moment mentioned in the Gospel passage today, the Lord asked St. Peter, not once but three times, ‘Peter, do you love Me?’, which St. Peter replied fervently and lovingly with, ‘Lord, You know that I love You.’ And the Lord told St. Peter to take care of His sheep, the flock of His beloved people, to feed them and to take good care of them, as a reminder of the mission which He had entrusted to him earlier as His Vicar, as the leader of the whole entire Church.
And why the Lord asked St. Peter three times? It is symbolic as a response to what St. Peter had done earlier on at the beginning of the Lord’s Passion, where as we all know that St. Peter denied knowing the Lord and denied Him a total of not just once but three times. St. Peter was likely driven by fear, the fear for suffering and for being persecuted and hence, in his moment of folly, he abandoned and denied the Lord back then. But the Lord, through this threefold questioning of St. Peter was showing that He loved him, forgave him from his past mistakes and lack of faith, and entrusted to him anew what He has entrusted to him, the guardianship and leadership over His whole entire Church. St. Peter was also told of the kind of suffering and martyrdom that he would have to endure for the sake of the Lord, and to the very end, St. Peter would remain firmly faithful to his calling and mission.
Today all of us are reminded that as Christians all of us are called from the world, from among the ordinary people to become extraordinary in the Lord. Often we are reluctant to follow the Lord or to do as He has commanded us to do because we thought that we are incapable of doing all the things like our predecessors had done. But as we all have seen and discussed, the Lord’s own disciples are those who have come from ordinary background, and were people who were imperfect and even weak in their faith at first. St. Paul himself was a great persecutor and enemy of the earliest Christians, and had a part in the sufferings and martyrdom of many among the faithful. St. Peter as we knew, abandoned and denied the Lord three times. Yet, all of them had a change of heart and mind, and committed themselves thoroughly to the Lord for the rest of their lives.
Today the Church also mark the feast of one great saint whose life and works may be great source of inspiration to all of us as we carry on living our lives as Christians in our world today. St. Philip Neri was known as a great priest and servant of God, known as the ‘Second Apostle of Rome’ after St. Peter himself, for all the efforts he has done for the glorification of God and for the spreading of the Good News of the Lord and His salvation. He founded the Congregation of the Oratory, which still remained busy and active to this very day, and he contributed a lot in his mission to reach out to the least fortunate and to many of those who have fallen into sinful ways in the community back then. He ministered to prostitutes and those who were often shunned by others, and many were inspired to follow his examples, and not few became followers of the Lord because of his efforts. He established a growing community of believers both within and beyond his Oratory Congregation, and brought many closer to God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all thus be inspired to follow the Lord ever more faithfully following in the footsteps of St. Philip Neri and the other Apostles like St. Peter and St. Paul, as well as many other among our holy predecessors, whose examples in faith and way of life should inspire each one of us to carry out our lives most worthily as Christians, that is as the disciples of the Lord. Let us all seek the Lord ever more faithfully and show greater commitment to Him, and entrust ourselves to Him and to His providence from now on, that we may always be worthy in our way of life and actions, and be inspiration for many others who desire to follow the Lord as well. May the Risen Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen us in our faith and commitment. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 21 : 15-19
At that time, after Jesus and His disciples had finished breakfast, He said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” And Jesus said, “Feed My lambs.”
A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” And Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Look after My sheep.” And a third time He said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
Peter was saddened because Jesus asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” and he said, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You.” Jesus then said, “Feed My sheep! Truly, I say to you, when you were young, you put on your belt and walked where you liked. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will put a belt around you, and lead you where you do not wish to go.”
Jesus said this to make known the kind of death by which Peter was to glorify God. And He added, “Follow Me.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 102 : 1-2, 11-12, 19-20ab
Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless His holy Name! Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.
As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove from us our sins.
The Lord has set His throne in heaven; He rules, He has power everywhere. Praise the Lord, all you His Angels.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 25 : 13b-21
As King Agrippa and his sister Berenice were to stay in Caesarea several days, Festus told him about Paul’s case and said to him, “We have here a man whom Felix left as a prisoner. When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews accused him and asked me to sentence him.”
“I told them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over a man without giving him an opportunity to defend himself in front of his accusers. So they came and I took my seat without delay on the tribunal and sent for the man. When the accusers had the floor, they did not accuse him of any of the crimes that I was led to think he had committed; instead they quarrelled with him about religion and about a certain Jesus Who has died but whom Paul asserted to be alive.”
“I did not know what to do about this case, so I asked Paul if he wanted to go to Jerusalem to be tried there. But Paul appealed to be judged by the Emperor. So I ordered that he be kept in custody until I send him to Caesar.”
Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, each and every one of us are called to follow wholeheartedly the commandments of the Lord, to take it to heart and to believe in God most sincerely in all things. We should not forget this call and duty that each and every one of us as Christians have in living our daily lives with commitment and devotion to God. All of us have the calling and the mission entrusted to us to proclaim the truth and Good News of God to all the people all around us. We should do whatever the Lord has told us to do, and live our lives the way that He has taught us, so that by our examples and way of life, we may inspire others all around us to become more committed to the Lord, and to believe in Him as well.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles, of the conclusion of the First Council of Jerusalem, the very first Council of the Church assembled to discuss and discern the decision regarding how the Christian faithful, the people of God ought to carry out their lives, as there was then the controversy and division among the Christian faithful whether the Christian faithful ought to follow the full range of the extensive and often oppressive Jewish laws and customs espoused and championed by those who belonged to the group of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, and who embraced the Lord as their Saviour. To those people, the faithful had to embrace the fullness of the Jewish customs and laws, with all of their strict regulations and practices, in order for one to be saved and worthy of God.
However, the Apostles and the elders of the Church decided, after a period of gathering and discernment, guided by the Holy Spirit, that what is important is obeying the Law of God in its true spirit and understanding, and focusing on the key aspects of the Law of God just as the Lord Jesus Himself has revealed it, and not requiring the faithful people of God to subject themselves to the numerous tenets and often difficult to enforce rules and laws, which had in fact made it difficult for many of God’s people to come to Him, as those laws hindered them and prevented them from coming closer to God. Not only that, but as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law also often used those same rules and laws to discriminate against those whom they deemed to be less worthy and condemned as sinners, it became stumbling block for the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law themselves, who became enamoured with worldly glory, pride and ambition, and were blinded by their fanatical ideals and pursuits of their agenda.
They spent more time worrying about how to satisfy the many different aspects and tenets of the various rites and practices rather than truly loving and honouring the Lord their God through the faithful and proper appreciation, understanding and application of those laws and commandments. They often spent so much time focusing on the minute details that they had made an idol out of their way of observing and practicing the Law, zealously and even fanatically guarding their way of observing and practicing the Law, and not willing to listen to others who told them otherwise, even the Lord Himself Who had rebuked them and criticised them for their pettiness and their excessive emphasis on the ‘letter’ of the Law while forgetting the ‘spirit’ of the Law. The Lord reminded all of us, just as He had said to His disciples in our Gospel passage today, that each and every one of us should truly commit ourselves to His commandments of Love, that is to love God our most loving Father and Creator above all else, and then to love one another in the same way.
Unless we have the right focus and motivation, it will likely be easy for us to be distracted and pulled down the wrong path, as like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law themselves have shown us, that we may be externally pious, holy and devout, and yet inside us, within our hearts and minds, it is possible for us not to have space for the Lord at all. Therefore in that case and regard, our faith is no more than an empty and dead faith, one that will not benefit us in our path towards the eternal life in God and in His salvation. Each and every one of us are called to be truly faithful to the Lord, to be filled with generous love like that which our Lord Himself has shown us at every moments. All of us are called to do what He has taught us, to be compassionate and kind towards our fellow brothers and sisters, and to resist the temptations of evil, of pride, greed and worldly attachments.
Today, all of us also can look upon the good examples and inspirations from three among our faithful predecessors, the saints and martyrs, namely, St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, and also St. Pancras. Each and every one of them had lived their lives most courageously with faith, and had endured the hardships and trials, the challenges and obstacles they had to go through amidst their journey of faith. All of them had devoted themselves to the Lord to the very end, as they faced death and martyrdom with courage and joy. To start with, St. Nereus and St. Achilleus were according to some traditions, eunuchs and chamberlains of the niece of the Roman Emperor Domitian, named Flavilla Domitilla, and they lived through the time of a great persecution of the Church and Christians, as the Emperor Domitian was historically known for his intense persecution of Christians, and attempts to eradicate the Church. According to tradition, they faced martyrdom with courage and faith, and did not give up their faith despite the trials that faced them.
Meanwhile, St. Pancras was a young Roman citizen who was also known as St. Pancratius, who lived through another period of great persecution of the Church and the faithful people of God, by the Roman Emperor Diocletian and the Roman state, which was known for the last great official persecution of Christianity, during which many of the faithful were arrested, suffered greatly and many were martyred for their faith in God. St. Pancras himself was a young man who converted to the Christian faith, and was brought before the authorities for being a Christian. He was forced to offer sacrifices to the pagan gods, but refused with firmness and zeal, and his determination to resist moved even the Emperor himself who tried to sway the young St. Pancras with wealth and power without avail. St. Pancras therefore faced martyrdom, in defending his faith in God to the very end.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by the examples of the holy saints, St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, and St. Pancras, in how they have lived their lives with faith and how they have dedicated themselves to the Lord. Let us all be truly faithful towards the Lord and place Him right at the centre of our lives and existence, and strive to do our best to glorify Him by our lives and by our every good works. May the Lord be with us all and may He continue to guide and strengthen us all in our journey of faith, now and always, forevermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
John 15 : 12-17
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “This is My commandment : Love one another as I have loved you! There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for one’s friends; and you are My friends, if you do what I command you.”
“I shall not call You servants any more, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learnt from My Father.”
“You did not choose Me; it was I Who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And everything you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you. This is My command, that you love one another.”
Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
Psalm 56 : 8-9, 10-12
My heart is steadfast, o God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make music. Awake, my soul, awake, o harp and lyre! I will wake the dawn.
I will give thanks to You, o Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praise to You among the nations. For Your love reaches to the heavens, and Your faithfulness, to the clouds.
Be exalted, o God, above the heavens! Let Your Glory be over all the earth!
Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)
Acts 15 : 22-31
Then the Apostles and elders together with the whole Church decided to choose representatives from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. These were Judas, known as Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers. They took with them the following letter :
“Greetings from the Apostles and elders, your brothers, to the believers of non-Jewish birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We have heard that some persons from among us have worried you with their discussions and troubled your peace of mind. They were not appointed by us.”
“But now, it has seemed right to us in an assembly, to choose representatives and to send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have dedicated their lives to the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. We send you then Judas and Silas who themselves will give you these instructions by word of mouth.”
“We, with the Holy Spirit, have decided not to put any other burden on you except what is necessary : You are to abstain from blood from the meat of strangled animals and from prohibited marriages. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
After saying goodbye, the messengers went to Antioch, where they assembled the community and handed them the letter. When they read the news, all were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.
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