Holy Scriptures

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Tuesday, 25 February 2014 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 9 : 30-37

After leaving that place, they made their way through Galilee; but Jesus did not want people to know where He was because He was teaching His disciples. And He told them, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, but three days after He has been killed, He will rise.”

The disciples, however, did not understand these words and they were afraid to ask Him what He meant. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, Jesus asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they did not answer, because they had been arguing about who was the greatest.

Then He sat down, called the Twelve and said to them, “If someone wants to be first, let him be last of all and servant of all.” Then He took a little child, placed him in their midst, and putting His arms around him He said to them, “Whoever welcomes a child such as this in My Name, welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me, welcomes not Me but the One who sent Me.”

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Tuesday, 25 February 2014 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 54 : 7-8, 9-10a, 10b-11a, 23

If I had wings like a dove, I would fly away and be at rest; I would seek a home in the desert.

I would hurry to find a cave for shelter from the tempest. O Lord, shatter their plans.

In the city I see strife and violence; day and night they prowl about its walls.

Place your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you, for He never allows the upright to fall.

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Tuesday, 25 February 2014 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

James 4 : 1-10

What causes these fights and quarrels among you? Is it not your cravings that make war within your own selves? When you long for something you cannot have, you kill for it and when you do not get what you desire, you squabble and fight. The fact is, you do not have what you want because you do not pray for it.

You pray for something and you do not get it because you pray with the wrong motive of indulging your pleasures. You adulterers! Do you not know that making friends with the world makes you enemies of God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.

Can you not see the point of the saying in Scripture : “The longing of the Spirit He sent to dwell in us is a jealous longing?” But God has something better to give, and Scripture also says, ‘God opposes the proud but He gives His favour to the humble.’ Give in, then, to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw close to God and He will come close to you.”

“Clean your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubters. Recognise your distress, be miserable and weep. Turn your laughter into tears and your joy into sadness. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will raise you up.”

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Monday, 24 February 2014 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ! Today we are taught how to be good disciples of the Lord. We are told what are the characteristics that make us children and servants of the Lord. We have to be humble and open to suggestions, listening to others’ opinions, and most importantly, to pray and pray seriously, and pray deeply with our hearts.

We have to get rid from ourselves all of our negative influences and emotions, ridding of ourselves from pride, arrogance, hatred, jealousy and many other things that prevent us from truly becoming good and holy servants of the Lord. We have to detach ourselves from many things of this world, and instead put ourselves ever closer to the Lord our God.

Our faith in God must be a living one, and must be an active one, which St. James, whose letter is in our first reading today, often emphasised in his writings. This faith must be based on genuine love we have for God and for His people, that is our fellow brothers and sisters, our fellow mankind.

One way for us to be faithful to God is as often emphasised by St. James himself, is to love, that means to love one another, and to show it in all of our actions. However, we also need to pray, that is to devote ourselves to God in a deep conversation, from our heart to the heart of God. This is in essence what a prayer should be, and indeed prayers must not become a litany of demands and desires, but instead, prayers must be a genuine channel through which we communicate with God.

Through prayer, we strengthen ourselves, in terms of our spiritual defense and grace from God. We receive much grace and power through prayer, because it is through prayer that God gets into contact with us individually, and it also strengthen the anchor of faith that we have in God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all reflect on the readings and their meaning to us today, let us take a look at our own lives, whether we have truly been committed to the Lord through prayer and action. We cannot separate one from the other, just as St. James had told us, that faith cannot be separated from action, and neither can good actions be truly separated from faith in God.

Have we been faithful to God and spend our precious time with Him? Have we been faithful and walk always in the ways of the Lord, showing it through concrete actions? If we have done these, then our faith is genuine and alive, and we are on the right track. Otherwise, change, brothers and sisters! Change and abandon all the wickedness of your past and go seek the Lord with all the strength that you have.

It may be a daunting task for us to do so, but if we do not begin even from simple and little things, we will never get things done. It has to begin now, and it can begin even by us spending small amount of time every day, especially before we are about to go to sleep, to quieten ourselves down, and to open our hearts to God. Forget about all the things that bother us in this world, and forget about all the business and the dealings that we have in our daily lives, just for a moment, and offer that time wholly to God.

If we do so, then we are on the right track. Have faith in the Lord, my brothers and sisters in Christ, open our hearts to Him and communicate intimately with Him, so that we may know what He wants from us, that we will be able to translate it into concrete actions, filled with love, both for God and for our fellow mankind. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 24 February 2014 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 9 : 14-29

When they came to the place where they had left the disciples, they saw many people around them and some teachers of the Law arguing with them. When the people saw Jesus, they were astonished and ran to greet Him.

He asked, “What are you arguing about with them?” A man answered Him from the crowd, “Master, I brought my son to You, for He has a spirit, deaf and mute. Whenever the spirit seizes him, it throws him down and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and becomes stiff all over. I asked Your disciples to drive the spirit out, but they could not.”

Jesus replied, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to Me.” And they brought the boy to Him. As soon as the spirit saw Jesus, it shook and convulsed the boy, who fell on the ground and began rolling about, foaming at the mouth.

Then Jesus asked the father, “How long has this been happening to him?” He replied, “From childhood. And it has often thrown him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. If You can do anything, have pity on us and help us.”

Jesus said to him, “Why do you say, ‘If You can?’ All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe, but help the little faith I have.” Jesus saw that the crowd was increasing rapidly, so He ordered the evil spirit, “Dumb and deaf spirit, I command you : Leave the boy and never enter him again.”

The evil spirit shook and convulsed the boy and with a terrible shriek came out. The boy lay like a corpse and people said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him and the boy stood up.

After Jesus had gone indoors, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not drive out the spirit?” And He answered, “Only prayer can drive out this kind, nothing else.”

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Monday, 24 February 2014 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 18 : 8, 9, 10, 15

The law of the Lord is perfect : it gives life to the soul. The word of the Lord is trustworthy : it gives wisdom to the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right : they give joy to the heart. The commandments of the Lord are clear : they enlighten the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, it endures forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, all of them just and right.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart find favour in Your sight, o Lord – my Redeemer, my Rock!

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Monday, 24 February 2014 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

James 3 : 13-18

If you consider yourself wise and learnt, show it by your good life and let your actions, in all humility, be an example for others. But if your heart is full of bitter jealousy and ambition, do not try to show off; that would be covering up the truth; this kind of wisdom does not come from above but from the world and it is earthly and devilish.

Wherever there is jealousy and ambition, you will also find discord and all that is evil. Instead, the wisdom that comes from above is pure and peace-loving. Persons with this wisdom show understanding and listen to advice; they are full of compassion and good works; they are impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow peace reap a harvest of justice.

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Saturday, 22 February 2014 : Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate a very important feast in our Church and in our faith, that is the feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle. Some of you may ask, why do we celebrate the feast for a chair? What is its importance? That is because the Chair mentioned here is the Cathedra of St. Peter, the Cathedra Sancta Petri, the seat of St. Peter which is today at Rome, at the heart of Christendom.

The Cathedra symbolises the seat of the bishop, and therefore represents the teaching authority of the bishop in teaching the faith. This also applies therefore to St. Peter, who was the very first Bishop of Rome, and the Vicar of Christ, leader of all the Universal Church, the one whom Jesus had entrusted to lead and guide His beloved people, the faithful ones in the Church.

Therefore today, we commemorate the faith of Peter, the teaching authority and the very authority that had been granted to Peter by the Lord Himself. Peter had been set aside by the Lord to be the universal shepherd, the one and only leader of all His faithful, because of his frank and sincere profession of faith, which he made and which we witnessed in today’s Gospel.

Peter showed his faith by proclaiming without fear that Jesus is truly the Lord, the One whom God had sent into this world to save it. Peter is the rock upon which God had established His Church, to be the strong foundation for that Church, and as a focal point for all of His faithful, a point of reference and unity. That is why, our Pope, as his successor, is the leader of the entire Universal Church.

Peter was not perfect, and he had his flaws just as all of us do. He had wavered in his faith many times, and as you all knew, that he even denied knowing his Lord, not once but three times. And yet he was still chosen, and the Lord forgave him after His resurrection, asking him three times to show his love for Him, and in doing that forgave him and gave him a new task in life.

And Peter, being appointed to such an elevated position, did not take pride in it, but instead remained humble and serve the Lord with zeal and humility. Peter gave himself completely to the service of God, until the end, when he gave up his life in martyrdom in Rome. He worked hard for the spread of the Good News and for the good of the people of God.

When he was persecuted and about to die, when the Roman Emperor Nero pressed hard on Christians, Peter accepted the death gracefully and with great humility. He remained faithful to the end, and showing his faith, love and devotion to the Lord, when he was about to be crucified, he asked not to be crucified in the same way as Jesus and thus was crucified upside down.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in this humble little man, Simon Peter the fisherman of Galilee, God had found a great servant and a holy person. He was called by Jesus to follow Him, and without question, he went to follow Jesus. Despite all the tribulations, temptations and downfalls that he had experienced, Peter persevered, and became the beacon of light for all the faithful.

As is often mentioned in the Scriptures, it is not man who decide to be worthy of. God, but it is in fact God who made mankind worthy and chose them to be His instruments for the salvation of mankind. Such was why the Apostles, in particular Peter were chosen. In them, who were lowly and humble men, God found the love and dedication which others did not or did not yet have.

Today, we celebrate this feast of the Chair of St. Peter to commemorate that glorification of the humble man, taken from Galilee to be the chief servant of the Lord, and became the foundation upon which the Church we know of today was built on. This small man God had made to be His right hand man, and to be the chief of the shepherds of His people, to fish them from all over the world, and bring them to Him.

Such was indeed the very heavy responsibility that Christ had entrusted to Peter, to be the cornerstone and the foundation of the Church that He had established in is world. And that responsibility is passed on through his successors down to his current successor, currently our Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ, and leader of the entire Universal Church.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today therefore pray for the Pope and all those who support him in his works, that he may persevere in the mission which the Lord had given him, that is to continue the works of St. Peter the Apostle. Just as St. Peter had been told to be a fisher of man, our Pope as his successor too is a fisher of man, still continuing the same mission Christ entrusted to Peter as the mission of His Church.

Yes, and we also have part to play in that mission, brethren, to be the fishers of men as well. It is also our mission to be the ones to spread the Good News to all parts of the world, especially to those who have yet to see the light of God. Let us keep alive our faith in God, and let us obey the teachings of the Church, which Peter and his successors has kept throughout time.

Today we commemorate the authority of Peter as the leader of the faithful, and it also serves as a reminder to keep us faithful to the Lord as Peter had been. It is alright for us to falter at times, because just like Peter, we are all also human beings, we are imperfect and we sin, we make mistakes. What is crucial is, can we turn that imperfection to perfection in Christ? Can we devote ourselves fully to God and change our ways as Peter had done?

May our Lord Jesus Christ see our love and devotion, and bless us as He had blessed Peter His Apostle. May our faith too grow strong with a strong foundation, that we will never go astray from the path of the Lord, and remain faithful to Him all our lives, and may return to Him if we have fallen away from His path. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 22 February 2014 : Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 16 : 13-19

After that, Jesus came to Caesarea Philippi. He asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They said, “For some of them You are John the Baptist, for others Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”

Jesus asked them, “But you, who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “It is well for you, Simon Bar-jona (son of Jonah), for it is not flesh or blood that has revealed this to you, but My Father in heaven.”

“And now I say to you : You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church; and never will the powers of death overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven : whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you unbind on earth shall be unbound in heaven.”

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Saturday, 22 February 2014 : Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 22 : 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul.

He guides me through the right paths for His Name’s sake. Although I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are beside me : Your rod and Your staff comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of my foes. You anoint my head with oil; my cup is overflowing.

Goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.