Holy Sunday Mass

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Sunday, 9 July 2017 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Matthew 11 : 25-30

At that time, Jesus said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I praise You; because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to simple people. Yes, Father, this was Your gracious will. Everything has been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest. For My yoke is easy; and My burden is light.”

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Sunday, 9 July 2017 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Romans 8 : 9, 11-13

Yet, your existence is not in the flesh, but in the spirit, because the Spirit of God is within you. If you did not have the Spirit of Christ, you would not belong to Him. And if the Spirit of Him, Who raised Jesus from the dead, is within you, He, Who raised Jesus Christ from among the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies. Yes, He will do it, through His Spirit, Who dwells within you.

Then, brothers, let us leave the flesh and no longer live according to it. If not, we will die. Rather, walking in the spirit, let us put to death the body’s deeds, so that we may live.

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Sunday, 9 July 2017 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 144 : 1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13cd-14

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.

YHVH is true to His promises and lets His mercy show in all He does. YHVH lifts up those who are falling and raises those who are beaten down.

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Sunday, 9 July 2017 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Zechariah 9 : 9-10

Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem! For your King is coming, just and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

No more chariots in Ephraim, no more horses in Jerusalem, for He will do away with them. The warrior’s bow shall be broken when He dictates peace to the nations. He will reign from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

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Sunday, 2 July 2017 : Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, all of us heard from the Sacred Scriptures an unmistakeable message with which the Church wants us to know just how much God loves us all His people, and how He, Who is ever faithful and ever loving, will bless us and reward us for the faith and dedication that we show to Him in our daily lives, in our actions, deeds and works.

In the first reading today, taken from the Second Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah, we heard how the prophet Elisha of Israel was well taken care of by the rich woman of the city of Shunem, who provided for him all that he needed, in all of his food and drink needs, in all of his lodging and supplies, providing him with the place to sleep and caring for all of his other needs.

The prophet Elisha noticed all that the woman and her husband had done for his sake, respecting his position as the prophet of God, and providing for all of his needs. Thus, Elisha granted the woman a special privilege, a blessing and reward for all that she had done for the sake of God’s servants. The woman was granted a child in her old age even though she had been barren her whole life.

Another servant of God had been faithful his whole life, and was thoroughly committed to God, that he was righteous and just in all of his actions. He was Abraham, the father of many nations and our father in faith. Abraham is one of God’s great servants, whom the Lord was pleased with, as he had been true in his faith and genuine in his love for Him. As a result, God established His Covenant with Abraham, blessing him and all of his descendants.

There are many other examples throughout the entire Scripture, as we saw the faith of David, the other good servant of God, whose steadfast faith and commitment to the Lord, his righteousness and justice, both as a person and later on as the king of all Israel, brought upon him great blessings and graces from God, and God made a Covenant with David, blessing him and all of his descendants, promising that his heir will be on the throne of Israel forever, a promise fulfilled to perfection in Jesus Christ, Son and Heir of David.

All of these are the proof that what Jesus our Lord had said to His disciples in today’s Gospel passage is indeed true. All those who have welcomed the Lord and His servants, obeyed Him and His laws, walked righteously in His path and did what He had commanded us all to do, will not be disappointed, for the Lord will remember us and graciously grant us His favour and blessings.

And He also said that whoever loves father or mother, daughter or son, or any other things more than they love Him, He will reject them and cast them out from His presence. We must be careful lest we misunderstood the true intention of the Lord as He said those words. He did not mean that we ought to leave behind our loved ones and reject them in exchange for the Lord. What He meant was instead that we must indeed love everyone, our family, friends, and even strangers, based on an even greater love which we have for the Lord our God.

That is how Abraham, our father in faith, and the rich woman of Shunem were blessed because of their great love for the Lord which far surpassed their love for money and possessions, both of which Abraham and the rich woman of Shunem possessed in abundance. They did not hesitate to make use of them to glorify the Lord and to serve Him to the best of their abilities.

Indeed, if we were to read on more, Abraham as we all should know, even brought his son Isaac, his most beloved son, to be sacrificed when the Lord set out to test his faith, without hesitation. And the king David, when he welcomed the Lord’s Ark of the Covenant into the city of Jerusalem, did not hesitate to dance before the Lord’s Ark, in the sight of all his people, even though he was by then king of all Israel.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, now let us all ask ourselves, whether we are capable of showing such faith in the Lord? Are we able to walk in the footsteps of our holy and devout predecessors, Abraham, David, the rich woman of Shunem and many others, all those who have given much for the sake of the Lord? This is what we need to reflect on and indeed ask ourselves, if we have not been truly faithful in our way of life, in how we live our daily lives.

How many of us often find excuses, trying to keep the Lord at a distance from us? How many of us are always using the excuses that we are busy, and we have no time for Him, preferring instead to deal and take care of our worldly business and occupations, rather than serving the Lord and loving Him with all of our heart, mind, body and soul?

This is what many of us mankind had done in our lives, as we are distracted by many temptations in life, which caused us to drift further and further away from the Lord. And this is where all of us really need to remember that the Lord had warned in the Gospel today, that all who put the Lord as a lower priority than other worldly matters and things, will be rejected and cast out into oblivion.

We do not have to do magnificent and grand actions to do what the Lord wants us to do. Rather, we should begin from ourselves, with small and little steps, rediscovering that love and devotion which we should have for our Lord, Who loves us all and Who created us all out of His great love. Let us all take a step back in our lives, taking some time to be spent with God despite our busy schedules and commitments in life.

Are we able to give the Lord our love, much as He has loved us all first? God did not hold anything back when He loved us, even to the point of sending us His own Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to suffer and die on the cross for us, so that through His great suffering and death, all of us may share in His death, and together rise with Him in glory of the resurrection into new life blessed by God.

Let us henceforth renew our commitment to the Lord, to love Him and to serve Him to the best of our abilities, starting by us devoting our time and effort for Him, instead of ignoring and walking away from Him, and therefore, as we draw closer to Him, we may better appreciate just how much God has blessed us and loved us from the very beginning.

Let us then also show the same love to our brethren, that is to our families, to our friends and all others, even strangers who are in need of our love. Let us all not be distracted any longer by all the temptations and worldly concerns that had so far held us back from being able to be true disciples of our Lord. May the Lord help us with all our endeavours, so that we may become more and more like His faithful disciples and servants, that we may be worthy to receive the fruits of eternal life and joy with God. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 2 July 2017 : Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Matthew 10 : 37-42

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me, is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life, for My sake, will find it.”

“Whoever welcomes you, welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me, welcomes Him Who sent Me. The one who welcomes a prophet, as a prophet, will receive the reward of a prophet; the one who welcomes a just man, because he is a just man, will receive the reward of a just man. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, because he is My disciple, I assure you, he will not go unrewarded.”

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Sunday, 2 July 2017 : Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Romans 6 : 3-4, 8-11

Do you not know, that in baptism, which unites us to Christ, we are all baptised and plunged into His death? By this baptism in His death, we were buried with Christ and, as Christ was raised from among the dead by the glory of the Father, we begin walking in a new life.

But, if we have died with Christ, we believe we will also live with Him. We know, that Christ, once risen from the dead, will not die again, and death has no more dominion over Him. For, by dying, He is dead to sin, once and for all, and, now, the life that He lives, is life with God.

So you, too, must consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God, in Christ Jesus.

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Sunday, 2 July 2017 : Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 88 : 2-3, 16-17, 18-19

I will sing forever, o YHVH, of Your love, and proclaim Your faithfulness from age to age. I will declare how steadfast is Your love, how firm Your faithfulness.

Blessed is the people who know Your praise. They walk in the light of Your face. They celebrate all day, Your Name and Your protection lifts them up.

You give us glory and power; and Your favour gives us victory. Our king is in the hands of YHVH; the God of Israel is our Shield.

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Sunday, 2 July 2017 : Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Kings 4 : 8-11, 14-16a

One day Elisha went to Shunem, and a rich woman invited him to eat. Afterward, whenever he went to that town, he would go to her house to eat. The woman said to her husband, “See, this man who constantly passes by our house is a holy man of God. If you want, we can make a small upper room for him, and place a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp in it. So when he comes, he may stay and rest.”

One day when Elisha came, he went to the upper room and lay down. So Elisha said to Gehazi, “What can we do for her?” The young man answered, “She has no children and her husband is now old.” And so Elisha said to him, “Call her.” The young man called her; and as the woman stood by the door, Elisha said, “By this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.”

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Thursday, 29 June 2017 : Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles, Great Feast of the Church of Rome and the Universal Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, the twenty-ninth day of June, every year, the Church celebrates the great Solemnity of two saints, St. Peter the Apostle and St. Paul the Apostle, both who were very prominent and important Apostles and disciples of the Lord, who had special significance for all of us. They were both martyred in Rome, then the heart of the Roman Empire, and now is the heart of Christendom.

As such, St. Peter and St. Paul are considered the two great pillars of the Church, through whose great dedications, the Church in the earliest days of its history were able to go through dark and difficult times, and persevere through all the challenges and difficulties. They carried out dutifully what the Lord had commanded them to do, to make disciples of all the peoples of all the nations, gathering them to God’s Church.

St. Peter the Apostle, as we all know, was among the first Apostles whom the Lord called, right after His baptism as He walked along the shores of the lake of Galilee. St. Peter was a fisherman who made his livelihood looking for fish in the lake together with his brother St. Andrew, and the brothers St. James and St. John. The Lord called them all, and they left everything behind to follow Him.

Meanwhile, St. Paul was once an elite among the Jewish people named Saul, considered and counted among the Pharisees and who was also a Roman citizen, a rare feat for a Jew at the time, well educated and a zealous devotee of the Law. As we witnessed it in the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul, as Saul, once was a great enemy of the Church and all the faithful. He once hunted Christians throughout the land and throughout Jerusalem, arresting them to be handed over to the chief priests.

We must be wondering, why did the Lord choose such men to become His disciples, and all the more as His Apostles, the most important ones among His followers. But that is exactly what the Lord had done, for we all have to remember that we do not choose ourselves as worthy for the Lord. Instead, it is the Lord Who chooses those whom He deems to be worthy.

St. Peter was a simple and poor fisherman, while St. Paul was a Pharisee and a zealot Jew who was against the teachings of the Lord. Yet, God called them to be the ones to whom He entrusted His Church. This is what He wants us to know, that all of us, regardless our origins, our background or anything else, are called by the Lord to be His disciples, and we should all look up to the examples of our predecessors, particularly that of St. Peter and St. Paul, great Apostles and saints of God.

St. Peter did not have it easy in his journey with the Lord, as we all know just how he denied the Lord three times when he was asked by those who accused him to be among His disciples, as Jesus was arrested during His Passion. He left the Lord like the other disciples to protect themselves and keep themselves safe. And yet, despite all of these human frailties he showed, St. Peter had in his heart, a genuine love and devotion for the Lord.

That was why St. Peter was entrusted by the Lord to be the one to lead all of the faithful as the Vicar and as the one who would become the foundation of the Church which the Lord established in this world. This the Lord Jesus Himself affirmed as He said, “You are Peter, and on this Rock (as Peter means Rock), I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, for those whom you bound on earth, I will bind in heaven, and those you unbound on earth, I will unbind in heaven.”

Through these words, the Lord entrusted to St. Peter the entire Church, built upon the firm foundation of his faith, tested through sufferings and persecutions. He gave him the authority over the entire Church, as His Vicar and as the Prince and leader of all the Apostles. St. Peter in the many occasions throughout the Acts of the Apostles showed great leadership in keeping the Church together amidst challenges and even bickering and conflicts from within the Church.

St. Peter, according to the sacred tradition, went on to Rome to establish the Church there, and as such was considered as the first Bishop of Rome and as the first Pope, the Vicar of Christ and Leader of the Universal Church. He was persecuted under the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero, and was martyred in Rome, at the place where now St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican stands. Showing his great faith and humility before the Lord, he refused to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord and Saviour. Instead, he chose to be crucified upside down.

Meanwhile, St. Paul as Saul was called by the Lord as he was on his way to the city of Damascus, as the Lord appeared to him and called him to follow Him. St. Paul had a change of heart and resolved to be baptised into the faith. Eventually, St. Paul became a great evangeliser and a hardworking servant of God, who went on to evangelise the Good News to many peoples during his many trips and journeys throughout the Roman Empire, spreading the faith and the Gospel.

He was a champion of the faith, who in particular favoured the integration of the non-Jewish believers, also known as the Gentiles. He favoured abandoning the human excesses of the Jewish laws and welcoming the Gentiles to the faith. That is why St. Paul is also known as the Apostle to the Gentiles. Through his many Epistles or letters to the churches in many places and cities, which is part of our Bible, all of us have learnt more about our faith. These are the same letters that St. Paul used to teach and reaffirm the faith in the faithful of those places.

As we read in the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul also eventually went to Rome, as he was arrested and persecuted by the Jewish leaders. He appealed to the Emperor and thus crossed over to Rome to be judged by the Emperor. He continued to evangelise among the faithful in Rome until the time when the first great persecution of the faithful began in the year 64AD by the Emperor Nero. Christians were arrested and blamed for the incident of the Great Fire of Rome, and many of them were martyred including St. Paul, who was beheaded.

We see just how God called His disciples and servants from among His people, sanctifying them and making them worthy to be the instruments of His wonderful works. This is how God called all those whom He deems to be righteous and just in His sight. And He has called all of us as well. Yet, it is our choice and free will, which the Lord had given us, for us to follow Him or to walk our own path. Yes, it is a choice which all of us need to make in this life.

All of us are the successors of the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord. All of us walk in His way and we ought to walk in the footsteps of St. Peter and St. Paul, the holy Apostles, who had laid much of the foundation of the Church. Yet, there are still a lot of things to be done, as the work began by the Apostles are not yet complete. There are still many more people that we have to reach out to, as they have not yet received the Good News of God.

We may think that we need great deeds and great works in order to follow the footsteps of the Apostles, but yet, this is not the case. Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that the Apostles were themselves simple men from different origins, many of them from humble origins, whom God called to greatness through obedience and faith. As I have mentioned earlier, both St. Peter and St. Paul themselves were ordinary human beings with their respective faults and imperfections. But God made them do extraordinary deeds by His guidance and help.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what we need to do, is for us to obey the Lord and to put ourselves completely to His care, entrusting ourselves completely to Him and be genuinely faithful to Him. We can begin from ourselves, from our own lives and from our relationships and activities within our own families, communities and societies. We need to be genuine in our faith, following the examples of the Apostles, especially St. Peter and St. Paul, in how much they have dedicated their whole lives to God, by their words, their actions and deeds.

Let us therefore continue the works of the Apostles, by being the bearers of the Good News of God, not just by evangelising through words or preaching, but more importantly, by truly living the message of the Gospels in our lives, by loving one another, by showing mercy and forgiveness to those who have wronged us, and by being sincere and generous in our giving, extending our love and help for those around us who are in need.

There are still many things which all of us can do, following in the footsteps of the Apostles, but we should be inspired and energised by the examples of St. Peter and St. Paul, as well as the other Apostles and all the holy saints of God. They have given their all for the sake of the Lord, and they have persevered through difficult and challenging moments for the sake of God’s people in the Church. Now, all of us bear the same responsibilities that they have borne, and all of us need to work together as the members of His Church, to ensure that the good works of the Lord for the salvation of His people will continue.

Therefore, let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and devote our works for the salvation of our fellow brethren. Let us all seek to fulfil the calling which our Lord has given to us. Let us walk in the way He has shown us, following in the footsteps of St. Peter and St. Paul, for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of His people. St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Christ, and St. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles. Amen.