House of God

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Sunday, 1 December 2013 : First Sunday of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 121 : 1-2, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” And now we have set foot within your gates, o Jerusalem!

There the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord’s Name. There stands the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : “May those who love you prosper! May peace be within your walls and security within your citadels!”

For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be with you!” For the sake of the house of our Lord, I will pray for your good.

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Sunday, 1 December 2013 : First Sunday of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Isaiah 2 : 1-5

The vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In the last days, the mountain of YHVH’s House shall be set over the highest mountains and shall tower over the hills. All the nations shall stream to it, saying, “Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and we may walk in His paths. For the Teaching comes from Zion, and from Jerusalem the word of YHVH.”

“He will rule over the nations and settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not raise sword against nation; they will train for war no more. O nation of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!”

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Friday, 29 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the kingdom of God is near, and it is approaching! Yes, that is the key message of the readings, especially that of the Gospel we heard today. And indeed, the kingdom of God is already here, with us, and dwelling in us. This is precisely as Christ had proclaimed to the people of the coming of His kingdom.

In the first reading, we heard about how Daniel showed his vision of the end of times, in which the Lord revealed to him of the difficult times that would come to the people of God. The beast was known to be the infamous Greek king, Antiochus Epiphanes, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, about one and a half centuries before the birth of Christ.

And that beast, king Antiochus, persecuted the people of God, those who still keep up their faith and devotion to the One, True God. The evil king enforced pagan rules and rites on the people, and many people apostatised their faith out of fear for punishment and death. The Temple and House of the Lord in Jerusalem was desecrated and made into a house of pagans.

Suffering was great at that time, under the reign and tyranny of the evil king, the loathsome beast on the horn, the one seen by Daniel. The people who kept their faith were tortured, imprison, and met their end in painful death. They were forced by the king to disobey the laws of God and to commit acts profane in the Lord’s eyes. Yet, there are many who resisted, and preferred death to disobedience.

But the Lord did not just leave His people in suffering without help or hope. For He raised the deliverance of the people through the Maccabees, who fought empowered by God’s providence and eventually liberated the people from the tyranny of the evil king Antiochus. The king himself was punished with painful death, with excruciating pain and endless suffering till the end of his life. That was when the beast in the vision of Daniel was punished and destroyed by the power of God.

That is a foreshadowing of the events that is to come, and I am sure you are all familiar with the Book of Revelation by St. John the Evangelist. For the devil too will, in much the same way, persecute the faithful ones, swaying many people to his side in rebellion against the Lord, in one final and futile attempt to defy the Lord’s will.

Jesus, the Messiah and Saviour of all mankind, will come at the end of time, in order to bring all creation towards Himself, and make everything good once again. The devil and all his followers, and all the filths and taints of sin He will destroy and cast into the lake of eternal fire, in damnation. Jesus who had once come into this world as the Son of Man, to suffer and die for our sins, will come again at the end of time as a victorious and triumphant King.

Jesus is the Son of Man seen by Daniel in His vision, the promised One who is given dominion over all things, including over us mankind. For, ever since we have rebelled against God through our forefathers’ sins, the devil who is lord of all evil has dominion, power and authority over us. In order to free us from our bondage to the evil one, a pure and unblemished sacrifice for the purification of our sins.

That is when Jesus came, as the Son of Man, the long promised Messiah. He was prophesied by the many prophets and servants of God throughout the ages. The Lord Jesus brought forth with Him, the salvation of mankind. Jesus revealed the great plan that God had crafted for the sake of our salvation. And He too revealed the imminent coming of the kingdom of God as I had mentioned.

Why did Jesus say that the kingdom is coming soon? And why did He mention that the generation would not pass before the coming of the kingdom? That is because, the kingdom of God was ushered into the world, and to all of us, precisely by a single important moment in the history of our world. That is none other than the sacrifice, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Himself. Through this singular event, the kingdom of God appears and is present to all of us, even today.

It is through the selfless and perfect sacrifice of our Lord that we receive this new life and the hope of salvation. Before the death and resurrection of Jesus, there is no hope for us mankind, but with the death and resurrection of Jesus, a new hope had dawned. That is the kingdom of God made manifest into this world. And, the Lord Himself gave freely to all of us, His own flesh and blood, just as He gave them to His disciples at the Last Supper.

Remember the words of Jesus, that all those who eat the bread that is the Body of the Lord, and drink the wine that is the Blood of the Lord, will not die but live forever. That is because the Lord Himself, in His Most Holy Presence in the bread and wine we partake, comes and dwells in each one of us. Each of us essentially become the House of the Most High God, and consequently, we are all experiencing the kingdom of God, even now, in ourselves.

Yes, brethren, for we have received the Lord in the Eucharist, and consequently, our lives too have been transformed to mirror that of the kingdom of God. We are experiencing the kingdom even as we live day by day. And that is also the reason, why even though our lives will be difficult, and challenges scattered on our path, we should not be worried. The Lord Himself guides us along the way, and we ought to follow Him all the way to the end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why, today onwards, let us uphold our faith in Christ and proudly walk forth as the children of God, and as His disciples. Do not fear evil and his forces, and rather, let us do our best to obey the will of God. May the Lord continue to guide us, provide for us, and help us so that we will eventually reach the glory of heaven, when the Lord Jesus comes again in His glorious Second Coming. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 24 November 2013 : Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Christ the King (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 121 : 1-2, 4-5

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” And now we have set foot within your gates, o Jerusalem!

There the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord’s Name. There stand the courts of justice the offices of the house of David.

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Friday, 22 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Cast out evil! Purify ourselves! Throw out the devil that is in us! Draw closer to the Lord and make ourselves worthy of Him!

Brethren in Christ, that is the essence of what we had heard in the readings of the Holy Scripture today. At the centre of it all, drawing parallels between the purification of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Maccabeans, after it had been defiled by the pagan idols of the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes, and the purification of the Temple, by Jesus our Lord, from the crooked merchants and cheaters of the people, is the importance for us to keep the purity of our souls and our bodies, which are the Temples of the Divine Presence, from all sorts of corruptions and evils.

The Lord showed His righteous anger, which He poured without mercy against those who had defiled the holiness of God’s Temple on earth, the Temple of Jerusalem. He whipped them and refused them from His presence, shunning them to the place prepared to them, outside of His salvation. That was what He had shown in the Gospel today, and what the disciples rightly pointed out, that the love Jesus has for His Father, has brought Him into a great wrath against those who defiled the House of the Lord.

The profanation was removed, and holiness returned to the House of God, in the same way that the Temple was purified by the Maccabees. The merchants profaned the House of God by the vile practices and other vices, by their dishonest practices and blatant cheating against the genuinely faithful worshippers of the Lord.

The Greeks under the Seleucid King Antiochus Epiphanes profaned the temple with idols and pagan practices. These were cast out of the House of God and the House was in both instances, made worthy again to be the dwelling of the Lord Most High. Then, one may ask, how does this relate to all of us? Is not the Temple as a building cleansed of vices and made worthy once again for the Lord?

That is because, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have often not realised that in each one of us, who believes in Christ our Lord as our Saviour, we all are the House of God, the divine Temple where He resides and dwells. How so? Remember that we are all receiving the Lord regularly whenever we attend and participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We receive Him in the Most Holy Eucharist, the bread and the wine turned into our Lord’s own Precious Body and Blood.

The Lord who comes to us in His Most Holy and Real Presence in the Eucharist dwells within us, just as He takes us to dwell unto Him. And since the Lord has come upon us and dwell within each one of us who had received His Body and His Blood, we have been made to be just like the Temple of Jerusalem, because God dwells within us! Remember that Jesus is also known as Emmanuel, which means God is with us!

That is why, brothers and sisters, as we lived this life given to us by the Lord, we have to be always aware, that our actions have great implications. Remember always that the Lord dwells in us, and His Spirit is living inside of us. We are the Temples of the Holy Spirit, the Temples of the Holy Presence of God. Therefore, we cannot be complacent, and allow the influences of evil to corrupt our bodies, our minds, and our souls, since we are the places where the Lord Himself had dwelled in.

If we corrupt our bodies, our minds, and our souls with evil, that is by keeping our sinfulness without check, be assured that the Lord will cast us all out of His sight, just as what He had done with the corrupt merchants who had set their stalls on the holy grounds of the Temple of Jerusalem. He will not welcome us if we do not keep our body, mind, and soul to be always worthy of Him. He will cast us out in the same way He had cast out the merchants from the Temple of God.

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Cecilia, one of the greatest saints of the Church. And we all know her well, as the patron saint of music, of our choir and of all who dedicate themselves to the commitment of beautiful hymns aimed at praising the Lord our God. Yet, St. Cecilia is also a pious and a holy martyr, one who did not allow the corruption of this world to touch her, resolving to keep herself pure and immaculate, despite the temptations and good offers from the lord of this world, that is evil.

Instead, St. Cecilia, defending her true faith unto death, received in the Lord, the assurance of eternal life and eternal glory. This is our faith, brothers and sisters, and do not let it to be corrupted by the lies of the devil. St. Cecilia lived an upright and just life, dedicated to her faith in God. She staunchly resolved to maintain the purity of her soul in an era filled with wickedness, by holding up her chastity.

St. Cecilia devoted herself and her entire life to God and therefore maintained the purity of her Temple, and she did not give up her purity for the comfortable life, and instead give it up for the sake of the Lord. Her purity is truly exemplary to all of us. And this is the kind of attitude that we need to have towards our faith in the Lord. Maintain always the purity of our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our bodies, just as St. Cecilia had done.

St. Cecilia is a role model for all of us, and I hope that today, we all will be more empowered and strengthened, to follow the Lord our God without moving away to the left or right. Let us now then resolve, and say to the Lord, that we all will honour Him and keep holy our selves, our bodies and souls, that we will ever be worthy to be His dwelling, and that on the last day, through the intercession of St. Cecilia, we will join her in singing the hymn of praise to the Lord, for eternity.

May the Lord our God give us strength, perseverance, and willpower, in order to keep the Temple of the Lord, the House and residence of our Lord in us, pure and worthy, as the beloved children of God, to whom He has sent Jesus His Son. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 22 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Luke 19 : 45-48

Then Jesus entered the Temple area and began to drive out the merchants. And He said to them, “God says in the Scriptures, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of robbers!'”

Jesus was teaching every day in the Temple. The chief priests and teachers of the Law wanted to kill Him, and the elders of the Jews as well, but they were unable to do anything, for all the people were listening to Him and hanging on His words.

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Friday, 22 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Chronicles 29 : 10, 11abc, 11d-12a, 12bcd

May You be blessed, YHVH God of Israel our ancestor, forever and ever!

Yours, YHVH, is the greatness, the power, splendour, length of days, glory, for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is Yours. Yours is the sovereignty forever, o YHVH.

You are supreme ruler over all. Riches and honour go before You.

You are ruler of all, in Your hand lie strength and power; You are the One who gives greatness and strength to all.

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Friday, 22 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Maccabees 4 : 36-37, 52-59

Then Judas and his brothers said : “Our enemies are defeated, so let us go up and purify the Holy Place and consecrate it again.” And all the army assembled and went up to Mount Zion.

On the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight (164 B.C.) they arose at dawn and offered the sacrifice prescribed by the Law on the new altar of holocausts which they had built. It was precisely at that same time and date that the pagans had profaned it before; but now they consecrated it with songs accompanied by zithers, harps, and cymbals. All the people fell prostrate and blessed Heaven that had given them happiness and success.

They celebrated the consecration of the altar for eight days, joyfully offering holocausts and celebrating sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise. The front of the Temple was adorned with crowns of gold and shields; the gates and the rooms had been restored and fitted with doors.

There was no end to the celebration among the people, and so the profanation of the Temple by the pagans was forgotten. Finally, Judas, his brothers and the whole assembly of Israel agreed to celebrate the anniversary of the consecration of the altar annually for eight days, from the twenty-fifth of the month of Chislev, in high festivity.

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Saturday, 9 November 2013 : Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 2 : 13-22

As the Passover of the Jews was at hand, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple court He found merchants selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the Temple court, together with the oxen and sheep.

He knocked over the tables of the money-changers, scattering the coins, and ordered the people selling doves, “Take all this away, and stop turning My Father’s house into a marketplace!”

His disciples recalled the words of Scripture : “Zeal for Your House devours me like fire.”

The Jews then questioned Jesus, “Where are the miraculous signs which give you the right to do this?” And Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”

The Jews then replied, “The building of this temple has already taken forty-six years, and will You raise it up in three days?” Actually Jesus was referring to the Temple of His Body. Only when He had risen from the dead did His disciples remember these words; then they believed both the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken.

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Saturday, 9 November 2013 : Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Corinthians 3 : 9b-11, 16-17

You are God’s field and building. I, as a good architect, according to the capacity given to me, I laid the foundation, and another is to build upon it. Each one must be careful how to build upon it. No one can lay a foundation other than the one which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit abides within you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. God’s temple is holy, and you are this temple.