Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 97 : 1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4
Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him
The Lord has shown His salvation, revealing His justice to the nations. He has not forgotten His love nor His faithfulness to Israel.
The farthest ends of the earth all have seen God’s saving power. All you lands, make a joyful noise to the Lord, break into song and sing praise.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 66 : 2-3, 5, 6 and 8
May God be gracious and bless us; may He let His face shine upon us, that Your way be known on earth and Your salvation among the nations.
May the countries be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with justice and guide the nations of the world.
May the peoples praise You, o God, may all the peoples praise You! May God bless us and be revered, to the very ends of the earth.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 96 : 1-2, 5-6, 11-12
The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the distant islands be glad. Clouds and darkness surround Him; justice and right are His throne.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His justice, all peoples see His glory.
He sheds light upon the upright, and gladness upon the just. Rejoice in the Lord, you who are blameless, and give praise to His holy Name.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 95 : 1-2a, 2b-3, 11-12, 13
Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His Name.
Proclaim His salvation day after day. Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds.
Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them; let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy.
Let them sing before the Lord who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Priests)
Brethren, today we heard again about the one who was to prepare the way for the Lord’s coming, on the coming of St. John the Baptist, the messenger and proclaimer of the coming of God’s kingdom, as its herald. And as we approach Christmas, we come together again to remember what Christmas is truly about. Again I would like to reiterate that Christmas is really about Christ.
In Christmas we are all called to remember again what our faith is truly about, and what Christ had done for us, for the sake of all of us in this world, past, present, and the future. Christ the divine made Himself incarnate into humble man, and that was the true essence of Christmas and the true essence of our faith. For we are all Christians, and with Christ as part of our name, He is inseparable from all the aspects of our faith, as well as our lives.
St. John the Baptist, whose birth was told in the Gospel we read today, is the messenger of God proclaiming the coming of God’s salvation upon mankind. He proclaimed the coming of Jesus our Lord, who came as the Son of Man, born of the Virgin. Yet, despite his proclamations, his revelations, his hard and pious works, as well as the prophecies proclaimed by the numerous prophets of bygone ages, many refused to believe when the Lord came into this world in order to save it.
Just an example, when the Lord Himself was about to be born in Bethlehem, the City of David, how many inns must be there in that city, and yet none of them offered space for the Lord of all creations, who came in the form of the baby of a carpenter. Poor as he looked like, His was the kingdom of the entire universe, destined to be His, as the king of kings.
Yet, rejected Jesus was, and He had no other place to lay His head on, other than an animal’s stable, to be born among the animals in a small and dirty place not fit for human habitation. And yet, there He was born, and the Saviour of this world came. The prophecies of the past, and the calls of the prophets were fulfilled in perfection, and redemption finally came unto the world. And yet, He was rejected and cast out.
Many hardened their hearts against the Lord, just as their ancestors once hardened their hearts against Him during their journey in the desert. They constantly complained about the hardships they went through as they walked through the deserts of Sinai. The same too happened to them, and to us, brothers and sisters!
For this life, this life of ours as we journeyed through this world, is also a desert. And we are all walking this same journey, towards the Lord and His eternal glory, just as the people of Israel once marched through the desert towards the Promised Land of Canaan. Yet we, just like the Israelites, complained that life was easier back in the place of our slavery. The slavery of Israel in Egypt, and for us all, the slavery under sin and the power of death.
We may profess the Lord and profess our faith in Him, but in our dealings and our actions in this world, we actually prefer to deal with the forces of this world, with Satan! Yes, Satan instead of the Lord. We are often no different from those innkeepers who rejected the Lord in Bethlehem, and we are often like those Pharisees and Sadducees who mocked and ridiculed John the Baptist, as well as Lord Jesus Himself throughout their respective ministries.
Today, we celebrate the life of a saint, that is St. John of Kanty, who was a Polish priest living at the time of the early Renaissance Europe. St. John of Kanty was a devoted man, totally devoted to the Lord in great and deep humility and spirituality, and showing his dedication through his actions, by his teachings and his charitable works in the society where he worked at.
St. John of Kanty was also known for his great intellect and learning, and he established many works of faith in his writings, helping many to find their way to the Lord. He truly practiced his faith, and did not let the evils of this world to affect him. To him, only the Lord truly matters, and only the Lord deserved full and undivided attention.
It is often that we all are distracted by the numerous, and indeed, increasingly more and more numerous tempting offers from this world. Yes, all the goods and the amenities, the pleasures and joys that this world can give. What better example can be given than what we experience every Christmas? With evert gadgets and items, all the sales and discounted sales, all the advertisements and promotions. All these merely fuel our distractions, that indeed, Christmas is often no longer Christ-centred. And sadly, it is often that our lives too, as Christians, are also no longer Christ-centred.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we honour St. John of Kanty today, are we able to follow in his footsteps? In committing ourselves wholly and without reservations to the Lord? Are we able to say no to the distractions of this world, and stay truly faithful to God who came to us to save us? Remember that, He loved us so much that He gave us Jesus His own Son, that we may have life and new hope through Him.
May the Lord therefore renew and strengthen our faith, that we too may walk the same path and act in the same way as St. John of Kanty had done. May He guide us on our way, that we will be able to remain faithful to Him and stay on His paths. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 71 : 2, 3-4ab, 7-8, 17
May the King rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.
Let the mountains bring peace to the people, and the hills justice. He will defend the cause of the poor, deliver the children of the needy.
Justice will flower in his days, and peace abound till the moon be no more. For He reigns from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.
May His Name endure forever; may His Name be as lasting as the sun. All the races will boast about Him, and He will be blessed by all nations.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or Rose (Gaudete Sunday)
Psalm 145 : 7, 8-9a, 9bc-10
The Lord gives justice to the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free.
The Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord straightens the bent. The Lord protects the stranger.
The Lord sustains the widow and the orphan. The Lord loves the virtuous, but He brings to ruin the way of the wicked. The Lord will reign forever, your God, o Zion, from generation to generation. Alleluia!
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 95 : 1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12, 13
Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His Name; proclaim His salvation day after day.
Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds. Say among the nations : “He will judge the peoples with justice.”
Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them; let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy.
Let them sing before the Lord who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/ Violet
Psalm 117 : 1 and 8-9, 19-21, 25-27a
Alleluia! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His loving kindness endures forever. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in the help of humans. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in the might of princes.
Open to me the gates of the Just, and let me enter to give thanks. “This is the Lord’s gate, through which the upright enter.” I thank You for having answered me, for having rescued me.
Save us, o Lord, deliver us, o Lord! Blessed is He who comes in the Lord’s Name! We bless You from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God; may His light shine upon us.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord is coming soon, and He made it clear again to us today, as we hear the words of the Gospel. Christ will come again in His glorious Second Coming, and He will judge all creations, all mankind. There will be a scourging and separation of the righteous from the wicked, and the faithful from the apostates.
We must be ready for that time, because the Lord will come like a vengeful conqueror, to harvest the good wheat that He had planted and get rid of the weeds of darkness. He will not show mercy to those which have repeatedly showed rebelliousness and challenged His will at all times and did not change. He will gather those He regards as His own and discard those who are against Him or those who are not worthy.
We are like the people at the time of Noah, if you realised it. What happened during the time of Noah? You all know who Noah was. He was the one saved by the Lord by building an ark as the Lord instructed him to, in order to avoid the great Flood which covered the entire earth and destroyed all lives except all those which had been saved through the ark.
Why did the Lord do all this? Did He not love all of His children with all of His loving heart? Is He not love personified Himself? Yes, these are all true, and God is indeed Love that He is. However, mankind at the time of Noah had grown proud of themselves, and not just proud and filled with ego, but they also had grown to be very wicked. They disregarded all the laws of the Lord and lead a life entirely in abandon of the Lord.
The Lord grew angry at them and tried to bring them back to righteousness, and yet they did not listen, they turned deaf ears to His calling. And in that wicked world before the Flood, only Noah and his family remained righteous and obedient to the Lord. That was why the Lord called him to save him, by commissioning him to build a massive ark, to safeguard the righteous from the coming catastrophe and punishment that would befall the wicked ones.
The people of Noah’s time mocked him as he built the ark, and did not repent until it was too late. After the door of the ark had been closed, there was no hope left for them. They were left behind to perish, and perish they did. Noah was saved, as a righteous one, while the wicked were destroyed. And indeed, the same can be drawn as a parallel on the present day situation.
For our world today is also growing increasingly wicked. Wickedness does not necessarily mean doing things clearly defined as evil, such as murder, stealing, or adultery. Wickedness can also come about in even things such as greed and desire. Yes, for our world today increasingly distance itself away from the Lord and from the ways of the Lord. We are increasingly more and more engulfed in the corruption of evil and sin.
And the coming of the Lord is like the Flood, which came unexpected to those who ignore the warnings and heedings of the Lord. That is because many of us, like the people of Noah’s time, are hard-hearted and hardened our hearts towards the Lord and His love. We grew proud and arrogant, trusting in our power and achievements, and blasphemed more and more against the Lord our God. We had forgotten His love and the promise He has made for us.
The Lord comes at a time when we are most unprepared, when we are most deceived by the lies of the evil one through the world. He will come and judge us, for our actions and deeds, whether we are worthy of Him or not. And He will judge us not only based on our actions and deeds, be it good or bad, but also our failures, the failures to do things in accordance with His will and His ways.
Will we then choose to be like Noah? Or to be like those others who mocked and ridiculed Noah as he built that ark? We have a choice, brethren, and we have indeed been given the instruction on how to built our own ark of salvation, and the materials to do so. We have been well equipped by the Lord, with all these materials, that is none other than love, hope, and faith, and alas, many of us remain ignorant of our gifts and did not use them.
Hence, brethren, if we have not begun to work on towards our salvation in God, do not wait, and begin now. For the Lord does not wait on us to execute His will. He may come again any time, even in the next year, next month, tomorrow, or even in the next hour and even now! If He comes and we are caught wanting and unworthy, that is the end for all of us.
Do not fear, brethren, if we have done lots of bad and evil things in our lives. Our Lord hates sin and evil, but He is also rich in mercy and love. If we are truly sincere in our dedication to Him, to change our sinful ways and turn over a new page in our respective lives, the Lord will forgive us, and we will be well on our way towards salvation. Remember that many of the greatest and holiest saints were themselves once great sinners. What differentiated them from the condemned ones is that they change and were committed to changing their lives, to be in accordance with the will of God.
May the Lord our God, show us His everlasting mercy and love, giving us a new lease of life, one where we will once again walk in His ways, and be righteous and faithful. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 