kingdom of God

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Friday, 1 March 2024 : 2nd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 21 : 33-43, 45-46

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Listen to another example : There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a hole for the winepress, built a watchtower, leased the vineyard to tenants, and then went to a distant country.”

“When harvest time came, the landowner sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the harvest. But the tenants seized his servants, beat one, killed another and stoned a third. Again the owner sent more servants, but they were treated in the same way.”

“Finally, he sent his son, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they thought, ‘This is the one who is to inherit the vineyard. Let us kill him, and his inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.”

“Now, what will the owner of the vineyard do with the tenants when he comes?” They said to him, “He will bring those evil men to an evil end, and lease the vineyard to others, who will pay him in due time.” And Jesus replied, “Have you never read what the Scriptures say? The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and we marvel at it.”

“Therefore I say to you : the kingdom of heaven will be taken from you, and given to a people who will yield a harvest.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard these parables, they realised that Jesus was referring to them. They would have arrested Him, but they were afraid of the crowd, who regarded Him as a Prophet.

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Sunday, 18 February 2024 : First Sunday of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Mark 1 : 12-15

At that time, the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert. He stayed in the desert forty days and was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, but Angels ministered to Him.

After John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee and began preaching the Good News of God. He said, “The time has come; the kingdom of God is at hand. Change your ways and believe the Good News.”

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Friday, 26 January 2024 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Timothy and St. Titus, Bishops (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 10 : 1-9

At that time, the Lord appointed seventy-two other disciples, and sent them, two by two, ahead of Him, to every town and place, where He Himself was to go. And He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So you must ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers to His harvest.”

“Courage! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Set off without purse or bag or sandals; and do not stop at the homes of those you know. Whatever house you enter, first bless them, saying, ‘Peace to this house!’ If a friend of peace lives there, the peace shall rest upon that person. But if not, the blessing will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking at their table, for the worker deserves to be paid. Do not move from house to house.”

“When they welcome you to any town, eat what they offer you. Heal the sick who are there, and say to them : ‘The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.’”

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Wednesday, 24 January 2024 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 4 : 1-20

At that time, Jesus began to teach by the lake; but such a large crowd gathered about Him, that He got into a boat and sat in it on the lake, while the crowd stood on the shore. He taught them many things through parables. In His teaching, He said, “Listen! The sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some of the seed fell along a path; and the birds came and ate it up.”

“Some of the seed fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil; it sprang up immediately, because it had no depth; but when the sun rose and burnt it, it withered, because it had no roots. Other seed fell among thorn bushes; and the thorns grew and choked it; so it did not produce any grain.”

“But some seed fell on good soil, grew and increased and yielded grain; some seed produced thirty times as much, some sixty, and some one hundred times as much.” And Jesus added, “Listen then, if you have ears.”

When the crowd went away, some who were around Him with the Twelve asked about the parables. He answered them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But for those outside, everything comes in parables, so, that, the more they see, they do not perceive; the more they hear, they do not understand; otherwise they would be converted and pardoned.”

Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How, then, will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those along the path, where the seed fell, are people who hear the word, but as soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.”

“Other people receive the word like rocky ground. As soon as they hear the word, they accept it with joy. But they have no roots, so it lasts only a little while. No sooner does trouble or persecution come because of the word, than they fall. Others receive the seed, as seed among thorns. After they hear the word, they are caught up in the worries of this life, false hope of riches and other desires. All these come in and choke the word, so that finally it produces nothing.”

“And there are others who receive the word as good soil. They hear the word, take it to heart and produce : some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred times as much.”

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Sunday, 24 December 2023 : Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Christmas Eve (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 13 : 16-17, 22-25

So Paul arose, motioned to them for silence and began, “Fellow Israelites and also all you who fear God, listen. The God of our people Israel chose our ancestors, and after He had made them increase during their stay in Egypt, He led them out by powerful deeds.

After that time, God removed Saul and raised up David as king, to whom He bore witness saying : I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all I want him to do.

It is from the descendants of David that God has now raised up the promised Saviour of Israel, Jesus. Before He appeared, John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for all the people of Israel. As John was ending his life’s work, he said : ‘I am not what you think I am, for after me another One is coming Whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.'”

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Saturday, 2 December 2023 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Luke 21 : 34-36

At that time, Jesus said to the people, “Be on your guard : do not immerse yourselves in a life of pleasure, drunkenness and worldly cares, lest that day catch you unaware, like a trap! For, like a snare, will that day come upon all the inhabitants of the earth. But watch at all times and pray, that you may be able to escape all that is going to happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

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Friday, 1 December 2023 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 21 : 29-33

At that time, Jesus added this comparison, “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as their buds sprout, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I tell you, this generation will not pass away, until all this has happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”

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Tuesday, 28 November 2023 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Daniel 2 : 31-45

Daniel said to king Nebuchadnezzar, “In your vision you saw a statue – very large, very bright; terrible to look at. Its head was of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. As you watched, a rock cut from a mountain, but not by human hands, struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay; smashing them.”

“All at once the iron, clay, bronze, silver and gold crumbled into pieces, as fine as chaff on the threshing floor in summer. The wind swept them off and not a trace was left. But the rock that struck the statue became a great mountain that filled the whole earth.”

“That was the dream. Now the interpretation. You, o king, are king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given dominion, strength, power and glory, and into whose hand He has placed humankind, the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, making you ruler over them. You are that head of gold.”

“After you, another kingdom, inferior to yours, will rise. Then a third kingdom, of bronze, will rule the whole world. Last shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; and just as iron breaks and crushes everything else, so will it break and smash all the others.”

“The partly-clay and partly-iron feet and toes mean that it will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of the iron, just as you saw iron mixed with clay. And as the toes were partly iron and partly clay, the kingdom will be partly strong and partly weak. Just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, the people will be a mixture but will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.”

“In the time of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom, never to be destroyed or delivered up to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and put an end to them; and it will endure forever. This is the meaning of your vision of a rock cut from a mountain not by human hands; the rock, which struck the statue and broke into pieces the iron, bronze, clay, silver and gold. The great God has shown the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation reliable.”

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Sunday, 26 November 2023 : Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Thirty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday is the last Sunday in our current liturgical year, which therefore marks the occasion of the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. On this day, we celebrate the Kingship of Jesus Christ, Who is the Son of God and Our Lord, and hence, is also our King. He is the Lord and Master of all Creation, of the whole Universe and everything that we can see and perceive, and even things that are supernatural and beyond our comprehension. He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and no one is greater than Him. On this day, we celebrate and rejoice in the Lord Jesus, our Lord and King, and we honour Him greatly today, as we remind ourselves of what our Lord and King has done for us, and how we should therefore live our lives to be truly worthy of Him, for all the love and kindness that He has always shown us.

In our first reading passage today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel in which the Lord told all of His people, the Israelites and their descendants that He is their Lord and Shepherd, and He would guide and lead them all through to the right path, gathering all of them, scattered throughout the world, finding out and reaching to the lost ones, so that every one of them would once again be gathered in His loving presence. These words came to the people of God at the time when many of them were indeed scattered, away from the lands promised to them and their ancestors. At that time, many of the people of the former northern kingdom of Israel had been uprooted from their homeland and exiled to the far regions of Assyria and Mesopotamia, when the Assyrians destroyed that kingdom and their cities.

Similarly for the people of the former southern kingdom of Judah, which was destroyed just around the time of the ministry of Ezekiel, many of them had been exiled to Babylon and other places too. Some of them fled to Egypt, while others went to other areas, beginning the period of the extensive diaspora of the Jewish people and their relatives. All of these words that the Lord sent to them through His prophet, Ezekiel, were reminders to all of them that ultimately, He is their Lord and King, the One true Master that they all had, and not the lords and kings that had once ruled over them and misled them into the path of corruption and downfall, destruction and humiliation. He is a just and loving God and Master to all of His beloved people, not a tyrant or autocrat who oppressed and extorted the weak and the feeble for His own benefits.

That is why, He presented Himself as a loving Shepherd to all of them, which is why, the famous Psalm of David, Psalm 22 that is used today, is a reminder for us of the Lord our God, Who is our Good Shepherd. He is always loving towards each and every one of us, caring for us and providing for us all of our needs, just like that of a shepherd who loves all of his sheep. He will not spare any efforts to try to find any of the sheep that has been lost to Him, and that was exactly what the Lord had done for our sake. God has always been insistent in sending His guidance, help and providence to us, and in patiently leading and guiding us down the right path. He has sent numerous prophets, messengers, servants and guides in order to help His beloved people, His flock, to come back to Him.

Now, then as we heard from our Gospel passage today, we heard about the Lord Jesus explained and detailing to His disciples about the Last Judgment, the moment when the Lord, as the King of Kings and the Lord and Master of all will judge all the living and the dead, and everyone shall be judged based on their actions and deeds, with those who are righteous and good rewarded and blessed, as those who are considered worthy to be enjoying forever the fullness of God’s grace and love. We also heard of how the wicked and those who have committed evil deeds, or failed to do what the Lord had told them to do, will be condemned and punished for their wickedness and failures. It is a reminder therefore for all of us that just as the Lord is loving and kind towards us, but He is also a God Who is just and expecting.

What does this mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that while our Lord and King loves each and every one of us and while He has done everything that He could in order to reach out to us and to be reconciled with us, there are also many obligations and requirements that we have to fulfil as the subjects and parts of this Kingdom ruled by our Lord and King. Just as how the states and kingdoms of this world work, we cannot be good and worthy citizens unless we obey the laws and the rules of the realm, and do what we are supposed to do in obeying those rules and following the demands and expectations that are required of us to be good and law-abiding citizens of our respective states and countries. Thus, the same logic applies to how we live our lives in following our Lord and King, Jesus Christ, as well.

To be true and genuine Christians, and to be good, worthy and beloved flock of our Lord, our Good Shepherd and our King, each and every one of us must always remind ourselves to do what the Lord has commanded us to do, in fulfilling our Christian obligations and in living our lives in the manner that truly shows our true and genuine faith in God. We cannot be true and genuine Christians unless we follow the Law of God and obey the rules and the ways which His Church has set before us. But even more importantly, we also cannot just merely be blind followers of the Law and commandments of God, as it is indeed possible for us to do what is required of us by the Church and the Law of God, but we do not truly and genuinely do them because of the faith and love we have for God.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we approach the end of this current liturgical year with this glorious and most joyful celebration of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and King, King of the whole Universe, let us all remind ourselves of what we can and should do in our lives, in each and every moments to glorify Him by our good, worthy and exemplary lives. Then we must also truly enthrone the Lord as the King over our lives, over our families and our whole existence. This means that He should be at the centre and as the focus of our lives, and not our many preoccupations in life, our career, ambitions, desire for worldly glory and fame, worldly pleasures and possessions, and other things that we often put as our focus instead of the Lord, our God and King.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we therefore able to commit ourselves anew to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, our Good Shepherd and our King? Are we able to do our best in doing what is right and just in our lives, in accordance with what He Himself had told us in our Gospel passage today? That in His own words He told us to feed those who are hungry, serve those who are thirsty and seeking for a drink, in welcoming strangers and those who need our help, love and attention into our care, for those who are sick and ostracised by the society, and those who have been neglected and oppressed, among others. Are we able to do what the Lord had told and taught us to do, and in following His own examples, and the examples of the many other holy men and women that had gone before us? Let us be loving, compassionate and merciful, just as the Lord Himself has shown us such great love, compassion and mercy, all these while.

Let us all therefore do our best, in every way we can, to do what the Lord has told and commanded us to do, so that we may truly be faithful and worthy followers and disciples of His, in all circumstances and opportunities that He has provided us with. Let us all renew our commitment to do our best in being exemplary and faithful Christians, in everything that we say and do, and strive to be the inspirations and role models for our fellow Christians, and even also to any others, strangers and acquaintances, all those whom we encounter and interact with, at each and every moments of our lives. May the Lord continue to bless us all in our every good efforts and deeds, and may He, Our Lord and King, the King of all Creation and Universe, be with us always throughout this journey of life, so that in the end, when our lives in this world are over, we may come to Him worthily, to enjoy forever the fullness of His love and grace. Amen.

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Sunday, 26 November 2023 : Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Thirty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 25 : 31-46

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory with all His Angels, He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be brought before Him; and, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, so will He do with them, placing the sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left.”

“The King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, blessed of My Father! Take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed Me into your home. I was naked, and you clothed Me. I was sick, and you visited Me. I was in prison, and you came to see Me.’”

“Then the righteous will ask Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and give You food; thirsty, and give You something to drink; or a stranger, and welcome You; or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and go to see You?’ The King will answer, ‘Truly I say to you : just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it to Me.’”

“Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Go, cursed people, out of My sight, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you did not give Me anything to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not welcome Me into your house; I was naked, and you did not clothe Me; I was sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’”

“They, too, will ask, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, thirsty, naked or a stranger, sick or in prison, and did not help You?’ The King will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you : just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me.’ And these will go into eternal punishments; but the just, to eternal life.”