kingdom of Israel

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Wednesday, 17 December 2014 : Third Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple or Violet

Genesis 49 : 1-2, 8-10

Jacob then called his sons and said, “Gather round, sons of Jacob. And listen to your father Israel!”

“Judah, your brothers will praise you! You shall seize your enemies by the neck! Your father’s sons shall bow before you. Judah, a young lion! You return from the prey, my son! Like a lion he stoops and crouches, and like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?”

“The sceptre shall not be taken from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs, and who has the obedience of the nations.”

 

Homily and Reflection :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/12/16/wednesday-17-december-2014-third-week-of-advent-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

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Sunday, 5 October 2014 : 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Isaiah 5 : 1-7

Let me sing for my Beloved the love song of my Beloved about His vineyard. My Beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up, cleared the stones, and planted the choicest vines. He built there a watchtower and hewed out a winepress as well. Then He looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only wild grapes.

Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard. What more was there to do that I have not done for My vineyard? Good grapes was the yield I expected, why did it yield only sour grapes?

Now I will let you know what I am going to do with My vineyard : I will remove its hedge and it will be burnt; I will break down its wall and it will be trampled on. I will make it a wasteland, I will neither prune nor hoe it, and briars and thorns will grow there. I command the clouds, as well, not to send rain on it.

The vineyard of YHVH Sabaoth is the people of Israel, and the people of Judah are His pleasant vine. He looked for justice, but found bloodshed; He looked for righteousness but heard cries of distress.

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Wednesday, 16 July 2014 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of our Lady of Mount Carmel (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Marian feasts)

Isaiah 10 : 5-7, 13-16

Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger, the staff of My fury! Against a godless nation I send him, against a people who provoke My wrath I dispatch him, to plunder and pillage, to tread them down like mud in the streets. But the mind of his king is far from this, his heart harbours other thoughts; what he wants is to destroy, to make an end of all nations.

For the king says : “By my own strength I have done this and by my own wisdom, for I am clever. I have moved the frontiers of peoples, I have plundered treasures, I have brought inhabitants down to the dust, I have toppled kings from their thrones.”

“As one reaches into a nest, so my hands have reached into nations’ wealth. As one gathers deserted eggs, so have I gathered the riches of the earth. No one flapped a wing or opened its mouth to chirp a protest.”

“Does the axe claim more credit than the man who wields it? Does the saw magnify itself more than the one who uses it? This would be like a rod wielding the man who lifts it up; will those not made of wood, be controlled by the cudgel? Therefore the Lord, YHVH Sabaoth, is ready to send a wasting sickness upon the king’s sturdy warriors. Beneath His plenty, a flame will burn like a consuming fire.

Alternative reading (Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Zechariah 2 : 14-17

“Sing and rejoice, o daughter of Zion, for I am about to come, I shall dwell among you,” says YHVH. “On that day, many nations will join YHVH and be My people, but My dwelling is among you.”

The people of Judah will be for YHVH as His portion in His holy land. He will choose Jerusalem again. Keep still in YHVH’s presence, for He comes, having risen from His holy dwelling.

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Tuesday, 8 July 2014 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Hosea 8 : 4-7, 11-13

Without My approval they set up kings and without My blessing appointed leaders. With their silver and gold they fashioned idols to their own ruin.

To Me, Samaria, your calf is loathsome and My anger blazes against you. How long will you remain defiled? The calf is yours, Israel, a craftsman has made it; it is not God and will be broken into pieces.

As they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind. Like the erect ear of corn they will bear no grain and produce no flour, or if they do, foreigners will devour it.

Ephraim built many altars but his altars made him more guilty. I wrote out for him the numerous precepts of My Law, but they look on them as coming from foreigners. They offer sacrifices to Me because they are those who eat the meat, but YHVH does not accept their sacrifices for He is mindful of their sin and remembers their wickedness. They will return to Egypt.

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Saturday, 5 July 2014 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (First Reading)

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

Amos 9 : 11-15

“On that day I shall restore the fallen hut of David and wall up its breaches and raise its ruined walls and so build it as in days of old. They shall conquer the remnant of Edom and the neighbouring nations upon which My Name has been called.” Thus says YHVH, the One who will do this.

YHVH says also, “The days are coming when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes overtake the sower. The mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the hills shall melt. I shall bring back the exiles of My people Israel; they will rebuild the desolate cities and dwell in them.”

“They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will have orchards and eat their fruit. I shall plant them in their own country and they shall never again be rooted up from the land which I have given them,” says YHVH your God.

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Friday, 20 June 2014 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings from the Scripture tell us a strong message that God wants all of us to know. He wants us to realise that we should not crave for human glory and power, or in any form of worldly glory and earthly recognition, but rather instead, we should rely on the Lord and on His precepts, building up our spiritual account rather than piling up our earthly and material wealth.

It is not necessarily wrong for us to gain and accumulate wealth or possession, as the material and the goods themselves are neutral and are capable indeed for both good and evil, as I have often mentioned. We do need them to satisfy the basic needs of our life, and we also can use them to accomplish many good things for others around us.

The problem and the danger comes when we begin to lose sight on the purpose of our lives and the purpose of what we have with us. We end up succumbing to our own personal emotions and human vulnerabilities, which end up in us committing sins before men and before God. Such is what had happened in the first reading that we heard today, on the story of the rise and fall of Queen Athaliah of Judea.

Queen Athaliah was the wife of King Joram of Judea, who met his end together with King Ahaziah of the northern kingdom of Israel, when God meted out His punishment to the house of Ahab, who had brought much wickedness to the northern kingdom. With the death of the king, then one of his sons should have taken over his position as king of Judea. However, as we saw and heard, that was not how things turned out to be.

Queen Athaliah decided to take matters and power into her own hands. As she was not of the House of David, she had absolutely no right to rule in her own right as the Queen of Judea. Yet, she did what she did, and she took power into her own hands after murdering many sons and children of her husband the deceased king, and then installed herself in power, thinking that she had removed all obstacles and were then secure.

Her example was a clear-cut example of how things will go if we allow pride and human desire, in our greed and want, to take over our being, our heart, mind and soul. It corrupted her and many other people throughout history, causing them to fall into the trap of power which the devil had set up to attack us at our most vulnerable, that is our pride, ego and our desire.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must not let our pride, ego and desire to get the better of us, and we have to learn to control them, so that we may avoid what had happened to men and women throughout the centuries, as exemplified by Queen Athaliah, making them to fall into sin and committing things evil in the sight of God and mankind. We must forgo our pride and allow God to come into our love, and speak within our hearts. We have to listen to Him and find out what His will is for us.

In our world today, we are inundated with many things of the world, where achievements, glories, and the power among men are preeminent. Those who have more of all these will receive human approval and praise, and those who have less or none of those will be looked down upon and rejected by the society. This is the hard reality of the world we are living in now.

So what are we to do, brothers and sisters? What should we do? Most importantly, we need to do something that many of us had often not done, in the midst of our busy life schedules, that is to pray, and pray genuinely to the Lord our God. This prayer is not just empty prayers and a prayer without meaning or understanding. A prayer is a conversation with God, a two-way conversation in which we speak with God and He speaks with us.

That is how we should act, to bring ourselves ever closer to God and keeping ourselves always in touch with Him, and there is no better way to do this other than through prayer. Yes, prayer that is made with the heart and through the heart, when we open the doors of our hearts and minds to God who then may keep in touch with us and touch our heart with His love.

May the Lord guide us in our ways and our lives, so that we may not follow the path of decadence and evil, controlling our emotions and avoid falling into the temptation of power and pride, and give ourselves totally to God’s love and providence. May He bless us all always and forever. Amen.

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Thursday, 29 May 2014 : Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 1 : 1-11

In the first part of my work, Theophilus, I wrote of all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when He ascended to heaven. But first He had instructed through the Holy Spirit the Apostles He had chosen. After His passion, He presented Himself to them, giving many signs that He was alive; over a period of forty days He appeared to them and taught them concerning the kingdom of God.

Once when He had been eating with them, He told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the fulfillment of the Father’s promise about which I have spoken to you : John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit within a few days.”

When they had come together, they asked Him, “Is it now that You will restore the Kingdom of Israel?” And He answered, “It is not for you to know the time and the steps that the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth.”

After Jesus said this, He was taken up before their eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight. While they were still looking up to heaven where He went, suddenly, two men dressed in white stood beside them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, will return in the same way as you have seen Him go there.”

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Monday, 28 April 2014 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis M. Grignion de Montfort, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 4 : 23-31

As soon as Peter and John were set free, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard it, they raised their voices as one and called upon God, “Sovereign Lord, Maker of heaven and earth, of the sea and everything in them, You have put these words in the mouth of David, our father and Your servant, through the Holy Spirit : ‘Why did the pagan nations rage and the people conspire in folly? The kings of the earth were aligned and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against His Messiah.'”

“For indeed in this very city Herod with Pontius Pilate, and the pagans together with the people of Israel conspired against Your Holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed. Thus, indeed, they brought about whatever Your powerful will had decided from all time would happen.”

“But now, Lord, see their threats against us and enable Your servants to speak Your word with all boldness. Stretch out Your hand to heal and to work signs and wonders through the Name of Jesus Your holy Servant.”

When they had prayed, the place where they were gathered together shook, and they were all filled with Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.

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Saturday, 12 April 2014 : 5th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Ezekiel 37 : 21-28

You will then say to them : Thus says YHVH : I am about to withdraw the Israelites from where they were among the nations, I shall gather them from all around and bring them back to their land. I shall make them into one people on the mountains of Israel and one king is to be king of them all. They will no longer form two nations or be two separate kingdoms, nor will they defile themselves again with their idols, their detestable practices and their sins.

I shall free them from the guilt of their treachery; I shall cleanse them and they will be for Me a people and I shall be God for them. My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all. They will live according to My laws and follow and practice My decrees. They will settle in the land I gave to My servant Jacob where their ancestors lived. There they will live forever, their children and their children’s children. David My servant will be their prince forever.

I shall establish a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant. I shall settle them and they will increase and I shall put My sanctuary in their midst forever. I shall make My home at their side; I shall be their God and they will be My people. Then the nations will know that I am YHVH who makes Israel holy, having My sanctuary among them forever.

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Monday, 24 March 2014 : 3rd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

2 Kings 5 : 1-15a

Naaman was the army commander of the king of Aram. This man was highly regarded and enjoyed the king’s favour, for YHVH had helped him lead the army of the Arameans to victory. But this valiant man was sick with leprosy.

One day some Aramean soldiers raided the land of Israel and took a young girl captive who became a servant to the wife of Naaman. She said to her mistress, “If my master would only present himself to the prophet in Samaria, he would surely cure him of his leprosy.”

Naaman went to tell the king what the young Israelite maidservant had said. The king of Aram said to him, “Go to the prophet, and I shall also send a letter to the king of Israel.”

So Naaman went and took with him ten gold bars, six thousand pieces of silver and ten festal garments. On his arrival, he delivered the letter to the king of Israel. It said, “I present my servant Naaman to you that you may heal him of his leprosy.”

When the king had read the letter, he tore his clothes to show his indignation, “I am not God to give life or death. And the king of Aram sends me this man to be healed! You see he is just looking for an excuse for war.”

Elisha, the man of God, came to know that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, so he sent this message to him : “Why have you torn your clothes? Let the man come to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.”

So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stopped before the house of Elisha. Elisha then sent a messenger to tell him, “Go to the river Jordan and wash seven times, and your flesh shall be as it was before, and you shall be cleansed.”

Naaman was angry, so he went away. He thought : “On my arrival, he should have personally come out, and then paused and called on the Name of YHVH, his God. And he should have touched with his hand the infected part, and I would have been healed. Are the rivers of Damascus, Abana and Pharpar not better than all the rivers of the land of Israel? Could I not wash there to be healed?”

His servants approached him and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had ordered you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? But how much easier when he said : Take a bath and you will be cleansed.”

So Naaman went down to the Jordan where he washed himself seven times as Elisha had ordered. His skin became soft like that of a child and he was cleansed. Then Naaman returned to the man of God with all his men.