labourers of the Lord

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Friday, 18 October 2024 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

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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(Usus Antiquior) Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 16 November 2014 : Epistle

Lectio Epistolae Beati Pauli Apostoli ad Philippenses – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Philippians

Philippians 3 : 17-21 and Philippians 4 : 1-3

Fratres : Imitatores mei estote, et observate eos, qui ita ambulant, sicut habetis formam nostram. Multi enim ambulant, quos saepe dicebam vobis (nunc autem et flens dico) inimicos Crucis Christi : quorum finis interitus : quorum Deus venter est : et gloria in confusione ipsorum, qui terrena sapiunt.

Nostra autem conversatio in caelis est : unde etiam Salvatorem exspectamus, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, qui reformabit corpus humilitatis nostrae, configuratum corpori claritatis suae, secundum operationem, qua etiam possit subjicere sibi omnia.

Itaque, fratres mei carissimi et desideratissimi, gaudium meum et corona mea : sic state in Domino, carissimi. Evodiam rogo et Syntychen deprecor idipsum sapere in Domino. Etiam rogo et te, germane compar, adjuva illas, quae mecum laboraverunt in Evangelio cum Clemente et ceteris adjutoribus meis, quorum nomina sunt in libro vitae.

English translation

Brethren, may all of you be my followers, and observe those who walk so as you have our model. For many walk, of whom I have often told you (and now tell you weeping) that they are enemies of the Cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

But our conversation is in heaven; from where we also look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of His glory, according to the operation whereby He is also able to subdue all things unto Himself.

Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and most desired, my joy and my crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beg of Evodia, and I beseech Syntyche to be of one mind in the Lord, and I entreat you also, my sincere companion, help those women who have laboured with me in the Gospel with Clement and the rest of my fellow labourers, whose names are in the book of life.

 

Homily and Reflection :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/14/usus-antiquior-twenty-third-sunday-after-pentecost-ii-classis-sunday-16-november-2014-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

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Monday, 22 September 2014 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the lesson for us today from the Holy Scriptures we have heard is exceedingly clear, that we have to do something and take action, if we are able to do that something, for the benefit of those who are around us, and not just for our own benefits. We cannot be idle or ignorant especially if we have the power to make a difference. We certainly have this power, as God had granted it to us. If we are idle, then the Lord who knows it all, will not be pleased at our actions, or lack of actions.

We cannot have a faith that is stagnant and consists of mere word of mouth and lip-service. And we cannot have that kind of faith in which we are merely concerned about our own salvation. This kind of selfishness and this kind of faith will not be acceptable to the Lord. He had clearly indicated to us the kind of faith and love that we need to have, which is to love one another as we have loved ourselves, and to also love God in the same way, with all of our strengths and our dedications.

Our faith must therefore be based on this love, which we ought to have for God and for our fellow men. If not, then our faith is no different from being dead. It is precisely as what Jesus had said to His disciples, that this kind of faith is like those who has lighted a lamp but hide it under the bed or cover it with a bowl, in which the light of the lamp becomes useless and meaningless.

Those who committed evil and bad things in the sight of God, and also those who fail to do things which we ought to do, in our ignorance and laziness, as according to the words of the Book of Proverbs, will receive the wrath and displeasure of the Lord, as these have not done what He had asked us to do, and in our failure, we may have led many people who should have been saved, into darkness and condemnation together with us.

But God did promise also, that those who do His will faithfully and committed themselves to His cause will receive rich rewards and bountiful blessings for their work and dedication. God will not abandon those who had been faithful to Him, and who had undertaken the endeavours to bring more and more to the embrace of God and out of condemnation and the path to hell.

God knows everything, whatever we do, and whatever we have done in our lives, and whatever we have failed to do. We cannot hide anything from God who is omniscient and omnipresent, and who knows all things even in the depths of our hearts. Every moment we fail to do something for the benefit of our brethren, or instead if we bring them into sin, then it is a missed opportunity for us to do as what God had told us to do, and therefore is a missed opportunity for us to add another security to our salvation.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, what we are expected today from now on, is so that all of us can be heralds of the Lord’s Good News, spreading the truth and the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we had ourselves received, to the world and to the people, especially those who are still lost from the Lord, so that through our deeds and actions, we may be justified in our faith and therefore gain salvation promised to us by the Lord our God.

And at the same time, we may also help one another in our effort to seek the Lord and to attain salvation, such that in the end, we hope that no one shall be lost to the darkness and to evil. Indeed, the reality is that there are those who have been lost and there are also those who will be lost, because they continue to rebel against the Lord and refuse to listen to the words and to obey the works of the saints regardless of what had been done to them.

Let us all therefore work together as one people, one family in the Lord, helping one another, especially those who are in great need for the saving grace of our good works, that in the end, as many souls as possible can be saved and gain justification together with us. No one should be lost to the darkness, and more importantly, if we are capable of doing something to prevent the loss of these good souls, and we do nothing, then we are indeed responsible for their downfall and damnation.

May Almighty God be with us all, and may He give us strength and courage to do something for the sake and benefit of our brethren in need, that whenever it is within our power to do so, we should never be idle, but take a conscious action for their sake. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 11 May 2014 : 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday and World Day of Prayer for Vocations (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Fear not, brothers and sisters in Christ! And be confident in Christ, everyone! Indeed, if we put our trust in the Lord, we have no reason to fear, for God is with us and He is on our side. God is the Good Shepherd who knows all of His sheep and who loves every single one of His sheep equally. He is genuinely concerned about each one of us, and He seeks none other than our reconciliation and reunion with Him.

Yes, the Lord will care for us and take care for us, and He will provide us everything we need, just as He had provided us with plentiful graces all these while. He knows each and every one of us, and thus, He also knows of our needs. He is not like Satan, the one who is the robber and the thief, who came pretending to be someone whom we can follow, who pretended to be our shepherd while he is not.

For Satan has in his disposal all the powers of the world, all of the wealth and riches that he can have and marshall at a whim, and to those of us who falls into his temptations, Satan offered mankind much pleasures of the world and things that help us to keep away from the path God had designed for us. But he does not care for us, for he is the false shepherd. In fact, it pleases him to see us stumble and suffer as a consequence of our waywardness by following him.

God is our true shepherd, because He leads by example. He showed us His love not just by mere sweet words or empty promises, as Satan had done and will continue to do, in his attempt to seduce us to follow his false path. God led by example and showed us concrete care and love, through none other than Jesus Christ, His own Son, whom He sent to us to be with us, and to walk among us, as our Shepherd, to guide us from where we err and from where we are lost.

If we follow Jesus, we can be sure that we will not be lost. If we follow Him with all of our hearts, we can only prosper and be happy. God has prepared all that we need before us, and He set out to bring us back into His flock. Yes, we are His lost sheep, lost in the wilderness and the darkness of this world. If we remember the parable of the shepherd and the lost sheep, we know how much effort the shepherd put in, in order to regain the lost one.

Such was therefore, the same effort which the Lord God our Shepherd put in, to find us and return us back into His loving embrace. Yes, to the point of giving Himself to us, dedicating His works which He made through Jesus, and going all the way to Calvary, enduring all the rejection and oppression just so that we may be saved. Such was His love for us, that He was willing to go through all that trouble for us.

The way to Calvary is the pathway of suffering, when our Lord and Shepherd endured for our sake the punishments. Always remember that whenever we look upon the crucifix, the Shepherd who is so dedicated to us, His sheep, that He laid down His life for us. Remember again, brethren! Jesus did not just make any empty promises or words. He truly meant what He said when He mentioned that a good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep.

Jesus gave Himself for us that we may avoid our fate that is death. If this is likened to sheep in a flock, it is like the sheep being threatened by certain death when wolves prey on them. And this is when the shepherd comes in between the sheep and the wolves, shielding them from harm, and while the shepherd is injured to the point of death, he also routed and killed the wolves, so that no more harm will come to the sheep.

But what is different is that for our case, the shepherd who gave his life for us, and who died for our sins, did not remain dead, but rose from the dead in glory, and in doing so, He became the guide who led us out of the darkness and into the light of new life, just as the shepherd leads the sheep into the eternal spring of life-giving and crystal-clear water. In the green pastures the shepherd let the sheep roam free in joy and happiness. Such is the promise of new life that Christ grant unto us.

Today we rejoice in the Lord who is our Good Shepherd, and who has done so much for us, His sheep. But not only just that, in His place, He had appointed many shepherds to care for us in His stead, as His representatives and the extension of His hands’ works in this world. These shepherds are our priests, bishops, the Cardinals, and eventually the Pope, the vicar of Christ and the chief among Christ’s appointed shepherds.

Today we pray for vocations to this office of shepherds. We pray for more young men, to be motivated to heed the call of the Lord for those who had been called and chosen by God to be His helpers and assistants in guiding and leading His people in the path towards righteousness. We pray for more vocations to arise among our young men today, that they be inspired to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles.

Indeed, it is even more urgent these days, and how true is the saying, that the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. This world has much opportunities for us to do the great works of the Lord, but increasingly, there are fewer and fewer workers of the Lord available to take care of His ever growing flock of sheep and wider pastures.

Less and less men are attracted to this vocation, as they are lured and tempted by the sweet offers of the pleasures of this world, through which Satan intends to do harm to us, by attacking the shepherds of the flock. Without the shepherds, the sheep will be scattered and become easy prey to the works of the devil, the waiting, ever-hungry wolves seeking to devour us, the sheep.

May God therefore awaken in the hearts of many people, and including those among us whom He had chosen to be His shepherds, that we may accept His calling with great humility and dedication, for the sake and the good of our brethren, our fellow men. May God bless us all, and strengthen our faith in Him, empowering us to be His faithful followers. Amen.