Psalm 99 : 2, 3, 5
Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God; He created us and we are His people, the sheep of His fold.
For the Lord is good; His love lasts forever and His faithfulness through all generations.
Christ did not die, but He lives. He did not die a death that lasts, since He was risen by God the Father from the land of the dead, as the firstborn from the dead, the first One to rise from death and conquer death itself, to prove that death does not have the final say, and neither Satan, the evil one, has final say over us, and all creation.
For Christ, through His death and then His resurrection, made all creations new, and He rejuvenated all of creation, by the shedding of His Most Precious Body and Blood, which He offered as a perfect and unblemished sacrifice that day on the cross on Calvary. The Lamb of God, the Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed for us, and has been found worthy, that we too, can be found worthy by God, our Father.
We are the sons and daughters of God, our Father, and therefore we should also be like our Father, who is good and perfect. Yet, sadly, we had been tainted by the evils of sin, by the disobedience of Adam our forefather, and Eve, his wife, being seduced by Satan, the deceiver. But God did not want us to suffer death and eternal separation from Himself, and He wants us to be once again worthy of Him who is good and perfect.
Christ became the new Adam who renewed mankind’s contract with God, by providing them with a new life through the Spirit, but this time, He completed and made perfect that union between God and mankind, sealed through His own blood, as He is fully man and fully divine, indivisible and one. Christ came so that we can have hope once again, of life in the Spirit. God breathed life into mankind by His Spirit, that is His breath, but mankind squandered that life and made it imperfect by their disobedience.
The Blood of the Lamb that is sacrificed on the cross justifies all those who believe in the One sent by God, that is Christ, once again, and made them whole, just like the days before the fall of mankind. He then was resurrected from the dead and became the living proof and truth of all that He Himself had brought and taught to all those who had listened to Him and His preaching,
Today, we commemorate the feast day of the two apostles of Christ, in both St. Philip and St. James, both of whom became His witnesses to the entire world. They preached the Good News of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, which are indeed Good News, for they brought the long-awaited redemption to all mankind who believes in God and in Christ, His Son.
St. Philip and St. James worked hard to spread the Good News of the Lord to the many peoples of their time, and they converted many to the cause of Christ. Philip once told and explained the Word of God to the emissary of the ruler of Ethiopia, and converted him through the word of God and baptism. They did many other good things, just as Christ Himself had said, that those who belong to God, will do just like what the Lord Himself had done, that is what Christ had done in His short life and ministry in this world.
St. James, who was also called James the Just, became the first leader of the Christians in Jerusalem, becoming its first bishop and was one of the most important leaders of early Christendom with Peter, the leader of all the apostles and disciples.
Both of them endured rejection, persecution, and intense suffering for their service of the Lord, and they ultimately faced death with courage, in their ministry and in their defense of their faith in God. They had done well in this earth, and were rewarded with eternal life with Christ that is their due. Brothers and sisters in Christ, can we follow in their footsteps? The footsteps of the apostles and many other holy men and women who had walked the same path in following the example of Christ in doing God’s commandments and what is good in His eyes?
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us strive to be more like these holy apostles, and follow in their footsteps, to be always courageous in proclaiming the Word of God and the Good News, to our fellow men, and to explain them to our brethren in faith, who are wavering in their faith in God. For in our world today, there is still a great need, if not greater than ever, for evangelisation, to bring light to many in our world, darkened by sin.
May God bless us and strengthen our faith and love, and may His holy apostles and saints pray for us and watch over us. Pray for us, St. Philip and St. James, apostles, that we may be more like you and can dedicate ourselves to Christ our Lord, ever more. Amen.
Today, we hear the words of Christ, that we all should love, just as Christ and His Father, our Lord have loved us, so then we should also love them back with all our hearts, our minds, and our souls. For love lies at the very centre of our faith in God, and it is in love that we truly can have faith in Christ. If we have no love in us, we can never be truly faithful to Christ and to God, for without love, we cannot possibly understand what they are doing and what they have done, for our sake, and for our own good.
Love one another as God has loved us. Indeed, it may seem to be easy for many to say that they can love, but in fact, love should not be taken for granted, for the ability to love is not as easily obtained as one would think, but true love require great dedication and effort, in order for love to be present, to be maintained, and to be able to flourish. Our world lacks love, and it is in this lack of love, that the many problems of our world can trace their roots from.
Have we followed Christ’s commandments, the commandments of love, to love one another as unconditionally as Christ had loved us? He died for all of us, by suffering on the way to Calvary and finally hung between the heaven and the earth, so that all of us may be saved from death that is our fate, and by His resurrection we can share in His life, that all of us will have eternal life in Him. This He offered to everyone, even to those who hated Him, and even to those who persecuted Him, and His people.
To be able to love is a great blessing to all of us. If we are able to learn more about love, and how to love, we will be able to transform ourselves, but indeed not just ourselves, but also those around us, and many other things surrounding us. Love is indeed the key to life, life eternal in God, both for ourselves and to those to whom we show and reflect God’s love.
Today, we celebrate the memorial and feast of a great saint, Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, who was one of the great early Church Fathers that helped to establish the Church of God, and strengthened the faith of the people of God, in the onslaught of heresies and heretical thoughts espoused by those who the devil had entrusted to destroy God’s Church. The devil hates love, and therefore, it is only natural that he will want to destroy the very place where love can still be found in this world, that is in the Church of God.
St. Athanasius defended the Church against the heretical teachings of Arius, the popular presbyter and preacher, who espoused the idea that Christ is not fully man and fully divine, and rather just as a man, a mere human, without divine qualities, as we believe in our Creed. St. Athanasius had to suffer exile and persecution due to his steadfast defense of the Lord and the true faith in God, against these heresies. Yet he prevailed, and due to his ceaseless efforts to bring many back to the true faith in God, he managed to prevail in the end, and bring back countless ones back into God’s Church and therefore into God’s love.
For we have to remember always that Christ is no mere human, for He is the Son of God, both fully human and fully divine at the same time. He is God, and with God since the beginning of time. And it was because of the great and infinite love that God has for all of us, that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be man like us, and in this great love, we are saved and are given chance for eternal life, if we would receive His divine love and that He is our Lord and God.
For if we believe that Christ is just mere human, then there would be no hope for all of us, all of us beloved by God and who place our trust in Christ. For a human’s blood has no power to free us from the chains of slavery of sin, which Satan has imposed on us, since the rebellion of our forefathers, Adam and Eve, our ancestors. But because Christ is God, and with God, one with He who created us, we have hope since the Lamb of God Himself shed His Precious Blood, that we can be saved, out of His great and infinite love for all His people.
Now that we know how much God has loved us, and how much He wants us to remain within His love and care, should we now then vow to our Lord and God, that we will love Him ever greater and ever more? Let us put our full trust in Him and follow in His ways, in the footsteps of St. Athanasius, the great defender of the true faith in Christ. St. Athanasius of Alexandria, pray for us. Amen.
John 15 : 9-11
As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Remain in My love! You will remain in My love if you keep My commandments, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.
I have told you all this, that My own joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.
Psalm 95 : 1-2a, 2b-3, 10
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, “The Lord reigns!” He will judge the peoples with justice.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we commemorate the great feast and memorial of St. Joseph, the foster father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. St. Joseph was well-known as a great and diligent worker, and as a good carpenter. He laboured hard to provide for the Holy Family, which consists of himself as the head of the family, Mary, the Mother of God, and of course, our Lord Jesus Christ, his foster-son.
St. Joseph is indeed a role model to all workers, to all who labour and toil for the sake of themselves, their families, and for those who are dear to them. Labour and pain had always been part and parcel of human life and nature, ever since our ancestors, Adam and Eve, rebelled against the will of God, by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge. They were punished with having to toil hard to survive in tough life on earth, having forsaken the easy and blissful life of heaven in Eden through their disobedience.
Yet, just like Mary, the Mother of God, whom through her perfect and unconditional obedience and surrender to the will of God, which allowed salvation to work through her and her Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, St. Joseph too, had a great role in the plan of salvation, in that, just as Christ is the new Adam who would reverse the sins of the first Adam, and bring mankind to salvation, St. Joseph, the foster-father of Christ, showed that he is an upright man, who endured with joy the labours and toils that he and his ancestors and all of us have to suffer for our rebellion.
St. Joseph the worker, worked hard and never complained. He remained an upright and just man, a man of strong principles and faith in God. He obeys and listens, just as how workers should be, and yet he is just and upright, and workers too should ensure that they are rightfully and justly treated, so as not to be manipulated by those who seek profit at the expense of these workers.
St. Joseph raised Jesus Christ, who was not his biological Son, but with love as great as any Father would and could show to their own child. His dedication to protect and bring up Jesus was truly evident, in how he helped to protect the child Jesus by the flight to Egypt, in order to avoid the persecution of Herod, and having to endure many tribulations in exile in Egypt, protecting our Lord from harm. He protected the Lord from the devil, whom through King Herod attempted to disturb the plan of salvation.
St. Joseph also taught the child Jesus on the importance of loving God in His life, by his guidance, and his bringing of Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for the festival, showing to Jesus His true Father in heaven, and bringing Him close to the Father who loves His Son. St. Joseph is therefore the great role model and patron for all of us, because in one way or another, we are all workers and labourers in the eyes of the Lord.
Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we often heard, that the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. For we are the labourers of Christ, harvesting the fruits of the divine works of evangelisation, and indeed, there are many opportunities in our world today for even more evangelisation, to bring the Good News and the Word of God, to many who have yet to receive them, all over the world.
We need more labourers who are like St. Joseph in appearance and in spirit. We need many more men who are dedicated to their cause like St. Joseph the great worker did. For there are many works for us to do, and there are still so much opportunities, for us to follow in the footsteps of St. Joseph, and in the footsteps of the apostles. Let us follow their holy and wonderful examples, of labour that is both fruitful and filled with God’s love, that will surely bear much fruit. Our world needs love and peace that only the Lord can offer. Can we then, help to fulfill this and made such a world a reality? Where love and peace of God reigns?
May God bless us and protect all of us, and may He guide us through life, that from the fruits of our labour, we may taste the sweet fruits of love and glory, just as St. Joseph did, and in doing so, honouring God our Lord. St. Joseph, patron of workers and all who labour, pray for us. Amen.
Acts 15 : 1-6
Some persons who had come from Judea to Antioch were teaching the brothers in this way, “Unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Because of this there was trouble, and Paul and Barnabas had fierce arguments with them. For Paul told the people to remain as they were when they became believers.
Finally those who had come from Jerusalem suggested that Paul and Barnabas and some others go up to Jerusalem to discuss the matter with the apostles and elders. They were sent on their way by the Church. As they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria they reported how the non-Jews had turned to God, and there was great joy among all the brothers and sisters.
On their arrival in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the Church, the apostles and elders, to whom they told all that God had done through them. Some believers, however, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees, stood up and said that non-Jewish men must be circumcised and instructed to keep the law of Moses. So the apostles and elders met together to consider this matter.
Alternative Reading (Mass of St. Joseph)
Genesis 1 : 26 – Genesis 2 : 3
God said, “Let us make man in Our image, to Our likeness. Let them rule over fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the wild animals, and over all creeping things that crawl along the ground.” So God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
God said, “I have given you every seed-bearing plant which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that bears fruit with seed. It will be for your food. To every wild animal, to every bird of the sky, to everything that creeps along the ground, to everything that has the breath of life, I give every green plant for food.” So it was.
God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning : the sixth day.
That was the way the sky and earth were created and all their vast array. By the seventh day the work God had done was completed, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work He had done. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day He rested from all the work He had done in His creation.
Alternative Reading (Mass of St. Joseph)
Colossians 3 : 14-15, 17, 23-24
Above all, clothe yourselves with love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. May the peace of Christ overflow in your hearts; for this end you were called to be one body. And be thankful.
And whatever you do or say, do it in the Name of Jesus, the Lord, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly, working for the Lord, and not for humans. You well know that the Lord will reward you with the inheritance. You are servants, but your Lord is Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the path to the service to God is not easy, and there will be many obstacles, but the Lord Himself will aid us in our great service to Him, through various ways, and He will never abandon us. He had shown His faith to us many times, especially to all those who love Him back too.
He gives all of us His peace, that is an everlasting peace, not the peace as we know it in this world, which is superficial peace, but true peace that transcends all our understandings, and all that we know about peace. For when we are together with Christ, we experience such a great joy and satisfaction that only God can give. This is the true peace that Christ gives us, if we would just believe in Him and put our trust entirely in Him.
Christ is always with us, even though we may think that He is no longer there. He is always with us, in our hearts, with us, and He walks with us, especially at the hardest times of our lives, when He is there, supporting us, and protecting all of us whom He loves, from harm and evil. Then let me tell you the well known story of the lone man and the Lord who walked together on the beach, and the footsteps on the sand.
A man walked on the beach with the Lord, walking side-by-side on the sandy beach, leaving their footprints behind. There are therefore two set of footprints on the sand, one of which belongs to the man, and the other which belongs to the Lord. All is fine until difficult times face the man, who then looked back at the sand, and saw only a single set of footsteps.
He then began saying bad things about the Lord and complained at how God has abandoned him in the times of his greatest need, and at bad times. But the Lord was not angry with him, and instead tell the man gently, that whenever the man is in bad times, there are only a single set of footsteps, not because God has abandoned him, but it is because God carries the man on His back, and that footsteps is the Lord’s.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our God, our Lord loves us, very much, so much that He wanted to come down to us, to be human like us, and to be simple and humble servant of God’s children, and to suffer the ultimate suffering and death on the cross. The suffering of Christ is real, and the cross is real, for through the cross, we have been removed from death that is our due, because of our ancestors’ and our rebellion against the love of God.
We had been ransomed from death by the blood of the Lamb, who is Christ, and through His resurrection by God His Father, and our Father, He restored us to life, and promised, and indeed granted all of us who believe in Him, eternal life, that is true life that is of Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in complete and perfect union with Him who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Just as the cross is real, the resurrected and Risen Lord is real too, and it is in His resurrection that we placed our complete faith, that through Him we are redeemed and chosen by God to live forever in eternal bliss in His love.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our mission today is to continue the works of the holy Apostles and disciples of the Lord, that through us, the Good News of our Lord will continue to spread and reach many, especially those who did not yet have the chance to receive the message, and those to whom the Word of God had been an annoyance.
Never give up to spread the Good News, to all people, to all nations. We have to persevere for the sake of the salvation of our brethren, our fellow brothers, children of the same, One True, and real God. God walks among us today, and He is within us. His real Presence in the Eucharist that we receive in the Mass allow Him to make our own beings into His Holy Temples, where He resides, and through Him, we receive the Holy Spirit that empowers us.
Be renewed by the Holy Spirit, and by the great zeal for the love for God and all His people. Today we also commemorate the feast day of Pope St. Pius V, a great reformer of the Church, who lived at the difficult times of the early modern era Church, when the Church was assailed by multiple opponents and difficulties, from the Protestant ‘reformers’ and from the Muslim threat of the growing Ottoman Empire. Many true Christians and children of God were martyred during these difficult and turbulent times.
Yet Pope St. Pius V did not give up, and he continued to persevere, with complete trust in the divine providence, to whom He entrusted the Church of God, and eventually God showed that He indeed supported the Church, just like how the Lord supported the man in his difficult times, that he only saw a single set of footsteps. And therefore, the Lord walks with the Church, and He protected the Church of God through that difficult time, and eventually the Christians scored a major victory against the Muslim Ottomans at Lepanto, and crushed their oppression on many Christians forevermore, which Pope St. Pius V commemorated by establishing the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Many souls too returned to salvation through the Church, and many returned to the true faith in God. Through his completion of the Counter-Reformation reforms and the Council of Trent, he helped to rejuvenate the Church and return the faith into a strong and glorious position once again.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us remember today, that our God is with us, and that He loves us, and He will always want to protect us, if we remain faithful to Him. Be faithful, and be courageous, and let God do wonders with our life. Let us follow in the courageous examples of Pope St. Pius V, that we can also be light to the nations, to be like the disciples of Christ, to bring the Good News and salvation to all mankind. Pope St. Pius V, pray for us. Amen.
John 14 : 21-26
“Whoever keeps My commandments is the one who loves Me. If he loves Me, He will also be loved by My Father; I too shall love Him and show Myself clearly to Him.”
Judas – not Judas Iscariot – asked Jesus, “Lord, how can it be that You will show Yourself clearly to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him; and we will come to him and make a room in his home.”
“But if anyone does not love Me; he will not keep My words; and these words that you hear are not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. I told you all this while I was still with you. From now on the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I have told you.”
God is love, this is the fundamental and the most basic nature of our Lord and God, my dear brothers and sisters. For love is the centre of being of our God, for His love is infinite, and in His infinite and boundless love, He willingly sacrificed Himself that all of us, unworthy and sinful mankind, may be saved from the eternal separation from Himself.
It may not be easy to see God in our daily lives today, since God is no longer walking among us, just as He did at the time of the disciples, to whom He appeared often after His resurrection. But do we then abandon God in the search of something more tangible, for something more real? That is why many of the faithful in Christ had lapsed in their faith in God, simply because they had been allured by the evil one and his myriad tools that he used to lure mankind away from God.
There are many means that the devil had used in his attempts to corrupt mankind, by offering many seemingly better alternatives to God, whom he tried to portray to many as being boring and inexistent. Instead, men loves his creations, that of worldly goods, wealth, affluence, and other false idols, solely aimed at the separation of men from God, and the ruination of Christ’ salvific mission in this world.
But Satan will never succeed, for God will ultimately triumph, and despite all the plots and the devices that Satan had used in his attempts to deceive mankind, God’s love and faith in us will be a key weapon in the fight against the devil and his fallen angels, who ceaselessly tried to divert us from the true path towards the Lord.
There are indeed many false gods and idols that our world offer us all today, my brothers and sisters, most obvious of which is money and material possessions, which many of us desire to the point of worshipping them instead of God, to whom only all honour and glory should go. Many of us are so embroiled and involved in our pursuit for success and wealth, that we forgot that the Lord is always with us. We enjoy the company of money and material goods more than we do for the Lord.
How many of us find it a great chore to just go and attend the Sunday Mass to worship our Lord? and how many of us then spend so much time in our career and our work, and in the attempt to secure more pay and more money? And even worse are those who employ underhanded and illegal means to secure these wealth and possessions, that is through corruption and nepotism, which had marred many of our high ranking politicians, businessmen, and many other people, and do not be mistaken that this happens only on the top, since corruption and all these vices also exist in the bottom rung of the society, with many of us seduced by the allure of money, and became obsessed in attaining more of it, that we forget the Lord and His love.
The Lord Himself had said, that we should not worry about our lives and what we are to have in our daily lives, since God Himself will provide all that we need, just like how He provided for the animals and other beings that He had created. For mankind, especially, there had been a blurring of distinctions between what we want, and what we truly need for our lives. Too often we seek something that we do not actually need, but out of our insatiable desire for things that we want to have.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us take a step back from our mindless pursuits of wealth, affluence, fame, and material possessions. Seek not what can bring us glory in this world, but seek for the true glory in heaven instead. How to do so? By loving one another as the Lord has loved us, just as He had commanded the apostles to do so. Love is the core tenet of our faith, since our very salvation is anchored on the great and infinite love that God has for us, that He wanted to endure death for our sake, that we may live.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us strive to love one another ever greater, and put love manifested in all our words, our thoughts, and our actions, that whenever we do something, or say something, or think of something, love will always form the core of our speech, our decisions, and our actions. Remember that God is love, and by doing so, we have already obeyed God’s will and commandments, allowing even others to see our actions and believe in the Lord, saving more people for Christ who died for them.
Let us pray, that we can be ever more loving and more compassionate in our society, helping those who are weakest and the least there, and reaching out to all in need, both physically and spiritually, that God’s love will be made manifest in this world, through us, and through our actions. May God bless all of us. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 