martyrdom

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Monday, 20 January 2014 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Memorial of Pope St. Fabian, Pope and Martyr, and St. Sebastian, Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green and Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 49 : 8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23

Not for your sacrifices do I reprove you, for your burnt offerings are ever before Me. I need no bull from your stalls, nor he-goat from your pens.

What right have you to mouth My laws, or to talk about My covenant? You hate My commands and cast My words behind you.

Because I was silent while you did these things, you thought I was like you. But now I rebuke you and make this charge against you. Those who give with thanks offerings honour Me, but the one who walks blamelessly, I will show him the salvation of God.

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Monday, 20 January 2014 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Memorial of Pope St. Fabian, Pope and Martyr, and St. Sebastian, Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green and Red (Martyrs)

1 Samuel 15 : 16-23

Samuel then told Saul, “Enough! Let me tell you what YHVH said to me last night.” Saul replied, “Please tell me.” So Samuel went on and said, “Though you had no confidence in yourself, you became chief of the tribes of Israel, for YHVH wanted to anoint you king over Israel.”

“Then He sent you with this command, ‘Go. Completely crush the Amalekite offenders, engaging them in battle until they are destroyed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of YHVH but instead swooped down on the spoil, doing what was evil in His sight?”

To this, Saul replied, “I have obeyed the voice of YHVH and have carried out the mission for which He sent me. I have captured Agag, king of Amalek and completely destroyed the Amalekites. If my men spared the best sheep and oxen from among those to be destroyed, it was in order to sacrifice them to YHVH, your God, in Gilgal.”

Samuel then said, “Does YHVH take as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obedience to His command? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission better than the fat of rams. Rebellion is like the sin of divination, and stubbornness like holding onto idols. Since you have rejected the word of YHVH, He too has rejected you as king.”

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Saturday, 28 December 2013 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Jealousy and greed for power, as well as the fear of losing it, are just a few of the evil afflictions that affect mankind, and which many of us had succumbed to, many, many times. These evil afflictions affect us, because we have been made vulnerable to them, ever since our ancestors opened the way to sin through their disobedience to the Lord.

Today, as we continue into the Christmas season, and continue with the festivities and revelries, and all the joy and happiness that we have among us, all the gift exchanges and partying, we must not remember a great tragedy which we all remember on this day, that is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a great tragedy that is filled with sorrow and wickedness of mankind.

On this day, we remember the great and merciless slaughter of the innocent infants of Bethlehem, the city of David, where our Lord Jesus was born. King Herod the Great, the then Roman appointed King of Israel and Judea, was so fearful and jealous of the authority and power of the promised King of Israel, the true King of kings, Jesus the Messiah, that he resolved to kill this Messiah, before the kingdom that was his is usurped from him.

You can clearly see this king’s hubris, jealousy and arrogance, that even though he knew about the coming of the Messiah, he was unwilling to part with his own authority and power and give it to the coming King. He was foolish and short-sighted, one which certainly brought him down to the deepest depth of hell. You see what desperation, fear, and wickedness can bring to men.

Yes, they brought downfall to man, and they bring nothing but death and destruction. And it is often that the innocent ones are the ones to suffer, such as what happened in Bethlehem. One may ask why God did not intervene in the case of what has happened, but indeed, if we look at it again, God gave everyone a free will to follow what he thinks is best to be done. One can choose to follow the Lord and be righteous, or give in to their human vulnerabilities and embrace what is evil and wicked.

And those infants were innocent, and Herod massacred them in order to ensure the continuation of his own power and authority. He took the quick way out of problems, and did not regard even the sanctity of human lives. Those innocent infants also deserved to live. They therefore, were holy martyrs of the faith by the virtue of their innocence. They were the victims of humanity’s disdain for the sanctity of life.

Today we all remember these Holy Innocents, whose massacre is a reality amidst the joy and the festivities surrounding Christmas. And that is why we have to always remember that Christmas is about life. Yes, the sanctity of life, which is also often under attack in today’s society, especially by those championing for the culture of death.

That is right, on this day, on this era, thousands of even unborn infants or more are being killed on daily basis. You all know about the controversy, and the voices crying out for and against the practice of abortion. It is sad indeed, that even among us who believe in the Lord, the source of life, even some of us agree, or participate in the killing of the innocents, either by our actions or by our silence.

Hence, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate Christmas, never forget that we have to celebrate life, and we cannot forget about the massacre of the innocents that had happened, and what is happening even now. Life is sacred, brethren, as is it not Jesus who came into this world that we may have life eternal. We cannot profess to be Christians and yet treat life as something trivial. It is a gift from God to all of us.

May the Lord therefore continue to inflame in us, the love for Him, as well as the love for all of God’s creations, treating with honour everyone, even to the least of all, the poorest of all, and the weakest of all, to the smallest of infants. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 28 December 2013 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 2 : 13-18

After the wise men had left, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon be looking for the Child in order to kill Him.”

Joseph got up, took the child and His mother, and left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. In this way, what the Lord had said through the prophet was fulfilled : ‘I called My son out of Egypt.”

When Herod found out that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighbourhood who were two years old or under. This was done in line with what he had learnt from the wise men about the time when the star appeared.

In this way, what the prophet Jeremiah had said was fulfilled : ‘A cry is heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation : Rachel weeps for her children. She refuses to be comforted, for they are no more.’

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Saturday, 28 December 2013 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 123 : 2-3, 4-5, 7b-8

Had not the Lord been on our side, when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive; such was their anger against us.

A bit more and the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away.

The snare was broken and we were freed. Our help is in the Name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

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Saturday, 28 December 2013 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 John 1 : 5 – 1 John 2 : 2

We heard His message from Him and announce it to you : God is Light and there is no darkness in Him. If we say we are in fellowship with Him, while we walk in darkness, we lie instead of being in truth.

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we are in fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, purifies us from all sin. If we say, “We have no sin,” we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness.

If we say that we do not sin, we make God a liar, His word is not in us. My little children, I write to you that you may not sin. But if anyone sins, we have an intercessor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Just One. He is the sacrificial victim for our sins and the sins of the whole world.

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Thursday, 26 December 2013 : Feast of St. Stephen, Protomartyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast day of the first martyr of the faith, that is St. Stephen, known also as the Protomartyr or simply the first martyr in Greek. We celebrate today the memory of this great and zealous defender of the faith, the very first one to gave up his life for the sake of Jesus the Lord.

Many of you may ask, why do we suddenly and so quickly jump from the joyous celebrations of Christmas into the sombre celebration of one’s death, a martyr of the faith no less? That is because St. Stephen died not for nothing, but because he gave up his life as an example to the faithful, that we should never ever leave behind or abandon the true joy of Christmas in Jesus.

St. Stephen met his death because he rebuked harshly the Pharisees and the chief priests who were judging him, because of their lack of faith in Jesus, and because of their compliance in killing the very One sent by God to deliver everyone from sin and death, themselves included. He met his death because he spoke the truth, about the Lord who came to save His people in Jesus, the joy and glory we celebrate on Christmas day.

Therefore it is no less fitting that we celebrate in honour of this saint who had courageously defended the Christ who was reviled, rejected, and cast out by His own beloved people. He did not fear man but God alone. And he truly followed the way of the Lord, imitating even Jesus in death. Remember that Jesus forgave His executioners and those who condemned Him, asking the Father not to punish them for what they had done? What St. Stephen had done was essentially the same thing.

We rejoice in the Lord at Christmas, and we celebrate with great joy and festivities, but have we put Christ at the centre of our joy and our celebrations? Or have we forgotten entirely about Him in our festivities? We cannot be Christians if we do not put Christ at the centre of our lives, just as we cannot have Christmas if we do not put Christ at the heart of what we are celebrating.

To be Christian is to follow what St. Stephen had done, maybe not into martyrdom as what had happened to him, but in terms of zealous and unchanging faith, even in the midst of persecution and societal pressure for us to do otherwise. It is sad to see how many of the faithful have changed their views of the faith, and even the faith that they have itself, to accommodate to the currently popular ways of the world.

Many of them did these because they fear persecution, opposition, ridicule, and many other similar reasons. Many did them because of the pressure to conform to the societal ‘norms’, especially the socially acceptable ones. Many did so because they do not want to look weird or unacceptable to their peers and friends. And some did so because they craved power and popularity, which they could not have gained if they keep faithfully the faith in the Lord in its completeness.

And Christmas too have often become none other than just another party time or shopping and holiday season. Christmas had become so commercialised and infused with the greed and the values of the world that we have often forgotten about Christ. Between Christmas and how we live our lives according to our faith, both are no different, assailed at all sides by the forces of the evil one seeking our destruction.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is important that in this Christmas season that we look at, and emulate the examples that St. Stephen had presented to us, and what he had shown to his opponents in that judging session. St. Stephen proudly and without fear, proclaimed his faith in God aloud, without compromise and without seeking for acceptance at the price of his faith.

St. Stephen served God’s people as one of the first seven deacons, and even though his service might have been very short indeed, but his holiness and exemplary actions show that, being a Christian, and in the celebration of Christmas, firstly Christ must always be at the centre of everything, be it our lives, how we live our daily lives, in our words and actions, and in everything. We cannot be half-hearted Christians, who believed in only what we like to believe in, or what is often called to be “market” or “cafetaria” Christians.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue our celebration of Christmas, and as we rejoice in the great saint, Stephen the martyr, let us always remember to devote ourselves wholly and without distractions to the Lord, keeping the faith we have for Him devoutly, without compromising anything for the sake of the world. Both St. Stephen and Jesus Himself did not compromise anything, for the sake of what they are called to do in this world. For St. Stephen, it is for the glory of God, and for Jesus, it is for the salvation of all.

May St. Stephen pray for us, that the Lord will send His help to us, to strengthen our faith, and to be ready to stand up for our faith in the same way as St. Stephen had done, fearing not the powers of this world and proclaim our faith in its entirety. May we all have a blessed time this Christmas season and may God be with us all always. Amen.

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Thursday, 26 December 2013 : Feast of St. Stephen, Protomartyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 10 : 17-22

Be on your guard with people, for they will hand you over to their courts, and they will flog you in their synagogues. You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings because of Me, so you may witness to them and the pagans.

But when you are arrested, do not worry about what you are to say, or how you are to say it; when the hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. For it is not you who will speak, but the Spirit of your Father in you.

Brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child; children will turn against parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of Me, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved.

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Thursday, 26 December 2013 : Feast of St. Stephen, Protomartyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 30 : 3cd-4, 6 and 8ab, 16bc and 17

Be a rock of refuge for me, a fortress for my safety. For You are my Rock and my Stronghold, lead me for Your Name’s sake.

Into Your hands I commend my spirit; You have redeemed me, o Lord, faithful God. I will rejoice and be glad in Your love, for You have seen my affliction.

Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, from those after my skin. Make Your face shine upon Your servant; save me in Your love.

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Thursday, 26 December 2013 : Feast of St. Stephen, Protomartyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Acts 6 : 8-10 and Acts 7 : 54-59

Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Some persons then came forward, who belonged to the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia. They argued with Stephen but they could not match the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.

When the chief priests and the people heard the reproach that Stephen made to them, they were enraged and they gnashed their teeth against Stephen. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, fixed his eyes on heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus at God’s right hand, so he declared : “I see the heavens open and the Son of Man at the right hand of God.”

But they shouted and covered their ears with their hands and rushed together upon him. They brought him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, saying : “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”