Monday

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Monday, 14 September 2015 : Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 77 : 1-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38

Give heed, o My people, to My teaching; listen to the words of My mouth! I will speak in parables, I will talk of old mysteries.

When God slew His people who sinned against Him, they repented and sought Him earnestly. They remembered that God was their Rock, the Most High, their Redeemer.

But they flattered Him with their mouths, they lied to Him with their tongues, while their hearts were unfaithful; they were untrue to His covenant.

Even then, in His compassion, He forgave their offences and did not destroy them. Many a time He restrained His anger and did not fully stir up His wrath.

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Monday, 14 September 2015 : Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Numbers 21 : 4b-9

The people were discouraged by the journey and began to complain against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is neither bread nor water here and we are disgusted with this tasteless manna.”

YHVH then sent fiery serpents against them. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, speaking against YHVH and against you. Plead with YHVH to take the serpents away.”

Moses pleaded for the people and YHVH said to him, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard; whoever has been bitten and then looks at it shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a standard. Whenever a man was bitten, he looked towards the bronze serpent and he lived.

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Monday, 7 September 2015 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the salvation which God had brought upon us all mankind, and how He healed us from our afflictions, the sickness and the shackles of sin, which He cast away from us and brought us to freedom with Him. In the first reading, St. Paul in his epistle and letter to the Church and the faithful in the city of Colossae reminded them about the Lord who revealed the truth about His salvation through Jesus Christ, His Son.

God can just abandon all of us and leave us all to be destroyed by our own foolishness, by our own disobedience and sins. Instead, He chose to reveal to us His infinite and everlasting mercy, through which He had brought is out of our misery and despair, from our fate of annihilation and suffering, into the new assurance and certainty of His love, and the everlasting life He had promised to all those who keep their faith in Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Gospel today, this message is reiterated even more strongly, as we can hear how Jesus healed the paralytic man’s hand and made it whole and healthy again. And the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law tried to use that opportunity to find fault with Jesus, to criticise Him, to accuse Him and eventually to bring Him down and remove the One whom they have considered as a rival to their teaching authority.

In this alone, we can see how we behave in our own lives with regards to sin and with regards to God’s loving offer of mercy and forgiveness. Whenever we sin, we often act like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who refused to listen to God, and preferred to listen to their own heart’s desires, and closed themselves up against the Lord.

They acted high and mighty, appearing to be pious and also zealous guardians of the faith and the Law of God, criticising and condemning all those who did not follow the tenets and words of the Law as they prescribed. And they thought of themselves as righteous and just, as arbiters of God’s law among men. But they themselves had not acted and done things in the way the Lord had wanted them.

How many of us when we were accused to be wrong, or found ourselves to be in the wrong, went forth and tried to place the blame on others instead? Instead of trying to look at and contemplate our own faults and mistakes, we tried to come up with reasons to cover up our faults. We do not want to be blamed for something, worst of all is if the mistake is our own mistake.

But that is exactly what the problem is. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were too adamant that they were righteous and without fault, and they were unable to comprehend that the problem lies with them, the pride that is in their hearts and minds, the hubris which prevented them from seeing the truth about their own sin. Just as Jesus spoke about this in another parable, when He rebuked the Pharisees also for not being able to see their own faults while pointing out the faults of others, likening it to those who could see a splinter in the eye of another and yet a plank in their own eyes, they could not see it.

If we want to be forgiven, then all of us ought to be sincere and make the effort to seek the Lord and love Him with all of our hearts. God will see our love and devotion, and He who is loving and merciful will show His tender mercy upon us. But we have to really look deep into ourselves and discern what is the problem that we have with us.

Let us all seek to be forgiven for all of our faults, and let us all commit ourselves to changing our lives for the better. Let us all walk in the path of our Lord and be righteous in all things. May Almighty God, our Father, bless us all and keep us all in His grace and love. May He heal us from our afflictions and help us to remain always humble and dedicated to Him, that we may be able to help one another to repent our sins and find our way to the Lord. Amen.

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Monday, 7 September 2015 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 6 : 6-11

At that time, on another Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and began teaching. There was a man with a paralysed right hand, and the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees watched Him : Would Jesus heal the man on the Sabbath? If He did, they could accuse Him.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to the man, “Get up, and stand in the middle.” Then He spoke to them, “I want to ask you : what is allowed by the Law on the Sabbath? To do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And Jesus looked around at them all.

Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored, becoming as healthy as the other. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another how they could deal with Jesus.

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Monday, 7 September 2015 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 61 : 6-7, 9

Find rest in God alone, o my soul; from Him comes my hope. He alone is my rock and my salvation; with Him as my stronghold, I shall not be overcome.

Trust in Him at all times, my people; pour out your hearts before Him; God is our refuge.

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Monday, 7 September 2015 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Colossians 1 : 24 – Colossians 2 : 3

At present I rejoice when I suffer for you; I complete in my own flesh what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His Body, which is the Church. For I am serving the Church since God entrusted to me the ministry to make the word of God fully known. I mean that mysterious plan that for centuries and generations remained secret, and which God has now revealed to His holy ones.

God willed to make known to them the riches and even the Glory that His mysterious plan reserved for the pagan nations : Christ is in you and you may hope God’s Glory. This Christ we preach. We warn and teach everyone true wisdom, aiming to make everyone perfect in Christ. For this cause I labour and struggle with the energy of Christ working powerfully in me.

I want you to know how I strive for you, for those of Laodicea and for so many who have not met me personally. I pray that all may be encouraged. May you be established in love, that you may obtain all the riches of a full understanding and know the mystery of God, Christ Himself. For in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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Monday, 31 August 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how Jesus was rejected in His own hometown of Nazareth in the region of Galilee, where His foster father Joseph and His mother Mary hailed from. Jesus proclaimed the truth about Himself, and He told them of God’s salvation that would come through Him. But the people of Nazareth refused to believe in Him, especially if He did not perform the miracles He had performed in other places.

They were truly a superficial people, a terrible human tendency, which is also often affecting many of us as well. They focused on what they saw and witnessed, and yet they were unable to look beyond the veil of appearances into what lies inside, which also explains why they were unable to understand that Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah, King of kings, although He chose to come into this world in a humble form of a Man, born of a family of poor carpenter.

They were unable to comprehend that appearances, wealth, power and worldly things are not always the measure of everything. These are the things that we mankind often value and treasure, but these are at the same time, temporary and not everlasting. The treasures of the world can be destroyed and changed, and these can be lost, but the true treasures that we all ought to find are everlasting.

Jesus taught us all that those who put their trust in human power shall be disappointed, just as the foolish man who built his house on the foundation of sand. All the human glory, wealth, goodness of this world, all the praise and fame we have, all are merely illusions and replica of what is to come for us. They will not come with us when we go forth to the life that is to come, and when we die, we are to leave all these behind with this world.

Let us think about this as we go on carrying out our daily lives. Are we too preoccupied with maintaining our status, our possessions, our affluence and everything else that distract us from our true destination and goal in life? Are we too preoccupied with things that are unsteady and are truly shaky foundations for our life? We should instead place ourselves on the steady and strong foundation that can be found only in God.

In the first reading today, St. Paul in his epistle to the Church in Thessalonica spoke of what will happen to us all and all those who are still living at the time when the Lord comes again as He had promised. The Lord will come again and reward all those who have kept their faith in Him, and He shall bless all of them forever. This is the promise of eternal inheritance and the true treasures we shall receive if we all remain faithful.

God is always faithful, and when He promised us that those who have died in Him, just and righteous, shall be rewarded and shall receive the promised life eternal, when He calls on them. This is the treasure that we ought to find, and thus not to dwell on the earthly and worldly treasures that do not last and can be destroyed. We seek the eternal gift and treasure that will not be destroyed and lasts forever.

Let us all from now on devote ourselves anew to our Lord, our loving God. Let us all be filled with love for Him, and with joy and hope in the life which He had promised us with. May Almighty God be with us always, and bless us for the faith which we have shown Him from our hearts. May God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Monday, 31 August 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 4 : 16-30

At that time, when Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, as He usually did. He stood up to read, and they handed Him the book of the prophet Isaiah.

Jesus then unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written : “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. He has anointed Me to bring Good News to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed and to announce the Lord’s year of mercy.”

Jesus then rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. Then He said to them, “Today these prophetic words come true, even as you listen.”

All agreed with Him, and were lost in wonder, while He spoke of the grace of God. Nevertheless they asked, “Who is this but Joseph’s Son?” So He said, “Doubtless you will quote Me the saying : Doctor, heal Yourself! Do here in Your town what they say You did in Capernaum.”

Jesus added, “No prophet is honoured in his own country. Truly, I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens withheld rain for three years and six months and a great famine came over the whole land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in the country of Sidon.”

“There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet, and no one was healed except Naaman, the Syrian.” On hearing these words, the whole assembly became indignant. They rose up and brought Him out of the town, to the edge of the hill on which Nazareth is built, intending to throw Him down the cliff. But He passed through their midst and went His way.

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Monday, 31 August 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 95 : 1 and 3, 4-5, 11-12a, 12b-13

Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds.

How great is the Lord and worthy of praise! Above all gods He is to be feared. For all other gods are worthless idols but YHVH is the One who made the heavens.

Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them.

Let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy. Let them sing before the Lord who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.

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Monday, 31 August 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Thessalonians 4 : 13-18

Brothers and sisters, we want you not to be mistaken about those who are already asleep, lest you grieve as do those who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose; it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus. God will bring them together with Jesus and for His sake.

By the same Word of the Lord we assert this : those of us who are to be alive at the Lord’s coming will not go ahead of those who are already asleep. When the command by the archangel’s voice is given, the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, while the divine trumpet call is sounding.

Then those who have died in the Lord will rise first; as for us who are still alive, we will be brought along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the celestial world. And we will be with the Lord forever. So, then comfort one another with these words.