Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 118 : 67, 68, 71, 72, 75, 76
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey Your word.
You are good, and Your works are good; teach me Your decrees.
It is good for me to have been afflicted, for I have deeply learnt Your statutes.
Your Law is more precious to me than heaps of silver and gold.
I know, o YHVH, that Your laws are just; and there is justice in my affliction.
Comfort me then with Your unfailing love, as You promised Your servant.
Liturgical Colour : Green
James 1 : 1-11
James, a servant of God, and of Lord Jesus Christ, sends greetings to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. Consider yourselves fortunate, my brothers and sisters, when you meet with every kind of trial, for you know, that the testing of your faith makes you steadfast. Let your steadfastness become perfect, with deeds, that you, yourselves, may be perfect and blameless, without any defect.
If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, Who gives to all easily and unconditionally. But ask with faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave driven and tossed on the sea by the wind. Such a person should not expect anything from the Lord, since the doubter has two minds and his conduct will always be insecure.
Let the believer who is poor, boast, in being uplifted, and let the rich one boast, in being humbled, because he will pass away like the flower of the field. The sun rises and its heat dries the grass; the flower withers and its beauty vanishes. So, too, will the rich person fade away, even in the midst of his pursuits.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of God’s ever consistent and loving Presence in our midst. God has always been with us and He has never left us, no matter how much we have constantly caused Him to be angry at us because of our many wickedness, evils and sins. This is because of God’s ever enduring love for us, which He has always had since the very beginning of time. This love endures even when we have sundered ourselves off from His love and kindness, through our disobedience and sins. God has reached out to us, extending His love and compassionate mercy, which He has made ever ready to reconcile all of us to Him, for it was never His desire to condemn us to destruction.
In our first reading today, we heard of the moment recorded in the Book of Kings when King Solomon completed the building project of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, which would also become known as Solomon’s Temple. This was a grand project started and envisioned by Solomon’s father, King David, who had set aside and gathered large amount of resources in preparation for the building of the Temple and House worthy of God Himself to dwell in. We can get the details of all these and the preparations both in the Book of Chronicles as well as the other parts of the Book of Kings. After many years of construction and preparations, the Temple was finally completed and ready to be consecrated and dedicated to God, which was recorded in our first reading passage today.
King Solomon brought the Ark of the Covenant, in the presence of all the elders and leaders of the people of Israel to the new Temple of God, as the key event and moment in the completion and preparation of the Temple of God as the place of Divine worship and as the place where God Himself dwells among His beloved ones, the people of Israel, whom He had first called and chosen from all the children of Adam and Eve. That Ark of the Covenant was indeed important aspect of this event, because throughout the time since it was crafted and made at the time of the Exodus, it has always been the tangible and real sign of God’s Holy Presence amongst His people. We heard of the details of the Ark of the Covenant, the golden Cherubim crafted on top of it, which was where God’s Presence descended upon and rested whenever He came among His people.
Within the Ark was contained first of all the two slabs of stone on which the Ten Commandments, the centre of all of God’s Law and commandments were stored. It also stored the manna, the heavenly bread by which God had fed the Israelites throughout their entire time in the desert during the Exodus. Last of all it also contained the Staff of Aaron, the staff of authority and sign of God’s power, through which God had performed many wonders and signs, in liberating the people of Israel from the slavery in Egypt. All in all, the Ark of the Covenant is the tangible, real and symbolic reminder of God’s Covenant and Presence in this world, His Presence and ever enduring love for His people, and that it had been brought to the new Temple built by Solomon signified the renewal of this Covenant.
In our Gospel passage today, we then heard about the Lord Jesus amidst His ministry among the people of God, how He performed many miracles and healed many of the people who had come to Him with various ailments and sickness, troubles and difficulties. We heard how the Lord patiently cared for all of them, and how He healed all of those who came to Him. This is linked to what we have heard in our first reading today, because the Lord Jesus Himself is the bearer and Mediator of the New Covenant to be established between God and all of us mankind. He is the perfect manifestation of God’s Love, that God’s Divine Being has been manifested in the flesh, appearing and dwelling in our midst much as how He once descended upon us all through the Ark of the Covenant.
But the Lord Jesus has manifested to us God’s Presence in a much more real way, and far greater experience than what the people of Israel had once experienced through the Ark of the Covenant. But regardless, in both instances, God’s love and compassion, caring nature and attention to His beloved ones, all of us, have been shown. After all, He has sent us His own Beloved Son, to come into our midst, to be Emmanuel, God Who is with us, to be tangible, real and approachable in His love and grace, that through Christ, His love for us and ultimately His mercy and kindness have been revealed and shown to us. God Himself has come into our midst and He has shown it through real action, by dwelling among us just as He has always promised to us. This is a reminder for us all that we should indeed be faithful to Him, and do our best to live worthily as His beloved and holy people.
Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Agatha, a renowned saint and martyr of the faith who had lived her life worthily of the Lord, and whose actions and commitment to God, even through bitterness of sufferings and hardships, should inspire each and every one of us in how we should be living our own lives. St. Agatha was born in Sicily during the third century, when the Roman Empire was going through some upheavals and disturbances. She was born into a noble family and was approached by many suitors whom she rejected because of she had made a vow of virginity to the Lord, and the Roman prefect Quintianus, whose proposal St. Agatha had rejected, reported her to the authorities, as he knew of St. Agatha’s Christian faith.
At the time, it was the moment when a particularly intense persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Decius were occurring, and many Christians were tortured and put to death on account of their faith in God and their refusal to worship the Emperor or the pagan gods and idols. St. Agatha was arrested and persecuted greatly, by the same Roman prefect Quintianus, who hoped that St. Agatha would give in to his demands through the torture. However, St. Agatha remained firm in her faith in the Lord. She reaffirmed her faith in God through this powerful prayer, “Jesus Christ, Lord of all, You see my heart, You know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am Your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil.” Eventually, she was martyred as a great example to all the other Christians who were inspired by her faith and courage.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore also be inspired by the faith of St. Agatha, in all her commitment to God and the courage she showed in resisting all the efforts to turn her away from the Lord. Let us all be strengthened in faith in the Lord, being always reminded that God Himself has willingly dwelled in our midst, and He has always been loving and compassionate towards us. Let us all place Him at the centre of all of our lives, and let us continue to live our lives worthily in accordance to what God has shown and taught us, that we may be truly exemplary and inspirational in our own way of life. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Mark 6 : 53-56
At that time, having crossed the lake, Jesus and His disciples came ashore at Gennesaret, where they tied up the boat. As soon as they landed, people recognised Jesus, and ran to spread the news throughout the countryside.
Wherever He was, they brought to Him the sick lying on their mats; and wherever He went, to villages, towns or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplace, and begged Him to let them touch just the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were cured.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 131 : 6-7, 8-10
The Ark is in Ephrata, we found it in the fields of Jaar. Let us go to where He dwells and worship at His footstool!
Arise, o YHVH, and come to Your rest; You, and the Ark of Your might. May Your priests be arrayed in glorious mantle; may Your faithful ones shout in gladness. For the sake of Your servant, David, do not turn away the face of Your Anointed.
Liturgical Colour : Red
1 Kings 8 : 1-7, 9-13
Then Solomon assembled before him in Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, as well as the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of YHVH from the city of David, which is Zion.
All the Israelites assembled near king Solomon in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month. When all the elders of Israel arrived, the priests carried the Ark of YHVH and brought it up together with the Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the tent.
After the priests and Levites had brought them up, king Solomon with the entire congregation of Israel that had assembled before him and were with him before the Ark, sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could neither be counted nor numbered.
Then the priests laid the Ark of the Covenant of YHVH in its place in the inner Sanctuary of the house – the Most Holy Place – underneath the wings of the Cherubim. The Cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the Ark, providing a covering above the Ark and its poles.
There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses placed there at Horeb, where YHVH made a Covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt. And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, such a cloud filled YHVH’s House that the priests could not continue to minister. Indeed, the glory of YHVH filled His House.
Then Solomon said, “YHVH has said that He would dwell in thick darkness. So the House I have built You will be Your House, a place for You to dwell in forever.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all reminded that no matter what hardships, challenges and difficulties that we may have to face in our lives, we will always have that assurance from the Lord, that He will always be with us, and He will continue to guide and protect us, and help us in His own ways throughout our journey in life. As long as we continue to hold on to our faith in the Lord and place our trust in Him, we will not be disappointed in the end, unlike if we trust in all the worldly matters and means instead. We must not be easily swayed and tempted by all of these distractions in life, which can bring us to our downfall and destruction, unless we strive to resist those temptations and remain firmly faithful in God at all times.
In our first reading, we heard from the Book of the prophet Samuel about the state of affairs in the kingdom of Israel during the middle period of David’s reign as King, when Absalom, one of his many sons, rebelled against him and attempted to seize the kingship from David. Absalom, according to the Scriptures, had always been a proud and ambitious man, and he clearly had pretensions and desires to be a king, to succeed his own father as ruler over the people and the land of Israel. He has often presented himself to the leading figures of the kingdom and to the people as the one who would succeed his father as the ruler over Israel, and had made his moves, winning over the hearts and minds of the people, and it was at this time then, that Absalom, swayed and tempted with power, decided to launch a coup effort against his own father.
Thus, as many people sided with Absalom, David had to flee from the city of Jerusalem, his capital, abandoning the city and his palace to Absalom and his forces, as he and his supporters sought for a better place from which to carry out the next plan to counter the coup by Absalom and those who supported him. We heard how there was a Benjaminite named Shimei, who cursed David along the way, harassed him verbally and mocked him. Shimei, being a fellow tribesman of Saul, the former king who David had replaced, clearly did not approve of David, and he launched that tirade of curses and attacks against David. That man likely only had the courage to do so because he saw an opportunity when David’s star and fortune seemingly waned, and at that time, it was indeed true that David’s situation was rather dire, abandoned and betrayed by many among his own family and people.
Yet, David trusted in the Lord and completely had faith in Him. He did not despair or seek to overcome his predicaments by depending on worldly means, plans and methods. Like when he was faced with the great predicament of facing Goliath earlier in his life, he placed his trust in God, and did not despair amidst the challenges, trials and difficulties that he had to face. He let God guide his path, and eventually, while at the time no one would have considered it likely, David managed to weather this round of coup and attempt to overthrow him, and the traitor Absalom lost his life in the process. Shimei himself eventually also faced justice during the reign of David’s son, Solomon, after his misdeeds and wicked words were eventually taken into account for. This shows how if we have faith and trust in the Lord, we truly should not be afraid or fearful.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the popular story of the moment when the Lord Jesus healed and freed a man who was beset and controlled by a vast horde of evil spirits, who named themselves as Legion, in the region of the Gerasenes. As mentioned in that Gospel passage, we heard how the evil spirits had made the man to live his life in the wilderness, in the areas far from habitation because of the fear that his condition brought about everyone, and no one dared to approach or help him. The man was clearly suffering and tormented physically, mentally and spiritually by those evil spirits, just as we have heard in the same Gospel passage, and it was the Lord Jesus Who ended his misery and sufferings.
The evil spirits recognised and feared the Lord, begging Him that they should not be harmed or destroyed, as they knew that the Lord would send them out of the suffering man. The Lord ordered all of the evil spirits to get out of the man and they went to the horde of pigs that happened to be nearby that area, and they all cast themselves into the water, and perished. This healed and freed the man from all of his sufferings and afflictions, and henceforth, he could return once again to the community without being ostracised and feared anymore for his condition. But the people of the region feared the Lord for what He had done, and as we heard, they begged the Lord to leave the area, implying that He was not welcome in their place, and also likely for the loss of economic and monetary means they suffered because of what happened to the horde of pigs.
The significance of what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, and linking to what we have heard in the earlier first reading is that, first of all, as pigs were known among the Jews to be unclean animals, therefore as a matter of figurative meaning, the Lord wanted to highlight how the devil and all of his forces belong to the darkness, and as the pigs all rushed to their deaths, it was also a kind of premonition of the fate which awaits the devil and all of those wicked forces seeking for our destruction. They will all eventually meet their destruction and end, and they will no longer be allowed to exert their dominion and power over us. And the fact that about two thousand pigs died for the man who was saved and freed from his afflictions, it also showed us all that, symbolically, the Lord was telling us just how precious all of us are to Him.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all therefore ponder these words from the Scriptures and remind ourselves that we should not easily allow ourselves to be swayed and tempted by the wickedness of this world. We should remind ourselves that like Absalom, our ambitions and desires can lead us down the path of ruin and destruction if we are not careful. We must always be vigilant that we are not dragged down into the path of evil and sin, and hence, we should always be faithful to God, and place Him at the centre of our lives. Let us all truly live righteously and worthily according to our faith in God and do our part so that, in everything that we do, we will always be worthy of the Lord, and that by our examples, many more will come to follow our footsteps in following the Lord, our God.
May the Lord be with us all and may He strengthen us in our resolve and commitment to do what He has asked us all to do. May He bless our every efforts, good works and endeavours, our every moments in life. May God bless our lives, and help us to be His better disciples and followers, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Mark 5 : 1-20
At that time, Jesus and His disciples arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes. No sooner did Jesus leave the boat than He was met by a man with evil spirits, who had come from the tombs. The man lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him, even with a chain.
He had often been bound with fetters and chains; but he would pull the chains apart and smash the fetters; and no one had the strength to control him. Night and day he stayed among the tombs on the hillsides, and was continually screaming, and beating himself with stones.
When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell at His feet, and cried with a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? For God’s sake, I beg You, do not torment me!” He said this, because Jesus had commanded, “Evil spirit, come out of the man!”
When Jesus asked the evil spirit, “What is your name?” It replied, “Legion is my name, for we are many.” And it kept begging Jesus, not to send them out of that region. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside, and the evil spirits begged Him, “Send us to the pigs, and let us go into them.”
So Jesus let them go. The evil spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs; and immediately, the herd rushed down the cliff; and all were drowned in the lake. The herdsmen fled, and reported this in the town and in the countryside. So all the people came to see what had happened.
They came to Jesus, and saw the man freed of the evil spirits, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind; the same man who had been possessed by the legion. They were afraid. And when those who had seen it, told what had happened to the man and to the pigs, the people begged Jesus to leave their neighbourhood.
When Jesus was getting into the boat, the man, who had been possessed, begged to stay with Him. Jesus would not let him, and said, “Go home to your people, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.”
So he went throughout the country of Decapolis, telling everyone how much Jesus had done for him; and all the people were astonished.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 3 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7
O YHVH, how great in number are my foes! How numerous are they who rise against me! How many are they who say of my soul : “There is no help for him in God!”
But You are my Shield, o YHVH, my Glory; You lift up my head. Aloud I cry to YHVH, and from His holy hill He answers me.
If I lie down to sleep, again I awake, for YHVH supports me; no fear of the thousands standing against me.
Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Samuel 15 : 13-14, 30 and 2 Samuel 16 : 5-13a
A messenger came to report to David that the Israelites were siding with Absalom. Then David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, “Let us flee, for we cannot resist Absalom. Go quickly, lest he come hurriedly and overtake us. Surely he will put the city to the sword if he can bring disaster upon us.”
David himself went up the Mount of Olives, weeping. He was barefooted and had his head covered, and all the people who were with him had their heads covered and wept as they went. When king David came to Bahurim, a man from the clan of Saul’s family named Shimei, son of Gera, came out cursing him. He threw stones at David and his officers although the king’s men and warriors flanked the king on the right and left.
As he yelled curses, Shimei said, “Leave! Leave! You man of bloodshed, you wicked man! YHVH has brought down on your head all the blood of the family of Saul. You became king in his place, but God has now placed the kingdom in the hands of your son Absalom. Ruin has come upon you because you are a wicked man.”
Then Abishai, son of Zeruiah, said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go and cut his head off.” But the king said, “Why should I listen to you, sons of Zeruiah? If YHVH has ordered him to curse me, who shall ask him why he acts like this?”
Then David said to Abishai and his officers, “If my own son wants to kill me, how much more this Benjaminite! Leave him alone and let him curse me if YHVH has ordered him to do so. Perhaps YHVH will look on my affliction and turn to good things the curses heaped on me today.”
So David and his men went on their way while Shimei, following on the hillside opposite him.
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