Monday

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Monday, 18 December 2023 : 3rd Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 1 : 18-24

This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to disgrace her.

While he was pondering over this, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, she has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ fo He will save His people from their sins.”

All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet : The Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means : God-with-us. When Joseph awoke, he did what the Angel of the Lord had told him to do, and he took his wife to his home.

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Monday, 18 December 2023 : 3rd Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 71 : 1-2, 12-13, 18-19

God, endow the King with Your justice, the royal Son with Your righteousness. May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.

He delivers the needy who call on Him, the afflicted, with no one to help them. His mercy is upon the weak and the poor; He saves the lives of the poor.

Praised be YHVH, God of Israel, Who alone, works so marvellously. Praised be His glorious Name forever; may the whole earth be filled with His glory! Amen. Amen.

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Monday, 18 December 2023 : 3rd Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 23 : 5-8

YHVH further says, “The day is coming when I will raise up a King Who is David’s righteous successor. He will rule wisely and govern with justice and righteousness. That will be a grandiose era when Judah will enjoy peace and Israel will live in safety. He will be called YHVH-Our-Justice!”

“The days are coming,” says YHVH, “when people shall no longer swear by YHVH as the Living God Who freed the people of Israel from the land of Egypt. Rather, they will swear by YHVH as the Living God Who restored the descendants of Israel from the northern empire and from all the lands where He had driven them, to live again in their own land!”

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Monday, 11 December 2023 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we continue to progress through this time and season of Advent, all of us are continuously being reminded of the true reason why we celebrate in this time and season, the upcoming great joy and happiness we are looking forward to in Christmas, as well as the reason why we spend this time of Advent to prepare ourselves thoroughly so that hopefully we may be more prepared and worthy, properly oriented and focused in our Christmas commemorations and celebrations. Advent is a time for us to rediscover our love for God, and for us to redirect and reorientate ourselves that if thus far our lives have been focused on ourselves and worldly pursuits, we may return once again to lives that are centred on God.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard of the Lord’s words of assurance to His people, reminding them all of His love and providence, and how He would come again into their midst to bless them and to make things right for them again, which would be marked with the appearance of wonderful miracles and supernatural events like that had never happened before. The Lord reassured His people of His love through Isaiah, as part of the prophecies that He gave them, to reveal to them the coming of His salvation through none other than Jesus Christ, His one and only begotten Son, Whom He would send into this world in order to lead us all into His loving Presence, to save us all from certain death and destruction.

All the signs and things which the Lord had spoken about and prophesied through Isaiah were meant to reveal to them the One in Whom the Lord would bring all of His people to true happiness and joy once again, free from the troubles and trials that beset them, and brought free from the slavery of sin much as how He had once so with their ancestors in Egypt as He led them out through Moses and Aaron, destroying the shackles of their slavery by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Thus, this Advent, we ought to remember how the Lord, our God and Saviour, had liberated us all from the shackles and bonds of sin, and reunited us all with Himself, opening the direct and sure path to salvation and eternal life, by the coming of His Son, the Saviour of the world.

Meanwhile, in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the story of the time when the Lord Jesus healed a paralysed man, who was unable to move at all, brought upon his mat to the presence of the Lord. And we heard how the Lord was moved by the faith of the paralysed man and his friends who brought him, and healed him from his ailment. This led to the criticism and opposition from the teachers of the Law who happened to be there at the place. Those teachers of the Law take offence at the Lord’s words to the paralysed man, as He forgave the latter his sins. The teachers of the Law argued that only God alone can forgive sin, and thus the Lord Jesus had committed blasphemy against God by claiming to be able to forgive sins.

Yet, this same Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the One Whom Isaiah and the other prophets had been prophesying about, with all the wonders and signs that had been predicted in the prophecies of the prophets, including the healing of the paralysed man, and many other wonders and miracles that the Lord Himself had done, often in the plain sight and witness of those same teachers of the Law and the Pharisees and Sadducees who were with them. Unfortunately, their pride and ego, their thinking that no one else could have known better about the Lord and His Law had clouded their minds and judgment, and which was likely the reason why they had hardened their hearts and minds against the Lord, refusing to believe in Him, and even placing obstacles in His path.

This is what we ourselves should not be doing, brothers and sisters in Christ. Like how many of us had often done ourselves, in closing off our hearts and minds against the Lord, we must be careful lest we fail to recognise the Lord being present in our lives in all circumstances. And in this time and season of Advent and upcoming Christmas season, this is where we often see God being neglected because we are so focused on all the festivities, celebrations and rejoicing that we end up forgetting the very One Whom we ought to be celebrating and commemorating about this Christmas, that is Christ Our Lord and Saviour, Whose coming into this world had brought unto us God’s love manifested before us, becoming tangible and approachable to us, and how He has reassured us all of His salvation and grace.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of Pope St. Damasus I, one of the leaders of the early Church who helped to strengthen the Church amidst turbulent and challenging times, as he was very committed in devoting his time and efforts to the Church, even from before the time he was elected and reigned as the Pope and hence leader of the Church. Pope St. Damasus I was an Archdeacon of the Church and according to tradition, he also followed the then Pope Liberius into exile when the latter was persecuted by the then Roman Emperor Constantius II who was a supporter of the Arian heresy. Later on, during his time as Pope, Pope St. Damasus I was a very ardent defender of the faith against various heresies plaguing the Church and the faithful at that time.

Pope St. Damasus I should serve as our inspiration and role model because he tirelessly dedicated himself in guiding and shepherding the faithful people of God and the Church against the forces of heretics and others who sought to divide the Church, as he had to face many challenges like the presence of an Antipope in opposition to his rule, as well as challenges from the nobles and other powerful factions in the Church. He carried out important reforms and works that were meant to help the Church to remain firmly rooted in the faith, and was the one who commissioned St. Jerome to compile the Latin translation of the Greek Septuagint Bible, which would later on become the Latin Vulgate. Truly, Pope St. Damasus I did many great works, in establishing the Church and its institutions for the good of the people of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, as we have been reminded and hopefully inspired by the faith and courage shown by Pope St. Damasus I, let us all therefore strive to commit ourselves anew to the Lord especially during this time and season of Advent so that, hopefully we may grow ever closer to God, and be able to inspire others to seek the true joy and reason for Christmas, that is Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, and celebrate Christmas together with right understanding and true joy, and not with the excesses of worldly festivities and celebrations. May God be with us always, and may He continue to bless us in all things, and guide us in our Advent journey, now and henceforth. Amen.

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Monday, 11 December 2023 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Luke 5 : 17-26

At that time, Jesus was teaching and many Pharisees and teachers of the Law had come from every part of Galilee and Judea, and even from Jerusalem. They were sitting there, while the power of the Lord was at work to heal the sick. Then some men brought a paralysed man who lay on his mat.

They tried to enter the house to place him before Jesus, but they could not find a way through the crowd. So they went up on the roof, and removing the tiles, they lowered him on his mat into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven.”

At once the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to wonder, “This Man insults God! Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” But Jesus knew their thoughts and asked them, “Why are you reacting like this? Which is easier to say : ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up and walk’? Now you shall know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”

And Jesus said to the paralysed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” At once the man stood before them. He took up the mat he had been lying on, and went home praising God. Amazement seized the people and they praised God. They were filled with a holy fear, and said, “What wonderful things we have seen today!”

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Monday, 11 December 2023 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Psalm 84 : 9ab-10, 11-12, 13-14

Would that I hear God’s proclamation, that He promise peace to His people, His saints. Yet His salvation is near to those who fear Him, and His Glory will dwell in our land.

Love and faithfulness have met; righteousness and peace have embraced. Faithfulness will reach up from the earth while justice bends down from heaven.

The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its fruit. Justice will go before Him, and peace will follow along His path.

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Monday, 11 December 2023 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Isaiah 35 : 1-10

Let the wilderness and the arid land rejoice, the desert be glad and blossom. Covered with flowers, it sings and shouts with joy, adorned with the splendour of Lebanon, the magnificence of Carmel and Sharon. They, my people, see the glory of YHVH, the majesty of our God.

Give vigour to weary hands and strength to enfeebled knees. Say to those who are afraid : “Have courage, do not fear. See, your God comes, demanding justice. He is the God Who rewards, the God Who comes to save you.”

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unsealed. Then will the lame leap as a hart and the tongue of the dumb sing and shout. For water will break out in the wilderness and streams gush forth from the desert. The thirsty ground will become a pool, the arid land springs of water. In the haunts where once reptiles lay, grass will grow with reeds and rushes.

There will be a highway which will be called The Way of Holiness; no one unclean will pass over it nor any wicked fool stray there. No lion will be found there nor any beast of prey. Only the redeemed will walk there. For the ransomed of YHVH will return : with everlasting joy upon their heads, they will come to Zion singing, gladness and joy marching with them, while sorrow and sighing flee away.

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Monday, 4 December 2023 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctors of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the salvation and deliverance which the Lord our God has shown us all, and which He wants to remind us today that as we enter into this season of Advent, preparing for the coming celebration and joy of Christmas, we may always keep in mind what it is that we are really celebrating and rejoicing about. The Lord and His providence to us, His love and kindness, are all that we are rejoicing about as we celebrate and commemorate the moment when He came to us all in this world, in the form of a Child, the Child Jesus, the Saviour of the world and Son of God Most High.

In our first reading today, we heard the passage from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the prophet spoke about his vision that he has received from the Lord, concerning the end of times, when the Lord will gather all the whole world, all people from various places and origins, and make them to be His own people. Contextually, back then, during the time of the prophet Isaiah and the period when the people of Israel still lived in the Promised Land prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, it was believed that the Israelites were God’s only chosen people, as they were chosen by God to be His people, as He led them out of their slavery in the land of Egypt and made a Covenant with them and their descendants at Mount Sinai.

Hence, under the days of Moses and his successors, Joshua and the Judges, and then the kings of Israel and Judah, it was held that the Lord is the God of Israel, while all the other pagan peoples living all around them had their gods and idols, their deities and various divinities. Thus, it was seen also by others living around the Israelites that the Lord YHVH is merely just God over Israel, as was commonly perceived at the time, that each nation and states have their own gods and divinities. However, this is not what the Lord intended, as when He called the Israelites and made them to be His own people, He did not intend to keep His grace and love to be exclusive only to those who are directly descended from Jacob, or Israel.

This is because, ultimately, each and every one of us, the children and descendants of Adam and Eve, whom God had created at the beginning of time, are beloved by God regardless of our race, background, character and whatever divisions and categories we tend to use to differentiate ourselves. All of us are beloved by the Lord and He wants us all to be reconciled with Him, forgiven from our many sins and wickedness, which had caused us to be separated and sundered from His love and grace. The descendants of Abraham and Israel were the first ones that God had called to follow Him, much like how the Lord called some Apostles and disciples earlier than others. Some like St. Paul did not even become a disciple of the Lord until after His death and Resurrection, and yet, this does not mean that those who come after are less important than those who have been called earlier.

The prophet Isaiah clearly mentioned that the Lord will become the Lord and Master over all the nations, over the whole entire world. He will call all men and women to Himself, and this prophecy of what was to come, all have been fulfilled and accomplished through Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. All these have been made evident to us throughout the Gospels in which we heard everything that the Lord Himself had done in our midst. And in our Gospel passage today, we heard of how the Lord healed the sick servant of an army centurion or captain who asked Him to heal the servant from the ailment. That army captain had such a great faith and trust in the Lord that he told the Lord, that he did not need to see the proof of the healing, as even just by the commands and words of the Lord, it would be done as He said it.

The Lord used this example to highlight to His followers and disciples how even those who did not belong or were not counted among the Jewish people, the descendants of the Israelites, could also have great faith in God, and thus will be blessed and filled with God’s grace. At that time, it was likely that this army captain was a Roman, as was common at the time when the Romans were establishing and consolidating their hold over the region, and an army personnel of such rank was typically held by a Roman citizen. Therefore, as was the norm then, for a Jew to visit the house of a Gentile or a non-Jew was considered to be a taboo as it was deemed to make a person unclean in doing so. Hence, the army captain, likely aware of this and having such a great faith in God, believed that everything would be well if the Lord just commanded it to be.

This is a revelation and reminder from the Lord to all of His people, to all of us mankind, that He is not distinguishing or being prejudiced against anyone because of their race and beliefs. Instead, what matters is for the person to have true and genuine faith in the Lord, and for him or her to be virtuous and righteous in the way that the Lord has shown and taught us all, and through this faith, all of us shall be made worthy and righteous, and all called to be disciples and followers of His. God wants all of us to be reunited and reconciled with Him, loving us as He has always done from the very beginning, and to this extent He has sent us the Saviour, Whose coming into this world is the centre of our Advent commemorations and our upcoming Christmas celebrations.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of St. John Damascene, also known as St. John of Damascus, a renowned monk, priest and theologian, who is honoured as one of the esteemed Doctors of the Church for his may works and contributions. St. John of Damascus was born in a prominent Christian Arab family in part of what is Syria today, which then was under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate. As he came from a family of officials who were involved in the earlier Byzantine bureaucracy, and then later on the Arabic Umayyad government, St. John was raised up and educated well, and became a well-educated man, serving in the court of the Umayyad Caliph before he became a priest and monk.

St. John of Damascus dedicated his life thereafter to the study of the Christian faith, its theology and mysteries, which he discussed and touched upon in his many writings and works. St. John was also notedly involved in the controversies surrounding the matter of iconoclasm that was then widespread through the Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire and the other parts of Christendom. At that time, there were parties and members of the Church and the clergy, with support even from some of the Emperors, who wished to ban the veneration of icons and images, considering them to be un-Christian in nature. This iconoclastic practices were opposed by the Pope and many other members of the clergy and the Church, including that of St. John of Damascus.

St. John of Damascus worked hard against all those who took part and sided in the iconoclastic heresy, and he had to face a lot of hardships in doing so, even to the point of being persecuted, falsely implicated in crimes and suffering from plots against him, that he even had his hand cut off. Miraculously, before the icon of the Theotokos, the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of God through his fervent prayers, his hand was restored. St. John remained firm and courageous in his defence of the true faith, despite the trials and challenges against him, and he persevered throughout his life, finally being vindicated and exonerated from all the false accusations against him when the iconoclast heresy was finally overthrown and defeated.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by the examples of St. John of Damascus, that of the army captain mentioned in our Gospel today, and also be reminded by the love which God has extended to every single one of us, that we all as Christians may always strive to seek the Lord with all our heart and might, and be reminded of all the love that He has shown us so that we may love Him and commit ourselves ever more to His path. Let us all hence make sure that our Advent observances and actions be truly centred on the Lord, and also all of our preparations and celebrations for the upcoming Christmas season. Let us all be the bearers of God’s truth, hope and love to all those whom we encounter in our daily living, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 4 December 2023 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctors of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Matthew 8 : 5-11

At that time, when Jesus entered Capernaum, an army captain approached Him, to ask His help, “Sir, my servant lies sick at home. He is paralysed and suffers terribly.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

The captain answered, “I am not worthy to have You under my roof. Just give an order and my boy will be healed. For I myself, a junior officer, give orders to my soldiers. And if I say to one, ‘Go!’ he goes; and if I say to another, ‘Come!’ he comes; and if I say to my servant, ‘Do this!’ he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, He was astonished; and said to those who were following Him, “I tell you, I have not found such faith in Israel. I say to you, many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.”

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Monday, 4 December 2023 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctors of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Psalm 121 : 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5, 6-7, 8-9

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of YHVH!” And now we have set foot within your gates, o Jerusalem!

Jerusalem, just like a city, where everything falls into place! There the tribes go up.

The tribes of YHVH, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to YHVH’s Name. There stand the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : “May those who love you prosper! May peace be within your walls and security within your citadels!”

For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be with you!” For the sake of the house of our YHVH, I will pray for your good.