One Church of God

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Monday, 13 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Matthew 10 : 34 – Matthew 11 : 1

At that time, Jesus said to the Jews, “Do not think that I have come to establish peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Each one will have as enemies those of one’s own family.”

“Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever does not take up his cross and come after Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes Him who sent Me. The one who welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive the reward of a prophet; the one who welcomes a just man, because he is a just man, will receive the reward of a just man. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, because he is My disciple, I assure you, he will not go unrewarded.”

When Jesus had finished giving His twelve disciples these instructions, He went on from there to teach and to proclaim His message in their towns.

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Monday, 13 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Psalm 123 : 1-3, 4-6, 7-8

Had not the Lord been on our side – let Israel say – 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. Blessed be the Lord, who did not let us be devoured.

Like a bird our soul escaped from the snare of the fowler; 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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Monday, 13 July 2015 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Exodus 1 : 8-14, 22

Then a new king who had not know Joseph came to power and said to His people, “The Israelites are more numerous and stronger than we are. Let us deal warily with them lest they increase still more and, in case of war, side with our enemy, fight against us and escape from the land.”

So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labour. In that way they built the storage towns of Pithom and Rameses. But the more they oppressed the Hebrews the more they increased and spread, until the Egyptians dreaded the Israelites and became ruthless in making them work. They made life bitter for them in hard labour with bricks and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields. In all their work the Egyptians treated them harshly.

Pharaoh then gave this order to all the people : “Every infant boy born to the Hebrews must be thrown into the Nile, but every girl may live.”

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Sunday, 12 July 2015 : Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the desire of the Lord our God, our loving Father and Creator, who sent forth His disciples, messengers, Apostles, prophets and even His angels to go to the nations and the many peoples all over the earth to call them to Him, and to reunite all of His scattered loved ones back into His loving embrace.

In the Gospel we heard how Jesus sent His disciples two by two to the many towns and villages, to preach the Good News of His salvation to the people, to heal the sick and to cast out demons from them, and to proclaim the time of repentance, for them to change their ways, the ways of sin, so that they may walk on the path towards grace and salvation in God.

In the second reading from the Epistle or letter of St. Paul to the faithful in Ephesus, he mentioned how God has destined all of us to be in perfect love and unity to Himself, as the very purpose of why He created us in the first place. He created all of us mankind and all the creatures so that He may love us all, and give us the fullness of the love of His heart, and yet, we have rejected Him many, many times.

We who have disobeyed Him have been sundered from that love which should have been part of us. And our portion should therefore have been hell, destruction and eternal damnation, and yet, we are truly fortunate, for just as our Lord despises sin and all forms of our wickedness, He still loves us even more than all that. He is loving, merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness, and He generously offers to us His mercy which He made completely evident through the sending of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, into this world, that we all may be saved through Him.

But sadly, our attitudes are often like that shown by the king Amaziah of Israel whom we heard in our first reading, rejecting the prophet Amos and telling him to go back to his own country of Judah, and to come no more to disturb his land of the northern kingdom of Israel. He refused to listen to the reminders which the Lord sent to His people to remind them of the bad and wicked deeds that they have committed in His sight.

We mankind are by our nature, we are always prideful and filled with self-serving attitudes. We like to think that we are always in the right and that the others are wrong or mistaken in their ways, because we often fail to look deep into ourselves and discover what actually went wrong with us. Our pride and arrogance, our attitudes and stubbornness are all that actually keep us separated from the love and grace of our Lord.

It was just like the king of Israel, Amaziah, who refused to listen to the truth as preached by the prophet Amos, even though it was the fact, no matter how terrible they might have sounded, but that is exactly because what he and the people of the northern kingdom had done were indeed wicked in the sight of God. And we know that what Amos and the other prophets prophesied about would come true in all their fullness, and the wicked were cast out in the utter darkness and suffering.

And yet God gave them chance after chance, opportunity after opportunity, just as He gave His people chance after they disobeyed Him and rebelled against Him during the Exodus from Egypt, when they abandoned Him for the pagan gods and a god made of gold. He forgave them and continued to love them even though He did punish them, but to those who adamantly refused to change their ways and continued to sin, there was no forgiveness.

In the Gospel, Jesus told His disciples to minister to those who are sick, both physically and spiritually, that is by delivering the truth of God as espoused in the Scriptures and in the testimony of the prophets, and opening the eyes of the people and their senses to the truth, so that they may repent and turn from their sinful ways. Yet, there are always those who would refuse to listen and continue to dwell in their sins.

To this people, the Lord rejected them and would hold their disobedience and stubbornness as testimony against them on the day of judgment. Do we want to share in their fate, brethren? We surely will if we continue to walk in the path of worldliness and sin. There is no future in following that path, for indeed the temporary goodness and pleasure we gain by that path is not worth the eternal suffering due to us.

Shall we therefore on this day, realise and understand how much God has loved us and how great is His everlasting love for us, that His mercy He richly provides for us all, so that all of us who repent our sinful ways may be saved? All of us have a choice, and the opportunity has been given to us to reflect on our own actions and consider it carefully, before what we do in this life bring great repercussions for us in what is to come.

And we also ought to realise that all of us who have been saved, and we who have committed ourselves to the way of the Lord, who believe in the fullness of His truth, also have a mission to carry on. Today happens to be the commemoration of Bible or Scripture Sunday, which should have brought us all to the greater realisation of what we ought to do from now on, if we have not done so.

Let me ask all of us these simple questions, how many of us actually regularly open up the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, and read it? How many of us are actually familiar with what the prophets and messengers of God had said? How many of us know what Jesus taught to His disciples, and what His servants like His Apostles wrote in the many letters preserved in the Holy Scriptures?

If our answers to these are no, that is because we have not understood or read the Holy Scriptures, if at all. We have a mission, brethren, to evangelise and to spread the Good News of our Lord, so that we may extend the mercy and love of God we have just discussed about, to the nations and to the peoples who have yet to hear them and witness them.

But how are they going to believe in us if we ourselves do not have what we ought to know within each one of us? It is important for us to read the Holy Scriptures regularly so that we may have ever growing and greater understanding of what our faith is truly about. And then, it is important that we also have to make it complete by knowing, understanding and obeying the ancient traditions of the Church, the teachings as preserved by the Church from the time of our Lord and His Apostles.

Let us all therefore, from today onwards, renew our commitment to our Lord and God, so that through all the things we do which we commit in faith and hope for our salvation, and the salvation of many around us, we may bring ourselves together as one people closer to salvation and eternal life promised by our Lord to all who has been faithful to Him, and let us all deepen our understanding of the faith, by reading and studying more of the Holy Scriptures, so that our hearts may be opened to the word of God contained in the Bible. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 12 July 2015 : Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 6 : 7-13

At that time, Jesus called the Twelve to Him, and began to send them out two by two, giving them authority over evil spirits. And He ordered them to take nothing for the journey, except a staff : no food, no bag, no money in their belts. They were to wear sandals and were not to take an extra tunic.

And He added, “In whatever house you are welcomed, stay there until you leave the place. If any place does not receive you, and the people refuse to listen to you, leave after shaking the dust off your feet. It will be a testimony against them.”

So they set out to proclaim that this was the time to repent. They drove out many demons and healed many sick people by anointing them.

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Sunday, 12 July 2015 : Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ephesians 1 : 3-14

Blessed be God, the Father of Christ Jesus our Lord, who in Christ has blessed us from heaven with every spiritual blessing. God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and without sin in His presence.

From eternity He destined us in love to be His adopted sons and daughters through Christ Jesus, thus fulfilling His free and generous will. This goal suited Him : that His loving kindness which He granted us in His Beloved might finally receive all glory and praise.

For in Christ we obtain freedom, sealed by His Blood, and have the forgiveness of sins. In this appears the greatness of His grace, which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and understanding, God has made known to us His mysterious design, in accordance with His loving kindness in Christ.

In Him and under Him God wanted to unite, when the fullness of time had come, everything in heaven and on earth. By a decree of Him who disposes all things according to His own plan and decision we, the Jews, have been chosen and called and we were awaiting the Messiah, for the praise of His glory.

You, on hearing the word of truth, the Gospel that saves you, have believed in Him. And, as promised, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit, the first pledge of what we shall receive, on the way to our deliverance as a people of God, for the praise of His glory.

Alternative reading (shorter version)

Ephesians 1 : 3-10

Blessed be God, the Father of Christ Jesus our Lord, who in Christ has blessed us from heaven with every spiritual blessing. God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and without sin in His presence.

From eternity He destined us in love to be His adopted sons and daughters through Christ Jesus, thus fulfilling His free and generous will. This goal suited Him : that His loving kindness which He granted us in His Beloved might finally receive all glory and praise.

For in Christ we obtain freedom, sealed by His Blood, and have the forgiveness of sins. In this appears the greatness of His grace, which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and understanding, God has made known to us His mysterious design, in accordance with His loving kindness in Christ.

In Him and under Him God wanted to unite, when the fullness of time had come, everything in heaven and on earth.

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Sunday, 12 July 2015 : Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 84 : 9ab and 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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Sunday, 12 July 2015 : Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Amos 7 : 12-15

Amaziah then said to Amos, “Off with you, seer; go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there by prophesying. But never again prophesy at Bethel for it is a king’s sanctuary and a national shrine.”

Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet or one of the fellow prophets. I am a breeder of sheep and a dresser of sycamore trees. But YHVH took me from shepherding the flock and said to me : Go, prophesy to My people Israel.”

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Saturday, 11 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of a renowned saint, that is of St. Benedict of Nursia, also known as St. Benedict the Abbot, the founder of the Benedictines religious order, one of the largest and earliest established religious orders in the world. He was one of the earliest pioneers of monasticism and religious life dedicated to God.

St. Benedict founded many communities of the religious and the faithful, but his life began as a Roman noble in the fifth century after the birth of our Lord, where he once had a great prospect in life, a quality education and a good company of friends and even those who professed their love for him. But, St. Benedict gradually saw how wicked the sins and actions which his companions had committed, and gradually withdrawing himself from worldliness, he found the true purpose of his life.

He sought true satisfaction in life by leading a life filled with prayer, sanctity and devotion to God. When the devil at one time tried to tempt him by filling his mind with the beautiful image of a woman he once loved in his youth, he resisted the temptation by purging it from the flesh by self-mortification, lying on a bed of thornbushes to remind himself of the sinfulness of such thoughts. By purifying his flesh, he gained the purification of his soul and being.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Scripture readings today, the first of which was taken from the last part of the Book of Genesis, talked about the passing of Jacob in Egypt, continuing from where we left off yesterday, and the begging of the sons of Israel, or Jacob, on their brother Joseph, whom they had once betrayed and sold to the slavemasters.

They feared his retribution for all the wrongs they had wrought on him in the past. But this is where they failed to see that whatever evil they had concocted and planned against Joseph, God had turned them into something good for the benefit of many people. The way of the Lord is truly far beyond our comprehension and understanding, and His ways is truly far beyond us and our ways.

What the Lord Jesus wanted to tell the disciples was in fact of the same nature as well. This is because He told them about not needing to worry about anything in life, as God who cares for His beloved ones would be with them and providing them with all the things that they need. And indeed, this was the case, and will always be for all of us who put our trust in Him.

Brethren, it is the fallibility of our human nature for us to have fear, worry and uncertainties inside each one of us. It is exactly because we do not have faith in the Lord, and because we put our hopes on worldly things and matters that we end up sinning before God and men, for we act in ways so as to preserve ourselves, our own prosperity, material goods, well-being, often at the expense of others around us.

The examples of St. Benedict and all that he had done should have inspired all of us. It does not mean that all of us ought to abandon everything and pursue religious life as he had done. Some of us indeed may follow in his footsteps, in the footsteps of the many holy priests and servants of God in giving their lives up for the service of the Lord and His people, but for the majority of us, what we need to do is to live faithfully and reject all of the temptations of the world, which Satan is offering us for the destruction of ourselves.

Can we indeed try to look away and detract ourselves from the temptations that is the worldliness all around us? Do not worry about these things, for truly what is more important is the salvation of our soul. There is no point for us to have a good life in this world, to have plenty of everything, and yet in the world that is to come, we have nothing, because in our striving for goodness in this world, we have brought suffering to others, we have not been obedient to God, and we have ended up sinning before His presence.

Let us all build for ourselves the richness and treasures of the world that is to come, by listening and obeying all that the Lord had shown us. May the examples of St. Benedict and that of other holy saints be inspiration for us, so that we may be forever true to our commitment to our Lord and God. May He bless us and keep us in His grace, and strengthen our faith in Him always. God be with us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 11 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 10 : 24-33

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “A student is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. A student should be glad to become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If the head of the family has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of the family! So, do not be afraid of them.”

“There is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be made known. What I am telling you in the dark, you must speak in the light. What you hear in private, proclaim from the housetops. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but have no power to kill the soul. Rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”

“For only a few cents you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father knowing. As for you, every hair of your head has been counted. Do not be afraid : you are no less worthy than many sparrows!”

“Whoever acknowledges Me before others I will acknowledge before My Father in heaven. Whoever rejects Me before others I will reject before My Father in heaven.”