Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for each and every one of us as Christians, as God’s holy people to be truly obedient to God and to follow Him wholeheartedly in all of our lives. It is part of our Christian obligation and calling for us to do what God has commanded and told us all to do, and to leave behind our past, sinful way of life which are not in accordance with God’s will. If we profess to be a Christian, as someone who believes in Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, and yet, in our attitudes and behaviours, in our words, actions and deeds, we do things that are contrary to our beliefs, then we are truly hypocrites and no better than unbelievers.

In our first reading today, we heard the continuation of the passage from the Book of the prophet Amos in which after almost a week hearing about the anger of God and the punishments which God would bring upon His people, the Israelites living in the northern kingdom of Israel, we now heard of the promises of God’s salvation and redemption for His people, the same ones that He had chastised and punished. In what we have heard in our first reading passage, the Lord promised that He would restore all the destroyed places and towns of His people, restoring them into His favour and blessing, giving them once again the promises and inheritance that He has given to their ancestors, but which those ancestors and people had spurned and rejected out of disobedience and sin, through their stubbornness and wickedness.

God showed His love, compassion and mercy to His beloved ones, just like that of a father caring for his children, and we are all truly God’s beloved children, the ones whom He had created out of love, taken upon Himself to be His own people, to be loved and cared dearly by Him, and to receive the fullness of His grace and love. But at the same time, because we as His children had become wayward and disobedient in our way of life, in our actions, words and deeds, then just like a father disciplines his children to ensure that the children grew up well and did not turn out to be a delinquent and failure, thus, God, our loving Father, Creator and Master had also disciplined us, chastising us and making us to understand that as His beloved children, His disciples and His followers, all of us must adhere to His ways and act according to His Law and commandments.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the parable which the Lord Jesus presented to His disciples and followers, and to all the people listening to Him, telling them about the wine and the wineskin, and the cloth used to patch a hole in a piece of cloth. In both parables, the Lord spoke about how new wine must be stored in new wineskin, while old wine must be stored in old wineskin, while new cloth should be used to patch a new piece of cloth, and correspondingly, an old cloth ought to be used to patch a hole in an old cloth. All these were meant to deliver the message that the old ways were meant to be lived in the manner how they were in the past, but with the advent and the coming of the new truth and revelation of the Lord, the people had to adopt the new path and ways shown to them by the Lord Himself.

Just prior to the Lord speaking in these parables, the disciples of St. John the Baptist had been asking the Lord the question about why they and the Pharisees followed strictly the laws of fasting that were dictated by the Jewish laws and customs, but the Lord’s own disciples did not follow the same ways, and instead embarked on their own path as shown by the Lord. This was when the Lord used the parables to explain that, in truth, while the laws and customs practiced by the people of God had been done and practiced for a long time, but in the end, what God desired from His people is something that is better than all those obedience to the laws and customs of the past, which were imperfect and even misunderstood by the people of God, which led to them not doing as the Lord had wanted them to do, and also failing to realise the true intention and purpose of such laws.

For example, the law on fasting is meant to teach the people of God to restrain themselves in their lives so that they might learn temperance and resist the temptations of worldly desires and pleasures, and that they may come to focus better and more on the Lord, their God and Master. However, many among the people of God, especially those of the Pharisees instead carried out their fasting with the intention to be seen and praised by others around them, by making their fasting well-known and such a pompous activity that it had become deviant and misled from the true path which God had wanted His people to walk through. Instead, they fell into the path of temptation of their own ego, ambition and desire, and the Lord wanted to tell them that this was not the way that they and all of us ought to take in our lives.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Maria Goretti, great and holy servant of God, a champion of virtue and chastity, compassion and mercy, whose life while short, was truly filled with virtue, and her martyrdom, in defending her virtues and righteousness, her purity and sanctity, is something that has inspired many people of her generation and afterwards. St. Maria Goretti was born in a rather large family with seven children, with St. Maria Goretti herself being the third of the seven children. Her family was poor, and after her father passed away when she was still young, her mother had to bring them to live with another family, the Serenellis, in order to provide for her many children. It was at this household that the young and pious St. Maria Goretti encountered Alessandro Serenelli, the son of the owner family.

At one time, when the young St. Maria Goretti, who was only eleven years old was outside the house, and there was no one else in the house, Alessandro Serenelli came to her and threatened to stab her with his awl if she did not do as what he wanted, and Alessandro was intending to rape her. St. Maria Goretti refused to obey Alessandro’s commands and demands, struggling and screaming, pleading with Alessandro in vain that it was a great sin against God to do as he had planned to commit. In a fit of anger, Alessandro choked and then stabbed St. Maria Goretti a total of fourteen times, and then a few more times afterwards before running away after witnessing what he had done. St. Maria Goretti passed away shortly afterwards in the presence of her mother and family in the hospital, but before she died, she told her mother that she has forgiven Alessandro and wanted to have him in Heaven with her.

Through the years afterwards, when Alessandro was arrested shortly after the event, it was told that St. Maria Goretti appeared to Alessandro himself in prison in a dream, and eventually this made him to repent from his sins, begging forgiveness from the mother of St. Maria Goretti, who forgave her and later on, the same Alessandro after he was released from his incarceration, eventually became a lay brother of the Capuchin Franciscan friars in the community, living in the monastery, ever repentant and regretful of the vicious deeds he had done, and committed the rest of his life in prayerful and dedicated life to God. He also attended the canonisation ceremony of St. Maria Goretti together with her mother. In this story of St. Maria Goretti, her courage and martyrdom, we are all reminded of what we are all expected to do as Christians, to live courageously in faith, and to commit ourselves wholeheartedly to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore renew our commitment henceforth to the Lord our God, doing whatever we can so that in our every words, actions and deeds, in our every moments in life, we will always be truly worthy of the Lord. Let us all continue to walk ever more faithfully in God’s path, remembering the love and mercy that He has shown us, and like St. Maria Goretti, let us all show the same love and mercy to one another, and love the Lord our God with all of our strength and might, now and always, that one day, we may truly be worthy to receive the fullness of inheritance that God had promised to all of us. Amen.