Ordinary Time

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Sunday, 2 June 2024 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Hebrews 9 : 11-15

But, now, Christ has appeared, as the High Priest, with regard to the good things of these new times. He passed through a Sanctuary more noble and perfect, not made by hands, that is not created. He did not take with Himself the blood of goats and bulls, but His own Blood, when He entered, once, and for all, into this Sanctuary, after obtaining definitive redemption.

If the sprinkling of people, defiled by sin, with the blood of goats and bulls, or with the ashes of a heifer, provides them with exterior cleanness and holiness, how much more will it be, with the Blood of Christ? He, moved by the eternal Spirit, offered Himself, as an unblemished Victim, to God, and His Blood cleanses us from dead works, so that we may serve the living God.

So, Christ is the Mediator of a new Covenant, or testament. His death made atonement for the sins committed under the old testament, and the promise is handed over, to all who are called to the everlasting inheritance.

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Sunday, 2 June 2024 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 115 : 12-13, 15 and 16bc, 17-18

How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to Me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the Name of the Lord.

It is painful to the Lord to see the death of His faithful. Truly Your servant, Your handmaid’s Son. You have freed Me from My bonds.

I will offer You a thanksgiving sacrifice; I will call on the Name of the Lord. I will carry out My vows to the Lord in the presence of His people.

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Sunday, 2 June 2024 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Exodus 24 : 3-8

Moses came and told the people all the words of YHVH and all His laws. The people replied with one voice : “Everything that YHVH has said, we shall do.”

Moses wrote down all the words of YHVH, then rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve raised stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. He then sent young men from among the sons of Israel to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice bullocks as peace offerings to YHVH.

And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins; and with the other half of the blood he sprinkled the altar. He then took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. They said, “All that YHVH said we shall do and obey.”

Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it on the people saying, “Here is the blood of the Covenant that YHVH has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

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Sunday, 2 June 2024 : Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are all reminded that we all exist for God and all the things we do in this life, our every moments, our whole beings, our whole reason for living should indeed be for the Lord, to glorify and to praise Him ceaselessly, for all the great and wonderful things which He had done for us. Each and every one of us have been called to follow the path of the Law, to obey His Law and to do whatever is needed for us so that our lives may truly be holy and worthy of Him. However, at the same time, we are also reminded that we must practice our faith in the manner that is truly embodying our faith, and develop a genuine and loving relationship with God, through those actions and piety which we have carried out in our daily living, or else, we are no better than hypocrites and unbelievers.

In our first reading this Sunday we heard from the Book of Deuteronomy in which Moses reminded the people of Israel, God’s first chosen people to observe the Sabbath day, which is the last or seventh day in the week. The Sabbath is a day of rest in which work and labour, activities that are not focused on the Lord are not allowed and when the people of God were encouraged to spend their time in prayer and devotion to God, firstly in connection with how the Lord Himself also rested on the seventh day when He created the Universe and the whole world. This day of Sabbath rest was also then meant to remind the people that they were truly God’s people and their livelihood, their activities and all their daily living should have God as the centre and focus of all things.

That was the intention and purpose why the Sabbath Law was enacted and imposed by the Lord on His people, the Israelites. As otherwise, it would have been very easy for the people to forget about God, to go on with their daily lives and activities, in their pursuits for glory and wealth, for worldly satisfactions and pleasures. All of these would have drawn the people ever further away from God and His salvation. Throughout time and history, again and again, people have been swayed by the many temptations of worldly glory, forgetting about God and His teachings, His path and truth that they ended up falling ever more and deeper into the path towards their ruin and destruction in sin. This is what the Lord wanted to prevent, and what He sought to avoid by instituting a day dedicated for everyone to keep holy and committed to Him, rather than to their various jobs and preoccupations.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Mark in which the Lord was confronted by the Pharisees who were criticising His disciples for having committed and carried out actions that were supposedly forbidden and outlawed during the Sabbath. Contextually, the Pharisees were those who were very particular about the way how the Law was to be observed and practiced, and they paid close attention to the Sabbath Law as well. To them, who advocated very literal and strict interpretation of the Law, absolutely no activity of all sorts could be done by anyone, not even when those activities were to be done out of necessity and for good and worthy purposes. And this was why they criticised the Lord and His disciples for their works and actions on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees upheld such beliefs and practices because, in opposition to the other dominant group, the Sadducees, representing those Jewish elites who had been exposed and supported Hellenic or Greek influences, the Pharisees wanted to preserve the Jewish ways and customs, practices and other beliefs very closely. However, in their obsession to do so, they became stubborn and selfish in their behaviours and ways, thinking that they alone were able to interpret the Law and their version of the Law and its observances alone could be followed, and anyone else who did not practice the Law in the manner that they had done, all of them had erred and ought to be condemned and criticised. The Lord pointed out to them therefore the folly of their ways and their arguments.

The Lord Jesus healed a paralysed man in the synagogue before those self-righteous and proud Pharisees, pointing out to them the folly of their idea that absolutely no actions could be done by anyone, not even those that brought about good deeds and glorification of God. The Lord wanted to remind all of us through this that the Sabbath was meant to help redirect us and our attention towards God, but was never meant to oppress and chain us with obligations and with restrictions that could even cause harm. For example, when those disciples were hungry, as they had been going from places to places to minister to the people of God, they indeed had to eat, and it was a necessity that they had to pluck the grains and feed themselves even on the Sabbath day.

This is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is imperative that we truly understand and appreciate why God had reached out to us, showing us the path for us to follow Him through His Law and commandments. Such laws and regulations were put in place to help us all, as God’s people to keep our lives centred and focused on God, but not to make our lives and existence difficult and tough. Otherwise, that led to what happened to those Pharisees who took the Law to the other extreme, by focusing so much on the details and the way the Law had to be applied, observed and practiced, that they forgot and overlooked the true intention and purpose of the Law of God, which is to lead mankind back towards God. Instead, through their overly strict application of the Law and their self-righteous and high-handed actions and manners, those Pharisees had done the opposite instead.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we have been reminded by the Lord to turn our attention and focus back towards Him, let us all hence be committed to Him and be truly genuine in following God in all of our words, actions and deeds, and not merely paying lip service to the Lord and yet our hearts and minds are not directed and focused on Him. Each and every one of us should always strive to grow ever stronger in our commitment and faith, and we should do our best so that we may ourselves be good inspirations and strength for one another, at all times. May the Lord continue to encourage and strengthen us all in faith, and may He bless us all in our every efforts, good works and endeavours, to obey Him genuinely and lovingly through His Law and commandments. Amen.

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Sunday, 2 June 2024 : Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 2 : 23 – Mark 3 : 6

At that time, one Sabbath the Lord was walking through grain fields. As His disciples walked along with Him, they began to pick the heads of grain and crush them in their hands. Then the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look! They are doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath!”

And He said to them, “Have you never read what David did in his time of need; when he and his men were very hungry? He went into the House of God, when Abiathar was High Priest, and ate; the bread of offering, which only the priests are allowed to eat, and he also gave some to the men who were with him.”

Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Master even of the Sabbath.”

Again, Jesus entered the synagogue. A man, who had a paralysed hand, was there; and some people watched Jesus : would He heal the man on the Sabbath? If He did, they could accuse Him.

Jesus said to the man with the paralysed hand, “Stand there, in the centre.” Then He asked them, “What does the Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To do good or to do harm? To save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

Then Jesus looked around at them with anger and deep sadness at their hardness of heart. And He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was healed. As soon as the Pharisees left, they met with Herod’s supporters, looking for a way to destroy Jesus.

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Sunday, 2 June 2024 : Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

2 Corinthians 4 : 6-11

God, Who said, ‘Let the light shine out of darkness’, has also made the light shine in our hearts to radiate, and to make known the glory of God, as it shines in the face of Christ.

However, we carry this treasure in vessels of clay, so that this all-surpassing power may not be seen as ours, but as God’s. Trials of every sort come to us, but we are not discouraged.

We are left without answer, but do not despair; persecuted but not abandoned, knocked down but not crushed. At any moment, we carry, in our person, the death of Jesus, so, that, the life of Jesus may also be manifested in us.

For we, the living, are given up continually to death, for the sake of Jesus, so, that, the life of Jesus may appear in our mortal existence.

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Sunday, 2 June 2024 : Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 80 : 3-4, 5-6, 7-8a, 10-11ab

Start the music, strike the timbrel, play melodies on the harp and lyre. Sound the trumpet at the new moon, on our feast day, when the new moon is full.

This is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob, a statute He wrote for Joseph when he went out of Egypt. They heard a voice they did not know: “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”

“I relieved your shoulder from burden; I freed your hands. You called in distress, and I saved you.”

There shall be no strange god among you, you shall not worship any alien god, for I, YHVH, am your God.

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Sunday, 2 June 2024 : Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Deuteronomy 5 : 12-15

Take care to keep holy the Sabbath day, as YHVH, your God, commands you. You have six days to work and do your tasks. But the seventh day is the Day of Rest in honour of YHVH, your God. Do not do any work, you or your child, or your servant, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your animals. Neither will the foreigner who lives in your land work. Your servant will rest just like you.

Remember that you were once enslaved in the land of Egypt from where YHVH, your God, brought you out with His powerful hand and outstretched arm. For that reason, YHVH, your God, commands you to observe the Sabbath.

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Saturday, 1 June 2024 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Justin, Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the readings from the Sacred Scriptures remind us that all of us are Christians must always be firmly established in our faith in God, as we are called to live a most worthy and wholesome life, in each and every moments of our lives, as God’s disciples and followers. As those who believe in the Lord, we are all expected to put our trust and faith in Him, and strive to do whatever we can so that by our exemplary commitments and devotion to God, we may always continue to do His will and to carry out whatever missions that He has entrusted to us even amidst all the challenges and trials that we may have to face in our lives and in our journey as faithful Christians, that is as holy and beloved people of God.

In our first reading today, we listened from the Epistle of St. Jude in which St. Jude the Apostle exhorted all the faithful people of God to live worthily and truly obedient to God’s will and Law, walking in the path which He has shown and taught us to do. St. Jude also spoke of the need for all the faithful to build their lives upon the foundation of God, and to do all of their actions and to base their whole lives upon the compassion and love of God, to show love in their whole lives so that by their every words, actions and deeds, they may indeed show that they truly belong to the Lord and are truly His disciples and followers in all things, not merely in words and formality only.

The Lord calls upon His disciples through this exhortation by St. Jude, including that of all of us that we must always strive to live our lives in the most Christ-like manner, in our desire to keep away from all sins and evils, from all the temptations of worldly pleasures and all the other things that often misled many people to their downfall and destruction. Each and every one of us are reminded that we must indeed be holy just like our Lord is all holy and perfect, or else we are hypocrites and we may sully and slander the goodness and holiness of His Name and Presence. Many people have been scandalised and put off from embracing the Christian faith precisely because of the wicked attitudes and behaviours of some of our fellow Christians, if not we ourselves.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Mark where the Lord Jesus was faced with disapproval and questioning from the chief priests who questioned Him and interrogated Him about His activities and works, which they disapproved of and refused to accept and embrace. They also did the same with St. John the Baptist, the Herald of the Lord, the one who went before Him to prepare His way. The chief priests and the Pharisees also went to St. John the Baptist, questioning him of his authenticity and the authority behind which he had performed all of his works and conducted all of his teachings and ministry. All these were because what the Lord and St. John the Baptist had done were not in accordance with what the chief priests had upheld and preferred.

This was where the Lord pointed out firmly to those chief priests that whatever He and St. John the Baptist had done were indeed sanctioned by God, and were Divine in origin. He challenged those chief priests and Pharisees to answer if the works and actions of St. John the Baptist, who was also highly esteemed like the Lord among the Jewish community, whether his works were human or Divine in origin. Those chief priests and those who opposed the Lord could not answer that challenge because they were afraid of the crowd and the people, and it showed just how shallow their accusations and oppositions against the Lord were. They opposed the Lord and His disciples and servants because they thought that they were better and more worthy, as the bearers and keepers of the Law, looking down on those who did not follow their path.

But this is also an important reminder for all of us that just as the Lord Himself has faced a lot of hardships and opposition in His work and ministry, therefore we can expect to face similar hardships and opposition as well. We must also remember how those chief priests were swayed by the temptations of worldly glory and power, by their jealousy against the Lord and St. John the Baptist, seeing how many of the people chose to flock to the two of them rather than following the path of the chief priests and the Pharisees. They opposed the Lord and His servants because they feared losing their prestige, influence and privileges in the community, and this led them to disobey and sin against God. This is what we must be vigilant against, and we must not allow ourselves to be swayed in the same manner.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Justin, also known St. Justin Martyr, who was one of the early Church fathers and one of the Christian martyrs, whose faith and dedication to the Lord has been very inspiring to many people throughout time and history. St. Justin was born into a Greek family at the region of Samaria in the Holy Land according to Apostolic and Church tradition, and he was likely a convert to the Christian faith as his family had a pagan background and history. It was told that an old Syrian Christian whom he encountered on a seashore and the dialogues that St. Justin had with the old man convinced him to believe in God, having heard of the truth and the glory of God that the old Christian man spoke with great zeal and fervour, and thus that was how St. Justin became a Christian.

St. Justin was then involved in extensive missionary activities, going to various places to proclaim the Lord and His truth, His Good News and salvation, and as a renowned philosopher in his own right, he would also establish his own philosophy school in Rome, where according to the Church traditions, he was involved in debates and disputations with the local pagan philosophers, one of whom denounced him to the Roman authorities. Thus, that was how St. Justin ended up being arrested, made to endure sufferings and eventually was martyred for his faith in the Lord. But to the very end, St. Justin remained firmly faithful to the Lord, and just as his whole life had been, St. Justin committed himself thoroughly to the Lord, and through his many works, writings and his own martyrdom, he inspired countless Christians who were his contemporaries, and those who came after him, even to this day.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to the great example and faith showed to us by St. Justin Martyr, let us all reflect upon our own lives and actions. Let us all look at how we have lived our lives as Christians, as God’s beloved and holy people. Have we truly dedicated and committed ourselves to the Lord, following Him with all our heart and with all our might? Or have we instead been idle and ignorant of our calling and the various missions which the Lord had entrusted to us? All of us are reminded today through the readings of the Sacred Scriptures and through the life and example of St. Justin Martyr that we must always have a genuine, living and active faith in the Lord, and we must always be ready to commit ourselves to Him, and be prepared for the challenges and sufferings that we may have to endure in the midst of our lives and journey in faith.

May the Lord continue to bless each and every one of us, and may He empower us all to be His ever faithful and worthy followers, so that in everything that we say and do, we will always do our very best to live our lives as good and worthy Christians, persevering amidst the many challenges and difficulties that we may have to face in our daily lives and journey as the faithful people of God. Let us all continue to go forth with faith and conviction, with the strength and guidance of God to guide our path. May God bless our every good works, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 1 June 2024 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Justin, Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 11 : 27-33

At that time, Jesus and His disciples were once again in Jerusalem. As Jesus was walking in the Temple, the chief priests, the teachers of the Law and the elders came to Him, and asked, “What authority do You have to act like this? Who gave You authority to do the things You do.”

Jesus said to them, “I will ask you a question, only one, and if you give me an answer, then I will tell you what authority I have to act like this. Was John’s preaching and baptism a work of God, or was it merely something human? Answer Me.”

And they kept arguing among themselves, “If we answer that it was a work of God, He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’” But neither could they answer before the people that the baptism of John was merely something human, for everyone regarded John as a prophet. So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you what authority I have to act as I do.”