Patriarchate of Antioch

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Monday, 17 October 2016 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we are reminded again how we have been saved through the loving action and through the mercy of God, Who have forgiven our trespasses and opened for us the path to salvation and eternal life, a liberation from the darkness and the corruptions which had trapped us all these while.

God has by His grace allowed us to receive the good fruits of His blessings, and through Him He has enabled us all to enjoy the promise of everlasting life, the hope amidst all of the despairs of this world. Yet, we mankind are the ones who are often obstinate and adamant in our ways, refusing to believe in Him and even rejected Him for lesser beings, false idols and all other distractions of this world.

We trust more in our own judgments and desires rather than listening and obeying to the Lord our God. And in doing so, we have often fallen into sin and deeper into the darkness. Our desires pull us ever more to try to attain for ourselves even more of what satisfied our flesh, the pleasures of our bodies, that we acted in ways as mentioned by Jesus in the Gospel today.

He mentioned about a rich man who had plenty of wealth, in his barns, crops and coins he possessed. And yet, he still desired for even more of these wealth, and thinking as well as worrying about what to be done to his ever growing wealth. He had planned long into the future to accumulate all the more of what he had attained, and to gather even more of what brought him satisfaction, fame, glory and prosperity.

And yet, God reminded him and indeed all of us, each and every one of us, that for all the wonders and the good things we have, all of these do not last forever. And just as much as we mankind can plan for all the things we want to do in life, ultimately, it is God Who decides our fate, and it is He alone Who understands us fully and knows the exact lengths of our earthly existence. He gave us life, and He alone can take the same life back.

It is a lesson and a reminder for us all Christians that our existence and our salvation depends on God, and indeed our lives depend on God, and His love is the one that made everything possible for us. He is generous and rich in mercy and love, but are we doing anything in order to accept these rich offerings of love? The love of God is ours to take, but do we love Him in the same manner and just as much as He has loved us?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to appreciate more what God had given us, and then to take up into ourselves the responsibilities and the tasks which He had entrusted to us just as He entrusted those same tasks in His commands to His Apostles that many years ago just before He left to ascend to His heavenly glory.

We are all called to serve the Lord with faith and zeal, and to deliver unto the whole world, the revelation of God’s salvation and of His hope for us all, that through believing and accepting that the Lord Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour, and through complete and total change in life attitudes and actions, all of them, all of us mankind may be brought to the salvation God promised His faithful ones.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, a very influential and important disciple of the Lord who was the successor of St. Peter the Apostle in his capacity as the Bishop of Antioch, and therefore was its second bishop, in a city where the Church was first established and where the faithful were also first known as Christians.

St. Ignatius of Antioch was very devoted to the Lord, giving his best in the works to establish and to strengthen the foundations of the Church in the region and beyond after he converted to the faith and became one of the leaders of the Church. It was because of his hard work and contributions from the other faithful and Church leaders that the Church endured through the difficult first decades of its existence.

He wrote extensively about the teachings of the Lord and published these among the faithful, encouraging them to keep the faith courageously even amidst threat of persecution and suffering imposed by the Roman authorities. He often led by example, serving the poor and the weak ones in the community, and the numbers of the faithful continued to grow during his leadership of the Church in Antioch.

While he was eventually martyred in Rome as the traditions held, truly, he had no regret or fear, for unlike those who have endeavoured to build for themselves earthly wealth and treasures. For he had built up for himself immense treasure in heaven, one that truly matters. For no one who have placed their trust in the Lord shall be disappointed, and neither was St. Ignatius of Antioch and the many other holy saints and martyrs.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore join our efforts together, to bring the Good News of God to all the peoples, to our brethren by our own faith and fidelity to our faith and to the teachings of the Church. May God help us on our journey and may He help us to draw closer to Himself, leaving behind our sinful past and embrace a new future filled with love and joy. Amen.

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Monday, 17 October 2016 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Luke 12 : 13-21

At that time, someone in the crowd spoke to Jesus, “Master, tell my brother to share with me the family inheritance.” He replied, “My friend, who has appointed Me as your Judge or your Attorney?”

Then Jesus said to the people, “Be on your guard and avoid every kind of greed, for even though you have many possessions, it is not that which gives you life.” And Jesus continued with this story, “There was a rich man, and his land had produced a good harvest. He thought, ‘What shall I do, for I am short of room to store my harvest?'”

“‘Alright, I know what I shall do; I will pull down my barns and I will build bigger ones, to store all this grain, which is my wealth. Then I will say to myself : My friend, you have a lot of good things put by for many years. Rest, eat, drink and enjoy yourself.'”

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be taken from you. Tell me who shall get all you have put aside?’ This is the lot of the one who stores up riches for himself and is not wealthy in the eyes of God.”

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Monday, 17 October 2016 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 99 : 2, 3, 4, 5

Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God; He created us and we are His people, the sheep of His fold.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His Name.

For the Lord is good; His love lasts forever and His faithfulness through all generations.

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Monday, 17 October 2016 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Ephesians 2 : 1-10

You were dead through the faults and sins. Once you lived through them according to the world and followed the Sovereign Ruler Who reigns between heaven and earth and Who goes on working in those who resist the faith. All of us belonged to them at one time and we followed human greed; we obeyed the urges of our human nature and consented to its desires. By ourselves, we went straight to the judgment like the rest of humankind.

But God, Who is rich in mercy, revealed His immense love. As we were dead through our sins, He gave us life with Christ. By grace you have been saved! And He raised us to life with Christ, giving us a place with Him in heaven. In showing us such kindness in Christ Jesus, God willed to reveal and unfold in the coming ages the extraordinary riches of His grace.

By the grace of God you have been saved through faith. This has not come from you : it is God’s gift. This was not the result of your works, so you are not to feel proud. What we are is God’s work. He has created us in Christ Jesus for the good works He has prepared that we should devote ourselves to them.

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Tuesday, 28 April 2015 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 11 : 19-26

Those who had been scattered because of the persecution over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message, but only to the Jews. But there were some natives of Cyprus and Cyrene among them who, on coming into Antioch, spoke also to the Greeks, giving them the Good News of the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them so that a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

News of this reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the manifest signs of God’s favour, he rejoiced and urged them all to remain firmly faithful to the Lord; for he himself was a good man filled with Holy Spirit and faith. Thus large crowds came to know the Lord.

Then Barnabas went off to Tarsus to look for Saul and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they had meetings with the Church and instructed many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

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Friday, 17 October 2014 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together as we heard in the Scriptures being read this day, the love and mercy of our Lord and God, who had delivered us from the power of death, so that we may be freed from the bondage and slavery of sin which leads eventually to death. Through Christ and what He had done in this world in full obedience to the Lord, He had brought us safety and reassurance against the power of death.

That is because by His suffering and death, He willingly took upon Himself the scourge of death, and all the consequences of our sins, so that those who trust in Him and believe in the words of truth and the Good News He brought, may gain the fullness of salvation and new life just as He had promised to the people of God. Christ had broken the power of death and freed mankind from the tyranny of sin by the act of His ultimate love and obedience to God the Father.

As mentioned ll by Jesus, that we have nothing to fear from sin and death if we are faithful to the Lord through our devotion and faith in Jesus, the Lord and Messiah sent by the Father to be our beacon of hope in this darkened world. As long as we keep ourselves strongly attached and faithful to the teachings of God, we will be safe from all evils and difficulties related to sin and death. Yes, Satan will do all in his power to try and wrest us back from the Lord, and bring us back into damnation, but if we are vigilant, we will not easily fall again for his lies and tricks.

That was why Jesus warned the people to be vigilant and careful against the yeast of the Pharisees. What is this yeast of the Pharisees? It is namely the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the human soul and heart, which infect us all mankind, as the tools and leverages of Satan in trying to subvert us and turn us against the Lord our loving God and Father. It is pride, jealousy, hatred, lack of faith, and many other vulnerabilities that exist in our hearts.

The Pharisees were a group of social elites in the society of the people of God at the time, and they commanded great respect from the people and wielded great teaching authority in teaching the matters of the faith. They took great pride in their position and authority, and were jealous in guarding them against anyone they saw as threats and potential rivals to their power and authority, as well as prestige.

This is what brought them into direct conflict with the group of the Sadducees, the rational thinkers and the powerful nobilities in the society of the people of God, as the Pharisees acted as the extremely orthodox and zealous defenders of the laws of Moses, to the point that they pointed out the extremities in the application of those laws through their own actions, leading the people away from the true intention and meaning of those laws.

They violently rejected Christ, who they saw as a revolutionary preacher and a great threat to their teaching authority and influence. To this end, they always tried to disrupt His teachings and also to test Him wherever He went, asking many questions designed to trap Him, in which they failed, for the Lord knew all that were in their hearts and minds, and their evil desire to bring about His downfall.

This was why Jesus was so adamant in His warning to the people, that they need to guard themselves against the yeast of the Pharisees. Indeed, as I have mentioned, that through His own actions and act of supreme and ultimate love on the cross, Jesus had given us all new hope through our liberation from the tyranny of our sins and from the enslavement of evil, but this does not mean that we can just get this easily without effort.

In order for us to be saved, then in all of our actions we have to guard ourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees, that is hatred, jealousy, prejudice, greed and desire, violence, anger and wrath, pride and arrogance, and many other things which are indeed the main cause for all of us mankind in our committing of sins and evils. The many sins and evils of this world can be traced to these evils, the evils of our hearts, which we should indeed excise and remove from ourselves.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the successor of St. Peter who was the first Bishop of Antioch. He was a martyr of the faith, who was martyred in the defense of the Faith which he held so dearly. St. Ignatius of Antioch was a convert to the Faith in his youth, and he was also told to be among the children whom the Lord had called to His embrace as told in the Gospels.

St. Ignatius of Antioch succeeded St. Peter in the leadership of the faithful in the major city of Antioch, one of the first dioceses in the world, and the place where the faithful were first called by the appelation ‘Christianos’, which eventually became the name we are now known for, the Christians. St. Ignatius of Antioch led the faithful with love, and he devoted himself to them completely, leading them to live their faith truthfully and with zeal.

He wrote extensively, and in his many letters both to the other bishops and to his own faithful, he affirmed the many central teachings of the Faith, and urged all of his people and peers to adhere closely to the teachings of the Lord as revealed in the Good News the Apostles and disciples of Christ preached. And to the end, St. Ignatius of Antioch remained true to his faith, and even in suffering after he was arrested, he continued to attach himself strongly in faith to the Lord.

He suffered martyrdom in the Colosseum, being thrown to lions and other wild beasts, the fate which also awaited many other of his successors and contemporaries in faith, but indeed, he did not fear death nor he had any need to fear death. Why so? That is because he had been faithful in his life, and was completely devoted to the Lord, and in his righteousness, he was justified and made true in faith, and death no longer has any power over him and all the other faithful who kept their faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all also reaffirm our faith in God, following in the footsteps of St. Ignatius of Antioch and the other faithful saints and martyrs. Let us all not just have faith in mere words, but with real and true actions as well, so that our faith may be alive and living well, and so that we may be truly devoted and our Lord who sees our living and genuine faith, will justify us and bring us to His promised eternal life and reward, and free us forever from the threat of death. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 13 May 2014 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial Feast of our Lady of Fatima (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 11 : 19-26

Those who had been scattered because of the persecution over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message, but only to the Jews. But there were some natives of Cyprus and Cyrene among them who, on coming into Antioch, spoke also to the Greeks, giving them the Good News of the Lord Jesus.

The hand of the Lord was with them so that a great number believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the manifest signs of God’s favour, he rejoiced and urged them all to remain firmly faithful to the Lord; for he himself was a good man filled with Holy Spirit and faith. Thus large crowds came to know the Lord.

Then Barnabas went off to Tarsus to look for Saul and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they had meetings with the Church and instructed many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

 

Alternative Reading (Mass of our Lady of Fatima)

 

Isaiah 61 : 9-11

Their descendants shall be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a race YHVH has blessed.

I rejoice greatly in YHVH, my soul exults for joy in my God, for He has clothed me in the garments of His salvation, He has covered me with the robe of His righteousness, like a bridegroom wearing a garland, like a bride adorned with jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its growth, and as a garden makes seeds spring up, so will the Lord YHVH make justice and praise spring up in the sight of all nations.

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Historic visit by Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Tawadros II to the Pope of the Church, Pope Francis

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Pope Tawadros II (Theodore II) of Alexandria, the head of the Coptic Church, Successor of St. Mark the Evangelist, first Bishop of Alexandria, is visiting Rome to pay a visit to the Pope and Supreme leader of the Universal Church and Successor of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles, Pope Francis.

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The Coptic Church is the direct descendant of the Patriarchate of Alexandria of the early Christian Pentarchy (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem), which broke apart from Rome and the Universal Church due to the disagreement in the Council of Chalcedon of 451, on the true nature of Christ.

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This disagreement is more due to misunderstanding in the nature of God, whether Christ’s human and divine persona is distinct or mixed. The initial term for non-Chalcedonians is monophysites, which is a heresy stating that both persona are mixed and indistinguishable. In fact, the Coptics and the other non-Chalcedonians in fact adopt miaphysitism, which while distinguishing the human and divine nature of Christ, but also acknowledge the mystery of the relationship between the two persona.

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Pope Tawadros II visits Rome in conjunction with the historic first meeting between the two Popes of Rome and Alexandria in 1973 by Pope Shenouda III, Pope Tawadros II’s predecessor, and Pope Paul VI. During that meeting a historic joint declaration of faith and friendship was announced and declared between the two Churches of God.

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Pope Francis received a gift of an engolpion, which is a form of imagery in medallion, which is worn in the same way as pectoral cross, which are worn by the bishops of the Eastern Rite.

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We hope that all Christians, with the Copts and the Orthodox Churches can be reunited once again with the true and only Church, that is the Church of God, as one Body, indivisible by men and worldly ambitions, in the One, Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

 

Pray always for Christian Unity. That we are One, just as Christ our Lord and the Father in heaven are One.

 

Ut Omnes Unum Sint, ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam

(That they all may be One, for the greater glory of God)