Purple

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Monday, 14 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Callixtus I, Pope and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all heard from the readings of the Sacred Scriptures, we are called to heed the words of the Lord calling on each and every one of us to put our faith and trust in the Lord, keeping ourselves away from the temptations of worldly desires and pleasures, all of which had kept us away from truly being able to follow the Lord faithfully and wholeheartedly. We should always strive to resist those temptations, pressures and coercions, all the things that have often become difficult and challenging stumbling blocks for many of us because they had played upon our desires and ambitions, touching upon the greed and ego in us, and threatening to keep us away from the Lord and His salvation, if we are not vigilant against them.

In our first reading today, we heard from the beginning of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Ephesus, one of the great cities of Antiquity and an important early centre of Christian missions and evangelisation. There in that Epistle, St. Paul spoke of the story of Abraham and his two sons, which were born to him through two different women to highlight what he wanted to convey to them regarding the Christian faith which they had received and come to believe in. First was Ishmael, the son born to Abraham through Hagar, the slave owned by his wife, Sarah, which according to the rules and customs of his time, any children born to the slave of a woman, was considered to belong to the woman and was legally a son of Abraham. Then there was also Isaac, born from Sarah herself, who was at the time was already very old and long past childbearing age.

This story from the Book of Genesis highlighted to us the importance of trusting in God and obeying His will and commandments, and not to believe or trust in worldly ways and methods. It was Sarah who suggested to Abraham that he should lay with her slave Hagar, that she would bear a son for him, despite the Lord having assured and then repeatedly reassured Abraham that he would be the father and progenitor of many nations and people through his wife Sarah. The impatience of Sarah and the lack of faith that happened at the time eventually led to the complications that came about because of the presence of both Ishmael and Isaac, both according to rules and customs, were legally sons and heirs of Abraham. Nonetheless, God told Abraham that He would still bless Ishmael as he was Abraham’s son, but reiterated that His blessings and grace would fully be with Isaac and his descendants, the ones whom God had intended them for.

St. Paul spoke of how the sons and descendants of Ishmael were born out of slavery and hence were bound to the enslavement and were not free, while the sons and descendants of Isaac were born of their free woman, Sarah, and thus was not subject to enslavement anymore, and they were truly free. St. Paul was in fact not comparing about the status of whether the descendants of Ishmael or Isaac were free or enslaved, as the Israelites, the descendants of Isaac, were themselves enslaved in Egypt for some period of time. Rather, the Apostle was using the comparison to highlight, as mentioned, the difference between obeying the old, human-based and flawed laws and rules, customs and practices of the Jewish people as especially carried out and enforced by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, associated with this ‘enslavement’ to the worldly rules and ways, versus the true Law of God as revealed to them and all of us through Christ and His Church.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist in which the Lord spoke to all the people and all those gathered including His disciples, many of whom were asking for Him to show them a sign, and how He told them that they had seen many things and wonders, which they themselves had witnessed all throughout the Lord’s journeys and ministry, and yet they did not believe. He was rebuking them for their lack of faith and trust in God, and in the One Whom God had sent into their midst, Christ Himself, Who has shown the fulfilment of everything that the Lord has promised and proclaimed through His many prophets. Those who failed to believe likely belonged to the group of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who saw and considered themselves to be spiritually superior and better because of their adherence and obedience to God through their interpretation of the Law.

The Lord also spoke of how the only sign that they would see would be the sign of Jonah, which was in fact a veiled revelation of what He would Himself face at the time of His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross, and also His Resurrection from the dead. This is because of the prophet Jonah having been swallowed by a great whale and stayed in the belly of that whale for three days before he was then cast back out to the land. This was a prefigurement of the Lord’s suffering and death, as He Himself would spend a period of three days in the ‘belly’ of the earth after His death, being buried in the tomb, and then on the third day rose in glory, triumphant against all the powers of sin, evil and darkness, as a great Sign for all of us.

All these again pointed out to us the need to distance ourselves from the many temptations often present in our lives and around us, for us to be truly faithful and committed to God, trusting in Him and obeying His words instead of trusting and putting our faith in our own flawed judgments and abilities alone. We must always live our lives and carry out our daily actions and living in tandem with God’s guidance and providence, allowing Him to help and lead us all down the righteous and correct path, away from the path of darkness and sin, all of which can bring us to our downfall and destruction. We should always trust in God to help us to discern the right path, and we must always strive to move forward in life with the help and guidance of God at all times.

Today the Church also celebrates the Feast of Pope St. Callixtus I, one of the early Church and fathers and as Pope, was one of the successors of St. Peter the Apostle as the leader of the whole Universal Church. His examples and faith should serve as good example and inspiration for all of us to follow in our own lives, doing whatever we can so that we may truly follow the Lord faithfully and wholeheartedly and do not end up following the false path in life. Pope St. Callixtus I according to tradition was once a slave in his youth during the height of the power of the Roman Empire, and he had a rather difficult life working in the Sardinian mines before he was released and afterwards came to the service of the Church as a deacon ordained by Pope St. Zephyrinus.

Pope St. Zephyrinus was then succeeded by Pope St. Callixtus I himself, who reached out to all those who have come from various sects and schismatic Christian bodies, and also allowed the absolution of more serious sins such as murder for those who were genuinely repentant and regretful over their sins and mistakes. This was opposed by a group of the faithful and the clergy who disagreed with the Pope’s approach, preferring a strict exclusion of those who were deemed to be unworthy of God’s salvation because of their sinful ways and them having fallen into the path of sin. Those people elected a popular priest, later known and venerated as St. Hippolytus of Rome, as an Antipope or rival Pope to Pope St. Callixtus I. But regardless of this division and difficulties faced by the faithful, Pope St. Callixtus I continued to labour hard for the people of God, until he himself was arrested and martyred during the severe persecution of Christians, and eventually his successor, Pope St. Pontian managed to be reconciled with St. Hippolytus and returned unity back to the Church.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, as we have listened from the examples of Pope St. Callixtus I, and inspired by the examples and lives of the other holy saints, holy men and women of God, let us all continue to put our faith and trust in the Lord rather than in the human wisdom and intellect, or be enslaved and be narrow-minded because of our attachments to the rules, regulations and customs of the world. May the Lord continue to help and guide us in our journey of faith, so that in everything that we do in each and every moments of our lives, we will continue to commit ourselves wholly and focus our every attention and efforts to walk in God’s path rather than to follow the whim of our own desires and ambitions in life. Let us all not harden our hearts and minds, and turn away from the darkness of this world, and instead, embrace wholeheartedly God’s path and ways, following in the examples of our holy predecessors, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 14 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Callixtus I, Pope and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Luke 11 : 29-32

At that time, as the crowd increased, Jesus spoke the following words : “People of the present time are troubled people. They ask for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah. As Jonah became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a sign for this generation.”

“The Queen of the South will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and here, there is greater than Solomon. The people of Nineveh will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for Jonah’s preaching made them turn from their sins, and here, there is greater than Jonah.”

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Monday, 14 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Callixtus I, Pope and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 112 : 1-2, 3-4, 5a and 6-7

Alleluia! Praise, o servants of YHVH, praise the Name of YHVH! Blessed be the Name of YHVH now and forever!

From eastern lands to the western islands, may the Name of YHVH be praised! YHVH is exalted over the nations; His glory above the heavens.

Who is like YHVH our God, Who also bends down to see on earth as in heaven? He lifts up the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap.

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Monday, 14 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Callixtus I, Pope and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Galatians 4 : 22-24, 26-27, 31 – Galatians 5 : 1

It says, that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman, the other by the free woman, his wife. The son of the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but the son of the free woman was born in fulfilment of God’s promise.

Here we have an allegory and the figures of two Covenants. The first is the one from Mount Sinai, represented through Hagar : her children have slavery for their lot. But the Jerusalem above, who is our mother, is free. And Scripture says of her : Rejoice, barren woman without children, break forth in shouts of joy, you who do not know the pains of childbirth, for many shall be the children of the forsaken mother, more than of the married woman.

Brethren, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. Christ freed us, to make us really free. So remain firm, and do not submit, again, to the yoke of slavery.

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Sunday, 13 October 2024 : Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded constantly as we have always been on the virtue of entrusting ourselves to the Wisdom of God and to follow Him in all things and in all circumstances in our lives so that we may not end up falling away from the path towards righteousness and justification in Him. All of us should continue to entrust ourselves to the Lord and walk ever more faithfully in His Presence and being guided with Him, and we should not easily be tempted by all sorts of worldly temptations and evils all around us, so that by our dedication and commitment to God, the Lord will make us worthy and truly blessed and strengthened by His love and wisdom, blessed by the grace of His compassionate care and attention to us.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of Wisdom, also known as the Wisdom of Solomon, which is a compilation on the many works regarding the central theme of Wisdom, especially referring to the Wisdom of God, the Divine Wisdom which has come to dwell in our midst and which had come upon us to bestow upon us the virtues and the guidance for all of us to follow in our journey throughout our lives. The author of the Book of Wisdom spoke of the Wisdom of God and how this Wisdom is far greater than anything of value in this world, and how incomparable God’s Wisdom and ways are compared to whatever good and wonderful things this world can offer us, and how we ought to seek this Wisdom above all else so that we may be able to find our way in this journey we all have towards the Lord, our God and Saviour.

Then in our second reading, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews we heard of the reminder from the author of this Epistle to all of us about the power of the Word of God, that had come from God Himself and coming upon all the whole people of God, penetrating through all things and having power and dominion over all. It is a reminder to us of the great power and infinite nature of the Wisdom of God that transcended over all other things, and how mighty the Lord is compared to our own human limitations and shortcomings. We are reminded that we must always have faith and trust in the Lord, and we must continue to obey His Law and commandments, doing whatever we can to listen to His words and walk in His path rather than following the whim of our own desires.

Our Gospel passage this Sunday then reminds us all about the matter of how we ought to follow the Lord and commit ourselves to His cause, to resist the temptations of worldly pleasures and glory, and all the things which often separated us from the love and grace of God. All of us have often faced the difficult choice between truly embracing God and His ways genuinely against following the trends and whim of this world, and we are reminded that as Christians, we have to do our part in living lives that are truly holy and worthy of God, distancing ourselves from all the temptations and attachments found all around us in this world which can easily distract and lead us away from the path towards God and His salvation. We should not allow all of those things to be stumbling blocks keeping us away from God.

In that same passage we heard how a rich man came to the Lord asking how he could gain access into the kingdom of God after he had obeyed all the Law, the commandments, precepts and rules of that Law according to how the people of God lived them at the time, which was responded by the Lord with the call for him to sell everything that he had and then follow the Lord wholeheartedly, which was then met with a sad disappointment and a kind of tacit disagreement from the rich man, who then left the Lord in sorrow, as he was a man of truly great wealth, and it was likely that he could not bear to be parted from all of his great amount of wealth and possessions, and he could not commit himself in the manner that the Lord had told him to do.

When we read this Gospel passage and account of this event, we must understand that the Lord was not against the rich and all those who have great wealth, as wealth and possessions themselves are not inherently evil and wicked. Those things can indeed be used for great and noble uses and causes, and many people who were rich had been great philantrophists, generous donors and patrons of many organisations and causes that had helped many people who were poor, less privileged and suffering in all parts of the world throughout all history. What the Lord was in fact reminding and warning us against is our own desires and attachments for those worldly wealth, matter and possessions, which can blind us to the true path that He has shown us.

Many of our predecessors had been undone by their inability to resist the temptations of those worldly attachments and desires, which had led them into the slippery slope and downfall into sin and darkness. Their great wealth and possessions, and their insatiable desire and attachments to those things were exactly the obstacles and barriers preventing them from coming closer towards the Lord and His salvation. They put their faith and trust more in what they possess, in all the worldly wealth and glory that they had, rather than trusting in the Wisdom of God, and in this, echoing what we had earlier in the other parts of the Scriptures today, we are hence reminded to stay away from those temptations and resist those desires so that we will not end up falling ever deeper into the wrong path in life.

May the Lord, our ever loving and merciful God continue to help and guide us all through His infinite Wisdom, giving us the strength and courage to live our lives henceforth with great commitment and fidelity, focusing ever always on His truth and Good News, His teachings, love and Wisdom, and distancing ourselves from all the temptations and worldly pleasures, all the desires and ambitions that can easily lead us into our downfall. May God be with us all, in all of our journey through this life, that through His Wisdom, we may draw ever closer to Him and His grace. Amen.

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Sunday, 13 October 2024 : Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 10 : 17-30

At that time, just as Jesus was setting out on His journey again, a man ran up, knelt before Him and asked, “Good Master, what must I do to have eternal life?”

Jesus answered, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments : Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat, honour your father and mother.” The man replied, “I have obeyed all these commandments since my childhood.”

Then Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him and He said, “For you, one thing is lacking. Go, sell what you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow Me.” On hearing these words, his face fell and he went away sorrowful, for he was a man of great wealth.

Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God” The disciples were shocked at these words, but Jesus insisted, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

They were more astonished than ever and wondered, “Who, then, can be saved?” Jesus looked steadily at them and said, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God; all things are possible with God.”

Peter spoke up and said, “We have given up everything to follow You.” Jesus answered, “Truly, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or children, or lands, for My sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive his reward.”

“I say to you : even in the midst of persecution, he will receive a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands in the present time, and in the world to come eternal life.”

Alternative reading (shorter version)

Mark 10 : 17-27

At that time, just as Jesus was setting out on His journey again, a man ran up, knelt before Him and asked, “Good Master, what must I do to have eternal life?”

Jesus answered, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments : Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat, honour your father and mother.” The man replied, “I have obeyed all these commandments since my childhood.”

Then Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him and He said, “For you, one thing is lacking. Go, sell what you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow Me.” On hearing these words, his face fell and he went away sorrowful, for he was a man of great wealth.

Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God” The disciples were shocked at these words, but Jesus insisted, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

They were more astonished than ever and wondered, “Who, then, can be saved?” Jesus looked steadily at them and said, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God; all things are possible with God.”

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Sunday, 13 October 2024 : Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Hebrews 4 : 12-13

For the Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces, to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and judges the intentions and thoughts of the heart.

All creation is transparent to Him; everything is uncovered and laid bare, to the eyes of Him, to Whom we render account.

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Sunday, 13 October 2024 : Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 89 : 12-13, 14-15, 16-17

So make us know the shortness of our life, that we may gain wisdom of heart. How long will You be angry, o YHVH? Have mercy on Your servant.

Fill us at daybreak with Your goodness, that we may be glad all our days. Make joy endure, as the misery did, and the years in which we were afflicted.

Let Your work be seen by Your servants and Your glorious power by their children. May the sweetness of YHVH be upon us; may He prosper the work of our hands.

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Sunday, 13 October 2024 : Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Wisdom 7 : 7-11

I prayed and understanding was given to me; I asked earnestly and the Spirit of Wisdom came to me. I preferred her to sceptres and thrones and I considered wealth as nothing compared with her.

I preferred her to any jewel of inestimable value, since gold beside her is nothing but a few grains of sand, and silver but mud. I loved her more than wealth and beauty and even preferred her to light, because her radiance never dies.

She brought with her all other good things, untold riches in her hands.

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Saturday, 12 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green 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 constant need for each and every one of us to remember that we are all God’s people, all equally beloved and precious before Him and in His eyes. None of us can claim that we are better or more preferred simply because of our background, our circumstances, or by whatever other parameters that we usually tend to divide or categorise ourselves into. When we are called to follow Him as Christians, to be God’s beloved and holy people, each and every one of us are called to reflect His light and truth, and whatever He had taught us in our lives, so that our every words, actions and deeds truly show that we are His holy and blessed people.

In our first reading today, we heard from the continuation of this week’s discourse and passage from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful people of God in Galatia in what is now part of modern day Turkey, where the Apostle continued to elaborate about the matter of obeying the old and outdated ways of the Law of Moses, of the manner how those laws, commandments and rules, rituals and regulations were observed and enforced by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, those who were considered as the religious and intellectual elites of the community in charge of the maintenance and enforcement of the Law of God. Those people were also rather rigid and inflexible in their understanding and application of the Law of God, enforcing them very strictly and harshly, forcing the faithful people of God to follow all of the numerous rules, regulations and precepts.

And in their pride, ego, ambition and greed they had ended up misusing the Law of God to serve their own selfish interests, desires and ambitions. They sought to be praised and acclaimed because of their great piety and supposed obedience and adherence to the fullness of the Law of God, and they judged others who did not follow or obey the Law of God in the manner that they had done it. It is this boundary and limits which man had established which St. Paul was quite adamantly against, and for which he had criticised those who still continued to insist that everyone ought to follow and obey those man-made boundaries and obligations that were not truly in accordance with God’s will and what He desired from His people.

Then, in our short Gospel passage today from the Gospel of St. Luke, the words of the Lord to His disciples and all the people who were listening to Him were very clear indeed in their intention and meaning. The Lord wanted to tell each and every one of us that what He wants from us is obedience to the will of God and for all of us to do what God has taught us through His Son, the Lord Jesus Himself, and everything that He has brought unto us in this world today. It is not by association or connection to Him that one would be blessed or favoured by God, as He pointed it out Himself that just because someone belongs to the relatives or family of the Lord, but it did not mean that they would be favoured solely by that connection.

This was unlike what was common in the world at that time, where people usually favoured those who were connected and of the same family or group as themselves. This same attitude is also shown by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law mentioned earlier as they commonly favoured those who were in their own group and shared the same thoughts and beliefs as they were, and they despised and were judgmental against all those whom they disagreed or differed in views with. That was why despite the Lord having performed many of His good and wonderful works before their own eyes and spoke of His great wisdom and teachings before them, they would not believe and continued to reject the truth and the revelations of the Lord’s Good News, despite the irrefutable truth it has brought them.

This kind of favouritism and bias exist even right up to this day, and is something that all of us as Christians are reminded to be ever vigilant against. As Christians, we must not allow ourselves to be easily swayed and tempted by the various worldly temptations, distractions and pressures all around us, and not to be easily persuaded by false directions and falsehoods in our midst. The Lord showed us all that to be truly faithful to Him we have to be ready and willing to listen to Him, embracing His truth and love, doing whatever we can so that by our commitment to Him, we will continue to live our lives worthily and doing whatever we can to glorify Him by our every words, actions and deeds throughout each and every moments of our lives, which we should always offer to God and strive to proclaim His truth and love to all.

And as the Lord mentioned all that before His disciples, lest we may think that He was being disrespectful to His family members and relatives, particularly to His mother, Mary, we must realise that He was in fact praising His own mother’s great examples and her being a great role model and inspiration for each and every one of us to follow in our own lives as Christians. Mary through her life and dedication to God has always lived her life with full of commitment and love for God, and being in a state full of grace, she obeyed the Lord perfectly and completely, following Him and His commandments, doing His will and living the life of the exemplary and model Christian by her complete obedience and trust in God, which we all should follow as well. The Lord has pointed the path to Himself through His mother, and we all should follow this path.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore ponder carefully how we are to continue living our lives from now on, doing our best so that we may continue to glorify the Lord by our lives and by doing His will, and to remain humble at all times. And as the examples of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law ought to have reminded us, we should not allow ourselves to be swayed by the temptations of worldly glory and ambitions, or by our pride and ego so that we will not end up falling ever deeper into the path of sin towards destruction and damnation. Let us all instead follow the Lord’s call and through the help of His loving Mother Mary and His many saints, holy men and women, our wonderful holy predecessors, we may continue to progress well in our journey towards Him. Amen.