Psalm 33 : 2 and 9, 17-18, 19-20
I will bless the Lord all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. Oh, see and taste the goodness of the Lord! Blessed is the one who finds shelter in Him!
But His face is set against the wicked, to destroy their memory from the earth. The Lord hears the cry of the righteous and rescues them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves the distraught. Many are the troubles of the just, but the Lord delivers them from all.
Psalm 18 : 8-11
The Law of the Lord is perfect : it gives life to the soul. The word of the Lord is trustworthy : it gives wisdom to the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right : they give joy to the heart. The commandments of the Lord are clear, they enlighten the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure; it endures forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, all of them just and right.
They are more precious than gold – pure gold of a jeweller; they are much sweeter than honey which drops from the honeycomb.
Psalm 103 : 1-2, 5-6, 10, 12-14, 24 and 35
Bless the Lord, my soul! Clothed in majesty and splendour; O Lord, my God, how great You are! You are wrapped in light as with a garment; You stretch out the heavens like a tent.
You set the earth on its foundations, and never will it be shaken. You covered it with the ocean like a garment, and waters spread over the mountains.
You make springs gush forth in valleys winding among mountains and hills.
Birds build their nests close by and sing among the branches of trees. You water the mountains from Your abode and fill the earth with the fruit of Your work. You make grass grow for cattle and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth.
How varied o Lord, are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all – the earth full of Your creatures. May sinners vanish from the earth, and may the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, my soul!
Alternative Psalm
Psalm 32 : 4-7, 12-13, 20, 22
For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.
The heavens were created by His word, the breath of His mouth formed their starry host. He gathered the waters of the sea into a heap, and stored the deep in cellars.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.
In hope we wait for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield.
O Lord, let Your love rest upon us, even as our hope rests in You.
Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, and Mother of God, was not the natural and biological father of Jesus, our Lord, but legally and in all understandings, he is a father of our Lord, the foster father, who took care of Jesus while He was still young, and also protected Mary, His mother, in the Holy Family. He is the role model of how a father should be like, a loving and caring person, who put their family at their utmost care and attention.
Joseph was an upright man, and he was also righteous in the eyes of God. This is why, in the addition to Mary and her ultimate obedience to God, why God decided to come into this world through them, through Mary, as His mother, whose womb would be where He would come forth, and through Joseph, whose character and personality, made him as good as a foster father as one can be for Jesus, the Son of God Most High.
For Jesus was human as much as He is divine. Fully human yet also fully divine, all united in the person of Jesus, the Christ. He needs a father figure who can love Him and care for Him in the human and earthly manner, just like God His Father in heaven is His true Father provides for Him through the Holy Spirit. This father figure is Joseph, who by that virtue, is also the ‘father’ and patron of our Church.
For our Church was established by Christ Himself, and which He built on Peter His Apostle. This Church can therefore be considered to be under the protection and patronage of Joseph, God’s foster father. For he protected our Lord when King Herod chased after Him after His birth, and by the initiatives given by the angel in the dream, he brought the Holy Family to Egypt.
He cared for our Lord in His early years and teach Him all the trades that he knew, that is as a carpenter, that is why Jesus was also known as the ‘Son of a carpenter’, for his foster father Joseph, was neither a rich, influential, nor a powerful man. He was just a righteous man of God, dedicated to his family, as well as to whatever God has given him the hands for, that is to make good works with the wood, and from there perhaps bring glory to God.
Many of us today are shy about our upbringing and our backgrounds. Worse still, many of us are reluctant to tell people about who our parents are and what they are like, especially when we have become successful, influential, powerful, and rich. Many of us tend to prefer to forget our past and ‘move on’, to enter the world as new men and women, forgetting our parents who had brought us up to who we are today. Through their hard work, just as Joseph’s hard work and care as the father, and Mary’s nurturing love, they had brought us up, to be strong men and strong women we are today.
Jesus learnt His lessons on humanity and what it is like directly from His parents, who prepared Him for His eventual ministry after His baptism at the Jordan. Joseph particularly taught Him the virtues of hard work and being upright just as he was upright before the eyes of God, just as Mary showed Him the love and care that a mother would have on her son.
How many of us, in our families had done as what the Holy Family had done? and how many of fathers out there who had shown their care for their sons, their daughters, and their wives? Yes, indeed, I can say that there are many amongst us who had done so, or at least aspired to do so, but there are yet still many out there who ignored all these noble examples of Joseph, in bringing up the child Jesus to be whom we eventually know Him to be, the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
Just as Abraham is faithful, and even to the point of giving his only son as a sacrifice to God, when he was tested, therefore even greater is the love and faith that God has in us, that as the perfect Father, He gave us His being in His only Son, a third of the Holy Trinity, to be a worthy sacrificial victim, worthy to redeem all of us from all our sins and our rebellions from Him. Why? Because we are also His children, as Christ is human just like us, He has lowered Himself to take the form of a lowly and humble Man, that we can be saved. They and Joseph, are indeed a role model to all fathers, but even not only just to the fathers, but also to all of us. Since all of us are called to love and care for one another.
Let us remember all this as we approach the Holy Week which will happen next week. As we approach the memorial of our Lord’s endless and unconditional love for us, to give Himself up for our sake. Also let us remember of course Joseph, His father, who gave so much to his Son and family, through his protection and his righteousness, protecting them from harm and showering them with love. Let us pray to St. Joseph, that we can be as loving as him, that we can be as righteous as he is, and we can take care and love for our families, friends, and all the people around us, just as he did, and just as our Lord did.
St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us sinners. Amen.
Today also marks the Papal Inauguration of the 266th and current Pope, Pope Francis
Matthew 1 : 16, 18-21, 24a
Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus who is called the Christ – the Messiah.
This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her.
While he was pondering over this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has concieved by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins.”
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do.
Alternative reading
Luke 2 : 41-51a
Every year the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem for Feast of the Passover, as was customary. And when Jesus was twelve years old; He went up with them, according to the custom of this feast. After the festival was over, they returned but the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and His parents did not know it.
They thought He was in the company, and after walking the whole day they looked for Him among their relatives and friends. As they did not find Him, they went back to Jerusalem searching for Him, and on the third day they found Him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. And all the people were amazed at His understanding and His answers.
His parents were very surprised when they saw Him, and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Your father and I were very worried while searching for You.” Then He said to them, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” But they did not understand this answer.
Jesus went down with them, returning to Nazareth, and He continued to be subject to them.
Psalm 7 : 2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12
O Lord, my God, in You I take shelter; deliver me and save me from all my pursuers, lest lions tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
See my righteousness; You see that I am blameless. Bring to an end the power of the wicked, but affirm the just, o righteous God, searcher of mind and heart.
You cover me as a shield, o God, for You protect the upright. A righteous judge is God, His anger ever awaiting those who refuse to repent.
Psalm 33 : 17-18, 19-20, 21 and 23
The Lord’s face is set against the wicked to destroy their memory from the earth. The Lord hears the cry of the righteous and rescues them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves the distraught. Many are the troubles of the just, but the Lord delivers them from all.
He keeps all their bones intact, and none of them will be broken. But the Lord will redeem the life of His servants; none of those who trust in Him will be doomed.
John 5 : 17-30
Jesus replied, “My Father goes on working and so do I.” And the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him, for Jesus not only broke the Sabbath observance, but also made Himself equal with God, calling God, His own Father.
Jesus said to them, “Truly, I assure you, the Son cannot do anything by Himself, but only what He sees the Father do. And whatever He does, the Son also does. The Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He does; and He will show Him even greater things than these, so that you will be amazed.”
“As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whom He wills. In the same way the Father judges no one, for He has entrusted all judgment to the Son, and He wants all to honour the Son as they honour the Father. Whoever ignores the Son, ignores as well the Father who sent Him.”
“Truly, I say to you, anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life; and there is no judgment for him, because he has passed from death to life. Truly, the hour is coming and has indeed come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and, on hearing it, will live.”
“For the Father has life in Himself, and He has given to the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has empowered Him as well as to carry out Judgment, for He is Son of Man. Do not be surprised at this; the hour is coming when all those lying in tombs will hear My voice and come out; those who have done good shall rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”
“I can do nothing of Myself, and I need to hear Another One to judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
God shows us today that His love and His care is universal and extends not to just a single person or a single people. He healed Naaman from his leprosy through Elisha the prophet, and He also succour the widow of Zarephath in Sidon through the prophet Elijah, who helped her after her miserable life due to her husband’s passing. It is through their faith in God’s deliverance and power that, even though with some reservations and doubts they had, but ultimately their obedience to God’s will through the prophets that caused the outpouring of divine love to them, who were not of Israel, God’s chosen people.
Many of us today think that we are special, and that we have special talents that others do not, and many of us with these advantages think that we should be honoured and praised because of such abilities that we have. Many of us also look down on those who apparently have no such abilities and talents like what we have, and shun them, and even sometimes bully and persecute them to an extent. But today, God teaches you that even the great are not perfect, and more often than not, it is the meek and humble that will receive God’s love and blessing, and will be found righteous than the powerful.
It is not that God despises those who have power, those who have talents, abilities, and fortunes. It is rather that He despises those who misuse those power, and those who thought highly of themselves and oppress the less fortunate because they have these. Like the people of Israel, the chosen people of God, who often thought highly of themselves because they were chosen by God, but they were then at the time of the prophets drunk with power, possession, and worldly temptations, leaving God behind, and worshiped the false gods of their Canaanite neighbours.
A humble offer from Naaman to seek the prophet of Israel, the King of Israel had spurned. He even tore his robes and accused the Syrians of attempting to spy in the disguise of search for the prophet. Such is the haughtiness and pride of the king of Israel and Israel at that time, that even those who came in humility and gifts they had rejected, although they came truly to glorify the God of Israel, our God.
In their humility and obedience, Naaman and the widow obeyed the will of God through the prophets. Despite some grumbling in the beginning, Naaman washed himself seven times in the Jordan and was healed; then the widow fed Elijah the prophet with the bread made from the flour she was to use to prepare the last meal for herself and her son. Through these acts of faith they are blessed and experienced the love of God.
Naaman who was the commander of the Aramean King’s armies, lowered himself before God and his prophet and his obedience, while the king of Israel haughtily and proudly think of himself and his power, and in the time of King Ahab of Israel, during which period Elijah lived, not only the king was proud, but he even brought the people of the northern kingdom to sin against God ever more by sacrificing to foreign gods and killing God’s prophets.
Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Casimir, who was the crown prince of the united Kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania in the late 15th century. He never succeeded the throne to which he was the crown prince of, because he died early in life, but in his relatively short life, he had achieved much, and was noted for his great piety and love for God, and was committed to chastity in life and always was humble, especially noted was his great humility before God, and also before those who are his subjects.
He was like the modern day Naaman, but even more so because the piousness he had in his life, that made him today a patron saint of the youth. He is not of the first chosen people of God, but yet God had made him righteous, and now a saint, he intercedes for us in heaven, all because of his love, his faith, and his obedience to God.
Let us pray therefore brothers and sisters, that in our lives, and indeed in our daily lives, we can always dull the edge of our pride and our vanity, and sharpen the edge of our humility, and increase our dedication and love for God and our fellow men, our neighbours, and even those who did bad things to us, and those who hates us. Humble ourselves before God, asking for His mercy, and allowing Him to work His wonders through us, that all those whom we meet in our lives, will be able to experience God, His love, His kindness, and His grace, through us and our actions.
St. Casimir, pray for us all, pray for our youth that they will grow ever stronger in faith and love to God just as you once did. All the Holy Saints and prophets of God, Elijah and Elisha, pray for us. Amen.
Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6
Blessed is the one who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the law of the Lord and meditates day and night on His commandments.
He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.
But it is different with the wicked. They are like a chaff driven away by the wind. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 