Roman Catholic Church

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Sunday, 9 July 2017 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we are reminded through the readings from the Sacred Scriptures of the great love which our God has for us, that He gave us the means to our salvation, that is none other than through our Lord Jesus Christ, His own Beloved Son, through Whom He had brought salvation upon all of us mankind.

By His own will He has willingly sent us His own Son, Jesus Christ, through Whom we have received the perfect revelation of God’s truth and teachings, calling us to turn ourselves completely, body, heart, mind and soul towards Him and turning our back from the burdens and chains of our old selves, which had been enslaved to sin and wickedness, to disobedience and aberrations from the path of God. He wants to free us from our current state of suffering and sin.

In the second reading today, St. Paul in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Rome mentioned how all of the faithful ought to leave behind their existence in the flesh and embrace their new existence in the spirit. This is what all of us Christians are called to do, that is for us to abandon our past sinfulness and all the temptations and obstacles that had prevented us from truly being able to commit ourselves to God.

But what is the existence in the flesh? What does it mean and what is its significance for us? Existence of the flesh means that we mankind live in accordance to the desires of our flesh, succumbing to the demands of our human desires and wishes, by listening to the temptations of Satan instead of listening to the word of God calling us to righteousness.

It means that we succumb to the desires to sin, to covet what others have but we do not have, satisfying our greed for worldly goods and material wealth. To lust for others and to have improper sexual conduct outside of marriage, among many other things. It also means that we strive to gain the satisfaction of the flesh, amassing for ourselves the treasures of this world, often at the expense of our own souls.

We often bicker and become angry with one another, when we are engulfed and overcome by greed, and thus hatred become part of us. This is how many of our unfortunate human conflicts have sprung up in this world. We are never satisfied because what we seek are merely temporary happiness that can only satisfy us for a while, but then after that, cause us to be even more hungry and desiring for what we want.

This is the existence in the flesh, which all of us mankind are surely quite familiar with, as that is what we all grew up with. And this has become our burden, the burden which bears down upon us, the burden of sin. Yet, this is where the Lord comes, offering to us a different existence, that is existence in the Spirit, where we no longer obey the desires of our flesh and of worldly demands, but instead, we obey only the Lord, Who leads us and guides us to the true path.

That is what the Lord offered to us, a new path that leads not to ruin but instead to salvation and liberation, eternal joy and happiness, where all of us will be reconciled with God and receive forever the grace of His love. This is the new path that God pointed to us and showed us through Jesus, Who taught us of this truth. Yet, many of us mankind still refused to follow Him and obey Him, and many of us still closed our hearts against Him.

Why is that so? That is because we often prefer the easier path, and one that appears easier to us, is the path that is not the path shown by the Lord. It is the status quo, our existence in the flesh, which brings us temporary happiness, a ‘quick fix’ for us, a fleeting moment of joy and pleasure, but one which unfortunately do not last. Satan is always at work out there, trying to keep us in this state, tempting us to sin against God, offering us his false promises and showering us with worldly pleasures.

That is not, however, what the Lord told us. He clearly told His disciples, and therefore all of us, that His way is the true way, the way that leads to true joy and happiness. He said, “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Indeed, this is the truth that Satan wants to keep away from us, by tempting us without ceasing and persecuting us, that we end up turning away from God and fall into sin.

Through this, all of us Christians must know that if we follow the Lord, walk in His path and obey Him, we will indeed not have an instant gratification and eternal joy right away, for there is indeed a burden which He imposed on us, none other than the burden of our crosses in life. All of us, Christians, who believe in the Lord Jesus and His salvation, are called to carry our crosses with us in our lives, and to follow the Lord with faith and obedience.

What is this cross we have, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is the cross of love, the challenge for us all to love one another, and to show generosity and mercy to our fellow brethren, even towards all those who hate us and all who have brought upon us ridicule, persecution and suffering. It is easy for us to hate those who have hated us, but it is far more difficult for us to love those who hate us and persecute us. Yet, that is what the Lord called us to do and wanted us to do in our lives.

And we will indeed be rejected and ridiculed by others because of how we lived our lives in accordance with the will of God. For instance, while others desire to serve their own needs first and be selfish, all of us Christians are called to be selfless and to show our love to our brethren as much as we love ourselves. We are called to this way of life, this existence in the Spirit, just as the Lord had shown us how to do so.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we all able to devote ourselves to the Lord in this manner? Are we all able to walk in the path which He had shown us? Let us all no longer doubt or be hesitant, but instead, let us all seek the Lord with joy, just as the prophet Zechariah in our first reading urged the people to rejoice and to be filled with jubilation, at the coming of the Lord, Who will save His people and bring glory to His Name.

Let us all henceforth, from now on, put our complete trust in the Lord, and become His true disciples and followers. Let us all exorcise and cast away from ourselves all that is wicked, impure and unworthy of God. We do not have to do great things in order to do this, but we can begin from ourselves, from every small and little deeds we do in our daily lives, one at a time.

Let us all show love and compassion to each other, caring for those who are in need, showing forgiveness and tenderness to those who have wronged us, and praying for all those who hate us and who have persecuted us and caused us pain. Let us all be like the Lord, Who have shown us all how to love, and how to be more like Him, so that in the end, we may be found worthy of the Lord, and He will grant us His eternal rest, that we will be forever joyful in His presence.

May God bless us all, remain with us and strengthen our faith in us always. May all of us grow ever stronger in our devotion to Him, and grow ever more generous with our love and compassion. Amen.

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Sunday, 9 July 2017 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Matthew 11 : 25-30

At that time, Jesus said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I praise You; because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to simple people. Yes, Father, this was Your gracious will. Everything has been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest. For My yoke is easy; and My burden is light.”

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Sunday, 9 July 2017 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Romans 8 : 9, 11-13

Yet, your existence is not in the flesh, but in the spirit, because the Spirit of God is within you. If you did not have the Spirit of Christ, you would not belong to Him. And if the Spirit of Him, Who raised Jesus from the dead, is within you, He, Who raised Jesus Christ from among the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies. Yes, He will do it, through His Spirit, Who dwells within you.

Then, brothers, let us leave the flesh and no longer live according to it. If not, we will die. Rather, walking in the spirit, let us put to death the body’s deeds, so that we may live.

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Sunday, 9 July 2017 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 144 : 1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13cd-14

I will extol You, my God and King; I will praise Your Name forever. I will praise You, day after day; and exalt Your Name forever.

Compassionate and gracious is YHVH, slow to anger and abounding in love. YHVH is good to everyone; His mercy embraces all His creation.

All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o YHVH, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom; and speak of Your power.

YHVH is true to His promises and lets His mercy show in all He does. YHVH lifts up those who are falling and raises those who are beaten down.

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Sunday, 9 July 2017 : Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Zechariah 9 : 9-10

Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem! For your King is coming, just and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

No more chariots in Ephraim, no more horses in Jerusalem, for He will do away with them. The warrior’s bow shall be broken when He dictates peace to the nations. He will reign from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

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Saturday, 8 July 2017 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s readings, we are all presented with contradictions and discrepancies that exist first of all, between the brothers Esau and Jacob, the sons of Isaac, in which we heard how Esau, the elder one among the brothers were supposed to obtain the blessings from Isaac, his father as the rightful heir, and yet, not only that he sold his right for inheritance to Jacob, his younger brother, in an earlier part of the Book of Genesis, a prelude to today’s passage, but as we have heard, he has also lost his blessings and graces which his father instead bestowed on Jacob, the younger one of the two brothers.

It was told that Esau was a great hunter, mighty in the sight of men and the world alike. For many people, it would indeed be natural for Esau to succeed his father and obtain his inheritance. And yet, he was not the one whom God had chosen to be the one through whom He would pass His favour to, but instead, He gave all these to Jacob, the father of all Israel.

Esau represented the old ways, as it was told that he married local Canaanite women and worshipped their gods, unlike what the Lord had told His servants, that is to serve the Lord alone as their God and Master. Jacob was therefore the representative of the new covenant of God which He renewed with the descendants of His faithful servant Abraham. The passing of blessings and inheritance from Esau to Jacob represents this shift from the old way of paganism and sin, into a new reality and new life blessed by God.

In the Gospel today, we heard a seemingly different story, when Jesus spoke of the parable of the wineskin and the wine, as well as the parable of the cloth to His disciples. In that parable, He spoke of how old wine ought not to be put and stored into new wineskins, and vice versa, for they are incompatible. In the similar manner, old cloth ought not to be sewed into new clothes, and vice versa, or else their contradictions will reject each other.

How is this related to what we have heard in our first reading today? And more importantly, how are they related to our own lives? What we have heard today in fact have called us to discern and think about how we ought to be better disciples and followers of our Lord through our life, our actions and deeds in life. We are all called to a new life in God, one that is transformed and changed by His love.

The old wineskin and the old clothes represents the old ways of our life, what we used to say, do and believe. It represent the sin of our disobedience and the sin of our flesh, all that we have committed in the past. The new wine and the new patch of cloth represents the new way of the Lord, one that is distinct from the old ways of sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, when Jesus spoke to His disciples about the new wine causing the old wineskin to tear and burst, and the same thing happens also to the old clothes patched with new piece of cloth, He was indeed saying that with our new life in God, that life is incompatible with our past sinfulness and all of our past wrongdoings.

This means that we cannot profess to be one of the disciples and followers of the Lord, and yet at the same time, continuing to sin and to disobey or be ignorant of His laws and commandments. Otherwise, the consequences for us will be indeed severe, as we will only cause an even greater sin upon ourselves. We must change our ways and turn away from all of the disobedience and ignorance which have brought us into sin, sin against God.

Let us all today reflect on this, and think of what we mankind can do better, as the members of God’s Church, as His servants and disciples, in following Him and obeying His laws and commandments, so that through our every actions, deeds and all that we do, we will always bring glory to Him, not to ourselves, and thus be truly who we have been called to be, to become a new people with a new life blessed by God, our Lord and Master. May God be with us all and bless all of our endeavours. Amen.

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Saturday, 8 July 2017 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Matthew 9 : 14-17

At that time, the disciples of John came to Jesus with the question, “How is it, that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not Your disciples?”

Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The time will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then, they will fast.”

“No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for the patch will shrink and tear an even bigger hole in the coat. In the same way, you do not put new wine into old wine skins. If you do, the wine skins will burst and the wine will be spilt. No, you put new wine into fresh skins; then both are preserved.”

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Saturday, 8 July 2017 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Psalm 134 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Alleluia! Praise the Name of YHVH. O servants of YHVH, praise Him, you, who serve in the house of YHVH, in the courts of the house of our God.

Praise YHVH, for He is good; praise His Name, for it is beautiful; for YHVH has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His possession.

I know that YHVH is great, that our YHVH is above all gods. Whatever YHVH pleases, He does – in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in their depths.

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Saturday, 8 July 2017 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Genesis 27 : 1-5, 15-29

When Isaac was old and his eyes so weak that he could no longer see, he called Esau, his older son, and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” he answered. Isaac continued, “You see I am old and I do not know when I shall die; so take your weapons, your bow and arrow, go out into the country and hunt some game for me. Then prepare some of the savoury food I like and bring it to me so that I may eat and give you my blessing before I die.”

Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau went into the country to hunt game and bring it back, she took the best clothes of her elder son Esau that she had in the house and put them on Jacob, her younger son. With the goatskin she covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck, and she handed to him the bread and food she had prepared.

He went to his father and said, “Father!” He answered, “Yes, my son, who is it?” And Jacob said to his father, “It is Esau, your firstborn; I have done what you told me to do. Come, sit up and eat my game so that you may give me your blessing.” Isaac said, “How quick you have been my son!” Jacob said, “YHVH, your God, guided me.”

Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near and let me feel you, my son, and know that it is you, Esau my son, or not.” When Jacob drew near to Isaac, his father felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He did not recognise him, for his hands were hairy like the hands of Esau his brother and so he blessed him.

He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” And Jacob answered, “I am.” Isaac said, “Bring me some of your game, my son, so that I may eat and give you my blessing.” So Jacob brought it to him and he ate. And he brought him wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” So Jacob came near and kissed him.

Isaac then caught the smell of his clothes and blessed him, saying, “The smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. May God give you the dew of heaven; and of the richness of the earth; and abundance of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you and nations bow down before you. Be lord over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone that curses you and blessed be everyone that blesses you!”

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Friday, 7 July 2017 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard of God’s love and providence for His people, by calling them out of the darkness and into the light. In our Gospel passage today, we heard about how the Lord Jesus came to call the tax collectors and sinners to redemption, by reaching out to them and calling them to turn towards Him with full sincerity.

He came to call the sinners to be saved, as He wants everyone, every single one of us mankind to be part of His salvation, and not only just the righteous ones. This was what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were unable to comprehend, as of why Jesus did as He had done. At that time, it was considered unworthy, despicable and even sinful for one to deal in any kind of interaction with those deemed as sinful and wicked.

The tax collectors were deemed as those who were sinners due to their work, as those who collected the taxes on behalf of the Roman Emperor, a job despised by the rest of the Jewish population as they resented being made subjects of the Romans and having to pay lots of taxes to them. They were considered as traitors to the nation, having seen as betrayers and those who have sold their fellow countrymen for money.

Yet in reality, that was not a true depiction of who the tax collectors were. The tax collectors were just people who were doing what they have done, because they themselves need money and provisions to sustain themselves and their families. They were just ordinary people who were misunderstood by their fellow countrymen, and whom because of their work were often conflicted about their priorities in life.

But that is when the Lord Jesus came to save them from their predicament. He came to show them that there is hope for them should they choose to be forgiven and reconciled with God. This is when they saw the light of God, and therefore walked on the path towards redemption. This is affirmed by the Lord Himself Who spoke to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, pointing out that He came to save those whom the Pharisees and teachers of the Law considered unworthy.

What the Lord wants us to know is that, every single one of us, every single human beings whom He created out of love, is beloved by Him, without exception. And as He had lost us all due to sin and disobedience, He endeavoured to bring us back to Him through the obedience of His Son Jesus, Who showed all of us how to be truly faithful to God. It is through our strong desire to be forgiven, and by our sincere repentance that we are able to find our way back to the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this occasion, all of us are called to follow the Lord, Who called on the tax collectors and sinners with the words, “Follow Me!” If those tax collectors and those who were considered sinners had listened to the Lord and followed Him, then why should we not have done the same? Why is it that we stumble and hesitate to do the same?

That is because we are still plagued and held back by the many temptations of this world. We are unable to shake ourselves free from the many things that kept us bound to sin and to disobedience against God. All of us need to focus our every effort to turn away from those sinfulness and from all that had caused us to stumble on our way to the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us begin from ourselves and from our interactions with one another. Let us show our faith in God through our works, through our actions and words. Let us not be deterred by the challenges we may encounter in our way, but persevere through, supporting one another, and helping us on our way to God and His salvation. May the Lord bless us all and help us on this endeavour. Amen.