Roman Catholic Church

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Sunday, 18 December 2016 : Fourth Sunday of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Matthew 1 : 18-24

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 conceived 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.”

All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet : The Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means God-with-us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the Angel of the Lord had told him to do, and he took his wife to his home.

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Sunday, 18 December 2016 : Fourth Sunday of Advent (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Romans 1 : 1-7

From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, an Apostle called and set apart for God’s Good News, the very promises He foretold through His prophets in the sacred Scriptures, regarding His Son, Who was born in the flesh a descendant of David, and has been recognised as the Son of God endowed with Power, upon rising from the dead through the Holy Spirit.

Through Him, Jesus Christ, our Lord, and for the sake of His Name, we received grace and mission in all the nations, for them to accept the faith. All of you, the elected of Christ, are part of them, you, the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy : May God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, give you grace and peace.

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Sunday, 18 December 2016 : Fourth Sunday of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 23 : 1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6

The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord, the world and all that dwell in it. He has founded it upon the ocean and set it firmly upon the waters.

Who will ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who will stand in His holy place? Those with clean hands and pure heart, who desire not what is vain.

They will receive blessings from the Lord, a reward from God, their Saviour. Such are the people who seek Him, who seek the face of Jacob’s God.

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Sunday, 18 December 2016 : Fourth Sunday of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Isaiah 7 : 10-14

Once again YHVH addressed Ahaz, “Ask for a sign from YHVH your God, let it come either from the deepest depths or from the heights of heaven.”

But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask, I will not put YHVH to the test.” Then Isaiah said, “Now listen, descendants of David. Have you not been satisfied trying the patience of people, that you also try the patience of my God? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign : The Virgin is with Child and bears a Son and calls His Name Immanuel.”

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Saturday, 17 December 2016 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the message of the Sacred Scriptures telling us about the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the time of Abraham all the way to David, and from David all the way to Jesus Himself. It is a reminder for us that He is the Son of Abraham and Son of David, as the One Whom God had promised to all of His people, that He has fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.

Although Jesus was not the biological Son of Joseph, His foster-father, but as Joseph was legally married to Mary, His mother under the Law, therefore He is considered legally as His father, and therefore the right of inheritance is His through His foster-father Joseph, including as Heir to the throne of David and as the One through Whom God fulfilled His promises to Judah and to David, His forefathers.

In the first reading, we heard the moment when Jacob, before he passed away, blessing his sons with many words of blessings. And for Judah, he gave a special blessing, which would be fulfilled through his descendant Jesus, that the throne and sceptre will belong to his house forever, and it is through him that David would be born, and then his descendant Jesus after him, as the King and Lord over all of God’s people forever.

In all of these we can see that God is a faithful God Who always remembers His promise to all of His people, and we can also see the long expectation of the salvation which all mankind had awaited since the very day that they were separated from their loving God due to sin. Abraham himself was a descendant of Adam, as all mankind are, and all of humanity have shared in his sins, because of his disobedience against God at the beginning of creation.

And thus, by taking up upon Himself the flesh of Man, through His mother Mary, Jesus our Lord had endeavoured to make Himself as the new Adam, as mentioned by St. Paul in one of his Epistles, that while the old Adam brought sin and death upon everyone, right down to us all living in this world today, but the new Adam, that is Christ, had united all of us upon Himself, and by His sacrifice on the cross, He has destroyed our sins and liberated us from the certainty of damnation.

Unfortunately, it is sad to see just how many of us disregarded God’s promise made to us through Christ, and ignored His free offer of love and mercy. Many of us are often too busy to spend time with our Lord, and rather than believing in Him and walking in His ways, we end up following the whims of our own human desires and worldly greed.

Many of us forgot about Christ and even took out Christ from Christmas. We see it more as a yearly and regular period of rejoicing and celebrations, yet we did not put the Lord Jesus at the centre of our joys. We become engrossed on worldly goods and materials, and we have forgotten what Christmas and our joys are truly about. And this is what we need to reflect on, as we progress through this season of Advent, that we may find true Christmas joy for ourselves.

Let us all realise that in Christmas lies the fulfilment of the very long promised salvation which the Lord promised to mankind ever since the days of Adam. Countless sons and daughters of mankind were unable to know and witness the coming of their Saviour unlike all of us who have received the knowledge and revelation of Christ through our faith and the Church.

Many people longed for the coming of their salvation and they did not have hope because after all their lives, they would succumb to death and to the uncertainties afterwards. And yet, through Christ, now all of them, past, present and future of mankind have that new hope have dawned on mankind. We may not realise just how important that is, but let us then think about what would have happened, had Christ chosen not to come and save us.

Imagine an eternity of suffering and separation from the love of our God. An eternity of despair without hope, and all shrouded in darkness, anguish and pain, because we have been sundered forever from the care of our Lord. Without God we will perish for sure and be destroyed. And yet, it is because of Jesus our Lord that we have received that new light and that new hope from Him.

A new light has dawned on us all brethren, and now what matters is for us to accept the coming of this light. Let us all turn ourselves towards this light, repent and turn away from our sinful past, and be renewed in our faith in the Lord our God. May all of us spend meaningful time to work together to make sure that we put the Lord our God at the centre of our lives, and focus on Him all the days of our lives. May we be ready to celebrate the true joy of Christmas. Amen.

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Saturday, 17 December 2016 : 3rd Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Matthew 1 : 1-17

This is the account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron of Aram. Aram was the father of Aminadab, Aminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon.

Salmon was the father of Boaz. His mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed. His mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David, the king. David was the father of Solomon. His mother had been Uriah’s wife. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Then came the kings : Abijah, Asaph, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah.

Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon, Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel and Salathiel of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud of Eliakim, and Eliakim of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar of Matthan, and Matthan of Jacob.

Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus Who is called the Christ – the Messiah. There were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, and fourteen generations from David to the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the deportation to Babylon to the birth of Christ.

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Saturday, 17 December 2016 : 3rd Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 71 : 1-2, 3-4ab, 7-8, 17

O God, endow the King with Your justice, the Royal Son with Your righteousness. May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.

Let the mountains bring peace to the people, and the hills justice. He will defend the cause of the poor, deliver the children of the needy.

Justice will flower in His days, and peace abound till the moon be no more. For He reigns from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.

May His Name endure forever; may His Name be as lasting as the sun. All the races will boast about Him, and He will be blessed by all nations.

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Saturday, 17 December 2016 : 3rd Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Genesis 49 : 1-2, 8-10

Jacob then called his sons and said, “Gather round, sons of Jacob. And listen to your father Israel!”

“Judah, your brothers will praise you! You shall seize your enemies by the neck! Your father’s sons shall bow before you. Judah, a young lion! You return from the prey, my son! Like a lion he stoops and crouches, and like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?”

“The sceptre shall not be taken from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to Whom it belongs, and Who has the obedience of the nations.”

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Friday, 16 December 2016 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of hope which God Himself had revealed through His prophets, which yet many of His own people had ignored and forgotten. Through the prophet Isaiah, God revealed His love for all of His beloved children, all of mankind whom He had created and to whom He had given life to be His children.

It was mentioned that the foreigners resigned to the fate that they would be rejected by God and ignored by Him because they were not counted among the Jews. However, this was the fallacy that was in fact, a rebuke by God against the actions and the outlook of the people of God, whom at that time, and at the time of Jesus, took great pride in their status as the chosen people, as the sons and daughters of Abraham, his direct descendants, and they despised the pagans and the Gentiles, or the non-Jewish people.

But God loves all of His children, all of those He had created without exception. He chose Abraham out of all of them to be the first among those to whom He would reveal about Himself and His salvation, with the ultimate goal and aim of the salvation and liberation of all of humanity, and not just exclusive to the direct descendants of Abraham alone, as some among the people had misunderstood God’s intention.

And moreover, while they claimed to be the descendants of Abraham and thus claimed the right to the salvation and the inheritance that God promised their forefathers, but many of them lived in sin and disobeyed God frequently, to the point that God had to punish them for their waywardness, and indeed, it was a great shame that the people whom God had chosen had rebelled against Him and disobeyed His will.

Imagine, brethren, that God had blessed them as His people, and yet, in their words, actions and deeds, they had not done what He had asked them and taught them to do. It would be such a great scandal in the eyes of those who saw their actions. How could the people of God, chosen by God, did such wicked and abhorrent things?

In the same manner, how can those who see us believe in God if our own actions do not proclaim God’s ways and glory? As Christians, God has chosen us all anew from all of His people, as the fulfilment of His promise, that He will gather all of His beloved ones to Himself. No longer was it that the promise of salvation be an exclusive domain of the Jewish people but for all mankind.

But no one will believe in us if we ourselves are not doing as what the Lord had taught us just as the Israelites had scandalised the Lord before many, many times. One of the last tasks that God had entrusted and indeed commanded all of us to do, through His disciples, is that we all should proclaim the Good News that He had brought into this world to all the peoples, that they all may find their way to God and to His salvation.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christmas during this season of Advent, let us all commit ourselves anew to our faith and to the Lord our God. Let us all renew our efforts to live righteously in accordance with God’s ways, and seek to be forgiven for our sins and our iniquities of the past. Let us no longer repeat our sinful ways and from now on commit ourselves to righteousness, that all who see us may come to believe in God and be saved as well.

May the Lord our God bless us and keep us, and may He strengthen our faith and our devotion, so that we may grow ever stronger and ever closer to Him. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 16 December 2016 : 3rd Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
John 5 : 33-36

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “John also bore witness to the truth when you sent messengers to him, but I do not seek such human testimony; I recall this for you, so that you may be saved. John was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were willing to enjoy his light.”

“But I have greater evidence than that of John – the works which the Father entrusted to Me to carry out. The very works I do bear witness : the Father has sent Me.”