Roman martyrs

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Wednesday, 18 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 48 : 2-3, 6-7, 8-10, 11

Hear this, all you peoples! Listen, all you inhabitants of the world, high and low together, rich and poor alike!

Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers ring me round – those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?

For no ransom avails for one’s life, there is no price one can give to God for it. For redeeming one’s life demands too high a price, and all is lost forever. Who can remain forever alive and never see the grave?

For we see that the wise die, and pass away like the fool and the stupid leaving to others their fortune and wealth.

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Wednesday, 18 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

James 4 : 13-17

Listen now, you who speak like this, “Today or tomorrow we will go off to this city and spend a year there; we will do business and make money.” You have no idea what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? No more than a mist which appears for a moment and then disappears.

Instead of this, you should say, “God willing, we will live and do this or that.” But no! You boast of your plans : this brazen pride is wicked. Anyone who knows what is good and does not do it, sins.

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Thursday, 12 May 2016 : Seventh Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard about the moment when St. Paul was brought in front of the assembly of Pharisees and Sadducees in Caesarea, where they wanted to accuse him of wrongdoings and even through false charges. But St. Paul did not fear this and he fought back, showing just how weak and false the arguments laid against him was, as his many enemies and opponents could not even work together or find a common ground to accuse him of wrongdoing.

And in the end, he was saved from their persecution, which would likely have seen him brought up in chains to Jerusalem, and perhaps likely to suffer martyrdom there without the chance for further evangelisation. Instead, as the events went on, he managed to convince the governor to allow him to appeal to the Roman Emperor, and thus he went to Rome, and on the way, he stopped by several places where he helped to establish the Church in those places by his works.

In all these, we see that God will not abandon those who are faithful to Him. He will always be there for all those who obey His will and commandments, and also those who keep His ways faithfully. He will bless and guard these with jealous love, not allowing the forces of darkness and evil to harm them. These forces may challenge the servants of the Lord, bring tribulations and difficulties to them, but they will not bring harm to their eternal souls.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we see how much God has loved us and cared for us, so much so that He sent to us His only beloved Son, Jesus Christ, that the Divine Word assumed the flesh, our flesh, and became Man like us. And by His works, the trials and tribulations which He faced for our sake, by His entreaties and prayers, made as what we heard in the Gospel today, He beseeched the Father to forgive us our sins, and made His petitions for our sake.

How great indeed is the love which God has shown for us. He is always loving and ever merciful to us. He is slow to anger and rich in kindness. He shows us His compassion from time to time, and He is willing to forgive us, but as long as we ourselves are also willing and wanting to be forgiven. If we do not act in the way that is pleasing to God and continue to act wickedly and in disobedience to God, how would we expect to be forgiven?

God will keep us and guard us as He has always done. He is forever faithful, but how about us? Are we faithful to God and committed to His ways? Let us ask ourselves how often it was that we have acted in ways that are not in accordance with God’s ways. How often is it that we have been angry with our brethren, our neighbours around us, or even resenting them or being jealous with what they had and what we did not have?

How often is it that we have been ignorant of the need of others who are around us, who need our help, and yet we did not even lift a finger to help, and pretend not to notice their sufferings? These are the questions we should ask ourselves, and indeed, we should also reflect on the lives of the three great saints and holy martyrs whose feast we celebrate today.

St. Nereus, St. Pancras and St. Achilleus were told be the martyrs of the great persecution of the Emperor Diocletian, who was known for his especially vicious and harsh persecution against the Church and the faithful during the turn of the fourth century after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. The faithful were greatly oppressed, and the Roman government and officials openly showed hostility against Christians of all backgrounds.

The three martyrs were told to be among those who were arrested and tortured at the time of the great persecution of Christians. And yet they refused to recant their faith in God, and they adamantly rejected the call to abandon their Lord and God and worship the Emperor as god instead. They courageously stood by their faith, even though they knew that by doing so, it means almost certain death at that time.

They did not compromise their faith and their life with submission to the world and its demands just in order to safeguard themselves. Rather, they totally surrendered it all to God, and went on knowing that doing so would mean facing death and painful sufferings. From their examples, each and every one of us should be aware that as Christians, we cannot be just passive and ignorant of things that we need to do, and indeed which we can do, for the sake of those who are around us, and for the sake of the Lord our God.

Let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and let us be filled with strength and with the courage to carry out our lives in good faith and commitment to God, so that in all the things that we say and do, we will always bring forth the glory of God. May God bless us and keep us, and may He remain with us all forever. Amen.

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Thursday, 12 May 2016 : Seventh Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 17 : 20-26

At that time, Jesus prayed to God His Father, “I pray not only for these, but also for those who through their word will believe in Me. May they all be one, as You Father are in Me and I am in You. May they be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”

“I have given them the glory You have given Me, that they may be one as We are one : I in them and You in Me. Thus they shall reach perfection in unity; and the world shall know that You have sent Me, and that I have loved them, just as You loved Me.”

“Father, since You have given them to Me, I want them to be with Me where I am, and see the glory You gave Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You have sent Me. As I revealed Your Name to them, so will I continue to reveal it, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I also may be in them.”

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Thursday, 12 May 2016 : Seventh Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 15 : 1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

Keep me safe, o God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “O Lord, my inheritance and my cup, my chosen portion – hold secure my lot.”

I bless the Lord Who counsels me; even at night my inmost self instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me; for with Him at my right hand, I will never be shaken.

My heart, therefore, exults, my soul rejoices; my body too will rest assured. For You will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will You suffer Your Holy One to see decay in the land of the dead.

You will show me the path of life, in Your presence the fullness of joy, at Your right hand happiness forever.

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Thursday, 12 May 2016 : Seventh Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs and St. Pancras, Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 22 : 30 and Acts 23 : 6-11

The next day the commander wanted to know for certain the charge the Jews were making against Paul. So he released him from prison and called together the High Priest and the whole Council; and they brought Paul down and made him stand before them.

Paul knew that part of the Council were Sadducees and others Pharisees; so he spoke out in the Council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, son of a Pharisee. It is for the hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial here.”

At these words, an argument broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the whole assembly was divided. For the Sadducees claim that there is neither resurrection, nor Angels nor spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all these things.

Then the shouting grew louder, and some teachers of the Law of the Pharisee party protested, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Maybe a spirit or an Angel has spoken to him.” With this the argument became so violent that the commander feared that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He therefore ordered the soldiers to go down and rescue him from their midst and take him back to the fortress.

That night the Lord stood by Paul and said, “Courage! As you have borne witness to Me here in Jerusalem, so must you do in Rome.”

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Thursday, 21 January 2016 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast day of a great saint and martyr of the Church, namely St. Agnes the martyr, a holy virgin whose faith and dedication to the Lord made her to be steadfast and adamant against the pressure from those who sought to have her abandon her faith in the Lord and her chastity, and until the end, she persevered in her faith and remained committed to the Lord in all things.

St. Agnes was a young and devout woman who lived through the last years of the great persecution of the Church and the faithful under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who pursued Christians far and wide in a futile attempt to destroy the Church and the Christian faith once and for all. St. Agnes was born in Rome in a Christian family, and her beauty was so great that there were many of those who attempted to suit her and hoping to get her attention.

But St. Agnes refused all of those men’s advances, and she remained true to her vow of chastity and purity, resisting all the desires of the flesh and the desires for pleasure that all of them had sought. But the actions of St. Agnes brought her ti the attention of those who desired her and yet had been rejected. Eventually it was found that St. Agnes was a Christian, who were therefore bound to be condemned to death as per the Emperor’s decree.

And thus she was tortured and was made to endure grievous sufferings as she adamantly and resolutely stood by her faith in God, refusing to reject the Lord and to recant her faith in exchange for her safety and comfort in this world. None of those torture forms could dissuade her or made her to change her mind. And thus, as she endured painful death in the Name of the Lord, she was brought up in glory to heaven, to enjoy forever the eternal fruits of life in God.

In all these, we see how the faithful will be rewarded, if we are able to detach ourselves from the attachments to the world and to all forms of sins, just as St. Agnes had once done. In the first reading today, we witnessed how the first king of Israel, Saul, became jealous of David, who would be the one to succeed him as king over all of the people of God, because David was becoming greater in the favours of God and men alike.

And then, in the Gospel reading, we heard about how Jesus our Lord Who taught the people of God on the truth and the salvation that He brought into the world by His coming onto the earth. We saw our Lord’s love for His people, that is all of us mankind, as He blessed them, fed them and healed them from their afflictions and from the possession by demons and evil spirits.

What does all these mean to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? How are they relevant to us and our lives in this world? By looking at the examples of St. Agnes the great martyr, and also the lives of the many other holy men and women of God, and in how king David once acted before he became king over Israel, remaining humble and unassuming, totally devoted to the Lord even though he was essentially the rival of the reigning king, Saul, all of us should realise that to become great disciples and followers of our Lord, we must all resist the temptations of our flesh, and welcome in us all, the spirit of God’s love.

Let us all therefore heed those good examples, and let us all die to our pride, our desire, our haughtiness, the arrogance and the negativities that have kept us all wicked and unworthy of God’s grace all these while. Let us sharpen the edge of our humility and of our devotion to the Lord, that we may ever give more and more of ourselves to the Lord, and thus receive from Him the pledge of enduring love and eternal life.

May God bless us all in our endeavours, and may He enlighten us with His grace, and may His blessings strengthen us in all of the things we say and do with the full faith in Him, so that in all that we say and do, we may bring greater glory to His Name, and bring salvation closer to one another. God be with us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 21 January 2016 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 3 : 7-12

At that time, Jesus and His disciples withdrew to the lakeside, and a large crowd from Galilee followed Him. A great number of people also came from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Transjordan, and from the region of Tyre and Sidon, for they had heard of all that He was doing.

Because of the crowd, Jesus told His disciples to have a boat ready for Him, to prevent the people from crushing Him. He healed so many, that all who had diseases kept pressing towards Him to touch Him. Even the people who had evil spirits, whenever they saw Him, they would fall down before Him and cry out, “You are the Son of God.” But He warned them sternly not to tell anyone Who He was.

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Thursday, 21 January 2016 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 55 : 2-3, 9-10ab, 10c-11, 12-13

O God, show Your mercy to me, for my foes are in hot pursuit; they press their attack on me all the time. My accusers pursue me all day long, many attack me.

You have a record of my laments; my tears are stored in Your wineskin. Are they not written on Your scroll? My enemies turn back when I call on You for help.

Now I know that God is for me. In God Whose word I praise.

In God I trust without fear. What can mortals do against me? I am bound to You by vows, o God; I shall offer my thanksgiving.

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Thursday, 21 January 2016 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Samuel 18 : 6-9 and 1 Samuel 19 : 1-7

When David and his men arrived after he had slain the Philistine, the women came out from the cities of Israel to meet king Saul singing and dancing with timbrels and musical instruments. They were merrily singing this song : “Saul has slain his thousands, and David, his tens of thousands.”

Saul was very displeased with this song and said, “They have given tens of thousands to David but to me only thousands! By now he has everything but the kingdom!” From then on, Saul became very distrustful of David.

Saul told his son Jonathan and his servants of his intention to kill David. But Jonathan, who liked David very much, said to David, “My father Saul wants to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning and hide yourself in a secret place. I will go out and keep my father company in the countryside where you are and I will speak to him about you. If I find out something, I will let you know.”

Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said, “Let not the king sin against his servant David for he has not sinned against you. On the contrary, what he has done has benefitted you. He risked his life in killing the Philistine and YHVH brought about a great victory for Israel. You yourself saw this and greatly rejoiced. Why then sin against innocent blood and kill David without cause?”

Saul heeded Jonathan’s plea and swore, “As YHVH lives, he shall not be put to death.” So Jonathan called David and told him all these things. He then brought him to Saul and David was back in Saul’s service as before.