Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the hope that we all ought to have in the Lord, our God, Who is also our most loving Father and Creator. As long as we continue to have faith in Him, we will not be disappointed, and we will be assured the glorious inheritance that He has promised to all of us, the many graces and blessings which He, our loving Father has prepared for all of us, whom He has adopted to become His own most beloved sons and daughters. All of us must have faith in the Lord even when others despise us and make our lives difficult and challenging, as it is through the Lord alone that we shall be triumphant in the end against all of those who seek our destruction and damnation. There is truly no hope and future for us beyond the Lord.

In our first reading today, taken from the continuation of the discourse from the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which the author reminded the faithful among the Jewish community of the reality of how the Lord their God has adopted all of them as His own beloved children, and how He has loved them, guided them, helped and chastised them as a loving Father would do to His children, to help and guide them in their journey throughout life so that they will not end up falling into temptations and the path to ruin. This is contrasted to the traditional perception of God among the Jewish community at that time and previously, which perceived God as distant, invisible and transcendent beyond the reach of the people. But the Incarnation of the Saviour, the Son of God Himself in the flesh, has made God to be approachable and tangible for us.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews had spent a lot of time and effort throughout his Epistle to elaborate about the nature and role of the Messiah, the One Whom God had sent into the world to be the Liberator and the One to redeem us from our many sins, all the things that had separated us from God, our most loving and gracious Father and Creator. Therefore, he told the Jewish community how this same Saviour that God had sent into the world was truly the Son of God, and by His incarnation, He has become one like us, sharing our human existence and nature, and by doing so, He has made us all to share in His relationship with the Heavenly Father, and allow us all to become the adopted sons and daughters of God, while at the same time restoring the grace that has been lost to us, by His action in redeeming us through His loving sacrifice on the Cross.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist in which we were told that after the miraculous resurrection of the daughter of Jairus, the synagogue official which we heard in yesterday’s passage from the same Gospel, the Lord went back to His hometown of Nazareth and taught in the synagogue, only to be ridiculed and to face rejection from His own townspeople, who doubted Him and ridiculed Him because they thought they knew Who He was, as the supposed Son of the lowly carpenter, St. Joseph. At that time, carpenters, while performing an important and good work, were often looked down upon as being low in education and status in the society, as compared to the highly educated ones like the Pharisees and those scribes and teachers of the Law.

Therefore, they could not reconcile this bias and belief in such a prejudice that the mere Son of a carpenter could have done so many great and wonderful deeds that they had heard from the news that had spread around the region about the miracles and other things that the Lord Jesus had done. When they themselves heard the Lord proclaiming His teachings and truths with such great wisdom and authority, their bias and prejudice were what kept them from being able to listen to the Lord and believe in Him. And in this example, we have seen the ugly side of our human nature, our attitudes in being prejudiced against others, and in thinking that we are better than those around us, striving to be greater, more powerful and mighty than others. And that is why we often competed and bickered with each other.

The Lord Jesus Himself therefore showed us that this path of pride and ego, self-righteousness and prejudice have no place amongst us as Christians. It was after all these attitudes of succumbing to our ego and pride, our desires and ambitions, our endless pursuits for power, glory and greatness, for ambitions and pleasures of the world that had led so many among us and our predecessors to fall into sin. The Lord showed by example, through His most generous and selfless love for us, by humbling Himself so much so that He was willing to come down to us, assuming our human existence and nature, being born of a Woman, Mary, His mother, and coming into the family of a carpenter, that is St. Joseph’s, who although was a lowly carpenter, yet, was the direct heir of King David. All these happened so that God could fulfil everything which He has promised us from the very beginning, that is to liberate us all from the power and dominion of sin and death.

God our loving Father and Creator has always been very patient with us, in loving and caring for us, and in guiding us all towards His Presence. He has always loved us and been patient with us even when we constantly disobeyed His Law and commandments, betraying and abandoning Him for other gods and idols, or for other worldly pursuits and ambitions. He has always given us opportunities, one after another, hoping that at least some of us will come to see the errors of our ways and repent from our sins. That is just how loving God has been towards us, and we should truly consider ourselves very fortunate for this. He has also chastised and punished us justly whenever we erred, with the hope and intention that we may come to find the path of righteousness in Him, and not to fall further into sin and darkness.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of the renowned martyr, St. Agatha, also known as St. Agatha of Sicily, a faithful and holy martyr of the Church who was persecuted for her faith during the time of great tribulation by the then hostile Roman Imperial administration under the rule of the Emperor Decius, an infamous persecutor of Christians, who launched a particularly harsh and brutal persecution on the Church. Back then, the young St. Agatha had made vow of virginity and refused the advances of the pagan Roman prefect named Quintianus, who was mesmerised by her great beauty. Therefore, after repeated refusals and rejections from St. Agatha who kept on faithfully observing her vow of virginity, Quintianus, who knew that St. Agatha was a Christian, reported her to the authorities.

Hence, this led to St. Agatha being arrested and persecuted, and threatened with certain sufferings and deaths. The same Roman prefect Quintianus himself was the official in charge of the region and therefore over the case of St. Agatha, and he hoped that the threats and sufferings would change her mind and accept his proposals. St. Agatha remained firm in her faith and commitment, publicly embracing her faith in God and proclaiming her dedication to Him. No matter how Quintianus tried to punish and force St. Agatha, including sending her to a brothel, none of those efforts could dissuade or force St. Agatha to abandon her faith in the Lord. Eventually, after more dramatic confrontations with Quintianus, the Roman prefect sentenced her to more punishments and prison, where she eventually died as a martyr a while later. She remained ever committed to God right to the very end, and became the great inspiration for many others.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore as we have discussed from the passages of the Sacred Scriptures and from the life of St. Agatha, holy martyr of the Church, let us all remember God’s most generous love for us as our loving Father, in all that He had done for us, and in how He guided us all patiently throughout even the most difficult and challenging moments in life. We are also reminded to be faithful like how St. Agatha had been faithful in all things, and in how she had maintained her faith courageously despite all the sufferings and martyrdom that she had to endure. That is why, today all of us as Christians are called and reminded to be good examples and inspirations for each other, to be the beacons of God’s light and hope for everyone around us. Let us all continue to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts and might, and help one another in accomplishing our respective missions in this world.

May the Lord bless us all in our every good endeavours, efforts and works, and may He continue to help and guide us in our journey through life so that in all things and at all opportunities, we will always strive to be good, faithful and worthy Christians, to be faithful and righteous as our holy predecessors had been, like St. Agatha before us. Amen.