Sacred Liturgy

by

Sunday, 22 November 2015 : Thirty-Fourth (34th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Christ the King, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday marks the last Sunday of the current liturgical year, where the cycle of the Church’s liturgical celebrations reached a culmination in the celebration of Christ our Lord and King, as the One Who is the true ruler and authority over all things throughout the universe. Today we mark the occasion of the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Lord and Master of all things that are in existence.

Through the Scripture passages today, we heard about the Lord Jesus Who is a King, and the One True King from Whom all authority, power and wisdom came from. Yet, His kingship is not akin to one that is of the world, that is, His kingdom is not like the kingdoms that exist in this world. On the other hand, His kingship and His kingdom transcends the worldly boundaries of power, authority and majesty.

Why is this so? That is because the kingdoms of this world, their rulers and masters are all very bound and affected by the worldly aspects of glory, of fame, of influence and affluence, of human praise and positions of fame, and they continue to strive ever more for the greatness in accordance of human measures, and that is why the kingdoms and the powers of this world are ever concerned about the self-aggrandisement and gathering of more power and glory for themselves.

Human and worldly powers are always fragile and temporary. These powers did not last beyond certain criteria and requirements that need to be met in order to preserve the powers in accordance with the ways of this world. This is why much misery, sufferings and injustice occurred in the world, both past and present, because of the tempting nature of having in possession such power and authority, and thus our reluctance and unwillingness to let them go from us.

Just for an example, the kings, princes, dukes and other worldly powers went to war with each other because each of them wanted to increase their dominion, influence and power. And because they have given themselves in to the ways of this world, therefore, accordingly, they wanted to preserve what they had, even at the expense of morality and justice.

This is why, if we look at the many rulers and governments that are maintained with iron fist, they are always in constant fear of losing their power to those who do not belong to the ruling elites. And they would use all things and armaments in their disposal in order to protect themselves and avoid their own fall from power and glory. This was exactly what Jesus said to Pilate, about if His kingdom were to be of this world, His supporters would have gone out all the way to save Him.

Instead, Jesus clearly stated that His kingdom and His kingship are different from all that, from all the traditional notions of power and glory that we mankind and this world are familiar with. This is because His kingdom is a kingdom of truth, of justice, of righteousness, and ultimately His kingdom is a kingdom of love. He leads as a King, not by fear and tyranny, nor by anger or hatred, but through genuine leadership shown through example and perfect love.

We have to realise that all of us are truly fortunate to have been placed under the grace and sovereignty of our Lord’s eternal and universal kingship. His kingship is eternal because it is a kingdom which reign and rule will never end, and God’s rule will persist forever without end. And His great rule will extend all over the entire universe, over all of creation and over the entire existence, since He has created all things, and therefore rightfully, He also lords it all over all of them.

But He did not despise all those that He had created, nor did He oppress them and treat them as if they were slaves. This is unlike the common action and perception of the kings and princes of this world, who stand above the rest of their respective peoples and treat them as subjects and subordinates that need to serve their needs in all things.

Instead, God is a loving Master, Who had not just expected from us obedience and genuine faith, but He also gave us the love, care and commitment that is equivalent if not greater than the obedience, faith and commitment that He is expecting from us. His kingship is a kingship of love and justice, and He as the King, leads all by His examples, through servant leadership.

Do we all still remember what Jesus frequently told His disciples about Himself? That He came into this world to serve and not to be served, meaning that even though He is King, and truly the King and Master of all the universe, but all these did not make Him proud or haughty, but instead, in order to fulfil perfectly the love and compassion which He has for us, He came down into this world, not as a great conquering King, but instead as a humble and poor Man.

Yes, and He came offering Himself to be our Deliverance and as our Saviour, to save us from our distress, and by giving Himself up, He showed us an example how a leader should lead others, by example and not by power and tyranny. We know the phrase that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is a reminder that we should not be obsessed with worldly power but rather we should look up at our Lord and see His good examples.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how is this relevant to us? It is very relevant indeed, since all of us by partaking in our Lord and as we become the members of His Body, we have also shared in His divine and eternal kingship. We have been called to be a shepherd, priest and king through our baptism, and in the divine kingship we share with our Lord, we have our responsibilities to play.

And it is that all of us should live righteously before the Lord, leading one another by example through our own actions, that in all the things we do, we become paragons of righteousness, virtue, love and justice. Let us all remember this even as we rejoice and honour our Lord Jesus Christ, King of all kings and King of all the universe, that we also have a share in His kingship, both in the privilege and honour, as well as in its responsibilities.

May our Lord Jesus Christ, our King, Lord and Master be with us always, and may He guide us on our path, that we shall become ever better guides for our own brethren, and may through our actions and deeds, more souls shall come closer to the Lord and His salvation. Be with us, Lord, our Master and King. Amen.

by

Sunday, 22 November 2015 : Thirty-Fourth (34th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Christ the King, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 18 : 33b-37

At that time Pilate asked Jesus, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “Does this word come from you, or did you hear it from others?”

Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed You over to me. What have You done?” Jesus answered, “My kingship does not come from this world. If I were a King, like those of this world, my guards would have fought to save Me from being handed over to the Jews. But My kingship is not of this world.”

Pilate asked Him, “So You are a King?” And Jesus answered, “Just as you say, I am a King. For this I was born and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is on the side of truth hears My voice.”

by

Sunday, 22 November 2015 : Thirty-Fourth (34th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Christ the King, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Revelations 1 : 5-8

And from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him Who loves us and has washed away our sins with His own blood, making us a kingdom and priests for God His Father, to Him be the glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

See He comes with the clouds and everyone will see Him, even those who pierced Him; on His account all the nations of the earth will beat his breast. Yes. It will be so. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, He Who is, Who was, and Who is to come : the Master of the universe.

by

Sunday, 22 November 2015 : Thirty-Fourth (34th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Christ the King, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 92 : 1ab, 1c-2, 5

The Lord reigns, robed in majesty; the Lord is girded with strength.

The world now is firm, it cannot be moved. Your throne stands from long ago, o Lord, from all eternity You are.

Your decrees can be trusted; holiness dwells in Your house day after day without end, o Lord.

by

Sunday, 22 November 2015 : Thirty-Fourth (34th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Christ the King, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Daniel 7 : 13-14

I continued watching the nocturnal vision : One like a Son of Man came on the clouds of heaven. He faced the One of Great Age and was brought into His presence. Dominion, honour and kingship were given Him, and all the peoples and nations of every language served Him. His dominion is eternal and shall never pass away; His kingdom will never be destroyed.

by

Saturday, 21 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we commemorate the feast of the dedication and presentation of the Blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this day, we remember the time, just as His Son Jesus was presented before God at His Temple, she was also presented in the same manner, just as the Law of God revealed through Moses had prescribed.

In the Scripture reading of today that we have heard, we witnessed how mankind fell into sin through the instigation of the devil who persuaded them to sin by disobedience against the Lord, tempting them with false promises of power and greatness that would be ours if we would just eat of the forbidden fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, without knowing the consequences of such disobedience would bring us.

But God Who punished them for their sins and disobedience did not entirely gave them up to destruction and condemnation. Instead, He gave them a new opportunity, the chance for them to change their ways, turn around from their sinfulness and rebellion, and therefore regained the favour of God and from their position of shame and from the punishments they endured, they would emerge triumphant of having resisted the temptation of Satan unto the end.

And God promised to mankind that deliverance and hope would come, and even though Satan would have the first bite at us, inflicting upon us, generations upon generations of mankind, the bitterness of the sufferings of the world because of our sins, just as the Lord had said that there would be bitter feud between the sons of men and the forces of the evil one, therefore, the salvation would come through the Woman whom God had promised to be the one through whom the Saviour would come forth into the world.

And this Woman is Mary, the special one among mankind whom God had prepared since the beginning to be the one through whom the salvation of the world would come, that is in Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, born from her through the power of the Holy Spirit and by the Will of God the Father. But it was not because of Mary’s own might and power that she had done all these, but rather through her humility and obedience to the will of God.

Yes, Mary is the new Eve just as Christ is the new Adam according to St. Paul. While the old Eve, the first woman sinned and disobeyed the Lord because she was unable to hold her desires, the new Eve, that is Mary was obedient to God in all things, and she accepted fully the role she was to play in the salvation of all mankind.

Both Eve were born without sin, for Eve was created by God from the flesh and bones of men without the taints of sin, for creation was pure and without sin in the beginning. Meanwhile, Mary was specially prepared by the Lord to be immaculate, free from the taints of sin in any form from the very moment of her conception. This is because she was to be the mother of the Lord God of all creations, and the Lord most holy, Who certainly would not deserve a vessel tainted by sin.

Yet, if we notice, it was the choice that the new Eve took that differentiated her from the very first Eve, who chose the other option. The first Eve chose the world and all of its glories, the temptation of knowledge and power that tempted her and turn her away from the way of the Lord. But Mary, the new Eve did not choose that path. Instead, she chose obedience and complete submission to God.

Therefore, as we celebrate today’s feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when Mary the mother of our Lord, the new Eve was presented pure and blameless before the Lord on His Temple, let us all also commit ourselves to the Lord, renewing our faith and our dedication to the Lord our God. We all also need to model ourselves after our role model in faith, Mary, whose faith in the Lord was truly remarkable.

It is not impossible for us to walk in her ways, as we lead our lives on in the path of God. What we need is conviction and genuine desire for us to lead a life that is in accordance to God’s will, and be thoroughly and completely devoted in our ways, so that in all the things we say and do, we always do them or say them in the Name of the Lord and for the greater glory of God.

May Almighty God be with us all, forgive us all our sins, and may He guide us on the path to His everlasting happiness and glory. May God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

by

Saturday, 21 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 12 : 46-50

At that time, while Jesus was still talking to the people, His mother and His brothers wanted to speak to Him, and they waited outside. So someone said to Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside; they want to speak with You.”

Jesus answered, “Who is My mother? Who are My brothers?” Then He pointed to His disciples and said, “Look! Here are My mother and My brothers. Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is for Me brother, sister or mother.”

by

Saturday, 21 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 1 : 46-47, 48-49, 50-51, 52-53, 54-55

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit exults in God my Saviour.

He has looked upon His servant in her lowliness, and people forever will call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, Holy is His Name!

From age to age His mercy extends to those who live in His presence. He has acted with power and done wonders, and scattered the proud with their plans.

He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up those who are downtrodden. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.

He held out His hand to Israel, His servant, for He remembered His mercy, even as He promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.

by

Saturday, 21 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Zechariah 2 : 14-17

“Sing and rejoice, o daughter of Zion, for I am about to come, I shall dwell among you,” says YHVH.

“On that day, many nations will join YHVH and be My people, but My dwelling is among you.” The people of Judah will be for YHVH as His portion in His holy land. He will choose Jerusalem again.

Keep still in YHVH’s presence, for He comes, having risen from His holy dwelling.

by

Friday, 20 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture readings are perfectly unanimous in their messages, which the Church intended for us all to know and understand, so that in our own respective lives we may grow ever more faithful and devoted to Him Who is present in us and Who dwells in all of us, the Holy Temple of His most Holy Presence.

In the first reading, we heard about how the forces of the faithful Israelites led by the Maccabee family retook the Temple of God in Jerusalem which had been captured by the Greeks earlier on and made into an abomination of the pagan gods and idols. The faithful removed all the wicked things and vile idols from the Temple, tore down the old and defiled altar and rebuilt a new altar in its place.

Then in the Gospel reading, we heard about how Jesus our Lord became angry because of the merchants, money changers, all the sins and the vileness of human greed that took place in the courtyard of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, where many people cheated each other in money and possessions, and where greed had no bounds, without due regards for the Lord’s House and its sanctity.

Therefore God was right to be angry and His wrath was justified, for all these people had defiled His House, His sanctuary and His dwelling place, just as those Greeks under king Antiochus IV Epiphanes had done many years before the birth of Jesus. He cast them all out with a whip, and with that purified the Temple of God from all the evils of the world, the evils of money, of greed and of boundless pride, the pride of men before God.

But all these readings will not make sense to us, and neither will they be beneficial to us, if we do not understand their true significance, their important meaning and what they wanted to convey to us. It is the very fact that because all these abominations and evils had corrupted the Temple of God in Jerusalem that God had been angry with, sending His faithful and later even His own Son, to be the ones to cast out all of the wickedness away from His holy Presence.

And that Temple of God built first by Solomon, and later rebuilt by the priest and prophet Ezra, and built to a new height of architectural glory and fame by the king Herod the Great, all these in their magnificent appearance, all the gold, silver and precious items within, all these cannot be compared to the new Temples of His residence which God has decided to dwell in, no longer in the Temple of God in Jerusalem, but in the hearts of His faithful.

Yes, lest we are all unaware of this fact, and lest that we have been deceived into thinking otherwise, we have to remember what St. Paul mentioned in one of his letters, reminding us the faithful that we are all the Temples of the Holy Spirit, for as with the Apostles who received the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost day, from them, we have received the same Spirit as well.

And do not forget that we have also received in the Most Holy Eucharist, our Lord’s own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, and therefore, we dwell in Him and He is dwelling in us, in body, spirit, mind, heart and soul. Thus all of us are the essence and substance of His new dwelling in this world, and there can be no compare between the temples built by the kings and the prophets which were made from stones and precious items of the earth, but not from the very creation of God, made in His own image, that is us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be ever vigilant, that in all of our words, actions and dealings, all of us will be always faithful to our Lord without exception, and always try to keep our body, our mind, our heart and our soul free from the taints of sin as much as possible, so that the Lord Who sees all hearts and minds, will find us worthy and bless us. For otherwise His righteous anger will be upon us, and we will be cast out forever from His presence into eternal damnation.

May God bless us always, and help us to keep our ways righteous, just and holy, so that our Temple of His presence, our own bodies, minds, hearts and souls will be pure and holy and worthy to be His dwelling on earth. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.