Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, each one of us are reminded of the need for all of us as Christians to obey the Lord and to follow His Law and commandments, and to entrust ourselves to His love, care and mercy. God has shown and taught us the way to reach His salvation and grace, and as Christians, it is our obligation and duty to follow Him and to do our best so that we may live our lives worthily and inspire many others all around us to live their lives worthily of the Lord as well. We are called to adapt the path of Christ and abandon our past, sinful and unworthy way of life, looking towards Him, our Light, our Hope and our sure path towards eternal life and grace.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Galatia, the exhortation from the Apostle to the people of God there for them to believe in the truth of Christ and embrace the fullness of His ways, His revelation and the renewal of the Law of God that He had brought. This was certainly and very likely addressed to the members of the Jewish community in the diaspora in Galatia, who had embraced the Christian faith, and became members of the Church. Some of those Jewish Christians still upheld their old Law and customs, the traditions of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, and they were seemingly quite militant and hardened about it just as they had been previously as members of the Pharisees.

That was the Law which St. Paul mentioned in that first reading passage we have today. This Law was a reference to the Jewish customs and traditions, practices and rites that the Jewish elders and communities had received from their ancestors, the Law of God as revealed through Moses, modified and added upon, accumulating over many centuries, which in the end resulted in the Law being further and further away from the true original intention and purpose. And in the manner how the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law practiced and enforced them, the Law became even more oppressive and further away from their true purpose and meaning, becoming tools of prejudice and judgment rather than becoming guide and inspiration for the people to follow on their way to God and His righteous path.

That is why St. Paul told the faithful in Galatia, especially those who hailed from the Jewish community converts, to abandon their past mistaken ways of obeying and practicing the Law, as those ways were no longer relevant and correct for them as Christians. The Lord had revealed to them through Christ Himself, and through the gifts of the Wisdom and the Holy Spirit, the fullness of truth which He preserved and passed to us through His Church and His Apostles. St. Paul, having received this same deposit of faith therefore shared it and reminded all the people of God, including those in Galatia, not to remain in their past mistaken and prejudiced ways.

St. Paul also exhorted on all the faithful in Galatia to be united as Christians and as members of God’s Church. They should no longer be divided by their groups or origins, whether they were Jews or Greeks, or other Gentiles or non-Jewish people, or whether they were free or slaves, or whether they were rich or poor. St. Paul told them all that through Baptism they all have been made the children of God, and everyone are equal before the Lord. What matters is for all of us to obey the Lord and His commandments, His Law and will in the manner that He has taught and shown us to do, just as St. Paul had exhorted the Galatians. As Christians we should always heed the truth of the Lord and not be swayed by the false ideas and ways of the world around us.

That is what we heard in our Gospel passage today, when the Lord told His disciples and the people gathered before Him, that those who obeyed the Lord, walked in His ways, listened to Him and did His will are the ones who will be truly blessed by God. God will be with them and He will provide them all that they need, and they shall not falter and fail, for the Lord Himself will be with them and will strengthen them in the hour of their greatest need. The Lord will guide them and guard them against all harm, and He will lead them all to the ultimate triumph, and that, brothers and sisters in Christ, is what awaits us in the end if we are faithful to God and remain firm in our commitment to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all therefore reminded as Christians and members of God’s Church that each and every one of us have the obligation and duty to follow the Lord and His teachings, to do His will and to obey His commandments. Each one of us must love the Lord our God with all of our strength and all of our might, and we have to put Him as the focus and the centre of our whole lives. We are nothing without God, and everything we do, our whole lives should be centred on Him. And at the same time, we must also love one another without distinctions, prejudices or bias, just as St. Paul exhorted the Galatians to do. That is in essence, is what we are called to do as Christians, obeying God’s Law and commandments in its true intention and purpose.

May the Lord our God continue to be with us and guide us, and may He empower and strengthen us all in all things. May He bless all of our efforts, good works and endeavours, all for the greater glory of His Name. May He continue to love us all and keep us always in His loving presence, in obeying Him and in living our lives to the fullest, shining with our great faith, dedication and love for God, and showing His love generously to all those around us, now and always. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today each and every one of us are reminded of God’s love and His faithfulness to the Covenant which He has made with all of us. From the Book of Job, we heard how the Lord restored Job and blessed him even more than he had been previously blessed after all of his sufferings. And from the Gospel passage we heard the Lord affirming His disciples and followers, strengthening and reassuring them all of His guidance and providence. Through what we have heard in these readings of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded of the need for us to continue trusting in the Lord in all things and circumstances, despite the trials and hardships that we may encounter in our paths.

In our first reading today, from the Book of Job we heard how after all the sufferings that Job had to endure, losing everything he possessed and even most of his family members, humiliated and denounced even by his family and close friends, who told him that he must have sinned against God to merit such sufferings. Job remained firm in his faith in God, but through all that he suffered, he did wonder why he had endured all those bitterness, and gave in to despair for a while. It is after all understandable if we truly appreciate the circumstances he encountered and all the physical and mental battering he encountered, even being ridiculed and kind of gaslighted by his own closest friends and peers.

The Lord reminded Job that He has always been by his side even through his darkest moments, and He has always cared for him, and He told Job that it is not right for him to despair and to question His motives, and he needs to put his trust and faith completely in God. As we heard, the Lord opened Job’s perspectives and revealed the magnitude of His plans and works, and how He would bless him for his faith. Job recognised his errors and repented from his mistakes, and embraced God’s love fully, never having abandoned Him and remaining faithful even through his most difficult days. And God, who brought Job out of his misery, helped and blessed him even much more generously than before. And therefore, God shows us all that those who hold onto Him, despite the trials they may have to endure, will receive eternal glory, true joy and satisfaction in the end.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord proclaimed to His followers and disciples just how blessed and fortunate they were, for having been counted among His followers and how He has been victorious against the forces of Satan, the devil and the great enemy of all the people of God. Satan has been cast down from Heaven and punished with all the other rebel angels. And this is the prelude to the final defeat of Satan and all of his plots and plans against God’s people that will come with the Cross. For all of their apparent might, fearsome appearances and forces, all those who opposed the Lord will not prevail against God, Whose might is beyond all comparisons, and Whose glory is everlasting. And we are fortunate that our Lord is always ever loving towards each and every one of us.

Satan and all of his wicked forces have always been trying to crush us and to make our lives difficult. And by the means of many temptations and false promises, they have been working hard in dragging us down with them, as they hoped to turn us against God and to subvert us by persuading us to reject the path of God and embrace instead the seemingly ‘easier’ and ‘better’ path that the devil offered to us. And Satan always makes to think that it is futile to try to oppose him, and he wants us to fear him and to suffer so much that we give in to our temptations and all of his persuasions and coercions. That is why so many of us tended to give in to despair and temptations, not trusting in God enough that He can protect us and provide for us.

However, this is where we are all reminded yet again, that no matter what, and no matter how mighty Satan and his forces arrayed against us may seem to be, but they are all nothing compared with the power and the glory of God. And despite all of Satan’s efforts, his power is limited and his might has been crushed, as his rebellion has been defeated, he was cast out and condemned, and his final defeat had been predetermined by God, Who is all powerful and all knowing, revealing before all that we do not need to fear Satan because while he will be cast down into hell for eternity, we, who are God’s people and followers, will be raised to eternal glory and true joy with God. We must look upon Him and put our trust in His Providence and strength.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we aware of just how beloved we are by God? We are God’s most beloved ones, and God provides us in everything that we need. As long as we hold strongly to our faith in Him, we shall never be disappointed. Whatever sufferings we may be experiencing now, all these are nothing compared to the joy that is to come for us, in the end and at the conclusion of our faithful journey. But many of us often do not realise this and we are often too busy in trying to get away from fear, all of our insecurities, and we lack the faith in our Lord. Let us all remember all the times when He has always been there for us, through those whom He has placed in our lives and paths.

Let us therefore follow the example of Job, and strive to persevere in faith regardless of the challenges and trials that he had faced, and which we are likely to face as well in our own lives. Are we able to persevere in faith the way that our holy and dedicated predecessors had done? We have all been called to follow the path of the Lord, and we are called to entrust ourselves to His cause. And because we have also witnessed and received this faith from the Lord, we are now called to be God’s witnesses among all of our communities in this world today. It is through our own perseverance, faith and good examples in life that we can lead and inspire so many other people to believe in God as well.

Through our actions, our words and our deeds, each and every one of us should become faithful and great inspirations for our fellow brothers and sisters in faith. May the Lord help us and guide us in our journey of faith, and help us in resisting the temptations of all the desires and the coercions by which the devil has always been busy using in trying to drag us into the path of sin, and lead us into our downfall. May the Lord strengthen us all and give us the courage and perseverance to be always faithful in each and every moments of our lives. May God be with us all, now and forevermore. Amen.