Saturday

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Saturday, 27 February 2021 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Deuteronomy 26 : 16-19

On this day, YHVH, your God, commands you to fulfil these norms and these commandments. Obey them now and put them into practice with all your heart and with all your soul.

Today YHVH has declared to you that He will be your God, and so you shall follow His ways, observing His norms, His commandments and His laws, and listening to His voice. Today YHVH has declared that you will be His very own people even as He had promised you, and you must obey all His commandments.

He, for His part, will give you honour, renown and glory, and set you high above all the nations He has made, and you will become a nation consecrated to YHVH, your God, as He has declared.

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Saturday, 20 February 2021 : Saturday after Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the Lord speaks to us through the words of the Scriptures that we have just heard, in which we heard a message of repentance and forgiveness from God. Through what we have heard, we are all reminded that God extends His mercy and forgiveness to all those who come and seek Him, and provided that we change our ways and sincerely seek to be reconciled with Him, we shall be forgiven our sins.

The prophet Isaiah came and preached at the pivotal moments in the history of the people of Israel, as he lived during those years when the northern kingdom of Israel, covering most of the ten tribes of the Israelites had been destroyed recently by the forces of the Assyrians, and most of its people brought off into forced exile in far-off lands in distant Assyria and Mesopotamia, away from the lands of their ancestors.

And at that time, the southern kingdom of Judah itself had been existentially threatened by its powerful neighbours, including from the Assyrians themselves, who came up to Jerusalem and besieged it, as king Sennacherib of Assyria almost conquered all of Judah and Jerusalem if not for the divine intervention of the Lord that wiped out the Assyrian forces and sent the king of Assyria back to his lands in shame.

All those were because of the lack of faith in the people of Israel, as they had abandoned the ways of the Lord, disobeyed the laws and commandments of God again and again, and refusing to listen to the many prophets and messengers that had been sent into their midst to call them back and remind them to stop their rebellious ways and turn back towards God.

Yet, the Lord never gave up on us, and He did not stop trying to seek us out and to turn us back towards Him, that we may be reconciled to Him, be forgiven from our many sins, and thus, He tirelessly continued to seek us out, and He gave us all the best of all gifts in this regard, that is the gift of our salvation through His own most beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have received the new assurance of eternal life and glory in God.

In our Gospel passage we heard of the calling of Levi, the tax collector by the Lord, Who called him to follow Him to be His disciple. Levi listened to the Lord’s call and immediately left everything behind and followed the Lord. Through this call, the man once known as Levi became a new man, called by God to be His Apostle, St. Matthew, who was also one of the Four Evangelists, in writing the Gospel attributed to him.

We see therefore how this man, a former tax collector, widely condemned and ostracised at his own time by the rest of the general community due to the strong prejudices that then existed on the tax collectors in labelling them as traitors to the nation and the people, as well as being greedy and exploitative of others, could become a great saint and one of the Apostles and the Evangelists no less.

We need to know that no one is truly away from God’s salvation and grace, and just as God Himself is also consistently and actively reaching out towards us, then in fact the mercy and forgiveness of God are truly readily and easily accessible for us, and the story of many of our predecessors, turned from sinners to saints, only serve to highlight this fact even more.

However, the main obstacle preventing us from finding our way to God is in fact our own reluctance, doubt and refusal to accept God’s generous offer of mercy and forgiveness. Many of us are unwilling to commit to the Lord and continued to live in the state of sin. That is why so many people still failed to receive the rich bounties of God’s grace and mercy. As long as we allow the many temptations present in the world to tempt us away from the Lord, then we are likely to remain distant from Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore do our best to overcome the temptations of worldly desires and all other obstacles that are in the way of our reconciliation with God. Let us all be courageous in responding to the Lord with a renewed faith from now on, that we will remain faithful to the path that the Lord has showed us, and that we will always strive to walk faithfully in His presence, now and always. May God bless us and guide us in our path going forward in life. Amen.

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Saturday, 20 February 2021 : Saturday after Ash Wednesday (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 5 : 27-32

At that time, after Jesus healed a paralytic man, He went out, and noticing a tax collector named Levi, sitting in the tax office, He said to him, “Follow Me!” So Levi, leaving everything, got up and followed Jesus.

Levi gave a great feast for Jesus, and many tax collectors came to his house, and took their places at the table with the other people. Then the Pharisees and their followers complained to Jesus’ disciples, “How is it, that you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

But Jesus spoke up, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. I have not come to call the just, but sinners, to a change of heart.”

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Saturday, 20 February 2021 : Saturday after Ash Wednesday (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 85 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Listen, o YHVH, and answer me, for I am afflicted and needy. Preserve my life, for I am God-fearing; save Your servant who trusts in You.

Have mercy on me, o YHVH, for I cry to You all day. Bring joy to the soul of Your servant; for You, o YHVH, I lift up my soul.

You are good and forgiving, o YHVH, caring for those who call on You. Listen, o YHVH, to my prayer, hear the voice of my pleading.

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Saturday, 20 February 2021 : Saturday after Ash Wednesday (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Isaiah 58 : 9b-14

If you remove from your midst the yoke, the clenched fist and the wicked word. If you share your food with the hungry and give relief to the oppressed, then your light will rise in the dark, your night will be like noon.

YHVH will guide you always and give you relief in desert places. He will strengthen your bones; He will make you as a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fall. Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt, the age-old foundations will be raised. You will be called the Breach-mender, and the Restorer of ruined houses.

If you stop profaning the Sabbath and doing as you please on the holy day, if you call the Sabbath a day of delight and keep sacred YHVH’s holy day, if you honour it by not going your own way, not doing as you please and not speaking with malice, then you will find happiness in YHVH, over the heights you will ride triumphantly, and feast joyfully on the inheritance of your father Jacob. The mouth of YHVH has spoken.

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Saturday, 13 February 2021 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the downfall of man, who have disobeyed the Lord and chose to listen to the lies of the devil, and as a result, committed sin against God and was banished from the Gardens of Eden, where they should have remained and lived in great bliss and joy with the Lord. Yet, through what we have heard today we are also reminded that nonetheless, God still loved us even with our imperfections and with our disobedience, as His love endured throughout to even this very day.

In our first reading today we heard of the story of Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from Eden because of their disobedience in eating of the fruits of the forbidden Tree of knowledge of good and evil, in direct contradiction to the Lord’s instructions to keep away from the tree. Satan was also punished and cursed, but one important difference is that, while because of their sins, mankind must then suffer, but God did not abandon them or want them to be destroyed. On the contrary, from that very beginning He has proclaimed how He would save them all and liberate them from the clutches of the evil one.

The devil would be crushed by the woman, although he would have the chance to strike at the sons and daughters of man. And this salvation came through Mary, the woman who was prophesied and expected, to be the mother of the Messiah or Saviour. The Saviour Himself is Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Word Incarnate, Son of God, born in the flesh to walk amongst us and to gather us all to Himself. Through Christ all of us have received a new hope of true happiness and eternal life, one that is everlasting and will never end.

The Lord could have destroyed us all outright for our disobedience and sins, and for all the stubbornness that we have shown Him all throughout time and history. We have committed so many wicked deeds and made so many others to suffer in order to satisfy our own selfish desires and ambitions that we should have deserved annihilation and destruction. Yet, the Lord was still willing to give us chance and to patiently guide us down the right path towards Him. We have wronged Him so much and yet, He still loved us equally if not even more.

In our Gospel reading today we heard how this love was manifested in some form as the Lord famously performed His miracle of the feeding of the four thousand men and many other thousands of women and children with just seven loaves of bread. At that time, the people had been following the Lord for many days without having proper sustenance as the place where they gathered were not really convenient for them to obtain food and other necessities.

But the Lord had pity on them, and looked on them with great compassion, in not just teaching them and helping them to find their way, as a Shepherd guiding the lost sheep, but He also provided them with the sustenance until they all had enough to eat and were fully satisfied with much leftovers to spare. Through this act of great love and rich in symbolism, God wants us all to know that we are truly beloved by Him and are precious to Him, without exception.

To this end, not only that the Lord fed His people with the loaves of bread, but through His ultimate and most loving sacrifice on the Cross, He gave them the best gift of all in His own Most Precious Body and Blood, the Bread of Life offered freely for us that all of us who partake in Him may receive new life through Him and be justified through Him. The Lord truly loved us so much that He was willing to go through all that just to lead us out of our predicament and be reconciled with us again.

Now, what are we then going to do with our lives, since we know just how much God has blessed us and just how fortunate we are? Are we going to continue to be stubborn and refuse His compassion and mercy? Or are we going to embrace Him like that of a prodigal son embracing his father, seeking for forgiveness and renewed relationship and love? The choice is indeed ours, brothers and sisters in Christ, whether we want to choose life over death, and eternal life over eternal damnation.

Let us all seek the Lord with a new zeal and spirit from now on, strengthened and encouraged by all that the love of God has done for us. Let us all walk with Him once again and strive to live worthily of Him, that in following Him and being faithful to Him, we will finally receive the glory and eternal joy that we have been promised and which we have been intended to live in, now and forevermore. May God bless us always, in all things. Amen.

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Saturday, 13 February 2021 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

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

Mark 8 : 1-10

At that time, soon afterwards Jesus was in the midst of another large crowd, that obviously had nothing to eat. So He called His disciples and said to them, “I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with Me for three days and now have nothing to eat. If I send them to their homes hungry, they will faint on the way; some of them have come a long way.”

His disciples replied, “Where, in a deserted place like this, could we get enough bread to feed these people?” He asked them, “How many loaves have you?” And they answered, “Seven.” Then He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Taking the seven loaves and giving thanks, He broke them, and handed them to His disciples to distribute. And they distributed them among the people. They also had some small fish, so Jesus said a blessing, and asked that these be shared as well.

The people ate and were satisfied. The broken pieces were collected, seven wicker baskets full of leftovers. Now those who had eaten were about four thousand in number. Jesus sent them away, and immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and went to the region of Dalmanutha.

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Saturday, 13 February 2021 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

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

Psalm 89 : 2, 3-4, 5-6, 12-13

Before the mountains were formed, before You made the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity – You are God.

You turn humans back to dust, saying, “Return, o mortals!” A thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has passed, or like a watch in the night.

You sow them in their time, at dawn they peep out. In the morning they blossom, but the flower fades and withers in the evening.

So make us know the shortness of our life, that we may gain wisdom of heart. How long will you be angry, o Lord? Have mercy on Your servant.

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Saturday, 13 February 2021 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

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

Genesis 3 : 9-24

YHVH God called the man saying to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard Your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree I ordered you not to eat?”

The man answered, “The woman You put with me gave me fruit from the tree and I ate it.” God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”

YHVH God said to the serpent, “Since you have done that, be cursed among all the cattle and wild beasts! You will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I will make you enemies, you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”

To the woman, God said, “I will increase your suffering in childbearing, and you will give birth to your children in pain. You will be dependent on your husband and he will lord it over you.” To the man, He said, “Because you have listened to your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I forbade you to eat, cursed be the soil because of you! In suffering you will provide food for yourself from it, all the days of your life.”

“It will produce thorn and thistle for you and you will eat the plants of the field. With sweat on your face you will eat your bread, until you return to clay, since it was from clay that you were taken, for you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

The man called his wife by the name of Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. YHVH God made garments of skin for the man and his wife, and with these He clothed them. Then YHVH God said, “Man has now become like one of Us making himself judge of good and evil. Let him not stretch out his hand to take and eat from the tree of life as well, and live forever.”

So God cast him from the garden of Eden to till the soil from which he had been made. And after having driven the man out, God posted Cherubim and a flaming sword that kept turning at the east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of Life.

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Saturday, 6 February 2021 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the narrative of the Lord as the Good Shepherd of all the faithful and as the One to guide all the people towards the salvation and eternal life found in God alone. Through Christ, the Lord has gathered all of us to Himself, and He has done this for us so that each and every one of us may be saved, and not fall into eternal damnation.

The Lord offered Himself as the worthy sacrifice and also acting as the High Priest in offering this gift that through His offering all of us receive the assurance of eternal life and true happiness, a joy that is everlasting and true, no longer burdened by the chains of sin. He has done all of these out of love for us, because He has seen how wretched we have been in our condition just as exemplified by our Gospel passage today.

In that occasion, the Lord saw how the people who were gathered to listen to Him were like sheep without a shepherd, without a guide and without a proper direction in life. He showed them the path towards His salvation and taught them even when He and His disciples were tired and exhausted. He dedicated Himself, truly like the Good Shepherd He is, patiently caring for the people entrusted to Him, loving them and showing them the true face of God’s love.

We have seen how God loved us so much that He willingly gave everything for our sake. Do we then appreciate the love He has shown us, brothers and sisters in Christ? Many of us often forget about God and we only remember Him when we need something from Him or require assistance from Him. When things are good for us, and when everything is fine, we quickly forget about Him and carry on living our lives in the same way and routine, again and again.

As Christians, all of us are called to live our lives with God at the centre of our lives and existence. We should do our very best to dedicate our actions and our daily living to glorify God at all times, to the very best of our abilities. We are all called to be inspiration for one another, to be exemplary in how we lead a Christ-like life, to be filled with love for God and to be filled with love for our fellow brothers and sisters.

The Lord has called us all to follow His example as the Good Shepherd, to show love and care for one another, and to be genuinely compassionate towards those who need our help and attention. He wants us to live up to our Christian calling and be genuine Christian at all times, dedicating ourselves to serve God and to stand up for our faith whenever it is necessary. That is how we inspire others to follow the Lord and be faithful as well.

Today, all of us celebrate the memory of the great saints, St. Paul Miki and his companions, the Holy Martyrs of Nagasaki, the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan. At that time, the Church in Japan had been going through a period of very rapid expansion that saw hundreds of thousands of people converting to the Christian faith. However, the initially supportive authorities began to be wary of the rapid expansion and powerful influence of the Church, and the then Regent of Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi began to persecute Christians throughout the realm.

St. Paul Miki was among those who were arrested for their faith, and they were tried and condemned to death in Kyoto, the then Imperial capital of Japan and the seat of the Regent. St. Paul Miki and his companions were forced to undergo the most painful journey from Kyoto to Nagasaki, halfway across Japan on foot, a distance of almost a thousand kilometres, to the place of their martyrdom. Perhaps the authorities hoped that some among them would give up and abandon their faith.

On the contrary, St. Paul Miki and his companions, the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs took courage in God and sang the glorious hymn ‘Te Deum’ in praise of God throughout their journey, thanking and glorifying God as they marched towards their deaths. They remained faithful to the very end and faced martyrdom with courage, receiving from the Lord, their Divine Master and Good Shepherd, the crown of true and everlasting glory and happiness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we willing and able to follow in the footsteps of our holy and devout predecessors? Are we willing to commit ourselves to the good cause of the Lord and to spend the time and effort to proclaim the greater glory of God through our own lives, our actions and deeds? Let us all reflect on this and discern in what way we can live up to our Christian calling, in following the call and example of Our Lord, our Good Shepherd and Master. May God continue to guide us and bless us abundantly in all of our good endeavours, now and always. Amen.