Saturday

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Saturday, 10 August 2019 : Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

2 Corinthians 9 : 6-10

Remember : the one who sows meagerly will reap meagerly, and there shall be generous harvests for the one who sows generously. Each of you should give as you decided personally, and not reluctantly, as if obliged. God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to fill you with every good thing, so that you have enough of everything, at all times, and may give abundantly for any good work.

Scripture says : He distributed, He gave to the poor, His good works last forever. God, Who provides the sower with seed, will also provide him with the bread he eats. He will multiply the seed for you and also increase the interest on your good works.

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Saturday, 3 August 2019 : 17th 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 from the Sacred Scriptures we heard about the matter of obedience and listening to God, in how we should be following His ways and doing His precepts faithfully. In the first reading today we listened to the instruction of the celebration of the Jubilee year for the Israelites, done every fifty years, as the Lord Himself instructed His people through Moses. Meanwhile, in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the account of the arrest and eventually beheading of the faithful servant of God, St. John the Baptist by king Herod.

In the first reading, the Lord mentioned clearly the details about the celebration of the Jubilee year that took place every fiftieth year, after seven cycles of seven years. This allusion to the number ‘seven’ and in fact ‘seven times seven’ denotes a focus on holiness and sanctity, as the number seven in the Scripture is used to denote something that is sacred and perfect, and therefore the purpose of the Jubilee Year, if we read through the passage again in detail, is to bring mankind closer to God’s holiness.

In that passage we heard how the Lord commanded the people to keep the Jubilee Year holy and sacred, and to be a year of forgiveness and reorientation of the people’s hearts and minds to the Lord. The celebration of the Jubilee also included the restoration of fairness and justice to the people as mentioned in the reading, as those who had more land and properties would not benefit out of the lack and inadequacies in others.

Through all of these, the Scripture passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes is the reminder for each and every one of us that we should not entertain and succumb to the temptations of our desires and greed, which are part of our human existence by nature. We are all creatures of emotion, of desires, of wants and wishes, and in this world, we know that in fact, suffering and pain came about because we allow our desires and greed to control us and our actions.

For example, when a person who has greater wealth, properties and possessions succumb to his or her desire for more of those worldly things and temptations, this more often than not causes others to suffer in order to satisfy the desires of the person. The more we crave and desire for worldly glory, satisfaction and pleasures, the more we will desire for them in time to come as those worldly things cannot truly satisfy us.

We have one such example in the Gospel passage today, in which we heard of the account of the arrest and martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, who was killed by king Herod through the machinations of Herodias, his wife, who despised the saint. The context of this is that king Herod took the wife of Philip, his own brother, as his wife, which was unlawful in the sight of God as an act of blatant adultery.

And St. John the Baptist courageously spoke up against king Herod and Herodias for their sinful and open show of rebellion against God’s will and Law. Herodias hated St. John the Baptist for that and managed to get the king to arrest the saint. And on a good occasion, Herodias plotted with her own daughter to tempt the king and trick him to get rid of St. John the Baptist, as the king was reluctant to do so, out of the fear of God.

It was the king’s inability to resist the temptation of pleasure and greed, lust and sexual desires when he saw his daughter’s seductive dance, which brought about his downfall. He fell into the trap set by Herodias and made a promise and vow which he could not retract, and was therefore forced to commit a murder, of the great saint and Herald of the coming of the Messiah of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard from all of these accounts from the Scriptures, all of us ought to realise that no amount of worldly desires, possessions, be it glory, power, pleasures of the flesh and all the things present in the world, can satisfy us. In fact, our pursuit of all those things can lead us to ruin and drag us deeper and deeper into sin. King Herod himself had shown us what could happen if one succumbed to the temptation.

We are all reminded therefore to refocus our attention to God, turning to God with effort and commitment. The Lord has given us many means through which we can refocus our attention to God, and as mentioned earlier, in our first reading today, the celebration of the Jubilee Year was a way for God’s people to take a break in their hectic and often distracted life and redirect their attention back towards God. Similarly therefore, through the Church and its celebrations, we are called to refocus our attention on God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all seek to love God all the more in our lives and turn away from the many temptations of sin, from disobedience and sin against God, from all sorts of worldly pride and desires, greed and lust. Let us all turn towards God and be ever closer and be more faithful to Him from now on. May God be with us all and bless all of our good endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 3 August 2019 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

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

Matthew 14 : 1-12

At that time, the reports about Jesus reached king Herod. And he said to his servants, “This Man is John the Baptist. John has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in John.”

Herod had, in fact, ordered that John be arrested, bound in chains and put in prison, because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. For John had said to Herod, “It is not right for you to have her as your wife.” Herod wanted to kill him but he did not dare, because he feared the people, who regarded John as a prophet.

On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced among the guests; she so delighted Herod that he promised under oath to give her anything she asked for. The girl, following the advice of her mother, said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist, here, on a dish.”

The king was very displeased, but because he had made his promise under oath, in the presence of his guests, he ordered it to be given to her. So he had John beheaded in prison, and his head brought on a dish and given to the girl. The girl then took it to her mother.

Then John’s disciple came, took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

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Saturday, 3 August 2019 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

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

Psalm 66 : 2-3, 5, 7-8

May God be gracious and bless us; may He let His face shine upon us; that Your way be known on earth and Your salvation, among the nations.

May the countries be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with justice; and guide the nations of the world.

The land has given its harvest; God, our God, has blessed us. May God bless us and be revered, to the very ends of the earth.

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Saturday, 3 August 2019 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

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

Leviticus 25 : 1, 8-17

YHVH spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai : “When seven Sabbaths of years have passed, that is, seven times seven years, there shall be the time of the seven weeks of years, that is forty-nine years. Then on the tenth day of the seventh month sound the trumpet loudly. On this Day of Atonement sound the trumpet all through the land.”

“Keep holy the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom for all the inhabitants of the land. It shall be a jubilation year for you when each one shall recover his property and go back to his family. In this fiftieth year, your year of Jubilee, you shall neither sow nor reap the aftergrowth, nor gather the grapes from the uncultivated vines. This Jubilee year shall be holy for you, and you shall eat what the field yields of itself without cultivation.”

“In this year of Jubilee each of you shall recover his own property. When you sell something to your neighbour or buy something from him, do not wrong one another. According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall buy it from your neighbour and according to the number of years left for harvesting crops he shall sell to you.”

“When the years are many the price shall be greater and when the years are few the price shall be less, for it is the number of crops that he is selling to you. So you shall not wrong one another but you shall fear your God, for I am YHVH, your God.”

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Saturday, 27 July 2019 : 16th 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 listened to the words of the Scripture which brought to our attention the Covenant which God has made and renewed between Himself and His people as our first reading today highlighted from the Book of Exodus, sealing the Covenant between God and man through the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrificial lambs on the Altar.

In that occasion, God renewed and reestablished the Covenant which He had made the ancestors of the people of Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the holy patriarchs of Israel, and made the Covenant anew as He led them through the desert out of the slavery in Egypt, fulfilling the promise which He had made to His servants mentioned. He has blessed His people and made them plentiful and mighty.

He gave them His laws and the Ten Commandments, upon which all of His people must attach themselves to, as the symbol of their commitment to the Covenant which God has made with them. A Covenant in itself is essentially a binding agreement and promise made between two parties, in which both parties are obliged and bound to fulfil the conditions and the provisions of the Covenant.

God has always been faithful and committed to His Covenant, as He has proven yet again and again throughout the ages, from the very beginning, showing care, love and concern for His people; chiding, rebuking and punishing His people with whom He had made the Covenant with, whenever they fell away from the path of righteousness that they had been led along, and failed to fulfil their part of the Covenant.

It was unfortunately the people who have failed to commit themselves fully and wholeheartedly to the Covenant between them and God. They were distracted and easily tempted by the temptations of sin, which pulled them away from the right path shown to them by God. They ended up disobeying and rebelling against God as they followed their own path and pursued their own desires and wicked thoughts.

And this is what we are also hearing in our Gospel passage today, the meaning of the parable that the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples, on the wheat and the weeds growing in a field. In that parable, we heard of a sower who sowed good seeds of wheat in a field, and then, an enemy came quietly at night to sow the seeds of weeds that are not just undesirable but can also harm the good crops.

As the parable mentioned, we see clear symbolism in that parable meant to remind us of the Covenant which God has made with us, and the many obstacles in our lives that often become stumbling blocks in our journey towards God and His truth and salvation. The sower was none other than the Lord Himself, while the enemy referred to Satan and all the forces of evil seeking our destruction. The wheat referred to the good things that God has given to us, while the weeds referred to the corruptions of sin in our midst.

Another interpretation is that the wheat refers to all the righteous and faithful people of God while the weeds are those who have rejected God and refused to believe in Him, and instead walking down the path of sin. And yet, God, as the sower, did not want to remove those weeds before the appointed time, allowing the wheat to grow together with the weeds. And this is representing just how God is so loving and forgiving, full of compassion and mercy towards us.

How is that so? That is because despite of our disobedience, stubbornness and constant rejection of His love through sin, God is still ever patient and He extends to all of us the opportunities and chances to be forgiven from our sins and to be healed from all of our shortcomings and faults, by His own infinite grace and love. God cares for each and every one of His children, and blesses everyone, be it that they are good or bad.

But it is important that all of us seek to be forgiven from our sins, as ultimately, although God is loving and merciful, but the fact remains that sin has no place before God, and as sin corrupts us, our souls and our beings, if we remain adamant in our rejection of God and refusal to repent from those sins, then just like the weeds in the parable, in the end of time, we will be cast out into the eternal fire, to suffer for eternity because of our own decision to reject God and His generous love.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able therefore to follow the Lord our God with all of our hearts and with all of our strength? Let us all devote ourselves to Him and let us all strive to do our best to be faithful to Him just as He Himself has been so faithful and so filled with love for each and every one of us. Let us all obey His laws and commandments, and live our lives from now on with the commitment and desire to be righteous and just, worthy of His eternal inheritance.

May God bless us all, and may He empower us to live ever more faithfully according to His ways from now on. May He be with us all in our journey of life and guide us towards the right path in Him. Amen.

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Saturday, 27 July 2019 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

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

Matthew 13 : 24-30

At that time, Jesus told the people another parable, “The kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a man, who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep, his enemy came, and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, the weeds also appeared. Then, the servants of the owner came, and said to him, ‘Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?'”

“He answered them, ‘This is the work of an enemy.’ They asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ He told them, ‘No, when you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat with them. Let them grow together, until harvest; and, at harvest time, I will say to the workers : Pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them; then gather the wheat into my barn.'”

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Saturday, 27 July 2019 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

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

Psalm 49 : 1-2, 5-6, 14-15

The God of gods, YHVH has spoken; He summons the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting. God has shone from Zion, perfect in beauty.

Gather before Me, My faithful ones, who made a Covenant with Me by sacrifice. The heavens will proclaim His sentence, for God Himself is the Judge.

Yet, offer to God a sacrifice of thanks, and fulfil your vows to the Most High. Call on Me in time of calamity; I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me.

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Saturday, 27 July 2019 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

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

Exodus 24 : 3-8

Moses came and told the people all the words of YHVH and all His laws. The people replied with one voice : “Everything that YHVH has said, we shall do.”

Moses wrote down all the words of YHVH, then rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve raised stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. He then sent young men from among the sons of Israel to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice bullocks as peace offerings to YHVH.

And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins; and with the other half of the blood he sprinkled the altar. He then took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. They said, “All that YHVH said we shall do and obey.”

Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it on the people saying, “Here is the blood of the Covenant that YHVH has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

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Saturday, 20 July 2019 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Apollinaris, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us are reminded of the promise of God’s salvation and His ever present loving kindness in our midst, because we are all so fortunate to have been beloved by God. Each and every one of us are precious in the sight of God, without any exception. God is generous with His love and He will always be faithful to the Covenant He has made with us.

In our first reading today, we heard of the Lord guiding His people Israel as they went in hurry out of the land of Egypt right after their very first Passover celebration, when the Pharaoh finally let the Israelites go free after the Lord sent the last Great Plague on the Egyptians, killing all the firstborn children of Egypt. God brought them and provided for them, and asked them to bring unleavened bread along with them as sustenance along the journey.

In the Gospel passage, we heard yet another time when the Lord revealed His salvation and great love for His people, through none other than the Saviour He Himself has promised, in Jesus Christ, His own Begotten Son, through Whom the whole race of mankind was to be saved from eternal damnation and from the fate of sure destruction. The Lord Who has once saved His people, now committed Himself to save all of them from certain death.

The liberation of Israel under the leadership of Moses in the Old Testament was indeed the prefigurement and prelude to the true liberation of not just Israel, but that of all mankind under the leadership of Christ. Just as the Israelites suffered under the tyranny of the Pharaoh and the Egyptians, all of us mankind have suffered greatly under the bondage of sin, which corrupted us and brought us closer to eternal damnation.

God, Who loves each and every one of us, does not want destruction to be our fate, and therefore, He sent us the promised salvation through Christ, His own Son, by Whose wonders and works, He revealed the true extent of His love and generous mercy towards us, His own beloved people. Even though we have sinned against Him, constantly being stubborn and rebelled against Him, He still loves each one of us nonetheless.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, if God has loved us so much that He has been willing to show us all these wonderful love and blessings, shall we not then strive to show Him the same kind of love and commitment? Shall we not devote our time, effort and attention to He Who has been so generous and kind to us? Let us all think about this even as we carry on living our lives faithfully as Christians.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Apollinaris, a holy bishop and martyr, whose example in faith and whose dedication to the Lord can be a source of inspiration for us in how we should live our own lives with faith and dedication to the Lord. St. Apollinaris was one of the earliest bishops of the Church, successor to the holy Apostles of Christ. He was appointed as the first Bishop of Ravenna in what is today Italy, near the capital of the Roman Empire.

He was persecuted and suffered greatly with his flock during the persecution of Christians by the early Roman Emperors, but he continued to evangelise to the people and preach the Good News regardless, performing many miracles and wonders before the people. He was oppressed and made to suffer and it was told that later on he was arrested and persecuted as the leader of the Church in Ravenna, and yet, despite all these, he did not give up his efforts.

Instead, he continued to serve the Church faithfully and ministered to the people of God to the best of his abilities, which showed his dedication, commitment and love for God, as such courage and dedication would not have been possible without a heart that is so filled with genuine love for God and with true faith in Him. God has a centre part in his life, and this is what each and every one of us as Christians should be doing as well.

Let us all therefore contemplate and strive to do our best from now on, to become ever better Christians, through our own words, actions and deeds. May the Lord continue to guide us down the path to salvation in Him, and bless us all in our every good endeavours. Amen.