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.
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.
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 Lord through the Scriptures reminding each and every one of us of the importance of remembering the fact that we are God’s beloved children. And God our Father is calling upon us to follow His examples, much as children are expected to take after their parents and follow the examples of their fathers. We are all special, having been created, as mentioned in our first reading passage today, in the very image of God Himself.
It is indeed so special that we are called God’s children, among all the creatures of the Lord’s creation. Not even the Angels, the mightiest among them, are called the children of God. For we are the crowning glory of God’s works of creation and we are the pinnacle of His wonders and power. Yet, we are also great sorrows that the Lord had experienced, because instead of obeying Him and listening to Him, we chose to wander off into the path of sin, and became lost to Him.
God has placed everything He created under our care, as that is what He intended to do with us, as He originally conceived it, for God created us out of love and He wants us to enjoy the fruits of His creation and be happy throughout our existence. We were never intended to suffer or to be sorrowful with grief and pain. But it was because of our disobedience, and the misuse of the free will that God has given us, we chose to sin and therefore, fall into the trap of Satan.
Satan planted in us the seeds of rebelliousness and disobedience, and by tugging at the temptations of our pride, ego and greed, we fell to the trap of sin, and as a result, we have become wayward children of the Lord, as lost sheep that have fallen away and become stranded far from their shepherd. That is why man have been sundered from the fullness of God’s grace, and suffered in this world, all because of the sins we ourselves have committed.
But God did not abandon us to perish, and neither did He remain indifferent to our sufferings and to our predicaments. On the contrary, He always actively sought to rescue us and to liberate us from our sinful state, and He has provided us with the path through which we may be saved from this predicament. He provided us with nothing less than His own most Beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has become one like us, assuming the flesh of our humanity, and therefore, the meaning of our existence as children of God has been renewed and made even more significant.
What does this mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that because God’s own beloved Son has been born into this world, in our midst, as one of our own brothers, we have become adopted sons and daughters of God by virtue of our relationship with Christ, our Saviour, Lord and Redeemer. God has given us this wonderful grace, because He loves each and every one of us, that it is His will and desire, that He would have to suffer for our sake, to bear the mighty burden of our sins.
Despite all the pain and sufferings that He had to suffer for all of that, God did not cease in His love and perseverance for us. We just have to look at the determination which He showed us all when He bore that cross up the long journey to Calvary. The cross of Christ is the ultimate proof of His love for us, and His determination to reconcile us to Himself. God wants us all to be gathered back to Himself, to become His children once again.
Indeed, as the Lord Jesus mentioned to His disciples in our Gospel passage today, we are called to be like small children, in our faith towards Him. And why is that so? That is because all of us who have seen small children, would have known how innocent and pure they are, and when they believe in something, they truly and genuinely believe in it without any reservations or any ulterior motives, like greed, pride or ego.
We are called to have a renewed love and commitment for God, to love God with all of our hearts and minds, with all of our strengths and abilities once again, as we had once done. Are we able to dedicate ourselves just as the Lord has dedicated Himself to us? He wants us to enjoy once again the glorious inheritance and endowment that He has promised us all from the beginning of creation.
May the Lord, our loving Father and our Saviour, continue to love each and every one of us, and may He continue to guide us on our journey of life, reminding and rebuking us as necessary to make sure that we are on the right path and not fall into the temptation to sin. May God always bless us in our good works, and help us in everything we do. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Mark 10 : 13-16
At that time, people were bringing their little children to Jesus to have Him touch them, and the disciples rebuked them for this. When Jesus noticed it, He was very angry and said, “Let the children come to Me and do not stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”
Then He took the children in His arms and, laying His hands on them, blessed them.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Psalm 102 : 13-14, 15-16, 17-18a
As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.
The days of mortals are like grass; they bloom like a flower of the field; but the wind passes over it, and it is gone, his field will not see him again.
But the Lord’s kindness is forever with those who fear Him; so is His justice, for their children’s children, for those who keep His covenant and remember His commands.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Sirach 17 : 1-15
The Lord created man from the earth and let him return to earth. He settled a fixed time for them and a set number of days, giving them power over everything on earth. He endowed them with a strength like His own, making them in His own image.
He put fear of them in all living things, thus they had mastery over the animals and birds. He endowed them with knowledge; He gave them tongue and eyes, ears and a mind to think with. He filled them with wisdom and knowledge; He taught them good and evil. He put His own eye in their hearts so they would understand the greatness of His works. They will praise His holy Name and relate the magnificence of His creation.
He gave them revealed knowledge as well and handed over to them the Law of life. He established an everlasting covenant with them and let them know His judgments. Human eyes saw the splendour of the Glory of God; their ears heard the grandeur of His voice.
He said to them, “Keep yourselves from all wrongdoing,” and to each of them He gave commands regarding his neighbour. Their conduct is always before the Lord; they cannot escape His sight.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Scripture passages remind us of the need for us to be faithful to God, in all of our actions in life. By having faith in God it means that we must put our complete trust in Him, and we must dedicate ourselves to His way and walk in the path that He has shown us, even though those paths He led us to may be the ones that bring us pain and sufferings. To be a faithful servant of God, sometimes we need to suffer and even to face persecution, humiliation and disgrace.
Let us take for example, the names of those mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews, part of which is our first reading of today. In that passage, we heard the names of Abel, Enoch and Noah. These few people who were mentioned were those who have walked on this earth at the beginning of our history, those who were considered and mentioned to be righteous among the sons and daughters of men, descendants of Adam and Eve.
First, that of Abel, he was the son of Adam and Eve, younger brother of Cain. Abel offered the pleasing sacrifice of a young lamb while Cain offered what the Lord did not command him to offer, that is of his crops. When Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God, Cain was filled with jealousy and hatred, slaughtering his own brother out of anger and that jealousy within his heart. As a result, Cain sinned against God, and when God confronted him, he persisted in his disobedience by denying his involvement in such a wicked act.
And then, Enoch was mentioned as a most righteous man, more righteous than anyone living on earth at the time, and who obeyed the Lord so faithfully and completely, that God took him up into heaven directly, and Enoch did not suffer from death, much like how the prophet Elijah would later be taken up into heaven on flaming chariots before Elisha, his disciple and successor. God showed His love and faithfulness to those who have been faithful and committed to Him.
For Noah, in the recent days we have just heard how God commanded him to build up a great Ark, as He was about to wipe out all those wicked sons and daughters of men who lived at that time. The wickedness of those people were such that, God has to rescue Noah, his family and all that He wanted to preserve even as He struck against all those who were wicked in their ways and unrepentant in their sins.
All of these faithful servants of God certainly did not have an easy life, persecuted and ostracised, humiliated and made to suffer because of their faith in God. God Himself was also suffering through His begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Who came into this world to be our Saviour. As we heard from our Gospel passage today, the Lord Jesus openly proclaimed and predicted the coming of the persecutions He was about to face, and the pains He had to go through, ultimately leading to the sacrifice on the cross.
This is a reminder for us that the path which the Lord shows us, the way that He wants us to take will not be an easy one, as they will be filled with difficulties and challenges. For us to be good and committed Christians, we need to face this reality, that our lives may have to be changed dramatically if we want to be God’s disciples. That is because we have to walk in the way conforming to God’s will, which are often in opposition and are incompatible with the ways of this world.
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Polycarp, a renowned holy bishop and servant of God, a committed disciple of the Lord and witness of His truth, and also a brave and courageous martyr of the faith. St. Polycarp is regarded as one of the three most important Apostolic Fathers, the early Church leaders and successors of the Apostles, together with Pope St. Clement and St. Ignatius of Antioch. St. Polycarp was one of the earliest Church fathers who wrote extensively and helped to establish the sacred traditions of the Church.
He was dedicated in his work, and in his ministry to those faithful who were entrusted under his care. St. Polycarp devoted his life to serve the Lord and His people, so thoroughly that even through the difficult times of persecution and opposition against the Church and the faithful, he led them all through those difficult and challenging moments. That was how he was eventually martyred, by impaling and stabbing when even fire failed to harm him. St. Polycarp remained true to his faith in God and dedicated his life to His service.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called to reflect on our own lives, on what we ourselves can do to give our lives in commitment to God, to serve Him and to love Him all of our lives, even as we are aware of the consequences and challenges that are awaiting us if we decide to do so. Let us remember that ultimately, in the end, the glory of God and His eternal life and blessings will be ours, if we persist and triumph through this challenging moment.
May the Lord continue to guide us all, and through the intercession of St. Polycarp, and the other holy saints, holy men and women of God, may we draw ever closer to God and may we grow ever deeper in our love and commitment towards Him. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Mark 9 : 2-13
At that time, six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain. There His appearance was changed before their eyes. Even His clothes shone, becoming as white as no bleach of this world could make them. Elijah and Moses appeared to them; the two were talking with Jesus.
Then Peter spoke and said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to say : they were overcome with awe. But a cloud formed, covering them in a shadow, and from the cloud came a voice, “This is My Son, the Beloved; listen to Him.”
And suddenly, as they looked around, they no longer saw anyone except Jesus with them. As they came down the mountain, He ordered them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept this to themselves, although they discussed with one another what ‘to rise from the dead’ could mean.
Finally they asked Him, “Why then do the teachers of the Law say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus answered them, “Of course Elijah will come first, so that everything may be as it should be. But why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be despised? I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they have treated him as they pleased, as the Scriptures say of him.”
Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 144 : 2-3, 4-5, 10-11
I will praise You day after day and exalt Your Name forever. Great is the Lord, most worthy of praise; and His deeds are beyond measure.
Parents commend Your works to their children and tell them Your feats. They proclaim the splendour of Your majesty and recall Your wondrous works.
All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o Lord, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your power.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Hebrews 11 : 1-7
Faith is the assurance of what we hope for, being certain of what we cannot see. Because of their faith our ancestors were approved. By faith we understand that the stages of creation were disposed by God’s word, and what is visible came from what cannot be seen.
Because of Abel’s faith his offering was more acceptable than that of his brother Cain, which meant he was upright, and God Himself approved his offering. Because of this faith he cried to God, as said in Scripture, even after he died.
By faith Enoch was taken to heaven, instead of experiencing death : he could not be found because God had taken him. In fact, it is said that before being taken up he had pleased God. Yet without faith it is impossible to please Him : no one draws near to God without first believing that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him earnestly.
By faith Noah was instructed of events which could not yet be seen and, heeding what he heard, he built a boat in which to save his family. The faith of Noah condemned the world and he reached holiness born of faith.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 