Saturday

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Saturday, 27 August 2016 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Monica (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of a great and remarkable saint, a loving and devoted mother, one of the cherished daughter of our Lord, who had given herself to serve the Lord, especially by her tireless and never-ending perseverance in trying to make her son, another very famous and important saint, to return to the faith in God and be saved from eternal damnation.

And as I will elaborate more on the matter later on, let us see how this great woman had fulfilled and done what the Scriptures today have heeded us to do, that we do the same things and commit ourselves in the same way that she has done it. It is important then that we take note of what the Lord spoke of through His Apostle St. Paul in our first reading today about whom God had chosen to be His word-bearers and tools among the nations, and what He Himself spoke about in the Gospel regarding the parable of the silver talents and the good and the lazy servants.

In the first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and to the faithful ones in Corinth, St. Paul spoke passionately about being chosen by God, and whom God had chosen to be His people, and more importantly to be those who would become His bearers of the truth that He brought into the world, that through them and their works, they might bring eternal life and salvation to all those who believe in them.

In this matter, we should see how God had not chosen by using worldly standards of power, influence, fame and wealth. God did not choose us because we are great in the eyes of this world, unlike how people in this world usually gets chosen for something important. While the world praised and glorified wealth, praising those who have been successful in getting more money and accomplishments for themselves, but God chose differently.

God chose not the powerful of the world but instead what is powerful according to His standards, that is the strength of our devotion and commitment, the strength of our faith and the love that is within each and every one of us. For God, there is no greater value in us than the love which we show back to Him, He Who has loved us all and cared for us. God values not all the riches and the wealth that this world can assemble, for these are temporary and transient in nature.

And yet, it does not mean that we should just accept God’s calling and then be passive in all things. It also does not mean that we should then lay back and do nothing since after all God does not value the wealth, riches, fame and all the other worldly things, is He not? As we then need to look deeper just beyond what St. Paul had said and link it to what we also heard in the Gospel today, where our Lord Jesus spoke about the parable of the silver talents and the servants.

In that parable, God spoke about a master who entrusted his silver talents to several servants, each of which did differently with the silver talents entrusted to them. But the gist of the matter is that while the good and devoted servants invested those silver talents which they have received, and received back not just the silver talents they invested but also even more silver talents as profit, the lazy and wicked servant just hid the silver talent, never investing them, and in the end gained nothing.

This is a comparison which we can make with our own lives in this world. We are all the servants to our Master and Lord, and we have been entrusted with different kinds of gifts that God had blessed us with, our talents and abilities, as well as the seeds of faith, hope and love that He has planted in each and every one of us. And yet, how they would come to be depends indeed entirely on us and our ability to grow them and prepare them through our work and effort.

To be a Christian means that we must be active, and indeed be actively involved in the actions that God has called us into, that is to serve and to love one another with sincerity and generosity from deep within our hearts, probably just as how much as St. Monica, the holy woman and a devoted mother had done in her own life. She devoted her life for the sake of her son, St. Augustine of Hippo, who would go on to become a great saint in his own right.

We mostly would know St. Augustine of Hippo as a very great saint who is now known as one of the four original Doctors of the Church, and who with St. Jerome is among the two pillars that helped to establish the Church in the West, that is Rome and thus what our Church today is about, and what we believe in. His writings are still widely read today and continued to inspire many, but these all would not have been possible if not for the tireless efforts of St. Monica, his mother.

St. Monica was a Christian who married a pagan husband, who was an important administrator in the public service. Their son, St. Augustine was given the best of education possible and available to him, and yet, he drifted slowly into the wickedness and the debauchery of the world, seeking pleasures and hedonistic pursuits in life, following the examples of his peers and friends.

Certainly, no mother would ever want her child to fall into the abyss, and no mother would ever want to lose her child to the darkness of sin. And as a Christian herself, we can simply imagine what kind of pain and sorrow existed in the heart and mind of St. Monica, who was faced with that great agony of seeing how both her husband, a pagan, and her son in particular, were slipping into the embrace of the devil and eternal damnation.

Then we have to note what St. Monica did ceaselessly without fear and without stop, that she prayed and hoped without end, knowing that God would answer her prayers, and rescue the soul of her beloved ones from the chasm of death. And God did answer her prayers and her charitable efforts, and touched by her loving care, first it was her husband who turned to the Lord, and then St. Augustine himself, as he felt that longing for something that he could not find in the debauchery of the world, that is God alone.

The perseverance and the love that St. Monica had shown us is truly exemplary, and she had shown us the love of a good and devoted Christian mother, as how a Christian is supposed to be like. Let us all learn from what she had done, and how she had devoted her life to God, to her husband, and more famously from these, is how she had loved her son and had not given him up to the darkness.

Therefore, shall we also do the same to our brethren around us? Shall we not show love, care and compassion for our brothers and sisters who are now struggling in the darkness? Let us endeavour to break free from our comfort zones and seek out to be the light and the bearers of God’s salvation to these brethren of ours.

May God help us in our work and efforts to bring each other closer to His presence, that all of us may be saved and may receive the glory of eternal life, just as what St. Monica had done, never ceasing to believe that her son, St. Augustine, could be saved from eternal death in sin. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 27 August 2016 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Monica (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 25 : 14-30

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Imagine someone who, before going abroad, summoned his servants to entrust his property to them. He gave five talents of silver to one servant, two talents to another servant, and one talent to a third, to each according to his ability; and he went away.”

“He who received five talents went at once to do business with the money, and gained another five. The one who received two talents did the same, and gained another two. But the one who received one talent dug a hole, and hid his master’s money.”

“After a long time, the master of those servants returned and asked for a reckoning. The one who had received five talents came with another five talents, saying, ‘Lord, you entrusted me with five talents, but see, I have gained five more.’ The master answered, ‘Very well, good and faithful servant, since you have been faithful in a few things, I will entrust you with much more. Come and share the joy of your master.'”

“Then the one who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you entrusted me with two talents; with them I have gained two more.’ The master said, ‘Well, good and faithful servant, since you have been faithful in little things, I will entrust you with much more. Come and share the joy of your master.'”

“Finally, the one who had received one talent came and said, ‘Master, I know that you are a hard man. You reap what you have not sown, and gather what you have not scattered. I was afraid, so I hid your money in the ground. Here, take what is yours!'”

“But his master replied, ‘Wicked and worthless servant, you know that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered; so you should have deposited my money in the bank, and on my return you would have given it back to me with interest.'”

“‘Therefore, take the talent from him, and give it to the one who has ten. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who are unproductive, even what they have will be taken from them. As for that useless servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'”

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Saturday, 27 August 2016 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Monica (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 32 : 12-13, 18-19, 20-21

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.

But the Lord’s eyes are upon those who fear Him, upon those who trust in His loving-kindness to deliver them from death and preserve them from famine.

In hope we wait for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield. Our hearts rejoice in Him, for we trust in His holy Name.

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Saturday, 27 August 2016 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Monica (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Corinthians 1 : 26-31

Brothers and sisters, look and see whom God has called. Few among you can be said to be cultured or wealthy, and few belong to noble families. Yet God has chosen what the world considers foolish, to shame the wise; He has chosen what the world considers weak to shame the strong.

God has chosen common and unimportant people, making use of what is nothing to nullify the things that are, so that no mortal may boast before God. But, by God’s grace you are in Christ Jesus, Who has become our wisdom from God, and Who makes us just and holy and free.

Scripture says : Let the one who boasts boast of the Lord.

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Saturday, 20 August 2016 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the proclamations of the Word of God, exhorting us to remember that we exist for God alone, and it is to God that we all ought to dedicate our time and devotion, and we should not fall for the temptation of power, of pride and glory, of human affection and fame, and for all things that bring about our downfall.

The essence from the Gospel today cannot be made any clearer, brothers and sisters in Christ, than the exhortation and calling for us all to truly live out our lives in faith, to be beacons of faith and of love, to show to the whole world who we really are, that is as the children and as the followers of our loving God. We must have God in us, and He must be the centre of our lives.

The passage we just heard in the Gospel has been often used to attack our faith and the Church, as those who failed to understand the true intentions of the Lord with His words, would take up those words and then use them to strike without proper understanding at our Church and on the way which we do things in this Church of God, particularly with regards to the way that we worship the Lord.

Critics and unbelievers pointed that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law for their long prayers and elaborate prayer tassels and mantles, citing these to attack our supposedly elaborate ceremonies and celebrations of the Faith, at the centre of which is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and in how we carry on the worship of the Lord in our churches and parishes.

These same critics argued that our faith is empty just as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had been, but that was because of their lack of understanding, again on what Jesus truly intended with His message and with the truth about our faith. And thus, in their ignorance and stubbornness, they became just like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law whom they were comparing us with.

Why is this so, brethren? That is because the rich traditions of our faith and the Church all speak of the same thing, that is our desire and our strong, adamant and living wish to serve the Lord and to worship Him in the best way we can. But in order to do so, we must learn to detach ourselves from the concerns and the desires of the world, all of which prevented us from being able to comprehend the way in which we should devote ourselves to the Lord.

And that is by giving of ourselves heart, soul and mind to God, by opening ourselves to the word of God that we will find our way to the Lord. Let those critics and all those who showed negativities to our faith be, and instead let us show the fundamental difference which we have between us and those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of old. And that is, while those people sought to serve their own purposes and advance their own status, we do all that we did because we want to worship and glorify the Lord in the best way that we mankind can offer.

And this is where we should look up to the examples of St. Bernard, a holy saint, a renowned religious and Abbot, and also a great Doctor of the Church for his numerous works and contributions for the faith and the Church at large, even until this very day. St. Bernard, also known as St. Bernard of Clairvaux was truly a great reformer of the faith on his time, leading many others by example on how they ought to live their faith lives with devotion and zeal.

He was renowned for his extensive works in trying to bring together different rivalling factions in the Church, chastising all those who sought to advance their own personal, worldly glory at the expense of the Church and the faithful, when at that time, the Church was kind of bitterly divided from within into factions, and where even secular rulers were trying to advance their own influences and positions in relation to the Church and the people of God.

He preached for a return to the true and genuine faith in the Lord, to lay aside the indifference, the distractions and all the intrigues and all the temptations and allures of worldly desires and wishes that had been preventing all of the people of God from finding their way to Him. He preached that all the faithful ought to renew their devotion and commitment to the Lord, and many answered that call to holiness and to refocus their attention back to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, each and every one of us are also therefore called to do the same as well. All of us have that obligation to serve, just as the Lord Himself had mentioned in the Gospel today. As Christians, each and every one of us ought to listen to His calling, and the mission which He had entrusted us with, that is for us to serve the Lord and His people with love.

Shall we all devote ourselves to that mission which we have been entrusted with, and do whatever it is that we can do in order to help those who are around us, particularly all those who are lost in the darkness of the world and all those who have not been able to find their way, tempted and lured away by their human desires and wants. Let us all help one another that all of us may find our way to the Lord and that all of us may be saved together in Christ. May the Lord be our guide always. Amen.

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Saturday, 20 August 2016 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 23 : 1-12

At that time, Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples, “The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees have sat down on the chair of Moses. So you shall do and observe all they say, but do not do as they do, for they do not do what they say. They tie up heavy burdens and load them on the shoulders of the people, but they do not even raise a finger to move them.”

“They do everything in order to be seen by people : they wear very wide bands of the Law around their foreheads, and robes with large tassels. They enjoy the first places at feasts and reserved seats in the synagogues, and they like being greeted in the marketplace, and being called ‘Master’ by the people.”

“But you, do not let yourselves be called Master, because you have only one Master, and all of you are brothers and sisters. Neither should you call anyone on earth Father, because you have only one Father, He Who is in heaven. Nor should you be called Leader, because Christ is the only Leader for you.”

“Let the greatest among you be the servant of all. For whoever makes himself great shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be made great.”

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Saturday, 20 August 2016 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 84 : 9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14

Would that I hear God’s proclamation that He promise peace to His people, His saints. Yet His salvation is near to those who fear Him, and His Glory will dwell in our land.

Love and faithfulness have met; righteousness and peace have embraced. Faithfulness will reach up from the earth while justice bends down from heaven.

The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its fruit. Justice will go before Him, and peace will follow along His path.

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Saturday, 20 August 2016 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Ezekiel 43 : 1-7a

He took me to the gate, facing east. Then I saw the Glory of the God of Israel approaching from the east with a sound like the sound of the ocean, and the earth shone with His Glory. This vision was like the one I had seen when He came for the destruction of the city, and like the one I had seen on the bank of the river Chebar. Then I threw myself to the ground.

The Glory of YHVH arrived at the Temple by the east gate. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court : the Glory of YHVH was filling the House. And I heard someone speaking to me from the Temple while the Man stood beside Me.

The voice said, “Son of man, you have seen the place of My throne, where I will place the soles of My feet, and live among the Israelites forever.”

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Saturday, 13 August 2016 : Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 11 : 27-28

At that time, as Jesus was speaking, a woman spoke from the crowd and said to Him, “Blessed is the one who gave You birth and nursed You!” Jesus replied, “Truly blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it as well.”

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Saturday, 13 August 2016 : Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Corinthians 15 : 54b-57

When our mortal being puts on immortality, the word of the Scripture will be fulfilled : Death has been swallowed up by victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?

Sin is the sting of death to kill, and the Law is what gives force to sin. But give thanks to God Who gives us the victory through Christ Jesus, our Lord.