Saturday

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Saturday, 21 June 2014 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are reminded yet again today that we should put our trust in God and leave all things to Him who cares for us. We do not need to worry or think about what we are to do today and what we ought to have in our lives. As I have often mentioned, in this life, we often confuse between our needs and our wants, between the things that we truly need in life and things that is in our desire and greed.

Yes, we also often confuse between things that are truly precious and dear to us, and things that are what form our desire and our greed. In our world today filled with materialism and consumerism, this is becoming more and more out of hand, and instead of doing what the Lord wants us to do, we are getting more and more separated from Him by committing things unworthy in His sight.

What are some of the examples? We always worry about the latest gadgets and newest inventions that are marketed to us as things that we need to have so that we look ‘cool’ and acceptable to the society, and we also often beg and seek these things to fulfill our own feeling of inferiority and need for acceptance, but we fail to look beyond that, to find what we truly want and need in life.

God is with us, brothers and sisters, and He knows perfectly all the things that we need at all the moments of our lives. I am sure many of us did not realise this, but if we do take some time to think and reflect, have you realised that actually in many moments of our lives, we have been blessed by God who intervened in His own way and in His own time to help us and to be with us? God never left us alone.

We have to learn to let go of the many desires and egoistic feelings that we have in us. We cannot succumb to our desires and wants, as this will inevitably lead to more and more desire and more and more wants. Mankind are inherently greedy and desire pleasure, hence, we are predisposed to seek pleasures and comfort in life, forgetting what we truly need to do in life.

Today we commemorate the feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a holy man and a dedicated worker of the faith and servant of God, who was born in the late Renaissance Italy, into a noble and wealthy family, one of the most influential and powerful families of that era in Italy. He was destined for greatness, both in inheritance and great wealth. However, the heart of St. Aloysius Gonzaga turned somewhere else.

Instead of dwelling in his privileged status and in his material wealth, of which he had so much that he need no more, St. Aloysius Gonzaga wanted to become a priest and a missionary, working to spread the Good News to the lands which were still in the darkness without the knowledge of God. As such, he wanted to join the Jesuits, but his family was adamantly against his choice.

However, despite persuasions and negotiations, his family failed to convince St. Aloysius Gonzaga to do otherwise. Eventually, St. Aloysius Gonzaga fulfilled his desire and became a Jesuit, and he committed himself totally to God, and even during a plague, when many died from the sickness, he did not fear and continued to commit himself to the patients and the sick in love, eventually succumbing to the disease himself. But in dying, he had shown us all, the power of love and faith that is lived in that love.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to live like St. Aloysius Gonzaga had done? Are we able to get our eyes and our minds away from our continuous desire for more and more goods and pleasures? We must really make the effort to do good for others as St. Aloysius Gonzaga had done for others. Let us really live our faith and be faithful to God, practicing our faith with love. May God be our guide and our strength. Amen.

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Saturday, 21 June 2014 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 6 : 24-34

No one can serve two masters; for he will either hate one and love the other, or he will be loyal to the first and look down on the second. You cannot at the same time serve God and money.

This is why I tell you not to be worried about food or drink for yourself, or about clothes for your body. Is not life more important than food, and is not the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow, they do not harvest and do not store food in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not less worthy than they are?

Can any of you add a day to your life by worrying about it? Why are you so worried about your clothes? Look at how the flowers in the fields grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his wealth was clothed like one of these.

If God so clothed the grass in the field, which blooms today and is to be burned tomorrow in an oven, how much more will he clothe you? What little faith you have!

Do not worry and say : What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? or : What shall we wear? The pagans busy themselves with such things; but your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Set your heart first on the kingdom and justice of God, and all these things will also be given to you.

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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Saturday, 21 June 2014 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 88 : 4-5, 29-30, 31-32, 33-34

You said, “I have made a covenant with David, My chosen one; I have made a pledge to My servant. I establish his descendants forever; I build his throne for all generations.”

I will keep My covenant firm forever, and My love for him will endure. His dynasty will last forever, and his throne as long as the heavens.

If his sons forsake My law and fail to follow My decrees, if they violate My statutes and do not keep My commandments.

I will punish their crime with the rod and their offenses with the scourge; yet I will not withdraw My love from him, nor will I withdraw My faithfulness.

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Saturday, 21 June 2014 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

2 Chronicles 24 : 17-25

After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came to pay court to the king, and the king now turned to them for advice. The Judaeans abandoned the house of YHVH, the God of their ancestors, for the worship of sacred trunks and idols and God’s anger fell on Judah and Jerusalem because of their guilt.

He sent them prophets to bring them back to YHVH, but when the prophets spoke, they would not listen. The Spirit of God took control of Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said, “God says this : Why are you disobeying the commandments of YHVH? You cannot prosper. You have abandoned YHVH and He will abandon you.”

They then plotted against him and by order of the king stoned him in the court of YHVH’s House. King Joash forgot the kindness of Jehoiada, the father of Zechariah, and killed Jehoiada’s son who cried out as he died, “Let YHVH see and do justice!”

When a year had gone by, the Aramean army made war on Joash. They reached Judah and Jerusalem, and killed all the officials among the people, sending back to the king of Damascus all that they had plundered from them. Though the Aramean army was small, YHVH delivered into its power an army of great size for they had abandoned Him, the God of their ancestors.

The Arameans wounded Joash and when they withdrew they left him a very sick man; and his officers, plotting against him to avenge the death of the son of Jehoiada the priest, murdered him in his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the City of David, though not in the tombs of the kings.

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Saturday, 14 June 2014 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

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

Brothers and sisters in Christ, again I have to emphasize today, of the importance placed on the understanding of the laws of God and His true intention, rather than blindly following rules without understanding, and take things literally without proper discernment and thinking. This is the essence of serving the Lord and His people, just as Elisha, son of Shaphat had been called long ago to serve God’s people.

Some Christians like to take things in the Scriptures literally, as it had been written, even going as far as proclaiming the Holy Scriptures as the sole truth and the sole authority of the faith in the process of salvation. This is what is called the sola scriptura approach, popular among Protestants who in their heretical and misguided thinking, they thought that their understanding of the Scriptures is sufficient to guide them in faith and in life.

However, as we know, this is very wrong, and by depending on their interpretations, human interpretation that is flawed and imperfect, they have erroneously practiced their faith, thinking that we faithful cannot make oaths or anything similar, out of fear of sinning and going against the Lord’s will. But this is not in fact what Jesus meant when He said what He said in the Gospel today. This is the danger of literally interpreting whatever Jesus said and hold onto them as if they are inviolable laws.

Jesus liked to preach to the people of God in parables, through the use of stories and links to real-life contexts, which has two purposes. First, this facilitates understanding by the people, in consideration that most of them at the time were illiterate, and therefore unlikely to have strong background knowledge of what they have in the Scripture, and whatever they believe in, is mostly the oral traditions passed down through the generations and through the teachings of the priests.

But these, as we know it, were imperfect knowledge, since mankind had limited and feeble intelligence that is incapable of comprehending the fullness of the truth in the word of God, except if it is revealed to them through the Holy Spirit, or through the teaching of the Prophets. Those who trust only in the Holy Scriptures and in their flawed understanding on them, is being foolish.

This links to the second purpose of Jesus’ preaching using parables and stories to the people. If the first purpose is to make the teachings more understandable to the faithful, who were mostly farmers, fishermen and shepherds, and that was why so many of Jesus’ parables involve the terms that these people were familiar with, the second purpose is in fact to hide the true meaning of the word of God before it is time for them to be fully understood by the people.

Jesus Himself highlighted this, and He showed how the meaning of the words He had spoken had to remain hidden for a while until the appointed time when the Lord was to reveal Himself in His entirety to the world. But Jesus Himself did explain the meaning of His parables to the disciples, especially when they asked Him what He meant as He taught the people with those parables.

Yet, even after that, the disciples still did not understand perfectly, and as we know, there were many moments when they failed to understand what was to happen with Christ, especially when He suffered trial and death, when He was crucified on Calvary, and finally when He was risen from the dead, and the tomb of Jesus became empty.

It was through the Holy Spirit, the Advocate and Helper, that the Lord chose to reveal His truth to the people of God in its fullness. The Apostles and disciples received the Holy Spirit, and it was from them that the teachings of Jesus, the word of God, and the true intentions of the Lord were made clear to the people. The Scriptures, that is the New Testament section including the Holy Gospels themselves were written by the disciples inspired and filled with the Holy Spirit, to provide the people with understanding of their faith.

So what did Jesus mean then, by what He had said today? He did not mean to completely ban vowing and oath-making from us, and not to condemn us if we do so. What Jesus had meant was in fact that, whenever we do something and commit ourselves to something, especially when we say it verbally, we must truly mean everything that we spoke of, and we also have to take them seriously in mind and heart.

If we do not desire to do something, then we should not lie and make a false oath or vow. That is evil. And if we desire to do something, then it is more important and meaningful for us to go and act on it rather than just making empty promises and be slothful about it. That is the true essence of the Lord’s message to us. Rather than blaspheming against God by lying in His Name or on anything that He had created, it is best for us as Christians, to go forth and do all things that is right, immediately and with full consciousness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to keep alive the teachings and the knowledge which had been passed down to us through the Church, that is the deposit of faith. The Church alone is the custodian of this deposit of faith, which keeps us all anchored firmly to the Lord and His truth, and we have to keep it and follow it through. Let us not fall to the attempts of the devil to discredit the faith or the Church through his lies.

May God continue to guard us, keep us in His grace and love, and empower us to remain always in His truth and receive much blessing. May God be with us all, always. Amen.

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Saturday, 14 June 2014 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

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

Matthew 5 : 33-37

You have also heard that people were told in the past : Do not break your oath; an oath sworn to the Lord must be kept. But I tell you this : do not take oaths. Do not swear by the heavens, for they are God’s throne, nor by the earth, because it is His footstool, nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King.

Do not even swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white and black. Say yes when you mean yes, and say no when you mean no. Anything else you say comes from the devil.

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Saturday, 14 June 2014 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

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

Psalm 15 : 1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10

Keep me safe, o God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “O Lord, my inheritance and my cup, my chosen portion – hold secure my lot.”

I bless the Lord who counsels me; even at night my inmost self instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me; for with Him at my right hand, I will never be shaken.

My heart, therefore, exults, my soul rejoices; my body too will rest assured. For You will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will You suffer Your Holy One to see decay in the land of the dead.

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Saturday, 14 June 2014 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

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

1 Kings 19 : 19-21

So Elijah left. He found Elisha, son of Shaphat, who was plowing a field of twelve acres and was at the end of the twelfth acre. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak over him.

Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah and said, “Let me say goodbye to my father and mother; then I will follow you.” Elijah said to him, “Return if you want, do not worry about what I did.”

However, Elisha turned back, took the yoke of oxen and slew them. He roasted their meat on the pieces of the yoke and gave it to his people who ate of it. After this, he followed Elijah and began ministering to him.

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Saturday, 7 June 2014 : Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of the Pentecost (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 7 : 37-39

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me; and let the one who believes in Me drink, for the Scripture says : Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”

Jesus was referring to the Spirit, which those who believe in Him were to receive; the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into His glory.

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Saturday, 7 June 2014 : Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of the Pentecost (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Romans 8 : 22-27

We know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pangs of birth. Not creation alone, but even ourselves, although the Spirit was given to us as a foretaste of what we are to receive, we groan in our innermost being, eagerly awaiting the day when God will give us full rights and rescue our bodies as well.

In hope we already have salvation. But if we saw what we hoped for, there would no longer be hope : how can you hope for what is already seen? So we hope for what we do not see and we will receive it through patient hope.

We are weak, but the Spirit comes to help us. How to ask? And what shall we ask for? We do not know, but the Spirit intercedes for us without words, as if with groans. And He who sees inner secrets knows the desires of the Spirit, for He asks for the holy ones what is pleasing to God.