Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Luke 21 : 34-36
At that time, Jesus said to the people, “Be on your guard : do not immerse yourselves in a life of pleasure, drunkenness and worldly cares, lest that day catch you unaware, like a trap! For, like a snare, will that day come upon all the inhabitants of the earth. But watch at all times and pray, that you may be able to escape all that is going to happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Psalm 94 : 1-2, 3-5, 6-7
Come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful sound to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him giving thanks with music and songs of praise.
For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth and the mountain heights. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hand shaped the dry land.
Come and worship; let us bow down, kneel before the Lord, our Maker. He is our God, and we are His people; the flock He leads and pastures. Would that today you heard His voice!
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Revelations 22 : 1-7
Then the Angel showed me the river of life, clear as crystal, gushing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of the city, on both sides of the river are the trees of life producing fruit twelve times, once each month, the leaves of which are for healing the nations.
No longer will there be a curse; the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the City and God’s servants will live in His presence. They will see His face and His Name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light or lamp or sun for God Himself will be their light and they will reign forever.
Then the Angel said to me, “These words are sure and true; the Lord God Who inspires the prophets has sent His Angel to show His servants what must happen soon.” “I am coming soon! Happy are those who keep the prophetic words of this book.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of our faith and belief in the Lord, that especially we believe in the resurrection from the dead, which means that there is life and existence after death. Death does not mean the end of our life and existence, but it only marks the end of our physical existence in the way we know it in our present world. What comes after is a greater existence and truth that awaits us in the Lord, just as He has affirmed it and showed us through His own death and resurrection from the dead. It is our core and central tenet and belief as Christians that we believe in the life in the world to come, where we will be raised body and soul, hopefully to enjoy forever the eternal life of bliss and happiness with God.
From our first reading today, taken from the Book of Revelations of St. John the Apostle we heard of the tale of the two witnesses of the Lord, who will be sent by God into this world so that He may let all the whole world to know the truth and love of God, and that all who still want to repent from their sins and turn from their evils may still be able to do so, before it is too late for them. Yet, there are many who are opposed to the Lord, and they refused to listen to those two witnesses and servants of God. The vision of St. John then tells us how the great enemy will rise against those servants of God and will persecute, kill and destroy them. And yet, at the appointed time, much like the Lord Himself, the two witnesses rise again into glory and life, resurrected from the dead by the power of God, and are raised into Heaven.
In that passage, we can see how the belief in the resurrection from the dead forms such a central tenet of our faith, and the resurrection from the dead brings hope to all those who have suffered and been persecuted for the Lord and for their faith in Him, like those two faithful witnesses mentioned in the Book of Revelations. Throughout the history of the Church, from the time of persecutions in the earliest days of the Church, and then followed by the many other examples of bitter and harsh persecutions and oppositions against Christians all over the world, even to the present day, all these showed us how our faith in the Lord and in the Resurrection gave hope even amidst the bleakest darkness and evil in this world.
It is because many of the faithful entrusted themselves wholly in the Lord and trusted in Him, and believed that they shall enjoy forever the fruits of their labour and faith even beyond this world that they were willing to endure such hardships and struggles, torture, pain and humiliation in defending their faith and their trust in God. They also recall and remember how the Lord Himself had suffered and died for their sake, in His enduring and ever patient love for us mankind, that He willingly took upon Himself the burdens of our sins and the weight of the punishments and consequences due to our sins and wickedness. The Lord was with them and with all of us, His beloved children and people, wherever we are and in whatever circumstances we are in. When we are carrying our crosses in life, we must not forget that the Lord is carrying His Cross too, by our side.
In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the encounter between the Lord and the Sadducees, a group of influential and powerful people within the Jewish community who were opposed to the spiritual nature of their Jewish customs and faith, as those were mostly worldly in nature, refusing to believe in matters like the resurrection, life after death, the concept of soul and spirits, or in any spiritual beings like Angels and demons, among many other things. Those Sadducees were often very rich and influential people in the community, who by the nature of their wealth and power, obviously had strong attachments to their worldly life, to their present existence, and naturally, they tend to live their lives as if there is no life and existence after death, as per their beliefs. They lived in excess, enjoying life’s bounty as much as they wanted.
Their questions and responses to the Lord, using the example of the seven brothers and their shared wife showed how much they still desired worldly things, and wanted everything to be the way it is in this world. They did not realise that in the afterlife, all of us mankind are no longer bound by the needs and desires in this imperfect world, for we will be with God Himself, and in His presence and perfection, all of us have nothing lacking, and all of us are in state of perfect harmony and love with God and one another that we no longer need all the things we often fancy and desire in this world, like that of material wealth, money, pleasures of all kind, food or any other things that we often desire and try to accumulate in this world. We have to remember and indeed remind ourselves once again, that we exist to glorify God by our lives, and not for our own personal ambitions and gains.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians let us hence remind ourselves that we live in this world as a fleeting and temporary existence before we are fully reunited once again with God, and hence all of us should live our lives with that realisation found in our minds and hearts. If we realise this, then we should know that God will always be by our side and we have nothing to fear or lose if we entrust ourselves to Him, and do our best in our respective lives to do His will and to carry out whatever He has entrusted us with to do. Let us all inspire and help one another to persevere through our lives in this world, and do our best to be faithful witnesses of our faith, to be the bright beacons of God’s light and truth in our respective communities and places, at all times.
May the Lord be with us always and may He strengthen each and every one of us with the resolve to carry out our lives with faith and dedication from now on. May God bless our every good works and efforts, and empower us to be ever better and more committed disciples and witnesses of His truth in our world today. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Luke 20 : 27-40
At that time, some Sadducees arrived. These people claim that there is no resurrection, and they asked Jesus this question, “Master, in the Law Moses told us, ‘If anyone dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife, and any child born to them will be regarded as the child of the deceased.'”
“Now, there were seven brothers; the first married a wife, but he died without children; and the second and the third took the wife; in fact, all seven died leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be a wife? For all seven had her as a wife.”
And Jesus replied, “Taking a husband or a wife is proper to people of this world, but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come, and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Besides, they cannot die, for they are like the Angels. They are sons and daughters of God, because they are born of the resurrection.”
“Yes, the dead will be raised, as Moses revealed at the burning bush, when He called the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For God is God of the living, and not of the dead, for to Him everyone is alive.”
Some teachers of the Law then agreed with Jesus, “Master, You have spoken well.” They did not dare to ask Him anything else.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Psalm 143 : 1, 2, 9-10
Blessed be the Lord, my Rock, Who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.
My loving God, my Fortress; my Protector and Deliverer, my Shield where I take refuge, Who conquers nations and subjects them to my rule.
I will sing a new song to You, o God, I will make music on the ten-stringed harp, for You Who give victory to kings and deliver David, Your servant.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Revelations 11 : 4-12
These are the two olive trees and the two lamps which are before the Lord of the earth. If anyone intends to harm them, fire will come out of their mouths to devour their enemies : this is how whoever intends to harm them will perish. They have the power to close the sky and hold back the rain during the time of their prophetic mission; they also have the power to change water into blood, and punish the earth with a thousand plagues, any time they wish.
But when My witnesses have fulfilled their mission, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war upon them, and will conquer and kill them. Their dead bodies will lie in the square of the Great City which the believers figuratively call Sodom or Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. And their dead bodies will be exposed for three days and a half to people of all tribes, races, languages and nations who will be ordered not to have them buried.
Then the inhabitants of the earth will rejoice, congratulate one another and exchange gifts among themselves because these two prophets were a torment to them. But after those three and a half days, a Spirit of life coming from God entered them. They them stood up, and those who looked at them were seized with great fear. A loud voice from heaven called them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in the midst of the clouds in the sight of their enemies.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard from the Scriptures the words of the Lord reminding us of the great love of God that He has shown and bestowed upon us, as our loving Father and Creator. We can really trust in the Lord and have faith in Him because He alone truly cares for us so deeply, that He still patiently awaits us and reaches out to us from time to time, no matter how long it has been since we listened to Him and how we have constantly disobeyed Him from time to time again. The Lord wants each and every one of us to be once again reunited with Him, by our reconciliation with Him and our rediscovery of the path of righteousness that He has led us into.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. John the Apostle speaking to the faithful all around Christendom, calling on all of them to provide for one another with love and care, especially for the missionaries who went from places to places in spreading the Word of God and His Good News of salvation. At that time, early Christian missionaries travelled from place to place without much support and help, save that from God and His strength, and also from the kindness and generosity of the people whom they were visiting, including that from the local Christian communities that had by then been established. Without these support and help, the early Christian missionaries would have indeed found it difficult for them to carry out their mission efficiently.
For they were up against many difficulties and challenges, and also persecution by both the Jewish authorities, the Pharisees and elders, the chief priests, as well as the local governors and the Roman authorities among others. Yet, those missionaries carried out the will of God and continued to labour hard for the sake of their fellow brothers and sisters, because they embody the love of God and His kindness and mercy, just as He has shown us all earlier on. Thus, just as God has loved us all and showed us His love and kindness, thus, we too should be loving and kind, caring and helpful to one another. Those missionaries shared the love of God with their fellow brethren, to those who have not yet known God’s love, and especially those who have been lacking in love.
Therefore it is just right that we support them in whatever way we can, and not only that, but in our own lives and actions, in our every words, actions and deeds, we should show this same love to one another as well, or else we are no better than hypocrites, who profess to believe in God and yet do not act in the manner that is compatible to that belief, or even outrightly contradictory in nature in our way of living of our lives. Unless we make the conscious effort to live our lives in accordance with God’s will, and ask the Lord for His guidance and strength, then we will end up having a lot of challenges and difficulties in going through this journey of faith through life. Sometimes we also do not realise that all that we need, is actually just to ask God for help.
As we heard in our Gospel passage today, the Lord used a parable to highlight this to His disciples and to all of us. He spoke of an evil judge who was wicked, proud and arrogant, and feared no one, even God, and yet, that evil judge was bound and persuaded to give in to the persistent demands made by an old woman, who kept on looking for him and persistently sought him to settle her case and issues, and she was so persistent that despite the wicked judge fearing no one, even he was compelled to do as the old woman asked and desired, if only because by doing so, he would be spared from the woman’s ever continued and incessant demands on him to settle her case in court. By using that example, the Lord wanted to make it clear to us, that if the old woman could make the evil judge to turn towards her, all the more then the Lord, Who loves us dearly, will listen to us, if we call on Him.
However, many times we find that we do not call on Him, or seek Him, and for many reasons at that. Many among us do not know God well, and we do not have that close and intimate relationship with Him, and He is not the One we turn to first. Instead, we turn towards the many worldly means all around us. We end up depending on those things instead of on God, and some among us also feared God more than we love Him, because we are afraid that He will punish us for our sins. Again, all of these show that we do not truly know God well, as if only that we know Him well, then we will know and realise just how beloved and how fortunate each and every one of us have been, to be blessed as such with God and His love.
That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, what is important for many of us is that we need to open our hearts and minds, our whole beings to God’s love. It is precisely because many of us have been so self-centred, selfish and proud, filled with ego and greed, giving in to the temptations all around us that we were unable to recognise the love of God present in our midst, and we are also therefore devoid of that love in our own lives and actions. If only we can learn to love the way that God has loved us all thus far, we will truly be transformed and changed, no longer the wicked creatures of our worldly attachments and desires, but truly becoming worthy people and children of God, a people filled with God’s love, light and hope.
Today, we should all be inspired by the examples set by St. Josaphat Kuntsevych, the saint and martyr whose feast we are celebrating. His great examples in being faithful and loving to God, faith in Him, and also his love and care for his flock, those people entrusted to him by God, all should inspire us all to become better and more dedicated disciples and followers of God ourselves. St. Josaphat Kuntsevych was the Archbishop of Polotsk over the territories in what is now Belarus and parts of northern Ukraine, where back then there were divisions among the faithful people of God between those who were in Communion with the Pope in Rome and those who were in rebellion against the authority of the Vicar of Christ.
St. Josaphat Kuntsevych was one of the bishops who led the faithful who wished to reconcile themselves to the Bishop of Rome, the Pope and restore the unity of the Church, as part of the efforts known as the Union of Lublin. However, that reunification of the churches did not solve all the problems and divisions that existed, as quite a few among the clergy and the people resisted the efforts at reunification, and struggle to maintain their divisions and independence. St. Josaphat Kuntsevych laboured hard to minister to all of his flock and bridge the differences among his flock, including reaching out to those who resisted the efforts of reunification. He continued working hard despite all the opposition he encountered, and which led to his martyrdom as the mob rose up against him and murdered him.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by the faith and good examples set by St. Josaphat Kuntsevych, and learn to love more generously in our lives, to reach out to our fellow brothers and sisters with love, and to love our God with all of our hearts, our strength and our efforts. Let us all be courageous in asking the Lord for help too when we need it, for His guidance and strength, power and encouragement. May the Lord be with us all and be with His Church, so that all of us will always grow ever more in faith and love in Him. May God bless our good works and efforts, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Luke 18 : 1-8
At that time, Jesus told His disciples a parable, to show them that they should pray continually, and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain town there was a judge, who neither feared God nor people. In the same town there was a widow, who kept coming to him, saying, ‘Defend my rights against my opponent!'”
“For a time he refused, but finally he thought, ‘Even though I neither fear God nor care about people, this widow bothers me so much, I will see that she gets justice; then she will stop coming and wearing me out.'”
And Jesus said, “Listen to what the evil judge says. Will God not do justice for His chosen ones, who cry to Him day and night, even if He delays in answering them? I tell you, He will speedily do them justice. But, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”
Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 111 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6
Alleluia! Blessed is the one who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commands. His children will be powerful on earth; the upright’s offspring will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are for his family, there his integrity will remain. He is for the righteous a light in darkness, he is kind, merciful and upright.
It will be well with him who lends freely, who leads a life of justice and honesty. For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered and loved forever.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 