Second Sunday of Easter

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Thursday, 1 May 2025 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 33 : 2 and 9, 17-18, 19-20

I will bless the Lord all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. Oh, see and taste the goodness of the Lord! Blessed is the one who finds shelter in Him!

But His face is set against the wicked to destroy their memory from the earth. The Lord hears the cry of the righteous and rescues them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves the distraught. Many are the troubles of the just, but the Lord delivers them from all.

Alternative Psalm (Mass of St. Joseph)

Psalm 89 : 2, 3-4, 12-13, 14 and 16

Before the mountains were formed, before You made the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity – You are God.

You turn humans back to dust, saying, “Return, o mortals!” A thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has passed, or like a watch in the night.

So make us know the shortness of our life, that we may gain wisdom of heart. How long will You be angry, o Lord? Have mercy on Your servant.

Fill us at daybreak with Your goodness, that we may be glad all our days. Let Your work be seen by Your servants and Your glorious power by their children.

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Thursday, 1 May 2025 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 5 : 27-33

So the High Priest and his supporters brought the Apostles in and made them stand before the Council and the High Priest questioned them, “We gave you strict orders not to preach such a Saviour; but you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend charging us with the killing of this Man.”

To this Peter and the Apostles replied, “Better for us to obey God rather than any human authority! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus Whom you killed by hanging Him on a wooden post. God set Him at His right hand as Leader and Saviour, to grant repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses to all these things, as well as the Holy Spirit Whom God has given to those who obey Him.

When the Council heard this, they became very angry and wanted to kill them.

Alternative reading (Mass of St. Joseph)

Genesis 1 : 26 – Genesis 2 : 3

God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, to Our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the wild animals, and over all creeping things that crawl along the ground.” So God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over every living creature that moves on the ground.” God said, “I have given you every seed bearing plants which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that bears fruit with seed. It will be for your food. To every wild animal, to every bird of the sky, to everything that creeps along the ground, to everything that has the breath of life, I give every green plant for food.” So it was.

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning : the sixth day. That was the way the sky and earth were created and all their vast array. By the seventh day the work God had done was completed, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work He had done. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day He rested from all the work He had done in His creation.

Alternative reading (Mass of St. Joseph)

Colossians 3 : 14-15, 17, 23-24

Above all, clothe yourselves with love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. May the peace of Christ overflow in your hearts; for this end you were called to be one body. And be thankful. And whatever you do or say, do it in the Name of Jesus, the Lord, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly, working for the Lord, and not for humans. You well know, that the Lord will reward you with the inheritance. You are servants, but your Lord is Christ.

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Wednesday, 30 April 2025 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Lord contained within the Sacred Scriptures, and as we all continue to progress through this blessed and holy season of Easter, let us all reflect upon what we have just heard and remind one another that our faith in the Risen Lord, in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, is one that may be tested by the opposition and the hardships from the world, as we have ourselves heard from the passages of the Scriptures today. And yet, we must not easily lose hope in God and we must always put our trust in Him, knowing that it is with God alone and in Him that we will have true satisfaction and happiness. God is the one and only sure path out of the darkness that exist around us and through Him we will receive the assurance of lasting comfort and joy with Him.

In our first reading today, we heard from the account from the Acts of the Apostles detailing to us about the moment when the High Priest and all of his fellow chief priests and others who opposed and despised the works of the Lord and His disciples became jealous at the rapid successes achieved by the Apostles, in their many miracles and signs, that despite having been warned and threatened not to proclaim the teachings and the words of the Risen Lord. But those disciples and Apostles of the Lord would not be deterred by the threats and opposition from the Jewish authorities, and they kept on going, doing the work of God wherever and whenever they went, and many people came to believe in the Lord and became His disciples as well.

Back then, at that time, very early in the history of the Church, many people including the Roman authorities considered Christianity as merely another offshoot or school of thought in Judaism, or the Jewish faith in God. There were already three major schools of thought at that time, two of which were prominently mentioned in the Gospels, namely the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Together with the less well-known Essenes, those were the major divisions in how the Jewish people lived their faith, in their different interpretations of the Scriptures and their way of living the Law of God. There were also the Samaritans, whom the Jewish people considered as heretical and pagans, and the same sentiment was also found among the Samaritans themselves against the Jews. Christianity was seen as merely another addition to this diverse landmark of the expressions of the Scriptures of the Israelites.

However, Christianity marked a very major departure from the old Jewish and Israelites Scriptural practices and traditions, by its central belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah or the Saviour promised by God, Whom they all believed, and which we all still believe to this very day, as the Son of God, Incarnate in the flesh as the Son of Man, and Who had suffered and died on His Cross, to bring about salvation for all mankind, extending the grace of God’s salvation, promise and Covenant to all the people of the whole world, no longer limiting it to the Israelites and their descendants. And the Lord was with His followers and disciples throughout those difficult moments and the times of their persecution and oppression, that despite the challenges and trials they faced, they continued to flourish and grow, surviving and even remaining strong in their faith.

Then in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the continuation of the interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus from the Gospel of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, where Nicodemus the Pharisee who was interested in knowing more about the Lord and His teachings, was presented by the Lord with the glimpses of the truth that He has been bringing into this world, how He would be the One to be persecuted and oppressed, eventually made to suffer, to be blamed and to die for the sins of the whole world, as the Son of God manifested in the flesh. That was revealed the moment when the Lord Himself said the very famous phrase of ‘Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him may not be lost, but may have eternal life.’ And this phrase is one of the key aspects of our Christian faith, that we believe in the Son of God, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

And God’s love for us is indeed so great that He has given us His own Beloved Son to suffer and die for us, to endure our punishments in our place, because He does not want any one of us to be separated and cast out from His Presence. The Son of God has faced the most bitter and tough sufferings, persecutions and trials in order to lead us all out of the darkness and into the light of God’s grace and salvation. He did all these because He truly loves us all, no matter what mistakes, sins and all sorts of wickedness that we have committed, and such is His great and enduring love for us. Of course He is also calling on us all to repent from those sins and wickedness, and to embrace His righteousness and virtues, to walk down the path of faith that He has shown us all. He wants us to follow Him and to do our best to live our lives as worthy and faithful Christians.

Today we also mark the occasion of the Feast of Pope St. Pius V, a great and holy Pope that had led the Church through period of great difficulty and challenge, and when uncertainties and hardships faced the Church and the faithful people of God much as how it was during the earliest days of the Church as we have heard from the passages of the Scriptures and the experiences of the Apostles. Pope St. Pius V was a member of the Dominican order or the Order of Preachers, and he was well known for his great faith and dedication to God, in his zeal and commitment to root out heresies and corruptions within the Church. As the successor of St. Peter the Apostle, Pope St. Pius V spent a lot of effort stopping the then common practice of nepotism and favouritism in the Church.

And externally, Pope St. Pius V was very fervent in his efforts to combat the heresies of Protestantism and other problems facing the Church, implementing with great vigour the reforms and changes decided in the Ecumenical Council of Trent that was concluded just before his reign as Pope. He was also the instrumental leader behind the establishment of the Holy Alliance in uniting the forces of Christendom against the mighty forces of the Ottoman Turks that were greatly threatening Christendom and its nations. Eventually, by the guidance and Providence of God, and with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and the saints of God, the forces of Christendom was victorious at the great Battle of Lepanto, during the later part of the reign of Pope St. Pius V, whose devotion to God had indeed brought great changes in the Church and to the world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by the great examples shown by Pope St. Pius V and our many other holy and dedicated predecessors in faith. Let us all do our part as God’s followers and disciples, to be truly faithful in all things so that by our commitment and dedication we may be good role models and inspirations for everyone around us. Let us all be true bearers of our Christian faith and dedicate ourselves ever more wholeheartedly in each and every single moments in our lives, to glorify the Lord ever by our lives and to lead others ever closer to God. May the Lord, our Risen Saviour, continue to be with us and bless our every efforts and endeavours. Amen.

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Wednesday, 30 April 2025 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 3 : 16-21

At that time, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him may not be lost, but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world; instead, through Him the world is to be saved.”

“Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned. He who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God. This is how the Judgment is made : Light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

“For whoever does wrong hates the light, and does not come to the light, for fear that his deeds will be seen as evil. But whoever lives according to the truth comes into the light, so that it can be clearly seen that his works have been done in God.”

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Wednesday, 30 April 2025 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, Pope (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 33 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

I will bless the Lord all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the lowly hear and rejoice.

Oh, let us magnify the Lord, together let us glorify His Name! I sought the Lord, and He answered me; from all my fears He delivered me.

They who look to Him are radiant with joy, their faces never clouded with shame. When the poor cry out, the Lord hears and saves them from distress.

The Lord’s Angel encamps and patrols to keep safe those who fear Him. Oh, see and taste the goodness of the Lord! Blessed is the one who finds shelter in Him!

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Wednesday, 30 April 2025 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, Pope (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 5 : 17-26

The High Priest and all his supporters, that is the party of the Sadducees, became very jealous of the Apostles; so they arrested them and had them thrown into the public jail. But an Angel of the Lord opened the door of the prison during the night, brought them out, and said to them, “Go and stand in the Temple court and tell the people the whole of this living message.” Accordingly they entered the Temple at dawn and resumed their teaching.

When the High Priest and his supporters arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin, that is the full Council of the elders of Israel. They sent word to the jail to have the prisoners brought in. But when the Temple guards arrived at the jail, they did not find them inside, so they returned with the news, “We found the prison securely locked and the prison guards at their post outside the gate, but when we opened the gate, we found no one inside.”

Upon hearing these words, the captain of the Temple guard and the high priests were baffled, wondering where all of this would end. Just then someone arrived with the report, “Look, those men whom you put in prison are standing in the Temple, teaching the people.” Then the captain went off with the guards and brought them back, but without any show of force, for fear of being stoned by the people.

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Tuesday, 29 April 2025 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the great love which God has bestowed upon us through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, and how this great love of God has been manifested in our midst and made real and tangible through the Church, which God Himself established in this world to be the real union of all the faithful people of God, all parts of the same Church, the one united Body of Christ. And we heard of how the early Christians lived their lives in reflection of this loving relationship between God and His Church, as well as between the people of God themselves in their respective communities, which were at that time still at the very early and nascent stage. And yet, they can serve as good examples and inspirations for all of us the faithful people of God.

In our first reading today, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, just as I had mentioned earlier, we heard of the lives of the early Christian communities, which were then still mostly centred around Jerusalem and Judea, and its surrounding regions like Galilee, and parts of Syria among the Jewish diaspora and the Gentiles. It was still a relatively small and simple community of the faithful people of God, and as mentioned, we heard how they all lived in a great and incredible state of grace. The earliest Christians lived in harmony and peace with one another, sharing their goods and possessions to support each other, such that no one among them were to be found wanting for the lack of resources and goods. Those who had more with them and been blessed more bountifully shared more of their riches and blessings with those who had less.

Back then the Apostles and the other disciples managed this distribution of goods and resources, which the faithful brought regularly to be offered to the Church through the Apostles. That was how the very earliest Church community lived, in great love both for God and for their fellow brothers and sisters. There we can see how God’s instructions and teachings were manifested in the livelihood of His Church, where the faithful lived with great harmony with each other and in dedication to God. Of course this is not practical or possible in our Church community today, which spans the whole entire world and numbering over 1.4 billion people. However, in our own parishes and smaller Christian communities we should apply the same way of living our lives wherever applicable, to be truly loving towards God and our fellow brothers and sisters alike.

Essentially, as Christians all of us are called and reminded to be truly filled with God’s love and grace, in everything that we say and do, in our every actions and deeds, our every interactions with each other. We should always be doing what the Lord has taught us to do in our lives, to be good and caring, loving and compassionate people who share our blessings with one another. Without genuine love and care for others, we cannot truly call ourselves as Christians, because as Christians we follow God and His ways, and God is Love. We cannot be true Christians if we do not practice love in our actions and way of life, and if we do not carry out Christ’s teachings and love in our every interactions with those we encounter in life. That is why we have been constantly reminded today and on previous days to be truly filled with God’s love in all things.

Then in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, in which the Lord Jesus continued with His discussion with Nicodemus the Pharisee, who was one of the few who were sympathetic about the Lord’s teachings and ways, unlike many among his fellow Pharisees and members of the Sanhedrin. The Lord Jesus continued to speak about the matter of being born again in the Lord and how He alone knew all these things and truths hidden from even the wise and learned ones at that time, like Nicodemus and his fellow Pharisees, as Jesus Himself came from God, our Heavenly Father. By the will of the Father, His Son and Word has become incarnate by the power of the Holy Spirit, manifesting perfectly the love of God in the flesh, becoming tangible and real for us.

And yes, this great love of God that has been manifested to us would show this perfect love by His selfless and most willing sacrifice on the Cross, which was alluded in that Gospel passage today, in the conversation of the Lord with Nicodemus, by referring to how the Son of Man would be raised up just as Moses had raised up the bronze serpent during the time of tribulation for the Israelites. At that time, the Israelites had sinned greatly against God and in their stubborn disobedience, they had to suffer and die because of their sins, when fiery serpents from the Lord came against them and bit many among them. But when they all cried towards God and asked Him for His mercy and forgiveness, God gave them this mercy and forgiveness through Moses, who made for them the image of the bronze serpent, which would become the archetype of the Crucifixion and Christ’s salvation.

For by His Cross, His Crucifixion, all of His suffering and death on that same Cross, Christ has made Himself visible to all, the love of God most wonderful and most generous, made available to all of us sinners. Through Him, the Lord has made the path to His salvation and eternal life visible to all, restoring our hope and bringing back the Light of God to all of us who have been living in the darkness. Through Christ and His loving sacrifice, God has opened for us the path to redemption, and hence, the restoration of our unity with Him, as He calls upon each and every one of us to come back to Him with sincere love for Him and with contrite and repentant hearts. All of us as Christians should always heed and remember God’s most generous love, and show that same love to one another as Christ Himself has shown us.

Today also marks the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, a truly renowned saint and holy woman, who devoted herself and her whole life to God as a committed laywoman and a mystic who received many visions and inspirations from the Lord, which she wrote extensively about and which eventually led to her being designed as one of the few Doctors of the Church for her contributions. St. Catherine of Siena was born into a large family as one of the youngest children of her parents, and since her youth she had been growing up in a pious state, receiving visions from the Lord from the age of as young as about five years old. She committed herself strongly to God and devoted herself to the service of others around her, eventually becoming a great inspiration to many people around her, helping many who were sick and suffering, and was even involved in the resolution of conflicts and bickering among the people.

St. Catherine of Siena went extensively around the region in her many ministries and involvements in the Church, and was even advising the Pope himself on the need for him to return to Rome during those turbulent years when there were rival claimants to the See of St. Peter, in the years of the Avignon Papacy and the later Western Schism. Through her many efforts, St. Catherine of Siena brought many people close to God and as a result, many more people came to be saved and brought inspiration to countless others throughout the centuries after her time, as she is also to us Christians today, in showing us how we can be truly filled with God’s love, and be loving towards both God and our fellow brothers and sisters, in the manner that St. Catherine of Siena had done.

May the Lord, our most loving God, our Risen Lord continue to be with us all His people, that each and every one of us as Christian faithful, God’s disciples and followers, may continue to walk faithfully in the path that the Lord has shown us. May He continue to bless our efforts and good works, everything that we have done for His greater glory, for the good of the Church and all of His people, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 29 April 2025 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 3 : 7b-15

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again from above. The wind blows where it pleases and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus asked again, “How can this be?” And Jesus answered, “You are a teacher in Israel, and you do not know these things! Truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we witness to the things we have seen, but you do not accept Our testimony. If you do not believe when I speak of earthly things, what then, when I speak to you of heavenly things? No one has ever gone up to heaven except the One Who came from heaven, the Son of Man.”

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”

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Tuesday, 29 April 2025 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 92 : 1ab, 1c-2, 5

YHVH reigns, robed in majesty; YHVH is girded with strength.

The world now, is firm; it cannot be moved. Your throne stands from long ago, o YHVH; from all eternity You are.

Your decrees can be trusted; holiness dwells in Your House, day after day, without end, o YHVH.

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Tuesday, 29 April 2025 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 4 : 32-37

The whole community of believers was one in heart and mind. No one claimed private ownership of any possessions; but rather, they shared all things in common. With great power, the Apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, for all of them were living in an exceptional time of grace.

There was no needy person among them, for those who owned land or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of the sale. And they laid it at the feet of the Apostles, who distributed it, according to each one’s need. This is what a certain Joseph did. He was a Levite from Cyprus, whom the Apostles called Barnabas, meaning : “The encouraging one.” He sold a field which he owned and handed the money to the Apostles.