Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 145 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6ab
Alleluia! Praise YHVH, my soul! I will sing to YHVH all my life; I will sing praise to God while I live.
Do not put your trust in princes, in a great one, who cannot save. Not sooner his spirit has left, that he goes back to the earth; on that very day, any plan comes to nothing.
Blessed are they whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in YHVH their God, Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and all they contain.
Liturgical Colour : White
Jeremiah 18 : 1-6
This is the word of YHVH that came to Jeremiah : “Go down to the potter’s house and there you will hear what I have to say.”
So I went to the potter’s house and found him working at the wheel. But the pot he was working on was spoilt in his hands, so he reworked it all over again into another pot that suits his desire.
Meanwhile YHVH sent me His word, “People of Israel, can I not do with you what this potter does? As clay in the potter’s hand so are you in My hands.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Lord contained in the Scriptures which reminded us all of the great love and compassion, mercy and kindness which He has often shown us all, we mankind who are sinners and unworthy of His love, having often betrayed and abandoned Him for false gods and idols, and all the other distractions and temptations which kept us away from the path that the Lord has shown us. Each and every one of us have been given this great grace of God’s mercy and love, which He constantly showered upon us, as He wants us all to return to Him, and to find our way back to Him, as we are all truly precious and important to Him, and He does not hold grudge or hate us because of the fact that we are sinners, as He despises not us, but our sins and wickedness.
That is why, as we listened to our first reading today from the Book of Exodus, we are reminded of this great love and compassionate mercy of God, as Moses came to the Tent of Meeting where the Lord’s Presence resided, shortly after the people of Israel had been chastised and punished for their great betrayal of the Lord in the building of the golden calf idol at Mount Sinai, at the time when the Lord was establishing His new Covenant with all of them and was giving them all His Law and commandments. The Lord in His righteous anger had wanted to destroy the people for their sins, but Moses pleaded before the Lord to spare them, and after the golden calf idol had been destroyed, as we heard in our first reading today, he once again pleaded to the Lord to show mercy upon the people who had sinned against Him and disobeyed His Law and commandments.
Moses went to the Tent of Meeting to meet God Himself, Who came clad in the a mighty pillar of cloud and light, and he called upon the Lord to show His kindness and to continue to dwell along His people even when they had disobeyed and refused to listen to Him in numerous occasions. The Lord then responded in showing him and all the Israelites that He was indeed full of mercy and compassion, as the One and only True God of all, Who wants to be reconciled and reunited with all of His scattered and lost loved ones, the lost sheep of the Lord’s flock. The Lord then at the same time also highlighted that He would still punish those who committed sins and evil deeds, and mete out justice against those who have not walked in the path of righteousness and those who have committed sins and wickedness in His sight and presence. It is a reminder for us that God loves us, but He does not tolerate our sins and wickedness, our waywardness and disobedience.
This is why we need to be alert and vigilant against the temptations of evil and all the allures of worldly pleasures and ambitions. We should not allow ourselves to be easily tempted and swayed by all those falsehoods and lies, which the devil and all of his wicked allies propagated in order to lead us all down the wrong paths to our downfall and damnation. In our Gospel passage today, the Lord Jesus highlighted to His disciples and hence to all of us, the parable of the weeds in the field, which is related to the parable of the sower which the Lord elaborated just earlier on. In that parable of the weeds, the Lord mentioned how the enemy came to sow the seeds of weeds among the good seeds of the crops of the field spread by the master and owner of the field. Those bad seeds represent all the wickedness and evils present in us, which the devil and all of his forces had constantly spread in our midst, in trying to pull us away from God and His salvation.
At the same time, God, the Master of all of us, and the Lord and Master of this whole world has planted in us the seeds of His truth, the seeds of faith and love, the seeds of righteousness and justice, the seeds of His Wisdom and grace. These gifts and good things are present in us, just as the weeds and all the vices and wickedness are present within and all around us, in our lives and in our beings, in our communities and in all of our families and circles of friends. It is a reminder for us, through that parable of the weeds, that in the end, all the weeds will be gathered, burnt and destroyed, while the good crops, the wheat and other fruitful harvest will be gathered into the Lord’s glorious kingdom one day. It is representative of how the wicked and those who commit evil shall one day have to answer for their wickedness and evils, and meanwhile, the righteous and the just shall be made worthy by their obedience and faith in the Lord.
Now, the question is, what are we then going to do with our lives? Are we going to allow the seeds of evil and wickedness, the seeds of weeds to grow and suffocate us all in our lives? And are we going to let them to mislead us down the path of damnation and downfall? Or can we resist those temptations and strive instead to remain faithful and true to the Lord in all of our dedication and faith towards Him? Can we commit ourselves once again to walk with zeal and true faith in God? Just as Moses and all the whole people of Israel came before the Lord with repentance and regret for their sins and wickedness, can we all do the same as well? It is our pride and greed, our inability to resist the many temptations and evils around us that had often led us down the wrong path, and hence, we should now entrust ourselves wholly to the Lord, and humbly seek Him with faith and genuine love, as our holy predecessors and the many holy men and women of God have shown in their lives.
Today, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori, the renowned founder of the religious order known as the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, also known as the Redemptorists. St. Alphonsus Liguori was truly a great man of God, a bishop and faithful servant of the Lord, who dedicated his whole life to the service of God, his Lord and Master. He was born into a small minor noble family, and went on to excel in his academics and studies, and became a lawyer for quite a number of years. However, he did not truly find true satisfaction and joy in life, and was looking for deeper meaning in his life. St. Alphonsus Liguori then eventually sought the Lord in the consecrated life, as a priest and missionary of the Lord, in proclaiming the love and truth of God to many people, with his initiatives and efforts reaching out to tens of thousands of people, who were touched by his genuine and clear sermons, filled with truth and genuine love of the Lord.
St. Alphonsus Liguori desired to show more of the Lord’s compassionate and merciful side to many of the people who have been lost to Him, while at the same time also stressing the importance of repentance and turning away from one’s sins. St. Alphonsus Liguori hence established the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists, which began a great campaign of ministry all throughout the whole world, in bringing the knowledge of the Divine Redeemer, the Mercy of God to more and more of the people of God. Later on, the order would also add on to their charism and ministry, the propagation of the devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, having been entrusted by the Pope himself with the care of the Byzantine Icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help, which complemented and added on to their missions in seeking the salvation of souls, the redemption of sinners and the liberation of the whole world from the forces of sin and darkness.
St. Alphonsus Liguori himself, despite having been appointed and made a bishop in his later years continued to dedicate himself wholeheartedly to the people entrusted to his care, never ceasing to carry out his hard work and efforts for the salvation of souls. He ensured the discipline and the well-being of his priests and members of his congregations, encouraging more and more among the people of God to lead a life that is truly worthy of the Lord. Hence, all of us should really look carefully upon the examples and the actions which St. Alphonsus Liguori had done in his life, in all of his ministry and works, and be inspired by them, so that we ourselves may also carry out the same mission and work, in dedicating ourselves to the glory of God, and to the salvation of our fellow men, all those who are still suffering the tyranny and bondage to sin.
Let us all therefore renew our commitment to the Lord, and being inspired by the examples of the saints, the holy people of God, particularly that of St. Alphonsus Liguori, let us all hence be great role models and inspirations ourselves, in leading lives that are truly worthy of the Lord, by doing God’s will and obeying His Law and commandments at all times. May the Lord continue to help and guide us in our journey, and may He empower us all to carry on with our lives with great zeal and obedience to God, now and always, forevermore. St. Alphonsus Liguori, holy servant of God, pray for us all sinners, that the Lord, the Most Holy Redeemer, may always show His mercy and compassion towards us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 13 : 36-43
At that time, Jesus sent the crowds away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” Jesus answered them, “The One Who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed are the people of the kingdom; the weeds are those who follow the evil one. The enemy who sows the weeds is the devil; the harvest is the end of time, and the workers are the Angels.”
“Just as the weeds are pulled up and burnt in the fire, so will it be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send His Angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom all that is scandalous and all who do evil. And these will be thrown into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the just will shine, like the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. If you have ears, then hear.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 102 : 6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13
YHVH restores justice and secures the rights of the oppressed. He has made known His ways to Moses; and His deeds, to the people of Israel.
YHVH is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger; He will not always scold nor will He be angry forever.
He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does He punish us as we deserve. As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove from us our sins. As a father has compassion on his children, so YHVH pities those who fear Him.
Liturgical Colour : White
Exodus 33 : 7-11 and Exodus 34 : 5b-9, 28
Moses then took the Tent and pitched it for himself outside the camp, at a distance from it, and called it the Tent of Meeting. Whoever sought YHVH would go out to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. And when Moses went to the Tent all the people would stand, each one at the entrance to his tent and keep looking towards Moses until he entered the Tent.
Now, as soon as Moses entered the Tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and remain at the entrance to the Tent, while YHVH spoke with Moses. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud at the entrance to the Tent, they would arise and worship, each one at the entrance to his own tent. Then YHVH would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his neighbour, and then Moses would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua, son of Nun, would not leave the Tent.
And Moses called on the Name of YHVH. Then YHVH passed in front of him and cried out, “YHVH, YHVH is a God full of pity and mercy, slow to anger and abounding in truth and loving kindness. He shows loving kindness to the thousandth generation and forgives wickedness, rebellion and sin; yet He does not leave the guilty without punishment, even punishing the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
Moses hastened to bow down to the ground and worshipped. He then said, “If You really look kindly on me, my Lord, please come and walk in our midst and even though we are a stiff-necked people, pardon our wickedness and our sin and make us Yours.”
Moses remained there with YHVH forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the Covenant – the Ten Commandments.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are presented with the words of God’s truth and the sufferings that we may have to face as those who faithfully follow and obey God. We are all reminded that the Lord is always and will always be with us, but often we may have to endure difficulties and challenges along the way if we are to follow Him. God shall provide what we need, and if we trust in Him and believe in His providence then in the end, we shall be triumphant with Him, and will share in the glory that He has promised to all of us.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah of the clash and competition between that of Jeremiah and Hananiah, one of the false prophets in the court of the king of Judah. Before the assembly of the people of Judah, Hananiah proclaimed that God would break the yoke of the king of Babylon which the latter had imposed on them, and that God would return everything that the people had lost, a happy resolution of their then predicament. Back then, the kingdom of Judah was in its last days, threatened from all sides, and especially from the forces of the Babylonians.
Jeremiah was the only one who had consistently and persistently spoke the truth of God, reminding the people of the upcoming calamity and destruction, as the sins and disobedience of the people had led them into that fate. Judah and Jerusalem would be destroyed and conquered, and the people would be exiled to Babylon, just as the prophets before Jeremiah had foretold, and which Jeremiah himself had also spoken of. But that did not mean that God did not love His people. Rather, they still had to suffer the just consequences of their own choices and actions, in persistently and continuously disobeying God and living wickedly for so long.
Hananiah was not speaking the truth when he was speaking about what would happen to the kingdom and people of Judah. He was pandering to the popular sentiments and desires, and like that of the many other so-called false prophets and officials, they all tried to please the king and the people as naturally nobody liked to hear any bad or negative news or prophecies. Historically, there was also pressure by those people to push the king and the people to side with the Egyptians in the regional power struggle between Egypt and Babylonia, in which the people and kingdom of Judah were caught right in the middle of.
That was why Jeremiah was sidelined, ostracised and persecuted against as most of the officials and the people favoured siding with the Egyptians in their struggles against Babylon, instead of listening to God and repenting from their sinful ways. They trusted more in man’s ways and worldly means to resolve their problems and troubles. They deluded themselves into thinking that they could do anything they want, and that they could imagine life and everything the way they wanted it to be, and not heeding the Lord’s words and reminders, His constant calling and persistent desire to be reunited and reconciled with His people.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the Lord’s famous miraculous feeding of the five thousand men and thousands of other women and children with merely just five loaves of bread and two fishes. In that occasion, the Lord showed His great providence and love for His people, caring for the needs of those who had chosen to follow Him and devoted themselves to Him, and who had become hungry after following Him. He also wanted to highlight to us that despite our many infidelities and lack of faith in Him, our constant rebelliousness and disobedience, but He has always cared for us and for our well-being.
The Lord fed His people with His own hands, and gave them sustenance both in physical and spiritual manner, strengthening them with miraculously multiplied loaves of bread and fishes, as well as with the words of His wisdom and truth. He calls on us all to follow Him, the Bread of Life and the Hope of all mankind, so that we do not delude ourselves anymore with false expectations and temptations of the world, but instead, turn towards the Lord, our Saviour and King, with full and genuine faith. All of us are called to return towards the Lord and to trust in Him once again, rather than to allow ourselves to be deluded and swayed by worldly temptations and concerns.
Today, all of us should be inspired by the examples of faith and dedication which our holy predecessors had shown us, the saints, the holy men and women of God, and especially that of St. Alphonsus Liguori, whose feast we are celebrating this day. St. Alphonsus Liguori was the famous founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, also known as the Redemptorist Order. He was a committed bishop and loving shepherd to his flock and community, who dedicated himself to his mission which he later on shared with his Redemptorist Order, to go and brought the truth of Christ and to teach this to the people, guiding them amidst the heretical teachings and ideas that were rampant at that time.
Much as the prophet Jeremiah had laboured against those who brought about false prophecies and messages in the kingdom of Judah, St. Alphonsus Liguori and his fellow Redemptorists spent a lot of effort in reaching out to the people of God, especially those who have been falling off the path towards God’s redemption, with the particular focus towards the marginalised and all those who had no means to reach out to God and His salvation. The charism and the efforts of the Redemptorists were focused in particular towards revealing God’s most wonderful redemption and His mercy to all His people.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, having been reminded of God’s ever patient love and His great mercy and compassion towards us, let us all therefore renew our commitment to Him. Let us all draw ever closer to God and seek Him with ever greater conviction and love from now on. May God be with us always and may He bless us always with His love. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 14 : 13-21
At that time, when Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, He set out by boat for a secluded place, to be alone. But the people heard of it, and they followed Him on foot from their towns. When Jesus went ashore, He saw the crowd gathered there, and He had compassion on them. And He healed their sick.
Late in the afternoon, His disciples came to Him and said, “We are in a lonely place and it is now late. You should send these people away, so that they can go to the villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” But Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fishes.” Jesus said to them, “Bring them here to Me.”
Then He made everyone sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fishes, raised His eyes to heaven, pronounced the blessing, broke the loaves, and handed them to the disciples to distribute to the people. And they all ate, and everyone had enough; then the disciples gathered up the leftovers, filling twelve baskets. About five thousand men had eaten there, besides women and children.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 118 : 29, 43, 79, 80, 95, 102
Keep me away from deceitful paths; be gracious and teach me Your Law.
Take not the word of truth from my mouth, for I would also lose my hope in Your word.
Let those who fear You, turn to me; they will understand Your statutes.
May my heart be blameless in Your decrees, that I may not be ashamed.
The wicked lie in wait to destroy me, but I look to Your word for salvation.
I have not departed from Your decrees, for You, Yourself, have instructed me.
Liturgical Colour : White
Jeremiah 28 : 1-17
Early in the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah spoke to me.
Hananiah son of Azzur from Gibeon proclaimed in YHVH’s house in the presence of the priests and the people, “This is what YHVH the God of Hosts and the God of Israel says : I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the objects that king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took away from YHVH’s house and carried to Babylon.”
“I will likewise bring back Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all who were taken from Judah and deported to Babylon. For I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon – word of YHVH.”
Then Jeremiah replied to Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people, “So be it! May YHVH fulfil the words you have spoken and bring back from Babylon to this place the objects taken from the house of YHVH and all the exiles. Yet hear now what I say in your hearing and the hearing of all the people.”
“The prophets who came before you and me continually prophesied war, disaster and plague to many nations and great kingdoms. So the prophet who prophesies peace will not be recognised as truly sent by YHVH, until his predictions are fulfilled.”
Then Hananiah took the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah and broke it. Hananiah proclaimed in the presence of all the people, “YHVH says this : In the same manner, within two years, will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar from the neck of all the nations.” Then Jeremiah the prophet went on his way.
Some time later, a word of YHVH came to Jeremiah, “Go and tell this to Hananiah : This is what YHVH says : You have broken a wooden yoke but in its place you will get a yoke of iron. For this is what YHVH the God of Hosts and the God of Israel says : I am placing a yoke of iron on the neck of all the nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and they will serve him. I will even give him control over the wild animals.”
Then Jeremiah said to Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, you have not been sent by YHVH and yet you have deceived these people, giving them false hope with your lies. That is why YHVH says with regard to you : I am removing you from the face of the earth. You will die this very year because you have counselled rebellion against YHVH.”
And in the seventh month of that year Hananiah died.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 