Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 8 and 10
Praise YHVH, my soul; all my being, praise His holy Name! Praise YHVH, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.
He forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; He redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion.
YHVH is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger. He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does He punish us as we deserve.
Liturgical Colour : White
Isaiah 40 : 25-31
To whom, then, will you liken Me or make Me equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and see : who has created all this? He has ordered them as a starry host and called them each by name. So mighty is His power, so great His strength, that not one of them is missing.
How can you say, o Jacob, how can you complain, o Israel, that your destiny is hidden from Me, that your rights are ignored by YHVH? Have you not known, have you not heard that YHVH is an everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth? He does not grow tired or weary, His knowledge is without limit.
He gives strength to the enfeebled, He gives vigour to the wearied. Youth may grow tired and faint, young men will stumble and fall, but those who hope in YHVH will renew their strength. They will soar as with eagle’s wings; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and never tire.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are called to reflect on our lives and actions as we continue to journey through this season of Advent. Today we are all called to seek the Lord, our loving God and our Good Shepherd, Who has always ever showed concern and care for each one of us. He has always reached out to us, seeking to be reconciled with us, and we should recognise His ever present love, compassion and generous mercy.
Today, in our first reading as we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, the prophet spoke of the words of the Lord, offering assurance and the coming of the Lord’s salvation for the people of God. This came in the context of the sufferings that the people had suffered for a long time for their disobedience, and all that they would still suffer, the humiliation and the trials and challenges, for having abandoned God and for having done what were wicked in the sight of God.
But the Lord assured them all through Isaiah that if they all were willing to turn to Him and seek Him, then He will come to gather them all and provide for them, as a Good Shepherd calling forth His sheep, gathering all of them scattered throughout the world and making them part of His one beloved flock. God will make them great and blessed once again, and they will enter into His glorious kingdom and receive the assurance of eternal life and joy with Him.
And all these were fulfilled by the coming of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all and the whole world, Who in our Gospel passage today reiterated the same truth and message, that the Lord indeed, as He often referred to Himself as the Good Shepherd, has come to this world to gather all of the lost sheep, so that the entire flock may become whole yet again. He came to us, in the flesh, to be with us and to help us find our way to Him.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, of the shepherd who was so happy to have found the one lost sheep and went out all the way just to seek that one lost sheep, we should come to know of the truth that God has always ever been so patient with us, and based on what we have earlier heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, truly we should be able to realise and feel the great love that God has shown each and every one of us. He has done so much for us and He is truly willing to welcome us back into His embrace, that we may never be lost from Him again.
However, it is often that we are the ones who had been stubborn and persistent in our refusal to believe in Him, and despite the Lord’s constant attempts to reach out to us, we often spurned His love and compassion, rejected His mercy and generosity in trying to reach out to us and forgive us our sins. That is why it is important for all of us to remind ourselves of just how fortunate and blessed we are to have been beloved in such a way by the Lord, and how all of us should be grateful for this love and generosity we have received.
Today, we should also reflect on the life and the examples of a great saint that can become a truly wonderful inspiration for us on how we should live our lives as Christians. St. Ambrose of Milan, the great and renowned Bishop of Milan is a great role model to all of us, in his piety and dedication to God, as well as in his dedication to his flock and the salvation of souls. He was one of the four original Doctors of the Church and is widely revered throughout the Church for all history and up to this very day.
St. Ambrose was born into a high ranking Roman family and was the Roman governor of what is today the northern region of Italy, the province of Aemilia-Liguria when a particular turn of events brought him to be the Bishop of the important Diocese of Milan. At that time, the divisions within the Church were deep and terrible, as conflicts often arose between the supporters of the Arian heresy and the ones who remained faithful to the true teachings of the Church. The death of the Arian bishop of Milan led to a very heated and protracted election of his successor.
It was amidst all these that as St. Ambrose came to the election as a moderator in his role as the provincial governor that the Holy Spirit inspired the people gathered there, having known of the virtues and faith of this governor, to acclaim him as the next Bishop of Milan. Initially, St. Ambrose was hesitant to take up the office, as back then, although he was already nominally a Christian by faith, but he was not even formally baptised yet, and did not have a proper preparation in theology and many aspects of the Church.
Eventually, he obeyed the calling of God and was baptised, ordained as priest and bishop. As the Bishop of Milan, he adopted an ascetic lifestyle and committed himself to serve the needs of his flock. He helped to heal the divisions in the Church and gradually persuaded many of those who still held on to their heretical Arian beliefs to abandon those beliefs and return to the true faith of the Holy Mother Church. He dedicated much of his time to reform the Church not only within his own Diocese but also in the wider scope of the Universal Church.
He was a mentor, teacher and sponsor for St. Augustine of Hippo, another great and renowned Church father, who was to become another one of the four great original Doctors of the Church. St. Ambrose was also well-remembered for his confrontation with the Roman Emperor, the powerful and mighty Theodosius the Great, for his role in the deaths of many people in the Massacre of Thessalonica, one of the greatest cities of the Empire. St. Ambrose promptly excommunicated the Emperor, with the intention of leading him back towards God and not to give in to worldly corruptions from sin.
The Emperor was repentant, and he publicly denounced and confessed his own sins of having caused such a great dismay in the Church and for having sinned against God, laying aside his regalia and all the splendour of his office, and in the sackcloth of a penitent, he was welcomed back into the Church by St. Ambrose, whose actions and interactions with the Emperor Theodosius the Great reminded all of us of the dangers of sin, and how powerful the allure of sin is, and yet, at the same time, how generous God is with His mercy and compassion, as long as we are willing to embrace His love and mercy.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, from what we have heard today through the Scriptures and the life and works of St. Ambrose, let us all reflect on our own lives. Have we lived our lives worthily as the Lord has commanded us to do? Have we been faithful as Christians, in dedicating ourselves to God? Or have we spent our time in indulging in our desires and in worldly pleasures and corruptions? These are the questions that we need to ask ourselves this Advent, as we recall God’s mercy, love and compassion at the same time.
Are we ready to welcome the Lord into our hearts and into our lives? Are we willing to be humble before Him, admitting our sinfulness and our wicked past, and like the Emperor, cast aside the trappings of our pride and ego, and seek the Lord wholeheartedly and strive to love Him with all of our might from now on? May the Lord be with us all and may He guide us in our journey of faith through this Advent season and through life. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 18 : 12-14
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “What do you think of this? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside, and go to look for the stray one? And I tell you, when he finally finds it, he is more pleased about it, than about the ninety-nine that did not go astray.”
“It is the same with your Father in heaven. Your Father in heaven does not want even one of these little ones to perish.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 95 : 1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12a, 12b-13
Sing to YHVH a new song, sing to YHVH, all the earth! Sing to YHVH, praise His Name; proclaim His salvation, day after day.
Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds. Say among the nations, “He will judge the peoples with justice.”
Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them.
Let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy. Let them sing before YHVH Who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice, and the peoples, with fairness.
Liturgical Colour : White
Isaiah 40 : 1-11
Be comforted, My people, be strengthened, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, proclaim to her that her time of bondage is at an end, that her guilt has been paid for, that from the hand of YHVH she has received double punishment for all her iniquity.
A voice cries, “In the wilderness prepare the way for YHVH. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley will be raised up; every mountain and hill will be laid low. The stumbling blocks shall become level and the rugged places smooth. The glory of YHVH will be revealed, and all mortals together will see it; for the mouth of YHVH has spoken.”
A voice says, “Cry.” and I say, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of YHVH blows upon it. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will forever stand.”
Go up onto the high mountain, messenger of Good News to Zion, lift up your voice with strength, fear not to cry aloud when you tell Jerusalem and announce to the cities of Judah : Here is your God! Here comes YHVH Sabaoth with might; His strong arm rules for Him; His reward is with Him, and here before Him is His booty. Like a shepherd He tends His flock : He gathers the lambs in His arms, He carries them in His bosom, gently leading those that are with young.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are all called to look upon the healing that God has presented to us, the healing that He has offered us and promised us, if we are faithful to Him and if we look upon Him with faith and hope, entrusting ourselves to His care, love and providence. If we are willing to open ourselves to God’s love and grace, we shall receive His most wonderful love and mercy.
In our first reading today, we have heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah on the reassurance that God gave His people through Isaiah, of a new hope and strength that He gave them, that through His saving grace, the eyes of the blind would be opened, the paralytic and the weak would all run free, and those who were possessed by evil spirits and demons would be purified and liberated from their enslavement by those vile beings.
We heard of all these coming to fruition and fulfilment in Christ, as we heard in our Gospel passage today of the healing of the paralytic man by the Lord Jesus, as with many other examples of miracles and healing powers that the Lord had shown to multitudes of people, just exactly as how the prophet Isaiah had said it. But the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees were skeptical and doubted the Lord, refusing to believe in Him as they kept holding onto their pride and hardened their hearts against God’s truth and love manifested through Christ.
The Lord has shown them many wonders and a lot of genuine expressions of God’s love, and yet, some accused Him of blasphemy and colluding with the evil spirits, refusing to acknowledge that He has the authority over those spirits and as the promised Saviour of the world, the Son of God Most High, He has the power to forgive sins and to liberate mankind from their bondage to sins and death. He showed those dissidents, the true power of God and His love by healing the paralytic and restored him to good health.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to these readings and reflect on the wonderful love of God, we are all reminded of our own shortcomings and weaknesses, our own predicaments, troubles and indeed, sickness. Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? We may be perfectly healthy in body and mind, and yet, because of sin, we are spiritually sick and corrupted.
For sin corrupts our very innermost beings, and sin is truly very wicked and terrible, for while other diseases and conditions have some form of cure or ways to alleviate them, only God alone can forgive us our sins. It is by God’s grace and mercy alone that we are forgiven our sins and all the evils we have committed in our respective lives. We have to trust in His mercy and grace, and embrace His loving grace if we are to be forgiven and healed from this terrible affliction.
As we heard in our Gospel passage today, the Lord Himself specifically and explicitly mentioned that He, as God, has the power to forgive sins and to heal us all from all of our shortcomings. He can make us all whole again, but are we all willing to embrace His love and mercy, His compassion and forgiveness? Let us all consider all these, brothers and sisters in Christ, and if we are still stubborn in our refusal to embrace God’s love and mercy, let us harden our hearts no longer and open our hearts and minds to welcome the Lord.
In this season of Advent, we are all called to seek the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness, and to prepare ourselves well, especially spiritually that we may celebrate Christmas with true joy and with true appreciation of its importance to us. We have been given this great opportunity for us to rediscover our faith in God, and therefore, we should take this opportunity well, embracing God’s love at all times, and rethinking how we can continue living our lives with faith.
Today, we can also be inspired by St. Ambrose of Milan, a great saint and one of the original Doctors of the Church whose feast day we celebrate. St. Ambrose of Milan was truly a very influential leader of the Church as the Archbishop of Milan, head of one of the largest Christian communities of his time, just as it is still one of the largest today. In addition, his leadership and influence in the contemporary Church at the time, his contributions were truly immense.
St. Ambrose was well-known for being chosen as bishop by acclamation from the community, both the laity and the clergy alike at the time when the community was bitterly divided between the followers of the Arian heresy and those who remained faithful to the true Christian teachings. As both parties bickered especially in the decision of who was to succeed as Bishop of Milan, considering that the previous bishop had been an Arian heretic, the choice fell to St. Ambrose, well-respected by the people as the righteous and just administrator and governor of the region.
St. Ambrose worked hard to root out the corruption of heresy, particularly the Arian heresy aforementioned. In this, he faced a lot of opposition especially from the Arian clergy and also from powerful nobles who were favourable to the Arian cause and were Arian believers themselves. This included the Emperor and his family, where the Empress herself was an ardent believer of the heresy.
St. Ambrose did not let these to hinder his works or discourage him from doing what he had to do in leading his flock to the true faith. St. Ambrose spoke publicly and fearlessly against those who refused to believe in the truth, and even the Empress herself. He had to suffer a lot in the process, threatened and received a lot of trials, but, he remained firm and strong in his conviction and faith.
In later years, when the faithful Emperor Theodosius the Great ruled over the entire Empire, and worked against the Arian heresy, St. Ambrose was also remembered for his courage in standing up to the Emperor, when he was complicit in a massacre that happened in the city of Thessalonica. St. Ambrose excommunicated the Emperor, and only when the Emperor humbly made a public confession and repentance, that St. Ambrose welcomed him back to the Church with joy.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have heard all that St. Ambrose had done, his faith and contributions to the Church. Are we willing and able to follow his examples, in living our faith with genuine devotion, in being righteous and in the courage to remain strong in faith even against oppositions from the world? We have also heard of the power of God’s love and forgiveness, as what happened with the Emperor Theodosius when he committed a grave sin, and through repentance, he was welcomed back to the Church and God’s grace.
Are we willing to repent from our sinful ways, too, brothers and sisters in Christ? We have been given this great opportunity this Advent to seek the Lord and His forgiveness, and to purify ourselves from these corruptions of sin. Let us all make good use of the time and opportunity, and do our very best to serve the Lord faithfully from now on. May the Lord bless us all and guide us in our journey of faith, that each and every one of us may serve the Lord with ever greater dedication from now on. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 5 : 17-26
At that time, Jesus was teaching and many Pharisees and teachers of the Law had come from every part of Galilee and Judea, and even from Jerusalem. They were sitting there, while the power of the Lord was at work to heal the sick. Then some men brought a paralysed man who lay on his mat.
They tried to enter the house to place him before Jesus, but they could not find a way through the crowd. So they went up on the roof, and removing the tiles, they lowered him on his mat into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven.”
At once the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to wonder, “This Man insults God! Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” But Jesus knew their thoughts and asked them, “Why are you reacting like this? Which is easier to say : ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up and walk’? Now you shall know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”
And Jesus said to the paralysed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” At once the man stood before them. He took up the mat he had been lying on, and went home praising God. Amazement seized the people and they praised God. They were filled with a holy fear, and said, “What wonderful things we have seen today!”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 84 : 9ab-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.
Liturgical Colour : White
Isaiah 35 : 1-10
Let the wilderness and the arid land rejoice, the desert be glad and blossom. Covered with flowers, it sings and shouts with joy, adorned with the splendour of Lebanon, the magnificence of Carmel and Sharon. They, my people, see the glory of YHVH, the majesty of our God.
Give vigour to weary hands and strength to enfeebled knees. Say to those who are afraid : “Have courage, do not fear. See, your God comes, demanding justice. He is the God Who rewards, the God Who comes to save you.”
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unsealed. Then will the lame leap as a hart and the tongue of the dumb sing and shout. For water will break out in the wilderness and streams gush forth from the desert. The thirsty ground will become a pool, the arid land springs of water. In the haunts where once reptiles lay, grass will grow with reeds and rushes.
There will be a highway which will be called The Way of Holiness; no one unclean will pass over it nor any wicked fool stray there. No lion will be found there nor any beast of prey. Only the redeemed will walk there. For the ransomed of YHVH will return : with everlasting joy upon their heads, they will come to Zion singing, gladness and joy marching with them, while sorrow and sighing flee away.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 