Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops or Priests)
Psalm 98 : 5, 6, 7, 9
Extol YHVH, our God; worship at His footstool. Holy is He! And mighty!
Among His priests were Moses and Aaron; and Samuel, among those who called on His Name. They called to YHVH, and He answered them.
In the pillar of cloud He spoke to them; and they kept His statutes and the decrees He gave them.
Extol YHVH our God; worship at His holy mountain. Holy is YHVH our God!
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops or Priests)
Exodus 34 : 29-35
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant after speaking with YHVH. Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw that Moses' face was radiant and they were afraid to go near him.
But Moses called them, and Aaron with all the leaders of the community drew near, and Moses spoke to them. Afterwards all the Israelites came near and he told them all that YHVH had commanded him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
Whenever Moses went before YHVH to speak with Him, he took off the veil until he came out again. And when he came out and told them what he had been commanded, the Israelites saw that his face was radiant. Moses would then replace the veil over his face until he went again to speak with YHVH.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops or Priests)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are called by God through His words in the Scripture, and the centre theme of His calling to us, is for us all to have faith in Him. In the first reading, God spoke to His people through Jeremiah, His prophet, telling them the message of hope in the midst of hopelessness and darkness. He told them that He would restore them to their previous glory and grace, and He would remove from them the shame of their captivity and exile.
This was given in the context that the people of God had long disobeyed Him and preferred to forge their own path, worshipping pagan idols and gods, and committed all sorts of wicked deeds in His sight. They have lost faith in Him, and they have wavered many times, unable to commit themselves to Him. They fell into sin and thus had to endure the consequences of their disobedience.
And yet God still wanted to show them mercy, extending His hands to them and wanting to welcome them back into His embrace. Nevertheless, all of these would come to naught if the same people refused to take up the offer. And sadly that was the case. Many would rather continue in their state of sin and uncertainty rather than to surrender themselves completely to God and His ways.
Then let us all see what we have heard in the Gospel today. The Lord appeared to His disciples who were in the middle of the lake, trapped within a great storm, with high winds and strong waves, threatening to sink the whole ship with them inside. And the disciples were afraid when they saw the Lord for the first time, thinking that He was a ghost.
They were afraid and fearful, and their faith in God wavered, just as how it was in the past, at the time of the prophet Jeremiah. The people of God were unfaithful and they followed their own preferences and paths. And that was just as the disciples in the boat rocked by the strong winds and the strong waves, threatening to sink them. And thus, the temptations of the world were very strong, and pulling the people of God to them, these threatened to bring the people of God into eternal damnation.
But Jesus the Lord came, and He came to His disciples when they were in distress, telling them not to be afraid, for He was there with them. And He stretched out His hand, and called upon St. Peter when he was wavering. St. Peter reached out to the Lord and walked on the water, but his faith in Him wavered, and he was sinking into the water. And God helped him up, and chided him briefly for his doubts. And upon entering the boat, He calmed down the wind and the waves.
In this rich show of symbolism, we saw how in our own present time, the Church is that boat in which all of us the people of God are in. Indeed, the Church is often portrayed as a boat, in how the churches in both Western and Eastern Christendom were constructed, especially in the Eastern traditions. And all of us the people of God are in this boat, journeying across the troubled waters, facing the wind and the waves, that is this world and all of its troubles and challenges.
And just as all peoples when faced with a sinking boat would do, we have a choice, either to stay with the ship or to jump ship into the water, hoping that by jumping into the water we might be saved from sinking. But more often than not, that kind of decision is done out of fear and uncertainty, and lack of faith in the capability of the one guiding the ship to bring the people to safety.
And thus when God Who is the guide of the Church, as its Head, guided us all in His Church, all of us should hold fast and stay faithful and courageous for as long as we are able to. Let us all strengthen our faith in God, and learn to put our complete trust in Him, for even though we have been unfaithful, as it was for the people of Judah and Israel in the past, God is always forever faithful.
Let us all also heed the examples of the saints, St. Eusebius of Vercelli and St. Peter Julian Eymard, whose examples can be our inspiration in how we live our lives. St. Eusebius of Vercelli was a holy and devoted bishop of the region of Vercelli in Italy, who gave most of his life in the devout service of God. He was a strong believer in the Lord and an ardent defender of His truth against all those who would stir up the faithful by spreading heresies and falsehoods.
St. Eusebius of Vercelli lived at a turbulent time, and although at that time, Christianity had become a tolerated faith in the Roman Empire, and more and more people accepted the Lord as their Saviour, but there were many heresies and false teachings abound, threatening to sunder the Church and condemn many of the faithful people of God into oblivion.
He worked hard to convince the people to return from their erroneous path, and many responded in kind, following him back to the safety and the good embrace of their Lord and God. He helped many people to reconcile themselves with the Church and the Lord, rejected the heresies which they had come to believe, and instead embraced the truth and the fullness of the magisterium teaching of the Church.
Similarly, St. Peter Julian Eymard also devoted his life to the Lord, to bring the Good News to the people, promoting the devotion to the Lord, especially to His Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament, adoring the Lord in all things, and calling all those who have sinned to repent and return to the embrace of the Lord through the Church.
He helped to establish two congregations of religious life whose aims were to bring the people of God closer to Him through the pious and strong devotion to the Eucharist. And many people responded in kind, devoting themselves to the Lord and changing their ways, and therefore many were brought to the salvation of God through what this holy saint has done.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on the words of the Holy Scriptures and on the examples of these holy saints, let us all do the same with our own lives, as all of us can also do what they have done. Let us stay committed and remain faithful to God, despite the challenges and the temptations calling us to do otherwise. Let us remain true to God through His Church, and help many others to remain firmly rooted in faith, that each and every one of us may be saved.
May God, our Lord and Saviour, our loving Father and Redeemer, may He bless us all and keep us forevermore in His grace, and may He never forget about us in our moments of distress, but come to us, and may we take up His offer of salvation, change our ways and go forth to meet Him in the salvation and eternal life He promised all those who are faithful to Him. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops or Priests)
Matthew 14 : 22-36
At that time, immediately Jesus obliged His disciples to get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowd away. And having sent the people away, He went up the mountain by Himself to pray. At nightfall, He was there alone. Meanwhile, the boat was very far from land, dangerously rocked by the waves for the wind was against it.
At daybreak, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. When they saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, thinking that it was a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But at once Jesus said to them, “Courage! Do not be afraid. It is Me!” Peter answered, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You walking on the water.”
Jesus said to him, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water to go to Jesus. But seeing the strong wind, he was afraid and began to sink; and he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately stretched out His hand and took hold of him, saying, “Man of little faith, why did you doubt?”
As they got into the boat, the wind dropped. Then those in the boat bowed down before Jesus, saying, “Truly, You are the Son of God!” They came ashore at Gennesareth. The local people recognised Jesus and spread the news throughout the region. So they brought all the sick to Him, begging Him to let them touch just the hem of His cloak. All who touched it became perfectly well.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops or Priests)
Psalm 101 : 16-18, 19-21, 29 and 22-23
O Lord, the nations will revere Your Name, and the kings of the earth Your glory, when the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in all His splendour. For He will answer the prayer of the needy and will not despise their plea.
Let this be written for future ages, “The Lord will be praised by a people He will form. From His holy height in heaven, the Lord has looked on the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoners, and free those condemned to death.”
Your servants’ children will dwell secure; their posterity will endure without fail. Then the Name of the Lord will be declared in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem, when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship Him.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops or Priests)
Jeremiah 30 : 1-2, 12-15, 18-22
This is another word that came to Jeremiah from YHVH : YHVH, God of Israel says, “Write in a book all that I have communicated to you.”
YHVH says, “Your wound is incurable, your injury is grievous. There is no one to plead your cause. There is a remedy for an ulcer but no healing for you! All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you. For I struck you as an enemy does, with a cruel punishment, because of your great guilt and the wickedness of your sin.”
“Why cry out now that you are hurt? Is there no cure for your pain? Because of your great crime and grievous sin I have done this to you.” YHVH says, “I will restore My people into Jacob’s tents and have pity on his dwellings. The city will be rebuilt over its ruins and the palace restored on its proper place. From them will come songs of praise and the sound of merrymaking.”
“I will multiply them and they shall not be few. I will bestow honour on them and they shall not be despised. Their children will be as before and their community will be established before Me. I will ask their oppressors to account. Their leader will be one of themselves, their ruler shall emerge from their midst. I will bring him close to Me for who would dare to approach Me? You shall be My people and I shall be your God.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about the readings from the Scriptures, both from the Old and New Testament, on how God fed His people and made them satisfied. We heard first how the people of Israel during their Exodus from Egypt was fed with manna, or the bread from heaven, so that even in the middle of the desert they would not go hungry.
Every morning, the Lord would bring manna to them in the morning mist together with the dew, and all had enough manna for themselves to eat. And every evening, the Lord sent huge flocks of birds for the people to catch and eat. And through Moses, God gave His people crystal clear and sweet water to drink, and all these He had done, so that His people may know of His love, and may be filled with good things to satisfaction.
Yet in the Gospel today, Jesus rebuked the people who followed Him, because He knew that He had fed them and they saw that He could feed them and therefore they followed Him. Why is this so, brethren? That is because what Jesus wanted the people to know, and by extension for all of us to know is that, true faith is not about believing just because we saw what had happened and be amazed at it, and neither can we have faith that is just as much as our stomach is, that is our desires.
A good lesson for us can be gained by observing exactly what happened to the people of Israel in the desert. They were fed with manna, with large birds and other food otherwise not to be found in a desert, and were supplied with rich water and ample provisions, but see what had happened to them. They did not remain faithful to the Lord who loved them and cared for them so much.
Firstly they were mesmerised by gold, by the wealth of this world, which the Egyptians had provided them amply with as they left Egypt, when the Egyptians wanted to have nothing nothing else to do with them and gave them whatever they wanted. All these gold got into their hearts, blinding them against God’s love and made them very, very proud of themselves and greed grew in their hearts.
And we know what happened next, when at the mountain of God at Horeb, as Moses went up the mountain to establish covenant between the people of God and their Lord, they whored themselves and sold themselves to the pagan gods, making a golden calf as their idol and their god, claiming that it was that golden calf that led them out of Egypt, even though they had seen the glory and might of God.
Then, throughout their journey across the desert itself, did the people of God remain faithful and did they thank the Lord for the food which God had given them? The very bread that the angels eat and share in the bliss of heaven, of which among men, they were the only ones to have a taste of? No, they were not thankful, and instead, they bickered among themselves and made complaints after complaints, and even complaining that their lives in bondage in Egypt was better than whatever God had given them.
These people had followed the call of their stomach rather than the call of their heart. They followed and submitted to their earthly and worldly desires rather than trying to find the true joy and happiness which only God can give. They placed their trust in earthly things and seek worldly approval and trying to sustain and satisfy their wants and wishes.
And this, coupled with whatever they have done in wickedness have made them to be judged as unworthy and as people rejected by God. They ate the bread from heaven and they died, because they had no life in them, and they did not try to find what true life is about, for life lies with God alone, and they did not find what they need in God, for their worldly concerns and occupations prevented them to find the Lord.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Gospel we heard the truth, that Jesus Christ our Lord, who came down from heaven, God Himself, His Word who had taken up the flesh of man, had made Himself an offering worthy of our redemption and brought about our salvation, by giving us freely, the true bread of heaven, the true Bread of Life, that is He Himself. He is the Bread of Life, for whoever partake in His Body and drink His Blood, shall have life in them, and death shall no longer reign over them.
This does not mean that those who share in the Body and Blood of our Lord shall not die, but this instead mean that death has no longer any dominion over them. While previously we ought to fear death for it is a consequence and punishment for our sins, we now know that because of Christ, our Lord, we have a new opportunity, a new chance given to us, and a new path to our complete victory and triumph against sin and death is before us.
And all these is again because of God’s love and care which He had shown us freely. Just as He had fed His beloved people with manna, the bread from heaven, with large birds and with sweet and crystal-clear water from rocks itself, therefore now, He feeds us with the true Bread and Wine of Life, that is His own Flesh and Blood. Which God cares for us so much that He would give us this to eat? And especially who would love us so much so as to suffer and bear the burden of all our sins?
It is God who loves us so much, that He would provide for us, feed us and satisfy us with care, and most important of all, to have all of us to have a share in Him, by giving His own Body and Blood through the bread and wine, which our priests transformed completely into the very substance and matter of our Lord Himself. We who partake in the Eucharist worthily therefore, share with one another the true life and salvation which comes from God alone.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we all look deep into ourselves and reflect, and use this opportunity to think about whether we have found the Lord who is really present in the Eucharist, and whether we have understood and realised the love which He had for all of us, whom He had cared for since the beginning of time, and whether we have sincerely sought for Him and desired to find Him in our lives.
May we all grow to love the Lord all the more, and may we strive to make ourselves worthy of Him as we live our lives in this world. Let us shun all forms of worldliness and wickedness in our behaviours, so that by our virtues and good works, we may detach ourselves from the desires and wants we have in our hearts, be no longer oppressed and controlled by them, and in all things may we grow ever more grateful for all the things and blessings God had given us. Lord Jesus Christ, Bread of Life, be with us all always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
John 6 : 24-35
At that time, when the people saw that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, “Master, when did You come here?”
Jesus answered, “Truly, I say to you, you look for Me, not because of the signs which you have seen, but because you ate bread and were satisfied. Work then, not for perishable food, but for the lasting food which gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give it to you, for He is the One on whom the Father has put His mark.”
Then the Jews asked Him, “What shall we do? What are the works that God wants us to do?” And Jesus answered them, “The work God wants is this : that you believe in the One whom God has sent.” Then they said, “Show us miraculous signs, that we may see and believe You. What sign do You perform? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert; as Scripture says : They were given bread from heaven to eat.”
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you true bread from heaven. The bread God gives is the One who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.” And they said to Him, “Give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in Me shall never be thirsty.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Ephesians 4 : 17, 20-24
I say to you, then, and with insistence I advise you in the Lord : do not imitate the pagans who live an aimless kind of life. But it is not for this that you have followed Christ. For I suppose that you heard of Him and received His teaching which is seen in Jesus Himself.
You must give up your former way of living, the old self, whose deceitful desires bring self-destruction. Renew yourselves spiritually, from inside, and put on the new self, or self according to God, that is created in true righteousness and holiness.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 77 : 3 and 4bc, 23-24, 25 and 54
Old mysteries which we have heard and known, which our ancestors have told us. We will announce them to the coming generation : the glorious deeds of the Lord, His might and the wonders He has done.
Yet the Lord commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven; He rained down manna upon His people and fed them with the heavenly grain.
They ate and had more than their fill of the bread of angels. He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had won.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 