St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

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Wednesday, 9 August 2017 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 105 : 6-7a, 13-14, 21-22, 23

We have sinned like our ancestors; we have done wrong and acted wickedly. When they were in Egypt, our ancestors had no regard for Your wondrous deeds.

But soon they forgot His works and did not wait for His counsel. They gave way to wanton craving and tempted God in the desert.

They forgot their Saviour God, Who had done great things in Egypt, wonderful works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Sea of Reeds.

So He spoke of destroying them, but Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach before Him to shield them from destruction.

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Wednesday, 9 August 2017 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Numbers 13 : 1-2, 25 – Numbers 14 : 1, 26-30, 34-35

YHVH then spoke to Moses, saying, "Send men to explore the land of Canaan that I am giving to the Israelites; send one man from each of the ancestral tribes, all of them leaders."

After forty days of exploration, they returned. They went and met Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They gave an account to them and the whole community and showed them the fruit of this land.

And they said, "We entered the land where you sent us, truly a land flowing with milk and honey and here is the fruit. But how strong are the people who inhabit the land! The cities are fortified with walls and bars, and we even saw there descendants of the Anakites. Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb; Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; the Canaanites are by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan."

Caleb then quieted the people who rose up against Moses and said, "We should go up and take over the land, for we shall surely overcome it." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We cannot advance against these people for they are stronger than we are."

And they spread an unfavourable report about the land that they had explored, saying to the Israelites, "The land we went through to explore is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people we saw there are men of great size. We even saw giants (these giants were the Anakites). We felt like grasshoppers before them, and to them we must have seemed the same."

Then all the community broke out in loud cries and wept during the night. Then YHVH spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, "How long will this wicked community grumble against Me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel against Me. Say to them : As truly as I live, it is YHVH Who speaks, I will do to you what you have said in My hearing."

"All of you of twenty years and more, numbered in the census, who grumbled against Me, your corpses will fall in the desert. You will not enter the land where I swore to settle you, except Caleb, son of Jephunneh and Joshua, son of Nun. According to the number of days spent in exploring the land – forty days, for every day a year – for forty years you shall bear the guilt of your sins and you shall know what it is to oppose Me."

"I, YHVH, have spoken. Surely this is what I will do to this wicked community that has conspired against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed and this is where they shall die."

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Tuesday, 9 August 2016 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Holy Scriptures speaking to us about what we ought to do in order to be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven and receive fully the blessings and graces of God promised to His faithful ones. And that was made very clear in what we heard in the Gospel today.

In the Gospel according to St. Matthew, Jesus told His disciples, that unless their faith be like those of the little children, they would have no part in the kingdom of heaven promised to them. Unless they welcomed the dear little children in His Name, they would have no part in His glory and inheritance. And if they misled these children into the darkness, their punishment and fate will be even more severe than otherwise.

And at the same time, He also told them of how God is like the loving shepherd who cares for all of his sheep without exception. And when even just one of the hundred sheep was lost, the shepherd went out of his way, doing what he could do best to bring that lost sheep back, so that it would not perish out of the reach of his love. When he found the sheep, he would celebrate and rejoice greatly.

Thus, in the same manner, we are the sheep of the Lord, who are part of the same flock which He has led and guided, through the intermediary of His servants, the prophets and leaders whom He had appointed over all of His people, those who had been sent into the world with the message calling all of mankind to return to the Lord, their one and only true God.

And we are lost in this world, lost in the darkness, lost and being unable to find our way to reach out to the Lord because of the veil of darkness, the veil of confusion, discord and unbelief which Satan and his allies had placed over our eyes, over our senses, over our minds, over our hearts, and over our souls, preventing us from seeing the truth, and remaining blind in the darkness.

And how did they do this? It is by playing and manipulating our fears, our desires and wants, that they have done these so excellently to the extent that many of us became wayward and committed many grievous sins and wicked deeds. We have put ourselves, our ego, our desires and all other obstacles in front of us, preventing ourselves from being able to reach out to the Lord, Who is trying to help us and to pull us out of this darkness, this trap.

And that is why He told His disciples, and thus all of us, that our faith must be like that of those little children who believed in Him wholeheartedly without any reservation. In case we are not aware of it, children are innocent until a certain age when they begin to be formed in their thoughts and moral ideas by those who are around them. And thus, when they believe in the Lord, they truly give it their all and believe in Him.

Are we able to do the same as well? We may not because of our various commitments and all the things that kept us back, held us back from being able to give it all for the Lord our God. And that was where sin came into our hearts and corrupted us, trying to pull us away and sunder us away from the Lord and His love. And in this, perhaps today we should seek to understand and follow what the great saint we celebrate today had done in her own life.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, or much more famously known throughout the world as St. Edith Stein was a Jewish convert to the Christian faith. She was born as an ardent Jewish believer, but grew to believe in the Lord after having read the works of another great saint, the Carmelite saint, St. Teresa of Jesus. She studied her writings thoroughly, and in the process, came to believe in the Lord and gave herself to be baptised into the faith, and eventually, after many years of struggle, joined the religious order of the Carmelites as well.

At that time, as she lived in Germany, where the tide was rising against the Jewish population in the NAZI dominated government of Adolf Hitler, threats and dangers grew more and more vivid every single day on St. Edith Stein and many other Jews living under their tyranny. Even throughout the war, when her life was in constant danger, she continued to write and gave encouragement to the faithful and to the oppressed people of God, never to give up for the Lord Who loves them all would be with them.

To the very end, St. Edith Stein gave it her all to serve the Lord. She gave it all even to the very end, encouraging and strengthening the faith of all those who wavered and those who suffered grievously by persecutions and all the forces applied against the faithful by those who were wicked and evil. She withstood all the challenges, and willingly gave up her life, when she and many others were brutally murdered by the NAZI forces in the concentration camps.

The zeal and courage of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, St. Edith Stein, should be our example and inspiration as well. We should learn to walk in her footsteps, be strong and be courageous in our faith. Let us no longer be hesitant in following the Lord our God, but give it our all to serve Him, rejecting all the worldly temptations and all the lies of Satan that had no value in them.

May God bless us all and strengthen us, and may He, our Good Shepherd, care for us all just as He had cared for His servant, St. Edith Stein, and the many other people throughout the world, throughout the ages, who suffered because of their faith in Him. May God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Tuesday, 9 August 2016 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Matthew 18 : 1-5, 10, 12-14

At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the middle of the disciples, and said, “I assure you that, unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes lowly like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child in My Name receives me.”

“See that you do not despise any of these little ones, for I tell you : their Angels in heaven continually see the face of My heavenly Father. 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 get lost. It is the same with your Father in heaven : your Father in heaven does not want even one of these little ones to be lost.”

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Tuesday, 9 August 2016 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 118 : 14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131

I delight in following Your laws, more so than in all riches.

Your laws are my delight, my counsellors who uphold me.

Your Law is more precious to me than heaps of silver and gold.

How sweet are Your promises to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Your statutes are my heritage forever, they are the joy of my heart.

I gasp in ardent yearning for Your commandments that I love.

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Tuesday, 9 August 2016 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Ezekiel 2 : 8 – Ezekiel 3 : 4

YHVH spoke to Ezekiel, “Listen then, son of man, to what I say and do not be a rebel among rebels. Open your mouth and take in what I am about to say.”

I looked and saw a hand stretched out in front of me holding a scroll. He unrolled it before me; on both sides were written lamentations, groanings and woes. He said to me, “Son of man, eat what is given to you. Eat this scroll and then go; speak to the people of Israel.”

I opened my mouth and He made me eat the scroll and then He said to me, “Eat and fill yourself with this scroll that I am giving you.” I ate and it tasted as sweet as honey. He said, “Son of man, go to the Israelites; speak to them with My words.”

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Sunday, 9 August 2015 : Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we have heard the words of the Scripture readings which all told us about one aspect of God, that is how He cares for all of His beloved ones, and He showed them all that care, by providing them with what they need, first of all food, the food that perishes, the earthly sources of food that fill up our stomach, and then, more importantly, He provides us with the true Food that lasts forever.

In the first reading we heard how the prophet Elijah was desperate and suffering from torment, which if we understand the background of the story from the previous chapters, was because of the intense persecution which the wicked king Ahab of Israel and his wife, queen Jezebel had initiated against the faithful ones and especially against Elijah, after he had shown the power of God against the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal on Mount Carmel in Israel.

The armies and forces of the king were sent to capture and torture Elijah, and he was fleeing from all these. Rejected by his own king, by his own people, and with people crying and seeking for his blood, we can indeed see why Elijah was desperate and truly suffering from all the challenges he was facing then. But what is important is, we have to take note what God did with Elijah.

God gave Elijah food and drink to strengthen him and his body, and sent His angels to serve him. The nourishment empowered him and gave him the strength to go on for the journey he was to embark on, to the Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, to meet God and to find out what His will was for the people of Israel. This is together with another occasion in which God also sent ravens to feed Elijah during his time running from the authorities, to give him strength against all the difficult challenges.

And if we link this to how God showed His great love to the people of Israel during their time in the desert, then we will surely be able to understand how much God had loved us, that He provided everything we need for us. When the people of Israel were thirsty in the desert, He gave them crystal clear and sweet water that gushed out from the rocks itself to drink, and when they were hungry, the Lord gave them manna, the bread of angels from heaven to eat, as well as large birds to be their food.

And we know how Jesus fed the multitudes of five thousand men, not counting the women and children present then, and on another occasion, He also fed more than four thousand men and the accompanying women and children as well. He knew that they were hungry after following Him for days and not having any food with them, and He fed them, giving them what they need to sustain their body.

All these should have awakened us to the fact that God truly cares for us all, regardless of our sins and rebelliousness which had torn us apart from His grace and love. He who created us with love, continues to love us from time to time, again and again, and He would not let us go hungry or thirsty, and He would not let us go on unloved and without His grace wherever possible.

He gave us everything we need, and most important of all, which we should remember, is that He gave us all life. Life is a gift from God to us, that when His Spirit entered our bodies made from dust and the earth, His Spirit dwelled in us and life entered our bodies and we are alive. But many of us have seemed to forget about this fact, and we showed no gratitude at all to the Lord who had given us all that we need in life.

Hence, all of us really need to think of how we have lived our lives so far, and see whether we have been grateful for the love and all the blessings our Lord had given us. But then, we also have to look beyond mere worldly sustenance and the fulfillment of what our bodies require. And in this, we have to reflect on what our Lord Jesus had done, and what He had taught us.

When Jesus was in the desert, as He was fasting for forty days and forty nights in preparation for His ministry after His baptism at the Jordan, Satan tempted Him to turn the stones into bread to satisfy His hunger after fasting for such a long period of time. But Jesus rebuked Satan by saying that men do not live on bread alone, but on every words that came from the mouth of God.

This is truly significant, for we have to see it in terms of who Jesus really is. Jesus, if we look at the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John, is the Divine Word incarnate, He who is God, who was God, and who will ever be God, the Word that created all of creations including all of us, and the Word which came down from heaven by the will of God, that with the Holy Spirit, He assumed the flesh of man, and was born of the Virgin Mary.

He is truly Man, but at the same time, He is also truly and fully God. He has two natures, God and Man, distinct but completely and perfectly in harmony and united in Jesus Christ, Word of God made Man. And if we remember the passage from the Gospel today, how He referred to the ancestors of the people to whom He was speaking to, and how those people ate the manna but still died, this will help us to understand indeed.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Bread of Life, the Living Bread, and all who have share in Him, His Body and also His Blood, shall have eternal life and not die. Remember that Jesus rebuked Satan by saying that men do not live on bread alone but on every words that came from the mouth of God? Jesus is the Word, and all who share in Him, have life in them.

For those who ate of the bread of the world, including manna, the bread of heaven, all these satisfied only the needs of the flesh, which our Lord indeed had blessed us and provided for us whatever we need. But, more importantly, all of us are longing to be satisfied spiritually, in our hearts, minds and souls, that we may be made satisfied by whatever we receive from the Lord.

And this satisfaction comes from Christ alone, and when Christ gave us freely His Body and His Blood to be shared and to be received as part of us, we have essentially receive the spiritual and bodily nourishment for ourselves, and if we allow God to dwell in us, by receiving Him worthily, His Body and His Blood and Presence which is in the Eucharist, then we shall shine and be justified, and if our actions reflect what we have believed in, then we shall be saved.

Again, we see how God loves us so much, that He wants to make us complete, nourish us and make us whole again. For we have been tainted since sin entered into us, by the disobedience and rebellion which we have committed against Him from generation to generation. And only through God that we can be completely reconciled to Himself, and that was what Jesus had done.

That when we are all still sinners and unworthy, God had allowed Himself to take up the burden of the sins which we have committed, and placed upon His own shoulders the price and punishments for our sins, ever since the days of our first ancestors until today, and in the many years and time to come. He placed all of them on Himself, so that, by offering the perfect sacrifice of love, He may reconcile all of us to God, and be given a new chance at redemption and eternal life with God.

And those who share in His Body and His Blood, which He shed from the cross for us, will therefore receive the effects of God’s saving works, and thus also will be liberated from the bonds of sin, the wickedness of this world that had been holding us back all these while. Therefore, today, let us all pray for the grace that we may be ever strengthened in our faith and in our devotion to God, so that we can worthily receive our Lord and Master into ourselves, and as He dwell in us, He may bring us closer to life eternal.

May Almighty God be upon all of us, and give us all of His graces and blessings. And may He help us to overcome the weakness of our desires, so that we may be able to focus our own attention to seek out the true gift and goodness which came from God alone. May He bless us now and forever and give us His light to shine on our path to find Him. Amen.

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Sunday, 9 August 2015 : Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

John 6 : 41-51

At that time, the Jews murmured because Jesus had said, “I am the Bread which comes from heaven.” And they said, “This Man is the Son of Joseph, is He not? We know His father and mother. How can He say that He has come from heaven?”

Jesus answered them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent Me; and I will raise him up on the last day. It has been written in the Prophets : They shall all be taught by God. So whoever listens and learns from the Father comes to Me.”

“For no one has seen the Father except the One who comes from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Though your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, they died. But here you have the Bread which comes from heaven, so that you may eat of it, and not die.”

“I am the Living Bread which has come from heaven; whoever eats of this Bread will live forever. The Bread I shall give is My Flesh, and I will give it for the life of the world.”

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Sunday, 9 August 2015 : Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ephesians 4 : 30 – Ephesians 5 : 2

Do not sadden the Holy Spirit of God which you were marked with. It will be your distinctive mark on the day of salvation. Do away with all quarrelling, rage, anger, insults and every kind of malice : be good and understanding, mutually forgiving one another as God forgave you in Christ.

As most beloved children of God, strive to imitate Him. Follow the way of love, the example of Christ who loved you. He gave Himself up for us and became the offering and sacrificial victim whose fragrance rises to God.

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Sunday, 9 August 2015 : Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

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!