Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 147 : 12-13, 14-15, 19-20
Exalt the Lord, o Jerusalem; praise your God, o Zion! For He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your children within you.
He grants peace on your borders and feeds you with the finest grain. He sends His command to the earth and swiftly runs His word.
It is He who tells Jacob His words, His laws and decrees to Israel. This He has not done for other nations, so His laws remain unknown to them. Alleluia!
Liturgical Colour : White (Priests)
1 Corinthians 9 : 16-19, 22-23
Because I cannot boast of announcing the Gospel : I am bound to do it. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! If I preached voluntarily, I could expect my reward, but I have been trusted this office against my will. How can I, then, deserve a reward? In announcing the Gospel, I will do it freely without making use of the rights given to me by the Gospel.
So, feeling free with everybody, I have become everybody’s slave in order to gain a greater number. To the weak I made myself weak, to win the weak. So I made myself all things to all people in order to save, by all possible means, some of them. This I do for the Gospel, so that I too have a share of it.
Liturgical Colour : Green
The Lord is love, and He cares for us like a father cares for his children. That is no mere love, but unconditional love, a form of pure love between individuals that is corrupted neither by worldly desires nor by our personal desires. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that, in essence, is what the love and dedication the Lord our God has for us, as our Father and Creator, and as our friend and caretaker.
Much blessings and graces He had prepared for us, and He had prepared His angels to come and serve to our needs. It does not mean that ever since we have sinned against God, then we are forever cut out of His loving embrace. In fact, He brings us even closer towards Himself and tries His best to return us to the path of the righteous that we will live in glory and not die in condemnation.
All these He had generously prepared for us, and everything is ready to be unleashed upon us, awaiting only for our call to Him. Just like a father and his children, that if the children call out for the father in need of something, that father will rush immediately to his children’s side, leaving everything that he is currently doing, and ready to deliver to his children, his help and his undying love.
Such is the nature of God’s love for us, and we are truly special to Him, each and every one of us. The Lord needs us only to call out to Him. Yes, we only need to ask and knock at His doors, and He will certainly answer us. What we need is simply to come and approach Him with an open heart, open for His love and care for us. If we do not knock, or if we are afraid to approach Him because of our fear for His anger, then we will never gain access to the Lord’s unfailing help.
The Lord also does not punish us or rebuke us without a clear reason, and neither did He punish us because He took pleasure in seeing our suffering and pain. On the contrary, what He truly wished from us is our liberation from sin, and the chains of slavery which had bounded us to sin from the beginning of time.
He admonishes us and punishes us like a father punishing his child, driven not by hatred or anger, but by love, genuine love he has for his child. Therefore, in the same way, God who is our Father also loves us so dearly that, in order to prevent us from falling again into sin and therefore risk losing us for eternity to damnation in hell, He makes Himself available for us, to seek, to knock at His door, and to seek for His love and mercy.
We have to remember the fundamental thing that, we belong to the Lord, and therefore, it is natural that He wants us to behave exactly like what He expects of us, that is to be good and loving just as He is good and loving. He, as our eternal Father certainly will not let harm or evil come to us. He will use all within His power to deliver us from the hands of Satan, and He will make sure that we remain in the light.
That is why, brethren, let us, from now on, commit ourselves to love the Lord our God and Father ever more, and no longer walk in the path of sin and darkness, but instead walk in the light with God. May the Lord who loves us with all of His heart, continue to love us and empower us with His love, that we too may love Him in the same way, as well as loving our fellow brothers and sisters, the same children of God.
For too long we have belonged in the darkness, and it is time for us to rise up and walk towards God’s love. Let us wait no longer and instead accept the offer of the Lord’s salvation, He who extended His hands for us all, that we may walk in His path and be saved, in eternal life of bliss and joy in heaven. May God Almighty and ever-loving Lord continue to strengthen us with His love, protecting us and caring for us, admonishing us whenever we err in our path, but at the same time, giving us hope for eternal salvation in Him.
God be with us all and may He open His door, the door of His love to us, just as we open the doors of our heart to His loving presence. Amen.
Matthew 12 : 14-21
Then the Pharisees went out and made plans to get rid of Jesus. As Jesus was aware of their plans, He left that place. Many people followed Him, and He cured all who were sick. Then He gave them strict orders not to make Him known. In this way Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled : ‘Here is My servant whom I have chosen, the One I love, and with whom I am pleased. I will put My Spirit upon Him and He will announce My judgment to the nations.’
‘He will not argue or shout, nor will His voice be heard in the streets. The bruised reed He will not crush nor snuff out the smoldering wick. He will persist until justice is made victorious, and in Him all the nations will put their hope.’
Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us should be happy, indeed, because we have faith in the Lord, even though we do not see Him physically walking with us in this world. Yes, He is with us, all the days of our life, even without us knowing about it. But how faithful are we to the Lord? We live in a world today that is obsessed with things visual and physical, and it is increasingly difficult for many to find God as something tangible in their lives.
St. Thomas did not believe at first because he was not at the meeting when Jesus appeared to His disciples, and the doubt and fear in his heart, which has grown ever since the tragic death of Christ on the cross, prevented him from believing in the Risen Lord, our God and Saviour. Indeed, for a rational man, and a man thinking about the natural order, it is simply impossible and unbelievable that someone could have risen from the dead, much less to appear physically to the living.
And yet, that is the truth that is our faith. Our faith has its core and foundation in our belief in the Christ suffering, Christ crucified, and ultimately, the most important of all, the Risen Christ, the conquering Lord of life and death, and no one has authority over Him, not even death. It is His triumph over death that is the centrepiece of our faith.
If Christ is just a man, and that He died on the cross, then that death would have been a waste, because then He would have ended His ministry in this world short. But the Lord is fully divine just as He is fully human. He is both the Lord our God, Lord of all the universe, and a humble, lowly man at the same time. His death and then His resurrection had opened a new door of hope for mankind. For Christ is the only bridge that bridged the infinite chasm that lie before us and God.
The Lord risen from the dead shows us that death does not have the final say on us. Throughout history, people have been searching for ways to prevent them from dying, and also to extend their life in this world, but they have failed to do so, because ever since the first mankind, death has always claimed all men without exception. Death is the fate and punishment that awaits all of us for breaking our covenant with the Lord, by our disobedience and sinful ways.
God who loves us did not give up on us, but gave us a new hope through Christ, the only hope for salvation. It is only through Christ that we can reach back towards the Lord our God. That is why our faith in Him as our Lord and Saviour is essential for all of us. But this world has been corrupted by evil, and as you noticed, the increasing influence of science and secularisation.
Science itself is not evil, and is indeed good, but it is the underlying principle of science, that championed reason and rationality above all things, and coupled with the great reduction in the influence of God and His Church to many, that brought much harm both to the world and to the Church, and of course, to the people of God.
Secularisation came because mankind began to discover many wonderful discoveries they claim for their own, and they began to question whether God is really present in their lives, and whether He is truly real. Mankind began to look for things that are real and tangible, and something that they can visually see and touch, just as the principles of science, which stated that something had to be proven by tests and reason so that it is the real deal. Because God seemed to be distant and intangible, mankind began to question their faith and walk away from the Lord, just as what happened to St. Thomas, who doubted that the Lord had risen from the dead, because he did not witness His appearing to the disciples.
That is why, it is important for all of us to remain faithful to the Lord. Faith is not just by being able to visually see something and then we believe, but faith involve more than just our vision and our sense of feel and touch, but it involves our hearts and soul. Deep in our hearts, all of us know that the Lord is there. He is real and tangible, through our actions, through our words, when we base them on His teachings. For is it not that God is Love? Yes, exactly as He had commanded us to love, through love, God is made manifest to the world, through the apostles, and through us.
God wants us to love Him, just as He had loved us, to the point of sacrificing Himself on the cross, that through the shedding of His Body and His Blood, we may be cleansed from the filth of sin, and be reunited with Him, in the everlasting bliss of eternal life. This Year of the Faith is a very good opportunity for all of us to renew our commitment to the Lord, so that we will be once again close to Him. St. Thomas’ example is an example of how we should indeed love the Lord even without us seeing Him. What we need is to feel Him through our hearts, through our love, that reflects the nature of God, who is Love.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us renew our resolve to the Lord, that we will be ever more faithful to Him, and ever more loving to Him and to all His children, our brethren. Let us all fall on our knees and worship Him who had given up His life for us so that we may live, and let our faith be an example for all the world to see, that we belong to our God, a God who loves us, cares for us, and is faithful to us, even when we ourselves had been unfaithful and rebellious.
May God grant us the gift of faith, and strengthen the faith in our heart, that the Lord will be ever close to us, in our heart, that we will always be in His grace, forever and ever. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast day of St. Irenaeus, who was a bishop and martyr hailing from the early Church. St. Irenaeus emphasized the teachings of the Apostles and the tradition of the faith in opposition to the numerous heresies of man born in the turbulent times of the second century Church. He especially defended the episcopacy and Church hierarchy, particularly the primacy of the successors of St. Peter, the Bishops of Rome.
He defended the teachings of the Church and the people of God from influences such as Gnosticism, which syncretic practices threatened to destroy the young Church from within. His role is therefore crucial in ensuring that the true, orthodox faith in the Lord can remain undisturbed and flourished in the next centuries after his death, while that of the heresies dwindling into oblivion.
He gave his full trust to the Lord, and steadfastly defended the faith. He believed in God who is loving and merciful, the Lord who healed the leper in the Gospel reading today, the Lord who gave Abraham the words of His promise, and kept fully to the promise, by granting Abraham his promised son, Isaac, through Sarah, even when she had been very old.
Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord and God wants to heal us, and grant us His blessings and grace, that is if we remain faithful to Him and show our love and dedication to our God and creator. Our Lord and God is kind, and He wants to bring all of us scattered throughout the world back to Him, like a shepherd tending to his sheep, and searching for the lost ones, to make sure that no sheep may fall to be prey of wolves.
That He had done through His teachings that He had passed down through the Apostles. The Apostles themselves and their successors are shepherds in God’s image of the Good Shepherd, ever ready to defend the faith, both from the pagans and the heresies that came from within the Church itself. They worked hard, like the way St. Irenaeus had done, to defend the sheep of the Lord from the wolves of heresy, and the wolves of this world.
We should indeed rejoice, because despite our sinfulness and our rebellious nature, God wants to save us through the covenants He had made, first that He made with Abraham, and one that was renewed into a new covenant by Christ, the Son of God, by His death on the cross in Calvary. That He gave Himself, His own life, His Body and His Blood for us, so that we can be saved, is testimony enough of His love for us, and proof enough why He is the only One worthy of praise and worship.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, emulating the example of St. Irenaeus, the valiant defender of the faith of the early Church, his contemporaries, the Apostles and the early Church Fathers, let ourselves be resolved to defend our faith in the Lord against all kinds of aberrant teachings that seek to diminish the divinity and the love of our God, teachings that are like wolves preying on weak and unsuspecting sheep, our very own brothers and sisters.
That is why there is an ever greater need to strengthen the faith within all of us, empowering ourselves so that all of us may remain steadfast in our faith, the true faith as beheld by St. Irenaeus and the Apostles, amidst the numerous currents in this world, the currents of heresy, the currents of worldliness, and the currents of evil. These currents corrupt mankind and will bring us away from God and salvation in Him.
Remain strong, brothers and sisters in Christ! and pray for one another at all times, that God will defend us against the evils of this world. May God always be with all of us. Amen.
2 Corinthians 12 : 1-10
It is useless to boast; but if I have to, I will go on to some visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a certain Christian : fourteen years ago he was taken up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. But I know that this man, whether in the body or out of the body – I do not know, God knows – was taken up to Paradise where he heard words that cannot be told : things which humans cannot express.
Of that man I can indeed boast, but of myself I will not boast except of my weaknesses. If I wanted to boast, it would not be foolish of me, for I would speak the truth. However, I better give up lest somebody think more of me than what is seen in me or heard from me.
Lest I become proud after so many and extraordinary revelations, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a true messenger of Satan, to slap me in the face. Three times I prayed to the Lord that it leave me, but He answered, “My grace is enough for you; My great strength is revealed in weakness.”
Gladly, then, will I boast of my weakness that the strength of Christ may be mine. So I rejoice when I suffer infirmities, humiliations, want, persecutions : all for Christ! For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how we should love God and do things for the sake of the Lord, but we must do it because we truly love Him, with the full sincerity of the heart, and not with any hidden intentions or desires. It is natural for us to have those kind of desires, to be glorified and praised ourselves, as it is part of our human nature. We are naturally attracted to glory and power, and that is why, even in the things that we do, we would certainly want to be praised and glorified for the successes we achieved.
When we pray, when we fast, and when we do things that the Lord told us to do, do it in secret and in our own private space, although it is not wrong indeed to do it in the open. That is because when we do things in secret, we are safe from the presence of others who can look at what we are doing. In doing that, it will remove that obstacle of pride from our hearts, because when someone is with us, we no longer focus on ourselves when we pray, and because we subconsciously know that someone is looking at us, and we are certainly tempted to exaggerate things so that people would praise us.
When we closed off ourselves from the world, in our prayer, our fasting, and our almsgiving, we can then focus solely on the Lord, and to whom we give the alms to. So that we will not be led astray and instead believe in our own personal human glory instead of bringing glory to God. Remember that prayer is a conversation between ourselves and the Lord, not a means through which we should glorify ourselves by showing our piety to others.
It does not mean then we should never pray in public or do something pious in view of others. Indeed, doing it at the right moment, and especially with the right intentions and understandings would enable us to be tools of evangelisation, as these also may bring light and understanding to others who had no understanding about the faith in the Lord. Through our prayers, our actions, which we share to them, we will be able to bring a new light to them, and may even bring them to salvation through their acceptance of Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
Yes, whenever we pray, fast, or do something according to our faith, be it in public, or in private, do it for the right intentions, and for the right state of our heart and mind. That we do these all for the glory of God, and God alone, and for the sanctification and purification of our sinful self and the salvation of our soul, and not to accumulate and gather human glories and human praises.
If we know then how to pray sincerely with our heart, and use that chance to truly communicate with the Lord who loves us, and wants to speak with us, we will then find the true meaning of our faith in God, and we will be enriched in our own lives, by the love that God gives us and through His grace, that He grants to those who truly loves Him, and not merely loving themselves in the guise of loving God.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be sincere in all our actions, and do not place ourselves before the Lord in all things. Do not place our desires and our greed to take over us and make us fall into sin, yes, into the sin of pride, because we glorify ourselves rather than God. Be truthful in all our actions, and do them because we truly love the Lord in all the things that we do. Do not seek personal glory, but glorify the Lord at all times.
For human glory is fleeting, and human achievements are temporary in nature. But great is the glory and the reward that await us in heaven, if we remain faithful, truthful, and steadfast in our faith in God, and remain in His love. Remain always in God’s grace, and He will grant us the eternal reward of glory in heaven. Seek not what will not last, but seek what will last forever.
Today, we also commemorate the feast of St. Romuald, a well known religious and abbot, whose life was truly exemplary to us. St. Romuald was once a sinful man, who indulged in all things evil in his youth, and led a debauched life. But after a life-changing experience and revelation of the faith, he changed his ways, and became a truly holy and dedicated person for the Lord. He founded many monasteries and established a strong monastic practice in the society at the time.
St. Romuald in particular placed a great importance on the understanding on the faith, and the serenity of oneself in prayer, that one can be truly be united with God, and truly focus themselves to the Lord their God, avoiding any kind of distractions that may lead them astray from the path of salvation. St. Romuald’s life also shows the kind of prayer that the Lord wants from us, a prayer made out of pure love and dedication for the Lord, in the silence of our hearts. It does not mean that all of us should become monks or join the religious orders in order to do so, but even a simple act of taking a time in silence, in the midst of the business of our lives, we can achieve this, that through a well-conceived prayer, our faith in God will grow ever stronger, and we will be ever closer to Him.
May God strengthen us, strengthen the edge of our humility, and remind us at all times to bring glory to Him, and not to strive for our own personal glory. May He bless us at all times in all the things that we do, that in all that we do, we bring life and love to all around us, that in whatever things that we do, God will be praised and glorified, forever and ever. Amen.
Ezekiel 34 : 11-16
Indeed, YHVH says this : “I myself will care for My sheep and watch over them. As the shepherd looks after his flock when he finds them scattered, so will I watch over My sheep and gather them from all the places where they were scattered in a time of cloud and fog.”
“I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from other countries. I will lead them to their own land and pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in all the valleys and inhabited regions of the land. I will take them to good pastures on the high mountains of Israel. They will rest where the grazing is good and feed in lush pastures on the heights of Israel.”
“I Myself will tend My sheep and let them rest, word of YHVH. I will search for the lost and lead back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the fat and strong will be eliminated. I will shepherd My flock with justice.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we heard today about the parable of the tenants in a vineyard, which Jesus told to the people, in order to foreshadow His own sacrifice on the cross as the Son of God, and as the Saviour. Indeed, Jesus Christ, who died for all of us, is the person whom Jesus told as the son of the owner of the vineyard, who was murdered in cold blood by the evil tenants who wanted to grab the vineyard as their own.
How does then, this story relates to the salvific mission of Christ in this world? It may be a bit difficult to see at first, but as you can see, that vineyard is none other than our world! It is a representative of our world, told by Jesus in a parable. To us, to whom the Lord had revealed His truth and knowledge, the truth cannot be further than that. Who are we then in that world? We are the vineyard tenants, who had been entrusted with the care of the vineyard by the owner of that vineyard, the owner of the world, that is our one and only God.
We had been entrusted with this world ever since creation, when God created mankind from dust, and to the first men, God had given the earth with all things inside it under our authority and our care, just like how the owner entrusted the vineyard to the tenants, whom he wished that they work hard and toil in the vineyard, producing much fruits, and bring profits to both the owner and of course, the tenants themselves.
But, just as what happened to the tenants afterwards, the same too had often happened in our world. Instead of being responsible and playing their parts as stated in the tenants’ agreement with their owner, that they should give him part of the profits, they abused their power and authority given to them, and therefore, violating the agreement that were in place between them and the owner.
The same too had happened repeatedly throughout the history of mankind. Man, since their first disobedience, in Adam and Eve our ancestors, by disobeying God’s commands, had become sinful and through sin, we had become increasingly abusive of the authorities granted to us. Through our greed and our desire, we become protective of our entitlements and did not give glory to God of what is His due, and instead, glorifying ourselves, and focus on our own human glory.
But in the parable, the owner did not remain quiet, and he sent many servants whom he entrusted with the dialogue between them and the tenants, that they pass to the tenants the message of the owner, desiring to renew that commitment. Who then are these servants in our world? The prophets! Remember the many prophets that God had sent over the history of mankind, and many of them brought the word of God to the people, but the people remained adamant and proud in their rebellious ways.
They even slaughtered God’s prophets and messengers, much as how the tenants of the vineyard slay the servants of the owner, even as more and more servants were sent their way. They remained solid in their rebelliousness and their pride, unwilling to submit to God’s authority.
Then ultimately the owner sent his own son, arguing that because it was his own son, certainly the rebellious tenants would fear and obey him, just as they should have obeyed the owner. That son, as I had mentioned, is indeed Jesus, that is Jesus Christ our Lord, the Son of God. God so loved the world, and such is His love that He did not want that we who rebelled against Him be condemned to eternal death in hell with Satan the deceiver.
That is why He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, through whom the world would finally see its salvation. But the people rejected Him, and not only rejection, but they even condemned Him to death, death on the cross. That was exactly how the son of the owner was killed in cold blood by the tenants, because the tenants thought that they would be gaining the inheritance of the vineyard if they killed the son.
The same too happened to us, because in our pride and our stone-hearted nature, many of us rejected Christ and the truth He brought to us. The world itself is against the Lord, because the world is of the evil one, while Christ does not belong to the world, because He is holy as He is perfect. That is why the world also hates those who follow Christ, because those who follow Christ are not like those rebellious tenants. Because by following Christ, we are transformed, from those rebellious tenants in the Gospel we heard today, to the true tenants of the land, by following the way of the Lord.
Life will not be easy for the disciples of the Lord, just as the first reading today told us about Tobit, the Israelite exile, who grew wealthy in foreign lands, but yet, opposition was rampant all around him, and he faced the fact of that opposition directly when his son told him about an Israelite who was strangled on the roadside. That was yet another example on how the world, who represent the rebelliousness of those wayward tenants, hate Christ and those who hear His word and follow Him.
Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Charles Lwanga, a great missionary, who was also martyred for his faith. He did a lot of great work in evangelisation and conversion in his native Uganda, and was martyred for his conversion of Ugandans, whose king persecuted Christians whom he perceived as a threat to the society of the people at the time. St. Charles Lwanga remained faithful even unto death, and through his death, received the heavenly glory of sainthood through martyrdom.
Be courageous and strong, brothers and sisters in Christ, remember that Jesus told us that the owner will not stay silent, and will rise to destroy the evil tenants. Our God is a merciful and loving God, but He is also a just and good God, who dislikes all things evil. Therefore, the Lord will also rise on the last days, to destroy those whom persecuted God’s people. Remain faithful and remain in God’s grace, and He will reward us. Have the strong faith in God like St. Charles Lwanga had, and remain in His favour.
St. Charles Lwanga, pray for us. May God be with us and give us courage to fight against the evils of this world, and may all of us be good tenants of the vineyard of the Lord, responsible and just in our power and authority over what God has given to us. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 