Sunday Mass

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Sunday, 6 June 2021 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, Corpus Christi (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 14 : 12-16, 22-26

At that time, on the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the day when the Passover Lamb was killed, the disciples asked Him, “Where would You have us go to prepare the Passover meal for You?”

So Jesus sent two of His disciples with these instructions, “Go into the city, and there, a man will come to you carrying a jar of water. Follow him to the house he enters and say to the owner, ‘The Master says, Where is the room where I may eat the Passover meal with My disciples?’ Then he will show you a large room upstairs, already arranged and furnished. There, you will prepare for us.”

The disciples went off. When they reached the city, they found everything just as Jesus had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them. And He said, “Take this. It is My Body.” Then He took a cup; and after He had given thanks, He passed it to them and they all drank from it.

And He said, “This is My Blood, the Blood of the Covenant, poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not taste the fruit of the vine again, until that day when I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.”

After singing psalms of praise, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

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Sunday, 6 June 2021 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, Corpus Christi (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Hebrews 9 : 11-15

But, now, Christ has appeared, as the High Priest, with regard to the good things of these new times. He passed through a Sanctuary more noble and perfect, not made by hands, that is not created. He did not take with Himself the blood of goats and bulls, but His own Blood, when He entered, once, and for all, into this Sanctuary, after obtaining definitive redemption.

If the sprinkling of people, defiled by sin, with the blood of goats and bulls, or with the ashes of a heifer, provides them with exterior cleanness and holiness, how much more will it be, with the Blood of Christ? He, moved by the eternal Spirit, offered Himself, as an unblemished Victim, to God, and His Blood cleanses us from dead works, so that we may serve the living God.

So, Christ is the Mediator of a new Covenant, or testament. His death made atonement for the sins committed under the old testament, and the promise is handed over, to all who are called to the everlasting inheritance.

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Sunday, 6 June 2021 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, Corpus Christi (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 115 : 12-13, 15 and 16bc, 17-18

How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to Me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the Name of the Lord.

It is painful to the Lord to see the death of His faithful. Truly Your servant, Your handmaid’s Son. You have freed Me from My bonds.

I will offer You a thanksgiving sacrifice; I will call on the Name of the Lord. I will carry out My vows to the Lord in the presence of His people.

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Sunday, 6 June 2021 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, Corpus Christi (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Exodus 24 : 3-8

Moses came and told the people all the words of YHVH and all His laws. The people replied with one voice : “Everything that YHVH has said, we shall do.”

Moses wrote down all the words of YHVH, then rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve raised stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. He then sent young men from among the sons of Israel to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice bullocks as peace offerings to YHVH.

And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins; and with the other half of the blood he sprinkled the altar. He then took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. They said, “All that YHVH said we shall do and obey.”

Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it on the people saying, “Here is the blood of the Covenant that YHVH has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

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Sunday, 6 June 2021 : Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we listened to the words of the Scripture in which we are called to remember the need for us to seek the Lord for His mercy and forgiveness, and not to remain in sin any longer, but allow the Lord to enter into our lives, into our hearts and deep into the very core of our beings, that we may be healed and purified from our sins. God alone can heal us from our sins, and from all those wickedness and sins, we have to be rescued and saved.

In our first reading today, we heard an account of the moment when mankind fell into sin, as our first ancestors, Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord and chose to listen to the words and lies of Satan, succumbing to the temptations of the evil one and to the temptations of their own selfish desires and pride. They chose to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil, and as such, sin entered into mankind for the very first time.

And because of that sin, mankind were cast out of the Gardens of Eden, and that was due to our own conscious choice in rejecting God and embracing the falsehoods of the devil instead. Yet, God did not just destroy or annihilate us, although He could have easily done so, or condemn us into hell for our sins, although He rightfully and justly could have done so, given that the punishment for sin is death, and death should have lead us into an eternity in hell.

But this did not happen because God still truly loved us despite all that we had done to spite Him, in rejecting, abandoning and betraying Him. God still loves us so much that He gives us chances and opportunities, again and again, reaching out to us, sending us reminders and help to allow us to find our way back to Him and to be reconciled to Him. This is what the Lord wants to do with us, because each and every one of us are precious in His sight. All of us have been created by God with love, and it is with this same love that the Lord continues to care for us.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the account of the confrontation between the Lord Jesus and the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who disagreed with Him and opposed His works, simply because He did not do things according to their preferences and path. They refused to believe in Him and even accused Him of colluding with Beelzebul, one of the princes and leaders of the demons. This was indeed a really grave accusation, one that is baseless and unbecoming of those who were supposed to know the Law and the Prophets better than others.

The Lord then told those who opposed Him that whatever He had done, all had come from the Lord and it was folly to suggest that the devil or his fellow demons could have any part of it. The irony is that, the devil and all of his allies were, although divided at times, no more united than at the moment that they are going against all of us, God’s faithful people. Although they might not be fully united in all things, but they all shared the desire to see the downfall of mankind, to drag us deep down with them into eternal damnation and suffering.

The Lord proved that it was folly and indeed malicious to accuse Him of colluding with the forces of evil in order to perform His miracles and healing, for after all, everything that He had done, were all done in accordance with the words of the Scriptures, with the words and teachings of the prophets, their predictions and prophecies, all of which spoke about Christ, His entry into this world and all that He would do for the salvation of all the whole world. But those who refused to believe in Him were blinded by their jealousy, pride and worldly desires, by the temptations of the flesh, that they fell, just as their ancestors had once fallen.

Those teachers of the Law and the Pharisees were also stubborn in their opposition against the Lord because they were angry at the Lord Jesus for claiming to be able to forgive sins when God alone is able to forgive sin. This again showed them succumbing to the temptations of their pride, their desire for power and influence within the community, that they refused to accept the truth that their way of observing the Law was incorrect, and that their teaching authority and leadership could be challenged by someone else far greater than they were.

St. Paul in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth reminded them and all of us to reject this path of sin, and to return to the Lord, seeking beyond the temptations of worldly pleasures and desires, and to wish for the true happiness that can be found in God alone. He reminded all the faithful that while things of this world will fade away and disappear, all sorts of earthly glory will eventually fail, the Lord alone is a source of certainty and assurance amidst all the uncertainties of this world. The Light of God is the light that leads us down the right path, and which we should follow instead of the path of sin.

Yet, many among us still chose to walk down that path of sin, following so many others who had fallen into the same temptations, and many still refused to follow the Lord, despite the fact that following the devil and his false path obviously and certainly will lead to our own destruction. That is because many of us are unable to resist the temptations present all around us, and our faith and trust in the Lord is weak. That is why we need to strengthen our faith in God by building up our relationship and connection with Him.

Many of us are still Christians in name and formality only, not living our faith in the genuine manner required of all of us. If this is how we are going to continue living our lives, then more likely than not we will end up falling further and deeper into the path of damnation through sin. We have to be careful because the allure of sin is truly powerful, and unless we take due precaution and care, we will be easily tempted by it. This is why, today, all of us are reminded of this fact, of the need for us to renew our relationship with God, and to be reconciled with Him through the Church.

The Lord has given us plenty of opportunities to be reconciled with Him, and most importantly, He wants to be reconciled with us. Are we still going to be stubborn and are we still going to refuse His love, mercy and compassion? Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, all that He has done for our sake, in His selfless giving of Himself on the Cross, that by His suffering and death we are freed from the tyranny of sin and shown the way to everlasting joy and true happiness, free from the bondage and power of sin that had us kept in chains for way too long.

All of us are called to return to God and to seek His ever generous and ever available mercy and compassion. Let us all be reconciled to Him and ask Him for His forgiveness, that by His grace and love, we may be made whole again, and be worthy to receive the fullness of His wonderful love as well as all the inheritance and things that have been intended for us as the most beloved and precious ones among all that He had created from the very beginning.

May the Lord be with us all, and may He strengthen each and every one of us with the resolve to remain faithful to Him, and to resist the temptations of our flesh, and the many allures of this world that we may walk in the right path, and staying true to the calling that the Lord has given us. May God bless us all in our every good works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 6 June 2021 : Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 3 : 20-35

At that time, Jesus and His disciples went home. The crowd began to gather again and they could not even have a meal. Knowing what was happening, His relatives came to take charge of Him, “He is out of His mind,” they said.

Meanwhile, the teachers of the Law, who had come from Jerusalem, said, “He is in the power of Beelzebul : the chief of the demons helps Him to drive out demons.”

Jesus called them to Him, and began teaching them by means of stories, or parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a nation is divided by civil war, that nation cannot stand. If a family divides itself into groups, that family will not survive. In the same way, if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he will not stand; he is finished.”

“No one can break into the house of a strong man in order to plunder his goods, unless he first ties up the strong man. Then indeed, he can plunder his house. Truly, I say to you, every sin will be forgiven humankind, even insults to God, however numerous. But whoever slanders the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He carries the guilt of his sin forever.”

This was their sin when they said, “He has an unclean spirit in Him.”

Then the mother and brothers of Jesus came. As they stood outside, they sent someone to call Him. The crowd sitting around Jesus told Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are outside asking for You.” He replied, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”

And looking around at those who sat there, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to Me.”

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Sunday, 6 June 2021 : Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

2 Corinthians 4 : 13 – 2 Corinthians 5 : 1

We have received the same spirit of faith referred to in Scripture, that says : I believed and so I spoke. We know that He, Who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us, with Jesus, and bring us, with you, into His presence. Finally, everything is for your good, so that grace will come more abundantly upon you, and great will be the thanksgiving for the glory of God.

Therefore, we are not discouraged. On the contrary, while our outer being wastes away, the inner self is renewed, from day to day. The slight affliction, that quickly passes away, prepares us for an eternal wealth of glory, so great, and beyond all comparison. So, we no longer pay attention to the things that are seen, but to those that are unseen, for the things that we see last for a moment, but that which cannot be seen is eternal.

We know that, when our earthly dwelling, or, rather, our tent, is destroyed, we may count on a building from God, a heavenly dwelling, not built by human hands, that lasts forever.

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Sunday, 6 June 2021 : Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 129 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-7a, 7bc-8

Out of the depths I cry to You, o Lord, o Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears pay attention to the voice of my supplication.

If You should mark our evil, o Lord, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness.

For that You are revered. I waited for the Lord, my soul waits, and I put my hope in His word. My soul expects the Lord more than watchmen the dawn.

O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with Him is unfailing love and with Him full deliverance. He will deliver Israel from all its sins.

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Sunday, 6 June 2021 : Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Genesis 3 : 9-15

YHVH God called the man saying to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard Your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree I ordered you not to eat?”

The man answered, “The woman You put with me gave me fruit from the tree and I ate it.” God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”

YHVH God said to the serpent, “Since you have done that, be cursed among all the cattle and wild beasts! You will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I will make you enemies, you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”

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Sunday, 30 May 2021 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Trinity Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday, on the Sunday after the Pentecost we celebrate the occasion of Trinity Sunday, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, of God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, celebrating one of the greatest mysteries of our Christian faith and one of its key and core tenets, that is our belief in the one and only True God, that is One and only One, and existing in a Godhood of Three distinct yet united Divine Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is what makes us distinct from other monotheistic Abrahamic beliefs, that we believe that the true nature of God is indeed, as revealed fully by the Lord Himself, is that of the Holy Trinity.

Many of us may not even know fully what the Holy Trinity is all about, and we do not appreciate this unique relationship between the Three Divine Persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is truly something that the members of the Early Church took decades and even centuries to understand better, which historically brought about many heresies and divisions just because some among the faithful and the leaders of the Church believed in a different nature of God, either in denying the divinity of the Son or the Holy Spirit, or in denying the distinct identity of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, or in denying the existence of the Holy Trinity altogether.

Through the earliest Ecumenical Councils of the Church, those heresies had been addressed and outlawed, and the authentic teachings of the Lord and His truth were preserved as it was from the days of the Apostles. Thus, defeated were the heresy of Arianism that denied the equality of the Father and the Son, that upheld the view of the Son being merely the firstborn of Creation and as a created Being rather than Co-Eternal and Co-Equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit from the beginning of time, as the Church has preserved in truth.

Then, through the faith and perseverance of the saints and the faithful Church fathers, were defeated the heresies of Nestorianism with their belief that the Lord has two distinct and separate natures in the Son, that the Divinity and the Humanity of the Son were separate and distinct, or the other extreme of Monophysitism believing that the Son has only one nature, rather than the truth which is that in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the two distinct natures of Divine and Man were united perfectly and inseparably through the bond of love.

All these showed us just how many among the faithful did not fully understand the tenets and the teachings of the Christian faith, particularly that regarding the nature of God and the Holy Trinity. That is why those divisions happened and threatened to destroy the Church and the faithful had it not been for the great efforts and perseverance from all those who had remained faithful and true to the teachings of the Lord and His Apostles, and defending the belief and truth of the Most Holy Trinity of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Triune God.

How do we then understand the Holy Trinity better, brothers and sisters in Christ? There are in fact many ways that we can use to appreciate better the nature of the Most Holy Trinity, in a more understandable and appreciable way. For example, St. Patrick, the famous missionary and Patron Saint of Ireland was remembered for his symbol of the shamrock, or a three-leaf clover that he used in order to explain the nature of God in the Holy Trinity to the pagans throughout Ireland, that they might come to understand Him better.

The symbolism of the shamrock is one of the ways that we can understand the nature of the Holy Trinity. For if one of the three leaves of the shamrock is taken away, then it is no longer the shamrocks as it is, incomplete and no longer can be properly called a shamrock. Each of the three leaves of the shamrock are also connected to each other and not distinct from each other while at the same time, each of the three leaves can be distinguished clearly from each other. They are therefore representative of the Holy Trinity, Three Divine Persons, but one Godhead, and one God in perfect unity, all Three distinct yet inseparable.

We can also use the example of the burning flame as a way to represent the Holy Trinity in a more understandable way. The burning flame produces heat, which many people for a long time had been using as a way to fend off cold and keep themselves warm. They also provide light to the place and dispel the darkness, so that we can see even in the darkest of nights and in places without any illumination. This light is produced as a result of the reaction between the particles involved in the burning, and lastly, the flame itself, which has a discernible shape, because it is in fact heated air and matter, that when heated produce that hue and shape of the flame.

If any of these properties and parts of the burning flame are missing or are taken out, then it will no longer be a burning flame. For example, if a burning flame were to lose its heat then we can definitely say that it is not a flame, no? For which flame that can be seen and yet does not give any heat, or burn us when we get too close? And if there is no light in the flame that will also be impossible, as any reactions that produce heat in the burning process will also generate light. And if we feel the heat and can see the light but cannot see the shape of the flame, it is also not a flame right?

Therefore, using these analogies and metaphors, comparisons and otherwise we can see that there are actually quite a few ways and observations we see on things around us that can show us briefly a glimpse of what the Holy Trinity is all about. The Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit shows us that while we can see the distinctive Three Divine Persons, manifesting Themselves in different ways, but They are all together, constituting the same, inseparable unity of the One and only God, the Creator of all.

At the moment of Creation, we can see all the Three Divine Persons at work, as God the Father willed Creation and the entire Universe into being, while God the Son, the Divine Word of God, is the Word by which Creation came to be, through words like ‘Let there be light’ and others. And lastly, God the Holy Spirit existed since before Creation and time, as represented in the accounts of the Book of Genesis as floating above the nothingness before Creation, present everywhere and in all things.

And when God created man, He said that, ‘Let Us create man in Our image’, in a clear and obvious representation that while God is One, but He also exists in a Trinity, inseparable unity between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, when this ‘Us’ and ‘Our’ pronouns were used to describe God in this occasion. Then, when the Lord was baptised by St. John the Baptist at the Jordan, again we see the Holy Trinity in action, in Their three distinct Persons, the Father’s Voice speaking from Heaven, the Son, Jesus Christ, in the water being baptised, while the Holy Spirit, descending down to the world from the Father and to the Son, in the form of a Dove.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have listened and discussed today regarding the Holy Trinity of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, all of us are now then called to remember our mission and calling as Christians to be the bearers of the truth of God, including the mystery of His Holy Trinity to all the peoples of all the nations, revealing this truth we ourselves have received from the Lord and passing the truth to more and more people that they too may come to believe in God.

The Lord has commanded all of us to go forth and baptise all the peoples of all the nations, in the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, sealing them in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, believing in the same one God Who exists in the Triune unity of Three Divine Persons, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. This is our faith and this is what we believe in, and brothers and sisters, we have to stand fast by what our faith is about. We must deepen our understanding of the Christian faith, the nature of the Holy Trinity and other truth we have received through the Church.

Now, let us all therefore dedicate ourselves to the Lord anew this Sunday as we celebrate this great Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Through our common baptism, let us all proclaim our Lord, the One and only True God of all, as the One God, with Three Divine Persons, the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, that all may come to know Him, through His love and through our knowledge of the truth, which we bear in our own lives from now on, if we have not done so yet.

Let us all be faithful and committed Christians through our lives, in our every actions and deeds, so that in everything that we say and do, we will show our Christian faith and truth to all, and everyone who sees us, hears us, and witnesses our actions and deeds, interacting and working with us, all may come to know that we belong to the Lord, and that hopefully they may also be touched by the Lord’s presence through us, and come to believe in Him as well.

May the Lord be with us all, and may He strengthen each and every one of us that we may always be firm in our faith and be genuine in living our lives daily with faith, from now on. May God, the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit bless us all in our every efforts, good works and endeavours, and be our Guide at all times. Amen.