Sunday Mass

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Sunday, 1 November 2020 : Solemnity of All Saints (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 5 : 1-12a

At that time, when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up the mountain. He sat down and His disciples gathered around Him. Then He spoke and began to teach them :

“Fortunate are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Fortunate are those who mourn; they shall be comforted. Fortunate are the gentle; they shall possess the land.”

“Fortunate are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied. Fortunate are the merciful, for they shall find mercy. Fortunate are those with pure hearts, for they shall see God.”

“Fortunate are those who work for peace; they shall be called children of God. Fortunate are those who are persecuted for the cause of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”

“Fortunate are you, when people insult you and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you because you are My followers. Be glad and joyful, for a great reward is kept for you in God.”

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Sunday, 1 November 2020 : Solemnity of All Saints (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 3 : 1-3

See what singular love the Father has for us : we are called children of God, and we really are. This is why the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Beloved, we are God’s children, and what we shall be has not, yet, been shown. Yet, when He appears in His glory, we know, that we shall be like Him, for, then, we shall see Him as He is. All who have such a hope, try to be pure, as He is pure.

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Sunday, 1 November 2020 : Solemnity of All Saints (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 23 : 1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6

The earth and its fullness belong to YHVH, the world and all that dwell in it. He has founded it upon the ocean and set it firmly upon the waters.

Who will ascend the mountain of YHVH? Who will stand in His holy place? Those with clean hands and pure heart, who desire not what is vain.

They will receive blessings from YHVH, a reward from God, their Saviour. Such are the people who seek Him, who seek the face of Jacob’s God.

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Sunday, 1 November 2020 : Solemnity of All Saints (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Revelations 7 : 2-4, 9-14

I saw another Angel, ascending from the sunrise, carrying the seal of the living God, and he cried out with a loud voice, to the four Angels empowered to harm the earth and the sea, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.”

Then, I heard the number of those marked with the seal : a hundred and forty-four thousand, from all the tribes of the people of Israel. After this, I saw a great crowd, impossible to count, from every nation, race, people and tongue, standing before the Throne, and the Lamb, clothed in white, with palm branches in their hands, and they cried out with a loud voice, “Who saves, but our God, Who sits on the Throne, and the Lamb?”

All the Angels were around the Throne, the elders and the four living creatures; they, then, bowed before the Throne, with their faces to the ground, to worship God. They said, “Amen, Praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honour, power and strength to our God forever and ever. Amen!”

At that moment, one of the elders spoke up, and said to me, “Who are these people clothed in white, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, it is you who know this.” The elder replied, “They, are those who have come out of the great persecution, they have washed, and made their clothes white, in the Blood of the Lamb.”

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Sunday, 25 October 2020 : Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday all of us are reminded by God through the words of the Scripture of what it means for us to be Christians in loving and obeying God’s will and His laws and commandments. As we all have heard, primarily, the Law and commandments of God are about love, the love of God first and foremost before all else, and the love of our fellow neighbours, our fellow brothers and sisters in the same Lord.

This is why as Christians we cannot be ignorant of this Law and our need to obey the Lord with true and sincere devotion. We have to recognise that through the love of God each and every one of us have been immensely blessed, favoured and are truly fortunate. It was because of this love which God showed us that the whole world could have been saved. For it was our fate that we ought to have been condemned and destroyed for our sins, but God’s enduring love for us did not allow that to happen.

That was what the Lord Himself had mentioned in the Book of Exodus on the instructions He gave the people of Israel that He had led out of the land of Egypt regarding matters such as how they ought to treat one another, behave as His people and His followers. The Lord told them that they ought to do good to others, and not to oppress them, just as they themselves had been rescued from oppression and slavery in Egypt. They should take good care of those who were vulnerable like widows and orphans, and they were also not to take advantage and make profits over others.

Essentially, the Lord wants each and every one of us to follow His examples in love, to show genuine love and compassion to each other, and not hatred, anger, or to be jealous or egoistic in our actions and interactions with one another. The Lord wants us to be truly faithful to Him and obey His Law with understanding of His intentions of why He has given us His laws. And it is that He wants us to turn to Him and find our way to Him, to rediscover the love which we ought to have for Him, and centre our lives once again on Him.

Unfortunately, as the Lord gave His people the Law and made His Covenant with them, they refused to obey Him and often went against Him and betrayed Him for other gods and by their wicked deeds. As soon as God made a Covenant with them, and not long after He liberated them from Egypt and led them out of slavery, with mighty deeds and showing His love to them before their own eyes, they chose to erect for themselves a golden calf to be worshipped as a false god and idol.

And over many times throughout the Exodus and their journey to the Promised Land, the Israelites had repeatedly doubted the Lord, complained and groaned against Him, complaining that they did not have enough or they had it much better even in slavery in Egypt, when the Lord had obviously shown great care and love for them, giving them provisions of the heavenly bread manna each day, as well as flocks of birds in the evening and good water to drink throughout their long journey in the lifeless and empty desert.

That was why God gave Moses series of instructions and rules, which eventually became the Law of Moses as codified in the Torah. God wanted His people to follow those rules and obey them in the context of that time, when they were constantly disobeying Him and therefore were in great danger of falling into damnation and destruction. For those who continued to sin and refused to turn towards the Lord would be judged by their own sins, by their own conscious choice to refuse the love and mercy of God.

Therefore, even in all these, we can see what God’s true intention was when He gave His Law to His people. It was out of His love for them, His desire to be reconciled with them and to keep them away from destruction that would surely happen to them if they disobeyed Him and continued to live in sin. The Law was meant to be a guide and inspiration for them all to follow and obey that they might discipline themselves and keep their wicked desires and all the temptations of the world in check.

Unfortunately, all of these were misunderstood and the true meaning and purpose of the Law ended up being forgotten as time passed on. The people ended up seeing the Law as merely a formality and even for some, a burden to be fulfilled lest they incurred the wrath of God. The people misunderstood God’s intentions and became fearful of Him. And this became worse as over the centuries, modifications and extensions of the Law, its interpretation by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law ended up misleading the faithful and the people.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were very strict in their observance of the Law, and it was such that they caused great difficulty for the people in their enforcement of the standards of the rules and regulations, that many of the people were unable to keep up with its standards. Unfortunately, in truth, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law themselves were unable to observe all of those laws according to their own standards.

That was likely why the Pharisees asked the Lord, what is the most important commandment in the Law, partly to test the Lord and also partly out of their own desire to know that out of all those rules, regulations and commandments, which one was the most important one. And out of all these, in their busy preoccupations and being distracted by their obsession in obeying the Law according to their own flawed and incomplete understanding and interpretation.

The Lord therefore wants us all to realise that first of all God loves each and every one of us without exception. And through the Law that God has granted and revealed to us, the Lord wanted to show us the path leading us to Himself, through love. As the Lord plainly and clearly explained to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, that the whole Law, in its entirety, can be summarised into two main laws, that is in itself is all about love.

Just as the Lord has loved us all so much, that He has cared for us and given us His Law to guide us down the right path, to prevent us from falling into sin, then each and every one of us should indeed love Him first and foremost, in the same manner as He has loved us from the very beginning. That is why our lives must be Christ-centric, revolving around God and His teachings and ways. We should focus our time, effort and attention on the Lord and do whatever we can to serve Him and glorify Him.

And in order to do so, we have to love our fellow brothers and sisters, our neighbours and fellow men too. We cannot truly love God if we have not loved our fellow brethren in the same way that we love ourselves. After all, if we truly love God, then shouldn’t we also love those whom God has loved? If God loves each and every one of us equally without any exception, and shows mercy and compassion even to the greatest of sinners, then why can’t we do the same as well?

Many of us may think that being faithful Christians just means for us to fulfil our obligations such as going to the Holy Mass on Sundays and other Holy Days of Obligations, fast and abstain during the times stipulated by the Church and others. But these laws and rules established by the Church ultimately came from the Law of God, as revealed and fleshed out by the Lord Himself through His Apostles. And we have clearly heard how the Lord intended for us to love Him. In the same way, all those laws of the Church are meant to lead us towards God.

That is why, we cannot be lukewarm in living our faith. Many of us grumbled and complained even in fulfilling the basic obligations of our faith, and were not fully attentive and participative at the Holy Mass. We cannot wait until we can resume our daily routines and other worldly things in our minds, and we even consider all of that a waste of our precious time. Aren’t we ashamed of our lack of faith and our inappropriate conduct, brothers and sisters in Christ?

We must not forget that the Holy Mass is a constant reminder of the loving sacrifice that the Lord Himself had done for our sake from the Cross. He willingly bore our sins and all of their consequences, all the punishments due for us, on His own shoulders, bearing the wounds and hurts, all the sufferings for our sake. He poured His own Precious Blood to mark and seal a new Covenant with each and every one of us, the New and Eternal Covenant of Love, as a tangible and true revelation and evidence of His enduring love.

The Lord Himself had shown the perfect example of love to each and every one of us, by loving all of us, His brothers and sisters, and also obeying His heavenly Father’s will, bringing the Law in its fullness and showing us that it is indeed possible to be truly obedient to the Law. What matters then is, are we willing to follow the Lord’s examples and love Him, and love one another just in the manner that He has shown us? Or are we too busy with ourselves, to selfish, too distracted by temptations and desires to be able to do this?

As Christians, let our actions be filled with love, and not just any kind of love, but selfless and genuine love, especially towards all those who need this love. We should reach out to those who are unloved, rejected by others, and as the Lord Himself said, that we should love even all of our enemies, all those who have hurt us, forgiving them and asking for forgiveness ourselves, for any of the faults and hurts that we may have intentionally or unintentionally inflicted on them.

In our world today, there has been a lot of hatred, anger, injustice and many other things caused by the selfishness of mankind. And because of this, our calling as Christians is to be the difference, to show love where there has been anger and hatred, to show forgiveness, compassion and mercy where there has been conflict, divisions and disputes, to show the selfless love of God when we are frequently tempted to put ourselves and our selfish desires above the needs of others.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, to be true Christians in our daily living is not going to be easy. If we find it easy to be Christians, that is likely because we have not done what we should have done as Christians, as those whom the Lord had called and chosen to be His people. It is by our deeds and by our humble faith and obedience to God’s will that all will know of God’s love through us, and they will come to know that we truly are God’s people, and more and more will come to believe in Him as well.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all strive to be more faithful from now on, in how we live our lives and in how we act in each and every moments of our lives, to be the bearers of God’s love, dedicating ourselves to love God and to love all of God’s people, reaching out to those who are unloved and less fortunate than us, and sharing whatever blessings God had given to us, that all of us may truly be blessed together in love. May the Lord, our loving God and Father, continue to love each and every one of us, bless us and take good care of us, as He has done all these while. Amen.

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Sunday, 25 October 2020 : Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 22 : 34-40

At that time, when the Pharisees heard how Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they assembled together. One of them, a lawyer, questioned Him to test Him, “Teacher, which commandment of the Law is the greatest?”

Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the most important of the commandments. The second is like it : You shall love your neighbour as yourself. The whole Law and the prophets are founded on these two commandments.”

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Sunday, 25 October 2020 : Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Thessalonians 1 : 5c-10

You, also, know how we dealt with you, for your sake. In return, you became followers of us, and of the Lord, when, on receiving the Word, you experienced the joy of the Holy Spirit, in the midst of great opposition. And you became a model for the faithful of Macedonia and Achaia, since, from you, the Word of the Lord spread to Macedonia and Achaia, and still farther.

The faith you have in God has become news in so many places, that we need say no more about it. Others tell, of how you welcomed us, and turned from idols, to the Lord. For you serve the living and true God, and you wait for His Son, from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, Who frees us from impending trial.

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Sunday, 25 October 2020 : Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 17 : 2-3a, 3bc-4, 47 and 51ab

I love You, o YHVH, my strength. YHVH is my Rock, my Fortress, my Deliverer and my God.

He is the Rock in Whom I take refuge. He is my Shield, my powerful Saviour, my Stronghold. I call on YHVH, Who is worthy of praise : He saves me from my enemies!

YHVH lives! Praised be my Rock! Exalted be my Saviour God. He has given victories to His king; He has shown His love to His anointed ones.

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Sunday, 25 October 2020 : Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Exodus 22 : 20-26

You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not harm the widow or the orphan. If you do harm them and they cry out to Me, I will hear them and My anger will blaze and I will kill you with the sword, and your own wives will be widows and your own children orphans.

If you lend money to any of My people who are poor, do not act like a moneylender and do not charge him interest. If ever you take a person’s cloak as a pledge, you must give it back to him by sunset, for it is all the covering he has for his body. In what else will he sleep? And when he cries to Me I will hear hum, for I am full of pity.

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Sunday, 18 October 2020 : Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, as we reflect on the Word of God in the Scriptures, we are all reminded to do our part as Christians, as those who believe in God and follow the Lord. As Christians, all of us are God’s beloved people, and we have received His truth through the Church. If we truly believe in the Lord, then we must act and do things in ways that are in accordance to His teachings. Otherwise, if we do not do so, then we are hypocrites.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard the Lord proclaiming His salvation of His people through Cyrus, the then future king of the Persians. At the time of the prophet Isaiah, it was still two centuries or so before the time of king Cyrus. Yet, the Lord had proclaimed the coming of His salvation even at that time, in advance, that when His people who by then had become wayward and fallen into sin, and humiliated and humbled when their city, country and the Temple were destroyed, they were ultimately still beloved by God in the end.

When the Babylonians came and destroyed Jerusalem and Judah, looted and destroyed its Temple, the House of God, and brought most of the people off into exile in Babylon and far-off lands, it must have been very despicable and terrible for the descendants of the Israelites then, who had to endure such shame and humiliation, suffering and persecutions, as aliens and foreigners without any homeland. But God showed all of them that He still cared for them and loved them, and sent them a deliverer through Cyrus.

Cyrus, the ruler of Persia rose to power and eventually came to destroy the reign of the Babylonians and their tyranny, overthrowing them and their king, and brought about a new reign and era. King Cyrus was remembered for his upright and just rule, and for his revolutionary advancement of the rights of peoples and nations. He respected the rights of the various peoples and nationalities that existed in the vast Persian Empire he created, and his successors respected this same custom and practice.

It was this same Cyrus, whom God had revealed beforehand through prophecy, that freed the descendants of Israel from their bondage and exile, after many, many decades. They were allowed to return to their homeland, to regain the lands and places they had lost, and they were allowed to freely practice their faith once again. This is unusual as at that time, usually the ruler of the kingdoms got to decide what the people believed in, and usually persecuted foreign beliefs and practices.

Thus, Cyrus was considered a righteous among the nations, even though he did not belong to the Israelite nation, and even though he did not worship God the way that the Israelites worshipped Him. Cyrus obeyed God’s will and did everything that God had entrusted him with, as a just ruler and as the liberator of God’s oppressed people. Cyrus became a paragon and example among the Israelites henceforth, and he therefore is a good example for us all as well.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord Jesus as He spoke with the Pharisees, who at that time wanted to trap the Lord with cunning trickery, as they asked Him with sweet but insincere words, seemingly praising Him for being honest and upright, and then attempting to trap Him by asking if it was lawful and fine for the people to pay the taxes to Caesar, that is to the Roman government.

This was truly a very cunning and tricky attempt in trying to discredit and even harm the Lord. The Lord was in fact would end up in deep trouble had He answered either that the people must not pay the taxes or that they should obey and pay their taxes. This was because, the matter of Roman taxes was a very divisive and dangerous one at the time, with most of the people resenting the taxation, the money that they had to pay to their Roman overlords.

That was why the people resented the tax collectors very much and reviled them as one of the lowest in the community, treated with contempt and branded even as traitors to the nation. They were seen as collaborators who got rich and had good life due to their connections with the Roman government and its apparatus, and the people came to resent this very deeply. Thus, had the Lord answered that the people ought to pay taxes to the Romans, then the Pharisees would have severely discredited Him and made Him hated by the people.

On the other hand, had the Lord said that the people must not pay taxes, then the Pharisees would have used the opportunity to strike at Him by reporting Him to the Romans, just as they would eventually do together with the Sanhedrin when they handed the Lord to the Romans for the crucifixion. Not paying taxes was one of the most severe faults that the Romans would definitely punish very harshly. After all, the Romans had treated traitors and treasonous activities with the great harshness throughout its history.

Instead, the Lord wisely manouevred His way out of the predicament by first rebuking the Pharisees for their wicked attempt in trying to trap and discredit HIm, and then saying that on that matter, then everyone ought to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and in the same way, give to God, what belongs to God. In this way, the Lord neither said that the people must submit to the Romans for their taxes, or that they should not pay taxes. On the contrary, they give whatever is due to each.

We can see here that the Lord wants to remind us that all of earthly possessions, all these things all belong to the world, and just as we have been blessed and given these possessions, some of us having more while others having less, we have to let them go and give them back whenever it is necessary. And then, all of us must remember that all of us ourselves, belong to God and to Him alone, and because of this, we ought to give to God what is due to Him, that is to love Him and dedicate ourselves to Him wholeheartedly.

The example of king Cyrus of Persia in our first reading today is a reminder that God has empowered in this world, governments and states, nations and rulers with the authority from Him, to govern and rule, to lead and guide, in tandem with the Church which He has established in this world. To those rulers, God had entrusted us His people who are still living in this world. This is why, as good and committed Christians, we cannot be disobedient or rebellious against those governments and rulers God had placed over us.

We have our part to play as obedient and dutiful citizens and peoples of the countries we are in. Of course this does not mean that we follow the rules blindly, as we have to obey the laws and teachings of the Church as well. But it means that as long as the rules of the land do not contradict the essence of Christian teachings and are in line with the virtues and values of our Christian faith, we should obey and follow them.

That is why, all of us as Christians, we must be good and virtuous in all of our actions and deeds. We have to be good Christians and followers of the Lord, just as we have to be good and law-abiding citizens as well. We must not be like the Pharisees and all those hypocrites, who outwardly showed piety and faith, and yet, they had no real and genuine love and dedication to God. In this way, they had not given to God, what belongs to God, that is their love and their obedience.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we see in king Cyrus, who was not even counted among the Israelites, and yet, highly regarded and praised for his actions, his righteousness and justice as a just ruler and liberator for many people including the people of Israel, all of us are called to follow in his examples, to follow the path of God, all the more that since we know of His truth and teachings, then we are expected to obey Him and to show our faith through our actions, at each and every moments of our lives.

This is the challenge that we have been presented with, brethren. Are we willing and able to commit ourselves to walk down this path of faith? God has called us all to follow Him, and to do what He has taught and shown us to do. We are all called to bear His truth and love, to be His faithful witnesses in our respective communities. And especially, during these difficult and challenging times, have we been good neighbours and friends to all those who are in need around us? Or have we been more interested in settling our own matters and desires?

We have seen how many people selfishly took care of themselves, or being disobedient for the sake of their personal freedom. And there had been occasions when we as Christians complained that we have been restricted in our freedom to worship especially in the last few months, and we disobeyed the government and regulations all amidst the terrible few months of this pandemic. This is the perfect example of why, as Christians, we must not forget that while we obey the Lord first and foremost above all else, but we also have a duty to be good and responsible citizens too.

Let us think of this, brothers and sisters in Christ, if by our actions then by refusing to wear mask, or by refusing to follow community gathering and restrictions currently in place, we cause harm to others, and make others to suffer more, and by prolonging this pandemic, we unnecessarily extend this pandemic’s impact, aren’t we being hypocrites and unfaithful, and worse still, being selfish and sinful? This is why, we must not lose ourselves to our own pride and desires, and be disobedient for the sake of being convenient for ourselves.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore from now on, especially during these difficult times, be exemplary in our actions and deeds, in being responsible in our daily actions, and in showing care towards others in need. Let us all help one another and play our part, doing the best we can to be first and foremost, dutiful and loving Christians, and also as contributing and law-abiding citizens of our respective states and realms.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He guide us with His wisdom that we may discern carefully our choice of actions, avoiding actions that bring about harm to others just that we feed our own ego and selfishness. Let us be guided by God and our Christian faith in our actions and way of life. May God bless us all and help us in our efforts and endeavours. Amen.