Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 97 : 5-6, 7-8, 9
With melody of the lyre and with music of the harp. With trumpet blast and sound of the horn, rejoice before the King, the Lord!
Let the sea resound and everything in it, the world and all its peoples. Let rivers clap their hands, hills and mountains sing with joy.
Before the Lord, for He comes to rule the earth. He will judge the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Malachi 3 : 19-20a
The day already comes, flaming as a furnace. On that day all the proud and evildoers will be burnt like straw in the fire. They will be left without branches or roots. On the other hand the sun of justice will shine upon you who respect My Name and bring health in its rays.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are called to remember the faith which we have in the Lord, in His love for us and in His guidance, love and compassion for each one for us, and ultimately, His glorious resurrection from the dead and triumph over sin and death, which is also promised to us. Through His own Resurrection from the dead, the Lord showed all of us that His path leads us to an eternity of life and existence with Him. That is what all of us as Christians believe and ought to have faith wholeheartedly in, as the Resurrection of the Lord is truly the most important and central tenet of our entire Christian faith. Without the Resurrection, then there will be no Christianity and the truth which we hold firm in belief in the Lord.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Second Book of Maccabees the tale of what happened during the intense persecution of the faithful people of God during the time of the Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes who commanded that all the people throughout his kingdom ought to abandon the customs of their ancestors and adapt the Greek ways and ideologies, their gods and idols. This led to intense persecution of the Jewish people who remained faithful to the Lord their God, the one true and only God. As we heard in the first reading passage, the whole entire family consisting of a mother and her seven sons were forced to abandon their faith in God and to commit sin against Him before the king himself, but each one of them courageously resisted the king’s efforts and chose to face suffering and death instead of disobeying the Lord.
The king offered them great riches and affluence, safety and good prospects should they decide to abandon the Lord and embrace the pagan faith of the king and the Greeks. That path would have been very tempting indeed, as the other path would lead to certain painful suffering and death. From the perspective of one who seek only to treasure what they have in the world and do not believe in the resurrection, to choose otherwise would have been folly, as that would have gained them nothing but the destruction of their lives and the end of their existence in a most humiliating and painful way no less. But that was because those people had no faith or trust in God. For those who trust in the Lord and believe in His Resurrection, the life and existence after death is even more important than this earthly life.
Earlier in the previous week, in one of the weekday readings from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians, we have all been reminded by the Apostle that our ‘true’ citizenship is in Heaven, and that we should eagerly await the coming of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. St. Paul therefore reminded all of us that our earthly existence, as good or as bad as they may be, are merely temporary, and in the end, what comes after is truly what matters. We have just celebrated Allhallowtide earlier in the last week, in which we rejoice in the glory of all the saints, the holy men and women of God who have merited the glory of Heaven on All Saints’ Day, and also the holy souls in purgatory, the souls of all the faithful departed from this world, our beloved ones and countless others, on All Souls’ Day. On those days we remember those who have gone from this world to the afterlife.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the words of the Lord during His encounter and argument with the Sadducees, who opposed Him and questioned Him regarding the belief in the resurrection from the dead. For context, the Sadducees were one of the two very influential and powerful groups within the Jewish community, the other being the Pharisees. While the Pharisees were the intellectuals and those who were very particular in maintaining the strict observance of the Law of Moses, and was very deep into Jewish culture, customs and beliefs, in the spiritual belief in the resurrection from the dead and in Angels, the Sadducees stood at the other end of the spectrum, as they did not believe in resurrection from the dead, Angels or any other spiritual beings or matters.
The Sadducees were influential group of people composed of elders and all those who were likely very much secularised and back then, Hellenised, and influenced by philosophical thinking and ideas of the Greco-Roman world at that time. They likely saw the world as one that is purely material and they saw their existence in this world as the sole existence they had, and hence, nothing spiritual or whatever cannot be explained by the senses, or any belief in the life after death. The Sadducees made a reference to the case when according to the Law, when a woman’s husband died and they had no child, then one of the deceased husband’s brother by Law was compelled to take the widow as his own wife, and the first child born of that union was considered as the deceased man’s child.
Therefore the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection from the dead presented their case before the Lord, questioning Him of what would happen then in the case when all seven brothers passed away before they had any children with the woman, and whose husband the wife would be in the afterlife, she was legally married to all the seven brothers. It was then that the Lord rebuked the Sadducees for their narrow-minded attitude and lack of faith in God, and for their stubborn refusal to believe in the resurrection from the dead. The Lord told them that the way that they thought was essentially very worldly in nature, that they thought only of worldly matters like properties, inheritance, relationships and other things, which led them to question their faith and the truth about the resurrection in the first place.
Essentially, unless one understands our true nature and purpose in this world, then we are likely bound to fall into the temptations of worldly pleasures and desires. And if we understand and realise just how strong those temptations can be, then we will be more vigilant in resisting the allure of those temptations and evils. The Sadducees were too attached to their worldly desires, ambitions and ego, that they could not detach themselves from those things, and they could not even imagine what life would be without all those things. Hence, they doubted the Lord and refused to believe in Him, even though He has shown them His wisdom and truth, His power and wonders, through the many miracles that He has performed before all of the people, including the Sadducees themselves.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, our existence in this world is to glorify God and to serve Him. We wander in this world precisely because of our disobedience against God as we would remember from the beginning of the Book of Genesis. But that is not something that is permanent, as our separation from God is due to sin, and God Who loves each and every one of us very dearly, has promised, reached out to us and extended to us His salvation through none other than Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God, Our Lord and Saviour. All these He had done for us so that we may not perish and be lost to Him forever, and that we can be reconciled with Him, once and for all, and be reunited with Him, to enjoy finally what He has always intended for us, to be the partakers in the most generous love and graceful blessings, in the everlasting life with Him.
That was why the Lord sent to us His only Begotten Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Who endured the most painful sufferings, the most humiliating treatment and the worst of rejections and curses from the very ones He had come to save, so that through whatever He had experienced, He may save us all from everlasting death and damnation. He willingly bore upon Himself the burdens and punishments due to our sins, and He endured those pain and bitterness all because He loves us. And by His suffering and death, we are healed, and by offering Himself as the most worthy sacrifice and offering in atonement for our sins, Christ as our Eternal High Priest has opened for us the gates of Heaven and everlasting life. He has conquered sin and death, and then by His glorious Resurrection afterwards, He proved to us all, to all those who doubted Him, that there is indeed life and existence after death.
By His gift to us of His own Most Precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist, as we all partake in this Most Holy Communion, we have become parts of His own Body, the Church of God. And thus, we have also become sharers in His Passion, suffering and death. And through that, we have been made to pass through the gates of life and death, and just as the Lord Himself has risen gloriously from the dead, hence, we all too, shall rise with Him, on the last day. This is what we solemnly believe as Christians, as one of the core tenets of our faith. Sin has lead us into separation from God and death as our just punishment, but this is not permanent and everlasting, thanks to God Who has reached out to us and showed us His love. Of course, unfortunately, there are those who reject the Lord’s generous offer of mercy and love, to the very end. It is all these people who will face condemnation and an eternity of suffering in the end.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday’s Scripture readings and discourse serve as reminders for us, on whether we have truly appreciated and understood our faith as we should have. How many of us truly believe in the resurrection ourselves? How many of us truly appreciate how important the Lord’s suffering, death and resurrection are to us? And we must not forget that although we may think that we believe in the resurrection, but our actions and deeds, our way of life may speak otherwise. What am I referring to? I am referring to the fact that many among us Christians spent a lot of time and effort, a lot of attention in trying to garner and preserve for ourselves worldly goods and things, spending a lot of effort and time in building up for ourselves a worldly treasure and wealth.
How many of us spent a lot of effort in trying to make ourselves look young, handsome or beautiful, or trying to make ourselves look better and more acceptable by the world? Many of us are often worried of aging and other things, and spent a lot of attention on these. And in doing so, we often neglect our responsibilities as Christians, especially those with regards to our care and love for one another. Some of us even hurt others, manipulate and exploit others just because we want to gain more for ourselves, and all these led to our selfish actions that are unbecoming of us as Christians, as those who profess to believe in God. The Lord has taught us and shown us how we should act and behave, and if we continue to do what we have done, how can we then call ourselves as true and genuine Christians?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore commit ourselves anew to the Lord, that from now on, we should dedicate our effort and time to serve Him better, to live our lives more worthily, and trust in Him more, knowing that in Him alone lies our hope and the path to eternal joy and bliss. We have to grow more in our faith and trust in Him, so that we may put Him in the centre of our lives and existence. Let us all no longer be distracted by the many things that often keep us away from God’s love and grace. And may the Lord continue to guide us and strengthen us, that our faith and belief in Him will ever be stronger, and that we will be worthy of Him, and be reconciled and reunited with Him, in the glory of everlasting life. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 20 : 27-38
At that time, some Sadducees arrived. These people claim that there is no resurrection, and they asked Jesus this question, “Master, in the Law Moses told us, ‘If anyone dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife, and any child born to them will be regarded as the child of the deceased.'”
“Now, there were seven brothers; the first married a wife, but he died without children; and the second and the third took the wife; in fact, all seven died leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be a wife? For all seven had her as a wife.”
And Jesus replied, “Taking a husband or a wife is proper to people of this world, but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come, and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Besides, they cannot die, for they are like the Angels. They are sons and daughters of God, because they are born of the resurrection.”
“Yes, the dead will be raised, as Moses revealed at the burning bush, when He called the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For God is God of the living, and not of the dead, for to Him everyone is alive.”
Alternative reading (shorter version)
Luke 20 : 27, 34-38
At that time, some Sadducees arrived. These people claim that there is no resurrection.
And Jesus replied, “Taking a husband or a wife is proper to people of this world, but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come, and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Besides, they cannot die, for they are like the Angels. They are sons and daughters of God, because they are born of the resurrection.”
“Yes, the dead will be raised, as Moses revealed at the burning bush, when He called the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For God is God of the living, and not of the dead, for to Him everyone is alive.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Thessalonians 2 : 16 – 2 Thessalonians 3 : 5
May Christ Jesus our Lord Who has loved us, may God our Father, Who in His mercy gives us everlasting comfort and true hope, strengthens you. May He encourage your hearts and make you steadfast in every good work and word.
Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the Word of God may spread rapidly and be glorified everywhere as it was with you. May God guard us from wicked and evil people, since not everyone has faith. The Lord is faithful; He will strengthen you and keep you safe from the Evil One.
Besides, we have in the Lord this confidence that you are doing and will continue to do what we order you. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 16 : 1, 5-6, 8b and 15
Hear a just cause, o Lord, listen to my complaint. Give heed to my prayer for there is no deceit on my lips.
Hold firm my steps upon Your path, that my feet may not stumble. I call on You, You will answer me, o God; incline Your ear and hear my word.
Under the shadow of Your wings hide me. As for me, righteous in Your sight, I shall see Your face and, awakening, gaze my fill on Your likeness.
Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Maccabees 7 : 1-2, 9-14
It happened also that seven brothers were arrested with their mother. The king had them scourged and flogged to force them to eat the flesh of a pig which was prohibited by the Law. One of them, speaking in behalf of all, said, “What do you want to find out from us? We are prepared to die right now rather than break the law of our ancestors.”
At the moment of his last breath, he said, “Murderer, you now dismiss us from life, but the King of this world will raise us up. He will give us eternal life since we die for His laws.” After this, they punished the third brother. He stuck his tongue out when asked to, bravely stretched forth his hands, and even had the courage to say : “I have received these limbs from God, but for love of His laws I now consider them as nothing. For I hope to recover them from God.”
The king and his court were touched by the courage of this young man, so unconcerned about his own sufferings. When this one was dead, they subjected the fourth to the same torture. At the point of death, he cried out, “I would rather die at the hands of mortals, and wait for the promises of God Who will raise us up; you, however, shall have no part in the resurrection of life.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are presented with the great love and compassion that the Lord has for each and every one of us, without exception. This Sunday all of us are reminded that God’s love for us is truly generous, and He has always desired to be reconciled and reunited with us. Yet, it was often our own attitudes, stubbornness and wickedness in life which became serious barriers and obstacles preventing us from finding our way back towards the Lord and His salvation. That is why as we recall our readings today, we should spend this time to reflect on what we should do as Christians in embracing the love of God wholeheartedly.
In our first reading this Sunday taken from the Book of Wisdom, we heard the reminder from the author of this Book of Wisdom, of the great mercy and compassion which God has willingly showed all of us His beloved ones. This Book of Wisdom, although also known as the Wisdom of Solomon, was written during a much later time that Solomon’s reign, and was likely composed by several authors throughout the Jewish diaspora which was scattered after the destruction of both of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The authors of the Book of Wisdom therefore could draw upon the historical facts and examples from how God showed mercy and compassion on His people after they had all faced their just punishment, for their many sins and wickedness.
Back then, the people of God in both the kingdoms of Israel and Judah had not been obedient to God, rebelled against Him and followed their own paths rather than following what God had told them to do through His Law and commandments, and they also persecuted the many prophets, messengers and servants of God sent to them to remind them to return to the Lord. They refused to listen to the reminders from God’s servants and continued to live wickedly, worshipping pagan idols and gods, forsaking the Law and the commandments that their ancestors had kept. They spurned and rejected God’s love, and as a result, they had to face the just punishment, of having their kingdoms, cities and lands destroyed by their enemies, and them being brought into exile in far-off lands.
Yet, God has not forgotten or abandoned His people, although they had first forgotten and abandoned Him first. He did not treat them badly or hated them for what they had done, but He continued to care for them and loved them tenderly and generously as He had always done in the past. That is the proof of just how loving God has been towards us, and truly how ungrateful and unbecoming our attitudes had been, in how we and our ancestors and predecessors often behaved, in disobeying the words and commandments of the Lord. The Lord has always been patient in loving us, and yet, we have only treated Him with contempt and disdain. The Lord forgave His people when they turned back towards Him in regret and sorrow, and brought them all back to their homeland and reestablished them all there.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the classic story of the encounter between the Lord Jesus and Zaccheus the tax collector. In that occasion, just as the Lord was about to enter into Jericho, the man named Zaccheus, a notorious tax collector, wanted to come and see Jesus, and despite his physical challenges, being very short in stature, he climbed up a tree in order to see the Lord. The Lord knew that Zaccheus was looking out for Him, and called him down from the tree, and told him that He would want to come to his house for a meal with him there. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were there unsurprisingly criticised the Lord for this action, for having embraced a tax collector, and a notorious one at that, and even asked to have a meal at the latter’s house.
Back then, during the time of the Lord Jesus, we have to understand that tax collectors were often reviled and hated, simply because they were doing their work in collecting taxes both for the local rulers like king Herod and others, as well as ultimately the taxes for the Roman overlord of the whole region. At that time, the whole region of Judea, Samaria, Galilee and beyond were under the total dominion of the Roman Empire. Many among the people disliked themselves being ruled by the Romans and other local rulers appointed to rule over them, and the taxes which made people’s livelihood difficult did not help to endear those rulers to the people. Hence, by association, the tax collectors were also often hated because of the nature of their work.
They were often treated as collaborators and even traitors to the nation and the people. This was especially true for the case of how the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law treated the tax collectors and all those others whom they often deemed to be unworthy of God and His salvation. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, those people who often took great pride in their knowledge, piety, practices and prestige in the community, and they always looked down on others who they deemed to be inferior to them. The tax collectors in particular were among the lowest in the hierarchy of the people of God in the sight of the Pharisees and the elders, as they were considered as scum and traitors, unworthy of God and His grace.
But they had forgotten that God loved all the people all the same, regardless of their status, background or stature in the eyes of men and the world. Even the worst of sinners are still capable of being saved, just as the Lord Himself had willingly extended His generous offer of mercy and forgiveness even to those who were most despicable and unfaithful in their ways. The Lord still looked kindly upon His beloved people even after they had betrayed Him, abandoned Him and rejected Him, and persecuted those who were sent to them in order to remind them. What matters therefore is not how righteous one is compared to the others, but rather, whether those who have sinned and disobeyed against God were willing to shed off their past existence and embrace God once again with love.
The Lord showed to all of the people, as well as all of us through His interactions with Zaccheus that no one is beyond God’s mercy and love. Zaccheus did not just welcome the Lord but he also publicly announced before everyone assembled, the Lord Himself, the other people, and the same Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were there criticising the Lord for welcoming and embracing him, that he would return all those whom he had once cheated and treated unjustly, not just equal but more than what they have been owed by him. He essentially made a public declaration of faith and repentance from his sins, and made a public commitment to be faithful to God, before all the people.
That is what the key of God’s mercy and compassion, forgiveness and grace is all about. God is always ever merciful and generous with His compassion, and He is always ready to welcome us back to His embrace. Even the worst of sinners and all those whom we might have deemed unworthy or undeserving of salvation and God’s grace, are in fact recipients of His love and mercy. We must not forget that even many among the greatest of the saints were once great sinners themselves, and some of them were murderers, idolaters, adulterers, and tax collectors among others. One of the Lord’s Twelve Apostles and one of the Four Evangelists, St. Matthew, was a tax collector like Zaccheus. St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the four great original Doctors of the Church, was a hedonist and a Manichaean unbeliever in his youth, and who also fathered a son out of wedlock.
There are still many other examples of great sinners and all those perhaps deemed unworthy and undeserving of the Lord who have turned over a new leaf and embraced God wholeheartedly, like Saul, the chief persecutor of early Christians, who encountered and was called by the Lord to be His disciple. He abandoned his past mistakes and wayward life as a misguided young Pharisee, and became one of the Lord’s greatest champion and defender, as St. Paul the Apostle, whose many Epistles are part of our New Testament today, showing his work and concern for many of the faithful throughout his ministry. St. Paul embarked on many missionary journeys and did many evangelising work for the good of those souls that had been lost from God, calling on all of them to repent their sins and return to the Lord, and also for those who did not know God to find out more about Him.
Through these examples of our holy predecessors, of the sinners turned saints, I hope all of us can realise better that the Church and the Body of Christian faithful are not made up of only saints who have been deemed righteous and worthy. Those Pharisees and teachers of the Law wanted salvation and God’s blessings and graces only for themselves, the ‘righteous’ ones, while others whom they did not agree with, were those who were unworthy of God’s salvation and grace. The Church is in fact more like a ‘hospital’ for sinners, as God’s mercy, love and compassion bring about healing for the souls of sinners, and where God called all of them to return to Him with repentance and through His forgiveness by which they are all made whole once again.
In our second reading today, we are reminded by St. Paul in his Epistle and letter to the Church and faithful in Thessalonica, that God is the One Who makes us worthy of Him, and not we who make ourselves worthy of Him instead. Our works and deeds, all reflect the nature of our disposition, our faith and our adherence to God and His ways, and not self-justificatory in nature or making us righteous by themselves. That is why it is important that all of us as Christians we must first of all be humble and put God at the centre of our whole life and existence. We should not let the temptations of pride, ego and worldly desires and ambitions to mislead us down the slippery path towards damnation.
We must not let our pride and ego, our hubris and ambition to make us into a self-enclosed and inward looking Church, where only the righteous and the elites have the right to be saved or to be in the presence of God. Let us not forget that each and every one of us are sinners ourselves, regardless of how serious our sins and mistakes may be. And God is always ever ready to welcome us back to His presence and heal us, and He is always patient with us. But it is we who have always shut the door before Him, ignored Him, and even made it difficult for others to follow Him and be forgiven by Him. That is how we end up falling deeper and deeper into our flawed and misguided ways, and unless we make the conscious efforts to return to the Lord with faith, we may end up getting more distant from Him, as we are full of our pride and ego instead of what should have been love for God and for our fellow brothers and sisters.
Let us all hence commit ourselves to a renewal in our faith and a change in our practices, much as our great and holy predecessors had committed themselves to change their ways, from their past wicked and sinful ways into new, faithful and committed way of life in God’s grace and presence. Each and every one of us should also heed the examples of our predecessors and strive our best to live our lives worthily of the Lord and also helping those around us who are struggling in their journey and life. We should not turn a blind eye to their plight, and we should not ignore them or worse still, acting the way many of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done, in ostracising those whom we deem to be less worthy than we are. Remember, that they are our brothers and sisters and are equally beloved by God.
Each one of us as Christians ought to take care of our fellow brethren, and we should always do our best to reach out to others who are in need of guidance and help in our faith. Let us all do our part to be the faithful witnesses of Our Lord’s truth and resurrection, and be the wonderful beacons of God’s light in our world and community today. Let us make the Church of God a truly living, vibrant and missionary Church, one that is always ready to show God’s love, compassion and mercy to more and more people out there. May all of us as God’s people, as His Church, and as those who are called as Christians, be the genuine followers and disciples of God, in all of our lives and actions. May God be with us all and may He strengthen each one of us to be ever courageous and committed in our journey of faith through life. May all of us remain humble and concerned for our fellow brethren in faith, at all times, so that we may always work together to glorify God through our lives and actions. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 19 : 1-10
At that time, when Jesus entered Jericho and passed through the city, a man named Zaccheus lived there. He was a tax collector and a wealthy man. He wanted to see what Jesus was like, but he was a short man and could not see Him because of the crowd.
So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree. From there he would be able to see Jesus, Who was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, Zaccheus, come down quickly, for I must stay at your house today.” So Zaccheus climbed down and received Him joyfully.
All the people who saw it began to grumble, and said, “He has gone as a guest to the house of a sinner.” But Zaccheus spoke to Jesus, “Half of what I own, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay him back four times as much.”
Looking at him Jesus said, “Salvation has come to this house today, for he is also a true son of Abraham. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Thessalonians 1 : 11 – 2 Thessalonians 2 : 2
This is why we constantly pray for you; may our God make you worthy of His calling. May He, by His power, fulfil your good purposes and your work prompted by faith. In that way, the Name of Jesus our Lord will be glorified through you, and you through Him, according to the loving plan of God and of Christ Jesus the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, let us speak about the coming of Christ Jesus, our Lord, and our gathering to meet Him. Do not be easily unsettled. Do not be alarmed by what a prophet says or by any report, or by some letter said to be ours, saying the day of the Lord is at hand.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 