Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded that the Lord our God is never blind to our sufferings and our predicaments, and He is always ever present by our side throughout our most difficult moments, being by our side and journeying with us through all those difficult times. He will never leave us alone or unguided throughout all those things, and even if we are to suffer, we have to always constantly keep in mind how He Himself has suffered most grievously and greatly for our sake, in all the love that He has shown us. And at the same time, we must also be careful that we do not end up giving in to the spirit of self-righteousness and pride, even if we do not intend it to be so, especially when we think that we are better than others around us in our faith and lives. God rewards the humble while brings down the proud and haughty ones.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of the prophet Sirach in which the Lord reassured His people by telling them all that those who have obeyed and served the Lord faithfully and wholeheartedly will be heard and helped, and all the those people had prayed for with great faith and trust in God will be heard by the Lord Himself, Who knows all that they need and all that they are going through in life. As it was said, ‘the prayer of the humble person pierces the clouds, and he is not consoled until he has beeen heard’, and this is indeed true, that as long as we continue to persevere in prayer, continuing from what we have also heard last Sunday on the power of the perseverance of prayer and hope in God, eventually God will answer and will provide us what we have asked for.

The Lord Himself also told us all ‘Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, and knock, and the door will be opened for you’, and these words are again reminders for us all how truly fortunate all of us are to have received such great grace from God, Who has always loved us so wonderfully and so patiently, that He has always cared for us and guided us through the most difficult parts of our lives’ journey. He is always there with us, both through the good and the bad times, and we should not lose hope and faith in Him even when it seems that He does not answer our prayers and fulfil our hopes immediately. God is always out there, listening to us, and He is always full of compassion towards us, knowing everything that troubled us. He wants us to trust in Him and have complete faith and hope in Him.

Then, from our second reading this Sunday, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to his protege, St. Timothy, we heard of the Apostle speaking to him regarding the realities of being a follower of Christ, in doing God’s will and in proclaiming the truth of God. St. Paul faced a lot of hardships and oppositions in his paths and works, the rejections and persecutions from the Jewish authorities, the Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Council, as well as from the Roman authorities and the other locals, the pagans, slavers and others who were opposed to the truth and the message of the Christian faith. He had to endure a lot of obstacles and sufferings, imprisonment, exile and others, in the midst of his ministry and journey in fulfilling what he had been entrusted to do.

But he did all and endured all willingly and courageously for the Lord’s sake and for the people of God. He knew that the Lord was with him all through the sufferings and persecutions that he had to face through all those years that he spent in his missionary journeys and visits to the various communities throughout the Eastern Mediterranean region, in Asia Minor and Greece, and elsewhere where God had led him to, and he was never alone in all those struggles, carrying his cross together with the Lord, Who had suffered even worse struggles and sufferings. And the Lord had helped him through many of those occasions, rescuing him and his fellow missionaries and servants of the Gospel from harm and troubles, and allowing him to continue many more good works.

Of course St. Paul also knew that the moment was coming for him to meet the end of his earthly life, as how some of the Apostles themselves by then had experienced, beginning from St. James the Greater, the first of the Apostles to be martyred, and like St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, who was persecuted by the Jewish authorities and was stoned to death by the angry mob. St. Paul himself knew that he would eventually face the same reckoning and martyrdom, and he surrendered it all to God, entrusting himself completely to him, knowing that whatever he would face, the Lord would be with him and He would reward him with crown everlasting, crown of glory that will never fade, with true joy that can be found in the Lord alone, and this is something that we should keep in mind as we ourselves may face hardships and struggles in our own lives.

In our Gospel passage this Sunday, we then heard of the parable that the Lord Himself told His disciples comparing the behaviours of two people who were offering their prayers to God at the Temple. And the Lord compared the attitudes of a Pharisee to a tax collector in this regard, and in order to understand and appreciate better its significance, we must first understand that both of these people depicted here belonged to two extremes in the society of the people of God at that time, especially in Judea and Galilee where the Lord and His disciples often ministered in. The Pharisees first of all belonged to the group of social elites of the community, the religious and intellectual elites and leaders of the community, particularly respected, revered, honoured and even feared for their preservation of the Law of God and its enforcement among the people.

Meanwhile, the tax collectors were on the opposite end of the spectrum, where they were generally hated and despised by much of the population because of the stigma and the prejudices against them, due to the nature of their work, collecting the taxes, which were much hated and despised, on behalf of either the Romans, or the local monarchs like Herod’s family, or both. And it did not help that some of the tax collectors were indeed corrupt and extracted even more taxes or took more money than they were supposed to in order to enrich themselves. Hence, the community’s prejudices and dislike upon the tax collectors were quite universal and severe at the same time. And yet, as we heard in the parable that the Lord mentioned, it was the honest and humble prayers of the tax collector that was heard by God, and not the proudful boastings of the Pharisee.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is an important reminder for all of us as Christians that God loves each and every one of His beloved children equally and most lovingly, and we must be careful not to end up like the Pharisee in our attitude, simply because we think that we have done what the Lord asked of us, and therefore we deserve to treat others whom we deem to be inferior or less worthy than us in a prejudiced and nasty way. That is exactly how pride and hubris became the undoing and downfall for the proud Pharisee in the parable. We are reminded that no matter what we do in our lives, especially as Christians, we must always be humble and remember that everyone around us are beloved by God all the same just as He has loved us.

Instead of putting down one another or trying to upstage each other in how worthy we are before the Lord, we should instead help one another to remain strong in faith and hope in God, even through life’s greatest challenges and difficulties. We must always bring hope in our actions, and reminding each other, our fellow brothers and sisters around us, that God is always there for us, and one way this is done, is indeed through our own actions. God often works through each one of us, in our every works, actions and deeds, and even through the words that we said to each other, words of encouragement and hope that can inspire hope and light in the hearts of those who have been in the darkness. And this, brothers and sisters in Christ, is the true essence of our Christian faith, and the way how we should live as those whom God had called and chosen to be His own. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are all presented with the important reminder that God is always ever present in our midst and He has always cared about us, never abandoning us in our time and hour of need. And even when we may be encountering challenges, trials and difficulties in life, we are never alone because God Himself is always by our side, supporting and strengthening us even through those most difficult obstacles and struggles. That is why today we are all reminded that we should not easily give up and continue to have firm, enduring and genuine faith in the Lord, even through the most difficult moments in our lives. We should remember that no matter how dark the situation and outlook may be for us now, but nothing can overcome the light and hope we have in the Lord.

In our first reading this Sunday, taken from the Book of Exodus, we heard of the account of the moment when a great battle broke out between the people of God, the Israelites and their bitter enemy, the Amalekites. The Amalekites were a race of migratory tribespeople who wandered around the region, and they likely viewed the Israelites as both lucrative targets for raids and also rivals for resources in the region. According to historical evidence and practices, it was likely that the Amalekites attempted to raid the Israelites as they did to the other people of the region to get captives that they could sell as slaves to the slave traders, and slavery was rampant at that time. Thus, the Israelites went to battle against those Amalekites, and God was with them.

We heard how God instructed Moses to go up a high place from where those who were involved in the battle could see him, and he was to raise his hands bearing his staff, and as we heard, as long as Moses raised his hands, the Israelites were winning against the Amalekites while the moment he lowered them, the Amalekites gained the upper hand against the Israelites. We heard then how both Aaron, Moses’ brother and Hur supported Moses’ hands until the Israelites completely defeated the Amalekites. And as we heard these things, we are in fact reminded of how God was always with His people, and when those who were fighting against the Amalekites saw Moses and his raised hands, they certainly have in them the hope that the Lord was with them and fighting their battles with them.

Then, from our second reading this Sunday, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to his protege, St. Timothy, we heard of the words of the Apostle encouraging his protege to continue the good works which he had been doing in being ministers and servants of the Lord in proclaiming the Good News of the Lord to everyone whom they have encountered. St. Paul reassured St. Timothy that they all should continue to proclaim the Gospels joyfully and courageously, following the guidance which God Himself would provide them through His Holy Spirit, because every steps and journey they take, all of those shall be provided for by the Lord, and they would bring great benefits for the salvation of many souls, the souls of those whom they have encountered and touched by their good works.

Lastly, from our Gospel passage this Sunday, taken from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist, we heard of the Lord Jesus speaking and teaching using a parable to teach all the people assembled to listen to Him, with regards of the matter of putting our faith and trust in God, and the value of asking God constantly and persistently of what we seek for. The Lord used the parable of the evil judge and the persistent old woman in order to illustrate and highlight His points, which is indeed very obvious and easily understandable by the people including all of us who have listened to it as well. It is a kind reminder for all of us that persistent effort made with genuine desire and concern, with just reason and  purpose will eventually bear fruits in the end.

Not only that, but by comparing the attitude of the evil judge who feared no one and was the least likely person to listen to the pleas of the old widow to that of the Lord Himself, our most loving God and Father, we can see how if the evil judge eventually chose to listen to the old widow out of his own selfish desire not to be disturbed any further by the widow’s incessant cries and demands for help, then all the more that God, our most loving and compassionate Father will provide for us what we need, when we continue to patiently ask for Him with sincere hearts and minds. This is also in tandem with what the Lord Jesus Himself said in another occasion, when He told His disciples that ‘ask and it shall be given to you, seek, and you shall find, and knock, and the door will be opened for you’, all of which highlighting the ever generous nature of God’s love.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why this Sunday we are being reminded by these Scripture readings of the need for each and every one of us to trust in the Lord and to continue to do our best to live our lives in the manner that the Lord has shown us, and to continue to hope in Him particularly as this year we also continue to celebrate this Holy Year, this Ordinary Jubilee Year of Hope. Throughout this Holy Year we have been constantly reminded of the Lord’s Presence in our lives, in how He has ceaselessly shown us this enduring and patient love, and that we can always hope in Him even through the most difficult and challenging moments of our lives. If we trust in God and put our faith in Him, we will surely never regret having done so, for it is in Him alone we can never be disappointed.

May the Lord continue to strengthen us all with the light of His hope, a Hope that never fades, a Hope that never disappoints, remembering how He has always been there for us throughout our journeys in life, throughout all the darkest and the most difficult moments when we may feel so lonely amidst all the struggles that we have to face and endure. God is always with us through it all, much as He has been with His people Israel against their enemy, the Amalekites and against all the other forces arrayed against them. Let us all therefore put our faith and trust always in the Lord, and in our every words, actions and deeds may all of us continue to inspire everyone around us, so that many more people may come to be stronger in their own faith and hope in God’s Providence and love, now and always. Amen.