Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded of the need for us all as God’s faithful people, His holy and beloved ones to follow His path and Law, to obey His will and to do what is right and just, and not to allow ourselves to be easily tempted and swayed by the pleasures and comforts, wicked desires of this world around us. All of us should always live our lives faithfully and dedicate ourselves thoroughly to the cause of the Lord, being reminded of the manner in which we should carry out in our daily living as Christians, that is as God’s holy and worthy people, those whom He had called and chosen to be His own. We should not be ignorant of the mission and calling which each one of us have been entrusted with by God.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah in which the Lord told His people in the kingdom of Judah of the futility and foolishness of those who put their faith and trust in man and other worldly means instead of trusting and having faith in God. This must be understood in the context of how many among the people of Judah at that time had not obeyed the Lord, turned away from Him and abandoned His Law and commandments, persecuted the prophets and messengers that God had sent to them in order to remind them and guide them to the right path. They hardened their hearts and minds against God and His prophets, and instead of listening to the truth, they chose to delude themselves through all sorts of temptations present around them, the temptations of worldly ambitions and power, of pleasures and satisfaction of the flesh.

That was why they ended up falling ever further away from the Lord and His path, and we are all reminded that we should not follow the same path that they had trodden and walked, or else, we may end up falling into this same path towards our downfall as well. Nonetheless, the Lord has always loved us and He has always been patient in caring for us. He never gave up on us and despite our rebelliousness and waywardness, He still patiently sent His helpers and messengers to guide us all down the right path. That God still sent Jeremiah to remind those wayward people and even reassuring them of His care and compassion, was proof enough of how precious and dear each one of us are to Him, and we really should not take this for granted.

In our second reading this Sunday, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in Corinth, we heard of how the Apostle spoke about the matter of the resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the One Whom God had sent into this world in order to bring about our salvation. St. Paul spoke of how the Lord has risen from the dead and how this Resurrection indeed truly happened, and because of that, those who have believed in the Lord and His Resurrection will be assured of the salvation which God has given to them, and they were not foolish in believing and putting their trust in the Lord and His Resurrection into glory. They were not believing in a lie or falsehood, but were believing in something that many had suffered and died in testifying for the truth.

We are all reminded that since Christ has risen from the dead and conquered death itself, therefore our faith and trust in Him is not something that is meaningless or useless, as we shall be triumphant with Him and we will share in His glory and the joy that He has promised us all if we remain true to our faith in Him. We should not easily be dissuaded from following the Lord and we have to hold firmly our faith in Him because after all, what we have believed is indeed the truth, and countless people throughout the history of the Church, many martyrs and saints had endured lots of obstacles, hardships and persecutions in the Name of the Lord, and yet, they never gave up their faith in God.

And why was that so? That is likely because they stood up for what they themselves had witnessed or what their predecessors themselves had seen and experienced. No one would have been willing to suffer and face death in the manner of the martyrs and saints, if what they had believed in was false or not really true. Instead, the very fact that truth is what they stood up for allowed them all to endure even the most terrible persecutions and punishments is a testimony showing that what our Christian predecessors have believed in about the Lord, His mission, His works and ultimately, His own suffering, death and resurrection are truly real and not merely a myth or a made-up story or tale. Therefore, all of us should also be strengthened in our own faith and belief in God as well.

Then, in our Gospel passage this Sunday, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist in which we heard the famous teaching of the Lord to His disciples and all the other people listening to Him, known as the Sermon on the Mount or the Eight Beatitudes. In that sermon, the Lord proclaimed a series of blessings for those who have lived their lives virtuously according to what the Lord Himself has taught and told His disciples. He reminded them all that those who truly believe in God ought to have the qualities that He had highlighted, namely, being poor and hungry, those who did not put their focus in life on material goods and pursuit of wealth and glory, as well as those who are seeking for justice and work for peace, among others.

All of these ought to serve as guide and inspiration for all of us to follow in our own lives so that by our every actions, works and endeavours, we will always strive to be good examples for others around us, full of hope and faith in the Lord, virtuous and just, as we are all called to have those virtues in us, to be the ones whose lives are truly dedicated to God and a reflection of the light of God, His hope, truth and love. Can we therefore be this shining beacon of hope and inspiration to others? Can we be the ones to help those around us to come ever closer to God and to do God’s will, obeying His Law and commandments to the best of our abilities? Each and every one of us are reminded of this important mission and responsibility that we have so that we can help to bring others around us, our brethren, ever closer to God.

May the Lord, our most loving God, our Master and Creator, continue to strengthen us and empower us in our everyday living, giving us all the courage and the power to carry out the missions entrusted to us all as members of this Church of God. May God bless us always and may He bless our every good works and endeavours, our efforts to glorify His Name, now and always. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are all reminded through what we have heard in the passages of the Sacred Scriptures of the calling which the Lord our God has given to each and every one of us, the mission that He Himself has entrusted to us through His Church. We are reminded today through the readings of the Scripture passages which all highlighted to us the importance of service and mission, and answering God’s call in our lives. Each one of us have been given the various gifts, talents, abilities and opportunities, all unique to us and our circumstances so that we may make good use of these things which God has given to us for the good of the Church and for the whole world, the salvation of all mankind.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the account of how Isaiah witnessed a great heavenly vision from the Lord was recounted to us. At that time, Isaiah, who lived in the kingdom of Judah, was called by God to be His servant, His prophet to the people of Judah, and He revealed Himself to Isaiah, showing him all of His glory in Heaven, with all the glorious Angels surrounding Him and attending to Him, praising Him ceaselessly, and then a great Seraph, one of the chief Angels of God came to Isaiah, putting the coal from the heavenly Altar and purified Isaiah, who was therefore called and chosen to be God’s servant, as the prophet of God, and Isaiah responded positively to God calling on him to minister to His people.

This was the beginning of Isaiah’s mission to the people of Judah, which had been alternating between rulers that were faithful to God and those who disobeyed God’s Law and commandments. King Uzziah, the king of Judah who had just passed away then, was one of those who disobeyed God and brought the people into sin, worshipping all sorts of pagan gods and idols. Meanwhile, the other kingdom of God’s people, the northern neighbour of Judah, the Kingdom of Israel had been been destroyed and conquered by the Assyrians a while earlier. Many of the people of the Kingdom of Israel had been uprooted from their homeland and forced to wander in exile in the distant lands of Assyria and Mesopotamia.

Therefore, Isaiah had been called to proclaim God’s words of His people in Judah, firstly to warn them of the similar fate that they might be facing if they were to continue to walk down the path of rebellion and disobedience against Him, and at the same time, to provide them all with the message of assurance of God’s love and providence, His kindness and mercy, because despite of their rebelliousness and sins, God still loved His people nonetheless, and He has always been patient in loving and caring for them, providing them all with the means and ways for them to seek Him and His merciful love. God wants to let His beloved ones know that He is there for them, and if they are willing to repent and turn away from their sinful ways, then He will welcome them all back most warmly and lovingly.

In our second reading this Sunday, we then heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in Corinth, which  told to us the experiences which St. Paul mentioned to the faithful there on how he became a believer himself, after having received the truth of God from the Apostles and the other disciples, and after having encountered the Lord Himself in a vision that led to His conversion. He shared with all of them this story of his conversion and calling firstly to remind them all of the same truth which the faithful in Corinth have also believed in, and how he has been tasked with the mission to continue proclaiming the same Good News and truth to more and more people that he encountered throughout his journeys.

Again, just like Isaiah before him, St. Paul had been called and sent to do God’s will, to continue the good works which He has initiated and started, and which He therefore entrusted to them. Through the good works that each of them had done, many more people came to know of the Lord, His love and mercy, and were led into the path of repentance and reconciliation, through which they were restored to grace in God and hence to the glorious inheritance that He has wanted to provide to them. And it is this same mission which all of us also share in, as our calling and responsibility as Christians, to be the ones to proclaim the Lord and His Good News to all the nations, to show the Lord to the world through our exemplary lives and actions, at all times.

In our Gospel passage this Sunday, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist of the moment when the Lord went to the Lake of Galilee where He encountered His first disciples, the fishermen who worked at the lake, namely the two pairs of brothers, Simon and Andrew, as well as James and John. And it was there that the four fishermen, who were fishing by the lakeside, were told by the Lord to put their nets out into the deep water, despite them having caught nothing after many hours of labour. Simon, as the leader of the group spoke about his frustrations of not getting the fish all night long, but he obeyed the Lord’s command, and as soon as the nets were lowered according to the Lord’s commands, as we heard, there were so many fishes trapped that the two boats were almost sunk by them.

This is an important reminder for all of us as Christians that as we embark on our journey of evangelisation as well as in our work of proclaiming the Good News of God to the people around us, we cannot do them without involving God and without putting our faith and trust in Him. And in every successes that we do and experience, the Lord is involved in them in some ways, beyond our knowledge, understanding and even ability to perceive. We must not be tempted or deluded into thinking that we can do everything by our own power and might, and as we respond to God’s call, in doing what He wants us all to do, in our outreach to everyone around us, in our respective communities and places, we must always root ourselves firmly in our faith in the Lord, and put Him at the centre of each and every one of our actions and works.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have discerned and discussed through these passages of the Sacred Scriptures which we have received this Sunday, we can see clearly how God has called on all of us, His disciples and followers, to be His missionaries and workers, the ones to proclaim His salvation, the Good News He has brought into our midst, and to reveal His love to everyone. We should be inspired to follow the good examples set by our predecessors, like that of the prophet Isaiah, the many other prophets, and the disciples of the Lord like the Twelve Apostles, four of whom were mentioned in our Gospel passage today, and also St. Paul the Apostle, who followed the Lord wholeheartedly and dedicated himself to decades of service in being a missionary disciple, spreading the faith to countless people he encountered, to the very end of his life.

Let us all therefore do our best and strive to respond to God’s call, in His call for us to embrace our missions in life, to do what we can to glorify His Name, and also to save more and more people by showing them all the sure path towards God, by sharing our own faith with them and by becoming good examples, inspirations and as good role models ourselves in how we live our own lives as devoted and faithful Christians at all times. May the Lord, our most loving God and Father, continue to bless us all in our every good endeavours, and may He continue to empower and guide each one of us in everything we do. Amen.