Sunday

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Sunday, 7 February 2016 : Fifth (5th) Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the urgings from the word of God in the Sacred Scripture, through which the Church had brought to our attention, of the need for us all to embrace the calling of the Lord, if He calls us to take up the cross and follow Him in the way that He had laid out for us. The words of the Scripture spoke of the examples of the faith of those whom God had called, and now they have responded in kind.

In the first reading, we heard about the vision which the prophet Isaiah saw at the beginning of his calling and ministry to be a servant and messenger of God, where He saw the glory of God Himself, enthroned on the Cherubim and guarded and served by the mighty Seraphim. And Isaiah felt unworthy to stand before the presence of God, for he was a sinner just like many others. But God purified him and made him worthy, and Isaiah answered God’s calling and accepted it.

Then in the second reading, we heard from the Apostle, St. Paul, who preached to the people of God, the testimony of his faith, just as what he had received through the Holy Spirit, and the knowledge which was passed down to him from the other Apostles and from the Lord Jesus Himself. He spoke of the Lord Jesus Who died and rose from the dead for our sake. And in doing so, he stood up for his faith and called many others to also follow in his footsteps.

If not for his dedication and commitment, and if not for his hard work for the sake of the Lord and for the spreading of His Good News, then the word of God would not have reached the ears, the minds and the hearts of countless souls, who would then remain in the darkness and lost to the Lord. But it was because of the faith and the devotion of St. Paul and of the other Apostles that the works of God were made evident.

In the Gospel, we heard how Jesus told Simon Peter to go out into the deep waters and spread his fishing net there. Despite a whole night of no fish being caught at all, he obeyed the commands of the Lord, and as a result, so many fishes were caught that even two fishing boats could not contain them. After that, Peter and many of his other fellow fishermen, future St. Andrew, St. James and St. John the Evangelist believed in Jesus and followed Him.

In this again we see the emphasis that is placed on God’s calling and how we ought to respond to that call. We remember in another passage from the Holy Gospels, when Jesus mentioned about the harvest of the field of the Lord, and how even though the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. The field represents the world, and the workers are all of us the faithful ones of the Lord.

This means that even though there are so many opportunities for many people and many souls to achieve salvation, but because there are so few of those who made themselves available to bring God’s salvation to them, in the end it means nothing, and nothing good came out of it, and many souls were still left to suffer in the darkness of ignorance and sin.

We have to remember that God did not call people who were great, talented or mighty in worldly deeds and power, or those who had great intellect, smart and excellent in their works. Instead, God called not because He saw the great abilities and talents that were in each of those people whom He had chosen, but because He saw the heart, and He knew those who truly love Him and were able to devote themselves to Him.

For to God, all of our worldly greatness and achievements mean nothing to Him, as all these pale in comparison to what one who love God with all of his or her strength and might could give. God desires not the hubris and the showcase of men’s pride and their achievements, but He desires the same love which we ought to give Him, just as He had loved us first.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us today are called to think about our own lives, and reflect upon our actions and deeds, all the things that we have done in the past until now. Have we been faithful disciples and followers of our Lord? Or is our faith merely superficial and not real? Did we just profess our faith in mere words or did we attempt to mean what we say when we profess our faith for God by showing it through real work and real action?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have to realise that being a Christian is a calling and also a commitment. We cannot call ourselves Christians and yet our actions, words and deeds speak volumes in denying what we profess. If our actions show that even though we claimed to believe in God but our actions proved otherwise, then we are no Christians!

A true Christian, someone who profess themselves as those who belong to God and believing in His laws and obeying His commandments should have the courage in them to live out their lives in accordance to their Christian faith. This means that we ought to go and put out into the deep, just as Christ Himself had ordered Simon Peter to do.

If we remain idle and not doing whatever is within our capacity and responsibility to do, then the good works of God will remain dormant, and no good fruits will come from it. As members of the Church, all of us have to realise that each and every one of us must work together and contribute to the advancement of God’s mission and work to save mankind from sin, and to bring all back to the loving embrace of God.

And we do not have to look far or think that we need to do enormous tasks. Instead, through our own daily lives, through our own actions and dealings with one another, within our own families, neighbours to one another, within our community and society we should do our best to be faithful in how we say and do things, and we should inspire others to follow our footsteps and the footsteps of the faithful who had gone before us.

Let us all, the modern day disciples of our Lord be strengthened in our faith, and may courage grows in our hearts, that in all the things we do, we may be courageous to proclaim God’s Good News to the world, and to seek out lost souls in the darkness, our own brethren in the Lord, that all may receive God’s everlasting life and salvation in Him. God bless us all and all of our endeavours. Amen.

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Sunday, 7 February 2016 : Fifth (5th) Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 5 : 1-11

At that time, one day, as Jesus stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, with a crowd gathered around Him listening to the word of God, He caught sight of two boats, left at the water’s edge by fishermen, now washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to pull our a little from the shore. There He sat and continued to teach the crowd.

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon replied, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if You say so, I will lower the nets.” This they did, and caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.

They signalled their partners in their other boat to come and help them. They came, and they filled both boats almost to the point of sinking. Upon seeing this, Simon Peter fell at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and his companions were amazed at the catch they had made, and so were Simon’s partners, James and John, Zebedee’s sons.

Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. You will catch people from now on.” So they brought their boats to land and followed Him, leaving everything.

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Sunday, 7 February 2016 : Fifth (5th) Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Corinthians 15 : 1-11

Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, of the Good News that I preached to you and which you received and on which you stand firm. By that Gospel you are saved, provided that you hold to it as I preached it. Otherwise, you will have believed in vain.

In the first place, I have passed on to you what I myself received : that Christ died for our sins, as Scripture says; that He was buried; that He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures; that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve.

Afterwards He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters together; most of them are still alive, although some have already gone to rest. Then He appeared to James and after that to all the Apostles. And last of all, He appeared to the most despicable of them, this is to me.

For I am the last of the Apostles, and I do not even deserve to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. Nevertheless, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace towards me has not been without fruit. Far from it, I have toiled more than all of them, although not I, rather the grace of God in me.

Now, whether it was I or they, this we preach and this you have believed.

Alternative reading (shorter version)

1 Corinthians 15 : 3-8, 11

In the first place, I have passed on to you what I myself received : that Christ died for our sins, as Scripture says; that He was buried; that He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures; that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve.

Afterwards He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters together; most of them are still alive, although some have already gone to rest. Then He appeared to James and after that to all the Apostles. And last of all, He appeared to the most despicable of them, this is to me.

Now, whether it was I or they, this we preach and this you have believed.

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Sunday, 7 February 2016 : Fifth (5th) Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 137 : 1-2a, 2bc-3, 4-5, 7c-8

I thank You, o Lord, with all my heart, for You have heard the word of my lips. I sing Your praise in the presence of the gods. I bow down towards Your holy Temple and give thanks to Your Name.

For Your love and faithfulness, for Your word which exceeds everything. You answered me when I called; You restored my soul and made me strong.

O Lord, all kings on earth will give You praise, when they have heard Your words. They will celebrate the ways of the Lord, “Great is the glory of God!”

You save me from the wrath of my foes, with Your right hand You deliver me. How the Lord cares for me! Your kindness, o Lord, endures forever. Forsake not the work of Your hands.

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Sunday, 7 February 2016 : Fifth (5th) Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Isaiah 6 : 1-2a, 3-8

In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted; the train of His robe filled the Temple. Above Him were Seraphs, each with six wings.

They were calling to one another : “Holy, Holy, Holy is YHVH Sabaoth. All the earth is filled with His Glory!” At the sound of their voices the foundations of the threshold shook and the Temple was filled with smoke.

I said, “Poor me! I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips, and yet I have seen the King, YHVH Sabaoth.” Then one of the Seraphs flew to me; in his hands was a live coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for Us?” I answered, “Here I am. Send me!”

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Sunday, 31 January 2016 : Fourth (4th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the passages from the Sacred Scriptures, which message is very clear to us. Today we are all reminded and also called to service, to the service of our brethren, our brothers and sisters around us, in our neighbourhood and society, and foremost of all, to serve the Lord our God with all of our might and strength.

In our first reading today, we heard about the calling of the prophet Jeremiah, a great prophet who preached the word of God to the people of the kingdom of Judah during the last days of that kingdom, just before the time when the Babylonian exile happened. The prophet Jeremiah was called from a humble origin, and he was called to serve the Lord even amidst the challenges.

And he did not have an easy task, as those to whom he was sent to by the Lord refused to listen to him and rebelled against the Lord all the more. They refused to abandon their wickedness and repent in sincerity to the Lord, and as a result, their fate was sealed, that is to be bereft of their rights to dwell in the land promised to their ancestors, they were scattered to the foreign lands and their properties seized by their conquerors.

In the Gospel today, we heard about our Lord Jesus Who went back to His native village of Nazareth in Galilee, where He lived and where His family lived. But the people there were also indignant and refused to believe in Him, despite certainly having heard of the great deeds that Jesus had done with the people of the surrounding towns and countryside as He ministered to the people of God there.

They did so because they thought that their human wisdom, power and intellect were better than the wisdom of God, and thinking that Jesus Who once lived among them, the Son of a simple carpenter Who now preached the Good News of God, healing the sick and performing miracles was too much for them to believe in. They preferred to remain in their preconception and their prejudice against Him, thinking that He was a nobody as He was before.

Carpenters were not highly regarded as it was seen as a menial labour, a hard job that brought about little recognition, glory and income. And many looked down on such professions, just as prophets themselves during the time of Jeremiah and the time before and after that had been treated. Many of them were thought as madmen and as crazy people who talked nonsense.

Why was this so? This is because they often spoke of doom and bad times to come, because of the failure of the people of God to obey the commandments of the Lord. We in our human nature always prefer to think of good times and we do not like to suffer or to face the ugly truth about ourselves. The truth is that all of us are sinners, and we need some help for ourselves, but many of us deny this truth.

So today, the message from the Sacred Scriptures is that all of us are also called like the prophet Jeremiah, and like the other holy prophets, saints and servants of God, to also walk in the same path, to proclaim God’s Good News to His people, and to bring His salvation closer to them all. And it does not require much for us to do, but starting from faith and from love, that is the faith and the love that we need to have for the Lord our God.

All of us who believe in God should also understand that we all have a responsibility to be witnesses for our Lord, that through our words, deeds and actions we show to the world, to all others around us, that we believe in God, in Whom alone there is truth and salvation. We have been called to be bearers of God’s salvation, so that just after we have been saved through our faith, many more will also be saved.

We have been called today to become the modern day disciples, prophets and servants of the Lord, walking with Him in faith and proclaiming His good deeds to the people, so that through our examples and works, we may help to bring many people at the edge of the precipice of darkness and damnation into salvation and eternal life in God. This is our mission, the mission which our Lord had entrusted to His Apostles, and which has been passed down to us even to this day.

There will indeed be challenges and difficulties on our path, just as our Lord Himself and His Apostles had encountered rejection and ridicule, contempt and persecution. But if we remain faithful and carry out our duties to the end with faith, our rewards in God will be truly great indeed. Let us all not be fearful or be afraid of the rejection of the world, but be courageous always in faith, carrying out the Lord’s good works to all the peoples through our own lives.

May God bless us all in our endeavours, and may He keep us in His grace, blessing us and giving us the strength and courage in heart, that we may always remain true to our mission and be committed always to our cause. May God be with us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 31 January 2016 : Fourth (4th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 4 : 21-30

Then, at that time, Jesus said to the people of Nazareth, “Today these prophetic words come true, even as you listen.”

All agreed with Him, and were lost in wonder, while He spoke of the grace of God. Nevertheless they asked, “Who is this but Joseph’s Son?” So He said, “Doubtless you will quote Me the saying : ‘Doctor, heal Yourself! Do here in Your town what they say You did in Capernaum.'”

Jesus added, “No prophet is honoured in his own country. Truly, I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens withheld rain for three years and six months and a great famine came over the whole land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in the country of Sidon.”

“There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet, and no one was healed except Naaman, the Syrian.”

On hearing these words, the whole assembly became indignant. They rose up and brought Him out of the town, to the edge of the hill on which Nazareth is built, intending to throw Him down the cliff. But He passed through their midst and went His way.

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Sunday, 31 January 2016 : Fourth (4th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Corinthians 12 : 31 – 1 Corinthians 13 : 13

Be that as it may, set your hearts on the most precious gifts, and I will show you a much better way. If I could speak all the human and angelic tongues, but had no love, I would only be sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, knowing secret things with all kinds of knowledge, and had faith great enough to remove mountains, but had no love, I would be nothing.

If I gave everything I had to the poor, and even give up my body to be burnt, if I am without love, it would be of no value to me. Love is patient, kind, without envy. It is not boastful or arrogant. It is not ill-mannered nor does it seek its own interest. Love overcomes anger and forgets offences. It does not take delight in wrong, but rejoices in truth. Love excuses everything, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love will never end. Prophecies may cease, tongues be silent and knowledge disappear. For knowledge grasps something of the truth and prophecy as well. And when what is perfect comes, everything imperfect will pass away. When I was a child I thought and reasoned like a child, but when I grew up, I gave up childish ways.

Likewise, at present we see dimly as in a mirror, but then it shall be face to face. Now we know in part, but then I will know as I am known. Now we have faith, hope and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

Alternative reading (shorter version)

1 Corinthians 13 : 4-13

Love is patient, kind, without envy. It is not boastful or arrogant. It is not ill-mannered nor does it seek its own interest. Love overcomes anger and forgets offences. It does not take delight in wrong, but rejoices in truth. Love excuses everything, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love will never end. Prophecies may cease, tongues be silent and knowledge disappear. For knowledge grasps something of the truth and prophecy as well. And when what is perfect comes, everything imperfect will pass away. When I was a child I thought and reasoned like a child, but when I grew up, I gave up childish ways.

Likewise, at present we see dimly as in a mirror, but then it shall be face to face. Now we know in part, but then I will know as I am known. Now we have faith, hope and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

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Sunday, 31 January 2016 : Fourth (4th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 70 : 1-2, 3-4a, 5-6ab, 15ab and 17

In You, o Lord, I seek refuge; let me not be disgraced. In Your justice help me and deliver me, turn Your ear to me and save me!

Be my Rock of refuge, a stronghold to give me safety, for You are my Rock and my Fortress. Rescue me, o my God, from the hand of the wicked.

For You, o Lord, have been my Hope, my Trust, o God, from my youth. I have relied on You from birth : from my mother’s womb You brought me forth.

My lips will proclaim Your intervention and tell of Your salvation all day. You have taught me from my youth and until now I proclaim Your marvels.

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Sunday, 31 January 2016 : Fourth (4th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Jeremiah 1 : 4-5, 17-19

A word of YHVH came to me, “Even before I formed you in the womb I have known you; even before you were born I had set you apart, and appointed you a prophet to the nations!”

“But you, get ready for action; stand up and say to them all that I command you. Be not scared of them or I will scare you in their presence! See, I will make you a fortified city, a pillar of iron with walls of bronze, against all the nations, against the kings and princes of Judah, against the priests and the people of the land.”

“They will fight against you but shall not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue you – it is YHVH who speaks.”