Sunday

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Sunday, 6 September 2015 : Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Isaiah 35 : 4-7a

Say to those who are afraid : “Have courage, do not fear. See, your God comes, demanding justice. He is the God who rewards, the God who comes to save you.”

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unsealed. Then will the lame leap as a hart and the tongue of the dumb sing and shout. For water will break out in the wilderness and streams gush forth from the desert. The thirsty ground will become a pool, the arid land springs of water.

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Sunday, 30 August 2015 : Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about God who gave His people the Law that became the guide and the way for them to follow, that they may find their way to Him. God provides them with those laws and instructions, because they were a people who were easily distracted and swayed by the temptations of the world, and by all the forces the devil arrayed against them.

Therefore, the Lord revealed to them through Moses the guidelines and rules to help them to maintain their lives to be holy and good at all times. This is meant to help them to overcome their wickedness and their predisposition to sin. This is meant to help them to control themselves, so that they would not fall into the temptations of Satan, and that they may walk righteously in the sight and presence of the Lord.

But those same people had also remained stubborn and unbending, refusing often to follow the laws of the Lord, and they preferred to follow their own ways and paths. They failed to understand why the Lord gave them those laws, and even complained why they were oppressed with such laws and regulations. They thought that they wanted freedom, to be free from the restrictions and boundaries set by the Lord.

God knows us well, brothers and sisters in Christ. He knows all the things that we can do, and which we are fully capable of, and He is trying in His own manner and ways, to help us to overcome this. But ultimately, all these stem from one fact that we must all be fully aware of, that our Lord and God is loving, merciful and caring, especially towards all of us, who are the greatest and most beloved of all His creations.

He loves us all, and He certainly does not want any of us to be lost in the darkness. That is exactly the true essence and meaning of the Law, that is love, and namely love that is everlasting and not bound by the selfish love of oneself. The Law is love, because it teaches us firstly to love the Lord our God, by the giving of ourselves, of our hearts, minds and entire being to the One who loves us so much, that He was willing to send His own Son to save us from death.

And the Law also spoke of love that we need to show for one another, the care and concern, the compassion and love which we ought to show our brethren, so that in all the things we say, in all the things we commit and do, we may always show the love of God and practice the same to our fellow men. And yet, for a long time, by the time of Jesus, few understand this true significance and impact of the Law.

Instead, they misunderstood the Law as a tool to shore up their own vanity and selfishness, thinking that if they obeyed the Law and the Lord more according to what had been written, then they would be granted what they wanted. They pursued the Law and obeyed them to the letter, not because they loved the Lord or cared about Him and His ways. Instead, they obeyed the laws of Moses because they wanted to look and appear good before the people.

It was their ego which became their undoing, as in their hearts, greed, desire, arrogance and pride, and many other negative emotions were gathered together and bloomed up to form the ego and the vanity with which they showed their Lord just how wicked they were. They were serving their own interests, and when in their hearts and minds, they only saw their own glory among the people of God.

They observed the laws of the washing of hands before meal because they wanted to be seen as pious and righteous by the people. Just as on another occasion, Jesus also rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law because of their attitude in prayer, for they liked to gather in public places and marketplaces, praying loudly and with zealous appearances to gain the support and acclaim from the public.

But inside they were rotten and wicked. They had no consideration for the people they had been entrusted with. On the other hand, it was the poor and the weak, those who have nothing or little with them, the simple and the ones who lived righteously, who truly had the Lord in their hearts and in their minds. They lived righteously and in their actions, even though they were poor and lacking in worldly things, they did not lack the treasures which they have in God.

When Jesus spoke of the prayer as compared between a Pharisee and a tax collector in one of His parables, He was speaking of the reality of the situation and the contrast we have just discussed. The Pharisee prayed proudly and filled with hubris as well as self-praise about Himself, and he even looked down on the tax collector whom he branded a sinner and a filthy and unworthy person.

On the contrary, the tax collector humbled himself greatly before the Lord, fully aware of his sins and faults, and he offered repentance and true devotion, which came out of his heart, the desire to seek the Lord with all of one’s might. In the end, it is the prayer of the tax collector that God will hear and fulfil, as it was made from the heart, the outpouring of love and devotion which flows from the heart of a worthy and righteous man.

On the day of judgment, this tax collector, a sinner, will rank far higher than that of the Pharisee or the teacher of the Law, because although they were outwardly and externally seeming to be pious, but what truly matters to the Lord is not sacrifices and external faith or piety. While these are indeed important too, but without the correct internal orientation of one’s faith and devotion, all other things including the external devotions would mean nothing.

In one occasion, God made it clear to St. Peter, His Apostle, that His will is such that all things are to be considered clean and good. In a vision, He offered Peter animals of all kinds that by Jewish dietary laws and food prohibition laws are considered as unclean, and He asked him to eat them. Peter refused them saying that nothing impure and unclean had ever entered his mouth.

God replied him saying that what He had deemed to be clean, no man should mark as unclean. And this is alluding to both the dietary prohibitions, as well as bringing the faith to the Gentiles, whom the Jews up to then considered as pagan, unclean and unworthy of salvation. God had made all of mankind equal in the beginning, and no one had better standing than the other, based on their race, background or anything save their own actions.

Thus, it is truly absurd and folly to think that something from the outside such as food, or external matters such as race, origins and physical appearances made someone righteous, for these mean nothing if their insides, the heart and soul are filled with wickedness and lacking in God’s love and grace. Instead of focusing on externals as the Pharisees had done, we should first look deep inside ourselves.

Yes, look deep inside our hearts, discern and think, whether our every words and actions have been done in accordance with the will of God. For God had instructed us to be selfless, to love Him with all our might and to love one another equally as we love ourselves. Let us ponder on this, so that we will not fall into the same trap that befell the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who were trapped by their own ego and vanity.

May Almighty God be with us always, and help us to see beyond ourselves and our greedy desires. May all of us be closer to the Lord, and place His Law and love inside our hearts, so that by our understanding of the true purpose and meaning of His laws and precepts, we may be found righteous and just, and be made worthy of eternal life and salvation. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 30 August 2015 : Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 7 : 1-8, 14-15, 21-23

At that time, one day the Pharisees gathered around Jesus, and with them there were some teachers of the Law who had just come from Jerusalem. They noticed that some of His disciples were eating their meal with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.

Now the Pharisees, and in fact all the Jews, never eat without washing their hands, for they follow the tradition received from their ancestors. Nor do they eat anything, when they come from the market, without first washing themselves. And there are many other traditions they observe; for example, the ritual washing of cups, pots and plates.

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean hands?” Jesus answered, “You shallow people! How well Isaiah prophesied of you when he wrote : ‘This people honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. The worship they offer Me is worthless, for what they teach are only human rules.’ You even put aside the commandment of God to hold fast to human tradition.”

Jesus then called the people to Him again and said to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and try to understand. Nothing that enters a person from the outside can make that person unclean. It is what comes from within that makes a person unclean. For evil designs come out of the heart : theft, murder, adultery, jealousy, greed, maliciousness, deceit, indecency, slander, pride and folly. All these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.”

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Sunday, 30 August 2015 : Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

James 1 : 17-18, 21b-22, 27

Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of Light, in whom there is no change or shadow of a change. By His own will He gave us life through the Word of Truth, that we might be a kind of offering to Him among His creatures.

Welcome the Word that has been planted in you and has the power to save you. Be doers of the Word and not just hearers, lest you deceive yourselves. In the sight of God, our Father, pure and blameless religion lies in helping the orphans and widows in their need and keeping oneself from the world’s corruption.

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Sunday, 30 August 2015 : Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 14 : 2-3ab, 3cd-4ab, 5

Those who walk blamelessly and do what is right, who speak truth from their heart and control their words, who do no harm to their neighbours.

Those who cast no discredit on their companions, who look down on evildoers but highly esteem God’s servants.

Who do not lend money at interest and refuse a bribe against the innocent. Do this, and you will soon be shaken.

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Sunday, 30 August 2015 : Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Deuteronomy 4 : 1-2, 6b-8

And now, Israel, listen to the norms and laws which I teach that you may put them into practice. And you will live and enter and take possessions of the land which YHVH, the God of your fathers, gives you. Do not add anything to what I command you nor take anything away from it. But keep the commandments of YHVH, your God, as I command you.

When the other peoples come to know of all these laws, they will say, “There is no people as wise and as intelligent as this great nation.” For in truth, is there a nation as great as ours, whose gods are as near to it as YHVH, our God, is to us whenever we call upon Him? And is there a nation as great as ours whose norms and laws are as just as this Law which I give you today?

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Sunday, 23 August 2015 : Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are faced with the reality and the truth in the Scripture readings which we have heard today. In the first reading we heard about how Joshua, the leader who succeeded Moses in bringing Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land, exhorted to them to remain faithful in the Lord, and then in the second reading, St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians urged people in the family to remain faithful to each other and to remain committed to their vow of marriage, having been united by God.

And then in the Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ spoke of how there will be those who refuse to listen to His words, and refuse to believe in His teachings, because of the doubts in their hearts, and their inability to grasp what the truth of the Lord is all about. He knew that there would be those who went astray and be lost because they refused to believe in the truth.

And yet of course, the Apostles, all save the one who had planned to betray Jesus, all remained faithful to the Lord Jesus, and continued to follow Him even though many others have left Him, and even though these have ridiculed the Lord they followed and served, and even though they must have been pressured and urged to leave behind their Master as well.

All of these would bring us to ask ourselves, about our faith in this ever-changing and ever more difficult world to live in. We know how this world follows its own ways. And often these ways are not in accordance to the ways of the Lord. This we should be aware of, that the world has been under the dominion and power of Satan, the evil and fallen one, ever since he brought sin into the world, and not until the day of judgment that he would be overthrown and the world made anew.

As we heard in the first reading today about Joshua and the people of Israel, Joshua gave a passionate exhortation and reminder to the people of Israel to remain faithful to the Lord, who had done so much wonders for them, and who had brought them and their fathers out of Egypt with might and power, crushing those who have enslaved them and liberated them to bring them to the lands and the bountiful gifts promised to their ancestors.

And yet, if we would read on, and which we should know, we should realise that the people of Israel did not remain faithful. They would revert to their ways of rebellion and disobedience, as they had often exhibited throughout their journey in the desert, beginning with their worship of the golden calf, betraying the Lord for the pagan idols of their neighbours, for statues and idols made of gold, silver and worldly goods.

They would sell their souls and their bodies to the vileness of the world many, many times, and they often became lost in the many temptations of the flesh coming their way. They worshipped the pagan gods of their neighbours and forgot entirely about the Lord who had led them to the lands they occupied then in prosperity. Therefore the Lord reminded them by allowing their neighbours to harass them and oppress them, so that they might know that human power is feeble, and the joy they have in the world is temporary. And everything means nothing if all are not bound to the Lord, the one true God.

Therefore, then we too should reflect on our own lives. Have we been truly faithful to the Lord? And if we say that we are faithful, then do our actions and our words, all the things we do and say, do they all show concretely and firmly that all of us truly belong to the Lord? Or did we instead do things contrary to what the Lord had taught and shown to us? Have we created scandal of our faith by not doing what we profess to believe?

Brethren, there are so many pressures and temptations from all sources and directions around us, from our own communities and societies, for us to abandon what we have believed in the Lord, and for us to betray the Lord, for other pagan and ungodly idols, just as the Israelites had done in the past, and just as they had done again at the time of Jesus, rejecting and refusing to believe in the Saviour who had come upon them in order to save them.

And if last time, they were tempted to worship the pagan gods and idols of wood, silver, gold and other earthly wares, and pushed to give sacrifices to these idols, we may think that in this modern world we no longer have such idols and hence we should be safe from such depredations and corrupted ways of our predecessors. However, many of us did not realise that we live in a world that is filled with idols, that is the new idol of wealth, of injustice, of selfishness and many others.

If we look around us, we would certainly realise how we live in such a commercialised and materialistic world, where money and possessions matter a great deal for many of us, where prestige and position, where fame and acceptance by others matter a great deal for us. If we lack any of these, it is our nature to go forth and seek ways to get more of them, to have more of what we do not have, be it money, or recognition from others.

These are the new idols that can tear us away from the true path and way of the Lord. And this path is the path of selfishness, where all of these lead to the pampering and the glorification of the self, the satisfaction of our ego and selfishness, where we end up closing ourselves up from knowing what others around us need and what we can do to help them.

It is in our human nature to think of ourselves first and even at the expense of others if necessary. And this is why St. Paul in his letter to the faithful in the city of Ephesus reminded them of the importance of the family and its unity, when every member of the family are devoted to each other, and obey one another. When each member of the family give in to their selfishness and the desire to satisfy themselves ahead of others, then it is where the very fabric of the family itself will fall apart.

The institution of the family is the anchor of faith for us all. The family is the basic unit of the Church and the faithful, where faith is disseminated and transferred from one generation to the next, and Satan knows this. This is why Satan is so particular in his efforts to destroy the family and its unity, by playing on mankind’s selfishness and self-satisfying attitudes.

We have to take note of this, brothers and sisters in Christ. Therefore, as we reflect on the readings from the Scripture which we have heard today, let us all keep in mind our own families, and reflect on whether in our families, we have practiced our faith together as one, and put the family ahead of our own selves. Have we put God at the centre of our family? Have we prayed together and worked together as one?

These are important questions we have to ask ourselves, if we are to help ourselves in resisting the temptations of the world through which Satan is trying to pull us away from the path towards salvation. Let us all work together as one, through our own families, by keeping the sanctity and holiness in our own families, placing God at the centre of our lives, and then working together as the whole Church to help one another in finding our way to the Lord and reaching out to Him.

May Almighty God keep our faith strong and guide us in our life’s endeavours, that in all the things we do, we will always practice what He had taught us, and remember always His mercy and love, which He generously pours upon us. May God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Sunday, 23 August 2015 : Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

John 6 : 60-69

At that time, after hearing Jesus, many of His followers said, “This language is very hard! Who can accept it?”

Jesus was aware that His disciples were murmuring about this, and so He said to them, “Does this offend you? Then how will you react when you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit that gives life, not the flesh. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life. But among you there are some who do not believe.”

From the beginning, Jesus knew who would betray Him. So He added, “As I have told you, no one can come to Me unless it is granted by the Father.” After this many disciples withdrew and no longer followed Him. Jesus asked the Twelve, “Will you also go away?”

Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We now believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.”

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Sunday, 23 August 2015 : Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ephesians 5 : 21-32

Let all kinds of submission to one another become obedience to Christ. So wives to their husbands : as to the Lord. The husband is the head of his wife, as Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, of whom He is also the Saviour. And as the Church submits to Christ, so let a wife submit in everything to her husband.

As for you, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her. He washed her and made her holy by baptism in the Word. As He wanted a radiant Church without stain or wrinkle or any blemish, but holy and blameless, He Himself had to prepare and present her to Himself.

In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they love their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. And no one has ever hated his body; he feeds and takes care of it. That is just what Christ does for the Church, because we are members of His Body.

Scripture says : Because of this a man shall leave his father and mother to be united with his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a very great mystery, and I refer to Christ and the Church.

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Sunday, 23 August 2015 : Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 33 : 2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21, 22-23

I will bless the Lord all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the lowly hear and rejoice.

The eyes of the Lord are fixed on the righteous; His ears are inclined to their cries. But His face is set against the wicked to destroy their memory from the earth.

The Lord hears the cry of the righteous and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves the distraught.

Many are the troubles of the just, but the Lord delivers them from all. He keeps all their bones intact, and none of them will be broken.

Evil will slay the wicked; the enemies of the just will be doomed. But the Lord will redeem the life of His servants; none of those who trust in Him will be doomed.