Sundays after Pentecost

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Saturday, 9 September 2017 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Claver, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests or Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Colossians 1 : 21-23

You, yourselves, were once estranged, and opposed to God, because of your evil deeds, but now, God has reconciled you, in the human body of His Son, through His death, so that you may be without fault, holy and blameless before Him.

Only stand firm upon the foundation of your faith, and be steadfast in hope. Keep in mind the Gospel you have heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

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Friday, 8 September 2017 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate together the day when our Blessed Mother Mary, the Mother of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, was born from the womb of St. Anne, her mother, without any taints of sin just as she had been conceived without sin. This is a day when we rejoice because the Mother of our Lord and Saviour has been born to us.

Some may be wondering why is it that we as Catholics and Christians give so great an honour to Mary, and still yet some may even and has indeed already accused us of idolatry towards Mary and had the very wrong idea and preconceptions that we worship Mary as if she is a goddess. No, this is not the case, brothers and sisters, for there is indeed a very clear dividing line between our worship of God and the honour which we gave to Mary and the other holy saints.

Mary is honoured even more than other saints because of the very simple reason that she is the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, and One of the Holy Trinity of God, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. By the power of the Holy Spirit, and upon the obedience of Mary to the will of God, God Himself came in the flesh, and was conceived in the holy womb of Mary. And through the dogma and traditions of our faith since time immemorial, we have believed that because of this, Mary herself had been set aside by God.

Yes, we all know about how she was conceived without any taints of original sin, unlike that of any other human beings, who were tainted as the descendants of the first sinners, Adam and Eve. That is because Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant, bearing within her the New Covenant of God made through Jesus Christ, her Son, Whom she bore within her womb for an entire nine months. But this at the same time did not elevate her to the status of a divine, unlike what some would like to charge upon us and our faith.

We honour Mary, firstly because we honour her Son and worship Him as our God and King. As it was in the olden days, the mother of a king was highly regarded and respected, honoured and given the same honour as what was accorded to the king, by the virtue of the mother having bore forth the king and took care of him in his early days until he came of age and was capable of taking over and exercising his own authority as a king.

If that was therefore how the kings of this world brought honour upon their mothers and parents, and if that is how we mankind honour the mothers of our rulers, then should we not have done the same with the Mother of our one and only True King, Jesus Christ? Should we not have done the same with the Mother of our God Himself? For His Kingship is greater than any of those of the worldly kings and rulers, and therefore, we honour Mary rightly and justly because of this.

And in Mary, we see a living and vibrant faith, based on total surrender and commitment to the will of God. She is the greatest among all the saints not just because she is the one closest to the throne of her Son in heaven, but also because of her very own exemplary life, filled with love for God, and with devotion to her Son, by following Him throughout His life, throughout His worldly ministries, and even unto the foot of the cross.

Therefore, on this day, on the celebration of the nativity or the birth of the Mother of our Lord and God, Mary, most Blessed Virgin and loving Mother, let us all reflect on the life which Mary had led, her commitment and total surrender to God’s will, and how she has shown us the way forward, that through her we may reach out to her Son, and find our salvation in Him. Let us all rejoice together, that the birth of Mary has brought the new hope of all of us, that as we gaze on her, we see through her, the coming of our salvation in her Son.

Mary, blessed Mother of God, pray for us sinners, and intercede for us before your beloved Son Jesus, our Lord. Be with us through our times of distress, and guide us on our way, so that we may be able to find our path, and walk along that way through your help, to Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

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Friday, 8 September 2017 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 1 : 1-16, 18-23

This is the account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron of Aram. Aram was the father of Aminadab, Aminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon.

Salmon was the father of Boaz. His mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed. His mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David, the king. David was the father of Solomon. His mother had been Uriah’s wife. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Then came the kings : Abijah, Asaph, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah.

Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon, Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel and Salathiel of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud of Eliakim, and Eliakim of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar of Matthan, and Matthan of Jacob.

Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus Who is called the Christ – the Messiah. This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her.

While he was pondering over this, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins.”

All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet : The Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means God-with-us.

Alternative reading (shorter version)

Matthew 1 : 18-23

This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her.

While he was pondering over this, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins.”

All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet : The Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means God-with-us.

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Friday, 8 September 2017 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 12 : 6ab, 6cd

But I put my trust in Your unfailing love, my heart will rejoice on seeing Your salvation.

I will sing to YHVH, for He has been good to me!

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Friday, 8 September 2017 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Micah 5 : 1-4a

But you, Bethlehem Ephrata, so small that you are hardly named among the clans of Judah; from you shall I raise the One Who is to rule over Israel. For He comes forth from of old, from the ancient times.

YHVH, therefore, will abandon Israel until such time as she, who is to give birth, has given birth. Then the rest of His deported brothers will return to the people of Israel. He will stand, and shepherd His flock with the strength of YHVH, in the glorious Name of YHVH, His God.

They will live safely, while He wins renown to the ends of the earth. He shall be peace.

Alternative reading

Romans 8 : 28-30

We know that in everything, God works for the good of those who love Him, whom He has called, according to His plan. Those whom He knew beforehand, He has also predestined, to be like His Son, similar to Him, so, that, He may be the Firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

And so, those whom God predestined, He called, and those whom He called, He makes righteous, and to those whom He makes righteous, He will give His glory.

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Thursday, 7 September 2017 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day through the readings taken from the Sacred Scriptures, all of us are reminded that each and every one of us have been called by God to be holy, and to be those who had been entrusted to be the fishers of men, to gain for God a holy people, converted and turned from their sinfulness into righteousness.

All of us as Christians, as those who have been called by God, and who had been baptised in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, have been gathered and called by God to be His people, sealed with the Sacraments of Initiation, of Baptism, Confirmation and the Holy Eucharist. However, out there, there are still many people who have not yet heard of the Lord and His salvation, and there are also still many people who are living in sin because they do not know the way to go on forward, trapped in the darkness of their sins.

And all of us are called to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles, who had been called to gather the race of man, from all nations and states, from all languages and backgrounds, from all kinds of peoples, that all of them may be gathered in the holy presence of God, having been redeemed from the darkness and from their sins. This is what the Lord wants each one of us to do, because the works that He had begun through His Apostles had not yet been complete.

Why is that so? That is because the Church which the Apostles built has been founded upon the faith and the good works that they had done, in going forth to the various places and showing the truth of God to the people, calling many of them to repentance and to turn away from their sinfulness, embracing the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord, Saviour and God.

And all of us, led by the successors of the Apostles, our bishops and priests, are the ones who have been called to continue their good works. We cannot stand idle thinking that we do not have any obligations or needs to do as Christians, that is as those who follow the Lord and obey His will. We cannot be lukewarm or inactive Christians whose actions do not show that we truly belong to the Lord and that we are faithful to Him.

If we then wonder if we are capable of doing what the Lord had asked us to do, let us all remember that many of the Apostles and disciples of the Lord were merely fishermen, tax collectors, and sinners, many of them who came from the low strata in the society, and many were poor and uneducated. He did not choose the mighty, the powerful and the intellectuals to serve Him, but instead, He called on normal people, whom He then transformed wonderfully to be His disciples.

Are we still not sure on what we are to do then, brothers and sisters in Christ? Let us all remember that each and every one of us have been given unique abilities and talents by the Lord our God, and we should make use of these talents and abilities for the good of our brethren in need. We should be active as the members of the Church of God, as Christians, to bring the Word of God to others whom we are in contact with.

Do not worry about how we are going to do it. Instead, let us just place our trust in God, and let Him guide us in our efforts. Let us then do our best, to the best of our abilities, that in each of our actions, words and deeds we will always bring glory to God, and we will always be exemplary in all that we do, so that through us, many more people will be saved. May God be with us always and may He continue to bless us in our good works. Amen.

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Thursday, 7 September 2017 : 22nd Week 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 out 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 the other boat to come and help them. They came, and they filled both 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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Thursday, 7 September 2017 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 97 : 2-3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6

YHVH has shown His salvation, revealing His justice to the nations. He has not forgotten His love, nor His faithfulness to Israel.

The farthest ends of the earth all have seen God’s saving power. All you, lands, make a joyful noise to YHVH, break into song and sing praise.

With melody of the lyre and with music of the harp. With trumpet blast and sound of the horn, rejoice before the King, YHVH!

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Thursday, 7 September 2017 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Colossians 1 : 9-14

Because of this, from the day we received news of you, we have not ceased praying to God for you, that you may attain the full knowledge of His will, through all the gifts of wisdom and spiritual understanding.

May your lifestyle be worthy of the Lord and completely pleasing to Him. May you bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God. May you become strong, in everything, by a sharing of the glory of God, so that you may have great endurance and perseverance in joy.

Constantly give thanks to the Father, Who has empowered us to receive our share in the inheritance of the saints, in His kingdom of light. He rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. In Him, we are redeemed and forgiven.

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Wednesday, 6 September 2017 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard of the works of Jesus among His people, curing the sick, casting demons and evil spirits out from those who were possessed. We heard how the people sought for Jesus, hoping that He would touch them and heal then from their sicknesses. And Jesus, having pity on them, healed them and made them whole again.

But at the same time, when Jesus was begged to stay at that place where He had performed the miracles, Jesus said to His disciples that He must go on to other places, and not to stay in that place for too long, for there were also many other people who needed His help and providence, and He was sent into this world so that all the people might hear the word of God’s truth and be saved through Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what then is the significance of what we have heard in the Scripture passages today? First of all, the Lord is calling us to serve Him and to do His good works among the people, by caring in the same manner as how the Lord had cared for His people. The Lord has entrusted us all Christians to care for one another, and the authority has been given to us, through the Church, for those whom God had appointed, to cast out demons and to bring healing to the people afflicted.

Yet at the same time as we have heard in the Gospel, we see how it is easy for us to be tempted to remain in our comfort zone and to be slack in our faith. Why so? Just as Jesus was begged by the people to stay at where He had performed His healing miracles and exorcisms, all of us will also be tempted to remain within our comfort zone, within the boundaries of what we are familiar and comfortable with, that we end up refusing to do what we should have been able to do as Christians.

In this, therefore, all of us are challenged to do what we can do, and contribute in whatever way we can, to show love, care and concern for others, especially to all those who are less fortunate than us, those who are without love and affection, to those who have been rejected by others and by the community. All of us should be loving in all of our actions and deeds, and we should reach out to those who are needy, and share with them the blessings we have received from God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, have all of us been devoted to God in this manner? And have we done what the Lord had challenged us to do in our lives? Have we as Christians committed our time and effort in order to touch the lives of others around us? Or have we rather ignored the plea and the cries of the needy and the hungry, those who were suffering and in pain?

Let us all from now on dedicate ourselves anew, walking faithfully in God’s ways, and do whatever we can, beginning from ourselves and from all those whom we encounter in life. We may think that as a mere human being and as a mere person, we may not be able to do a lot or in a significant manner for all those who need our help. Yet, everything needs a beginning, or else it will never begin. If we do not start to take action now, when will it be then?

Let us all renew our effort and double down on what we can do, to care for those who need our help. Let our actions and works be the extensions of the good work of God. May the Lord also bless us all and help us on our path, that we may always be ready to do the work of God, and following the footsteps of our Lord, Who is ever ready to extend His merciful grace to those who are sick, physically and spiritually. May He be with us always and with our endeavours. Amen.