Sundays of Advent

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Monday, 4 December 2017 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Priests)

Matthew 8 : 5-11

At that time, when Jesus entered Capernaum, an army captain approached Him, to ask His help, “Sir, my servant lies sick at home. He is paralysed and suffers terribly.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

The captain answered, “I am not worthy to have You under my roof. Just give an order and my boy will be healed. For I myself, a junior officer, give orders to my soldiers. And if I say to one, ‘Go!’ he goes; and if I say to another, ‘Come!’ he comes; and if I say to my servant, ‘Do this!’ he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, He was astonished; and said to those who were following Him, “I tell you, I have not found such faith in Israel. I say to you, many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.”

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Monday, 4 December 2017 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Priests)

Psalm 121 : 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5, 6-7, 8-9

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of YHVH!” And now we have set foot within your gates, o Jerusalem!

Jerusalem, just like a city, where everything falls into place! There the tribes go up.

The tribes of YHVH, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to YHVH’s Name. There stand the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : “May those who love you prosper! May peace be within your walls and security within your citadels!”

For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be with you!” For the sake of the house of our YHVH, I will pray for your good.

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Monday, 4 December 2017 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Priests)

Isaiah 2 : 1-5

The vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In the last days, the mountain of YHVH’s house shall be set over the highest mountains and shall tower over the hills. All the nations shall stream to it, saying, “Come, let us go to the mountain of YHVH, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and we may walk in His paths. For the teaching comes from Zion, and from Jerusalem the word of YHVH.”

“He will rule over the nations and settle disputes for many people. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not raise sword against nation; they will train for war no more. O nation of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of YHVH!”

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Sunday, 3 December 2017 : First Sunday of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday marks the beginning of the season of Advent, the time of preparation before the coming of Christmas, when we will celebrate together the birth or Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Today as the First Sunday of Advent, we also begin a new liturgical year, as a new cycle of the liturgical celebrations begin anew.

We heard the passages from the Scriptures today speaking to us about firstly, from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, reminding us as God’s people that we have fallen from the grace of God when we sinned against Him, disobeying His laws and commandments. Yet, God is ever forgiving and merciful, and He is willing to forgive us our sins, as long as we open ourselves to His mercy and allow His grace and love to transform us from a being filled with sin into a being of light.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we embark through this season of Advent, preparing ourselves for the coming of Christmas, it is important that we take note, that this season is not about preparing our homes with decorations, or the time for us to do our pre-Christmas shopping and preparation for our lavish Christmas parties and celebrations. Instead, this time of Advent is designed for us that we may stop from whatever we have been doing throughout this year, and reflect on them, so as to prepare ourselves spiritually and mentally to celebrate Christmas properly.

Many of us do not understand what Christmas is truly about, and we ended up being drawn into the secular way of celebrating Christmas. In fact, if you look around the town, all the shopping malls and gathering places, and even along the roadsides, you can see plenty of Christmas decorations all over those places. We can see all the Christmas trees, the lights and all the beautiful messages wishing everyone a happy Christmas, happiness, peace and prosperity.

Yet, if we look deeper, except for some noteworthy exceptions we surely have encountered, there is something very important missing from all those Christmas celebrations. And what is that, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is Christ! Christ has been missing from Christmas, and the celebration which is primarily and indeed solely about Christ Our Lord, has lost its true meaning and purpose, hidden beneath layers of excess and revelry.

Many of us worry about what we are to wear during the celebrations, or what to cook or provide in our feasts, but for what purpose? Indeed, it will be good to wear something new and good looking for the festive seasons, but are we doing these for the right purpose? Are we celebrating the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, or are we being vain, trying to look good and beautiful in front of our guests and relatives?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are living in a world awash with many material excesses as well as materialistic attitudes. We are surrounded by all these things, that distract us from the true focus of Christmas. Imagine if in a birthday party, everyone is busy enjoying themselves, talking among themselves and be occupied by various activities, and yet, the person who is having the birthday is forgotten. Is that something logical or right? Surely it is not.

And that is exactly what happens when we come to celebrate Christmas, but not with the right purpose and intention. Instead of a celebration of our faith and rejoicing for the arrival of Our Lord and Saviour, the long awaited Messiah, we have made Christmas to be a celebration of ourselves, our ego and human ambitions, and we have left God out of these celebrations.

The Gospel passage today serves as a reminder for all of us the importance of this season of Advent, as a time of reflection and recollection, for us to think deep in our hearts what it truly means for us to celebrate Christmas, and indeed, what it means to be Christians. For we believe in the Lord Jesus, Our God, Who has descended to us assuming the flesh of Man, and died for us on the cross.

This is the fundamental tenet of our faith which we have to follow and understand, if we are truly willing to understand the true spirit and intention of our Christmas celebrations. For Christmas is not just like any other earthly celebrations and revelry. The very reason we rejoice is because Christmas itself is intimately and inseparably tied with another great event in our faith, that is of the Passion of Our Lord that we celebrate during Good Friday, and His resurrection in Easter.

Without the crucifixion, death and resurrection in Easter, Christmas has no meaning, as then it will be just the birth anniversary of yet another human being, no different from any one of us. Instead, it is because of Easter that Christmas has its meaning, because we believe that God Himself has become Man and entered into the world at the moment of His birth, celebrated as Christmas. And the very purpose of His coming into this world, which makes Easter also inseparable from Christmas, is so that He may lay down His life on the cross, as a perfect sacrificial victim, for the sake of our redemption.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to spend time to reflect on this, and see if we have done what we are expected to do, in preparation for the worthy celebration of Christmas. Otherwise, this time of Advent and eventually this upcoming Christmas season will just pass and go without meaning or purpose for us, year after year, again and again. Instead, all of us as Christians should become role models in our faith, and do our best to worthily welcome Christmas, celebrating the very important moment of the birth of Our Lord, God Who have willingly made Himself a Man, for our sake.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all do our best to prepare ourselves this season of Advent, by going for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, doing confession for our sins and conducting penance through our good works and charity, giving up our bad habits, and prepare ourselves, heart, mind, soul and body to be ready to celebrate Christmas in full faith, no longer focused on ourselves and all the revelries, but instead, returning to our true focus in Our Lord Jesus Christ, the birthday Boy, Whose birth we rejoice at.

May the Lord bless us always, and may He empower each and every one of us, so that we may live faithfully and walk in His ways, all the days of our life, persevering through the challenges of life and all the temptations of this world. May He guide us in this season of Advent, that day after day, we may come ever closer to God and His grace. Amen.

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Sunday, 3 December 2017 : First Sunday of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Mark 13 : 33-37

At that time Jesus said to His disciples, “Be alert and watch, for you do not know when the time will come. When a man goes abroad and leaves his home, he puts his servants in charge, giving to each one some responsibility; and he orders the doorkeeper to stay awake.”

“So stay awake, for you do not know when the Lord of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight, when the cock crows or before dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him catch you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all : Stay awake!”

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Sunday, 3 December 2017 : First Sunday of Advent (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

1 Corinthians 1 : 3-9

Receive grace, and peace from God, our Father, and Christ Jesus, our Lord. I give thanks, constantly, to my God, fo you, and for the grace of God given to you, in Christ Jesus. For you have been fully enriched, in Him, with words, as well as with knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you.

You do not lack any spiritual gift and only await the glorious coming of Christ Jesus, our Lord. He will keep you steadfast to the end, and you will be without reproach, on the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus. The faithful God will not fail you, after calling you to this fellowship with His Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord.

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Sunday, 3 December 2017 : First Sunday of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 79 : 2ac and 3bc, 15-16, 18-19

Listen, o Shepherd of Israel, You, Who sit enthroned between the Cherubim. Stir up Your might and come to save us.

Turn again, o YHVH of hosts, look down from heaven and see; care for this vine, and protect the stock Your hand has planted.

But lay Your hand on Your instrument, on the son of man, whom You make strong for Yourself. Then, we will never turn away from You; give us life, and we will call on Your Name.

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Sunday, 3 December 2017 : First Sunday of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Isaiah 63 : 16b-17, 19b and Isaiah 64 : 2b-7

But You, o YHVH, are our Father, from the beginning, You are our Redeemer : This is Your Name. Why have You made us stray from our ways? Why have You let our heart become hard so that we do not fear You? Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your inheritance.

Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down! The mountains would quake at Your presence. Let them witness Your stunning deeds. No one has ever heard or perceived, no eye has ever seen a God besides You Who works for those who trust in Him. You have confounded those who acted righteously and who joyfully kept Your ways in mind. But You are angry with our sins, yet conceal them and we shall be saved.

All of us have become like the unclean; all our good deeds are like polluted garments; we have all withered like leaves, blown away by our iniquities. There is no one who calls upon Your Name, no one who rouses himself to lay hold of You. For You have hidden Your face, You have given us up to the power of our evil acts.

And yet, YHVH, You are our Father; we are the clay and You are our Potter; we are the work of Your hand.

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Saturday, 24 December 2016 : 4th Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, finally, Christmas is almost upon us. After almost a whole month of preparation and waiting in Advent, tomorrow we shall finally come to the great joy and celebration of Christmas, the day when we all rejoice at the birth and the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into this world. We have spent much of this Advent season preparing and reflecting upon the mysteries of this Nativity of our Lord.

And because tomorrow is the very day that we are going to begin our celebrations of Christmas, it is important that we have to enter it with the right mind and the right prepared state, that we all know firstly what we are celebrating about, who is it that we are celebrating about, and then how we ought to celebrate it with the spirit of being Christians, as disciples and followers of our Lord.

It is indeed easy for us to be distracted by the many forms of persuasions and the temptations of worldliness in the celebrations of Christmas, all the more given the amount of materialism and commercialisation that had surrounded the secularised version of Christmas, to the point that Christ had been forgotten from the very celebration that bore His Name, and instead celebrated worldly forms of happiness and joy.

It is not wrong for us to celebrate Christmas in that manner, as after all it is a season of rejoicing and time to celebrate together with our family and friends, but what is important is that we must not forget the essential meaning and purpose of the celebrations of Christmas, and that is about the Lord Himself, the celebration of He Who has come into the world bearing the salvation of God, so that all may be saved through Him.

And that is the essence of today’s Scripture readings, that God’s love for us was so great and He is ever faithful to His words and promises such that He fulfilled at Christmas, the promises and the covenant He had established with us mankind, with His servant Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the promise He had made with David the king, His faithful servant that He will bless their descendants forever.

Let us all spend some time to think and reflect upon God’s great love for us, which has been made manifest through Christ especially in this coming season of Christmas. And let us all take note that when the Lord Jesus came the first time, He did not come with pomp and grandeur, although the host of Angels did sing gloriously of His coming witnessed by the shepherds. He came instead very humbly in a mere stable even though He is a King.

This is a reminder to each and every one of us that our Christmas celebrations and joy cannot be exclusive but instead must be inclusive, that means we cannot forget about the many people who want to celebrate Christmas but are unable to do so because of various circumstances. We ought to share our joy with them, and whatever excesses we have, let us all be generous and share them with our brethren in need, so that our joy may be theirs too, and the Lord Who sees what we have done, will reward us for our charity and generosity.

Let us all also spend the time today to pray for our brethren who are persecuted for their faith, and give thanks to God for the graces He has blessed us with, that we may be able to celebrate Christmas with peace and joy. Let us remember our brethren who cannot even celebrate Christmas openly and joyfully or else they would be persecuted and made to suffer. Let us not forget about them as we enter into Christmas.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all prepare ourselves well and help one another that we may celebrate Christmas with each other and share the joy that we experience, knowing that because of the Lord Jesus and His entry into this world, all of us have received that new hope for eternal life and salvation through Him. May the Lord bless us all and keep us in His grace always. Amen.

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Saturday, 24 December 2016 : 4th Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Luke 1 : 67-79

Zechariah, filled with Holy Spirit, sang this canticle, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has come and redeemed His people. In the house of David His servant, He has raised up for us a victorious Saviour; as He promised through His prophets of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of our foes.”

“He has shown mercy to our fathers; and remembered His holy covenant, the oath He swore to Abraham, our father, to deliver us from the enemy, that we might serve Him fearlessly, as a holy and righteous people, all the days of our lives.”

“And you, my child, shall be called prophet of the Most High, for you shall go before the Lord to prepare the way for Him, and to enable His people to know of their salvation, when He comes to forgive their sins. This is the work of the mercy of our God, Who comes from on high as a rising sun, shining on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, and guiding our feet into the way of peace.”