Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 121 : 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5
I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” 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 the Lord, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord’s Name. There stand the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 15 : 1-6
Some persons who had come from Judea to Antioch were teaching the brothers in this way, “Unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Because of this there was trouble, and Paul and Barnabas had fierce arguments with them. For Paul told the people to remain as they were when they became believers. Finally those who had come from Jerusalem suggested that Paul and Barnabas and some others go up to Jerusalem to discuss the matter with the Apostles and elders.
They were sent on their way by the Church. As they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria they reported how the non-Jews had turned to God, and there was great joy among all the brothers and sisters. On their arrival in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the Church, the Apostles and the elders, to whom they told all that God had done through them.
Some believers, however, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees, stood up and said that non-Jewish men must be circumcised and instructed to keep the law of Moses. So the Apostles and elders met together to consider the matter.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us are called and reminded to be missionary and evangelising disciples and followers of God, in carrying out our duties and responsibilities as Christians faithfully in our lives and in doing the will of God at every possible opportunities. The Lord has called on all of us to be His beloved people, to walk in His path and to be exemplary in our lives so that everyone who witness our works and our way of life may truly know that we are the people of God, and that they may also know God Himself through us. Through our Scripture passages today, we have also heard and are reminded that challenges will likely come our way in the midst of our ministry, and trials and hardships may be part of our lives as we journey with faith in God’s path, but we must always persevere and keep up hope.
In our first reading today, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard of the continued works of St. Paul and St. Barnabas in their mission in proclaiming the word of God and His truth, amidst the trials and challenges that they had to face, and despite the oppositions and hardships that they had to endure. St. Paul and St. Barnabas were struck at by the provocation of the Jewish people and those who opposed their efforts and works in proclaiming the Good News of God in the region of Lystra. They were stoned and were almost left for dead if not for God’s protection and guidance, which still remained with them throughout their journey. Yet, that did not dampen their spirits at all, and the two Apostles continued to carry on their mission with zeal and commitment, dedicating their time and effort to glorify the Lord and to proclaim His Good News to more and more of the people. They laboured hard and long so that by their dedication and hard work, they might make God known to more people.
In our Gospel passage today, the Lord also reassured His disciples, telling them all not to be afraid as He would always be with them, guiding and protecting them on their path, not allowing them to be crushed and destroyed. He would give them true peace and happiness, joy and satisfaction of having walked and being present in His love and grace. The Lord Jesus reminded His disciples that He is truly the manifestation of God’s perfect and ever enduring love, which has often been shown to us, given to us so that we may know that He has truly been with us throughout the way, not leaving us behind despite us and our predecessors having often abandoned and rejected Him. He has come to us so that we may have sure path towards eternal life and salvation through Him, our Lord, Saviour and King.
As we heard in our first reading today, the Apostles continued to carry on their missions and works, reaching out to the various communities of people and ministering to them. To those who have not yet known the Lord, the Apostles proclaimed the words of God’s truth and revealed Him to all of them, patiently showing them the love of God, teaching them about His precepts and ways, and living their lives as good Christian role models, in loving one another and caring for each other, and in building a loving and caring community of Christians, the holy people that God had called and chosen. We heard how the Apostles appointed the elders and overseers, which we now know as bishops, to be the guide for the people and community of the faithful, spreading the joy of the Gospel and leading more and more people to the light of Christ and His salvation.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the same mission which God has entrusted to us and commanded us to do, continuing whatever good works that His Apostles and faithful ones had started and faithfully carried out. The works of the Church, the Apostles and the many other missionaries of the Lord are still aplenty, and there are truly still many areas where the Lord is not yet known, and there are still parts and areas where the faith of the people of God in their Lord and Saviour had become lax and weakened. God has therefore called on all of us, on each and every one of us to follow Him and His commandments. We are all sent out to proclaim His Good News and salvation, to show His love and truth to the whole world, to the people of all the nations, just as how the Apostles like St. Paul and St. Barnabas among others had done.
However, many of us are often too distracted with our many preoccupations and temptations in life. We often spent a lot of time and effort seeking for worldly sustenance and attachments, for worldly comforts and desires, all of which often suffocated the faith and the love for God inside of us. Many of us have not carried out the actions and works that we should have done, and the reason was simple, that is we are too busy with ourselves and our various pursuits and desires in life, our many attachments and other distractions that we simply did not have the time to spend for the Lord. And if we have faltered in our efforts to do what the Lord had asked us to do, or worse still, in doing what are contrary and wicked in the sight of God and others, how can we then call ourselves as true and genuine Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ?
Therefore, that is why during this time of Easter, all of us are reminded to return the focus of our lives to the Risen Lord, our Saviour, to His truth and love, to the Good News and everything that He has brought unto us. Let us all remember the great love by which He has always shown us, in having come down into our midst and reaching out to us with most generous love, and let us recall how He continues to patiently care for us and calls us all unto Himself, sending us many servants and messengers, to help and remind us, and guide us in the right path towards Him. Let us all remember the grace and love that He has shown us, in not letting us all to suffer the persecutions and hardships of this world, the many trials and challenges of this life by ourselves. He is in fact, always there for us, and He has not left us at all, and supported us whenever we needed help and guidance.
Therefore, let us all give thanks to our most loving God and endeavour to do better in living our lives as most faithful Christians from now on if we have not done so. Let us all be good role models and examples to our fellow brothers and sisters, and do whatever we can to glorify the Lord by our lives and works at all times. May the Risen Lord, our Saviour and Guide, our King and Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, be with us always and bless our works, be with His Church and all who have laboured in His Name. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 14 : 27-31a
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Peace be with you! I give you My peace; not as the world gives peace do I give it to you. Do not be troubled; do not be afraid. You heard Me say, ‘I am going away, but I am coming to you.’ If you loved Me, you would be glad that I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”
“I have told you this now before it takes place, so that when it does happen you may believe. It is very little what I may still tell you, for the prince of this world is at hand, although there is nothing in Me that he can claim. But see, the world must know that I love the Father, and that I do what the Father has taught Me to do.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 144 : 10-11, 12-13ab, 21
All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o Lord, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your power.
That all may know of Your mighty deeds, Your reign and its glorious splendour. Your reign is from age to age; Your dominion endures from generation to generation.
Let my mouth speak in praise of the Lord, let every creature bless His holy Name, forever and ever.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 14 : 19-28
Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and turned the people against Paul and Barnabas. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, leaving him for dead. But when his disciples gathered around him, he stood up and returned to the town. And the next day he left for Derbe with Barnabas.
After proclaiming the Gospel in that town and making many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and on to Antioch. They were strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain firm in the faith, for they said, “We must go through many trials to enter the Kingdom of God.”
In each Church they appointed elders and, after praying and fasting, they commended them to the Lord in Whom they had placed their faith. Then they travelled through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. They preached the Word in Perga and went down to Attalia. From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God’s grace for the task they had now completed.
On their arrival they gathered the Church together and told them all that God had done through them and how He had opened the door of faith to the non-Jews. They spent a fairly long time there with the disciples.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, all of us are called and reminded to be the faithful and humble disciples of the Lord, carrying out our lives and living our Christian faith daily to glorify the Lord and to proclaim His Good News to everyone, and not for our own personal glory and ambition. All of us should get rid from our hearts and minds, the dangerous evils of our pride, ego, greed and other things that can become serious obstacles in our path towards the Lord, His grace and salvation. We ought to heed what we have heard from our Scripture passages today relating to the experiences of the Apostles and what the Lord Himself had told His disciples to help us to remain rooted in our faith in the Lord, and not to fall into the many temptations all around us.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles of the time when the Apostles, St. Paul and St. Barnabas, who were in the midst of a missionary journey, went to the area of Lystra in Asia Minor, where they performed several miracles and proclaimed the Good News of God to the people there. However, as we heard, the many pagan peoples of Lystra mistook this miraculous sign as their own pagan gods, Zeus and Hermes having come down into their midst in the person of St. Paul and St. Barnabas. This was actually accurate as per Greek mythology which believed that their gods occasionally walked down this world in the human form, and hence, those people of Lystra misunderstood what St. Paul and St. Barnabas had done, and treated them as if they were gods incarnate in the flesh, worshipping and honouring them like gods.
St. Paul and St. Barnabas pleaded before the people with little effect, as they told them the folly of their actions and the mistakes in their ways and beliefs, in their failure to recognise the one and true Living God, and in their attachments to the inanimate gods and beings of earth, sea, sky and nature as how their pagan beliefs revolved around. By the way they were treated, St. Paul and St. Barnabas were treated with the greatest honours and respect, and it took great courage for them to resist the temptations of pride, glory and worldly power, and not only that, but even also chiding the people for their false ways and erroneous beliefs. They were not swayed by worldly glory and ambition, and while they could have gained and benefitted from the great fervour and honour they were receiving from the people, but they remained firm in their faith and remembered the mission that God has entrusted to them.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Lord Jesus Himself as He spoke to His disciples regarding the matter of obedience and listening to His truth, and how His disciples and followers ought to behave as genuine and faithful people of God. The Lord said that those who loves Him, follows and obeys His commandments, carrying out whatever the Lord has told and taught them to do, and those who did not truly love Him would not obey what He had told and commanded them to do, or that they would not carry out the actions and commandments in the manner and way that they should have been carried out. And this was reflected exactly in how the two Apostles, St. Paul and St. Barnabas had carried out their mission and actions, that despite the many challenges they encountered, they remained firm in faith in God, and persevered through those challenges.
And as we heard earlier in our first reading today, as St. Paul and St. Barnabas were treated like they were gods incarnate in the flesh, and worshipped by the people, they did not give in to the temptation of ego and greed, which had in fact brought down so many people and members of the Church throughout the history of the Church in the past two millennia. There were so many heretics and false leaders who had caused divisions in the Church, and misled many of the faithful into the wrong path because they were swayed by the temptations of worldly glory, desires and other attachments in life. Those people chose to put their own selfish desires, ambitions and worldly pursuits ahead of their obligation and responsibilities in following God and doing what the Lord has taught and commanded them to do.
That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have discussed earlier on, it is important that all of us have to learn to place the right focus of our lives in Christ, in the truth that God has revealed, shown and taught to us. All of us have been called to follow Him, to be His genuine followers and disciples, with hearts and minds attuned and focused on God’s truth and love. Each and every one of us have received the great bounty of God’s grace and love, and we have been guided to the right path by His providence and patient care. Therefore, we should be careful lest we allow the many temptations and distractions all around us from misleading us down the wrong path in life. We should resist the temptations of worldly power and glory, and remind ourselves that in the Lord alone we have true hope and fulfilment.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all then spend our time discerning our path in life. If we all have been living our lives with the focus and emphasis to seek for our own personal gains and advantages, or in seeking our various ambitions and attachments in life, then it is time for us to strive to detach ourselves from all those and return to the root of our lIves and existence, that is God Himself. All of us should refocus our attention towards Him and remind one another to walk ever more faithfully in the path that He has shown us. We should resist the many temptations of the world just as how the Apostles had done, and be inspired by the courage shown by St. Paul and St. Barnabas, among the many other ones of our holy predecessors, the numerous saints and martyrs whose lives and actions should serve as inspiration and strength, role model and guide for each one of us, and not be swayed easily by worldly desires and temptations.
May the Risen Lord, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, continue to guide us all and help us in our journey, so that we all may come ever closer to His presence, and be inspired to live our lives with ever greater devotion and commitment to the Law and commandments that He has taught and shown us how to do. May all of us be the worthy and great beacons of God’s light, truth and love, in all of our various communities, at every possible opportunities presented to us. May all of us continue to live the true spirit of Easter joy and glorify our Risen Lord by our lives. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 14 : 21-26
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever keeps My commandments is the one who loves Me. If he loves Me, he will also be loved by My Father; I too shall love him and show Myself clearly to him.”
Judas – not Judas Iscariot – asked Jesus, “Lord, how can it be that You will show Yourself clearly to us and not to the world!” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him; and We will come to him and make a room in his home.”
“But if anyone does not love Me, he will not keep My words; and these words that you hear are not Mine, but the Father’s Who sent Me. I told you all this while I was still with you. From now on the Helper, the Holy Spirit Whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I have told you.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 113B : 1-2, 3-4, 15-16
Not to us, o Lord, not to us, but to Your Name be the glory, for the sake of Your love and faithfulness. Why should the pagans say, “Where is their God?”
There in heaven is our God; whatever He wishes, He does. Not so the hand-made idols, crafted in silver and gold.
May you be blessed by the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. Heaven belongs to the Lord, but the earth He has given to humans.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 14 : 5-18
A move was made by pagans and Jews, together with their leaders, to harm the Apostles and to stone them. But Paul and Barnabas learnt of this and fled to Lycaonian towns of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding countryside, where they continued preaching the Good News.
Paul and Barnabas spent a fairly long time at Lystra. There was a crippled man in Lystra who had never been able to stand or walk. One day, as he was listening to the preaching, Paul looked intently at him and saw that he had the faith to be saved. So he spoke to him in a loud voice, “In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you to stand up on your feet!” And the man stood up and began to walk around.
When the people saw what Paul had done, they cried out in the language of Lycaonia, “The gods have come to us in human likeness!” They named Barnabas Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, since he was the chief speaker. Even the priest of the Temple of Zeus, which stood outside the town, brought oxen and garlands to the gate; together with the people, he wanted to offer sacrifice to them.
When Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their garment to show their indignation and rushed into the crowd, shouting, “Friends, why are you doing this? We are human beings with the same weakness you have and we are now telling you to turn away from these useless things to the living God Who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and all that is in them.”
“In past generations He allowed each nation to go its own way, though He never stopped making Himself known; for He is continually doing good, giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, providing you with food and filling your hearts with gladness.”
Even these words could hardly keep the crowd from offering sacrifice to them.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 