Liturgical Colour : White
Zechariah 2 : 14-17
Sing and rejoice, o daughter of Zion, for I am about to come, I shall dwell among you,” says YHVH. “On that day, many nations will join YHVH and be My people, but My dwelling is among you.”
The people of Judah will be for YHVH as His portion in His holy land. He will choose Jerusalem again. Keep still in YHVH’s presence, for He comes, having risen from His holy dwelling.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded that all of us as Christians, as God’s people, we must be ready to face difficulties, challenges and persecutions in life, as our ways of life and in how we believe in the Lord, we may not be in accordance with the beliefs and ways of the world around us. And that is why throughout the history of the Church, Christians of all walks of life have endured great sufferings and persecutions, challenges and trials amidst the varying levels of persecutions against the Church and the faithful. At the same time, we are reminded to stay strong in our faith and not easily give up the struggles and efforts because ultimately, the Lord is always with us and He will always be by our side providing for us for all that we need.
In our first reading today, we heard of the passage from the Book of the Maccabees in which the moment when the Maccabean Rebellion began in a town known as Modein in Judea where a priest known as Mattathias and his sons, later known as the Maccabees, lived in. And as we heard, the representative of the Greek Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes went there as the same thing had happened everywhere else in that king’s dominion, enforcing the king’s harsh demands that they all should abandon their own faith and beliefs, and offer instead sacrifices and worship the pagan gods and deities of the Greeks. It was there and then at Modein that those who wanted to remain faithful to the Lord and those who were willing to bend to the wishes of the king came to struggle for the first time.
And as we heard, Mattathias refused the generous offers of the king for him and his household, despite offering them all very great riches and wealth, prestige and power as the friends of the king, a truly powerful position at that time. But he would not be deterred or dissuaded by the offers, persuasions or coercions from the king’s representative. His courage and zeal which he showed afterwards are reminders for us all that we should also show the same kind of faith and commitment to God in the face of challenges and adversities just as Mattathias and many others of our predecessors had shown us all throughout the Scriptures. Each and every one of us as Christians should always be good role models, examples and inspirations ourselves in all the things that we say and do, in leading lives truly worthy of God.
Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist, we heard of the lamentations of the Lord Jesus Himself as He lamented over Jerusalem, representing all the lack of appreciation and gratefulness for all that God had done for His beloved people, as those same people persecuted the ones that He has sent to them to remind them and to gather them all once again to His loving Presence. He has sent His many prophets and messengers to remind His people of their wrongdoings and misdeeds, but instead of appreciating what the Lord had done for them, they hardened their hearts and minds, persecuting and even murdering those who had been sent to remind and help them all. That was why they had to endure sufferings and hardships later on, them and their descendants.
This reminds us all, as God’s beloved and chosen people, we must always strive to be good and worthy examples of what the Lord had taught us to do, in even the smallest and seemingly least significant of things in our lives. That is how we can be good examples and role models for everyone around us, to our family members and friends, to everyone whom we encounter in life, even to strangers that we may have met in our journey. We should always remind ourselves to be steady in following the path which the Lord has set for us, showing our light in everything that we say and do, at all times. We must never think that we cannot do great things for the Lord, as even things we may think to be small or insignificant may in fact unexpectedly impact greatly on others all around us.
The problem is that many among us as Christians have not lived our lives in the manner that the Lord has taught and shown us, with many of us professing to believe in one way and yet acting in a completely different manner, refusing to be accountable for our own actions and words. Some of us even caused hurt on others around us in our pursuit of selfish desires and ambitions, and unfortunately, some of these actions, desires and ambitions they are themselves part of our role and ministry in the Church. And many around us can perhaps testify to this unfortunate and sad reality which have caused so many people to be scandalised and turned off by our lack of accountability and genuine faith in our actions, and how we tend to contradict our own words and beliefs. This is not what we should be doing in our lives, brothers and sisters in Christ.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all therefore reflect carefully on what we have heard in the message of the Sacred Scriptures and all that we have just discussed about those readings. All of us should always remember that as those whom God has called and chosen to be His own, our responsibilities and callings are even greater because it is to all of us that He has revealed Himself, His truth and everything that He has taught and shown us through His Church. And it is important that we should strive to embody our faith in our daily actions, words and deeds or else if we do not do so, then we will end up even causing scandal or problem to our Church and faith in God. We have indeed the capacity to show God’s love manifested in us and our actions, or to be like those who are no more than hypocrites in their faith, and the choice is ours to make to choose our path in life.
May the Lord our most loving God and Father continue to provide us with everything that we need, in remaining strong, courageous and resolute in living our lives full of faith and love for the Lord. May He continue to empower each and every one of us so that by our constant and persistent dedication, our ever stronger commitment to glorify Him by our lives, we will be good role models, examples and inspirations for everyone around us. May God bless us all and our every endeavours, our good efforts and works at all times, and may He strengthen us in our every moments in life. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 19 : 41-44
At that time, when Jesus had come in sight of the city, He wept over it, and said, “If only today you knew the ways of peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Yet days will come upon you, when your enemies will surround you with barricades, and shut you in, and press on you from every side.”
“And they will dash you to the ground and your children with you, and not leave stone upon stone within you, for you did not recognise the time and the visitation of your God.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 49 : 1-2, 5-6, 14-15
The God of gods, YHVH has spoken; He summons the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting. God has shone from Zion, perfect in beauty.
Gather before Me, My faithful ones, who made a Covenant with Me by sacrifice. The heavens will proclaim His sentence, for God Himself is the Judge.
Yet, offer to God a sacrifice of thanks, and fulfil your vows to the Most High. Call on Me in time of calamity; I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me.
Liturgical Colour : Green
1 Maccabees 2 : 15-29
In the meantime, the king’s representatives, who were forcing the Jews to give up their religion came to Modein to organise a sacred gathering. While many Israelites went to them, Mattathias and his sons drew apart.
The representatives of the king addressed Mattathias, and said to him : “You are one of the leaders of this city, an important and well-known man, and your many children and relatives follow you. Come now, and be the first to fulfil the king’s order, as the men of Judah have already done, and the survivors in Jerusalem as well. You and your sons will be named friends of the king and the king will send you gold, silver and many other gifts.”
But Mattathias answered in a loud voice : “Even if all the nations included in the kingdom should abandon the religion of their ancestors and submit to the order of king Antiochus, I, my sons and my family will remain faithful to the Covenant of our ancestors. May God preserve us from abandoning the Law and its precepts. We will not obey the orders of the king nor turn aside from our religion either to the right or to the left.”
When he finished speaking these words, a Jew came forward, in the sight of everyone, to offer incense on the altar that was built in Modein, according to the king’s decree. When Mattathias saw him, he was fired with zeal. His heart was stirred; and giving vent to his righteous anger, he threw himself on the Jew and cut the man’s throat on the altar. At the same time, he killed the king’s representative who was forcing the people to offer sacrifice; and then tore down the altar. In doing this, he showed his zeal for the Law, as Phinehas had done with Zimri, son of Salu.
Mattathias then began to proclaim loudly in the city : “Everyone who is zealous for the Law and supports the Covenant, come out and follow me!” Immediately, he and his sons fled to the mountains and left behind all they had in the city. Many Jews who looked for justice and wanted to be faithful to the Law went into the desert.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are reminded through the words of the Sacred Scriptures of the need for us to persevere and be strong in our faith, to be active in the living of our faith and belief in the Lord by doing our best in each and every moments of our lives, to glorify the Lord by everything that we say and do, to be genuine and truly faithful Christians in all things. We should not allow ourselves be swayed by the many pressures and temptations being present all around us, but instead allow the Lord our God to continue to lead us down the path of righteousness in the unique paths and vocations which He has given to each and every one of us, which can truly be so unique that it is something that He has indeed entrusted to us.
In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the Maccabees, we heard of the terrible persecution of the Jewish people in Judea and Galilee by the ruler of the Seleucid Empire, King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who at that time wanted to impose uniformity to the practices, customs and beliefs of all of his subjects, which were made up very diverse groups of people, with very diverse practices, customs and beliefs including that of the Jewish people and their beliefs in YHVH, their Lord and God. The Greek king ordered that all of his subjects including the Jews must adopt the ways of the Greeks, including their practices and beliefs. Great resistance sprung up from many of those who refused to abandon their faith in God, including those whom we heard about today.
The seven brothers and their mother were persecuted because they refused to obey the king’s commands, particularly the one involving eating the meat of the animal deemed unclean by the Law which was prevailing at that time, the Law of Moses. Thus, we heard of the way how the king tortured the seven brothers one by one because they refused to obey the king, and one by one they perished while courageously defending their faith in God and staunchly refusing to obey the king’s commands, ending with their mother herself, who was the last one to die faithfully after having encouraged all of her sons and saw all of them perishing before her own eyes.
This story of the heartbreaking and painful persecution is a reminder for all of us the stark and sometimes harsh reality for us all as Christians, that to be truly faithful to God, sometimes if not often times, we may have to encounter challenges, trials and even persecutions, like what those seven brothers and their mother had encountered. It is not necessary that we will have to encounter martyrdom as each one of us will likely face different challenges in life, but at some point, it is likely that we may have to make difficult choices pertaining to remaining faithful to God or to conform to the ways of the world just as those seven brothers and their mother had encountered. The question is, will we choose the path of God then?
Then, in our Gospel reading today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus told His disciples using the parable of the silver talents or silver pounds to highlight the importance of why we need to be truly active and involved in making good use of our talents, abilities and opportunities which God has provided to us all, each one of us with our own diverse sets of gifts, talents and opportunities. God has provided us with these so that we may make use of them for the greater glory of God just as highlighted in that parable. The parable showed that those who refuse to make good use of what has been entrusted to them, like the lazy servant, would be punished, while those who have used them well, will be praised and rewarded.
Therefore, it is the same expectations that all of us as Christians are expected to have as well in our own actions in life. Each and every one of us are reminded that we should always use well what the Lord has given us and blessed us with, whether big or small, significant or insignificant, in whatever manner they may be. As the parable further highlighted, that those who have been entrusted with more, will have more expected of them, while those who have been entrusted with less, will be expected with less. This means that all of us should just do our best to make use of everything that God has entrusted to us and not to fuss or worry instead whether we have done enough to serve the Lord through our actions in life.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians, that is as those whom the Lord had called and chosen, and as we have decided to answer His call to come to Him, each and every one of us are reminded that we should always be good role models in our every actions, words and deeds throughout our lives, in all the things that we say and do so that we may always benefit all those whom we encounter in life, showing to one another the true nature of God, His truth, love and compassion among many other things. And that is why we should always strive to live up to our Christian faith and all the Lord’s ways and teachings in every moments and in every parts of our lives and actions, as we should always do.
May the Lord continue to strengthen and empower us all to walk ever more faithfully in our daily living, in how we carry out our lives and way of acting and interacting with one another, those whom the Lord had placed in our lives for us to make good use of what He has provided and entrusted to us. We should also not be afraid of persecutions and hardships, as that is indeed part and parcel of what it means to be true disciples and followers of the Lord. May He continue to bless our good works and efforts, our actions and endeavours, and strengthen us all in faith at all times. Let us all be ever more courageous in following our Lord’s path and examples, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 19 : 11-28
At that time, Jesus was now near Jerusalem, and the people with Him thought that God’s reign was about to appear. So as they were listening to Him, Jesus went on to tell them a parable. He said, “A man of noble birth went to a distant country in order to be crowned king, after which he planned to return home. Before he left, he summoned ten of his servants and gave them ten pounds of silver.”
“He said, ‘Put this money to work until I get back.’ But his compatriots, who disliked him, sent a delegation after him with this message, ‘We do not want this man to be our king.’ He returned, however, appointed as king. At once he sent for the servants, to whom he had given the money, to find out what profit each had made. The first came in, and reported, ‘Sir, your pound of silver has earned ten more pounds of silver.'”
“The master replied, ‘Well done, my good servant! Since you have proved yourself faithful in a small matter, I can trust you to take charge of ten cities.’ The second reported, ‘Sir, your pound of silver earned five more pounds of silver.’ The master replied, ‘And you, take charge of five cities!'”
“The third came in, and said, ‘Sir, here is your money, which I hid for safekeeping. I was afraid of you, for you are an exacting person : you take up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow.’ The master replied, ‘You worthless servant, I will judge you by your own words! So you knew I was an exacting person, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow? Why, then, did you not put my money on loan, so that, when I got back, I could have collected it with interest?'”
“Then the master said to those standing by, ‘Take from him that pound, and give it to the one with ten pounds.’ But they objected, ‘Sir, he already has ten pounds!’ The master replied, ‘I tell you, everyone who has will be given more; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for my enemies who did not want me to be their king, bring them in, and execute them right here in front of me!'”
So Jesus spoke, and then He passed on ahead of them, on His way to Jerusalem.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 16 : 1, 5-6, 8 and 15
Hear a just cause, o YHVH, listen to my complaint. Give heed to my prayer, for there is no deceit on my lips.
Hold firm my steps upon Your path, that my feet may not stumble. I call on You, You will answer me, o God; incline Your ear and hear my word.
Keep me as the apple of Your eye; under the shadow of Your wings hide me. As for me, righteous in Your sight, I shall see Your face and, awakening, gaze my fill on Your likeness.
Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Maccabees 7 : 1, 20-31
It happened also that seven brothers were arrested with their mother. The king had them scourged and flogged to force them to eat the flesh of a pig which was prohibited by the Law.
More than all of them, their mother ought to be admired and remembered. She saw her seven sons die in a single day. But she endured it even with joy for she had put her hope in the Lord. Full of a noble sense of honour, she encouraged each one of them in the language of their ancestors. Her woman’s heart was moved by manly courage, so she told them :
“I wonder how you were born of me; it was not I who gave you breath and life, nor I who ordered the matter of your body. The Creator of the world Who formed man in the beginning and ordered the unfolding of all creation shall in His mercy, give you back breath and life, since you now despise them for the love of His laws.”
Antiochus thought she was making fun of him and suspected that she had insulted him. As the youngest was still alive, the king tried to win him over not only with his words, but even promised to make him rich and happy, if he would abandon the traditions of his ancestors. He would make him his Friend and appoint him to a high position in the kingdom.
But as the young man did not pay him any attention, the king ordered the mother to be brought in. He urged her to advise her son in order to save his life. After being asked twice by the king, she agreed to persuade her son. She bent over him and fooled the cruel tyrant by saying in her ancestral language : “My son, have pity on me. For nine months I carried you in my womb and suckled you for three years; I raised you up and educated you until this day.”
“I ask you now, my son, that when you see the heavens, the earth and all that is in it, you know that God made all this from nothing, and the human race as well. Do not fear these executioners, but make yourself worthy of your brothers – accept death that you may again meet your brothers in the time of mercy.”
When she finished speaking, the young man said, “What are you waiting for? I do not obey the king’s order but the precepts of the Law given by Moses to our ancestors. And you who have devised such tortures against the Hebrews, shall not escape the hands of God.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the special occasion this day when we celebrate the anniversary of the Dedication of not just one but two of the greatest churches in Christendom, namely the Papal Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican, the great and renowned House of God where the Pope frequently celebrates the Holy Mass and other important major events of the faith, as the place where St. Peter himself, the first Pope and Vicar of Christ, was martyred. The other great Basilica is the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, named such because it is located just outside the walls of the ancient city of Rome, and where St. Paul according to tradition, spent his time in Rome, while waiting for his trial by the Emperor as listed in the Acts of the Apostles.
On this day therefore, it is appropriate for us to remind ourselves of the two Apostles after whom those two great Basilicas, the House of God have been named after. St. Peter and St. Paul are both the patron saints of Rome and hence of the Universal Church, and their role in the establishment of the Church in Rome, the then heart of the Roman Empire and later on as the heart of all Christendom were truly significant, as they were the ones to lay the firm foundations of the Church there, through their toils and hard work, and by the shedding of their own blood and the martyrdom that they endured for the sake of the Lord and for His people. We honour these two great men of God, our important role models, as we remember and commemorate the anniversary of the Dedication of the two Basilicas named and dedicated in their honour. Those Basilicas as mentioned, are next in honour only after the Papal Cathedral, Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, which Dedication we commemorated just a week ago.
St. Peter the Apostle was the first Pope and Vicar of Christ, appointed as such by the Lord Himself, as He entrusted His Church to him as written in the Sacred Scriptures itself, entrusting to him the whole Universal Church and the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. He was appointed and made to be the leader of the whole Church, truly the Prince of the Apostles and the Lord’s Vicar in this world, as the leader of all the leaders of the Church, as the shepherd and guide for all the faithful people of God. And yet, for this great mission and responsibility, as we all ought to know, St. Peter was not one which the world would have deemed fit for the role. He was after all a mere illiterate, brash and poor fisherman from the lake of Galilee area, literally a nobody at that time. No one would have thought that this man would have become the Lord’s very own Vicar in this world.
Yet, that was what the Lord did, brothers and sisters in Christ, that He chose an ordinary man, a nobody in the eyes of the world to be His chief disciple, and what others might not have known then, was how dedicated and committed the Apostles, especially that of St. Peter, were to the Lord. What the Lord saw in their hearts were the capacity to love Him and to serve their fellow brethren with genuine dedication, and just as He called them and they responded, in the end, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they all prevailed in faith, and gave their efforts and lives for the glory of God. St. Peter himself went on to Rome and became the first Bishop of Rome, establishing the foundation of the Church there, and during the persecution of Christians under the Emperor Nero, he was arrested and martyred, crucified upside-down on Vatican hill, where the great Basilica of St. Peter now stands. He chose to die in that manner because in his own words, he said that he was not worthy to die in the same way as his Lord and Master.
Meanwhile, St. Paul the Apostle was the Apostle to the Gentiles, sent and commissioned to reach out to the various communities of the faithful all throughout Christendom, and was renowned and remembered for his many efforts and labours especially among the Gentiles or the non-Jewish people, protecting their rights and helping them to find their ways to the Lord more easily, by opposing those who sought to impose the customs and strict, unbending, Pharisaical rules of the Jewish people onto the whole Church. He was himself was once Saul, a young and zealous Pharisee who was very fervent and energetic in his pursuit of the early Christians, in the hope of crushing and destroying the Church in its earliest moments, in his misguided efforts to follow the Law as per what he once knew.
After he had encountered the Lord personally on his way to Damascus, in that well-known conversion experience, and after he was baptised and received the wisdom and strength of the Holy Spirit, Saul, became Paul, a new man of God. From a vicious enemy of Christians and the Lord, St. Paul became a great and most ardent defender and champion of the Christian faith, dedicating his life and works to serve the Lord, wholeheartedly. He spent a lot of time and effort in reaching out to various people he encountered throughout his missionary journeys, and went through and endured a lot of sufferings and persecutions, arrest and imprisonment, and was eventually martyred in Rome by the same Emperor Nero when Christians were made scapegoats and were persecuted for the Great Fire of Rome, and St. Paul was beheaded for his faith.
Today, as we remember this memory of the Dedication of the Papal Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican and the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, we are reminded that each one of us are also parts and members of the living Church of God, as the living stones making up this one Body of all the Christian faithful. As the two Basilicas were consecrated and dedicated to God, made hallow, holy and blessed, as places worthy for the worship and adoration of God, therefore each one of us have to strive to be worthy and holy for the Lord as well. And why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because all of us, according to St. Paul, are no less than the Temple of God’s very own Holy Presence, His own dwelling place, as He has come to us in His own Real and Precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist, and His Holy Spirit has dwelled within us as well.
Therefore, if our lives and actions are unbecoming and unworthy of what we as Christians are expected to do, then we are in fact doing no less than defiling the sanctity of this Temple and House of God, our very own body, heart, mind and soul, our very own beings. And if we do that, then it is by our own actions and wickedness that we will be judged, and certainly none of us will want to be on the wrong side of God’s judgment. Do we want to enjoy forever the blissful eternal life with God, in His presence and in the fullness of His grace and love? Or do we rather suffer for an eternity in eternal damnation and darkness because of our wickedness and sins? The choice has been given to us, and God has given us the freedom to choose our path in this life we have on Earth. Let us all choose wisely, brothers and sisters in Christ.
May the Lord therefore be with us, His Church, strengthening and empowering us all as His disciples and followers, and strengthening our unity as members of the same Church, the Body of Christ, so that we may always be holy just as our Lord is holy. May God bless us all and our every good endeavours and works, and may He remain with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 