That they all may be One

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Thursday, 9 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we heard how Judah argued with Joseph to show mercy to Benjamin, who was accused of stealing the silver cup of the Regent of Egypt. The brothers of Joseph did not recognise who Joseph was, but their pleas and commitment to repentance of their past sins moved Joseph so much, that eventually he revealed who he was to all of them.

In the Gospel today, we heard about Jesus who sent forth His disciples to proclaim the Good News to the people of God, preaching the words and promises of God’s salvation. He sent them to reveal the truth of the Lord to mankind who have lived for so long in the darkness, so that by the light which He is bringing into the world, He may help us to realise that we ought to walk and live in the light and abandon the darkness which had enveloped us for so long.

There is a link between the two readings which if we realise it then all the things will make sense to us. In the first reading, the brothers of Joseph made pleas after pleas to Joseph, begging him to let Benjamin go, and instead take one of them as a hostage in the place of Benjamin. And eventually Joseph gave in and showed mercy to them, revealing to them who was his real identity, as his brother.

In the similar manner therefore, if we look at it, the brothers of Joseph actually resembles all of us who seek God’s mercy and forgiveness, while Joseph represents the Lord who is loving and merciful. Despite all of the bitterness, the betrayal and the sorrow that his brothers had wrought him, Joseph continued to love his brothers and forgave them their faults to him that many years ago. Joseph represents that love which our Lord continues to show us even though we have betrayed Him, rejected Him and brought Him so much sorrow by our rebelliousness.

God is just like Joseph, and if we seek Him with all of our might and with all of our hearts’ attention, then He will listen to us and our pleas. He has great love and mercy for us, seeing us suffering from the results of our sins. We have been sundered from His grace and love, and we suffer just like the sons of Israel suffering not just from hunger because of the great famine, but even more so because of the guilt, of having betrayed their own blood, their own brother and selling him to the slave masters.

We too have betrayed the covenant which our Lord had made with us, and we spurned His love and His care for us. We rejected His rich offer of forgiveness, which He had extended to all of us who have sinned against Him. Do we not appreciate this mercy which our Lord had shown us at all times? Do we not know how the angels and the saints are praying daily and at all times for our sake?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on the lives of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his many companions who had given up their lives for the sake of their faith in God. Despite the challenges they faced, they did not give up their faith, and chose to die rather than to commit sin by disobeying the Lord and falling once again into a life of sin.

Together, they, who are called the Martyr Saints of China have endured rejection, persecution, torture and suffering from those who refused to believe in God. They have been tempted with the offers from those worldly peoples, offering them positions, fame, wealth and safety in exchange for them to recant their faith and to reject the Lord their God.

They refused to do so, and remained firm, even when threatened with torture and suffering unto death. They have sought the Lord with all of their hearts, and indeed their prayers were heard, and in the faith and righteous way of life, even until the end, they justified themselves in faith and they were all received into the glory of heaven in the presence of God.

We can do the same too with our lives, brethren, in a way that we all should stand up for the Lord, and for the faith we ought to have in Him. Do we still succumb to the temptations of this world, the temptations of pleasures especially that of the flesh? We have to remember that it is meaningless for us to be safe in the world, and yet lose everything in the world that is to come.

And we have to take note that we all are still empty in us, and we hunger for the spiritual nourishment and fulfilment which only God can give. What can we do then? Draw closer to God and walk in His ways, listen to Him and do what He had commanded us to do, and carry out the mission which He had commissioned His Apostles to do, that is by our actions, spread the Good News of His salvation to all the peoples. May God bless us all in this endeavour. Amen.

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Thursday, 9 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Matthew 10 : 7-15

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Go and proclaim this message : The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, cleanse the lepers, and drive out demons. You received this as a gift, so give it as a gift. Do not carry any gold, silver or copper in your purses. Do not take a traveller’s bag, or an extra shirt, or sandals, or a staff : workers deserve their living.”

“When you come to a town or a village, look for a worthy person, and stay there until you leave. When you enter the house, wish it peace. If the people in the house deserve it, your peace will be on them; if they do not deserve it, your blessing will come back to you.”

“And if you are not welcomed, and your words are not listened to, leave that house or that town, and shake the dust off your feet. I assure you, it will go easier for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment, than it will for the people of that town.”

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Thursday, 9 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 104 : 16-17, 18-19, 20-21

Then God sent a famine and ruined the crop that sustained the land; He sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

His feet in shackles, his neck in irons till what he foretold came to pass, and the Lord’s word proved him true.

The king sent for him, set him free, the ruler of the peoples released him. He put him in charge of his household and made him ruler of all his possessions.

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Thursday, 9 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Genesis 44 : 18-21, 23b-29 and Genesis 45 : 1-5

Judah then went forward and said, “My lord, allow your servant to speak. Do not be angry with your servant, although you are equal to Pharaoh himself. The last time you questioned your servants saying : ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ We said to my lord : ‘We have an aged father who had a child in his old age. His brother is dead and he is the only one left of his mother’s children. And his father loves him.'”

“Then you said to us : ‘Bring him down so that I can see him for myself.’ You then told us that if our youngest brother did not come with us, we would not be admitted to your presence. All this we said to our father on returning there. So when he told us to come back and buy a little food, we said : ‘We cannot go down again unless our youngest brother is with us. We shall not be admitted to the lord’s presence unless our brother is with us.'”

“Then my father said : ‘You know that my wife had two children. One went away from me and has surely been torn to pieces since I have not seen him anymore. If you take this one from me and something happens to him you will bring my gray hair in sorrow to the grave.'”

Now Joseph could no longer control his feelings in the presence of all those standing by and he called out, “Leave my presence, everyone!” And only his brothers were with him when Joseph made himself known to them. He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard and the news spread through Pharaoh’s house.

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” And his brothers could not answer because they were terrified at seeing him. Joseph said, “Come closer,” and they drew nearer. “I am Joseph your brother, yes, it is me, the one you sold to the Egyptians. Now do not grieve and reproach yourselves for selling me, because God has sent me before you to save your lives.”

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Wednesday, 8 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the story of Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob, whose favouritism showed by his father caused the enmity of his brothers and led him to be sold by them as a slave who was then sold to the Egyptians. And we knew how Joseph rose through his years of difficulty and suffering to become the Regent of all Egypt, the second man in the whole country after the Pharaoh himself.

We heard in today’s first reading how a great famine enveloped Egypt and all of the world, but thanks to what God had done through Joseph, Egypt was fully prepared to face the famine with its years of preparation during the time of plenty. And the other sons of Jacob came to Egypt, save for Benjamin, to buy food and grains to alleviate the famine they were facing in the land of Canaan.

In the Gospel reading, we heard how Jesus called His twelve Apostles, the twelve chosen from among many to be His principal disciples, the ones to become the pillars of His Church and the spearheads of His works after His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. And He commanded them to go to the villages and towns and to gather back the lost sheep of Israel.

There is a great connection here between the readings which we may not be able to realise on face value, as we need to look deeper into them. The twelve Apostles of Christ were chosen in such a number to represent the tribes of Israel, the twelve sons of Jacob. So just as the Lord gathered His twelve disciples to Himself, He symbolised the gathering of all the sons of Israel, the people of God, once scattered around the world, back to His loving embrace and presence.

And just as there was a great famine all over the world including that of Canaan, where Israel or Jacob and his sons lived, there were great darkness awaiting the people of God scattered around the world because of their sins and disobedience. They also suffered from hunger, not the hunger for bread or food, but the spiritual hunger of the heart and soul, the desire and longing for the Lord to come and fill their hearts and nourish their souls.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, looking at the readings of today’s Scripture readings, there is something that we need to realise, and that is, our Lord is concerned with us, and He is thoroughly concerned about the state of our soul, whether we are in a state of grace, or instead in a state where sins and disobedience have brought us far away from His salvation and from His love.

The sons of Israel all represented us in this world, from how they plotted against Joseph out of jealousy for his dreams and his being the favourite son of their father. We are all by our nature selfish and thinking first of ourselves, and we do not like it when we see someone else doing better than us or having better things than us. This is where our desires, greed, jealousy and haughtiness become our undoing.

Therefore, what do we need to do, brothers and sisters in Christ? Let us all learn from the example of Joseph, who if we read the story today in the first reading from the Book of Genesis to its conclusion, then we ought to know that he forgave his brothers, despite all that they had done to him, all the suffering they had caused him. That is the example which our Lord Jesus Christ had shown us as well. He shows us that the way of the Lord is forgiveness and love.

May Almighty God guide us on our way, so that we may walk faithfully in His ways, and be reunited to Him with one another, so that just as He gathered back all the sons of Israel through the means of Joseph, He may also gather all of us mankind back into His loving presence, that we who were once sundered from His presence may find a good reunion and unity to Him who loves us all and wants us back to His embrace. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 8 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 10 : 1-7

At that time, Jesus called His twelve disciples to Him, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness.

These are the names of the twelve Apostles : first Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, the man who would betray Him.

Jesus sent these twelve on mission with the instructions : “Do not visit pagan territory and do not enter a Samaritan town. Go instead to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. Go and proclaim this message : The kingdom of heaven is near.”

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Wednesday, 8 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 32 : 2-3, 10-11, 18-19

Give thanks to the Lord on the harp and lyre, making melody and chanting praises. Amid loud shouts of joy, sing to Him a new song and play the ten-stringed harp.

The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and brings to nothing the peoples’s designs. But His plan stands forever, and His heart’s design through all generations.

But the Lord’s eyes are upon those who fear Him, upon those who trust in His loving kindness to deliver them from death and preserve them from famine.

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Wednesday, 8 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Genesis 41 : 55-57 and Genesis 42 : 5-7a, 17-24a

When the land of Egypt began to suffer from the famine, the people came to Pharaoh for bread. But Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph and do as he tells you.” When the famine had spread throughout the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians for the famine was indeed severe over the land.

As the famine had worsened throughout the whole world, people came from other countries to buy grain from Joseph. So the sons of Israel were among those going to buy grain, for there was famine in Canaan. It was Joseph, as governor of the land, who sold the grain to all the people. When his brothers arrived they bowed before him, with their faces to the ground. Joseph recognised his brothers but did not make himself known.

And so he put them all in prison for three days. On the third day Joseph said to them, “I will help you to save yourselves, for I am a man who fears God. If you are sincere, let one of your brothers remain prisoner in the house of the guard where you now are, and the rest of you take the grain to save your families from famine. Then you will bring back your youngest brother; so the truth of what you say will be proved and your lives spared.”

They did as they were ordered and said among themselves, “Alas! We are guilty because of the way we treated our brother when he pleaded with us for mercy, but we did not listen. That is why this trouble has come upon us.” Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy. But you did not listen and now we are brought to account for his blood.”

Now they did not know that Joseph understood them as there was an interpreter between them. As for Joseph, he withdrew and wept.

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Tuesday, 7 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the work of God, who went here and there to cure and heal those who were sick, those who were possessed by the evil spirits, those afflicted by their sinful ways, and brought them to righteousness and salvation once again. And yet, some of His people doubted Him, even those who had seen His mighty deeds and power.

We can see this in the struggle which ensued between Jacob and God as Jacob made his way back from exile to the land of Canaan. He fled into exile to the house of his relatives back in Abraham’s homeland because of the great fear for his life, for having stolen the birthright and blessings which his brother Esau should have received from their father, Isaac.

And even though God had affirmed him in His love and showed how much he will be cared for, with all the blessings he received during his years in exile, having possessions, wealth, good wives and family with all of his children, but deep inside, he still had his doubts, and he still feared the retribution of Esau even as he travelled back to the land of Canaan, which God had promised him and his ancestor, Abraham.

That was why it is likely God appeared to him to show him that if he trusted in God, there would be nothing that he needed to fear from. He struggled with God and survived, and that was why he was given the name Israel, which literally means struggling with God. This is to show us that if God is behind us and giving us strength, then we really have no need to fear, for He will support us and help us in all that we need.

But doubt is indeed our greatest challenge, the inability to put our complete trust and faith in the Lord. And for the people of Israel, if we witness their actions and deeds throughout the entire Scripture, we see how they struggle to commit themselves to the Lord their God, as their hearts, minds and attentions are not fully focused on Him, but rather on the things of this world, trusting in their own power and abilities rather than putting their trust in the Lord.

They doubted Jesus because they were unable to comprehend the fullness of God’s truth and love, which He manifested perfectly in Jesus Christ, who healed many and cast out demons and sickness from many, simply because of one fact, that God loves us so much, and so great was His love, that He is willing to come down to earth to dwell with us and to succour us from the torture that is our sins.

And He has given us so much goodness for so little a price. All we need to do is to cast away our doubts and faithlessness, and embrace His love, which He had given for us freely, that we too may have love in us. And all of us who have believed in Him and followed Him, should realise that there is something for us to do, to help Him to bring the love which He had shown us, and the Good News of His salvation to the rest of the people, to all those who have yet to hear them and witness them.

The Lord had said, that the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. Indeed, this is the problem facing this world now. There are so many opportunities in this world, to bring men closer to God and bring them from doubt into faith, but there are so few willing to devote themselves to the tough job and challenges of bringing that Good News to those who are willing to hear it, and yet have no opportunity to do so.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect today and think about the mission which God had given us through His disciples. Do we remember what the Lord Jesus told them before He ascended into heaven? He commanded them all to go forth to all the nations, to the very ends of the earth, and to baptise all nations and all peoples in His holy Name, and make them His own, united through His Church.

It is here then that our role is important, as we are the ones to continue the good works of the Apostles and disciples of the Lord, who had begun what He had commanded them to do. We do not have to start with big things and then thinking that it is too much and impossible for us to do. Rather, start from something as simple as having a strong faith on our own, and then show that great faith through real and true actions, all of which reflect the nature that we belong to the faith and to the Lord.

Let us now pray that we will be able to carry out this mission, and that people through our works will come flocking to the Lord our God, so that all of us may receive together the salvation and grace which He had promised all those who believe in Him. May Almighty God bless us and guide us in this path, and in all of our endeavours in faith. Amen.

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Tuesday, 7 July 2015 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 9 : 32-38

At that time, when the two blind men had just left, some people brought to Jesus a man who was dumb, because he was possessed by a demon. When the demon was driven out, the dumb man began to speak. The crowds were astonished and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He drives away demons with the help of the prince of demons.”

Jesus went around all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom, and He cured every sickness and disease. When He saw the crowds, He was moved with pity, for they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are only few. Ask the Master of the harvest to send workers to gather His harvest.”