Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time

by

Thursday, 30 October 2014 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 13 : 31-35

At that time, some Pharisees came to Jesus and gave Him this warning, “Leave this place and go on Your way, for Herod wants to kill You.”

Jesus said to them, “Go and give that fox My answer : ‘I drive out demons, and I heal today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish My course!’ Nevertheless, I must go on My way today, and tomorrow, and for a little longer; for it would not be fitting for a Prophet to be killed outside Jerusalem.”

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you slay the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often have I tried to bring together your children, as a bird gathers her young under her wings, but you refused! From now on, you will be left with your temple, and you will no longer see Me, until the time when you will say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.'”

 

Homily and Reflection : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/29/thursday-30-october-2014-30th-week-of-ordinary-time-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

by

Thursday, 30 October 2014 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 143 : 1, 2, 9-10

Blessed be the Lord, my Rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.

My loving God, my Fortress; my Protector and Deliverer, my Shield where I take refuge, who conquers nations and subjects them to my rule.

I will sing a new song to You, o God, I will make music on the ten-stringed harp, for You who give victory to kings and deliver David, Your servant.

 

Homily and Reflection : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/29/thursday-30-october-2014-30th-week-of-ordinary-time-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

by

Thursday, 30 October 2014 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ephesians 6 : 10-20

Finally, be strong in the Lord with His energy and strength. Put on the whole armour of God to be able to resist the cunning of the devil. Our battle is not against human forces but against the rulers and authorities and their dark powers that govern this world. We are struggling against the spirits and supernatural forces of evil.

Therefore put on the whole armour of God, that in the evil day, you may resist and stand your ground, making use of all your weapons. Take truth as your belt, justice as your breastplate, and zeal as your shoes to propagate the Gospel of peace. Always hold in your hand the shield of faith to repel the flaming arrows of the devil. Finally, use the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, that is, the Word of God.

Pray at all times as the Spirit inspires you. Keep watch, together with sustained prayer and supplication for all the holy ones. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, I may be given words to proclaim bravely the mystery of the Gospel. Even when in chains I am an ambassador of God; may He give me the strength to speak as I should.

 

Homily and Reflection : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/29/thursday-30-october-2014-30th-week-of-ordinary-time-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

by

Wednesday, 29 October 2014 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s most important message and lesson from the Scriptures to us is the nature of our faith and how important it is to our salvation and to the salvation of our souls. Few would be saved indeed, just as Christ had mentioned it, but not because they are not faithful in the Lord. Many indeed among the people did not have faith in God and even despise His offer of salvation, however there are equally many of those who do have the faith in them, and yet this faith is dead or not living.

Why is this so? That is because faith cannot be just mere statement or creed. It cannot be limited to just reciting the Creed as we always do during the Sunday or major celebrations of the Holy Mass, as mere recitation and saying of the words that we believe in God and in His laws and commandments without being accompanied by true and complete devotion to that faith through our concrete action in life, is meaningless and empty. And an empty faith does not lead to salvation, but instead to condemnation.

That is because the faith that is empty, is no better and in fact is the same as the faith of hypocrites, namely like the faith of the Pharisees, the elders of Israel, the teachers and scribes of the Law, who promoted external and superficial devotions to the Law and the ways of the Lord, but without fully understanding the purpose and meaning, as well as the potential use for the Law, and therefore their faith remained just as that, empty and superficial.

This is the same as what Jesus said to the people, in His parable of the master of the house and the guests, when He said that the door is narrow and that it will be difficult for many if not most people to pass through it to enter into the promised kingdom of heaven and everlasting life. That is because we are unable to enter the door because of the desire and the pride that made us all bloated, filled with self-righteousness and self-praise, our desire and greed, our jealousy and all the negativities that prevent us from truly reaching out to the Lord our God.

This is also similar to the story and parable which Jesus had told the people as well, on how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God compared to that of a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Somewhere in Jerusalem there was actually this gate where the gate is so low that whoever pass through it, humans and camels alike have to lower their heads or else they would knock their heads over the gate and would not be able to enter the gate.

The rich and proud man was unable to enter because for him it was humiliating and demeaning that he should lower and bow his head while he enter through the low gate, and meanwhile, the camel had no problem passing through it, because what it did is simply that it lowered its head and body, so that it was able to pass through the gate readily, even though it was larger in size than the rich and proud man.

The same therefore applies to the case of why it was so difficult for many people to pass through the narrow gate into the house. That is because the narrow gate represents the challenges that we need to face in life in order for us to follow the Lord and to obtain salvation in Him. We do not like it difficult or when challenges come our way, and we prefer to have the path to be smoothened for us, and yet there is no such thing when we decide to follow the Lord.

Many people professed to have the faith, just like the people who professed that they have seen the works of the Lord and even ate and drank with Him, but when we asked again, on whether they truly have faith in the Lord, can we say with confidence that they have such love for God? Most of us stay on with something or someone only when things are favourable for us, but when things start to go downhill, it is our human nature to abandon the things and go to seek greener pastures.

Thus, it is the same with most of the people, who cared only to be satisfied in body and to have it easy, and to avoid all sorts of difficulties and problems. Once difficulty and challenges come their way, they would evacuate and go to pick other things. Thus their faith in God is likely to be superficial and not real. Their faith and devotion will quickly evaporate once they are faced with challenges in life, the temptations of the flesh and the world, and the opposition of Satan. Thus it is imperative that we reject Satan and have control over our own desires.

So what should we do brothers and sisters in Christ, how do we then pass through that narrow door and into salvation in God? It is by being vigilant at all times against the temptations and the works of Satan, and then in addition by following what St. Paul had suggested in the letter he wrote to the Church and to the faithful in Ephesus.

St. Paul suggested obedience and sincere love for God through the good understanding and observation of the Law, as the way for us to seek God and His salvation. Obeying God as His servant, we cannot be divided in our hearts. We cannot be half-hearted, or even worse if our faith is superficial only. We have to be committed to the Lord and remain true to His path to the end of days.

If we do all these, the Master of the House of God, that is Jesus, will welcome us with His great love, forgiving us from our sins and iniquities and replacing from within us the selfishness and reluctance and doubt that prevented us from truly seeking and reaching out to the Lord. The Lord who sees all these will know that we truly understand His laws and commandments, and thus will justify us in faith.

May the Almighty God bring us into new life and salvation in Him, and give us strength and understanding so that we may always walk in His path, not tempted and not to fall from the path which leads us directly to God. Let us cast away all forms of wickedness and evil, as well as all all doubt from our hearts. This is so that we may believe and love the Lord with all of our strength, with all of our soul and with all of our beings.

May more and more souls come to the Lord to seek His forgiveness and mercy, and to attain salvation and eternal life in God. Let us not end up like those who refused to listen to the Lord and follow His ways, gaining temporary satisfaction at the price of the corruption and sin of their souls, hearts and body. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

 

First Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/28/wednesday-29-october-2014-30th-week-of-ordinary-time-first-reading/

Psalm : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/28/wednesday-29-october-2014-30th-week-of-ordinary-time-psalm/

Gospel Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/28/wednesday-29-october-2014-30th-week-of-ordinary-time-gospel-reading/

by

Wednesday, 29 October 2014 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 13 : 22-30

At that time, Jesus went through towns and villages teaching, and making His way to Jerusalem. Someone asked Him, “Lord, is it true that few people will be saved?”

And Jesus answered, “Do your best to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has gone inside and locked the door, you will stand outside. Then you will knock at the door, calling, ‘Lord, open to us!’ But He will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.'”

“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with You, and You taught in our streets!’ But He will reply, ‘I do not know where you come from. Away from Me, all you workers of evil.'”

“You will weep and grind your teeth, when you see Abraham and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves left outside. Others will sit at table in the kingdom of God, people coming from east and west, from north and south. Some who are among the last, will be first; and some who are among the first, will be last!”

 

Homily and Reflection : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/28/wednesday-29-october-2014-30th-week-of-ordinary-time-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

by

Wednesday, 29 October 2014 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 144 : 10-11, 12-13ab, 13cd-14

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.

The Lord is true to His promises and lets His mercy show in all He does. The Lord lifts up those who are falling and raises those who are beaten down.

 

Homily and Reflection : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/28/wednesday-29-october-2014-30th-week-of-ordinary-time-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

by

Wednesday, 29 October 2014 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ephesians 6 : 1-9

Children, obey your parents for this is right : ‘Honour your father and your mother.’ And this is the first commandment that has promise : ‘that you may be happy and enjoy long life in the land.’ And you, fathers, do not make rebels of your children, but educate them by correction and instruction which the Lord may inspire.

Servants, obey your masters of this world with fear and respect, with simplicity of heart, as if obeying Christ. Do not serve only when you are watched or in order to please others, but become servants of Christ who do God’s will with all your heart. Work willingly, for the Lord and not for humans, mindful that the good each one has done, whether servant or free, will be rewarded by the Lord.

And you, masters, deal with your servants in the same way, and do not threaten them, since you know that they and you have the same Lord who is in heaven, and He treats all fairly.

 

Homily and Reflection : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/28/wednesday-29-october-2014-30th-week-of-ordinary-time-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

by

Tuesday, 28 October 2014 : Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together with the entire Universal Church, the feast of two of our Lord’s great and holy Apostles, two of the Twelve, appointed and chosen by Jesus Himself from among us, to be His chief lieutenants and servants to help in the ministry and works of salvation through Jesus. They became what St. Paul said in his letter to the faithful and the Church in Ephesus, as the foundations of the Faith and the Church which we have today, together with the prophets of God of old.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, two of the Apostles, who was also known as Simon the Zealot, belonging to the group of the Zealots, a very puritanical and extremist group opposed to the Roman rule in Judea at the time of Jesus, a sort of freedom fighter, who was turned from his former path with the Zealots, and instead joined Jesus and became His follower. The other Apostle is also known as St. Judas Thaddeus, or St. Jude, different from Judas Iscariot the traitor. This saint today was especially known in the devotion to St. Jude, as the patron saint of hopeless cases.

St. Simon was as mentioned, a Zealot, a fighter for the freedom for the Jews from the Roman rule, to achieve a physical liberation from the tyranny and oppression of the Romans against the Jews. However, he left all that, when he followed Jesus, to be one of His chief disciples, the Apostles, and instead of fighting for the liberation of the body only and the Jews only, he became the agent of salvation for all mankind, and also for the salvation of both body and soul from sin and death

Meanwhile, St. Jude or St. Jude Thaddeus was also another Apostle of Jesus, often confused with Judas Iscariot the traitor of Jesus. However, while that Judas was unfaithful and got what he deserved, St. Jude or Judas Thaddeus remained faithful to the Lord, and he continued to preach the Good News together with St. Simon the Zealot, whom he was often closely associated to, and that is why we celebrate their feast days together.

Both St. Simon the Zealot and St. Jude Thaddeus travelled together, preaching and spreading the faith in the region of Judea, Syria, and to Egypt and Libya, as well as to many other regions where they preached the Good News of Jesus Christ, the hope of salvation for all the people living in those places who have yet to witness the light of Christ. And through their hard work and ministry, they planted the seeds of the Faith and the Church, which would eventually grow and bring many souls to salvation in God.

Both of them went through many trials and difficulties, acceptance and rejection, by the people and the communities to whom they were sent to. Yet they persevered on, and like St. Paul the Apostle, they never gave up in the face of difficulties, and through their good and hard work, they gained many souls to the mercy of God, and brought them towards salvation. Indeed, these two, among the other ten Apostles, were the crucial and important pillars of the Faith and salvation.

It was told that they were martyred in the region of Syria during a persecution of the Faithful, and they were beheaded with an axe, a symbol often associated to them. But even in death, they continued to bring goodness and good works and wonders to the faithful, as in death they lay down the seeds of faith to the newly faithful, spreading the Good News ever further and greater to the ends of the earth.

And we know that St. Jude was particularly famous because he is the patron saint of the cases of hopelessness and where hope is dim. People ask for his intercession to help in those cases that seem to be impossible and outcome is likely to be unfavourable. However, brethren, we have to be careful lest we think that they are like gods or those who can fulfill our wishes and needs at our whim.

These Apostles, St. Jude Thaddeus and St. Simon the Zealot, as well as the other Apostles are the twelve central pillars of the faith, and besides the Lord’s own Blessed Mother Mary, they stand the closest to the throne of God, their Lord and Master. They were men once, but they have been tested through fire and trials, facing all the difficulties and the challenges of the world, suffering even martyrdom for the sake of the Lord.

They therefore are our role models, the reflection of what we can also achieve if we are to follow in their paths and walk in their footsteps. They represent the fulfillment of God’s promise. Remember what did Jesus say to them at one time, how they will sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel? This is the same promise which God has also given us. We will all sit among the righteous and the just, but only if we remain faithful to the Lord, resisting all temptations of life and the flesh.

The disciples and the Apostles were once also diverse in their occupations, and they were men of the world, and yet they chose to follow God and become His chief servants, to be the ones to help Him to accomplish much good work in this world. They did have the choice to follow the Lord or to follow their own hearts’ desire. Remember what happened to Judas Iscariot the traitor? He cheated the group’s money and possessions, corrupting them for his own benefits, and in the end, even sold his own Lord and Master for a mere thirty pieces of silver. And where did he end up? Not among the Apostles nor the saints, but among the condemned.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to reflect on our own lives and actions. We are all sinners and unworthy of the Lord’s love and mercy. And yet, He offered them to us freely and tenderly nonetheless, giving them through the ultimate act of love, His suffering and death on the cross. We have the choice to continue in our ways of sin, following the wicked paths of the world, or to embrace the mercy and love offered by God.

The Apostles, and especially the ones we celebrate today, St. Simon and St. Jude are our models in life. They themselves were not perfect, and they were sinners, and yet they were willing to allow the Lord to come into their lives and transform themselves, that they would no longer live in sin but became the tools of the Lord in bringing good into this world, and in that, they were justified themselves in their faith.

Let us therefore use this opportunity to begin to follow our Lord Jesus and emulate the examples of His holy Apostles, St. Jude and St. Simon whose feasts we celebrate today. Let us all also become faithful disciples of our Lord, building ever stronger support and foundation for the salvific mission of our Church, the Church of God, for our salvation and for the salvation of all souls. Leave our old lives of sin and darkness and exchange it for the lives in the light of God. God bless us all. Amen.

 

First Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/27/tuesday-28-october-2014-feast-of-st-simon-and-st-jude-apostles-first-reading/

Psalm : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/27/tuesday-28-october-2014-feast-of-st-simon-and-st-jude-apostles-psalm/

Gospel Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/27/tuesday-28-october-2014-feast-of-st-simon-and-st-jude-apostles-gospel-reading/

by

Tuesday, 28 October 2014 : Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Luke 6 : 12-19

At that time, Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God. When day came, He called His disciples to Him, and chose twelve of them, whom He called ‘Apostles’ : Simon, whom He named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alpheus and Simon called the Zealot; Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariit, who would be the traitor.

Coming down the hill with them, Jesus stood in an open plain. Many of His disciples were there and a large crowd of people, who had come from all parts of Judea and Jerusalem, and from the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon. They gathered to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. And people troubled by unclean spirits were cured.

The entire crowd tried to touch Him, because of the power that went out from Him and healed them all.

 

Homily and Reflection : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/27/tuesday-28-october-2014-feast-of-st-simon-and-st-jude-apostles-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

by

Tuesday, 28 October 2014 : Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 18 : 2-3, 4-5

The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Day talks it over with day; night hands on the knowledge to night.

No speech, no words, no voice is heard – but the call goes on throughout the universe, the message is felt to the ends of the earth.