Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the Scriptures, we are reminded that we should be careful not to indulge in ourselves and our desires, that is to indulge in our desires and pride, so that we will not end up being swallowed by them and fall therefore into sin. We are reminded that as Christians we should instead be humble and allow God to work His wonders through us and our lives, opening ourselves to His truth and love.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. James, St. James mentioned how as Christians we should not seek worldly glory and attention, hubris and ambition, ego and desires. St. James made a mention of the discrimination that people often make based on status, wealth, prestige, fame and all sorts of parameters by which we classify and categorise people. We tend to look down on those whom we deem to be inferior to us, while we honour and praise those whom we deem to be powerful and mighty.

And all of that were because we ourselves sought acceptance, recognition and status. We honour and welcome those who are rich and those who have important status because we want to gain benefit and satisfaction from the relationship we build with those who can benefit us and provide us with material sustenance and worldly benefits. Those who are of no status and importance in the eyes of the world are often ostracised and put aside because we perhaps think that we can gain nothing from them.

We need then to take note that St. James was not against the rich or the powerful, but rather our prejudices and our bias against those who are weak, poor and those who we are often judgmental against. And all these are caused by our own inability to resist the temptation of power, of wealth, of fame, glory and renown, of pleasure and many other worldly desires that often lead us down the path of sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what St. James wrote in his Epistle is a kind reminder to all of us Christians to be charitable in our words, actions and deeds. In everything we say and do, we should reach out to everyone, and love everyone equally without discrimination. We should also resist those temptations of power, of glory, wealth and fame, praise and vanity, all the things that will lead us astray from God and from His path.

We have to look at the example set by Christ Himself, as described in our Gospel passage today. The Lord Jesus asked His disciples Who they think or say He was, and while some said that He was a prophet and the One promised by God to come, St. Peter spoke firmly that he believed that Jesus was the Messiah and Holy One of God. What St. Peter spoke was the truth, but then we see just how cunning the devil can be, as he used that opportunity to strike and tempt Christ Our Lord.

St. Peter immediately rebuked the Lord when He mentioned how He would have to suffer and die at the hands of His enemies, which was indeed part of His ministry in this world. St. Peter rebuked the Lord saying that He should not have said such things and that He would not die as He had said. In fact, the devil tried to tempt Jesus again, by saying that because He is the Son of God and King of Kings, He should not have to suffer and die in such a manner, which befitted a slave more than a King.

Yet, that was what the Lord had exactly done, in accepting humbly His mission to save us all, out of His great compassion and love for each and every one of us. He resisted that temptation to leave His mission and be spared of the suffering that He was about to undertake for our sake. Although He was great and mighty, the Divine Lord and God, King of all kings, He willingly humbled and emptied Himself, so that by offering to His heavenly Father, His own worthy offering of His Most Precious Body and Blood, on the Altar of the Cross, He could save all of us mankind from our sins and from certain annihilation.

As Christians, all of us are called to imitate the love which Christ has shown to all of us, His ever generous love and compassion by which He has touched each one of us, calling us to repent from our sins and to embrace His wonderful mercy. We are called to love everyone equally, for we must also not forget how Christ loved us all even when we are still sinners, wicked and unworthy, disgusting and terrible because of all of our sins. Christ is still willing to forgive us despite all of that, provided that we make the commitment to change our way of life and follow Him with all of our heart.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore deepen our faith and grow further in our spiritual relationship with God. Let us all spend more time with God and do our best in our lives to serve Him and to glorify Him by our actions at all times. Let us resist the temptations put in our path by the devil, who sought our downfall by appealing to our pride, ego and desire. May the Lord be with us always and may He bless us in our every good works and endeavours. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the message of the word of God speaking to us through the Scriptures about the fall of Solomon into sin, when he at his old age began to be swayed by his many wives and concubines who continued to practice their pagan worship of idols and gods, and eventually led to the king himself and many of the people succumbing to the pagan idolatry themselves, offering sacrifices to those false idols and gods.

God was angered at the faithlessness of Solomon and his sins, which led the people of Israel deeper into sin against Him. And as a result, eventually the kingdom of Israel was divided into two halves, one of which was the kingdom of Judah led by the descendants of Solomon from the house of David, while the northern kingdom of Israel composed of the ten tribes in opposition to the house of David had their own kings. Many of the subsequent kings did not have faith in God and acted wickedly, allowing pagan worship and idolatry to run rampant.

From what we have just heard and discussed, we can see how there was a prejudice against the pagan neighbouring people of the Israelites. Beginning with the account of how king Solomon was seduced and persuaded by his many foreign wives and concubines, these neighbours of the Israelites were often considered as pagans, wicked and unworthy of God. This went along with the notion that the Israelites were the chosen race and a people whom God Himself had chosen to be His own.

As a result, the people of Israel often looked down on the Gentiles or the people who were non-Jewish in origin or in faith, and they considered them as being unworthy, dirty and sundered from God’s love and grace. Yet, what we have also then heard from our Gospel passage today serve as an important reminder that God’s love for His people transcends the boundaries of race, and unlike what the people then believed, God did not just choose to keep one people for His own, but in fact, made all of the children of man, His own beloved children.

In that Gospel passage we heard of the encounter between Jesus and a Syro-Phoenician woman who came seeking His help to heal her very sick daughter, having heard that the Lord had healed many of the sick who were brought to Him. Syro-Phoenicia was a region located just north of the region of Galilee where Jesus often ministered among the people with His disciples, a region that has always been outside the original land of the Israelites, and therefore the woman was likely a non-Jew or Gentile. In another account, the woman was also known as a Canaanite woman, and Canaanites referred to the people of Canaan who lived in the land before the coming of the Israelites.

What the Lord Jesus said to the Syro-Phoenician woman might seem to be quite rude if we do not understand the intent behind the Lord’s utterance of His words to the woman. The Lord responded to her request for help for her daughter with the harsh words, ‘that one ought not to give the food to the dogs’ which implied a very demeaning and condescending attitude. But the woman responded in kind, that ‘even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of the house master’, which showed not just her incredible faith but also humility.

The Lord did not in fact intend to be rude to her or to embarrass her. In truth, what He uttered was meant to highlight the ugly reality behind the way the Israelites had been behaving up to that time, especially the attitudes of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were highly influential and respected within the community. Many of them looked highly on themselves and treated their faith with pride and even jealousy, seeking praise and recognition for their piety and devotion to God.

And yet, in their hearts and minds, God was not present or that He was relegated to much less important position. That was why, although they were supposed to be the ones leading the people of Israel towards God, when He Himself appeared in their midst, they were the ones who opposed and rejected Him, harassing Him and criticising Him and His disciples at every possible opportunities. This was contrary to the action of the Syro-Phoenician woman, who humbled herself and had complete faith in God.

The Syro-Phoenician woman, a foreigner and a woman, a pagan and a nobody that everyone looked down on, was in fact the one who had faith in God greater than everyone else. That was why, by the words He uttered, the Lord Jesus wanted to make an example of the Syro-Phoenician faith to the people, how they ought to get rid of any prejudices they once had, and believe that ultimately, everyone is beloved by God, and that even those who were deemed as sinners could be saved, while those who proudly thought of themselves as righteous, fell along with their sin of pride, as what had happened to king Solomon and many among the Pharisees.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are therefore called to reflect on our lives and how we are to act in these lives and opportunities we have been given in this world. As Christians we are called to put God as the centre and the focus of our entire lives, and everything we say and do, should be in accordance to God’s will, and for the sake of His greater glory. Let us all get rid of pride and ego from our hearts and minds, purge away greed and desires from our beings that we may truly follow the example of the Syro-Phoenician woman in having such a strong faith in the Lord.

Let us do our best in whatever opportunities that God has granted us, that we may truly live our lives with genuine faith from now on, growing deeper in our relationship with God and in our faith and trust in Him, going forward in our lives. May the Lord continue to guide us and be with us, through each and every moments, through challenges and trials we may face in each of our journeys of life. Amen.