Thursday

by

Thursday, 7 November 2019 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 15 : 1-10

At that time, tax collectors and sinners were seeking the company of Jesus, all of them eager to hear what He had to say. But the Pharisees and the scribes frowned at this, muttering, “This Man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So Jesus told them this parable :

“Who among you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and seek the lost one till he finds it? And finding it, will he not joyfully carry it home on his shoulders? Then he will call his friends and neighbours together, and say, ‘Celebrate with me, for I have found my lost sheep!’ I tell you, in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner, than over ninety-nine decent people, who do not need to repent.”

“What woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one, will not light a lamp, and sweep the house in a thorough search, till she finds the lost coin? And finding it, she will call her friends and neighbours, and say, ‘Celebrate with me, for I have found the silver coin I lost!’ I tell you, in the same way, there is rejoicing among the Angels of God over one repentant sinner.”

by

Thursday, 7 November 2019 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 26 : 1, 4, 13-14

YHVH is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? YHVH is the rampart of my life; I will not be afraid.

One thing I ask of YHVH, one thing I seek – that I may dwell in His house all the days of my life, to gaze at His jewel and to visit His Sanctuary.

I hope, I am sure, that I will see the goodness of YHVH in the land of the living. Trust in YHVH, be strong and courageous. Yes, put your hope in YHVH!

by

Thursday, 7 November 2019 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Romans 14 : 7-12

In fact, none of us lives for himself, nor dies for himself. If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Either in life or in death, we belong to the Lord; It was for this purpose that Christ both died and came to life again, to be Lord, both of the living and of the dead.

Then you, why do you criticise your brother or sister? And you, why do you despise them? For we will all appear at the tribunal of God. It is written : I swear by Myself – Word of the Lord – every knee will bend before Me, and every tongue shall give glory to God. So each of us will account for himself before God.

by

Thursday, 31 October 2019 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded of just how great and powerful God’s love has been for each and every one of us, who are although sinners, but still beloved by God and are very precious in His eyes. Yet, we are often ungrateful and ignorant of this love which God has for us as we fail to recognise that love being present in our midst and although it has been around us all the time.

St. Paul in our first reading today, taken from his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Rome, spoke precisely of this wonderful love by which God had endeavoured to gather us all, His beloved ones to Himself. Truly, in the words of St. Paul, ‘Who can separate us from the love of Christ?’ which is shown by how God did everything for our sake even though we have disappointed Him and rebelled against His will.

And although we have sinned and made ourselves unworthy before Him, but God still loves us as always and He wants to reconcile us to Him, by sending us His Son, to be the One through Whom He would save us all and bring us into eternal life He has promised to all of His beloved ones. His love still endures even though we have often overlooked this love and ignored Him for other things in the world.

That love allowed Christ to undergo much pain and suffering as He embarked on the mission which God, His heavenly Father has entrusted to Him, in bearing the Cross and being rejected by man, so that through His humble obedience and perfect willingness to follow the way of God, His Father, He may become for us the source of our salvation and liberation from our fated destruction because of our sins.

It is often the pride in us, the greed and desires within our hearts and all the temptations present within our world today that prevented us and distracted us from being able to love God with all of our hearts. As the Israelites of old showed us, and which the Lord Himself lamented for, those people persecuted the prophets and messengers sent into their midst to remind them and bring the word of God to them because they refused to admit their mistakes and sinful ways.

And Christ Himself faced the greatest suffering and rejection of all, as He had to endure opposition from the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who resented Him and His teachings because of their pride and attachment to the status and privileges that they had accumulated within the community and hence leading to them acting in the way to preserve their status and power, even by persecuting the Messiah of God and by sending Him to His death on the Cross.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, have we realised yet by now how we have often refused God’s love and being stubborn in our mistaken and sinful ways? We have often allowed ourselves to be swayed and tempted by our various worldly concerns and desires, our many attachments and our involvement in worldly pursuits that made us to be oblivious or even resistant to God’s generous love and mercy.

And we have to remind ourselves just how Christ still loves us so much even through the greatest moments of His sufferings, as He bore the weight of the Cross and enduring the most bitter and painful treatment of all. He even forgave His enemies and those who have condemned Him from the cross. Now, then, let us all realise that He has done the exact same thing to each and every one of us, for all of us are sinners, and by our sins we have truly condemned Christ to His suffering and death.

Yet, by His love and dedication to us, He wants to forgive us and He wants us all to be reconciled to Him. This is something that all of us need to realise and understand, so that we no longer waste our time and the opportunities God has given us in our lives, to turn towards Him and to love Him from now on. Let us all embrace God with genuine love just as He has loved us first, and shunning all sorts of sinful and wicked things that have once kept us away from truly enjoying the fullness of God’s grace and love.

May God replace the hearts of stone in us, and put within each and every one of us a living heart filled with love, first of all for Him, and then for our fellow brethren. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

by

Thursday, 31 October 2019 : 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.'”

by

Thursday, 31 October 2019 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 108 : 21-22, 26-27, 30-31

But as for me, o God my YHVH, for Your Name’s sake, act on my behalf; deliver me, in the goodness of Your love. For I am poor and needy; my heart is stricken within me.

Help me, o YHVH my God; and save me, for the sake of Your love. Let them know that this is Your hand; that it is You, YHVH, Who do this.

To YHVH, I will give my thanks; I will praise Him in the great assembly. He stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who condemn them.

by

Thursday, 31 October 2019 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Romans 8 : 31b-39

If God is with us, who shall be against us? If He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not give us all things with Him? Who shall accuse those chosen by God : He takes away their guilt. Who will dare to condemn them? Christ, Who died, and better still, rose, and is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Will it be trials, or anguish, persecution or hunger, lack of clothing, or dangers or sword? As the Scripture says : For your sake, we are being killed all day long; they treat us like sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all of this, we are more than conquerors, thanks to Him, Who has loved us. I am certain, that neither death nor life, neither Angels nor spiritual powers, neither the present nor the future, nor cosmic powers, were they from heaven, or from the deep world below, nor any creature whatsoever, will separate us from the love of God, which we have, in Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

by

Thursday, 24 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today through the Scripture readings chosen for this day, the Lord wants to remind us through His Church that the reality of us being Christians, believing in Him and following His path through our lives is one of struggle, where challenges and trials, opposition and even persecution are likely part of our journey as we proceed on with faith. We cannot escape from this reality, and we have to endure it as best as we can as faithful Christians.

In our first reading today, St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans placed it very bluntly before us, the reality of how God and sin are standing on the opposite ends of each other. If God is all good and righteousness, then sin is all evil and wicked, and sin is the disobedience against God and caused by our rebellion against His will. And while sin on one side brings about corruption and death, on the other hand, God brings about purification and life.

St. Paul made his assessment and comments to the faithful and the Church in Rome in the context of how Rome being the centre and heart of the whole Roman Empire was the place where paganism and its practices of all kinds were at the most numerous and common. St. Paul spoke out against those evil practices which saw hedonistic celebrations and even human sacrifices practices in some pagan rituals, all the corrupt and wicked practices of men.

And being in Rome, those faithful people of God were constantly under difficult conditions, being exposed to the pagan practices and customs all the time, all around them. They were also required by law to treat the Roman Emperors as if they were divine and offer sacrifices to them and the pagan gods. Disobedience can mean terrible suffering and persecution, and even death and martyrdom.

But that was exactly what the Lord Himself had spoken and revealed to His disciples as we heard it ourselves in our Gospel passage today. The Lord plainly spoke of how His coming into the world would not herald an era of peace and harmony unlike what some people would think, as at that time many among the Jews thought that the Messiah would come and restore the glorious kingdom of Israel of old and bring peace to the whole land.

Instead, God revealed that His coming would instead bring about divisions and challenges for those who are faithful to Him, wherever they are and in whichever time period they belong to. And this has been proven right again and again throughout the long history of the Church, even to this present day, to varying degrees of difficulties. Some encountered great opposition, suffering and even martyrdom from those who are close to them, caused by their own friends and families.

Many of the holy martyrs of the Church had to go up against opposition from their loved ones, their own family members and friends, not counting all the others who are against them and their enemies. And this kind of persecution and rejection of our Christian truths and values still remain even to this present day where all around the world, opposition and challenges to our Christian faith, teachings and practices of the Church remain and even growing strong and intensifying.

In our world today especially there is a great rise in secularism and in apathetic and even hostile attitudes against the Faith, with more and more people succumbing to this apathy and ignorance of God’s truth and love. Many people sought satisfaction and joy in worldly things and ambitions, in the pursuit of power, glory, fame and material goods and wealth. And God’s ways are increasingly being forgotten and pushed aside in our communities.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how then do we react to all these things happening around us, all the pressures for us to conform to the general norms and ways of the society that increasingly overlooked, has forgotten and abandoned God for the pagan and ungodly idols of this world, the idol of worldly desires, the idol of human pride, the idol of wealth and fame, the idol of pleasures of the body and mind among many others?

Today all of us should look upon the examples set by one saint whose feast we celebrate today, the famous founder of the Claretians religious order, St. Anthony Mary Claret, a holy bishop and a dedicated servant of God. St. Anthony Mary Claret was a holy and pious man, dedicated in his service to his flock and the people, renowned for his good sermons that drew people from afar. He spent many hours ministering to them and spending a lot of time especially in the confessionals.

He helped to organise the works of the Church in the places he has been assigned to, and he dutifully did all that he had been entrusted to do, including being the confessor to the then Queen of Spain among many others. He wrote extensively on the matters of the faith and placed great emphasis on the growth and development of Christian education and upbringing among the people of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we can see, St. Anthony Mary Claret dedicated his life to God, stood by Him and walked down the path He has shown us all as well. He certainly did not have it easy, sacrificing countless hours to minister to the people and definitely having faced rejections and oppositions from time to time. Are we able to imitate his good examples in life and his good faith in our own lives?

Let us all stand by God and renew our faith and commitment to Him, and let us draw ever closer to Him so that we may grow ever deeper in our love for Him and dedicate ourselves to His cause from now on. Let our every words, actions and deeds bring greater glory to God, now and always. Amen.

by

Thursday, 24 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Luke 12 : 49-53

At that time, Jesus said to the people, “I have come to bring fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what anguish I feel until it is finished! Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on, in one house five will be divided : three against two, and two against three.”

“They will be divided, father against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

by

Thursday, 24 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the man who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the Law of YHVH and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For YHVH knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.