Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 23 : 7, 8, 9, 10
Lift up, o gateways, your lintels, open up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may enter!
Who is the King of glory? The Lord, the strong, the mighty, the Lord, valiant in battle.
Lift up Your lintels, o gateways, open up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may enter!
Who is the King of glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of glory!
Liturgical Colour : White
Malachi 3 : 1-4
Now I am sending My messenger ahead of Me to clear the way; then suddenly the Lord for Whom you long will enter the sanctuary. The Envoy of the covenant which you so greatly desire already comes, says YHVH of hosts. Who can bear the day of His coming and remain standing when He appears? For He will be like fire in the foundry and like the lye used for bleaching.
He will be as a refiner or a fuller. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. So YHVH will have priests who will present the offering as it should be. Then YHVH will accept with pleasure the offering of Judah and Jerusalem, as in former days.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast day of two of St. Paul’s followers and fellow leaders of the early Church, St. Timothy and St. Titus, who accompanied him during certain parts of his apostolic journeys, and with whom he kept correspondences, which are then compiled and become part of the New Testament of our Sacred Scriptures today.
These two were among those whom the Apostles had appointed as the episcopi, overseers or bishops among the people of God. They have been chosen to help in the works of the Apostles, and to be their successors to continue the works that the Apostles had started. From them too, came forth many more successors and bishops, who followed on through time, as those who have given themselves to the service of the Gospel for the sake of mankind’s salvation.
And in the Gospel, Jesus our Lord also appointed seventy-two disciples in addition to the twelve Apostles He had chosen. The seventy-two disciples are those whom God had chosen to assist in the good works which the Lord had appointed them to do. They had been instructed by the Lord to go to every places He was to go, to prepare His way for him, and to bring the Good News to the people in those places.
All of us Christians have also been called to do the same, as Jesus Himself had aptly said, that while the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. The harvest refers to the richness of opportunities in this world for evangelisation and conversion, of many people who have yet to receive the Good News of God, and the many people who are still living in sin and darkness, in the ignorance of the light of Christ.
The labourers of the harvest are all those whom God have called to help gather His harvest, namely those who have answered His call and accepted their new role as the devoted servants of God. They are our priests and bishops, those in the holy orders and religious life, who have given themselves and their whole lives for service to God, in the same manner as St. Timothy and St. Titus, and many other holy saints had been.
There are many things that these servants of God had to do, preaching the Good News, healing the sick and caring for them, as well as for all those who are without hope, downtrodden and rejected by the society. And they will also be accepted in places, but rejected in even more places. There will be many of those who refuse to listen to them, and instead of obeying their precepts, continued to live their old and sinful way of life.
In all of this, we should look upon the examples of St. Timothy, St. Titus and all the holy saints who have devoted their life to God. They went from places to places, ministering for the people who need them, both in physical and also spiritual, but more importantly, they provided for them the sustenance of their faith, showing them examples of how they ought to live their lives in good faith.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all called to serve the Lord in our different capacities and opportunities, that as Christians and thus members of the Church, we may be true bearers of the message of God’s Holy Gospels, and awaken in many others, the faith that have laid dormant in their hearts. Let us all inspire one another, and help guide each other on our journey of faith towards the Lord.
May the Lord bless us all, and awaken in us the desire to serve Him, so that some amongst us may be stirred when He calls us, to be His servants, to take up the cross and follow Him, and support and continue the good works of the Apostles and disciples, and their successors. May the Lord help us all and be with us always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 10 : 1-9
At that time, the Lord appointed seventy-two other disciples, and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place, where He Himself was to go. And He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So you must ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers to His harvest.”
“Courage! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Set off without purse or bag or sandals; and do not stop at the homes of those you know. Whatever house you enter, first bless them, saying, ‘Peace to this house!’ If a friend of peace lives there, the peace shall rest upon that person. But if not, the blessing will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking at their table, for the worker deserves to be paid, do not move from house to house.”
“When they welcome you to any town, eat what they offer you. Heal the sick who are there, and say to them : ‘The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.'”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 95 : 1-2a, 2b-3, 7-8a, 10
Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His Name.
Proclaim His salvation day after day. Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds.
Give to the Lord, you families of nations, give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His Name.
Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” He will judge the peoples with justice.
Liturgical Colour : White
2 Timothy 1 : 1-8
From Paul, Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of His promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus, to my dear son Timothy. May grace, mercy and peace be with you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I give thanks to God Whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my ancestors did, as I remember you constantly, day and night, in my prayers. I recall your tears and I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, so like the faith of your grandmother Lois and of your mother Eunice, which I am sure you have inherited.
For this reason I invite you to fan into a flame the gift of God you received through the laying on of my hands. For God did not confer on us a spirit of bashfulness, but of strength, love and good judgment. Do not be ashamed of testifying to our Lord, nor of seeing me in chains. On the contrary, do your share in labouring for the Gospel with the strength of God.
Alternative reading
Titus 1 : 1-5
From Paul, servant of God, Apostle of Christ Jesus, at the service of God’s chosen people, so that they may believe and reach the knowledge of truth and godliness. The eternal life we are waiting for was promised from the very beginning by God Who never lies, and as the appointed time had come, He made it known through the message entrusted to me by a command of God, our Saviour.
Greetings to you, Titus, my true son in the faith we share. May grace and peace be with you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I left you in Crete because I wanted you to put right what was defective and appoint elders in every town, following my instructions.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s readings we continued to hear yet again about our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, Who is our Master and our Saviour. It was through Him that we have received salvation and the promise of eternal life. It was through Jesus that God had made us all mankind whole again and became worthy of His grace and love.
We were once delinquents, rebels and we were those who were condemned to destruction and suffering, because we have not been faithful to the covenant which God had made with us and with our ancestors. Yet, because He loves us all so tenderly, and because His love for us is so great, there is nothing that could stop Him from doing what He had done in order to secure a different future and fate for us. He rescued us all from the depths of darkness and brought us into the light.
He is the One Whom God had appointed to be the Mediator, the One to mediate between us and our Lord and Creator. It was through Jesus that mankind which was once sundered from God, had been reunited with Him, because Jesus through His suffering and death on the cross, and also then through His glorious resurrection, had become the steady bridge through which we mankind can cross through the chasm separating us and God.
The deep chasm that existed between us and God came about because of our sins, that is because of our disobedience and our refusal to listen to the Lord and our reluctance to follow Him. It was because of all these that many of us had wandered far away from the Lord, and embraced all sorts of the wickedness found in this world. But God wanted us to find our way back to Him, and that was why He sent us Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be our Guide and Help.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord had done so much for us, as He had not only given Himself to rescue us, but He also even took upon Himself the burdens of our sins, and also bear for our sake, the consequences and the punishments for those sins. He did all these so that all of us who believe in Him will not perish and die because of our sins, but instead, by having been forgiven, we will be saved.
Many of us are reluctant to believe in the Lord, or to follow Him because we are doubtful and not sure in our hearts. We are still often divided between Him and the world, all the concerns of worldly origins, that we find if difficult for us to commit ourselves to Him. And yet, it was through Him alone that we can be saved. God will not abandon us, just as He did not abandon our ancestors, but instead did all He could in order to help them.
We should follow the example of the people of Judea at the time of Jesus, which we heard in the Gospel today, in how they came in large numbers to the Lord, looking for Him and wanting to be healed from their afflictions. They braved hunger and even rain, in order to be able to come to the Lord Jesus, to hear Him teaching them and also to get themselves healed by Him. Are we able to show the same conviction as they did?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is important that each and every one of us as Christians should commit ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord. Let us no longer be burdened by the many concerns and doubts we have, but instead, learn to trust everything to the Lord, and to believe in Him with all of our might. Let us all follow Him just as the people at the time of Jesus had done, and be healed from all of our bodily and more importantly, spiritual afflictions, that is to be forgiven from all of our sins.
May the Lord bless us all, empower us to live more genuinely in the faith, and help us so that all of us may come together to glorify Him with full faith and trust in Him, knowing that He will succour us and deliver us from destruction and darkness into the light and new hope in Him. Lastly, let us also pray that the divisions that exist between the faithful people of God may be healed, and all those who call themselves Christians may be reunited as one people, one flock and one Church under the Vicar of Christ, our Pope, as we embark and progress through this week of prayer for Christian unity. May God be with us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Mark 3 : 7-12
At that tine, Jesus and His disciples withdrew to the lakeside, and a large crowd from Galilee followed Him. A great number of people also came from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Transjordan, and from the region of Tyre and Sidon, for they had heard of all that He was doing.
Because of the crowd, Jesus told His disciples to have a boat ready for Him, to prevent the people from crushing Him. He healed so many, that all who had diseases kept pressing towards Him to touch Him. Even the people who had evil spirits, whenever they saw Him, they would fall down before Him and cry out, “You are the Son of God.” But He warned them sternly not to tell anyone Who He was.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 39 : 7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 17
Sacrifice and oblation You did not desire; this You had me understand. Burnt offering and sin offering You do not require. Then I said, “Here I come!”
“As the scroll says of me. To do Your will is my delight, o God, for Your law is within my heart.”
In the great assembly I have proclaimed Your saving help. My lips, o Lord, I did not seal – You know that very well.
But may all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; and may all who love Your saving grace continually say, “The Lord is great.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Hebrews 7 : 25 – Hebrews 8 : 6
Consequently Jesus is able to save for all time those who approach God through Him. He always lives to intercede on their behalf. It was fitting that our High Priest be holy, undefiled, set apart from sinners and exalted above the heavens; a Priest Who does not first need to offer sacrifice for Himself before offering for the sins of the people, as high priests do. He offered Himself in sacrifice once and for all.
And whereas the Law elected weak men as high priests, now, after the Law, the word of God with an oath appointed the Son, made perfect forever. The main point of what we are saying is that we have a High Priest. He is seated at the right hand of the Divine Majesty in heaven, where He serves as minister of the true Temple and Sanctuary, set up not by any mortal but by the Lord.
A high priest is appointed to offer to God gifts and sacrifices, and Jesus also has to offer some sacrifice. Had He remained on earth, He would not be a priest, since others offer the gifts according to the Law. In fact, the ritual celebrated by those priests is only an imitation and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary.
We know the word of God to Moses with regard to the construction of the holy tent. He said : You are to make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain. Now, however, Jesus enjoys a much higher ministry in being the Mediator of a better covenant, founded on better promises.
