Thursday

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Thursday, 24 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 1 : 67-79

Zechariah, filled with Holy Spirit, sang this canticle, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has come and redeemed His people. In the house of David His servant, He has raised up for us a victorious Saviour; as He promised through His prophets of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of our foes.”

“He has shown mercy to our fathers; and remembered His holy covenant, the oath He swore to Abraham, our father, to deliver us from the enemy, that we might serve Him fearlessly, as a holy and righteous people, all the days of our lives.”

“And you, my child, shall be called prophet of the Most High, for you shall go before the Lord to prepare the way for Him, and to enable His people to know of their salvation, when He comes to forgive their sins.”

“This is the work of the mercy of our God, Who comes from on high as a rising sun, shining on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, and guiding our feet into the way of peace.”

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Thursday, 24 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 88 : 2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29

I will sing forever, o Lord, of Your love and proclaim Your faithfulness from age to age. I will declare how steadfast is Your love, how firm Your faithfulness.

You said, “I have made a covenant with David, My chosen one; I have made a pledge to My servant. I establish his descendants forever; I build his throne for all generations.”

He will call on Me, “You are my Father, my God, my Rock, my Saviour.” I will keep My covenant firm forever, and My love for him will endure.

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Thursday, 24 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

2 Samuel 7 : 1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16

When the king had settled in his palace and YHVH had rid him of all his surrounding enemies, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Look, I live in a house of cedar but the Ark of God is housed in a tent.”

Nathan replied, “Do as it seems fit to you for YHVH is with you.” But that very night, YHVH’s word came to Nathan, “Go and tell My servant David, this is what YHVH says : Are you able to build a house for Me to live in?”

“This is what YHVH of host says : I took you from the pasture, from tending the sheep, to make you commander of My people Israel. I have been with you wherever you went, cutting down all your enemies before you. Now I will make your name great as the name of the great ones on earth.”

“I will provide a place for My people Israel and plant them that they may live there in peace. They shall no longer be harassed, nor shall wicked men oppress them as before. From the time when I appointed judges over My people Israel it is only to you that I have given rest from all your enemies.”

“YHVH also tells you that He will build you a house. When the time comes for you to rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your son after you, the one born of you and I will make his reign secure. I will be a Father to him and he shall be My son. Your house and your reign shall last forever before Me, and your throne shall be forever firm.”

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Thursday, 17 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we listen to the words of the Sacred Scriptures telling us about Christ our Lord and His origins in the accounts of the world and men. God had come into the world through the means of His blessed mother Mary, through Whom He assumed the flesh of Man, and became one like us.

Through the sons of Adam He had come forth into the world, and then through the line of Abraham, the faithful servant and beloved child of God, He had come into the world in order to fulfil the covenant and the promise which He had made with him. Then, God also fulfilled the promises He made to David, the faithful king and servant of God, by being born into His line and family as was promised.

And one may think that because Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, but merely His foster-father, then Jesus was not the Messiah because He is not of the family of David, as the prophets had prophesied that the Messiah is also the Son of David. Yet, in the Jewish customs and laws, a legal father, even though he was not the biological father, but as long as he is legally married to the mother, he is the father of the child, and the child is the legal and rightful heir of the father.

Thus, this is how God made Himself manifest into the world, by His choice of the Holy Family of Mary and Joseph, to be the ones through whom He would descend into the world and save it. By fulfilling the promises He had made to His beloved people, He endeavoured to bring all of them to Himself, and bring them to salvation and eternal life which can only be found in Him.

All these are to remind us that our Lord loves all of us, and it is His desire that we should be reconciled to Himself and not be condemned for all of the wickedness and sins that we have committed. Yet, many of us willingly and openly rejected His love and mercy, and we instead walk on our own paths, following our own desires and wants, and refusing to believe in Him and refusing to listen to Him whose words is our salvation.

Now the challenge is upon us all, brethren, whether we are to walk on the same path as all those who have rejected the Lord and instead chose the ways of this world, that is often contrary to the ways of the Lord, that is the way that does not show our obedience to the will of God. God has been so kind such as to provide us with the means to salvation and the free offer of forgiveness that He had granted us, and yet, we spurned His love and rejected all these gifts in exchange for a life of pleasure and wickedness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we draw closer to Christmas and as we enter this one last week of Advent, let us all reflect on the nature of Christmas, what it truly means for us, and how we are going to celebrate that great day and occasion, when our Lord Himself came into this world in order to save it and liberate us from all of our afflictions.

Do we celebrate Christmas because we like to have all the fun and the joy for ourselves? For all the new clothes, gifts and all the glamours the world had associated with it? Or do we want to celebrate Christmas as a glorious and great thanksgiving for the love which our God has given us? Remember, as St. John himself had written in his Gospel, that the Lord so loved the world, that He has given us His only Son, so that through Him all may be saved and have eternal life.

Let us all keep these in mind even as we continue to live through our lives, and as we prepare to celebrate Christmas again this year. Let us not forget Who Christmas was made for, and Who Christmas was truly celebrating. It was a celebration of God’s love, the love He had shown us, and thus we too, should show the same love to one another, sharing all the graces and blessings He had given us.

May our loving Father and Almighty God be with us always, and may He strengthen our faith in Him, that in all things we may realise the great graces and blessings we have received. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 17 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 1 : 1-17

This is the account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron of Aram. Aram was the father of Aminadab, Aminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon.

Salmon was the father of Boaz. His mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed. His mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David, the king. David was the father of Solomon. His mother had been Uriah’s wife. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Then came the kings : Abijah, Asaph, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah.

Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon, Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel and Salathiel of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud of Eliakim, and Eliakim of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud.

Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar of Matthan, and Matthan of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus Who is called the Christ – the Messiah.

There were then fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, and fourteen generations from David to the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the deportation to Babylon to the birth of Christ.

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Thursday, 17 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 71 : 1-2, 3-4ab, 7-8, 17

O God, endow the King with Your justice, the Royal Son with Your righteousness. May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.

Let the mountains bring peace to the people, and the hills justice. He will defend the cause of the poor, deliver the children of the needy.

Justice will flower in His days, and peace abound till the moon be no more. For He reigns from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.

May His Name endure forever; may His Name be as lasting as the sun. All the races will boast about Him, and He will be blessed by all nations.

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Thursday, 17 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Genesis 49 : 1-2, 8-10

Jacob then called his sons and said, “Gather round, sons of Jacob. And listen to your father Israel!”

“Judah, your brothers will praise you! You shall seize your enemies by the neck! Your father’s sons shall bow before you. Judah, a young lion! You return from the prey, my son! Like a lion he stoops and crouches, and like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?”

“The sceptre shall not be taken from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to Whom it belongs, and Who has the obedience of the nations.”

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Thursday, 10 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the words of the Holy Scriptures, which revealed to us the promise that God had made with us mankind, that He will save us by His coming and by the rescue that He will bring us from all the darkness and the wickedness in the world. And what He wanted is to let us know how His salvation has come upon us, and that there will be great things to come awaiting us at the end of our journeys.

It was through John the Baptist that the world who had awaited for a long time for the arrival of its deliverance, the arrival of the Messiah, listened for the first time the message of hope and also at the same time a warning and a reminder, a call towards repentance and redemption, that mankind who were once sinners and rejected from the grace and the presence of God, were reunited in love with Him.

Indeed, many of us might have lost hope in waiting for the salvation that was promised by our God, and we continued to suffer persecutions, difficulties and challenges, especially if we profess ourselves to be faithful to the Lord and follow His ways. Many of us do not realise that God is working His graces and blessings through us, and by our own actions, we have made it possible for ourselves to attain the salvation in our God.

What does this mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? This means that the Lord Who had made Himself manifest in the world, visible and known to all, has shown us the way to go, that is the path which we are to take if we would like to achieve the salvation of our souls. He has shown us the path and the way, such that all that remains now is really how to execute and work in this.

We have to realise that many of us do call ourselves Christians, but we do not really know what it means to be one. We have heard the Word of God, received His teachings, and we have also professed our faith before Him, but we should really ask ourselves, are these enough? No, it is not enough. Our faith must be much more than just these, for we all should know that faith without good works and actions are meaningless and empty.

God is in fact calling all of us today, just as He had done so in the past, to be more proactive and committed to Him by our works and actions, that we no longer just believe in Him, but we also act on our faith so that our faith becomes an inspiration to others, and through our faith, we spread God’s Good News to the whole world and bring His salvation to all the peoples.

In this season of Advent, we are preparing ourselves for Christmas, the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour into this world. But we have to realise that the best way to prepare for Christmas is not in buying all the decorations and putting them up, that is not in the best Christmas tree we make or the best gifts we wrap for the occasion.

Rather, the best way to prepare for Christmas is through a renewal of our faith and a greater understanding of the role which our Lord and Saviour had come into this world to reveal to us, that we too have our parts to play in the works of salvation. The best way to prepare for Christmas is our commitment to work more for the sake of the Lord, in calling others and as many people as possible, to return to the Lord, and by our actions, guided and rooted in faith, we may bring inspiration to all of them to also walk faithfully in our God.

May our Almighty God bless us and keep us in His grace, and may He help us to realise that there are still so many things that we can do in order to bring His Good News into this darkened world, that through us and through our works, we may help to bring salvation to as many souls as possible. May God be gracious to us and bless us always. Amen.

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Thursday, 10 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 11 : 11-15

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples and to the people, “I tell you this : no one greater than John the Baptist has come forward from among the sons of women, and yet the least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of Heaven is something to be conquered, and violent men seize it.”

“Up to the time of John, there was only prophesy : all the prophets and the Law. And if you believe Me, John is that Elijah, whose coming was predicted. Let anyone with ears listen!”

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Thursday, 10 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 144 : 1 and 9, 10-11, 12-13ab

I will extol You, my God and King; I will bless Your Name forever. The Lord is good to everyone; His mercy embraces all His creation.

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.