Thursday

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Thursday, 15 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 11 : 47-54

At that time, Jesus said to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, “A curse is on you, for you build monuments to the prophets your ancestors killed. So you approve and agree with what your ancestors did. Is it not so? They got rid of the prophets, and you build monuments to them!”

“For that reason the Wisdom of God also said : I will send prophets and Apostles and this people will kill and persecute some of them. But the present generation will have to answer for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, the people of this time will have to answer for them all.”

“A curse is on you, teachers of the Law, for you have taken the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering.” As Jesus left that place, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to harass Him, asking Him endless questions, setting traps to catch Him in something He might say.

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Thursday, 15 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 129 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-7a

Out of the depths I cry to You, o Lord, o Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears pay attention to the voice of my supplication.

If You should mark our evil, o Lord, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness, and for that You are revered.

I waited for the Lord, my soul waits, and I put my hope in His word. My soul expects the Lord more than watchmen the dawn. O Israel, hope in the Lord.

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Thursday, 15 October 2015 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Romans 3 : 21-30a

But, now it has been revealed altogether apart from the Law, as it was already foretold in the Law and the Prophets : God makes us righteous by means of faith in Jesus Christ, and this is applied to all who believe, without distinction of persons.

Because all have sinned and all fall short of the Glory of God; and all are graciously forgiven and made righteous through the redemption effected in Christ Jesus. For God has given Him to be the victim whose blood obtains us forgiveness through faith.

So God shows us how He makes us righteous. Past sins are forgiven which God overlooked till now. For now He wants to reveal His way of righteousness : how He is just and how He makes us righteous through faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our pride? It is excluded. How? Not through the Law and its observances, but through another Law which is faith.

For we hold that people are in God’s grace by faith and not because of all the things ordered by the Law. Otherwise, God would be the God of the Jews; but is He not God of pagan nations as well? Of course He is, for there is only one God and He will save by faith the circumcised Jews as well as the uncircumcised nations.

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Thursday, 8 October 2015 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard in the readings from the Holy Scriptures on the nature of God as our Father, who cares for us as His own children, and how the righteous will be treated differently from the wicked ones on the day of judgment, when God will come again to separate those who are worthy and good from all those who do not deserve salvation and grace of God.

Many of us are like those that the prophet Malachi spoke about in his book, which we heard as our first reading today, that is as those who are lacking in faith and understanding of the Lord and His ways. And it is not just that, but we are also ignorant of His methods and paths, which made us to think in the way of those the prophet Malachi had condemned.

These people think that God does not punish the wicked and the sinful ones, and they think that God does not reward those who have done what is good and just, and therefore, they presume that either God does not care, or that He condones whatever they were doing, or that He does not exist in the first place and thus they have no need to feel obliged to follow His laws or believe in Him.

But they are mistaken, for the ways of the Lord and the wisdom of God is far above their feeble understanding. Yes, despite all of our human achievements and intelligence, all these are still nothing compared to the wisdom of God, whose ways are beyond ours and our trials to understand them. But this is what we know, from what Jesus had revealed to us all, that those who have done what the will of God wants them to do, shall be rewarded.

We have to remember what Jesus had said about the day of judgment, when the Lord would come again to judge all the living and the dead, as our faith instructs us, that He shall separate the good from the bad, the wheat from the weeds, those who have made their lives useful and filled with goodness and love, from those who have not done so and lived their lives in sin or in ignorance.

Those who have done well asked Jesus when they had done what the Lord had expected from them, and He said that whenever they did something good for those around them who were persecuted, suffering, the least and the most ostracised among the society members, they have done it for the Lord Himself, and it is in these actions that the Lord sees their faith and rewards them.

Meanwhile, those who have not done as the Lord wills it, shall be condemned by the Lord, who will reject them because they have not shown mercy and love to those who are weak and downtrodden, to the oppressed and to all those who need God’s love. These are those ignorant ones mentioned earlier, those who think that they and their intellect and human wisdom are better than the wisdom of God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all today reflect on our own actions, and think about whether we have done what is needed to help others around us who are in need, and whether we have been truly faithful to the Lord, not just in words and proclamations, or appearances, but also in real deeds and actions. Let us also not be afraid to ask the Lord our God for His love and mercy, for He is truly our Father, who will listen to our concerns and wishes if they are genuinely for the love of Him.

Let us all seek God’s help and ask Him to strengthen us, our weary and weak hearts, minds and bodies, that He may fortify and prepare us against the assaults of the evil one. May God bless us all every days of our life, and may He as our Father, guide us as His children, to walk righteously in His path and help us when we falter and lose our way. God be with us always. Amen.

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Thursday, 8 October 2015 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 5-13

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to his house in the middle of the night and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine who is travelling has just arrived, and I have nothing to offer him.’ Maybe your friend will answer from inside, ‘Do not bother me now; the door is locked, and my children and I are in bed, so I cannot get up and give you anything.'”

“But I tell you, even though he will not get up and attend to you because you are a friend, yet he will get up because you are a bother to him, and he will give you all you need. And so I say to you, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.'”

“If your child asks for a fish, will you give him a snake instead? And if your child asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.”

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Thursday, 8 October 2015 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

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

Blessed is the one 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 the Lord, 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 the Lord knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.

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Thursday, 8 October 2015 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Malachi 3 : 13-20a

“You say very harsh things about Me,” says YHVH, and yet you say, “What harsh things did we say against You?” You say, “It is useless to serve God. There is no benefit in observing His commandments or in leading an austere life for His sake. Happy are the shameless! Those who do evil succeed in everything; though they provoke God, they remain unharmed.”

Those were the very words of those who fear YHVH. YHVH listened and heard what they said. He ordered at once that the names of those who respect Him and reverence His Name be written in a record. And He declared, “They will be Mine on the day I have already set. Then I shall care for them as a father cares for his obedient son. And you will see the different fates of the good and the bad, those who obey God and those who disobey Him.”

“The day already comes, flaming as a furnace. On that day all the proud and evildoers will be burnt like straw in the fire. They will be left without branches or roots. On the other hand the sun of justice will shine upon you who respect My Name and bring health in its rays.”

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Thursday, 1 October 2015 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, Patroness of Missions (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of one of the greatest saints of the Church, a holy and devoted woman whose name still inspires many of the faithful even unto this very day. She is St. Therese of the Child Jesus, also known as St. Therese Lisieux, a great religious and a great saint, Doctor of the Church for her many writings and contributions to the Faith, and she was made the Patroness of Christian missions throughout the world.

Who was St. Therese Lisieux? She was born from a family of devout Catholics, and Blessed Louis Martin and Blessed Marie-Azelie Guerin were her parents, who themselves are now on the path to sainthood due to their own personal piety and great examples of faith. It was in such a pious environment that St. Therese Lisieux was raised up in faith, and she became a good daughter of the Lord, and naturally, she felt the call to serve God early in her life.

St. Therese Lisieux inherited the great piety and faith of her parents, both of whom wanted to serve the people of God and the Church in a greater way, by joining congregations and reaching out to the less fortunate, but they were barred and prevented from doing so by the numerous challenges and circumstances of that time. Instead, it was through St. Therese Lisieux that their wishes were fulfilled.

She was often sickly in her youth, and she had lost her mother at a young age because of cancer. But this did not dim her desire to serve the Lord in greater capacities, and after one of her older sisters decided to join religious life, she too wanted to do the same, but was prevented from doing so due to her very young age. Nevertheless, she continued to devote herself strongly to the Lord.

And she overcame her problems and challenges at one time in her life, when she became resolved to serve the Lord and join the religious life as one of the Carmelites. Eventually she managed to get her request to join the Carmelites early, and from then on, she devoted everything to the Lord and to His people. And throughout her life from then on, she became a great source of inspiration to many people, through her works and writings, through her prayers and devotions.

She discovered the ‘little way’ which would be famously attributed to her, as the way to reach out to the Lord. In this way, she focused on the frailty and how small human beings are as compared to the greatness of God, and therefore, rather than trying to reach up high and to stumble because we are unable to perform great things that we are unable to do, then she advocated us all to follow the way of simplicity and humility, of complete surrender to the will of God.

St. Therese Lisieux in her many contributions to the Church and to the faithful people of God had brought about much goodness and brought salvation closer to many countless people and souls. This example that she has showed all of us, we should take heed of, and then we should try our best to emulate her as best as we can, so that we too can take part in the effort to bring all people and all souls closer to God’s salvation.

And this is aptly recalled in the Gospel today, where the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples, who argued about who should be considered as the greater or the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. Jesus made it very clear that the path of the Lord is not that of pride and of hubris and boasting, but instead, those who lowered himself and kept his humility before the Lord would receive greatness in the presence of God.

This is exactly just as what St. Therese Lisieux proposed in her ‘little way’, that is, if we want to be greater servant of our Lord and receive greater blessing and grace from the Lord, then we should lower and humble ourselves, and not to become attached to worldly things and desires. The greater is our humility, the more we are able to realise what God wants to do with our lives, and the more we can recognise what we can contribute and do for the sake of the salvation of souls.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, by heeding the examples of St. Therese Lisieux, the Little Flower of Carmel, let us all devote ourselves ever more to the Lord our God, and let us all dedicate ourselves ever more to help all those around us who need our help, especially those who have lost their way and do not know the way to go to reach out to God and His salvation.

May Almighty God be with us always, and help us to be more like St. Therese Lisieux, in piety, devotion and deeds, so that in all the things we say and do, we may bring greater glory to God, and help mankind and more souls to attain the salvation of God. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 1 October 2015 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, Patroness of Missions (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 18 : 1-5

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the midst of the disciples, and said, “I assure you that, unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes lowly like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child in My Name receives Me.”

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Thursday, 1 October 2015 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, Patroness of Missions (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 131 : 1-3

Remember David, o Lord, and all his readiness, how he swore an oath to the Lord, to the Mighty One of Jacob.

I will not enter my house nor get into my bed.