Thursday

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Thursday, 27 August 2015 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Monica (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Thessalonians 3 : 7-13

What a consolation for us, brothers and sisters, in the midst of our troubles and trials, this faith of yours! It is a breath of life for us when you stand firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for all the joy that we feel before God because of you? Day and night we beg of Him to let us see you again, that we may complete the instruction of the believers.

May God our Father and Jesus our Lord prepare the way for us to visit you. May the Lord increase more and more your love for each other and for all people, as He increases our love for you. May He strengthen you internally to be holy and blameless before God, our Father, on the day that Jesus, our Lord, will come with all His saints.

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Thursday, 20 August 2015 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how God yet called another, and chose him to be judge over His people Israel, Jephthah, to liberate the people of God from oppression and tyranny of the Ammonites. He called Jephthah and made him the tool of victory against the Ammonites, crushing them and freeing the Israelites after many years of suffering.

But Jephthah made a vow before God, which certainly made him to regret having made such a vow. He vowed that whatever came out of his house, he would sacrifice it to God, and his own daughter became a victim of his own lack of faith and impulsiveness. He made a vow to the Lord, likely because there remained doubt in his heart that he could have done what he was called to do.

Remember that Jesus told His disciples and the people not to swear or make a vow in the Name of God? That is because when one makes a vow, that means actually that the person is not entirely sure or committed to the cause for which he was making a vow for. If one is sure about making a commitment or a decision, and if one is able to make a stand, then surely, a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ would suffice.

In the Gospel today, Jesus told His disciples and the people of God the parable of the wedding garment, which is related to what we have heard in the first reading. In that parable we heard how the king held a wedding feast where he invited many of his invited guests, to come and join in the celebration, and yet those invited guests refused to come and continued with their own lives as if ignoring the king and his wedding feast.

The king represents the Lord, and the wedding feast represents the gathering of the people of God who had been invited to the feast, where the King, our Lord, had given us His blessings, to share in the food and drink which He blesses us with. And in this, we see yet another connection with what we have witnessed in the first reading today.

And what is this connection? Jephthah indeed had made such a great vow, and on one side, we can see how he should not have done that. However, the connection that we should see is how Jephthah fulfilled the vow which he had made to the Lord, and gave even his only daughter to God, as a sacrifice according to his vow, and how this is in perfect parallel and harmony to the example of Jesus, the Son of God.

For God Himself had been perfectly faithful to His promise and vow to us, to the covenants which He had established and renewed again and again with us mankind, since the days of Adam, to the days of Abraham and then David, and until the time of Jesus, and until this very day and on the days that are to come. God showed His perfect faithfulness and love, by giving us and not holding back from us, His only Son, whom He sent into the world to be our Redeemer.

And through this God had also invited all of us, His beloved people, to the banquet which He had prepared for all of us. He had prepared for us the banquet, the wedding feast, in which God and mankind are to be reunited again, because the shackles and obstacles of sin had been removed from all of us who heeded His call and join in the feast of the Lord.

The Holy Mass is the banquet of the Lord, where God gives us His own Body and Blood, that we may share in them and therefore, partake of the Lord, and be made holy and just. For the Lord Himself would dwell in us and make us the Temples of His holy presence.

And then, this is where we must take heed of another part of the Gospel today. The man without the wedding garment was taken out of the banquet and cast out into utter darkness. This means that, when we take part in the Holy Mass, and whenever we live our daily lives, we who have the Lord dwelling in us, the Temple of His presence and His Spirit, should act according to what He had shown and taught us, abandon all forms of wickedness and sin, or else risk to suffer the consequences of our Lord’s wrath.

Let us all follow the example of St. Bernard the Abbot, also known as St. Bernard of Clairvaux, whose feast we celebrate today. He was truly a holy and great man, whose works and devotions to the Lord was fully well known throughout Christendom, and many aspired to follow his examples. He dedicated his whole life in good service of the Lord, preaching the truth about the Lord and calling many sinners to forgiveness and grace of God.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux did not fear trouble or heresy that were threatening the souls of many around him. He waded through the difficulties and challenges, and called out many people out of the darkness and out of the terrible heresies, by his tireless works and commitments, seeking to bring salvation to as many as possible. He preached well into his old age, and trying to advance the cause of the Lord and His Church wherever possible.

May Almighty God help us that we may also follow in the examples of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and become ever more devoted servants of our Lord, and in our words and actions, may all of us be true to our faith and bring love and goodness to each other in all the world. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 20 August 2015 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 22 : 1-14

At that time, Jesus went on speaking to them in parables : “This story throws light on the kingdom of heaven : A king celebrated the wedding of his son. He sent his servants to call the invited guests to the wedding feast, but the guests refused to come.”

“Again he sent other servants, ordering them to say to the invited guests, ‘I have prepared a banquet, slaughtered my fattened calves and other animals, and now everything is ready. Come to the wedding!’ But they paid no attention and went away, some to their fields, and some to their work. Others seized the servants of the king, insulted them and killed them.”

“The king became angry. He sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is prepared, but the invited guests were not worthy. Go instead to the crossroads, and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast.'”

“The servants went out at once into the streets and gathered everyone they found, good and bad alike, so that the hall was filled with guests. The king came in to see those who were at table, and he noticed a man not wearing the festal garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in without the wedding garment?’ But the man remained silent.”

“So the king said to his servants, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the dark, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Know that many are called, but few are chosen.”

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Thursday, 20 August 2015 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 39 : 5, 7-8a, 8b-9, 10

Blessed is the one who relies on the Lord and does not look to the proud nor go astray after false gods.

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.

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Thursday, 20 August 2015 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Judges 11 : 29-39a

The Spirit of YHVH came upon Jephthah. He went through Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and then entered the territory of the Ammonites. Jephthah made a vow to YHVH : “If You make me victorious, I shall sacrifice to You whoever first comes out of my house to meet me when I return from battle. He shall be for YHVH and I shall offer him up through the fire.”

Jephthah crossed the territory of the Ammonites to fight against them, and YHVH gave him victory. He pursued them from the city of Aroer to the entrance of Minnith and Abel Keramim, seizing twenty towns. So he defeated the Ammonites.

When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, his daughter came out to meet him. She was so happy to see her father that she danced to the sound of her tambourine. She was an only child; besides her he had no other daughter or son. When Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes and cried out, “My daughter, you have shattered me; you have brought me misfortune. For I have made a foolish vow to YHVH, and now I cannot take it back.”

She answered, “Father, even if you have made such a foolish vow, you have to do to me just as you promised, for YHVH has avenged you and crushed your enemies. I only beg of you to give me two months to live with my companions in the mountains. There I shall lament because I will never marry.”

Jephthah said to her, “Go then.” And he sent her away for two months. She and her companions went to the mountains and wept because she would never marry. At the end of two months, she returned to her father and he fulfilled the vow he had made.

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Thursday, 13 August 2015 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Pontian, Pope, and St. Hippolytus, Priest, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard first in the first reading from the Book of Joshua, the continuation of the narration of the story of Israel’s passage from Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan after their Exodus. Moses who led them through the desert for forty years because of the disobedience and rebellion of many among the Israelites, had passed away, and now had been replaced as leader by Joshua.

The people of Israel had reached the vicinity of the River Jordan, which separated the Land of Promise and the other lands. And in a repeat of what He had shown to the people at the Red Sea, God made His people to cross the river Jordan on dry ground, opening the river before them and halting its flow so that they might pass unhindered and enter into the Promised Land of Canaan, which was to be their inheritance.

In the Gospel however, we heard about Jesus who spoke of a parable to His disciples and to the people, teaching them a story about a servant who had owed a large debt to his master, and he was supposed to be punished. But when the servant begged for mercy and forgiveness, the master’s heart was touched and moved, and he forgave the servant all of his debts.

But the servant did not follow the example of his master, and he confronted another servant who owed him a small amount of debt, a mere fraction of what the former owed his master and which he had been forgiven from. The master who knew what the wicked servant had done was very angry, and he did not let the wickedness to go unpunished. The punishment for the old debts were reinstated and the wicked servant went to his suffering without mercy.

How are these two readings related? They may seem to be distinct and unrelated, but in fact they are really very related in meaning, in reality as well as in symbolism. For we all have to understand that what we witnessed today in the Book of Joshua was the final part of the long journey of Israel through the desert, where they wandered for over forty years as mentioned.

They wandered so many years in the desert because of their disobedience, since they refused to listen to the Lord, and feared men more than God, and they did not put their full trust in the Lord, even though again and again, many times they had witnessed first hand the glory and power of God. They were too stubborn in their heart to appreciate the love and care with which God had taken care of them.

But God is at the same time also merciful and loving, just as He is filled with hatred and righteous anger towards all sorts of sin and wickedness. He shows mercy to all those who repented and those who committed themselves to change their way and follow Him. But those who were unrepentant and refused to listen to Him, He will cast away from His presence into the utter darkness and eternal suffering.

God is the master in the parable, and we are the servants whom the master has command over. The debts are our sins and wickedness, which have become our undoing. The debts bring with them punishment and justice, that is death, and we should have deserved death because we have sinned and disobeyed our Lord, the Master and Lord of all life.

But God heard our pleas and prayers, and He forgives us our sins, just as He had sent down to us His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that through Him, our sins may be destroyed and we may be freed from them. He has granted us pardon just as the master had pardoned the wicked servant from his debts. Now what matters is that, we have to heed the clear lesson from Jesus’s teaching and discourse on this matter.

We have to listen to the word of God, His teachings and His ways, and then practice it ourselves in our own actions and in how we live our lives in this world. The wicked servant did not imitate his master in his mercy and love, and instead, he oppressed others in his own ego and pride. As a result, he was punished severely for his wrongdoings. Thus, we too should not follow his ways, and rather, submit ourselves to the way of the Lord, loving one another and forgiving each other our sins.

Today we celebrate the feast of Pope St. Pontian and St. Hippolytus, who were at that time the rival Pope to St. Pontian, elected by rival camps in the Church, at a time when division could be ill-afforded, as the Roman Empire was stepping up its great and terrible persecution of both the Church and the faithful. The two camps bickered at who should have been the legitimate Successor of St. Peter, and much harm was done to the Church.

But by the grace of God, the two men were reconciled with each other, and the misunderstandings that happened and came between them were dispelled. As a result, the unity of the Church was restored completely. Pope St. Pontian and St. Hippolytus were arrested by the authorities and were sentenced to death in the mines of Sardinia.

They were both martyred there, and before he went off to his death, Pope St. Pontian voluntarily relinquished the leadership of the Church, to allow others to step in and rebuild the community he left behind when he went to his martyrdom. And the forgiveness and reconciliation which Pope St. Pontian and St. Hippolytus showed each other should be an inspiration for all of us, as the driving force behind our own conversion to the truth and reconciliation with our Lord and God.

Remember when the people of Israel passed through the River Jordan? It was there too that Jesus our Lord was baptised by St. John the Baptist. This is also a symbolic meaning, of how when we were baptised, we pass just as the Israelites through the waters of baptism, from a barren land, the desert, into the promised land of milk and honey, and so we are brought from our past state of sin into a renewed life filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

May Almighty God be with us always, and fill our hearts with the desire to seek Him and to find His mercy, that He may forgive our sins and trespasses, and make us worthy again of His love. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 13 August 2015 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Pontian, Pope, and St. Hippolytus, Priest, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Matthew 18 : 21 – Matthew 19 : 1

At that time, Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times must I forgive the offences of my brother or sister? Seven times?” Jesus answered, “No, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

“This story throws light on the kingdom of Heaven : A king decided to settle the accounts of his servants. Among the first was one who owed him ten thousand pieces of gold. As the man could not repay the debt, the king commanded that he be sold as a slave with his wife, his children and all his goods, as repayment.”

“The servant threw himself at the feet of the king and said, ‘Give me time, and I will pay you back everything.’ The king took pity on him, and not only set him free, but even cancelled his debt. When this servant left the king’s presence, he met one of his companions, who owed him a hundred pieces of silver.”

“He grabbed him by the neck and almost choked him, shouting, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ His companion threw himself at his feet and begged him, ‘Give me time, and I will pay everything.’ The other did not agree, but sent him to prison until he had paid all his debt.”

“Now his fellow servants saw what had happened. They were extremely upset, and so they went and reported everything to their lord. Then the lord summoned his servant and said, ‘Wicked servant, I forgave you all that you owed when you begged me to do so. Were you not bound to have pity on your companion, as I had pity on you?'”

“The Lord was now angry, so he handed his servant over to be punished, until he had paid his whole debt.” Jesus added, “So will My heavenly Father do with you, unless you sincerely forgive your brothers and sisters.”

When Jesus had finished this teaching, He left Galilee and arrived at the border of Judea, on the other side of the Jordan River.

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Thursday, 13 August 2015 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Pontian, Pope, and St. Hippolytus, Priest, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 113A : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Alleluia! When Israel came out of Egypt, the family of Jacob from a people of foreign language. Judah became His sanctuary, Israel His possession.

At His sight the sea fled and the Jordan retreated; the mountains skipped like rams, the hills frolicked like lambs.

Why is it, sea, that you flee? Jordan, that you turn back? Mountains, that you skip like rams? Hills, that you frolic like lambs?

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Thursday, 13 August 2015 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Pontian, Pope, and St. Hippolytus, Priest, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Joshua 3 : 7-10a, 11, 13-17

Then YHVH said to Joshua : “Today I will begin to make you great in the eyes of Israel and they shall know that I am with you as I was with Moses. Give this order to the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant : As soon as you come to the banks of the Jordan, stand still in the river.”

And Joshua said to the Israelites : “Come nearer and listen to the words of YHVH, our God. Do you want a sign that YHVH, the living God, is in your midst? See, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to cross the Jordan before you.”

“When the priests who carry the Ark of the Lord of all the earth put their feet into the water of the Jordan, the water coming from upstream shall stop flowing and stand in one single mass.”

When the people set out from their camp to cross the Jordan, the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant went before them. There was much water in the Jordan, for it was overflowing its banks at this time of the barley harvest. Nevertheless, when those who carried the Ark went down to the river and their feet touched the edge of the water, the water from upstream stopped flowing.

The water stood still, forming something like a dam very far from that place, near Adam, the neighbouring city of Zarethan. The water flowing down to the Dead Sea was completely cut off, and so the people could cross opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant remained in the middle of the river which dried up, until all the Israelites had crossed the Jordan.

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Thursday, 6 August 2015 : Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate a great feast of the Church, where we celebrate the great event on the mountain on that day, when Jesus was glorified and revealed the fullness of truth about Himself to the three of His Apostles, Peter, James and John. This is the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, when Jesus revealed His divinity to His people for the first time.

On this feast, there are several things we all ought to take note of. First of all, the symbolism shown in this event of the Transfiguration truly revealed to us the great truth about Jesus our Lord, who He is, what His mission was, and what He would do in order to achieve that mission. Then we should indeed begin to understand them one by one.

On that mountain, Jesus was transfigured, and two figures from the Old Testament came, appeared and spoke to Him. They were Moses and Elijah, the greatest of God’s servants, and who symbolised the works which Jesus was to accomplish in this world as part of His messianic ministry. Moses represented the Law which God had revealed to the people through Him, while Elijah represented the Prophets through whom God had made His will known to the people.

This represented the role of Jesus who came to fulfil and complete the Law in its perfection, and He would reveal to all mankind the true meaning and purpose of the Law which God had revealed to them, but which they had often misunderstood in the practice and in its purpose. And then, Jesus also was a Prophet, the One who made clear God’s words and intentions to men. It was through His words, His teachings and parables that He called upon many people to return to the Lord.

In Jesus the role of Priest, Prophet and King was united as one, for He is indeed the High Priest of all, by His role in delivering all of us through the sacrifice which He had offered for the sake of our sins and unworthiness, that is His own Body and Blood which He offered up from the Altar of Calvary from the cross. And as Prophet, He revealed to us all the truth about God, and taught us the Law.

And we know that He is King of all kings, and Lord of all lords, and the Good Shepherd of us all, who leads us from the darkness of this world, gathered from all over the world, once scattered now brought together as one people into the unity of His Church, that He may bring us to the salvation which He has promised those who are faithful to Him.

In this we see how the Transfiguration of our Lord had revealed to the disciples, and also to all of us, who Jesus is, that is none other than God Himself, who had been willing to descend upon us and assume our humble human form, to be born in the flesh, and to later suffer for our sake, bearing our sins and punishments for those sins as He made His way to Calvary and as He hung between the heavens and the earth on the cross. He died for us, so that we all may live.

But in this, we also should realise that the Transfiguration itself also revealed to us, what we are to become, when we remain faithful to the end, and at the end, receive the just reward for our faith and devotion from the Lord. Just as Jesus revealed His true self to His disciples, then all of us should also reveal who we truly are to one another, and discard all the falsehoods and the lies with which we have covered ourselves and hid our true selves with thus far.

Why is this so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because God had created all of us good and perfect, just as He is good and perfect. But it was because of sin and disobedience which since the days of the first mankind had entered into our hearts and beings, we have been made imperfect and tainted, and our true selves had been hidden under layers of guilt, disobedience, and all other sorts of wickedness that prevent our true selves from being revealed.

For we are the children of God, who is Love, who is Light and goodness. If we are therefore His children, then certainly all of us should have imitated Him in how we behave and act in this life. It was our sins and our disobedience, and our human weaknesses and tendencies to sin that have made us such beings that had strayed far away from where we were and what we were intended to be.

Therefore, on this day, we have to heed what the Lord had shown us, and we all have to also listen to the Lord’s word, that we indeed have to listen to Jesus, the Word of God, through whom God made clear all of His will and desire for us. What then He had said to His Apostles Peter, Janes and John should be a good lesson for all of us.

For the Apostles must have been so awed and mesmerised by the glory and the greatness, and the great joy that they ought to have felt to be in the presence of God on that mountain. And they wanted to make three tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, so that they could stay there and not to leave that state of joy. But Jesus reminded them that, in order for them to move on, they must also at one point go down the mountain and face the challenges of the world.

Jesus Himself, even though He was glorified and honoured in today’s commemoration of the Transfiguration, but He knew that He had to forgo all of the glory and even empty Himself, descending down the mountain of glory, to come towards the ultimate test and challenge He would face, that is to be rejected and humiliated by the very people whom He had been sent to, to be saved.

In the same way therefore, all of us should shake ourselves from our comfort zones, that we may be able to realise that we have been too long and too deep in our slumber, where our true selves of love and righteousness had been buried deep within the layers of our laziness, our indifference, our apathy and our inability to see the opportunity for us to rise up and to give glory to God through our actions.

May our Transfigured Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all from now on, that in all things that we do, we may also do things to aspire for that same goal, that our old selves and the veils of our own sinfulness and evils may be replaced by the true beauty of our inner selves, the beauty of the love and faith which our Lord had given us by His Spirit. God be with us all. Amen.