Thursday

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Thursday, 28 May 2015 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 10 : 46-52

At that time, Jesus and His disciples came to Jericho. As Jesus was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth passing by, he began to call out, “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!”

Many people scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he shouted all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying, “Take heart! Get up, He is calling you!” He immediately threw aside his cloak, jumped up and went to Jesus.

Then Jesus asked him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man said, “Master, let me see again!” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way, your faith has made you well.” And immediately he could see, and he followed Jesus along the road.

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Thursday, 28 May 2015 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 32 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Give thanks to Him on the harp and lyre, making melody and chanting praises. Amid loud shouts of joy, sing to Him a new song and play the ten-stringed harp.

For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.

The heavens were created by His word, the breath of His mouth formed their starry host. He gathered the waters of the sea into a heap, and stored the deep in cellars.

Let the whole earth fear the Lord, let the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and so it was, He commanded, and everything stood firm.

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Thursday, 28 May 2015 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Sirach (Ecclesiastes) 42 : 15-25

Now I shall remind you of the works of the Lord and relate what I have seen. The Lord’s works depend on His word, and creation obeys His will. The sun shines on everything and the work of the Lord is filled with His glory. Not even to His holy ones has the Lord given full knowledge of all His marvellous works.

The Lord, Master of the universe, has ordained that all should stand firm in His glory. He penetrates both the depth of the abyss and the human heart and knows their secrets. For the Most High has full knowledge and ordains the signs of the heavens.

He knows the past and foretells the future and reveals the traces of the world’s mysteries. No thought escapes Him, no word is hidden from Him. He has ordered the marvellous works of His wisdom, from ever and forever. Nothing can be added, nothing can be taken away and He has no need of counsel.

All His works are beautiful, even to the smallest spark of light. All this lives and endures forever : all is useful and obedient to His will. All things are in pairs, one opposite the other, and nothing He makes is in any way deficient. One thing emphasises the excellence of the other; who could ever weary of admiring His glory?

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Thursday, 21 May 2015 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Christopher Magallanes, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we continue to hear about the prayer which Jesus had made to His Father, asking Him to bless and protect those who have dedicated themselves to Him, and all those whom He had chosen out of the world and have not betrayed Him like what Judas Iscariot had done.

And He prayed that they all may be united and one in Body and Spirit, just as He and His Father are one, that as One Church, they may stand together against the darkness around them, and become the testimony of the Faith that all who saw them might believe and repent.

In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we also heard about how St. Paul stood for trial in front of the Sanhedrin, or the Council of the elders of the people of Israel, and he was condemned because of his faith in God and his courageous and ceaseless preaching and evangelisation of the peoples regarding the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, which most of the Sanhedrin members had rejected.

And we heard how God blessed St. Paul and protected him from harm by putting discord amongst his persecutors, the party of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And this was because of the discord of those who do not belong to the Church of God. Each of them with their own ideas and thoughts. That is indeed the way of this world, the way of selfishness where everyone gives in to their own selfish desires and wants.

But sadly, this is the same issue that also affected even the Church of God. Because of mankind’s greed and inability to resist the temptations of the world, this brought about division into the Church of God, where heresy and falsehoods were rampant amongst the people of God, misleading many souls away from salvation. And this is a great danger to all of us, for division in the Church brings about harm for the souls that became ensnared in the lies of Satan.

That is why Jesus prayed for the unity of the Church, that is the unity of all of His faithful ones, all of His beloved children. The Church is not just a building and an establishment, or an organisation, but in fact, it encompassed all of us, all the believers and all those who have placed their faith in God. All of us make up the one Body of Christ, that is His Church. For while the Church is filled with peoples of different origins from all over the world, but its human traits hide the truth that truly, the Church came from God and it, together with all of us, belongs to God alone.

If united, the Church of God will be able to face and persevere through whatever it is that Satan and his wicked allies throw against us. Remember that Jesus Himself told Peter that not even the gates of hell will prevail against it. Thus, if we remain united and devoted to our call and mission as children of God and members of His Church, then not even the greatest force and power of Satan can uproot us or harm us.

As we approach the celebration of Pentecost, let us all remember that all of us faithful ones in God all share the same Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit which we have received, in the one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Church. And today we also celebrate the feast of St. Christopher Magallanes and his companions, who are martyrs of the Faith and the Church.

St. Christopher Magallanes was a faithful and devoted priest and servant of God, who ministered to the people of God with love and tenderness, sharing with them the love of God. He lived however, in a turbulent country at a turbulent time, in Mexico during a time of great hostility and opposition against the Church and the Faith in general. The people in power were adamantly and aggressively hostile against the Church.

Thus, he was martyred with many other brave and courageous defenders of the faith, and together they were elevated to their glory at the Altar as the holy saints and martyrs of the Church. They remained true to their faith and calling as servants of God, bringing the word of God despite knowing that doing so would lead to their deaths.  Their examples should serve as a reminder for all of us to lead a dedicated and committed life of faith in our Lord. There are so much more that we can do.

Let us all in all of our actions seek to bring unity to the Church, and bringing one another closer to God, and helping one another to resist the temptations of the flesh and the world. May God our Father guide us on our way and keep our hearts strongly in love for Him, and so that we may remain true to Him and keep all of His Laws and commandments faithfully. Amen.

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Thursday, 21 May 2015 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Christopher Magallanes, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 17 : 20-26

At that time, Jesus prayed to God His Father and said, “I pray not only for these, but also for those who through their word will believe in Me. May they all be one, as You Father are in Me and I am in You. May they be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”

“I have given them the glory You have given Me, that they may be one as we are one : I in them and You in Me. Thus they shall reach perfection in unity; and the world shall know that You have sent Me, and that I have loved them, just as You loved Me.”

“Father, since You have given them to Me, I want them to be with Me where I am, and see the glory You gave Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You have sent Me. As I revealed Your Name to them, so will I continue to reveal it, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I also may be in them.”

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Thursday, 21 May 2015 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Christopher Magallanes, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 15 : 1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

Keep me safe, o God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “O Lord, my inheritance and my cup, my chosen portion – hold secure my lot.”

I bless the Lord who counsels me; even at night my inmost self instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me; for with Him at my right hand, I will never be shaken.

My heart, therefore, exults, my soul rejoices; my body too will rest assured. For You will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will You suffer Your Holy One to see decay in the land of the dead.

You will show me the path of life, in Your presence the fullness of joy, at Your right hand happiness forever. 

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Thursday, 21 May 2015 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Christopher Magallanes, Priest and Companions, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 22 : 30 and Acts 23 : 6-11

The next day the commander wanted to know for certain the charges the Jews were making against Paul. So he released him from prison and called together the High Priest and the whole Council; and they brought Paul down and made him stand before them.

Paul knew that part of the Council were Sadducees and others Pharisees; so he spoke out in the Council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, son of a Pharisee. It is for the hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial here.”

At these words, an argument broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the whole assembly was divided. For the Sadducees claim that there is neither resurrection, nor angels nor spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all these things.

Then the shouting grew louder, and some teachers of the Law of the Pharisee party protested, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Maybe a spirit or an angel has spoken to him.” With this argument became so violent that the commander feared that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He therefore ordered the soldiers to go down and rescue him from their midst and take him back to the fortress.

That night the Lord stood by Paul and said, “Courage! As you have borne witness to Me here in Jerusalem, so must you do in Rome.”

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Thursday, 14 May 2015 : Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord and Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the great solemnity of our Lord’s Ascension to the heavenly glory, to claim His seat at the right hand of God, the end of His earthly ministry, by which He had liberated us all mankind from the depredations of evil and the tyranny of sin. The Ascension is the final act in God’s glorious works to liberate all of us and make us whole again, and the final proof that indeed Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah, God and Man who had come upon us to free us.

Just as the Resurrection provides us hope of a new life, then the Ascension is a foretelling of our own fate if we remain faithful to the Lord and it shows us what will happen to us as well, at the end of days. We know that since ages past, that there had been several individuals who did not suffer death, because of their faith and righteousness. The Patriarch Enoch, one of the first sons of man was lifted up from this world and walked in it no more, because he was righteous before God.

And Elijah the prophet also was taken up in flaming chariots in the sight of his successor Elisha, as a clear sign of God’s favour for all of his hard work and dedications in his many years of preaching God’s word and calling for the repentance of sinners. And the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ is even greater than all those mentioned, for He rose up to heaven on His own power and might.

The Ascension has many meanings, of which first it shows us the triumph of the forces of good, the Lord and all the faithful against all evil, for this decadent and darkened world cannot hold against us, for our Lord had shown us the path to break free from that darkness. As such, it is a proof that we have triumphed against evil and sin, as exemplified by the Resurrection and the Ascension confirms it. The Lord ascended in great triumph and glory, and so shall be our glory and triumph when it is our time to ascend in glory because of our faithful life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Ascension also affirms that our Lord Jesus Christ is both Man and God at the same time. There were detractors and unfaithful ones, even unto this day, who believed that Jesus is mere man and nothing more, or that He is God and Divine only, and not a man. All these were inadequate and false beliefs that did not do justice to the truth about Christ our Lord.

If Jesus is just mere man, then what He had done for us would be for nothing. For the death of a mere man would not be sufficient to atone for the combined sins of all mankind, whose wickedness had built up to such a great extent, that only the One and only God, whom through Jesus, was incarnated into Man, and as both God and Man, He went through the sufferings and the pains, which are supposed to be our punishment, for all of our sins, so that, by bearing our sins, He brought us free from all the burdens of those sins.

And the Ascension proves this, just as the Transfiguration before the suffering and death of Christ showed a brief glimpse into this reality and truth. While it was only Peter, James and John who were at the mountain with Jesus at the time of His Transfiguration, more disciples, if not all of them were at the place and moment when Jesus ascended into His glory in heaven. This proves beyond doubt, that not only that He has conquered death by His resurrection, but that He truly came down from heaven and was returning to the place where He came from.

And how is this important and relevant for us all? That is because before He ascended into heaven, Jesus reminded the disciples of the one very, very important mission which He had entrusted to them and to the whole Church of God. This mission is that His word, the revelations of truth that He had brought into the world, the way to salvation, may be preached and taught to all peoples, to all mankind throughout the world.

All of us Christians who belong to the Church of God and who had been baptised in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit must go forth to the nations to preach to them the message which Christ had brought into this world, and which His herald, St. John the Baptist had also delivered, that is repentance of sinners, that men may abandon their sinful ways and embrace fully the ways that Christ had taught them, and which we now keep in faith through the Church.

Thus, as we celebrate the occasion of today’s glorious Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven, let us all remember that all of us also will enjoy the same experience, if we are all faithful to the Lord and obey Him in all of His commands. The glory of heaven and true joy are ours, if we follow the Lord and do all of the things that He had commanded us to do, and this is that we ought to call on the others who have yet to hear the word of God, so that they may be saved too.

Remember that just earlier I mentioned some of the righteous ones whom God had saved from death and brought into the heavenly glory? This is to show us that, although indeed we will all as mortals still suffer the effects of physical death, but that death for all the faithful will be nothing more than a passing moment and a transition between the imperfect world and life that we have now, with the world that is to come.

Do we all realise that it has been too long for us to stay hidden in this darkness and how long we have been suppressed by the sins and the wickedness that we have committed thus far in life? Let us therefore throw away these shackles of sin and unworthiness, which prevent us from truly realising the great potential that lie within each and every one of us. We have a duty and a responsibility, brethren, and it is indeed time now for us to act.

Let us all go forth and practice what we believe in, so that our faith will no longer remain just as a mere belief, but also brought completely into concrete and real action, so that all who sees us will know that we believe in God, and therefore, they too may believe by what we have done. And because we have done what is righteous before God, and bring others to Him as well, then the glory of our Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension will also be ours, and eternal life and the glory of heaven will be our just reward.

May Almighty God, the Ascended Christ, who went forth to prepare the places for His righteous ones, continue to guide us and bless us, so that we truly can merit to be counted among those whom He chose out of the nations, to be reunited with Him in the glories and wonders of eternal life in heaven, filled with true joy and happiness. God be with us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 14 May 2015 : Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord and Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 16 : 15-20

At that time, Jesus told His disciples, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation. The one who believes and is baptised will be saved; the one who refuses to believe will be condemned.”

“Signs like these will accompany those who have believed : in My Name they will cast out demons and speak new languages; they will pick up snakes, and if they drink anything poisonous, they will be unharmed; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”

So then, after speaking to them, the Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven and took His place at the right hand of God. The Eleven went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.

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Thursday, 14 May 2015 : Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord and Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Ephesians 4 : 1-13

Therefore I, the prisoner of Christ, invite you to live the vocation you have received. Be humble, kind, patient and bear with one another in love. Make every effort to keep among you the unity of Spirit through bonds of peace. Let there be one body and one spirit, for God, in calling you, gave the same Spirit to all.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God, the Father of all, who is above all and works through all and is in all. But to each of us divine grace is given, according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Therefore, it is said : ‘When He ascended to the heights, He brought captives and gave His gifts to people.’ ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that He had also descended to the lower parts of the world? He Himself who went down, then ascended far above all the heavens to fill all things.

As for His gifts, to some He gave to be Apostles, to others prophets, or even evangelists, or pastors and teachers. So He prepared those who belong to Him for the ministry, in order to build up the Body of Christ, until we are all united in the same faith and knowledge of the Son of God. Thus we shall become the perfect Man, upon reaching maturity and sharing the fullness of Christ.


Alternative reading (shorter version)

Ephesians 4 : 1-7, 11-13

Therefore I, the prisoner of Christ, invite you to live the vocation you have received. Be humble, kind, patient and bear with one another in love. Make every effort to keep among you the unity of Spirit through bonds of peace. Let there be one body and one spirit, for God, in calling you, gave the same Spirit to all.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God, the Father of all, who is above all and works through all and is in all. But to each of us divine grace is given, according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

As for His gifts, to some He gave to be Apostles, to others prophets, or even evangelists, or pastors and teachers. So He prepared those who belong to Him for the ministry, in order to build up the Body of Christ, until we are all united in the same faith and knowledge of the Son of God. Thus we shall become the perfect Man, upon reaching maturity and sharing the fullness of Christ.