Thursday

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Thursday, 5 January 2023 : Weekday of Christmas Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are called to keep in mind that as the followers and disciples of the Lord, we must always be righteous and just, loving and compassionate just as Our Lord Himself has shown and taught us all how we ought to love, loving both God and one another with genuine and tender love. We have to be filled with love because to be Christians is indeed to love, both of God and one another, just as much as we love ourselves. Without love we cannot truly call ourselves as Christians, or as disciples and followers of the Lord, because the Lord’s actions, everything that He has done for us, all of them were done because of His ever enduring and great love for each one of us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. John the Apostle to the faithful people of God in which the Apostle exhorted and reminded all the people of God of their obligation to love and to practice love in their lives, so that they can indeed show that they belong to Christ, and are worthy to call themselves as Christians. If Christians do not practice love and instead cause hurt and harm to each other, then they are no better than hypocrites and unbelievers. St. John told the people of God not to follow the example of Cain who killed his brother out of jealousy, as a reminder that as Christians, all of us are brothers and sisters to one another, and we cannot look upon others with hatred or mischief in our hearts and minds, or else, we cannot call ourselves as Christians or followers and disciples of Christ.

Why is that so? That is because the Lord Himself has shown us the perfect and pure love that He has always had for us. By His coming into this world He has shown us the love of God manifested through Himself, His actions and works in our midst. He touched us and healed us, as He has shown us by His healing of all those who were sick and brought to Him, and even those who died, He had raised from the dead. Through the most generous and enduring love of God, Christ has also shown us the most perfect and ultimate love as He bore His Cross, taking up all of our sins and wickedness, our faults and troubles, all upon His own shoulders, and bore it all up to Calvary. He chose to suffer and die for us to show us that we are truly beloved by God, from the very beginning, and that love endures even through our many sins and wickedness.

Through His obedience to His heavenly Father, Christ showed all of us how we can and should love our God, with all of our hearts and might, with all of our capacities and strength. And then by His love for each one of us that He has shown from His Cross, the perfect love which surpasses even the power of sin and death. He has shown us just how love can conquer the separation caused by our disobedience, and the Incarnation of the Lord made all of these possible, as He offered Himself as the perfect offering and sacrifice of love, to administer upon us God’s healing and grace, His forgiveness and love, in atonement for our many and innumerable sins. Through His obedience and love for His people, all of us, God had delivered unto us this perfect gift of love, as examples for us to follow.

As Christians, we have to believe in the Lord and all that He has shown and taught us, much as how in the Gospel passage today we heard the Lord convincing Nathanael, one of his Apostles whom He called from among the people. Nathanael was also often known as Bartholomew, one of the Twelve, who was a learned man and an intellectual, who knew the Prophets and the Law well. Initially he was skeptical about the Lord, as he thought that the Messiah could not have come from Nazareth, but he was convinced by the Lord, His wisdom, sincerity and love, to follow Him and become one of His devoted disciples. How about us then, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we going to follow the Lord in the same way as well? Or are we going to continue walking down the path of ignorance and separation from the Lord?

If we want to walk faithfully in the path that the Lord has provided for us, then we have to follow His good examples, and also all those who have walked in His path, like that of the Apostles, the innumerable saints and martyrs of the Church. All of them share the same trait that each one of them loved the Lord and placed Him at the centre and as the focus of their lives and existence. Hence we too should put the Lord first and foremost in our lives and strive to fill ourselves with the same love that God has given us, in both loving Him and loving our fellow brothers and sisters all around us in this world. That is what the Lord has told us to do, that is to love one another just as we love ourselves, and to show that genuine love and care, even for those who do not love us back.

Are we able to do this, brothers and sisters in Christ? Can we carry out our lives with love and do whatever we can to love God and to love our neighbours, our fellow men and women with great sincerity and generosity? Let us all discern our path forward in life with the attention to love and to immerse ourselves in the path of God’s love and grace from now on. Let us distance ourselves from all sorts of things and temptations that often mislead us down the wrong path in life, and strive to resist those temptations, and all the pressures for us to love ourselves and be selfish over our calling to love God first and foremost in our lives, and also to love our fellow brothers and sisters, at all possible opportunities.

May the Lord our God continue to guide us with His love and kindness, and keep on blessing us and helping us to get ever closer to Him, with each and every passing days. May He continue to love us and to strengthen us in our journey of life, that we may persevere and grow ever more resilient and more courageous in standing up for our faith in our every moments of life. May God bless our every efforts and endeavours, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 5 January 2023 : Weekday of Christmas Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 1 : 43-51

The next day, Jesus decided to set off for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the One that Moses wrote about in the Law, and the prophets as well; He is Jesus, Son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, He said of him, “Here comes an Israelite, a true one; there is nothing false in him.” Nathanael asked Him, “How do You know me?” And Jesus said to him, “Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree, and I saw you.”

Nathanael answered, “Master, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” But Jesus replied, “You believe because I said, ‘I saw you under the fig tree.’ But you will see greater things than that. Truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

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Thursday, 5 January 2023 : Weekday of Christmas Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 99 : 2, 3, 4, 5

Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God; He created us and we are His people, the sheep of His fold.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His Name.

For the Lord is good; His love lasts forever and His faithfulness through all generations.

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Thursday, 5 January 2023 : Weekday of Christmas Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 3 : 11-21

For this is the message taught to you from the beginning : we must love one another. Do not imitate Cain who killed his brother, for he belonged to the Evil One. Why did he kill him? Because he himself did evil and his brother did good.

So, be not surprised, brothers if the world hates us; we love our brothers and sisters, and with this we know that we have passed from death to life. The one who does not love remains in death. The one who hates his brother is a murderer, and, as you know, eternal life does not remain in the murderer.

This is how we have known what is love is : He gave His life for us. We, too, ought to give our life for our brothers and sisters. If anyone enjoys the riches of this world, but closes his heart when he sees his brother or sister in need, how will the love of God remain in him? My dear children, let us love not only with words and with our lips, but in truth and in deed.

Then we shall know that we are of the truth and we may calm our conscience in His presence. Every time it reproaches us, let us say : God is greater than our conscience, and He knows everything. When our conscience does not condemn us, dear friends, we may have complete confidence in God.

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Thursday, 29 December 2022 : Fifth Day within Octave of Christmas, Memorial of St. Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the reason again why we celebrate in this Christmas season, of why we gather together to rejoice in the coming of the Lord, the Saviour of the whole world. God has come into this world to gather each and every one of us, so that we may come to reconciliation and reunification with Him, and receive from Him the assurance of everlasting life and glory. The Lord has come down upon us and appeared before us so that we may come to experience His love, His kindness and compassion in its fullness. We are reminded that the salvation has come to us through the Son of God born into this world and celebrated at Christmas, as we are doing now.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the time when the Child Jesus was brought to the Temple of Jerusalem, to be presented and offered to God just as the Law dictated it. Both St. Joseph and Mary brought Him to the Temple, and there, the man of God called Simeon came to them and beheld the One Whom he has been told to await, and the One Whose coming he would witness before he passed on from this world. Simeon told both St. Joseph and Mary about what the Child would do as He would grow and eventually become a Sign for all the people of God, the Sign and fulfilment of everything which God had promised to all of us mankind. Through Christ, the Child presented and offered to God at the Temple that time, God would liberate all of us mankind, His beloved ones from the bondage to sin, evil and death.

Then in our first reading today, we heard of the words of St. John the Apostle in his Epistle as he told the faithful people of God regarding what they are all called to do as Christians, in doing the will of God and in obeying His Law and commandments. The Lord has come into our midst bearing His light and love, revealing unto us His great compassion, in Christ, His only begotten and beloved Son. And it is by this action that the Lord revealed to us what it truly means for us to be His followers, and that, as St. John himself wrote in his Epistle, is that ‘we all ought to live our lives just as He has lived His life, full of obedience to the Lord and full of righteousness, love and commitment to the path that God has shown to each and every one of us. By becoming one like us, in assuming our human flesh and existence, Christ has led us by His hands, to enter into this new existence in God.

We are reminded that as Christ Himself has shown us, the love of God had been revealed and taught to us, that we too may know how to love Him and that we may also be filled with the same love that He has shown us. And that is also exactly what the Law and the commandments of the Lord is all about. As the Lord Jesus told His disciples in another occasion, the Law of God can be summarised in two parts, as ‘Love the Lord your God with all of your hearts, with all of your strength and abilities’ and also ‘Love one another, your fellow brothers and sisters in the same way, just as much as you love yourself.’ The Love of God has been manifested to us, and He has shown us His most generous love in the incarnation of His Son, by sending us the best of all gifts, because through Christ, He has willed to reach out to us and lift us up out of our dark fate of destruction because of our sins.

Because of that, all of us should heed what the Lord had told us to do, to be genuine, faithful and loving Christians, and as we celebrate this joyful season of Christmas, we are constantly being reminded of how God’s love had been manifested before us in Jesus Christ, His Son, born into this world and walking in our midst, extending to us the most generous offer of salvation and eternal life, if we truly can believe in Him and follow Him. We should thus follow Him wholeheartedly in our way of life and not be easily tempted by the many temptations of worldly pleasures and other things that often led man into their downfall because they could not resist the temptation of power and glory. And we also have the saints to help lead us down the right path, in showing us what is meant for us to be Christians.

Today, we remember one of those saints for his obedience to the Lord, to His commandments and Law, against the forces of the world that rallied up against him and the Church. St. Thomas Becket was the Archbishop of Canterbury living and ministering to the people of God more than eight centuries ago, during the High Middle Ages England, and as the Archbishop of Canterbury was the most important member of the clergy in all of England, the spiritual leader of all the faithful in that kingdom. He was once an English nobleman who was a close confidant and friend of the King of England, King Henry II. The King appointed his good friend as his Chancellor, and therefore becoming a powerful right hand man of the King, managing many of his court affairs and finances among others.

Then, King Henry II tried to gain more influence and control over the Church, which at that time often acted independently of the King and his court, and therefore, when vacancy occurred to the position of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the King nominated St. Thomas Becket to the position, thinking that by having his friend in that role, he could control the Church and its finances and other institutions better. St. Thomas Becket also remained as the King’s Chancellor while he was concurrently the Archbishop of Canterbury. St. Thomas Becket however went through a thorough change of heart as he went through the ordinations that made him deacon, priest and finally bishop, and was anointed and enthroned as the Archbishop of Canterbury and thus Primate of England.

St. Thomas Becket began to act independently of the King and refusing his efforts and desires to bring the Church under the realm’s control, and insisted on maintaining the independence of the Church and its institutions from any royal or secular influences and control. This then earned St. Thomas Becket the King’s ire and anger, as the King grew more and more restless and disappointed as his efforts were thwarted and resisted again and again, even after he managed to pressure St. Thomas Becket into exile more than once. Nonetheless, St. Thomas Becket continued his resistance against the King’s efforts, excommunicating one of the nobles who abused his authority and who was supported by the King. This continued struggle between King and his Archbishop went on for quite a few years.

And after this long and protracted period of disagreement and conflict, it was there then that the King made a comment in a feast in which he lamented his powerlessness against this man of God and asked if anyone could get rid of him. This was taken as a royal order by four knights who were present there, who then went to find St. Thomas Becket. St. Thomas Becket was martyred when those knights struck at him with their swords at his own Cathedral just as he was doing his prayers. The murder of St. Thomas Becket shocked the whole entire Christendom, and the story of the courage and perseverance showed by St. Thomas Becket very soon inspired many others, and many more even right down to this day, of a man of God who chose to obey the Lord and walk down His path of righteousness rather than to follow the path of worldliness and sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as St. Thomas Becket himself has shown us, let us therefore remember to walk the path that the Lord has shown us, the path of His love and the path of righteousness, loving God and loving our fellow brethren as generously as we can, rather than indulging in our own desire for power and glory as King Henry II and many other men and women of the world had done in the past, which led them to commit great sins and wickedness. Let us all distance ourselves from all those temptations and strive to do in whatever way we can to seek the Lord with a renewed heart full of love and faith in Him. May we all draw ever closer to God through our faithful Christmas celebrations, and through the inspirations from the saints, especially from St. Thomas Becket. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 29 December 2022 : Fifth Day within Octave of Christmas, Memorial of St. Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 2 : 22-35

When the day came for the purification according to the law of Moses, they brought the Baby up to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord : Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to God. And they offered a sacrifice, as ordered in the law of the Lord : a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

There lived in Jerusalem at this time a very upright and devout man named Simeon; the Holy Spirit was in him. He looked forward to the time when the Lord would comfort Israel, and he had been assured, by the Holy Spirit, that he would not die before seeing the Messiah of the Lord. So he was led into the Temple by the Holy Spirit at the time the parents brought the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the Law.

Simeon took the Child in his arms, and blessed God, saying, “Now, o Lord, You can dismiss Your servant in peace, for You have fulfilled Your word and my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You display for all the people to see. Here is the Light You will reveal to the nations, and the glory of Your people Israel.”

His father and mother wondered at what was said about the Child. Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, His mother, “Know this : your Son is a Sign, a Sign established for the falling and rising of many in Israel, a Sign of contradiction; and a sword will pierce your own soul, so that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.”

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Thursday, 29 December 2022 : Fifth Day within Octave of Christmas, Memorial of St. Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 95 : 1-2a, 2b-3, 5b-6

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.

YHVH is the One Who made the heavens. Splendour and majesty go before Him; power and glory fill His sanctuary.

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Thursday, 29 December 2022 : Fifth Day within Octave of Christmas, Memorial of St. Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 2 : 3-11

How can we know that we know Him? If we fulfil His commands. If you say, “I know Him,” but do not fulfil His commands, you are a liar and the truth is not in you. But if you keep His word, God’s love is made complete in you. This is how we know that we are in Him : he who claims to live in Him must live as He lived.

My dear friends, I am not writing you a new commandment, but reminding you of an old one, one you had from the beginning. This old commandment is the word you have heard. But, in a way, I give it as a new commandment that is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and true light already shines.

If you claim to be in the light but hate your brother, you are still in darkness. If you love your brothers and sisters, you remain in the light and nothing in you will make you fall. But if you hate your brother you are in the dark and walk in darkness without knowing where you go, for the darkness has blinded you.

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Thursday, 22 December 2022 : 4th Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the joy that each one of us should have in the Lord, keeping in mind that it is through His work and His coming into our midst that we celebrate at Christmas which brought us all a new hope and assurance of happiness and salvation, grace and all the things that can only come through Him, and we heard of that assurance today in our Scripture passages in which we heard of what the Lord had done to His faithful servants, to Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, as well as to Mary, the Mother of God, of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Our Saviour.

In our first reading today, we heard the story of Hannah, and how she thanked the Lord for all that He had done for her, in answering her prayers and the wishes she had for a son. The Lord granted her the wish she wanted, after she had endured scorn and ridicule from the other wife of her husband, Penninah, who often teased her for not having a son despite being more beloved by her husband. God lifted the veil of shame from Hannah, and gave her a son that would become a great prophet in Israel and also the last of the great Judges before the days of the Kings. Hence, today we heard Hannah in great joy as she went to the House of God bringing the young Samuel to offer him to the service of the Lord just as she has promised.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of Mary and her great song of thanksgiving, thanking God for everything that she has received from God, all the graces and wonders she had been blessed with, to be the one entrusted as the Mother of God and the Mother of the Saviour of the whole world. In that Magnificat, the great song of joy which Mary sang filled with the Holy Spirit, is contained the great joy that she has upon becoming the Mother of the Saviour, as well as the great joy representing mankind having finally seen the salvation of God, long awaited and expected by the people, to whom God had promised His salvation from the very beginning of time, when He promised them that He would deliver them from the dominion and bondage of sin.

Through Mary’s song, we have been reminded what Christmas is all about, that is a most joyful rejoicing and celebration that we carry out because we have seen the love and salvation that the Lord has brought into our midst, in the coming of Christ, His only begotten Son, Our Lord and Saviour. By His coming and entry into the world, Christ has shown us the Love of God manifested and made flesh, tangible and approachable to us. No longer that God is distant and unapproachable by us, as He has become Emmanuel, God is with us, and He has come to dwell amongst us, sharing with us our joy and sorrow, walking amongst us and touching our lives. He has become the Hope for us, lifting us out of the darkness and into His everlasting light and grace.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we approach ever closer to Christmas, all of us should spend some time to reflect on our preparations for Christmas, and whether we have already prepared ourselves well and properly for the celebration of Christmas, or whether we have not gotten ourselves properly ready yet, and have not done our right actions to be truly able to celebrate Christmas worthily and well. We can see all around us just how Christmas is celebrated in a mostly worldly and secular way, without Christ and His Presence, and where people immersed themselves often in excessive merrymaking and festivities while forgetting why we even celebrate Christmas itself in the first place.

Christmas is not about all the festivities and celebrations, all the joyful gift exchanges and the excesses of our feasting and partying. Yes, we can definitely do all of that, and we should indeed rejoice in Christmas. But we must always remember that after all, everything happened because of what the Lord had done in giving us His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to be our Saviour. It is because Christ has been born into this world that we have seen the Light of God’s salvation and the Hope out of the darkness of sin, and that is why we rejoice so greatly, all because of the joy of this new life which God has promised us all who believed in Him, that through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, everyone will receive the sure guarantee of everlasting joy and grace.

That is why as Christians, each one of us have to lead by example and do our best to show others what the true meaning and spirit of Christmas is all about. Christmas is not about partying excessively or rejoicing in ways that we are often accustomed to. It is a time for us to give thanks to God for having shown us such a great love and kindness by giving us His Son, to be our Saviour, and we should be like Hannah and Mary, who gave their heartfelt thanks and glorified God, and thanked Him for all that He had done for them. We must therefore place the Lord at the very centre and as the focus of our existence, our way of life and also our way of celebrating the upcoming Christmas season. We have to make sure that we understand fully what the true joy of Christmas is all about.

May the Lord continue to guide us and strengthen us, empowering us with the love and courage to do our best in our lives, to walk in His path and to follow Him ever more faithfully. Through our faithful and worthy Christmas celebrations, where Christ is at the centre of our joy, let us all inspire more and more people that each one of us may be the shining beacons of God’s hope, light and truth. May all of us draw ever closer to God and be blessed as we approach the glorious and joyful season of Christmas. Amen.

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Thursday, 22 December 2022 : 4th Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 1 : 46-56

And Mary said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit exults in God, my Saviour! He has looked down upon His servant, in her lowliness, and people, forever, will call me blessed.”

“The Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy is His Name! From age to age, His mercy extends to those who live in His presence. He has acted with power and done wonders, and scattered the proud with their plans. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up those who are downtrodden.”

“He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He held out His hand to Israel, His servant, for He remembered His mercy, even as He promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.”

Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months, and then returned home.