Tuesday

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Tuesday, 5 October 2021 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Faustina Kowalska, Virgin (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Holy Virgins)

Jonah 3 : 1-10

The word of YHVH came to Jonah a second time : “Go to Nineveh, the great city, and announce to them the message I give you.”

In obedience to the word of YHVH, Jonah went to Nineveh. It was a very large city, and it took three days just to cross it. So Jonah walked a single day’s journey and began proclaiming, “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

The people of the city believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. Upon hearing the news, the king of Nineveh got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. He issued a proclamation throughout Nineveh :

“By the decree of the king and his nobles, no people or beasts, herd or flock, will taste anything; neither will they eat nor drink. But let people and beasts be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call aloud to God, turn from his evil ways and violence. Who knows? God may yet relent, turn from His fierce anger and spare us.”

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not carry out the destruction He had threatened upon them.

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Tuesday, 28 September 2021 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, Martyr, and St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to words of the Scriptures, we are all called to reflect on the revelation that many people from many nations, from various places would come to glorify the Lord and to praise Him. They would come to listen to Him and to welcome Him, follow Him and worship Him. All these were the revelations of what was to come through Christ and His gathering of the people from all the nations to be His disciples and to be saved through Him.

Everything was to come true as the Lord Himself had come and dwelled in our midst, gathering everyone who have faith in Him so that we may come to know of His truth and salvation. Yet, as we heard in our Gospel passage today, there were still those who refused to believe in Him and refused to welcome Him to their place. This happened due to various reasons, and in this particular case, it was because the Samaritans who stayed in that village got to know that the Lord was on His way to Jerusalem, in the land of Judea.

Back then, at the time of the ministry of the Lord, there had been longstanding animosity between the Samaritans and the Jews especially those who were in Judea and Jerusalem. The background of this animosity and conflict was not truly well-understood, but it revolved around the misunderstandings between the two groups of people, as the Jews considered the Samaritans as heathens and pagans who took over the land of the former northern kingdom of Israel in Samaria and its vicinity, in the land between Judea and Galilee. Many of the Samaritans were descendants of the remnants of the Israelites left behind in that land intermingled with others who were brought to that land to settle in.

Then, for the Samaritans, they claimed themselves to be the natives of the land, as they claimed that they had been there earlier than the Jewish people had been, and even claimed Jacob, the father of the Israelites to be their own forefather. They claimed that their worship of God at Mount Gerizim and the mountains of Ephraim was superior than the Jewish claim for worship only at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Their mixed heritage and the long distortions of history eventually led to the strive and conflict between the two peoples. This is the background with which the rejection of the Lord took place.

All these showed us the kind of attitudes that we mankind and people of God can show in the midst of us resorting to our pride and ego, and in indulging our stubborn desire for glory and power, for influence and other things and temptations that often became great stumbling blocks in our path towards God and His salvation. If only that we can trust in Him more and allow Him to lead and guide us down the right path that we may not end up in the wrong direction in life. But the question is, are we willing to listen to Him and humble ourselves before Him and others?

Today, all of us are called to reflect on our attitude in life and in how we have lived our faith thus far. Have we been truly faithful to the Lord in all the things we do and at all times throughout our lives? Or have we allowed ourselves to be lulled and swayed by our desires and greed, by our ego, pride and ambition? Today, let us all look upon the good examples set by our holy predecessors, holy martyrs who devoted themselves to the Lord faithfully and lived virtuous lives and in the end, died as martyrs in defending their faith and the integrity of their beliefs.

St. Wenceslaus of Bohemia was the renowned Duke of Bohemia whose patronage and life is still being remembered to this day, as the patron of the Czechs and many others who looked up to his virtuous examples as a Christian and as a great ruler over his people. St. Wenceslaus took over the reign over Bohemia at a time of great change and at the crossroads of the history of his people, as Christianity had just taken its roots in Bohemia back then, and many of the people including the influential ones and the nobles were still pagans.

St. Wenceslaus ruled wisely and responsibly as a just and caring ruler, managing the many challenges that he had to face, and worked hard to benefit his people and to care for them while also advancing the cause of the Lord and the Church, establishing a firm foundation of the Church and its missions throughout his dominion. However, he had a lot of opposition which festered and sought to reverse all the gains of the Christian faith, and these eventually coalesced around the brother of St. Wenceslaus, namely Boleslaus the Cruel, who orchestrated the murder of the faithful duke and servant of God.

Then, today we also commemorate the memory of the glorious Holy Martyrs of Japan in Nagasaki, St. Lawrence Ruiz and his fellow companions in martyrdom during the great and intense persecution of Christians in Japan in the early years of the Tokugawa Shogunate. St. Lawrence Ruiz, also better known as St. Lorenzo Ruiz is the first saint of the Philippines, having actually been born in the Spanish ruled Philippine islands, and led a pretty ordinary life there until one day he was falsely accused with murder. In order to protect his life and innocence, he boarded a ship bound for Japan, in which he was arrested together with the missionaries that he had taken refuge with.

St. Lorenzo Ruiz and his companions in martyrdom were tortured and made to suffer a lot, persuaded, coerced and forced to abandon their faith in God under grim threat of more sufferings and death. However, this did not dampen his spirit and those others who were with him. Eventually he was martyred in the most painful way, and to the very end, he remained faithful, declaring before all his persecutioners that ‘I am a Catholic and I wholeheartedly accepted death for God. Had I have a thousand lives, all these I shall gladly offer to Him.’

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the great examples showed by these faithful holy predecessors of ours should be inspiration to each and every one of us. Are we willing and able to commit ourselves to the Lord just in the manner that those faithful martyrs had done? Can we be virtuous in life, caring and be responsible for one another just as St. Wenceslaus had done? And can we commit ourselves wholly to the Lord even in the face of great suffering and adversity in the manner of St. Lorenzo Ruiz and his companions in martyrdom?

Let us all therefore turn towards the Lord wholeheartedly, and strive to do our best to serve Him with ever greater vigour and devotion from now on. May the Lord be with us always and may He strengthen each and every one of us, and bless us in our every great works and endeavours. Amen.

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Tuesday, 28 September 2021 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, Martyr, and St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Luke 9 : 51-56

At that time, as the time drew near when Jesus would be taken up to heaven, He made up His mind to go to Jerusalem. He sent ahead of Him some messengers, who entered a Samaritan village to prepare a lodging for Him. But the people would not receive Him, because He was on His way to Jerusalem.

Seeing this, James and John, His disciples, said, “Lord, do You want us to call down fire from heaven to reduce them to ashes?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.

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Tuesday, 28 September 2021 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, Martyr, and St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 86 : 1-3, 4-5, 6-7

He Himself has built in in His holy mountain; YHVH prefers the gates of Zion to all of Jacob’s towns. Great things have been foretold of you, o City of God.

Between friends, we speak of Egypt and Babylon; and also Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia : “Here so-and-so was born.” But of Zion, it shall be said, “More and more are being born in her.” For the Most High Himself has founded her.

And YHVH notes in the people’s register : “All these were also born in Zion.” And all will dance and sing joyfully for You.

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Tuesday, 28 September 2021 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, Martyr, and St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Zechariah 8 : 20-23

YHVH, the God of hosts speaks, “Peoples will come from other nations, people from great cities. The inhabitants of one town will talk with those of another, and, say : ‘Come, let us go and implore the favour of YHVH, and I, too, will seek YHVH.’ Many great peoples and powerful nations will come, seeking YHVH, God of hosts, in Jerusalem and pray to Him.”

YHVH, the God of hosts assures you. “In those days, ten men of different languages spoken in various lands, will take hold of a Jew by the hem of his garment and say : We, too, want to go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”

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Tuesday, 21 September 2021 : Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the Feast of one of great Apostles of Our Lord, one of the Twelve and also one of the four writers of the Holy Gospels, also known as the Evangelists. He was once a tax collector whose task was likely to gather taxes on behalf of the local rulers and the Roman overlords of the then region of Judea, Galilee and the other territories where the Jewish people lived in. He was known as Levi, and heeded the Lord’s call when He came over His place, left everything behind and followed Him, becoming known as Matthew from that moment onwards.

He was one of the several Apostles who have had a change of name upon their calling by the Lord, adopting a new identity upon his conversion, just like St. Peter and St. Paul, who were previously known as Simon and Saul respectively. The Lord called on Levi to follow Him, and he listened, and not only that but he even gathered his fellow tax collectors, who also wanted to know the Lord and speak with Him, and had a dinner in his place, before he was to follow Him fully. While not written or recorded in the Gospel account, it is probable that even there might have been even more among the tax collectors who later on chose to follow the Lord.

Back then, tax collectors were often prejudiced against, hated and reviled by the general society, and especially so by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who saw them in the same light as the prostitutes and those others deemed as great sinners, like those who were possessed by demons and those suffering from debilitating diseases, seen as being cursed and punished by God for their sins. For the tax collectors were often seen as traitors to the country and the people for their collaboration with the Romans who were hated by most of the people.

To that extent, the tax collectors were often ridiculed and dismissed as sinners and unworthy by the Pharisees, who did not even hesitate to mention it bluntly before the Lord’s disciples, when they asked them why their Lord and Master would spend the time in the company and have a meal with sinners. Yet, they all failed to realise one thing, which is that they themselves, were sinners as well. By looking down on the sins of others, they had become blind to their own shortcomings and faults.

And by embracing the Lord and answering His call, Levi who chose the Lord over the glory and wealth, the power and the satisfaction of the world has shown us that, even great sinners can be sanctified and turned into great saints, and that there is no one truly beyond redemption and salvation in God, unless the person himself or herself had rejected the Lord’s most generous offer of mercy and forgiveness. As long as one is willing to listen to the Lord and to repent from their sins, the path to Heaven and everlasting life will be open to them.

St. Matthew for example was credited with his efforts among the Jewish people themselves in Judea and Galilee, and his Gospel in particular was noted for its use of contexts and explanations familiar to the Jews, which served to explain the truth of God to his audience, which were mainly the Jewish people in the region. St. Matthew also went to other places and countries to spread the word of God, before eventually was martyred just like most of the other Apostles in the midst of his missionary works.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what we heard today from the examples shown by St. Matthew, the story of his conversion and later on his contributions and efforts, his works as an Apostle and Evangelist, served as an important reminder to each and every one of us, God’s beloved children and disciples whom He Himself had called and gathered from the world to be His own. We have to ask ourselves this question, whether we have genuinely loved the Lord and had faith in Him, or whether our faith is still being superficial in nature.

We are also called to turn away from the path of sin, and to embrace God’s ever generous offering of mercy and forgiveness. God has always sought sinners and all those who need His help, as He Himself made it clear in our Gospel passage today. Like Levi, who welcomed the Lord and answered His call, we too should follow in his footsteps, and allow the Lord to transform us from the sinners we are, to be great disciples and even perhaps to be future saints, just as Levi the tax collector has been transformed in his life into St. Matthew, a great Apostle and Evangelist.

Let us all therefore discern carefully how we can be ever more dedicated as Christians, in doing the will of God and in committing ourselves to His cause. Let us all seek the Lord and His love, His compassion and kindness, and strive to do our best to glorify Him by our lives and actions. Let us also never be prejudiced anymore against any of our fellow brothers and sisters, and rather than being jealous against the achievements of others or in being proud over own achievements and efforts, while looking down on others, instead let us reflect on how fortunate we have been that God has chosen to forgive us our many sins, and how He has called on us all to be His followers and disciples.

Let us all realise that in each and every one of us there is that potential for greatness and holiness, as we are all called to holiness and to be like the saints. Even great saints were once also great sinners. What matters is that all of them have experienced a change in their hearts and embraced the Lord’s mercy and compassion, turning over a new leaf in their lives, becoming great role models and sources of inspiration themselves for the others who witnessed their works and lives. St. Matthew is one of these great inspiration and role model which we can also aspire to achieve.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore renew our faith in the Lord, and put our trust in Him, devoting our time, effort and attention to Him, and seeking Him with a contrite heart, with a new spirit of faith and obedience, and doing whatever we can to glorify the Lord by our lives. May all of us be true and dedicated disciples of the Lord from now on, doing whatever we can to lead more and more souls towards salvation and eternal life in God. May God bless us all and our efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 21 September 2021 : Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 9 : 9-13

At that time, as Jesus moved on from the place where He cured a paralytic man, He saw a man named Matthew, at his seat in the custom house; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And Matthew got up and followed Him.

Now it happened, while Jesus was at table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is it, that your Master eats with sinners and tax collectors?”

When Jesus heard this, He said, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. Go, and find out what this means : What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

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Tuesday, 21 September 2021 : Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 18 : 2-3, 4-5

The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Day talks it over with day; night hands on the knowledge to night.

No speech, no words, no voice is heard – but the call goes on throughout the universe, the message is felt to the ends of the earth.

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Tuesday, 21 September 2021 : Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

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, just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God. 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.

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Tuesday, 14 September 2021 : Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, remembering the three moments when the Lord’s True Cross was discovered by St. Helena in Jerusalem, and the Dedication of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre at Mount Calvary, which still stands to this very day as one of the holiest sites of Christendom, and finally the triumphant restoration of the True Cross of Christ to the Holy City of Jerusalem after it had been captured and seized the Persians during the reign of the Roman Emperor Heraclius.

It was told that the True Cross of Our Lord was discovered by St. Helena, the Christian mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, who went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and was called to discover the True Cross of Our Lord. Upon her search, three crosses were discovered around the site of Our Lord’s crucifixion in Golgotha or Calvary, two of which belonged to the two thieves who were crucified with Him. St. Helena discovered the True Cross when a sick man was completely and miraculously healed upon touching one of the crosses. Ever since then, the True Cross has been an inspiration of all the faithful.

On this day we therefore rejoice in the great triumph of the Cross of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, Saviour of the whole world, as that Cross became the symbol of hope and salvation for all, the proof of God’s eternal and undying love for each and every one of us, and the reassurance of His providence and guidance before all of us. We rejoice today because the triumph of the Cross has led us into the path towards freedom and liberation from our sins, and it is the hope that we clings onto as we journey through life in this world darkened with sin and evil.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Numbers of the moment when the Israelites rebelled against God and refusing to listen to Him or follow Him, as despite having been well-taken care of by the Lord, they were still not satisfied and often grumbled at what they had received, wanting more and a better life. They grumbled that they had a much better life in Egypt even though they were enslaved, and these things were said despite the fact that the Lord had provided for them and taken care of them, feeding them and giving them ample water to drink daily through the dry and lifeless desert, for years.

And by their sins, caused of their disobedience and rebellion, they were struck by many fiery serpents that came to bite them and many perished from those serpents. This was referenced by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians, that ‘the sting of death is sin’, a reminder that sin is the cause of death and destruction, for sin is disobedience and refusal to believe in the Lord and the stubbornness in following one’s own way rather than walking in the path that God has shown us. As such, just as our forefathers, from the time of Adam and Eve, had tasted death because of their sins, hence the same applied to the Israelites and all of us as well.

We all suffer death because of those sins that we committed, and without God and His love, we should have perished and been condemned to hellfire. Yet, it was God’s enduring love for us from the very beginning that gave us the hope and the opportunity to be forgiven, to be reconciled with Him. Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, God loves each and every one of us, as He has created us all out of love, and to share His love with us, to make us all perfect in love just like Himself. The Cross is the symbol and proof of that love.

Just like the bronze serpent that Moses made upon God’s instruction, when he beseeched Him for the sake of the people, and which he lifted up high to be seen by all, that everyone who had been bitten by the serpents might be saved and not perish, thus, the Cross of Christ is that ultimate symbol of hope and victory, the sign of God’s love and providence for His people, that from the very beginning, He has always been with us, journeyed with us, and never abandoned us, and to the Cross at Calvary, He gave us all, even His own life, for our salvation.

St. Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians, in our alternate first reading today spoke of the obedience that Our Lord Jesus, the Son of God and Saviour of all had in His Father’s will, in fulfilling the planned salvation for all of us, that He humbled Himself, emptied Himself of all glory and power, that He, the Divine Word of God Incarnate, assumed the position of a slave, a criminal and a rejected man, to be the least of all, and as One scourged, beaten and broken so that by His sufferings, He might share our sufferings and took upon Himself our multitudes of sins upon Himself.

He obeyed so perfectly and humbled Himself, as our Eternal and True High Priest, in offering for us the sacrifice for our sins, the worthy sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. And for the eternal atonement and forgiveness of all of our sins, there is only one worthy offering and sacrifice, namely the sacrifice of Christ Himself, the Paschal Lamb, the Lamb of God, Who as the High Priest also is the Sacrificial Lamb slain on the Altar of the Cross at Calvary. That Cross therefore became the source of our salvation, the hope and light amidst the darkened world.

The cross was a symbol of the ultimate humiliation and the most severe and painful punishment that was reserved only for the worst of criminals and the traitors to the state. It was a truly terrible, painful and humiliating way for someone to die, and that was exactly what the Lord had subjected Himself into, as One Who was blameless and sinless, and yet, forced to bear the punishment of the worst sinners. But this was also something that the Lord willingly accepted upon Himself, as He took up the cup of suffering, sharing with us and bearing for us the burdens that should have been ours.

And Christ turned that symbol of utter humiliation and sorrow, of tragedy and pain, into a symbol of hope and victory so great, that no one else ever looked at the cross in any other way from then on. For all Christians, and all those who believed in the Lord and His salvation, while the crucifix remind us of the sacrifice of Christ and His ultimate love for us from the cross, as He hung from it at Calvary before His death, but that same Cross has become the proof of God’s ultimate triumph and victory, the greatest victory that He has won for us, against the tyranny of sin and death.

That is why all of us have to appreciate everything that the Lord had done for our sake. He has showed us all what true love is all about, a love that is truly great and wonderful, and He has led us to triumph against the once unsurmountable forces of evil, sin and death. As we look upon the Cross of Christ, do we see the Lord and His loving face gazing down upon us, and are we reminded at just how fortunate we have been that God is willing to do all of that, just so that we may be freed from the fate of eternal damnation?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today therefore, as we celebrate this Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, let us all keep in mind the love of God that is always ever present in our midst, in Christ our Lord, through His life-giving sacrifice, by which He has shown us the path to eternal life, by His Cross. In the glorious Cross of Christ, we have seen the Lord’s providence and love for us, and we have received the assurance of eternal life. Let us all give Him thanks and strive to love Him more and more, and regain the strength and hope through the Cross of Our Lord and Saviour.

We have once been brought low by the power of sin, but God has broken its hold and dominion over us, giving us the hope to true joy and life eternal in Him. However, we must still ever be vigilant, as temptations are still plentiful in trying to mislead us and bring us back down into the path of sin. Unless we are careful, we may end up falling into sin again, and getting further and further away from the salvation in God. This is where we should entrust ourselves to the Holy Cross of Christ, and commit our lives to Him from now on.

May the Lord, our Triumphant Saviour through His Holy Cross deliver us from the stranglehold of sin and death, and may He continue to show us the path to eternal life and true freedom through His Cross. May all of us look upon Him Who was crucified for us, and remind ourselves always of just how beloved and fortunate each and every one of us have been, to be so loved by God and to be deemed as precious in His eyes. May God bless us all, the people of His Cross, and may He lead us all into eternal joy and glory with Him. Amen.