Tuesday

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Tuesday, 19 January 2021 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 2 : 23-28

At that time, one Sabbath Jesus was walking through grainfields. As His disciples walked along with Him, they began to pick the heads of grain and crush them in their hands. Then the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look! They are doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath!”

And He said to them, “Have you never read what David did in his time of need, when he and his men were very hungry? He went into the house of God, when Abiathar was High Priest, and ate the bread of offering, which only the priests are allowed to eat, and he also gave some to the men who were with him.”

Then Jesus said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Master even of the Sabbath.”

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Tuesday, 19 January 2021 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 110 : 1-2, 4-5, 9 and 10c

Alleluia! I thank the Lord with all my heart in the council of the just, in the assembly. The works of the Lord are great and pondered by all who delight in them.

He lets us remember His wondrous deeds; the Lord is merciful and kind. Always mindful of His covenant, He provides food for those who fear Him.

He has sent His people deliverances and made with them a covenant forever. His holy Name is to be revered! To Him belongs everlasting praise.

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Tuesday, 19 January 2021 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Hebrews 6 : 10-20

God is not unjust and will not forget everything you have done for love of His Name; you have helped and still help the believers. We desire each of you to have, until the end, the same zeal for reaching what you have hoped for. Do not grow careless but imitate those who, by their faith and determination, inherit the promise.

Remember God’s promise to Abraham, God wanted to confirm it with an oath and, as no one is higher than God, He swore by Himself : I shall bless you and give you many descendants. By just patiently waiting, Abraham obtained the promise.

People are used to swearing by someone higher than themselves and their oath affirms everything that could be denied. So God committed Himself with an oath in order to convince those who were to wait for His promise that He would never change His mind.

Thus we have two certainties in which it is impossible that God be proved false : promise and oath. That is enough to encourage us strongly when we leave everything to hold to the hope set before us. This hope is like a steadfast anchor of the soul, secure and firm, thrust beyond the curtain of the Temple into the sanctuary itself, where Jesus has entered ahead of us – Jesus, High Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

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Tuesday, 12 January 2021 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we are reminded through the readings of the Scripture of just how fortunate we are to have been beloved and chosen by God to be His people. The Lord has made His Son to be one of us, to be like the most beloved of His creation, to share with us our humanity and therefore, save us from our fated destruction and lead us back into reconciliation with Him.

In our first reading today from the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle mentioned how the Lord has given dominion over all things to man, and not to any of the Angels. As recorded in the Book of Genesis, all of these have been affirmed from the beginning as the Lord created man and woman, that mankind was to hold dominion over all of creation, and to rule over them. And the Son of Man, God Incarnate, Jesus Christ, was thus the Ruler over all things, over all beings physical and spiritual, over all the Angels and spirits.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard how the Lord Jesus as He was teaching in the synagogue was confronted by a man possessed by evil spirits, who spoke before the Lord saying that they knew Who He truly was, the Holy One of God, Son of God sent into this world. They were trying to disturb His works, as were everyone to hear that Jesus was acclaimed as the Son of God and Messiah, that would create chaos and conflict. But the Lord would have none of that, and sternly ordered the evil spirits to get out of the man.

Those evil spirits were malicious beings of the spiritual realm, that might be demons or fallen angels, all those who have followed Satan into his rebellion against God. The evil spirits might be mighty and powerful, as Satan was powerful and mighty, but in the end, none of them were able to rise up against God. For God alone is the source of all power and authority, and He is the Lord and Master of all. And by being born as a Man, the Lord wants to show us that He has given us all authority and power even over those spirits, through Him.

Those spirits had to obey the commands from the Lord, and through that, the Lord wanted us all to know that not even those spirits, and neither sin, can overcome the power of God and the love which He has for each and every one of us. It was this love that made Him to willingly take on the mission to save us, by descending into this world and assuming our human nature, and by His sacrifice on the Cross, His suffering and death, He brought us into freedom and the promise of eternal life and glory.

What is the significance of all these, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is a constant reminder for us that no matter what happens, God will triumph and we shall be victorious through Him and with Him. We should not be afraid of all those who are up against us, Satan and all of his forces of wicked and evil spirits, or any of the obstacles that they may put in our path going forward.

We should not be afraid of these, or be fearful at all. Instead, we need to be vigilant and watchful, and to be very careful not to be easily tempted and persuaded by the lies and the falsehoods that the devil and all of his allies may try to use against us. In the end, as long as we remain strong and steadfast in our faith in God, we will always persevere against all of them.

Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we have been created as good and wonderful by God, most beloved of all of His creation. There is no other created beings whom God calls His own sons and daughters, which He had made concrete by sending His own Son to be dwelling among us and to be born into this world to be One like us, as the Son of Man. Through Him, all of us are united once again to God, reconciled to our most loving Father.

Let us all therefore turn towards the Lord with a heart filled with love and devotion for Him, and let us all reject all the temptations and pressures to sin and disobey against Him. Let us always trust in God, and put our faith in Him, entrusting that He will always lead us down the right path, no matter how challenging or difficult the path may seem to us. We must never lose faith, and we should not be afraid!

May God bless each and every one of us, and may He guide us all in our journey towards Him, that all of us may find true glory and happiness in Him, and be blessed forever as God’s beloved ones, now and always, forevermore, through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Tuesday, 12 January 2021 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 1 : 21b-28

At that time, Jesus taught in the synagogue on the sabbath day. The people were astonished at the way He taught, for He spoke as One having authority and not like the teachers of the Law.

It happened that a man with an evil spirit was in their synagogue, and he shouted, “What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know Who You are : You are the Holy One of God.”

Then Jesus faced him and said with authority, “Be silent, and come out of this man!” The evil spirit shook the man violently and, with a loud shriek, came out of him. All the people were astonished, and they wondered, “What is this? With what authority He preaches! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey Him!” And Jesus’ fame spread throughout all the country of Galilee.

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Tuesday, 12 January 2021 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 8 : 2a and 5, 6-7, 8-9

O Lord, our Lord, how great is Your Name throughout the earth! What is man that You be mindful of him, the Son of Man, that You should care for Him?

Yet You made Him a little lower than the Angels; You crowned Him with glory and honour and gave Him the works of Your hands; You have put all things under His feet.

Sheep and oxen without number and even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and all that swim the paths of the ocean.

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Tuesday, 12 January 2021 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Hebrews 2 : 5-12

The Angels were not given dominion over the new world of which we are speaking. Instead someone declared in Scripture : What is man, that You should be mindful of him, what is the Son of Man that You should care for Him? For a while You placed Him a little lower than the Angels, but You crowned Him with glory and honour. You have given Him dominion over all things.

When it is said that God gave Him dominion over all things, nothing is excluded. As it is, we do not yet see His dominion over all things. But Jesus Who suffered death and for a little while was placed lower than the Angels has been crowned with honour and glory. For the merciful plan of God demanded that He experience death on behalf of everyone.

God, from Whom all come and by Whom all things exist, wanted to bring many children to glory, and He thought it fitting to make perfect through suffering the Initiator of their salvation. So He Who gives and those who receive holiness are one. He Himself is not ashamed of calling us brothers and sisters, as we read : Lord, I will proclaim Your Name to My brothers; I will praise You in the congregation.

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Tuesday, 5 January 2021 : Tuesday after Epiphany (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard from the readings of the Scripture of the love that God has shown us and manifested to us in the person of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the whole world. Through Him we have seen God’s love becoming tangible, no longer distant and unapproachable, and in Him, all of us have received the new experience of God’s ever enduring love.

In our first reading today from the Epistle of St. John the Apostle we heard St. John describing plainly and clearly what is God’s love, and how God Himself is love and the personification of true love. And he said that unless we know love and practice love among ourselves, then we cannot say that we have known God or have faith in Him because God Himself is love, and if we know God, we would have known love and how to love.

The Lord manifested His love in sending His Son into the world so that by this act, this singular act of supreme love, He may save all of us His beloved ones, by the act of His most merciful love, in reaching out to us and touching us with His own hands, in caring for us and in providing us all that we needed, just as He has always intended. He has always loved us and been faithful to the Covenant He had made with us, even when we were still rebels and being unfaithful.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord Jesus and His miraculous feeding of the five thousand men, which indicated an even much greater number of people, as the women and children were not counted among the numbers, and it was very likely that those men gathered there would have brought their families together with them, either to listen to Him or to be healed by Him.

And the Lord had pity on them when He saw how they had been following Him for days on end, without food and sustenance, and they were all very hungry. The Lord took the five loaves of bread and the two fishes that were there, offered by a young boy, and after having blessed them, multiplied them miraculously by His power into such a quantity of food that all the people had enough to eat, and twelve baskets of leftover were obtained in the end.

We see in this act, how God truly cared for His people, feeding them and caring for them in their hour of need, while at the same time also caring for them spiritually through His teachings and through His words calling on all of them to turn away from their sins and to find their path towards God and His grace and love, as shown through Christ Himself.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us having known of God’s love and having received His love at all times throughout our lives, let us all first be grateful and appreciative of all these love which we have received from God. Let us all be thankful that the Lord has shown His compassion and kindness to us despite us having been irresponsible, stubborn and hard-hearted all these while.

And then, we are all now having been beloved by God, full of His compassion and love. Can we love the Lord in the same manner as how He has first loved us all so generously, brothers and sisters? Every time we celebrate Christmas, we are being reminded of God’s love incarnate in the Flesh, in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, born into this world. Through Him all of us have received the fullness of God’s promise and love.

Let us all therefore be filled with renewed love of the Lord, with faith and trust in Him and His providence. Just as He has fed His people and guided them to His truth, He shall guide us all and provide us all the path to eternal happiness and true joy, for an eternity of glory with Him in Heaven. Let us all bear witness to this love and commit ourselves to be the witnesses of the light and salvation of God in the midst of all the darkness.

May God be with us always, and may He strengthen us and our resolve that we may ever serve God and dedicate our time, effort and attention to make the Lord known in this world, within our own communities and among all those whom we meet and encounter regularly in life. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 5 January 2021 : Tuesday after Epiphany (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 6 : 34-44

At that time, as Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He had compassion on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things. It was now getting late, so His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a lonely place and it is now late. You should send the people away and let them go to the farms and villages around here, to buy themselves something to eat.”

Jesus replied, “You, yourselves, give them something to eat.” They answered, “If we are to feed them, we need two hundred silver coins to go and buy enough bread.” But Jesus said, “You have some loaves; how many? Go and see.” The disciples found out and said, “There are five loaves and two fish.”

Then He told them to have the people sit down, together in groups, on the green grass. This they did, in groups of hundreds and fifties. And Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish and, raising His eyes to heaven, He pronounced a blessing, broke the loaves, and handed them to His disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them.

They all ate and everyone had enough. The disciples gathered up what was left, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces of bread and fish. Five thousand men had eaten there.

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Tuesday, 5 January 2021 : Tuesday after Epiphany (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 71 : 1-2, 3-4ab, 7-8

O God, endow the King with Your justice, the Royal Son with Your righteousness. May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.

Let the mountains bring peace to the people, and the hills justice. He will defend the cause of the poor, deliver the children of the needy.

Justice will flower in His days, and peace abound till the moon be no more. For He reigns from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.