Tuesday

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Tuesday, 25 February 2020 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded as we come to approach the beginning of the season of Lent tomorrow on Ash Wednesday, of the need for all of us as Christians to have a change of heart and mind, as the time of Lent is meant for us to reflect on our lives and our actions thus far, whether we have been faithful to God or whether we have been negligent in our faith.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. James, we heard the Apostle reminding the faithful of the need for them to purify themselves, their hearts and minds from earthly desires and greed, as he mentioned how they bickered, argued, fought and ended up in conflict over certain things they wanted and desired, and when they prayed for what they wanted, they did so with those longing and desire, the cravings that are not compatible with our Christian faith.

St. James reminded the faithful not to put their emphasis and focus on worldly matters, as he put it plainly that ‘those who seek to become the world’s friend, is an enemy of the Lord’. What St. James actually meant here in the context of his time and his audience, is that we, as Christians, must resist the temptations present in our world today, especially since we are surrounded by so much materialistic lifestyle and the glorification of power, wealth, fame, and all sorts of things that we mankind often crave for.

For as long as our attention and focus are placed on those things, we will never be able to find true peace and we will not be able to connect meaningfully with God. And the reality is that we mankind can never be satisfied with all these desires and wants. As long as we have what we want, this will lead to us desiring for even more of what we have already had, the craving and temptation that will continue to grow as time passes. That is why we should then heed what the Lord said in our Gospel passage today, that our faith must be like that of the faith of children.

What did the Lord mean by that? It is the fact that a child is still innocent and pure, and the faith that a child is the purest that there can be among us mankind. For their faith and love for God has not been affected by all sorts of worldly concerns and desires that slowly crept into our minds and hearts as we grow up and become older. The Lord wants all of us to be true in our faith, and to purify ourselves from all the unhealthy attachments and obsessions we have, for all sorts of worldly temptations.

We are called to have once again, pure, unbridled faith in God, and to love Him with all of our hearts and with all of our might. And this is what we all need to take heed of, even as we proceed through towards the season of Lent. This holy and blessed time of Lent that begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday, is the perfect opportunity for us to reorientate our lives and to rediscover the true faith and love deep within our hearts towards God. For all these while, they have been buried under layers of our worldliness, our desire, our pride and ego.

How do we then proceed, knowing that we need to get rid from ourselves all these obstacles and hindrances? During this upcoming season of Lent, let us all open ourselves to God more, allowing Him to enter into our hearts and trust in His guidance and providence for us. Let us make good use of the opportunity to be reconciled with God, by going for the Sacrament of Reconciliation to confess our sins and faults, that we may be forgiven and find peace with God.

And let us all also live up to the spirit of the Lenten season, by meaningfully practicing all the practices such as fasting and abstinence as according to the Church laws, and make good use of them to restrain our desires and wants, and deepen our relationship with God in the meanwhile by having a good and meaningful prayer life, that is opening ourselves to God and allowing Him to speak with us in the depth and silence of our hearts and minds. Let us also be more charitable towards our less fortunate brothers and sisters, that we may learn to be more selfless and to love more, rather than loving only ourselves and being selfish.

May the Lord continue to guide us throughout this upcoming season of Lent, that we may grow ever stronger in faith and that we may deepen our love for Him, and be ever more worthy of God with each and every passing moments in our lives. I would like to wish everyone, a good and most blessed and fruitful season of Lent ahead! Amen.

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Tuesday, 25 February 2020 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 9 : 30-37

At that time, after leaving the place where He cast out evil spirit from a deaf and dumb boy, Jesus and His disciples made their way through Galilee, but He did not want people to know where He was because He was teaching His disciples. And He told them, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, but three days after He has been killed, He will rise.”

The disciples, however, did not understand these words and they were afraid to ask Him what He meant. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, Jesus asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they did not answer, because they had been arguing about who was the greatest.

Then He sat down, called the Twelve and said to them, “If someone wants to be first, let him be last of all and servant of all.” Then He took a little child, placed him in their midst, and putting His arms around him, He said to them, “Whoever welcomes a child such as this in My Name, welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me, welcomes not Me but the One Who sent Me.”

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Tuesday, 25 February 2020 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 54 : 7-8, 9-10a, 10b-11a, 23

I said, “If I had wings, like a dove, I would fly away and be at rest; I would seek a home in the desert.”

“I would hurry to find a cave, for shelter from the tempest.” O YHVH, shatter their plans.

In the city, I see strife and violence; day and night, they prowl about its walls.

Place your burden on YHVH, and He will sustain you; for He never allows the upright to fall.

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Tuesday, 25 February 2020 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

James 4 : 1-10

What causes these fights and quarrels among you? Is it not your cravings, that make war within your own selves? When you long for something you cannot have, you kill for it, and when you do not get what you desire, you squabble and fight. The fact is, you do not have what you want, because you do not pray for it.

You pray for something, and you do not get it, because you pray with the wrong motive, of indulging your pleasures. You adulterers! Do you not know, that making friends with the world makes you enemies of God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.

Can you not see the point of the saying in the Scripture : “The longing of the Spirit, He sent to dwell in us, is a jealous longing?” But God has something better to give, and Scripture also says, “God opposes the proud but He gives His favour to the humble.” Give in, then, to God; resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw close to God and He will come close to you. Clean your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubters. Recognise your distress, be miserable and weep. Turn your laughter into tears and your joy into sadness. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will raise you up.

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Tuesday, 18 February 2020 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we have all been reminded of the great love of God for each and every one of us, and yet at the same time we are also warned of the dangers of our human desires and wants, our personal ambitions, ego and pride, which can lead us down the slippery path of sin that will make it difficult for us to resist the temptations to sin against God.

In our first reading today, St. James mentioned in his Epistle to the faithful, how God is ever good and ever loving, and if we put our trust and faith in Him, we will never be disappointed. And we should not say that temptations come from God, as indeed, St. James explained how temptations come from within us, through our desires and pride, ego and ambitions that twisted our thoughts, our minds and our hearts. And all those temptations and desires lead us to sin, and sin eventually lead us to damnation.

And this is what the Lord actually mentioned in our Gospel passage today, as He told the people who heard Him to be careful of the ‘yeast of the Pharisees’ and the ‘yeast of Herod’ and to keep their eyes open and be vigilant, that they themselves would not fall into sin and into damnation. What do these yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? This is where we need to look deeper into the significance of why Christ brought these two up in His teaching.

First of all, the Pharisees were the powerful group of intellectuals and men of high social standing, for their ardent and often zealous and rigid adherence to the laws and customs of the Law according to Moses. The Pharisees were the enforcers and guardians of the tradition and customs of the Law, and they took great pride in having such a position and honour among the people. The Pharisees saw themselves as the guardians of the traditions and the people, and as such they zealously guarded their positions and ways.

And this is what the ‘yeast of the Pharisees’ is all about. It speaks of the pride and ambition, the ego and desire in the hearts and minds of the Pharisees to maintain their position and privileges at all costs, even in opposing the Lord and Saviour Who has come into this world bearing the truth and salvation of God. They would rather resist Him and oppose Him and His works, rather than to lose their authority, power, control and influence among the people.

This is how pride and ego, ambition and desire can be so dangerous, as indeed they can lead us to temptations, and being tempted to maintain our ego and pride, we will end up making actions that are not just contrary to our faith, but are even scandalous and directly opposite of what God has taught us to do. And this is what the Lord meant by the ‘yeast of the Pharisees’ that we, the people of God, must be careful and vigilant against.

How about the ‘yeast of Herod’ then? Herod was the king of Galilee at the time, and he was infamous for his adulterous relationship with Herodias, his own brother’s wife, whom he married when she was still legally married to Herod’s brother, Philip, who was then also still alive. Herod was overcome by his desire and greed, and sinned by his desires, which resulted in his adultery. And not only that, when he was hosting a party, Herod succumbed to this same desire even towards his own stepdaughter.

When the daughter of his brother and Herodias danced in the party before Herod and his guests, Herod was again overcome by desire and made vows and promises that eventually led him to cause the death of St. John the Baptist whom he had arrested earlier on. Herodias wanted him dead, and made use of the opportunity through her daughter to make the request to Herod, a request that he could not reject because of the vows he had just made earlier on.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, here we can clearly see how this ‘yeast of Herod’ and the earlier mentioned ‘yeast of the Pharisees’ are the same ‘yeasts’ that we also have in us, the yeast of sin, of pride, ego, ambition, greed and desire. We are always struggling with them and unless we make the effort to resist the temptations they caused us, we will likely fall into the slippery trap of sin, and become trapped further and deeper into the darkness, finally into damnation.

Therefore, all of us are reminded today to keep ourselves pure and worthy of God, resisting the temptations to sin and distancing ourselves from things that can lead us to immorality and actions that are against God’s will and ways. Let us all have the resolve to live our lives from now on with ever greater zeal and faith, focusing ourselves on living our lives with greater commitment to God in all the things we say and do, in our every actions and deeds.

May the Lord continue to guide us and bless us in everything we do, and may He strengthen all of us that we may be ever stronger in faith and be more capable of resisting the temptations in life, the ‘yeasts of Herod and the Pharisees’ as we have talked about earlier. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 18 February 2020 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 8 : 14-21

At that time, the disciples had forgotten to bring more bread, and had only one loaf with the in the boat. Then Jesus warned them, “Keep your eyes open, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.” And they said of one another, “He saw that we have no bread.”

Aware of this, Jesus asked them, “Why are you talking about the loaves you are short of? Do you not see or understand? Are your minds closed? Have your eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves among five thousand? How many baskets full of letfovers did you collect?”

They answered, “Twelve.” “And having distributed seven loaves to the four thousand, how many wicker baskets of leftovers did you collect?” They answered, “Seven.” Then Jesus said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

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Tuesday, 18 February 2020 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 93 : 12-13a, 14-15, 18-19

Fortunate the one You correct, o YHVH, the one You teach Your Law; You give them relief from distress.

YHVH will not reject His people, nor will He forsake His heritage. Justice will return to the just; and the upright will follow, in its wake.

No sooner did I say, “My foot is slipping,” Your kindness, o YHVH, held me up. The more worries and trouble assailed me, the more You consoled me.

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Tuesday, 18 February 2020 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

James 1 : 12-18

Happy are those who patiently endure trials, because, afterward, they will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him. No one, when tempted, should say, “This temptation comes from God.” God is never tempted, and He can never tempt anyone. Instead, each of us is lured, and enticed, by our own evil desire. Once this desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when fully grown, gives birth to death.

Do not be deceived, my beloved. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of Light, in Whom there is no change, or a shadow of a change. By His own will, He gave us life, through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of offering to Him, among His creatures.

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Tuesday, 11 February 2020 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, celebrating one of the most famous apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes in southern part of France. At that time, Mary appeared to a young girl named Bernadette Soubirous in a grotto within the forest nearby the small village town of Lourdes. The Blessed Virgin revealed herself to be the Lady of the Immaculate Conception. But before that revelation, she appeared as a figure of a woman dressed in white and bedazzled with light.

Bernadette Soubirous, later on to be known as St. Bernadette Soubirous was an uneducated peasant young girl, whose words no one initially took seriously, including the local parish priest to whom St. Bernadette had reported her vision of the apparition. Initially the priest was skeptical as was others, who thought that the young St. Bernadette must have been hallucinating. Yet, more and more apparition came through and the Blessed Virgin continued to make herself visible to St. Bernadette and some others who came to visit the grotto with her.

In one occasion, St. Bernadette was asked to show a sign by the people, and the Blessed Virgin guided her by asking her to dig the ground at a spot that she showed her. As St. Bernadette dug the ground, the ground felt damp and wet, and immediately a gush of spring water came out of the ground. This would eventually become the origin of the now famous Lourdes holy springs of water that had healed many people who came to Lourdes seeking to be healed by the grace of God through His mother Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes.

When the local priest and others still doubted the authenticity of the apparition, St. Bernadette asked the apparition of her name, and the Lady responded with ‘I am the Immaculate Conception’ as I mentioned earlier. St. Bernadette brought this response to the priest who was completely taken by surprise at what he had heard. For at that time, in the year 1858, the year of the apparition, it was just four years after the declaration of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Blessed Pope Pius IX.

As such, due to the constraints of technology and communication at that time, as well as the obvious fact that St. Bernadette was just an illiterate, poor, uneducated young peasant girl, there could have been no way that St. Bernadette could have known of that fact beforehand if not for the fact that the apparition was indeed of the Blessed Virgin Mary herself. And since then, the priest would become a great champion for the cause of the apparition to be made officially approved and recognised by the Church, with the cooperation with the local bishop.

In the meanwhile, the crowds of people coming to the site continued to grow especially as several miracles were attributed to the spring water of Lourdes. Several people were healed of their illnesses and became perfectly well again. And eventually when doctors and psychologists came to investigate the miraculous occasion, the apparition and St. Bernadette herself, they could not explain all that happened there except with the eyes of the faith.

It would be several more years before the Church officially recognised the apparitions at Lourdes by the Blessed Virgin Mary, but ever since then, Lourdes have always been popular with numerous pilgrims from all over the world, especially the sick and the dying who were seeking God’s help through the intercession of His blessed Mother, Mary, who had made this recourse available for us mankind. And all of these indeed have its roots in what we have heard in our Scripture readings today.

In today’s Gospel text, we heard the famous account of the Wedding at Cana, the moment when Our Lord performed His very first miracle, turning water into wine for the sake of the couple who were married that day. As mentioned, the couple ran out of wine, and we have to understand that in the Jewish tradition, for a wedding to run out of wine while the celebration was still ongoing, it would be a terrible shame and embarrassment for the couple.

That was why the couple was having such a predicament, and Mary noticed their trouble, and she went to her Son Jesus, asking if He could do something to help the couple out of their trouble. The Lord responded that it was not yet His time, but nonetheless, Mary still went out of her way and told the servants to listen to whatever Jesus would be saying to them. Most likely moved by His mother’s compassion and concern for the couple, her plea for Him to help, Jesus moved and told the servants to follow His instructions, and as we all know, the water in the jars turned miraculously into the finest wines.

From what we have heard in this account from the Wedding at Cana and also what we have just talked about, the story of the apparition of Mary at Lourdes, we can clearly see how Mary, God’s own Mother, has always been concerned for us, and she has always tried to show us compassion and getting her Son, Our Lord, to help us from our troubles and predicaments. Just as the wedding couple faced potential shame and embarrassment from having not enough wine in their wedding, we too are beset by many troubles, including sickness and sufferings from many diseases.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all remember that at the moment of His crucifixion and as He was about to die, the Lord Jesus entrusted His own mother Mary to St. John, His Apostle, and in doing so, He symbolically entrusted her to all of us His disciples and His Church. And at the same time, we have all also been entrusted to her as her own adopted children as well. That is why our Blessed Mother always looks upon us with loving and tender care, seeking our happiness and true joy in God, her Son.

And because Mary is the mother of God, by our faith we believe that she sits even now by the side of her Son’s throne in heaven. Historically, the mother of the king has always held great influence in the court and the king has also often listened to his mother’s counsel and words. In the same way therefore, Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, is always interceding and praying for us, and her Son, Our Lord and King, will listen to His own mother’s words and prayers.

That was how so many people who had faith in God and in the intercession of His mother, Our Lady of Lourdes, were healed from their many afflictions and sicknesses. Let us therefore today, which is also designed as the World Day of the Sick, focus our prayer and intentions on all our sick ones, for all those who are suffering from all sorts of physical, mental and spiritual sicknesses of all kinds. Let us also pray especially for this moment, those who are currently suffering from the terrible effects of the current novel Coronavirus, 2019-nCov, that all those who suffer may, by the grace of God and through the intercession of Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, be healed from all of their sufferings, pains and troubles.

May the Lord continue to watch over us, and may His blessed mother, Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes continue to look after us, that each and every one of us who are suffering from sickness one way or another, may be healed and made whole, and having been made good and whole again, may we all be brought together in God’s love and embrace, forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 11 February 2020 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes)

Mark 7 : 1-13

At that time, one day, the Pharisees gathered around Jesus, and with them were some teachers of the Law who had just come from Jerusalem. They noticed that some of His disciples were eating their meal with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.

Now the Pharisees, and in fact all the Jews, never eat without washing their hands, for they follow the tradition received from their ancestors. Nor do they eat anything, when they come from the market, without first washing themselves. And there are many other traditions they observe; for example, the ritual washing of cups, pots and plates.

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean hands?” Jesus answered, “You shallow people! How well Isaiah prophesied of you when he wrote : ‘This people honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. The worship they offer Me is worthless, for what they teach are only human rules.’ You even put aside the commandment of God to hold fast to human tradition.”

And Jesus commented, “You have a fine way of disregarding the commandments of God in order to enforce your own traditions! For example, Moses said : Do your duty to your father and your mother, and : Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death. But according to you, someone could say to his father or mother, ‘I already declared Corban (which means “offered to God”) what you could have expected from me.’”

“In this case, you no longer require him to do anything for his father or mother; and so you nullify the word of God through the tradition you have handed on. And you do many other things like that.”

Alternative reading (Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes)

John 2 : 1-11

At that time, three days after Jesus called Nathanael, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus was also invited to the wedding with His disciples. When all the wine provided for the celebration had been served, and they had run out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

Jesus replied, “Woman, what concern is that to you and Me? My hour has not yet come.” However His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” Nearby were six stone water jars, set there for ritual washing as practiced by the Jews; each jar could hold twenty or thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them to the brim. Then Jesus said, “Now draw some out and take it to the steward.” So they did. The steward tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing from where it had come; for only the servants who had drawn the water knew. So, he called the bridegroom to tell him, “Everyone serves the best wine first, and when people have drunk enough, he serves that which is ordinary. Instead you have kept the best wine until the end.”

This miraculous sign was the first, and Jesus performed it at Cana in Galilee. In this way He let His glory appear, and His disciples believed in Him.