Tuesday

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Tuesday, 26 February 2019 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Sirach 2 : 1-13 (Greek Septuagint version – Sirach 2 : 1-11)

My son, if you have decided to serve the Lord, prepare yourselves for trials. Keep your heart upright and remain resolute; do not be upset in the time of adversity. Hold fast to the Lord, do not separate yourself from Him so that you may be successful to the end of your days.

Accept all that happens to you, be patient when you are humbled, for as gold is tested in the fire, so those acceptable to God are tested in the crucible of humiliation. Have confidence in Him and He will take care of you; follow the right path and hope in Him.

You who fear the Lord, wait for His mercy and do not turn away lest you fall. You who fear the Lord, trust Him and you will not lose your reward. You who fear the Lord, hope for all good things; hope for eternal joy and mercy. Remember what happened to your ancestors. Who has ever trusted in the Lord and been confounded? Who has persevered in fear of the Lord and been abandoned? Who has called upon Him and not been heard?

For the Lord is compassion and loving kindness; He forgives our sins and saves us in time of distress.

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Tuesday, 19 February 2019 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scriptures speaking to us about the faith which we ought to have in God, for all the wonders that He has done for our sake, from the very beginning of time. God has blessed us all His people since the beginning, even when we have disobeyed Him and sinned against Him, by not following what He has commanded us to do, and His love for us still prevailed against His anger at our sinful actions and deeds.

In today’s first reading, we heard the account of the building of the Ark of Noah, the great Ark that God commanded Noah and his family to build, in order to rescue themselves from the wicked generation of the people of his time. At that time, out of all the descendants of men, Noah and his family alone were still righteous and obedient before God, while all other people followed the path of sin, wicked and deviant before God.

But God, despite of the anger He has towards us mankind because of our sins, ultimately, He still loved us even more than He was angry at our sins. He created us out of His immense and boundless love, and as a result, He wanted to save us all from our predicament. Yet, it was us mankind who have often erred and refused to follow and obey Him, again and again, many times, despite His constant and thorough reminders towards us.

Noah spent over a century building up the Ark upon God’s instructions given to him, but during all those years, none of the people, except those within Noah’s own family, believed in the Lord and the message of His upcoming wrath, the Great Flood which He would send into the world, to wash it all away from the great wickedness and sins that the sons and daughters of men had committed. None of them believed and repented, and as a result, when the Flood began, and the Ark sailed away safely, all the rest of humanity perished.

In the Gospel passage today, the Lord was also doing the same among His people, as He taught the disciples and all those who have seen Him performing many miracles and healing among them. He saw the doubts and the lack of faith which were still in their hearts and minds, that has become a barrier for them from truly being able to understand and appreciate the love and the truth which He was bringing unto them.

They saw His miracles and marvellous deeds, but their hearts and minds were still burdened by doubt, and by the sins in their flesh. They were after all, mortal beings, corrupted and dirtied by sin, much as their ancestors had been, like all those who at the days of Noah, refused to believe in God and continued to live in the state of ignorance, both of their wickedness and sin, as well as their impending doom.

That is why God rebuked His disciples and chastised them for their lack of faith in Him, as they still put their trust in worldly matters such as food and provisions, rather than to put their complete trust in God. They are still creatures of the flesh, easily swayed by the demands and the desires of their bodies. God’s words and truth have not yet been planted and taken root deep within them yet. But God did not give up on them, and continued to teach them and guide them to the right path.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today many of us have not obeyed the Lord in the way that we should have done it. And many of us are still easily swayed by worldly desires and thoughts, and thus were distracted in our journey of faith towards God. But God has always been kind and loving towards us, and He is always ready to extend His merciful love towards us. Now, what matters is for us to accept His generous offer of mercy and love.

Are we willing to be forgiven by God? Are we willing to attune ourselves once again to His will and to His ways? Then we need to have a profound change of heart and attitude in life, that we should no longer be self-centred or be egoistic in life, but instead, learning to put our trust in God, in He Who alone is able to give us true joy and happiness in Him. Let us all grow ever more in our faith in God, and take up the chances that God has given us, to be forgiven from our sins, and to receive from Him the promise of eternal glory and life. Amen.

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Tuesday, 19 February 2019 : 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, 19 February 2019 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 28 : 1a and 2, 3ac-4, 3b and 9b-10

Give the Lord, o sons of God, give the Lord the glory due His Name; worship the Lord in great liturgy.

The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the Lord thunders over vast waters. How powerful is the voice of the Lord, how splendorous is the voice of the Lord.

The God of glory thunders, the Lord strips the forests bare, and in His Temple all cry, “Glory!” Over the flood the Lord was sitting; the Lord is King and He reigns forever.

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Tuesday, 19 February 2019 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Genesis 6 : 5-8 and Genesis 7 : 1-5, 10

YHVH saw how great was the wickedness of man on the earth and that evil was always the only thought of his heart. YHVH regretted having created man on the earth and His heart grieved. He said, “I will destroy man whom I created and blot him out from the face of the earth, as well as the beasts, creeping creatures and birds, for I am sorry I made them.” But Noah was pleasing to God.

YHVH said to Noah, “Go into the Ark, you and all your household, for I see that you are just in this generation. Of all the clean animals, you are to take with you seven of each kind, male and female, and a pair of unclean animals, a male and a female. In the same way for the birds of the air, take seven and seven, male and female, to keep their kind alive over all the earth, for in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will blot out from the face of the earth all the living creatures I have created.”

Noah did all as YHVH had commanded. And after seven days the waters of the flood were over the earth.

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Tuesday, 12 February 2019 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture reminding us all about the obligations that each and every one of us ought to have for the Lord, our loving Father and Creator, the One Who has created everything that are within this existence and universe. In the first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis, the continuation of yesterday’s account on the creation of the world by the Lord, culminating with the creation of all those whom God has created in His own image, that is all of us mankind.

He created each and every one of us out of love, because He wants to share the perfect and boundless love present within Himself, for He is love Himself. He did not create us to cause us to be troubled and enslaved unnecessarily to man-made laws and regulations that did not have their roots in God’s divine Law. The Law of God is perfect and filled with love, and it is a delight for us all to follow His Law.

Unfortunately, as what the society of the Israelites had experienced during the time of the Lord, there was the societal elite in the form of the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law, all those who held the knowledge of the Torah, that is the Scriptures and the Law, those who held the influence and power within the community, all of those who guided and led the people of God with their laws and rules, regulations and enforcements. And they enforced laws and rules that were unfortunately against the true meaning and intention of the Law of God.

The Lord criticised the way that those leaders had followed and enforced the rules and demanded the people to obey what they have imposed to the people. They imposed a very strict and rigid interpretation of the Law, and instead of truly understanding the significance and importance of the Law that God has given us, they took to nitpick the details of the Law and enforced them as external profession of faith.

That was why many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were not internally oriented correctly towards the Lord in their way of life and in their actions. Outwardly they might appear to be faithful and committed, exemplary in their prayerful life and deeds, but as the Lord Jesus Himself rebukingly pointed out to the people, that those people did so because of the desire to glorify themselves and to gain influence and worldly approval.

And they allowed, as mentioned in the Gospel passage today, the people to overrule the precepts of the commandments and the Law, with regards to care for the family and parents, as well as in matters of marriage and in offering sacrificial offerings, to the point that it invalidated the whole meaning and intention of the Law. They did this with certain arrangements that brought about profit and advantage to the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the priests involved.

That was why the Lord was often critical at those people, who have not only misunderstood the Law of God and its application, but even worse still, manipulated the Law for their own advantage and personal ambitions and desires, and misguided the people into the wrong path. They showed each and every one of us, the path that we must not take, in our journey towards becoming a better and more faithful servant of God.

Instead, brothers and sisters in Christ, we should grow stronger in our love for God, and place Him at the centre and as the main and sole focus of our life’s attention. Everything that we say, we act and we do in this world should be aimed for the greater glory of God, and in everything we do, we should show our love for God, by truly spending quality time with Him, and more importantly, by listening to Him and knowing what it is that He has called each and every one of us to do in our respective lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all renew our commitment and our desire to love God through our actions, words and deeds. He Who loved each and every one of us created us with love, so that we may share in His love. Let us therefore share that love which God has given us, with one another, so that all of us will grow stronger in love, be more gentle towards our fellow brethren, and grow more caring and compassionate, especially when we see our brethren who are in need of help.

May the Lord continue to sow in us, the seeds of His love, that He may continue to help us to grow better in faith, in our love for Him and in our fellow men, so that day after day, each one of us may grow ever closer to Him, and in time to come, we will be worthy to receive the eternal and true glory that He has promised us all who have been faithful to Him. May God bless us all, in all of our works and endeavours. Amen.

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Tuesday, 12 February 2019 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 7 : 1-13

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.”

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Tuesday, 12 February 2019 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 8 : 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

When I observe the heavens, the work of Your hands, the moon and the stars You set in their place – 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 February 2019 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Genesis 1 : 20 – Genesis 2 : 4a

God said, “Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth under the ceiling of the sky.” God created the great monsters of the sea and all living animals, those that teem in the waters, according to their kind, and every winged bird, according to its kind. God saw that it was good. God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the waters of the sea, and let the birds increase on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning : the fifth day.

God said, “Let the earth produce living animals according to their kind : cattle, creatures that move along the ground, wild animals according to their kind. So it was. God created the wild animals according to their kind, and everything that creeps along the ground according to its kind. God saw that it was good.

God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, to Our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the wild animals, and over all creeping things that crawl along the ground.” So God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over every living creature that moves on the ground.” God said, “I have given you every seed bearing plants which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that bears fruit with seed. It will be for your food. To every wild animal, to every bird of the sky, to everything that creeps along the ground, to everything that has the breath of life, I give every green plant for food.” So it was.

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning : the sixth day. That was the way the sky and earth were created and all their vast array. By the seventh day the work God had done was completed, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work He had done.

And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day He rested from all the work He had done in His creation. These are the successive steps in the creation of the heavens and the earth.

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Tuesday, 5 February 2019 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the word of God speaking to us about the wonderful deeds of the Lord, which He performed before all the people and witnesses to show the great wonders of God’s glory and His loving attention to His people, to whom He has sent the Saviour and Deliverer. It was through Christ that God wants to save all of us mankind, and He fulfilled all of His long promised salvation through Him.

That is why we heard all of the wonderful things He performed during His ministry, including the healing of the sick woman with haemorrhage and the rising of the dead daughter of Jairus, the synagogue official. He healed all of them from their problems and sicknesses, because He loved each and every one of them, and had pity on them when they suffered and were asking Him for help and mercy. And He also saw the great faith in each one of them.

All of these things the Lord will do for all those who have faith in Him. He will not abandon all those who have put their trust in Him, and will provide for the needs of those who have strong love for Him in their hearts and minds. God knows the depth of our thoughts and hearts, just as He knew the faith of the woman who was suffering from the haemorrhage. God knew her faith and healed her because of the faith she had in Him.

Today, all of us are called to look deep into our own lives, into our hearts and minds, to see more carefully into our own actions and deeds, our direction in life, our attitudes and behaviours, on whether by these, we have been exemplary in living our lives with faith, or whether we have not had faith in our minds and hearts. Too many of us put our trust first in our worldly provisions and abilities, and God took a secondary and less important role among us.

And yet, for all the lack of faith, disobedience and wickedness that we have committed thus far in our respective lives, we are called to remember just how the Lord continued to love us, despite our stubborn attitude and refusal to walk in His ways. He willingly endured all the suffering and pain, which were supposed to be our burden, just so that we may be saved through our faith in Him.

Many of us think that we have faith in God, but in reality few of us only have that true commitment and devotion to God, that comes from within our hearts. Having faith in God often does not just mean to come and attend Mass regularly as stipulated by the Church teachings and regulations. In reality, for us to have faith in God often means that we must suffer and face rejection, just as the Lord Himself has suffered all the humiliation and rejection before.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, many of those who have gone before us showed us that the reality of this world is such that many of us have not had that deep devotion to God, in times of good and bad, in times of prosperity and in times of hardship and suffering. Many of us remember God only when things turn downhill and we expect Him to come and help us with a quick fix so that we do not need to suffer. And when we continue to suffer, we often become angry at God, thinking that He was not there with us.

That is why today, brothers and sisters in Christ, we should be inspired by the good examples shown to us by our holy predecessors, those holy and devoted men and women who had stood by the Lord in good times and in bad times, suffering persecution and troubles, challenges and pain, all sorts of difficulties just because of their commitment and belief in God. And today, we commemorate the feast of one of those saints, namely St. Agatha, holy woman and good martyr of the faith.

St. Agatha was born in what is now Sicily in southern Italy, and lived during the years of the tumultuous second century Roman Empire, when many Christians suffered various persecutions by the Roman authorities. But St. Agatha together with the many other holy men and women of God did not easily give up their faith, even under the pain of suffering and oppression. St. Agatha made a holy vow of virginity, committing herself to a life of perpetual virginity dedicated to the Lord.

In doing that, she went up against the advances and efforts of some pagan Roman nobles who were enamoured by her beauty and tried to get her to marry them. Despite all of their advances and efforts to get her to change her mind, St. Agatha remained true to her faith and did not give in to their demands. For her dedication, she was arrested and put to suffer for her Christian faith, as her persecutors hoped that by the sufferings she endured, she would give in to their demands and give up her faith in God.

Nonetheless, St. Agatha remained firm in her commitment, and none that her persecutors did could dissuade or force her to abandon her dedication. She was tortured and suffered grievously, and was forced to endure the tremendous pain of having her breasts cut. But to the very end, St. Agatha did not give up her faith and remained true in her commitment. She was in fact showing the same faith, effort and attitude as the woman who was suffering from the haemorrhage and the synagogue official, who went out all of their way to seek healing and to love the Lord, their God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how about us then? Are we able and are we willing to commit ourselves and to be truly faithful as all those people which we have mentioned and discussed earlier had done? Are we able to spend our time, and give our effort and attention to the Lord? For after all, He has loved us so much, that He was in fact willing to endure such unimaginable pain and suffering for our sake, that by bearing our sins on the cross He bore, He brought us our salvation.

Let us all spend some time to reflect on all these, and think of ways how we can be better Christians, through all our everyday actions and deeds, by our every living moments. May the Lord be our guide, and may through the intercession of St. Agatha, holy virgin and martyr, we will draw ever closer to the Lord, our loving God. Amen.