Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for us all as Christians to be truly filled with genuine and compassionate love for one another just as we should also have it first for the Lord, our God and Father Who have loved us all so generously all these while. And it is this great love which He has shown us all most perfectly in giving to us all His own Begotten Son that He sent to us to be the One to bear the burdens of our sins and wickedness, delivering us all away from them and showing us all the certain path towards eternal life and true happiness with Him.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in Corinth in which he highlighted to the people there about the challenges and difficulties that those in the church communities in Macedonia in northern Greece had been facing. And at the same time, St. Paul shared his experiences ministering to the faithful there, showing how despite the challenges and trials that they were facing, the Church community in Macedonia remained strong in their faith and commitment to God. They did not allow the difficulties and trials to discourage and dissuade them from following the Lord wholeheartedly and courageously. Instead, their great faith and perseverance in loving one another and standing up for their faith brought inspiration to many others.

They continued to care for one another even when facing difficulties and challenges, trials and hardships, not allowing their conditions to be an excuse to become less generous, loving and compassionate. The Lord Himself has strengthened them all by His Holy Spirit and through the examples of the Apostles, and they therefore became good examples and inspirations themselves for others. Through them, their constant generosity and love for each other despite their hardships, they have become the epitome of what Christian discipleship and faith are all about. And that was exactly what St. Paul was sharing to the Corinthians all about as he wanted to encourage and help them all to be faithful as well in all things.

Then, from our Gospel reading today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the Lord telling all of His disciples and followers that all of them must love one another and everyone in an even more radical way than what is usually known and done in the world. He said that all of them as those who believe in Him and follow His path should always love everyone, even those who have not loved them back and persecuted them. And this is contrary to what is common in this world, as we are commonly taught and shown to love only those who can love us all back, and to only care for those who show us care and for whom our ‘investment’ of love and care can be reciprocated and returned.

But the Lord told us all through His disciples that Christian love, the kind of love which the Lord wants us all to know and have, is beyond this love that is common in this world. The love of God is truly pure, selfless and genuine, love that is ever always patient and enduring even when we have not loved Him back, and even when we have hurt and abandoned Him, disobeyed and betrayed Him, again and again. God never gave up on us, His beloved ones, and He kept on loving and caring for us all despite our unworthiness and our stubbornness in refusing to embrace His love and kindness, His compassion and mercy, His care and concern for each and every single one of us, even to the greatest of sinners.

It is indeed much harder and more challenging for us to love those who have not loved us back, and even worse still to love those who have hated, rejected and persecuted us. But we must gain the inspiration from the Lord Himself, Who has shown us all how He loved us all so perfectly, as revealed to us through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. When the Lord was oppressed, persecuted and rejected by the world, accused falsely of crimes that He did not commit, betrayed by His own people and their leaders, and also even by His own disciple, abandoned by many of those who have followed Him, yet the Lord still kept on loving them, praying for them and forgiving them. From His Cross, He continued to show this love even in great suffering, praying to His heavenly Father to forgive all those who have made Him to suffer in that manner, those who have persecuted Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is all the love that the Lord Himself has shown us, and which the early Christians like those in the community in Macedonia had also done in their own lives which proved to us all that such a selfless, genuine and hence truly Christian love is possible. The love of God had been manifested to us all through Christ, and we are indeed called and challenged to show the same love to our fellow brothers and sisters as well. The question that is present before us now is such that are we all ready and willing to do and to practice on that in our own lives? Are we willing to love unconditionally and to love patiently like the Lord has loved us all, without expecting any returns?

May the Lord, our most loving, compassionate God, and Who is always full of kindness and genuine love for each one of us, continue to show us the same generous and ever-boundless love that He has always had for us, which He has always shown and taught to us so that we too may learn and know how the love Him and love our fellow brothers and sisters around us in the same way that He has loved us from the very beginning. Let us all therefore show genuine, Christian love to each other at all times, now and always, so that we may inspire many more people to follow in our own footsteps as well. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the need for all of us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, that is we are all called to be the ones to bring God’s light, truth and hope, His love and grace into our world today, so that in each and every moments of our lives, in our every interactions and works, in all of our commitment to Him, in our everyday life even in the smallest of things. We should always be ready to put into place our efforts and works, our contributions and all that we say and do so that they may truly bring forth the light and truth of Christ into this world, to make a difference in the lives of many of those whom we have touched and encountered.

In our first reading today, we heard from the second letter of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in Corinth, in which St. Paul told the people that they all preached and proclaimed the truth of God, the One Who has brought to them all the promises and reassurances that He has spoken and given to them, and which He would indeed faithfully fulfil and complete, and all those who have ministered to them including St. Paul himself, and all the others like St. Timothy, St. Silvanus and others, all were working for the greater glory of God and doing God’s will in all that they had done, empowered, guided and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. All of them had been sent so that through them they would truly do great deeds for the Lord’s sake, glorifying His Name by their actions, through the gifts and graces that they had received.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the famous parable of the light of the world and the salt of the earth that the Lord Himself had spoken to His disciples. In this parable we heard the Lord telling the disciples and all His followers that they should all be like light of the world and salt of the earth, highlighting that if light is hidden then it serves no purpose, and if salt is to lose its taste, then it shall also lose its meaning and use as well. For all of us today living in a world where light and salt are truly abundant and are commonplace everywhere we may not realise their importance in the day to day life in our communities, but in the context of how these two commodities are truly important now and even more so in the past, understanding these can give us better appreciation of what the Lord truly meant in His parable.

First of all, regarding light, we live in a world where light is truly abundant especially at night time, where lots of artificial lights powered by electricity are everywhere. Many of us live in a world full of lights from daytime to night time, and even late at night sometimes we cannot get away from light all around us. And in a world full of technology in our smartphones, computers, televisions and other digital gadgets, we are truly inundated with light such that the significance and importance of light as the Lord mentioned it can easily be misunderstood and overlooked. Why is that so? This is because back in the past, light is something that is absent for most of the night time, after the Sun had set, and except for the light of the Moon and the stars, there was usually darkness everywhere around.

Most people at that time would not have been able to afford candles and other sources of light like fire, and they preciously kept whatever sources of light and heat that they could gather and maintain, such that in the past, fire and light were seen by various civilisations and cultures as being very important and crucial for their survival, and hence, they were treasured and even worshipped, with temples of fire being kept and raised in different civilisations like the Romans and the Persians among others. Darkness is something that people feared, and with darkness usually came danger from predators and other threats, uncertainties and other problems, which light was supposed to keep at bay. Hence, for light to be hidden from view made totally no sense in the context of that time.

Then, regarding salt, we all know that salt gives flavour to the food, as otherwise, if there is no salt added at all to the food, it would be bland and tasteless. But salt is not merely just something to provide flavour to the food, and in the ancient past, its importance was even greater than it is today, as salt is essential for the preservation of many types of food in the period and time before the rise of modern refrigeration and preservation methods. With salt, food became flavourful and many kinds of food could be prevented from spoiling through the addition of salt which kept the food from turning bad. That is why salt was especially important in the past, and in some countries such as Imperial China, salt was one of the major commodities that was heavily controlled and taxed by the government.

Now, as we all have seen from these examples and insights that I have presented to all of us here, we can see how light and salt were truly very important and even crucial commodities at the time of the Lord and His ministry two millennia ago. More importantly, as the Lord used these to explain His words and using a parable to highlight His intentions, we should be reminded like those disciples back then, that each and every one of us ought to be truly ‘light of the world’ and ‘salt of the earth’, which indeed mean that we must always be full of faith, in all the things that we say and do, in every moments, doing our best to glorify the Lord by our lives, by each and every things that we do, in showing the light of Christ, His hope and love to everyone.

May the Lord continue to help, strengthen and guide us all in our journey in life henceforth, and may He continue to give us the courage and the power to do our best in each and every moments of our lives, that by our dedication and commitment to Him, we may always lead more and more people towards God, and we may always be joyful in following the Lord at all times, in doing all that He has called and commanded us to do. May God bless our every efforts and endeavours, our every good works and all, now and always. Amen.