Tuesday

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Tuesday, 30 May 2017 : 7th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard from the Sacred Scriptures about St. Paul and about our Lord Jesus Christ, both of whom in the respective Scripture passages, were going to the end of their ministry. At that time, St. Paul had been informed by the Holy Spirit, that he was about to reach the end of his ministry. He was about to be arrested in Jerusalem by the authorities and from then on, proceeded to Rome for the final leg of his journey. All of this had been known to St. Paul, and he was saying his farewells to the elders in Ephesus.

And in the Gospel, Jesus our Lord was thanking His Father through prayer, at the time when He was about to enter into His Passion, the end and last stage of His earthly ministry. He mentioned how He has fulfilled perfectly what He was prophesied to have come for, and had gathered the people whom God had called upon to be His own. Thereafter, He would go on to His Passion, to accomplish perfectly through obedience and suffering, God’s promise of salvation for all mankind.

St. Paul and our Lord Jesus Himself had done a lot for the sake of the people of God, and they had contributed and done such great feats that many souls were saved by their works. They were at the end of their respective missions, and surely they were looking back at what they had done, and indeed, they could be very confident indeed, that whatever they had done, they had done well and they had given all that they could for the sake of the Lord.

They had not done all those things for their own sake though, and they did not do all their works to glorify themselves, unlike what other people would have done. They obeyed the Lord and followed Him, as St. Paul followed the path shown to him by the Lord through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and as Jesus our Lord, the Son of God obeying the will of His heavenly Father, God the Father in heaven.

Through all of these, the examples of these two which the Scriptures today had mentioned, all of us are called to reflect on our own actions in our own respective lives as Christians. Have we, as Christians, been as faithful and devoted as St. Paul had been in his faith? Perhaps we have not done as mighty a deed as what he had done, in numerous situations, where he had to endure persecution, rejection and torture, imprisonment and even death threats. However, are we confident that we are living a true Christian life?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in order for us to be true Christians in life, we all have to devote ourselves to do what the Lord had commanded us all to do, and not just to be lukewarm or inactive Christians. That means, we have to listen to the Lord, Who had taught us that we have to love Him with all of our heart, with all of our mind and with our entire being, devoting ourselves completely to Him, and then, showing the same kind of love to our fellow men and women, loving them at least in the same way as how we loved ourselves.

This is what all of us as Christians have to do in our respective lives, and one in which I am afraid to say but, in reality, many of us as Christians have not lived up to. We have not been truly faithful in actions and deeds, for in many cases, while we believe in God, many of our actions had not shown such a reality. And in the end, because others see that we do not act in the manner as how we should have acted according to our faith, we caused scandal to the Lord and to our faith in Him.

Let us ask ourselves, how many of us slandered others, bringing hurt and pain through our words, by our lack of empathy and consideration for the feelings of others around us? How many of us have caused others, our neighbours to suffer simply because of our own selfishness in life? How many of us have brought sorrows and sadness upon others because we only think about ourselves? It is all of these things which have prevented us from truly living a good, Christian life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, listening to the Lord and taking note of the examples He Himself had shown, and which His Apostle, St. Paul had done before us, let us all reflect on all these, and let us have a new resolve in our hearts, that is the new resolve to live our lives faithfully and filled with sincere devotion and commitment, to serve the Lord with all of our hearts, with all of our bodies, minds, and with all of our strength, and do the same to our fellow men and women, showing love, care and concern wherever it is possible.

May the Lord bless us all, all of our works and endeavours, and may He strengthen us in our faith, so that we may draw ever closer to Him and find salvation and true joy in Him, together as one people, blessed by the Lord and His love. Let us do our best so that when the time comes for us to give an account before the Lord, we can confidently show Him what we have done out of faith in Him. Amen.

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Tuesday, 30 May 2017 : 7th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
John 17 : 1-11a

At that time, after Jesus said all that He had said to His disciples, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come! Give glory to Your Son, that the Son may give glory to You. You have given Him power over all humanity, so that He may give eternal life to all those You entrusted to Him. For this is eternal life : to know You, the only true God, and the One You sent, Jesus Christ.”

“I have glorified You on earth and finished the work that You gave Me to do. Now, Father, give Me, in Your presence, the same glory I had with You before the world began. I have made Your Name known to those You gave Me from the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they kept Your word. And now they know that whatever You entrusted to Me, is indeed from You.”

“I have given them the teaching I received from You, and they received it, and know in truth that I came from You; and they believe that You sent Me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those who belong to You, and whom You have given to Me. Indeed all I have is Yours and all You have is Mine; and now they are My glory.”

“I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I come to You.”

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Tuesday, 30 May 2017 : 7th Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 67 : 10-11, 20-21

Then You gave a rain of blessings to comfort Your weary children. Your people found a dwelling and in Your mercy, o God, You provided for the needy.

Blessed be the Lord, God our Saviour, Who daily bears our burdens! Ours is a God Who saves; our Lord lets us escape from death.

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Tuesday, 30 May 2017 : 7th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 20 : 17-27

From Miletus Paul sent word to Ephesus, summoning the elders of the Church. When they came to him, he addressed them, “You know how I lived among you from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia, how I served the Lord in humility through the sorrows and trials that the Jews caused me.”

“You know that I never held back from doing anything that could be useful for you; I spoke publicly and in your homes, and I urged Jews and non-Jews alike to turn to God and believe in our Lord Jesus.”

“But now I am going to Jerusalem, chained by the Spirit, without knowing what will happen to me there. Yet in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that imprisonment and troubles await me. Indeed I put no value on my life, if only I can finish my race and complete the service to which I have been assigned by the Lord Jesus, to announce the Good News of God’s grace.”

“I now feel sure that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom of God will ever see me again. Therefore I declare to you this day that my conscience is clear with regard to all of you. For I have spared no effort in fully declaring to you God’s will.”

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Tuesday, 23 May 2017 : 6th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we quickly approach the coming of the Solemnity of the Ascension, during which we remember that forty days after His glorious resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into His heavenly glory, we recall our Lord’s promise that even though we see Him no more, just as much as the Apostles did not see Him anymore after that, the faith in Him and His truth still remained and will prevail in the end.

He has not left us behind without hope, for He Himself has assured us that He is always with us, and sent us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to guide us in our path and to lead us to the right paths, as He had done so with the Apostles, who despite the difficulties and challenges they faced, they continued to persevere on through against the odds and against all the forms of oppression they faced.

And according to the Lord, the sin of the world is disbelief, the lack of faith in Him, which was shown by all those who refused to believe in the Lord, and all who opposed the works of the Apostles, as exemplified in the first reading today, by all those who rose up against St. Paul and Silas, the slave owners of the city of Philippi, instigating the officials to throw them into prison and to torture them.

That is because the world, filled with wickedness and evil, ruled by Satan and his allies, is not willing to let the Lord’s truth and ways to be propagated lest their own ways are threatened. Similarly, therefore, there were many enemies of the Apostles, all those who sought to undermine their works and to stop the preaching of the Good News and the truth of the Gospel.

And yet, again and again, God has always provided for His faithful ones, for all those who cling to His truth and obey His will. He has always loved all of them, and did not leave them behind. Even if His servants were to suffer persecution, prejudice and torture at the hands of their enemies, but many of them remained resolute and true to their faith, because they knew that God Who is always ever faithful will bless them with eternal grace and joy as He promised.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians all of us are called to serve Him in the same manner as the Apostles had done, to be courageous in proclaiming God’s truth, not just through words and proclamations, but even more importantly, through our actions and deeds, by doing what the Lord had commanded us to do, and therefore gain for ourselves the justification of our faith.

There will be lots of challenges and difficulties, and it is often that even those who are close to us may suddenly detest us and disown us because we believe in the Lord and in His ways, and refuse to conform to the ways of the world. But we have to persevere, for it is in living faithfully in accordance with God’s ways that we shall be saved, by our devotion and commitment to His cause.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all renew our commitment to live a faithful life to the Lord, giving our all to Him and give our best ability in order to love Him and to love our fellow neighbours, as He had told us to do. May the Lord be with us in this journey of life, and may He strengthen our faith, so that we will always be ever courageous and strong amidst the challenges we may encounter in life because of our faith in God. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 23 May 2017 : 6th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
John 16 : 5-11

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “But now I am going to the One Who sent Me, and none of you asks Me where I am going; instead you are overcome with grief, because of what I have said.”

“Believe Me, it is better for you that I go away, because as long as I do not leave, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go away, it is to send Him to you, and when He comes, He will vindicate the truth before a sinful world; and He will vindicate the paths of righteousness and justice.”

“What is the world’s sin, in regard to Me? Disbelief. What is the path of righteousness? It is the path I walk, by which I go to the Father; and you shall see Me no more. What is the path of justice? It is the path on which the prince of this world will always stand condemned.”

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Tuesday, 23 May 2017 : 6th Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 137 : 1-2a, 2bc-3, 7c-8

I thank You, o Lord with all my heart, for You have heard the word of my lips. I sing Your praise in the presence of the gods. I bow down towards Your holy Temple and give thanks to Your Name.

For Your love and faithfulness, for Your word which exceeds everything. You answered me when I called; You restored my soul and made me strong.

You save me from the wrath of my foes, with Your right hand You deliver me. How the Lord cares for me! Your kindness, o Lord, endures forever. Forsake not the work of Your hands.

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Tuesday, 23 May 2017 : 6th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 16 : 22-34

So the slave owners of Philippi set the crowd against Paul and Silas and the officials tore the clothes of them and ordered them to be flogged. And after inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to guard them safely. Upon receiving these instructions, he threw them into the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. Suddenly a severe earthquake shook the place, rocking the prison to its foundations. Immediately all the doors flew open and the chains of all the prisoners fell off.

The jailer woke up to see the prison gates wide open. Thinking that the prisoners had escaped, he drew his sword to kill himself, but Paul shouted to him, “Do not harm yourself! We are all still here.” The jailer asked for a light, then rushed in, and fell at the feet of Paul and Silas. After he had secured the other prisoners, he led them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

They answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you and your household will be saved.” Then they spoke the word of God to him and to all his household. Even at that hour of the night, the jailer took care of them and washed their wounds; and he and his whole household were baptised at once. He led them to his house, spread a meal before them and joyfully celebrated with his whole household his newfound faith in God.

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Tuesday, 16 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard the words of the Lord Jesus, reassuring us all that He came bearing unto us His peace. It is not peace as the world knows it, but an everlasting peace, that will be ours when we place our complete trust in the Lord, and follow Him wholeheartedly, as the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord had once done.

The Apostles did not have it easy on their missions around the world at that time, as they encountered many oppositions to their works, challenges from all those who refuse to follow their lead and those who refuse to listen to their call to conversion, namely those who persist in their sinfulness and wickedness, and closed their hearts against God’s words that the Apostles and the disciples had preached.

There was hardly much time for the Apostles and the disciples had to be savoured in peace. They constantly met the opposition from the Jewish leaders, from the local populace who refused to listen to them and abandon their pagan gods, and from the Roman authorities who found the teachings of Christ as a threat to their own authority, and from various other sources.

But the Lord was with them, and He guided them throughout their journey, that even though there were many who wished for their arrest, their demise and destruction of the Church, in reality, the Church and the faithful flourished both in number and in their zeal. The Lord provided for what they needed, and gave them the strength to persevere in the troubled times.

The Lord had revealed it all to them, how they would have to suffer in order to glorify God, by their works of evangelisation and mercy, calling many nations and peoples to repentance and conversion in God. But they found true peace in fulfilling God’s will and in doing whatever He had led them to do. They knew that even though the world was against them, but if they continued their good works and remained faithful, they would gain true peace, as the Lord would reward them with eternal glory and joy with Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on this, and as we remember how many people have faithfully obeyed the Lord, and had to suffer in order to bring the truth of the Gospel and the Good News to all the peoples, including to us, let us all remember that their works have not been completed, as even now, there are still many more people out there who have not yet received or welcomed the truths found in the word of God.

Let us all remember this as we continue to live out our lives today. There are many more people whom we can help, by our good works and efforts, to spread the truths of the Gospel, the message of God’s peace and love. There are still so many anguish, sorrow, anger, hatred and all sorts of negativities in this world, because people cannot find in them God’s love and peace.

Let us all therefore, work together, in order to bring the peace of God to all peoples, to all the nations, as the Lord had commanded us. Let us all place our complete trust in God, knowing that He will give us all true peace, and let us share that peace we have with one another. Let us all bring our brethren out of the darkness of sin, and into the new light of God, into a new life blessed by the peace of God, that all of us may find our way towards that peace we long for.

May all of us endeavour from now on to seek true peace and joy found in the Lord alone, and not be distracted by all the desires and false peace that the world offers us. May the Lord help us on our journey of faith, and help us all to live faithfully in accordance with His will. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 16 May 2017 : 5th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
John 14 : 27-31a

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Peace be with you! I give you My peace; not as the world gives peace do I give it to you. Do not be troubled; do not be afraid. You heard Me say, ‘I am going away, but I am coming to you.’ If you loved Me, you would be glad that I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”

“I have told you this now before it takes place, so that when it does happen you may believe. It is very little what I may still tell you, for the prince of this world is at hand, although there is nothing in Me that he can claim. But see, the world must know that I love the Father, and that I do what the Father has taught Me to do.”