Tuesday

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Tuesday, 6 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 6 : 12-19

At that time, Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God. When day came, He called His disciples to Him, and chose twelve of them, whom He called ‘Apostles’ : Simon, whom He named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alpheus and Simon called the Zealot; Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who would be the traitor.

Coming down the hill with them, Jesus stood in an open plain. Many of His disciples were there and a large crowd of people, who had come from all parts of Judea and Jerusalem, and from the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon. They gathered to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. And people troubled by unclean spirits were cured.

The entire crowd tried to touch Him, because of the power that went our from Him and healed them all.

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Tuesday, 6 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 149 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b

Alleluia! Sing to the Lord a new song, sing His praise in the assembly of His saints. Let Israel rejoice in his Maker, let the people of Zion glory in their King!

Let them dance in praise of His Name and make music for Him with harp and timbrel. For the Lord delights in His people; He crowns the lowly with victory.

The saints will exult in triumph; even at night on their couches. Let the praise of God be on their lips, this is the glory of all His saints, Alleluia!

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Tuesday, 6 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
1 Corinthians 6 : 1-11

When you have a complaint against a brother, how dare you bring it before pagan judges instead of bringing it before God’s people? Do you not know that you shall one day judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you incapable of judging such simple problems?

Do you not know that we will even judge the Angels? And could you not decide every day affairs? But when you have ordinary cases to be judged, you bring them before those who are of no account in the Church! Shame on you! Is there not even one among you wise enough to be the arbiter among believers?

But no. One of you brings a suit against another one, and files that suit before unbelievers. It is already a failure that you have suits against each other. Why do you not rather suffer wrong and receive some damage? But no. You wrong and injure others, and those are your brothers and sisters. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God?

Make no mistake about it : those who lead sexually immoral lives, or worship idols, or who are adulterers, perverts, sodomites, or thieves, exploiters, drunkards, slanderers or embezzlers will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Some of you were like that, but you have been cleansed and consecrated to God and have been set right with God by the Name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of our God.

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Tuesday, 30 August 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green


Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard from the Scriptures about the Lord Who cast out demons from a man while He was teaching them, and what was remarkable is how those evil spirits inside the man who was possessed knew Who Jesus really was, and proclaimed Him before many who heard him, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

Indeed it may seem funny that evil spirits would proclaim such a thing before many, but truly, that was because they knew Who He was, and they could see Him in the fullness of His glory as God, the Divine Word Incarnate. And by understanding who these evil spirits are, we can understand better the meaning of today’s Scripture readings.

Those evil spirits were also once the devoted servants of God, the Angels and the spirits of the world, which were around all over creation since God created the world and created them. But they fell into the darkness when they followed that proud and rebellious Archangel, Lucifer the Accursed who refused to bow down out of his pride, and therefore were cast down together out of Heaven.

But even though they were in rebellion against God, and plotted many bad and evil things for God’s creations, especially on us mankind, but they are still after all God’s creation too. And therefore, as those whom God had created and given the knowledge of His Spirit, they were bound to God just as much as we are bound to Him. They were still subjects of the Lord, and they are still the same as well even to this day and beyond.

And all the more they were afraid of the Lord, because they already knew beforehand what their fate was! And when Jesus came into this world to heal the sick and the corrupted ones among His people, He also brought these wicked spirits a reminder of what their fate would be when they were to face judgment and condemnation at the end of time. Their fates have already been sealed.

But the irony is how the people themselves did not recognise Jesus as He was, and they doubted Him, refused to believe in Him, and they even rejected Him and handed Him over to the Romans to be crucified. Such is the ignorance which we the people of God have often showed the Lord, even though He had shown us so much care and love. That is because they were blind to His truth, and they had not God’s Spirit in them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is when then that the Lord reveals to us the truth about Himself and His salvation, by offering to us His Spirit, which descended upon all of us, that we may understand Him better and appreciate His love for us more. And it is also through His Spirit and His Word that we have now known the fate that awaits all those who refused His love and rejected His mercy, that is the same fate awaiting Satan and his fellow rebel angels.

Now that we know Who He is, and what He has offered us, if we keep our faith in Him, let us all reveal Him to the world through our works and actions, by bringing the Word of God closer to our brethren especially those who still live in the ignorance and the darkness of this world. It is our work at evangelisation that will bring each of us, brethren in the Lord, closer to Him.

May God bless us and keep us in His love, and may His grace be ever enough for us. Let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and let us draw ourselves closer to God and His salvation, knowing that if we remain faithful to Him and walk in His ways, we will reach our true goal in life, that is to be blessed forevermore and to receive from our loving Father, the inheritance He has promised us. And while Lucifer and his angels suffer for eternity, let us all not share his fate, but instead the fate intended for us all, the beloved children of our loving God. Amen.

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Tuesday, 30 August 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green


Luke 4 : 31-37

At that time, Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee, and began teaching the people at the sabbath meetings. They were astonished at the way He taught them, for His words was spoken with authority.

In the synagogue there was a man possessed by an evil spirit, who shouted in a loud voice, “What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I recognise You : You are the Holy One of God.”

Then Jesus said to him sharply, “Be silent and leave this man!” The evil spirit then threw the man down in front of them, and came out of him without doing him harm. Amazement seized all these people, and they said to one another, “What does this mean? He commands the evil spirits with authority and power. He orders, and you see how they come out!”

And news about Jesus spread throughout the surrounding area.

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Tuesday, 30 August 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green


Psalm 144 : 8-9, 10-11, 12-13ab, 13cd-14

Compassionate and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and abounding in love. The Lord is good to everyone; His mercy embraces all His creation.

All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o Lord, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your power.

That all may know of Your mighty deeds, Your reign and its glorious splendour. Your reign is from age to age; Your dominion endures from generation to generation.

The Lord is true to His promises and lets His mercy show in all He does. The Lord lifts up those who are falling and raises those who are beaten down.

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Tuesday, 30 August 2016 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green


1 Corinthians 2 : 10b-16

Because the Spirit probes everything, even the depth of God. Who but His own Spirit knows the secrets of a person? Similarly, no one but the Spirit of God knows the secrets of God. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who comes from God and, through Him, we understand what God in His goodness has given us.

So we speak of this, not in terms inspired by human wisdom, but in a language taught by the Spirit, explaining a spiritual wisdom to spiritual persons. The one who remains on the psychological level does not understand the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness for Him and He does not understand because they require a spiritual experience.

On the other hand, the spiritual person judges everything but no one judges him. Who has known the mind of God so as to teach Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

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Tuesday, 23 August 2016 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded that whatever it is we face in life, and no matter all that we experience through our earthly existence, we should keep our focus firmly on the Lord and not to be distracted by the many things and temptations that will keep us away and pull us away from the path to attain the salvation found only in our God alone.

In the first reading, the Lord reminded us through St. Paul His Apostle, that we should be wary and be vigilant of the false prophets and all the lies which they spread around us, as these would become obstacles and hindrances on our path as we walk towards the Lord. There are many of those opposed to us being saved in the Lord, not least of which is the forces of the devil and his allies.

It is the ultimate objective of the evil one in trying to subvert our attempt to find our way to the Lord, and it is imperative for him to try to make us stumble on our journey, for in his great pride and jealousy against God, as well as against the love and honour which God had accorded to us from the very beginning, he has declared war against Adam and all of his descendants.

Indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ has already come and died for our sake, that we might be freed and be liberated from our sins. However, it does not mean that we who still live in this world should then be complacent and be lax in our way of life that we may fall into the traps set upon our path by those who do not take kindly seeing us all be freed from our troubles and proceeding towards our salvation and life in God.

We should heed what our Lord Jesus told us in the Gospel, when He spoke out against the wickedness and the lack of faith among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, which led to the people being misled in their life and in their faith, by the obsession with appearances and with worldliness, as the emphasis on God and on our relationship with Him was lost, and instead was replaced with the emphasis on human and worldly status.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, when we worship the Lord, it is important that our interior orientation is properly attuned to the Lord, or else, we may lose our focus and instead of focusing on God, we become inappropriately focused on ourselves and on our own human frailties and all the things that led us to sin. It is important therefore that we spend some time to think about how we live our lives in order to be truly faithful to the Lord.

Let us all look at the examples of St. Rose of Lima, the holy saint whose feast we are celebrating today. She was an ordinary woman whose extraordinary life and devotion to God elevated her to the glory of heaven, and we all can learn from her life examples. She is the first saint from the Americas, then known as the New World, a woman of astounding beauty and charm.

Many young men, both rich and poor, influential and powerful tried to woo her and get her into marriage with them, but she turned away from all of them, because since her youth, she had promised that she would live a holy and chaste life devoted to God alone. Her parents opposed that decision, but she continued to persevere on despite the challenges.

She was well known for her great piety and devotion, often engaged in self-mortification and resisting the temptations of the flesh and the world. She was known to wear a heavy silver crown with spikes that pierced into the skin and the flesh of her head to remind her of her mortality and the futility of human fame, glory and all the false lies and promises that Satan tempted us with in this world.

Certainly the examples of St. Rose of Lima should inspire us to devote our lives in a similar manner. We should resist those temptations of the flesh, and all the things that have become obstacles on our path, that is our unrestrained desires, the pulling force of greed and human frailties, and instead, push on through, inspired by St. Rose of Lima and the other holy saints, to lead an ever more devoted life, not just by appearances alone, but also through real action, through charity and love, by caring for all those who are less fortunate around us.

May God see in us the light of the love which He had shown us, and may He bless us and our endeavours, so that through our good works, we may be justified in our faith and draw ever closer to His presence. May God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Tuesday, 23 August 2016 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

Matthew 23 : 23-26

At that time, Jesus said to the crowd and to His disciples, “Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You do not forget the mint, anise and cumin seeds when you demand the tenth of everything, but then you forget what is most fundamental in the Law : justice, mercy and faith. These you must practice, instead of neglecting them. Blind guides! You strain out a mosquito, but swallow a camel.”

“Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You fill the plate and the cup with theft and violence, and then pronounce a blessing over them. Blind Pharisee! Purify the inside first, then the outside too will be purified.”

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Tuesday, 23 August 2016 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

Psalm 95 : 10, 11-12a, 12b-13

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” He will judge the peoples with justice.

Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them.

Let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy. Let them sing before the Lord Who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.