Tuesday

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Tuesday, 29 December 2015 : Fifth Day within Octave of Christmas, Memorial of St. Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 2 : 3-11

How can we know that we know Him? If we fulfil His commands. If you say, “I know Him,” but do not fulfil His commands, you are a liar and the truth is not in you. But if you keep His word, God’s love is made complete in you. This is how we know that we are in Him : he who claims to live in Him must live as He lived.

My dear friends, I am not writing you a new commandment, but reminding you of an old one, one you had from the beginning. This old commandment is the word you have heard. But, in a way, I give it as a new commandment that is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light already shines.

If you claim to be in the light but hate your brother, you are still in darkness. If you love your brothers and sisters, you remain in the light and nothing in you will make you fall. But if you hate your brother you are in the dark and walk in darkness without knowing where you go, for the darkness has blinded you.

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Tuesday, 22 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, as we approach even closer to Christmas, we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures and we heard two parallel stories from the Old and the New Testament, firstly of the story of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, who thanked the Lord profusely for having listened to her prayers, as she was once unable to have a child and was ridiculed by the other wife of her husband, but the Lord answered her prayer and gave her Samuel, her firstborn son.

And Hannah went on to have many more children with her husband after that, but her very first son, as she had promised to the Lord, was dedicated to a life of total service to God, who would eventually become the prophet Samuel, a great Judge over the people of God, and the one who would anoint the first kings of Israel, Saul and David, and gave them the necessary guidance to lead the people of God with faith and dignity.

In the Gospel, what we heard today is commonly known as the prayer of the Magnificat, the prayer and song of Mary glorifying and thanking God for all of His majesty, His love for His people, and for all the things that He had done to bless and reward all those who have been faithful to Him, and all that He had done to bring down all those who have rejected Him and those who persecuted His faithful ones.

Mary visited Elizabeth her cousin, and both of them were pregnant with their own respective child. And for the case of Elizabeth, her condition was indeed very similar to Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, for she too was unable to conceive a child in her womb for many, many years. And even more so, she was already very old by the time the Lord fulfilled her wishes, and through her a great prophet, messenger and servant of God, John the Baptist would be born.

But all these are incomparable with what the Lord would do through Mary, for in Mary, God has made His grand plan for our salvation complete and perfect, and by her perfect and complete obedience to His will, the Saviour of the world Himself would be born through her, and the King of all kings, the Master of the whole universe would be incarnate into flesh, and born as a Man through her womb.

What greater honour God could give to a mortal man like us, other than the honour that He had granted Mary, His chosen one to be the vessel and the mother of the New Covenant that He would create with all of us mankind? This is why, today’s readings in preparation for Christmas, asked us all to focus on the joy that is in Christmas, the hope that we see through Christmas, and the love that is the heart and the essence of Christmas, that God’s Love has been shown and manifested to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The two women, Hannah and Mary sang a song of thanksgiving, of praise and of glorification to God, for He had done wonders for them, and brought them from the abyss of darkness and from sorrow into the great joy and happiness of the eternal Light that God had provided. This joy, incomparable and beyond any understanding, is the joy that all of us should also have, the true joy of Christmas, that is Christ, the love of God for men, made Man.

Thus, just a few days before Christmas, let us all reflect on how we celebrate it. Do we celebrate it just as any other secular festivals, gift-exchanging sessions and merrymaking? Do we celebrate Christmas just because we are happy that it is a holiday time and a time for new goods and new things to have? If this is what we think of Christmas, then we really need to rethink our priorities and our understanding of it.

Let us all strive so that our Christmas celebrations will not be merely celebration of worldly joy and pleasures, that it will not just be selfish celebration of love, but also be a celebration with one another, of the love of God that He had shown to us through Jesus Christ His Son, and through all that He had shown us and shared with us, His love, let us all also share this joy, this hope and this love to those who have little or none of them.

May Almighty God bless us all in all of our endeavours, and may He strengthen our faith, and remind us always that Christmas is the time for us to rejoice, because He has come into the world, He has triumphed and brought His people into the salvation which He had promised all of us. Amen.

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Tuesday, 22 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 1 : 46-56

And Mary said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit exults in God my Saviour! He has looked upon His servant in her lowliness, and people forever will call me blessed.”

“The Mighty One has done great things for me, Holy is His Name! From age to age His mercy extends to those who live in His presence. He has acted with power and done wonders, and scattered the proud with their plans.”

“He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up those who are downtrodden. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He held put His hand to Israel, His servant, for He remembered His mercy, even as He promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.”

Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months, and then returned home.

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Tuesday, 22 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

1 Samuel 2 : 1, 4-5, 6-7, 8abcd

My heart exults in YHVH, I feel strong in my God. I rejoice and laugh at my enemies for You came with power to save me.

The bow of the mighty is broken but the weak are girded with strength. The well-fed must labour for bread but the hungry need work no more. The childless wife has borne seven children, but the proud mother is left alone.

YHVH is the Lord of life and death; He brings down to the grave and raises up. YHVH makes poor and makes rich, He brings low and He exalts.

He lifts up the lowly from the dust, and raises the poor from the ash heap; they will be called to the company of princes, and inherit a seat of honour.

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Tuesday, 22 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

1 Samuel 1 : 24-28

When the child was weaned, Hannah took Samuel with her along with a three year old bull, a measure of flour and a flask of wine, and she brought him to YHVH’s House at Shiloh. The child was still young.

After they had slain the bull, they brought the child to Eli. Hannah exclaimed : “Oh, my lord, look! I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to YHVH. I asked for this child and YHVH granted me the favour I begged of him. Now, I think, YHVH is asking for this child. As long as he lives, he belongs to YHVH.”

And they worshipped YHVH there.

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Tuesday, 15 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard our Lord Jesus Who told us clearly in the face, that whatever we believe in God, His ways and all of these, we must not just stop at believing and merely knowing on what are we supposed to do, but instead we must go further and apply our faith, whatever we believe in, in our own lives and actions.

The parable about a father with his two sons made this fact clear enough for us. The father represents the Lord our God, while his two sons are representatives of all of us with our various reactions to our Father’s wishes and desires, which can indeed be categorised into two major categories. First of all, the first son on the surface obeyed the father, gracefully with his mouth uttering his readiness to do his will, and yet he did not do what he had said he would do.

This represents all those whose faith are merely superficial, that is faith merely on paper only. This is the faith of those who have little or no commitment in love to God, and whose hearts have no place for the Lord. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law belonged to this category, and as well as surprisingly, majority if not most of mankind.

Yes, many of us if we look at how we live our daily lives, we should immediately realise how even though we call ourselves as Christians, we do not truly live as Christians should live. As Christians and member of God’s Church we should follow the will of God, His teachings and commandments, and obey the laws and rules of the Church and the Sacred Tradition that has been passed down to us from the Apostles and from the Lord Himself.

Yet, many of us prefer to choose what we like to believe in and what we do not like to believe. This is a phenomenon commonly known as ‘Cafetaria Christians’ as just as those in cafetaria or a market choose what they want to buy and what they do not want to buy, we too choose in what we want to believe. And yet, this is something very wrong for us to do.

Indeed, we must believe in the entirety of the teachings of the Church and embrace wholly what it means for us to be Christians, rather than choosing what we like to believe and skipping and rejecting those that do not appeal to us. We either believe in the entirety of the Christian teachings or not at all, and there can be no compromise or middle way in these, as some would believe.

Thus we ought to reflect on the Lord’s parable of a father and his two sons. The second son was the better of the two because he did what the father had asked him to do, even though outwardly he was unwilling and showed apprehension. Surely this is what had happened to many of us as well, as we have doubts, uncertainties and apprehensions about many things even as we live our lives as Christians, but if we take heed of the examples of the second son, we know that God favours those who do His will and obey Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us therefore put the effort to live faithfully as Christians from now on, if we have not done so, and continue to do so, if we have already did. Let us all obey the entirety of the teachings of the Church and keep holy whatever has been entrusted to us as God’s children and as members of His Church. Let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord and bless His glorious Name through our own actions, obedient and filled with faith. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 15 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 21 : 28-32

At that time, Jesus went on to say to His disciples and to the people, “What do you think of this? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said to him, ‘Son, go and work today in my vineyard.’ And the son answered, ‘I do not want to.’ But later he thought better of it and went.”

“Then the father went to his other son and gave him the same command. This son replied, ‘I will go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did what the father wanted?” They answered, “The first.”

And Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you : the publicans and the prostitutes are ahead of you on the way to the kingdom of Heaven. For John came to show you the way of goodness, and you did not believe him; but the publicans and the prostitutes did. You were witnesses of this, but you neither repented nor believed him.”

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Tuesday, 15 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 33 : 2-3, 6-7, 17-18, 19 and 23

I will bless the Lord all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the lowly hear and rejoice.

They who look to Him are radiant with joy, their faces never clouded with shame. When the poor cry out, the Lord hears and saves them from distress.

But His face is set against the wicked to destroy their memory from the earth. The Lord hears the cry of the righteous and rescues them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves the distraught. But the Lord will redeem the life of His servants; none of those who trust in Him will be doomed.

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Tuesday, 15 December 2015 : 3rd Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Zephaniah 3 : 1-2, 9-13

Woe to the rebellious, the defiled, the city that oppresses. She did not pay attention to the call nor accept the correction; she did not trust YHVH nor did she approach her God.

At that time I will give truthful lips to the pagan nations that all of them may call on the Name of YHVH and serve Him with the same zeal. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they will bring offerings to Me. On that day you will no longer be ashamed of all your deeds when you were unfaithful to Me; I will have removed from your midst the conceited and arrogant, and My holy mountain will no longer be for you a pretext for boasting.

I will leave within you a poor and meek people who seek refuge in God. The remnant of Israel will not act unjustly nor will they speak falsely, nor will deceitful words be found in their mouths. They will eat and rest with none to threaten them.

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Tuesday, 8 December 2015 : Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Opening of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate a great feast day of the Church, that is of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast of the Immaculate Conception refers to the moment not when Jesus our Lord was conceived in the womb of His mother, but instead, the moment when Mary herself was conceived without any taint of sin, or immaculate.

Yes, the meaning of the feast of the Immaculate Conception is that Mary, the mother of our Lord and God was specially prepared by God to be a special person, a special being and the special one amongst all of creations, to be free from any taints of sin, pure and free from the darkness of the original sins of men. And the purpose of this is so that as a pure being, she would be worthy to be the vessel to contain the Lord, the Ark of the New Covenant.

Mary was conceived without the taints of original sin, that as a pure vessel, blameless and immaculate, she is worthy to bear the Lord Who came into this world through her, and for nine months, she bore the Lord God of all the Universe inside her, within her womb. For God had been incarnate into flesh, and taking up the flesh of man, He had willingly come upon this world in order to save it.

And to be born into the world, He needs the intermediary of a mother, who is Mary, who bore Him until the time when He was born into the world. And this is why Mary is so special in our faith, not because she is great by her own power or majesty, but because it was through her, her purity and most importantly, her willingness to cooperate with the will of God and her obedience to Him that allowed the works of God’s salvation to be able to reach out to us mankind.

Indeed, Mary had been prepared well beforehand, as an exception, to be created pure and blameless without sin, but nevertheless, as all men are, all of us are still susceptible to sin, and it was the temptations of sin that had made so many people in the past and in the present to fall. But Mary led a worthy and devoted life, and in all of her dealings, in all of her actions, she kept herself immaculate and pure, devoted at all times and obeying the commandments of the Lord in her own life.

And when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her and revealed to her the part that she would play in the grand plan of God’s salvation of mankind, indeed a very pivotal and crucial role, she entrusted all of herself and all of her thoughts to God, despite the uncertainties, fears and all the doubts that were in her heart. She surrendered it all to God, by her very own words, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me as He has said.’

This is something that we really should take note of, so that today as as rejoice and celebrate together this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, we too may imitate Mary, the mother of our Lord, in all of her actions, in how she lived her life, in complete devotion and commitment to God, and therefore, enable ourselves to examples for one another in leading a righteous life pleasing to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we have to realise that just as Mary is the New Ark of the Covenant, for she bore Christ who is the Master and Lord, Bringer of the new Covenant of God with men, all of us also have our own roles to play as each and every one of us are also bearers of God’s covenant within us. How is this so? Let us all remember that all of us have partaken worthily of God’s own Precious Body and Blood into ourselves.

And as we should heed the words of St. Paul to the faithful, where he spoke of our bodies as the Temples of the Holy Spirit, let us all realise that because God has willed Himself to dwell within us, inside us, each and every one of us, and by the power of His Body and His Blood, becoming united with all of us who share in the Most Holy Eucharist, we have this great grace given to us, and not just great grace, but also great responsibility that will come with it.

Yes, just as we have talked a great length about Mary’s being conceived without any taint of sin, pure and immaculate, and how it is necessary as she was tasked with the great honour of bearing our Lord Himself in flesh and blood inside her womb, as the bearer of the Lord, therefore, all of us, who have the Lord dwelling inside us through the Eucharist, should also keep ourselves pure, holy and immaculate.

Why is this necessary? That is because our Lord Who is all good, perfect and without blemish, should not be made to dwell in a place that is filthy, filled with wickedness and evil, as is when our bodies, our minds, hearts and souls are not filled with love and true faith in the Lord. And when we live a life of wickedness and disobedience against God, then we are inviting trouble for ourselves, as the Lord will not take it lightly against all those who profaned His holy Temple.

Therefore, let us all today make the effort to follow the examples of our blessed mother Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that by following her examples, in her piety and dedication to her Son, and in how she led a life in total commitment and obedience to the will of God, we too may make ourselves worthy to be the Temples of His holy Presence on earth, by abandoning all forms of sin and committing ourselves to do what the Lord wants us all to do.

Let us all renew our commitment to God on this day, and let us ask the intercession of Mary, His mother, so that through her prayers for our sake, sinners like us, God will move His hand to touch our hearts, so that we may be more courageous and dedicated in defending and standing up for our faith and committing ourselves to a life in dedication to Him at all times. May God bless us in all of our endeavours and may His blessed mother Mary pray for us always, especially at the hour of our demise. Amen.