Tuesday

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Tuesday, 18 February 2025 : 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, 18 February 2025 : 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, 18 February 2025 : 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, 11 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Our Lady of Lourdes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we heard from the Scripture passages today, all of us are reminded that God is our Lord and Master, and we have to keep in mind that we should not allow all sorts of worldly matters, desires and distractions to lead us away from the true path towards God and His grace. We must always put our faith and trust in God, and resist the many temptations present around us that may try to lead us astray down the wrong path, and we must also resist the pull of our pride, ego, ambition and desire in this life, and instead, strive to be humble and to be willing to listen to the Lord calling upon us and allow Him to patiently lead us down the path of righteousness and grace. We must always remember that God desires our salvation, and He has done everything He could to rescue us all and to bring us ever closer to Him.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis in which the account of the Creation of the world and the whole Universe continued to be told to us as initiated in yesterday’s first reading. Today, we heard the second half of this story of Creation, culminating in how God created us all mankind as the pinnacle of His Creation, creating us in His own image and likeness. It was a reminder for all of us how everything that exists around us, and including our own existence in this world, are all due to the works of the Lord, and without Him, we are nothing and we would not even have existed at all. And God created all of us in His likeness and image as ultimately, He sees us all as His own children, His adopted sons and daughters, and He intended for all of us to be the ones to enjoy everything that He has created, and to forever be in His grace and loving Presence.

However, as we all know it well, we have not been faithful and obedient to God. Instead, we chose to rebel against Him and follow the advice of the devil instead, listening to his lies and allowing his falsehoods to lead us into the wrong path, taking up the forbidden fruits of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and hence, in our desire to become like God, we ended up falling into this world of suffering and death. But God, in His most wonderful and patient love for each one of us did not give up on us. Instead, He continued to reach out to us and provided us with the help necessary for us to find our way back to Him, and He opened His arms, welcoming us back with His mercy and kindness, desiring to be reconciled and reunited with us.

And that was why He sent unto us all His own Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Divine Word of God Incarnate. It was through His Word that God has created this world and Universe, and the same Word of God, the Divine Logos has become incarnate in the flesh, becoming one of the Creation through the assumption of the flesh and our human existence, but without shedding His infinite and timeless existence from the beginning, co-Eternal and consubstantial with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Through this act of supreme love, God has made Himself tangible and approachable to all of us, to show us all His sincere desire in loving us all and in wanting to guide us and help us to return to the path of virtue and grace, so that more and more may come to be saved and be spared the fate of eternal damnation.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the confrontation between the Lord Jesus, the same Son of God, with those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who had been criticising Him and His disciples regarding their ways of observing the Law of God. According to those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who safeguarded and kept the Law and commandments of God passed down from the time of Moses, the Law and the precepts of the Law must be kept and observed very strictly, and not only that, but they had even added on many details and rituals that ended up deviating from the true purpose and intention of the Law and those precepts themselves. For example, the one that the Lord mentioned regarding the washing of the vessels and the hands before eating, which those Pharisees and teachers of the Law zealously guarded, requiring everyone to wash their hands following certain strict steps and practices, like washing all the way to the elbow, or otherwise they would be considered unclean.

The Lord was criticising and rebuking them over this obsession on the details and rules of the Law, which ended up distracting those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law from the true purpose and intention of those rules in the first place. They were meant to help the people of God lead a good, hygienic way of life, in the midst of the community of the people in the context of the Exodus, when many of them were living in close quarters, and diseases would easily spread without such good practices. However, those rules were never meant to become burden and obstacles for the people of God, or becoming tools of discrimination and differentiation, which those Pharisees and teachers of the Law often practiced. This is due to the pride and the importance that they attached to the ‘correct’ way of practicing the Law, and considering themselves better and more superior than others who did not follow the Law the same way they did.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is in fact an important reminder for us all not to be easily swayed by the temptations of worldly desires, which many of those Pharisees had succumbed to, and many of them refused to listen to the Lord and to reason because they allowed themselves to be deluded by their own pride and ego which caused them to close their minds and hearts to Him. They depended instead on their intellect, their knowledge and their sense of superiority, in thinking that they were better than others simply because they were more holy, more dedicated and more pious than those they deemed to be less than worthy because they did not observe the Law of God as stringently and piously as they had done. It was all these prideful attitudes which in fact led them astray and prevented them from coming closer to God, and we should avoid adopting the same attitude in our own lives.

Today, the Church also celebrates the occasion of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the famous apparition of the Blessed Mother of God, Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes at the site in southern France to St. Bernadette Soubirous, shortly after the declaration of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the then Pope Pius IX. Mary, the Mother of God appeared to the simple peasant girl, St. Bernadette in the grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes over a few occasions, in which she told to her many things about herself and the message that she wanted her to proclaim to the world, proving her authenticity and identity whenever she was asked of it. St. Bernadette initially faced a lot of hurdles and skepticism from her own parents and from the local bishop and clergy, but she insisted to continue meeting the apparation of Our Lady regardless.

After several rounds of investigations into the apparition and the growing popularity of the apparition and the devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes, after about two years, the Church finally gave its assent to the authenticity and support the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes as legitimate and authentic, and from that point onwards, pilgrimages to the shrine of Lourdes became very popular among the faithful throughout the world. A great shrine, the Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes now stands at the site where Our Lady once appeared to St. Bernadette almost two centuries ago, with the Grotto at Massabielle, at the heart of the shrine frequented by millions of pilgrims seeking for healing and help for their sickness, and the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes is well-known for its many miraculous healings, where many sick pilgrims had been healed from their ailments after visits to the shrine.

This devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes is yet another reminder for us of the greatness of God’s love for us, that He even also sent His mother to us, to help us all and to guide us all to Him. After all, it is the Lord Himself Who has entrusted His mother to us to be our own loving Mother from His Cross as He was hanging there at the moment of His Passion. Through His mother, the Lord wants us all to realise our shortcomings and flaws, our faults and weaknesses, and by coming towards Him through His mother, the Lord hopes that all of us may be healed by our faith and trust in Him, and also be inspired by the good examples and the faith which Mary herself has shown in her life. Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes is a great role model and example for us all to follow, and we should do our best to follow her examples in our own life and actions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore today let us all remind ourselves of God’s great and most generous love for us, all the things that He has done for our sake. Let us not take His love for granted and let us continue to thank Him for all that He has lovingly provided for us, and for the help He has shown us through His Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Lourdes, who is also our Mother. May the Lord also have mercy on the sick and those who are suffering from various diseases and ailments, and let us all continue to pray for them all, so that God may continue to journey with them all and show them all His mercy and compassion. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for all of us sinners, your sons and daughters, so that we may come to realise the depth of our sinfulness and evils, and that we may come to repent and turn away from those wickedness, and find our way to your beloved Son, Our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

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Tuesday, 11 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Our Lady of Lourdes)

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.”

Alternative reading (Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes)

John 2 : 1-11

At that time, three days after Jesus called Nathanael, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus was also invited to the wedding with His disciples. When all the wine provided for the celebration had been served, and they had run out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

Jesus replied, “Woman, what concern is that to you and Me? My hour has not yet come.” However His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” Nearby were six stone water jars, set there for ritual washing as practiced by the Jews; each jar could hold twenty or thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them to the brim. Then Jesus said, “Now draw some out and take it to the steward.” So they did. The steward tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing from where it had come; for only the servants who had drawn the water knew. So, he called the bridegroom to tell him, “Everyone serves the best wine first, and when people have drunk enough, he serves that which is ordinary. Instead you have kept the best wine until the end.”

This miraculous sign was the first, and Jesus performed it at Cana in Galilee. In this way He let His glory appear, and His disciples believed in Him.

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Tuesday, 11 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Our Lady of Lourdes)

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.

Alternative reading (Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes)

Judith 13 : 18bcde, 19

My daughter, may the Most High God bless you more than all women on earth. And blessed be the Lord God, the Creator of heaven and earth, Who has led you to behead the leader of our enemies.

Never will people forget the confidence you have shown; they will always remember the power of God.

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Tuesday, 11 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Our Lady of Lourdes)

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.

Alternative reading (Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes)

Isaiah 66 : 10-14c

Rejoice for Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her. Be glad with her, rejoice with her, all you who were in grief over her, that you may suck of the milk from her comforting breasts, that you may drink deeply from the abundance of her glory.

For this is what YHVH says : I will send her peace, overflowing like a river;  and the nations’ wealth, rushing like a torrent towards her. And you will be nursed and carried in her arms and fondled upon her lap. As a son comforted by his mother, so will I comfort you. At the sight of this, your heart will rejoice; like grass, your bones will flourish.

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Tuesday, 4 February 2025 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in what we have all heard from the Scripture readings today, we are once again reminded firstly of the nature of our Christian faith, of how we are likely going to face difficulties and hardships in our path, just as the Lord Himself and our many predecessors have shown us through their lives and experiences. And yet, at the same time, we must not allow ourselves to be overcome by fear and doubt, because the Lord Himself is by our side, guiding and strengthening us, journeying with us together, helping us to shoulder the challenges and to push forward in our journey towards Him. Being a faithful Christian is likely something that will not be an easy task, as many of our predecessors and perhaps we ourselves have experienced throughout our respective journeys.

But with God, everything is possible, and it is this strong and enduring faith in God that all of us need to have with us, so that we may continue to uphold this faith regardless of the obstacles and difficulties that we may have to face. We cannot be easily pressured or coerced to abandon the Lord just because we want to have a good and easy path in life. We must always remember that with God, everything will be possible for us, and through Him, we will be able to overcome even the greatest of the difficulties and obstacles, and even our final enemy, that is death. Our Scripture passages today serves to remind us exactly of this reality, and we have to keep this in mind as we continue to progress through life, as we face our daily struggles and challenges around us.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we heard of the words of the author to the Jewish community and believers among them which were meant to encourage them so that amidst all the challenges and trials that they would have to face throughout their lives in this world, they were not alone, and the Lord would also guide them, strengthening them and empowering them to overcome all those obstacles and challenges. And the author also reassured them in believing in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, because even though He had suffered, betrayed by His own people and the leaders of the Jewish community, made to suffer the most humiliating death on the Cross, but He has risen triumphantly in glory, overcoming the trials and opponents that have been in His way, principally being sin and death.

If we remember His loving sacrifice and how He has patiently offered Himself for our sake, then we will remember how He has also endured what we are facing now, and He is there for us, even at the most difficult and challenging moments. We should not abandon Him just like those disciples who had abandoned Him when He was facing the moments of His Passion, His suffering and death. Knowing that we are truly beloved and precious in the eyes of the Lord, is something that we must always remember, so that even in the darkest times, we will not easily give up the struggle and the fight, to continue to live our lives faithfully and worthily as Christians as we have always done, to bear witness to the Lord and His Good News, His love and truth through our lives.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the two well-known miracles that the Lord Jesus had done during His ministry, during the moment when He healed a woman who was suffering from haemorrhage problem and also when He raised the dead daughter of the synagogue official named Jairus. In these two miracles, God has shown us all His providence and love, as He reached out to those who sought His help and mercy. The woman who was suffering from haemorrhage had no one else to turn to, and she had tried out many methods and sought many people’s help in vain, and that was when she decided to seek the Lord, quietly and discreetly because her condition was something that had made her disgraced and unclean according to the Law. Jairus, the synagogue official also turned to the Lord as there was no one else who could help his very sick daughter, who eventually passed away.

What is remarkable is that for each one of them, they had such faith in the Lord and believed in Him so much that they were willing to make the effort to come towards Him, to seek His healing and mercy. The woman braved through the crowds and believed that if she could just touch the fringe of His cloak, then she could be healed. And later on, after his daughter passed away, Jairus still believed in the Lord even though the others at his house laughed at Him when He said that Jairus’ daughter was merely asleep. And as the Lord Himself said, it was their faith in Him which had saved them, and the woman was healed, the dead daughter of Jairus was raised and returned from the dead because of the faith which they all had in God, in His love and Providence, above all else.

Therefore, it is a reminder for all of us that even in moments of our greatest sufferings, when everything seemed to be against us, and when life is very tough and challenging for us, we must always keep our faith in the Lord and we must not easily be tempted to give up our faith and struggle, or to seek for other source of help and things to depend on other than the Lord, our God. It is very often that many among us, our predecessors and ancestors had fallen into the path of sin and darkness because they were unable to resist the temptations, pressures and coercions to abandon the Lord, when the evil ones managed to persuade them that there was no use to have faith in God, or that they were alone in their struggles and journeys, and hence, embrace the false promises of the evil ones, the path of ruin and darkness that they had offered.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians, each and every one of us ought to be good role models and examples to one another, and we should help encourage our brethren around us so that we will always be strong and able to persevere despite the many obstacles and challenges that we may have to face in our path. Let us all continue to support each other and be active members of the Church, doing our very best to contribute our efforts and good works for the evangelisation of the whole world. May the Lord be with us all, and may He continue to guide us all in our journey, strengthen our faith and empower us with the resolve and commitment needed for us all to do our part as living and active members of His Body, the Church, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 4 February 2025 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 5 : 21-43

At that time, Jesus then crossed to the other side of the lake, and while He was still on the shore, a large crowd gathered around Him. Jairus, an official of the synagogue, came up and, seeing Jesus, threw himself at His feet, and begged Him earnestly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, so that she may get well and live.”

Jesus went with him, and many people followed, pressing from every side. Among the crowd was a woman, who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a lot at the hands of many doctors, but instead of getting better, she was worse. Because she had heard about Jesus, this woman came up behind Him and touched His cloak, thinking, “If I just touch His clothing, I shall get well.” Her flow of blood dried up at once, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her complaint.

But Jesus was conscious that healing power had gone out from Him, so He turned around in the crowd, and asked, “Who touched My clothes?” His disciples answered, “You see how the people are crowding around you. Why do You ask who touched You?”

But He kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, aware of what had happened, came forward trembling and afraid. She knelt before Him, and told Him the whole truth. Then Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be free of this illness.”

While Jesus was still speaking, some people arrived from the official’s house to inform him, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Master any further?” But Jesus ignored what they said, and told the official, “Do not fear, just believe.” And He allowed no one to follow Him except Peter, James and John, the brother of James.

When they arrived at the house, Jesus saw a great commotion, with people weeping and wailing loudly. Jesus entered, and said to them, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but asleep.” They laughed at Him. So Jesus sent them outside, and went with the child’s father and mother and His companions into the room, where the child lay.

Taking her by the hand, He said to her, “Talitha, kumi!” which means, “Little girl, get up!” The girl got up at once and began to walk around. (She was twelve years old). The parents were amazed, greatly amazed. Jesus strictly ordered them not to let anyone know about it; and He told them to give her something to eat.

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Tuesday, 4 February 2025 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 21 : 26b-27, 28, 30ab, 30c-32

I will fulfil my vows before all who revere You. The lowly will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek the Lord will praise Him. May your hearts live forever!

The whole earth will acknowledge and turn to the Lord; the families of nations will worship Him.

Before Him all those who rest in the earth will bow down, all who go down to the dust.

My soul will live for Him. My descendants will serve Him and proclaim the Lord to coming generations; they will announce His salvation to a people yet unborn, “These are the things that He has done.”