Tuesday

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Tuesday, 22 October 2024 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Ephesians 2 : 12-22

At that time, you were without Christ, you did not belong to the community of Israel; the Covenants of God, and His promises, were not for you; you had no hope, and were without God in this world.

But now, in Christ Jesus, and by His Blood, you, who were once far off, have come near. For Christ is our peace; He, Who has made the two people, one; destroying, in His own flesh, the wall – the hatred – which separated us. He abolished the Law, with its commandments and precepts. He made peace, in uniting the two people, in Him; creating, out of the two, one New Man.

He destroyed hatred and reconciled us both to God, through the cross, making the two, one body. He came to proclaim peace; peace to you who were far off, peace to the Jews who were near. Through Him, we – the two people – approach the Father, in one Spirit.

Now, you are no longer strangers or guests, but fellow citizens of the holy people : you are of the household of God. You are the house, whose foundations are the Apostles and prophets, and whose cornerstone is Christ Jesus.

In Him, the whole structure is joined together, and rises, to be a holy Temple, in the Lord. In Him, you, too, are being built, to become the spiritual Sanctuary of God.

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Tuesday, 15 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we all listened from the passages of the Sacred Scriptures in which we are reminded again that we should be truly faithful to the Lord in all things, and we should not be easily be swayed by the temptations and pressures of the world around us, all the temptations that may end up leading us astray and further away from God and His salvation. God has revealed the truth about His love, His teachings and Good News to us all through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and through His Son, God has taught us what we all truly need to do in order to follow and obey Him faithfully, and not to fall into the thinking that our knowledge, wisdom and intellect are better than the Wisdom of God, as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had once done.

In our first reading today, we heard from the continuation of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in Galatia, where the Apostle spoke of the matter of the Law and how the people of God there should truly follow and obey the Lord wholeheartedly and truthfully. For the context, we must understand that there were quite a few Jewish people living in Galatia and other regions and cities that St. Paul had been visiting, and as he addressed the faithful through his Epistles, there was the clear intention of him addressing the turmoil and disagreements that existed between the believers and converts that came from both the Jewish and non-Jewish background. Even among the Jewish people themselves, there were different ideas and disagreements on their beliefs, and they were bitterly divided on those matters at times.

As such, St. Paul wanted to highlight particularly the matter of the obligation of having to follow, obey and fulfil the Law of God, and how the faithful should not follow the ways of the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and all those who have strictly and rigidly interpreted the Law of God, emphasizing excessively on the details and the intricacies of the rules and rites that needed to be done, and in the process, they ended up falling into the trap of scrupulousness, focusing a lot more on the manner how the Law was to be obeyed and followed rather than on why they need to be obeyed and followed. Their preoccupation on the very extensive, strict and demanding set of the rules, Law and regulations prevented so many people from coming closer to God, and worse still, the prejudices they had against those they deemed to be less worthy than them became a major stumbling block as well. This is what St. Paul was speaking up against, in reminding the faithful that they ought to follow Christ and not man-made rules and regulations.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Luke the Evangelist in which the account of the Lord confronting a Pharisee who invited Him to have a meal at his place, for his preoccupation and obsession with the obedience and fulfilment of the rituals and details of the customs and practices of the Law of God, which had prevented him and many others among the Pharisees from being able to embrace the truth and the way which the Lord Jesus had brought into the world. This is in accordance to what St. Paul had also told the faithful in the Epistle earlier on, as we are reminded of the need to adhere faithfully to what the Lord Himself has shown and taught us, and not to fall into the trap of pride, ego and desire, ambition and scrupulousness which had befallen those Pharisees and teachers of the Law.

What the Lord criticised those Pharisees for were their scrupulousness and the excessive attention to details as mentioned, as they focused so much on the details and the extensive rules involved that they tend to overlook why those laws and rules were instated in the first place. Such as the matter mentioned in our Gospel passage today, where the Law of Moses dictated the washing of hands and bowls, which were in fact rules meant to help the people maintain a hygienic life and practices especially in the context of the time of the Exodus and the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan, when the people lived with each other in very close proximity, due to the relatively large number of people travelling in the camps of the Israelites. Such a law and rule was necessary at that time to prevent the spread of plagues and diseases among the people which could be fatal for many of them.

However, the Pharisees and the others who interpreted these rules and laws very strictly and on a very literal level, putting very big emphasis on the details of what ought to be followed. They spent so much focus on how far the washing and cleaning ought to be, right up to the elbows and then how many times the hands and the bowls ought to be washed and cleaned. This was just one among many other rules and regulations that those Pharisees and teachers of the Law fussed excessively about, and hence, this was what the Lord Jesus was criticising and rebuking the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law against so that they would realise the folly and error of their ways, and not to mislead the people of God any further with their unhealthy and incorrection attention and focus on the letter of the Law and the details rather than the true meaning and purpose of the Law.

Ultimately, the Law of God was meant to help and direct God’s people towards Him, and this Law is the Law of love meant to teach and show them all how to truly love the Lord their God wholeheartedly and fully. The Law was never meant to restrain or put heavy burdens on the people of God. Rather, it was given and taught to us to ensure that we may know that we ought to exist for the Lord and we should put Him at the very centre of our lives and existence, and we should do our best so that our lives may truly proclaim His glory and that we will always be ever more faithful to His cause, learning how to love Him and to love our fellow brothers and sisters, as that Law has always been intended to be. The Law of God is the Law of Love, meant to show us how we all ought to love God and one another.djer

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of a great saint and holy woman of the Church, one of the esteemed and honoured Doctors of the Church, namely St. Teresa of Jesus, also known as St. Teresa of Avila. St. Teresa of Avila was one of the founders of the Discalced Carmelites Order, which was born out of the extensive reform of the original Carmelite Order during the time of the Counter-Reformation. St. Teresa of Avila was born during the time when there were great changes and turmoils in Christendom, and she was brought up as a devout Christian by her mother and family, and after losing her mother at a rather early age of eleven, this experience further brought St. Teresa of Avila closer to the Lord, eventually desiring to join religious life and to commit herself to the Lord.

St. Teresa of Avila eventually joined the Carmelites and lived with great piety and dedication to God, committing herself to a life of prayer and self-mortification, resisting the temptations of the world and while experiencing many spiritual ecstasy and mystical visions that eventually led her even closer to God. She was known for her many other spiritual experiences and sufferings, which she endured patiently with faith, and her piety and examples became great inspiration for everyone both during her time and afterwards. Then, as mentioned, she became a great reformer of the Carmelite Order that she belonged to, seeing the laxity and worldly corruption that had crept up into her religious order and community, that many of the religious no longer committed themselves faithfully to the Lord in the manner that the founder of the Order intended to.

To this extent, together with several others, including St. John of the Cross and all those who shared her vision, St. Teresa of Avila resolved to establish the reformed Carmelite order, which would henceforth be known as the Discalced Carmelites, for their willingness and commitment to adhere more faithfully to the tenets and the practices of the original founders and intentions of the Carmelites, which is kind of similar to what we have been hearing in our Scripture passages earlier and discussed today. The Lord also intended to return everyone to the true intention and practice of the Law that God had granted and given to them, purifying the Law that had been misinterpreted and wrongly practiced in the past centuries by the people of God and their leaders, which had led them to the wrong path. In the similar way therefore, St. Teresa of Avila and the other reformers did the same, as they courageously went through the challenges and trials that they had to face amidst their attempts and efforts to establish the reformed Carmelite order.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard from the Scripture readings today and from the life and examples of St. Teresa of Jesus or St. Teresa of Avila, let us all therefore strive as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people to follow Him ever more wholeheartedly and worthily in all things. Let us all continue to do our best so that our whole lives, our every actions and deeds, our words and interactions with one another will continue to proclaim the glory of God. May God bless each and every one of us, and may He continue to guide us in our journey through life and strengthen us in our every efforts and endeavours to glorify Him like His holy saints had done before us, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 15 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 11 : 37-41

At that time, as Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked Him to have a meal with him. So He went and sat at table. The Pharisee then wondered why Jesus did not wash His hands before the dinner.

But the Lord said to him, “So then, you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside yourselves you are full of greed and evil. Fools! He Who made the outside, also made the inside. But according to you, by the mere giving of alms everything is made clean.”

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Tuesday, 15 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 118 : 41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48

Give me Your unfailing love, o YHVH; Your salvation, as You have promised.

Take not the word of truth from my mouth, for I would also lose my hope in Your word.

May I always keep Your word, for ever and ever.

I shall walk in freedom, having sought out Your laws.

For I delight in Your word, which I fear.

I will lift up my hands to You, and meditate on Your commandments.

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Tuesday, 15 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Galatians 5 : 1-6

Christ freed us, to make us really free. So remain firm, and do not submit, again, to the yoke of slavery. I, Paul, say this to you : if you receive circumcision, Christ can no longer help you. Once more, I say, to whoever receives circumcision : you are now bound to keep the whole Law. All you, who pretend to become righteous through the observance of the Law, have separated yourselves from Christ, and have fallen away from grace.

As for us, through the Spirit and faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. In Christ Jesus, it is irrelevant, whether we be circumcised or not; what matters is, faith, working through love.

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Tuesday, 8 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded that we are all called to follow the Lord and to put our focus and attention towards Him, and we should not allow ourselves to be easily tempted and swayed by the many temptations present all around us, be it things that may tempt us through worldly glory, fame, pleasures and all the attachments to worldly matters and comforts, as well as our own pride, ego, desires and all the other obstacles that may manifest themselves in the path that we are all taking in our journey towards the Lord our God and His salvation. All of us as Christians are reminded of this fact as we continue to live our lives faithfully in the Lord’s Presence in each and every days of our lives.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful people of God in the region of Galatia in what is now part of Turkey, where the Apostle spoke of the history of how he was called by God to be His Apostle, his experiences and journey of faith as one of the missionaries and disciples of the Lord. St. Paul spoke openly to the faithful in Galatia about his calling by the Lord, on how earlier on he was a notable and rather infamous enemy of the Lord and the Church because of his misguided zeal and efforts as a young Pharisee to oppose the Lord and His works, persecuting and oppressing the early Christians at that time.

St. Paul shared that to the faithful in Galatia to warn them against being swayed by the false guidance and leads in life, to focus themselves and their attention towards the Lord and to His teachings and words as delivered to them by the Apostles and disciples of the Lord, and not to be tempted by the many falsehoods and false guidance in life, or be swayed by the worldly ambitions, desires and all the false paths that the evil ones have always been tempting us with, trying to lead us into our downfall and destruction. They kept on tempting and swaying us through the many methods and means by trying to cause us to lose our focus and attention on the Lord, and instead we end up falling into the slippery slope towards sin and darkness.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke in which the story of the Lord’s visit to the house of His friends, Mary and Martha, who were the brothers of Lazarus. The Lord was welcomed by both of the sisters in different manner. Mary was attending to the Lord and was listening intently to Him speaking to her and teaching her with His wisdom and words while Martha was busy with the preparations and the works to welcome the Lord, which was presumably including things like preparing meals for the Lord and also cleaning the place and the house, which preoccupied her throughout the time when her sister was attending to the Lord and listening to Him. And as we heard, Martha got fed up and told the Lord to ask her sister to help her in her chores and work.

The Lord then as we heard reminded Martha that what Mary had done was right, that while Martha’s intentions might have been good and she wanted genuinely to welcome and impress the Lord with her hospitality, but in her great efforts and preoccupation with trying to impress the Lord, she had become distracted and tempted away from her right focus on the Lord upon her activities and works instead. In a sense this was also similar with what St. Paul had done earlier in his life as Saul when he persecuted the Church and the early Christians, in his misguided zeal as mentioned earlier on. St. Paul might have good intentions, but he got swayed by the false fanaticism and overzealous attitude with the wrong guidance and path, ending up with him committing great atrocities against the Lord and His people instead.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have been reminded that we must always focus our lives and direct our attention towards the Lord, our God and Saviour. Otherwise, if we allow ourselves to be distracted and swayed through the many temptations and pressures all around us, we may end up falling into the trap of the evil ones who are always ever ready in trying to lead astray from our path towards God and His salvation. God has reminded us to stay vigilant against all those who sought to bring us into the path of sin and disobedience against God, to be careful lest we allow ourselves to be misguided by those who claim to represent the truth and way of the Lord. We must always remain firm in our faith and trust in Him so that in everything that we say and do, we will always proclaim the Lord and His Good News at all times.

As Christians we must always keep in mind that the focus of our lives and existence should always be in the Lord our God, and we should always strive to live our lives worthily of Him, and at the same time cultivating good and genuine relationship with Him so that we may continue to walk ever more faithfully and courageously in His Presence, embracing His love and kindness, His generosity and mercy, as He has called on each one of us to come back to Him and to listen to Him speaking to us once again, just as He has taught and spoken to Mary. How we are to respond to His call and His words being spoken to us is entirely up to us. Are we going to be like Martha who was so busy and preoccupied with her activities and preparations she ended up neglecting her time and relationship with God? Or are we going to be like Mary and strive to centre our lives and activities upon the Lord at all times?

Let us all therefore carefully ponder on all these and consider how we all can live our lives as better Christians from now on, so that as better and more committed people of God, as His beloved ones and holy people, we may continue to grow ever more in faith and love for His ways, for His teachings, His Law and commandments, while resisting the many temptations and all the worldly attachments and desires around us which may distract us from being able to truly commit ourselves to His cause and following Him with all of our hearts and might. May the Lord continue to strengthen our faith in Him and may He continue to empower each and every one of us so that by our exemplary faith we may inspire many others to follow in our footsteps and draw ever closer to the Lord, and distancing ourselves from all the temptations and obstacles that had prevented us from coming close to Him. May God bless us always in everything we do, in our every good endeavours and works, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 8 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 10 : 38-42

At that time, as Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He entered a village, and a woman called Martha welcomed Him to her house. She had a sister named Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet to listen to His words. Martha, meanwhile, was busy with all the serving, and finally she said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the work? Tell her to help me!”

But the Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you worry and are troubled about many things, whereas only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her.”

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Tuesday, 8 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 138 : 1-3, 13-14, 15

O YHVH, You know me : You have scrutinised me. You know when I sit and when I rise; beforehand, You discern my thoughts. You observe my activities and times of rest; You are familiar with all my ways.

It was You Who formed my inmost part and knit me together in my mother’s womb. I thank You for these wonders You have done, and my heart praises You, for Your marvellous deeds.

Even my bones were known to You when I was being formed in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth.

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Tuesday, 8 October 2024 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Galatians 1 : 13-24

You have heard of my previous activity in the Jewish community; I furiously persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. For I was more devoted to the Jewish religion than many fellow Jews of my age, and I defended the traditions of my ancestors more fanatically.

But one day, God called me, out of His great love, He, Who had chosen me from my mother’s womb; and He was pleased to reveal, in me, His son, that I might make Him known among the pagan nations. Then, I did not seek human advice nor did I go up to Jerusalem, to those who were Apostles before me. I immediately went to Arabia, and from there, I returned, again, to Damascus.

Later, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. But I did not see any other Apostle except James, the Lord’s brother. On writing this to you, I affirm before God that I am not lying. After that, I went to Syria and Cilicia. The churches of Christ in Judea did not know me personally; they had only heard of me : “He, who once persecuted us, is now preaching the faith he tried to uproot.” And they praised God because of me.

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Tuesday, 1 October 2024 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, Patroness of all Missionaries and the Missions (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, also known as St. Therese of Lisieux, whose devotion to God and great holiness inspired many others to follow the Lord and to renew their faith in Him. Her famous ‘Little Way’ is inspiration for many up to this day on how each and every one of us can be faithful to God and be good contributors to the good works and missions of the Church through every little things and actions we carry out in our daily living. Today we are all called to reflect upon the good examples and the life of St. Therese of the Child Jesus as we also ponder upon the message of the Sacred Scriptures that we have received from the Lord.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard of the great joy which the Lord promised to His people, to the ones to whom Isaiah had been sent to. The context of this message and revelation is that, the people of the southern kingdom of Judah that the prophet Isaiah had been sent to, they had faced a lot of tribulations and hardships amidst their lives and existence of that time among their neighbours and enemies. They and their brethren in the northern kingdom of Israel had not been truly faithful to God, had disobeyed Him and disregarded the reminders sent to them through the prophets and messengers of God, and as such, they had to face the consequences of their sins and wickedness. Their northern neighbours had been crushed and conquered by the Assyrians and were brought into exile in distant lands.

Therefore, the Lord sent His reassurance to His people, the remnants of those who still remained in the kingdom of Judah, that He still loved them nonetheless and wanted them all to be reconciled and reunited with Him. God has always been full of love and mercy for His people, but He waited for all of them to repent from their sins and wickedness, and for them to embrace once again wholeheartedly, His Law and commandments, and the path which He had shown them all. He told them all through Isaiah that if they are faithful to Him and are committed to Him, then all of them shall receive the fullness of His grace, love and blessings. If they continued to put their trust in Him, eventually He would lead them all out of their troubles and sufferings, bringing them back to His loving Presence and bless them.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard from the Gospel according to St. Matthew in which the disciples of the Lord came to Him asking Him on who would be considered as the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. This was in the context of how those disciples and followers of the Lord had been bickering among themselves, arguing about all these while forgetting the true importance and purpose of their discipleship and obedience to God. They sought for worldly satisfaction and pleasures, fulfilment and achievements, but in the end, all of those things are illusory, temporary and will never last, and no matter what, they would never be truly satisfied by all those temptations and pursuits in life. Each and every one of us must always remember that true satisfaction, happiness can come from the Lord alone.

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Now, why is it significant that the faith of young children have been mentioned by the Lord here? That is because the faith of little children had been used as example for everyone as a child’s faith is truly pure and unblemished and uncorrupted by the allures of worldly desires, temptations and all the other things, pursuits and ambitions that often led us astray in our lives, distracting us with all sorts of temptations and other things that prevented us from truly being able to approach the Lord and coming closer to Him and His salvation. If we can believe in the Lord in the manner that children believe in Him, then all of us can truly be closer to God, committed and dedicated to Him despite the challenges, trials and temptations facing us in our path. And we will not be distracted by those many distractions around us.e 

Now, let us discuss about the life of St. Therese of Lisieux and see how her life and dedication to God reflects what we have just heard in our Scripture passages today. St. Therese of Lisieux was born to a loving family of St. Louis Martin and St. Marie-Azelie Guerin, whose devout and happy life inspired many of their own children to seek the Lord and devote themselves, as many among St. Therese’s siblings also joined religious and consecrated life as she did. St. Therese of Lisieux was frail in health since young, but this did not stop her to grow ever stronger in her love and devotion to God, as her family spent significant amount of time in prayer, participating in the Holy Mass daily and other important devotions and works of faith, among other things. This eventually led to St. Therese to feel the calling from God to embrace religious and consecrated life.

St. Therese began to experience visions and mystical experiences, which gradually drew her ever deeper to her calling, and she was drawn towards the Carmelite sisters, which order her eldest sister had also joined. Then, when she wanted to join the Carmelites after having encountered physical and spiritual challenges, she continued to persevere on despite those difficulties and trials. She was initially not allowed to do so because of her very young age, being only around fourteen years old at the time, but eventually her efforts, perseverance and constant persistence gained the admiration of others, even that of the Pope and her local diocesan bishop, who eventually approved her joining the Carmelite sisters despite her young age.

As a young postulant and member of the Carmelite monastery, St. Therese of Lisieux obeyed her superiors faithfully and lived her life with great devotion and commitment to God, doing whatever she could so that she could live her life ever more worthily of the Lord, spending each time and every moments of her life to glorify God, through every small and little actions she did, which would become known later on as mentioned, as her ‘Little Way’, and as she described herself as the ‘Little Flower of Carmel’. All of us are reminded of this great dedication, faith and commitment which the young St. Therese of Lisieux had for the Lord, who committed herself wholeheartedly to the end of her life, and although she passed away at the young age of barely twenty-four, yet, her faith inspired countless people even to this day.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard of the life and examples of St. Therese of Lisieux and from what we have discussed regarding the Scripture passages today, we are all reminded that as Christians we need to realise our role and responsibilities in doing our part and efforts in whatever we can contribute to the good works of the Church, even in the smallest things. Like what St. Therese of Lisieux told us in her ‘Little Way’ it is a reminder for all of us that even in the seemingly very small and insignificant things we do, we may be surprised to find out just what kind of impact we may have on those around us, and what we can do for others which may benefit them and touch their lives, inspiring them to come towards the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all hence continue to do our best to approach the Lord faithfully and with great love and commitment, doing our part to come towards Him like those of little children, truly and wholeheartedly being faithful and dedicated to Him, seeking Him purely out of love and desire to be reconciled and reunited with Him, and not because of any selfish and worldly ambitions and desires. May the Lord continue to help and strengthen us in our every moments, in everything that we say and do in our lives, now and forevermore. Amen.