Twelve Apostles

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Monday, 25 July 2016 : Feast of St. James, Apostle (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 20 : 20-28

At that time, the mother of James and John came to Jesus with her sons, and she knelt down, to ask a favour. Jesus said to her, “What do you want?” And she answered, “Here You have my two sons. Grant that they may sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, when You are in Your kingdom.”

Jesus said to the brothers, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They answered, “We can.” Jesus replied, “You will indeed drink My cup, but to sit at My right or at My left is not for Me to grant. That will be for those, for whom My Father has prepared it.”

The other ten heard all this, and were angry with the two brothers. Then Jesus called them to Him and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations act as tyrants over them, and the powerful oppress them. It shall not be so among you : whoever wants to be more important in your community shall make himself your servant.”

“And if you want to be the first of all, make yourself the servant of all. Be like the Son of Man Who has come, not to be served but to serve, and to give His life to redeem many.”

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Monday, 25 July 2016 : Feast of St. James, Apostle (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 125 : 1-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6

When the Lord brought the exiles back to Zion, we were like those moving in a dream. Then our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongues with songs of joy.

Among the nations it was said, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord had done great things for us, and we were glad indeed.

Bring back our exiles, o Lord, like fresh streams in the desert. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs and shouts of joy.

They went forth weeping, bearing the seeds for sowing, they will come home with joyful shouts, bringing their harvested sheaves.

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Monday, 25 July 2016 : Feast of St. James, Apostle (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

2 Corinthians 4 : 7-15

However, we carry this treasure in vessels of clay, so that this all-surpassing power may not be seen as ours but as God’s. Trials of every sort come to us, but we are not discouraged. We are left without answer, but do not despair; persecuted but not abandoned, knocked down but not crushed.

At any moment we carry in our person the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in us. For we, the living, are given up continually to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may appear in our mortal existence. And as death is at work in us, life comes to you.

We have received the same spirit of faith referred to in Scripture that says : I believed and so I spoke. We also believe and so we speak. We know that He Who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and bring us, with you, into His presence. Finally, everything is for your good, so that grace will come more abundantly upon you and great will be the thanksgiving for the glory of God.

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Wednesday, 6 July 2016 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Matthew 10 : 1-7

At that time, Jesus called His twelve disciples to Him, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits, to drive them and to heal every disease and sickness.

These are the names of the Twelve Apostles : first Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, the man who would betray Him.

Jesus sent these twelve on mission with these instructions : “Do not visit pagan territory and do not enter a Samaritan town. Go instead to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. Go and proclaim this message : The kingdom of heaven is near.”

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Sunday, 5 June 2016 : 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Galatians 1 : 11-19

Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, that the Gospel we preached to you is not a human message, nor did I receive it from anyone, I was not taught of it but it came to me as a revelation from Christ Jesus. 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.

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Tuesday, 17 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 9 : 30-37

At that time, after leaving the place where Jesus cast a demon out of a mute and deaf boy, He and His disciples made their way through Galilee; but Jesus did not want people to know where He was because He was teaching His disciples. And He told them, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, but three days after He has been killed, He will rise.”

The disciples, however, did not understand these words and they were afraid to ask Him what He meant. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, Jesus asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they did not answer, because they had been arguing about who was the greatest.

Then He sat down, called the Twelve and said to them, “If someone wants to be first, let him be last of all and servant of all.” Then He took a little child, placed him in their midst, and putting His arms around him He said to them, “Whoever welcomes a child such as this in My Name, welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me, welcomes not Me but the One Who sent Me.”

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Saturday, 14 May 2016 : Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Acts 1 : 15-17, 20-26

It was during this time that Peter stood up in the midst of the community – about one hundred and twenty in all – and he said, “Brothers, it was necessary that the Scriptures referring to Judas be fulfilled. The Holy Spirit had spoken through David about the one who would lead the crowd coming to arrest Jesus. He was one of our number and had been called to share our common ministry.”

“In the book of Psalms it is written : Let his house become deserted and may no one live in it. But it is also written : May another take his office. Therefore we must choose someone from among those who were with us during all the time that the Lord Jesus moved about with us, beginning with John’s baptism until the day when Jesus was taken away from us. One of these has to become, with us, a witness to His resurrection.”

Then they proposed two : Joseph, called Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and Matthias. They prayed : “You know, Lord, whakt is in the hearts of all. Show us, therefore, which of the two You have chosen to replace Judas in this Apostolic ministry which he deserted to go to the place he deserved.”

Then they drew lots between the two and the choice fell on Matthias who was added to the eleven Apostles.

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is indeed a great day, the day when we celebrate the feast of not just one, but two of Christ’s Twelve Apostles, His principal and the greatest of His disciples. We celebrate on this day the feast of the Apostles St. Philip and St. James. Both of them worked hard for the sake of the people of God, and as the other Apostles had done, they spread the Good News to many during their missions.

St. Philip was also known as Nathanael, a learnt and wise man of Israel, who was told to be fluent in Greek, and thus eventually he went on to preach the Lord and His truth in the regions of Greece and Roman Asia at the time, going from cities to cities, preaching to the masses and gaining for the Church many new converts and members. He went about the Greek communities and gaining many new faithful from among them.

In the end, in one account, St. Philip even managed to convert the wife of the proconsul of a region where he ministered in through his miracles and preaching. The proconsul was enraged and ordered St. Philip to be arrested, and he together with the other Apostle, St. Bartholomew, and other disciples were crucified upside down by the order of the proconsul. And it was told how St. Philip preached to the crowd gathering there from the cross, such that they wanted to release him, but this was not allowed by St. Philip himself.

Meanwhile, St. James the Greater was the brother of St. John the Apostle, once a fisherman along the Lake of Galilee, whom Jesus called together with His other Apostles, St. Peter, St. Andrew and St. John his brother. St. James the Greater played an important role during the early Church, spreading the Good News of God’s salvation after Christ’s resurrection and ascension into heaven.

It was told that St. James went to preach the Good News to the faraway regions such as the province of Iberia in what is today Spain, spreading the Gospel to the people there and helped to establish the Church in faraway regions from its origins in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. And he was therefore today renowned especially in the region known as Santiago de Compostela, where his body lay buried, because it was there where he apparently did his works of evangelisation.

And it was told that, as written in the Acts of the Apostles, how king Herod arrested St. James when he returned to the Holy Land, and in order to please the Jewish authorities, the Pharisees and the chief priests, he executed him. Thus, St. James was among the first of the Apostles to meet his end in martyrdom, but certainly, his works and legacies could still be felt even many years after his death.

Through his tireless works and commitment to the cause of the salvation of mankind, St. James and St. Philip the two Apostles of our Lord, they might have gone ahead of us to the glory of heaven. However, the impact of their actions can still be felt clearly even today. In this regard, we indeed need more and more people who are willing to commit themselves to the Lord and walk in His path as these two Apostles had one.

Truly, it will not be an easy one for us, as there would opposition against all those who are faithful and kept their faith. But Jesus reminded us yet again in the Gospel today, that we who have believed in Him, has seen the Lord Himself through Jesus, and by our faith in Him, we have been justified. And because we know the Lord, we will also do what He has asked us to do, and through these therefore, we would be blessed and saved.

During this season of Easter, which is coming to an end soon, let us therefore reflect on our own lives, and on how we have acted in our life so far. Have we been committed to our Lord, and have we been faithful to Him, through all of our words and actions? Can we call ourselves true Christians, as those who do not just believe in the Lord through mere words, but also through real action?

The examples of the Apostles St. Philip and St. James show us that there are still many things that we can do as the followers of Christ in order to fulfil the commands which our Lord had placed in the shoulders of the Apostles. Both the Apostles took the charge with zeal and vigour, and despite the challenges and the difficulties that faced them, all these did not prevent them from carrying out the missions which the Lord entrusted to them.

Let us all therefore look forward, and as we are about to celebrate the Solemnity of the Pentecost Sunday soon, let us all recommit ourselves, and rediscover the gifts of the Holy Spirit which had been given to us, and make use of them all in order to help those who are still in darkness, by showing them the love of God manifested through each and every one of us the faithful ones of our Lord, that more and more souls may see the light of God and be saved. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 14 : 6-14

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you know Me, you will know the Father also; indeed you know Him, and you have seen Him.”

Philip asked Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough.” Jesus said to him, “What! I have been with you so long and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever sees Me sees the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?”

“All that I say to you, I do not say of Myself. The Father Who dwells in Me is doing His own work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do.”

“Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in Me will do the same works that I do; and he will even do greater than these, for I am going to the Father. Everything you ask in My Name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Indeed, anything you ask, calling upon My Name, I will do.”

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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 : Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 18 : 2-3, 4-5

The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Day talks it over with day; night hands on the knowledge to night.

No speech, no words, no voice is heard – but the call goes on throughout the universe, the message is felt to the ends of the earth.