Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)
Psalm 110 : 7-8, 9, 10
The works of His hands are faithful and just, trustworthy are all His precepts, ordained to last forever, bearers of truth and uprightness.
He has sent His people deliverances and made with them a covenant forever. His Holy Name is to be revered!
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; prudent are those who live by His precepts. To Him belongs everlasting praise.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)
1 Timothy 4 : 12-16
Let no one reproach you on account of your youth. Be a model to the believers in the way you speak and act, in your love, your faith and purity of life. Devote yourself to reading, preaching and teaching, until I come.
Do not neglect the spiritual gift conferred on you with prophetic words when the elders laid their hands upon you. Think about it and practice it so that your progress may be seen by all. Take heed of yourself and attend to your teaching. Be steadfast in doing this and you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today what we heard in the Scripture Readings from the Old and the New Testament is that all of us ought to wake up from our lack of wisdom, from our lack of understanding of the will of God, and thus we are unable to discern what is best for us to do in this life, in our actions and deeds, where our confusion resulting in the devil being able to enter into our hearts and minds and tempt us to commit sinful things.
This is what will happen if we do not put our trust in the Lord and instead rely and depend on our own whim and desires. Each of us have our different desires and wants, and when these differ from each other and no one would want to give way to the other, then conflict would arise, and this is the root of many of the sorrows and bitterness in this world, past, present and in the coming future.
Those who trust in the wisdom of men will be disappointed, as they should all realise that the intellect and capacity of mankind to understand the world around them is limited and filled with prejudice and preconceptions. We look at the world through tinted glasses of our human judgment, and as a result, we have the tendency to judge others based on what we see and what we have experienced in life.
Thus, this was why they judged St. John the Baptist and Jesus as they went about seeing what the two had done in their ministry and work in this world. They used their prejudices to think badly of St. John the Baptist as a madman and a lunatic, while of Jesus they thought of Him as a heretic and someone who refused to follow and obey the Law, and preferring to follow His own way.
Yes, these were the prejudices of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, which in what I have often mentioned, they were often so fixated in fulfilling the requirements and rigours of the Law that they forgot about God’s intentions of giving those laws to mankind in the first place. They thought that just because they were educated and filled with human and worldly wisdom, then they were to be esteemed and respected, and they thought that they had the right to judge others based on their judgment.
They were too focused on themselves, and rather than realising what God wanted from them, they became self-righteous, self-serving and filled with all sorts of selfishness and ego that characterised their actions and their deeds, and in how they always worked to undermine the good works of Christ Jesus our Lord. They thought of Jesus as a rival and as someone who would steal their glory and privileges from them, and giving in to their ego and pride, they committed great sins before the Lord.
This is clearly what we do not want to replicate in ourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ. Our path forward should be filled with humility and trust in the wisdom and in the will of God, recognising that our opinions and intellect would not provide everything that we need, and that we may commit errors and mistakes, whereas the Lord can never be wrong.
It is just as what was said that those who want to follow Jesus must first die to themselves before they are able to follow Him and walk in His ways. This does not mean a literal death, but rather, the ending of one’s own pride and ego, the ending of the desires and the greed that had been for so long a great obstacle on our path to redemption. We have to first get rid of our selfishness and our self-loving and self-serving attitudes before we can truly serve and follow the Lord our God.
Today we celebrate the feast of two saints, whose lives and examples can hopefully be an inspiration to all of us, so that we too may be able to walk in the same path that they have walked in. It is important for us to remember what Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian had done in their life, in their work to bring greater glory to God, and in their commitment to the people of God.
Pope St. Cornelius was the Bishop of Rome, Pope and Leader of the Universal Church whose leadership was essential to help and guide the faithful during a time when they lived in fear of the authorities and the world, where they were persecuted daily for their sins. He led the people of the faith against the great persecution against the faithful led by the Roman Emperor Decius, who was infamous for his especially bloody and harsh persecution of Christians.
Together with many of the faithful and their leaders, which include St. Cyprian, an influential Bishop of Carthage, they led the faithful through a difficult time, including dealing not just with the external threat of official persecution but also the internal divisions and disagreements within the Church itself. The persecution had caused a great division in the Church, with the faction favouring harsh stance on those Christians who had been known to give way to some demands of the worldly authorities in place of their safety, and those, on the side of Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian, who favoured mercy and forgiveness on these people.
In this, we can see clearly how the readings today stack up and is repeated once again there, with those favouring harsh persecution and treatment of their fellow brethren in faith as those who were like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, in trusting their own human judgment and intellect in coming out with solutions and in how they deal with issues such as the one presented to them.
It does not mean of course, that God tolerated the sins of those who have committed sin and not being faithful to Him. God still despises all of those sins, even to the smallest and least of sins. However, what differentiates everything is the fact that God does not hate us or despise us as a human being, as His creation in any way. He loves us all greatly, and desires nothing else other than for us to repent our ways, to change and to be welcomed back into His grace.
Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian brought the mercy of God to these people, reminding them to keep themselves worthy and pure from sins, and these two courageous and holy men did not fear even the pressures and threats from the world, and bravely embraced martyrdom, dying in defending their faith. They remained true to the end, and rather than placing their own interests, wishes and wants first, they placed God before everything else.
Let us all learn from their examples, and let us all learn to be more committed, devoted and faithful in our ways. May Almighty God help us and guide us on our way, so that we may grow less and less attached to ourselves and grow smaller in our ego, dying to our selfishness, and rise anew as people dedicated to the Lord, filled with His love, caring and loving one another as He had taught us. God bless us all and may He bring us to eternal life. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Luke 7 : 31-35
At that time, Jesus said to the people and to His disciples, “What comparison can I use for this people? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace, about whom their companions complain, ‘We piped you a tune and you would not dance; we sang funeral songs and you would not cry.'”
“Remember John : he did not eat bread or drink wine, and you said, ‘He has an evil spirit.’ Next came the Son of Man, eating and drinking and you say, ‘Look, a glutton for food and wine, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But the children of Wisdom always recognise her work.”
Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 110 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6
Alleluia! I thank the Lord with all my heart in the council of the just, in the assembly. The works of the Lord are great, and pondered by all who delight in them.
Glorious and majestic are His deeds, His righteousness endures forever. He lets us remember His wondrous deeds; the Lord is merciful and kind.
Always mindful of His covenant, He provides food for those who fear Him. He shows His people the power of His arm by giving them the lands of other nations.
Liturgical Colour : Red
1 Timothy 3 : 14-16
I give you these instructions, although I hope I will see you soon. If I delay, you will know how you ought to conduct yourself in the household of God, that is, the Church of the Living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth. How great indeed is the mystery of divine blessing!
He was shown in the flesh and sanctified by the Spirit; presented to the angels and proclaimed to all nations. The world believed in Him : He was taken up in glory!
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we continue the narrative of yesterday’s celebration of the Triumph of the Holy Cross with the memorial of our Lady of Sorrows, the sorrowful mother of our Lord, who waited on her Son at the foot of the cross, where Jesus hung upon between the heavens and the earth. She waited patiently there, looking up as her Son expired and breathed His last, and His earthly work was done at last.
Mary knew that the day would come when she as a mother would have to see and feel the pain of seeing her Son suffering and dying before her own eyes. This had been prophesied by the prophet Simeon at the time when Jesus was only eight days old, when He was offered to the Lord as the first Son in the Temple of Jerusalem. At that time, Simeon and Anna the prophetess foretold Mary what would happen to her Son, and what it would mean to her in the time to come.
As a mother who loves her Son very greatly, as all mothers should, Mary certainly felt the great and inconsolable pain of seeing the suffering that her Son endured for the sake of all mankind. He was made to suffer for the faults and mistakes that He did not do, and He was sentenced to death even though He was innocent and without blame. And as He was led like a Lamb brought to the slaughterhouse in silent obedience, His mother also looked upon all these in silence.
This is why we also know Mary as the Mother of sorrows, our Lady of Sorrows, as the sorrowful heart of hers had to endure the death of her own Son, and an unjust and unreasonable one at that, for He was blameless and judged wrongly by His enemies who cried out for His death. And no mother should indeed witness the death of her own child, for she was supposed to live in happiness and see her children happy and prosperous around her.
But Mary is a great example to all mothers, and to all of us as well. She took all these with patience and with a great heart, and more importantly, she kept a great and unfailing faith in the Lord. She knew her part in the plan of salvation which God had revealed to her, even though not in full, but she knew that all that Jesus, her Son, had to go through, is for the better future of all mankind.
Thus, she persevered and pushed on, and painful as it was, she walked along her Son, following Him step by step as He walked down that path. And she faithfully stood by at the foot of the cross, committed and dedicated to the end. And Jesus knew how committed and dedicated His mother was, just as she had dedicated her entire life for Him. That was why He entrusted her to all of us mankind through His disciple John.
And in that way, He entrusted His mother to us, that she shall be our mother, and we become her children, as God also entrusted us all through John His disciple to Mary His own mother. And through this, Mary became our greatest help and intercessor who is constantly praying for us, interceding for our sake, and this is because of her own loving instinct as a mother, and our mother in that.
Shall we therefore, today, on this celebration in honour and memory of the sorrowful mother of our Lord, our Lady of Sorrows, Mary most faithful and devoted, pledge ourselves to dedicate ourselves more and more to her, and thus, through her we will be able to reach out to her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and attain the salvation which He had promised to all those who keep their faith in Him.
Mary, our mother is always concerned about us, for we have been entrusted to her, and just as she had witnessed the great pain and suffering which Jesus her Son had endured for our sake, she would certainly not want to witness us falling into sin and then suffering the same sufferings which her Son had worked so hard to liberate us from, and therefore, she constantly prays for us, and we too should work together with her, and do our best in our own lives to make ourselves worthy of the Lord.
May Almighty God, and His sorrowful mother, who is faithful and devoted to Him at all times, help us to find our way to Him, and guide us so that we may not lose our path but be able to reach Him and the salvation and eternal life which He had promised us. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 19 : 25-27
Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother’s sister Mary, who was the wife of Cleophas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw the mother, and the disciple whom He loved, He said to the mother, “Woman, this is your son.” Then He said to the disciples, “There is your mother.” And from that moment the disciple took her to his own home.
Alternative reading
Luke 2 : 33-35
The father and mother of Jesus wondered at what was said about the Child. Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, His mother, “Know this : your Son is a sign, a sign established for the falling and rising of many in Israel, a sign of contradiction; and a sword will pierce your own soul, so that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 30 : 2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 15-16, 20
In You, o Lord, I take refuge, may I never be disgraced; deliver Me in Your justice. Give heed to My plea, and make haste to rescue Me.
Be a rock of refuge for Me, a fortress for My safety. For You are My rock and My stronghold, lead Me for Your Name’s sake.
Free Me from the snare that they have set for Me. Indeed You are my Protector. Into Your hands I commend My Spirit; You have redeemed Me, o Lord, faithful God.
But I put My trust in You, o Lord, I said : “You are My God;” My days are in Your hand. Deliver Me from the hand of My enemies, from those after My skin.
How great is the goodness which You have stored for those who fear You, which You show, for all to see, to those who take refuge in You!
Liturgical Colour : White
Hebrews 5 : 7-9
Christ, in the days of His mortal life, offered His sacrifice with tears and cries. He prayed to Him who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His humble submission.
Although He was Son, He learnt through suffering what obedience was, and once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for those who obey Him.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 