Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

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Thursday, 16 November 2017 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Margaret of Scotland and St. Gertrude, Virgin (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints or Holy Virgins)

Psalm 118 : 89, 90, 91, 130, 135, 175

O YHVH, Your word stands forever, firmly fixed in the heavens.

Your faithfulness lasts throughout the ages – as long as the earth You created.

Your ordinances last to this day, for all things are made to serve You.

As Your words unfold, light is shed, and the simple-hearted understand.

Favour me with Your smile and teach me Your statutes.

Long may I live, to sing Your praise, may Your ordinances always be my help!

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Thursday, 16 November 2017 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Margaret of Scotland and St. Gertrude, Virgin (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints or Holy Virgins)

Wisdom 7 : 22 – Wisdom 8 : 1

Because Wisdom, who designed them all, taught me. In her is a spirit that is intelligent, saintly, unique, manifold, subtle, active, concise, pure and lucid. It cannot corrupt, loves what is good and nothing can restrain it; it is beneficent, loving humankind, steadfast, dependable, calm though Almighty. It sees everything and penetrates all spirits, however intelligent, subtle and pure they may be.

Wisdom, in fact, surpasses in mobility all that moves, and being so pure pervades and permeates all things. She is a breath of the power of God, a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; nothing impure can enter her. She is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of God’s action and an image of His goodness.

She is but one, yet Wisdom can do all things and, herself unchanging, she renews all things. She enters holy souls, making them prophets and friends of God, for God loves only those who live with Wisdom. She is indeed more beautiful than the sun and surpasses all the constellations; she outrivals light, for light gives way to night, but evil cannot prevail against Wisdom.

Wisdom displays her strength from one end of the earth to the other, ordering all things rightly.

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Wednesday, 15 November 2017 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us are called to reflect through the Scripture passages that first of all, God is just and impartial, and He does not discriminate based on any criteria, be it race, language, culture or background and status. All of us are equal before God, without any distinction or prejudice, and He loves each one of us with the same degree of love.

In the first reading today, God reminds us that He loves each and every nations, every races and every peoples, instead of favouring just one nation, as what the Israelites at the time of Jesus tended to believe about themselves. They are just the first ones that God called, through their forefather Abraham. Eventually, God is calling all peoples of all the nations towards Himself. All will be judged by the virtue of their good deeds as well as by the wickedness of their sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have not been faithful for much of the time, as we tend to stray away due to the many temptations in this life. This is what have brought down many of us into sin. And sin will lead us eventually to eternal damnation should we remain unrepentant for our sins and mistakes, our disobedience against God. We have to keep this in mind, because sin is the greatest obstacle on our path as we journey towards the Lord.

And all mankind are predisposed and vulnerable to sin, ever since our first ancestors fell into sin by their disobedience. They disobeyed God and chose to follow the lies of Satan instead. As a result, sin corrupted many people, and indeed, sin is a disease of the soul, afflicting many and bringing many people into danger for their souls. By right, our just end will be death, which is the consequence of sin.

However, God does not want us to fall into this status. He wants each one of us to be reconciled to Him and to be healed from the disease of sin afflicting them. That is why in the Gospel today, we heard how Jesus took pity on all those who were afflicted with disease, and healed them all from their sickness. Similarly therefore, God wants us to be freed from the chains that are our sins, which we are suffering from.

Nonetheless, as we heard from the Gospel passage, out of the ten lepers, only one of them returned to the Lord Jesus to thank Him and worship Him, for having cured him from his predicament. The others did not notice, or did not realise, or simply did not care that they had to give thanks to God for all that He had done for them. This is one flaw which many of us Christians are also often to blame for, our lack of gratitude for God’s love and grace.

How many of us live our lives, without realising the grace by which we are inhaling our every breaths? Our very lives are gifts to us from God, and we live by the grace of His will. Indeed, in life we will encounter some bad times just as we should also have some good times. Yet, many of us are quick to judge that we fall into bad times because God has abandoned us, and we became angry at Him.

Thus, all of us Christians must be thankful for whatever God has blessed us with. Some of us may have been given more, while others have been given less. But this should not end up becoming source of conflict or contention between us. Rather, we should share the blessings we have with one another, especially with those who have little or none with them. Let us not ignore the plight and the cries of the poor, the hungry, the lonely and all those who are in need of our help.

St. Albert the Great, a member of the Dominican Order and bishop, whose feast we celebrate today, was also well remembered for his love, care and attention to the people, especially those entrusted to him as their shepherd. He travelled through his diocese on foot, traversing great distances to meet his people, listening to them and caring for them, especially those who are in need.

St. Albert the Great showed us all an example of how each and every one of us as Christians must behave and act in our lives. We should follow their examples and walk along their path, as these people have been faithful in their lives. Now the question is, are we able to do as we are expected as Christians?

God Who sees our charity and genuine love for our brethren, as well as our devotion to His cause will reward us in the end of it all, each according to our every deeds. Let us all strive to be truly faithful in all things and in all occasions towards the Lord our God. May the Lord help us and guide us in our life journey, that we will ever draw closer to Him. Amen.

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Wednesday, 15 November 2017 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Luke 17 : 11-19

At that time, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus passed through Samaria and Galilee, and as He entered a village, ten lepers came to meet Him. Keeping their distance, they called to Him, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

Jesus said to them, “Go, and show yourselves to the priests.” Then, as they went on their way, they found they were cured. One of them, as soon as he saw that he was cleansed, turned back, praising God in a loud voice; and throwing himself on his face before Jesus, he gave Him thanks. This man was a Samaritan.

Then Jesus asked him, “Were not all ten healed? Where are the other nine? Did none of them decide to return and give praise to God, but this foreigner?” And Jesus said to him, “Stand up and go your way; your faith has saved you.”

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Wednesday, 15 November 2017 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Psalm 81 : 3-4, 6-7

Give justice to the weak and the orphan; defend the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the helpless and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

“You are gods,” I said, “You are all sons of the Most High.” But now, you will die like the others; you will all fall, like any mortal.

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Wednesday, 15 November 2017 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Wisdom 6 : 1-11

Listen, o kings, and understand; rulers of the most distant lands, take warning. Pay attention, you who rule multitudes and boast of the numerous subjects in your pagan nations!

For authority was given you by the Lord, your kingship is from the Most High Who will examine your works and scrutinise your intentions. If, as officials of His kingdom, you have not judged justly or observed His law or walked the way God pointed our, He will oppose you swiftly and terribly; His sentence strikes the mighty suddenly.

For the lowly there may be excuses and pardon, but the great will be severely punished. For the Lord of all makes no distinction, nor does He take account of greatness. Both great and lowly are His work and He watches over all, but the powerful are to be judged more strictly.

It is to you then, sovereigns, that I speak, that you may learn Wisdom and not stumble. For those who keep the holy laws in a holy way will be acknowledged holy, and those who accept the teaching will find in it their defence. Welcome my words, desire them and they will instruct you.

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Tuesday, 14 November 2017 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s Scripture passages, we heard how all of us mankind are God’s servants, and all of us are created by God’s love, and we are created as God’s children and servants. And as children and servants, all of us must obey the will of God our Father, Creator and Master. Yet, we know how mankind have sinned and disobeyed the Lord, through our sins.

And the just consequence for sin is death, as sin separates us from God, the Lord and Master of all life. Without God, we cannot exist, and we shall only suffer in the absence of God’s love and grace. And that is what was going to happen to all of us to our immortal soul, cast in the darkness away from God’s love. For while the body and the flesh is finite and mortal, but the soul is immortal.

If we do not walk in God’s ways and continue to sin against Him, then our lot will be that of eternal damnation and suffering, not because of the fires of hell which is often in our imagination and understanding of what hell is about, but rather because we have no hope of escape from the torment in hell. And the suffering to be experienced in hell is caused by the total separation between us, from God’s love. That eternal suffering come about because of the sundering, where in an eternity of despair we know that there is no escape for us from that state.

This is the eternal torment, knowing that there is no way forward for us except to endure forever this separation from God’s love. And this is what each and every one of us Christians should do our best in order to avoid falling into this state. Yet, many of us continue to ignore God’s reminders and warnings, even though He has endlessly tried to remind us via various means, calling us to return to Him and to be reconciled with Him.

We live at a time when we tend to put God aside, and focus on the many distractions that exist in this world, to the point that we forget about Him. We often find excuse so as we do not have to follow His ways, and we are often too preoccupied in doing our daily businesses that we end up failing to be good disciples of the Lord. As a result, that is why there are so many of us who are in danger of falling into eternal damnation, if we do not do anything about our current state of grace and faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us ought to take note that we should no longer allow the temptations of this world to sway us to do whatever it is that the devil wants us to do. Instead, we should let the Holy Spirit to be the Guide of our lives, rather than allowing our human desires to guide our ways. We must persevere through many challenges and even oppositions to our way of life, if we are to live according to God’s ways.

But let us now ask ourselves, have we let the Lord through His Holy Spirit to guide our lives? Too often, we are so stubborn in our ways that we want to forge our own path. Yet we have to realise that in God alone lies our only hope, and it is He alone Who is worthy of trust. If we rely solely on our human power, abilities and talents, we are bound to fail, for without God, nothing that we can do will truly be successful.

And ultimately in the end, we have to render accounts of each of our own lives, what we have achieved and done, in this opportunity given to us by the Lord. If we are not faithful, and wander away in sin, we will be judged by those sins, and our souls will be in great danger of damnation. Is that what we want, brethren? An eternity in suffering? Does it worth a lifetime of joy and pleasure, that is insignificant compared to an eternity of damnation?

Let us all renew our commitment to the Lord from now on, brothers and sisters in Christ, so that in everything we say, do and act, we will try our best to be righteous and to obey the commandments of Our Lord, that is to put the Lord as the priority and focus of our lives, and to love Him and our fellow men wholeheartedly. May the Lord help us in our endeavour, and may He continue to guide us on our path. Amen.

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Tuesday, 14 November 2017 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 17 : 7-10

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Who among you would say to your servant, coming in from the fields after plowing or tending sheep, ‘Go ahead and have your dinner’? No, you tell him, ‘Prepare my dinner. Put on your apron, and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink afterward.'”

“Do you thank this servant for doing what you told him to do? I do not think so. And therefore, when you have done all that you have been told to do, you should say, ‘We are no more than servants; we have only done our duty.'”

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Tuesday, 14 November 2017 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 33 : 2-3, 16-17, 18-19

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

The eyes of YHVH are fixed on the righteous; His ears are inclined to their cries. But His face is set against the wicked, to destroy their memory from the earth.

YHVH hears the cry of the righteous and rescues them from all their troubles. YHVH is close to the brokenhearted and saves the distraught.

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Tuesday, 14 November 2017 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Wisdom 2 : 23 – Wisdom 3 : 9

Indeed God created man to be immortal in the likeness of His own nature, but the envy of the devil brought death to the world, and those who take his side shall experience death.

The souls of the just are in the hands of God and no torment shall touch them. In the eyes of the unwise they appear to be dead. Their going is held as a disaster; it seems that they lose everything by departing from us, but they are in peace.

Though seemingly they have been punished, immortality was the soul of their hope. After slight affliction will come great blessings, for God has tried them and found them worthy to be with Him; after testing them as gold in the furnace, He has accepted them as a holocaust.

At the time of His coming they will shine like sparks that run in the stubble. They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will be their King forever. Those who trust in Him will penetrate the truth, those who are faithful will live with Him in love, for His grace and mercy are for His chosen ones.