Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 127 : 1-2, 3, 4-5
Blessed are you who fear the Lord and walk in His ways. You will eat the fruit of your toil; you will be blessed and favoured.
Your wife, like a vine, will bear fruits in your home; your children, like olive shoots will stand around your table.
Such are the blessings bestowed upon the man who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion. May you see Jerusalem prosperous all the days of your life.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Tobit 6 : 10-11 and Tobit 7 : 1, 9-17 and Tobit 8 : 4-9a
When Tobias and Raphael had entered Media and were already approaching Ecbatana, Raphael said to Tobias, “Friend, we shall spend the night at the house of Ragouel. He is a relative of yours. He has no son, just an only daughter called Sara.”
When they arrived in Ecbatana, Tobias said to Raphael, “Friend Azarias, take me straight away to our friend Ragouel.” So Raphael led Tobias to Ragouel’s house and they found Ragouel sitting by the door of the courtyard.
They killed a sheep and served them numerous dishes. After they had bathed and washed, as they were relaxing before the meal, Tobias said to Raphael, “Friend Azarias, tell Ragouel to give me Sara my kinswoman. Talk about what you were saying during our journey, that the matter may come about and be accomplished.”
Ragouel overheard the conversation and he said to Tobias, “Eat, drink and be merry tonight. You are the man who has most right to take Sara my daughter because you are my kinsman. Indeed it is impossible for me to give her to any other man but you, because you are my closest relative.”
“But, my son, I must tell you the whole story. I gave her to seven husbands from among our kinsmen. They each died on the wedding night. But, for the moment, my son, eat and drink, and the Lord will arrange things for you.”
Tobias said, “I shall eat nothing if you do not stop now and bring this matter to a conclusion.” Ragouel said to Tobias, “Take her from now on; I give her to you according to the Law of Moses and you have to understand that God Himself gives her to you. Receive your kinswoman, from now on you are her brother and she is your sister.”
“She is yours from today and forever. Now God will bless you this night and may He give you both His mercy and peace.” Ragouel called his daughter Sara and taking her by the hand, he gave her to Tobias as his wife. He said, “According to Moses’ Law, take her now and bring her to your father’s house.” And he blessed them.
Ragouel then called Edna his wife; taking a sheet of parchment, he wrote down a matrimonial contract and they both affixed their seals. Then they all began to eat. Ragouel called his wife and said to her, “My sister, prepare the other room and take Sara there.”
Edna did as Ragouel told her and she took Sara to this room and Sara began to cry. Edna dried her daughter’s tears and said, “Have courage, my child, the God of heaven and earth will change your sorrow into joy. Have confidence, my daughter!”
When Sara’s parents had left the room and closed the door, Tobias got up from the bed and said to Sara, “Get up, my sister, and let us ask the Lord to have mercy on us and save us.” She got up and they began to pray, asking that they be given life. Tobias began like this, “May You be blessed, o Lord God of our fathers, and may Your holy and glorious Name be blessed forever.”
“May the heavens and all creatures bless You. You created Adam and You gave him Eve, his wife, as a helper and companion, so that from these two the human race might be born. You said : ‘It is not good that man should be alone, let us give him a companion who is like himself.'”
“Now, Lord, I take my sister to myself in sincerity and love, not merely seeking pleasure. Have mercy on us and grant us a long life together.” Together they said, “Amen,” and returned to bed for the night.”
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how two people in different places, both suffering from the depredations of evil and troubles of the world, namely Tobit and Sara, both were so distressed after having been harassed by others around them, on top of their suffering which they have endured all the while. Tobit and his blindness and the criticisms others placed on his charitable works, and Sara with the problem of her deceased seven husbands because of the vile works of the demon Asmodeus.
The Gospel today spoke about the resistance which Jesus encountered from the Sadducees, one of the two major groups in the society of the people of Israel at the time, one of the two influential parties that were involved in the governance of the people of God. The Sadducees were the ones who were close to the positions of secular power if not the holders of the secular power themselves.
They were a pragmatic group of people, who thought with reason and thinking in terms of facts and proofs, that just like what we know with science today, these people refused to believe in something if they were unable to explain it, or feel it, or witness it directly with their own senses. Thus they did not believe in the angels, or any spirits, or in the resurrection of the dead.
This was the opposite of the other group, the Pharisees, who believed in all of them, and as a matter of fact, was equally extreme in their views as the Sadducees had theirs. The Pharisees were ultra-orthodox in their views on the faith, and they were very strict in their observations of the Law, while if we look at the Sadducees, they were almost atheist in nature. And it was against the Sadducees that Jesus stood up against in the Gospel today.
The Sadducees were too engrossed and attached to worldliness and think in terms of the world to be able to appreciate and understand the true nature of men. They were those people who live only for themselves, filled with selfishness. They could not comprehend life beyond this world, and therefore they also likely feared death, because death means the separation from the goodness of this world, and it is the ultimate uncertainty for them.
But the truth and the fact is that death is merely just the transition in our lives, between the imperfect life we have now in this world, and the life in the world that is to come, the perfect life no longer marred by sin and darkness of the world. Instead of fearing it, we should rather embrace it instead. God always sends reminders after reminders to us, to keep us straight in the path of this life, that we may ever be faithful and true to the end.
And in the first reading, we are shown this by the example of the healing of Tobit from his blindness and the exorcism of Asmodeus who had troubled the household of Sara. The Lord heard their respective prayers and sent the Archangel Raphael to heal them from their afflictions and troubles. This is one proof of the work of God which He had done through His angels, which the Sadducees did not believe in.
God works in mysterious ways, including what He had done with Tobit and Sara, and if we read more thoroughly the Book of Tobit, then we would now how wonderful God’s plans are, which God made real and tangible through the Archangel Raphael. We are reminded that there are many things that we may not understand, but all we need to do is to keep that faith we have in the Lord and God will reveal to us and teach us everything we need to know.
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, martyrs of the Faith, who were martyred for their faith in the country now known as Uganda. He was once a servant and confidant of the king of his country, who heard about the teaching of the true Faith by the missionaries, and then when he and others who have converted refused to recant their faith, their deaths were ordered by the king.
The courage and devotion of St. Charles Lwanga and his fellow companions in faith and martyrdom is a clear reminder for us that while the true teachings of the faith is with us now, and while we receive the same faith which the saints have received, but just as Jesus was opposed at every corners by various factions, including the Sadducees as we heard today, then we too will inevitably meet challenges along the way too.
Then in that case, are we going to just give in and conform to the views of others around us? Tobit and Sara were also mocked and humiliated many times for what they have done, and for having kept the faith, and at times they were so distraught and pressured so as to be so desperate, that Sara once even thought of taking her own life, but they persevered on, and they remained faithful.
God cares for all those who remain true to Him and He preserves all those who cling to Him faithfully, as He had shown through what He had done to Tobit and Sara. He blessed them, healed them and gave them far more than what they had lost. The same He had also done to Job, the suffering but faithful servant of God.
Let us all therefore, inspired also by the examples of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, tortured and killed for their faith but raised to the glory of heaven, that we too may do our best to be righteous in the eyes of the Lord and remain true to our faith in Him in all the things we do. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Mark 12 : 18-27
At that time, the Sadducees also came to Jesus. Since they claim that there is no resurrection, they questioned Him in this way, “Master, in the Scriptures Moses gave us this law : If anyone dies and leaves a wife but no children, his brother must take the woman, and with her have a baby, who will be considered as the child of his deceased brother.”
“Now, there were seven brothers. The first married a wife, but he died without leaving any children. The second took the wife, and he also died leaving no children. The same thing happened to the third. In fact, all seven brothers died, leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. Now, in the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife? For all seven brothers had her as wife.”
Jesus replied, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry, but are like the angels in heaven. Now, about the resurrection of the dead, have you never had thoughts about the burning bush in the book of Moses? God said to Moses : I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is the God not of the dead but of the living. You are totally wrong.”
Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 24 : 2-3, 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9
In You my God I trust; let me not be put to shame, let not my enemies exult over me. Those who hope in You will never be humbled; those who turn away from You will suffer disgrace!
Teach me Your ways, o Lord; make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour; I hope in You all day long.
Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.
Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Tobit 3 : 1-11a, 16-17a
Distressed, I wept and prayed and expressing my sorrow, I said, “You are just, o Lord; all Your actions and all Your ways are merciful and just; Your judgments are always true and just. Remember me, Lord, and look on me. Do not punish me for my sins nor for the wrongs I have committed through ignorance. Pardon the sins which my fathers have committed in Your sight, for they disobeyed Your commandments.
“You have allowed us to suffer pillage, captivity and death. You have allowed us to be mocked by all the pagan nations among whom we have been dispersed. Ah well! All Your judgments are just when You choose to punish me for my sins and those of my fathers, because we have not accomplished Your will, nor have we sincerely obeyed Your commands. We have not walked before You in truth.”
“Do with me as You will. Order my life taken from me, and turn me into dust, because I prefer death to life. In this way free me and let me return to dust. It is better for me to die than to live, because these unjust reproaches have caused me great distress. Command that I be now released from trials, and let me enter my eternal dwelling place. Do not turn Your face away from me.”
That same day, at Ecbatana in Media, Sara, the daughter of Ragouel, was insulted in a similar way by her father’s young maidservants. Sara had had seven husbands, but the demon Asmodeus had killed each one of them before the marriage had been consummated.
The maidservants said, “It was you who killed your husbands. You have had seven husbands and you have not enjoyed marital relationship with any of them. Why do you punish us? Since they are dead, go and join them. May we never see a son or daughter of yours!”
That same day Sara was so distressed in mind that she went to the upper room in her father’s house. She wished to hang herself. But she thought better of it and said : “If people ever reproached my father and said to him : ‘You had an only daughter whom you cherished and she hanged herself because she was unhappy,’ I would cause my father in his old age to die of grief. It is better for me not to hang myself but to ask the Lord that I may die and not live to hear any more insults.”
At that moment she stretched forth her hands towards the window and prayed, saying, “You are blessed, o Lord my God, and blessed is Your holy and glorious Name throughout the ages.”
The Lord in His glory heard the prayer of Tobit and Sara and He sent Raphael to heal them both – to give back his sight to Tobit and to give Sara, the daughter of Ragouel, to Tobit’s son Tobias, as his wife.
Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the well known teaching of our Lord Jesus on the matter of the paying of taxes to Caesar. From there came the words we all must have known, that we ought to pay back or give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God. This is a clear reminder for us, to do our duties to the Lord, which we often forget and neglect.
Why is this so, brothers and sisters? It is because we are often so occupied by the many things of this world to the point that we forget about giving glory to God. It is too often that we seek to please the world and give in to the demands of the world, at the expense of our faith in the Lord and at the cost of our conviction to walk in the way of our God.
We try to please the world, try to be accepted and not to be different from the opinion of the majority, trying to be seen as being open and receptive, all so that we may feel the acceptance by the world, that the world may welcome us and even praise us for what we have done, and also to give us that sense of comfort. But at what cost, brothers and sisters in Christ?
At the cost of our very own soul and our own salvation. We have been given much by the Lord, from our lives to our talents and skills, and all the other graces and blessings He had granted us. But at the same time, this cannot mean that we ought to be on the other extreme, that is to give honour to the Lord alone and rejecting all that is in the world.
For this will mean bringing and unnecessarily causing the opposition of the world upon us. Yes, indeed in the ages past and even now, many have suffered persecution, oppression and even martyrdom for their faith, but this does not mean that we have to purposefully look for this kind of trouble by actively opposing the world and rejecting the world completely and entirely.
Truly, what we should do is just as what Jesus had advocated in the Gospel today. It is the middle way between the two extremes. The Pharisees had tried to trap Jesus in His own words, that if He chose any of the two choices, then they would condemn Him. If He chose to say that we should obey God alone, then the Pharisees would condemn Him before men, before the Roman leaders. If He chose to say that we should obey human authority alone, then they would also condemn Him because then He would have blasphemed against God.
In the same way therefore, we must walk the path of compromise between the two. Remember, give to the world what is due to it, and give to the Lord, what we owe to the Lord. We owe the world the obedience to the human norms and laws, taxes and other things that bind us as people of this world. On the other hand, we owe the Lord even more, namely our love and obedience, our obedience to His laws and commandments, and ultimately our lives itself is due from the Lord.
What we have to take note is, we must be very careful and vigilant, that in observing the laws of this world, we do not make compromises that undermine the wholeness of the truth of the Lord which we have received, and the wholeness of the faith which we have for the Lord. We should be good citizens and follow the customs of the world, but not to the point of sacrificing or giving in to worldliness in the matter of faith and in the matter of our obedience to God.
Today we celebrate the feast of two great martyrs, St. Marcellinus and St. Peter the Martyr, both of whom were Roman martyrs of the early Church, who were martyred at the time of the great persecution against the Church and the faithful by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. They were likely martyred because of their opposition to the Emperor’s demands that all Romans, including Christians, must offer sacrifices to the pagan gods and to the Emperor.
Most if not all Christians at that time were good citizens, paying taxes and obeying the laws as far as they do not impinge on the core tenets of the faith. When the Emperor and the Roman state began to encroach upon this and force things that would cause the people to sin against God, many of them refused to follow suit and as a result were martyred, as St. Marcellinus and St. Peter were martyred.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on this today, so that we may find our true path in this world, that while we conform to some ways of the world, we will be careful not to let anything to sway or distract us away from our true allegiance to the Lord our God. May God Almighty be with us always and guide us, so that we may resist the temptations of the world and remain faithful to Him. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)
Mark 12 : 13-17
At that time, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law sent to Jesus some Pharisees with members of Herod’s party, with the purpose of trapping Him by His own words. They came and said to Jesus, “Master, we know that You are truthful; You are not influenced by anyone, and Your answers do not vary according to who is listening to You, but You truly teach God’s way. Tell us, is it against the Law to pay taxes to Caesar? Should we pay them or not?”
But Jesus saw through their trick and answered, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a silver coin and let Me see it.” They brought Him one and Jesus asked, “Whose image is this, and whose name?” They answered, “Caesar’s.”
Then Jesus said, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” And they were greatly astonished.
Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)
Psalm 111 : 1-2, 7-8, 9
Alleluia! Blessed is the one who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commands. His children will be powerful on earth; the upright’s offspring will be blessed.
He has no fear of evil news, for his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is confident, he needs not fear, he shall prevail over his foes at the end.
He gives generously to the poor, his merits will last forever and his head will be raised in honour.
Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)
Tobit 2 : 9-14
That same night, after I had buried the body, I returned home. I washed myself and went out into the courtyard to sleep against the wall; my face was uncovered because of the heat.
I did not see that there were sparrows on the wall of the courtyard and, as my eyes were open, the hot droppings from the sparrows fell into my eyes and formed a white film on my eyes. I went to find doctors to attend to me for medical treatment but the more ointments they smeared on my eyes, the more blind I became because of the film.
Finally I became totally blind. I suffered from blindness for four years. All my brothers were burdened because of me. Ahikar kept me for two years before he departed for Elymiade. My wife Anna worked hard at a woman’s task, weaving. On the seventh day of the month of March she cut the cloth and delivered it to her employers. They paid her wages and gave her, over and above, a young goat for food.
When she returned home the kid began to cry. I said to her, “Where does the little kid come from? Did you steal it? Return it to its owners for we are not allowed to eat anything that is stolen.” But she said, “It is a gift which has been given to me in addition to my wages.”
“I do not believe it. I tell you to return it to its owners.” I was ashamed of her. She replied, “What about your own almsgiving and your good deeds? I have to put up with all this from you.”
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 