Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the Scripture passage, in which we continued the story told by St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in Galatia. St. Paul told them how he came to be the Apostle of Christ, and how he conducted his ministry during the early years of his mission. He met with the other Apostles in Judea and Jerusalem, and he was affirmed in the mission by those Apostles who supported his efforts.

Yet, St. Paul did not have it easy throughout his mission, as he encountered difficult moments when he had to even go against the other Apostles at times, for their indecisiveness regarding the matter of the obligations for Christians to follow and obey the old law of the Jewish people, that is the laws of Moses. There were many among the Jews, especially among the Pharisees and the teachers who became believers of Christ, who wanted the imposition of Jewish traditions and practices in its entirety on the Christian faithful, even among those who were of non-Jewish or Gentile origin.

St. Paul disagreed with those who wanted such an imposition, and argued with them, and also with the some of the Apostles and elders of the Church who did not take a firm action against those who wanted such an irresponsible action and un-Christian attitudes to go on. The disciples and the Apostles therefore argued among themselves, and yet, whatever disagreements they must have had at that time, eventually through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they overcame those differences.

What is the key, brothers and sisters in Christ? How did they overcome their issues and troubles? It is because they discerned carefully the will of God, and took into consideration their weaknesses and the challenges they encountered through prayer, that is through intimate and close relationship with God. They are in close relationship with God, following the example set before them by none other than the Lord Jesus Himself.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard how the Lord Jesus taught His disciples the prayer that He Himself made, directed to God His Father. Although He is indeed the Son of God, but this prayer is in fact the proof of the amazing love and closeness which He enjoyed with His Father in heaven. In His prayer, the Lord’s Prayer or Pater Noster, we are reminded of the special relationship which we have with God, Who is our loving Father.

Through prayer, we help ourselves by quietening our minds and hearts, our senses and our entire being, and indeed, making ourselves closer to God. This is when we will be able to discern well what it is that God is willing to tell us in the depths of our hearts and in the deepest recesses of our minds. Otherwise, if we allow the noise of this world to overcome us, that is why we end up placing our own selfish needs and desires before our obligation to God.

We should instead reflect on the words of the Lord’s Prayer, which we may have uttered frequently both during the Holy Mass and in our own devotions and prayers, but perhaps failed to understand or say it meaningfully. If we look through the words of the prayer, we will realise that first of all, our focus in this life, should be to centre ourselves on God and to put God’s will above all else, and thank Him for all the good things He has done for us.

Are we able to refocus our attention to the Lord in this manner? In the same prayer, the Lord Jesus also asked His Father to forgive us mankind our sins, just as we have forgiven others who have sinned against us. This is how the Apostles were able to forgive one another their faults and return their focus to serve the greater glory of God. That is why we also need to do the same in our own lives, and in how we live up our own Christian lives.

Let us all turn our attention towards the Lord, and renew our commitment to live from now on, in the way and the path that God has shown us, and that we may become ever closer to Him, through prayer and through quality time spent with Him. May the Lord be with us and may He continue to guide us through this journey of life, that we may continue to glorify Him by our deeds, day after day. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the word of God through the Scriptures, telling us first the story from the Book of Job, continuing the discourse on Job that we have had for the last few days. Job was a faithful servant of God who was tested and attacked by the devil, who took everything he possessed, and even had boils and ulcers on his skin, suffering grievously from all the assaults by the devil.

And yet, Job continued to be faithful to God and remained true to his faith in Him, knowing that if it was indeed God’s will that he should suffer, then it shall be done according to His will, and not what Job wanted. He mentioned in what we have as our first reading passage today, about the greatness of God and how His ways are far beyond our ways and His thoughts are beyond our thoughts and intelligences.

And in that spirit, Job entrusted himself completely to the will of God, putting himself at the mercy of what God wanted to do with his life. He humbled himself so much so as to make himself insignificant in the grander plan of God, and submitting himself so fully to the will of God. He was showing the attitude of being a true and committed servant of God, who entrusted himself to God completely.

This was what the Lord Jesus, Our Lord, God and Saviour showed us as well, in the Gospel passage we heard today. In that passage we heard about how the disciples whom the Lord called to follow Him wanted to go and settle their issues and businesses first, but the Lord told them that unless they put their heart and dedicate themselves completely to God’s cause, then they would not be able to follow Him with sincerity and commitment they ought to have.

The Lord also spoke that the foxes have holes and the birds have nests, but the Son of Man had no place to even rest His head. This is then followed by the question from the disciples who wondered where He lived and stayed. The Lord’s answer was merely, “Come and see!” In reality, probably the Lord did not have any fixed place to stay, but moving about from place to place as He carried on doing His work and ministry.

The Lord wants each and every one of us to know that to be God’s followers, as Christians, we must free ourselves from the bonds and the chains of our worldly desires, pride, arrogance, and all sorts of things that can prevent us from finding our way to God. It is often that we are chained to our desires and worldly ambitions, that we forget what is our purpose in life, and therefore we end up distancing ourselves from God.

Many of us put so much importance of our earthly possessions, wealth and all sorts of temptations, of money, of pleasure, of glory and fame, and many others, that we cannot put ourselves completely to the service of God. We spent so much time, attention and effort in trying to assemble for ourselves all sorts of worldly possessions and goods, pleasures and pursuits of worldly glory, trying to accumulate and gain more of these to satisfy our desires.

However, do we realise that actually, it does not matter how much we have accumulated and how much effort we have spent trying to gain all these worldly things, but we will never truly be satisfied, as our human nature will end up causing us to desire and want for more and more. And as we continue to be distracted by these pursuits of pleasure and worldly happiness, we will end up getting more and more distant from God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to turn towards God with all of our hearts, minds, and indeed with our entire beings. We need to adopt the spirit of Job in all of our actions and in how we live our lives, reminding ourselves that to serve the Lord is to give ourselves so completely as Job had been, and as how many of our predecessors in faith have done, in giving themselves totally, even to the point of suffering martyrdom at the hands of those who oppose the Lord and His ways.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all from now on strive to seek the Lord and to love Him with a renewed zeal and effort, that in everything we say and do, we will always seek the glory of God. May the Lord continue to watch over us and guide us in our journey towards Him, and bless us all in our every endeavours. Amen.