Wednesday

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Wednesday, 26 July 2017 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to two stories from the Sacred Scriptures, namely the story of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, and how the people of Israel grumbled and rebelled against God in our first reading today taken from the Book of Exodus. Then, in the Gospel today we heard about the parable which our Lord Jesus mentioned, the parable of the sower, in which He told His disciples about what happened to the various seeds which were scattered and fell onto different types of soil.

In the first reading, we heard how the people of Israel journeyed through the desert, after they had been liberated from the hands of the Egyptians and their Pharaoh, and after they had witnessed firsthand the great and mighty power of God, Who crushed the Egyptians with ten great plagues and opened the Red Sea right before their very eyes, allowing them to walk safely and dry-footed through the sea itself. But despite all of these things they had seen, they became stubborn and complained against God.

They complained that in Egypt, they would at least have food and drink to satisfy themselves rather than what they endured then, walking through the desert without sight of food or drink, and the sight of the endless desert discouraged them and made them to lose faith in God. That was because their faith in God did not have a strong root in them, just as what the Lord Jesus mentioned in today's Gospel passage, the parable of the sower.

In that parable, the Lord mentioned how some of the seeds scattered fell onto the roadside and were picked up by the birds of the sky. And some others fell onto the rocky grounds and were not able to grow deep roots, ending up scorched and destroyed by the sun. The seeds represent the Word of God which became the seeds of faith inside each and every one of us, but as all farmers and those who have planted a plant before, a seed will not germinate without the right conditions.

The Israelites were showing exactly this kind of attitude, the failure to allow the faith to grow in them, and as a result, the devil came to snatch away the Word of God from them, just as the birds came to snatch away the seeds that fell by the roadside. And like the seeds that fell on the rocky ground, the stubbornness of the people of Israel and their adamant refusal to trust in the Lord and in His providence made it difficult for the Word of God and for faith to grow in each one of them.

They refused to believe that God would care for them and provide for them what they needed as they journeyed through the desert. That is again because of their lack of faith. They trusted much more in what mankind could provide, to the point that they would rather suffer at the hands of their former Egyptian slave masters, who could provide them with bread to eat and water to drink, rather than to trust in God.

That was when God showed again His power and might, by proving His people wrong, those who doubted His ability to provide for them. He sent them countless birds as food, and gave them clear and sweet water to drink in the middle of a vast desert, flowing out from the rocks itself, and ultimately He also gave them bread from heaven, the manna, coming to them daily in the morning from God.

If only that the people could find in themselves the courage to have faith in God, and not to fall into the temptation to seek alternative sources of comfort and happiness. That moment when the people veered away from the Lord because of their lack of faith and trust in God, is when they fell away into sin and become lost to the Lord. Certainly, this is not the fate which we want to happen to us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us must instead strive hard to provide the best conditions and situations in our respective lives, that through our efforts, we may find ourselves to be a rich soil for the Word of God to grow inside each one of us, that we may become fertile grounds for the Word of God and our faith to blossom within us. And we have to make a conscious effort to ensure that this happens.

Today, all of us celebrate the Feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. St. Joachim and St. Anne brought up the Blessed Virgin Mary since her birth and young age, and it was under their tutelage and guidance that she grew up into a fine, faithful and devout young woman whom we knew in the Gospels, betrothed to St. Joseph and eventually became the Mother of our God and Saviour.

St. Joachim and St. Anne had shown Mary how to be a faithful and devoted follower of God, and taught her all that they knew about the faith. They inculcated the faith in her and allowed it grow by giving her the most appropriate environment in which that faith could grow, that is the environment of love and care. It is through this that the faith and the Word of God could grow well and produce bountiful harvest of fruits.

That is what all of us can do as well in our own respective lives, by doing what the Lord had taught us to do, providing loving and caring environment. We ought to show love and care for our fellow brethren, and kindness to all of our fellow men. It is through actually living out our faith that we can help one another to live and persevere in faith, so that in all that we do, say and act, we will always bring glory to God.

May the Lord bless us all and may He empower us to live our lives with commitment and be able to give our all to Him, trusting Him and placing ourselves under His loving care. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 26 July 2017 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 13 : 1-9

At that time, that same day, Jesus left the house and sat down by the lakeside. Many people gathered around Him. So He got into a boat, and sat down, while the crowds stood on the shore; and He spoke to them in parables about many things.

Jesus said, "The sower went out to sow; and, as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path; and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil, and the seeds sprouted quickly, because the soil was not deep. But as soon as the sun rose, the plants were scorched; and they withered, because they had no roots."

"Again, other seeds fell among thistles; and the thistles grew and choked the plants. Still, other seeds fell on good soil and produced a crop : some a hundredfold, others sixty, and others thirty. If you have ears, then hear!"

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Wednesday, 26 July 2017 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 77 : 18-19, 23-24, 25-26, 27-28

The people of God tested Him, demanding the food they craved. They blasphemed against God, saying : "Can God spread a table in the desert?"

Yet, He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven; He rained down manna upon them, and fed them with the heavenly grain.

They ate and had more than their fill of the bread of Angels. Then, from heaven He stirred the east wind, and, by His power, let loose the south wind.

To rain down meat on them like dust. Birds as thick as the sand on the seashore fell inside their camp, lying all around their tents.

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Wednesday, 26 July 2017 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Exodus 16 : 1-5, 9-15

The Israelites left Elim and the entire community reached the desert of Sin, between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after leaving Egypt. In the desert the whole community of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron and said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of YHVH in Egypt when we sat down to caldrons of meat and ate all the bread we wanted, whereas you have brought us to this desert to let the whole assembly die of starvation!"

YHVH then said to Moses, "Now I am going to rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to gather what is needed for that day. In this way I will test them to see if they will follow My Teaching or not. On the sixth day when they prepare what they have brought in, they will find that there is twice as much as they gather each day."

Then Moses directed Aaron to say to the whole community of Israel, "Draw near to YHVH for He has heard your complaints." It happened that as Aaron was speaking to the full assembly of Israel, they turned towards the desert and saw the Glory of YHVH in the midst of the cloud.

Then YHVH spoke to Moses, "I have heard the complaints of Israel. Speak to them and say : Between the two evenings you will eat meat, and in the morning you will have bread to your heart's content; then you shall know that I am YHVH, your God!"

In the evening quails came up and covered the camp. And in the morning, dew had fallen around the camp. When the dew lifted, there was on the surface of the desert a thin crust like hoarfrost. The people of Israel upon seeing it said to one another, "What is it?" for they did not know what it was. Moses told them, "It is the bread that YHVH has given you to eat."

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Wednesday, 19 July 2017 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us heard how Moses was called by God to be His servant and as the one through whom God would liberate His people Israel. At that time, Moses was in exile from Egypt, having fled from there because he killed an Egyptian officer who struck at one of his fellow Israelite, enslaved in Egypt.

God called Moses through the burning bush, from which He spoke to him, calling him and revealing to him Who He truly was. When Moses asked Him for His identity, He simply answered, ‘I AM WHO AM’, the Name by which God was known to the people of Israel and to their ancestors, as the One Who established the covenant with Abraham and which He renewed to his descendants.

And thus, even though Moses was unsure at first, and was filled with doubt on his ability to lead the people of God out of Egypt, but God did not stop calling him, instead encouraging him and giving him the strength to carry on what would be an arduous task of facing the ruler of Egypt, the Pharaoh and demanding from him to release the people of Israel from their bondage and allow them to return to their land in Canaan.

The Lord revealed Himself to Moses, who then in turn, revealed Him to the people of Israel. It is by this revelation that God made Himself evident to those who believe in Him, and consequently they were saved. Meanwhile, the Pharaoh continued to harden his heart and refused to let the people of Israel go, because in his pride and his trust for worldly power, he refused to bend down to the will of God, and instead, continued to oppress God’s people.

But God broke the power of the mighty, including that of the Pharaoh, and gave help to those who are weak and are burdened, since these people believed in Him and called on Him in their time of need. God protected them and gave them His assistance through various means, including what we have heard and known about how He liberated the Israelites through Moses, His faithful servant.

How are all of these relevant to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? First of all, we have to realise that all of us, who belong in the Church, have received that privilege of knowing the truth, truth which has been passed down to us through the Church, and which ultimately came from the Lord Himself, Who revealed to us about His most loving deeds, by which He wanted to save us from damnation.

Yet, what is it that many of us Christians have done? It is often that even though we knew the truth, and even though we are aware of just how much God has loved us, but we pretend as if we do not know about all of that. We pretend to be ignorant or indeed we are ignorant of this truth. We have heard the Word of God, and yet the Word of God did not take roots in us, and we continued with our lives as if nothing has changed.

Many of us also did not realise just how much it is that God had done for our sake, since although we know the Lord, but we are so preoccupied and busy with our daily occupations, works and whatever it is, that we ended up forgetting about Him and not paying attention to whatever it is that He had done for us. We are so busy that we fail to realise that God is always there guiding us in our path and actively working to bring us back to Him, to be reconciled with Him.

This is where all of us need to take a step back and reflect on what it is that we can do in order to be more faithful to the Lord, and to realise more what we can do in order to bring ourselves closer to God and His love. He is always there for us, and He will guide us to the right paths, but we need to learn to trust in Him, and obey Him as Moses had obeyed Him, and walked in His paths.

May the Lord strengthen our faith, and may He continue to reveal to us His everlasting and wonderful love, the love which He had showered us with from the time when He created each and every one of us. May He empower us and give us the courage to continue living as faithful and devoted people of the Lord. Amen.

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Wednesday, 19 July 2017 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Matthew 11 : 25-27

At that time, Jesus said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I praise You; because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to simple people. Yes, Father, this was Your gracious will.”

“Everything has been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”

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Wednesday, 19 July 2017 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 6-7

Praise YHVH, my soul; all my being, praise His holy Name! Praise YHVH, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.

He forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; He redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion.

YHVH restores justice and secures the rights of the oppressed. He has made known His ways to Moses; and His deeds, to the people of Israel.

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Wednesday, 19 July 2017 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Exodus 3 : 1-6, 9-12

Moses pastured the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, priest of Midian. One day he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the Mountain of God. The Angel of YHVH appeared to him by means of a flame of fire in the middle of a bush. Moses saw that although the bush was on fire it did not burn up.

Moses thought, “I will go and see this amazing sight, why is the bush not burning up?” YHVH saw that Moses was drawing near to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He replied, “Here I am.” YHVH said to him, “Do not come near; take off your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

And God continued, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face lest his eyes look on God. YHVH said, “The cry of the sons of Israel has reached Me and I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them. Go now! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the people of Israel out of Egypt?” God replied, “I will be with you and this will be the sign that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

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Wednesday, 12 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us heard the story in the first reading which was taken from the Book of Genesis. In that passage, we heard about the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob known also as Israel, and Joseph was one of the twelve sons he had. The twelve sons of Israel would eventually become the twelve tribes of Israel, the people of God, whom later on He would call out of Egypt and bring to His Promised Land.

But today, we heard about the time long before all those events occurred, at the time when Joseph incurred the wrath and jealousy of his brothers because of his dreams and the preference shown unto him by his father, who lavished many gifts on him and his brother Benjamin, because they were born from his favourite and beloved wife in his old age. Thus, they plotted against him, threw him into a well, and sold him off to the Midianites who brought him to Egypt.

Joseph ended up in the land of Egypt as a slave, and he was wrongfully accused of sexual impropriety when the daughter of his master seduced him and Joseph refused her advances. But God did not forget about Joseph, the son of Israel, and instead, all of these has been in His plans and as part of His will all along. Joseph was sent before his brothers and his family to Egypt, because a great famine was coming into the world, and he was sent there to prepare the way for them and to ensure their survival and well-being in the years to come.

And thus, we came to what we heard in today’s passage, when the brothers of Joseph came to Egypt in order to buy food for themselves and their family, meeting Joseph whom God had made to be the great Regent of the entire Egypt, the second in command after the Pharaoh or King of Egypt himself. They did not recognise him at first and gave him homage in the manner as Joseph’s dreams had foretold it.

But Joseph did not return the malice and the evil deeds shown unto him during his youth by his brothers with vengeance and wrath. Instead, he still loved them and deeply cared for them all, even though it must indeed have been painful for him to suffer separation from his family and to endure the sufferings in slavery. He took good care of them and treated them well, even though he feigned to test them at the start, so that he might be able to see his brother Benjamin.

Eventually, the whole family of Joseph would be reunited, and Joseph would reunite with his father Jacob or Israel. The entire people of God would relocate to Egypt, until the time when the Lord rescued them and brought them out of slavery into the Promised Land. This is what we have heard in the passage today, and what we believed had happened with our forefathers in faith.

Then, in today’s Gospel, we heard about how Jesus our Lord called His twelve Apostles, the principal disciples whom He called to be those upon whom He entrusted His missions and good works among His people. The choosing of the number twelve among the disciples was symbolic, as the number twelve also represents the number of the sons of Israel, the tribes of Israel of which there are also twelve in number.

Through the Apostles, God showed His love and mercy for us all mankind, just as He had shown His mercy to His people, through the rejected son, Joseph, whom his brothers had betrayed and sold off to the slavers. Joseph had been ill-treated, and he has been rejected, and yet, through him, God made his people prosper in Egypt, and they were saved from their predicaments.

In the similar manner, Jesus the Son of God and Son of Man, has also been rejected by mankind, His brothers and sisters, as God made it so when He assumed the flesh of man and chose to be born of the Virgin, Blessed Mary His mother. He has become the rejected cornerstone, or keystone, cast away by the builders, as the Scriptures said. Yet, it was through Him that God had saved us all mankind, by the outpouring of His love through the cross.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, what we have heard through all the readings, are the stories of how God brought salvation to His people, through His everlasting love for us. What all of us Christians need to do, is first for us to realise that we are the successors of the Apostles and to all that God had commanded them to do. Let us all therefore, now, do our best as Christians, in order to fulfil that obligation, that is for us to bring the Good News of God, the truth of His salvation and love to our brethren.

Let us all rededicate ourselves to the Lord, and renew our faith in Him with ever greater fervour and commitment, filled with zeal and hope, that in all we do, in all that we say and act, we will always bring glory to God and His Name. May the Lord, Who have shown us His love through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and by His loving sacrifice on the cross, bless us always with His love. Amen.

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Wednesday, 12 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Matthew 10 : 1-7

At that time, Jesus called His Twelve disciples to Him, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out, 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 the instruction : “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.”