Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 18 : 1-5
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the midst of the disciples, and said, “I assure you that, unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”
“Whoever becomes lowly like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child in My Name receives Me.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 131 : 1-3
O Lord, my heart is not proud nor do I have arrogant eyes. I am not engrossed in ambitious matters, nor in things too great for me.
I have quieted and stilled my soul like a weaned child on its mother’s lap; like a contented child is my soul.
Hope in the Lord, o Israel, now and forever.
Liturgical Colour : White
Isaiah 66 : 10-14
Rejoice for Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her. Be glad with her, rejoice with her, all you who were in grief over her, that you may suck of the milk from her comforting breasts, that you may drink deeply from the abundance of her glory.
For this is what YHVH says : “I will send her peace, overflowing like a river and the nations’ wealth, rushing like a torrent towards her. And you will be nursed and carried in her arms and fondled upon her lap.”
“As a son comforted by his mother, so will I comfort you. At the sight of this, your heart will rejoice; like grass, your bones will flourish. For it shall be known that YHVH’s hand is with His servant, but His fury is upon His enemy.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture and Gospel readings highlighted to us the nature of God’s love for us, and how He will provide us with everything we need, and even when we encounter difficulties in this life, we shall not be disappointed by our loving and dedicated God, who takes care of us in everything we need. Yet, mankind are difficult to satisfy, and even despite the numerous goodness that we had received, we always like to demand for more and want for more.
That is in our nature, because men are greedy by nature, and we have been exposed to this ever since our first ancestors were tempted by Satan and failed, who offered them the ‘ultimate’ prize, supposedly beyond what goodness they had received up to that time. The first men, Adam and Eve, lived in perfect bliss, harmony and joy in the Garden of Eden, filled with all of God’s blessings, intended to live happily for eternity.
However, Satan in the form of the snake tempted them with the possibility for them to know the mind of the Lord, that is to gain knowledge of things good and evil, by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was forbidden by the Lord. Indeed, they had their reservations, but their tempted hearts was too much for them and they eventually succumbed to their desire and greed, wishing to have more than what they need.
In the end, they gained what they wanted, but they lost essentially everything. They were cast out of Eden and have to endure the sufferings of the earth, and they have to toil and work to sustain themselves. They were subjected to suffering and death because of the sin of their disobedience. Yet, mankind were slow to learn from their mistakes, and for ages past, countless peoples were lost because of their uncontrolled desire and greed.
Even today, we are still gripped and enslaved by our desire, which often ends up as our undoing. Many wars and conflicts, violence and hatred, destruction and chaos came about in our world because of our inability to control our desire, and instead we become controlled and enslaved by those desires. Many tyrants and those who committed great evils in the world were due to their inability to limit their pride, their arrogance, vanity and greed. In the process, they caused great damage and sorrow for many people.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the readings of today remind us that as the followers of Christ, we should throw far, far away all of these human desires and negative traits and emotions, so that we can truly walk in the way of the Lord and follow His will. That is because, as long as we are under the thrall of our desire and emotions, we tend to serve our own will and purposes rather than listening to God, or to follow His will.
Jesus had called many from among the people to be His disciples, and twelve of these were chosen to be the Apostles, the chiefs of His disciples. But, as the followers of Christ, they did not have an easy life. The world that is opposed to Christ would also oppose the works of His disciples, and it is into this hostile world that Jesus had sent His disciples, to spread the Good News of salvation to many who still have yet to see the light of God.
They were also told to bring just what is sufficient for themselves, and not to bring extra items for them. That is because, God will provide, and indeed, God would walk among them and assist them on their efforts to bring the people of God back into the light. As long as the disciples and the Apostles remained faithful to the Lord, they have nothing to fear from the world, for God would take care of them, and no matter what suffering the world could inflict on them, none of them could destroy or damage the soul, which is something that only God can do.
The same therefore also applies to all the servants of God today, our priests, bishops and all those who have been called and who responded by their dedication to the works which God had entrusted them with. But this does not mean that they should do all the work, and we can rest easy. In fact, we too should help and play our role in our own ability, to bring the Good News of the Lord to those who are around us.
Let us all thus strengthen our faith, through prayer, charity and good works, so that gradually we can liberate ourselves from the slavery to our desires, so that we can truly follow the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who said to the angel, that she is the handmaid of the Lord, and thus all of the will of God would happen to her, and our Lord Jesus Himself, who had said in His agony in the garden, that not His will be done but the will of His Father, and through whose obedience, our salvation was made possible, and we have hope of a new life in God.
May Almighty God sharpen the edge of our humility and obedience, as well as our faith, and dull the edges of our pride, desire, greed and selfishness, so that in our lives we may become more and more like Christ, following God in all of our ways, and proclaim Him through our words, deeds and actions. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 9 : 1-6
Then Jesus called His twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to drive out all evil spirits and to heal diseases. And He sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
He instructed them, “Do not take anything for the journey, neither walking stick, nor bag, nor bread, nor silver coins; and do not even take a spare tunic. Whatever house you enter, remain there until you leave that place. And wherever they do not welcome you, leave the town and shake the dust from your feet : it will be as a testimony against them.”
So they set out and went through the villages, proclaiming the Good News and healing people everywhere.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 118 : 29, 72, 89, 101, 104, 163
Keep me away from deceitful paths; be gracious and teach me Your law.
Your law is more precious to me than heaps of silver and gold.
O Lord, Your word stands forever, firmly fixed in the heavens.
I turn my feet from evil paths, that I may keep step with Your word.
Your precepts have given me knowledge, and I hate all that is false.
I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love Your law.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Proverbs 30 : 5-9
Every word of God is true, He is a shield in whom man can find refuge. Add nothing to His words lest He rebuke you and take you for a liar.
O God, two things I beg of You, do not deny me them before I die. Keep lying and falsehood far away from me, give me neither poverty nor riches. Give me just as much food as I need lest, satisfied, I deny You and say, “Who is YHVH?” Or else, out of necessity, I steal and profane the Name of my God.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard how the world ridiculed and doubted Christ, our Lord and Saviour, having their own set of prejudices and judgments that they applied to the actions of Jesus Christ and His disciples, as we obviously can see throughout the Gospels, where the world, represented by the Pharisees and the elders of Israel, who were always opposed to the actions of our Lord.
And in the first reading today, in the letter written by St. Paul to the faithful and the Church in Corinth, St. Paul reminded the people of the three greatest virtues and fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is faith, hope and love, and that the people of God should uphold all these values in their lives and stick closely to the precepts of the Lord, abandoning all pretexts of falsehoods and evil in their hearts.
We often lack sight of what is truly important in our lives. We are often distracted by many things in our lives, to the point that we end up focusing on the things that are less important and in fact which may disrupt and distract our attention from the true treasures of our lives. These treasures are indeed faith, hope and love as mentioned, which are the greatest gifts from God to mankind.
It was mentioned by St. Paul that acts without love, faith without love, acts without faith and hope are meaningless, as shown through the example of even the possessions of the gifts and talents of the Holy Spirit are meaningless without love, and without the other virtues mentioned. This means, whatever other talents and abilities we have, if we do not use them in tandem with the virtues we ought to have, then our actions do not bring justification and benefit for ourselves.
Compare this to the popular practice in many ‘evangelical’ and ‘charismatic’ movements and ‘churches’ around the world, of which not few are in fact within our own Church, that is the practice of speaking in tongues, as if the whole congregation is suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit as per the day of the Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles.
The conduct of such activity is meaningless, although many in the world today are in awe of such an occurrence. I would say that, when they do such actions, what is first in their mind is not God or His praise, but rather themselves, as they glorified themselves by doing so, and they revel in the satisfaction of such action. But without faith and love, those actions and others are truly empty and nothing before God.
And also for the heretics who believed and indeed still believe today, that salvation can be achieved through faith alone, and that the faith constitutes what had been written in the Bible and the Scriptures alone are wrong. They failed to realise that first, faith alone is insufficient to attain salvation for our souls. Faith is nothing without hope and without love, and so neither is hope anything without faith and love, and lastly, love without hope and faith is also meaningless.
We ought to have all these three virtues working together in tandem within us, that our actions may be truly blessed and be gracious, and we ourselves justified in the eyes of the Lord. We cannot separate the three virtues of faith, hope and love without making each of them meaningless and useless, and in fact may even bring harm to ourselves and others around us.
Why is this so, brothers and sisters in Christ? Why mankind even have so much trouble so that St. Paul had to remind even the faithful through his letter? That is because, mankind are bound and prone to their own self-glorification and self-praise, and this is also the reason for the various doubts that the people of God, and the various standards they employed against the prophets and the Lord Himself as we heard in the Gospel today.
Mankind are very difficult to please and satisfy, and even after their needs and wants have been satisfied, it is very common for us to demand even more and want even more. That is why, as Jesus mentioned, that mankind are never satisfied and they will always complained against whatever is around them, just as they had complained against Jesus our Lord Himself.
Thus, all of us should and indeed must anchor ourselves on the three great virtues of the Lord, that is faith, hope and love, which seeds have been placed in our hearts and our souls. But as mentioned, that these are just seeds. If we do nothing to cultivate the faith, hope and love in us, then we are nothing more than just an empty shell, even with all of our talents and virtues.
Why faith? That is because faith is what anchored us in the Lord, in His laws and precepts. We have faith because we believe in the Lord, and we adhere closely to Him and His ways, so that we can live according to His will, and from there gain righteousness and justification. But faith without hope and without love is meaningless, as it means a selfish faith, that is nonsense. Our faith must be complemented by care for our brethren, both through our genuine concern and love for them, practicing what we have been taught by the Lord, and also through our efforts at evangelisation to them.
And why hope? That is because hope is what keeps us going even amidst despair and darkness. And hope itself is intertwined with faith, as faith without hope is also nonsense. We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who has died for us on the cross and who has risen from the dead in glory, and through that resurrection, He brought us new hope in Himself, that is a hope of liberation from sin and the promise of eternal life. This is an integral part of our faith, and it cannot be said that we have faith if we do not believe in this hope.
And lastly, why love? That is because love is the most important of all these virtues, and ultimately is the one that makes all things good and possible. Love allows us to care for one another, and also for us to seek our God who had first shown us the example of what love truly is. Love helps us to have that focus and application for the faith and hope within us. We believe in the Lord, who is love Himself, and through whose love He had brought us to Himself. And then through hope, we have hope in Christ and His love, that He is willing to save us from death and grant us a new, eternal life.
Today, we also celebrate the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine, whose life and works clearly indicated the adherence to this teaching of Christ, in having his life and works founded on strong foundation of faith, of hope and of love. St. Robert Bellarmine was a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and one of the pillars of the defense of the Church through his active role and participation in the application of the decrees of the Ecumenical Council of Trent, in what is known as the Counter-Reformation, in the efforts against the Protestant heresy.
St. Robert Bellarmine was an intelligent and devout follower and servant of Christ, who dedicated his life in a faithful and loving service of our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Robert Bellarmine wrote numerous writings and other works on the matter of the faith, and he was renowned for his great works in the defense of the true faith, condemning falsehoods and heresies and reestablished many aspects of the faith in the Church through his various works.
He rose quickly through the Church hierarchy, and eventually was made a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. Nevertheless, he remained humble and devoted to his works, if not even more devoted and zealous in delivering the salvation of God to countless souls. Through his dedication, works and even through the power of his mind and pen, he had brought many of the faithful to be reawakened to the true faith in them, one that is not tainted by human pride and emotions as that of the heretics, and one that is lived out well through loving acts and filled with hope in the Lord.
Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, following the examples of St. Robert Bellarmine and many other holy saints, today let us all reflect on these words of the Scriptures and the Holy Gospels, that we may grow stronger in our faith, grow deeper in our hope, and grow more gentle and dedicated in our love. Let us all dedicate ourselves more to the works of charity in our world and society. That we may indeed live out our faith, that our faith will not be just merely imaginary and a formality, but a real and living faith for the benefit of ourselves and all those around us. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)
Luke 7 : 31-35
At that time, Jesus said, “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 : Green or White (Bishops)
Psalm 32 : 2-3, 4-5, 12 and 22
Give thanks to Him on the harp and lyre, making melody and chanting praises. Amid loud shouts of joy, sing to Him a new song and play the ten-stringed harp.
For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. O Lord, let Your love rest upon us, even as our hope rests in You.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 