Wednesday

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Wednesday, 29 January 2025 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 4 : 1-20

At that time, Jesus began to teach by the lake; but such a large crowd gathered about Him, that He got into a boat and sat in it on the lake, while the crowd stood on the shore. He taught them many things through parables. In His teaching, He said, “Listen! The sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some of the seed fell along a path; and the birds came and ate it up.”

“Some of the seed fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil; it sprang up immediately, because it had no depth; but when the sun rose and burnt it, it withered, because it had no roots. Other seed fell among thorn bushes; and the thorns grew and choked it; so it did not produce any grain.”

“But some seed fell on good soil, grew and increased and yielded grain; some seed produced thirty times as much, some sixty, and some one hundred times as much.” And Jesus added, “Listen then, if you have ears.”

When the crowd went away, some who were around Him with the Twelve asked about the parables. He answered them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But for those outside, everything comes in parables, so, that, the more they see, they do not perceive; the more they hear, they do not understand; otherwise they would be converted and pardoned.”

Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How, then, will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those along the path, where the seed fell, are people who hear the word, but as soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.”

“Other people receive the word like rocky ground. As soon as they hear the word, they accept it with joy. But they have no roots, so it lasts only a little while. No sooner does trouble or persecution come because of the word, than they fall. Others receive the seed, as seed among thorns. After they hear the word, they are caught up in the worries of this life, false hope of riches and other desires. All these come in and choke the word, so that finally it produces nothing.”

“And there are others who receive the word as good soil. They hear the word, take it to heart and produce : some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred times as much.”

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Wednesday, 29 January 2025 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 109 : 1, 2, 3, 4

The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand till I make Your foes Your footstool.”

From Zion the Lord will extend Your mighty sceptre and You will rule in the midst of Your enemies.

Yours is royal dignity from the day You were born in holy majesty. Like dew from the womb of the dawn, I have begotten You.

The Lord has sworn, and He will not take back His word : “You are a Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

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Wednesday, 29 January 2025 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Hebrews 10 : 11-18

So, whereas every priest stands, daily, by the Altar, offering, repeatedly, the same sacrifices, that can never take away sins, Christ has offered, for all times, a single sacrifice for sins, and has taken His seat at the right hand of God, waiting, until God puts His enemies as a footstool under His feet. By a single sacrifice He has brought those who are sanctified to what is perfect forever.

This also was testified by the Holy Spirit. For after having declared : This is the Covenant that I will make with them in the days to come – says the Lord – I will put My Laws in their hearts and write them on their minds. He says : Their sins and evil deeds I will remember no more. So, if sins are forgiven, there is no longer need of any sacrifice for sin.

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Wednesday, 22 January 2025 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded to put our faith and trust in the Lord, to open ourselves, our mind and heart to His truth and love, and not to allow our pride, ego and stubbornness to prevent ourselves from following Him wholeheartedly. The Lord has shown us all His most generous love which He has manifested through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and each and every one of us should therefore strive to live lives that are truly worthy of Him, giving Him thanks for all that He has done for us, in blessing and forgiving us, ever enduring in His love for us despite us having often disobeyed Him and refusing to follow Him or listen to Him. He has blessed us all through His Son, and we ought to live our lives then as the worthy bearers of the truth and love that Our Lord Himself has revealed to us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle to the Hebrews the account of the author of this Epistle, which many biblical scholars and historians attributed to St. Luke the Evangelist, directed to the Jewish community and population, especially to those who have accepted and embraced Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. For at that time, there were many different opinions and beliefs among the Jewish people on Who this Jesus Christ was. On one extreme, there were those Jewish people who rejected the Lord completely, like many among the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the teachers of the Law and the chief priests who viewed the Lord as a False Messiah and even a dangerous blasphemer and sinner because of His teachings and works, and for Him claiming to be the Son of God, some of which were shown in our Gospel passage today about the Lord healing a paralysed man.

On the other extreme, of course there were also those who have fully accepted and embraced the fullness of truth about this person of Jesus Christ, how He is not just a mere Man or Prophet sent by God, but that He is indeed the Son of God, the Divine Word of God made manifested and incarnate in the flesh before us all, conceived and born into this world through His mother Mary. And there were those Jewish people who were receptive to the teachings of Christ but they were still ambivalent, indecisive and unsure about how much or what they would believe in Him. Therefore, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews went on through these series of discourses, discussions and teachings to help them to understand the truth of this Saviour Whom God had sent into their midst, as we all have heard in the past two weeks or so in our weekday readings.

In today’s discourse, the mention of Melchizedek, the King of Salem was a significant one because the person of Melchizedek himself in the Scriptures and in history was a mystery and is still debated till this day on who this Melchizedek truly was. It is precisely just like how the Lord Jesus Himself and His truth and identity were widely debated and discussed among the Jewish people both during and after the period of His ministry and works in their midst. For Melchizedek, him being the King of Salem highlighted his place as the High Priest of God offering the sacrifices and offerings to God at Salem, which name suggests connection to Jerusalem, which is the place that the Lord Himself would offer the ultimate sacrifice and offering through His suffering and death on the Cross.

Therefore, this mention of Melchizedek served to highlight the important role that Jesus Christ, as the Saviour had to do in order to save all mankind, just as the prophets had also predicted and prophesied about it. Some among the Jewish people then likely did not understand why the Messiah had to suffer and in fact even die in such a humiliating and painful way, betrayed and rejected by many of the leaders of His own people. Melchizedek here was seen as an archetype and even as a possible manifestation of Christ before the time that was appointed for Him to come into this world, to reveal part of what God intended to do with us, in saving all of us His beloved ones from certain destruction. The mention that Melchizedek was one without a parent, was also yet another reference to Christ, Who was conceived without any human intervention and by the power of God alone.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Vincent the Deacon, a holy man of God and a renowned martyr whose life and examples, dedication to God and martyrdom can inspire us all in how we ought to live our lives as Christians. St. Vincent the Deacon was born in the region of Zaragoza in what is today Spain, also then known by its original name of Caesaraugusta, which made this saint to be also known as St. Vincent of Zaragoza. He was eventually ordained as a deacon by his local bishop, Bishop Valerius who needed St. Vincent’s help as a spokesperson due to his speech impediment issue. And during that time, Christians and the Church was being heavily persecuted by the Roman state under the Emperor Diocletian.

When St. Vincent and his bishop were both arrested and brought before the Roman magistrate, and offered release and safety, comfort and good life if they were to abandon their faith in God and consign their Holy Scriptures to the fire, St. Vincent and his bishop courageously refused this offer and mentioned bravely that nothing that could be done to change their mind or to persuade, coerce or force them to do otherwise, as they would remain firmly attached to the Lord and their faith in Him. This remarked angered the Roman magistrate so much that he inflicted all sorts of torture and pain on the man of God until St. Vincent was eventually martyred, but remaining firm in his faith in God to the very end of his life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard earlier on from the discourses and discussions from the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Gospel about the healing of the paralysed man, and from the courageous faith and life of St. Vincent the Deacon, all of us are reminded that as Christians we may often have to face a lot of disagreements, hardships, and even persecutions and oppressions for our faith in God. But we should not allow these to discourage us from being faithful to the Lord and to follow Him. After all, we must first remember what the Lord Himself has done for us, and the sufferings and hardships He Himself had suffered and endured for us in His Passion and death. When we suffer, we all suffer together with Christ, and we are all united to His death and ultimately to His glorious Resurrection.

If we continue to have strong and enduring faith in God, we will surely not be disappointed and we will receive the fullness of God’s blessings and grace, and be truly worthy of the salvation which He has promised and reassured us all. Let us all therefore renew our faith and commitment to live our lives worthily of the Lord from now on, doing our very best to be the good examples and inspiration to everyone around us, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 22 January 2025 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Mark 3 : 1-6

At that time, again Jesus entered the synagogue. A man, who had a paralysed hand, was there and some people watched Jesus : would He heal the man on the sabbath? If He did, they could accuse Him.

Jesus said to the man with the paralysed hand, “Stand here in the centre.” Then He asked them, “What does the Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To do good or to do harm? To save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

Then Jesus looked around at them with anger and deep sadness, because they had closed their minds. And He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was healed. As soon as the Pharisees left, they met with Herod’s supporters, looking for a way to destroy Jesus.

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Wednesday, 22 January 2025 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 109 : 1, 2, 3, 4

The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand till I make Your foes Your footstool.”

From Zion the Lord will extend Your mighty sceptre and You will rule in the midst of Your enemies.

Yours is royal dignity from the day You were born in holy majesty. Like dew from the womb of the dawn, I have begotten You.

The Lord has sworn, and He will not take back His word : “You are a Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

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Wednesday, 22 January 2025 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Hebrews 7 : 1-3, 15-17

Scripture says that Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, came out to meet Abraham who returned from defeating the kings. He blessed Abraham and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything.

Let us note that the name Melchizedek means King of Justice, and that king of Salem means king of Peace. There is no mention of father, mother or genealogy; nothing is said about the beginning or the end of his life. In this he is the figure of the Son of God, the Priest Who remains forever.

All this, however, becomes clear if this Priest after the likeness of Melchizedek has in fact received His mission, not on the basis of any human law, but by the power of an immortal life. Because Scripture says : You are a Priest forever in the priestly order of Melchizedek.

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Wednesday, 15 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul the Hermit (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded once again of the salvation which we have generously received from the hands of the Lord Himself, Who has come into our midst, to reveal His love and mercy, His power and compassion so that by this act of supreme and most perfect, selfless and ever enduring love, God has made available to us the most wonderful grace of His love, reaching out to us through His Son, opening for us all the gates of Heaven. That is why we have to appreciate everything that He has done for us and realise what we have been entrusted with as Christians, in the need for all of us to love Him sincerely and genuinely from our hearts, and to carry out the missions He has given to us.

In our first reading today, we heard of the words mentioned by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who is likely St. Luke the Evangelist based on historical evidence, in which the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into this world has become the means by which He has destroyed the chains of sin and death that have dominated over us and kept us ensnared and trapped in the path towards our destruction and damnation. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews explained how the Messiah, the Saviour of all had embraced our human nature for the specific reason of saving each and every one of us from the destruction because of our sins which have corrupted us all and our human nature. This justified the appearance of God in the form of Man, as Christ our Lord has revealed to us.

We must first understand that from the very beginning of time, we have been corrupted and made imperfect because of our disobedience against God and our choice of obeying and trusting the words of the evil one, Satan, the Deceiver rather than to put our faith and trust in God. We allowed ourselves to be swayed by the temptations of worldly desires, ambitions, greed and more such that we defiled our pure and perfect origin, as it had been crafted and designed by God, and we allowed sin to corrupt our nature through disobedience against God, His will, Law and commandments. And hence, in order to undo this corruption of our nature and to remove the darkness that has covered all of us, separating us from the fullness of God’s grace and love, hence God sent unto us His deliverance through His Son.

For this Son of God has been incarnate in the flesh, and become one just like us all, assuming our human nature and existence just as mentioned by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. And by His total and perfect obedience to the will of His Heavenly Father, He has become the archetype and example of the perfect Man, that had once been lost to us through sin and death. He has indeed become the New Adam, the New Man, breaking us all free from the dominion of sin, which He did by offering Himself as our High Priest, making the perfect supplication and offer on our behalf by the means of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, broken and outpoured for our sake on the Altar of His Cross at Calvary.

He can do this because while He has assumed our human flesh, existence and nature, but His humanity is distinct from His Divinity, and yet, both are indivisible and inseparable from each other. That is why, what He is offering is offering of Humanity which is made perfect by His Divinity and by His freedom from any taint of sin. Through Him and all of His works, His most perfect and wonderful sacrifice, in His ever enduring and powerful love for us, Christ has opened the doors of salvation to us, which in our Gospel passage today we have also heard and witnessed His great desire to bring us all back to the light of God’s grace, healing and strengthening us all amidst all the hardships and challenges that we have to face in life.

In that account from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard how the Lord healed the very sick mother-in-law of His disciple Simon, later to be known as St. Peter the Apostle. That occasion made many people to come and bring their sick ones to Him, so that He might heal them all as well. The Lord could very well have stayed and remained there, as He was very popular thanks to His miracles and healing, but as we heard, He chose to quietly leave the place behind, so that He could fulfil the missions and works that had been entrusted to Him. In this we have seen yet another example of the obedience and faithfulness which Christ has shown in His life, as opposed to the disobedience which we have shown against God.

It is a reminder that all of us as Christians must always strive to be obedient to God and to listen to Him at all times. We should not allow ourselves to be swayed by our desires, by the many temptations and evils all around us, which may attempt to lead us astray by pandering to our desires and our ego, our ambitions and attachments to worldly matters and pursuits. This is where we have to make the strong and firm stand for our faith in the Lord, committing ourselves wholeheartedly to His cause and to obey Him just as Jesus our Lord has shown us all the perfect example for all of us to follow. As Christians it is important that we should always show good examples and be good role models in our faith to everyone around us.

Today, the Church traditionally celebrates the Feast of St. Paul the Hermit, an ascetic whose great faith, commitment and obedience to God can truly inspire us all in how we all should live our own faith. He was a longtime ascetic after he escaped from the intense persecution of Christian during his youth by the Roman Emperor Decius, when he was just in his early twenties. According to tradition and hagiographic evidence, he would spend the next nine decades living as a hermit in the desert, dedicating himself to prayerful life in solitude, which eventually inspired many other people like the other famous ascetic, St. Anthony of Egypt, also known as St. Anthony the Great. His great holiness and dedication to a life pleasing to God is indeed an inspiration to us all as Christians, a life detached from all the worldly glory and temptations that often distract and mislead us down the wrong paths in life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore follow in the examples shown to us by the Lord Himself and also His saints, like St. Paul the Hermit among others. Let us all strive to be ever more faithful and committed to the cause of the Lord from now on, doing whatever we can so that our every words, actions and deeds, our every interactions and good works, efforts and in all things, we will inspire many more people to live lives that are truly and wholeheartedly committed to God, as faithful and good Christians, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 15 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul the Hermit (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Mark 1 : 29-39

At that time, on leaving the synagogue, Jesus went to the home of Simon and Andrew with James and John. As Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with fever, they immediately told Him about her. Jesus went to her and, taking her by the hand, raised her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

That evening at sundown, people brought to Jesus all the sick and those who had evil spirits : the whole town was pressing around the door. Jesus healed many who had various diseases, and drove out many demons; but He did not let them speak, for they knew Who He was.

Very early in the morning, before daylight, Jesus went off to a lonely place where He prayed. Simon and the others went out also, searching for Him; and when they found Him, they said, “Everyone is looking for You.” Then Jesus answered, “Let us go to the nearby villages so that I may preach there too; for that is why I came.”

So Jesus set out to preach in all the synagogues throughout Galilee; He also cast out demons.

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Wednesday, 15 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul the Hermit (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Psalm 104 : 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9

Give thanks to the Lord, call on His Name; make known His works among the nations. Sing to Him, sing His praise, proclaim all His wondrous deeds.

Glory in His holy Name; let those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and be strong; seek His face always.

You descendants of His servant Abraham, you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgments reach the whole world.

He remembers His covenant forever, His promise to a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the promise He swore to Isaac.