Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)
Mark 9 : 38-40
At that time, John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone who drove out demons by calling upon Your Name, and we tried to forbid him, because he does not belong to our group.”
Jesus answered, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My Name can soon after speak evil of Me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)
Psalm 48 : 2-3, 6-7, 8-10, 11
Hear this, all you peoples! Listen, all you inhabitants of the world, high and low together, rich and poor alike!
Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers ring me round – those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?
For no ransom avails for one’s life; there is no price one can give to God for it. For redeeming one’s life demands too high a price, and all is lost forever. Who can remain forever alive and never see the grave?
For we see that the wise die, and pass away like the fool and the stupid, leaving to others their fortune and wealth.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)
James 4 : 13-17
Listen now, you who speak like this, “Today or tomorrow we will go off to this city and spend a year there; we will do business and make money.”
You have no idea what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? No more than a mist, which appears for a moment and then disappears. Instead of this, you should say, “God willing, we will live and do this or that.”
But no! You boast of your plans : this brazen pride is wicked. Anyone who knows what is good, and does not do it, sins.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that we must always live our lives well and worthily as God’s holy and chosen people, as Christians, those whom God had blessed and embraced to be His own adopted children. This is because all of us are ourselves expected to be good and worthy role models for everyone around us, through our exemplary lives, actions and deeds. We must be always genuine in our every actions, words and deeds, living our whole existence to glorify the Lord and to proclaim His truth and love at all times. We must strive to be full of God’s love and truth, to abandon all sorts of wickedness and evils in our hearts and minds, so that we may truly serve Him wholeheartedly as His disciples and followers in our world today.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles about the moment when St. Paul the Apostle was saying his farewell to the Church elders and the other members of the faithful in the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor, in what is today part of Turkey. At that time, St. Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, as he was about to embark on his last missionary journey. The Lord had called upon St. Paul to follow Him and to do His will, as He was sending him to go to Rome, the then capital of the mighty Roman Empire that ruled over much of the Mediterranean region including the whole area of the Holy Land. St. Paul the Apostle definitely had the choice of not continuing with his mission or take refuge in one of the more stable Christian communities in the region, where friendly local Christian population might have made the rest of his mission and works relatively comfortable.
Yet, he chose to obey the Lord, follow Him and strengthen those elders and leaders of the faithful with his own example, obedience and commitment to God. Those elders had been entrusted with the leadership and guardianship over the people of God, and it was their good and worthy leadership which could lead to a great difference between the salvation or damnation of many of the souls of the people. St. Paul told those elders to remain firmly rooted and connected to God, to shepherd the flock of the Lord’s faithful worthily and according to what He had asked them all to do, and not to give in to the temptations of worldly glory and ambitions, or any sorts of attachment to our ego, desires and the attachment to the pleasures of this world.
St. Paul also warned the elders of how some might arise and lead the faithful into disarray and confusion as they did not work for the Lord but for the evil one and for their own selfish desires and ambitions. This warning would indeed come true and was truly prophetic given just how quickly after the Church had been established, even during the time of great persecutions, there quickly sprung many false teachers and leaders who did not profess the same faith and teachings as those that the Apostles had preserved in the Church as the deposit of the faith. Those false leaders and guides caused a lot of confusion and trouble in the Church, misleading the people of God and bringing about divisions that break the unity of the Body of Christ in schisms and heresies.
This reminder by St. Paul to the faithful and their leaders before he departed for his final mission still rings true even to this day. It is an important reminder and not just only to our Christian leaders and community figures but in fact also to each and every one of us as disciples and followers of Christ. This means that all of us must always strive to live our lives wholly committed and focused on the Lord, and we should always be ever vigilant not to allow ourselves to be tempted and swayed into the wrong and wicked paths because we allowed the evil one and the temptations of power, glory, ambition and desire present all around us to mislead us down the path of wickedness away from the Lord, His grace and salvation. Each and every one of us by our lives are also called and expected to show genuine and worthy Christian living and way of life, and not just those of our leaders only.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard the continuation of the Lord Jesus’ prayer to His heavenly Father for His disciples and followers, which He made shortly before He were to begin His Passion, His suffering and death. He asked His Father to bless, guide and protect those whom He had called and chosen from the world so that they may be strengthened and empowered, that they may remain united and strong amidst all the challenges and trials, all the temptations, pressures and coercions which might exist all around them. He asked His Father to consecrate all of the disciples in the truth, to guide and help them with the wisdom and the strength, the knowledge and understanding needed for them to fully appreciate their Christian faith and truth, which He would bestow upon them through the Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect upon these words from the Sacred Scriptures, let us all continue to strive to keep the focus of our lives and existence in the Lord, to put Him at the very heart and the forefront of our daily living and actions, in all of the words and deeds we commit, and in every interactions we made so that by our exemplary living and our good and worthy actions, words and deeds, we will be good and shining role models of our Christian life and faith for everyone around us. Each and every one of us must always bear witness to the Lord and to His truth, teachings and love, or else, we may in fact even scandalise Him and His Holy Name if in case our actions, words and deeds are contrary to what we believe in and what the Lord Himself had taught us. Then in that case, we will be held fully accountable for our actions, just as those heretics and false leaders likely had faced their just consequences from God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all henceforth renew our commitment to live our lives ever more faithfully to the Lord, to listen to Him and to obey His will at all times, and to become ever closer and more connected to Him through our prayerful life and through our greater love, commitment and devotion to Him. Let us all continue to glorify Him by our exemplary lives and be the good and worthy role models and inspirations for one another, both for our fellow Christians and also for all those others who have not yet known the Lord and His salvation, His truth and love, that through us, they may come to know Him and believe in Him as well. May the Lord bless us all in our every good efforts and endeavours, now and forevermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 17 : 11b-19
At that time, Jesus prayed to God His Father, “Holy Father, keep those You have given Me in Your Name, so that they may be one, as we also are. When I was with them, I kept them safe in Your Name; and not one was lost, except the one who was already lost, and in this, the Scripture was fulfilled. And now I come to You; in the world I speak these things, so that those whom You gave Me, might have joy – all My joy within themselves.”
“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, I do not ask You to remove them from the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.”
“I have sent them into the world as You sent Me into the world; and for their sake, I go to the sacrifice by which I am consecrated, so that they too may be consecrated in truth.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 67 : 29-30, 33-35a, 35bc and 36c
Summon Your power, o God, with the strength You have wielded for us. To Your Temple in Jerusalem, kings will come with gifts.
Sing to God, o kingdoms of the world; sing praises to the Lord, to Him Who rides the ancient heavens, and speaks in the voice of thunder. Proclaim the might of God.
He is great in Israel, powerful in heavens. Blessed be God!
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 20 : 28-38
Keep watch over yourselves, and over the whole flock the Holy Spirit has placed into your care. Shepherd the Church of the Lord that He has won, at the price of His own Blood. I know that, after I leave, ruthless wolves will come among you and not spare the flock. And, from among you, some will arise, corrupting the truth, and inducing the disciples to follow them.
Be on the watch, therefore, remembering that, for three years, night and day, I did not cease to warn everyone, even with tears. Now, I commend you to God, and to His grace-filled word, which is able to make you grow and gain the inheritance that you shall share with all the saints.
I have not looked for anyone’s silver, gold or clothing. You, yourselves, know, that these hands of mine have provided for both my needs and the needs of those who were with me. In every way, I have shown you that by working hard one must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus Himself said, “Happiness lies more in giving than in receiving.”
After this discourse, Paul knelt down with them and prayed. Then, they all began to weep and threw their arms around him and kissed him. They were deeply distressed because he had said that they would never see him again. And they went with him even to the ship.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Sacred Scriptures presented to all of us with the reassurance and reminder that as Christians, each and every one of us are the bearers of God’s truth and love, His salvation and light to the nations. Each and every one of us have received from God the assurance of His love and salvation, and He has blessed us all wonderfully with His care and compassion, leading us down the path of truth, and we are then entrusted with the responsibility and the mission to reach out to more and more of our fellow brothers and sisters so that through us and our efforts and works, through our every good actions, words and deeds, our interactions and outreach, we may inspire ever more people to come to believe in the Lord as well.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles of the time when St. Paul continued his missionary journey and this time, he went to Athens, the centre of Greek culture and civilisation for many centuries, and where philosophical debates and studies were commonplace. St. Paul went to Athens, to the place called the Areopagus, where historically philosophers went to debate and discern their philosophical theories and thinking. He spoke courageously to those who were there about their pagan ways and how they recognised an ‘Unknown God’ amidst their numerous gods and goddesses in their vast pantheon of divine beings. St. Paul introduced them all to the One and only True God, the Creator of the whole Universe, the Almighty God, the One that he associated with this Unknown God.
St. Paul presented it in a way that the Greeks had been worshipping inanimate objects and beings, and their pagan gods and goddesses, all the beings that were mythological and not real, and yet, the Lord and God that he was revealing to them was indeed true and genuine, and has shown His truth and might, His signs and wonders through none other than His own Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, through Whom we have seen and witnessed the perfect manifestation of God and His love in the flesh. St. Paul told the Greeks and their philosophers in Athens of the truth of God, and of everything that He had done and revealed to us, through His Son and the Holy Spirit, and the wisdom and truth bestowed upon the Church.
He told the people not to worship the inanimate and created objects and beings of the Universe, which were what the Greeks worshipped then, the deities and false gods and goddesses based on natural phenomena and observances, as many if not most of their gods and goddesses were based on those aforementioned phenomena, places like the sky, the seas and the earth itself, which were given human perspective and actions to bring them to life, as those who are familiar with the Greek mythology and pantheon will quickly know and realise how the Greek gods and goddesses in their actions and behaviour, were no different at all from the people who were supposed to be their subjects, and in fact those gods and goddesses might even behave in a worse and more scandalous way than that of the people themselves.
That was why St. Paul presented to those philosophers and others who were there listening to him, the One and only True God, the One Who created all things and the One Who alone is worthy of all worship and honour, and not the inanimate idols and objects, or the natural phenomena and other things which the Greeks and other pagans had been adopting as their gods and deities. St. Paul tried very hard to convince them that the Lord alone is worthy of following and worship because He has indeed shown His truth, His identity and fulfilled all that He had promised through all the events which had happened and which St. Paul himself was one of the witnesses, sharing the many testimonials of faith made by the other ones who have seen and experienced the Lord’s works and wonders. And as we heard, while he was mocked by quite a number of those philosophers especially when he talked about the Resurrection, but there were also some who were genuinely intrigued and wanted to know more about God.
Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the words of the Lord speaking to His disciples, reminding them of His guidance and the Holy Spirit, the Helper and Advocate that the Father would be sending to all of them through Him. The Lord reminded His disciples that the Lord would send them all His wisdom and strength, His guidance and providence so that even after He had departed from them eventually, after He would ascend into the glory of Heaven, to return to where He came from, but the Church and all those who are part of it shall always be guided, strengthened and provided in their path and way by the Lord, through His many works and wonders, and through His guiding hand and encouragement, He would lead them to do great and wonderful things just as the Apostles like St. Paul and many others had done.
Therefore, each and every one of us as Christians today are also reminded to do the same as well in our own respective lives. All of us have been given various blessings, opportunities and vocations specific to whichever areas in life that God has called us into. The Lord entrusted to us His many blessings and wonders, so that through all these, we may truly do great things and proclaim His truth, Good News and salvation to many more people all around us. And hopefully, we may touch the lives of more people who have not yet seen and experienced God’s light, truth and salvation. Each and every one of us should indeed be good and worthy bearers of God’s truth and salvation, in living our own lives worthily, that our every actions and words, our every interactions will truly bear the light of God’s truth, that all may come to see Who He is, and realise that He alone is worthy of our worship and adoration.
Brothers and sisters, let us all therefore continue to live our lives with God’s guidance and help, so that we may continue to be good and shining examples of our Christian faith and virtues in wherever we are living in, in our various communities and areas of responsibility, in our dedication and commitment to God. Let our Christian faith and truth continue to lead more and more people towards the Lord, so that they may also be saved from the darkness and destruction because of sin. May God be with us all and with His Church, and may He continue to empower all of us to walk ever more faithfully in His path, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 16 : 12-15
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. When He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into the whole truth. He has nothing to say of Himself, but He will speak of what He hears, and He will tell you of the things to come.”
“He will take what is Mine and make it known to you; in doing this, He will glorify Me. All that the Father has is Mine; because of this, I have just told you that the Spirit will take what is Mine, and make it known to you.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 148 : 1-2, 11-12, 13, 14
Alleluia! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heavenly heights. Praise Him, all His Angels; praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.
Kings of the earth and nations, princes and all rulers of the world, young men and maidens, old and young together.
Let them praise the Name of the Lord. For His Name alone is exalted; His majesty is above earth and heaven.
He has given His people glory; He has a praise to His faithful, to Israel, the people close to Him. Alleluia.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 