Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 16 : 1, 5-6, 8 and 15
Hear a just cause, o YHVH, listen to my complaint. Give heed to my prayer, for there is no deceit on my lips.
Hold firm my steps upon Your path, that my feet may not stumble. I call on You, You will answer me, o God; incline Your ear and hear my word.
Keep me as the apple of Your eye; under the shadow of Your wings hide me. As for me, righteous in Your sight, I shall see Your face and, awakening, gaze my fill on Your likeness.
Liturgical Colour : Red
2 Maccabees 7 : 1, 20-31
It happened also that seven brothers were arrested with their mother. The king had them scourged and flogged to force them to eat the flesh of a pig which was prohibited by the Law.
More than all of them, their mother ought to be admired and remembered. She saw her seven sons die in a single day. But she endured it even with joy for she had put her hope in the Lord. Full of a noble sense of honour, she encouraged each one of them in the language of their ancestors. Her woman’s heart was moved by manly courage, so she told them :
“I wonder how you were born of me; it was not I who gave you breath and life, nor I who ordered the matter of your body. The Creator of the world Who formed man in the beginning and ordered the unfolding of all creation shall in His mercy, give you back breath and life, since you now despise them for the love of His laws.”
Antiochus thought she was making fun of him and suspected that she had insulted him. As the youngest was still alive, the king tried to win him over not only with his words, but even promised to make him rich and happy, if he would abandon the traditions of his ancestors. He would make him his Friend and appoint him to a high position in the kingdom.
But as the young man did not pay him any attention, the king ordered the mother to be brought in. He urged her to advise her son in order to save his life. After being asked twice by the king, she agreed to persuade her son. She bent over him and fooled the cruel tyrant by saying in her ancestral language : “My son, have pity on me. For nine months I carried you in my womb and suckled you for three years; I raised you up and educated you until this day.”
“I ask you now, my son, that when you see the heavens, the earth and all that is in it, you know that God made all this from nothing, and the human race as well. Do not fear these executioners, but make yourself worthy of your brothers – accept death that you may again meet your brothers in the time of mercy.”
When she finished speaking, the young man said, “What are you waiting for? I do not obey the king’s order but the precepts of the Law given by Moses to our ancestors. And you who have devised such tortures against the Hebrews, shall not escape the hands of God.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded yet again to be righteous, good and worthy in all of our works and deeds. Each and every one of us are called to put our faith and trust in the Wisdom that God has given to us, and place ourselves firmly in the path which the Lord has shown us. All of us as God’s followers and disciples, we are all expected to follow God’s ways, obey His Law and commandments at all times, regardless of our background, nature, occupation or whatever it is that we are doing. And today we are also reminded that especially for those in the positions of power and responsibility, it is even more important that we live our lives in accordance with God and His ways, or else we may end up misleading many others down the wrong path, and the consequences for us will indeed be severe.
In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Wisdom, we heard of the words of the Lord delivered to all of His people, and this time, particularly directed to those leaders, sovereigns and rulers of nations and peoples, reminding them all that all of their power, sovereignty and rule all ultimately came from God. Each and every one of them must always keep in mind that they should not allow the temptations of worldly pleasures, corruptions of sin and desires to mislead and trick us down the wrong path in life. Many people throughout history, especially those who have been entrusted with power and authority, fell into the temptations of sin and evil, abusing their power and authority for their own good, seeking to enrich themselves and to gain good things for themselves by misusing what God had entrusted to them.
What the Lord wants us all to know is that, each and every one of us have been given various distinct and unique blessings, gifts and abilities, talents and opportunities in our lives. How we use them is really up to us, and we have been given the freedom to choose how we want to live our lives. We can use those gifts and opportunities to do what is good, right and just according to God, or to misuse them just as how some of our ancestors and predecessors had done. What the Lord reminds us with is that, for everything we have done, be it good or bad, worthy or wicked, we shall be held accountable for them all, and for those of us who have been entrusted with more, then the more shall be accounted for them, in everything that they and all of us say and do, in our lives.
Then, in our Gospel reading today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Luke of the story of the encounter between the Lord Jesus and ten lepers, one of whom was a Samaritan and the healing that happened to all of them. All of them begged the Lord to have them healed from their leprosy, which had made them ostracised and cast out from the rest of the community. According to the Law of Moses, the lepers must be segregated and separated out from the community until they recovered from their illness, as this was meant to avoid the disease from spreading rampantly in the close quarters of the people during the time of the Exodus. However, this has also led to the the lepers from being treated badly and looked upon with disdain by everyone, and no one would have wanted that kind of experiences.
Hence, the Lord in His love and mercy, showed them His power and healed all of them from their sickness. He told them to show themselves to the priests as according to the Law of Moses, they had to present themselves being healed and whole to a priest before they could be readmitted into the community. But this happened before they were healed. They were healed as they made their way to the priests, and as we heard, everyone except for the Samaritan among them rejoiced greatly after knowing that they had been healed. Only the Samaritan retraced his steps and sought the Lord again to thank Him for what He had done. This is actually also an allusion and link to what we have heard in our first reading today, as this is yet another reminder that everything we have, and all that we have received, ultimately came from God, and we really should thank Him and keep in mind of whatever it is that He has entrusted to us.
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Albert the Great, or St. Albertus Magnus, a renowned man of God and great teacher of the faith, whose life, works and dedication to God should inspire us all to be dedicated and committed to Him ourselves. Each and every one of us should heed the good examples set by this wonderful man of God, so that we may also be always faithful to Him, at all times. St. Albert the Great was born in what is now Bavaria in southern part of Germany, during the High Middle Ages. He was brought up well academically and showed his talents early on. He then became a member of the Dominican Order, and studied to become a theologian, which began his great and long ministry as a teacher and theologian henceforth.
St. Albert the Great later on became one of the provincials of the Dominican Order, and carried out his duties with great obedience and dedication. And while later on he was appointed as a bishop, as the Bishop of Regensburg, he remained humble and committed to the missions entrusted to him, walking all around his diocese on foot instead of riding a horse as he was entitled to. He dedicated himself to whatever missions God had entrusted him with, and despite the honour and respect that many people and his positions entitled him with, he remained very humble and focused on the Lord, not being swayed by the temptations of worldly power and glory. Instead, he committed himself wholly to the Lord and to the people of God, all throughout his life, and this is something that we should be inspired to follow as well.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard from the story of the life and works of St. Albert the Great, let us all therefore strive to be good, worthy and responsible in how we live our lives as Christians in this world. Let us all be filled with the desire to love God and to proclaim His truth and love, with humility and faith, much as St. Albert the Great and the many other saints, holy men and women of God had done. Let us all be good examples and role models for one another, in how we live our lives so that we may inspire more and more people to live their lives worthily and to walk ever always in God’s path. May God bless us all in our every good works and efforts, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)
Luke 17 : 11-19
At that time, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus passed through Samaria and Galilee, and as He entered a village, ten lepers came to meet Him. Keeping their distance, they called to Him, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
Jesus said to them, “Go, and show yourselves to the priests.” Then, as they went on their way, they found they were cured. One of them, as soon as he saw that he was cleansed, turned back, praising God in a loud voice; and throwing himself on his face before Jesus, he gave Him thanks. This man was a Samaritan.
Then Jesus asked him, “Were not all ten healed? Where are the other nine? Did none of them decide to return and give praise to God, but this foreigner?” And Jesus said to him, “Stand up and go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)
Psalm 81 : 3-4, 6-7
Give justice to the weak and the orphan; defend the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the helpless and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
“You are gods,” I said, “You are all sons of the Most High.” But now, you will die like the others; you will all fall, like any mortal.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)
Wisdom 6 : 1-11
Listen, o kings, and understand; rulers of the most distant lands, take warning. Pay attention, you who rule multitudes and boast of the numerous subjects in your pagan nations!
For authority was given you by the Lord, your kingship is from the Most High Who will examine your works and scrutinise your intentions. If, as officials of His kingdom, you have not judged justly or observed His law or walked the way God pointed our, He will oppose you swiftly and terribly; His sentence strikes the mighty suddenly.
For the lowly there may be excuses and pardon, but the great will be severely punished. For the Lord of all makes no distinction, nor does He take account of greatness. Both great and lowly are His work and He watches over all, but the powerful are to be judged more strictly.
It is to you then, sovereigns, that I speak, that you may learn Wisdom and not stumble. For those who keep the holy laws in a holy way will be acknowledged holy, and those who accept the teaching will find in it their defence. Welcome my words, desire them and they will instruct you.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures in which all of us are reminded that we must be always full of the most important of all Christian virtues, that is love. Without love, we cannot really call ourselves as Christians, as to follow the Lord our God, it is imperative that we must always be filled by His love and grace at all times. The fundamental reality and truth is that God is Love, and His love permeates through all of creation, since He has created each one of us by His love, ever enduring since the beginning of time. Therefore, if God has loved us so much, so generously all these while, then we should also be filled with the love for God and also for our fellow brothers and sisters, which is our primary missions in life.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful people of God in Rome, in which he exhorted all of the faithful there to be always filled with God’s love and compassion, to have no debt between them except that of the debt of love. This means that as God’s people, Christians should always be filled with God’s love in all things, and they all should be obedient to the Law of God, which in essence is showing all of the people of God how to love, loving both their Lord and God first and foremost, and then loving their fellow brothers and sisters in the same way, and just also as much as they love themselves. This is the most important benchmark and sign of what a Christian should be like, as without love, we cannot be true and genuine Christians.
This is a reminder from St. Paul that Christians must always be filled with love, true and generous love for others, or else, they would not have obeyed the Law of God in its fullness. This is contrasted to the attitudes of many of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who at the time of the Lord Jesus and His Apostles in the early Church, followed a very strict and rigid interpretation of the Law and forced them upon the people of God, that they must follow the Law according to their interpretation or else they would be unworthy of God. But ironically, in their pursuit and obsession with the Law and all of its tenets and practices, rites and actions, they had failed to follow the Law in its most fundamental nature, that is Love. They obeyed the letter of the Law to perfection, but failed to understand and appreciate its spirit.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Lord teaching His disciples and followers about the matter of following Him and committing themselves to Him, and how following God may require one to make sacrifices, which in this case means that, there may be time when one may need to choose between loving God and loving their brethren, and just as the early history of the Church showed us, many of the saints and martyrs faced challenges from even among their own families and friends, and they had the challenge of remaining faithful to God while still at the same time, being charitable and caring, forgiving and loving towards those who have persecuted and hated them, or made their lives difficult and challenging.
Then the Lord spoke on using a parable in which He compared the actions of people who wanted to build and establish their houses, and a king who would want to go on and wage war with a neighbouring kingdom, and how they ought to prepare in advance whatever plans they might have for themselves, for their houses or for the war that they were planning to wage. This is a reference to our own lives in this world, as each and every one of us have been called and entrusted with unique and distinct gifts, missions and purposes in life by the Lord. We have been taught and shown by the Lord on how we ought to obey His commandments and Law, and as we have just discussed earlier, these Law and commandments are all about Love.
This means that as Christians, all of us must always strive to be loving in all things, in all of our words and actions. We should do our best to put the Lord our God at the forefront and at the centre focus of our whole lives. We should always do what we can in order to walk in the path that the Lord has shown us. This also entails us doing and showing that same love to our fellow brothers and sisters all around us, be it those whom we love and are precious to us, our family and friends, but also even to our acquaintances and strangers. And as mentioned earlier and which the Lord had also told His disciples to do, all of us should continue to show love, mercy and compassion even for those who have hated and persecuted us, just like how the Lord Himself had prayed and died for the sake of even those who persecuted Hin, and how many among the saints and martyrs had done the same as well.
All of us are called to show genuine and true love, even in the smallest things we do, by showing care and concern to everyone around us, and most importantly, we should do it without expecting anything in return. This is the kind of love that we all should have, and not the kind of superficial and transactional love that many of us may have engaged in or practiced in our world so far. We should instead aspire to the kind of love which the Lord has shown us, in His most selfless and pure love that He has shown us despite our stubborn refusal to believe in Him or embrace His love, and despite us still being antagonistic against Him, being unworthy as sinners who are still corrupted by the various vices and evils of this world.
Let us all therefore continue to strive to be good, worthy and loving disciples of the Lord at all times, and let us all be great role models and examples for one another. Let us all no longer be swayed and tempted by the temptations of worldly glory and pleasures, but strive from now on to do God’s will in all things, and to show good examples of our Christian love and actions, so that we may inspire many others all around us to do the same as well in their lives, and so that they may continue to experience God’s love in all things, and therefore may come ever closer to God and His salvation, embracing together with us, the love and mercy of God, ever generously presented and given to us. Let us all strive to get ourselves rid and cleansed of sin, and be truly worthy of God, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 14 : 25-33
At that time, when large crowds were walking along with Jesus, He turned and said to them, “If you come to Me, unwilling to sacrifice your love for your father and mother, your spouse and children, your brothers and sisters, and indeed yourself, you cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not follow Me, carrying his own cross, cannot be My disciple.”
“Do you build a house without first sitting down to count the cost, to see whether you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, if you, have laid the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone will make fun of you : ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'”
“And when a king wages war against another king, does he go to fight without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand can stand against the twenty thousand of his opponent? And if not, while the other is still a long way off, he sends messengers for peace talks. In the same way, none of you may become My disciple, if he does not give up everything he has.”
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 111 : 1-2, 4-5, 9
Alleluia! Blessed is the one who fears YHVH, who greatly delights in His commands. His children will be powerful on earth; the upright’s offspring will be blessed.
He is for the righteous a light in darkness; He is kind, merciful and upright. It will be well with him who lends freely, who leads a life of justice and honesty.
He gives generously to the poor; his merits will last forever; and his head will be raised in honour.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Romans 13 : 8-10
Do not be in debt to anyone. Let this be the only debt of one to another : Love. The one who loves his or her neighbour fulfils the Law. For the commandments : Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not covet, and whatever else, are summarised in this one : You will love your neighbour as yourself.
Love cannot do the neighbour any harm; so love fulfils the whole Law.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 