Wednesday

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Wednesday, 8 February 2023 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani, and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints and Holy Virgins)

Genesis 2 : 4b-9, 15-17

On the day that YHVH God made the earth and the heavens, there was not yet on earth any shrub on the fields, nor had any plant yet sprung up, for YHVH God had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the earth, but a mist went up from the earth and watered the surface of the earth.

Then YHVH God formed Man, dust drawn from the clay, and breathed into his nostrils a breath of life and Man became alive with breath. God planted a garden in Eden in the east and there He placed Man whom He had created. YHVH God caused to grow from the ground every kind of tree that is pleasing to see and good to eat, also the tree of life on the middle of the garden and the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

YHVH God took Man and placed him in the garden of Eden to till it and to take care of it. Then YHVH God gave an order to Man saying, “You may eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you will not eat, for on the day you eat of it, you will die.”

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Wednesday, 1 February 2023 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the love that God has given very generously to each and every one of us, in sending to us His only begotten Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Through Christ, all of us have received the assurance of salvation and the path to eternal life, in which we shall be truly joyful and happy, and we have to persevere through the challenges, trials, obstacles and many hardships in this life to enter into the glorious kingdom of God. All of us are reminded not to be easily swayed and distracted by the many temptations all around us, the temptations of pride, ego, desire, worldly glory and many other things that may distract us from finding our true focus in God.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle to the Hebrews in which the author of this Epistle spoke of the reminders for the faithful people of God to seek righteousness in God and to be good and virtuous in their lives for they have all been made the adopted children of the Lord by their sharing of the human nature of Christ, Who has borne our many sins and died for our sake on His Cross, so that we may be reconciled with God, our most loving Father and Creator. And as His children, the Lord as our loving and caring Father will chastise us according to His desire, to see us growing better in our actions and lives, so that we do not end up falling into the wrong path or into the darkness. He does not want us to be lost from Him once again, having already been reconciled with us.

Unfortunately, it is our stubbornness and often lack of faith that have led us to be rebellious and to refuse the Lord’s repeated generous and kind offer to forgive us our sins and mistakes. The Lord has given us many opportunities, assistance and reminders all these while, chastising and rebuking us, disciplining us as He saw fit. All these are not because He despised us, but on the contrary because He truly loves us very much. If He despised and hated us, He could have easily willed us out of existence and cast us all into the eternal darkness and damnation. He could have destroyed us and crushed us by the power of His will alone. But this is not what He chose to do with us. As our loving Father and Creator, Who loves us all very dearly, God wants nothing less than our redemption and complete reconciliation with Him.

But as we heard in our Gospel passage today, many among us are still stubborn, refusing to believe in the Lord and His truth, especially because of our pride and ego, our inability to accept the truth that we may be mistaken and faulty in our thinking, judgment and understanding. Like those people in the hometown of the Lord Jesus who judged and doubted Him simply because they thought they knew Him and that just because He was apparently the Son of the local carpenter, then He was unworthy of the great Wisdom and the deeds that He had carried out in the midst of the people of God. Those people presumed that whatever they had heard and witnessed must have been wrong or mistaken because it could not be feasible for this mere Son of a village carpenter to have done them all, or spoke of all the great words of Wisdom that He had spoken.

By looking down on them, those people had shown the ugly nature of their prideful existence and hearts, their stubborn minds and all that they had put in place to keep themselves from listening to God and His truth. The Lord has patiently reached out to them and showed them His love, and yet, they continued to oppose Him, rebuff Him, reject Him and His most generous offer of love and kindness. It is easy for us to dismiss those people as being rebellious and delinquent, but what we cannot forget is that, we ourselves have often shown the same attitude as well, the same stubbornness and refusal to listen to the Lord.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, having often witnessed and experienced God’s most generous love and kindness, we should all be thankful for the Lord and His constant love for us and for having been ever patient with us, despite our many stubborn rebelliousness and wickedness. However, we cannot continue to walk down this path of wickedness and sin, and we have to embrace Lord’s path, His forgiveness and mercy, or else we may end up falling deeper and deeper into this path of darkness and sin. We cannot continue to let ourselves be dragged ever deeper into this trap which the Devil and all of his wicked forces are always actively trying to put in our path.

Let us all hence commit ourselves anew to the Lord, dedicating our time and effort to grow ever closer to Him, in each and every moments, and let us all continue to strive in our effort to live ever more worthily of Him, by doing our best in following the Law and the commandments of God, in living our lives well according to the precepts and ways taught to us by the Lord, and reminding ourselves of the errors and the faults that we have committed all these while in our lives. Each one of us as the children of God are expected to be like our Father, Who is good and perfect in all things. Hence, we too should be good, faithful, committed and righteous at all times.

May the Lord continue to help us and guide us in our journey of faith throughout life, and may He continue to bless us in our lives, in our actions and works, so that we may continue to what is right and just in accordance with His will. May God be with us always, and may He strengthen and empower us with His love, His Wisdom, His grace and blessings, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Wednesday, 1 February 2023 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 6 : 1-6

At that time, leaving the place where He resurrected the daughter of Jairus, Jesus returned to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and most of those who heard Him were astonished.

But they said, “How did this come to Him? What kind of wisdom has been given to Him, that He also performs such miracles? Who is He but the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here among us?” So they took offence at Him.

And Jesus said to them, “Prophets are despised only in their own country, among their relatives, and in their own family.” And He could work no miracles there, but only healed a few sick people, by laying His hands on them. Jesus Himself was astounded at their unbelief.

Jesus then went around the villages, teaching.

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Wednesday, 1 February 2023 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 102 : 1-2, 13-14, 17-18a

Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless His holy Name! Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.

But the Lord’s kindness is forever with those who fear Him; so is His justice, for their children’s children, for those who keep His covenant and remember His commands.

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Wednesday, 1 February 2023 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Hebrews 12 : 4-7, 11-15

Have you already shed your blood in the struggle against sin? Do not forget the comforting words that Wisdom addresses to you as children : My son, pay attention when the Lord corrects you and do not be discouraged when He punishes you. For the Lord corrects those He loves and chastises everyone He accepts as a son.

What you endure is in order to correct you. God treats you like sons and what son is not corrected by his father? All correction is painful at the moment, rather than pleasant; later it brings the fruit of peace, that is, holiness to those who have been trained by it.

Lift up, then, your drooping hands, and strengthen your trembling knees; make level the ways for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but healed. Strive for peace with all and strive to be holy, for without holiness no one will see the Lord. See that no one falls from the grace of God, lest a bitter plant spring up and its poison corrupt many among you.

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Wednesday, 25 January 2023 : Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the whole Church marks the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, in which we remember the moment when St. Paul the Apostle, then known as Saul, turned away from his path of persecuting the followers of Christ in the earliest days of the Church, and then became one of the Lord’s greatest champions and defenders instead. This Feast marks that moment when even such a great sinner and enemy of the Lord and His people could turn away from his wrong path and walk in the path of God’s righteousness. The example of St. Paul the Apostle and his conversion is a classic and very good example that no sinner is truly beyond God’s help and grace, as long as the sinner is willing to make amends and listen to the Lord calling on him or her, and turn back towards Him.

As Saul, in his earlier life, St. Paul was a young and overzealous Pharisee who was convinced to try to eradicate the Christian faith and all Christians throughout Judea and beyond. He was the leader of the efforts to persecute and destroy Christian believers, arresting and torturing them, and striking at them in conjunction with the Pharisees and the chief priests. Saul caused great harm to many among the faithful and he probably led to the suffering and death of many earliest Christians. He was present at and approved the martyrdom of St. Stephen, one of the Church’s seven original Deacons and the first of the martyrs of the Church. No one therefore could have believed that it was possible for one like Saul to embrace the Christian faith, less still to become one of the Lord’s chief defenders and servants.

Yet, that was what happened. The Lord called Saul on his way to Damascus to arrest and eradicate the Christians living there. He was called by the Lord in a miraculous and dramatic encounter between the two of them, as he saw and witnessed the Lord appearing to him, and revealing to him the truth, of the mistake he has committed in persecuting and arresting the Lord’s followers. Saul experienced for himself the encounter with the Lord and ever since then, through his baptism and miraculous healing via the assistance of Ananias, a disciple of the Lord, Saul’s life was completely changed and made anew, as he embarked on a new life that was faithful to the Lord, giving his best, all of his efforts and hard work to serve the Lord and to glorify Him, becoming one of the Lord’s greatest disciples and champions.

That was how Saul turned to eventually become St. Paul the Apostle, from a great enemy of Christians and the Lord Himself, to a great disciple and a most faithful servant of God, one of the Apostles and a great missionary who devoted his whole life, a lot of time and effort for the sake of proclaiming the Lord and His truth to more and more people all throughout the world. St. Paul’s example, faith and dedication ought to inspire all of us that even if we have sinned against God, or think that our sins made us to be unworthy of Him and His love, we have the hope of salvation and eternal life all the same. God’s love for us is far greater than all of our sins and wickedness, and in St. Paul’s own words, in one of his Epistles, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Undoubtedly, St. Paul was referring to his own example as the great example of how even great sinners can become great servants of God and saints.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate this Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle all of us are reminded that we are all also called by the Lord for the same purpose and mission in our own lives. Each and every one of us as members of the Church are parts of the Church’s works and missions in proclaiming the truth of God and evangelising the whole world. All of us are successors of the works entrusted by the Lord to His Apostles and disciples, the missions that the Lord entrusted to His Church. The works of St. Paul and the other Apostles and disciples of the Lord are still aplenty and ongoing, as there are ever more people out there who have not yet known the Lord and His truth. St. Paul the Apostle showed us the way forward in life, in how we should commit ourselves to God’s mission and works.

Now the question is, are we willing to do our best to follow the Lord in the way that St. Paul himself had done? Are we willing to embrace the Lord and His mercy and forgiveness once again, as He continued to reach out to us, calling us to turn away from our sinful and wicked ways? Are we willing to embrace God’s love and grace in showing us His mercy even when we have often disappointed Him? All of us should appreciate the things that God has done in patiently embracing us despite of our constant stubborn attitude and rebelliousness. He has always loved us and wanted us to be reconciled with Him, and gave us the means to do so through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. By His suffering, death on the Cross and by His Resurrection, the Lord has opened for us the gates of Heaven and shown us the path towards Him.

Now, what each one of us need to do is to reflect on how St. Paul embraced the Lord wholeheartedly and humbly accepted that he was mistaken and wrong in his youth, and allowing the Lord and His other Apostles, as well as the Holy Spirit to help and guide him down the wrong path. Too often many of us continue to sin and disobey God because we are too proud to admit our mistakes and faults, and we are unwilling to let the Lord to correct us. For all that St. Paul had done in his youth as Saul to persecute Christians, he was humble enough to accept the truth of the Lord and embrace His mercy and compassionate love. Are we also willing to embrace God’s truth and love with humility and faith? The choice is ours alone to make. If we continue to walk with pride and refusing to accept our errors and mistakes in life, we will likely end up continuing down the wrong path.

Let us all therefore strive to renew our faith and lives by our humble obedience to the Lord and the willingness to change ourselves by listening to God’s will and words. Let us all be growing ever stronger in our faith and relationship with the Lord in the way that St. Paul had done himself. Let us be converted in life and draw ever closer to the Lord, and be good role models in our lives and actions, that we may inspire many others to live worthily of the Lord. Let us trust in God’s love that is so great that not even the greatest of sinners are beyond God’s mercy and forgiveness. May God continue to strengthen our faith and may He bless us in our everyday lives and actions. May God bless us in our every endeavours, efforts and good works for His greater glory, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 25 January 2023 : Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 16 : 15-18

At that time, Jesus told His disciples, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation. The one who believes and is baptised will be saved; the one who refuses to believe will be condemned.”

“Signs like these will accompany those who have believed : in My Name they will cast out demons and speak new languages; they will pick up snakes, and if they drink anything poisonous, they will be unharmed; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”

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Wednesday, 25 January 2023 : Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 116 : 1, 2

Alleluia! Praise YHVH, all you nations; all you peoples, praise Him.

How great is His love for us! His faithfulness lasts forever.

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Wednesday, 25 January 2023 : Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 22 : 3-16

Paul spoke to the Jews in Jerusalem, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up here, in this city, where I was educated in the school of Gamaliel, according to the strict observance of our law. And I was dedicated to God’s service, as are all of you today. As for this Way, I persecuted it to the point of death and arrested its followers, both men and women, throwing them into prison.”

“The High Priest and the whole Council of elders can bear witness to this. From them, I received letters for the Jewish brothers in Damascus; and I set out to arrest those who were there, and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment. But, as I was travelling along, nearing Damascus, at about noon, a great light from the sky suddenly flashed about me.”

“I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me : ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?’ I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me : ‘I am Jesus, the Nazorean, Whom you persecute.’ The men who were with me saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of the One Who was speaking to me. I asked : ‘What shall I do, Lord?’”

“And the Lord replied : ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there, you will be told all that you are destined to do.’ Yet, the brightness of that light had blinded me; and so, I was led by the hand into Damascus by my companions. There, a certain Ananias came to me. He was a devout observer of the law, and well spoken of by all the Jews who were living there.”

“As he stood by me, he said : ‘Brother Saul, recover your sight.’ At that moment, I could see; and I looked at him. He, then, said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know His will, to see the Just One, and to hear the words from His mouth. From now on, you shall be His witness before all the pagan people, and tell them all that you have seen and heard.’”

“‘And now, why delay? Get up and be baptised, and have your sins washed away, by calling upon His Name.’”

Alternative reading

Acts 9 : 1-22

Meanwhile, Saul considered nothing but violence and death for the disciples of the Lord. He went to the High Priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus that would authorise him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem, anyone he might find, man or woman, belonging to the Way.

As he travelled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute Me?” And he asked, “Who are You, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus, Whom you persecute. Now, get up, and go into the city; there, you will be told what you are to do.”

The men who were travelling with him stood there speechless : they had heard the sound, but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground and, opening his eyes, he could not see. They took him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. He was blind; and he did not eat or drink for three days.

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, to whom the Lord called in a vision, “Ananias!” He answered, “Here I am, Lord!” Then the Lord said to him, “Go, at once, to Straight Street and ask, at the house of Judas, for a man of Tarsus named Saul. You will find him praying, for he has just seen in a vision that a man named Ananias has come in and placed his hands upon him, to restore his sight.”

Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man, and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem; and now, he is here, with authority from the High Priest, to arrest all who call upon Your Name.”

But the Lord said to him, “Go! This man is My chosen instrument, to bring My Name to the pagan nations and their kings, and the people of Israel as well. I, Myself, will show him how much he will have to suffer for My Name.”

So Ananias left and went to the house. He laid his hands upon Saul and said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord Jesus, Who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me to you, so that you may receive your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see; he got up and was baptised. Then he took food and was strengthened.

For several days Saul stayed with the disciples at Damascus, and he soon began to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God. All who heard were astonished and said, “Is this not the one who cast out, in Jerusalem, all those calling upon this Name? Did he not come here, to bring them bound before the chief priests?”

But Saul grew more and more powerful; and he confounded the Jews living in Damascus when he proved that Jesus was the Messiah.

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Wednesday, 18 January 2023 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures all of us are called to heed the love that God has given to us in the Person of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, Who is His most beloved and only begotten Son. Not only that, but we are reminded today that Christ is also our one and only True and Eternal High Priest, as the One Who interceded, made amends and reconnected us to the Lord, our most loving God and Father. By His coming into this world, He has bridged the once vast and immense gap that existed between God and us mankind, all because of our disobedience and sins against Him. And thanks to that, all of us now can look with great hope, to the Light of our Lord’s salvation and the promise of eternal life, which He has made to us and which He will fulfil, if we remain firm in our faith in Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle to the Hebrews in which the author of this Epistle spoke of the High Priesthood of Melchizedek, a rather mysterious figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis during the occasion when Abraham, the father of nations and the Israelites, offered a tenth of his materials to God. High Priest Melchizedek was described as the High Priest of the Most High God, or even as the High Priest and King of Salem, with some Biblical scholars relating this Salem with the historical Jerusalem. And as mentioned by the author of the Epistle of the Hebrews, who was not really discreet in making the connections between Melchizedek and Jesus Christ, Melchizedek was mentioned as One Who was without a father, mother or any genealogy, and the author also mentioned how Melchizedek was the figure of the Son of God.

Regardless of who Melchizedek really was, and what his nature and origin was, as truly many things were beyond even the knowledge and understanding of the prophets and the messengers of God, the writers of the Scriptures and even the Church fathers, what matters is that Melchizedek truly indeed was a prefigurement of the Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, in what He would do for the sake of each and every one of us, in bringing the salvation of God into our midst. As the High Priest of God, Melchizedek interceded on behalf of Abraham and offered his offerings to the Lord, and in the same way, the Lord Jesus as our one and true Eternal High Priest also offered on our behalf a most perfect and worthy offering to the Lord, His Heavenly Father, the offering and sacrifice of His own Body and Blood, as the slain and sacrificed Paschal Lamb of God.

And that was exactly how the Lord Jesus had become the Mediator of the New Covenant which God has created and established with us mankind, that Christ has become our link and the means for us to be reconciled with God, by reaching out to us and being present in our midst, showing us God’s love manifested in His Person, and by showing us all that God truly wants us all to return to Him and find comfort, liberation and true joy through Him. We heard of how the Lord healed a man who had a paralysed hand, allowing him to make use of his hand again. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were present there frowned upon the actions of the Lord as it happened on the Sabbath, a day that was meant to be a day of rest according to God’s Law. On that day, people rested from work and should not be doing any work, and spend the time to be with God.

Back then, we must understand that the Pharisee and the teachers of the Law were those who were very particular about the way how the Law of God was obeyed and lived, that they paid a lot of attention on the details and rituals involved. They have also enforced a very strict interpretation of the Law on the people, especially on the matter of the Sabbath laws and customs. No one was supposed to do any work or action, even for doing what is good and right, according to the beliefs and rules imposed by those considered as elders and guides of the people. That was where the Lord rebuked them and showed them His anger and indignation at those who showed no compassion and love for their fellow brethren, and those who had made it difficult for many to be good and faithful disciples and followers of God, all because of the excessive burdens they had imposed on the observance of the Law.

The Lord wants us all to know that what the Sabbath was all about, was meant to help the people to return their focus and attention once again on the Lord, and away from the many temptations present all around us, all of which could distract us from our relationship with God. That was why the Sabbath was instituted at the first instance, and that is for God’s people to dedicate at least one day for the Lord and to focus their attention and efforts on Him, on that Sabbath day, and not to spend all of their time and attention on their many worldly desires, preoccupations, works and other distractions in life. All of these were the reason why the Lord gave the Sabbath to His people so that they might learn to appreciate all that He has given them, and grow ever closer in faith and love in Him, as they spent more time with Him on that sacred day.

Instead, what happened was that the day became a source of misery for some, and prevented good deeds from being carried out. Like in other occasions when the Lord performed His healing and miracles, the Lord criticised the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law for their rigid and proud attitude, refusing to listen to the truth that God has delivered into their midst through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. They preferred to remain in their stubborn attitude and hence failed miserably in their duties and responsibilities as the custodians of the Law and of the faithful people of God. Contrast this stubbornness and disobedience, pride and ego with the humility and obedience of Christ the Son, the Son of God Who willingly obeyed His Father’s will and allowed Himself to be stripped of all glory and honour, to be condemned to death like a criminal and put to death in a most painful and humiliating way.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are henceforth reminded to first of all be appreciative and thankful of everything that the Lord had done for our sake, in Him loving us most generously and patiently despite our repeated disobedience and constantly stubborn attitudes. Then, let us also be thankful for our High Priest, our Lord and Saviour Who has offered Himself as the perfect and worthy offering for the absolution of our innumerable sins. He did all of these so that we may not perish but live, and that we may be truly reconciled with God. Can we therefore commit ourselves from now on to follow the Lord and His ways, just as He Himself has shown us in His perfect obedience? Can we show our true and living faith by doing what God has taught and commanded us to do, through His Church and His servants?

May the Lord, our Saviour and High Priest continue to strengthen and guide us in our journey of faith throughout life. May He empower each and every one of us so that we may indeed live our lives ever more worthily with each and every passing moments. May He continue to bless us in our efforts and endeavours each day and at every moments, all for His greater glory. Amen.