Weekday Homily

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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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Tuesday, 21 January 2025 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Lord contained in the Scriptures, we are all reminded and reassured of the constant and ever enduring love of God which He has always shown us throughout time and history, and which He has again and again renewed through His many promises made to us through His own words and through the prophets. And all these promises were not just mere empty words, as they all had been formalised and made complete, fulfilled and accomplished through none other than Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the whole world, Who has come into our midst to reveal to us the fullness of God’s love and grace, His mercy and kindness made tangible and real, approachable to us all.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews we heard of the reminders from the author directed to the Jewish community and people of everything that the Lord their God has promised and reassured to them again and again throughout history, referring to the promises of the Covenant He had made with Abraham and others among His servants and people, and how it was the perseverance shown by Abraham and those who are faithful to the Lord which has earned them all their inheritance and blessings from God. Through God and His love, and their constant and enduring obedience and faith in Him, all of those faithful people of God have been truly blessed and become reminders for us all that God has given us all so wonderful a blessing.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist the arguments between the Lord Jesus and the Pharisees who argued that the Lord and His disciples had violated the Law of God on the matter of the Sabbath day because the disciples had plucked on the grains of wheat from the field when they were all very hungry. The Lord rebuked those Pharisees by quoting the example from the Scripture, how the venerated and well-respected King David of Israel and his companions were allowed to eat from the bread reserved only for the priests at the House of God. Neither David nor his companions were members of the priestly order, but they were allowed to eat when they were very hungry.

Those Pharisees belonged to those who very strictly and rigidly interpreted the Law of God, taking the meaning of the Law such as the Law on the Sabbath, to the point that they misunderstood the true purpose, meaning and intention of the Law of God, which were not meant to restrict, restrain or make their lives difficult. Instead, the Law had always been meant to help show and teach the people of God the true meaning of love and how they all can truly love Him wholeheartedly and to be filled fully with faith and trust in this love, because it is by His ever great, wonderful and enduring love that we all have been saved and provided with rich and sure assurance of eternal life and inheritance beyond measure or comparison.

We are therefore reminded through these Scripture passages today that we must always be truly faithful to the Lord and put our whole trust in Him, be filled with true and genuine love in Him and not merely observing His Law and commandments without truly understanding and appreciating their true importance, purpose and significance. If we want to be truly faithful to the Lord, then we must not be like those Pharisees who placed greater importance in their own selfish desires and personal ambitions in achieving their pious actions and practices so that they might be praised by others and be honoured for doing so. This is why all of us as Christians should always put God first and foremost in our lives, as Abraham and many of our predecessors had done before us.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Agnes, a renowned martyr of the faith who perished during one of the most intense persecutions of Christians and the Church. She was also known as St. Agnes of Rome, having been born into a Roman noble family and was raised as a Christian by her family during the difficult years of persecution against Christians by the Roman Emperor Diocletian and his fellow rulers in the then Tetrarchy. Eventually, due to her great beauty, St. Agnes had many suitors whom she all rejected as she wanted to devote herself to God, and as such, disgruntled suitors reported St. Agnes’ Christian identity to the authorities who then arrested her and forced her to deny God and abandon her faith, which she courageously refused to do.

When St. Agnes was brought before the Roman prefect, Sempronius, he condemned her to be paraded naked to a brothel for her to be defiled by those people who frequented the brothel in mockery of her holy virginity. According to Church tradition, St. Agnes prayed to God and her hair miraculously grew and covered her whole body, and anyone who wanted to rape her were immediately struck blind, and no one could harm her at all. And this included Sempronius’ own son, who was struck dead, and upon the intercession of St. Agnes, the dead son was revived again. Undoubtedly shaken by what he experienced and what happened to his son, the Roman prefect recused himself from the judgment and let another person to judge St. Agnes, who was thereafter martyred by either being beheaded or stabbed on her throat after even flames would not harm her.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard from the Scripture passages today, and from the life and examples of St. Agnes, holy woman and martyr of the Church, let us all therefore learn to commit ourselves ever more, in each and every moments given to us, in every opportunities so that we may ever be courageous and most dedicated servant of God, with our lives and examples be the shining beacons of truth and the guiding light for everyone around us. May everyone knows the Lord and His love by the love He has shown us and which we have reflected in our own lives, in our complete and trust in God and in our love for our fellow brothers and sisters, for those who are less fortunate and in need for our love. May God, our ever loving Master and Creator be with us all, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 20 January 2025 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Fabian, Pope and Martyr, and St. Sebastian, 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 reminded that each and every one of us as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people, each and every one of us are called to commit ourselves wholeheartedly to the path that God has called us to walk through, following the examples of the Lord Himself, Our Saviour and High Priest Who has obeyed so perfectly the will of His Heavenly Father so that by His perfect obedience, He may show all of us mankind the path towards eternal life and salvation. He has become the perfect Man, the New Adam and the New Man that all of us as Christians are called to follow and embody in our own lives, embracing wholeheartedly our Christian faith in everything that we say and do at all times.

In our first reading today, the continuation from the discourse by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews on the nature and the works of the Messiah, in which the author continued to elaborate on the role which Christ as the Messiah had played in the story of our salvation. As the author was writing to the audience composed of the Jewish people, likely both those who have believed in the Lord and also those who have not yet believed, he explained in detail throughout this Epistle Who the true and real identity of Jesus Christ was, the One Whom the Jewish leaders and authorities had rejected, oppressed and then handed over to the Romans to be crucified. This Epistle to the Hebrews instead presented this crucifixion as part of the plan of the Lord in saving all of His people just as He has promised and prophesied through His prophets like the prophet Isaiah.

The account from this Epistle further highlighted the actions that Christ has done at the pinnacle of His salvific mission, in offering on our behalf the perfect offering for all of our multitudes of sins, in the manner how the priests of the Israelites offered sacrificial offerings for the people of God. Those priests had to first offer sacrifices for themselves first because they themselves were sinners and had to atone for their own sins first, before offering the sacrifices on behalf of the people who came to them seeking their help. But it is different for the case of the Lord Jesus, the One and only True High Priest of all because He is perfect and without any taint of sin, and hence had no need to offer sin offering for Himself.

And most amazingly, while He Himself is blameless and without any fault, He chose willingly to bear the blame and the punishment assigned to Him, imposed on Him by the Jewish leaders and authorities, who blamed on Him the fault of rebellion and blasphemy against God, that He was handed over to the Romans to be crucified. Yet, as those who were familiar with the Scriptures would realise, this persecution and suffering of the Messiah that God had sent to be with His people has been foretold by the prophets, and it was by this willing sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all, offered His own Most Precious Body and Blood on the Altar of His Cross, by which He has purchased all of us, once and for all, the redemption for all of our innumerable sins.

Then from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the words of the Lord Jesus against those people who questioned Him on why those Pharisees and the disciples of St. John the Baptist carried out fasting and other pious practices but His disciples did not do the same. This was because at that time the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were particularly strict in how they interpreted the Law of God, requiring all the people to follow the Law strictly, and one of them was the requirement for fasting, and how they ought to fast in the right manner. However, they placed so much emphasis and time focusing on how they observed and practiced the Law, that they ended up neglecting to follow the Lord faithfully and with God at the centre of all things.

The Lord also presented to them all the parable of the new wine and wineskin, old wine and wineskin, as well as new cloth and old cloth. This parable is meant to highlight first of all the fact that the Lord’s coming revealed truths about the Lord and His Law, His intentions and desire for His people, all of us, to fulfil them all perfectly and to correct the erroneous ways that His will, His Law and commandments have been received by the people, particularly by those who interpreted the Law and practiced them. Secondly, it is also a reminder for us that if we truly want to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and completely, then there is a need for us all to follow His path and reject the old path of worldliness that we may be familiar with. Otherwise, if we do not do so, we are no better than hypocrites.

Today, the Church also celebrates the feast of not just one but two amazing men of God whose faith and dedication to Him should be reminders for all of us to be truly faithful and committed as well in our own lives, in our obedience to God and His cause, and in doing whatever we can so that we may imitate their good and faithful lives, and realise how being good Christians may often require us to make sacrifices and to be ready and prepared to face challenges, trials and even oppressions for our faith in God. Pope St. Fabian and St. Sebastian both have suffered for their faith in God, being persecuted for their belief in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all. However, they remained firmly faithful even despite all those sufferings and becoming for us great inspirations and role models to follow.

Pope St. Fabian was born into a noble Roman family during the third century after the birth of Christ, at a time of great challenges and turmoil for the Church and the faithful as they often encountered harsh persecutions and oppressions from the Romans who treated Christians and their faith as those who deserved to be punished and killed, unless they abandoned their faith. His election as Pope was truly remarkable in the sense that when the previous Pope, his predecessor passed away and the election for the successor took place, the future Pope St. Fabian was actually just visiting, and amidst all the competition between all the influential candidates at that time, no one minded Pope St. Fabian at all until a dove miraculously descended upon him, and the whole assembly acclaimed him as the new Pope. He would go on to carry out many great deeds and works as Pope.

Meanwhile, not much was known about the early life of St. Sebastian, but according to Church tradition and his hagiography, he was a young man who joined the Roman military during the time of the reign of the then Emperor Carinus, and then under his successors, Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Those two Emperors were notorious for their very harsh and terrible persecution against Christians, but St. Sebastian managed to become one of the captains of the Praetorian Guards, the guards of the Emperor himself. In that capacity, he managed to help several of the captive and persecuted Christians, and even managed to convert some of those involved in the arrest and persecution of Christians.

Eventually, after the relatively long reign of about fourteen years for Pope St. Fabian and after the clandestine efforts in helping Christians and converting others for St. Sebastian, both of them were found out in their efforts and faith as Christians, with Pope St. Fabian being persecuted by the new Roman Emperor Decius, who unlike the previous Emperors that had been more tolerant of Christianity, he was a hardliner, arrested Pope St. Fabian and executed him for his faith as an example to all the other Christians. St. Sebastian meanwhile was persecuted by another harsh persecutor, the Emperor Diocletian, who was particularly displeased that one of his own Praetorian captains was a Christian. He was shot with many arrows, but miraculously survived and cared for by a Christian widow, before being martyred after he rebuked the Emperor publicly for his actions against Christians.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the essence of what we have heard in our Scripture passages today and the lives of those saints whose memory we commemorate is that we must appreciate the great love, compassion and kindness which God has given to us so generously through His Son, and therefore, just as He has suffered in doing so, being rejected by the world and all those who dwelled and remained in sin, and how Pope St. Fabian, St. Sebastian and many other saints and holy men and women of God had done, let us all realise the challenges, difficulties and sufferings that we may face amidst our lives as Christians in this world today. Let us also be ready to live lives that are truly worthy of God at all times so that we may be good role models and inspirations ourselves to one another. Amen.

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Sunday, 19 January 2025 : Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday, which is the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, we are all reminded of the many great things which God has done for us, in the salvation and assurances of His love which He has made available most generously to each one of us through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. He has revealed to us the love of God made manifest in our midst, making this love approachable, tangible and real for all of us so that by His works and loving grace, we may all be gathered once again into His most loving Presence, healing us all from our hurts and sufferings that had been caused by our sins. Through Christ, all of us have seen this salvation and received the assurance of eternal life through Him, and we are reminded to continue believing in this truth. 

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the Lord spoke of the salvation and the joy which He would bring to His people, the Israelites, freeing them from their sufferings, humiliations and exile, bringing them once again into their homeland, granting them His blessings and wonders, giving them all His strength and grace, empowering each and every one of them with the light of His salvation. He would indeed fulfil everything that He has promised through the sending of His Saviour, the One that the prophet Isaiah had made a lot of prophecies and predictions about, revealing to us all what He has planned for us and what He desires to do with us, through the Saviour that He would send into our midst, in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son.

During the time of the work and ministry of the prophet Isaiah, the people of Israel had been separated and divided into smaller groups, and many of their separated brethren had been defeated and conquered by the Assyrians who had destroyed the cities of the northern kingdom of Israel, conquered Samaria and destroyed the kingdom of Israel, bringing many of its people, a large proportion of the Israelites to exile in distant lands while bringing foreigners to dwell in their lands. And the people of Judah in the south did not escape harm either, as they were also almost defeated and conquered by the Assyrians if not for God’s providence and protection at the last moments. All of these showed the bleak and sad state of the Israelites during the time when Isaiah carried out his ministry among them.

All of that had happened because the disobedience and sins which the people of God had committed against Him, in their refusal to obey His words and commandments, and that had led them to the consequences of having to endure the difficulties, challenges and obstacles brought about by their own refusal to obey the Lord. Nonetheless, God proved that His love for each and every one of us is truly so great that not even all those obstacles, challenges and trials can truly separate us all from His love and grace, and from the salvation that He has promised to each one of us. But He also gave us the freedom and the free will to choose whether we want to accept and embrace this salvation or not. Many of our predecessors have unfortunately chosen to continue disobeying the Lord and reject His generous offer of mercy and kindness.

In our second reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in the city and region of Corinth in Greece, we heard the Apostle reminding the faithful of the various gifts that God has given to each and every one of them through the Holy Spirit that He has given and imparted to them through the Church. St. Paul told them this so that they all first might realise the love and generosity that they all have received from the Lord, much as the prophet Isaiah had reassured the people of Israel, and then also the Apostle reminded all of the faithful, including us all listening to this message now on how blessed we all are to have experienced the revelation of God’s love through His Son, the fulfilment of His many promises through Christ.

And we are all reminded of the many gifts which we have received from the Lord through the Holy Spirit, the various unique gifts presented to us so that we may make good use of them in our daily lives, and not be ignorant of what we are all able to do as Christians in living our lives to the best of our abilities and in doing God’s will. Many of us are either ignorant of this calling and mission which God has entrusted to us, or we are easily jealous and envious over what others have received, and which we also desire to have as well for ourselves. This is where we are reminded that God has given us all unique gifts and means suitable to our own situation and the opportunities which we have been provided, and we should not envy others for our own respective gifts. In fact, the greater is the blessings God had provided us, the greater is the responsibility for us to make good use of them. 

Then, in our Gospel passage today taken from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the famous account of the time when the Lord Jesus, our Saviour, performed His very first miracle at Cana, the miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding banquet. We heard how the host of the wedding banquet was in trouble because he was running out of wine, and he sought the help from the Lord through His mother Mary, who was also there at the banquet. Mary came to her Son asking Him to help out the host who was in risk of being greatly embarrassed at having run out of wine on such a joyous occasion that they were having at the time.

Initially as we heard, the Lord was reluctant to help them all as it was not yet His time to reveal Himself to the masses. And yet, He listened to the words and request put forth by His Mother, who pleaded with Him to help, and Mary also directed the servants to listen and obey the instructions from her Son. As a result, we heard how the very first miracle performed by the Lord was done, the water in the jugs were transformed miraculously into the finest quality wine for everyone to partake. This Gospel passage is a reminder for us that we have to obey God’s words and His will, and like Christ Himself, Who has made Himself a Man for our salvation, He showed what it means by true and perfect obedience, obeying the will of His heavenly Father to show His love to all of us.

And Mary, the Mother of God is there by our side, helping and guiding us all to her Son, providing us with the sure path towards Him and His salvation so that none of us may be lost to Him. Each and every one of us are reminded today therefore of God’s ever enduring love for each one of us, and how fortunate all of us are for having so beloved and blessed by Him. All of us should not take for granted what the Lord has given to us, and we should make sure that in everything that we do from now on, we should make good use of them for the good and benefit of everyone around us, as we have all been entrusted to do by God. Let us all discern carefully our path in life and pray so that the Lord may show us how we can better use these gifts and blessings that He has given to us all.

May the Lord be with us always and may He empower us with His blessings and grace, so that in everything we do, we will always strive to do our best for the greater glory of His Name, and to touch the lives of others, of everyone around us with the generous love and kindness that God Himself has always shown us. May Mary, the Mother of God continue to help and intercede for each and every one of us, her beloved children, that we may find our way to her Son and the eternal life and salvation in Him. Amen.

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Saturday, 18 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Lord speaking to us through the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that through the great love, kindness and grace that God has given to each one of us, we have received this great promise and assurance of salvation and eternal life, all because of our Lord having come into this world in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, through Whom God made that Bridge connecting all of us back to Him, renewing and making a new and eternal Covenant with all of us through His perfect and most selfless sacrifice on the Cross. And we should realise just how fortunate all of us are, having received this great love and grace from God.

In our first reading today, from the continuation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author of this Epistle spoke about the power of the Word of God which had been made flesh, incarnate in our midst, and Whose power has penetrated through our every beings, our bodies, hearts and minds, revealing unto us the truth about the Lord, His love and great desire to save us all from certain destruction and eternal damnation. He has given is all this way of salvation through His Son, the Incarnate Word of God, in the person of Jesus Christ, Who has become one like us, assuming our human nature and existence, and yet without the taint and corruption of sin. By that, as mentioned by the author of the Epistle, He has become our one True and Eternal High Priest, offering on our behalf the sacrifice worthy of redeeming us from our sins.

This is what we are constantly being reminded of, the love of God that has been manifested in His Son, and this Son, our High Priest has willingly embraced our human existence, having gone through all the temptations, challenges and difficulties, all the trials that He had to face throughout His life, ministry, and ultimately His Passion and death on the Cross. He did not hesitate to go through all of these ultimately because of His ever enduring and present love for each one of us. He has obeyed so perfectly that by His total obedience and love for His heavenly Father, He, as the New Man, might become for all of us the perfect role model and inspiration to follow, in becoming the perfect Man, the perfect Lamb to be offered for us, and the perfect High Priest to offer this generous and most selfless offering for the sake of our redemption.

Essentially, through Christ, we have received the assurance of forgiveness from our sins and the path to eternal life and true happiness with Him, because He is truly God Himself in the raiment of our human nature, and by His power and the grace that He has freely offered us, He has the power to forgive us from our many sins, calling on each and every one of us to come to Him and to embrace His rich forgiveness and grace, reminding us that there is no sinner without a future, as long as we trust in the Lord and believe in His compassion and rich mercy, and cooperate with Him in His desire to reunite us all with Him, leading to us all being freed from the bondage of sin, walking down the path of repentance and turning away from the darkness, walking towards the light and salvation in God.

Then in our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus called Levi, a tax collector to be one of His disciples. And in this Gospel we heard the example of what the Lord had desired to do with His coming into this world to heal us all from our afflictions and forgive us all from our many sins. This is because the tax collectors during the time of the Lord were often reviled, despised and hated by many of the people because of the prejudice they experienced based on their line of work and what they did, which were disliked by the people. Their job was to collect taxes on behalf of the rulers, be it the Herodian rulers, the descendants of Herod the Great, or the Romans, who were the true rulers and overlords of the land that time.

No one would love to allow their hard earned money, wealth or possessions to be taxed, and the various taxes they had to endure not only make the livelihood the people were having to be more difficult and challenging, but the common perception was that the tax collectors were enriching themselves with the taxes and the money that most of the people had toiled and laboured hard to earn. Therefore, there was a strong prejudice against those tax collectors, who were deemed as great sinners and wicked people, unworthy of God and His grace, and many among the people, especially the self-righteous Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, would have nothing to do with those tax collectors, as according to their teachings, interacting with those tax collectors would defile and corrupt the person who did so.

That was what the Lord set to break and set right as He went directly to call on Levi the tax collector to follow Him. And we heard how Levi left everything behind and decided to follow the Lord. Levi must have had a good and comfortable life, and his nature of work meant that he must be quite well educated. He could have done other jobs in the administration if not being a tax collector, and yet, he chose to put his trust in the Lord and follow Him wholeheartedly, becoming the disciple of the Lord henceforth and committed himself to a lifetime of service, eventually dying as a martyr many years later in the midst of his work of evangelisation. But before all that, we heard how Levi, the future St. Matthew the Apostle, called on all the other tax collectors who all wanted to listen to the Lord and all of them came to have dinner at Levi’s house with the Lord.

Now, as mentioned earlier, this was something taboo for the Jewish people and the Pharisees, and some of those Pharisees who were present there immediately criticised the Lord for His choice of action, of coming to eat in the house of a sinner, according to the interpretation of the Pharisees. Yet, the Lord told those Pharisees off and rebuked them for their prejudice and also lack of faith in Him, because while many of those Pharisees had refused to believe in Him and His words, questioned and doubted His authority and works, those tax collectors, who were supposedly wicked and great sinners, were all flocking to come and seek the Lord, wanting to listen to Him and to atone for their mistakes and faults. And this is what the Lord desires from us, that willingness from each one of us to come and seek Him, His forgiveness and mercy so that we may all receive from Him pardon and healing for all of our sins, and be redeemed and reunited with Him, worthy to enter into the eternal kingdom prepared for all of us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore remind ourselves and one another of God’s great love and mercy, striving to follow the example of Levi and the tax collectors, fully realising that we are all sinners, wicked and unworthy of God’s forgiveness and grace. And yet, the Lord has generously provided us all with the means to come back towards Him and to embrace His love and mercy. Let us all not take this great love, grace and mercy for granted, and commit ourselves henceforth from now on to walk ever more faithfully in God’s Holy Presence, and love Him with ever more dedication, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 17 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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 to remain firm in our faith in the Lord and to obey Him, and not to harden our hearts and minds against Him and His truth, for the Lord has brought unto us His salvation and grace, revealing His love manifested perfectly in the flesh through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour. There were those who believed in Him and embraced His truth, but there were many others who hardened their hearts and refusing to follow Him, or believe in His words and teachings, questioning His authority and legitimacy, just as what we had heard from the action of the teachers of the Law in our Gospel passage today.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author of this Epistle continued to speak of the matter of believing and trusting in the Messiah Whom God had sent into this world, the same Jesus Christ, the One Who had been betrayed by many among His own people, and handed over to the Romans to be crucified, but Whose Resurrection and truth cannot be contained and henceforth, continued to propagate among the Jewish people and many more others among the non-Jews, which became the beginning and foundation of the Church of God. After hearing for the past few days the various things that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews spoke about regarding the Lord and all that He had done to save us all, in order to convince those in the Jewish community who had not yet believed then, we too should be convinced of the truth that we have received as well.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in today’s passage again exhorted the people and hence, all of us to continue to keep our faith and trust in the Lord because all those who have stood by their faith in God and remained firmly faithful will indeed be rewarded by God, while all those who refused to listen to the Lord and believe in Him shall be judged and condemned by their own stubborn attitudes and conscious refusal of God’s merciful love and compassion towards all of His beloved ones. We must not take God’s love and mercy for granted as we must not forget that while He is truly a loving and merciful God, but He is also a just and Holy God, in Whose Presence sin and evil cannot stand and survive.

This is why as Christians it is important that we should always strive to hold fast to this faith which we have in the Lord, and not to be easily swayed by false ideas and teachings that run contrary to our faith in God. We should also not be swayed easily by our ego and pride, our ambitions and desires, some of which were the reasons why those who have rejected the Lord and refused to believe in Him and His truth had done so. It was the belief in their abilities, intellect and power, as well as pride in their sense of superiority which made many among the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the elders of the Jewish community to reject the Lord and harden their hearts and minds against His truth and works in their midst.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist in which the famous story of how the Lord Jesus healed a paralytic man was told to us. As we heard, four people brought the paralysed man through the roof of the building that Jesus was teaching in, as there were so many people gathered there to listen to Him. And when the Lord told the paralysed man that his sins had been forgiven, those teachers of the Law in the crowd grumbled and made complaints against the Lord, saying that He has insulted and blasphemed against God for only God has the power and authority to forgive us from our sins. Indeed, they were right on this, as God alone can forgive us our sins, but they refused to acknowledge that God Himself has come into their midst in the flesh.

Those teachers of the Law in fact were knowledgeable about the Law and the prophets of God and as such, of all people they should have been the ones who knew well that the prophets of God were all speaking of the coming of the Saviour of God, and they all, especially the prophet Isaiah attributed Divine identity to this Saviour, after all, how can Isaiah mentioned the name of the Saviour as Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. How can this Saviour be another god that is not the one and only True God of all, unless He truly comes into this world to dwell among us, as the prophet Isaiah also prophesied about Emmanuel, God Who dwells with His people?

That is why the stubbornness among the people of God, their ego and pride, their refusal to listen to the Lord and embrace His truth, all of those things had become great obstacles in preventing them from accepting the reality that the Lord Himself has brought into their midst. God has come into our midst to heal us all from our afflictions that is our maladies, sickness and all of our shortcomings, but most importantly our sins as mentioned earlier that no one can forgive us all our sins save that of the Lord. And He has given us all His Son to reach out to us, forgiving our sins and offering the most generous and wonderful love of God manifested before us. What else can we possibly want, brothers and sisters?

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Anthony, also known as St. Anthony the Abbot, or St. Anthony the Great or St. Anthony of Egypt. He was a truly renowned ascetic who lived many years in the wilderness in the desert during the early years of the Church. St. Anthony was a contemporary of another great hermit and ascetic, namely St. Paul the Hermit, whose feast we had just celebrated two days earlier. St. Anthony was born in a wealthy family in Egypt and lost both of his parents when he was just about twenty years old. He then chose to abandon worldly glory and pursuits, living in the wilderness and desert like St. Paul the Hermit, devoting many decades of his life in seclusion and contemplative prayer.

It was told that St. Anthony was often visited and attacked by the evil one who attempted to tempt and coerce him to abandon his holy and devout life for the pleasures of the world, but the Devil was unable to shake St. Anthony’s firm faith and conviction to follow the Lord wholeheartedly. He resisted those temptations and became great role models and inspirations for many others who would follow in his footsteps as an ascetic, known as the ‘Father of Monasticism’ who would inspire the other monks like St. Benedict of Nursia, St. Bede the Venerable among many others. While St. Anthony was not the first ascetic, preceded by St. Paul the Hermit and others, but he was the first to popularise the way of ascetic lifestyle, conscious withdrawal from the world and prayerful commitment to God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all continue to do our part in glorifying God by our lives, and let us all continue to put our faith in Him, our trust and belief that in Him alone lies our hope, the hope for liberation and redemption from the dominion and bondage to sin. Each and every one of us should continue to live our lives worthily as Christians, dedicating ourselves, our time and efforts to direct more and more people towards the Lord, sharing our faith and showing it towards everyone whom we encounter daily in life. May God be with us all and may He continue to strengthen us all, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 16 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today through the Scripture readings that we have heard, we are all reminded that we must always be vigilant against sin and all of its wicked snares, so that we do not fall into temptation and be separated ever further from God because of our sins. Instead, we should seek to be healed by Him, the only One Who can forgive us all from our many and innumerable sins, provided that we truly show the sincere desire and effort to seek Him and also desire to be forgiven and healed by Him. If we continue to be stubborn in our rebelliousness and refusal to walk in the path that God has shown us, preferring to do things our own way and living in sin, then we shall be judged by that conscious choice which we have made.

In our first reading today, we heard the continuation of the discourse from the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in which he further elaborated about the importance of embracing the salvation of God to the audience this Epistle was intended to, that is the Jewish community at that time in the early days of the Church, both those who have believed in God and those who have not yet believed in Him. This is because at that time, quite a few among the Jewish community still refused to believe in the Lord, hardening their hearts and minds against Him, despite having seen, heard and witnessed firsthand everything that He had done in their midst, all of His miracles and wonders, and all of His Wisdom and words He had spoken to them.

That was why the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews exhorted the Jewish community not to follow in the examples of their predecessors, that of the Israelites during the days of their Exodus from Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land of Canaan, when they frequently disobeyed the Lord, refusing to follow the words and instructions that Moses, God’s servant and their leader had given to them, worshipping pagan idols like the golden calf they had built and made to be their god, and also the gods and idols of the people they encountered in their way like the Midians and the other Canaanites. All of these blatant disobedience and refusals to obey the Lord led them to face the wrath of God, and many of them perished for their disobedience and sins.

This is therefore also an important reminder for all of us just as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews intended to make this known to the Jewish people of his time, that while God is truly full of compassion, love and mercy, ever ready and willing to welcome us back to His Presence, ceaselessly trying to lead us all back to Himself and showing His compassion and grace known to all of us in so many occasions, but we must not take His love, compassion and mercy for granted, as if we continue to be stubborn in refusing His kindness and His generous mercy, then in the end, we shall be judged by those sins which we have committed, as well as by our stubborn attitudes and our refusals against God’s generous love and mercy.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the occasion from the Gospel of St. Mark the Evangelist in which the moment when the Lord Jesus healed a leper was told to us. The man suffering from leprosy begged the Lord sincerely to heal him and the Lord granted his wish, healing him from his leprosy and made him wholly well again. Back then leprosy was a very great problem for anyone afflicted by it, as this leprosy usually refers to a diverse kind of skin infections and diseases that are highly contagious, and hence, according to the Law of God revealed through Moses, those who suffered from leprosy had to live outside of the community, which is understandable considering the context of the time of the Exodus when this Law was given to the Israelites.

At the time of the Exodus, the Israelites lived in close proximity to each other as they travelled through the desert, and hence, if anyone contracted a contagious skin disease, it would be disastrous for the rest of the people who could also suffer from the same malady as well. But over time, the rationale and purpose of this law and rule became forgotten, and ended up being interpreted in a way that prejudiced and being unfair against those suffering from those diseases, many of whom did not become sick because of their own fault. The Lord healed the leper and then told him to follow the prescribed rules, to show himself to a priest and not to speak of what he had experienced, the miraculous healing and all.

But as we heard, the man disobeyed the Lord, perhaps partly due to his enthusiasm to let everyone know what had happened to him. Unfortunately, that disobedience came at a price because it likely made known to everyone of the interaction which the Lord Jesus had made with the leper, which was a very taboo thing to do at the time. That was why the Lord could no longer go openly to any towns and places, and had to remain in the wilderness Himself. This of course did not stop many people from continuing to bring their sick ones to the Lord, wanting Him to heal their sick ones or their own problems and sickness. The Lord showed His love towards everyone and healed all of them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to these words from the Scriptures, we are once again reminded that obedience is truly something that is very important, and we should not persist in our disobedience especially against God, against His will and commandments. Instead, we should commit ourselves to follow His path and to do His will, and humble ourselves before Him, realising that we are all sinners who are in need of His healing and mercy. For the main reason why many people, including those Israelites during the time of the Exodus and afterwards, and the Jewish leaders during the time of Jesus, were stubborn and refused to listen to the Lord was because of their pride and ego, as well as their attachment to the worldly desires and ambitions, to all the temptations present all around us.

Let us all therefore strive to live our lives ever more faithfully and worthily of God from now on, doing our best so that by our every moments in life, in everything that we say and do, in all the actions we take in life and in whatever we do, our interactions towards one another and in our whole lives, we will continue to grow in faith and humility, and continue to focus our lives and existence on the Lord, to continue to do His will and to obey Him wholeheartedly in all things, now and always. Amen.

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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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Tuesday, 14 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words from the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded again of the salvation and great grace that we have received from God through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Saviour and Redeemer. For through Him, all of us have been shown the sure and direct path towards eternal life and true joy with God, by all that He had done in offering Himself with the perfect sacrifice and offering of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, as the Paschal Lamb offered on the Altar of His Cross. And as Christians, this is the core tenet of our faith, our belief in the Lord’s ultimate sacrifice and love for all of us sinners, that He has willingly embraced each one of us and loved us all despite us having sinned against Him, disobeyed Him and betrayed Him.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which the author, likely St. Luke the Evangelist, wrote to the Jewish community of his time, both to the Jewish converts to the Christian faith and also those who have not yet believed in Christ, we heard of the continuation of the testimony about the truth and reality of the identity of the Messiah or the Saviour of the world, in Jesus Christ, the Divine Word of God and Son of God Incarnate in the flesh, having become the Son of Man. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews spoke of the great power, dominion and sovereignty which God has given to His Son, born into this world through His mother, the ever Blessed Virgin Mary.

It was also mentioned how no power, no dominion or greatness can surpass the great things that have been entrusted to this same Man, the Saviour of the world, the Son of God made Man, in Whom all of us Christians believe in and put our trust into. In Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, God has revealed the fullness of His love and grace, made whole and complete, tangible, real and approachable to us through Christ, and by Whose suffering and death, in uniting His humanity to ours, made us all to also share and partake in His glorious Resurrection, overcoming forever the power and dominion of sin and death, fulfilling what God has promised to our ancestors since the very beginning, that Satan and all the wickedness of sin will eventually be defeated.

And this testimony is to highlight to the Jewish people how the One that their leaders had chosen to reject and persecute, oppress and handed over to the Romans to be crucified, was truly the Saviour of the world, and not the False Messiah unlike what those Jewish leaders tried to spread falsely among the people, including the attempt to give a false story regarding the Lord’s Resurrection by saying that the Lord’s disciples had stolen His Body and hid Him. It is also therefore a reminder for all of us Who it is that we truly believe in and put our faith and trust in, Whom we worship, honour and glorify by our lives, in each and every moments we have been given.

Then, in our Gospel passage today taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, proclaiming the truth of God to everyone listening to Him, and we heard how it was described that the Lord spoke with power and authority, with great wisdom unlike those leaders and other teachers who were there. This fact, accompanied by what happened afterwards, as the Lord cast out demons from a man who had been possessed, and such demons proclaiming the truth about this Man, truly the Holy One of God, the Son of God incarnate, are proofs for the people then and for all of us that the historical Jesus Christ is truly the Messiah, the Incarnate Word and Son of God.

For no one can have authority over the evil spirits unless given by God, and even if some of them wanted to prove otherwise or even insinuate that the Lord had done it by colluding with the evil spirits like some of the Pharisees and the leaders of the people did, all those false and baseless accusations cannot stand against the truth and wisdom of God, and even the evil spirits cannot lie about this fact, for even they are bound by their obedience to God and their submission to Him, their true Lord, Master and Creator. Even in their rebellion against Him, they could not speak untruths about Him, and the most that they did, was trying to sow discord using this truth by revealing this fact to the people, in trying to turn some of them against the Lord.

That was why the Lord told those evil spirits to remain quiet, and those evil spirits obeyed Him. All these again highlighted that our faith in Jesus Christ is important, and what we have heard today through the Sacred Scriptures are crucial reminders for us to understand more about Who it is that we are proclaiming about, the One Who has saved us all from certain destruction by His suffering and death on the Cross. Through His suffering, Christ our Lord has revealed the fullness of God’s love and compassionate mercy towards us, and He has shown us that He is truly the One through Whom and only Whom we can have hope in, for in no other Name or power or means that we can be saved from the multitudes of our sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore do our best in each and every moments of our lives so that we may truly be empowered to do what we should do as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people to be the courageous and ever devoted missionaries and servants of God and His cause in our world today. Let us all no longer be hesitant but be more committed than ever to walk ever more faithfully in God’s Holy Presence, now and always. May God be with us all and may He continue to bless our every good works and efforts, all for His greater glory. Amen.

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Monday, 13 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hilary, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the beginning of the Ordinary Time, the first of the two seasons of the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year, with this first season lasting from now until the beginning of the season of Lent. This Ordinary time and season is however by no means ‘ordinary’ lest we misunderstood the meaning of this period and time. The word Ordinary here comes from the word ‘Ordinal’ which means numbered, from the fact that the Sundays of this season are numbered in sequence.

That is why this period of time after the time of Christmas and before the beginning of the Lenten season should not be a period of inactivity and passivity, or a time when we ignore our obligations and calling to do what is right and appropriate for us to do as God’s holy and beloved people, as His disciples and followers, to whom God had entrusted His Church and His missions in our world today. All of us should instead be active in embracing the many opportunities that God has granted to us, the chances we have been given so that we may touch the lives of others in a good way.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle to the Hebrews in which the author of this Epistle spoke about the coming of the salvation of God which has been fulfilled and completely revealed through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the One Who had been sent into this world to be the Redeemer of all mankind, restoring all of us back to the state of grace, and the author also revealed to us that this Saviour was truly the Son of God, Who has been incarnate into the flesh, assuming our humanity, human nature and existence, becoming the Son of Man, appearing in our midst to lead us all into salvation in God.

And as the title of this Epistle suggests to us, the words of the author of this Epistle, commonly attributed to St. Luke the Evangelist, they are directed to the Jewish people, to whom the Lord was first sent to, to fulfil everything which the Lord has promised to all of His people throughout history. The author spoke of the One Whom the Jewish people has encountered, Jesus Christ Himself, Who has come, showing the great Wisdom of God in His various words and teachings among them with authority, and the power which God has exercised through Him, in His various miracles and wonders.

Therefore, the author of this Epistle to the Hebrews proclaimed to the Jewish community, both to strengthen the faith of those who have believed in Christ, and also to convince and persuade those who have not yet believed in Him, that the Lord Jesus Christ, was indeed the Holy One Whom God had sent into this world to lead everyone into salvation and eternal life. It is also a reminder for all of us Who it is that we have served, and the One through Whom our salvation has come from, what we have celebrated earlier on in Christmas, and which we now need to proclaim courageously in our world today.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist in which the account about the time when the Lord Jesus called His first disciples, the four fishermen of the lake of Galilee, namely St. Peter and his brother St. Andrew, and also the two sons of Zebedee, St. James and St. John, were told to us, and we heard how God called them all to be the ones to lead mankind to Him and His salvation, to become the fishers of men. And that was what they would be doing henceforth, committing themselves to the good cause of the Lord.

Hence, all of us are reminded through what we have heard in that passage today that we are all called to the service of God, to do what the Lord has entrusted to us, His gifts, talents, abilities and all the opportunities that He has provided to each one of us. All of us as Christians have been tasked to proclaim the Lord and His truth in our communities today, and to live in a truly Christian manner, putting the Lord our God ever at the centre and heart of our whole lives and existence, so that we will always do our best in glorifying Him by our lives, and showing Him to many others around us.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Hilary, also known as St. Hilary of Poitiers, who was the Bishop of Poitiers during the late era of the Roman Empire. He was born from a pagan family who embraced Christianity, and was raised with good and comprehensive education in the classics and philosophy. At that time, the Church was bitterly divided by those who supported the then very popular and powerful Arian heresy which denied the equality of Christ the Son of God with the Father, and those who upheld the true, orthodox teaching of the faith.

St. Hilary of Poitiers was elected to be the new bishop of Poitiers during that time of division and confusion among the faithful, and immediately the new bishop committed himself to oppose the false teachings of Arianism, and he worked hard to restore order and unity to the faithful under his care in Poitiers, while also doing a lot of work in the wider Church to oppose the influence of Arianism and other heresies, as well as ministering to his flock to the best of his abilities. He faced a lot of hardships and difficulties, opposition from those who did not agree with him, and even exile by the authorities, but he remained firm in his courageous efforts and works for the good of the Church and the faithful.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore follow in the footsteps of St. Hilary and many other holy saints, holy men and women of God, all of whom had devoted themselves, their time and effort to proclaim the truth and Good News of God to others around them, like the Apostles before them. And all of us as Christians are entrusted with the same mission to evangelise and to spread the Good News of God to more and more people all around the world. May the Lord be with us always and may He continue to empower us all in our efforts and good works for His greater glory, and may all of us continue to inspire everyone around us in faith. Amen.