Weekdays of Ordinary Time

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Saturday, 19 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Eudes, Priest (First Reading)

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

Joshua 24 : 14-29

Joshua said to the people of Israel, “So fear YHVH, and be sincere and faithful in serving Him. Set aside those gods your ancestors worshipped in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Serve only YHVH. But if you do not want to serve YHVH, make known this very day whom you shall serve – whether they be the gods your ancestors served in Mesopotamia or the gods of the Amorites who formerly occupied the land in which you now live. As for me, I and my household will serve YHVH.”

The people answered, “May God not permit that we ever abandon YHVH to serve other gods! For it was He Who brought us and our ancestors out of Egypt, the house of slavery. It was He Who did those great wonders that we have seen; He protected us on the way and through all the land where we passed, driving away before us all the nations especially the Amorites who lived in this land. So we shall also serve YHVH : He is our God!”

Joshua asked the people : “Will you be able to serve YHVH? He is a holy God, a jealous God Who does not tolerate wickedness or faults. If you abandon YHVH to serve other gods, He will turn against you and just as He has done you so much good, so shall He punish you and destroy you.”

The people replied, “No, may it not be as you say. We will serve YHVH.” Joshua said, “You yourselves are witnesses that you have chosen YHVH to serve Him.” They answered, “We are witnesses.” Joshua then said, “Remove now from your midst any other gods and serve YHVH, the God of Israel, with all your heart.” The people answered : “We will serve YHVH, our God, and obey His commands.”

On that day at Shechem, Joshua made a Covenant with the people and fixed laws and ordinances. He also wrote down everything expressed in the book of the Law of God; he chose a great stone and put it under the oak tree in the sacred place of YHVH. Then Joshua said to the people : “This stone shall be a witness to all that YHVH said to us, for it heard all these words. It shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with YHVH.”

Joshua immediately sent the people away and everyone returned to his land. After all these deeds, Joshua, son of Nun and servant of YHVH, died at the age of a hundred and ten.

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Friday, 18 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the Lord reminds us through the Scripture passages we heard, of the love that God had shown to His people throughout the time when He showed forth His might to care for them and their ancestors, freeing them from the Egyptians, and in how He led them through the desert towards the lands promised to them, destroying their enemies before them and guarding them with love.

Through Joshua, His servant, God reminded His people of His love, and all that He had done for them. He reminded them of the Covenant which He had created with them and their ancestors. Yet, as we know throughout the time of the Exodus people of God had not always been faithful to Him, and have been wayward in multiple occasions, worshipping pagan gods and idols, and disobedient against God. They have indulged in worldly pleasures and forgotten His laws and commandments.

They have hardened their hearts against Him, and refused to listen to Him, preferring to follow their own paths rather than to walk in the path shown to them by God, including in the matter of marriage and family. Ever since the beginning of time, when God first created man, He had created them man and woman, and decreed that man should join with woman, and become therefore united and blessed in a union blessed by God.

But the Israelites could not resist the temptations of worldly pleasures and the flesh, and they succumbed to their desires. That was why they committed acts of adultery and wickedness, of sexual impropriety and aberrations, disregarding the sanctity of the holy marriage in which their families have been bound in and blessed by God. As a result, they have sinned against God, and God wanted to remind them through Joshua what He had done for them, and thus want them to live in accordance with His will, to be righteous and upright in their actions and deeds.

How is this relevant to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? In our world today we are inundated with the temptations of pleasures and worldly allures through which we are swayed and pressured to abandon our faith in God, and instead indulging in the desires of our flesh and bodies. We live at a time when the sanctity of marriage is no longer respected or preserved. And many among us Christians have lost our faith in God and fell into the corruption of sin and worldliness.

All of us are called as Christians to stand up for our faith, and for all that we believe in, including the need to live righteously in accordance with the laws of God. When the world demands that we conform to its ways and customs, we must be ready and willing to be different, to be beacons of light to those who are living in the darkness, so that by our actions and deeds, we will be able to lead others onto the path towards God’s salvation.

And today, we have also heard in the Gospel, that God called some among us to be chosen by Him, to be His servants, abandoning the prospects of marriage, as they chose to follow the Lord and become His priests, the members of the holy order of priests and bishops, all those who have dedicated themselves wholeheartedly to serve the Lord and His people. Their challenges are even greater than ours, the trials and temptations are even more difficult to endure than ours.

Yet, they are the ones whom God had called to be the ones through whom He would work His wonders among His people. They are the ones who have been called and chosen, and while the pains, sorrows and difficulties are aplenty, but their works and labours lay the foundation for the salvation of many souls. Without the hard work and the sacrifices made by our priests, by all those who have dedicated themselves to service to God, there would have been many more souls lost to the damnation in hell.

Let us all therefore pray for our priests, that the Lord will keep them holy and devoted to their missions, and then for we ourselves, we also have the need to live an upright and righteous life, committed to obey the Lord and His will. It is by our working together and commitment to help the good works together as one Church of God, that we will be drawing closer to the Lord, and therefore be worthy of the grace and the blessings which He will bestow on all those who are faithful to Him.

May God bless us all, and may He empower each and every one of us to live in accordance with His will, reminding all of us of the time when He has blessed us generously in this life, and how He has loved us and showed us His mercy and compassion whenever we have fallen into sin and disgrace, that by His persistence, He has endeavoured to make us to turn away from our sins, and to repent from our wickedness, that we may eventually be reunited with Him, to enjoy forever the eternal joy in His presence. Amen.

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Friday, 18 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 19 : 3-12

At that time, some Pharisees approached Jesus. They wanted to test Him and asked, "Is a man allowed to divorce his wife for any reason he wants?"

Jesus replied, "Have you not read that, in the beginning, the Creator made them male and female? And the Creator said : Therefore, a man shall leave father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one body. So, they are no longer two, but one body. Let no one separate what God has joined."

They asked him, "Then why did Moses command us to write a bill of dismissal in order to divorce?" Jesus replied, "Moses knew the hardness of your hearts, so he allowed you to divorce your wives; but it was not so in the beginning. Therefore, I say to you : whoever divorces his wife, unless it be for immorality, and marries another, commits adultery."

The disciples said, "If that is the condition of a married man, it is better not to marry." Jesus said to them, "Not everybody can accept what you have just said, but only those who have received this gift. There are eunuchs born so, from their mother's womb. Some have been made that way by others. But there are some who have given up the possibility of marriage, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who can accept it, accept it."

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Friday, 18 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 135 : 1, 2, 3, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 24

Alleluia! Give thanks to YHVH, for He is good, His kindness endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods, His kindness endures forever.

Give thanks to YHVH of Lords, His kindness endures forever.

He led His people through the desert, His kindness endures forever.

He struck down great kings, His kindness endures forever.

And He killed mighty kings, His kindness endures forever.

He gave their land as an inheritance, His kindness endures forever.

A heritage to Israel His servant, His kindness endures forever.

And He freed us from our oppressors, His kindness endures forever.

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Friday, 18 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Joshua 24 : 1-13

Joshua summoned all the tribes of Israel in Shechem, and assembled the elders, leaders, judges and secretaries. And together they presented themselves before God.

Addressing the people, Joshua said to them : "YHVH, the God of Israel, commands me to say to you : Your ancestors lived beyond the Euphrates River – Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor – serving other gods. But I brought Abraham your father from beyond the Euphrates and led him through the whole land of Canaan."

"Then I gave him a son Isaac, that he might have numerous descendants. And to Isaac, I gave two sons : Esau and Jacob. Esau received the mountains of Seir as his inheritance, while Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. Then I sent Moses and Aaron to punish Egypt in the way that you know, that you might leave."

"Then I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued you with chariots and horses as far as the Red Sea. Then you cried to YHVH, and He put immense darkness between you and the Egyptians. He made the sea go back on them and they were drowned. You have witnessed all the things He did in Egypt, and then you lived in the desert for a long time."

"Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites who were on the east of the Jordan. You fought them but it was I Who gave them into your hand; you destroyed them and you seized their lands. Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, declared war on Israel and commanded Balaam son of Beor to curse you. But I would not listen to him, so Balaam blessed you and I saved you from the hands of Balak."

"Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. And the landlords of Jericho fought against you : the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites declared war on you, but I gave them to you. The two Amorite kings fled from you because of the swarm of hornets that attacked them and not because of your sword and bow."

"I gave you lands which you have not tilled, cities which you did not build but in which you now live. I gave you vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant but from which you now eat."

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Thursday, 17 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the Word of God speaking to us, in the Gospel passage today, about the parable of the servant who was forgiven his debts and yet refused to forgive others their debts to him. This is a reminder for all of us Christians that we must be ever generous and rich with mercy, forgiveness and compassion in all of our actions, in how we interact and relate with one another in our daily lives.

God is ever merciful, and in the Gospel passage today, the Lord Jesus compared Him with the lord of the servants, who forgave his servant who owed him a great debt, when the servant begged to be forgiven and given more time to pay off his debts. The lord had pity on his servant despite the debt being one that was substantial in size, and erased the entirety of the debt from him.

That was what the Lord had done with His people Israel, whose story we listened to in our first reading taken from the Book of Joshua. The people of Israel, led by Joshua, finally reached the Promised Land and crossed through the River Jordan to enter into the land promised to them and to their ancestors. But they did not reach that stage in their journey without much pain and suffering, as the disobedience of their parents' generation had led to the forty years journey through the desert, as the people of God received a just punishment for their lack of faith in God.

Yet, God still loved them and cared for them, or otherwise He could just have destroyed them without mercy, as He created all of them, and just as easily as He had made them, He could have also unmade them and destroyed them with the mere thoughts of His will. That was not however what the Lord had chosen to do with Israel, and certainly not what He had also chosen to do with all of us mankind, all of us sinners who have disobeyed Him from the time when Adam and Eve first sinned against God.

For all of us are like the servant whose debts had been forgiven by the master and lord of the servant. We have sinned against God, and sin is the debt which all of us have owed the Lord our God. With the debts of sin which we have, we have been sundered from the grace of God and made unworthy, and those debts of sin demanded our payment, and the punishment of the debt of sin is death. But God is merciful and loving towards us, forgiving us our sins through none other than by the loving sacrifice of Jesus our Lord on the cross.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if God has forgiven us so great as sins as what we have committed before Him, just as the lord of the servant who have erased the huge debt of the wicked servant, then all of us should also forgive the same debt which others owe unto us. We must not walk in the footsteps of the wicked servant, who had been forgiven from his huge debts but refused to forgive another who owed him a much smaller debt.

Brethren, I invite each and every one of us to look deep into our hearts and remember in our minds, of each of the moments and times when we were angry at others around us, at our fellow brothers or sisters, when we fail to forgive each other, because of the grudges that we keep in our hearts and the hatred that we preserve in our minds. We easily become angry at each other and hate our brethren over simple and trivial matters, over worldly possessions and goods.

This is why many of us Christians cannot move forward in our journey of faith, simply because we are like the wicked servant who cannot learn to forgive and to let go the slights and the inconveniences which others have caused us. We have not followed the examples of the Lord Who have forgiven us our many trespasses and faults, and therefore, we end up failing in our faith life like that of the wicked servant.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, so what is it that we need to do in order to overcome this issue? All of us need to learn to forgive just as the Lord had forgiven us, and learn to show mercy and compassion as the Lord had first shown us His mercy and compassion. We have to mean it when we pray the Lord's Prayer, as we say the words, 'Forgive us our trespasses just as we forgive those who trespassed against us.'

Therefore, brethren, let us all draw closer to the Lord and imitate ever more closely His love and mercy in our words, actions and deeds, so that in everything we say and do, we will always do what the Lord had taught us to do, and be true Christians in all things. May the Lord bless us all in our endeavours and bring us to righteousness and eternal glory with Him. Amen.

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Thursday, 17 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 18 : 21 – Matthew 19 : 1

At that time, Peter asked Jesus, "Lord, how many times must I forgive the offences of my brother or sister? Seven times?" Jesus answered, "No, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."

"This story throws light on the kingdom of Heaven : A king decided to settle accounts with his servants. Among the first of them was one who owed him ten thousand pieces of gold. As the man could not repay the debt, the king commanded that he be sold as a slave with his wife, his children and all his goods, as repayment."

"The servant threw himself at the feet of the king and said, 'Give me time, and I will pay you back everything.' The king took pity on him, and not only set him free, but even cancelled his debt. When this servant left the king's presence, he met one of his fellow servants, who owed him a hundred pieces of silver. He grabbed him by the throat and almost choked him, shouting, 'Pay me what you owe!'"

"His fellow servant threw himself at his feet and begged him, 'Give me time, and I will pay everything.' But the other did not agree, and sent him to prison until he has paid all his debt. Now the servants of the king saw what had happened. They were extremely upset, and so they went and reported everything to their lord."

"Then the lord summoned his servant and said, 'Wicked servant, I forgave you all that you owed me when you begged me to do so. Were you not bound to have pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?' The lord was now angry. He handed the wicked servant over to be punished, until he had paid the whole debt."

Jesus added, "So will My heavenly Father do with you, unless you sincerely forgive your brothers and sisters." When Jesus had finished these sayings, He left Galilee and arrived at the border of Judea, on the other side of the Jordan River.

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Thursday, 17 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 113A : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Alleluia! When Israel came out of Egypt, the family of Jacob, from a people of foreign language. Judah became His Sanctuary; Israel, His possession.

At His sight, the sea fled and the Jordan retreated; the mountains skipped like rams, the hills frolicked like lambs.

Why is it, sea, that you flee? Jordan, that you turn back? Mountains, that you skip like rams? Hills, that you frolic like lambs?

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Thursday, 17 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Joshua 3 : 7-10a, 11, 13-17

Then YHVH said to Joshua : "Today I will begin to make you great in the eyes of Israel and they shall known that I am with you as I was with Moses. Give this order to the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant : As soon as you come to the banks of the Jordan, stand still in the river."

And Joshua said to the Israelites : "Come nearer and listen to the words of YHVH, our God. Do you want a sign that YHVH, the living God, is in your midst? See, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to cross the Jordan before you. When the priests who carry the Ark of the Lord of all the earth put their feet into the water of the Jordan, the water coming from the upstream shall stop flowing and stand in one single mass."

When the people set out from their camp to cross the Jordan, the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant went before them. There was much water in the Jordan, for it was overflowing its banks at this time of the barley harvest. Nevertheless, when those who carried the Ark went down to the river and their feet touched the edge of the water, the water from upstream stopped flowing.

The water stood still, forming something like a dam very far from that place, near Adam, the neighbouring city of Zarethan. The water flowing down to the Dead Sea was completely cut off, and so the people could cross opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant remained in the middle of the river which dried up, until all the Israelites had crossed the Jordan.

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Wednesday, 16 August 2017 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Stephen of Hungary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the continuation of the story of when Israel went through the Exodus from Egypt and the journey through the desert, finally reaching the land which had been promised to them and to their ancestors, a rich and bountiful land overflowing in milk and honey, the Land of Canaan.

We heard how God led His people into the Land of Canaan, fulfilling the promise which He had made with His servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He has delivered all of His people into He wished them to be, and provided for them as long as they remained true and faithful to Him. Yet, as we all know, they were not always faithful, but instead were constantly disobedient and fallen into sin, worshipping the pagan gods and idols, and in not obeying the commandments God had given them.

Then, in the Gospel today, all of us heard about the Lord Jesus Who spoke to His disciples on the matter of those who have sinned and made fault against us, and how we ought to deal with them. The Lord wants all these to be reconciled with us, and to be made to recognise their errors and mistakes, and gave His Church the authority to decide on whether the person, having repented his mistakes, could be reconciled, or instead, having refused to listen, kept them outside of the salvation and grace of God.

Through the Scripture readings today, God wanted to remind us that in order for us to reach out to Him and to find our way to His salvation, we should work together and remain together in the Church, and not to be separated from Him. For it is through His Church that God had blessed us and guided us, on the way and journey towards our salvation.

When two or more are gathered in His Name, He will be present and will bless all those gathered in His Name. However, for many of us, the problem lies in the fact that too many of us are too proud and too egoistic to work with each other, with each of us wanting to have it our own way, and not having a common consensus with others around us.

Many of us want our own point of view to be taken up by others, and we want our own ways and thoughts to be accepted over that of others. Yet, that is exactly when we begin to drift away from God's salvation and into the hands of the devil. The devil is always ever busy trying to pull us away from the path towards salvation, and he is always trying to seduce and to tempt us through manipulations of our pride and human desires, by playing at our ego.

That is how so many people have fallen into heresy and became separated from God's Church, because each of them have thought that their ways were the correct ways, while the true teachings of the Lord passed down through His Church were not. The Lord has blessed them and yet, they chose to walk down their own path, thinking that their own way merited better than the true path shown by the Lord through His Church.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, it is important that we should reaffirm our faith in the Lord, and renew our commitment to Him, that we should always stand firm in the true teachings of the Church, and not to give in to our ego, our pride, and our stubbornness, as what many others had done throughout history. Instead, we should learn to be humble, to always seek God's wisdom and know what it is that He wants us to do in our lives.

Let us all follow the examples of St. Stephen of Hungary, the saint whose feast we celebrate today. St. Stephen of Hungary was the first Christian king of Hungary, whose rule was remembered for his benevolence, righteousness and for the great piety which he had shown in his life, dedicating his rule and his nation to the Lord and to His Church. He helped to establish many Christian churches and institutions throughout the entire kingdom of Hungary, bringing more and more people to the salvation in God.

And even though he is the king, the supreme ruler of the land, but that did not make him proud or haughty, or thinking that he does not have any higher authority to obey. Indeed, St. Stephen obeyed the Lord and the teachings of the Lord as espoused and kept through His Church, and he helped to ensure that the laws of God are kept throughout his lands.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all follow the examples of St. Stephen of Hungary, in his faith and dedication to the Lord, and in his humility and obedience to God, despite all the temptations of worldly power and all other things that would surely have come along with his position and privileges. Let us all no longer be distracted by the attempts of the devil in trying to subvert us and to turn us away from God.

May the Lord help us all, that we may draw ever closer to Him, so that we may find that path towards redemption, and that together as one Church, we may receive the eternal glory that He has promised all of us His faithful ones, remembering that He had once fulfilled the promise He made to His servants, bringing His people to the land He bestowed on them. May God bless us all. Amen.