Weeks of Ordinary Time

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Monday, 15 September 2025 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the Church celebrates the occasion of the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, which is always celebrated on the day following the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Both feasts are indeed related to each other as we cannot separate the sufferings and sorrows of Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows when she witnessed the cruel and most painful sufferings of her Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. Mary’s great sorrow, seeing all that her Son had to undergo for the sake of the salvation of the world indeed reminded us of the great love and devotion which she has always had in following and committing herself to all that God had planned and revealed to her, in everything that He has entrusted to her in the story of our salvation.

In our first reading passage today, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author of this Epistle spoke of the great obedience which Christ our Lord and Saviour had shown in following the commands and the will of His heavenly Father, in taking up His Cross and bearing upon Himself the whole combined burdens of the sins of the whole world, of all mankind, past, present and future, of all time. Such a seemingly infinitely heavy and impossible burden it may be, but the Lord bore it patiently out of His even greater love for each and every one of us. And this role was what He had been sent into this world for, the Divine Word and Son of God Incarnate Who had been made Son of Man through His mother Mary, who is truly His mother.

And when Christ suffered on the Cross, He really did suffer genuinely, as although He is God, the Divine Word of God, but He is also fully Man at the same time, and He truly did suffer in the flesh, all the pain and wounds that He endured out of love for all of us, and seeing this kind of suffering is something that no one, and especially no mother would have wanted to witness to happen to her own child. This had been presaged and revealed to Mary herself many years previously as we heard in one of our two possible Gospel passages for today, from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist. At the time when Mary and St. Joseph presented the Child Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem, the old man of God named Simeon had been promised by the Lord that he would not pass away before beholding in person the Saviour that God had promised all of His people.

It was at that very occasion that Simeon spoke to Mary regarding what she would have to face amidst the upcoming challenges and pains that she would have to suffer as part of the mission which God had entrusted to her. She would face the worst of heartbreaks and sorrow when seeing her own Son being persecuted, suffering and dying before her. And as we heard, Mary listened to the words of Simeon and kept those words in her heart, trusting in the Lord in everything that He had planned, and not even once questioning what the Lord had intended to do with her. As what she had responded to the Archangel Gabriel at the time of the Annunciation, she is truly the handmaid of the Lord, and she devoted herself wholly to Him, in everything that He had entrusted to her.

And in the other Gospel passage from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus was dying on the Cross, and how He entrusted His own Mother Mary to the care of His beloved disciple, St. John himself, and then conversely, also entrusted St. John to the care of His Mother. Through this symbolic act, what in fact happened was the entrustment of all of us mankind, represented by St. John, to the Mother of Our Lord herself, to be our loving and caring Mother, Our Lady and Mother of Sorrows, whose heart had been greatly troubled by the sufferings of her own Son that she had witnessed, as she followed Him throughout the whole Way of the Cross. That is why Mary has always been so passionate and committed to help us all, her own adopted children, to find our way to the salvation in her Son.

Having seen for herself everything that the old man of God, Simeon, had predicted to her, indeed Mary’s heart must have been pained as if she was pierced by many swords.
And yet, she remained firm in her resolve to follow through what had been entrusted to her, and she committed herself ever more to the mission, which therefore should be great inspiration for all of us to follow in our own lives as Christians. Mary is indeed the perfect example of faith, and how each and every one of us should live our own lives so that we may truly align ourselves to the Lord’s will, to everything that He has shown and taught us to do. And while we may encounter a lot of hardships, disappointments and challenges in life, we should remain firm in faith as what Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows has shown us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, from the sufferings and pains that she had encountered, Mary our loving Mother has constantly shown us her love even to this day, as proven by her many efforts and works, in appearing to us at the times of great need. Mary’s proven apparitions in Guadalupe, Lourdes and Fatima, among others, all usually happened during times of great conflicts and turmoils, all of which would cause the downfall of many people through violence and wickedness, and as such, Mary showed herself to remind all of us her children that we should not disobey the Lord but instead remembering that we should turn towards Him and asking Him for His mercy and forgiveness, or else we will suffer the fate of those who have rejected God’s generous offer of mercy, just as how her Son had suffered on the Cross for our sins.

May all of us continue to walk in the path that Our Lord has shown us, and may we continue to put our hope and faith in Him despite the many challenges and hardships that we may have to endure and persevere through in life. May Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, our loving Mother continue to intercede for us all in our journey of faith and life, and may through her patient prayers, intercessions and guidance, many more of us come to seek the Lord and find our true joy and redemption in Him. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 15 September 2025 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 19 : 25-27

At that time, near the cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother’s sister Mary, who was the wife of Cleophas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw the mother, and the disciple whom He loved, He said to the mother, “Woman, this is your son.”

Then He said to the disciple, “This is your mother.” And from that moment the disciple took her to his own home.

Alternative reading

Luke 2 : 33-35

At that time, the father and mother of Jesus wondered at what was said about the Child. Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, His mother, “Know this : your Son is a Sign; a Sign established for the falling and rising of many in Israel, a Sign of contradiction; and a sword will pierce your own soul, so that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.”

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Monday, 15 September 2025 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 30 : 2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 15-16, 20

In You, o YHVH, I take refuge, may I never be disgraced; deliver me in Your justice. Give heed to my plea, and make haste to rescue me.

Be a Rock of refuge for me, a Fortress for my safety. For You are my Rock and my Stronghold, lead me for Your Name’s sake.

Free me from the snare that they have set for me. Indeed You are my Protector. Into Your hands I commend my spirit; You have redeemed me, o YHVH, faithful God.

But I put my trust in You, o YHVH, I said : “You are my God.” My days are in Your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, from those after my skin.

How great is the goodness which You have stored for those who fear You, which You show, for all to see, to those who take refuge in You!

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Monday, 15 September 2025 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Hebrews 5 : 7-9

Christ, in the days of His mortal life, offered His sacrifice with tears and cries. He prayed to Him, Who could save Him from death, and He was heard, because of His humble submission.

Although He was Son, He learnt, through suffering, what obedience was, and, once made perfect, He became the Source of eternal salvation, for those who obey Him.

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Sunday, 14 September 2025 : Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we celebrate the special occasion of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, remembering the very important moment in the history of the Church in which the Holy Cross, the actual Cross on which Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, had hung upon and had been nailed to during the time of His ultimate sacrifice of love at Calvary two millennia ago. This Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross also marks three important occasions in the history of the Church that were deeply related to this holy relic of our faith, the Holy Cross or True Cross of Jesus Christ. Firstly, it was the discovery of the Holy and True Cross itself, and then secondly, the Dedication of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, built on the site of Calvary itself, and lastly, the Triumphant entry of the Holy and True Cross back to Jerusalem at the conclusion of the Byzantine-Persian War six centuries after the Lord’s Resurrection.

First of all, the Holy and True Cross of Our Lord had been lying dormant in the site where it had been hidden with the two other crosses used to crucify the two thieves that were crucified with the Lord, at the site of Calvary itself, and after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the rebuilding of that city as a Roman city know as Aelia Capitolina, for a few centuries, the location of the True Cross became hidden and forgotten, buried underneath the Roman pagan temples and other edifices. It was then about three centuries after the Lord’s Resurrection, after the triumph of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great over his many rivals to the Roman Imperial throne, that his mother, the Empress Mother Helena, also known as St. Helena, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and in that occasion, discovered the Holy and True Cross of Our Lord.

The story goes with how three crosses were discovered at the site of the Lord’s Crucifixion at Calvary, which had been buried under the Roman structures, and in order to distinguish and find out which of the crosses was the one that the Lord was crucified with, it was brought upon a sick man, and true enough, one of the crosses made the man immediately to be cured, identifying that Cross as the one that Our Lord Himself had borne at His Crucifixion. St. Helena therefore arranged for the True Cross to be taken out from the place it was discovered, and placed upon great honour in Jerusalem, with its pieces and splinters eventually spread and finding their way to other great shrines and holy sites of Christendom. That was how the True Cross was discovered and its discovery celebrated until this very day.

And since at that time, through the great support and favour from Emperor Constantine the Great himself, many churches and basilicas were built in Rome and elsewhere throughout the Empire, including in Jerusalem, a great church dedicated to the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection was built in the site of Calvary as mentioned, the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, standing atop where the Lord Himself had died on His Cross and was buried in the tomb nearby. The moment when this great Basilica, one of the most important holy sites of our Christian faith was dedicated to the Lord is one of the celebrations we mark on this great Feast. This Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre still stands to this day and remains one of the most important pilgrimage sites for all Christians from all around the world, including many of our separated brethren.

Lastly, a few centuries later, when a truly destructive war raged between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Persian Sassanian Empire in the early seventh century, the city of Jerusalem and much of the Eastern Mediterranean region were conquered and captured by the Persians, and this included the True Cross itself, which was brought to Persia as a war treasure, and the situation was really very bleak for the Romans at that time, with defeats after defeats happening, but eventually under the leadership of the new Emperor, Emperor Heraclius, the situation gradually improved and the defeats were reversed, culminating in the great victory and triumph after which all the defeats were reversed and the True Cross itself was returned to the hands of Christians, with the Emperor bringing the True Cross on foot into the city of Jerusalem. This is one of the events that we celebrate today on this Feast.

Now that we have looked into the historical reasons for this great Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, now we should look deeper into the significance of the Holy Cross and its centrality to our Christian faith. There is no other symbol more representative and powerful in representing and showing our Christian faith other than the Cross, and this symbol, once the symbol of oppression, humiliation and punishment, the symbol of ultimate shame and derogation, the punishment reserved by the Romans to the worst criminals and offenders, have become the symbol of the ultimate triumph and victory, glory and honour, as well as majesty and greatness, all because of what the Lord Jesus Christ had done through His Cross, the Cross that He bore upon Himself to bring about our salvation.

Then, from what we have heard in our first reading passage today, taken from the Book of Numbers, of the time when the Israelites rebelled against God and refused to obey Him, and as a result fiery serpents were sent against them, and Moses was instructed to craft a bronze serpent figurine on a pole or staff, a figure later known as the Nehushtan. And the Lord told Moses to raise up the bronze serpent, and as mentioned, all those who were bitten by the fiery serpents perished, but those who were bitten and then look upon the bronze serpent lived on and did not die. This bronze serpent was indeed the prefigurement of what the Lord Himself would do for all of us mankind through His Son, although no one was aware of this at that time. It was only later on that parallels became clear and the truth came to light of the great deeds that the Lord had done.

That is because the fiery serpents represent the sins that the people had committed, all the wickedness which they had done and the punishments due for those transgressions and sins, while the punishment of sin is indeed death, for sin is caused by disobedience against God, which led to our separation from Him and hence, the separation from the Lord and Master of all life. But God in all His love and mercy towards us does not wish us to be lost from Him and to be eternally separated from Him, and that was why He gave us all the perfect remedy through His own Beloved Son, Who like the bronze serpent of Moses would be raised and lifted up for everyone to see, in the glory of His Cross, when He, the Son of God, laid dying on the Cross for the salvation of the world.

And it is this perfect obedience to the will of His heavenly Father, by which Christ our Lord has redeemed us all, as according to our second reading this Sunday from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Philippians. In that passage we heard of the great obedience by which the Lord accomplished everything that had been planned for our salvation, delivering us all from the clutches of sin and death. And all these were done to fulfil everything that God, our most loving Father had wanted to do for us, as our Gospel passage this Sunday from the Gospel of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist had highlighted to us, of how much God truly loves us all that He sent His Son to us, to suffer the worst of indignation, humiliation and punishments on our behalf just so that we may have life and true happiness with Him.

But what is truly important is that the reason why this symbol of the Cross has been transformed into an instrument of victory and triumph from that of humiliation and defeat, because of everything that Christ our Lord and Saviour had done, and as we celebrate and rejoice greatly on this day, let us all reflect carefully on this fact and continue to gaze upon the Cross of Christ, our Saviour, the Cross by which He has conquered sin and death, and redeemed us from eternal damnation and darkness, and bringing us all into the light and hope of eternal life. Let us all commit ourselves anew henceforth to His cause, and do our very best to be ever more faithful in all things, doing our part to be the faithful bearers of our own crosses in life, carrying them together with Our Lord and His Cross.

May the Lord, our triumphant and majestic King, the King of Kings, Whose Throne is His Holy Cross, be with us always and guide us all to the ultimate victory against darkness, sin and evil. May He continue to encourage and strengthen us by His Holy and True Cross, and help us to persevere against all the challenges and trials in life. Let us all not be easily distracted and tempted by the many pressures, difficulties and obstacles in our paths. Even when our path may be at its darkest, and when hope is torn out from our hearts and minds, let us always trust the Lord wholeheartedly that He has the path forward for us, and that through Him alone we can be sure of lasting and true happiness, being with Him and all those whom we love forevermore. May He bless our every efforts and endeavours, to be ever more faithful in each and every moment. Amen.

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Sunday, 14 September 2025 : Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 3 : 13-17

At that time, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No one has ever gone up to heaven except the One Who came from heaven, the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”

“Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him may not be lost, but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world; instead, through Him the world is to be saved.”

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Sunday, 14 September 2025 : Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Philippians 2 : 6-11

Though He was in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking on the nature of a servant, made in human likeness, and in His appearance found as a Man.

He humbled Himself by being obedient to death, death on the cross. That is why God exalted Him and gave Him the Name which outshines all names, so that at the Name of Jesus all knees should bend in heaven, on earth and among the dead, and all tongues proclaim that Christ Jesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father.

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Sunday, 14 September 2025 : Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 77 : 1-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38

Give heed, o My people, to My teaching; listen to the words of My mouth! I will speak in parables; I will talk of old mysteries.

When He slew them, they repented and sought Him earnestly. They remembered that God was their Rock, the Most High, their Redeemer.

But they flattered Him with their mouths; they lied to Him with their tongues, while their hearts were unfaithful; they were untrue to His Covenant.

Even then, in His compassion, He forgave their offences and did not destroy them. Many a time He restrained His anger, and did not fully stir up His wrath.

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Sunday, 14 September 2025 : Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Numbers 21 : 4b-9

The people were discouraged by the journey and began to complain against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is neither bread nor water here and we are disgusted with this tasteless manna.”

YHVH then sent fiery serpents against them. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, speaking against YHVH and against you. Plead with YHVH to take the serpents away.”

Moses pleaded for the people and YHVH said to him, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard; whoever has been bitten and then looks at it shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a standard. Whenever a man was bitten, he looked towards the bronze serpent and he lived.

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Saturday, 13 September 2025 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord contained within the Sacred Scriptures, all of us are reminded that we have to be truly and genuinely faithful to the Lord in all things so that we may indeed be worthy of what He has promised to us, everything that He has meant for us all, His beloved and holy people. As Christians, all of us should always aspire to be ever ready to carry out our actions, works and deeds, our every words and interactions with one another with great faith and commitment to God. This means that we should always strive to do what is good and righteous, worthy and just at all times so that by everything that we say and do, everyone will truly come to know that we belong to the Lord and come to know His love and truth.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to St. Timothy, his protege and one of the Church fathers and earliest bishops of the Church, we heard of the Apostle speaking about what the Lord Himself had done in sending His own Son into this world in order to save it and to liberate all of us from the threat of eternal damnation. Through Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, God Himself has intervened for our sake and opened for us the sure and direct path towards eternal life and salvation in Him, offering unto us the forgiveness and reparation for our many and innumerable sins. He has generously offered to us this most perfect and wonderful gift because of His ever enduring and constant love for all of us.

God has always desired for all of us to find our path towards Him, to be reconciled with Him and be forgiven from our many sins, from all the things that had separated us all from Him. And to this extent, that was why He gave us such a wonderful means to reach Him, through His own Beloved Son, sent into our midst to manifest this perfect and most wonderful, patient and amazing love and mercy of God. In Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, the power of sin had been broken and cast down, all the shackles that had been holding us back, and the dominion of Satan and the evil ones had been overthrown. All these happened because Christ has willingly taken upon Himself all the punishments due for our sins, and healed us from our transgressions, and hence, we should follow His own examples of obedience and love, in each and every moments of our lives.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist, we heard of the words of the Lord to His disciples and followers, telling all of them with a parable highlighting how one’s actions and attitudes are representative of one’s true nature and orientation in life, as those who are truly good and faithful will no doubt bear good fruits of their virtue and faith. On the other hand, those who have no faith in them, those who are wicked and vile in their hearts will no doubt bear fruits that are rotten and wicked as well. And the Lord made this clear through the parable to remind all of His disciples and followers, to all of us that we should not be ignorant of our important missions and calling in life, in our respective areas of responsibility and in what God had entrusted to us, to do His good works in this world.

The Lord reminded all of His followers that to be His disciples, each and every one of them must be filled with true and genuine faith, and not merely one that is merely superficial. If they do not have true and genuine faith in God, this would eventually be shown through their own actions, just as shown in how Judas Iscariot, the traitor, who did not truly have faith and trust in the Lord, as recorded in the Gospels, stole from the common fund of the Lord and His disciples for his own personal benefit and gain. And ultimately, he also betrayed the Lord to the chief priests, an action that he would come to regret later on, and in despair, in lacking faith and trust in the Lord’s love, mercy and forgiveness, which were extended even to Him, Judas chose instead to take his own life.

This is an important reminder therefore that the state of our relationship with God, our connection and attunement to Him truly matter for us, as if we do not truly embody our faith within us in a genuine way, then we may end up doing things that are against the Lord and His ways, and no matter how much we try to hide or conceal it, eventually our true intentions and ways will be unmasked and come to the surface, as exemplified through the Lord’s parable, in how rotten and bad trees will eventually produce bad fruits. We are therefore called to be like the good trees, to nurture ourselves in faith and obedience to God, so that in everything that we do, we will always glorify Him and His Name, and remain true to our faith and beliefs in Him.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. John Chrysostom, one of the renowned and most prominent Church fathers and also one of the esteemed original Doctors of the Church from the Eastern Church. St. John Chrysostom was the Archbishop of Constantinople in the late fourth and early fifth century, during which time there were a lot of hurdles and hardships for the Church and the faithful. There were a lot of heresies and false ideas which threatened the unity of the Church, and all these were harmful to the salvation of souls. St. John Chrysostom was renowned for his efforts in standing up for the true orthodox Christian faith against all the falsehoods, while also working for the unity of the Church and the faithful people of God.

In addition, he was also very much remembered for his many good works, writings and efforts by which he would eventually be considered as one of the original Doctors of the Church and one of the most influential authors of the Christian teachings of the Church fathers. He was also involved in the stand-off against the then Roman Empress of the Eastern Empire, Empress Eudoxia, wife of the Roman Emperor Arcadius, who lived a lavish life with the upper echelons of the society, a fact which the austere and simple St. John Chrysostom spoke up sternly against. This led to a lot of friction between St. John Chrysostom and his enemies, and he had to endure even exile from his See due to the campaign of the ones opposed to the holy servant of God. Nonetheless, St. John Chrysostom remained firmly faithful to the very end in serving God and His people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by the great examples shown by St. John Chrysostom in his faith and dedication, in all the efforts that he had done for the sake of the salvation of souls. Each and every one of us should continue to do our best in each and every moment to follow the examples of the saints and the Lord Himself, in how we ought to be righteous and virtuous in all things, to be full of love for God and to be full of the same love towards our fellow brothers and sisters, to everyone whom we encounter daily in our respective lives. As Christians, we are challenged to live in the manner that is truly inspired by Christ our Lord, and the love which He has shown most generously and unconditionally towards us.

May the Lord continue to strengthen us in faith and help us to walk ever more faithfully with Him as what our holy predecessors had done in their lives, especially that of St. John Chrysostom, the faithful and dedicated servant of God and shepherd of the Lord’s flock. Let our own lives be full of faith and good examples, through which we may inspire many more people to come ever closer to God and to His salvation. Are we willing to make the effort and commitment to follow the Lord with ever greater devotion in each and every moment, brothers and sisters? Let us all be the faithful and worthy beacons of our Christian faith, now and always. Amen.