27th Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 04.10.2026

Isaiah 5:1-7 / Philippians 4:6-9 / Matthew 21:33-43                

It has often been said that money cannot buy happiness. 

That is true, because happiness is not a commodity or a thing that can be bought at a price. 

Nonetheless, money can also give us a sense of security so that the basic needs of life like food, shelter, clothing, and healthcare are met. 

But one thing that we need to think about with regards to money is this:

When it comes to money, is it the more the better? Is it the more the merrier? Is it the more the happier? 

Although we know that money cannot buy happiness, but somehow, we think that money is always not enough. 

Even though our financial assets tell us that we have enough, yet we desire for more. 

It stems from that sinful desire called greed, that makes us think that we don't have enough, and that we need more. 

So, in short, the desire and greed for money is our human weakness and failing. 

The lesson that keeps coming to us is that there is enough for everyone's need, but never enough for everyone's greed. And we are still learning that lesson. 

In the Gospel, Jesus told a parable that pointed out the human weakness and failing. 

It is a parable about a landowner who leased out his vineyard to some tenants. 

That landowner provided for everything. He fenced it round, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. 

So, the tenants had everything done for them, and they just have to give the landowner what is rightfully his at vintage time. 

But those tenants became greedy. What they rented, they now wanted. 

When the landowner sent his servants to collect his produce, the tenants turned violent and wicked. 

They seized the servants, trashed them, stoned them, and even kill them. 

And when the landowner sent his son, the servants also killed him, thinking that they can now take over the inheritance. 

Even though it is a parable, it is a reality and a tragedy, that human greed knows no limits and can even resort to violence. 

So initially, the tenants were happy, then they got greedy, and what followed was a tragedy. 

But the parable is not just about human greed and its tragic consequences. 

It is also about God's blessings that is bestowed on His people. 

God's blessings on us is that He will always provide for our needs. 

As the second reading tells us, “there is no need to worry, but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God with prayer and thanksgiving, and that peace of God, which is much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and thoughts”. 

With God's blessing and with God's peace in our hearts, we are to live virtuous and noble lives, doing what is good and pure, and doing it with love and honour. 

That is the fruit that we are to produce in our lives. 

God has called us and chosen us to bear those fruits for His glory. 

It is in bearing those fruits of holiness that others will see God present in our lives, and that they will want to know God through us. 

And that is actually our mission, isn't it? 

There is a story of a conversation between Jesus and the archangel Gabriel, and though it is just a story, it illustrates a good point. 

After Jesus ascended to heaven, the archangel Gabriel approached Him and said, "Master, You must have suffered terribly for men down there." 

"I did," Jesus said. "And," continued Gabriel, "do they know all about how You loved them and what You did for them?" 

"Oh, no," said Jesus, "not yet. Right now only a small group of people in Jerusalem know about it." 

Gabriel was astonished. "Then what have You done, to let everyone know about Your love for them?" 

Jesus said, "I've asked Peter, James, John, and a few more friends to tell other people about Me. Those who are told will in turn tell other people about Me, and My story will be spread to the furthest ends of the world. Ultimately, all of mankind will have heard about My life and what I have done." 

Gabriel frowned and looked rather puzzled. He knew how weak and flawed men are. "But what if Peter and James and John grow weary? What if the people who come after them forget? What if way down in the twenty-first century, people just don't tell others about You? Haven't You made any other plans?" 

And Jesus answered, "I haven't made any other plans. I'm counting on them" 

Twenty centuries later, Jesus still has no other plan! 

So, there is no "plan B". Jesus counted on His early disciples, and they delivered.

Jesus is also counting on you and me.

Those early disciples prayed and Jesus helped them.

Let us also pray and trust that Jesus will provide for us, and we will bear the fruits for His glory and lead others to Him.

26th Week, Ordinary Time, Saturday, 03-10-2026

Job 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17 / Luke 10:17-24  

We like things to have a happy ending. If it is a story book or a movie, a happy ending will earn our approval.

Even in life, whatever we undertake, be it projects or assignments or whatever tasks, we would like it to have a happy ending, so that we would earn the approval of others.

In the 1st reading, we have finally come to the last chapter of the book of Job. The book of Job has often been the assigned reading for those who have questions about innocent suffering.

Well, the book of Job closes with a happy ending with the fortunes of Job restored and he lived to a ripe old age and full of days.

Yet Job did not find the answers as to why he had been afflicted with sufferings and tragedies. His consolation, besides his restoration, was his realization of who God is as he says "but now I have seen You with my own eyes"

He realized that everything happens under the watchful eyes of God, and God's plan for us is always for our good and not otherwise.

In the gospel the 72 disciples came back to Jesus rejoicing that even devils submit to them when they use the authoritative name of Jesus.

But the time will come when the whole strength of the enemy will come at them, and they will be persecuted and they will even have to face death.

It may not be that kind of happy ending that people wish for, yet for whatever ending it will be, the disciples will accept it willingly.

Because the true happy ending will be that their names are written in heaven. 

May we willingly accept our difficulties and sufferings in life and realize who God is, so that our names will also be written in heaven.

Guardian Angels, Friday, 02-10-2026

Ex 23:20-23 / Mt 18:1-5, 10 

In one section of the Creed, we profess the existence of not only the seen but also the unseen, or what we call the spiritual world.

Yet somehow, whenever we talk about the spiritual world,  what may come to mind may be ghosts and haunted places.

Today as the Church celebrates the feast of Guardian Angels, we also acknowledge the existence of the spiritual world.

But it is a spiritual world of angels whom God has sent to protect and guard and guide us.

What God has assured His people Israel in the 1st reading, i.e. the protection of an angel, He also assures the Church and each of us.

This is also what Jesus is affirming in the gospel.

So let us pray daily to our guardian angels whom God has sent from above.

Let us always remember to pray this traditional prayer to our guardian angels:

Angel of God my guardian dear

To whom God's love, commits me here,

Ever this day be at my side,

To light and guard, to rule and guide.

Amen.

St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Patroness of the Missions, Thursday, 01-10-2026

Isaiah 66:10-14 / Matthew 18:1-5     

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus is also known as the "Little Flower of Jesus".

St. Thérèse was declared co-patron of the missions with St. Francis Xavier in 1927.

This is quite astonishing because she was a nun in the enclosed Carmelite community of Lisieux, Normandy in France.

Unlike St. Francis Xavier who travelled far and wide to spread the Gospel and baptized many people, St. Thérèse spent all her religious life in the cloistered convent.

Though she had thoughts of going off to the mission lands, her ill health forbade her from doing so.

Nonetheless she offered prayers for the missions and also her every little act was offered to God in prayer.

In her memoir The Story of a Soul, she said that she was just a very little soul and so she could only offer God very little things.

But it was doing these very little things with great love that  that she offered it to God for the salvation of souls.

That is also precisely the message in today' s gospel - childlike humility is the way to the kingdom of God.

It is the small childlike humble heart, one that is like that of St. Thérèse, that is considered great in the eyes of God.

26th Week, Ordinary Time, Wednesday, 30-09-2026

Job 9:1-13, 14-16 / Luke 9:57-62    

To believe in God and to trust in Him is never an easy thing to do.

In fact, we tend to blame God when bad things happen to us and we get angry with Him when things don't go our way.

We treat God our way, and very often it is not a very nice way.

But what if God were to treat us the way we treat Him? Certainly we would shudder and tremble if God were to really do that.

That is what Job was saying in the 1st reading. He asked questions like "How can a man be in the right against God?" "Can anyone be so rash as to challenge Him for reasons?"

Job was suffering and afflicted even though he knew he had done nothing wrong. Yet he knew who he was and who God is, and hence he was almost resigned to the fact that he would have to suffer innocently.

And yet when God became man in Jesus, He did not force people to believe in Him and to trust Him unconditionally.

In fact, Jesus had to reason out with people and put across the reality of facing hardship in following Him.

Yes, believing in Jesus and trusting in Him is never an easy thing to do. We will surely get tired, disappointed, discouraged and grumble against Him and even get angry with Him.

Yet may we also persevere and persist, and keep our hand on the plough and keep going forward with Jesus. To look back may mean going nowhere.

The Holy Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Tuesday, 29-09-2026

Dan 7:9-0,13-4 / Rev 12:7-12a / John 1:47-51

As human beings, we can't avoid being influenced and maybe even affected by spiritual happenings.

We are more inclined to believe that there are evil spirits roaming around to scare the wits out of us, than to believe in angels that look like cute chubby babies with wings.

But in the spiritual world of the unseen and the invisible, if we believe in the existence of evil spirits, then all the more we too must believe in the presence of angels.

Today we celebrate the feast of three archangels : Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.

All three names end with "el", which is the old Jewish word for "God".

The name Michael means "Who can be like God?" - it is a name that has the form of a rhetoric question.

Gabriel means "the power of God". He announced the Good News of salvation to Zechariah and Mary and manifested God's saving power.

Raphael means "the healing power of God". He brought about God's healing power in the book of Tobit.

Though God is unseen, yet through these three archangels, He manifested His power and presence.

Indeed, who can be like God, who is so loving that He saved us through His Son, and forgave and healed us.

We can only be thankful to God.

26th Week, Ordinary Time, Monday, 28-09-2026

Job 1:6-22 / Luke 9:46-50    

There are some things which we would certainly like to put on display.

Whether it is at home, or in school, or at the club-house, or even in the parish office, if we have any awards, or academic achievements, or medals, or trophies, we would certainly like to put them a special display.

In a way, all those items are mirrors. They show us how good we are and what we can do.

They are also indicators of how we fare with others, to see what we are and who we are in comparison with others.

In the gospel, the disciples were ranking themselves against each other, and that's when Jesus interjected.

The model of greatness which He gave them was a humble little child.

That was really a contradiction and a paradoxical model of what we are so used to when we talk about greatness.

Because we tend to associate greatness with power and might, and achievements and possessions.

But when these are taken away, is there anything else that we can be proud of or feel great about?

We can slowly understand a bit of what greatness is all about when Job in the 1st reading said this after all he had was taken away :

Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken back. Blessed be the name of the Lord.