Month: March 2013

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Friday, 22 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

John 10 : 31-42

The Jews then picked up stones to throw at Him; so Jesus said, “I have openly done many good works among you, which the Father gave Me to do. For which of these do you stone Me?” The Jews answered, “We are not stoning You for doing a good work, but for insulting God; You are only a Man, and You make Yourself God.”

Then Jesus replied, “Is this not written in your law : ‘I said, you are gods?’ So those who received this word of God were called gods, and the Scripture is always true. What the should be said of the One anointed, and sent into the world, by the Father? Am I insulting God when I say, ‘I am the Son of God?’ If I am not doing the works of My Father, do not believe Me. But if I do them, even if you have no faith in Me, believe because of the works I do; and know that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”

Again they tried to arrest Him, but Jesus escaped from their hands. He went away again to the other side of the Jordan, to the place where John had baptised, and there He stayed. Many people came to Jesus, and said, “John worked no miracles, but he spoke about You, and everything He said was true.” And many became believers in the place.

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Friday, 22 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent (Psalm)

Psalm 17 : 2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 7

I love You, o Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer and my God.

He is the rock in whom I take refuge. He is my shield, my powerful saviour, my stronghold. I call on the Lord, who is worthy of praise : He saves me from my enemies!

A deadly flood surrounded me, devilish torrents rushed at me; caught by the cords of the grave, I was brought to the snares of death.

But I called upon the Lord in my distress, I cried to my God for help; and from His temple He heard my voice, my cry of grief reached His ears.

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Friday, 22 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Jeremiah 20 : 10-13

I hear many people whispering, “Terror is all around! Denounce him! Yes, denounce him!” All my friends watch me to see if I will slip : “Perhaps he can be deceived,” they say; “then we can get the better of him and have our revenge.”

But YHVH, a mighty warrior, is with me. My persecutors will stumble and not prevail; that failure will be their shame and their disgrace will never be forgotten. YHVH, God of hosts, you test the just and probe the heart and mind.

Let me see Your revenge on them, for to You, I have entrusted my cause. Sing to YHVH! Praise YHVH and say : He has rescued the poor from the clutches of the wicked!

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Thursday, 21 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent (Scripture Reflection)

Jesus, our Lord, has been the harbinger of a new covenant between us and God, just as God had established His covenant with Abraham in the days long past. He made the covenant with Abraham because of Abraham’s great faith and love for God, and obedience to the point that he was willing to offer his own son, the promised son God had promised him, to be offered as sacrifice without hesitation. For his great faith, love, and obedience, he has been rewarded with God’s promise that he will be the father of a great nation and that his descendants be as countless as the stars, and his descendants will last forever.

This covenant made the people of Israel, God’s chosen people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through whom God repeatedly renewed and reiterated His covenant with Israel. Yet, despite the constant proof of His love and His obedience to the covenant that He had made, the people of Israel, after their liberation from Egypt’s slavery, constantly were in rebellion against God, and were unrepentant, despite the numerous prophets and signals He had brought to the people over the centuries.

They rebelled against Him, and murdered His prophets, and smeared their blood on the streets of Samaria and Jerusalem, that eventually made God abandoned the kingdoms that His people had chosen to make, starting with Saul, and ended with Zedekia in Judea, and were brought away to the seventy years in exile in Babylon. He, however, did not forget at all the covenant He had made all those years ago with Abraham. He remembered the covenant perfectly, and He brought His people back to their homeland.

Yet, they still rebelled and many years passed where the people of Israel abandoned God. Remember the Book of Maccabees, and the story of the struggle of the Maccabees against their Greek overlords who imposed pagan gods over the people of Israel, which saw many readily threw away their love and obedience to God and His covenant. Yet, God always remained true to His covenant at all times, and as we knew, that God has sent His one and only deliverance to His people, and this people counted it not only that of Israel, but that of all the descendants of Adam, all mankind He had created.

That salvation came through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Word of God, who is one with God the Father in perfect unity, and He is the only one worthy on heaven and earth, to end the chains of slavery of sin, to end the corruption of Satan and all his evil plans, and to bring all creation, all mankind, back towards God who loves them so much. Jesus Christ, is the harbinger of a new Covenant, in place of the covenant that God had made with Abraham.

No, not to replace that covenant, but rather to perfect that covenant. A new covenant not only to show God’s love and undying care for His people, but also to bring them to be once again fully reunited against Him. That love and that covenant came about and was fulfilled, as we remember it, in the events surrounding the Holy Week, in which the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is celebrated every year. Through Christ’s suffering, death, and finally resurrection on the third day in glory, He made the new covenant fulfilled, which He gave to us, through His Precious Body and Precious Blood.

Remember the words when the Blood of Christ in the chalice is elevated at the Mass at the consecration, “Take this all of you and drink for it, for this is the Chalice of My Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins, do this in the memory of Me.” Indeed, the Body and Blood of Christ that He had offered through His sacrifice and death on the cross marked the new Covenant God made with all of us.

If we remain true to this Covenant and remain faithful to this Covenant, God will definitely also bless us, and will keep true to the Covenant, for He is ever faithful and ever loving. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today pray for one another, that we will continue to keep our faith, hope, and love in God, and remain true to our part in this new Covenant of Christ. Remember this every time we take in His Body and His Blood at the Mass. May God remain with us always, and bless us, with eternal life. Amen.

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Thursday, 21 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

John 8 : 51-59

Truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, He will never experience death.” The Jews replied, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died and the prophets as well, but You say, ‘Whoever keeps My word will never experience death.’ Who do You claim to be? Do You claim to be greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets also died.”

Then Jesus said, “If I were to praise Myself, it would count for nothing. But He who gives glory to Me is the Father, the very one you claim as your God, although you don’t know Him. I know Him, and if I were to say that I don’t know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I know Him and I keep His word. As for Abraham, your ancestor, he looked forward to the day when I would come; and he rejoiced when he saw it.”

The Jews then said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old and You have seen Abraham?” And Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

They then picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and left the Temple.

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Thursday, 21 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent (Psalm)

Psalm 104 : 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Look to the Lord and be strong; seek His face always. Remember His wonderful works, His miracles and His judgments.

You descendants of His servant Abraham, you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgments reach the whole world!

He remembers His covenant forever, His promise to a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the promise He swore to Isaac.

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Thursday, 21 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Genesis 17 : 3-9

Abram fell face down and God said to him, “This is My covenant with you : you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer will you be called Abram, but Abraham, because I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you more and more famous; I will multiply your descendants; nations shall spring from you, kings shall be among your descendants.”

“And I will establish a covenant, an everlasting covenant between Myself and you and your descendants after you; from now on I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you, for generations to come. I will give to you and your descendants after you, the land you are living in, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession and I will be the God of your race.”

God said to Abraham, “For your part, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you, generation after generation.

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Apologies : Currently finishing my honours project thesis

If you have noticed that my posts get delayed these days, please pardon me, since I am currently completing the thesis for my Honours Project, which will be due in a few weeks’ time, and for the presentation which will be on next Tuesday.

I am almost done with them, and should be able to complete them by tonight, and I hope to continue blogging as per normal again.

Pray for me!

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Wednesday, 20 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent (Scripture Reflection)

Sin and the evil that comes with sin and rebellion against God has indeed enslaved us, even when many of us don’t realise that we are being enslaved. That is also because we adopt a rather open attitude at sin, and even embrace sin and evil, to the point that we are indeed almost glad at being slaves of sin and evil. We have been enslaved by sin as our forefathers were, since the days of rebellion of Adam, the first man, and Eve, the first woman.

Sin is evil, and is a state of rebellion against the love and authority of God. That is why God, who loves us so much, being the greatest of His creations, would want to send His own Son in order to save us. For slavery under sin is costly indeed, for anyone who want to liberate those slaves, that is us, from that mountains of sin. Imagine the amount of sin that we accumulate daily, not even counting yearly, or even our whole lives!

Imagine the weight of sin that Christ had to bear on Golgotha, that is Calvary, and on His journey towards there. When we do devotions especially in the form of the Stations of the Cross this Lent, indeed we would have heard and would have been reminded of the physical sufferings and burdens that Christ had to carry, with His heavy cross onto Calvary from Jerusalem. Yet, the heaviest weight, is not that of the visible and physical, but in fact, those that are invisible, and these were the mountains of our sins, all of us, past, present, and future.

Yes, in order to free us from our slavery, as Christ had mentioned in the Gospel today as what He wanted, a perfect and worthy sacrifice and exchange is necessary. No amount of animal blood and sacrifices will ever be worthy or enough to alleviate our sins, no matter how many times they were offered to God, as per the Law of Moses.

It is the very Precious Body and Blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, that is worthy of cleansing us from our sins and ‘purchasing’ us to free us from the slavery of sin. He has to die on the cross for that to happen. And yet so many people wished for His death, not because they want to be freed from their sins, but because they had grown so comfortable in sin, that they did not want sin to end enslaving them, but continue to dominate them in perpetuation.

So blinded were the people that they failed to see the freedom that God had brought them. Remember the rebellion of Israel against Moses and God at Massah and Meribah? When they grumbled that God had led them to the desert to die? That the life under slavery in Egypt were much better and much more suitable to them? That is the same, but now the Lord, through Jesus Christ had come to liberate all mankind, not just Israel, from the slavery of sin, but yet, there were still those who rejected our Lord just like at Massah and Meribah.

God offers His salvation and liberation of all of us from sin for free, for the price of His Body and Blood, which we receive regularly at the Mass, as the result of the Sacrifice offered by the priest, in union with the Sacrifice on Calvary. It is readily offered and available for us, if only our heart and our being are open to this freedom by the Lord.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray, that we will remain strong in our faith and in our conviction to remain in the Lord, and be free from sin and the chains of slavery it brings. May we remain in God’s love and remember always His love and sacrifice on the cross for our sake. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 20 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

John 8 : 31-42

Jesus went on to say to the Jews who believed in Him, “You will be My true disciples, if you keep My word. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered Him, “We are the descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves of anyone. What do You mean by saying : you will be free?”

Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave. But the slave doesn’t stay in the house forever; the son stays forever. So, if the Son makes you free, you will be really free. I know that you are the descendants of Abraham; yet you want to kill Me because My word finds no place in you. For My part, I speak of what I have seen in My Father’s presence, but you do what you have learnt from your father.”

They answered Him, “Our father is Abraham.” Then Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do as Abraham did. But now you want to kill Me, the One who tells you the truth – the truth that I have learnt from God. That is not what Abraham did; what you are doing are the works of your father.”

The Jews said to Him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one Father, God.” Jesus replied, “If God were your Father you would love Me, for I came forth from God, and I am here. And I didn’t come by My own decision, but it as He Himself who sent Me.