Day: March 16, 2015

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Readings to Promote Baptismal Catechesis, Fourth Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

John 9 : 1-41

At that time, as Jesus walked along, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Master, was he born blind because of a sin of his, or of his parents?”

Jesus answered, “Neither was it for his own sin nor for his own parents’ sin. He was born blind so that God’s power might be shown in him. While it is day we must do the work of the One who sent Me; for the night will come when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.”

As Jesus said this, He made paste with spittle and clay, and rubbed it on the eyes of the blind man. Then He said, “Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam.” (This word means ‘sent’.) So the blind man went and washed and came back able to see.

His neighbours, and all the people who used to see him begging, wondered. They said, “Is this not the beggar who used to sit here?” Some said, “He is the one.” Others said, “No, but he looks like him.” But the man himself said, “I am he.”

Then they asked him, “How is it that your eyes were opened?” And he answered, “The Man called Jesus made a mud paste, put it on my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went, and washed, and I could see.” They asked, “Where is He?” And the man answered, “I do not know.”

The people brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made mud paste and opened his eyes. The Pharisees asked him again, “How did you recover your sight?” And he said, “He put paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”

Some of the Pharisees said, “That Man is not from God, for He works on the Sabbath”; but others wondered, “How can a sinner perform such miraculous signs? They were divided, and they questioned the blind man again, “What do you think of this Man who opened your eyes?” And he answered, “He is a Prophet!”

After all this, the Jews refused to believe that the man had been blind and had recovered his sight; so they called his parents and asked them, “Is this your son? You say that he was born blind, how is it that he now sees?” The parents answered, “He really is our son and he was born blind; but how it is that he now sees, we do not know, neither do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is old enough. Let him speak for himself.”

The parents said this because they feared the Jews, who had already agreed that whoever confessed Jesus to be the Christ was to be expelled from the synagogue. Because of that his parents said, “He is old enough, ask him.”

So a second time the Pharisees called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Tell us the truth; we know that this Man is a sinner.” He replied, “I do not know whether He is a sinner or not; I only know that I was blind and now I see.” They said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” He replied, “I have already told you and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

Then they started to insult him. “Become His disciple yourself! We are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses; but as for this Man, we do not know where He comes from.”

The man replied, “It is amazing that you do not know where the Man comes from, and yet He opened my eyes! We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone honours God and does His will, God listens to him. Never, since the world began, has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

They answered him, “You were born a sinner and now you teach us!” And they expelled him. Jesus heard that they had expelled him. He found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “Who is He, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus said, “You have seen Him and He is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe”; and he worshipped Him.

Jesus said, “I came into this world to carry out a judgment : Those who do not see shall see, and those who see shall become blind.” Some Pharisees stood by and asked Him, “So we are blind?” And Jesus answered, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty. But you say, ‘We see’; this is the proof of your sin.”

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Readings to Promote Baptismal Catechesis, Fourth Week of Lent (Psalm)

Psalm 26 : 1, 7-8a, 8b-9abc, 13-14

The Lord is my Light and my Salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the Rampart of my life; I will not be afraid.

Hear my voice when I call, o Lord, have mercy on me and answer. My heart says to You, “I seek Your face, o Lord.”

O Lord, do not hide Your face from me nor turn away Your servant in anger. You are my Protector, do not reject me.

I hope, I am sure, that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Trust in the Lord, be strong and courageous. Yes, put your hope in the Lord!

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Readings to Promote Baptismal Catechesis, Fourth Week of Lent (First Reading)

Micah 7 : 7-9

As for me, I will watch expectantly for YHVH, waiting hopefully for the God who saves me. My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; though I have fallen, I will rise again. Though I now dwell in darkness, YHVH is my Light.

I will bear the wrath of YHVH – for I have sinned against Him – while He examines my cause and defends my rights. Then He will bring me out to the light and I shall probe His justice.

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Wednesday, 18 March 2015 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

John 5 : 17-30

At that time, after Jesus healed the sick man on the Sabbath, He replied to the Jews, “My Father goes on working and so do I.” And the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him, for Jesus not only broke the Sabbath observance, but also made Himself equal with God, calling God His own Father.

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I assure you, the Son cannot do anything by Himself, but only what He sees the Father do. And whatever He does, the Son also does. The Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He does; and He will show Him even greater things than these, so that you will be amazed.”

“As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whom He wills. In the same way the Father judges no one, for He has entrusted all judgment to the Son, and He wants all to honour the Son as they honour the Father. Whoever ignores the Son, ignores as well the Father who sent Him.”

“Truly, I say to you, anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life; and there is no judgement for him, because he has passed from death to life. Truly, the hour is coming and has indeed come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and on hearing it, will live. For the Father has life in Himself, and He has given to the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has empowered Him as well to carry out Judgment, for He is the Son of Man.”

“Do not be surprised at this : the hour is coming when all those lying in tombs will hear My voice and come out; those who have done good shall rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. I can do nothing of Myself, and I need to hear Another One to judge; and My judgement is just, because I seek not My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”

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Wednesday, 18 March 2015 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Psalm 144 : 8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18

Compassionate and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and abounding in love. The Lord is good to everyone; His mercy embraces all His creation.

The Lord is true to His promises and lets His mercy show in all He does. The Lord lifts up those who are falling and raises those who are beaten down.

Righteous is the Lord in all His ways, His mercy shows in all His deeds. He is near those who call on Him, who call trustfully upon His Name.

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Wednesday, 18 March 2015 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Isaiah 49 : 8-15

This is what YHVH says : “At a favourable time I have answered you, on the day of salvation I have been your help; I have formed you and made you to be My covenant with the people. You will restore the land, and allot its abandoned farms. You will say to the captives : Come out, and to those in darkness : Show yourselves.”

“They will feed along the road; they will find pasture on barren hills. They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the scorching wind or the sun beat upon them; for He who has mercy on them will guide them and lead them to springs of water. I will turn all My mountains into roads and raise up My highways.”

“See, they come from afar, some from the north and west, others from the land of Sinim. Sing, o heavens, and rejoice, o earth; break forth into song, o mountains : for YHVH has comforted His people and taken pity on those who are afflicted. But Zion said : “YHVH has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a woman forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child of her womb? Yet though she forget, I will never forget you.”

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Tuesday, 17 March 2015 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the memory of the well known bishop of Ireland, and also its patron saint, St. Patrick, whose life some of us may be familiar with, but most of us may not be aware of, beyond the common perceptions of the world, in who St. Patrick was and what he had done to the benefit of the people of God.

St. Patrick was a Romano-British missionary, who went to Ireland, first as a slave during his youth, when he was assailed by pirates, and later on, after his freedom, he went there as a missionary of the Faith in his elder years, during the time after the ending of the Roman Empire in Western Europe. Many lands at that time were still having pagan practices and many people were still ignorant of the Lord and the Faith, and it is to these people that St. Patrick had been sent to.

He was himself once one of the pagans, but his experiences during his slavery years and the liberation that came henceforth, pushed him on to be converted to the true Faith in God. When he went to Ireland to preach about the true Faith, the experiences of his conversion years and the years of his growth in the Faith empowered him in his mission, and he converted many thousands to the cause of the Lord.

He explained the concept of the Lord and the Faith using examples and clear messages, and sometimes even using comparisons such as the three-leaf clover, which is now one of the symbols of the Holy Trinity, because it was St. Patrick who once used the same leaf to explain the concept of the Trinity, three Godhead but united as One and inseparable, to the kings and to the people of Ireland.

Now that many people from Ireland had migrated all over the world, the great Irish diaspora and the contributions they made to the Faith is considerable. The fact why St. Patrick was so well known and devotions to him are abundant is largely because of this. These migrants too, indeed walked in the footsteps of St. Patrick, bringing the faith to all those who have not heard of the Lord, and also to those who have erred and become wayward in their faith.

Today we heard in our first reading from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, the reading used at the consecration of churches and holy places, as it shows the Temple of God in heaven, shown in a vision to Ezekiel, from where life-giving water comes forth, and this represents the purity and the holiness of the place, as the holy dwelling of the Lord Himself.

And in the Gospel, we heard about how Jesus healed the person who had been sick for thirty-eight years, healing him from his afflictions so that he was able to walk once again. Jesus healed the sick person and by that He had mercy on him. Yet, the Pharisees were angry at what He had done, and they criticised Him for having done the healing on the Sabbath day, the holy day according to the laws of Moses, where one was supposedly not allowed to do any work.

What our Lord wanted us all to understand, through the readings of the Holy Scriptures today as well, is that all of us are sick, sickened and afflicted with the disease of sin inside each one of us. We are like the sick people lying down at the galleries beside the pool of Bethzatha, waiting for the Lord’s salvation and healing. And it shows us the nature of how we deal with our sin. Just as some of the sick were faster and the others, and some took their time to get to the pool to be healed, therefore, we too come to realise our sinfulness and repent at different moments in our lives.

But the Lord shows that forgiveness itself, while it comes through effort, it also definitely requires His grace. God forgives all of us freely, and He is willing to let go of our sins, and He wants us indeed to be made pure and holy, that we are no longer sinners but truly His children and His disciples. We make the effort to change ourselves and sin no more, and all the good works we are doing are proof of our love for God, but we cannot say that our works saved us, but rather that, God’s grace and mercy made its work in us, which we manifested through our good works.

This means that, while God forgives us our sins, but we cannot continue to live in sin. Jesus always said that, “Sin no more” whenever He healed sinners and afflicted people. This means that our faith in God cannot be one of stagnant faith, or that of one-off faith. We must continue to live up to our faith and do things as commanded by our Faith, so that the faith we have within us will justify us before the Lord, because it is supported by the concrete evidence of our hard and good works, done in fulfillment of that same faith.

Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we are all God’s Temple and Holy Residence, for God Himself dwells in us. This Lent is a time for us to reflect on this, and on whatever actions we have taken in this life which had brought about defilement and filth to the Holy Temple of God. It is a time for us to change our ways and be converted, and truly be converted as what had happened to St. Patrick, and also as those whom St. Patrick had preached to.

Thus, we have two tasks to do. First, we have to reevaluate ourselves and our actions, so that we may truly be reflections of who we are, namely the children and followers of our Lord. And then, and only then, secondly, that we are able to go forth and preach to the nations, asking the people of God to return to Him and be converted from their sinful ways, and as we lead by our own examples, let us inspire more and more people to be saved, and to receive God’s grace and mercy. God bless us all this day. St. Patrick, pray for us sinners. Amen.