Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, while yesterday we spoke of God’s mercy and justice, the forgiveness of sinners, then today we continue in the same theme, that while God is not happy and angry with our sins, but as long as we are willing to repent and change our sinful ways, then the Lord will forgive us and bring us back to His embrace and love.

And there are also strong parallels between the readings today from the Old and the New Testament each. The first reading today is about the punishment which God accorded to Israel when they disobeyed Him and grumbled excessively against Him while they were journeying through the desert. God sent fiery serpents to strike at all the unbelievers and many of them died.

And when they had repented their rebellion and begged God for forgiveness through Moses, God sent a new hope to the people in trouble and despair, by the crafting of the bronze serpent standard, which Moses then lifted up high for all the people to see. Then, as a result, all those who had been bitten and saw the bronze serpent would not die but live on.

In the same way therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ had been raised up high, for all mankind to see, including at all times whenever we see Him on the cross. And all of us who look at Him, know Him and believe in Him and in all the things that He had done for us, shall be saved and granted the eternal blessings and graces of God. He has given us all this salvation freely, and He suffered for our sake because of His love, knowing that by doing so, He had given us all a second chance.

That is why, He is so particular about our conversion, from our worldly and sinful ways into the path of the Lord towards our salvation. We cannot pretend to ignore all of these, for the time shall come in the end, when the Lord will judge all of us according to our deeds. If we are found to be filled with sin, then at that time, no amount of begging or atonement will be able to help our fate of eternal suffering.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be reminded that our Lord Jesus Christ had given His all in order to save us from our fate of death, by the sacrifice which He took upon on the cross. As we draw closer to the beginning of the Holy Week, which begins this coming Sunday, let us all understand more of the sins which we have committed, and even more importantly, how to change our ways that we may sin no more and be saved.

As mentioned earlier, God does not hate the sinner but the sins that the sinners committed. Therefore, we have to be sincere in our repentance and conversion. We cannot profess to be believers and followers of our Lord and yet we still continue to commit sins and wickedness in our daily lives. If we do so, then we are hypocrites who do not act as what we have preached and believed.

 May Almighty God help us to find our way to Him, and also by awakening in us the strong desire for repentance, for forgiveness and for the purification of our wicked and sinful selves, that after this time is over, our Lord may congratulate us for we have triumphed and are worthy to receive the gifts of eternal life and eternal joy with God in heaven. God bless us all. Amen.