Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this holy day of Sunday of the Lord, the sixth in the Easter season, all of us heard about how God revealed His love for us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and how He called all the peoples, of all the nations, to come together and be saved, through the holy waters of baptism, genuine conversion and by receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The message today is very, very clear, that to all of us the faithful, we are always reminded that God is love, and God is merciful, and He has called us out of the darkness, so that we may abandon the darkness, and embrace the fullness of His mercy, grace and love. And then, it is also very clear, that God calls all peoples, of all nations without bias and preference.
What truly matters is indeed, that we whom God have called out of the darkness, follow Him in all of His ways, and heed His teachings. Before the Lord, all of us are equal and same as brothers and sisters. This was to counter the attitudes of the Jews and the people of Israel, who since the time when they were chosen as God’s first called people, have adopted an exclusivist and elitist attitude, to the condemnation and exclusion of others from the possibility of receiving the grace of God.
They thought that they alone were worthy of God’s salvation because they were God’s chosen people and often took for granted the grace and the patience which God has always given to them and show them. As such, they were often rebellious and unrepentant, and they even refused to listen to reason and the truth, when the Lord sent them repeated reminders and revelations through His prophets, and last of all, through the Lord Jesus Himself.
This also continued with the conflicts and struggles between the Jewish members of the faithful and their Gentiles counterparts. The Gentiles are all the non-Jews, which include people from various nations and origins, primarily the Greeks, many of whom had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, and by the works and the teachings of the Apostles, they had walked in the way of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, God had made it clear, that He intends for the salvation and liberation of all peoples. That is because the new Passover and salvation He brought is a new and more perfect one as compared to what He had given the people of Israel in the past, when He liberated them from the Egyptians through the hands and works of Moses, His servant.
This new Passover is the Passover of the Paschal Lamb, which we are particularly celebrating on in this season of Easter. The Paschal Lamb, that is our Lord Jesus Christ, had become the new Lamb of sacrifice, by whose Flesh and Blood, He had made righteous and chosen, a people whom He had chosen for Himself, and whom He had called from among the nations, that is all who sincerely believe in Him and in all of His teachings.
In that way, He had chosen us, and by His sacrifice and death, which we profess in our faith and proclaim to others, He had freed us from the eventual fate of suffering, pain, despair and destruction in hell. Instead, to those who have accepted Him as their Lord and Master, He grants a new life filled with hope, love and grace. And this is regardless of our background, regardless of our origin and race.
Everyone who heeds God’s call and does His will are worthy of Him and all that He had prepared and promised to them. They have been marked by God for salvation just like the people of Israel had been marked with the blood of the sacrificed Passover lambs. And further on, God did not just wash away our sins through the waters of baptism, He also gave us the Holy Spirit, to dwell in us and to become the source of our hope and inspiration.
The Gentiles received the Holy Spirit as a clear sign from God that everyone without exception enjoy the favour of God as long as they follow His commandments that is Love. As long as we have love in us, and we give that love firstly to our Lord and God who had loved us first, and then also give the same love to our fellow men, by caring for one another and showing care and concern for all those in need, we have been found worthy in the eyes of the Lord.
And today we are all reminded that, all of us have a mission which our Lord Jesus Christ had commanded us all to do, just as He had given the commands to His Apostles. This is to love one another just as He had loved us first, for such a great love that even though we are sinners through and through, rotten to the core and to our souls, but He was willing to come down in humility and obedience, and to give up His life for us on the cross that we may have life.
And therefore, we must show this love to others, especially to all those who have yet to know of this love, and who are still languishing in the darkness, not knowing the way to go. We have to be the ones to bear the light of our Lord to them, by showing it through real and concrete actions, so that when they see us doing love, practicing love and showing love in all things, they too may be moved in their hearts and soul, that they may abandon their sinfulness and wicked world and follow the Lord as we all have done.
Let us all never be judgmental upon others just because we see that they have done something wicked. Let us not judge sinners as we have to remember that we are once sinners too, be it small or great. Our duty and responsibility is to lead them all to mercy and forgiveness by God, and to allow them to see the light through our actions, so that they too may become the children of God.
But we must be careful not to offer false mercy to others who need mercy. False mercy is for us to bring forgiveness to others unconditionally. Yes, it is important for us to be merciful and to forgive, but it also requires others to be repentant, and indeed to be truly sorry for their sins and commit themselves to no longer doing the same sin for the rest of their lives. This is true mercy and not false mercy. False mercy that does not bring about repentance only cause further injustice and wickedness.
Therefore, let us all carry forth this mission with great courage and joy. All of us Christians who have been baptised in the Name of our Lord, and who have received the Holy Spirit ought to, and indeed we must be witnesses of our faith, as witnesses of our Lord’s love in His death and resurrection to all the nations. May all peoples, all mankind be hearkened to come to the throne of our Lord’s most merciful love, so that as many souls as possible are saved from the destruction because of our sins.
May Almighty God be with all of us, that in all of our deeds and actions, He may always remind us in our heart and mind, to be faithful to Him and to show others what it truly means to be a Christian. God bless us all. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 