Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the readings from the Holy Scripture all unanimously speak of one thing, one fact and reality, that is the salvation, healing and redemption brought about through our Lord Jesus Christ, the High Priest of all, Lord and Master of all, through Whose works and actions, all of us had been made justified and righteous, and purified from the taints of our original sins.

In the first reading, taken from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, God made a promise to all of His people that He will never forget them, and that His love for them will always endure, so long as they too love Him and dedicate themselves to Him. He will save them and bless them once again with His grace and love, just as once He had done in the past.

This was in the context of the time, when the prophet Jeremiah lived at a time of difficulty and hopelessness, where the people of the ten tribes living in the northern kingdom of divided Israel had been carried off into exile and slavery by the Assyrians who had invaded and destroyed their kingdom. God punished them for their lack of faith and wicked deeds, for their worship of the pagan gods like Baal and Asherath, and paid no honour to Him, the one and only true God.

And the people in the southern kingdom of Judah were not faring much better either, as the Babylonians that came after the Assyrians now threatened to bring destruction to Judah and Jerusalem, and indeed, they would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple of God built by Solomon, and the people would be carried off to exile and slavery in lands far away from their homes.

But after all these, the punishments for Israel’s sins, just as their ancestors wandered in the desert for forty years due to their disobedience, and just as all mankind had to suffer and perish in this hard and challenging world, due to the sins of our forefather Adam and Eve, his wife, thus, God also promised salvation and liberation from all sufferings to all of His people if they would return to Him.

And God had promised all of us this since the beginning of time, when mankind first fell into sin, namely by promising to Adam and Eve, that even though Satan got them and tricked them into disobedience against God, but there would be a time to come, when God would send a Deliverer and Saviour to them, to the sons and daughters of mankind.

And God continued to renew His promise to His people throughout time, as He promised His servants Abraham, Moses, David, and many others through His prophets and messengers, or by directly speaking to them. God blessed His people and kept them with the hope of His deliverance and salvation. Yet, it was so often that the people refused to listen to the words of His prophets.

And today in the Gospel reading, we heard about how the blind man called out to Jesus Christ our Lord to save him and heal him from his blindness. The blind man struggled on and he did not give up, even when Jesus apparently did not hear him and continued on His way. And indeed, the blind man’s efforts were rewarded by the Lord, who healed him from his afflictions and restored his sight to him.

This is related closely to what we heard today in our second reading today from the Letter of St. Paul directed to the Hebrews, where he spoke if our Lord Jesus Christ as the High Priest, and not just as any other ordinary High Priests of the Temple of God, but truly as the High Priest over all mankind and over all of creation, for it was by what He had done as our one and true High Priest that He had saved and delivered us all.

Yes, as mentioned earlier with regards to the salvation of our souls and the redemption from our sins, we have had the perfect and complete fulfilment of God’s promised salvation through Jesus Christ, the Saviour and the One through Whom God made His will complete, the will that all of us His beloved ones ought to be drawn closer to Him and be brought out from the pit of misery and sin we are currently in now.

Truly, we are like the blind man, sickened and troubled, afflicted and suffering the consequences of our sins. Yes, for sin is not just the disobedience against God and all the wickedness we have committed in our words and actions, but in fact, sin is a disease and like a cancer that afflicts our souls, our hearts, our minds and also our bodies.

And sin is eating away into our beings, crushing us, destroying us and making us rotten. Unless we do something concrete and real to get ourselves clean and free from all these sins, we shall be brought down by them into the abyss of eternal darkness and suffering. For this is true hell, the eternal suffering of knowing that we have been completely separated from the love and the grace of God, and there is no hope for escape.

Just like the priests and high priests of Israel, whom God had chosen and ordained out of the people, to be those sanctified and empowered to offer the offerings for the sake of the sins of the people, or sin offerings, where the priests offer the lovely smell of animals and burnt offerings at the altar for the temporary remission and forgiveness of the sins of the people of God, so God had also instituted once and for all the eternal redemption by the one true High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ.

And Jesus did not offer the blood of rams or bulls, or birds or any other earthly offerings. Rather, He offered His own Precious Body and Precious Blood, His own Life, so that by that one and singular offering made at the Altar of Calvary, lifted up high on the cross, He might become the perfect offering, the perfect sacrifice which is worthy and the only one worthy to absolve forever the whole multitude of all of our sins.

And He offered it all willingly and freely for all of us, sinners and wicked people who have acted like the Israelites of old, like the people living during the time of the prophet Jeremiah in Judah. Exile and destruction would have been ours if not for the mercy and the richness of the love of God. However, this does not come free and easy for us. Why is this so? This is because mercy requires dedication and genuine repentance.

We often forget that God’s mercy and love requires first on our side, the willingness to accept them, and also the willingness and the desire, as well as the seriousness to leave behind our past sins and wrongdoings. No mercy will be shown or given to us if we persist in our sinfulness, in our rebellion against God’s will, for the simple fact that just as much as God loves us all without exception, even the greatest sinners, He despises our sins just as much, for evil has no place in His presence.

Today, as we all gather together to glorify our Lord and to give thanks to Him for His wondrous mercy, let us all not forget that we must dedicate ourselves to a life of holiness, far away from all sorts of sin and wickedness, far away from all sorts of adultery and unfaithfulness, from all sorts of debauchery and greed, from anything that can separate us from the love of God and thrust us into eternal damnation.

Let us all renew our faith in the Lord and commit ourselves anew to a new life blessed by His love and by His justice, that in all the things we say and do, we proclaim Him and we bring glory to Him. May God bless us all in our endeavours, and may He keep us united to Him and never be separated once again from His love. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.