Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the Lord Jesus Who spoke to His disciples about the importance for us to keep ourselves free from sin, and purified from all the filth and taints of sin, so that all of them will not become obstacles and hindrances on our path towards the salvation and life in God.

We may be terrified to hear it when Jesus spoke to His disciples about cutting off limbs, their legs and hands when these caused them to sin, and tearing out their own eyes if these had also led them into sin. But this is the problem we face if we just take everything that Jesus had said at the literal level. We must not take His words just at the face value, but instead, we have to internalise them and understand them with all of our heart.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are called by our Lord to purify ourselves from sins and wickedness which have in its many forms, one way or another, filled our hearts, minds and corrupted our soul and our flesh. In fact, what the Lord Jesus wanted us to know that firstly, if our inner beings are corrupt and wicked, then these will certainly lead to corruption and wickedness to cover our bodies and our external beings as well.

And then He also wants us to know that we need to separate ourselves, and steer ourselves clear of sinful ways and all things that lead to evil and darkness. We must understand this in order to be able to fully appreciate what Jesus told His disciples. It does not mean that we should injure or hurt ourselves physically, but rather, we must break up that part of ourselves, deep in our hearts and minds, those which have pulled us into sin.

It means that we should resist the temptations that are inevitably going to play at our desires, so that through internal discipline and rigorous defence, we may overcome those temptations and prevent ourselves from falling into the trap of sin. And what many of us mankind lacked is precisely this discipline, the rigour of conduct required for us to be able to resist falling into sin.

Many of us embraced our desires, and succumb to its pressure whenever we are presented with the opportunities for us to follow the desires of our heart. And it does not help with the fact that our world today is a place of increasingly greater and deeper materialism, where everything from money, possessions and human greatness are valued highly and treasured.

If we are not careful, then we are inviting trouble for ourselves, as then our actions may become filled with greed and selfishness, and we may come to the point where we may hurt others on our attempts to satisfy ourselves. And that is why Jesus our Lord reminded us to be careful in our actions, and to be vigilant lest our actions and deeds bring us to sin.

But all these should begin from the inside, from our hearts and minds. If these are pure and good, then surely our outward expressions will also be good and pure. As Jesus put it in another parable, that good trees certainly will produce good fruits, and bad trees will produce bad and rotten fruits. It would not be the other way round. Thus, if we can keep ourselves worthy and clean from sin in the inside, then we too may make ourselves wholly worthy of the Lord.

And the best way to do that is through prayer and spiritual discipline. We must step up our efforts to keep our hearts pure and be filled with the love of God, by improving the discipline of our minds and hearts. Let us keep ourselves from wicked thoughts and desires, and learn to resist these all by devoting ourselves, our efforts and our time to God, that we may be better able to find our way to our God and gain the eternal life He has promised us. God bless us all. Amen.