Month: April 2022

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Friday, 8 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 17 : 2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 7

I love You, o Lord, my Strength, the Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, my Deliverer and my God.

He is the Rock in Whom I take refuge. He is my Shield, my powerful Saviour, my Stronghold. I call on the Lord, Who is worthy of praise : He saves me from my enemies!

A deadly flood surrounded me, devillish torrents rushed at me; caught by the cords of the grave, I was brought to the snares of death.

But I called upon the Lord in my distress, I cried to my God for help; and from His Temple He heard my voice, my cry of grief reached His ears.

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Friday, 8 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 20 : 10-13

I hear many people whispering, “Terror is all around! Denounce him! Yes, denounce him!” All my friends watch me to see if I will slip : “Perhaps he can be deceived,” they say; “then we can get the better of him and have our revenge.”

But YHVH, a mighty Warrior, is with me. My persecutors will stumble and not prevail; that failure will be their shame and their disgrace will never be forgotten. YHVH, God of hosts, You test the just and probe the heart and mind.

Let me see Your revenge on them, for to You I have entrusted my cause. Sing to YHVH! Praise YHVH and say : He has rescued the poor from the clutches of the wicked!

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Thursday, 7 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of how God has made a Covenant with Abraham, our father in faith, and how the same Covenant has been renewed and established anew again and again, until the time when Christ, Our Lord and Saviour came into this world and accomplished the works that His heavenly Father has entrusted to Him. He has come into our midst and established with us a new, everlasting and eternal Covenant that He sealed with the offering and outpouring of His own Most Precious Blood and the shedding of His Most Precious Body on the Altar of the Cross. We are called to reflect on this as we draw ever closer to the beginning of Holy Week, the time when we are going to commemorate the events surrounding Our Lord’s Passion, His suffering, death and resurrection.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Genesis, we heard of the Lord making the Covenant with Abraham, who was then still known as Abram, a man who came from the far-off region of Mesopotamia, following the commands and call of God into the land of Canaan, the land which God then promised to him and his descendants to be their own land. Abram then did not yet have a son that will carry on his name and legacy, but God promised him that he would be the father of many nations, through his son Isaac, the one that God would give to him in due time, but which then was yet unknown to Abram. Abram trusted in the Lord and although technically he and his wife, both of whom had been advanced in age, could no longer bear a child anymore, but he trusted in the Lord and believed in His words and promises.

That is why God chose to made a Covenant between Himself and Abram, choosing him and set him apart from any other men and women who were his contemporaries at that time. God chose Abram because He knew everything in his heart and mind, and how Abram truly had faith in Him and trusted in Him wholeheartedly. God sees what is in man’s heart, even to the deepest of their hearts and beings. In Abram, God found a truly righteous man worthy of becoming the one with whom He made a Covenant with. Through Abraham, the salvation of all of His beloved people would come, as it has been planned all along from the very beginning.

Thus, Abram made a Covenant with God and he devoted himself to God, with a new life blessed by God, as Abraham the righteous and just, the beloved and chosen one of God, whose descendants were numerous and many, and all of us who call the Lord as our Master, we also call Abraham as our father in faith. All of us share with him this faith which he had first shown all those years ago, dedicating himself to the Lord and followed Him wherever He called him to follow and walk to. All of us are therefore also expected to follow the Lord wholeheartedly in the same manner, giving our time, effort and attention to be ever faithful as disciples and followers of His.

However, as we heard from our Gospel passage today, it is often that many of us have failed to do this as shown by the attitude of the Jewish people in Judea and Jerusalem, especially among their leaders and elders, the chief priests and the Pharisees, who adamantly refused to listen to the Lord or believed in Him despite all the things that they had heard, seen and witnessed themselves through the Lord’s many miracles and works among the people. The Lord has come amongst His people to reveal His truth among them, and to call them to return to Him, and yet, because they were truly stubborn, they refused to believe in Him and hardened their hearts and minds.

They were all too caught up by their pride and ego, that they failed to realise the extent of their infidelity and stubbornness. They preferred to remain in their rebellious state as they thought that they could not have been wrong or mistaken, and they did not like it when others came to them revealing of how vulnerable and misguided they had been. Thus, unlike what had happened in Abraham’s case, his descendants ironically and unfortunately refused to trust in the Lord and His love and truth. While Abraham devoted himself to the Lord and followed Him with all of his heart, the same could not be said of his descendants, and thus, the Lord rightly rebuked them for that.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to these words from the Scriptures, we are all reminded that we are to follow the Lord and be committed to Him, to the Covenant that He has established with each and every one of us. The Lord has called us to follow Him, and how are we going to respond to Him? Are we going to continue to live in the path of sin and evil, or are we committed to a change in our way of life, and are we willing to walk with God from now on, in obeying Him and dedicating ourselves to His truth? Are we going to be good role models who can show others how we can be good Christians, as good disciples and children of God?

Today we celebrate the feast of St. John Baptist de la Salle, the renowned founder of the Brothers of Christian School, a religious order and fraternity of men committed to the advancement of Christian education all throughout the world. St. John Baptist de la Salle was a priest and canon of the Cathedral of Reims who was called to minister to the needs of the needy, and seeing the terrible state of education of especially young Christians all around him, he decided to embark on a new ministry, in dedicating himself to the needs of those who are last, lost and least, especially those who are struggling in their youth and education.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, just as St. John Baptist de la Salle dedicated himself and his whole life for the benefit of many others who are in need of help, all of us should do whatever we can to contribute to others all around us as well. The Lord has called us all to follow Him and we should respond to Him in the same way that St. John Baptist de la Salle and many other of our holy predecessors had done. Are we willing and able to commit our lives in the same way too? The choice is really ours if we want to follow Him and to spend our time and effort in walking down His path.

Let us all therefore remind ourselves of the great faith that Abraham, our father in faith, St. John the Baptist de la Salle, our holy predecessor and many other holy men and women who have inspired us all. May all of us be like them as well in faith, and grow ever stronger in our commitment and dedication to live our lives in accordance with God’s will, now and always, evermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 7 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 8 : 51-59

At that time, Jesus said to the Jews, “Truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never experience death.” The Jews replied, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died and the prophets as well, but You say, ‘Whoever keeps My word will never experience death.’ Who do You claim to be? Do You claim to be greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets also died.”

Then Jesus said, “If I were to praise Myself, it would count for nothing. But He Who gives glory to Me is the Father, the very One you claim as your God, although you do not know Him. I know Him, and if I were to say that I do not know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I know Him and I keep His word. As for Abraham, your ancestor, he looked forward to the day when I would come; and he rejoiced when he saw it.”

The Jews then said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old and You have seen Abraham?” And Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” They then picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and left the Temple.

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Thursday, 7 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 104 : 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Look to the Lord and be strong; seek His face always. Remember His wonderful works, His miracles and His judgments.

You descendants of His servant Abraham, you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgments reach the whole world.

He remembers His covenant forever, His promise to a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the promise He swore to Isaac.

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Thursday, 7 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Genesis 17 : 3-9

Abram fell face down and God said to him, “This is My covenant with you : you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer will you be called Abram, but Abraham, because I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you more and more famous; I will multiply your descendants; nations shall spring from you, kings shall be among your descendants.”

“And I will establish a covenant, an everlasting covenant between Myself and you and your descendants after you; from now on I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you, for generations to come. I will give to you and your descendants after you the land you are living in, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession and I will be the God of your race.”

God said to Abraham, “For your part, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you, generation after generation.”

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Wednesday, 6 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are called to follow the Lord and to remember His providence and love, the compassion which He has shown to each and every one of us that we will be willing to open ourselves to Him, opening our hearts and minds so that we may listen to the words that our Lord and Father speak to us in the depth of our hearts and minds. Too often we have been stubborn and refused to listen to Him, and instead preferring to walk down our own path, which more often than not led us to ruin.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Daniel regarding the time when king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon built for himself a great golden statue in his own image, and ordered all of his subjects and peoples to bow down and prostrate themselves in worship of the golden statue. It was common at that time and throughout history for rulers to aggrandise themselves and even wanting to be worshipped as gods and treated as divinity. They built for themselves numerous palaces, temples and other edifices to highlight and emphasise their glory and power.

To this end, thus king Nebuchadnezzar, who had conquered the Assyrians and took over control of many realms and countries including that of Judah, glorified himself and forced his people to obey his commands. But among all the people assembled there, as we heard in that passage, only three dared to refuse to obey the king’s order. The king had ordered everyone to do as he commanded on the pain of death for those who refused to obey, and yet, Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah, known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to the king, kept strong to their faith in God and chose rather to suffer and die rather than to abandon or betray their Lord and Master.

We heard the aftermath of what happened after the king of Babylon threw the three of them into a blazing furnace that was purposefully made far hotter because the defence that the three men placed before him angered him greatly. And yet, the three men were completely unharmed by the fire, and the king and everyone present witnessed the great miracle, and saw the Angel of God that God sent to safeguard them as the mysterious fourth man present in the fire with them. The Lord protected the three of them for their faith in Him and to show Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon the futility of his hubris, pride and ego.

In the end, God rescued His faithful ones and those who pride themselves in their own power and glory were ashamed and put down. In our Gospel passage today, we have then seen yet again how the Lord once more reached out to His people and gave them His deliverance and help, in Christ Jesus, the Saviour of the world and His beloved Son. By His coming into this world, He reached out to us who have been scattered and separated from Him due to sin. He showed us the path towards Him and how we can be reconciled with Him, forgiven from our sins that had separated us from Him.

However, as we heard, many among the people refused to listen to the Lord and even took offence at the words He said when He spoke of God as His Father. They also spoke of themselves as the children of Abraham and were displeased when the Lord said that they were still not free because of their attitude and refusal to listen to His words and truth. Essentially those same people proved the Lord’s words by their own actions, their lack of faith and continued stubborn resistance in not following the Law and commandments as the Lord told them to.

All these were because they were too proud to admit that they could have been wrong, and when the Lord came before them telling the truth and calling them to change their ways, they refused to do so, thinking that they knew better how to handle things and that they could not be wrong in their way of life. Unfortunately, this attitude in fact led them even further away from the Lord, preventing them from finding their way towards Him because their hearts and minds had been closed to Him. They trusted more in their own power and strength, rather than in the Lord, in stark contrast to the three friends of Daniel, whose story we heard in our first reading today.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore seek the Lord with renewed faith and desire to love Him from now on. Let us humble ourselves before Him and not be like those who kept their prideful ways, like the king of Babylon or the people at the time of the Lord Jesus, who refused to believe in God and His truth, and even persecuted the faithful. Instead, we should be inspired by the faith of Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah, and remain firmly strong in our faith and dedication in God from now and always. May God bless us all and be with us all, through our journey of faith in life. Amen.

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Wednesday, 6 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 8 : 31-42

At that time, Jesus went on to say to the Jews who believed in Him, “You will be My true disciples, if you keep My word. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered Him, “We are the descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves of anyone. What do you mean by saying : You will be free?”

Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave. But the slave does not stay in the house forever; the son stays forever. So, if the Son makes you free, you will be really free. I know that you are the descendants of Abraham; yet you want to kill Me because My word finds no place in you. For My part, I speak of what I have seen in My Father’s presence, but you do what you have learnt from your father.”

They answered Him, “Our father is Abraham.” Then Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do as Abraham did. But now you want to kill Me, the One Who tells you the truth – the truth that I have learnt from God. That is not what Abraham did; what you are doing are the works of your father.”

The Jews said to Him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one Father, God.” Jesus replied, “If God were your Father you would love Me, for I came forth from God, and I am here. And I did not come by My own decision, but it was He Himself Who sent Me.”

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Wednesday, 6 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Daniel 3 : 52, 53, 54, 55, 56

Blessed are You, Lord, God of our fathers, be praised and exalted forever. Blessed is Your holy and glorious Name, celebrated and exalted forever.

Blessed are You in the Temple of Your sacred glory, Your praises are sung forever.

Blessed are You on the throne of Your kingdom, honoured and glorified forever.

Blessed are You Who fathom the depths, who are enthroned on the Cherubim, praised and exalted forever.

Blessed are You in the firmament of heaven, praised and glorified forever.

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Wednesday, 6 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Daniel 3 : 14-20, 91-92, 95

King Nebuchadnezzar questioned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden statue I have set up? If you hear now the sound of horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and other instruments, will you fall down and worship the statue I made? If you will not, you know the punishment : you will immediately be thrown into a burning furnace. And then what god can deliver you out of my hands?”

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we need not defend ourselves before you on this matter. If you order us to be thrown into the furnace, the God we serve will rescue us. But even if He will not, we would like you to know, o king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.”

Nebuchadnezzar’s face reddened with fury as he looked at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He ordered the furnace to heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of his strongest soldiers to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the burning furnace.

Then king Nebuchadnezzar suddenly rose up in great amazement and asked his counsellors, “Did we not throw three men bound into the fire?” They answered, “Certainly.” The king said, “But I can see four men walking about freely through the fire, without suffering any harm; and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Who sent His Angel to free His servants, who, trusting in Him, disobeyed the king’s order; and preferred to give their bodies to the fire rather than serve and worship any other god but their God.”