Day: April 9, 2023

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Wednesday, 12 April 2023 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 104 : 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9

Give thanks to the Lord, call on His Name; make known His works among the nations. Sing to Him, sing His praise, proclaim all His wondrous deeds.

Glory in His holy Name; let those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and be strong; seek His face always.

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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Wednesday, 12 April 2023 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 3 : 1-10

Once when Peter and John were going up to the Temple at three in the afternoon, the hour for prayer, a man crippled from birth was being carried in. Every day they would bring him and put him at the Temple gate called “Beautiful”; there he begged from those who entered the Temple.

When he saw Peter and John on their way into the Temple, he asked for alms. Then Peter with John at his side looked straight at him and said, “Look at us.” So he looked at them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you : In the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, walk!”

Then he took the beggar by his right hand and helped him up. At once his feet and ankles became firm, and jumping up he stood on his feet and began to walk. And he went with them into the Temple walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God; they recognised him as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were all astonished and amazed at what had happened to him.

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Tuesday, 11 April 2023 : Tuesday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we continue to progress through this blessed and most joyful Easter Octave, a period of great rejoicing and thanksgiving for God’s great love and kindness for us, let us all turn towards the Lord and renew our hope in Him, remembering how He has come into our midst precisely so that He might redeem us all sinners, and reconcile us all to our most loving Father and Creator. The Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ proved to us that death is not the ultimate end of all things, and that our fate is not to be one of death and destruction, but rather that of eternal life and a new existence in grace and love together with God. Death has come to us because of our disobedience and sins against God, but Christ, by His willing and most generous embracing of our weakened and unworthy selves, have opened for us the path out of the darkness and sins.

In our first reading today, as the continuation from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard how many of the assembled people in Jerusalem asked St. Peter and the other disciples about whatever they had done, and the wicked deeds which they had committed in rejecting their Lord, Master and Saviour, by condemning Him to death on the Cross. But St. Peter reiterated again how Christ has come into this world in order to gather all those who have been lost to Him, to be our most loving Shepherd and Guide so that all of us may find our path to the salvation in the Lord, our most loving, compassionate and merciful God. St. Peter reassured all of them that through Christ and by their repentance, in rejecting the sins and wickedness that they had committed, they would be reconciled and reunited with God, and God would grant them His Holy Spirit to strengthen and guide them all to Himself.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of how Mary Magdalene, one of the first of the women to go to the tomb of the Lord Jesus on Easter Sunday morning, only to find the tomb to be empty, lamented the disappearance of the Lord’s Body, and thought that His Body must have been stolen by someone. The Angel of God appeared to her and the other women, reassuring them all that the Lord has risen from the dead and was no longer in His tomb. Then the Lord Himself appeared to Mary Magdalene, and revealed Himself to her, how He has truly risen from the dead. It is all these revelations and truth which the Lord has revealed to His disciples and followers, through His other appearances throughout the period between His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, witnessed by many of His followers, which reassured and strengthened them in their faith in God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians, which means that we believe in Christ, His truth, His words and wisdom, and in His Resurrection, and that He is truly the Son of God and the Saviour of all, all of us have received the same revelation and truth as that of the other disciples of the Lord. We have received all these truths and wisdom through the Church, and through the many teachers and ministers of our faith. God has shown Himself and His truth to us, calling us all to Himself and entrusting to us the same mission that He has given to His Apostles and disciples, that is to proclaim His Good News, the Good News about His coming and His works of salvation amongst us, and His Resurrection by which He has overcome sin and death, and won for us a great victory in the struggle against the forces of evil, leading us all into a new path towards eternal life.

All of us are called and reminded to be truly committed to the Lord as we continue living our lives daily as Christians. And throughout this Easter season, all of us should use the time and opportunity to share the joy of Easter we have with each other, and with more and more people that we encounter each day. We are all reminded that in Christ we have received the sure guarantee of eternal life and salvation, and as long as we remain firmly attached to Him and as long as we continue to hold firm to His path and believe in His truth, we shall receive the fullness of God’s grace and love. We are truly the Easter people and Alleluia is our song, just as Pope St. John Paul II once said it. But we cannot be an Easter people without the right attitude, that in our lives we have to radiate the light of Christ, the joy and desire to serve and glorify the Lord through all of our actions and works.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore spend some time in this Easter season to live our lives more worthily as Christians, dedicating our time and efforts to walk ever more righteously in the path that the Lord has set before us. This is a time for us to remind ourselves what it means to be Christians. Each one of us should live our lives with ever greater commitment to proclaim the Risen Lord in our every actions and lives. We should truly embody our faith in our every works and efforts, so that we may inspire everyone who witness our actions and interact with us in any capacity, that we will inspire more and more to come ever closer to the Lord and to find their path towards Him. That is why this Easter is the best opportunity and time for us as we go forth from all of our Easter joy, to go and proclaim joyfully the Lord’s Resurrection to the nations.

But we cannot truly proclaim the Risen Lord unless we are truly wholehearted and committed to Him in all things, and we have to be truly converted in our hearts and minds. This is why we have to do whatever we can to do God’s will in our lives, even in the smallest things we do. Unless we do this, then we are not being truly obedient and truthful in our following of the Lord, in our Christian duty and obligations, and in carrying out our missions as those who follow the Lord and obey His commandments. We have to be good examples to our fellow brethren, and we have to commit ourselves to our missions as Christians, which God has entrusted to us, in our various capacities and using the talents, abilities, gifts and opportunities that He has granted us. This Easter we are all reminded that we all need to go forth with joy to the world, and be evangelising, missionary disciples.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all hence go forth joyfully and share our faith with everyone we encounter, in a respectful and loving way. Let us all show our joy this Easter and be truly filled with Easter joy, reminding ourselves that Easter is truly a greater celebration than Christmas. If we have shown our joy in Christmas, then our joy this period and time should be doubled and even more. But let our joy always be focused on Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, and let our attention always be centred on the Risen Christ, on the glory of His Resurrection and everything that He has done for us, for our salvation and redemption. May God bless us always and may the grace of the Risen Christ be with us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 11 April 2023 : Tuesday within Easter Octave (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 20 : 11-18

At that time, Mary stood weeping outside the tomb; and as she wept, she bent down to look inside. She saw two Angels in white, sitting where the Body of Jesus had been, one at the head, and the other at the feet. They said, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

She answered, “Because they have taken my Lord and I do not know where they have put Him.” As she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognise Him. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?”

She thought it was the gardener and answered Him, “Lord, if You have taken Him away, tell me where You have put Him, and I will go and remove Him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned, and said to Him, “Rabboni!” – which means Master. Jesus said to her, “Do not touch Me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and say to them : I am ascending to My Father, Who is your Father, to My God, Who is your God.”

So Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord, and this is what He said to me.”

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Tuesday, 11 April 2023 : Tuesday within Easter Octave (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 32 : 4-5, 18-19, 20 and 22

For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.

But the Lord’s eyes are upon those who fear Him, upon those who trust in His loving-kindness to deliver them from death and preserve them from famine.

In hope we wait for the Lord for He is our help and our shield. O Lord, let Your love rest upon us, even as our hope rests in You.

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Tuesday, 11 April 2023 : Tuesday within Easter Octave (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 2 : 36-41

Peter said, “Let Israel then know for sure that God has made Lord and Christ this Jesus Whom you crucified.” When they heard this, they were deeply troubled. And they asked Peter and the other Apostles, “What shall we do, brothers?”

Peter answered : “Each of you must repent and be baptised in the Name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise of God was made to you and your children, and to all those from afar whom our God may call.”

With many other words Peter gave the message and appealed to them saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who accepted his word were baptised; some three thousand persons were added to their numbers that day.

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Monday, 10 April 2023 : Monday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we all continue to celebrate with great joy the celebrations of Easter that began with Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday, as this is just the second day of the Octave of Easter, which lasts until the Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday, and in fact, the whole Easter season lasts a period of an entire fifty days until the Pentecost Sunday. Yet, from what we have also heard from our Scripture passages today, we are also reminded that our Easter joy and celebrations should not be limited and restricted just to that period only, as we must realise that what we celebrate this Easter is something fundamental and important in our Christian faith, as we rejoice and celebrate together our Lord’s glorious Resurrection from the dead, and how He has saved each one of us from our predicament and sins, by His Passion, His suffering, death and Resurrection.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles of the works of the Apostles, led by St. Peter, who went forth amongst the people on the day of the Pentecost, fifty days after the Lord’s Resurrection, to proclaim among them all the truth about the Lord, all of His works, His Resurrection and all that He had done, for the salvation of all the people. Back then, the disciples of the Lord had been hiding in fear after the Lord’s Ascension into Heaven, as the Jewish leaders, the chief priests and the elders who had mostly been opposed to the Lord and His teachings, had banned anyone from teaching or speaking in His Name, and vowed to persecute anyone who did so. That was why they were in hiding, while praying and gathering together as a community of believers. Then, on the day of the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples just as the Lord Himself had promised, and the Holy Spirit strengthened the disciples and encouraged them, gave them Wisdom and power to carry out what the Lord wanted them to do.

That was how they all became so courageous, in going forth from their hiding, and no longer hiding their beliefs, but preaching about the Risen Lord openly among the people, during the time when many people from the Jewish diaspora and beyond came to Jerusalem for the Pentecost festival. They all spoke with vigour and strength, and as St. Peter had done, they told them all of the wonderful things that God had done through His Son Jesus Christ, the One Whom the people had just recently rejected and condemned to death, put on the Cross to die and yet, by Whose death, God has willingly accepted His perfect offering and sacrifice, to redeem all of us from our many sins and wickedness. God has been reconciled with us through His Son, and by His Resurrection, Christ has shown us the sure path to eternal life. St. Peter spoke to all assembled of how Christ has revealed God’s salvation to all through His coming into this world and His Resurrection, fulfilling the promises that God had made to all their forefathers.

This is the same truth that they themselves had received from the holy women, Mary of Magdalene and others who went to the tomb of the Lord on the morning of Easter Sunday, only to see the tomb empty and open, without any Body and anyone inside. We heard from our Gospel passage today how the Angel of God proclaimed to the women that the Lord has risen gloriously from the dead just as He has foretold. We heard how the fulfilment of God’s promises had indeed come through Christ, and then of how those same chief priests and their supporters tried to hide and conceal the truth in the same Gospel passage, by bribing the soldiers and the officials to tell lies and untruths about what had actually happened, to the point of stating that the disciples had come to steal the Body of the Lord while the soldiers were sleeping, which was something that was truly unbelievable as the Roman soldiers then were renowned for their discipline and watchfulness.

That was unfortunately the extent of the lack of faith of the people of God, those whom the Lord had first appeared to and called first. Many of those chief priests and elders were so hard set in their ways and beliefs that they were unable to open their hearts and minds to listen to the Lord and to His truth that has been delivered and shown to them, despite the many times that they had witnessed the works of the Lord, His truth and all that He has taught among the people of God. This is because they had allowed worldly vices and ambitions, their attachments to worldly glory and desires to cloud their vision and judgments, leading them to close their hearts and minds against God, and turning themselves into obstacles and barriers in the path of many who are coming to seek the Lord. And yet, the Lord still called His disciples to proclaim His truth to them, as what many of them would do to reach out to these stubborn ones.

As we all know, God even made one of them to be one of His own most fervent followers, as one of the most passionate and courageous defenders of the faith, namely St. Paul the Apostle, who was once a great persecutor of Christians and an enemy of the Lord. In his foolish pursuit for power and influence, and in the misguided path he traversed as a young Pharisee named Saul, easily swayed by the temptations of worldly glory and by his misdirected zeal, caused by the distortions and falsehoods that the chief priests and the Pharisees themselves had spread, in making themselves to believe that the Lord Jesus was a fraud and that His teachings were blasphemous and a heresy, hence, causing St. Paul as the young Saul and many others to do what was against God’s will, resisting His good works and actions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, now as we all gather together today to continue to rejoice in the Easter joy, and as we continue to live our lives as faithful and good Christians, let us all therefore renew our commitment to the Lord, to be evangelising disciples in our outreach and efforts to proclaim the Word of God, His truth and resurrection to more and more people all throughout the whole world, in our respective communities, families, circles of friends, in our schools and workplaces. Let us all be the beacons of the Light of Christ and the Hope of His Resurrection, in the midst of all the communities that we are all part of. Let us all be the source of inspiration and hope for everyone who are still suffering and enduring a lot of hardships, or are in the midst of sorrows and despair, that just as Christ has come into our midst bearing His Light of Hope and salvation, we may also bring that same Light to our brethren in need.

May all of us be courageous in proclaiming the word of God and may we continue to be exemplary in our lives and actions so that we may truly be genuine Christians in our way of life, in our every actions, dealings and interactions. May the Risen Lord continue to encourage and strengthen us so that we may keep on venturing further like the Apostles and disciples of the Lord, in doing the good works of the Lord, for the salvation of many people who are in need of the light and hope of God in their midst. May all of us be the faithful bearers of Christ’s Light in our communities and societies all around us. Amen.