Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded yet again of the fundamental expectations and what it truly means for us all to be Christians. To be Christians means for us all to be filled with God’s love and kindness, His mercy and compassion for everyone. Without love, we cannot truly call or consider ourselves as Christians, as without love, our faith is dead and empty, meaningless and without purpose. God Himself is Love, and He has always shown us all this great love, at all times. That is why, as His beloved and holy people, it is only apt and proper that each and every one of us follow Him in this same path of love and compassion, and show love and kindness in each and every parts of our lives.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, we heard the words of the Lord spoken to His first chosen people, the Israelites, during their Exodus from Egypt. The Lord spoke to them through their leader, His servant Moses, in which He reminded them all to stay true and obedient to the Law and the commandments which He had revealed and passed to them, namely the Ten Commandments, as well as the many other rules, precepts and practices which He has given to them, for them all to follow and inculcate in each and every moments of their lives. Those laws and commandments were meant to show them and to teach them how they should behave and act as a people that God has chosen and blessed.

This is because how the people of God lived their lives and carried out their actions and works, in their obedience to the Law and commandments of God, all these would be measured up by others around them against what they believed in. If they had not been sincere in their faith and did not obey the Law of God as they should have, then it would have made them all to be no better than hypocrites who only paid lip service to their obligations and commitments to God. This reminder was made to them because although the Lord has revealed His Law and commandments to the Israelites, but they often disobeyed them and chose to follow pagan and false idols rather than remaining faithful to the Lord.

This is then elaborated further in our Gospel passage today, in which the Lord Jesus highlighted to His disciples and all the people that the commandments of God are all ultimately and essentially about Love, first of all, loving God their Lord and Master with all of their strength, might and capacity, and then showing the same kind of love towards all of our fellow brothers and sisters around us. Without these kinds of love, then we cannot truly consider ourselves as being obedient to the Law and commandments of God.

Contextually, at that time, when the Lord was performing His ministry, the Law of God was preserved, kept and enforced by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who were particularly strict and rigid in their observances and interpretations of the Law of God. Therefore, as the Lord came into the midst of His people, He showed and taught them the true meaning and purpose of the Law, which was meant to help teach and show the way for the people of God to follow in their lives, by teaching them about God’s Love, and how to show the same love to Him, our Lord and Creator, as well as to our fellow brothers and sisters.

Unfortunately, for many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, they had become swayed by their sense of superiority and pride, which led to them refusing to listen to the Lord and persisting in their misguided and wrong understanding of the meaning and purpose of the Law of God. They were too concerned about the manner how the Law and its precepts ought to be practiced and carried out, that they usually paid too much attention to the details of the Law and the commandments, that they forgot about the reason and the purpose why the Law had been given by God to us in the first place.

They also looked down on the others around them who did not manage to carry out the commandments and the precepts of the Law as strictly as they had done, and many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law also had that sense of superiority amongst them, that they considered others to be less worthy than they were, or that they alone were the sole guardians and the ones whom everyone else ought to be following. However, they failed to realise that in their pride and ego, their ambitions and desires, and attachments to worldly glory, they became blinded and misguided in their path.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are reminded today that we should always strive to follow the Lord and His examples in loving us, in how we should always focus ourselves and our whole lives on God, on His love, compassion and mercy. We should also restrain and resist all those temptations of the world, the temptations of worldly glory, pleasures, and also of our pride, ego, greed, ambition and desires, so that we do not end up falling into the trap of sin and evil. Let us all be humble before the Lord, and listen to Him speaking to us, and ask Him to help and guide us in our journey of faith and life, that we do not falter and end up falling into the wrong paths.

May the Lord continue to bless and guide us all, and may He empower each and every one of us to live ever more worthily in His Presence from now on. May God bless us all in our every good efforts and endeavours, particularly during this time and season of Lent, in rejecting the temptations of worldly evils and false pleasures, all around us. May our lives and good examples be good inspiration to others, now and always. Amen.