Advent 2024

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Wednesday, 18 December 2024 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures and as we continue to move ever closer towards the joyous time of Christmas, we are reminded ever more of everything that the Lord had done for our sake, His beloved ones, as He sent unto us all His Beloved Son, to be our Saviour and Redeemer, freeing us from the chains of sin and death that have afflicted us and prevented us from finding our way back to Him. God has always been ever patient in loving us and in showing us the way to Himself so that we may not be lost forever to Him, but we may be rescued and reunited with Him once again, through everything that He has done for our sake by His Son and all that He showed us, a pure love that has been manifested in our midst.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, we heard of the Lord reassuring His people with the words of comfort and faithfulness, reminding them that He will send to them His deliverance through the House of David, the prophecy of the Messiah that would restore everything to the people of God, bringing them once again to His righteousness and loving embrace, and breaking them free from the bondage to sin, while referring to what He had once done through the liberation of their ancestors in the days of the Exodus from Egypt. The Lord told all of His people how they would remember Him no longer by what He had done in the earlier case, but in what He has done henceforth, in bringing them all free from the bondage to evil and sin, leading them all to eternal life and true happiness with Him.

And that is exactly what the Lord had done with all of us through the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ, to bring us all from the slavery to sin and evil, just as He had brought His first chosen people the Israelites out from the slavery in Egypt to the Egyptians and their Pharaoh. That time when the Lord brought His people, the Israelites out of the land of Egypt it was in fact a premonition and precursor of the far greater deed that He would do later on, in freeing not just the select few among mankind to bring them out of their physical slavery to freedom, but He would lead all of mankind to the liberation and freedom through His Son, opening the path to the eternal life and true happiness with Him, just as He had brought and led His people to the Promised Land earlier on.

He also made and renewed the Covenant which He had once made with His people, and this time, it would be an Eternal and unbreakable Covenant, sealed not by the blood of animals and sacrificial offerings, but by the very Blood of the Lamb of God, the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ Himself, Who would go on to offer Himself on the Altar of the Cross. Through His most loving sacrifice, the Lord our Saviour has restored us and redeemed us from our many sins and mistakes, His Precious Blood having purchased the price of our redemption, much as how the blood of the unblemished lamb in Egypt had allowed the Israelites to escape the final plague of death while the Egyptians suffered from it. Through the new Christian Passover, the Lord has liberated us all from certain death and destruction, by the power of His loving and ultimate sacrifice.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of how St. Joseph and Mary came together at the time when the Lord was conceived in the womb of Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit and by the will of the Father. At that time, St. Joseph was betrothed to Mary, but he found out as mentioned in the passage that Mary was with Child, not knowing earlier on that the Child was truly the Saviour, the Son of God incarnate in the flesh. Yet, we heard how St. Joseph was truly an upright and just man, who considered carefully what he was about to do, as it was quite obvious that St. Joseph also trusted Mary, knowing her and how upright and virtuous she was, that it was also impossible for her to have any extramarital relationships with another man before her marriage. If a woman were to be known to have such an affair, the punishment for that was being stoned to death, and it was likely that St. Joseph wanted Mary to avoid that fate.

Then we heard how God sent His Angel to tell St. Joseph in his dream that the Child inside the womb of Mary is none other than the Son of God Himself, the One Who was promised to the world, the Saviour of all, and it was truly by God’s will that Mary had borne this Child. The Angel strengthened and reassured St. Joseph, who faithfully and willingly bore the part that he was to play in becoming the foster father of Our Lord and Saviour, the father figure of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the protector of the Holy Child, caring and taking care of the Lord when He was still young, being His foster father and teacher, teaching Him about the necessary skills and wisdom of the world as He was growing up in Nazareth before His ministry among the people of God.

This link to St. Joseph was highlighted to us in our Gospel passage today to remind us all that Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour is truly the One promised by God, the Son and Heir of David Who had been sent into this world in order to save it from destruction, leading us all from the edge of damnation and back into the path towards eternal life. This is because St. Joseph according to his genealogy was the senior heir of King David by descent from him, and by the order of succession in the ancient Israelite kingship, and hence, by his legal fatherhood as the husband of Mary, the Mother of Our Lord Jesus, this made the Lord Jesus to be the legitimate Heir of David, and hence, the fulfilment of all the prophecies that God had made to His people about the coming of His salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore continue to uphold this faith which all of us should have in our Saviour, Jesus Christ, the One Whose coming into this world we are about to celebrate this upcoming Christmas season. Let us all as Christians be good role models in how we live our lives so that by our every actions, words and deeds, and by how we prepare our Christmas festivities and celebrations, we will always put Christ at the centre of all things and place Him at the heart of everything that we say and do. Let us all be good inspiration to everyone around us and be the good and worthy bearers of God’s light, hope and truth to all, to bear forth the Good News of God to everyone we encounter in each and every moments of our lives.

May the Lord continue to guide and strengthen us in our Advent journey and preparations so that all of us may find this time fruitful and meaningful in helping us to centre our focus and attention once again to the Lord in this coming joyful season and time of Christmas. Amen.

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Wednesday, 18 December 2024 : 3rd Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 1 : 18-24

This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to disgrace her.

While he was pondering over this, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, she has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ fo He will save His people from their sins.”

All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet : The Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means : God-with-us. When Joseph awoke, he did what the Angel of the Lord had told him to do, and he took his wife to his home.

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Wednesday, 18 December 2024 : 3rd Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 71 : 1-2, 12-13, 18-19

God, endow the King with Your justice, the royal Son with Your righteousness. May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.

He delivers the needy who call on Him, the afflicted, with no one to help them. His mercy is upon the weak and the poor; He saves the lives of the poor.

Praised be YHVH, God of Israel, Who alone, works so marvellously. Praised be His glorious Name forever; may the whole earth be filled with His glory! Amen. Amen.

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Wednesday, 18 December 2024 : 3rd Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 23 : 5-8

YHVH further says, “The day is coming when I will raise up a King Who is David’s righteous successor. He will rule wisely and govern with justice and righteousness. That will be a grandiose era when Judah will enjoy peace and Israel will live in safety. He will be called YHVH-Our-Justice!”

“The days are coming,” says YHVH, “when people shall no longer swear by YHVH as the Living God Who freed the people of Israel from the land of Egypt. Rather, they will swear by YHVH as the Living God Who restored the descendants of Israel from the northern empire and from all the lands where He had driven them, to live again in their own land!”

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Tuesday, 17 December 2024 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we enter this period of one week to the date of Christmas Day, we enter into this deeper time of solemn preparation for the Christmas celebration, a period when we deepen our spiritual preparation and contemplation as we are getting ourselves ready to celebrate the true joy of Christmas, the coming of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ into this world, the salvation and eternal life which He has promised to all of us, His beloved people. During this period and time, traditionally the ‘O’ Antiphons are sung in the Church, contemplating upon everything that God had done for our sake, all that He has shown us out of love by the sending of His Son, to fulfill the promises and reassurances He had made to us about our salvation and liberation from sin and death.

That is why we focus our attention more and more upon the figure of the Saviour, the Son of God, the historical Jesus Christ, which is the moment when God made Himself tangible, approachable and visible to us, no longer hidden by the veil of His light and glory, but walking in our very midst, His perfect Love manifested in the flesh, touching our lives and guiding us all to His light and salvation. He has indeed fulfilled what He has promised to us, that the Son of God, the Holy Child would be born to us by a Virgin, His Blessed Mother Mary, so that He would indeed become God Who lives in our midst, God Who is with His people, Emmanuel, the One Whose love for us is so great that He willingly gave us all His most precious gift, in His Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man.

From the very beginning God had kept on reassuring us and revealing gradually what He intended to do with us and for us, just as we have heard in our Scripture passages today, beginning with the first reading from the ending of the Book of Genesis, where we heard of the final moments of Jacob, the father of all the Israelites, who was also known as Israel. He was then dying in the land of Egypt after having been reunited with his long-lost son Joseph and enjoying the last years of his life being surrounded by his families, by his many sons and their children. And in this part of the Book of Genesis, it was told that Israel, before he passed away gathered all of his family and blessed his sons with various blessings and prayers. And today in particular, the emphasis and focus is placed upon Judah, one of the sons of Israel and the blessings he received.

The house and tribe of Judah had indeed been blessed by God wonderfully and Israel himself had foreseen what God would do for His people and all mankind through this house of Judah, as one day, God would send His Saviour, the Saviour of the whole world through Judah and his descendants, through David, the great King of Israel, who hailed from the tribe of Judah, and to whom God had promised that his kingdom and his house would sit on the Throne of Israel forever. All these promises and reassurances were known to the people of God, who therefore longed for the fulfilment of the Lord’s many promises and words, all of which would indeed come true through Jesus Christ, the One Whom we are all celebrating about this upcoming Christmas time and season, the true reason for Christmas and its great joy.

Then, this is what our Gospel passage today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist is speaking about, in which the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour was presented to us. We heard in that long genealogy how the Lord Jesus ultimately was descended from King David, and therefore is the Son of David promised by the Lord to be the One to sit on the Throne of the Kingdom of Israel for eternity, and also then through Judah from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as a fulfilment of what God had promised to all of His faithful servants, with whom He had made His eternal Covenant with, the promise of true and eternal joy for all of God’s people. And last of all, Christ was descended from Adam, the very first man that God had created, and this is significant because Christ is the New Adam through whom God will save the world.

This long line of descent from Adam, Abraham and David was presented by St. Matthew as he wrote his Gospel with the main target audience being the early Christians from the Jewish background, and also for the other Jewish people. As such, when he wrote his Gospel, St. Matthew placed a lot of emphasis in the Lord Jesus being the Jewish Messiah sent into this world to fulfil all the prophecies about Him, as constantly always being renewed through the many prophets and messengers of God. In Christ, all these promises and prophecies had been fulfilled and all of us are reassured of God’s ever generous love and compassion which He has made evident and tangible to us through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we approach ever closer to the coming of the joyful and glorious Christmas season, are we truly ready to celebrate Christmas in its true meaning, significance and joy? Are we willing and capable of focusing ourselves and our rejoicing on the Lord, and be the ones to proclaim the salvation and joy in Christ by our proper celebrations and readiness in our Christmas preparations? All of us as Christians are God’s holy and beloved people, and how we celebrate Christmas will be important as amidst all the much secularised and commercialised celebrations of Christmas, the true meaning and joy of Christmas can easily be lost amidst all the distractions and glamorous rejoicing that do not centre themselves on Christ.

Let us all therefore renew our commitment to the Lord in this remaining time we have been given this season of Advent so that all of us may truly be prepared and ready, and use this chance and time that has been given to us well so that we may truly rejoice this upcoming Christmas season with the right focus on Christ, and proclaiming to all the joy we have received through His coming into this world, Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, He Who has shown us all the perfect manifestation of the love of God, and through Whom all of us have received the assurance of eternal life and true joy with God. May our Advent journey and preparations be truly fruitful and blessed by God, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 17 December 2024 : 3rd Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 1 : 1-17

This is the account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron of Aram. Aram was the father of Aminadab, Aminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon.

Salmon was the father of Boaz. His mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed. His mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David, the king. David was the father of Solomon. His mother had been Uriah’s wife. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Then came the kings : Abijah, Asaph, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah.

Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon, Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel and Salathiel of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud of Eliakim, and Eliakim of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar of Matthan, and Matthan of Jacob.

Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus Who is called the Christ – the Messiah. There were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, and fourteen generations from David to the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the deportation to Babylon to the birth of Christ.

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Tuesday, 17 December 2024 : 3rd Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 71 : 1-2, 3-4ab, 7-8, 17

O God, endow the King with Your justice, the Royal Son with Your righteousness. May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.

Let the mountains bring peace to the people, and the hills justice. He will defend the cause of the poor, deliver the children of the needy.

Justice will flower in His days, and peace abound till the moon be no more. For He reigns from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.

May His Name endure forever; may His Name be as lasting as the sun. All the races will boast about Him, and He will be blessed by all nations.

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Tuesday, 17 December 2024 : 3rd Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Genesis 49 : 1-2, 8-10

Jacob then called his sons and said, “Gather round, sons of Jacob. And listen to your father Israel!”

“Judah, your brothers will praise you! You shall seize your enemies by the neck! Your father’s sons shall bow before you. Judah, a young lion! You return from the prey, my son! Like a lion he stoops and crouches, and like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?”

“The sceptre shall not be taken from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to Whom it belongs, and Who has the obedience of the nations.”

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Monday, 16 December 2024 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we progress ever closer to the time of joy and celebration in Christmas, we are being reminded yet again through the readings from the passages of the Sacred Scriptures of the coming of God’s salvation, and all the assurance of His guidance and Presence in our midst, which He has promised and reassured us with from the very beginning of time. God did not abandon us to the darkness, but He has always patiently and lovingly guided each and every one of us to His path, giving us the assistance necessary to help us and all the patient care and providence for us, even when we have erred and stubbornly refused to follow Him. This time of Advent, each and every one of us as Christians must spend the time to reflect carefully upon this great love of God that has been shown to us, and be appreciative and thankful for all that He has done all these while for our sake.

In our first reading today taken from the Book of Numbers we heard of the prayer and the words of blessings which Balaam the seer spoke for the whole people of Israel when he was paid and told by King Balak, king of Moab to curse the Israelites which at that time had come upon the land and threatened the kingdom of Moab. Balaam was a famous seer and man of great wisdom from Mesopotamia, and his renown made the Moabite king to pay him for his services. But God had a different plan for His people, and instead of a curse that was asked by the king of Moab, the seer Balaam was filled with the Holy Spirit of God and through God’s Wisdom and guidance, he instead proclaimed a great blessing over all the Israelites, blessing them for all of their deeds and works, and for their endeavours and efforts, for the great nation which they shall established.

Of course naturally such a change in action led to a great disappointment and anger from the king of Moab who had employed Balaam to curse the Israelites. To have heard Balaam blessing his enemies instead of cursing them must have incensed the Moabite king. But Balaam spoke truthfully and courageously, saying that he was inspired by God and he could not say what the Lord did not want him to say, and he obeyed God’s words and commandments, and did as he had been told to do, to bless all those people just as He desired it. And not only that, as we have also heard at the end of our first reading passage today, there was also a prophecy mentioned by Balaam, as he witnessed and saw the glimpse of the coming of God’s salvation, a Figure that he was not yet able to perceive, and yet, this Figure, the Star of Jacob, would be the Saviour of all, and He would come into the world.

At that time, the meaning of such a prophecy must have been vague at best, but now we all know that Balaam was truly speaking and prophesying about the coming of Christ, the Saviour of the world, the Star of Jacob, the Star of David, the One Who would bring all of God’s people back to Him and reconcile them with their loving Father and Creator, and the One to redeem all of us from our many sins and wickedness. This is a truly great reminder for us at this juncture of time when we are close to the beginning of Christmas, reminding us all what it is that we are really celebrating this Christmas, and how we ought to prepare ourselves to celebrate the memory of the glorious coming of our Saviour, Lord and King, born in our midst in Bethlehem as a Child, the Child Who would save all of us mankind from the destruction due to our sins.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard about the words from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist in which the Lord Jesus was confronted by some of the chief priests and the Temple authorities, the teachers of the Law and others who questioned Him on the authority and the authenticity of His works and ministry among the people of God, all the teachings He had given to them and the miracles, wonders and signs that He had performed. Those people refused to believe in the Lord, in His signs and miracles, and in His teachings because they hardened their hearts and minds, refusing to accept the fact that they could be mistaken in their own ways and teachings. The Lord Jesus had come into this world to straighten up the Law of God and how it should have been interpreted and understood, against the misinterpretations and the abuses which those religious leaders had done with the Law.

Therefore, the Lord Jesus spoke plainly and told them that His authority truly came from God, and whatever He has done, it was in accordance to the Law, and also in tandem with what His predecessor and Herald, the famous St. John the Baptist had done. The same group of people, those chief priests, Temple authorities and the teachers of the Law, the Pharisees and others had also denigrated and rejected the teachings and works of St. John the Baptist, questioned and doubted him in the same manner that they now questioned the Lord and His works. The Lord Jesus then threw back the question at them, asking if they could provide an explanation and agree whether the works of St. John the Baptist, his teachings and words were merely man-made or whether they came from God and were inspired by Him. This was a question which those leaders could not answer.

That is because no matter how they answered it, then they were at the losing end. If they admitted that St. John the Baptist and his works were merely man-made, that would have enraged the many thousands and more who believed in the saint and that his works were truly Divinely inspired. In the same manner then if they admitted that the works and teachings of St. John the Baptist were Divinely inspired, then what the Lord Jesus had been teaching and performing in His works, were the same and even more than what St. John the Baptist had done, and yet those leaders and elders refused to believe in them, and admitting such things would have been a great embarrassment and loss of face for them all before the people of God, something that they would not want to do, given how much they treasured their prestige and fame above all else.

From what we have heard in this Gospel passage today, we are reminded that we must not allow ourselves to be swayed by the temptations of worldly glory, honour, splendour, fame and all the things that can easily lead us astray and bring us towards our downfall due to sin and evil. Instead, we should always put the Lord our God at the very centre of our lives and existence, and put Him at the core of everything that we say and do in all of our whole lives, in every opportunites and moments we have with us. Otherwise, we may end up like those chief priests, Temple officials, Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who had allowed their ego and ambition, their desires and worldly attachments to fame and vainglory to mislead them down the wrong path, and closed their hearts and minds to the truth of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to progress through this season of Advent ever closer to Christmas, let us all therefore continue to use this moment and time given to us well so that we can truly prepare ourselves wholeheartedly, physically and spiritually to be able to celebrate Christmas worthily and properly, with the right focus, purpose and intention. Let us always remind one another that Christmas is truly about Christ, about the Love of God manifested to us, in His love and desire to bless us all most wonderfully, as He had done through the seer Balaam and many others, so that all of us may truly be reunited with Him, and be worthy to enjoy forever the fullness of His grace, love and compassion. Amen.

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Monday, 16 December 2024 : 3rd Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 21 : 23-27

At that time, Jesus had entered the Temple and was teaching, when the chief priests, the teachers of the Law and the Jewish authorities came to Him, and asked, “What authority have You to act like this? Who gave You authority to do all this?”

Jesus answered them, “I will also ask You a question, only one. And if you give me an answer, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. When John began to baptise, was it a work of God, or was it merely something human?”

They reasoned out among themselves, “If we reply that it was a work of God, He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ And if we say, ‘The baptism of John is merely something human’, we have got to beware of the people, for all hold John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”

And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what right I do these things.”