Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 24 : 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9
Teach me Your ways, o Lord; make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.
Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.
Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Daniel 3 : 25, 34-43
Azariah stood up in the midst of the fire and prayed aloud : Do not abandon us forever, do not reject Your covenant for Your Name’s sake. Do not withdraw Your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, Your friend, of Isaac, Your servant, of Israel, Your holy one, to whom You promised to multiply their race as the stars of heaven and the sand on the shore of the sea.
Lord, see, we have become the least among the nations in all the world, and we are humiliated because of our sins. At this time, we no longer have a king, or prophet, or leader. We cannot offer You holocausts, sacrifices, offerings, or incense. We have no place to present to You the first-fruits of our crops, and so obtain Your favour.
But at least when we present ourselves with a contrite soul and humbled spirit may we then be acceptable to You, more than by offerings of rams and calves as holocausts, and of thousands of fat lambs. May this sacrifice of ours today obtain for us Your favour for we know that those who trust in You shall never be disappointed.
And now, we serve You with our whole heart, we fear You and we seek Your face. Do not leave us in our humiliation, but treat us according to Your kindness and Your great mercy. Free us in keeping with Your wonders, and give us the glory of Your Name, Lord.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are all reminded of the story of one particular Naaman the Syrian, a general of the Aramean kingdom, the neighbouring kingdom of the northern kingdom of Israel, which occupied the region now known as Syria. Naaman came to the land of Israel because of the fame of Elisha, God’s prophet and servant who was renowned for his work and miraculous deeds, as he was suffering from the debilitating leprosy, widely considered as a cursed disease back then, and which had no cure.
In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Kings of Israel and Judah, we heard of that story in detail, telling us how Naaman came to seek Elisha and eventually found him after a long journey together with his servant. Elisha then told Naaman to wash himself seven times in the River Jordan, which was then immediately met with disbelief and scorn from Naaman. As a great general and favourite of the King of the Arameans, he was a proud man, and he told his servant angrily that he had expected that the servant of God, Elisha, ought to have done things to him and make him healed, and that there were other rivers in his own homeland that he could do what he was asked for, instead of the River Jordan.
Then the servant pointed out to Naaman that it would not do him wrong to actually listen to the prophet Elisha and follow his instructions, as after all, it was really a very simple thing to do. Elisha did not ask Naaman to do the impossible, but rather a very easy task of just immersing himself seven times in the waters of the River Jordan. Comparing that to the suffering and shame that he must have experienced from the debilitating and humiliating leprosy, washing up seven times in the River Jordan would have been comparatively much easier to be done.
Eventually Naaman obeyed, humbling himself and casting away his pride, doing what Elisha had told him to do. Naaman bathed in the Jordan just as Elisha told him to do and he became purified and clean, freed from the terror of his leprosy. Naaman was willing to let go of his ego and pride, and therefore was healed from his troubles and sickness. He gained consolation and healing because he was willing to listen to God speaking to him through the prophet Elisha, and he was made whole again, freed from the troubles of his leprosy. Had he remained proud and arrogant, he would have remained in his state of leprosy.
It was this story of the healing of Naaman that the Lord Jesus mentioned, together with the widow of Zarephath who took care of the prophet Elijah, Elisha’s predecessor, as He chastised the people of His own hometown of Nazareth for their lack of faith in Him. He has revealed the truth about Himself before them, and with the signs and wonders that He had performed in nearby places such as Capernaum, the Lord spoke the truth, on how God’s salvation has indeed come upon His people, the salvation that they have all long awaited for, as they beheld Him, the Son of God and the Messiah.
Just like how Naaman initially refused to listen to Elisha or follow his instructions due to his pride and ego, thus it was the same with the people as well. The people failed to listen to the Lord and His truth, due to their own arrogance and pride, steeped in their prejudices, thinking that it was impossible for the supposed Son of their own village carpenter, as St. Joseph was the Lord’s foster-father, to be One Who could perform such miracles and wonderful works. The Lord has done so much and did everything that had proven Him to be the One prophesied by the prophets and messengers of God, but in their stubbornness, the people continued to refuse to believe in Him.
That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to these words from the Scriptures today, we are all called to repent from our sins, to be open-minded and exclude from our hearts and minds all the taints of pride and ego, all the things that have often prevented us from returning to God and being reconciled with Him. It was our ego, just as Naaman had once experienced, that kept us away from being healed and made whole again by God, which in Naaman’s case was to be healed from his leprosy. And we all must know and realise that sin is just like leprosy, a corruption that attacks not just our body but worse still, the soul and our whole being.
As long as we allow our pride and arrogance to get the better of us, we will always find it difficult for us to return towards the Lord or to walk in His presence. Our pride and arrogance, our hubris and arrogance are our stumbling block that we have to remove from within us that we do not end up falling deeper and deeper into the traps of sin. Like what Naaman’s servant reminded him, actually what we have to do to follow the Lord are not impossible to be done, as we need to reject the path of sin and wickedness, and instead embracing the love of God and committing ourselves to His Law and truth.
Yet, it is our reluctance to do what we have to do, our lack of commitment and desire to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and our continued attachments to worldly ways and sin which had kept us away from being fully reconciled with God, and why we have not been able to return to the Lord’s embrace and the fullness of His love and grace. As long as we continue to harden our hearts and minds, and allow our pride and ego to influence our path and actions, then our path and outlook forward in life will likely be bleak. Many of us will remain separated from God and His love.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all make good use of the opportunities given to us especially during this time of Lent that we may find our path towards God and turn away from all of our past transgressions and wickedness, embracing instead the path of righteousness and virtue in life. May God be with us always and may He empower us all to live ever more faithfully in His presence, now and forevermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Luke 4 : 24-30
At that time, Jesus said to the people of Nazareth, “No prophet is honoured in his own country. Truly, I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens withheld rain for three years and six months and a great famine came over the whole land. Yet, Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in the country of Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet; and no one was healed except Naaman, the Syrian.”
On hearing these words, the whole assembly became indignant. They rose up and brought Him out of the town, to the edge of the hill on which Nazareth is built, intending to throw Him down the cliff. But He passed through their midst and went His way.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 41 : 2, 3 and Psalm 42 : 3, 4
As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for You, o God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I go and see the face of God?
Send forth Your light and Your truth; let them be my guide, let them take me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You reside.
Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my gladness and delight. I will praise You with the lyre and harp, o God, my God.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
2 Kings 5 : 1-15a
Naaman was the army commander of the king of Aram. This man was highly regarded and enjoyed the king’s favour, for YHVH had helped him lead the army of the Arameans to victory. But this valiant man was sick with leprosy.
One day some Aramean soldiers raided the land of Israel and took a young girl captive who became a servant to the wife of Naaman. She said to her mistress, “If my master would only present himself to the prophet in Samaria, he would surely cure him of his leprosy.”
Naaman went to tell the king what the young Israelite maidservant had said. The king of Aram said to him, “Go to the prophet, and I shall also send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman went and took with him ten silver talents, six thousand gold pieces and ten festal garments.
On his arrival, he delivered the letter to the king of Israel. It said, “I present my servant Naaman to you that you may heal him of his leprosy. When the king read the letter, he tore his clothes to show his indignation, “I am not God to give life or death. And the king of Aram sends me this man to be healed! You see, he is just looking for an excuse for war.”
Elisha, the man of God, came to know that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, so he sent this message to him : “Why have you torn your clothes? Let the man come to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stopped before the house of Elisha. Elisha then sent a messenger to tell him, “Go to the river Jordan and wash seven times, and your flesh shall be as it was before, and you shall be cleansed.”
Naaman was angry, so he went away. He thought, “On my arrival, he should have personally come out, and then paused and called on the Name of YHVH, his God. And he should have touched with his hand the infected part, and I would have been healed. Are the rivers of Damascus, Abana and Pharpar not better than all the rivers of the land of Israel? Could I not wash there to be healed?”
His servants approached him and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had ordered you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? But how much easier when he said : ‘Take a bath and you will be cleansed.’” So Naaman went down to the Jordan where he washed himself seven times as Elisha had ordered. His skin became soft like that of a child and he was cleansed.
Then Naaman returned to the man of God with all his men.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are all reminded of the call that the Lord had made to all of us, His beloved ones, to follow Him and to dedicate ourselves to Him. All of us have been called to leave behind our past lives and our state of sin, and enter into a new existence with God through grace, and by His ever generous love, mercy and forgiveness. Each and every one of us are God’s chosen people, His beloved children, whom He had called from this world to be with Him. Our Scripture passages this Sunday remind us of this reality and truth, and we are reminded to turn towards the Lord with renewed love, zeal and vigour.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Exodus the account of the calling of Moses at Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, during the time when Moses was in the land of the Midianites while in exile from Egypt. At that time, Moses, who had been raised by the Pharaoh’s sister as her own son after having been rescued from the River Nile, had been accused of misconduct and treason for having killed an Egyptian that persecuted an Israelite slave worker. Moses then fled away from Egypt to avoid being punished and killed although what he did was truly right and just.
In the land of the Midianites, Moses had become a shepherd and was eventually married to the daughter of his benefactor, Jethro the Midianite. And then, as we heard in our first reading today, Moses witnessed a great vision from God at Mount Horeb, as he saw a great burning bush, which an Angel of God set fire on and Moses went up the mountain to see the marvellous sight when God spoke to him, calling on him to go back to the land of Egypt and be the bearer of God’s words to the Egyptians and their Pharaoh, proclaiming the liberation of the Israelites who had long been enslaved by the former.
Through what we heard in our first reading today, we are all presented with the enduring love and compassion that God has for His people, as He told Moses of what He would do for His beloved people, as He has always remembered the Covenant He made with their forefathers, and He would bring them out from the place of their sufferings and agony, into the new place He would lead them towards, a land flowing with milk and honey, the Promised Land of Canaan that He has promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the forefathers of the Israelites.
In our second reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth, we heard of the accounts of St. Paul reminding the faithful of all that God had done for the people of Israel during the time of their Exodus from Egypt. He reminded all of them how God had provided for the Israelites during the time of their long sojourn in the desert, as they journeyed from place to place, God always going before them and leading them to where they were brought to go to. And despite the rebelliousness and disobedience that they had shown at the time, that led them to endure forty years of suffering and atonement, God still cared for them all daily.
The Lord has always showed His love and mercy, which He has patiently and generously offered to His people despite their constant rebelliousness, their lack of faith in Him, the betrayal and all the other wicked deeds that they had committed. He could have annihilated us all the moment that our first ancestors fell into sin, and He could have destroyed us there and then. Yet, He gave us all a chance, because He believed in us and He loved us, which was why He created us all in the first place. He would not have created us if He did not love us. He showed us that while we may have frequently been unfaithful to Him, but He never ceased to be faithful to the promises that He had made to us since the very beginning.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the Lord speaking to the people regarding of what had then happened regarding a group of Galileans who were massacred by the Romans under the governor, Pontius Pilate and also of another accident involving a group of people in the town of Shiloh who had perished due to that accident. He told all those assembled that those who perished were sinners just as they who listened to the Lord were sinners too. However, He pointed out how unless they repented, then they would perish as well in the end.
What the Lord wanted to point out through this particular encounter was that we are all mortals and we will eventually reach the end of our worldly life and existence. All of us will face death sooner or later, and this is one certainty that will happen to us. Due to sin we have to face the consequences and that is we have to experience death. Yet, at the same time, the most uncertain thing in life for us is the exact time and moment of our death and passing from this world. No one knew, knows and will ever know the exact time and moment of their death, and yet, all will die and go through the gates of death.
However, the Lord has also provided us His mercy and compassionate love, and through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, He has given us the sure path out of the darkness and the tyranny of sin. He took upon Himself the burden of our sins, and He did the most marvellous thing in reaching out to us with love and compassion, that through Him we may receive the assurance of eternal life and true happiness, by His most loving and selfless sacrifice on the Cross for our sake. We are reminded again and again that all of us are really very fortunate to have been beloved so much by the Lord, and we must not take it for granted that we have been given this grace and the many opportunities presented to us, as God has always been ever patient in calling on us to return to Him.
However, we must also remember that in the end, sin is a corruption of our mind, body, heart and soul, and no sin can remain in us unforgiven and not repented upon. For God Who is perfect and all good and great cannot have sin existent before Him, or else, those sins would have brought us down to our doom and annihilation. Essentially, while God has always ever been merciful and loving towards us, but there is a limit and boundary that we must always be aware of, and that is, as long as we still reject God’s mercy and forgiveness, freely and generously given to us, then our sins shall remain and we shall be judged and condemned by those same sins.
This Lent, all of us are called and reminded of God’s ever generous love and how each and every one of us have a share in this love and generous mercy. Unfortunately, it is very often that our pride and ego, our human desires and inability to resist the temptations of the world have led to us faltering again and again, delaying our return towards the Lord, hardening our hearts against Him and closing off the doors of His mercy when He has extended it so openly and freely towards us. It is often us who have spurned His advances of love and mercy, all the generous kindness that He has presented to us.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on these words from the Sacred Scriptures this Sunday, already the Third one in the season of Lent, are we all still idling by in our lives and not heeding God’s calling, His constant invitations and pleas for us to return to Him with contrite and repentant hearts? Are we still going to allow our pride, ego, our sinfulness and our refusal to listen to the Lord’s words be serious obstacles in the way of our reconciliation with Him? Are we going to continue to rebel against the Lord just as how the people of Israel in the past have always often disobeyed Him, doubted and even betrayed Him for other gods and idols?
That is why we have to make good use of the opportunities we have been given most generously this Lent to reconnect ourselves with God, and to rediscover the unity which we once had with Him, but which had been ruined and broken due to our sins. That is why this Lent all of us are called to deepen our relationship with God, remove from our hearts and minds the temptation of pride and ego, and of all negativities and the various obstacles that have often prevented us from returning to God with faith. This Lent, all of us should do our best to reach out to one another, and to help each other in our journey back towards the Lord.
Let us all strive therefore to renew the relationship we have with God and endeavour to overcome the temptations and pressures of the world that are always pulling us away from God and His path. Let us put our focus on God and His love for each and every one of us, and remember to be grateful and thankful for everything that He had done for us. May He continue to watch over us and bless us in our Lenten journey and observances. May He remain with us always and strengthen us with faith, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Luke 13 : 1-9
At that time, one day, some people told Jesus what had occurred in the Temple : Pilate had had Galileans killed, and their blood mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus asked them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered this? No, I tell you. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish, as they did.”
“And those eighteen persons in Siloah, who were crushed when the tower fell, do you think they were more guilty than all the others in Jerusalem? I tell you : no. But unless you change your ways, you will perish as they did.” And Jesus continued, “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it, but found none. Then he said to the gardener, ‘Look here, for three years now I have been looking for figs on this tree, and I have found none. Cut it down, why should it continue to deplete the soil?’”
“The gardener replied, ‘Leave it one more year, so that I may dig around it and add some fertiliser; perhaps it will bear fruit from now on. But if it does not, you can cut it down.’”
Alternative reading (Readings from Year A)
John 4 : 5-42
At that time, Jesus came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there. Tired from His journey, Jesus sat down by the well; it was about noon. Now a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” His disciples had just gone into town to buy some food.
The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?” (For Jews, in fact, have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift of God! If you knew Who it is, Who is asking you for a drink, you yourself would have asked Me, and I would have given you living water.”
The woman answered, “Sir, You have no bucket, and this well is deep; where is Your living water? Are You greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, together with his sons and his cattle?” Jesus said to her, “Those who drink of this water will be thirsty again; but those, who drink of the water that I shall give, will never be thirsty; for the water, that I shall give, will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to Him, “Give me this water, that I may never be thirsty, and never have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.” The woman answered, “I have no husband.” And Jesus replied, “You are right to say, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you said is true.”
The woman then said to Him, “I see You are a Prophet; tell me this : Our ancestors came to this mountain to worship God; but you Jews, do you not claim that Jerusalem is the only place to worship God?” Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, the hour is coming when you shall worship the Father, but that will not be on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”
“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for that is the kind of worshippers the Father wants. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit, and truth.”
The woman said to Him, “I know that the Messiah (that is the Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will tell us everything.” And Jesus said, “I Who am talking to you, I am He.”
At this point the disciples returned, and were surprised that Jesus was speaking with a woman, however, no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and ran to the town. There she said to the people, “Come and see a Man Who told me everything I did! Could He not be the Christ?” So they left the town and went to meet Him.
In the meantime the disciples urged Jesus, “Master, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” And the disciples wondered, “Has anyone brought Him food?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the One Who sent Me, and to carry out His work.”
“You say that in four months there will be the harvest; now, I say to you, look up and see the fields white and ready for harvesting. People who reap the harvest are paid for their work, and the fruit is gathered for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. Indeed the saying holds true : One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap where you did not work or suffer; others have worked, and you are now sharing in their labours.”
In that town many Samaritans believed in Him when they heard the woman who declared, “He told me everything I did.” So, when they came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days. After that, many more believed because of His own words, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you told us: we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is the Saviour of the world.”
Alternative reading (shorter version of the Reading from Year A)
John 4 : 5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42
At that time, Jesus came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there. Tired from His journey, Jesus sat down by the well; it was about noon. Now a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” His disciples had just gone into town to buy some food.
The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?” (For Jews, in fact, have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift of God! If you knew Who it is, Who is asking you for a drink, you yourself would have asked Me, and I would have given you living water.”
The woman answered, “Sir, You have no bucket, and this well is deep; where is Your living water? Are You greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, together with his sons and his cattle?” Jesus said to her, “Those who drink of this water will be thirsty again; but those, who drink of the water that I shall give, will never be thirsty; for the water, that I shall give, will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to Him, “Give me this water, that I may never be thirsty, and never have to come here to draw water. I see You are a Prophet; tell me this : Our ancestors came to this mountain to worship God; but you Jews, do you not claim that Jerusalem is the only place to worship God?” Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, the hour is coming when you shall worship the Father, but that will not be on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”
“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for that is the kind of worshippers the Father wants. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit, and truth.”
The woman said to Him, “I know that the Messiah (that is the Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will tell us everything.” And Jesus said, “I Who am talking to you, I am He.”
In that town many Samaritans believed in Him, so, when they came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days. After that, many more believed because of His own words, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you told us: we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is the Saviour of the world.”
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
1 Corinthians 10 : 1-6, 10-12
Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, about our ancestors. All of them were under the cloud and all crossed the sea. All underwent the baptism of the land and of the sea to join Moses; and all of them ate from the same spiritual manna; and all of them drank from the same spiritual drink. For you know, that they drank from a spiritual rock following them, and the rock was Christ. However, most of them did not please God, and the desert was strewn with their bodies.
All of this happened as an example for us, so that we might not become people of evil desires, as they did, nor grumble, as some of them did, and were cut down by the destroying Angel. These things happened to them, as an example, and they were written as a warning, for us, as the last times come upon us.
Therefore, if you think you stand, beware, lest you fall.
Alternative reading (Readings from Year A)
Romans 5 : 1-2, 5-8
By faith we have received true righteousness, and we are at peace with God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Through Him we obtain this favour in which we remain and we even boast to expect the Glory of God.
And hope does not disappoint us because the Holy Spirit has been given to us, pouring into our hearts the love of God. Consider, moreover, the time that Christ died for us : when we were still helpless and unable to do anything.
Few would accept to die for an upright person; although, for a very good person, perhaps someone would dare to die. But see how God manifested His love for us : while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8 and 11
Praise YHVH, my soul; all my being, praise His holy Name! Praise YHVH, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.
He forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; He redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion.
YHVH restores justice and secures the rights of the oppressed. He has made known His ways to Moses; and His deeds, to the people of Israel.
YHVH is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger. As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him.
Alternative Psalm (Psalm from Year A)
Psalm 94 : 1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful sound to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him giving thanks, with music and songs of praise.
Come and worship; let us bow down, kneel before the Lord, our Maker. He is our God, and we His people; the flock He leads and pastures. Would that today you heard His voice!
Do not be stubborn, as at Meribah, in the desert, on that day at Massah, when your ancestors challenged Me, and they put Me to the test.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 